[RELz][Conversion] Brina Cross Village

[ThomasKaira]

Brina Cross Village

Download @ TES Alliance

Download @ TES Nexus

Current Version: 1.0.3

Introduction

Welcome to the crossroads township of Brina Cross, where merchants from far and wide travel to sell their goods and make some coin!

It started as a quaint farming community, but as time passed and Cyrodiil grew larger and larger (and more powerful), economic growth mushroomed with it. As a major crossroads between two major cities and a very large farm estate further north (and possibly a third city), the village soon became a place where various merchants and peddlers would convene to sell their wares to the many passing travelers. It was a strategic junction to attempt this, as traffic along the gold road tended to convene here.

This tactic proved fruitful, and the town grew from a small farming village to a bustling market square, with several new structures needing to be erected in a very short time. The inn, for example, simply did not have the capacity to serve the people who would come and go throughout the crossroads market, so a new dormitory was constructed off the road for use by traveling merchants. The idea was simple; pay the village a fee for the usage of market space in the square, and you would be provided free bedding for the extent of your rental. The tactic was quite successful, and revenue so far has been enough to allow for the beginnings of modernization within the town, including lighting the square and even a new clock tower. Unfortunately, some farmers are not entirely happy with the recent expansions, as it has begun to encroach on their fields.

However, the current boom in Brina Cross has not gone unnoticed, and many thieves and plunderers have kept a greedy, watchful eye on the rapidly expanding township, eager for a misstep they might be able to exploit.

Details

Contained within this mod is a total overhaul of the once quaint inn into a bustling township, complete with brand new NPCs, merchants, and a clock tower!

You will find that these NPCs exibit a dynamic and realistic AI schedule. Everyone goes to work, eats, and sleeps at reasonable times. The farmers even take weekends, and will stop tilling their fields and return home if it starts to rain.

Several new ingredients are added for roleplayers looking to indulge in a new cuisine, as well as several new books, and a little bit of extra house decor. It's not much, but every little bit helps!

Finally, the mod comes with its own unique dialogue tree about the village. Ask around, and see if you might learn a thing or two!

In short, this mod is everything you would expect from a high-quality village overhaul.

Requirements

- OBSE is required. See below.

- Requires Elys' Universal Silent Voice OBSE Plugin.

- Requires Oblivion Official Patch v1.2.0416 for all versions.

- COBL version requires COBL.

Installation

Manual Install (not recommended):

- Unpack the archive with your favorite un-zipper tool.

- Place the meshes and textures folders into the Oblivion data folder, overwrite when prompted.

- Place BrinaCrossVillage.ESP into the data folder.

- If you wish to use the COBL version, install the seperate provided COBL plugin. You will need COBL installed to use this option.

- If you have installed ImpeREAL Empire - Unique Forts, install the provided compatibility patch and adjust your load order so BrinaCrossVillage.ESP is loading after Unique Forts.

- Use your favorite mod manager to adjust the load order, or use BOSS to place it automatically.

- Start game, and enjoy your new village.

BAIN Install:

- Mod is pre-packaged for BAIN. Simply select the Sub-packages and ESPs you wish to install in BAIN, and let BAIN take care of the rest.

OMOD support is not planned at this time.

Uninstallation

If you're using BAIN, just select uninstall, and you're home free. No hassle.

If you are manual, things get a bit more difficult (actually, a lot more difficult). The easy way is to uncheck the ESP and reload the game without the mod in place, but that leaves the provided resources scattered around, as well.

I really can't be bothered to tell you where everything is being put in here, so if you do want to manually uninstall, please refer to the original archive to find everything.

Really, though, just switch to BAIN, it will make your life a lot easier.

Conflicts with Resolutions

ImpeREAL Empire - Unique Forts: Landscape clipping through dummy interior.

--- Resolution: Load Brina Cross after Unique Forts and install the provided patch plugin.

FF Real Thirst: Gigantic well in the middle of the square.

--- Resolution: Disable the well with the console.

Incompatibilities

JDNT_Brina Cross

- Competing mod, no patch possible.

mr_siika's Farm Animals/MMM Farm Animals

- Out of place, not recommended.

Any mod that significantly modifies the Brina Cross area in one of these ways:

- Major landscaping

- New structures

Known Issues

You might notice that some of the books added contain only end quotes. This is due to a bug in the game engine regarding the book formatting. Formatted quotes interfere with the HTML code used to format the books and cause anomalies to appear, usually in the form of no formatting taking place and a bunch of < symbols all over the place. Because of this, I am forced to use neutral quotes, which there is no model for in the Kingthings Petrock font the game uses. Because of this, it just defaults to end quotes. There is nothing that can be done about this, so please don't bug me about that.

Is your dialogue scrolling through insanely fast? You probably don't have Elys' Universal Silent Voice installed. Please install it, because I cannot be bothered to link all of the new dialogue to blank voice MP3s. That is simply a waste of time.

Version History

05/01/2010: V1.0 -- Initial Release

Contact

I can be reached via PM either at the Bethesda Oblivion Forums, TES Nexus, or TES Alliance.

All issues should be reported in the thread. Please use either the BGS or TESA threads, as those are the ones I tend to watch.

Credits

Meo: Static Dishes

Metallicow: Clock Resources:

mr_siika: Market Resources http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30404

TheMagician: Farm Resources http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29014

SilentResident: Sutch banners from ImpeREAL Sutch http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37867

Stroti: Hand Pump Resources http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35417

Stroti: Ram on a Stick Resources http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34723

Stroti: Rustic Farm Pieces http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35346

Stroti: Ship in a Bottle http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35318

Washington: Haystack Resources http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34652

WillieSea: Clock textures from Clocks of Cyrodiil http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11778

Permissions

You are free to use all resources from this mod EXCEPT SilentResident's banners, as they do not come from a free-to-use resource package. You must contact Silentresident if you wish to use those resources. Please credit the authors whenever possible (which is always).

You are allowed to alter, overhaul, or destroy this mod in any way you see fit. Please do contact me and give credit if you wish to distribute your efforts, though.

If I do not respond to your requests within one month, you may consider the mod abandoned, at which point ownership of the mod passes to the community.

Planned for future versions

- New short questline involving the clock tower

- New questline involving the aftermath of the Anvil Recommendation quest

- Complex dialogue following the various questlines and demonstrating their impact on the village.

- Large-scale COBL support (vendor tweaks, new stalls, etc.)

Note that the mod will not debut with the above, and when it first arrives will be nothing more than an atmosphere/graphics enhancement for the Brina Cross area. Once I have the village out and about, I will begin work on the quests and other optional extras.

If anyone has any suggestions, or would like to see something added, please let me know.

Edited May 23, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[ThomasKaira]

Village backstory:

It started as a quaint farming community, but as time passed and Cyrodiil grew larger and larger (and more powerful), economic growth mushroomed with it. As a major crossroads between two major cities and a very large farm estate further north (and possibly a third city), the village soon became a place where various merchants and peddlers would convene to sell their wares to the many passing travelers. It was a strategic junction to attempt this, as traffic along the gold road tended to convene here.

This tactic proved fruitful, and the town grew from a small farming village to a bustling market square, with several new structures needing to be erected in a very short time. The inn, for example, simply did not have the capacity to serve the people who would come and go throughout the crossroads market, so a new dormitory was constructed off the road for use by traveling merchants. The idea was simple; pay the village a fee for the usage of market space in the square, and you would be provided free bedding for the extent of your rental. The tactic was quite successful, and revenue so far has been enough to allow for the beginnings of modernization within the town, including lighting the square and even a new clock tower. Unfortunately, some farmers are not entirely happy with the recent expansions, as it has begun to encroach on their fields.

However, the current boom in Brina Cross has not gone unnoticed, and many thieves and plunderers have kept a greedy, watchful eye on the rapidly expanding township, eager for a misstep they might be able to exploit.

Edited April 25, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[ThomasKaira]

Current Progress:

Also, as some of you already know, I have a fan-fic in the works that you can read here. After a bit of pondering, I have decided that it will be added into this mod as a new set of books. I will not reveal where I am putting them, but for those of you who enjoy a good read in-game, you will not be disappointed.

Edited April 27, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[Arthmoor]

This certainly is coming along nicely. Looking forward to getting to see it in person

[greenwarden]

Very nice idea, and that part of Cyrodiil could use some more village love.

[ThomasKaira]

Good news!

The exterior and interior modeling is now complete. It is now time to populate the village, so that means NPCs and AI become the major focus for me now. I might do a few modeling tweaks here and there, but for all intents and purposes I consider the construction phase complete now.

[the-manta]

Oh that's beautiful work TK! I love the layout, and the general "feel" of the village! I also love the clock tower! I may have to add one to my village somewhere. Thanks for the inspiration, and thanks in advance for the great-looking mod

[ThomasKaira]

At long last...

The AI Packages are finished, I have to say I am quite proud of what I was able to accomplish with those.

All that's left now is some basic dialogue, and we will be up to the 1.0 RELz.

[the-manta]

Wow, you are a scarily fast modder! A whole village in what, less than a month? And a wonderful village too. Sir, I applaud you and foresee great things from you!

[Fuzz]

Looking good man, keep it up!

I can not wait for a release

[ThomasKaira]

Okay. COBL support was nice and quick. The two new water sources added by the mod were exchanged for activator versions with the COBL well script attached, which I have confirmed this functions properly after loading in a COBL-aware thirst mod.

A couple of merchants have also had some new items added for them to sell, and finally the buffet plate provided in the Glue plugin has been moved so it won't be hovering over one of the tables, but instead be back on the bar where it's supposed to.

That should be enough for now. I'll probably get deeper into this later, but in the meantime, this mod now has COBL support!

And with that, my to-do list is clear!

[ThomasKaira]

RELz Conversion.

Admins, please edit thread title.

[Arthmoor]

Looks good, though I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Nothing major but...

1. The clock has missing textures.

2. The water pump has missing textures.

3. When loaded before ImpeREAL Forts, there are land tears along the east and north sides of the main village area.

4. Also when loaded before the forts the path grids don't line up properly and have connections that go through fences and under buildings.

Looks like you meant to have that listed as load AFTER the forts, because that resolves #3 and #4 if I do that, with the only small tear being concealed by the fort - although that leaves the fort without it's exterior path grid adjustments.

[ThomasKaira]

Thanks for those.

I need to re-up the file for other reasons I found out, as well, so I'll be getting those sorted alongside.

I might need to patch out compatibility with Unique Forts if the pathgrids need to be updated. In that case, it shouldn't take long.

EDIT: The fixed package is being re-uploaded. Nexus first, since they have rather strict rules about maintaining empty file space on the site, but once that's done the package here will be re-uploaded as well.

And as a heads-up: I'm changing the structuring a bit to make patching this mod a bit easier. You'll understand why once the files are back up.

Edited May 1, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[Tamira]

Congratulations! This is really a nice little village! There should be more of these in Cyrodiil.

There is just one thing you may consider to fix: I had severe problems with the Nvidia Blackscreen Bug in your interiors, so could you please adjust the lighting of your interiors? It's done within a few seconds, only change the value of "Near" to 0.0001 as shown in this pic: http://www7.pic-upload.de/01.05.11/13rvvdoxny6z.jpg

Edit: There are golden leaves falling from a tree in full blossom near the graves, hm - this looks rather strange, maybe a "fall"-tree would be more appropriate for this place.

Edited May 1, 2011 by Tamira

[ThomasKaira]

To my knowledge, there isn't a fall Dogwood tree available. I wanted to have a dogwood there, but if it looks strange to you, I can swap it out.

I don't know why I wasn't experiencing the black-screen bug while testing, either. Anyways, I'll have those fixes out shortly.

Edited May 1, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[Tamira]

To my knowledge, there isn't a fall Dogwood tree available. I wanted to have a dogwood there, but if it looks strange to you, I can swap it out.

I don't know why I wasn't experiencing the black-screen bug while testing, either. Anyways, I'll have those fixes out shortly.

The Blackscreen-bug only applies to NVidia video cards, maybe you have a different one.

And no need to swap the tree out. I just suggested to replace it with a tree that also has golden leaves.

[ThomasKaira]

Version 1.0.1 is on the way.

-- Dogwood in graveyard exchanged for sugar maple

-- Interiors adjusted for nVidia Black Screen bug fix

-- Adjusted the displayed names of a couple dialogue topics

@Tamira: I have an nVidia card.

Edited May 1, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[Tamira]

This question is more technical and I am a tech noob. My video card is GeForce 8600 GT. Maybe the newer and better ones do not produce the bug.

When I visited the houses, on several spots I had a black-out which made me really blind.

[ThomasKaira]

I think I do experience that bug occasionally, but fear not, for the 1.0.1 update has just finished. The Black-screen bug has been fixed for all village structures (including the inn, which also suffered from black-screen bug symptoms when I checked it).

[ThomasKaira]

Location prices info is now available for Enhanced Economy users.

[ThomasKaira]

V1.0.2 is now available:

-- Adjusted normal mapping for the clock faces, hands, and new signpost:

-> Clock faces and hands are no longer blindingly glarey.

-> Signpost normals are now more accurate.

Edited May 5, 2011 by ThomasKaira

[the-manta]

groovy, downloading

[ThomasKaira]

Version 1.0.3

-- A few unimportant clutter objects outside have been removed. This should improve performance a bit in the square.

-- Adjusted Crossroads Trading Post so that Terrance won't lock you in when he leaves.

-- Fixed a couple typos in the dialogue.

[Antiscamp]

I've downloaded this and am looking forward to trying it out tonight after work. I'll have something to look forward to all day.

I love villages, and have made a few of them myself, actually.

OK. I've tested it now. I'm keeping it in my Load Order, because I liked it very much. I can see that you've put a lot of thought and work into Brina Cross, because it's smashingly detailed and packed with stuff. I really like the clock in the middle of the town square, that's one of the many nice details. Good job.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Antiscamp