Povuholo's ToMorrowind



Getting the most out Morrowind with some of the best mods
from the last 8 years.

Last Update: January 7th, 2011

Over the years I've played with a lot of mods and while many came and went, there was always a group of mods that I liked which I kept for future playthroughs. I've been keeping up with the latest mod releases, adding more to my mod collection over time, resulting in an already fantastic game that kept getting better and better.

Obviously this is a very subjective list. These are the mods that I like. Some people might not like them. Some people might like other mods that I didn't mention. This list isn't a complete list of all good mods, it's just a list of mods that I've enjoyed and of which I know they work well. I'm sure there are tons of cool mods that I've missed or am not interested in personally, but I don't intend to make this an endless list. Suggestions are always welcome though, and I will be posting popular alternatives to some mods.

This list is intended mostly for people returning to Morrowind, who want to know what has been going on in the MW modding community since they last played. It's also for new players, who are most likely overwhelmed by the large number of mods that the modding communities have produced over the last 8 years. This list should help with finding some interesting mods that you might miss otherwise. Well, many of these mods are actually really popular but still!

For people new to this game, I wouldn't recommend fully modding your game (Though you should at the very least get the 'mods' from the bug fix section) until you've at least played the vanilla game a bit. It's a bit strange to change something with a mod isn't it, when you don't know what something was like originally? That's my opinion anyway.


I like my game modded, but also have it stay close to the vanilla game, and with everything balanced. Or at least not less balanced than vanilla. That's why this mod does not contain any large weapon/armor compilations, they're not really my thing.

All mentioned mods on this list are compatible with each other, though some need compatibility patches. These patches are always included in the download of one of the two conflicting mods though, such as the Rise of House Telvanni compatibility patch in the Uvirith's Legacy download. There may be one or two exceptions to this, but if that's so it's definitely mentioned here.

Note that this is not a modding guide, it assumes that you are capable of installing mods. It also assumes that you have both official expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, installed. Not all mentioned mods require them, but many do.


So here we go!

Povuholo's ToMorrowind

Index

00 - Useful Links and Utilities
01 - Bug Fixes
02 - Gameplay/Balance Changes
03 - NPCs and Creatures
04 - Quests, Dialogue and Dungeons
05 - Miscellaneous mods
06 - Fun Stuff
07 - Compatibility Tips

Also check out http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1155980-povuholos-tomorrowind-a-mod-recommendations-list-for-today/page__view__findpost__p__16924204. It's in a separate section because it's rather long. It contains everything that is related to visuals and sounds.

00 - Useful Links and Utilities

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:Wrye_Mash: An essential utility for a modded, allowing you to change your load order, save them, repair saves, and much more.

http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Mlox: An automatic mod load order sorter, similar to BOSS for Oblivion. Pretty handy, but don't expect it to fix all faulty load orders. So do keep an eye on what it changes, and what it doesn't change!

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/: A really useful mod information thread for new players, but also everyone else because it links to all sorts of nice mod lists.

http://mwmythicmods.com/: Many many mod lists. Somewhat old.

http://search2.yacoby.net/ : A search engine for Morrowind/Oblivion mods.

01 - Bug Fixes

http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=4519 (At the time of writing the Planet Elder Scrolls download is not available for some reason): This patch is a continuation of the Unofficial Morrowind Patch and fixes tons of bugs.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19510: Now this is something else. Unlike the patch above, which fixes things like quest bugs, dialogue typos, floating rocks, etc. through an .esp file, the Morrowind Code Patch fixes engine bugs by patching the Morrowind.exe. This allows for all sorts of fixes that cannot be achieved with an .esp file. Download it and look at the list of fixes. The patch is completely manual, you can choose which fixes and gameplay tweaks you want. I recommend at the very least all 'bug fixes', though I use most of the other features as well.

02 - Gameplay/Balance changes

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2030: A popular, alternative, more immersive player leveling system. No more artificially raising useless skills to get +5 multipliers for your attributes when you level up. Instead, attributes rise automatically based on skill usage. It also removes the skill/attribute cap: You can continue to raise your skills and attributes above 100, though it will go slower. GCD also features a balanced magicka regeneration feature, allowing you to slowly regenerate magicka without resting. The speed at which this regenerates is based on your magic skills and willpower.

Suitable character types: GCD is suitable for most character builds, though it is better if you choose a 'pure' class, instead of, lets say, a Fighter/Mage mix.

Possible alternatives: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5316: I have not used this mod myself.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8707: This mod adds the need to eat, drink and sleep to your character. It comes with many new ingredients and food items, some of which can be cooked. If you like this kind of realism check it out, it is very well done.

Suitable character types: All.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7243: Keys will no longer clutter your inventory! Highly recommended.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=838: Delays the assassination attempt of the Dark Brotherhood on the player until certain conditions have been met, instead of allowing them to appear at level 1. This makes a lot more sense.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6175: This is a collection of small mods, all with separate esp's. I only use Scrolls and Soulgems, which add blank scrolls to the game which can be enchanted, just like all those magic scrolls you find in the game.

Suitable Character types: Mages/Enchanters

http://webpages.charter.net/manauser/morrowind/: Like other herbalism mods, this allows you to harvest ingredients from plants instantly by activating them, without having to open them like normal containers. What makes this herbalism mod unique is that it removes (part of) the plant you harvest, when you harvest it. That way you can see, visually, when you've already harvested a plant.

Suitable Character types: Anyone who likes to pick up ingredients.

http://elderscrolls.filefront.com/file/Imperial_Legion_Badge_icon_and_ground_mesh;116210: Adds a badge to the game that can be picked up when you have joined the Imperial Legion. Normally Legion members will not be happy to talk to you if you're not wearing a legion cuirass, which is annoying when you want to wear other things. With this badge in your inventory, you can wear whatever you want! This filefront release adds a more suitable icon to the badge, which originally looked like a dwemer coin.

Suitable Character types: Whoever plans to join the Imperial Legion. It won't hurt to have it active for other characters though, it's a simple mod.

03 - NPCs and Creatures

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30563: Many people will agree when I say that this is the best creature adding mod there is for Morrowind, comparable to Mart's Monster/Mutant Mod for Oblivion/Fallout 3. This adds lots of new creatures to the game, all lore friendly and of good quality. I wouldn't play without it.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27765: More varied guards, some female, some with quivers. It also adds many more faces for guards, whereas in the original game you'd constantly run into imperial guards with the same face. It all sounds pretty simple but it makes quite a difference!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7749: A mod similar to the popular Morrowind Comes Alive, adding random NPCs, mostly in towns. All NPCs added by Starfire's mod use vanilla clothing and heads, making them fit in perfectly. They can also do interesting things like teleporting into town, or away, as you're walking around.

Alternatives to Starfire's: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6006. Very popular, but not to my personal taste. I prefer Starfire's because MCA also adds generic named hostile NPCs (Bandits) in dungeons, as well as pretty frequent attacks in town, and NPCs generally stand out from the rest of the population because of custom clothing. Again, this is a subjective list. MCA is popular for a reason, it is a good mod. MCA can be used together with Starfire's as well if you wish, but having large numbers of NPCs in one place may have a serious impact on performance. I'd recommend one or the other. Note that my experiences with this mod were with V5.0, and the mod has been updated since then. Also, this mod requires that http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7039&id=6173 is installed (just the heads, esp file not needed).

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/kids.htm: This excellent mod adds children to the cities of Vvardenfell. You can talk to them, buy gifts for them, or watch them as they jump and dance around, making the streets more alive. I'm using it along with Starfire's mod.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7474: A simple, but very nice mod. It adds items to NPCs, based on their class, which they'll actually hold in their hands. This mod also comes with several optional add-ons, like one for Starfire's NPC Additions and one for Children of Morrowind.

04 - Quests, Dialogue and Dungeons

Suitable for all character types unless mentioned otherwise.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=6581: Improves the intro to the game, where you start off on the prison boat and go through the Census&Excise office. Great mod if you're bored with the normal intro, but don't want an alternative starting point.

http://morrowind.nexusmods.com/mods/42145/: A highly ambitious project, aiming to create the entire province of Morrowind, filled with interesting places to see, people to meet, and quests to do, with a great emphasis on quality and lore-friendliness. At the time of writing there have been three releases, map 1-3. The link goes to map 3, which includes all the previous ones. You won't regret downloading this.

http://www.lgnpc.org/home: This mod series aims to make the people of Vvardenfell less generic, by giving them more unique dialogue. The mods are generally divided per city/settlement. Besides dialogue, they also add new quests. This, along with Tamriel Rebuilt is one of the longest going mod projects in Morrowind Modding and is still going at the time of writing. I recommend using all installments for all characters.

I also recommend the 'unofficial' http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7339, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5908 and http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7380.

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/Kateri.htm: Bored of the normal Morrowind main quest? Spice it up with Julan! No matter where you'll go on Vvardenfell, Julan always has something interesting to say. He is also involved in the main quest of Morrowind and has a few quests of his own. It is difficult to describe this mod, read the description on the download page. It is definitely one of the best companion mods out there.

Alternative companions: There are lots of companion mods. Such as http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=6855, who could be compared to Julan feature wise. There are several good companion mods by Emma http://lovkullen.net/Emma/quests.htm, like Thief Companion Constance.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6068: Not so much a quest mod as it is a dungeon mod. This mod expands on 3 dwemer ruins at Red Mountain, where Dagoth Ur and his followers live: 'Odrosal', 'Vemynal', and 'Dagoth Ur'. It is filled with puzzles and traps, and is bound to make the conclusion of the main quest a lot more epic. Warning: It also makes it a whole lot harder, the puzzles and traps are really challenging.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6270: A dungeon mod, adding The Neverhalls to Solstheim, a dungeon with a completely new dungeon tileset. It was inspired by Oblivion's Ayleid ruins. Very nice dungeon crawl and there are interesting artifacts to be found.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8710: An expansion to The Neverhalls.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=732: A new faction with all sorts of interesting quests. Read the mod description. Though the mod offers the option to become a Lich at the end, which is for Mage characters, this faction quest mod is suitable for any character type. It is also suitable for both 'good' and 'evil' characters.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7181: This mod allows you to fight and bet on fights in the arena of Vivec. I haven't actually used this mod for long time yet but it seems to be good.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/ivza/morrowind/bbounty/: Not really a quest mod. It adds an NPC to a few towns who will reward you with gold for every blighted creature that you killed. The stronger the creature, the more gold you get.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7050&id=5535: Not really a quest mod by itself either, but it allows you to donate all the artifacts mentioned in the book 'Famed Artifacts of Tamriel' to the museum. In the vanilla game the museum would not accept all of them. Also makes some other changes to the museum.

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/lokken.htm: A quest/landmass mod by Emma, adding the beautiful landmass of Lokken Island to the north east of Solstheim. The island and the quests are both fantastic. Read the description for more info. This quest mod is most suitable for 'good' characters.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5997 (For Telvanni Mage characters): There have been all sorts of mods that improved on the player's stronghold, Tel Uvirith. Uvirith's Legacy combined some of those, and then greatly expanded on them, making it the ultimate stronghold expansion.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4449 (For Telvanni Mage Characters): So you've made it to Archmagister. What now? Sure, Uvirith's Legacy will keep you busy with stronghold related business for a while, but surely there's more to be done? Damn right. Rise of House Telvanni features a series of quests with the goal of strengthening the greatest house of them all, Great House Telvanni. Awesome.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=127 (For Mage characters): A small joinable magic orientated faction with an interest in controlling the weather. Join them, and you too will be able to rule the skies.

05 - Miscellaneous mods

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8284: A mod that adds little extra details to several cities/villages/forts, making them more interesting. It does this without altering the terrain so it's very compatible with other mods.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7050&id=3408: Adds 20 buyable player homes, with monthly taxes, to the game. From cheap shacks to large mansions, from underground ruins to homeboats, this mod should have a suitable house for any character.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4704: Repairs Fort Frostmoth after it gets 'damaged' during the Bloodmoon main quest, instead of leaving it as it is forever.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8474: Allows you to reforge Keening into a different weapon with the help of Yagram Bagarn, in case short swords aren't your style.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=6112: Adds guars that you can buy to the game. They can carry your stuff, but you can also mount them! That is, riding them. Not mounting their heads on a wall!

06 - Fun Stuff

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8429: The most unique mod ever? Probably. Read the description. You could say it's 'Facebook for Morrowind'. This mod keeps track of your character's achievements, and these can be uploaded and viewed on Fliggerty's site. Very cool.

http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=923[/size]: A huge expansion of the reactions that NPCs give when you persuade/intimidate/taunt/bribe them.

http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=854: Adds more (funny) responses from NPCs when confronted with the player walking around nvde.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7696: Adds trading cards to the game. They can be found in random containers or bought from certain NPCs. A fun thing to collect.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4709: My favourite treasure hunt/collector mod. Adds 165 unique coloured eggs to vanilla dungeons in the game. Most of them are hidden quite well, I've played with this mod for a long time and so far I haven't found many eggs. Which is great. They make good house decoration too!

07 - Compatibility Tips

For most mod conflicts, a compatibility patch is included in the download. But not all conflicts are solved with those patches. In order for multiple mods that alter the same levelled lists (which are monster levelled lists and loot levelled lists) to work together, you need to create a Mashed List instead. If you use certain mods from this list together, this should be done. Actually, you don't need to know which mods need this exactly, merging the lists is always worth doing. If there's nothing to merge nothing will happen.

• Install http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27588.
• Find the Mashed Lists.esp that's in Morrowind/Mopy/Extras, and copy it to your Data folder.
• Make sure you've installed all the mods you want to use, otherwise you may have to merge the lists again.
• Open Wrye Mash, find the Mashed Lists.esp, redate it (right click->file->redate) so that's at the end of your load order, then right click on it again, go to import, and then 'Merged Lists'. It'll start merging the leveled lists.
• When it's done, make sure the plugin is activated, and you're done!

Look below for the Graphics and Sounds list!

Povuholo's ToMorrowind - Graphics and Sounds

This is a separate section of the main Povuholo's ToMorrowind article, my personal list of recommended mods. This section deals with mods related to graphics and sounds. This includes some basic Morrowind Graphics Extender information, texture replacers, sound replacers/add-ons, music additions, animation add-ons/replacers and other stuff.

As with the main list, I focus on mods that stay somewhat close to the original game, and that I like. But suggestions are always welcome.

A few screenshots:

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1279661467.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1271714824.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1276776715.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1276776632.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1293660930.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268761960.jpg , http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1283349596.jpg, http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1292185015.jpg

Note: I'm not using the same Morrowind Graphics Extender settings in all these shots.

And my PC specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.16 Ghz
GPU: ATI Sapphire Toxic HD4850 512MB
RAM: 4 GB
Monitor: 1280x1024 resolution


Index

01 - Graphics - Bug Fixes
02 - Graphics - Choosing a Base Texture Replacer
03 - Graphics - Texture Packs
04 - Graphics - Specific Texture Replacers
05 - Graphics - Other Graphics Mods
06 - Graphics - Miscellaneous Graphics Mods
07 - Graphics - The Morrowind Graphics Extender
08 - Graphics - Morrowind.Ini Tweaks
09 - Sounds and Music - Sound Replacers
10 - Sounds and Music - Sound Additions
11 - Sounds and Music - Music Additions

Graphics

I'm putting the MGE information at the bottom of the graphics section, because it's something you want to deal with after having installed everything else first.


01 - Bugfixes

Yes, even the graphics need fixing sometimes. None of these actually replace any textures, so they are compatible with all graphics mods.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19510: Has a few graphics related fixes, such as that weird glow enchantments get when you're underwater.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3843: Fixes nasty landscape seams in the world. With vanilla textures these seams aren't very obvious, but with high resolution texture replacers it looks really awful. Get. This. Now.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3927: Texture Fix for the Bloodmoon expansion.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4728: Texture Fix for the Tamriel Rebuilt mod.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8656: Makes the rocks in caves and the caves themselves use the same textures, so they fit together better.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7588: Fixes the UV mapping on rocks. Have a look at the screenshots if you need convincing!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7367: Similar to the above, but for the Telvanni structures.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6890: I consider this a fix too. It makes sure that all ore veins in caves use the textures that match the type of cave they are in. If you install this, also get http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7587.


02 - Choosing a base texture replacer

It's a good idea to start with one big texture pack, that covers as much of the game as possible. Then, you can overwrite it with smaller individual texture replacers of your choice.

A very nice base texture replacer, to install as the very very first texture replacer, is http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34510. They're very close to the original textures, but improves them a bit. It really covers a whole lot, probably more than anything else out there now. So even if you plan to install one of the other large texture packs, it won't hurt to install this one first to ensure that you have replaced as much as possible. Also it should have 0 impact on performance!

Or you can skip right to the big texture packs in the next section and use those as a base replacer.
03 - Texture Packs

As I've said in my main mod list, this list is very subjective. This is especially important with texture replacers, because there are a lot of different ones with different styles. I'll mention a few of the larger texture packs, which should be installed before any individual replacers. None of these should have a noticable impact on performance.

Edit: Texture Packs section is undergoing some maintenance, it'll be back soon.


04 - Specific Texture Replacers

You should install these after any large texture packs, as they may overlap. I won't be naming any alternative texture replacers for these. These are the textures I am using, after having installed the main texture packs. Unless mentioned otherwise, they should have little to no performance impact.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=4253

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25676

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32886 (Might give a small performance hit)

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=20128&id=6267

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25770



http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=5980


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=5985

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=5998

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=6005

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=6143: Weapon texture replacer

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=5560, (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=5882)

That's the end of the normal texture replacer list. Next up are other graphics related mods, either with esp files or something else that makes them different from normal texture replacers. There are also some more texture replacers below that, for smaller things like coins.

05 - Other graphics mods

Unfortunately some of the following mods are several years old, so some have lost their screenshots.


Nature

Vurt's Tree Mods (Will most likely impact performance somewhat): http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8190, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8200 (Not using this one anymore), http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8746, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8334, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8490, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8812. It makes the trees in Morrowind a whole lot prettier.

Compatibility issue: Vurt's Ascadian Isles mod has new meshes for a few plants. If you use the mod 'Graphic Herbalism' (which I recommend on my main MW 2010 list) then sometimes you'll see a big difference between the normal model and the harvested model. That's all.

Alternatives: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5897, for the Bitter Coast Trees.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=444351&id=8378: This adds grass to various regions. If you use the MGE (Morrowind Graphics Extender) version, the grass will be animated, and probably have less of a performance impact (but it still takes a decent computer to run it). Highly recommended.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8353: Similar to Vurt's, but it covers areas that Vurt did not cover. So they are compatible. This mod also comes with a plugin for the Tamriel Rebuilt regions.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8763 : Replaces many rocks with higher quality meshes. It makes a pretty big difference. Note: This overwrites many of the rocks from CorrectUV Rocks, so make sure you install this AFTER CorrectUV Rocks.


Lighting

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=609: Better lighting. Warning: A lot darker, maybe not to everyone's taste! I'm using the 'Ambient Light + Fog Update', 'Natural Water' and 'Clearer Lighting' ESPs.

Cities & Related Objects


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1947: Does what it says it does, and does it very well.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7951: My favourite of all the different sign replacers. out there. The vanilla signs are all the same and have a blurry texture, you can only read what they say by hovering your mouse over them. This is much better. There is also a http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6740.

Windows Glow: This makes the windows of buildings glow at night. Very atmospheric. Here are the different plugins, I recommend all of them:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=389, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7505, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7524, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8835


NPCs

Head replacers:

Many choices here. I like http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5883, but will be replacing it with Westly's head replacers (http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Mod%20Head%20Packs/NORDM_Before_After.jpg) once those are all finished. These are both pluginless so they improve all the vanilla heads, but they do not add more variety, like many other face replacers. Still, the lack of variety never bothered me.

Alternatives: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=661, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2735.


Body replacers:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=213: 99% of the mod users use this.
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5635: Higher resolution textures for Better Bodies, both for the underwear and nvde versions.

http://www.liztail.com/view_project.php?prj_id=2: Like Better Bodies, but for the beast races.

Alternatives: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26873

Clothing

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8737 + http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=7401 + http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36406: Makes the clothes look better. Better meshes, better textures.


http://canadianice.moddersrealm.com/RobeReplacer.html: This one requires you to sign up on their site. I know, I know. But it's worth it, trust me. Not only does it make the vanilla robes better, it also gives many of the enchanted ones a new look. Fantastic.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7673: Makes unique accessories actually look unique.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7335: Similar to UFR, but covers non-unique enchanted rings instead. It's compatible with UFR as long as you put it earlier in your load order.


Magic


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6984: This completely removes the enchanted glow that enchanted objects have. So if you find them distracting, download this. It's pluginless!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6621: Replaces many magic effects and adds more variety to them.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=192075&id=6196: Like the above, but for elemental magic spells which Spectacular Sorcery does not cover. I recommend downloading the NPC Size Mesh add-on because the original effects are a little too big I think.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/991190-betaresource-new-fire-and-frost-explosions/page__hl__explosion: Compatible with the above. Very cool. <>

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4147: Replaces the enchantment icon on objects with one of your choice.


Animations


http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31635: Better animations for walking, running, one handed weapon attacks, and running with a one handed weapon. Be sure to read the installation instructions.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=8118+ http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8937: Adds some NPCs with special animations to the world, pretty cool.


06 - Miscellaneous Graphics mods

Graphics mods that are very small or didn't fit in the other categories.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7459: Replaces the meshes of a good number of objects with smoother ones. Now cups actually look like cups!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4054: Adds unique book jackets for each of the books.
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4055
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4056
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8692: Makes some of the book jackets a little less colourful.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=254548&id=6844

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6655: My favourite coin replacer.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7517: More key variety!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3171

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8612

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5590

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4961

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7365. Alternative: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7387

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1134997-relz-westly-presents-unique-corprus-stalkers/page__p__16609011#entry16609011 <>

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1144883-relz-westly-presents-unique-winged-twilights/ <>

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8265

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32887

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7292


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8345

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8124: They really are better!

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34844

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29906

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=443308&id=8172

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=254548&id=6903

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=254548&id=7147

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=254548&id=6856

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28311

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=327560&id=7069

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=327560&id=7070

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=327560&id=7061

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7065

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8596

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5043

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8213

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7290

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6827


07 - The Morrowind Graphics Extender

This by far has the largest visual impact of all graphics mods. And the largest performance hit. There are several different versions floating around currently so it's hard to say what is best. I recommend looking for the latest 'Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE)' thread on the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/12-morrowind-mods/. Usually there's an active thread on one of the first pages. Look for all download links there. Nexus only has 3.8.0 at the time of writing!

MGE features Oblivion-style 'distant land', a better water shader, bloom/HDR shaders, a godray shader and more. Best of all, you can choose exactly which features you want or don't want. It also has MWSE integrated into it, so if you use any mods that depend on MWSE, you only need to have MGE installed to make those work, without having to load MWSE separately.

At the time of writing, the last 'stable' release is 3.8.0b. I myself am using one of the SVN test versions, SVN 178. Check the latest MGE thread http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/12-morrowind-mods/ for the download. I haven't had any issues with rev178 so it's worth checking if you can get that one to work. I think it's the best version out there, performance and feature wise, at this time.

If you have questions about how to use MGE or run into issues, don't come to me. http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/morrgraphext/index.php?title=TOC, or ask in the latest MGE thread. I can't help you.

MGE Distant Land:

When it comes to generating/configuring the distant land feature, you have a lot of choice. First of all, before generating distant land, install and activate all other mods that you want to use. This includes things like texture replacers or tree replacers as mentioned in this list, and landmass adding mods. MGE's distant land is based on what the game looks like at the moment you generate it.


Distant Land Setup Wizard

Experiment with the generation settings, I can't tell you what the best is, as it depends on what your PC can handle. I wouldn't set the world mesh detail quality higher than 'high', it makes little difference. A world texture resolution of 2048 (or maybe 4096) is usually the highest you would want to go. Set it lower if your PC can't handle it of course.

With a statics size of 200 (the minimum size at which statics are displayed: Lower number means more smaller statics, means lower performance) you'll be able to see most buildings and trees in the distance. It's what I use.

Distant Land Settings

Here you can decide what cell draw distance you want, at what point fog should start appearing, and some other things. Here's a little comparison of draw distances, to give you an idea.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XVIEWDISTANCEVANILLA.jpg (looks lower than usual because I'm up high somewhere. Still, this is the maximum vanilla view distance.)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XVIEWDIDSTANCE4.jpg (My favourite to keep the old Morrowind atmosphere in place, while still offering a considerable view distance increase. Good performance too.)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XVIEWDISTANCE8.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XVIEWDISTANCE15.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XVIEWDISTANCE30.jpg

Look at http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/XMAP.jpg. My cursor shows where I am (Tamriel Rebuilt territory). The furthest you can see with a cell distance of 30 is from there until the mountain, which is the dark spot in the middle of the map.That's how far you're seeing, pretty much the whole island.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/4144/povmgesettings.jpg


MGE Shaders

Shaders that I have used:

knx_SSAO_v09: Very nice effect, but it can have quite a big hit on your performance. As for what it does exactly: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1270647898.jpeg
sunshaft_v002a: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1273230944.jpg
GIMP_HDRBloom_v1_3 : A nice, simple bloom/HDR shader with a relatively low performance hit.

Read the MGE documentation on how to activate these. I think they're all included in the SVN 178 download. If not, or if you use a different version that doesn't have them maybe, you can find most of them http://mgeshaderlibrary.wikispaces.com/Shaders?responseToken=ab06df6ad4184c5ed9bce1528960b634. However not all shaders are compatible with all versions of MGE.

There are also some water shader replacers available (they do not have to be added to the shader chain like the above shaders) but you need to be careful with those. Most of them are for specific MGE versions and if you're using the wrong water shader with the wrong MGE version you'll get big issues. SVN 178 includes the latest water shader from Phal by default, which is the best one right now.


08 - Morrowind.ini Tweaks


It is possible to change some lighting and weather colour settings in the Morrowind.ini file, and a few other things. Below are the ones I use. I am not sure where I got them exactly, but I think it's a combination of the tweaks recommended by The Lighting Mod, and those of AOF's Skies texture mod, and some changes of my own. I won't post my whole ini, just the sections that matter.


Performance Tweaks

Some tweaks that may improve performance, or are just handy to have. They're near the top of the Morrowind.ini, under [general]

Max FPS=75

No need to have Morrowind to have a FPS cap of 240, if that's even still possible with all the graphics mods you're getting. You can set a maximum FPS here. I've set mine to 75, which is my monitor's refresh rate, so it's not possible for me to see more frames anyway.

DontThreadLoad=0

Interior Cell Buffer=1Exterior Cell Buffer=4

Some settings related to cell loading. I found that these worked best.

allowyestoall=1

If this line is not in your morrowind.ini yet, add it anywhere under [general]. This adds the option to answer 'yes' to all error messages that may show up while loading at once, without having to go through all of them individually. Of course ideally you shouldn't be getting any error messages at all.


Lighting Tweaks

Tweaks to the lighting. I recommend using them along with The Lighting Mod.



Weather Tweaks

Besides color changes, it also increases the number of raindrops that fall, and disables the vanilla rain ripples on water (rain ripples=0), because they don't look nice with MGE's water.

Important: Most of the weather sections can be copied and pasted as a whole, but not the Ambient Loop Sound ID lines. These have been altered for Piratelord's Expanded Sounds mod (which can be found below). If you are not going to use Expanded Sounds, you must not copy any of the Ambient Loop Sound ID lines over. Also don't copy the Thunder Sound ID lines under [Weather Thunderstorm]. Sorry for the inconvenience.


And the Solstheim weather:

Sounds and Music

09 - Sound Replacers

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1990: Replaces all magic effect sounds with much better ones. Very nice.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7245: Requires that Oblivion is installed. This mod is a batch file that copies some of Oblivion's sound effects and uses them as a replacer for some Morrowind sound effects. I've selected these sounds myself and I think they're a pretty big improvement. Especially the combat, fire and water sounds are of a noticeably higher quality.

10 - Sound Additions


http://z13.invisionfree.com/Pirate_Lords_Mods/index.php?showtopic=35: Adds all sorts of ambient sound effects to the world, very atmospheric.


11 - Music Additions

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3151: Contains music from Divine Divinity, which fits in Morrowind as exploration music remarkably well.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/tamriel-rebuilt1/addons/remastered-tr-music: New exploration music, and a couple of battle tracks. For a preview of the exploration music, check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mjJqwZrl8M All the music used in this video comes from this download.


And that brings us to the end of the list. For now. I intend to keep this list updated as new mods are released. And suggestions are always welcome, no matter what year the mod is from!

Nice thread!
Well structured and also complete.
I like it

Hello !

For those looking for more music here is a site featuring the music of http://www.techartist.co.uk/daggerfall-music

Glad this is now merged Thanks.

Yeah it should be easier to keep track of just this one thread. Besides merging them I've also changed some screenshots from the graphics section, added a couple of alternatives to some mods, and a few other things. Looks like a solid foundation for any 2011 mods that will be added in the future!

Add the link to Animated Morrowind part II, just to complete the list.
EDIT: Here's the link: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8937

Ah, thanks. I hadn't downloaded it yet but I thought it would just be an update to the first one, on the same page, so I didn't think it would need a new link. But it does.

Edit: And done! Also, once I've downloaded that, my game will be running every single mod mentioned on these lists at the same time, except for the alternative ones.

Hey Povuholo, I was wondering which weather settings you use in your ini. The other day I saw your comment on http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/1508-realistic-colour-config-for-morrowind-released/. I know it's a pretty old topic but I couldn't help but wonder whether you still used them.

In general, are there some ini tweaks except for the obvious lighting one you would recommend (I'm especially interested in the weather sections because these can make or break the game).

I've got the same thoughts. I was working on a new (cleaner) full install last night, and found that something smoked my INI back to default settings at some point (I'd LOVE to figure out what did that). It got me searching for optimal MGE/ambient sounds/swg skies/etc settings.

I'd be very curious to know what you have yours setup to.

Cheers Povuholo, digging your lists! Have you considered archiving it elsewhere on some cloud service? I've lost so many great mod recommendation lists courtesy of Bethesda's forum pruning.

Now that it's more or less finished (until new mods come along) I was planning on hosting it at Great House Fliggerty.

And yes I was actually planning on adding my weather color and lighting settings from the ini to the list. I believe it has become a combination of a few recommendations by different people. But not actually anything from the Realistic Colour Config mod. I haven't used that in years. I recall liking it though, maybe I should see what it looks like with MGE...

Very nicely done. There are even a few very interesting ones that I didn't even know about and I've been an obsessive morrowind addict since the beginning...how the heck is that even possible? haha...thanks ...now I'm off to download a few hidden gems!

Thank you for this list. A couple of things:

- Your link for Animated Morrowind II isn't working. The one provided by Kingpix does, though.
- You mention that you plan to switch to Westly's heads when he completes his collection; it looks to me as though he's done: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7039&id=6173

I second the request for weather .ini settings, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

Hes is talking about Westly's http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1093073-wipz-westlys-head-replacers-still-working-on-a-better-title/

Excellent,
best list on the web,
bookmarked,
and a big thank you.

That's different. At the same time, I think that should be mentioned right next to Morrowind Comes Alive because its a required install or you will get missing mesh errors (you don't have to have the .esp ticked).

I'm also curious about the weather settings that you use, Vurt. Have you checked out the New Cities project (New Seyda Neen, New Caldera and New Gnisis)? Those look decent, they can be found at planet elderscrolls (can't remember the links right now).

I'd really love to use the groundcover mod but my one problem is if another mod changes the landscape (like New Seyda Neen) then the grass is floating in the air...

ALso, in your screenshot for the distant land settings it shows under Use Distant Statics the Near setting right under Min Size at 200 but mine is set to 400 and I can't change it? How do you change that?

I'm having another missing texture or mesh problem. Whenever I load my game while in Solstheim I get an error: "Meshes\b\B_N_Nord_M_hair08.NIF' tex not found '1BG_b_n_Nord_M_Hair02d.bmp"!

And: "Texture Load Error; 1BG_b_n_Nord_M_Hair02d.bmp"

Is this a common problem, like the Darknut weapon texture one I was experiencing earlier?

Hello Kotakuites

I put a link to this thread on kotaku, and it was added to this http://kotaku.com/5727233/morrowind-mod-put-to-the-sword, you're now famous povuholo.

Did you install the master head back that was linked a couple posts up? That's a requirement of Morrowind Comes Alive and you may be missing something from that...it sounds like that might be what you're missing. You don't need the ESP from that mod (unless you want the new heads) just the resources.

You can only adjust that on the latest screen of the distant land generation process. You can't change on the fly which objects should be considered small because the distant land has already been created and thus you need to do it all over again if you want to change that setting.

Yeah that's a real disadvantage of the grass, it doesn't go very well with landscape altering mods.

I'll mention the Head Pack next to MCA as one of the requirements. Though I highly recommend to everyone to read the readmes of the mods they install, they should mention those kind of things.

Strange, not sure what went wrong the first time. But I fixed it now, thanks.

Extra motivation for keeping the list up to date.

I added a compatibility section to the bottom of the main list. This contains information on how to merge leveled lists.

I'm not using either of those. I downloaded Vvardenfell Visages, and I've managed to find the files that the game was talking about, so I don't understand why it is a problem.