Dear Community

09z09 :
Recently put a new version online, this thread is now at page 55 with 20 threads / page, why do i even bother ? Maybe just because i care. I hope some day people will find the mod. By then i may be anywhere, but i'll keep the site up and running, don't worry.
: 09z09

096 :
Some 4 years ago i was mainly fighting boredom with my HLH's in MW (High Level Heroes, Morrowind). When i accidentally killed Merchant Mudcrab, something snapped, i got angry and started Modding.

The result can be seen on http://www.azuras-touch.com . You'll find (quite) some screenshots and (quite) some background information there , and of course the current version ready for download .

I hope (some of) you like it.

Bye, Rolf

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FAQ

Q : What does it do ?
A : It changes the Wilderness
Q : Why ?
A : Because i found it became very boring after a couple of years and heroes.
Q : What are these changes ?
A : Challenge and Reward
Q : Challenge ?
A : I removed any cap on Hostility
Q : Reward ?
A : Friends and Goodies

But it's not that way all the way and no way always.

Don't know why i said that . . .

I started working on this little baby in may 2005. Dealing with CS was great, so i kept thinking up more and more. Nice creatures for my little nieces for example. So they could relatively safely play the first couple of Levels, and it made so much sense in everything else that was going on that i kept Friends in, gave them things to do, made them very very useful for the overburdened or eager to learn or travel adventurer.

Trust me, even level 1 can be very deadly occasionally : there are bosses now at all levels up to 60+ and they don't usually need much of a chance against you. And trust me, i have quite some tricks up my sleeve to make life hard and great and comfortable as your Hero Travels their Levels. Once you start doing things like colouring your playground with the lights you found, you'll see what i mean.

To make introducing new members of a family all over the map(s) as comfortable as possible, i introduced the family-concept, redoing most original population-lists (ex_Graveland-2 etc) with my families in stead of the individual creatures that used to be there. Any creature i think up, appears immediately anywhere it's family and side ( hostile / friendly ) is included - at the appropriate level.

So the Mod is everywhere, all the time.

On the Site are some 3000 + Pictures from the Mod. On the Homepage the first bar of pix is from this year, the lower bar are 421 pix i made this week ( levels 1-2, 46, 57+ ) ... Guess i'm a bit of a maniac too. They can tell you much more than i can here in this brief introduction. And there are the Relase Notes as well - don't hesitate to Read This Friendly Manual . . . And there's the Mod and David's Patch (most part of this thread so far is about that, so i occasionally throw in some posts about the gameplay, such as Greatest Of All My Original Game Heroes - Antarctica - entering this World at Level 57 - very dangerous, very careful) .

I myself don't call it a mod anymore, to me it has become The Game. MW in all its Glory resides right next to it and i occasionally take a little bite there - in the Quests. As the Change is everywhere, any Traveling Together in the later stages of the Main Quest for instance, gains substantially in difficulty. Not only do you really have to fight now to survive, your companion, who usually fights like a lunatic and dies within seconds were they to join, needs to survive as well. This means stalling them far away from any trouble, wiping out large areas, checking in 3 Dimensions, etc . . . before you decide it's safe enough to position your pawn a bit closer to its destination.

Once i start about this little mod of mine, i just can't stop. Is it only the proud mom in me that makes this mod so much fun, or does anybody else actually like it as well ? That was one of my main drives to bring Azura's Touch to the World. As a present, that took four years to grow into what it is today. In my humble opinion a very playable and rewarding gaming experience. This little baby certainly approaches my ideal gameplay. It is very tough, explosions around you and tens of hostiles at times, throwing averything they have at you, and you survive. YES !

When the last of a horde finally dies it can have been fierce battle for minutes on end. I sometime hear three songs during such battles, but i like to direct any thinning horde to the next, so the fighting never stops, and as i have a lot of favorite Metal in Battle, i don't mind that one itchy bit.

I hope this addition to the opening of this thread may clarify why i like this ubermod so much. But as i said: could very well be because i made it myself. If you should try it and you actually like it, i wouldn't mind reading that, as you might very well imagine.

Unfortunately, Azura's Touch has been developed without any notion of this huge world of modders and gamers. This means it may clash with nearly anything, as it is nearly everywhere. I am sorry about that. But i haven't been bored in the four years since it was born, so maybe you wander around a bit in the mod alone. I promise you : you'll very soon notice the changes. At any Level. Best start a new hero and have the benefit of the new Birthsigns and a peaceful world make the most of these changes before Momentum starts building up.

Believe me : at 40 these Battles have very high pace, and around 60 they can be quite surreal. I myself haven't played anything like this ever. And i like it very much. Couldn't keep it to myself any longer. Had to share it or go crazy. The Choice was Mine. And now it's Yours.

I really hope you like it.

Bye once more - Rolf

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I just entered Level 32 Bubblegum into AT this weekend, and while i was playing i thought up some nice changes. These are available as stubs now from the newest ZIP, no longer a Patch, but now called : Additional Content . I like the DB Armour very much, and am grateful for the amendments in the Summoning Potions and the DB light (...) .

I don't know why i bother to put things online, but i have fun with them, so i do. Stubs 02, 03 and 04 are cool, babe ! I guess they'll be in V0.70 . Will Your '3D Redo Tiny Racer' be?

Many a thread on this forum appears to be about the realistic feel of knitting your own socks. No One seems to notice this Little Gem. Well, sorry for them. I play it. I have lotsafun.

Thoia Toing.

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I'm not going to bump this thread.

I've been improving the site today, and the last two weeks i've been on a holiday and tweaking a couple of new stubs, which may sooner or later show up there. I like the mod very much, and it's getting better all the time. Only thing is i don't have a clue how to change the plumage of the Racers. I never did any texturing so far, but could it be all that difficult ? If you have the right software, it probably isn't. I'll see what i can find out.

But right now i have many other priorities. Modding isn't the biggest of them.
: + 09905 )

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Cleaned my Home today. Cheered me up slightly. Had to be at the dentist this morning. One hour of suffering, have to come back soon for more torture. Volluntarily. By the Nine ! But it's for the benefit of the ivory knives, so i'll be there. Glp.

I think the recent changes to the Site and the esp's i added to the extra zip yesterday are good enough now to announce them in a new post on this awfully quiet thread. One of these days i will. Maybe. I'm still a bit curious whether anyone notices and posts here, now that i'm on page 20+. I guess not. Still, i'm going to show a bit more patience. I must say i find some of the discussions on some threads rather refreshing.

No modding for a while now. Have to get the http://www.azuras-touch.com/alk/alk.php working. I wonder how long that will take. So much to learn, so little time

Bye, Rolf
: + 09908 )

I took a look at the site, but I can't quite figure out what the mod does. Obviously it makes the game harder, but could you be a little more specific?

Yeah, the site's text is pretty much a mess

From what I figured it adds some cell with strong characters or what?

The top half of the page just gives random info and pics when you refresh it looks like. I clicked on Release Notes and found details about that mod.

But about the mod itself, it looks nice, some pretty unique and cool features but some I don't like, would you consider making it modular?

Well, i tried out this mod a little, and thinking about the purpose which this mod has been made for, it is great! If you are looking for fun and a lot of action (but not too much balancing), you will find them ,absolutely.

There are a lot of very good ideas, like the "swarms", summoners summoning more then one creatures, Final Bosses that return back to life!! And adversaries are really tough (i'm lv23 now). It seems that there are a lot of things to find out and new places to explore, all the islands around the mainland, mazes ( as it is said in the primitive site:-) and else.

Very interesting the Hero's Place (if i remenber the name well) near Seyda Neen, from where you can be teleported to a lot of vvanderfel places, and to a maze and dungeon ( though i haven't tried them yet).

I will play it more and see if this mod is a jewel as i feel it is. Anyway, good work Rolf!

Thank you Lyssia, Chaka ZG, Sir-Stabs-Alot (nice nick) and Xiran for your Replies. I've been away for a couple of days and feared there would be none. It's pretty rude to POST and then not be there to reply , but as soon as i came home i read you all and you made me very happy. Xiran's words will be echoing in my mind while i try to get some sleep before the new day breaks.

The balancing relies slightly on finding rare items, and the Hero i posted has already found some. It also relies on weaponry and ammo that can be looted from corpses or bought from Friends. At Level 23 there's plenty of plutonium around that provides some advantage in encounters with the more dangerous adversaries.

The whole idea behind the Mod is Challenge and Reward. In The Original Game there hardly was any challenge left at level 23, and my greatest hero of all times was Level 65, i still can't imagine how i got there without falling asleep. Probably because apart from the lack of Challenge, Morrowind offers a tremendous atmosphere and immense connection between Player and Hero.

Adding the Challenge - to me - completes the Game . The Game that got me to L65 in the first place, it's still there. I only added a bit of fun.

I am sorry that i wasn't more specific, Chaka ZG. The mod offers not one cell but one entire map with Adversaries that keep you on your toes. But it offers the same map filled with Friends that help keep you at your best. When i say 'you', i mean of course the two of you : Player and Hero.

And Sir Stabs-Alot , i'm sorry to say : it's a package deal. But if you could be more specific about the things you don't like , please do so , and i will see what may be done about that. It started off modularly, but after a couple of months these modmods intertwined, and i liked it better that way . I fear there's no way back from that. But ideas to improve the Mod are ever so welcome. It's only version 0.69 , part of the remaining 0.31 is 'What You Ask Is What You Get'

Xiran. You went in there at Level 23. It's very dangerous at Level 15, what you are doing now is very very brave. There's the fully grown First Maniac (Young Altmer) and some of the younger Second Maniac, and if i'm not mistaken some serious ranged magic from the Swarms - And the first Nightmares. But you have Friends . And perhaps i may point you to a place where there are some very nice items , unique in this world : A five-letter Tomb that has become famous for it's Purple Robe and Axe . They won't be easy to obtain, as this Level is my Tribute to Doom, but there's quite some quality in there

Even the act of getting to the Tomb itself is an act of bravery . And of course : it's very very dark beyond the original rooms . . .

I'll do my best to check up here at least once a day and try to answer any reply you and others may want to post. With a start like this, what else could i do ?

Bye for now, have fun.
Rolf

O, before i forget : a Mage that weaves Layers of long-lasting Magic to boost their effectiveness and recovery most certainly has an Edge in Battle .

Hi there.

The mod having version 0.69 might deter people from playing. Don't be alarmed : it may take months before may consider any upgrade, and i don't think there will be a new version out this year. Not with the current level of response anyway.

Yesterday I polished up the site considerably. It's still a bit raw, but it looks good enough now and does what it's supposed to do.
The Release Notes have been reconverted and now respond well to the Site's Css. Reduced RelNote's size from 6+ to 1- MB.

Xiran's Bravery has put him straight into the 'Hall of Fame' that's included in one of the random messages between the pix on the main page.

The result can be seen on http://www.azuras-touch.com

Bye for now, Rolf

this is a very good mod Rolf, I currently am playign ti and am impressed with it by far... keep up the good work and i cant wait for any future releases.

So... Still, what exactly does this thing do?
It seems interesting, but I'm not sure.
Does it add hostile creatures/NPCs to exterior locations. If so, what kind of numbers?
What interiors does it affect?
Are there any new weapons? Armors?
And who in Azura's name are these "Friends" you speak of?

This is basically a TC/Overhaul of the game system.

it shakes up a lot of features (or is supposed to) and adds a bunch of new things and places.

as far as new weapons, YES Armour...not sure yet...

As far as friends go, I'm not sure myself i've barely even seen a change to the NPC's already placed ingame...although i doubt this mod was meant to be run alongside 3 other overhaul mods...lol

Hi Bob

I'm very sorry i didn't react any sooner.

Thank you for your kind words , i hope you have found your friends by now. As i said, somewhere in some text about the mod, friends are (nearly) everywhere. Never mentioned NPC's in particular. Mentioned lights though. And Creatures. And Summons.

Guess you found out about that if you're still playing it. The mod's supposed to deliver challenging action all the way up to level 70 + . Never got any Hero that far though. 65 is my max so far.

The answer to many questions is in the Hero that comes along with the mod : RQ has quite some weaponry and armour and other items . . . And he's right there, fully adjusted to the Neverending Nightmare that goes on all over these gods-forsaken isles.

Have Fun, Rolf.

So, it's like a massive TC/conversion? Hmm. I'll go check it out.

Sorry for the bump, but no one seems to be interested in this amazing mod.

So far I'm liking it. Where is the Hell island? The very difficult island, I mean. I can't seem to locate it. I found the west wild, and the east wild, and the solstiem island, and the Mournhold island, but that's it.

Hi David

I'm glad you like it. I do too. That's why i put it online.

The Solstheim Isles were supposed to be the most Hellish of them all. My Gods, what kind of Hero are you?

The weather is usually lousy, the Hordes are nearly endless, some nearly invisible, summons are everywhere, and always there's this chance that you accidentally hit a Friend. To me that's quite Hellish. The presence of one single Friend amongst those endless hordes changes my strategy completely. I can no longer rely on mass destruction, divide et impera time again. Lure them towards me in small groups, and finish them off, jumping out of danger every once in a while to cast some longtime healing spells.

And you just walk around asking yourself 'where's this hell?' . . .

Okay, why not try the Hero's Pit, deep beneath your little house near Seyda Neen ) )

Have fun, mate. I'm really glad you like it.
Bye, Rolf

I've found the Hero's pit, but I went through it when I was much lower than level 30.

Maybe I should go again. The summons are annoying though, more so than anything.
One more Rat Pansy Warrior, and I'll scream.

What's the best area to go get more of the Plutonium Gear anyway? Just randomly beat up Maniacs?

Also, Any other dungeons to explore. I love them more than I love 4000 square mile wilderness areas.

As for the difficulty, a long lasting Reflect spell and high luck = fun.

Save for that Khajat Maniac who kept hitting me.

Hi David

Gear

Beating up maniacs is one way to get to good gear, set items and all. Many a Nightmare or Horror Creature carries good items as well. The Blue Friends (Travellers) usually carry some good items as well and they may want to trade them with you. And then there's Yikes of course, your reliable summon. He always carries some good potions and weaponry. Doesn't even have to be your own summon : as long as an enemy's skeleton isn't hostile yet, you can trade with them as well.

Dungeons

Beneath the Hero's Pit there's one more dungeon, but i guess you found that one as well. Hero's Junction offers access to the Lavacave and the Velothi Maze. Also there's some indoor exploring to do in Jonah's Cave, which has exits/entrances in Lavacave and Sadrith Mora. And then there's this dungeon that i made while i was waiting for Holamayan to finally open up. And there's the Ashlander Caves, but you have to be ashlander yourself in order to enter, so only for heroes who are considered worthy by Sul Matuul. Underneath the Incarnate Cavern, there's some really nasty surprise. And Redas offfers some more to explore than it used to. The little house near SN has some sewers of course, and i seem to remember i put some Crowded House somewhere around Kogoruhn.

And there's the Puzzle Canol. Not exactly new, but it holds friendly and hostile Creatures / NPCs ( the higher your level, the more hostile it gets), Killing and disposing of the hostiles makes them gradually more friendly (a kind of minigame i call Purification). Plenty of gear to find / sell / buy there

Bye for now, i'll be offline for a couple of days.
Have fun, Rolf

I don't think I found the hidden dungeon in the Hero's pit though.

I'll give all the advice a try. I hate most Nightmares though. I think they're a real pain.

As for set items? What do you mean?

As for the Hero's pit, it's like a dungeon inside another dungeon, already, so is there a hidden area inside there as well? I swear I've explored it all.


Whoa, okay, you need to nerf the amount of summoning summoners who summon things.
Seriously, knock it down by 90%. It's way too much.

My computer just locked up! Seriously, nothing should cause Morrowind to lock up the computer on my computer.

So, please, for my sake, nerf the amount of summoners by 90%. It's way too much.

I don't even know where to begin to change all their spells to something more useful, like God's fire/frost/shock.

I wish I was joking, but they really need a massive drop. THey spam summon everything, which causes Morrowind to go insane.

I can handle an ogrim boss, but once there's at least 10 monsters summoning, goodbye goes Morrowind.

You should have really tested better.

Sorry about locking up your computer. I'll edit this reply tomorrow, it's rather late and i have to wake up early tomorrow. But you've just met Sneaker's territory. Coming from the Playground where some of these Ogrim Bosses and other horrors dwell, you have to go through a red-lit portal in this already quite hostile environment. Red means danger. Danger means sneak. That's where these Set Items may come in handy. Some of them improve your sneaking. Once you can outsneak the summons and you enter these premises with due care, the more remote bosses won't notice you butchering their comrades as long as you stay in sneak mode. And there are four portals between the Pits and the Playground,You may flee to one portal end re-enter, sneaking, through another, picking individual bosses with your bow.

Yeah, it's very crowded in there, and i go through it a lot, but always quite carefully, i'll go there tomorrow and check whether generating the Gold Ed did introduce any artifacts in there. But i agree : it's very crowded in here. That's how it was intended. I wanted Challenge, and i got it. It was never meant to lock up computers, though. Maybe i should bring up a notice that asks you wether ypu are sure to enter here, and prohibits entrance when your sneaking does not match health-requirements ?

Sorry 'bout locking you up, hope you didn't lose anything but the game , , ,

Rolf, you may want to reconsider changing that room if it causes a computer to lock up...that is because the processor in MW cannot handle too many npc's in a cell at a given time. it's all because of FPS rate and when something like this room causes yuor computer to fall below 1 FPS (ive had it fall to 0.86...) then something needs to be changed. perhaps you can change the room from quantity to quality...remove the many NPC's and put in a few with some very high stats and i'm sure you could create the same challenge...make one or two summoners to fix the problem of quantity but please. PLEASE don't go for quantity over quality...


just food for thought

That's weird. I don't recall ever seeing a red portal. Just the way to the pit, which is in a trap door I believe.
I also now own a lot more Plutonium gear. Any plutonium bows?
I do enjoy this mod. By the way, sneak isn't needed when I recently enchanted an elegant robe from a maniac with 100% chameleon.

Now I have my robe of sneaking. At least now I could go through that area and not worry as much.

I managed to get into the ashlander caves. Not really too exciting, by the way.
I'll go try out the dungeon near Holyemnorian or whatever that place is called.

Oh, nasty making the shrine of Azura spawn crazy fights.

You know, the boxes in the air, the magic crates. Either put something in them, or have them do something besides take up space.

Oh, and really, lower the amount of monsters that spawn in dungeons. Trust me, it's really bad when my computer, which can run anything, just about, locks up.

ARGGHH! It locked up again. This time in the Monastary dungeon place. ARRGHH!

What is with this mod? Seriously, it's fun, but you have way too many summoners. I'm sorry, but one creature or person, not sure what it was, should not be able to summon everything in existance, and I'm not exaggerating by much. The following was summoned by one person, shortly before my computer locked up....A daedroth, A flame atronarch, A storm Atronarch, a frost atronarch, a skeleton, I think, a Hunger, a Golden Saint, a Dremora, a scamp, and I think Bill Gates.

No really, that's getting to be too much. I found my first napalm arrow though. Let's hope I can still play my save game when I restart up morrowind later.

Your mod is fun, don't get me wrong, but no one's computer can play this mod with all the large areas with huge summoned armies. No ones...
It's just the way Morrowind is.
Oblivion is more stable than Morrowind. LOL. :rofl:

Sorry for the the necromancy, but I wanted to know if Rolf, you thought of anything regarding the ideas we posted? It's been two days? You promised you'd look after you took a nap. Where did you go, France? Lithiuania?

Come on ,this isn't funny.

Anyhow, I have a few more ideas.

One: Cut the health on Maniacs by 30%. That should keep them managable until Golden Weapons are found.

Two: Nerf the amount of summons summoned by Summoners. No, really, do that. Way too many summons cause lockups.
And it causes you to disappear?

Three: Nerf the Over 9000! reflect everything seems to have. Rat Horrors are the only things that don't have reflect.
Not every tiny monster should have reflect rivaling Golden Saints and bleeding Rieklings...

Four: Nerf the spell effects on some chars, a Altmer Maniac spammed a spell and my reflect killed her after only 5 shots! She has more health than I do at the moment. That's a bad balance. Not everyone can spam 100% reflect.

Five: Nerf the speed and summoning ability of some monsters. All the Kwamma Foragers clones spring to mind. Rat Warriors spam winged twlights and them run at about mach 66.

Also, things with Warrior in their names should never summon things period. That's like a Mage attacking you with a sword!

Hi David, Bob

Sorry about the delay, had some tough days on earth. All's not all that well. Not to worry though : been through worse.

Phew, that's quite a lot. Don't know where to start. I'll take your findings very seriously. It's not that i just threw the mod together and then published it without any testing at all. I have been playing it and it's predecessors for some four years now, and have done so with heroes at various levels, and i have met situations where MW froze to zero fps. But only very rarely. On a 2002 machine with moderate specs - it cannot even play the O-game.

The points you made, worry me. I take them very seriously. On the one hand, i like these hordes of summons that pop up where there only used to be a hardly visible kwama, or sees filling up with skeletons and saints and dremoras. On the other hand, i do not want to lock up anybody's PC.

As i'm not a native english speaker, some of the phrases you use elude me, like "Not everyone can spam 100% reflect" or "Nerf". The latter is probably something like Reduce, that much i can guess.

The 'red portal' isn't as red as i remebered it. All 'portals' / trapdoors / pillars in the Playground have some kind of glow around them. The Pit's ones are slightly reddish. I'll rewire that bit completely, so you'll have to go through the Arcane Sanctuary in order to get to the pit. The amount of summons may drop now they all have this sweet leveling potion that makes them stronger anyway (Quality AND Quantity is Overkill, i see that now).

I do not think reducing the health of the Maniacs would solve anything. But i did something to the Altmer and the Imperial Maniac that may be worth introducing in other Maniacs as well: weaker ones at lower levels, shifting the original ones several levels up.

By the way : if the FPS drops to 0 fps and you have at least one other window open, you can alt-tab there, call forward the Task Manager and close MW gracefully. I've prevented many a PC-lockup that way. It says so somewhere in the effing Manual (release notes), but i expect no-one to read all that This is not a solution to the problem, but it might reduce some of the frustration of locking up MW : at least the PC is still up and runnig.

Thanx for all your remarks . I'll have to let them sink in, think about how to fit these into the mod without deteriorating the adrenaline. This won't be done in one weekend or week , but i consider it very worth the effort, for it may / will make the mod 'even better'. I guess reducing most summons by 50 % will make a big difference in stability without too much impact on the fun.

I highly value all your input.
Rolf

PS - Ashlander Caves was never meant to be all that challenging, for it's supposed to be a shortcut the Ashlanders use to travel from camp to camp.
PPS - Don't be surprised if at some stage of the forthcoming adjustments great little creatures called Bob and David appear

BYE

Hi Bob

As i wrote David and you in the reply to his post, the two of you have given me quite some food for thought - which i appreciate.

But basically, this is all about those three crowded underground areas. The Mod's way more than that. Did any of you put any of those dwemer lights in the Playground? I did. As i went in there again for the first time in some months after my last visit there, i was amazed. One big dazzling orgy of lights in all shades and intensities. Carefully gathered from many a corpse and trader.

And there's more than fighting, there's all these nice creatures greeting you, trading to relief you from your burdens. And then these rotating crates and other incarnations of containers all over the place. Leave your surplusses there, and go on with the hunt a lot lighter. So you can gather even more, put them elsewhere, create your own treasure islands . . .

And there's the nearly total absence of violence at those precious first levels. Go on, give it a try. You too, David

Bye now, have fun.
Rolf

Ah yes i remember now that I did run across one fo these outside blamora and the sound was messed up..instead of whatever sound it was supposed to make, i got a horrible buzzing noise instead...kind of like static or white noise from TV and radio signals that failed... you might wanna check into that...

Just don't give David over 9000 health.

Spamming 100% reflect means to use 100% reflect a whole lot. In fact, if it wasn't for that, I would have been angry.

As it stands, I barely have enough health to survive a full reflected napalm bomb.

Oh, please tell me there are golden bows, and longswords?
My advice for some things still stand, please think about reducing the amount of damage some things do.

And if you don't reduce Maniac's health, at least make it easier to kill them. Because otherwise I have to use everything I have to hurt them. I mean, 1500 health is a bit much even for a level 45 baddie. Or, level 38.

I also had to use the console to set my Defend Bonus to 1000 in order to not be hit by khajitt maniacs.
You need to check how much agility they have. More than 150 is a bug.

Also, reduce the reflect levels on all monsters that are not Golden Saints.

Oh, Soul values may need to be reduced as well. It's starting to take Azura Stars just to trap souls now.

I may know how to give myself a lot of Azura Stars, but that's not the point.

Oh, and both times Morrowind locked up, there was another program running and it refused to let me alt-tab. So that advise is useless.