Nernie's City and Village Expansion v1.25

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IMPORTANT NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.2 - I have changed the name of this mod, to better suit my long-term plans. If you are upgrading from an older version, you must first do a clean uninstall before installing the new version.
-----If you have bought the house in Solitude, then this is kind of a pain in the ass - you have to take all your belongings out of it before uninstalling, then use the console to "unlock" the door once you have re-installed.

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changelog:

September 20 2012 - Version 1.25
---------------adds new content to Whiterun
-New buildings outisde of Whiterun city: A meadhouse, a farrier, an herbwitch and a washerwoman.

-Additions to Rorikstead, including apples trees and an orchard.

-"Ressurected" some deleted references.

-fixed the collision on a set of house stairs outside Solitude.

-fixed some navmesh issues

September 17 2012 - Version 1.2

---------------adds new content to Eastmarch:
-New buildings outside of Windhelm: a new Tavern (with a rentable room), a smithy, a fishery, and a small Argonian fishing settlement. Also, the three farms now have sheds to house hay and farming implements.

-New buildings in Kynesgrove: a trader and a hunter. Small shacks near the mine and in the mining settlement. A stable and other lived-in details behind the Inn.

-New buildings in Darkwater Crossing: A Trader's shack, a hunter's shack and an abandoned shack (inhabitable by the player - all containers are safe). Also docks, a cooking pot over the communal fire, a makeshift smithy by the house, and a platform and storage shack near the mine.


---touches up a few details, including adding an expansive stable and farmland area behind the Rorikstead Inn, and small stables behind the Dragonbridge and Ivarstead Inns.
-adds a new food (with new meshes and textures): gourd and carrot stew (since the gourds had no use, cooking wise), barley tea, and milk.

---Makes the new and vanilla stews buyable, so they will now be sold at the inns and taverns as intended (that was my original purpose in altering the Inn inventories, after all - so they sold you a proper meal instead of a random assortment of raw carrots and sweetrolls.

---Fixed the invisible mesh issues for most of the Solitude buildings - and now the stairs work as they should. The Lark and Sparrow/Dragonbridge Smith building still has a couple spots. I can't fix those, but they are pretty minor.


September 03 2012 - Version 1.105

-adds a back-up script for the house purchasing system. See below for details.
September 01 2012 - Version 1.1
-Added two new buildings to Solitude: a cobbler and an npc house
-Added The Lark and Sparrow to the area outside Solitude. This is a tavern (with rentable rooms) where bards gather and perform (AI allowing - only one bard will actively perform, but you can also request songs from "Filda" and "Otho" in the evenings).
-Added buildings to Dragonbridge, to make it feel more like an Imperial outpost. These include a blacksmith, and a supply/watch tower.
-fixed a misnamed folder, so npcs should now appear normal, with no grey-face issue.


August 27 2012 - Version 1.025

-added missing stew bowl texture.
August 26 2012 - Version 1.02 (this version was initially packed improperly, but is now fixed)
-fixed missing soup and stew textures
August 24 2012 - Version 1.01
-fixes mysterious disappearing smithy in Ivarstead
-removes unecessary "textures" folder from the optional folder.

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This mod aims to make the villages and city exteriors of Skyrim feel more distinct, detailed and lived-in. Since this began as a mod I made for myself, it addresses several personal fixations, such as large cities having only one inn/tavern, villages lacking blacksmiths, stables, bakers, and other tradesmen and general resources, inns not serving what I consider to be proper inn food, etc. I prefer to add content where I feel it is required, and not just for the sake of it, so additions will be more or less extensive, depending (for example, I felt that Solitude needed to be way bigger, but I think that Riverwood is just about perfect as-is).

This mod alters several areas of Skyrim. I generally try to keep my edits as minimal as possible, within the scope of what I'm doing, but this mod changes a lot of content in the Skyrim exterior so there is huge potential for mod conflict, and this will almost certainly not be compatible with most of the mods that edit the content of cities and villages. Read the descriptions and decide for yourself if you think this will be an issue for you.

Unfortunately this project is not modular, and I am unable to make a modular version any time in the forseeable future. In the meantime, this is an option for people who prefer an all-in-one, somewhat smaller-scale city/village expansion.

------- Solitude is now larger, with content suiting a capital city and trade hub.
The interior of Solitude now has two NPC houses and three shops: a Luthier, a Cobbler, and a Bakery (reminiscent of good old Salmo's). The bakery includes many new breads and pies and biscuits, as well as three new types of regional cheese from the villages of Skyrim.
Outside of Solitude, Katla's farm now includes a player-purchasable cottage. On the road leading to the city you will find a bard-centric tavern (with rentable rooms), The Lark and Sparrow. Also a bookstore and NPC residence (cottage deed can be purchased from the bookstore owner).
-The Solitude docks, beside the East Empire Trading company, now includes a sailor's tavern (with rentable rooms).


------- The Windhelm exterior is expanded to feel more like a cold, opressive city, readying itself for war.
The exterior of Windhelm now has a tavern (with rentable rooms). Further east down the road, you will find a smithy where war materials are forged, a Fishery, and a small Argonian fishing village.


------- Whiterun now sprawls a little more, outside the gates. There is a farrier beside the stable, a washerwoman at the crossroads, and a meadhouse and herbwitch along the main road.

------- Dragon Bridge now feels like an Imperial outpost, with a blacksmith and a supply tower, and a small stable behind the inn.


------- Darkwater Crossing is a small mining settlement just beginning to find its feet. Its residents still mostly live in makeshift spaces, but it now has a trader, a hunter, and an abandoned shack (player-inhabitable - all containers are safe).


------- Kynesgrove is a thriving mining community, priding itself on its independance. It now has a trader and a hunter and various small buildings.


------- Ivarstead is now more like a small, self-sufficient community, somewhat removed from the war. It doesn't get a lot of direct trade, but a steady stream of pilgrims help the settlement flourish. It's additions are traveller-centric: a bakery, a cartwright (functionally a blacksmith), and an NPC house.


------- Rorikstead should feel like a prosperous town, the biggest exporter of crops in Skyrim. It now has a cartwright (does not sell items himself, but his wife inside the house is a trader), and a large stable/farmland area behind the inn. As well, it now has apples trees, and an orchard.


--- All areas also include many small details and additions, to make them feel more lived-in and life-like.
This mod also adds:


--- Many new foods and drinks, with new meshes and textures.


---A total re-working of the food sold at all the inns. I made new levelled lists for food that is sold in the North and South, and in landlocked areas or near water. And the inns that have regional cheeses now display these ***(a note on compatibility - I know that many players use mods that alter these interiors, so once I know things are nice and stable I can make a version that removes the edits from the tavern cells, and the edits to tavern vendor content).


---New stew textures for various types of stews and soups, and new bowls (the vanilla ones always bugged me, being kind of small)


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##### Solitude-Only Version #####
-----This is an older version of this mod, from before my village additions. - it does not alter any of the villages, or any of the Inns. It is also missing the newer additions, including the two NPC houses, the cobbler, and the tavern.

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A note about player housing: you must open the purchased deed in your inventory, at which point a key will be added, and the value of the deed will be set to 0. If this doesn't work, keep the deed in your inventory, and click on the door of the house. It will still give you a "this door requires a key" message, but it should now be unlocked, and the deed value set to 0. As a last resort, you can unlock it with the console (open the console with ~, target the house door, and type "unlock").


Mid/Long-term updates will likely include expansions to the exteriors of the other cities and villages. I will aim to organize the updates by region, as a way to make the mod semi-modular.

Tentative update plans: Whiterun and Whiterun hold > Riften and The Rift > Markarth and The Reach > smaller cities/holds.

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Known bugs/annoyances:
-The mesh of the Lark and Sparrow building (also used for the Dragonsbridge blacksmith) has a few invisible walls which hopefully won't be encountered too often in regular play.
Let me know if you find any bugs or missing meshes/textures - thanks!


-I recommend that you not use this mod with any other mod that alters navmesh in the same areas, as it might cause strange npc behaviour, bugs, crashes, etc.


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Installation - drop files into Data folder, or download with mod manager.

There is an Optional Files folder with replacements for standard pie, sweetrolls, and chicken eggs, using my textures, and resizing the rolls and eggs a little so they are slightly less enormous. Use these if you like, or ignore.

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Credits:

I have used meshes and textures created by Insanity, for the washing basin and hanging laundry lines. Some partial re-textures by me. Many thanks, for creating and sharing these resources!
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/1319-insanitys-clutter-stuffs/
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/1325-insanitys-washing-stuffs/


My other mods:
Nernie's Ranger Pack
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22674
Nernie's Thief Pack
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22730