lonely backdoor

The Blue Palace stands on a rock on the south side of the bay of Solitude, but to reach the same spot on the ground, while staying dry, you have to walk around the Dragon Bridge and the marshes... So here's a handy fix - the city of Solitude now allows you to walk through the passage and just walk to the city on one side and to the other side.

If you're playing Skyrim with a survival mode like Frostfall, or just to avoid swimming in those icy waters for better roleplaying, you might find it hard not to be able to reach your Windstad estate, for example, without taking the long walk to Dragon Bridge. Even Mortar would be so close, if only you could climb down the rock on which the Blue Palace stands.

Now you can go from one door in the palace courtyard to another door on the seaside. It's that simple, has a minimal footprint, and is perfect for heavy-duty gaming.

I like Solitude Skyway, which also provides a great way to cross channels - it's a better mod than this, but it changes a lot of cells and requires a lot of tinkering if you run other mods that affect the same areas. I want to do something with minimal footprint and maximum compatibility.

Compatibility Notes:

Solitude Skyway: Both mods add doors in Solitude and the overworld space very close to each other. While they both work for the player, NPCs can only use one path or the other - regardless of which one you loaded last. I didn't make a patch because I think using two mods is redundant, but it wouldn't be hard to do if people wanted it.

The Dragonborn and Legacy of the Imperial Mail: Load this mod after both and use the provided patches. The patch also restores the courtyard's changes from Imperial Post to its original form, which makes things more balanced IMHO. Sorry, I'm only uploading patches that require Imperial Post and LOTD as masters, since that's what I use for my LO. What I mean is uploading separate patches in the future.

Solitude Public Bathhouse and any other mods that change Blue Palace Courtyard or Solitude Row cells: if they make navmesh changes, at least a patch will be needed to restore navmesh linking for all mods. I may add more patches in the future based on requests.

Other notes:

Pathfinding - When choosing a path from Solitude to Dawnstar or Morthal, NPCs may use this very convenient shortcut and travel through large amounts of wilderness where they can encounter beasts and bandits. If they are not marked as protected or required, they will be killed! I've never had any issues, but use this at your own risk.

This model will work with Northern Marsh Bridges to provide the perfect express route to Windstad Manor and Dawnstar along the coast.

Future plans: Having a few guards patrolling the beach near the gate makes sense. One would think that the passage must be protected, which is at least a visible sign of it.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

If you play Skyrim with survival mods, such as Frostfall, or simply like to avoid swimming in those freezing waters for better roleplay, you probably find it annoying that you can't reach your Windstad Manor, for example, without taking the long road through Dragon Bridge. Even Morthal would be so close, if only you were able to climb down that rock that the Blue Palace stands on.

Now, you can, from a door in the palace courtyard to another door down by the beach. As simple as that, with minimal footprint, suitable to a heavily modded game.

I love Solitude Skyway, which also provides an excellent way to cross the channel - it's a much better mod than this, but it changes quite a number of cells and requires a lot of patching if you run other mods that affect the same area. I wanted to do something with minimal footprint, maximum compatibility.

Compatibility notes:

Solitude Skyway: both mods add doors very close to one another, both in Solitude and in the main worldspace. While they will both work for the player, NPCs will only be able to use one path or the other - whichever y …