Open Cities Classic Mod

Installation Requirements

Official Oblivion patch version 1.2.406.

Shivering Isles patch 1.2.0.416 required for the New Sheoth module.

OBSE 0020 or higher.

Bravil Blood & Mud is required if using the open version of that city.

Bartholm 7.0+ is required to use the open cities version of that city.

The Quick Install

Ok, for those of you who want to just jump right in, Open Cities Classic is now packaged as a BAIN archive for easy setup. That was probably somewhat obvious though :)

First: Make sure BAIN is set to allow OBSE plugins to be installed. You will need to be using Bash 291 or higher for this. Right click the "Package" column header, then find "Enable installation of OBSE plugins" and make sure it's checkmarked.

00 Core - All files here are required. This folder contains the necessary OBSE plugin file as well.

01 Blood & Mud Version - Use this if you wish to alter Bravil to fit in with the Blood & Mud version. This requires Ryan's Blood & Mud in order to work.

10 Outer Districts - If you want the Prison and Arcane University opened as well, install this folder's contents.

20 New Sheoth - If you have Shivering Isles, this will turn Bliss and Crucible into open cities.

30 Bartholm - If you have J.Sera's Bartholm 7.0+, you can elect to have the city opened with this.

Activate the rest of the files and you're off and running.

For those of you who want a bit more detail for installations, or prefer manually installing, read on:

Installation - Upgrading from Open Cities Prior to Version 3.5

The following procedure is necessary in order to upgrade from a version of Open Cities Classic prior to 3.5:

* If you bought the player home in Anvil Bay (from the bay expansion) clear out any items you don't want to lose.

* Go to any location not within the city walls of a city affected by the mod, save, and exit the game.

* Deactivate all of the patch files for OCC you may have installed.

* Load the save you just made, wait a few seconds, save again in a new slot, then exit the game again.

* Deactivate all of the Open Cities plugin files you are using now, including the resource ESM file.

* Load the save you just made, wait a few seconds, save in another new slot, then exit the game.

You may wish to wait 24 in-game hours to reset the AI first, but this is not strictly necessary.

At this point you should be ready to proceed with either the BAIN install or a manual install of Open Cities Classic 3.5.

If during upgrading the game will not load, rebuild your Bashed Patch as it may have pulled in records from one of the mod files.

Once the main mod is settled, you need to upgrade any patches you are using for other mods.

Installation - New or Existing Game, First Time User

Main Components:

* As a precaution, backup your saved games. You never know.

* Unpack the files from the archive into a new folder. Don't just blindly dump into your Data folder. It won't work.

* Just in case, if installing to an existing save, make sure you are not standing outdoors in a city.

* Copy everything from the "00 Core" folder into your Data folder now.

* Copy one of the ESPs from a 01 folder, but DO NOT USE BOTH.

Optional Components:

* If you want the IC Outer Districts, you need to copy everything from the "10 Outter Districts" folder into your Data folder now.

* If you want New Sheoth, copy everything from the "20 New Sheoth" folder into your Data folder now.

* If you want Bartholm to be open, copy the ESP file from the "30 Bartholm" folder into your Data folder now. Make sure you already have Bartholm 7.0 installed first.

At this point you should be ready to activate the plugins. You should consult the load order section for tips, or just use BOSS to take care of that for you.

* Install any needed compatibility patches.

* Rebuild your Bashed Patch if you have one. It's possible it may need to pull records from the plugins you're using now.

When you get done, it is highly recommended that you update your LOD using tes4lodgen if you are using RAEVWD.

Once the game loads, you should allow 24 game hours to pass for AI to fully update in each city, though this is not strictly required.

Uninstalling Open Cities Classic

Oh, now why would you want to go and do a thing like that? :)

But, since this isn't going to be for everyone, and you may decide you don't like what it does, the following procedure needs to be followed to remove the mod:

* Load your game, and move to a location away from any of the cities. Don't use an interior attached to a city for this. Save and exit the game.

* Deactivate any patches you installed for other mods first. Load your game, then save in a new slot and exit the game.

* Remove the patch ESPs from your Data folder.

* Deactivate the city plugins, and the ESM file. Load the save you just made and save again in another new slot.

* Uninstall Open Cities Classic from the game, either manually or by using BAIN. Make sure the plugin files are gone once you do this.

* Rebuild your Bashed Patch if you have one, as it is possible it may have pulled records from the plugins.

* Regenerate your LOD so the proper visuals are restored.

You will need to allow 24 game hours to pass for AI to recover.