improve roads
Remove animals from roads, add bandits at night, and add patrols and travelers to roads during the day.
Screenshots 2 screenshots
About this mod Machine translation
Remove animals from roads, add bandits at night, and add patrols and travelers to roads during the day.
Ever traveled on a paved road from one city to another and got tired of killing another bear in the same spot where you killed another bear? Ever tired of hearing a fox fight because it "ran away"? Are you ever tired of goats flying around, darting in your face and causing you to trip? What about deer and elk? Ever thought about having all these animals on a paved road, a direct link between two major cities, but with almost no one around, and it wouldn't be right if someone was hostile to them or you saw them for no less than 5 minutes before? That's why I do it.
I removed some animals from paved roads and some animals from unpaved roads. Each time you pass by, there will no longer be an animal at the same spot on the road. They do sometimes come from the forests and fields and walk the roads like real animals, but they are not always there or in the same place all the time.
Then I added some details from Oblivion that I thought were missing from Skyrim, the guards on patrol while on horseback. There are now guards outside the city on horses (normally, they sometimes walk beside the horses due to Bethesda AI). Following City's civil war preview, they were replaced by suitable defenders. They only patrol during the day.
I added farmers who deliver produce because I always thought it was weird to have all these farms but no one delivering the produce. So I made a "grain cow" with a food basket on its back that followed a farmer from farm to location.
I also added a "traveller" who walks from point A to point B during the day, and then over and over again. They are not on the roads at night but in hotels because the roads are not safe at night. Some of these merchants will be appropriately named "merchants" and they will buy and sell general merchandise.
Finally, I added bandits along the roads at night, since bandits need to be somewhere to bandit all the time, rather than in a cave or fortress all the time. These bandits are hiding on the road waiting for you, the "traveller". They don’t ask for tolls, and they don’t ask for anything you own. They are bandits, just attacking not highway workers. Sometimes they are alone, sometimes in groups, some have more roads than others, and I think some may not have any roads at all... there are 100 miles there, so I don't remember where they all are.
All NPCs use level roles, guards and bandits use the vanilla system. Farmers, Travelers, and Traders are new NPCs of all races and genders. They use randomized equipment and weapon systems, so even if by chance there are two identical NPCs together, they will use different weapons and equipment and look like twins, not twins. Some farmers, traders or travelers might wear about half the clothes, I don't know why, since all the clothes used have gender versions, and the clothes and boots are only clothes, so there should be no conflict.
If you use the "wait" function, the entire day/night system may not work properly and you may encounter some empty roads. My meager scripting skills can't help.
Loading order? On top of anything that uses a cell from this mod and changes its information, like adding the mod to Wilderness 31 -27 and renaming it to MyCabin 31 -27 or something else like IvarsteadVilemyrInn where the default lighting is replaced with something else. If you don't have a mod that does this, you can place this mod anywhere in the load order. If you have a mod that changes animal markings, you can select which animal markings you want it to take effect on.
No spawn points or markers for animals were removed from the game, I just moved them to the wild instead of a road.
Version and update information:
V1.0 initial version
V1.01 added facegen export. oops
V1.02 has fixed the Traveler on Horseback riding AI package.
V1.03 fixes water logging, removing two ITMs and an unexpectedly rotated marker.
V1.04 adjusted the AI pack …
Install & use Install: follow the bundled instructions
- Unzip the archive from playbuff and read the bundled readme / instructions first.
- There is no universal mod manager for this game: some mods replace game files directly, some go into a game-specific Mods folder, and some need a game-specific community loader or tool first — follow the bundled readme.
- Place the files exactly as the readme says; mods with listed dependencies need those installed too.
- Launch the game to confirm it loaded; some games require enabling mods in settings or an in-game mod menu.
Install locations vary a lot between games and mods — the bundled readme is the most reliable guide.