The correct setup of Better Cities and some thoughts on mods.

Setting up Better Cities is pretty easy. The recommended way of doing it is to use OBMM to create an OMOD and install it that way, and that's what I'll cover in this entry.

As of today (6/25/10) there's 3 files you need. A master file and two resource packs. This could change in the future.

If you read the instructions that come with BC, you'd think you just need to combine the three archives into an OMOD. This is wrong. It'll appear to work in OBMM, but you'll have missing textures all over the cities when you install it. Some people on the forums (the jerks, anyway) will act like you're a huge idiot for thinking that's the correct procedure, but the truth is (no matter how much they insist otherwise) that's what the instructions that come with the mod tell you to do to create an OMOD.

Here's the correct procedure:

Leave the master file archive alone. You don't need to do anything to this except put it in the OMOD. Take the two texture packs and unzip them to the same directory as the master archive is in. Now you'll have two 7Zip files. (Why did they archive it twice? I have no idea.) Unzip those to the same directory and they should form one huge file. Go into OBMMand click on Create OMOD. Click on the "Add Archive" button inside the OMOD creation window. Add the Master File first and then the giant resources file you just created. Click Create OMOD and then activate after the OMOD is done compiling. This'll take a pretty long time (at least 6-8 minutes unless you have a super fast CPU) so be patient.

See? That wasn't so hard.

Thoughts on mods:

I recently gave up using the weather mod in Arthur's Natural Environments because it did nothing but rain. It rained nonstop for 5 game days. I switched to Enhanced Weather and it's nice. If you ever want to switch weather mods, I recommend going into the console and typing the following:

fw 38EEE

This will set the weather to clear. Hit escape IMMEDIATELY after closing the console, save, quit, then install the new weather mod. What can happen if you don't do that is, if the weather is in a state specific to the weather mod you just deactivated, the game will crash when you try to load the save because Oblivion can't figure out how to handle the current weather. It took me a half hour to figure this out last night.

Also, I strongly recommend OOO + MMM. I am loving it so far. I have two companions with me (courtesy of the CM Partners mod) and they're basically keeping me alive. This game is HARD with those two mods installed, so be careful if you use them. The game is total Chaos. I was riding from the Imperial City to Skingrad and was attacked out of nowhere by two magicians summoning Daedra and Clannfears. I thought I had gotten near an Oblivion gate or something and was being attacked, so I ended up attacking the summoned creatures instead of the real menaces. (Luckily, my companions saw through it and beat the hell out of the real enemies.) However, after the fight, I realized there were no Oblivion gates because I hadn't done Kvatch yet. I'm experimenting with a Bashed patch to see if I can get better integration of OOO + MMM without needing to set up FCOM. I'll post about that some other time.

Still no opinion on Kobu's, yet... but I haven't leveled at all since starting, which seems odd to me.

I'm experimenting more with Wrye Bash. Experimenting with the Bashed patch. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Finally: I must issue a correction about the Bartholm mod. It isn't a copy of Battlethorn castle except on an island; rather, it's an island with completely new quests and a new city on it. I haven't gone there yet, but I plan to after I get some levels.

Next article will probably be on simple tools to use to improve performance if you're having problems. Even my system (4 core 2.3ghz Phenom, HD 4870, 4 gigs of memory) is stressing under my Oblivion setup. I also have some new mods installed I'll tell you about as well.