Question on mods

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:43 am

OK, time for my annual stupid question of the year but here it goes.

I bought Morrowind today (since I can't run Oblivion) and looking through the stickied mod thread it appears quite a few nice mods I'd like to run to start playing.

Anyway, I did a forum search to the beginning by listing out the name shown in the mod thread. Nothing is showing up for them.

Any idea how else to search for these or am I out of luck since MW had been out for quite a while these mods are gone?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:54 am

There are a few places to check:

Planet Elder Scrolls. Used to be Morrowind Summit.

Telesphoros' List o' Mods.

Mythic Mods.

TheLys.

Those are your best bets, and they have a huge number of mods. Enjoy.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:15 pm

First off, thanks alot. Found a bunch of interesting mods. Even found a tutorial on putting these in.

Followup question, one that I downloaded for signs, the read-me does not address where to unzip to. So I created an empty file on my desktop so I could unzip and see what was created to help determine where to unzip this to.

The problem is a couple of the mods already created a file called Textures and Meshes in my Morrowind folder. Now this had done the same thing. I don't want to overwrite those files because of the mods I've already done. But when I copy the items and then paste them in the existing folder, they don't show up in the game.

Any suggestions here?

(edit) never mind, I tried to download and overwrite and it worked fine.
(re-edit) OK, I'll ask it again. I have a mod for "stankmanor" in the Vivec area. This is an .esp file, doesn't appear this goes in the Date Files folder, but again the read-me doesn't give unzip directions.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:32 pm

Just drop all modded ESPs in the Data Files folder. That's where they go, unless the author has specified otherwise.

I also suggest you download TESTool, which is an excellent utility that checks for complete compatibility between the main game and every mod. When it finds mod problems--usually stuff called "bad GMSTs" that can slow things down--it cuts them out, and creates a "clean" version of the same ESP file. But the documentation explains what TESTool does. I find it invaluable.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:37 pm

OK, I'll get it right now. One more thing (maybe the last?), I downloaded a couple of other mods for map marker replacement, sorted potions and sharpened weapons. Instead of showing up as a zip file, they show up as a .ace file that I can't open or unzip. Do these get put directly into the game? If so, do they also go into date files? Because there is no zip associated, there is not a readme file. Thanks for your help fable.

timian · Post by **timian** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:52 pm

Ace files are compressed files just like zips.

You can open them with WinRar: http://www.rarlabs.com/

edit: You can download and use it for free (just ignore the annoying nag dialogue)

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:07 pm

Ah, one more thing to download (lol). Alright I've gotten that and unzipped them to the Data Files folder. however they do no show up in the date file manager in the game or in the TES Tools fable mentioned to click off for the game. Do these ACE files go somewhere else?

timian · Post by **timian** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:48 pm

Is the esp file in the Data Files folder?

Sometimes mods aren't packed to be unzipped directly to the Data Files folder, so there's a chance they'll end up in subfolders if you try. I find it's a good idea to unzip the mod to a directory on the desctop and manually copy the files to Data Files.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:54 pm

Timian's absolutely correct. I always hand move the unzipped folders (or files, if there are no folders) from mods into their appropriate locations. For example, I'll drop a mod subfolder marked M which is intended under the Meshes folder, onto its equivalent in my Morrowind setup. The dropped folder only supplements, never overwrites, the original.

One other thing: some mods have no ESP files. These are texture-only mods. If they have no ESPs, you just put them in their correct place, but they will overwrite whatever textures are present. This shouldn't hurt anything, but you won't be able to go back to the originals if at anytime ou wish to do so. Was that potion mod Potion Sort? Because it was an excellent one.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:58 pm

The potion mod was the sorting mod.

I looked in the Morrowind folder and the Data Files and don't see a file named esp.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 8:02 pm

Did it have an ESP, and if so, did you manually place it in the Data folder?

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:00 pm

I don't see anything named ESP or with an .esp attachment.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:24 pm

Did you see anything that either resembled a small Swiss army knife or a piece of notepaper with a tool thingy through it?

If you did, that is the esp

Raven_Song · Post by **Raven_Song** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:18 am

Just to add to Fable's list of good sites for mods http://www.elricm.com

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:35 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]Did you see anything that either resembled a small Swiss army knife or a piece of notepaper with a tool thingy through it?

If you did, that is the esp

[/QUOTE]
OK, in my Morrowind folder (main folder) there is s knife icon named (appropriately) knife and it's listed as an Icon. There is also one name TES Construction Set. If these are in the main file is that OK or do I need to move it elsewhere?

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:35 am

Not unless it has a suffix of .ESP at the end.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:02 am

It does not. It's the knife logo and it's called 'knife'. There is no .xxx associated with it.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:10 am

Well, as I mentioned earlier, some mods merely change textures, and won't have ESPs. After you've dearchived the files into their proper folders, try checking off the mod when you run the game, and see if there's a change. I didn't see whether you tried this, before.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:28 am

These two particular mods (the potions and the map) did not appear in the Data Files to check off either in the game or the TESTool you mentioned yesterday. So there is nowhere to check it off to activate it or not.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:52 am

[QUOTE=Ragin Cajun]These two particular mods (the potions and the map) did not appear in the Data Files to check off either in the game or the TESTool you mentioned yesterday. So there is nowhere to check it off to activate it or not.[/QUOTE]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but if they don't come with ESPs or ESMs, they won't show up with anything to check off. This means something is missing from the archive, or an ESP/ESM wasn't correctly placed by you, or they only replaced textures. If the last is true, you don't need to check off anything. When you dearchived all the textures and put them in their correct folders, they will automatically show up in the game. Just run the game, and see if you notice any difference in the appropriate places.