» Mon May 07, 2012 6:25 pm The Lands of Solstheim, Vvardenfell and Mournhold
Version: br2 (2nd Beta Release)
Author: The SoVvM Team / obmodder@yahoo.com (read the documentation before sending any e-mails)
Official Forum Link: http://postalmodding.proboards105.com/index.cgi?board=sovvm
Download Link: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16976
[Information Last Updated: 30th of June, 2011]
Background Information
"Ah, it's a lovely and peaceful place, when it's not cold. And if it's not cold then it's not Solstheim!" - Sheogorath, 3E 433
As the defeat of Mehrunes Dagon heralds the end of the Oblivion Crisis, as well as the beginning of the 4th Era, the Empire remains in a state of turmoil. With the end of the Septim bloodline and no heir to the Imperial throne, High Chancellor Ocato and the Elder Council struggle to prevent the Empire from crumbling. In the Dunmer province of Morrowind, it has been 6 years since the defeat of Dagoth Ur at the hands of the Nerevarine. Following the deaths of Sotha Sil and Almalexia, and the discovery of Almalexia's betrayal, many citizens have renounced their faith in the Tribunal Temple. Currently, Vivec is missing and the fate of the Nerevarine is uncertain. The Great Houses are in upheaval, several settlements on Vvardenfell have been left in ruins as a result of the Daedric invasion, including House Redoran's capital city of Ald'ruhn, forcing them to relocate on the mainland. Meanwhile, the last remanents of the Sixth House are believed to be plotting revenge for the death of their leader. To the frozen north of Tamriel, on the harsh, contested island of Solstheim, werewolves continue to roam the land. The Raven Rock Colony has been abandoned, while tensions have risen between the native Nords and the Imperial colonists and it is believed that an attack upon Fort Frostmoth is imminent. Whether this conflict will be resolved diplomatically or with bloodshed remains to be seen.
Requirements
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion version 1.2.0416 and Shivering Isles are required to play. Any other version will fail to work. All official Bethesda mods/DLCs such as Knights of the Nine are compatible but not required. We strongly recommend a clean copy of Oblivion and a decent computer. If you use a heavily modded Oblivion with 100 random mods or leftover mods that weren't uninstalled properly, it is likely you will sooner or later experience trouble. Mod load order must be "01" or you will not be able to see the land, this means our "SoVvM.esm" file must be the first ".esm" loaded immediately after "Oblivion.esm". (Please keep this in mind if you're using multiple mods in ".esm" format.) Subtitles must be turned on as voice acting isn't always used.
To ease constraints on your CPU, we are also distributing the 2 "Purge Cell Buffers" mods. These are not really required, but if you crash, try turning on the "Loading" module. If you still crash try "Loading" and "Cell Change".
Mod Information
The Lands of Solstheim, Vvardenfell and Mournhold, also known simply as SoVvM, is an unofficial large-scale mod for Oblivion that recreates the three main zones featured in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its two expansions Tribunal and Bloodmoon, with the more advanced graphics and capabilities of Oblivion's engine.
With an ambitious team and with the support and help of the Oblivion modding community, we released of first version of the mod in 2008. Although the current version available for download incomplete, it does feature Solstheim, Vvardenfell and 3 out 5 Mournhold districts. 2 other major features are that the player can become a lich or a werewolf. The two islands' wilderness is largely complete, featuring terrain, water, plants, rocks, trees, lava or snow where needed. Most monsters are present as well and they respawn randomly depending on the region. All Solstheim dungeons and settlements are present although settlements don't have much population yet, mostly respawning generic guards. Vvardenfell does not feature settlements yet but the Ghostgate/Ghostfence pillars are there. Mournhold features guards and some NPCs, as well as a small part of the sewer connected to the jail. Guards are fully functional and will enforce the law if needed. All 3 zones have maps, marks, pathgrids, boundaries, ambience, weather, names of subregions and pretty much everything they should. A lot of the old Morrowind armor and equipment is also available and there are a few minor side quests and easter eggs, for example Gaenor is present in Mournhold. A travel network exists so you can go back and forth between Cyrodiil and the new regions.
In future releases our plan is to add more containers to Solstheim dungeons, add Vvardenfell dungeons, populate settlements, create the settlements that are missing and of course add quests and factions. Please keep in mind that this is a continued work in progress. As such there are towns and dungeons that are missing completely, especially on Vvardenfell.
Getting Started
To get to either Vvardenfell or Solstheim, speak with Percius Popillus, an Imperial usually found around Anvil's harbor. He will take you by ship. To get to Mournhold, ask Percius Popillus about it. He will tell you where to find a mage who can teleport you there. You must have some gold as these services are not free.
This mod also adds a new Sheogorath quest, given by Sheogorath himself in the Shivering Isles. To play it, you must reach a certain crucial point in the Shivering Isles questline. However, you must complete this new side quest before you advance too much into the Shivering Isles main quest. You will only be given a short window.
There are not many services in the new regions yet though as we're still working on cities and settlements. There are several shipmasters and caravaners who provide transportation. Effe-Tei the Argonian in Mournhold provides spellmaking and enchantment. Rinchois Hustaux is the only merchant in the mod so far. Being a shady black market merchant, he appears usually in the evening and leaves in the morning, but never appears in the weekend. (Sometimes, he's late so be patient.) He also sells spells. Because he is the only merchant, he sells almost every single item in the mod that cannot be commonly found as loot or reward anywhere. He also sells all of the unique items, such as Keening and Sunder, that are not found anywhere else. This will be changed in future versions as more merchant and dungeons with loot become available. Rinchois can be found to the westernmost part of the entire Temple Courtyard in Mournhold, in the corner. There are locked chests lying around. During the day, he leaves to Godsreach and then into the Godsreach sewers, though none of the two areas are playable yet. He is a Master level merchant and he does not buy anything from you, unless you are of higher Mercantile level.
Note, unique items never respawn and are never found twice in the game. (Unless you use cheats.) So be careful what you do with them.
To access certain "hidden" and "special" features in our mod, type "coc zzzzTestCell" in the console to get teleported to a "special" cell. It is similar to the hidden "Testing Hall" in vanilla Oblivion, though not completely identical.
What's New in Beta Release 2 (br2)
In this version, we added more NPC dialogue, we replaced some vanilla models with proper Morrowind looking models (for example Royal Guard Armor is now accurate and not just a simple red retexture of Ebony armor), we added more items and vendor spells. We also added all Morrowind enemies now, although some still use placeholder models, the mechanics, stats and loot are more or less complete. You can expect to find loot in dungeons too, this includes crates with items and other objects lying around.
The only merchant in Mournhold, Rinchois Hustaux, is now available for a longer period of time, not just a few hours at night. He also has a larger supply of items, although unique items only appear once and don't restock if purchased. Basically, he sells everything you could possibly need, apart from unique items that can be obtained elsewhere such as Spear of Bitter Mercy which is a custom Sheogorath quest reward. Our plan for future releases is to limit what items he sells, but not before we add more merchants in Morrowind.
A few annoying minor bugs have been fixed as well.
Gameplay Information
The gameplay mechanics are also a bit different in all 3 areas. (Cyrodiil and Shivering Isles are unchanged.) Here is a list of things we have done or intend to do if we haven't yet:
1) Redesigned Inventory Item Stats: We didn't like items or gear having strange or missing vendor/weight values, so we made our own items. They should be more similar to Morrowind as well.
2) Redone Item Models: Soul gems and several other inventory items now look like they did in Morrowind. (Remember, none of these changes affect Cyrodiil, it only applies for items collected in Morrowind/Solstheim.)
3) New Items: We feature many new inventory items, for example gloves, cloaks, capes, circlets, monocles, eye patches and goggles.
4) Clutter as Weapons/Shields: Farm tools, logs, large bones and even some pewter mugs can be used as weapons and/or shields. (Again, remember Cyrodiil items don't work that way.)
5) Graverobbing: You will find several graveyards in the new regions. If you have a shovel, you will be able to dig in graves and steal whatever items you find there. You will usually find clothes, bones and rotting flesh. Graves do not respawn. Graverobbing is illegal in the Empire though, so don't get caught.
6) Skooma / Moon Sugar Euphoria: Visual effects will be added for a short time if you consume these.
7) Morrowind Spells: Most spells from Morrowind are back, especially Mark, Recall, Divine Intervention, Almsivi Intervention, Levitation and more. An alternative version of Bound Armor is available so the armor summoned is enchanted like in Morrowind. You will also find clothes and other equipable gear with such effects as Constant.
8) Morrowind Common and Blight Diseases: All of the diseases from Morrowind are back, only more deadly.
9) The Corprus Disease: You can now get infected with the Corprus disease, by fighting the remaining Corprus monsters in the Red Mountain region. The disease works exactly like it did in Morrowind.
10) Disease Potions: You can now poison your weapons and spread diseases to other creature and NPCs. Or, you can infect yourself with the disease. For each disease, there are two types of potions: one you can use as poison and one you can drink yourself.
11) Lichcraft: The ability to become a lich. Available only for level 30+ players with magical abilities. You must acquire a book called the Tome of Unlife first and be level 30 or higher.
12) Lycanthropy: The ability to become a werewolf. What would Solstheim be without werewolves anyway?
13) Morrowind Vampirism: Vampires in Morrowind are different from Cyrodiil vampires. There will be three additional types of vampirism: Quarra, Aundae and Berne. The cure for these types of vampirism will also be different.
14) Static Enemy Level: We don't like the idea of monsters and bandits scaling with your level. Instead enemies are turned for high level players.
15) Deadly Flora: A few plants that grow in the Ashlands are now deadly.
16) New NPC Dialog System: There will be more diverse dialog topics and options. You will be able to ask NPCs about their background, trade, ask for advice, talk about the lore or rumors. You may now ask anyone for any service but that doesn't mean you'll receive it if the NPC doesn't provide that type of service. You can even talk to Dremora, Golden Saints and Dark Seducers and annoy them by constantly asking them for services or rumors, though you must charm them first as they are hostile by default.
17) Better NPC Reaction: Shops will be closed in the weekends. If an NPC doesn't like you now, he won't talk to you, be nice to you or provide you with services. You trespass or wake people up in the middle of the night (with very rare exceptions, such as town guards), they won't talk to you and their dispositions towards you will decrease. You get a high bounty, disease etc. the NPCs will notice it and might often refuse to talk to you because of this.
18) Taunting System: In Morrowind you could taunt people until they attacked you. Now you might be able to get certain people to attack you by lowering their disposition below a certain value.
19) No More Quest Items: You can now do anything you want with the new essential items. Drop them in the ocean, sell them, give them away, anything. You're no longer forced to carry them around.
20) No More Quest Markers: The new quests will no longer feature red markers that guide you towards the next objective. There will still be non-quest map markers for important locations, just no quest markers. We prefer players finding out more information by talking to NPCs instead.
21) Travel Services: While the optional Fast Travel system hasn't been removed, there will be an alternative to this: ships, silt striders and teleportation.
22) Lip-Synching: Due to the overwhelming amount of dialog lines, most of them will only be lip-synched instead of both voiced and lip-synched.
23) NPC Birthsigns: Each Morrowind or Solstheim NPC will now be given a random birthsign at the start of each game. Birthsigns will have Morrowind stats instead of Oblivion ones.
24) Player Birthsigns: The player will be allowed to choose if they want their birthsign to have Morrowind stats or Oblivion stats. This decision must be made before the character generation in the beginning of the game is over.
25) Playable Beards: There will now be many playable beards to choose from. Some of the new NPCs will also have beards.
26) More Hairstyles: Players will have more hairstyles to choose from. For example, Imperial players can now use blindfolds and Redguard hairstyles. You can choose "bald" as well now.
27) Dunmer Tattoo: Dark Elves can now have tattoos.
28) Morrowind Race Stats: The player will be allowed to choose if they want their race to have Morrowind stats or Oblivion stats. As with the birthsign, this decision must be made before the character generation in the beginning of the game is over.
29) Morrowind NPC Race Stats: The new NPCs will have Morrowind race stats instead of Oblivion stats. For example, Morrowind Nords have 100% Resist Frost Damage instead of just 50%.
30) Law Enforcement: Law enforcement will be like in Morrowind and will include the death penalty for bounties of 5000 gold or higher. The punishment in the village of Skaal is death regardless of the crime, if you're not one of their people. There are no jails in Skaal. Turning yourself in voluntarily carries a chance of reducing the fine you have to pay.
31) Bribes, Resisting Arrest: There is now a small chance to bribe a guard as long as the guard's disposition is not too low. Failed bribing attempts or resisting arrests will increase you bounty and lower the guard's disposition towards you.
32) Writs of Execution: If you kill someone who is marked for legal execution and present the writs of execution, you will be forgiven for the crime. (Note, we don't have any writs yet as there aren't any quests that invovle a legal contract killing.)
33) Female Guards: There will be a lot more female guards, although most guards will still be male.
34) Diverse Imperial Guards: The Imperial Legion will now have non-Imperial recruits, though they will be in the minority. The Ordinators however will be only Dark Elves.
35) Voices: Dark Elven males now have darker voices, Wood Elves high-pitched voices and Dremora females now have their own voice. The new Dark Elven and Wood Elven voices do not sound like the ones in Morrowind though.
36) Spellcrafters and Enchanters: You no longer need to be in the Arcane University, several mage NPCs will provide these services for you.
37) Golden Saints and Dark Seducers: These NPCs will be featured on Vvardenfell and will be hostile by default. But, as you progress through the Court of Madness, they'll become friendlier.
38) Spears: The Spear of Bitter Mercy as well as other spears will be featured in this mod.
39) Crossbows and Bolts: These also will be featured in the mod. These weapons work like bows and arrows and require Marksman skill as well, but are faster and more accurate.
40) Traps and Probes: Some containers and doors will now be trapped. Probes must be used to disable traps. Successfully disabling a trap may increase your Security skill. Failure will result in the probe being broken. Success depends strictly on your Security skill, probe quality and luck. A trap is activated only when you try to force a trapped door or container open. You may also use a spell to temporarily disable traps.
41) Guild Requirements: Any new factions we add will require you to increase some of your stats before you can advance in a guild. Doing quests will not be enough anymore. There will be initiations to test your skills as well as your knowledge.
42) Guild Leaders: Becoming a faction leader will be much harder and a rare opportunity, depending on the choices made during the entire questline. Making the wrong choices might prevent you from ever becoming leader. In some cases, only betrayal might allow you to become leader, but you risk being cast out.
43) Bosses: Bosses will be "hard", we don't intend to make bosses that have only slightly more HP and damage.
44) Playable Dremora, Golden Saints and Dark Seducers: These three races have been unlocked for anyone willing to play them. However, most NPCs in Morrowind will react more negatively towards them. (Note, this has nothing to do with Morrowind lore, it's simply a "fun" feature for people interested and can be ignored.)
45) Custom Race and Birthsign Fix: Valen Dreth, Boethia and the Emperor should now recognize custom races and birthsigns from this mod and from other mods as well.
46) All NPCs Killable: Any NPC in Morrowind and Solstheim can be killed now. Like in Morrowind you will be notified when you kill an essential NPC though. They won't get up.
47) Spriggans Have 3 Lives: Solstheim Spriggans will resurrect a couple of times before permanently dying.
Installation
This mod is installed like most other mods, manually. You must have 7-zip to extract our archives. The following independent 7-zip archives must be extracted if you are downloading from TES Nexus:
1. SoVvM - Main File
2. SoVvM - Meshes
3. SoVvM - Distant Props
4. SoVvM - Textures Part 1 of 2
5. SoVvM - Textures Part 2 of 2 (Note, even though it is "Part 2" it must be extracted independently. Extracting "Part 1" will not cause "Part 2" to be extracted automatically even if it's located in the same folder.)
6. SoVvM - Voices and Sounds
Planet Elder Scrolls has only one file.
Copy "DistantLOD", "Meshes", "Sound", "Textures" as well as the "SoVvM.esm" to: "[Oblivion Installation Location]\Data". If you are told that a folder with one of the names "DistantLOD", "Meshes", "Sound" or "Textures" already exists, ignore it and continue copying the folders anyway, clicking "Yes to All". Then activate SoVvM.esm. Make sure the load order is the intended one ("01") and activate subtitles. If you do this you should be able to play.
Terms of Use
We're going to make this simple, you can play the mod for free, you may not use it to make money such as selling it or putting it on your site and asking people for "donations". Do that and your soul will know oblivion (no pun intended). There are many people involved in some way or another in the making of this mod, so please contact us first if you want to use some resources for your own Oblivion mod. (Or just go ahead, use it and credit us if we don't reply in one week.)
If you want to take the entire mod and start your own Morrowind-in-Oblivion project using it as a foundation, then you have to call it something else (NOT SoVvM), give us credit and accept that everything you create for it (quests, models, NPCs etc.) belongs to the SoVvM Team. We want to encourage serious projects however, if you create something that is either "stupid" (example: a town full of Adoring Fans or dancing Dagoth Urs with Keenings) or really poor quality or out of place, it will be shut down. We don't care about competition just don't disgrace our work.
Translations and "alternate versions" are highly discouraged at the moment because you will simply not be able to keep up with each of our versions.
Known Significant Bugs
A few things to watch out for:
1) Avoid using the Gray Fox Cowl or passing into Shivering Isles while switching between lich-human forms and werewolf-human forms as there is a small chance of bounties getting mixed up.
2) Do not summon armor while a werewolf.
3) There is a bug that often prevents users from choosing the Morrowind version of a birthsign. The Oblivion versions however work all the time so choose those instead if necessary.
4) Minor bugs involving some incorrectly placed rocks and unblending layers of land textures.
5) If you wear a cape or a cloak you cannot equip monocles, circlets, goggles or eye patches too.
6) If you get near a lava pool, all the distant water, including sea water will appear red as if lava. Don't worry, once you get near a river, lake or sea, it will appear as normal water again.
7) Lock spells do not always seem to work. If the door/container you wish to lock is owned by you or a faction you are part of, you may still open it.
8) Levitation effects don't stack. If you activate a Levitation 50 effect, then a Levitation 20, Levitation 50 will be removed. Using scrolls or potions however can bug, so do not try to stack up Levitation effects under any circumstance.
9) Levitation and teleportation do not work indoors and some other special places. For this reason, the effects are automatically disabled in these areas. This is not a bug, more of a limitation.
10) Often glowing distant walls in Mournhold. We don't have a good solution for this at the moment.
Meet The SoVvM Team and Benefactors
- BIG BIRD (Former Project Leader, Solstheim Interior Builder, Solstheim Landmark and City Builder, Voice Actor, General Construction Set Modder)
- blaXXer (Ghostgate and Ghostfence - UNAVAILABLE, WORK IN PROGRESS TO CONVERT TO .NIF)
- BUTCH (Scripter, General Construction Set Modder)
- CNC (Dungeon Builder - RETIRED)
- Hidden (Project Co-Leader, Scripter, Landmass Decorator, General Construction Set Modder)
- invader13 (Interior Builder - RETIRED)
- Ionis the Bear (Retexturer - RETIRED)
- Najaknevrec (Modeller - RETIRED)
- thePOSTALdude (Project Co-Leader, Scripter, Landmass Decorator, General Construction Set Modder)
Testers Only:
- Alaisiagae / Ethereal Overlord
- john44
- kukaahi
- nali
- wyzzardd
"General Construction Set Modding" refers mainly to very basic Construction Set operations, such as editing or setting up item/NPC/race/faction/etc. stats, basic bug fixing or grammar error fixing, that sort of thing.
Special thanks to the people who released (or are making) many wonderful modder's resources. Our "benefactors" are:
- AlienSlof (Skirt Texture from the Imperial Plate Armor Mod by Sintaker)
- anonymous benefactor (Some Textures)
- Badmagic (Red Ebony Retexture Used for Mournhold Royal Guards)
- Bethesda Softworks (Creators of The Elder Scrolls Series)
- BlueDestiny (Fallen Armor Used for Death Knight Armor)
- Cinnamon (Assets from The Black Cat Jewelry Store Mod)
- Cryo_ (Ordinator "Indoril" Armor, Dwemer Spider Model and Rigging Used for Scribs, Gargoyle Model and Rigging)
- da mage (Several Gloves)
- Daesdemon (Levitation Magic Script Used for Reference)
- demoncleaner5000 (Wolf Armor)
- Divine Avenger (Winged Twilight)
- DMKW (Dunmer Tattoo)
- Fearabbit (Morrowind Dremora Textures, Improved Morrowind Dwemer Weapons Made by Helborne)
- Galerion (Sinus Calculation Used in the Levitation Script)
- Ghogiel (Meshes, Textures and Icons for: Deer Helmet, Bear Helmet, Ice Armor Except Shield, Bonemold Armor, Dreugh Armor, Morrowind-Style Dwemer Armor Except Shield, Man-at-Arms Armor, Credits for Helping Jayson with the Dragonbone Cuirass)
- Ginnungagap (Bloodmoon Spriggans, Daedric Crescent Blade)
- Grimdeath (Dwemer Spider Textures and Sounds, Giant Spider Textures, Guar Variation Textures and Sounds, Gargoyle Textures)
- Helborne (Chitin Gear and Other Morrowind Weapons - UNAVAILABLE, PERMISSION GRANTED BUT WORK IN PROGRESS, Spears, Morrowind-Style Dwemer Weapons and Shields)
- J3X (New Models for Staves/Staffs)
- Jakhar (Part of Pelagiad Tileset)
- Jayson (Dragonbone Cuirass)
- Jadrax (Polymorph Magic Script Used for Reference)
- JCarl904 (Werewolf Model and Textures)
- Joel Huenink (Beards, Mustaches and Baldness)
- JonSatriani (Telvanni Architecture)
- KafeiDotour (Elegant Vests Resource, Vermillion and Silverthorn Resource, Circlet Resource, Dark Brotherhood's Dwemer Goggles, Eye Patches, Resources from the Spectacles Mod)
- Kalikut (Telvanni Architecture File: "txtelvfloorint03.dds")
- Kielanai (Akaviri Taiko Drum Barrel, Stand and Stick)
- Kivan (Scamp Suit for Creeper Easter Egg)
- Leo Gura / LiquidGraph (Dwemer Assets and Other Assets from The Lost Spires Mod)
- long live bush (Arctic Dwemer Gear Used as Cursed Frozen Dwemer Gear)
- Loth DeBonneville (Worked with Helborne on Spears and Several Other Modders)
- Martigen (Monsters from His Monster Mod, Including the Snow Bear)
- McMuffin (Morrowind Daedric Armor, Skooma Pipe, One Version of the Colovian Fur Helm)
- Mdogger (Frost Giant Model and Textures, Guar Model and Textures)
- mr_siika (Resources from the Dwarven City Modder's Resource)
- Nicoroshi (Wyrmfang Sword Models, Ebony Scimitar Model)
- opti (Spear of Bitter Mercy)
- oxfordite (Crossbows and Bolts)
- Painkiller_rider (Credits for Helping Jayson with the Dragonbone Cuirass)
- PERTTI (The Runeblade Frostmourne Included as an Easter Egg)
- Phitt (Dwemer Exterior/Interior Tileset - UNAVAILABLE, PERMISSION GRANTED BUT WORK IN PROGRESS)
- Plangkye (Telvanni Architecture: All Color Textures in the Plangkye Directory Bar One)
- Psychotic (Ice Cave Tileset)
- Razorwing / Gloomwing (Credits for Helping Tarnsman with the Morrowind Ingredients)
- Ren (Hairstyles from Ren's Beauty Pack)
- Ronin (Helped Kielanai with Gold Texture and Black Stain Texture for his Taiko Modder's Resource)
- Sage Rime (Skyrim Armory Mod: Armor, Clothing and Related Files, Full Release Rights)
- Savant (Chitin Armor, Ash Monsters)
- SACarrow (Morrowind Potion Models But Without Textures - UNAVAILABLE, PERMISSION GRANTED BUT MESH FILES NOT OBTAINED YET)
- Sintaker (Imperial Plate Armor Used By Imperial Guards)
- someone1074 (Capes and Cloaks)
- Soya (Soya Hairstyles)
- StarBoi (Morrowind Soul Gems, New Black Soul Gem Models, Sunder, Keening and Wraithguard)
- Tarnsman (Morrowind Ingredients, Silver Coins Used as Dwemer Coins)
- Tharanthiel (Mountable Boars)
- The Modax Jago (Some Morrowind Creature Models Including Kwama - UNAVAILABLE, PERMISSION GRANTED BUT WORK IN PROGRESS)
- themythofanst (Authentic Royal Guard Armor and Author of Vvardenfell Imports Mod, Note: VI Addon Not Included, See Attached Readme For Full Credits)
- Trey Leavens (Assets from The Black Cat Jewelry Store Mod)
- Trollf (New Paintings, Farm Tools, Pewter Mugs, Lampposts and More Playable Clutter as Weapons or Shields, Some Necromantic Assets)
- unknown benefactor (Dwemer Scrap Metal Model)
- VagabondAngel (Female Cuirass from the Imperial Plate Armor Mod by Sintaker)
- Vahiriae (Winter Clothing)
- WindSurfer (Rusty Iron Gear)
- Wormheart (Lower Class Cellar Model)
- XMarksTheSpot (Playable Lich Helmet, Frost Giant Rigging, Giant Spider UV Mapping Used for Scribs, Guar Rigging)
- Yarharhar (Playable Skeleton and Scythe Model)
- yet unknown modders (Helped Divine Avenger with the Winged Twilight)
- Zenith92 (High Ordinator "Her Hand's" Armor, Vivec)
Recruiting
To join the SoVvM Team you must have something cool to show us that you think will be useful for the mod. This can include anything such as a new spell, a 3D model (especially Vvardenfell or Mournhold architecture), voice acting for existing dialogue or a Vvardenfell dungeon. We are not interested in promises.
You agree that any work submitted becomes property of the SoVvM Team's leader and that it will not be removed from the project even if you later request it. We need your full cooperation if you wish to be part of the team, we don't want people who change their minds over night or have malicious intentions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When will this project be finished?
A: When it's done. Truthfully, we don't believe we will ever reach a point when we are 100% "finished". We already have a public version of the mod, it's playable, and we will keep adding content and fixes to it over time.
Q: Is it necessary to start a new game?
A: No. Just load your last save. But if you have downloaded a new version of SoVvM, it may or may not be necessary to reload a save before you activated the mod.
Q: Why can't I talk to some NPCs?
A: Disposition, Personality and Charm mechanics are not meant to be ignored anymore. If people don't like you this will happen. It is all working as intended.
Q: Can you ride boars/guars?
A: Yes, but taming the wild ones can be "tricky". Hint: Stealth and jump one.
Q: Do you need to complete the Oblivion main questline to visit Morrowind?
A: No, you can travel there at any time you wish if you have funds to pay the trip. However, the main questlines of Morrowind/Solstheim when implemented will require you have to have the Oblivion main questline complete. Shivering Isles questline is irrelevant. Side quests in Morrowind/Solstheim will always be open.
Q: Will there be a return of Dagoth Ur?
A: No, we don't believe in setbacks, however it's entirely possible you may experience visions of the past in which you are placed in the Nerevarine's shoes.
Q: Will you translate it into another language?
A: No. This is an English mod.
Q: Can I translate this mod into another language?
A: We don't recommend it since it will be obsolete after every patch. So you're not likely to get permission for it.
Q: Will you make an Xbox 360 version?
A: No and not possible.
Q: Will the Fast Travel option be available in Vvardenfell and Solstheim?
A: Yes, however it is entirely optional to use it. As an alternative, you can use teleportation spells or travel services.
Q: Will all cities be "open"?
A: All except Mournhold, which is actually split into 5 separate worldspaces to avoid memory overload and other nasty things. Simply put, you cannot "fly" over the walls to get to another district, you have to use the gates.
Q: Can I walk from Cyrodiil to Morrowind?
A: No, Vvardenfell and Solstheim are on their own map, you can't "walk" or "swim" or "fly" there, you have to take the ship.
Q: Can I swim between Vvardenfell and Solstheim?
A: It's possible as they're on the same map, but the islands are very far from each other.
Q: Is there anything special under the sea?
A: No, you can explore some of it and fight some sea monsters, but there is really nothing special on the sea floor and most quests are planned to happen on land. If you swim too far you will reach an invisible, unpassable wall, same as if you tried to leave Cyrodiil on foot. So don't worry about swimming to far, just don't expect anything cool, at least not yet.
Q: How does law enforcement work?
A: Bounties are shared with Cyrodiil's, but Morrowind enforces the death penalty for bounties above 5000. Skaal enforces the death penalty for anything and doesn't have jails. If you escape Morrowind and travel back to Cyrodiil you'll be "safe".
Q: Why can't I access that particular zone of Mournhold/whatever?
A: Some of areas, rooms or buildings are still in development or are not even planned to be completed in the near future. Rather than let you enter an awkward and buggy looking area or simply an empty cell that doesn't even have a floor to stand on, or placeholder cells that are good for NPC AI, but don't make any sense for the player to see, we prefered to keep them off-limits (usually locked doors that cannot be opened) while still giving you the impression that there is something there. For example, you will notice people going in and out of the Mournhold Royal Palace, but you cannot enter it yourself. There are also some areas that will never, ever be featured in the mod, for example you won't be allowed to leave Mournhold through the main gate.
Q: About Rinchois Hustaux, I have noticed he sells a lot of Morrowind artifacts including Keening, the Mask of Dagoth Ur etc. Is this part of the SoVvM lore?
A: No, Rinchois Hustaux selling artifacts is just a gameplay mechanic for you to be able to obtain these items (without using cheats) and it is not part of the lore.
Q: Will you add the Clockwork City and Fabricants?
A: The answer is most likely no.
Q: Will Fort Firemoth (from an official Morrowind plug-in) be recreated?
A: No.
Q: I have "Silenced" an enemy and it still attacks with spells. Why?
A: Some "spells" are actually powers and lesser powers. As a mod rule, we keep all spells vulnerable to Silence and all powers and lesser powers immune to Silence. We may revise this if necessary.
Q: Oh my God! I just got owned by a lich/whatever, could you turn down the difficulty?
A: No. We want content to be more challenging than in vanilla Oblivion. We definitely do not want a level 1 to just go into the new regions and kill everything in two shots.
Q: Can I Fast Travel directly between Cyrodiil / Shivering Isles and Vvardenfell/Solstheim/Mournhold?
A: No, you cannot Fast Travel directly. First you need to go to Anvil and find two people to provide travel services. Or you can use Mark / Recall / Intervention, but it does not work in Shivering Isles.
Q: How do you become a lich?
A: You must fist acquire the Tome of Unlife. You will find out what to do next from that point on. Note, Tome of Unlife is not a new item, it's a vanilla Oblivion item and we have added another copy to the book store in Cheydinhal. This means, you do not even need to visit Morrowind to become a lich. During the quest you can use both vanilla Oblivion and SoVvM counterpart items to complete the objectives.
Q: How do you cure yourself of being a lich?
A: You cannot. Once you're a lich, you'll remain one forever.
Q: How do you become a werewolf?
A: Get attacked by a werewolf or find the Sanies Lupinus disease potion. Wait three or four days and sleep to wake up a werewolf. If you're already a lich, you cannot become a werewolf ever.
Q: How do you get cured of Lycanthropy?
A: Go to the Altar of Thrond on Solstheim first.
Q: Can you please make it easier to become a lich? The requirements are ridiculously high.
A: As they should be, becoming a lich is not meant to be extremely easy.
Q: Why do liches have weaknesses?
A: We do not want something so overpowered with no penalty.
Q: Will this mod feature Fargoth?
A: Yes. We will implement him in a future version.
Q: Will this mod feature Gaenor?
A: Yes. Simply go to Mournhold and he's there.
Q: Will this mod feature Colovian Fur Helms?
A: Yes.
Q: Will this mod feature the Mask of Dagoth Ur?
A: As of br2, yes.
Q: Will this mod feature new Oblivion gates during the Oblivion Crisis?
A: There are currently no Oblivion gates in Vvardenfell or Solstheim. Although lorewise there would be, we feel players have seen enough of them in Cyrodiil and it's highly unlikely we will add any. A quest that deals with the aftermath of Ald'ruhn's destruction is planned though.
Q: Will this mod feature children?
A: No.
Q: Will this mod feature naked people?
A: No.
Q: Will this mod feature destructible buildings?
A: No.
Q: Is/will this mod be compatible with OOO/whatever?
A: The best answer we can give you is "maybe".
Q: My conflict detector says the "DIAL" IDs in your mod conflict with other "DIAL" IDs in another mod I'm using. What should I do?
A: Oblivion can handle two or more mod that add new data to the same "DIAL" ID. It usually isn't a real conflict at all. Don't worry, play the game.
Q: Why does this mod require the Shivering Isles expansion pack?
A: Because we used assets from the Shivering Isles expansion pack to make this mod.
Q: Will you ever make a version that doesn't require the Shivering Isles expansion pack?
A: No.
Q: Will you ever make a version that only contains Mournhold/Solstheim?
A: No, because the amount of work needed to split the main file successfully is just not worth it and the regions are far more connected than it seems. If this is an issue either get a big enough hard disk that wasn't made 10 years ago or simply ignore the lands you don't enjoy.
Q: Mod X conflicts with this mod. Will you make a compatibility patch?
A: We have no plans to make our mod compatible with any other particular mod as making the mod itself is very time consuming. For example, if you have a mod that destroys Anvil well tough luck because the people who can transport you to Morrowind are in Anvil. We do our best to avoid conflicts by altering things as little as possible, but there will always be some conflicts for various reasons.
Q: Do I need OBSE to play this mod?
A: No.
Q: Why doesn't this mod work for me?
A: Either too many mods, another landmass mod loaded before our file or you simply didn't install it properly. If you crash, try the "Purge Cell Buffers - Loading" mod.
Q: Why are there so many floating exclamation marks in yellow diamonds in the game?
A: A "floating exclamation mark in a yellow diamond" means that a mesh (i.e. 3D models) is missing from the game. Make sure you copied each and everyone one of the files that came with this mod to the "Data" folder where you installed Oblivion.
Q: I travelled to Vvardenfell but I didn't see any land, I fell in water instead, what happened?
A: Make sure the load order of the Master File "SoVvM.esm" is 01. If "SoVvM.esm" is the only Master File you are using, this shouldn't be a problem because it gets loaded immediately after "Oblivion.esm" and therefore has the load order 01. Also make sure you have all the mod's files.
Q: Why can't I see anything in Seyda Neen?
A: Seyda Neen is still in development. There is only a ship and a pier there. However Seyda Neen is the first settlement of Vvardenfell that will be done, second being Ghostgate.
Q: Why do some creatures fight each other?
A: This is intended, wolves hunt for food, bears hunt for food and undead want to destroy anyone who disturbs them. This doesn't always happen, Spriggans are meant to protect the wild and nobody attacks their own kind.
Q: What are "Strange Wanderers"?
A: They are found only on Solstheim and they're infected. At night they instantly turn into werewolves and attack. When killed, the curse fades and they return to their humanoid form.
Q: Why do you use so many vanilla models? Why don't you create brand new models or use Morrowind models?
A: When we started the mod, we had good Construction Set knowledge and lot of ideas but we didn't have modellers of our own. As such we had two options: Wait forever for modellers or just go ahead and do it with whatever resources were available. So far, the second option has worked better with a combination of modder's resource, vanilla models and Shivering Isles models (especially the giant mushrooms), if we waited to have everything ready it just wouldn't have been possible to actually put the mod together in our first year.
Q: Are you associated with mod X?
A: No, SoVvM is an independent project. We aren't affiliated with either Silgrad Tower or Tamriel Heightmaps or Beyond Cyrodiil or Morrob****** (the mod which must not be named). We may decide to cooperate with another team, but a merge is out of the question.
Q: Why don't you just join mod X? They're doing something similar.
A: We've been asked this several times in the past and we're just not entirely happy with the way other similar mods and other lager-scale mods in general are being developed (or have been developed if they're dead). We have our own ways of "doing stuff" and think it would be best to stand as a separate project rather than merge with one.
Q: With the release of TES V: Skyrim in 11/11/11, will this mod be discontinued?
A: No, we will continue to work on it. However we don't have any intentions of doing a SoVvM mod for TES V.
