Mended Morrowind: A purist Morrowind guide

[TrueNeutralPaladin]

No love for Linora's Leveling Mod?

Spoiler

From the description:

A simple solution to Morrowind's biggest problem, and it's done using no scripts whatsoever.

Alters 11 GMSTs to make Morrowind less of a stat-crunch when leveling your character.

I changed 9 GMSTs, so that if you gain 1 skill point or more in a skill governed by an attribute you always get a set bonus, which is a number dependent which esp you use, when adding points to said attribute when leveling. This essentially removes the need to skill-watch, though you will need to get at least 1 point in a skill associated with an attribute you wish to have a bonus on when you level.

The amount you gain when leveling depends on which plugin you use:

Hard - x3

Medium - x4

Easy - x5

If you do get all 10 of your skill points in the same attribute associated skills you will get x5 on that skill in even the Hard and Medium versions.

To balance this I altered 2 more GMSTs, so Miscellaneous and non-Minor/Major specialization skills are not as easy to level up. Meaning one can't so easily just level up a MISC skill and get the bonus from just doing that.

GHF: http://download.fliggerty.com/download--289
MMH: http://mw.modhistory.com/download-53-12299

It's much less hassle to plan your levels when using LLM: If you want to increase an attribute, buy a training session in a skill governed by that attribute *before* you dive into that next dungeon so that you'll get the desired bonus if you level up before returning to town.

I prefer the 'hard' version (+3 bonus) - you'll still hit those caps and become a living god but at a more balanced pace.

 

[Sigourn]

No love for Linora's Leveling Mod?
GHF: http://download.fliggerty.com/download--289
MMH: http://mw.modhistory.com/download-53-12299

It's much less hassle to plan your levels when using LLM: If you want to increase an attribute, buy a training session in a skill governed by that attribute *before* you dive into that next dungeon so that you'll get the desired bonus if you level up before returning to town.

I prefer the 'hard' version (+3 bonus) - you'll still hit those caps and become a living god but at a more balanced pace.

I would love to make a mod that tackled this issue. It's just that I personally believe people make a big issue out of something that really isn't an issue for anyone but OCDs. You get strong in Morrowind fairly quickly so there's no need to farm those precious x5 Attribute multipliers. Mods around only make it so that it is easier to get higher multipliers, but the core issue is still there: OCDs will always min-max, so it doesn't really matter. In that regard, I think something like "No Misc Skill Growth" is much more interesting because it locks you into naturally using the skils your character is good at.

Anyhow, I've drastically cut down on the mods the list has. The reason is that many of them were extremely personal preferences, and others were extremely tiny mods which, ultimately, take more time to install than the time you will enjoy them (one is genuinely one off-handed comment by Soccucius Ergalla, another is one letter properly addressing you as a "her" if you happen to be playing a woman, for instance). I've also modified the categories for them to be more clear. For instance, there's only two Aesthetic categories:

• Replacers: simple graphical replacers.
• Additions: graphic mods that add something that wasn't there in the vanilla game.

Most importantly, "Fixes" are genuine fixes. I've also encouraged the Patch for Purists creator to look into adding many individual fixes to their unofficial patch, since it would ease the annoyance of having to download multiple, meaningless fixes.

EDIT:

Mended Morrowind has been updated. A handful of mods were removed, and two were updated to better, simpler versions. Feel free to update your setup, no bugs will arise from this.
Mod list has been updated. More mods have been added but to a separate section; others were added further below (require testing).

 

[Young_Hollow]

Glad for the bump, I just got it through the Epic store and was wondering how to best experience the game that came before the Codex's most hated game.

 

[Sigourn]

Glad for the bump, I just got it through the Epic store and was wondering how to best experience the game that came before the Codex's most hated game.

You're welcome. I made many edits to the guide today:

• 4 mods were removed.
• 1 was replaced by a newer version.
• 2 were repackaged and uploaded to MediaFire, so messing with their contents is no longer necessary.

 

[Don Peste]

Morrowind

I just got it through the Epic store

 

[agris]

thanks for the work put into this Sigourn!

 

[Sigourn]

thanks for the work put into this Sigourn!

You are welcome! All I want to do now is make that mod list into a document. Not as comprehensive when it comes to installation (aside from crucial things to keep in mind), because I don't want to raise idiot modders, but I want to add a brief description on what each mod does so that people know why it is there. And I think that's pretty much it, I combed the Nexus for mods released these past four months when I was absent from the Morrowind scene, and I found at least one pretty cool mod that anyone can make use of (basically it lets you tweak, IN-GAME, game settings which can have some pretty drastic effects in gameplay, like reducing carry weight for instance).

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

why can't people just enjoy the game as-is? why do Control Freaks need +5 on every level? why?

 

[Sigourn]

why can't people just enjoy the game as-is? why do Control Freaks need +5 on every level? why?

I actively hunt for mods to stop me from naturally breaking the game and people can't resist the urge to break it themselves on purpose.

 

[Funposter]

why can't people just enjoy the game as-is? why do Control Freaks need +5 on every level? why?

I actively hunt for mods to stop me from naturally breaking the game and people can't resist the urge to break it themselves on purpose.

Morrowind's "balance" is so non-existent that you end up breaking it entirely by accident. Game breaking gear is laid out in front of the player with shocking regularity. This is part of the charm, but when you've already played it for a few hundred hours (or more) you're left with the options of either fixing this problem with mods or, God forbid, playing a brand new video game.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I can understand mods to help balance it more and make it more difficult, but I'm talking about those seeking +5 on every level and stuff like that. Hell, next time I play Morrowind I will follow this guide and try to make the game break less sooner than usual.

 

[Sigourn]

Morrowind's "balance" is so non-existent that you end up breaking it entirely by accident. Game breaking gear is laid out in front of the player with shocking regularity. This is part of the charm, but when you've already played it for a few hundred hours (or more) you're left with the options of either fixing this problem with mods or, God forbid, playing a brand new video game.

The problem with Morrowind's lack of balance has to do with the scope of the game. Morrowind is a HUGE game, but when you can break the balance without having even visited 70% of the game's locations, I personally lose the will to continue playing. This is why prefer mods that nerf most exploits, since I can stay relatively "weak" to make exploring the remaining locations far more fun.

Anyhow, Mended Morrowind has been updated. I apologize to the fellow Codexers who must have suffered from me moving stuff left and right, but now the guide is pretty much done unless someone finds magic fixes I haven't found so far.

• Added Harvestable Skaal Holly.
• Added Telvanni Quest Custom Spells Fix.
• Removed Morrowind Uncompressed Vanilla Textures. This is not a fix but an aesthetic mod, even if it uses textures already found in the game. But for a guide that aims to make the game play nicer and bugfree, a mod that increases loading times goes against the point of the guide.
  
• Adjusted mod installation order and mod load order.
• Added a separate section for the Dark Brotherhood attack mods, since the issue is already tackled by Patch for Purists but people may want another option.
• Properly credited mod authors.
• Adjusted document formatting to match the upcoming Morrowind Mods Compilation guide.
  

 

[Sigourn]

I can now safely post THIS document I've been working on for the past days. Basically the "follow up" guide to Mended Morrowind. It is not as much of a guide as it is a showcase of really cool mods. Bear in mind this list barely touches on gameplay mods aside from essential quality of life improvements and other mods that alter gameplay for lore/consistency/cut content reasons. Worth mentioning is that despite the amount of mods featured in that list, the compatibility is surprisingly extremely very high!

I have a total of 59 gameplay/balance mods to add to that document. But I wanted to post the document now, just before I go to bed. Because of that, I will be removing (from that list I posted much early) all mods already contained in this document. I hope you understand!

 

[Young_Hollow]

Oh yeah I got Morrowind through the Bethesda launcher not the fucking other one; please consider forgiving me for not remembering which of fucking 7 launchers I got a game on.

 

[Sigourn]

Mended Morrowind has been updated.
I'm not sure what was the latest release, but this is the breakdown:

• Installation instructions updated for all mods.
• Removed the upload date on files. Originally this was meant to help the user know if the guide was out of date, but this is pointless because no one is going to bother asking me to update it. Moreover, these are simple enough files to install that no one should have any trouble installing them on their own.
• Removed recommendation as to which patches you should install at the very least to enjoy a stable and bug-free experience. It’s an absurdly short list by bug-fixing standards and the reader has already a good idea that something that modifies just one creature, one item or three random bushes probably isn’t worth their time.
  
• Removed Official Plugins Fixes. It has been replaced with Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched.
• Removed Steel Dagger Fix by Melchior Dahrk. It is already included in Morrowind Optimization Patch.
• Removed Telvanni Quest Custom Spells Fix by nerevar009. Upon consulting the in-game dialogue, the player is already told that spells you “researched yourself” won’t count. Therefore this is not a fix, but a gameplay tweak.
• Added notes regarding possible future merge of Harvestable Skaal Holly and Ring of Equity Fix into Patch for Purists, as well as information regarding the (quite possible) .esm merge, reducing this guide’s load order from its existing “obligatory” plugins from 10 to just 2. Fingers crossed for the day that happens.