Just curious how everyone started modding Morrowind, whether they used a specific tutorial, had prior scripting/modeling experience, or what. I've been starting to learn for the past week or so, and just seem to get nowhere fast.

I have a binder with a printed out version of Morrowind Scripting for Dummies, and although I finally got through the first tutorial, I feel like all I've learned to do is copy a script that someone else has written.

I've also got Shaden's Land Creation tutorial, and he says: "Creating new cells to work in is very simple and involves only the movement of your mouse. Load your .ESMs and make sure the Cell View and Render window's are both open." Check.

Then: "Find a corner of Vvardenfell and start dragging your render window outwards, away from the mainland." Wait. How do I find a corner? When I scroll I just zoom up until it looks like everything's submerged under water. If I click and drag I just make a box that selects whatever object it grabs. Where is this corner? How do I know if I'm making my landmass east, west, north, or south of the mainland?

Anyways. I'm not looking for a specific answer to that last to question, (although I wouldn't object) but just suggestions as to where I should start when even the most basic tutorials seem over my head. I'm not that stupid. No, really. But I'm at the very rock bottom of the learning curve.

I think that's just a figure of speech, like, "find a quite place to start modding." The land/map itself has no "corners" to grab.
You can change the size of the Render window by dragging the corners though, just like any window on your computer.

If you select any object and press T, you will get a top view of the object. From this position, the top of your Render window is always North.

First it was bugs that annoyed me. I started trying to fix them for myself. Second was the mods that I downloaded. If I didn't like something I set out to alter/remove it from the mod. Third was a place or two to store my stuff. A house of my own if you will.

Vivec, St. Delyn, Waist North Two is a good interior you can take over and mod to your hearts content. Completely empty (of NPC's) and not related to any quest. Gives you a place in Vivec without having to kill someone. Another was a house placed to the left of the Hlaalu Council Manor in Balmora. Two stories high with a basemant. Required moving/removing rocks, tree's, steps and reforming the landscape itself. Nothing grandiose, very nice.

There's lot's of additional tools you will want beside the TESCS. One of these is the Enchanted Editor. It makes it easy to look at other mods and see what they're made of.

You will find a tutorial list in a sticky at the top of this forum. Look for the "General Construction Set tutorials " and start there.

Good ole' trial and error.

Then with the Oblivion CS I used the wiki that was available. Sadly, they don't have a wiki for the Morrowind CS.

You mean like the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:Modding? It's two links into the the UESP wiki.

As to the OP's question, I got started with the tutorials listed in the stickies at the top of the page. I'd come to the forums not realizing that the game could be modded looking for hints on playing the original game. Once I discovered mods I loaded up a bunch of them including several house mods but none was exactly what I wanted so I started playing around building my own. To learn the CS and how things where put together I would often look at the existing data and try to emulate what I was seeing.

The best place to start is the tutorials at tameriel rebuilt

I never go to the UESP, so I didn't see it. Either way, I meant an offical Morrowind CS Wiki. Doesn't really matter now, though - I've been using the Morrowind CS for about three years now and have become good with it. Thanks for the link, though.

Modding is an amazing thing, it's so immersive and like a role play for me as I think of the what and why of the actors who will be there. Still I don't envy the OP, I feel like I have like 5% more savvy. Modding now is more like the usual gaffaws I have to deal with, burnt toast kind of mistakes. I feel totally comfortable with the CS now. I changed GAL's skills, omg.

When I started modding I had to get through a lot of nausea, really, but I wanted that door. A place that never before was. That's so cool.

None of those cells were credible enough to release. I had a break though a couple weeks ago though. And I am starting to use utilities with TES names. My latest mod has evil GMSTs, I looked at them and said, huh, like I have to deal with that now? And I could have deleted them right there. I have so much more garbage then that to delete if the time comes.

Remember, it's all on disc. use a worthless save character, and if you enter a room and fall off the world, well it's a http://home.comcast.net/~shibeka/planar.jpg

I taught myself. Trail and a lot of error. Wasted years making masterpieces that were actually incredibly 'dirty' mods. (I hit 'save' in the properties windows after almost everything I place) And I kept wondering why all those damned asterisks kept showing up...

I got into using the CS well before I even knew about tutorials and such. I was like 15. Just mess around with it. Start simple like making a house or shop in pelagiad, then maybe try making your own island. Then try and make a quest or dungeon. You graduate from every level until you can make something you are truly proud of.

Good luck and keep asking questions here. People love to help!

Try something small, like pick somewhere inside (limits the size), choose two characters in that interior and set them to fight. - easy
Then figure out something to activate to set them to fight. -still easy
Then try to set it up so that a group of people fight a group of others (hint: set them to follow your original fighters)
then modify this to run based upon conversation - getting more difficult, but not yet advanced...

its the way I started when I first started scripting.

ST
ps, just some advice

I just started modding this year. After installing over 250 mods and playing for a bit, I got the bug to mod. I did a couple of tutorials, then read part of Morrowind Scripting for Dummies. Then I played a bit more and had an *idea*. For my first mod, I changed the Teaches box on both of Ajira's alchemy reports so that reading them would give a skill point. I released it and it's had 173 downloads so far. Who'd'a thunk it?

Then I got this wacky idea to do a menu that would have pictures on it and list meals that contained only safely edible ingredients for use in role-playing as a newly arrived character. I learned how to create an image and put it on a scroll. After a few iterations it's settled at v1.3 and has had 149 downloads so far. Knock me over with a feather!

My goal became "Learn at least one new thing with each new mod". I mostly learn by trial and error, sprinkled with asking questions in the forum and getting help from a bunch of great people here. They're all worth their weight in gold. I'm now on my 3rd Traveller's Guide to Dining mod. I've learned how to do complicated dialogue (thanks, cyran0!), trigger topics, create my own foods and drinks, tweak textures, create simple scripts, and make items reappear after being taken.

My advice is to jump in at the deep end, but with something reasonably simple, and play around with it. Ask questions as necessary. You'll get help.

Good luck!

EDIT: By the way, two of my mods (What's on the Menu? and TGD01 The Rat in the Pot) come with a How To Guide, written by a noob for noobs. Don't know if you'd find them useful, but thought I'd mention it.

Well my friend was telling me about this game and when I heard about the construction set I fell in love at once. I played the game the 1st time at mentioned friend (and I must say that the feeling that the game gave me will never be replaced by any other 1st time in-game feeling ever, it was almost like I fell in love ) and so, what really made me wanna get the game on my pc was for cs itself, I was so curious to see how would it look to add my own world i the game, and it just happened that Morrowind's atmosphere was perfect one for my worlds in there.

Unfortunately, I mod since the beginning of 2003 which is now some 7 years, and all I know is how to landscape, I never dared to dig myself into scripting, modeling or something else too much since I've had errors and mostly I had no idea what the errors were, and tutorials were not detailed for me enough providing that I have absolutely no knowledge on these things from before, whatsoever. Well that, and the fact that what ever I tried to start, I would eventually go back to landscaping.

It's also pretty shameful that I never released anything here (or anywhere aside from my old page that I can't find anymore) but I'm hoping to finish some area, be it only exterior/interior with absolutely no quests, on these boards some time soon.

Also yeah, good luck with your modding start, I taught myself landscaping pretty fast since that's really like the most basic stuff in cs there is, so I had no need for tutorial. It did took me like an hour or so to figure out how are teleporting doors working tho.. :blush:

I started with Oblivion, and went through the excellent begginers tutorial they have on the wiki. When I got back into Morrowind though I found the skills very tranferable and all I needed to do was re-learn a bit of scripting with Morrowind Scripting for Dummies to learn how Morrowind syntax works.

Uhm.. I think I saw a mod download and wanted to make my own. Really badly. xD I still svck at it though.