I fell in love with Water Life from Abot for about 15 minutes. Then i'd enter a cave and it'd be completely empty and abandoned... that is until i made as much as a splash in the water. Then the 10 foot wide puddle i was standing in was suddenly full of clown fish and sea horses. I'm sorry, not realistic. Whenever i'm swimming around, fish seem to spawn out of nowhere, and they become so overwhelming it makes it feel like there's something wrong with the mod. I checked, there isn't. I reinstalled it and the same thing happens: fish spawn CONSTANTLY and right in front of my face. I'll walk up to puddles that are empty, walk through them, turn around and they will be filled with fish. It just has a terrible feel to me. I'm also constantly plagued with the "battle music" when just walking around towns. I think it's because two fish happen to bump into eachother and start fighting. It breaks the mood every time i walk through Seyda Neen and I had thought a Cliff Racer had chased me into town only to find 2 clown fish fighting a crab just off the shore... lame. Don't even get me started on the crab invasion for Seyda Neen.

Someone help fix this issue. I really want to love this mod, and would if it wasn't for this. I'm not much to complain and sorry this is such a rude post, i just really want to like this mod but i can't because of this HUGE flaw.

PS. I can't even find out how to uninstall it!

you might want to try merging your leveled lists. I think that could be a part of your problem.

Yeah, I recall doing that right after i installed the mod. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try again.

But i'm mainly concerned about uninstalling it. Is there any way to? I could hunt down each and every file but that'd be really annoying. Not to mention the game ceases to function if i remove the esp/esm

You might also use the configuration ring; the mod is highly configurable. Even to the point of selecting that creatures not spawn indoors.

From the readme:

- In default configuration the script check for water areas around to
spawn fish. You can tune this by configuration menu, enabling the
check only when you have the Fishing Rod equipped. If you unequip the
Fishing Rod/disable out of water spawning, the script will spawn only
when you are at about -60 into water, so the overhead is minimum when
out of water.

Also, there should be no problem simply unchecking the files unless you still have the items added by the mod in your inventory or are standing near a water source with spawned creatures in it when you saved. If this is the case and you are determined to get rid of the mod rather than configure it to your taste, I suggest saving in an interior cell, unchecking the mod and any patches associated with it, and then using WryeMash to clean your save.

Abot's Waterlife uses scripting to dynamically spawn the creatures and other water objects, leveled creature lists are not involved so merging won't make a difference.

Instead, you should use the Waterlife configuration ring that gets added to your inventory - it allows you to set the spawning levels, prevent spawning in interiors, make creatures less aggressive, only spawn waterlife if you have the fishing pole equiped, as well as several other options.

Details in the readme. :read:

Yeah, i played with the configuration ring but couldn't find a balance. The best case scenario would be if the fished spawned before I got in the water, and then stopped continuing to spawn while i was in it. Also, the random spawns inside caves would be a welcome subtraction. I'll be in an ancient dwemer ruin, splashing around in an empty puddle when all of a sudden i turn around to find seaweed sticking up out of the metal ground where i just was... really?

You can turn off spawning in interiors. Use the ring, Luke.

Da Schwartz! Use da Schwartz!...

For some reason i thought that meant in interior cells (buildings)... that means water?

It means spawning in any interior cell that has water, like caves, mines, buildings, etc,

Thanks a bunch everyone. However, i have one more issue that's bugging the crap out of me. Whenever i'm in Seyda Neen, if i cross a certain "threshold", the battle music starts. I have used detect animal and everything to try and find that "threat" but to no avail. I've tried leaving the city and coming back, still doesn't work. I really just want to walk through Seyda Neen with the peaceful soundtrack playing, not some threatening danger music.

What I'm asking, is there any way to "spot" the threat and find out what's triggering the battle music? There's got to be a script or something. I noticed that it didn't do it when I reverted to an old version of Morrowind (i make back up files of my directories when i mod) where the Water Life mod had not been installed. Thanks in advance.

It sounds to me like you have a hostile NPC or creature that has spawned inside another object. Are you using MCA or Starfire's NPC addon? Sometimes these spawn things inside a large static and you can't see them.

This has also happened to me . Best I can work out is that some fish were spawned near a slaughterfish which begins attacking them . Hence the attack music . You're not being targeted , the Water Life added fish is ! Also happens when I get off the boat at Tel Mora occasionally .

Yeah, i'm using MCA. I tweaked with the spawn fundamentals of the Water Life mod and it seemed to fix it for the time being. Thanks again everyone for the help, i can now hopefully enjoy this mod to the fullest.

Terriffic! Yes, the fish will fight one another, causing the battle music to start. Also, as already mentioned, MCA can spawn bandits in towns and if you have any land-altering mods, these NPCs as well as hostile creatures could spawn inside hills, rocks, buildings and other structures. Finally, Children of Morrowind added kids will sometimes playfight or do weapons training. As long as you are near them, you will hear battle music. There is a pair near the C&E building who engage in hand-to-hand.

If you want to track down who's fighting, you might want to have a look at toggle wire frame (TWF) in the console. If you have a good eye, you could spot NPCs/Creatures that are inside objects.