Let's say I want to play Morrowind...

[TrustNo1]

I have had my moments of Morrowind modding obsession (browsing and installing, not making), and must admit that 99% of everything out there is shit, especially if you want to be a purist.

There's allways some game breaking (like MW needed help with that), lore breaking, nonsensical thing about these mods. The plethora of housing mods for example. Just put a enormous luxurious manison in the hills overlooking Balmora, dominating the scene, and let it be empty, ready to be squatted by the player.

Also fairly typical is the teleport rings and whatnot. I found a small collection of mods to make the game harder (and probably more frustrating). Mods that make the merchants stingier, guild requirements harder, silt striders and boats more expensive, and guild services more than not only avialiable to non members. Hard to be master of all the guilds when they expect some standards from their higher ranks.

All the graphical mods can surely make the graphic "better", but that is all graphic whoredom. And that includes the Better bodies/faces line. All these super model people walking around pfft. But a lighnting mod is not too bad, I think i used the 300 thing mentioned earlier. Darker dungeons and nights makes for a more interesting game.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You do know that's just the screen before an encounter starts right? You don't have to imagine the whole fight with PoR.

I just wanted a "enemy is looking at you, and no one moves" scrren, and and that image looked enough like it and was already open.
Proper images

 

[piydek]

I have had my moments of Morrowind modding obsession (browsing and installing, not making), and must admit that 99% of everything out there is shit, especially if you want to be a purist.

All the graphical mods can surely make the graphic "better", but that is all graphic whoredom. And that includes the Better bodies/faces line. All these super model people walking around pfft. But a lighnting mod is not too bad, I think i used the 300 thing mentioned earlier. Darker dungeons and nights makes for a more interesting game.

I agree that there's very few good gameplay mods that don't somehow screw up. There's so many gameplay mods that rebalance stuff in horrible ways or add nonsense and show that their makers have no fucking clue what they're doing. There's just very few really important and big gameplay mods and many smaller but brilliant ones in this area that improve game in small things that are somehow significant when you play.

But - most of my mods indeed are of graphical, lighting, atmospherical nature. Basically i don't like sandbox games, i don't like Beth's games, i don't like the way they approach RPGs even when they're making solid stuff, like pre-Oblivion stuff. I like more story-driven RPGs and i like RPGs really reacting to my playing. In Beth's games that just isn't happening or is happening in very small and insignificant doses.

What i do get out of Morrowind for example is not pure graphics whoring (i'd be playing newer games then wouldn't i?). I get what i think is a truly superb atmosphere in this game with careful mod choices - all the mods, not only those of graphical nature can contribute to this. All the purist stuff you can find (like not having automated journal entries but writing your own, herbalism for purists etc., there's lots of stuff like that) and stuff that makes little tweaks to game's difficulty (making it more dangerous and difficult), stuff that makes it more strange, dark, alien, whatever - if carefully combined, one can make a really lovely game-experience.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

A good one makes player made potions sell for 0 gold. If anything, it helps those who can't resist the temptation of just grinding potions and get rich early.

 

[Lothers]

Damn You! Now I must play it again definitively! Back in the day I've been using like 150 mods, almost no conflicts, I wonder if I could acomplish that again

 

[piydek]

A good one makes player made potions sell for 0 gold. If anything, it helps those who can't resist the temptation of just grinding potions and get rich early.

Yes, i was having stuff like that in mind. Personally i don't need it because i can restrain myself from such playing methods, but i was thinking along those lines of playing rules, self-imposed or forced upon you.

Regarding all those inapropriate housing mods that were mentioned before - it's the same old thing - people making chainmail panties, manor houses with waterfalls inside them and personal leather-fetish slaves.

But i do ask myself - am i not misusing the game as well, just in a more "clean" way? I do try to stay within the logic of the game and i do like it all to be consistent, but i'm twisting the experience heavily towards something that this game's creators didn't have in mind as well. So, basically - same things, different taste.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

But i do ask myself - am i not misusing the game as well, just in a more "clean" way? I do try to stay within the logic of the game and i do like it all to be consistent, but i'm twisting the experience heavily towards something that this game's creators didn't have in mind as well. So, basically - same things, different taste.

You play games to have fun, so not using mods you think are going to make it a better experience is masochism (unless you're already planning on playing it lots of times, or the mod really changes the game, like a total conversion. Then it would be better not to use things other than bugfixers and balance fixes).

Dunno if it was mentioned already but this one has companions, if you like them. They're sorta like mercenaries, i.e. non unique, so it doesn't make the game much different.

Thisand this make that guy from the beginning available too.

This one doesn't alter the game in any way and gives you a pleasant sidequest of sorts, finding books.

 

[piydek]

Thanks for the links. I use only the books mod. The funny thing is - i prefer Morrowind to stay empty, so i don't use not only companion mods, i don't like "morrowind comes alive", stuff that adds more NPCs, i just want it to be a barren, miserable, gloomy, isolated threatening land.

Oh and i haven't mentioned this before, but i find "children of morrowind" mod completely fucking dreadful. The worst thing i have installed for MW. It's well done technically, but it screws up the feel of game so much it deserves some kind of screw-up reward.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Eh, I dunno. It makes sense to have children around, doesn't it? Plus I think you can kill them, but I read they don't respawn. Haven't used it since it would conflict with some other stuff I have.

You probably know it already, but this list is neatly organized and has some good stuff, including economy balancers and combat mods.

 

[piydek]

I need a bit more of help with mods. I'll be starting a new game of Morrowind and i'm looking for mods that will improve game's difficulty, suspension and have a lasting effect even when i level up in higher levels (actually just grow in stats since i'll use Galsiah's).

Now, the idea of something like "unleveled creatures" sounds cool (the possibility of anything spawning no matter which level you are) - something like that to keep me on toes while exploring.

Now, i don't know how something like that works together with mods like "creatures x" or morrowind advanced.

Which mods of that kind do and would you use? Something to make game more difficult, to make it a constant challenge and unpredictable.

I also potentially seek for any good balancing mods that would work in synergy with mods of the above type and that won't fuck up the game. Also, making good weapons harder to come by is not a bad idea either.

Basically, anything to make the game more hardcore and a lasting challenge, but not in an unbalanced or game-breaking way.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Now, the idea of something like "unleveled creatures" sounds cool (the possibility of anything spawning no matter which level you are) - something like that to keep me on toes while exploring.
.

Morrowind's already kind of like that. If you go into a Dwarven or Daedric Ruin at low levels, you'll find things that tear you apart with one hit.

 

[DraQ]

There was still some leveling, though, personally, I found itrather unintrusive, and, when it came to wildlife, making sense in context of slowly progressing blight.

Daedra, undead and constructs would be better unleveled, but you could still encounter high-level enemies in some places, and even lowly scamps were deadly at low levels (partially thanks to their immunity to normal weapons).

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I remember encountering an Ogrim when I was only level 3, and wandering the Grazelands. Ran away from it (the things are slow)...

...and then ran smack-dab into a Golden Saint. Whose reflect bounced my dinky fireball right back into my face.


There might be a bit of leveling in the very beginning area around Sedya Neen, but almost everywhere else you can run into stuff way out of your league very easily. It's why the townsfolk suggest riding Silt Striders until you're stronger.

 

[deuxhero]

If you want to play morrowind, there is nothing at all dishonest about using

player->setspeed 200

(or more for that matter)), it makes the game acctually playable without grabing the boots of blinding speed ASAP

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I played through Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon and never hacked my speed or found the boots of blinding speed. I hate myself.

 

[piydek]

Well, i'm obviously aware that you can meet a bit of a challenge in Morrowind and that it wasn't as lazy and terrible a construct in this department as Oblivion. Now, i don't have much experience with this game - i've started it a few times, but i always stopped playing fairly quickly, so i never progressed very far into the game. What i have heard is that the game becomes terribly unbalanced as you become more powerful. Also, it is fairly obvious that there is some level-adjusted spawning happening in the background.

So, basically i can see, but not clearly since i've never finished vanilla MW, the need for some kind of enemy spawn/level/balance mod. I've encountered three mods in this department - "creatures x", "morrowind advanced 1.82" and "unleveled creatures". Neither of these mods has a readme that would clearly describe what has been done with leveled lists, just some vague notions about changing and modifying them. That's why i'm asking here what's the motive behind those mods (i believed they're really needed because the game isn't balanced and/or challenge enough) and which one of that kind of mods more experienced MW players here at the codex are using. i don't want to start another game just to realise halfway into it that the balance and difficulty in the game is somehow screwed up.

 

[The Wizard]

you would need to install a mod that damages you for standing around to make the above level 30 game balanced, so don't even bother. generally, you don't play morrowind, just like you don't play planescape. you READ morrowind, you LOOK at morrowind, but never actually really play it. or you could larp, but that would be fucking gay.

 

[piydek]

you would need to install a mod that damages you for standing around to make the above level 30 game balanced, so don't even bother. generally, you don't play morrowind, just like you don't play planescape. you READ morrowind, you LOOK at morrowind, but never actually really play it. or you could larp, but that would be fucking gay.

That's exactly what i think about it as well. Really well said. And well, it's just shitty if it's necessarily the way you said above level 30 and can't be avoided. Makes me want to cripple my character via all kinds of restrictions (both in mods and playing style).

 

[ksjav]

I've encountered three mods in this department - "creatures x", "morrowind advanced 1.82" and "unleveled creatures".

Creatures mod adds lots of new creatures that are mostly lore correct (few exceptions, the author is working on version XI which will have a lore correct option). In terms of levelled lists I believe it stays true to original morrowind's progression which does not overwhelm you off the boat, but progresses fairly quickly so that you will encounter most creatures as soon as you gained a couple of levels under your belt.

"morrowind advanced" was made by one of bethesda's developers(later updated by community members) to address the fault with game's balance, which was the game getting increasingly easier as you gained levels (basically when you gain levels the chances to spawn higher level enemies increases, but at a certain point they stop posing a challenge as well, and from that point the game becomes "ez!") so this mod mostly adds more high level enemies to leveled lists and some difficult quests or someshit.

"unleveled creatures" simply makes it that you can run into high level daedra by wandering around the wilderness right off the boat (which you already can do in vanilla as a lot of creatures were placed by hand and levelled lists only make sure that the world does not become empty as the game progresses, and it only makes sense as with plants which regrow after some months, creatures also reinhabit their former lairs after months have passed) and levelled lists also gave the impression of slowly progressing blight which was already mentioned above. The game was designed with "MAKE SENSE" in mind unlike certain oblishit.

 

[RK47]

Well,l if you were going into the game blind the first time there's quite a bit to do in Morrowind. The sense of 'wtf is this place' and weird setting is interesting to explore. I even made an unarmed combat character for a while and only then I realize how imbalanced the game is when I leveled so fast after clearing a dungeon with my fists since fights last so long without weapons.

 

[DraQ]

If you want to play morrowind, there is nothing at all dishonest about using

player->setspeed 200

(or more for that matter)), it makes the game acctually playable without grabing the boots of blinding speed ASAP

If you feel slow, you should take a tall race with good speed and athletics bonus (Dunmer if you want to use BoBs in unmoded game, Argonian if you don't) and Steed sign. There, you should be pretty fast right off the boat without cheating.

As for the BoBs, they aren't even that useful if you're into alteration magic or enchants, especially given that you have to counter the blindness somehow (resist magic, typically).

Just make yourself a spell, or trinket enchanted with 1pt levitation for 1s on self, and 2s jump 100pt, optionally with fortify acrobatics, strength and feather (all for 2s). It works like Icarian Flight scroll, but with more control and less splatter (just re-cast if you need to stop).
There.
No need for some stinky boots.

 

[Double Ogre]

As for the BoBs, they aren't even that useful if you're into alteration magic or enchants, especially given that you have to counter the blindness somehow (resist magic, typically).

Resist magicka 100% for 1 sec.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

As for the BoBs, they aren't even that useful if you're into alteration magic or enchants, especially given that you have to counter the blindness somehow (resist magic, typically).

Resist magicka 100% for 1 sec.

This. Use, the spell, slap on the boots, cast a levitation spell, and become Superman for awhile. Soaring over the island at super speed.


Use it to freak some Cliff-Racers the fuck out.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Speaking of the devil, there's a mod that makes them go extinct after you kill 200 of them (iirc, the number could be modified).

And there another mod that makes them even more annoying / harder (I think its name was "annoying clifracers", even), that makes them cast spells and shit.

 

[DraQ]

As for the BoBs, they aren't even that useful if you're into alteration magic or enchants, especially given that you have to counter the blindness somehow (resist magic, typically).

Resist magicka 100% for 1 sec.

Unless you are of Apprentice sign.

Still more of a nuisance than casting a spell, then crossing all the distance in one giant leap. Especially given that you can null your momentum at any time simply by re-casting the spell - for example stop mid-air just above your destination, then re-cast again just before you're about to crater to gently touch down.