GameBanshee Forums

Well, I liked Fable's idea for mod review threads, so here's one on vampires.

James' Davison's "Vampire Mod", from http://www.morrowind-mods.com/player-models_skins.htm claims to be a "completely balanced" mod that lets you play a vampire who can interact with non-vampire NPCs. No readme is included. I loaded it up, loaded up a save game with my vampire PC and went and talked to people. Result? They refuse to talk to me or even outright attack. No noticed dialogue changes. In short, if it has any effect at all, I certainly couldn't find it. It's possible something needs to be done in-game to make the mod work, or that it only works on new games, etc.... but since the maker failed to document any of this, it's hard to say.

Uninstalled mod.

Nox's "The Great Game", from http://www.dragonsight.com/morrowind/html/mods.html actually does what it says. It allows you to play a vampire who can interact with regular NPCs, but does so in a manner consistent with the world of Morrowind. Some folks, especially dark elves, are still inclined to attack you... you'll need to charm them to raise their disposition enough to deal with them. Shopkeepers will sell to you, but only if you butter them up by raising their disposition sky high. Fast travel is available, but outdoor methods (ships, stilt strider) prove fatal if any part of your trip occurs during daylight hours. Significant extra dialogue has been added to the NPC vampires, and extra dialogue to all regular NPCs. Extra vampire specific quests are included, but I have not seen them yet. Finally, extra vampire related abilities do exist and are earned through doing the vampire quests. Don't know what they are yet.

Mod works with old saves, although you don't want to become a vampire til after mod is installed or you'll loose a lot of the features. Mod does not alter how you become a vampire.

Verdict: I'm playing this one. The extras are nice, but even if they don't turn out great it does the most important thing... allows vampire PCs to interact with the regular world.

The Crypt of Zaken Xeouh, author unknown. A vampire cheat mod that forces you to go through a new dungeon to get rewarded by getting to pick which clan of vampire to join. I didn't even bother to install this once I read the description. There's no point to a this mod, as you can easily become a vampire the regular way in-game. If you want to increase your chances, create some custom 'weakness to common disease on self' spells/items for when you get to a vampire.

Verdict: seems pointless, but maybe some would enjoy the extra dungeon (which the maker describes by saying, "You'll die a lot.")

Some further notes on "The Great Game":

As you do the vampire clan quests, you're rewarded with additional powers. They're....odd. Things like increase speed 200 points, but set stamina to zero, for 600 seconds. Or a restore mana ability, that drains a huge amount of health. While the benefits they give are huuuuuuge, so are the drawbacks. Enough so that I'm not sure if I'll be using them much.

Several new books are added to the game, and not all in locations you'd expect.

I haven't been able to find any additional, new vampire-specific quests so far.

I find that problem with a great many mods...It's as if the modder, in an effort to restore an illusion of game balance, overcompensates and adds a crippling negative effect to some spell or item that was way overpowered in the first place. Go into the editor and tone it down a bit on both sides and it may be more fun to use

S_S

I dunno, I'm tempted to just ignore the new powers the same way I ignore the goofier spells. They're not why I'm playing the mod, after all. The fact that you can communicate with non-vampire NPCs is what does it for me

Another reviews vampire mod to add to the pile:

Elflord's "Vampire Mod", found on morrowindfiles.com says a lot of really ambitious things. It fails to deliver on pretty much all of them. It introduces three new races to the game.... Daywalker (vampires who have none of the negatives, but all the positives), Vampire (standard vampire) and Dark Elf Outcast. It also adds some new items.

The races, quite simply, don't actually work. Daywalker and vampire will not even load their images during the character creation process. Dark Elf outcast does load -- all of one face, one hair style and one gender -- but it crashes the game if you select it.

The items probably do work, but I didn't bother to check. There are three of them, all designed to be ridiculous. A belt of permanent regenerate mana, boots that add 200 to speed with no negative effects, and a ring of constant invisibility. One assumes the maker didn't realize how useless the latter actually is and thought it would be another uber-item.

This is just another mod the maker made to create super items for his own use; considering the race additions don't even work in any regard, that's all there is to it.

An unsolicited piece of advice for mod-makers: if you're going to make a mod and put it out on mod sites, at least have the courtesy to only upload ones that actually WORK.