Build Your Own Skyrim, Part 2: Remake the World

For the second installment of their mod-focused series of articles, the folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have focused on fan modification that build on what the title already offers and strengthen the overall package. Here’s on cities:

I was about to link to the Open Cities mod, but it appears to have been wiped. I expect it’ll return after the bugs are removed. In the meantime there’s Detailed Cities, a mod that’s dedicate to eliminating the slightly too clean look of many of Bethesda’s vanilla urban centres and gives them a more lived in feel. Trees and bushes crowd the streets, people chill on benches. Detailed Cityies’ Skyrim feels like a place that, if the population fled the dragon menace to Tamriel, a week later it would be reclaimed by the shrubbery. An additional counter-point to this mod is Detailed Outskirts, by the same author: it pulls the same trick of using foliage to add to the background. Both of these were built to work with Open Cities, so if it returns you can add it to the install without too much trouble.

Which is also what Crowded Cities does. It’s a very simple: it increases the number of citizens. It’s curated, with 30 dropping into Solitude each with their own hourly routines, so they’re not there every day, and when they are they each know different routes among the buildings. They blend well into the backdrop of Skyrim’s life, although you can guess what happens when things glitch: too many people all around at the same time. It’s another mod you should try and see how you get on with, but if it’s updated things should eventually thin out.