Bloodmoon and Tribunal added a lot of functionality that was missing in Morrowind originally. Stuff like companion sharing, werewolf stuff, etc. along with a plethora of bug fixes in the existing functions. Also, Bloodmoon added an entire new set of weather conditions that you can't replicate at all.

I don't want to have to work around stuff that has already been fixed, and my mod is set in the North where it snows a lot, so I require at least that expansion. I may attempt to rid the mod of dependence on Tribunal for kicks, but really; who doesn't have GOTY by now? It's super cheap, and even if you don't play the expansions, the bug fixes and updated features are worth the price.

Shoot, I'm even requiring MCP, since I have a lot of open outdoor buildings where rain collision would be nice.

I didn't know that either Illy, thanks for sharing!

As I said, as long as requirements are clearly stated in the summary, before download, I think it should be acceptable for a modder to make any mod dependent on none or all of the expansions as well as other programs which allow extended graphics and scripting. In fact, it's becoming rather evident, to me, that there are some mods which are so prevalent that if a newly released mod is in conflict with them, the mod is considered buggy . . . Better Bodies, Book Rotate, and MPP come to mind, but there are more, I'm sure.

There doesn't seem to be anything misleading about the MWSFD quote. Having Bloodmoon installed doesn't mean having the Bloodmoon.esm checked, and having the GOTY version means you have Bloodmoon installed. (My GOTY is fairly old, with Bloodmoon still as a separate disk -- is that not true anymore? I suppose it's not true for the Steam version, at least.)

So the MWSFD quote says exactly the right thing: no matter how Bloodmoon got installed, GOTY or separately, that installation is what you need. (And however it got installed, you don't need to check Bloodmoon.esm.)

I don't know if this is really pertinent or not to this thread, but in the past I downloaded a few mods that altered something in Solstheim, and merged them into a single plugin (so I only had to load up one .esp). Some were MW-only, some were MW-BM only, and some were MW-Trib-BM dependant, and I really didn't pay attention to the load order ( read, ".esp dates").
Silly me.
I spent a long time fixing Landscape problems (open seams, etc.) and other things. Nowadays, if I download a new mod that I want to use, WHATEVER its dependencies, I invariably save it (after "cleaning," which I also invariably check for necessity) as MW-Trib-BM dependant, just to assure myself that such won't happen again. But then, I don't have to worry about releasing my stuff to the General Community.

As long as some people (and, more power to 'em) only play with MW, or MW + 1 expansion, there will be those who cannot use a mod dependant on all three. But as your thread responses indicate, the vast majority of people playing now, or who may take up this game in the future (? how long has it been out now?) can and will be using the GOTY or MW plus both expansions. Complaints from users are more likely to center around "Does it conflict with TR?" or "Does it conflict with ?"

Echo Magic Wind0w's comments about making the new functions/bugfixes of the expansions at least available in any new mods (well, maybe not texture replacers, for example) whether actually used in the mod or not, annoyance with dependencies on some other (non-Bethesda) mod, and releasing mods as .esms (I like to load up new, untried mods in the CS, and see asterisks (*) on everything that is new/changed, without having to first convert an .esm to an .esp).

Cheers

DARoot

As an aside, you don't have to make a mod dependent on Better Bodies, since it is a replacer. You can, however; alter them and add them to your mod as a new race. At no point is it a requirement (well, it is for me - but only for aesthetic reasons) to check it while running.

Too. ^_^

I don't think so. You do just need Bloodmoon installed, once you have it installed, everything works (it includes the Tribunal scripting functions). Since GoTY automatically installs Bloodmoon, you're set, I don't think you need to specify (especially since the loader changes to silver with a big ol' wolf or bear on it).

doesn't it edit the INI or something?

Yeah, it adds a bunch of weather types and some other settings. It also modifies the engine to the point where it won't load (crash on start) without the Bloodmoon resources being available.

Requiring one or both expansions isn't an issue, requiring MWSE, MGE, and/or MWE might be because there are still people who either can't or won't use any of those. Saying that, the only thing that would prevent me from downloading a mod that I thought would be nice to have is if it required MWE because I will not use that buggy piece of code.

Same here. I use MGE and MWSE but won't use MWE.