Hello I've picked up an interest in modding morrowind, however the nature of my project requires pretty much changing almost all core mechanics of the game (attributes, skills, combat, magic). The changes are math-based for the most parts, but they do require/introduce new functionality and statistics to the game.

I'm just curious how deep can you go with modding/scripting and how much hardcoded is the game?

Depends on what you want to do really, what were you planning?

I wanna, for example, replace casting chance with a new system involving spell efficiency and effectiveness that are calculated based on the skill of the magic school, intelligence and fatique. Combat spells now can hurt the spellcaster as opposed to failing to be casted.

PS: This will involve reworking the tooltip in place of casting chance as well as the interface for spellmaking.

You should read http://wiki.theassimilationlab.com/mmw/Scripting_for_Dummies.

Hello and welcome to the community! Here is a fishy stick!

yep MW Scripting for Dummies will give you some kind of answer, and you should know that there is a http://openmw.org/en/ in the works for Morrowind, that will remove most of the limitations in both scripting and physics, but it won't be finished for another year or so.

However, I definitely want to advise you that if it's your first time modding, don't start out with a big project. Your spirits will be broken by the end of its development and it will be buggy (unless you're really good). You should start out with a small mod, a lot of people start out with house mods for a reason (I'm not saying you should make a generic house mod but you get the point) to learn the CS and scripting (using the MW Scripting for Dummies and the internet). For modding tutorials check out the https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzY_Z8hda6eDc5w9XyZEjLqsKk3rTlKUz on Morrowind Modding Showcases.

Of course I am no one to tell you what to do with your time, if you want to start with your project then go ahead, just making a friendly suggestion.

I don't think tooltips are covered, but I am not so up to date with latest developments, anyway state-of-the-art scripting improvements are in latest MWSE alpha changes by Merzasphor, look for related posts by Greatness7/Sven to get an idea of what is currently possible

Interesting idea! Spell chance http://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Research:Magic I think could be most easily controlled via the standard function calls Player->Mod/Set/GetCastPenalty as documented in http://mw.modhistory.com/download-48-12396. Changing the currently readied spell info and effects can be accomplished using a combination of http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1527946-morrowind-script-extender-mwse-2/ xGetMagic, xGet/SetSpellInfo and xGet/SetEffectInfo functions.

Thank you

You may want to see what dopeyfish did with his Mastering Magicka mod, as he did something more or less similar (if not exactly the same) to what you're planning now. He tends to mod in spurts and hasn't been active recently, but if you PM him when he does return I'm sure he'll be happy to answer your questions. Regardless, his mod is definitely worth a look, as its a scripting masterpiece (that guy in general is a scripting genius, and his mods haven't gotten the popularity they deserve imo).