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Trying out Morrowind, again; keeping the spirit?

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:36 pm
by Sytze
A while ago I purchased Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III for quite the dandy price. Since then I tried it two or three times, but each time I quit playing after a while, because I got bored. Either I lost track of what I had to (a lot of side quests tend to distract my attention, since I want to finish them all. Don’t ask me why…), got lost in the huge world, or simply got tired of walking around. Further more, I tended to get my ass delivered on the plate in the beginning. Ohh, that, and it seems I understand zero of the magic and alchemy portion of the game. Doesn’t Morrowind have a readme, or guide for that matter? Or is that one of the downsides of purchasing it when the games lies in the 'buy this cheap, we don't need it anymore' part of the store?

Anyway, I decided to give it another try and hopefully my attention span will be a bit larger this time. However, for that I’m seeking some advice. What do you suggest I do in order not to get bored too fast? Any mod’s out there I should try? I’m especially looking for mod’s that improve the overall look of the game (appearance, looks, weapons, etc. you know, mod’s that smooth up the graphics a bit.) I remember having some ‘faces’ mod installed the second time I played. Well, that’s the thing I’m looking for.
The most important thing, though, is that I don’t get bored too fast. So smack your suggestions around, and I’ll see if I can catch a few good ones. ;)

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:51 pm
by dragon wench
Here are some cosmetic mods I use, The italicized notes come from the mod readmes. :)

Windows Glow 2.2
This plugin adds glow-maps to all window meshes in the game,
which means that every window will now glow in the appropriate
time, so if it's outside, it'll glow at night, and if it's inside,
it will glow at day. The mod is made so that it has no effect on
framerates, so it's very good for low-end machines.


BetterBooks V 1.0
The BetterBooks mod replaced all the old blurry book textures with
sharp and more colourful textures.
There is also an optional ESP which changes the Alchemist's book to a more
"realistic" look.


Smoother Bodies V1.0
1. This mod was made to used to fit your prefrence. It will add 4 .esp files, they are:
CDR_SmootherBodies_F_NewUwear.esp Turn on to smoothen females and replaces old underwear with new underwear.
CDR_SmootherBodies_F_Nude.esp Turn on to smoothen females and remove the old underwear.
CDR_SmootherBodies_M_NewUwear.esp Turn on to smoothen males and replace old underwear with Boxers.
CDR_SmootherBodies_M_OldUwear.esp Turn on to smoothen males, does not change underwear.
WHAT THIS PLUGIN DOES:

Changes the default skin of the player and NPCs to that of a smoother shape, the body is now continueous and does not have breaks where one body part
stops and another begins.

(note: Many people prefer "Better Bodies" because it makes both the NPC and PC bodies even smoother and more seemless and there are more clothing mods supporting it. I prefer SB though because it is easier on the FPS and I generally play stealth-based elves... BB tends to make figures more voluptuous)

K_Potion_Upgrade_v1.3
This mod was made for two reasons:
1- I wanted to play with reflective maps, particles and transparencies in Morrowind.
2- To simplify choosing potions when playing the game, too many times I have searched
through 20 different quality potions (you know - that blue bottle) looking for a restore
health potion only to find that I don't have one left, ect...

So with these two reasons in mind I created five new bottle meshes (I rarely carry a potion
below exclusive or quality), each in six color variations. These colors match the schools of magic
colors in the MW handbook. Now if you want an exclusive restore potion you look for a gold bottle with
blue glass. Quality Potion of Shadow, look for a silver bottle with green glass.

They also have bubbles [Rejoice]. The bubbles are testy, sometimes they are there sometimes they aren't.


Rhedd's Heads
I think you know this one ;)

"NelothsMouth's" Soul Gem Replacer Retextured V.1.00
by: "Infectious Moon"

This is a Retexture for NelothsMouth's Soul Gem replacer, which makes
them closer to Bethesda's original colors.
Much, much nicer than what we ended up with! Now I use them for decoration :D

Reflective Gold v. 1.0
This plugin makaes the gold simulate reflecting light by utilizing
reflection maps. Also changes the color to gold, unlike the
grey\green it was before, and adds a new icon.



I would also suggest checking out the clothing and armor mods, though note that there are more of these for female than male characters.

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:54 pm
by The Great Hairy
Oooooh... I think I'll have to try some of those mods myself! They available from the Summit, Dragon Wench?

Cheers,
TGHO

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:59 pm
by dragon wench
[QUOTE=The Great Hairy]Oooooh... I think I'll have to try some of those mods myself! They available from the Summit, Dragon Wench?

Cheers,
TGHO[/QUOTE]

To be honest, I can't recall where I got them all from. In addition to The Summit I also download from TES and Thelys, and a few other places I can't recall right now. If you can't find the mods you want on those sites feel free to PM me and I should be able to help you get your mitts on them :)

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:27 pm
by werebeargoddess
Yeah, I might pm you about them as well for their location. I've started Morrowind again myself, and I'm debating wether or not I should use mods.

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:19 am
by dragon wench
[QUOTE=werebeargoddess]Yeah, I might pm you about them as well for their location. I've started Morrowind again myself, and I'm debating wether or not I should use mods.[/QUOTE]

It's not so much that I can better provide the location via PM, but I can email them to people if they can't find them. Given that not everybody has a high storage email, though, this does not always work, so I suggest also seeing if you can track them down with Google ;)

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:44 am
by The Great Hairy
I think I found the Ultimate Mod List (tm). Go here:

http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm

All of the mods Dragon Wench listed are there, with direct links. I'm downloading several right now. :D

Cheers,
TGHO

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:57 am
by Sytze
Thanks DW, I'll try some of them out. While you're at it, do you have any suggestions for clothing or weapons mod's?


However, the six replies only answered one of my questions...
Which brings me to more important questions. Any advice on this department?
[QUOTE=Sytze]each time I quit playing after a while, because I got bored. Either I lost track of what I had to (a lot of side quests tend to distract my attention, since I want to finish them all. Don’t ask me why…), got lost in the huge world, or simply got tired of walking around. Further more, I tended to get my ass delivered on the plate in the beginning. Ohh, that, and it seems I understand zero of the magic and alchemy portion of the game. Doesn’t Morrowind have a readme, or guide for that matter?[/QUOTE]

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:27 am
by dragon wench
Regarding Clothing Mods, bear in mind, these are principally for female characters:

*The Metal Queen Boutique
*Exotics Boutique
*The Domina Armor Meshes
*Qarl's Gothic Attire
*Ice and Brady's Robe replacer
*Ultimate Clothing Mod - Skirts
*Pirate Outfit 1.0 by Joel Braddock
*Jambiya of Allah Dagger
*karstux Scimitars 1.0
*karstux real katana 1.2
*Any of the Knights of Tamriel Armor by Jeremy

*For some nice bows, and arrows, as well as archer's gear: Suran Archery Tradehouse

*I would paste you the contents of my MW readme, but I can only find the readme for Bloodmoon. However, if you check the resource sticky at the top of this forum, you should find a lot of links that will help. I especially recommend: Game Faqs, which you can find here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin ... 13818.html

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:44 am
by Sytze
Ones again; thanks.

[QUOTE=dragon wench]
*For some nice bows, and arrows, as well as archer's gear: Suran Archery Tradehouse[/QUOTE]
I tried to download this mod, but the download link itself seems down. Can I pm you so you can send it to my email?

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:06 am
by HiRo11er
Regarding your non-mod questions, I also think the game can be a bit overwhelming if I try to do it all at once.
Knowing your own limitations is a must. there's nothing more disenchanting than not knowing where to start because there are so many things to do. Also, if you think about what your character would do in a given situation it'll be easier. F ex, once you become grandmaster of the mage's guild, you're not gonna spend time delivering potions for a mage's initiate. Furthermore, a Nord Warrior might not give a damn about some priest trying to complete his/her pilgrimage.
Also, find yourself a home, & use it to store all your adventure gear, potions, treasures and such. Your backpack isn't big enough, & you probably want to travel as light as possible. I usually just break into a nice house in either balmora or vivec, but that's just me. Once you get a stronghold, that will be your obvious home.
Also, I try to stick to one type of quest at a time. F ex, I'll do all of Fire-Eye's quests first, then a bunch of Caius', and so on. Makes for a bit more organizing...
Anyway, I'm spent. Enjoy!

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:13 am
by fable
[QUOTE=The Great Hairy]I think I found the Ultimate Mod List (tm). Go here:

http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm

All of the mods Dragon Wench listed are there, with direct links. I'm downloading several right now. :D
[/QUOTE]

Yes, Telesphoros' list is the best maintained, and the most accurate. Most mods are available through central locations (like TES, TheLys, and Morrowind Summit) but there are some whose authors prefer to keep 'em on their own personal sites, alone. Telesphoros often lists these.

A few of my own favorite mods:

Super Adventurers 3.02. Adds plenty of tweaks to the game, generally making it somewhat harder (but in a few cases, easier). It's meant to rebalance things more sensibly.

Dracandos' Voice. When you get to the top of a guild or faction, this mod gives you some neat new abilities. For example, you can send any member of House Telvanni on a mission as Archmagister, while you can practice combat with any Imperial Legion soldier or guard as Knight of the Imperial Dragon.

Fair Magicka Regeneration. Four scripts; you choose one to set the speed at which magicka regens. Note, it affects your opponents as well as you. :D The nice thing is that you don't have to guzzle endless potions or sleep to regain magicka.

Sri's Alchemy. Adds new alchemical substances, and removes Fortify Intelligence (which is really cheesy) from the game.

Haldenshore. So many mods are located in or near Seyda Neen that crashes and conflicts are common. My preferred mod for that area is this new town to the south, which adds a thieves guild that you help establish. There are 16 thieves' quests, and a nice idea: you get a cut of the guild profits. So the more quests you accomplish, the more you benefit the guild, and the more money you acquire on a regular basis. Also includes a loanshark, betting on fist fights, and an underground bar.

Potted Plants 2.0. Many plants to choose from. You get a customized pot, and the plant produces an herbal ingredient in 11 days, and every 30 days, after that. Available for purchase from Ancola's stall in Sadrith Mora.

Real Furniture. Creates a merchant in Vivec that sells 400+ pieces of furniture and housing decoration, with many different styles. Objects can be turned, lowered or raised once put in place thanks to a special (very cheap) ring you get at the store. Once the object is set as you'd like it, take off the ring.

Disturb the Dead. Adds decent loot to tombs, but at a cost: the dead are aware of your pillaging. You'll be attacked frequently, and cursed, lowering your attributes until you purchase special potions at a temple.

Pack Animal Merchant. By Baratheon79, one of the best coders for this kind of thing. It adds a merchant on the outskirts of Pelagiad who will sell you pack rats and guars.

Lights 300, v. 4.1. By Byblos. Gives every candle light the same color as the candle wax; so red candles produce a red light, etc. You might need to tweak your ini settings to take advantage of this one, but it really creates some nice effects.

Modtown 2004. Take a bunch of modders of known quality. Put 'em altogether, and let 'em create a small town with personal residences simply designed to show off their skills. The results are extremely inventive in a just-for-fun mod, where you wander about trying to find every secret little detail that they've each added.

Psorticon. Gives each type of scroll and potion you acquire it's own color and symbol, making it far easier to identify at a glance.

The Imperial Legion Badge. Tired of having to put on all that armor you receive as a reward every time you go to an Imperial Legion officer for a new quest? This badge gives you instant recognition without all the useless metal.

Morrowind Advanced. Makes the game more challenging: a few new dungeons, with new weapons, armor, alchemical ingredients, and more difficult creatures. Feel like taking on a Rogue Ash Ghoul, a Red Warrior Dragon, or an Elite Dremora General? It's all done with leveled lists, so you won't get stomped on by a Winged Twilight Hunter while level 3.

Havish. By the same modder as Haldenshore. This is a major city, on a landmass west of Vvardenfell. Once again, a new thieves guild with 20 quests, but also 8 quests for a fighters' guild, and 8 for a mages' guild. Has a banking system, and gambling--you can play blackjack, and bet on rat fights.

Dwemer Bio-Monitor. This is an ease-of-use mod. You put it in your inventory, and it monitors your health. At defaullt settings, if it finds you below 30% of health, it will automatically administer any health potion you carry. This also applies to fatigue. You can change those settings.

Morrowind Wallpapers and Loading Screens. 66 splash screens (the kind that show while Morrowind's loading) that make the stuff that came with the original program look like the efforts of a 5-year-old. Beautiful images by day and night of many areas, shrines, and cities--with more on the way. Nice font, too. You'll need an image program like IrfanView (free, by the way) to resave the each of the files as 1024 x 1024 and in targa format, but I did that in less than 15 minutes.

Magistrate's Mage Guild Rewards 2.0. There are already a few mods that provide reward incentives to reaching the top of a guild or house--Dracandros' Voice being probably the best--but this one is more detailed. It adds a teleport room that lets you move quickly to any of the Mage Guilds for free, and a second-in-command who buys and sells magical supplies, enchants, offers a few spells, and even repairs items.

Abu's Retreat. My favorite house mod: lots of plants, lights, books and wall hangings really make this one seem lived in, rather than simply a warehouse. Has a nice alchemy lab (all ingredient jars, including Sri's), a very attractive kitchen area, a decent display room, and a small but great greenhouse that simulates the effect of daylight or night through the glass roof.

Enchanted Icon Selection. One of those tiny ease-of-use mods I love. This one gets rid of the horrible enchantment icons that cover whatever you're looking at, and replace 'em with a selection of very easy to see symbols that only affect a small portion of the icon surface.

Journal Enhanced. Move a quill across yourself in the inventory screen, and it brings up a box that lets you add journal entries. You can't affect anything written in the journal by the game, but it's a nice add-on.

Writing Enhanced. Buy a special book or scroll, move it across yourself in the inventory screen, and you can actually create a new book/scroll in the game, complete with title. You can go back at anytime and pick up where you left off, and re-write the entire thing, and you can export copy to a textfile.

Dodge. If you're playing a pure mage, get this. It adds a dodge bonus based on your unarmored skill, effectively making unarmored a reasonable choice instead of a deathwish.

Sorefoot Enterprizes. The Silt Strider business is expanding, with new locations, buildings, NPCs, and quests. Good writing, some truly creative questing, as well.

Herbalism Lite. Another ease-of-use mod. Instead of having to open every plant you come accross and extract its contents, this mod makes the process automatic. Click on the plant, and its contents are moved to your inventory. If nothing's in the plant, you'll be told so.

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:42 am
by dragon wench
[QUOTE=Sytze]Ones again; thanks.


I tried to download this mod, but the download link itself seems down. Can I pm you so you can send it to my email?[/QUOTE]

Sure! :)
The mod is nearly six mgs. So let me know if you think your email can't handle it, as I have a few gmail accounts to give away.

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:05 am
by moltovir
If you're bored with the game, try The Complete Morrowind (full). It's a truly brilliant mod that adds things like cooking, sewing, carpentry, smithing, mining, woodcutting... I started a new character three weeks ago and he's still level 2, but I've created enough pots, bookshelves, weapons, knifes and armors to start my own Walmart :D

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:45 am
by jopperm2
I don't have MW for my PC, but I really like the sound of that last one Moltovir. I always thought it would be nice to have one that made skill increase the efficiency of ingredient collection. Like if your Luck, INtelligence, and Alchemy are at 100 you get say five or six pieces of an ingredient instead of one or two.

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:52 pm
by The Great Hairy
That Complete mod sounds über cool! Man, I am so getting that one. :)

Cheers,
TGHO