Patch for Immersive Hold Borders which aims to provide better consistency with other mods and the rest of the game world. Also includes optional extra border posts and compatibility patches.
Other user's assetsAll the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources
Upload permissionYou are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances
Modification permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to modify my files to improve it
Conversion permissionYou are not allowed to convert this file to work on other games under any circumstances
Asset use permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to use any of the assets in this file
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation pointsYou must get permission to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets
Author notes
Everything here is based on TheMattHan's original Immersive Hold Borders. Since he provided no Permissions details regarding restricted use of his assets, this mod/patch assumes Fair Use permission for transformative purposes.
This mod is not opted-in to receive Donation Points
Changelogs
Version 1.2.3
MAIN FILES • Updated pathfinding around Frost River
DRAGON BRIDGE • Updated pathfinding around Dragon Bridge • Removed unused assets left over from earlier version
Version 1.2.2
MAIN FILES • Updated pathfinding around Dragon Bridge
DRAGON BRIDGE • Updated pathfinding around Dragon Bridge
Version 1.2.1
MAIN FILE
• Fixed a major error from the last upload in which I accidentally removed most of the changes to Immersive Hold Borders.
Version 1.2.0
MAIN FILE
• Merged Exterior Borders, Dragon Bridge (South) and Riverwood into the Main File
• Moved the northwestern Eastmarch border (Yorgrim River) to the other side of the bridge
• Added additional defences to the western Haafingar border (Frostbound Pass), southwestern Falkreath border (Elkreath Pass) and eastern Rift border (Silgrad Pass)
• Alternate Versions available:
— ETaC Riverwood - Use this instead of the Main File if you are using ETaC Riverwood
— No Riverwood - Use this instead of the Main File to remove the border gate added to Riverwood if you are using another Riverwood mod which moves the main gate
EXTERIOR BORDERS
• This file has been merged into the Main File and will no longer be updated separately
RIVERWOOD
• This file has been merged into the Main File and will no longer be updated separately
DRAGON BRIDGE
• Dragon Bridge South has been merged into the Main File and will no longer be updated separately
— It is therefore no longer possible to choose one gate or the other
• Dragon Bridge North continues to add a gate at the northern end of the bridge, next to the town, if you want both gates
LAL PATHFINDING PATCH
• Updated masters to recognise new merged Main File
Version 1.1.1
MAIN FILE
• Fixed a guard at the western Falkreath border who was showing up under the wrong conditions
Version 1.1.0
MAIN FILE
• Fixed the banner post at the eastern Falkreath border
• Completely redesigned the western Hjaalmarch border:
— Hjaalmarch, being the "most impoverished" hold, does not seem like it should be able to maintain a full border gate. The fallen tree in the road has been removed, and chopped up to create a new border fence.
— The new border outpost no longer conflicts with any South Dragon Bridge mods (hopefully)
— The border outpost has been renamed "Hjaalmarch - Frost River Border"
EXTERIOR BORDERS
• The Falkreath Pale Pass border camp now has a bedroll
• Each border camp now has two guards
• Each border camp now has a name and a map marker
• The Eastmarch border camp now has a lookout tower and bedroll
Version 1.0.1
DRAGON BRIDGE
• Dragon Bridge North: Moved the faction banner (on the south side of the bridge) a bit, so it doesn't clip through the Dragon Bridge South gate if you have both esps active
• Dragon Bridge South: Added a map marker to this border gate
• Dragon Bridge South border gate no longer conflicts badly with any South Dragon Bridge mods (I think)
Deprecated
This mod is deprecated and no longer supported. Please try my new Hold Border Guards - Definitive Edition ( LE | SE ) instead.
The Definitive Edition is a fork of this mod with some borders rebuilt from scratch to remove dependencies on Immersive Hold Borders and address other reported issues including landscape tears.
This mod requires Immersive Hold Borders by TheMattHan, since that is what it is a patch for.
Updating to 1.2
The previously-separate Hold Border Exterior.esp, Hold Border Riverwood.esp, and Hold Border Dragon Bridge South.esp files have been merged into the Main File, and should be disabled.
You may wish to do a "clean" install of this mod by disabling all of its esp files, clearing through the "missing plugins" warning in-game, creating a new save without the mod installed, and then re-enabling only the Hold Borders Consistency Patch.esp (and the LAL, HBB and SGW compatibility patches if you are using them).
Updates and New Features
Updated all border guards to have consistent behaviours across holds, including changing with the Civil War.
As the war progresses and more forts come under the control of either faction, the guards at the borders will increase.
An Imperial or Stormcloak banner at the border indicates which faction controls the hold's military fort.
You may see new fights at the borders if the hold's fort is not under the same control as the hold itself.
All border gates are now open by default, and any stockade gates have been removed (due to being too narrow).
Updated the layout of many border outposts:
Shifted the south Reach border gate a few cells to the west, so the Falkreath Imperial Camp isn't on the wrong side of it, and made it more imposing.
Shifted the Winterhold border gate closer to Fort Kastav, so it's more defensible and you can't cut around it so easily from the east.
Added banners to the southwest Whiterun border gate, and the north Reach border camp.
Removed the fallen tree at the western Hjaalmarch border gate and moved the stockades back to conflict less with mods that add a "South Dragon Bridge" location.
New in 1.1.0: Completely redesigned the western Hjaalmarch border so it no longer conflicts at all with "South Dragon Bridge" location mods.
Redesigned the eastern Hjaalmarch border outpost wall.
Added a stockade tower to the eastern Whiterun border.
Replaced the Whiterun wall at the western Rift border with a Riften wall.
Extended the outworks of Whitewatch Tower to create a northern Whiterun border post.
Removed the northeastern Rift border outpost; this route is already covered by Shor's Watchtower.
Added a walkway over the main road beside Shor's Watchtower.
Added a (fully navmeshed) route to top of the northern and eastern Falkreath gates, the tower at the northern Reach outpost, and the tower at the western Pale camp.
Added three new border gates to Eastmarsh, which otherwise had unguarded borders:
West of Fort Amol: White River Border
East of Anga's Mill: Yorgrim River Border
West of Cragslane Cavern: Cragslane Border (reuses the assets from the removed northeastern Rift border outpost)
Renamed all border gates so their naming style is consistent throughout. (Hold Name - Border Name)
Changed the map marker icon from that of a house to an unused vanilla marker which looks more like a gate (Morthal Castle).
Ensured all border posts have a map marker, rather than just some of them.
Changed the cell IDs so that they are easier to identify in the CK and console. (Each one is HoldBorder<Hold><Direction>, such as HoldBorderFalkreathEast or HoldBorderReachNorth.)
3 navmeshes belonging to the original mod file that are no longer needed were reduced to 1 triangle and sent underground.
Fixed up grammar and spelling in the guard deployment notices (most are now also called Guard Deployment Notice), and each one is now signed off by a senior official of the Jarl's court.
Adds hold border camps near each of Skyrim's external provincial borders. These should be compatible with anything that directly affects the border gates themselves (such as Unique Border Gates, Guarded Borders or Beyond Skyrim), as the hold border camps I added are located further inland than these gates.
South of Helgen, near Fort Neugrad: Pale Pass Border
South of Falkreath, near Halldir's Cairn: Elkreath Border
East of Riften, near Stendarr's Beacon: Silgrad Pass Border
East of Windhelm, near Refugees' Rest: Dunmeth Border
West of Solitude, near Pinefrost Tower: Frostbound Border
Like Eastmarch, Haafingar is missing a border outpost in the original mod. This mod adds a border for Haafingar at the southern end of the Dragon Bridge, near to the Hjaalmarch border. This is compatible with all Dragon Bridge mods and most South Dragon Bridge mods (including ETaC), but is only almost compatible with Fight Against the Thalmor (there's a few minor clipping issues).
Riverwood: A border gate and guards are added to the southern entrance of Riverwood, as it is the first line of defence for Whiterun Hold from the south. This file is compatible with anything that doesn't move the vanilla gatehouse at the southern entrance of Riverwood (including JK's Skyrim). Of note, it is not compatible with ETaC for this exact reason.
An alternative main file is provided for compatibility with ETaC. (Old ETaC, that is. Untested with New Shiny SSE ETaC.)
A second alternative called No Riverwood is provided for compatibility with any other mod which moves the Riverwood southern gate - let me know if you want a proper compatibility patch made!
Optional Extras
New in 1.2.0: The previously-separate Exterior Borders, Riverwood, and Dragon Bridge (South) files are now merged into the Main File, and can be disabled.
Dragon Bridge Border: A northern Dragon Bridge border gate is provided in an optional file, for anyone who is not running a Dragon Bridge mod which does the same thing. The gate is added at the edge of the town, at the northern end of the bridge. This is designed to work alongside the main file, which adds a gate at the southern end of the bridge, depending on how much protection you want to give Haafingar. This is not compatible with most Dragon Bridge mods, but is nearly compatible with ETaC (there's a few minor clipping issues).
Compatibility
Should be compatible with most mods that don't affect the same areas.
The Second Great War: A compatibility patch is available which adds Dominion guards to Dominion-controlled holds from Reath's The Second Great War. Please note this patch is completely untested, and any bug reports are welcome!
Live Another Life: A compatibility patch is provided which fixes NavMesh pathfinding between Shoal's Rest Farm from LAL and the Whiterun Rorikstead border.
Touring Carriages: Every effort was made to make this mod compatible with Touring Carriages - gates are open by default, all narrow gaps have been widened, and unavoidable obstacles have been removed from the middle of the road (the carriage can successfully get around any that are left). Following extensive testing, there is one conflict that I can't seem to fix next to the Whiterun Granite Hill border. This can usually be resolved by getting off the carriage, shutting the gate on the horse, and opening it again (this pulls the horse across the cell boundary that it is stuck in). If all else fails, you could try moveto player on the horse and the carriage in the console, but this is not recommended as the long-term effects of that on the Touring Carriages scripts are unknown.
ETaC, JK's Skyrim, and other Town/City mods: Anything that Hold Borders adds which may conflict with locations that are edited by Town/City mods is provided separately. Different versions of the main file are provided for compatibility with Riverwood mods.
Hold Border Banners: A compatibility patch is provided which moves one of these border banners that ended up inside one of Immersive Hold Borders' new walls at the Whiterun Rorikstead border.
Man Those Borders: Unknown; currently untested.
Unique Border Gates, Guarded Borders, Beyond Skyrim: This mod should be compatible with all of these, as the new border camps are further down the road from the gates themselves.
If you come across any other compatibility issues, let me know, and I'll try to patch them if I can.
Miscellaneous
Without a texture replacer, the Reach/Markarth city banner is unfinished. Rather than mandating a single texture replacer for this mod, three texture replacers are provided, so the user can choose - Sydzilla's Markarth City Banner Retexture; the Unofficial Patch retexture from USLEEP; and the Unofficial Patch retexture from the Unofficial High-Res Patch (which is a high-res version of the USLEEP texture). If you're using Mod Organizer, to ensure your chosen texture is not overwritten by another mod, install the texture replacer separately from the Hold Borders mod, and load last in the modlist (left pane).
This mod has been cleaned with Tes5Edit. LOOT seems to put all components in sensible places in the load order, so just go with what that recommends. If you're having NavMesh pathfinding issues, move the Hold Borders patch further down the list.