Greetings to all of you Modding Gurus. I just joined this forum to ask something, but I first would like to thank you all for making Morrowind an even greater game than it was originally!

While I've been playing Morrowind for years, I fear I've never actually done much modding. Just a few tweaks to other mods and the like, so I'm virtually clueless to everything... especially scripting... and knowing what is and is not hard-coded. So I do have a request for either knowlege or even an outright mod if anyone wished to do such a thing.

I've loved Morrowind, especially with lots of mods. But I fear there has always been something that I've wanted to experience that I've just never been able to... more realistic "combat." I know about such things as Combat Enhanced and Deadly Reflexes (for Oblivion), and while great additions, I'm still curious about overhauling combat in a different method.

While it's certainly not perfect, I am fascinated with the way that the damage model works in the game "Mount & Blade." I know that copying that damage formula to Morrowind is an extreme reach, but I was thinking there may be a way to make the combat more of a "hit and miss" affair than the good old RPG concept. That is such as having armor that will actually give you 100% protection unless a strike "broke through" the armor... which may very well result in an instantly fatal wound. I know that's on a "permadeath" level of hardcoe, but I do still dream.

I'm not a scriptor, but I have tried to come up with an outline of how the damage could be assessed, but I fear I do not know how to detect hits or even targets. And even still, I'm not sure how to get armor ratings from specific armor region (head, arms, etc.) from a script.

I was thinking of using enchantments or spell effects to give each weapon a level of each damage type (a hammer would have a high concussive effect, an arrow high piercing damage, a sword cutting damage, etc.). That's not to say each weapon would only have one type of damage unlike Mount & Blade. A heavy battle axe would have a significant amount of cutting, piercing, and concussive damage potential... where other weapon types would have more of one and less of the others. I would also give each type of armor a similar "enchantment" that would act as the resistance to each of the damage types (mail could absorb cutting damage, but not so much concussive damage for example).
The basic concept being that if I'm wearing full plate of ebony, a basic dagger should NEVER do ANY damage to me (death by a thousand cuts shouldn't apply). But if a daedric battle axe hits my steel cuirass solidly, it should completely bypass ALL of my armor protection. I really should be bleeding out if not dead already.

I know I dream too much, but I thought I would ask if such a thing is even possible? I've tried to figure out a few ways to get a script to even begin, but I'm not sure how or where. The "HitOnME" function seemed to be a good start, but can you use a weapon type as an identifier instead of the specific weapon? I've also read about the "GetSoundPlaying" technique, but I've heard it's unreliable.

So that's why I'm here. Any suggestions, advice, concepts, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Even a dream-crusher would be welcome if it's true. Of course, I wouldn't refuse a fully functional mod either

Thank you all! For the help here... and also for making Morrowind better!

Ps. If such a concept won't work in Morrowind, would it be possible in Oblivion or Skyrim? I've also heard of Project Aedra. Any hope for it?