Unofficial community patches - mods with quality of life features - are essential for some games. An old acquaintance is now back in the spotlight.
If you type “open cities skyrim oblivion gate” into Google, you'll be greeted by a Reddit post asking if Mehrunes Dagon, the villain from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, has returned.
Open Cities is a mod for Skyrim that recreates the feeling of open, neutral cities that you can simply walk into without any loading times, bringing back some of the feel of Morrowind.
What sounds great at first, is overshadowed by the drama surrounding the creator behind it.
Arthmoor became a controversial figure, with complaints surfacing 12 years ago that still linger today.
Who Is Arthmoor?
However, this "drama" should be taken seriously and raises the question of how free one should be to make modifications - or whether one should be allowed to do so at all.
When the "Open Cities" mod was equipped with Oblivion Gates, its users were outraged because they wanted a modification that was "lore-friendly".
This means that the modification should not interfere too much with the flow of the game and should still give the impression that it is Skyrim.
When other modders then tried to remove the Oblivion Gates from the mod so they could continue exploring the open cities, Arthmoor was not very pleased and promptly had all these revisions to his mod removed from the Nexusmods website, as he believed that they improved the game.
The community has not forgotten this to this day.
Mod Brought The Starfield Community Together
His return was already anticipated for Bethesda's latest work of art. Consequently, it was also advised not to download and use his unofficial patch.
Precisely because so many people used his Skyrim patches, they were embedded in other mods, where he would have been in a position of power.
That's why several modders have joined forces to release an official, unofficial patch. In the Reddit thread calling for people not to use his patch, there are several negative experiences with Arthmoor.
The little man threatened to ban me from his mod page way back when because I complained there were undocumented changes in USLEEP that also weren't technically bugs. Overall an extremely dogmatic and ego-driven individual who believes the world should revolve around him.
The administrators of the subreddits mentioned are also aware of this and repeatedly lock threads and remind people not to write too hateful comments about him.
Oblivion Remastered
Now, that Oblivion: Remastered has finally been released, and the community has already developed thousands of mods for it.
Many of the old Oblivion mods still work, giving players a wide range of options for modifying their game.
Among them, of course, is Arthmoor's unofficial Oblivion patch. Among its features, it proudly lists: "Created by the authors of the Unofficial Oblivion Patch series" even though the acknowledged Oblivion patch, with over 4.3 million downloads, was published by completely different modders.
This naturally led to an outcry in the community, with other players urging others not to use this patch. Players fear that Arthmoor might flood this mod with unwanted content.
And if this mod is used just as often, it will be incorporated into other mods, where no one can do anything about it anymore.
Alternatives
There are already some modifications aimed at improving your gaming experience or adapting it to your preferences.
Arthmoor has retired except for his Oblivion Remastered Unofficial Patch from Nexusmods and now offers his mods on AFKMods.
If you find the items too difficult or still have trouble picking locks even after 19 years, there are plenty of options available on Nexusmods.
There are also some performance fixes to try out, as we already reported that you need an atomic reactor to run the game perfectly on ultra settings: Players Battle Performance Issues Instead Of Mudcrabs In Oblivion: Remastered
What do you think? Are you already familiar with Arthmoor's mods?