Hi everyone

I just bought the GOTY edition and am looking forward to getting started.

Before that I have a few questions.
Am I patched up to the most up to date version?
Also I have heard of an unofficial patch that is apparently very good. Where can I get this?

I have heard there are many mods for this game and I would like to heavily modify my copy. Is there somewhere that lists all the mods available? What ones are considered must haves?
I would be looking to modify the game to make it harder, more realistic and possibly have slightly better graphics without so much fog of war. Also more classes and things such as maybe a fencer class would be great.

Thanks in advance guys

1. GOTY is completely patched.
2. Mod questions are often better in this section of the forums: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/12-morrowind-mods/
3. There are many sites that host mods, and 'best' is often a matter of opinion. You'll get more in the mods forum....plus quite a few lists of good mods to pick from.
4. You can make a custom class during character generation. So you could just make a Fencer class then.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1060141-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/page__p__15392814__fromsearch__1&#entry15392814
Basically all the info and links you'll need to get yourself started.

I'd recommend playing on generic un-modded Morrowind first

It can only get betterererer :wub:

I agree. First play Morrowind unmodded. While the Unoffical Morrowind Patch is techniquley a mod, I would install this, then install the unofficial Tribunal and unoffical Bloodmood patches. (Sorry I can't remember if they are alltogether with the Unoffical Morrowind Patch or if they are seperate. Go to the Mod section and they will tell you.)

After playing a while, say 6 hours or so, maybe 12 hours and if your computer can take it, go look at the MGE mod. It enhances the graphics of Morrowind and eliminates the fog if you like. I put back the fog after playing without it. That is my prefence though.

Remember in most cases you will have restartitise. In other words you will start new charcters all the time. So get use to the game. Learn how Morrowind plays, then by this time when you finally say, "I am going to stick with this character and not restart no more" then I would install MGE. Once you play the game for over 200 hours and it seems the same thing over and over, then install other game changing mods.

First play Morrowind without mods so one, you can appreciate the mods, and two, you can appreciate how good Morrowind is without the mods.

I would check the 12-Step Guide to make Morrowind for 2009 that is linked in the Mods section of the forums. You may not want to follow everything he says, though. Still, the initial several steps (through MGE and the unofficial patches) would be good for everyone, although the Code Patch necessitates that you know which specific things you want to patch (and that requires having played the game first and understanding various specific elements of it, of course).

One important note about mods. Texture mods generally can be installed without worrying about messing up your game. That is, stuff without an .esp or .esm file with it. They can do this because they are simply replacing the default textures with new ones to alter visuals. This is not the same for everything, though, and does not mean that all graphics are automatically enhanced. For example, if you install a texture replacer for silverware, only the silverware will appear different in the game (which will probably be very obvious as you play, too, as the higher res textures stand out from the low res original surroundings).

You'll also want to read about mod conflicts and other issues once you start modding (with actual .esp files, that is). Morrowind is trickier to mod than Oblivion because Bethesda tried fixing some of the things that caused issues with Morrowind modding. Of course, these "fixes" sometimes created their own issues, as is often the case in programming. I just wanted to mention this in case you are coming in as an Oblivion player.

As for "must have" mods, as was already noted, that is totally subjective to you and your personal preferences.

One additional note about mod sources... probably the two most popular sites are TES Nexus and Planet Elder Scrolls, but those are not the only sites. In fact, some excellent mods such as Korana's were only on the ElricM site until relatively recently. There are still excellent mods that are not necessarily on either Nexus or PES. There are even mods that were excellent but have disappeared from the WWW.