Hello there dear modders and mod users.

It has been a while since I had to make one of these threads and there are alot of them about but I have specific needs/wants?

Over the last 18 months I have been engaged in a long and terrifying battle with my laptop. Many of you know that I have had HD crashes and lost a lot of work and since then my laptop has just been a bugger to work with. So much so that I avoided creating, downloading or playing any mods that took place on solsthiem - simply because I could no longer stand the annyoing flickering textures due to my laptop not wanting to perform at its best!

Anyway, Yesterday was the D-day. My laptop died on me (RIP lappy you served me well over 7 years). Not only was it a HD crash but also the motherboard fried, my laptop gave off a little smoke and sufficient to say it went out on less of bang and bit more than a wimper as some sparks shot out of the back. What made it worse was that while I was distraught over my laptop going AWOL because at that time I was writing up a business plan to give to a nice banker who is coming round my house tomorrow afternoon, my mother goes off one about her table setting on fire.

right where was I? Ah yes, so basically I just got a brand new laptop that cost an arm and a leg and possibly a bit of my manhood. I have been thinking of gertting a new one anyway, but rather later than sooner.


So does this mean I lost all my WIPs? No - I backed them up as I was making them ( so I learnt something after all??)

Essentially, because of the rubbish that was my old laptop I didnt really pay attenetion to any of the recent mod developments for fear of if I install them my laptop would turn into a firework.
BUT now thats diffrent! (woot) I even think I can use MGE now, as this new laptop can run oblivion, whereas my old one couldnt.

What I have been doing is setting up my morrowind for modding and playing. And so far I have this:

Wyre mash - for levelled lists etc...
Enchanted editor - to remove GMST's
Nifskope
CS
Morrowind + expansions
Morrowind Code patch
Unoffical Morrowind Patch
Tamriel Rebuilt
Better Bodies
Better heads

Those are the mods that I deem "essential" for my install of morrowind.

Now what I need from you guys is some more. Now I know what I want in my game, and I am not going to be asking for the "bestest mods for the N0obz"
With my new "upgrade" I basically want to delve into some of the higher end mods out there namly:

- Mesh replacers. I remember seeing briefly a mod that fixes meshes in morrowind ( smoother models, fixed uv's) - has this or anything else like it been released?

- MGE - I am 99% sure this laptop can run MGE, so is there a list of MGE mods out there?? I am looking at the MGE thread now, reading up on shaders etc...

- High res teture replacers - i think i can handle them now O_o

And of course anything and everything You and I can think of

=MA=

p.s sorry for the long post

Eww, better bodies :ahhh:

Er, I mean...

Well, these are the mods I use.

MCP 1.6
*Tamriel Rebuilt
LeFemmArmor
*Cliff Racers V1 (Makes cliff racers friendly until attacked/souled)
DH Furniture (Finding it annoying to decorate a big mansion with picky furniture, problebly going to delete)
*Homes to Let (Good alternative to the above)
Vibrant Morrowind
Vibrant Skies
DN Umbra replacer
Hold It (makes NPCs carry certain misc items like buckets, brooms, fishing rods, etc.)
*Animated Morrowind
*Bag O' Bones (Makes the ingame skeleton a playable race, comes with a lich robes addon and jaw-less head for liches)
Keening Reforged 2.0
Playable Dinosaur Race (For ****s and giggles )

*My most essential, I wouldn't live without them.

But of course, you're talking to a guy who doesn't like better bodies or MGE, so my suggested mods are purely practical, and not visual. Though Vibrant Morrowind/Skies is a great re-texture pack that doesn't eat your memz

Interestingly I've just been downloading some mesh replacers for wilderness statics like trees, plants and rocks, and I was considering making a list to share what I've learnt. I haven't had a chance to try any of these out, but this what I've downloaded after a lot of searching.

In terms of these statics there are seven regions in Vvardenfell (and TR uses the same trees so they will be changed to I believe). Ashlands, Bitter Coast, Solstheim, Ascadian Isles, Azura's Coast (not used much), Grazelands and West Gash. Sheogorad, Azura's Coast and coastal Telvanni (including TR's Telvannis region) regions actuall use a mixture of trees labelled Ascadian Isles and Azura's Coast, with Azura's Coast trees fairly sparce even in Azura's Coast, and they have a similar appearance to Ascadian mushroom trees. Southern TR areas such as Helnim fields uses Grazelands trees. Typing each of these regions into PES will find you some good replacers, and that's the best place to start. I've downloaded all of Vurt's stuff (Ashlands, Solstheim, Ascadian Isles, West Gash) , Valitie's Ascadian Isles Mod and Trees! Replacer-Grazelands (the '!' is part of the name for some reason). I also got Correct UV Rocks, which I installed first so they were overwritten by the dedicated area packs. I couldn't find any mesh replacers for Azura's Coast, which is odd seeing as there are only four trees and they are used in many areas, albiet sparcely.

I didn't look into any texture replacers, although search for an area in PES will find you some. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/956115-graphics-to-those-asking-about-graphics-mods-start-here/ thread has some good suggestions for large texture packs.

As for MGE, it doesn't really need any mods, unless you want to try the experimental Shelter From Magnus' Blaze, which looks amazing but probably requires a powerful computer. Shaders are also very FPS costly, at least on my somewhat shoddy computer, but you could try Truebloom, of which version 3 looks particularly nice. MGE also comes with lots of basic shaders, which give you an idea of what basic effects look like, so you can get a better idea about what sort of shaders you might want to look for.

EDIT: Oh yes, I probably should have mentioned Darknut's retextures. They are hi(er)-res retextures for actor stuff like clothes, armours and creatures. They come in two versions of resolution, one of which is much better than vanilla but will run on most computers (512) the other looks stunning but many be a bit FPS affecting (1024- I haven't tried them because I find the 512 ones fine). Highly reccomended. Sorry about not providing any links, they'er all on PES.

If you're going to use MGE, I'd recommend you use rev 118+. Also, with MGE's inbuilt MWSE, I'd highly recommend http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8153. Once you've used it you'll never want to play without it again. It makes mark and recall VERY useful, as well as making companions almost un-losable. I absolutely refuse to play without it.


KF

You're thinking of this: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7459
Check the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1103737-add-to-the-list-of-needed-graphics-mods/page__p__16150079__fromsearch__1&#entry16150079 to get you started on new Textures. Read through the whole thread for more options.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1060141-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/page__p__15392814__fromsearch__1&#entry15392814 also has many useful links to help you find what you need.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=7588 by Nich is one of those essential mods that belongs to the category of 'should have been like that from the beginning'. http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7367 by Plangkye is also in this category. I hope those are the kind of mods you were looking for. :unsure:

http://www.mwmythicmods.com/MWE.htm#MGE (which definitely needs to be updated :blush: )