SNOW CITY – The Great Expansion of Windhelm
The one and only Great Expansion to Windhelm. Bigger and bolder than ever
OVERVIEW
This is a relaunch of my former SNOW CITY mod, which aims to expand and liven up the City of Kings, Windhelm. The first version that came out didn’t live up to my expectations as I thought but it’s come a long since then. Many fixes to bugs and glitches, tweaks and improvements have been made. Every part of the mod have been revised throughout.
Overall this has been the most challenging mod I’ve had to work with, but also the most fully complete city overhaul in my series so far. The biggest new addition here is the integration of the amazing mod, Windhelm Exterior Altered, by bjs_336. Full credits goes to him for the contents of the mod.
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THE EXPANSION
– The Stone Quarter (marketplace): Now it has been vastly expanded upon, with a sizable chunk of new land added in, I’ve built upon the marketplace of the district, stretching it far further to the end. Now it’s no longer just a measly area of 3 stalls and two shops. Now it’s more than TWICE that: 6 stalls including a stormcloak armory, meat vendor and wine vendor and 2 buildings and 4 shops including a bookstore and small but established general goods store. The vanilla NPCs have been integrated into the new areas this time, where they’ll browse the wares or take a break . This expanded part of the marketplace also serves as the gateway for a new exit out of the city. An exit that leads into a yet another new place.
– Valunstrad: The residential district for the only two Nord families in Windhelm. Too few? This mod corrects this with the greatest expansion of all. A new other residential district has been added above, that I’ve renamed and called Balaanstrad, Avenue of the Worthy. It accommodates over 10 new buildings, with dozens of new inhabitants residing in them. The district lies above the Avenue of Honor and as such is also more open to the snow and cold. Icicles are more plentiful hanging on ledges and rooftops and the deeper areas are covered more thicker fog and snow. This is mainly a residential district so don’t expect to see much activity apart from some needed guard patrols and a few of the residents hanging about.
– The Stone Quarter: A few new houses have been added to the main city as well, one of which belongs to a strong proud Nord, Erarik the Stronger and his ever-faithful son, Karl the Younger. The rest of the city have been enhanced with a proper amount of clutter and additions as I see adequate. A closed-up well, gated fence to bound the graveyard, broken trees and more but not too excessive flora are added in as well. A long wall is also placed a little beside the CandleHearth Hearth creating a new alleyway that leads up to the grand steps leading to the Palace of Kings. Here a new Stormcloaks Central Quarters building is located, serving as the headquarters of the rebel faction that links back to the palace.
– The Gray Quarter: The Gray Quarter definitely needed expanding as well and in some ways, didn’t make sense. Like, there’s only a Cornerclub in the place and that isn’t even an inn, so where do the rest of the Dunmers go to?
This mod fixes this, with new additions of new buildings and houses. Two new residences added, including a small market area near the city docks entrance consisting of a food stall and fisherman. The rooftops have also been expanded greatly, and thus increasing the size of the Gray Quarter by nearly twice. Here are a few more new residences including a Hostel which houses the more poorer Dunmers as well as a makeshift camp for a few extra workers and refugees.
– Exterior and the City Docks: The docks area has had most significant extension by this mod. Alongside some enhancements to the existing docks, an entirely new docks has been added to the city on the opposite end. Argonian workers dwell and work here. A new inn, Sailor’s Rest, is located here as well, manned by a family of Dunmers and catering to sailors who have docked at the harbor. The docks connect to the city bridge and can also be accessed from inside the city, the Stone Quarter. A sentry tower lies in between this access point, to watch over the city exterior and prevent any of them sneaky argonians from trying to enter the city.
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TL;DR / FEATURES:
– A much larger and vibrant marketplace in the Stone Quarter including new shops, buildings and offices.
– An entirely new residence district: Bahlaanstrad, stretching across the north and west of the city, containing about a dozen whooping new houses and buildings
– New clutter and improvements around the city
– Huge fixes to bugs and minor issues, including various clippings and better optimized navmesh
– Larger Stormcloak presence, with new buildings such as
= Central Quarters for the military
= Guard post
= Extra guard patrols
– Gray Quarter is also expanded:
= A hostel for the more residents to stay in
= Three new residences
= Two new vendors
= Bigger and bolder, rooftops expanded with upper housings = new Dunmer NPCs
– Big changes to NPCs, from clothing, appearances to more realistic schedules and actions
– Big changes to interiors: houses are now more distinct in style and made fit their outside appearances. Nothing will be identical anymore
– All-New docks exterior, including a new inn for the weary
– Over 25 new buildings added in total
– Over 60 new and unique NPCs added in total
– Over 500 hours spent.
– Compatibility patches for RS Children and Ultimate NPC Overhaul
– End of the Rebellion. Imperial version available: For players who completed the CW for the Imperials…like me
All in all, city has been expanded a whole lot bigger than ever.
This is unlike any other of overhauls out there, houses aren’t just added into the city to make it look bigger. This is a expansion mod that actually expands on the city, making it literally larger in size. I’ve tried to keep it as sensible and lore-friendly as possible. You won’t see colorful trees or flora sticking out everywhere, or an excess of unnecessary clutter scattered randomly.
Windhelm is an old city, it’s a rebel city and I intend to keep it just like how the vanilla game intended it to be.
Mod is cleaned with TES5EDIT so there should be no dirty records left.
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INSTALLATION
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It’s advised to reset the city cells and worldspace before installation (unless it’s a new game), or you’ll be getting some issues like market stall food scattered on the ground or unintended issues. To do this, go to a safe interior away from the city and wait/sleep for at least 3 days. Or if you want to play it safe, use the SleepExtenderMenu and wait for 30 days. That’s only 12 minutes of waiting.
If updating from the previous SNOW CITY version, you’ll have to make a clean save first. Uninstall the previous version, load the save, and make a new save again. Then do the reset thing before installing this mod.
COMPATIBILITY
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This is obviously, not compatible with most city overhauls, except for those that only modify outside of the city (Windhelm Bridge Overhaul eg.) or ONLY the interiors of the vanilla city (Hjerim TNF eg.)
PERFORMANCE
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Depends on your setup and texture packs, but performance impact should generally be minimal to pretty much none at all. For me, it’s not even noticeable on my rather mid-end rig. And I’m also running three different population mods combined and a ENB for that matter.
Slight stutter and loading screen freeze might be more noticeable, in which case, SSME and Safety Load should be used.
KNOWN ISSUES
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As of V10, the mod is as functional and stable as I could make it be.
CREDITS
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Fullest thanks goes to mod author bjs_336 for making the integration with his Alternate Exterior possible.
