is this mod worth getting?

is the dialogue the new NPC's have still the same generic stuff you get with vanilla NPC's?

is it stable?

does it increase immersion?

are any new traders/companions/quests added?

Depends on what you want, and how strong your computer is. MCA can be an FPS loss



It varies by NPC



I've had no problems with 6.1



Definitely



Traders - travelling
Companions - lots, several in the first town
Quests - don't know yet.

As has been said, it really depends on what you're looking for, but I personally feel it's worth using. Some of the new NPCs have appropriate dialog added, of course, though unique dialog isn't really the primary focus of the mod, as its name implies, the point of the mod is to make Morrowind feel alive, and I'd say it does that pretty well, because let's face it, Morrowind's towns by default don't feel very alive, with NPCs just standing in place or walking around within a predefined area. Morrowind Comes Alive helps to create the illusion of more NPC life, it also has the welcome side effect of making the populations of towns seem larger, due to the random NPCs it adds. If I were to make a complaint against it, it's that sometimes random hostile NPCs that can be surprisingly powerful spawn in towns, but I think that a recent update might have cut down on this somewhat.

I don't think it adds any quests, though you'll find lots of companions from it, in general, I think most of the NPCs in it who are named by default are potential companions, though many of them will only join you if you reach a certain level and even then, they still usually refuse to travel together if their disposition towards you isn't high enough. It can be worthwhile to check out traveling merchants if you see them, in my experience, as you never know what items they might carry, though I would advise against selling things to them if you're not sure you won't want to buy those items back later, because once they dissppear, I don't think there's any way to retrieve anything you sold to them.

I'd say that if Morrowind Comes Alive sounds like a mod you'd like to have in your game, and you feel your computer can handle it, then I'd recommend using it.

Actually the newest version does add a couple quests, nothing huge though. If you get it, you will also want to get my MCA Names add-on.

Opinions about it in the community are mostly good, and it's been a solid and stable mod for years (except for a few random "drunks" in the inns causing crashes in some versions), although I personally find the later versions to be "way overboard" in terms of NPC equipment and difficulty. The old 4.1 version (which I still use) had some stuff that was a bit excessive, but 5.x had bandits and routine NPCs wandering around with Daedric and other even more esoteric gear at low levels. When you go into a "beginner" cave near Seyda Neen, and the only NPCs that DON'T have enchanted weapons are the original "vanilla" ones, the game gets a lot tougher. When they attack as a group of 7 or 8 (one spots you and they all come running from every nook and cranny), armed with Daedric, Ebony, Adamantium, Glass, and mod-added materials by level 8-10, while at least one summons Daedra and another throws Poisonbloom spells, it gets absurd.

If you like tough fights, great. If you're adding it for "more NPCs in the towns", stick with either MCA 4.1 or Additional NPCs.

That's exactly why I have been hesitant to try out MCA. On the one hand I do want more NPC's in my game, but on the other I'm fine with the difficulty the game has and don't want to throw that overboard. Like I said, I haven't even tried it yet, but from the description I find MCA to be doing too much for one mod. Any opinions on Travelling Merchants or other mods that make the towns feel more lively in terms of NPC's?

Kovacius, you wouldn't happen to have a link to Additional NPC's as I can't seem to find it.

Starfilre's NPCs is on PES. So is Additional NPCs as I recall. I use Starfire's and MCA

Sorry, I was thinking of Starfire's NPC Additions, but couldn't remember "Starfire" off the top of my head. Guess I need to have my memory upgraded....

Either Starfire's NPC Additions, which I'm actually trying out in my current game, or Morrowind Comes Alive 4.1, which I'm very fond of but has a few "eccentricities", are viable ways to add NPCs without creating opponents on steroids with game-breaking equipment. The rare hostiles in Starfire's mod didn't even carry weapons at level 1, and now, at L5, I'm seeing mostly basic iron and netch leather equipment. I probably need to get an update, because I've encountered a couple of odd situations such as a commoner walking around wearing a shirt, and nothing else.

Contrast that to MCA 5.1 or 5.2, where I encountered an Orc archer at level 5 or 6 who was armed with a bow that had a higher damage capability than a Daedric Longbow (killed my character in one shot). Some of the equipment in the newer MCA versions looks spectacular (Netch Adamantium, for example), but the sheer quantity of high-end gear in the game world, even at low level, makes the game totally unbalanced. With the mod, the "vanilla" bandits and hostiles might as well be ignored, because they're insignificant in comparison to the mod-added ones. Of course, if you're looking for more challenge, the mod definitely adds it.

I couldn't agree more, and I thought I was the only one sticking with 4.1...
I use MCA 4.1 with the lite patch and tweaked to remove a few features I didn't enjoy (hostiles in towns mainly) and it fits in the game perfectly for me. I prefer it over StarFire's NPC Additions because it adds moving NPCs to interiors as well.

Still Starfire's mod is excellently done, I'd like to use both, but when I tried that on my not-very-gaming-laptop wandering around Vivec became PowerPointWind. :violin:

I'm not too sure, since I've not gotten through a game long enough to see for myself, but I think the latest versions of MCA lessen the amount of NPC enemies at early levels. I've been playing with the latest version (which is 6.1 I believe) and I've yet to even encounter NPC enemies.

Yes, the latest version does reduce the amount of guys the come and try to mug you in the cities, I beleive it should even reduce the equipment they have.

Is MCA v6.1 completed? I thought he was still tweaking it due to issues players were having?