Renee's Modding Thread Options

[Renee]

Mod-making thread basically, which focuses heavily on quest-making. The first two tutorials (How to make a fetch quest and how to make a kill quest) are very hand-holdy. They are designed for those who are just starting to learn the art of quest-making. Other tutorials get more advanced, as my wacky ideas have pushed their boundaries.

Just click on any of the links in the post below this one.


Bethesda Units. (How distance compares in-game to real-life).

Xpadder Walkthrough page. Xpadder is a site which allows gaming controllers to mimic the key & mouse functions. Xpadder, or similar programs such as Joy to Keys, are absolutely crucial to get the most out of older games such as Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, for those who prefer controllers. They can also be used for newer games (Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim) to provide alternate controlling scenarios during times when a game's native D-pad arrangement needs to be shut off.




This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 16 2024, 06:27 PM

[Renee]

Installing Morrowind from Scratch

Recently I had some problems with Morrowind, and had to install from scratch, all the way back to the discs. At first I tried to circumvent this process, which (long story short) did not work. Here's the story.

I happen to have a backup folder with all the vanilla files intact, so I copy-pasted this, but the same problems persisted. So with no other choice, I decided to go all the way back to the beginning. Started all over, installing from the Anthology discs. But as I did so, I ran into a slew of problems. For some reason the buttons on my Xbox controller were not working properly. Or rather, they weren't registering properly. I'd go to jump, and nothing happened. Ready weapon? Same thing, unless I pressed the button over and over. Finally, the Mod Config menu was missing.

But I was also able to fix all of this, and here's how.

Firstly, do NOT get rid of your old Morrowind folder. Keep this around, at least for a while, even if you think there's nothing useful in there.

--============================================

1a). Rename the old Morrowind folder. For instance, I changed my folder's name from Modded Morrowind to "aModded Morrowind". This is important. If the folder is not renamed, later on when we're trying to reinstall the game it'll keep trying to uninstall from the old folder first. It's doing this so it can reinstall into this folder, which I already know will cause probs. This is what I described toward the end of the paragraph above.

1b). Make a new folder, outside of Program Files (x86). Name it whatever you want. I named this folder Modded Morrowind.

And this is why it's important to keep the old folder, at least for now. Sometimes it's useful to see how folder paths were structured, especially when comparing the old folder to the new one. It's also good to see what's stored in there, for whatever reason. Basically, that old folder becomes a point of reference.


2). Right-click > Install Morrowind from the disc. Follow all the prompts listed by the install wizard as usual. Install the game into your new folder.

Note that my copy of Morrowind is from the Anthology disc set, which included a separate disc for the Construction Set. We won't need to install this disc; the regular Morrowind disc already installs this for us, assuming you've also got the Anthology set. I think this separate CS disc is for those who wish to install only the Construction Set on some other computer.

3a). Remove the Morrowind disc and insert the Tribunal disc. Install, following all prompts. Do the same for the Bloodmoon disc, and don't forget to remove this disc and put the regular Morrowind disc into the tray before trying to start the game!

3b). Cut/paste the Saves folder from the old Morrowind folder to the new one. This is for those gamers who wish to continue a game which is already extant, of course.

>> HOWEVER, if this save included any bad stuff (mods which caused probs in the past, for instance) maybe it's better not to use it. In my case I had a brand-new character, whose game only included Tribunal and Bloodmoon so far. I hadn't added anything else yet, since I was trying to keep her game "pure" for the time being.

That's the vanilla game. At this point, I booted up the save I made from before and tried moving my gal around and stuff, but the same problems listed above were still there. Animations were jerky, especially if I tried to rotate the camera. Several buttons were still not working, unless I tapped them repeatedly.

I was pretty pissed off of course, even the vanilla game is broken??? But being stubborn, I decided to forge ahead with more installs anyway.


Next comes what I like to call the "Big Three" utilities. These are tools which are necessary for a lot of mods, and I installed each one from their original archive files (rather than copy-pasting from the old Morrowind folder).

4). I have Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) for Morrowind, because it's light and easy to use. Some folks use Wrye Mash, which is more comprehensive for those who have larger lists of mods, especially if they're beginning to conflict one another. Some folks won't need a manager at all, usually those with barely any additions. I prefer to have one though. Since I only have maybe 20 plug-ins plus a few random non-.esp additions, all I need is NMM.

NMM can be installed anywhere, it's one of those programs which automatically finds whatever games you've got. I prefer to throw its files straight into my Modded Morrowind folder, for convenience. Made a shortcut to desktop, as well.

5). Next comes Morrowind Code Patch 2.4, and again, I installed this straight into my Morrowind folder, and then made its executable file to a desktop shortcut. MCP fixes a lot of bugs and also includes a LOT of toggles we can click on or off. A lot of mods depend on MCP for its script extender functions. But it's all those dozens of toggles which can be really fun, not just for functionality, but also for roleplaying options.

For instance, for some characters who aren't thieves, I like going onto MCP's Game Mechanics page, toggling Hidden Traps and Hidden Locks on. This adds immersion. Now, my non-thief characters won't automatically know if some door is locked, or if there's a trap on that chest.

> Make sure to press Apply Chosen Patches at the bottom of the MCP page when done toggling stuff.

6). The last of the Big Three is MGE XE, Morrowind Graphics Extender XE. Again, I put this into the Morrowind folder, and sent a shortcut to desktop. This improves graphics in all kinds of ways. We can change resolution for instance, beyond the limited choices the vanilla game gives us. We can use the FPS Limiter to curtail the engine from throwing massive framerates around. I've got this set at 60, which improves overall performance since my Nvida isn't wasting frames.

I also like using its Menu UI Scaling feature. Since my TV is roughly 5 or 6 feet from where I sit while gaming, I jacked this from 1.00 to 1.55. Now I can read the game's menus without my glasses! 👓 Keep in mind that making menus larger can cause other problems. Some stuff can get pushed offscreen for instance, such as the confirmation we need tdo click for Starsigns when rolling a new character.


7). By now I tried starting up my game again and got the "snowflake" error message, which is listed in the tutorial above this one. To fix this I removed the MW disc, inserted Tribunal, and copy/pasted all the files on this disc into my Modded Morrowind folder. Did the same thing with the Bloodmoon disc.

8). Removed Bloodmoon and put Morrowind back in the tray. Went back into the game, and voila... everything was working as it should. Why were the animations jerky? I don't know. Why were the buttons I assigned for Jump, Ready Weapon, Ready Magic, Next Weapon, Next Magic, and Use not working instantly? Not a clue. Why did I not have a Mod Config menu? You got me, pretty sure getting MCP added from its original archive fixed this, though.

So that's it: the vanilla game + its two expansions + the three main utility tools. I found it best to also install most mods from scratch, straight from their archives. I did this rather than copy/pasting my old Data Files folder. This way, I knew everything that's going into my game, and was able to take notes on what goes where, and what does what.

This is also a great chance to eliminate any dead weight. There's usually some stuff which got added at some point in the past which is no longer used. Did not work, or has stopped working. During the passionate moments of gaming I tend to forget about these sort of add-ins.


9). Finally, there might be a few things in the old Morrowind folder which can't be taken out of an archive. Here's a few examples: My Screenshots folder, Readmes folder (which I've organized diligently so everything is in its proper place, rather than scattered all over the MW folder), and also Morrowind Additions.esp, my homemade overhaul mod with hundreds of changes. It's a good idea to keep the old folder around, at least for awhile, deleting whatever's not useful anymore while cut-pasting all the stuff that is.

🍷👑

This post has been edited by Renee: Dec 28 2022, 02:29 PM