# UPDATES SINCE ORIGINAL RELEASE

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch 1.0.1
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update, and in response to dependencies getting updated.

## SolitudeSkyway-LOTD-ESD-Patch 0.0.2
- Updated for LOTD 5.3.2
- Now depend on newly updated Skyway-LOTD patch
- Did another round of finalize + cleanup of navmesh in CK for Tamriel
worldspace cells around Skyway. During this process I saw a few more
previously-conflicting navmesh records between Skyway-ESD and
Skyway-LOTD patches, that I decided to forward into my patch.
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update, and also in response to new Skyway-LOTD patch.
- Patch remains incomplete for the Skyway-LOTD-ESD problem, but sufficient to
be used by BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ESD patch

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ES-Patch 1.0.1
- Updated for LOTD 5.3.2
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-Patch 1.0.1
- Updated for LOTD 5.3.2
- Now depend on newly updated Skyway-LOTD patch
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-ES-Patch 1.0.1
- Updated for LOTD 5.3.2
- Forwarded BPT-LOTD patch update to MuseumExterior navmesh 00037F7B to this
patch.
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LegacyOfTheDragonborn-Patch 1.0.1
- Updated for LOTD 5.3.2
- Fixed an issue made during previous update regarding MuseumExterior navmesh.
Previously, both BPT and LOTD modified navmesh 00037F7B (ground navmesh at
Solitude City cell where LOTD adds the museum and BPT adds the city garden).
Previous version of LOTD had two overlapping navmesh in this cell (a known
bug). My BPT v1.0 update accidentally made the decision to sink BPT's
navmesh override for 00037F7B down below the ground, because the other
"doubled" navmesh made it look like Museum still had a navmesh. The latest
LOTD update fixed the problem and removed the duplicated navmesh, revealing
this problem to me. I fixed the problem by having the patch not sink
00037F7B to the ground but to have it carry through LOTD's data instead.
Together with the LOTD update, this finally and fully resolves navmesh
issues in the MuseumExterior cell.
- Together with above navmesh fix, BPT navmesh xx01A7AF is no longer edge
linked to 00037F7B in the patch. This is a corner navmesh also sunk down
below ground by the patch.
- Regenerated NAVI in response to LOTD cleaning up/removing some navmesh
records in latest update.

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitude-Patch 1.0.0
- Updated for BPT 1.0
- Forwarded wall structure outside courtyard from BPT so it always wins over
ES, preserves BPT-added stair to BPT door even when ES loads after BPT
- Forwards navmesh for cell -14, 24 (BPT city garden area) so BPT navmesh
takes effect even when ES loads after BPT
- Forwards BPT courtyard navmesh so BPT navmesh takes effect even when ES
loads after BPT
- Generated NAVI for BPT-ES patch now that it has navmesh data

## BluePalaceTerrace-LegacyOfTheDragonborn-Patch 1.0.0
- Updated for BPT 1.0
- Disabled all newly added BPT city garden area objects in BPT 1.0
- In WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors, replaced old references to WSSmdCWallInt04 with
SmdCWallInt01 from Skyrim.esm, since WSSmdCWallInt04 has been deleted from
BPT in WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors, removed Ebony statues and a painting since
those statics were removed from BPT. The statues were honestly kind of
creepy. The painting had negligible effect.
- Moved newly added BPT gallery objects in BPT 1.0 to WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors,
including two WallLean idle markers, a new box, bedroll/haystack, associated
idle markers, and the Gardener NPC.
- Restored some previously disabled (and recreated in interior cell) hand
warming idle markers at the top of spiral staircase, now that they are
part of AI package chains.
- Moved a new guard patrol marker and previous LookFar markers in BPT gallery
further down into the Terrace area, to ensure guard will patrol to Terrace
at the beginning of shift instead of just staying in the corridors all the
time.

## BluePalaceTerrace-PalacesCastlesEnhanced-Patch 1.0.0
- Updated for BPT 1.0
- Disabled the 2 newly added guards from BPT 1.0 to the Blue Palace main area,
and disabled and their associated patrol markers. PCE main area already have
plenty of guards, and more crowded is not better.
- Since both BPT and PCE had overwrites on the SolitudeCourtEat13x2 AI
package, I copied BPT's version into a new AI package record and pointed
WBPTPriestess to this new record.
- Relocated WBPTPriestess reference into PCE main area next to an unused bed.
- Relocated WBPTDiningRoomMarker into PCE parlour area.
- Disabled WBPTRestoreThronePositionMarker and additionally removed its script
reference on the record, to ensure it does not run with a PCE main interior.
- Disabled a few other added items into PCE main area. Fixed a problem with
navmesh in PCE Kitchen and Laundry Room where navmesh did not respect the
cage-like barrier surrounding the kitchen, causing NPCs to walk into the
cage instead of using the door nearby. This was necessary to ensure some of
Priestess's new commute route is functional.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-PCE-Patch 1.0.0
- No updates needed for BPT 1.0, only bumped versions to 1.0.0 to match other
BPT patches

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-ES-Patch 1.0.0 (newly added)
- Newly Added, since BPT-ES patch 1.0.0 now has navmesh data
- Since BPT-ES now has navmesh overrides (to make the BPT city garden area
function regardless of BPT vs ES load order), we now need a BPT-LOTD-ES patch
to ensure LOTD wins conflicting navmesh records. Two navmesh records are
affected, including courtyard navmesh (where LOTD overrides to add a door
link) and, of course, the museum navmesh.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-Patch 1.0.0
- Updated for BPT 1.0
- The raised platform area on the eastern descent has been replaced with a
new structure in order to fit BPT's new SolitudeArch model. There's no longer
a wide platform, instead it is now mostly a long stairway down with a small
platform.
- Navmesh for the affected cell (xx000888) has also been redone to fit the
new structure. Adjacent navmesh (skyway:xx02e256) and (00020f90) received
minor tweaks at their edge links. A navmesh in an adjacent cell
(skyway:0900ACA0) that made up a small corner of the raised platform area
is no longer needed and has been sunk under the terrain.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ES-Patch 1.0.0
- Newly Added, since BPT-ES patch 1.0.0 now has navmesh data
- Since BPT-ES now has navmesh overrides (to make the BPT city garden area
function regardless of BPT vs ES load order), we now need a
BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ES patch to ensure the courtyard navmesh has the combined
door links for both the LOTD-moved and Skyway-added door.
- For some reason, if BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ES patch is loaded after
Skyway-LOTD-ESD patch, the Skyway Transit door navmesh will have odd
behavior (when entering from Skyway into Transit room, follower shows up at
the opposite door instead of the door you entered). I can't seem to figure
out why this happens. I traced it down to NAVI causing the issue, and I
tried to add both as masters to BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ESD and rebuild NAVI there
but it doesn't help. This issue does not seem game-breaking, and can be
avoided as long as Skyway-LOTD-ESD patch loads AFTER BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ES
patch.

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch 1.0.0
- No updates needed for BPT 1.0, only bumped versions to 1.0.0 to match other
BPT patches

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch 1.0.0
- Updated for BPT 1.0
- Navmesh changes in BPT-LOTD-Skyway (new navmesh structure for xx000888) have
been forwarded to this patch, and will properly connect to ESD fort area
navmesh in this patch.

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch 0.0.4
- Resolved minor landscape seam at the Argonian Burrow entrance that is only
visible underwater. Turned out landscape of -13,25 (KatariahExterior04,
a mostly-water cell) should also be won by BPT, as doing so has no adverse
effects on ESD.

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-PCE-Patch 0.0.2
- Carried forward BPT-LOTD patch 0.0.2 changes to acoustic space to
WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors

## BluePalaceTerrace-LegacyOfTheDragonborn-Patch 0.0.2
- WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors's acoustic space updated to
IntRoomStoneMediumAcousticSpace instead of previous dungeon-themed one,
removes horror-like echos when in the corridor cell.

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch 0.0.3
- Resolved major landscape issue at BPT's terrace when ESD is loaded after BPT
(BPT's SolitudeArch remodel is now carried through to the patch)

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch 0.0.3
- Now depends on official Skyway-ESD patch, where previously it was only
"expected to be used together". This was necessary to generate correct NAVI
as I have learned.
- Now depends on SolitudeSkyway-LOTD-ESD-Patch in order to generate correct
NAVI.
- Regenerated correct NAVI

## SolitudeSkyway-LOTD-ESD-Patch 0.0.1
- Newly added to attempt to resolve some conflicts between official Skyway-ESD
and Skyway-LOTD patch.
- Forwards Skyway-ESD landscape and navmesh changes at the ground level
- Continues to rely on Skyway-LOTD loading after Skyway-ESD in order to have
Skyway-LOTD win on new LOTD-ified Skyway structure and skyway navmeshes.
- Overall this resolves major navmesh issues along dockside road when the two
official Skyway patches are used together and Skyway-LOTD loaded after
Skyway-ESD.
- Does not address ESD fort area issues inherent to ESD. Also by nature of
navmesh this patch is incompatible with ESD-Fixes's attempt to address those
navmesh issues. Maybe a future iteration will remake those fixes in this
patch.

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch 0.0.2
- Fixed issue where Wet Argonian Burrow entrance was blocked (BPT-ESD patch now
forwards this BPT landscape instead of ESD - understood now that this part of
BPT landscape is needed)

## BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitude-Patch 0.0.2
- Resolved double lantern above main blue palace door (one of two lanterns
removed)
- Resolved benches clipping with chairs and tables around countyard (benches
removed)
- Resolved a tall bench clipping with wall in courtyard (bench brought forward
slightly)
- Resolved rocks clipping with left water pond in courtyard (rocks removed)
- Resolved ES-added low wall in middle of courtyard occasionally clipping with
guard (ES wall and associated candles and a collision box disabled)
- Resolved blue flowers clipping with road on ramp to BPT-added door outside
courtyard (flowers removed)
- Resolved ES dwarven lamp clipping with vegetation (dwarven lamp removed -
this was also partly by aesthetic choice, drengin brought up and I agree that
dwemer stuff didn't make much sense here)

## BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch 0.0.2
- Fixed issues regarding navmesh height in ESD-added fort area, allowing NPCs
in the area to robustly respond to wildlife attacks.
- The navmesh fixes here apply to the new navmesh edits made for
BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ESD, so if used together with ESD-Fixes, this must be loaded
after ESD-Fixes.

## EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Fixes 0.0.2
- Fixed issues regarding navmesh height in ESD-added fort area, allowing NPCs
in the area to robustly respond to wildlife attacks.
- This fix will be overridden by BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ESD patch so that patch will
provide its own fix.


# MODULAR BLUE PALACE TERRACE AND SOLITUDE PATCHES - 0.0.1 (original)


## Abbreviations

In this document the following abbreviations may be used in place of the full
name for mods:

* BPT: Drengin's Blue Palace Terrace
* PCE: Palaces and Castles Enhanced
* LOTD/LOTDv5: Legacy of the Dragonborn v5
* ES: Enhanced Solitude
* ESD: Enhanced Solitude Docks
* Skyway: LOTD-ified Solitude Skyway (Solitude Skyway + its LOTD Patch)
* IM: Imperial Mail


## Patches Overview

This mod provides a family of patches for various Solitude mods, with a major
focus on Drengin's Blue Palace Terrace. Specifically, it provides the following
patches:

* BluePalaceTerrace-LegacyOfTheDragonborn-Patch.esp
- fully patches conflicts between BPT and LOTD

* BluePalaceTerrace-PalacesCastlesEnhanced-Patch.esp
- fully patches conflicts between BPT and PCE
- PCE _MUST_ load after BPT

* BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-PCE-Patch.esp
- applies on top of BPT-LOTD and BPT-PCE patch, where together they
fully patch conflicts between all three mods

* BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitude-Patch.esp
- fully patches conflicts between BPT and ES

* BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-Patch.esp
- fully patches conflicts between BPT and LOTD-ified Skyway
- requires official Skyway patch for LOTD
- if used together with the below BPT-LOTD-Skyway-ESD patch, official Skyway
patch for LOTD _MUST_ load after official Skyway patch for ESD

* BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch.esp
- applies on top of BPT-LOTD-Skyway patch in order to address navmesh
conflict with ESD on the eastern descent of the Skyway
- does not require, but expected to be used together with, the official
Skyway patch for ESD, which handles conflicts at the western descent of
the Skyway. When used together, they fully resolve all conflicts between
the LOTD-ified Skyway and ESD
- the official Skyway patch for LOTD _MUST_ load after the official Skyway
patch for ESD in the final setup

* BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch.esp
- fully patches conflicts between BPT and ESD

* EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Fixes.esp
- addresses some glaring issues within ESD


## Requirements

All provided patches depend on their masters, which you should be able to easily
view with Mod Organizer 2, which you should be using if you are modding your
Skyrim game.

As a whole, other than vanilla masters and the original mods they apply to, the
set of patches depend on:

* Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (USSEP)

* Solitude Skyway SE - Enhanced Solitude Docks Patch.esp
- This is the official Skyway patch for ESD

* Solitude Skyway SE - Legacy of the Dragonborn Patch.esp
- This is the official Skyway patch for LOTDv5

If Skyway-related patches are used, you will need the above two official Skyway
patches. In this scenario, the LOTDv5 patch MUST load after the ESD patch,
otherwise you will get broken navmesh along parts of the Skyway.

If the BPT-PCE patch is used, "Palaces Castles Enhanced.esp" from PCE MUST load
after BluePalaceTerrace.esp. Otherwise the Blue Place Interior will have all
sorts of shenanigans.


## Recommendations

The patches are designed to work together with these other patches and mods:

* MLQ_EnhancedSolitude_Fixes.esp
- Listed as "Enhanced Solitude Fixes Tweaks and Enhancements", made by
EpicCrab. The core file from this mod corrects the issue in the original
ES where Blue Palace Courtyard clutter objects are misaligned where the
moment physics kicks in will fall all over the floor leaving behind an
uncleanable mess.

* DBM_EnhancedSolitude_Patch.esp
- This is the official LOTD patch for ES. None of my patches directly
depend on it but assume you will use this file if you use LOTD and
ES together.

* ImperialMail.esp
- Adds a mail system to Skyrim, with the central office located in the Blue
Palace courtyard. This is listed on Nexus as "Imperial Mail - Post and
Banking Service Continued (with LoTD support)" and created by Sthaagg.

* BluePalaceTerrace-ImperialMail-Patch.esp
- This is the official BPT patch for Imperial Mail. It disables the
more intrusive structures IM adds to the Blue Palace Courtyard, keeps IM's
sign, and relinks the mail office door to a nearby door provided by BPT.


## Patch Details

### BluePalaceTerrace-LegacyOfTheDragonborn-Patch.esp

#### Tamriel Worldspace Conflicts

In the Tamriel Worldspace, both BPT and LOTD modifies the structure of the
eastern side of the Solitude Arch. After all, this is ground zero for both the
Dragonborn Gallery from LOTD and the BPT's Blue Palace Terrace. The conflicts
involve severe mesh clippings between LOTD-added rocks and the entire side
corridors of BPT's outdoor playable area.

To resolve this, previous work from cheesetoast8's patch was reused, where the
entire side corridors from BPT was moved to an interior cell, and exterior
reshaped to provide the door, together with some navmesh changes and
relandscaping to finalize the new reality.

cheesetoast8's patch moved the side corridors into BPT's WBPTCellar cell (Blue
Palace - Basement), and renamed the whole cell into "Blue Palace - Corridors).
This unfortunately resulted in the actual basement area being shown as "Blue
Palace - Corridors" which was not ideal. Thus, I chose to move the corridors
into an entire new cell (WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors) so that it would not affect
WBPTCellar.

cheesetoast8's patch additionally swapped the top and bottom doors of the
corridors staircase, where the top door led to the basement while the bottom
door led to the Blue Palace Courtyard. I chose to revert this change and go with
the original BPT setup where the top door led to the courtyard and the bottom
door led to the basement.

The exact same original door records from BPT were relocated into the new
WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors cell, in order to maximize compatibility with other
patches.

#### Solitude Worldspace Conflicts

In the Solitude Worldspace, both BPT and LOTD uses the immediate area outside
the Blue Palace Courtyard. This is LOTD's main museum location, while BPT
re-landscapes the area and adds a ramp and a door leading to the exterior
corridors leading to its Terrace.

To address this, previous work from cheesetoast8's patches were reused in order
to have LOTD's museum completely win that location, both objects and navmesh.

The BPT-added door have been moved to inside the Blue Palace Courtyard. It is
now located on the right side of the courtyard (when facing the palace) in one
of the arched wall slots. The exact location was picked to avoid conflict with
PCE or Skyway, both of which adds doors along the same side of the corridor.


### BluepalaceTerrace-PalacesCastlesEnhanced-Patch.esp

#### Main Palace Area Conflicts

99% of conflicts between BPT and PCE are in this area, where both mods majorly
renovates and remodels the main Blue Palace, with PCE's modifications being far
more extensive and reaches into NPC AI and Quest Content.

For example, PCE gives Elisif a completely new schedule, and modifies quests
such that certain conversations now takes place inside the Jarl's Chambers at
night out of public ears. These new character schedules effectively means PCE's
main palace changes are tightly coupled with the other interiors it adds. PCE
also has a good amount of new quest-like content. For example, after the player
clears out the Pelagius Wing, the player can choose to talk to Elisif or Falk
Firebeard to remodel the Pelagius Wing into a Pelagius Hotel, which makes a new
door appear in the Courtyard and likely relinks existing Pelagius Wing doors to
a new, renovated replacement cell for the Pelagius Wing.

On the other hand, BPT's current Blue Palace interior is a simple remodel, with
little to no dynamic content. As such, it is clean enough to make splicing out
the main palace content while keeping other content fairly easy to do. Generally
speaking, keeping BPT's main palace meant removing PCE's Blue Palace wholesale,
whereas keeping PCE's main palace meant only BPT's main palace content need to
be removed since it can be cleanly spliced out.

Aesthetically, BPT's interior, keeping to the vanilla size and an ELFX-like
lighting scheme, is generally darker and smaller. Some may like this better. My
own aesthetics preferred a dramatic contrast of PCE's bright, regal main palace
with a darker underground. Thus the overall approach was clear. I opted to keep
PCE's main palace interior in order to maximize the resulting content and keep
to my aesthetic preferences.

The implementation was done largely with a script. In the script, we walked all
BPT records in the SolitudeBluePalace interior cell. Any record that is
overridden by both BPT and PCE, we ignore, expecting it to be resolved by simply
having PCE win the load order. Any record that is a uniquely BPT override, we
restore its original master record (usually from Skyrim.esm) into the patch,
effectively reverting the change. Any record that is a newly added record by
BPT, we disable it and move its Z value to -30000. Any record that is a door
record, we will remove the door teleportation link. With the current BPT, this
was sufficient to completely and cleanly remove all main palace interior content
from BPT, and have the mod cleanly coexist with PCE.

#### Relinked Doors

Then, I added new doors into PCE's interiors to relink to the remaining BPT
interiors, using BPT doors that have been unlinked during the disabling of BPT's
main palace interior. Specifically:

* A new set of doors have been added to the PCE Jarl's Chambers that will lead
to the main center door of BPT's terrace area.

* A new door has been added to PCE's main palace stairs, next to the Old
Dungeon door, that now leads to BPT's outdoor terrace area's lower drawbridge
door.

* A new door has been added to PCE's Kitchen and Laundry Room, that now leads
to BPT's basement.

* BPT's corridor-to-palace door (top corridor end door) has been locked up, for
I could not find a good spot inside PCE's interior to add such a door, and
the nearby courtyard door makes accessing PCE main palace easy anyway.

I also unlinked and locked BPT's additional door into the Pelagius Wing due to
compatibility issues with PCE's Pelagius Hotel content. All remaining BPT doors
that were unrelated to the main palace area remain functional.

There were a small handful of very minor adjustments to nearby structures,
teleport markers, and idle markers in the immediate vicinity of the PCE
locations where new doors are added.

The final result is a mega-palace with all of PCE's content, plus BPT's terrace,
corridors, courtyard, basement, and secret argonian passage to the waters
below.


### BluepalaceTerrace-LOTD-PCE-Patch.esp

#### Door Conflicts

This patch resolves the door record conflicts between the BPT-LOTD patch and the
BPT-PCE patch.

The BPT-LOTD patch moves the affected doors and their teleport marker positions
into the newly added interior corridor cell (WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors), while
BPT-PCE patch relinks the other side of the same doors to newly added doors in
the PCE interior.

Thus, this patch was needed to combine and forward changes from both patches, so
we end up with PCE-interior doors linking properly to WBPTLOTDPatchCorridors
doors.


### BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitude-Patch.esp

#### Conflicting Models and Fighting Texture on Palace Grounds

The most glaring problem in an unpatched state between these two mods, are
fighting textures in the main palace courtyard grounds. As you move the camera,
textures on all the walls and the ground itself will flicker back and forth in a
seizure-inducing way. This is due to both mods implementing changes on the Blue
Palace itself, as well as the SolitudeBase object (the ground you're standing
on), in ways that results in the objects doubling instead of overriding each
other.

ES disabled the main Palace and SolitudeBase, and added its own replacement as
new records. It did this in order to bring in the same models but with
different, customized textures. Specifically, its version of SolitudeBase has
dramatically different ground textures for the Blue Palace Courtyard area in
order to provide the ground soil patterns for the courtyard to be turned into a
much denser field of flowers and vegetation, with narrower paths.

BPT on the other hand replaced the vanilla game model with a new model that is
not only much more detailed, but also somewhat architecturally different.

I ended up removing ES's changes in these aspect and allow BPT's effect to win
out. BPT's palace model is far superior to the vanilla game model, and while
ES's textures were superior, I figured the model itself matters more since
BPT's structural aspects depended on it, and textures are easily overridden on
a file-level after the fact anyway. For ground, I felt that BPT's clean, regal
palace grounds made much more sense for Skyrim's most royal palace over ES's
dirty, worn, almost farm-like courtyard. The caveat however is that ES's
SolitudeBase replacement theoretically affects many other areas of Solitude
(since it's the ground underneath large areas of Solitude). That said, restoring
the vanilla texture did not seem to cause visual oddities elsewhere in ES's
Solitude after I removed it.

#### Reworking The Courtyard Itself

The next most glaring problem is endless amounts of clipping between endless
amounts of objects in the courtyard itself, as both ES and BPT remodels the
courtyard to their own respective visions.

Comparing the two courtyard visions, BPT's vision is a simpler but much more
cleaner and organized vision, whereas ES's vision tried to make it colorful and
full of life, albeit more chaotic and a lot dirtier. In the end, I curated the
remaining conflicting objects (disabling, rearranging as I see fit) to create a
new courtyard that tries to keep the strengths of both original visions.

The new courtyard is open, spacious, clean, and organize, much like BPT's
courtyard. All the plants and flowers have been moved behind the planters,
leaving the main space to be a clean and open area of fancy stone floor. The
new courtyard is also lively and colorful, much like ES's courtyard. The flower
variety and the torchbugs from ES remain and most of the nicely-contrasting
colors of ES's objects remain.

In fact, all iconic objects from both mods remain, only rearranged to create a
better whole. These includes the four Junipers from BPT, the braziers from BPT,
the Sovngarde Statues from ES, the two Aspens from ES, the two cherry trees from
ES, and of course, the circular bench around one of those cherry trees. In the
result, the Sovngarde statues sit nicely in front of the Junipers, while the
Aspens and Cherry Trees form a beautiful canopy above the Palace Gates. The
circular bench is slightly off to the side so as to not be in the way but is
also picturesque in itself. The raised platform they were on have been turned
into a gradual circular set of stairways in order to both provide better visuals
and to remove potential navmesh challenges for NPCs.

The mother statue and the male statue with sword, from BPT, remains visible on
the left and right paths of the courtyard, due to BPT's architectural model for
the palace being chosen. An extra ES-style table with decorations has been
added to the right sode so that it can complement the male statue in the same
way as the combination did for the female statue. These look especially nice at
night.

#### Clipping in Solitude City

There are some minor clipping between BPT-added objects and ES-added objects in
the area of Solitude just outside the courtyard. The clipping was minor because
ES likely had the foresight to keep the area as untouched as possible for LOTD,
while BPT did not seem to care for LOTD at all.

These clippings were fully resolved by simply disabling conflicting objects.

#### Flag Height

ES planted red flags on each of the spires of the Blue Palace. Since BPT
replaced the model with a much more detailed model, the exact coordinates of the
spires changed slightly, and the ES flags needed to be adjusted to match.

Here, previous work from cheesetoast8 were reused to adjust the flags to match
the new spire coordinates.


### BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-Patch.esp

#### Eastern Descent Conflicts

The main region of conflicts between the LOTD-ified Skyway and BPT are the
eastern descent of the Skyway, where the Skyway eventually descends into the
ground in a region underneath the Blue Palace. Here, BPT modified the terrain,
causing clipping with BPT structures.

To resolve these clipping, previous remodeling work by cheesetoast8 were used to
fix up a Skyway platform that experienced a lot of clipping, and to establish a
new set of stairways that led to the ground, plus associated navmesh changes.

I made some minor alterations to cheesetoast8's state for this work, in order to
further minimize BPT terrain's clipping with the platform. This included raising
the platform slightly higher still, and hiding the last bit of clipping
underneath a reposition table, with navmesh adjusted accordingly.

#### Middle Area Conflicts

Cheesetoast8's patches also made some changes to the middle area of the Skyway.
In addition to remodeling and conflict resolution, it added a new door that led
to BPT's side corridors. I removed this door link because I thought the added
patch complexity was not worth its value. Nearby, the existing Skyway-added door
already allows the player easy access to the courtyard, where a courtyard door
to the corridors is immediately nearby as well. Overall this new door link felt
redundant.

That said, I left behind the door itself, because it was located at a good
position and could be useful in later patching endeavors. I raised the positions
of the rocks above the door by a bit so that other mods that replaces rock
models (such as Skyrim 3D rocks) into something bigger would remain working and
not block the door.

#### Blue Palace Courtyard

Cheesetoast8's patches relinked the main Skyway-to-Courtyard door to a seemingly
unused door that BPT added into the courtyard. This unfortunately made it
incompatible with Imperial Mail, for the door exists behind the walled-off area
of Imperial Mail's original design, and is also the exact same door BPT used in
its Imperial Mail patch.

In my patch, the Skyway-to-Courtyard door remains at its original courtyard
location that does not conflict with Imperial Mail. However, the door itself is
replaced with a fancier looking door that now integrates into the courtyard
architecture, and fits into the courtyard aesthetic, much better. The new door
keeps to the exact same position of the old door.


### BluePalaceTerrace-LOTD-Skyway-ESD-Patch.esp

#### Eastern Descent Conflicts

In the BPT-LOTD-Skyway patch, the main navmesh for the affected cell was
modified to accomodate the new remodeling for the Skyway staircase leading down
to the ground. Unfortunately, ESD adds a fort area in the same cell right next
to the new staircase. Though the models do not conflict and looks fairly natural
together, the navmesh does conflict.

Thus, another patch was needed to override the navmesh with a navmesh that
combined the shapes of both needs. This navmesh again reused previous work
by cheesetoast8, with minor adjustments done by me. With this navmesh override,
the eastern descent area conflicts between BPT, LOTD-ified Skyway, and ESD are
fully resolved.

Note that there are remaining navmesh issues with the fort area in general, that
are issues with ESD itself, that can be reproduced without other mods and
patches. This patch does not address those issues.

#### Western Descent Conflicts

The LOTD-ified Skyway's western descent (stairway down to the docks district)
conflicts with the main content area of ESD. However, no additional patching was
needed because the existing official Skyway-ESD patch sufficiently addresses
conflicts in this area, and this area was not affected by the Skyway-LOTD
remodeling of the skyway.

Players simply need to load both official Skyway-ESD patch and Skyway-LOTD
patch, with Skyway-LOTD patch loading after Skyway-ESD patch, to fully resolve
all western descent conflicts, including navmesh and door links.


### BluePalaceTerrace-EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Patch.esp

#### Fort Area Landscape Conflicts

ESD adds a fort area in the ground region below the Blue Palace Terrace, where
ESD made some landscape modifications, that its structures and objects depend
on.

BPT modified the same landscape records. A glance at the values look like they
may be accidental dirty edits of some kind. When reverted they do not affect the
functionality of BPT.

If used together, and BPT is loaded after ESD, BPT's landscape records will win
out, and as a result ESD's landscape changes will not happen for those exact
cells, and players will see huge, jarring gaps in the landscape at cell borders.

This patch forwards ESD's landscape changes to ensure they win regardless of
load order.


### EnhancedSolitudeDocks-Fixes.esp

#### Miscellaneous Fixes

The greatness of ESD comes from its sheer scale and the fact that there's
nothing else quite like it, and that anything that remotely resembles it are
usually even worse in quality. Previous iterations, such as Solitude Expansion,
were not as large in scale and as stable in performance.

Unfortunately, it doesn't mean ESD itself is a high quality mod. I feel that its
value is much more in quantity than quality. There are a lot of cool ideas, but
also tons of buggy visuals when you start looking at ESD content in detail.

Some of these buggy visuals are especially jarring, as they look like clear CK
mistakes that are not only visually disruptive but also breaks gameplay. For
example, there are large pieces of terrain statics from original Skyrim.esm left
in the game, undisabled and untouched by any mod, that clips right into the
ESD-added fort area, where it entirely breaks NPC pathing and behavior.

This patch represents a start at fixing some of these, and I plan to update it
gradually as I discover more such issues.


## Known Issues

I discovered the following issues that were either inherent in the original mod
or from elsewhere in my mod setup. These issues are not due to these patches
because I could continue to reproduce them with my patches and other relevant
mods disabled.

* LOTDv5 has a bug where an AutoLoadDoor used as a quest trigger for its
haunted museum quest had its radius set too large, such that when you hug the
walls of the blue palace courtyard you can see the teleport text saying
"Skyrim". If the user enters another door while this hover text is on screen,
the text will become permanent on screen after the door teleport. Currently,
this will likely affect PCE's Pelagius Suite door (and I don't know if the
LOTD-PCE patch will fix this). I've been told that this is a bug that LOTD
will fix and that patch makers should not touch this, so I have opted to not
touch this.

* LOTDv5 has navmesh issues in the museum cell of Solitude Worldspace, where
the entire ground navmesh (the main one) is doubled so there's really two
overlapping navmesh. This seem to make it difficult for followers to follow
the player _out_ of the museum gate (note that the inward direction is fine
but outward direction usually gets them stuck). The LOTD folks have admitted
the issue and ticketed it for future fix. Since it's navmesh and it's a
fairly complex and important navmesh, I've decided to not touch it. For the
time being, if followers get stuck, a simple workaround is to simply enter
any interior cell nearby and exit back out, and in doing so bringing your
followers with you. There are plenty of interior cells nearby since you're
in Solitude after all.

* ESD has more clipping and navmesh-related issues that I'm experiencing all
over the place. Note that at the very least, it had less clipping and
navmesh-related issues than any similar mod that came before it, and I'm also
not entirely sure whether the issues are due to ESD itself or simply my
machine's ability to handle its sheer complexity in this engine.

What I have noticed is that, despite ESD seemingly navmeshing everything
correctly in the CK along the main dockside path, the navmesh itself is
complicated and it's likely not ESD's fault. Portions of the dockside road
does not cross, but runs _along_ cell borders, which means left side of the
road is navmesh in one cell while right side of the road is navmesh from
another cell and the middle is where the cell-to-cell seam is at. I imagine
this must have been ridiculously hard to navmesh, and the situation itself
likely introduces more computation needs for the game engine to resolve.

Another thing I noticed is that, my follower will follow me properly as long
as I walk backwards and thus walk slowly. When walking like this, the
follower have no trouble following from end to end. However, the follower
tend to have trouble following when I move at a normal game speed by walking
forwards. I imagine what this means is that with a greater distance between
us, path calculations yields a very different path to if there's less
distance between us, which could be due to the complexity of the dockside
region presenting many different alternative solutions that gets weighted
differently in different situations. Sometimes, my follower runs to the side
down to the docks for a while before catching back up with me on the main
road, whereas along the same stretch if I walk slowly there's no issues for
him to keep to the main road.

Either way, the solution is to enter an interior and exit, which usually
works. That said, ESD seem to have some bugged teleport markers on doors too
every now and then, where the follower shows up but half his body is in the
floor.

I also feel that the ESD-added fort area have some NPC pathing issues. At a
glance at ESD's content in the CK it seems that a number of navmesh vertices
are set too high off the ground, which is what I'm suspecting to be the
cause (though haven't confirmed yet). It could be other things in my load
order too.

Other than the above, I did not notice any issues throughout my testing with
various combinations of my patches. No clipping, navmesh, or door-related issues
were observed. Though keep in mind that at the moment I can only test with a
beginning-of-game character, and I cannot test quest content easily.


## Mods Used In Screenshots

Other than the mods these patches patch together, the following mods contributed
to the visuals in my screenshots:

* Silent Horizons ENB
* Cathedral Weathers and Seasons
* Cathedral Landscapes
* Majestic Mountains
* Obsidian Mountain Fogs
* Realistic Water Two
* NobleSkyrim
* Cathedral Plants
* Enhanced Vanilla Trees


## Credits

Thanks to cheesetoast8 for giving me explicit permission to use his work as a
base in many parts of my patches. Also thanks to cheesetoast8 for giving me
advice and playtest the BPT-PCE patch, discovering an important issue with a
door conflict.

Thanks to original authors for all involved mods for creating those mods.