Version 2.0

Introduction.......................................................................................... 4

Introduction to Version 2.0................................................................................................ 4

What to expect from this disk............................................................................................ 5

How to use this disk.......................................................................................................... 5

Notes:............................................................................................................................... 5

Basic plugin installation...................................................................................................... 6

UNinstalling plugins........................................................................................................... 9

Morrowind installation..................................................................... 11

Basic Installation and Patching......................................................................................... 11

Two Quick Adjustments..................................................................................................................................... 11

Official Plugins................................................................................................................. 12

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 12

Sound Enhancements....................................................................... 14

Sound............................................................................................................................. 14

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Installation:........................................................................................................................................................... 14

Game Fixes and Enhancements...................................................... 15

Fixes & Enhancements.................................................................................................... 15

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 15

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 16

Player Homes...................................................................................... 17

Player Homes.................................................................................................................. 17

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 17

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 17

Miscellaneous..................................................................................... 18

Miscellaneous.................................................................................................................. 18

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 18

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 19

Adventures.......................................................................................... 21

Adventures...................................................................................................................... 21

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 21

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 21

Visual Enhancements....................................................................... 23

Characters...................................................................................................................... 23

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 23

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 23

World............................................................................................................................. 24

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 24

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 25

Optional Items.................................................................................... 27

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 27

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 27

Utilities................................................................................................ 28

Utilities............................................................................................................................ 28

Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 28

Installation............................................................................................................................................................ 28

Hints, Tricks, and Help..................................................................... 36

Special Thanks.................................................................................. 38

Introduction

Welcome to the Octopus Overlords Morrowind disc manual. What’s this all about? Some months ago on Gone Gold (www.gonegold.com), another of our famous Morrowind threads turned to the subject of plugins. People began comparing their personal lists. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about - most games have mods that are played separately. They might change the weapons, add some new content, or fix a bug. Not Morrowind – its mods (‘plugins’ would be a more accurate term) actually meld with the game itself, and most experienced players wouldn’t dream about launching the game without a few dozen of their favorites. My own personal Morrowind installation currently includes 124 plugins.

A few people who were new to the game happened along, and while they were interested, they found the lists of hundreds of plugins to be confusing and daunting. Somebody asked “If I am just starting out, and wanted just a few plugins, which ones should I start with? Which ones are the basics?” Naturally, stacks of people jumped up and offered their suggestions. The result was, of course, another list of hundreds of plugins, which didn’t help anyone in the least. Worse yet, some of the choices were questionable. Some of these ‘basics’ would have had people turning their games into anime versions of The Matrix.

A few of us regular Morrowinders started talking and working up a new, combined list that really represented the basics, and included download links. Somebody suggested that when we finalized the list, they would download the whole set and burn a copy to DVD for interested forum members.

After Gone Gold went away and the community relocated to OctopusOverlords.com, I dug up the most recent archived version of the list and continued. By then, several people had offered to burn and distribute copies of the disk. Since I had offered to sort the list and type up the manual, it made sense that I would be the one to burn off the master DVDs for distribution. So here you are.

Introduction to Version 2.0

Well, it has been a solid year and a half since the disk was designed and presented to the community. Since then well over a hundred copies have gone out all over the world, and probably a hundred more have downloaded the compilation via bittorrent.

It has been long enough that quite a few of the plugins included have been updated or trumped by others that do the same thing better, and hundreds of new plugins have been introduced. It was time for an update. In addition, Oblivion is due in a few weeks. It is safe to assume that a huge percentage of the Morrowind community is going to migrate to the newer game, meaning that the current stable of plugins and mods won’t be getting as many updates in the future. Now is the perfect time to create a near-final version of this collection. You’re soaking in it.

What to expect from this disk

This disk is intended to take you from ‘CDs on your desk’ to a fully updated, tuned, copy of Morrowind, complete with a baseline of plugins upon which you can build your own personal collection. The goal here was to create a master basic list of plugins that would appeal to everybody.

Some people like anime Matrix like games. Some people like a mindlessly hard game. Some people like every nook and cranny to be full of monsters. Some people like to find god-like treasure in the first chest they see and play Genghis Khan across the island. These are matters of taste. One person may love these things, but another person would find their game ruined by them. For that reason, you will not find any of these things on this disk.

You will find bug fixes, empty houses, tweaks, visual and auditory improvements, extra clothing and armor, adventures, and a bunch of other things, but great care has been taken to ensure that, once you work your way through this list, your game will be, at its heart, the same great game that Bethesda Softworks gave to us back in May of 2002. The choices are not unbalancing, and were chosen for their quality and stability. Once they are installed you will have a nice, clean baseline from which you can add your own, more personal choices.

How to use this disk

If you are an old hand at Morrowind and its plugins, then consider it as a handy repository for some of the best. If you are new or want to make sure you get it right, then I recommend that you start below and work your way through this document. In it, I will describe to you how to install the game correctly, how to get the plugins installed and in what order, how to select the right options, and how to optimize them so that they work right together.

Notes:

All of the files on this disk are compressed. Most of them are in the same format as the author released them in, which means some are .zip, some are .ace, and some are .rar files. If you don’t know what to do with these files, every one of them can be extracted with WinRar, a headache/spyware free program. I’ve included the most recent WinRar trial version in the Utilities folder.
One thing I have noticed about Morrowind plugins is that there is no standard format for plugin distribution. Most are meant to be extracted to your /Data Files folder (the simplest method), but probably a third choose some other method – extract to Program Files, extract to /Morrowind, extract to a temp folder and move the files manually, whatever. Is it any wonder that new users get confused and put things in the wrong place? In order to make this collection user-friendly, I have repackaged probably a third of the plugins on this disk so that every one that doesn’t have an executable installer extracts directly to /Data Files. That means that new users only have to learn one method of installation. In a few cases where a plugin has been updated twice by way of three separate installations, I have combined them into one installation. I beg the authors’ forgiveness for doing so, but it is neater and easier this way. All documentation and readme files have been preserved intact, and nothing other than the packed directory structure has been altered.
The plugins in the Other Plugins folder are as-is. See the section later on for more detail.
Because of the things in note #2, be aware that this manual will only work with the plugins as they are on this disk. If you download the same plugins separately, this manual will not work, as the directory structure may be different, and some archive names will differ,
All plugins on this disk are of the most recent version I was able to find as of 2/27/2006.
Some plugins are designed to be played with Morrowind with no expansions, some require one of the expansions, and some require both. To do this project for every possible combination would have required four separate sets of files, and four separate readme documents. Since the Game of the Year edition of Morrowind, which includes both expansions, is available for only $20 (see GoGamer.com), I decided to work on the assumption that the user has both Tribunal and Bloodmoon installed. Let me make that clear – some of the plugins on this disk will not work if you don’t have both, and I haven’t bothered to point out each instance of this. Doing so would have turned this two week project into a two month project. If, for some reason you don’t have both, you’ll need to either get them or ignore this manual and read the documentation included with each individual plugin for installation and compatibility.
Every file on this disk has been virus checked, decompressed and virus scanned again, and included in a full system scan with Norton and the latest definitions, with AdAware, and with Spybot S&D after installation (Version 2.0 files checked with Avast! rather than Norton).

Basic plugin installation

This describes the method by which to install a typical plugin. It will work with practically every plugin on this disk, and with about 2/3 of those found on the internet. For the other third, you’ll have to read the included documentation, although it usually just a matter of changing the directory.

Most plugins contain a file called either an .esp or an .esm (Elder Scrolls Plugin/Elder Scrolls Master, for the curious). The difference between the two is only really important to the plugin authors themselves. The .esp/.esm file is the core of the plugin. Some plugins also include other resources, such as extra textures, meshes (models), icons, music, sounds, and so on in folders along with the .esp/.esm file. Below is a typical plugin, extracted into a folder:

Within your Morrowind directory (by default this is ‘C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind’), you will find a folder called ‘Data Files’. Quite simply, installing a plugin consists of placing the .esp/.esm file in /Data Files, and all of the other assets into their appropriate folders within /Data Files.

In the sample image above, Wizard's High 2.0.esp would go into /Data Files, and the contents of the Icons, Meshes, and Textures folders would go into the folders inside Data Files that with the same name. This is generally simpler than it sounds – in a well-packed plugin, all you should have to do is use WinZip, WinRar, or WinAce to extract the plugin directly to your /Data Files folder, and all of the files will go right where they belong. All the plugins on this disk allow that.

After you extract your plugin so that the .esp/.esm file is in /Data Files, you need to tell Morrowind to use your new plugin. Run the Morrowind launcher. That is the screen that pops up by default when you double-click the Morrowind shortcut. It looks like this:

Click on ‘Data Files’ and you will see a new screen that looks like the one in the image below (although it probably doesn’t have the nifty silver skin). What you are looking at is a list of every .esm and .esp file in your /Data Files folder. You simply need to double-click each one you want to include in your game. A check mark will appear next to it, and it will be loaded the next time you hit ‘play’. Hit ‘OK’ and you’re done. You’ve just installed a Morrowind plugin. Only 149 more to go! ;)

Some plugins include several different .esp or .esm files representing different versions – perhaps a ‘hardcore’ version and a ‘lite’ version, or different versions for each expansion. To make life easier on yourself, I suggest that you make a new folder inside of /Data Files called ‘Other ESPs’. As you install plugins, move all the .esp/.esm files you don’t want into this folder leaving only those you want active in /Data Files. This will let you install dozens of plugins at once, then just go through the launcher and double click everything on the list (note that this is done automatically if you follow the detailed instructions below.)

Once you are up and running, if you decide to come back and add a new plugin later on, I very strongly recommend that you run TESTool, Leveled List Resequencer, and Reorder Plugins as described in the Utilities section later on. You don’t need to do it after each and every plugin, just once when you’re done, before you launch the game.

UNinstalling plugins

If you no longer want a particular plugin to load, all you technically have to do is run the launcher and remove the checkmark next to it. This will, however, sometimes cause all sorts of problems and errors. If, for instance, you have a plugin that includes a Mean Whatsit, and you save right next to a Whatsit, then quit and remove the plugin, when you reload the game, your save file will still contain references to the Whatsit, and you will encounter a horde of errors when you reload it, maybe even have a crash.

Here is a simple way to avoid trouble.

First, go into the game. Take your character somewhere unaffected by the plugin. The best place is inside a building that isn’t part of the plugin. Be sure to remove and drop any items added by the plugin outside of your hidey-hole before you continue. Now save your game with the ‘save game’ feature, not the quick-save, and then exit the game. At this point you should be able to remove the plugin without causing too much havoc. The idea is to ensure that the location you are in when you save doesn’t have any references whatsoever to anything in the plugin being removed. You may still get an error or two when you load – ignore them, resave your game, and they shouldn’t keep showing up.

Whenever you remove any plugins, I very strongly recommend that you run TESTool, Leveled List Resequencer, and Reorder Plugins as described in the Utilities section later on.

Morrowind installation

Basic Installation and Patching

Install Morrowind from the CD.
Install Tribunal from the CD.
Install Bloodmoon from the CD. Patch with Bloodmoon_v1.6.1820.exe from the \Official\Patches folder on the DVD.

Two Quick Adjustments

There are a couple of things you should do at this point to make the rest of this process a bit easier.

First, open up the Morrowind folder (C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind). Look for a file called “morrowind.ini”. Open it with Notepad (right click it, select ‘Open With…”, and select Notepad from the list as shown below.)

These are all of the hidden game settings. I want you to add one line.

Right at the top of the page should be a heading that says “[General]”. Directly below this type the follwing line, just like in the picture:

AllowYesToAll=1

Save the file and close it. What this does is add a box to any error pop-ups that allows you to click ‘Yes To All’. This is important – when you are adding new plugins for the first time, especially if you load an existing save afterward, you can end up with literally hundreds of errors. This is normal – nothing to be concerned about. It is Morrowind saying that something that was there before has changed, which is exactly what plugins are supposed to do, but nobody wants to click ‘yes’ a hundred times to launch the game. This trick lets you click once.

Second, in the root of the disk is a file called ‘First.rar’. Extract this to your /Data Files folder, just like a plugin. All it does is add a few empty folders (Readmes, OtherESPs, and Utilities) to the /Data Files directory to make organization a bit easier. The rest of this document assumes these folders are present.

Official Plugins

Adamantium Armor
Area of Effect Arrows
Bitter Coast Sounds
EB Artifact
Entertainers
Firemoth
LeFemme Armor
Master Index

These are all official plugins released by Bethesda. The official descriptions can be found here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_plugins.htm

Changes from 1.0:

None

Installation

Install the eight official plugins by extracting them directly to your /Morrowind/Data Files directory.

Sound Enhancements

Sound

The following plugins are in this category:

Expanded Sounds – This adds or improves the sounds all across Morrowind. It is a great deal like Atmospheric Sound Effects (which was removed in this version), but with a fraction of the performance hit.
VGreetings – A number of vocal greetings and interactions were never ‘activated’ by Bethesda. VGreetings activates them for more verbal variety.
Voice Addons – This is three mods combined (Dagoth Gares, Dagoth Ur, and Vivec voice addons) that add professional quality voice acting to several of the more important NPCs.

Changes from 1.0:

~Removed Atmospheric Sound Effects: I've dumped this one, and replaced it with Expanded Sounds, below. The sounds are just as good, but the performance hit is significantly reduced.

~New: Expanded Sounds

~New: Voice Addons

Installation:

1. Expanded Sounds – First, extract the archive into /Data Files. This next part is a bit more complex than any of the other plugins on this disk. Go to your Morrowind base directory and open Morrrowind.ini in notepad (like described in the original manual.) Open the readme file from Expanded Sounds (in your Readmes directory) and scroll down. Note where it lists some items in brackets like "[Weather clear]", and note the line under it (in this case "Ambient Loop Sound...")

Look for that same section (like "[Weather clear]") in your Morrowind.ini file (CTRL-F for find helps) and find the line that starts the same way (like ‘Ambient Loop Sound’) and change it to what it says in the Readme. Now do the next one, and on down the list. If you just copy/paste the part after the '=' the whole process won't take more than a minute or so.

2. VGreetings – Extract to /Data Files. You will want to select all of the VGreetings .esp files (there are six.)

3. Voice Addons – Extract to /Data Files

Game Fixes and Enhancements

Fixes & Enhancements

These files fix errors in the game, adjust severe imbalances, or make the game’s interface a bit easier to use.

Ammo Fix – Bloodmoon had a bug that gave you one arrow, bolt, and so on as loot. This fixes it.
Bloodmoon Wolf Greaves Fix – the models for parts of the wolf armor in Bloodmoon were backwards. This fixes it.
Book Rotate – Allows you to set books down flat, upright, or open. It allows you to actually use your bookshelves.
CliffRacers – One of the annoyances in Morrowind are Cliff Racers – aggressive bird like creatures that seem to attack you every ten feet. They aren’t a challenge, just a pain in the butt. This plugin makes them non-aggressive. They will fight if attacked, but ignore you otherwise.
Fashionable Merchants – Morrowind merchants will put on any armor that you sell them, and end up looking idiotic. This fixes it.
MW-TB-BM Text Fix – Fixes a number of textual errors, spelling inconsistencies, and so on.
New Icons – replaces the spell icons with ones that actually have some meaning.
No-Glo Revisited – This takes away the awful plastic-like shimmer that any enchanted item normally has. If you prefer to look like an action figure, go ahead and ignore it. ;)
Potion Sorter – renames all of the potions so that they are sorted by what they do, and then by quality.
Potions & Scrolls, Clean – replaces all of the scroll and potion icons with meaningful ones.
Ring Texture Fix – fixes a bug that made all rings appear black when set down.
Time Plugin – allows you to adjust how fast time advances to get slow down to too-rapid day/night cycle.
Unofficial Patch – patches everything that Bethesda missed in the official patches
Fair Magicka Regen – this causes your magicka to slowly regenerate. It isn't fast enough to make any difference during a combat, but you won’t have to rest after every single fight, making a pure magic user more viable as a class.
Wakim’s Game Improvements 9 – Modular – these are a series of rebalancers that make the game a bit more fair, challenging, and fun. The modular version lets you choose which aspects you want balanced.

Changes from 1.0:

~Updated No-Glo to No-Glo Revisited

~Book Rotate updated to 5.3

~New: Fair Magicka Regen

Installation

1. Ammo Fix, Bloodmoon Wolf Greaves Fix, CliffRacers, Fashionable Merchants, New Icons, No-Glo Revisited, Potion Sorter, Potions & Scrolls, Ring Texture Fix, Fair Magicka Regen, Unofficial Patch – Extract to /Data Files and check the appropriate .esp or .esm files from the launcher.

2. Book Rotate – Extract the archive to /Data Files. Check the .esp or .esm for each product you own (if you own all three, check all three.) A ‘Book Rotate Patcher’ folder in /Data Files will let you patch existing saved games to work with this plugin.

3. MW-TB-BM Text Fix – extract to /Data Files. Be sure to read the sections on TESTool and ReorderPlugins in the Utilities section, below.

4. TimePlugin – There are two files in here. 2xTimePlugin doubles the normal day/night duration, and RealTimePlugin sets them to real-world lengths. Choose one of them and extract it to /Data Files.

5. Wakim’s Game Improvements 9 – Modular – This one is a bit different. Inside the archive are eight different sets of files. Each set has a .esp and a readme.txt describing what that particular .esp adjusts. I recommend that you take the time to actually read each of the readme.txt files and choose those that you want. The ones you want should be extracted into /Data Files. Below are my personal preferences – I use them all except for the two listed below.

I do not use:

Balance – Game Settings (causes NPCs to run away when injured. It may be realistic but it gets really old having to chase every combatant in circles for five minutes to finish him off.)

Balance – Faction (I have actually started using this one again, but be aware that with it, the Mages guild will no longer allow non-members to use its teleporter service. I disagree with this particular feature, but like the rest of what it does. It also makes it much more difficult for non-mages to gain spells.)

Player Homes

These are empty houses full of empty storage designed to be used by the player. They don’t have any mega-loot, although a couple of them have teleport systems. Either pick the one that appeals to your, or install ‘em all and decide in-game. Note that the Balmora Expansion (described elsewhere) also includes a player home. See the Overseer in Balmora to get the goods on it.

A Good Place to Stay – A door in a cliff face in Balmora leads to this underground home with a magic/alchemy room, armor display mannequins, and lots of storage. An optional teleporter plugin is included.
Abu Manor – Located in Ald-Ruhn, Abu Manor is a Redoran style structure which includes display rooms, alchemy rooms, a conservatory, and lots of storage.
Abu’s Retreat – Found just outside of Pelagiad, Abu’s Retreat has a comfortable, homey, natural feel. It includes a display room, alchemy room, lots of storage, and even a greenhouse. Note that two of the trees from the Trees Replacement are a bit out of place with this installed. They don’t affect anything, but they do look a bit funny.
Wizard’s High – Located just outside of Pelagiad, Wizard’s High is an elegantly designed home in the Mournhold (Tribunal) architectural style. Plenty of storage space, armor mannequins, a secret treasure room, and a hidden teleport chamber set it off.
Kahleigh’s Retreat – Located in Caldera behind the Wizards’ Guild. A beautiful place to live. Tons of storage, armor mannequins, and so on.

Changes from 1.0:

~Removed Stonewood Hall. It has a few issues that I was never able to get resolved.

~Added Kahleigh’s Retreat

Installation

1. All of the houses install the same way – just extract the archives to /Data Files and select the corresponding .esp files from the launcher.

Miscellaneous

These plugins don’t quite fit anywhere else. Most add flavor or a few goodies to the world.

Balmora Expansion Necklace Addon – Adds the necklaces from the Necklace Pack (below) to the jewelry shop in the Balmora Expansion.
Balmora Expansion – Adds a great deal of additional material to Balmora, including museums, shops, and attractions. It can cause a performance hit, but it is worth it.
Cait’s Critters Unleashed – Adds domestic animals to Morrowind. Tastefully done.
Curry's Recolored Armor Complete – adds a hidden machine that allows you to recolor Dwemer, Daedric, glass, and ebony armor and weapons – blue, red, white, green, purple, black, and lots of other colors. Very well done; I love my white Daedric spear!
Daggerfall Book Collection – adds a number of books from Daggerfall to Morrowind at various booksellers.
Imperial Guards Anticlone – There are Imperial guards all over the land. Originally, they were all nearly identical – same hair, same face, and so on. This mixes them up a bit.
Less Generic NPC Project – This replaces the generic universal NPC dialogue with unique, per-character dialogue. Note: This was actually nine separate mods behind, one for each of the main cities. I merged them to keep installation simple (you’ll still have nine .esps)
Marksman Plugin – Adds lots of goodies for people who like bows & crossbows. Morrowind, by itself, was rather lacking in good magical archery gear.
Morrowind Advanced – This adds a number of new creatures and encounters to the world, and does so in a much more natural, less intrusive way than GIANTS (which was on the 1.0 version of the disk.)
Morrowind Comes Alive 4.1 – adds an assortment of NPCs to Morrowind. You’ll find them in the streets, in the wilderness – everywhere. They aren’t quest related, but serve to add more ‘life’ to the world. They are easy to differentiate from the original NPCs (they have generic ‘names’), so you won’t end up trying to talk to every one of them to find a clue. Fair warning - this one can cause a low-end system to have performance issues in the cities.
Morrowind Comes Alive Names - this addon to Morrowind Comes Alive changes all of the generic names for the NPCs in Morrowind Comes Alive (like 'Archer' and ‘Merchant’) with lore-correct real names.
Necklace Pack – adds some necklaces. Included to use with the Balmora Expansion Necklace Addon.
Silt Striders in Vardenfell – adds wild Silt Striders to the game.
Splash Screens – An assortment of 33 game-loading splash screens made from official Bethesda materials. They blend perfectly with the ones that came with the game, and add some much needed variety.
Suran Archery Tradehouse – adds an archery shop to Suran with lots of custom goodies.
Vivec Expansion – adds something of a ‘slums’ to Vivec in the form of wooden walkways and constructs between the cantons. Very well done, and actually makes Vivec feel like a town instead of a pile of blocks.
Weapon Compilation Plugin – adds a wide assortment of weapons (some 500+) to the game.

Changes from 1.0:

~Morrowind Comes Alive updated from 3.1 to 4.1

~Weapon Compilation Mod updated from v1 to v2

~GIANTS Ultimate removed. I've completely removed this from my lineup. It is just a bit too much - it overkills the idea. I’ve replaced it with Morrowind Advanced.

~New: Morrowind Advanced

~New: Morrowind Comes Alive Names

~New: Less Generic NPC Project

~New: Imperial Guards Anticlone

Installation

(Do 1-3 in order)

1. Balmora Expansion – Simply extract the archive to the /Data Files directory.

2. Necklace Pack – Extract to /Data Files.

3. Balmora Expansion Necklace Pack Addon – Extract to /Data Files.

4. Cait’s Critters Unleashed – Extract to /Data Files. Check only one .esp – the (Tribunal) version if you have Tribunal installed.

5. Daggerfall Book Collection, Imperial Guards Anticlone, Less Generic NPC Project, Morrowind Comes Alive, Morrowind Comes Alive Names, Morrowind Advanced, Curry's Recolored Armor Complete, Silt Striders are in Vvardenfell, Splash Screens, Suran Archery Tradehouse, Weapon Compilation Mod, and Vivec Expansion - Extract to /Data Files and check the appropriate .esp/.esm files.

6. Marksman Plugin – Extract to /Data Files. Select one or more of the options when you check your data files. ‘Newarrows.esp’ is the basic plugin. ‘Newarrowslite’ is a special version that removes several features, but is more compatible with other plugins (the methods I will show you later on should prevent any problems with it either way). Choose only one of these two. The other two are optional: ‘Areaeffectarrows.esp’ are just that – some area of effect arrows you can choose to include. ‘newarrows - crossbow realism.esp’ changes crossbows to make them much more powerful, but much slower as well. I recommend moving the extra .esps you don’t want to your /Other ESPs folder to prevent chaos.

Adventures

These plugins add quests, dungeons, and other adventures to Morrowind.

Abandoned Well at Dagon Fel – Secrets abound in the ancient, boarded up well in Dagon Fel.
Beyond YsGramor – This adds a new faction, and anti-slavery group, to Morrowind, along with a complete set of quests.
Haldenshore – Adds a new village near Seyda Neen. Designed to give rogues and thieves something to keep themselves busy.
Havish – Adds a new city full of quests.
Havish Update – an update to the above.
Illuminated Order – A new faction, lots of locations and quests, and the opportunity to become a lich if you so choose.
Pelagiad Well – a simple dungeon in Pelagiad.
Suran Underworld – adds a new area to Suran, complete with a criminal faction, quests, and lots of fun.
The Black Mill – a complex and deep story-based adventure.
Trade Disputes – a short, but well crafted adventure based in Gnisis.

Changes from 1.0:

~Abandoned well at Dagon Fel updated from v1 to v2

~Beyond YsGramor updated from 1.2 to 2.5

~Suran Underworld – Updated to a special patch that fixes a problem with two houses occupying the same spot when used with Suran Archery Tradehouse

Installation

1. Abandoned Well at Dagon Fel, beyond YsGramor, Haldenshore, Pelagiad Well, Trade Disputes, and Suran Underworld – Extract to /Data Files and check the appropriate .esp file in the launcher.

2. Havish – First, extract Havish.rar to /Data Files. Next, extract Havish Update v1.2.rar to the same directory. Run ‘Havish_update_1.2.exe’, click ‘browse’ at the top, and point it to havish.esm, and click ‘Apply’. When it is done, you can delete ‘Havish_update_1.2.exe’, ‘Havish_update_1.2.esp’, ‘Havish_update_1.1.esp’, and ‘Havish.esm.bak’.

3. Illuminated Order – Extract the archive to /Data Files. There are three different .esp files here. Choose ‘Illuminated Order v1.0.esp’. If you have Bloodmoon, also choose ‘Illuminated Order v1.0 - Bloodmoon Compatibility Extras.esp’. Flee AI Tweaks.esp does the same thing as the ‘Balance – Game Settings’ option from Wakim’s under ‘Fixes & Enhancements’, above, with the same warnings. I’d suggest you get rid of this file – if you want the flee AI tweaks, use Wakim’s.

4. The Black Mill – Extract archive to /Data Files. Select ‘TheBlackMill.esp’. If you are using Better Bodies, included on this disk, you should also select ‘acsSunsiBBShirt.esp’. ‘MultiMark_TheBlackMill.esp’ is not needed with any of the plugins on this disk, so you can remove/archive this file.

Visual Enhancements

It is my personal recommendation that the visual enhancements be installed after all of the other plugins. Some plugins will overwrite a texture or two, or replace a mesh that may affect how these plugins work. Installing them last will prevent any problems.

Characters

The following plugins are in this category:

Avenger’s Female Armor – Makes armor on females look different from male armor.
Avenger’s Female Shirts – Makes shirts worn by females look different from male shirts.
Better Bodies 2.2 – Improves character model appearance.
Better Heads – 400+ improved heads, hair, and faces.
Ices Brady Robe Replacer – Updated textures and models for all robes in the game.

Changes from 1.0:

~Better Bodies updated from 2.1 to 2.2

Installation

1. Avenger’s Female Armor – Extract the archive to /Data Files. Select both .esps if you have Tribunal.

2. Avenger’s Female Shirts – Extract the archive to /Data Files

3. Ice & Brady’s Robe Replacer – Extract the archive into your /Data Files directory. Check the box for the ESP for Morrowind, plus the one for each expansion you have (all three if you have all three).

4. Better Heads – Extract the archive into /Data Files. Check the boxes for those expansions you have installed (all three for all three.)

5. Better Bodies 2.1 – Run the executable. There shouldn’t be any problem unless you changed your Morrowind install folder, in which case you’ll need to adjust the install path.

World

The following plugins are in this category:

Authentic Signs – Replaces the tavern signs with very high quality, unique versions.
Classical Monster Replacer – Updates the textures of most of the original Morrowind creatures.
Item Improvements – This is a collection of ten plugins, combined by me for easy installation, which replaces the models and textures of most of the in-game props. (Included are: Sir Luthor’s Tools, Better Books, Potion Upgrade, Scroll Upgrade, Key Replacer, GhostNull’s Silverware Enhancer, Soul Gem Replacer Retextured, Bottle Replacer, Misc Items Replacer, Hendalf Gold.)
Landscape Remix – Updates many textures with newer, higher quality versions. Note: This includes both the Tribunal and Bloodmoon versions as well.
Sharpened Weapons Model Replacer – provides higher quality weapons models.
Solstheim Improvements – Combines Fortified Thirsk and Cliffs of Fjalding, two plugins that improve Solstheim (the island Bloodmoon takes place on.)
Textured Signs Neutral – replaces the blurry road signs with quality, readable signs.
Trees Replacement 0.2 – replaces many of the trees in Morrowind with higher quality, often animated trees (falling leaves, too!)
Visual Pack 2.11 – Updates many textures, including many that the Landscape Remix missed.
Morrowind Visual Pack 2.2 Nature (update) – an update to the Visual Pack, covering additional areas.
Visual Pack XT – a further, extra-high quality update to the Visual Pack
Windows Glow II – Adds flickering light in the windows on buildings – visible from the outside at night, or on the inside during the day. Really adds atmosphere.

Changes from 1.0:

~Landscape Remix updated from v1 to v2

~Windows Glow 2 updated from 2.0 to 2.2

~New: Item Improvements

~New: Solstheim Improvements

~New: Metallic Signs (below)

Extra Signs: Also included in the Alternate Signs folder are Real Signposts, Metallic Signs, and Weathered Signs. These are alternatives to the Textured Signs Neutral (my personal choice – I think it looks more natural in-game). Use only one of these four plugins. The differences are shown below:

Metallic Signs

Installation

(1-5 should be done first, and must be done IN ORDER)

1. Landscape Remix – Extract the archive directly to /Data Files, overwriting when prompted.

2. Visual Pack 2.11 – Extract the archive directly to /Data Files, overwriting when prompted.

3. Visual Pack 2.2 Nature – Extract the archive to /Data Files, overwriting when prompted.

4. Visual Pack XT – Guess. Yep – extract it to /Data Files, overwriting. Inside your /Data Files/Textures folder, you will now find a Telvanni folder. Inside are a few optional textures that change Telvanni interiors. I like them, but some do not. If you want to use them, just copy them back into the /Textures directory. Note that the three Visual Packs do not have .esp files to check (but Landscape Remix does).

5. Windows Glow II – Extract to /Data Files, overwriting as requested.

6. Classical Monster Replacer – Extract to /Data Files, overwriting. No .esp file to worry about.

7. Sharpened Weapons model Replacer – Extract to /Data Files, overwriting if asked. There is no .esp file.

8. Textured Signs – Neutral – Extract to the /Data Files directory (but see ‘Extra Signs’, above for alternative options.)

9. Trees Replacement 0.2 – Extract to /Data Files.

10. Authentic Signs – Extract the archive to /Data Files. Run ‘BSAReg.exe’ to update your Morrowind.ini. You can then delete ‘BSAReg.exe’ if you’d like.

11. Solstheim Improvements – Extract to /Data Files

12. Item Replacements – Extract to /Data Files. Yes, it has seven .esp files, and yes, you need them all.

Optional Items

This entire section is new for version 2.0. These are all tested, reliable additions, but are kept separate for the reasons described below.

The following plugins are in this category:

Vivec Replacement – This redesigns the cantons in Vivec so that they have open tops (only the topmost level is affected). It looks much more natural. The reason it is optional is that all the extra geometry means that slower systems will take a performance hit when this is installed, especially if you have the Vivec Expansion and Morrowind Comes Alive installed. If you have a solid system, though, it is worth it.
WaterLife – Adds aquatic life throughout Morrowind’s lakes and seas. Good quality, but optional because of the potential for bogging down a slow system when combined with the extra beasties from Morrowind Advanced.
Where are all the Birds Going? – Adds flying birds all over Morrowind. It really adds atmosphere. Like WaterLife, this is optional because of the potential system slowdowns when combined with the extra beasties from Morrowind Advanced.
Creatures V6 – A really well done plugin that adds creatures – both combative and decorative – all over Morrowind. It is very well done, and very popular, but if combined with Morrowind Advanced, you’ll find a lot more combat encounters in the wilds.

As you can see, the last three all do the same sort of thing – add more life to Morrowind. Morrowind Advanced is the best of the four, which is why it is in the main list, but if you have sufficient system resources and/or don’t mind some extra fights, go ahead and add them in (I personally run all four.)

Installation

1. Vivec Replacement, WaterLife, Where are all the Birds Going?, and Creatures V6 – All four can be extracted to /Data Files.

Utilities

These utilities are designed to either clean up your Morrowind installation, or run as separate applications to improve the experience. This is, by far, the most important part of this document, so be sure to read the directions carefully.

As a brief explanation, many of the plugins and plugins for Morrowind affect exactly the same information, leading to potential problem. If, for instance, there are two plugins that both alter something a certain character says, they will either conflict, or only one will work. Another example is treasure boxes – there is a random list that determines what is in all of those boxes in the various dungeons. If two separate plugins both try to add something to that list (one adds new arrows, another new weapons), they will conflict. These utilities are specially designed to sort through these lists and conflicts and fix them, creating a single all-encompassing plugin that combines the conflicting parts of all of the others.

Leveled List Resequencer – Fixes a problem that TESTool misses.
Morrowind FPS Optimizer – Runs in the background and greatly improves both Morrowind’s speed and visual quality. Absolutely essential.
Morrowind Interactive Map – A standalone, ultra high-detail map of the Morrowind that lets you search for those archaic locations with an easy dropdown. Shows all travel routes, and lets you make your own notes. This will be invaluable when you start getting sent on quests to lost tombs and caves with names like ‘Axababalutalamatasaru’. (Morrowind is alt-tab friendly if you don’t have two PCs.)
ReorderPlugins – Lets you easily change the order in which plugins are loaded.
TESTool – The main ‘clean it up’ tool for Morrowind.

Changes from 1.0:

No new versions, but the plugin order has changed, see below.

Installation

(Do 1-3 carefully and in order!)

IMPORTANT – if you install new plugins or uninstall active plugins, steps 1-3 below should be repeated. Yes, every time, or you are going to wind up with errors. Once you have worked your way through it once, the entire process only takes one or two minutes.

1. TESTool – Extract to a permanent directory of your choice (the Utilities folder works well if you have one). Once you have it extracted, run ‘TESTool.exe’. Make certain you have installed all of the plugins you want to play with and have selected them all from the launcher as described at the beginning of this document. Now click on ‘Manage Active Plugins’ and then on the ‘Execute’ button. Now click on the ‘Update Header’ button. It should only take a second. Click ‘OK’.

Note: ‘Update Header’, for you old-time Morrowinders, does exactly the same thing as loading each plugin into the editor and re-saving it, which used to have to be done manually after every patch.

Next, click on ‘Just Fix It’. Click ‘Yes’ and give it a few minutes. It is sorting through all of your plugins and clearing up any conflicts. When you get a message saying, ‘Check “C:\Program Files\Bethesda…”’, it will be done. Go ahead and exit.

2. Leveled List Resequencer – Extract this to /Data Files. Run ‘Leveled List Resequencer.exe’. Let it run – when you get a pop-up telling you how many lists have been resequenced, you’ll be done.

3. ReorderPlugins – First of all, a brief explanation: Morrowind loads files in order by the date when they were last saved by the editor. That means that the earliest-saved file will be loaded first, and the most recently saved file will be loaded last. If two things conflict, the most recently loaded will override the one loaded earlier. This isn’t necessarily a bug – some plugins, like those that fix bugs, use this to their advantage to override default settings. The problem, then, is making sure that we have the right ones loading last.

To start this program, double click on ‘reorderPlugins.bat’. Make sure the checkmark is next to ‘ESP’, as shown in the picture. This is the order in which your plugins are loading. Now select the plugin you want to change an click on ‘move up’ or ‘move down’ until it is located where you want it. The accompanying image shows my suggested load order, from the bottom. For those listed above ‘MCAnames4.1lorecorrect

.esp’, order isn’t all that important. (Hint: once you have clicked ‘move up’ or ‘move down’ on a particular item, you can just tap your spacebar to keep moving it.)

The list is reproduced below in case you have trouble with the image. Just to clarify – Merged_Leveled_Lists.esp should be at the bottom, the rest arranged in order above that. When you are finished, click ‘OK’. Your plugins are ready to play.

MCAnames4.1lorecorrect

TheBlackMill

acsSunsiBBShirt

Book Rotate - Tribunal v5.3

bm_wolf_greaves_fix

BM-Fixes

Ring Texture Fix

BloodmoonAmmoFix

Windows Glow

Balance - (all)

Gameplay - (all)

cliffRacersv1

No-Glo_Revisited

Fashionable Merchants 1.0

Text Patch for...

Merged_Objects

Merged_Dialogs

Merged_Leveled_Lists

4. Morrowind Interactive Map – This one’s easy – extract to a temporary location and run the installer. An icon will be placed on your desktop. Read the help file for details, but note the magnifying icons at the top, as well as the Silt Strider, anchor, and magic wand icons – these show the routes of Silt Strider, boat, and teleporter travel, respectively. The dropdown menu lists every default location (down to every single house and hut) on the entire island. Pick one and hit ‘go’ to see where it’s at.

5. Morrowind FPS Optimizer – Extract the archive to a permanent location of your choice. Run “mw_fps_opt.exe”. It will tell you that Morrowind isn’t found; ignore that for now. At the top left is box marked ‘novice mode’; uncheck it. There are a hundred different things that this little wonder can do. They are detailed in ‘MW_FPS_OPT.HLP’, but I will touch on the high points here, listed under each of the ‘tabs’ at the top of the window. Note that the pictures are my settings. They may not work for you – again, read the help file.

View – These settings are the core of what the FPS Optimizer does. They control your view distance – how far from you the ‘fog’ begins while you are playing. If the fog is closer, your computer will have less detail to worry about. If it is farther, the view will be much nicer, but your PC will be doing more work. The only things the average user should worry about here is to uncheck ‘use mouse wheel for increase/decrease actions’ if you plan to use your mouse wheel in-game. You may also want to bind a key to ‘maximize’ for the best screenshots.

What all of this does is dynamically control your view distance. If you are playing and things suddenly get very, very choppy, it will automatically decrease the view distance, speeding up the game until you are getting good frame rates again. If you are getting really good rates, it will automatically increase the distance, up to double the maximum that you can set from within the game itself! By default, the Optimizer keeps you above 15 frames per second.

Misc – At the top, you can bind a key to let you manually toggle the crosshair off and on. Personally, I find the crosshair makes the game feel like a shooter, so I keep it off unless I want to pick something up or target a distant object.

Below that are a set of music volume controls – this is a fantastic tool. You can bind keys to increase volume, decrease volume, and skip to the next track. Here is one of the best tricks – if you look in the ‘Morrowind\Data Files\Music\Explore’ folder, you will see all of the music that Morrowind plays by default. You can delete (or back up) these files and put in any number of .mp3 files of your own, and then control them with these music controls. Check ‘no track interruption’ to keep your songs from getting interrupted every time combat starts. Instant .mp3 player!

At the bottom are two very handy options ‘number of shadows’ and ‘gamma level’. Check these. They will let you set each of these separately for indoor and outdoor environments. Shadows, when enabled outside, are the number one killer of frame rates in the game. Turn them all the way off unless you are getting unbelievable frame rates. When you go inside a building, turn them up a bit – with FPS Optimizer, it will always have them off outside and on inside (or however you had them set.) Same thing with Gamma; this lets you brighten those caves up a bit without washing out the landscape outside.

Misc/2 – The handiest thing here is the ability to set a different mouse cursor speed for when you have menus (including inventory and such).

n-patch – This is an amazing feature that only works if you have a fairly recent ATI card (my old 9700 Pro had it). You will have to go into your advanced display properties for your card and find a setting for ‘TRUFORM’, then set it to ‘application preference’ (it is off by default). This image is where it is located in Omega driver of the control panel:

Once you have done so, come back to the n-patch tab and click on ‘options’ on the left side. Check ‘enabled’ and bind a toggle key. The next time you play, look at a tree’s branches (or a rock, or a bottle, or any of a hundred other things). Hit the toggle key and watch the polygons disappear, leaving a perfectly curved surface instead. IF it works. If Morrowind immediately crashes, you’ll have to disable it again, no harm done. Be warned that it does come with a small performance hit, but the difference is amazing. The only time it causes a problem is on a few indoor stairways (four or five places in the game) where it distorts the ground. Just hit the toggle key again while you’re in these areas.

System – There are a few options here to be aware of. Mimimize program to system tray means that when you hit ‘minimize’, the program will go to the systray instead of the task bar. Check it. Check run minimized as well. Now when you launch the FPS optimizer, it will go straight to the system tray without bugging you. You can always access the controls again by double-clicking the system tray icon.

Run Morrowind on program startup is the easy way to do things – when you launch the FPS Optimizer, it automatically launches Morrowind. Otherwise you have to manually launch both of them. I recommend checking ‘terminate this program together with Morrowind’ so you don’t forget and have it running all day (you don’t want to leave it running while playing other games – it can make them act funny.) Check these two and you can just use the FPS Optimizer icon as if it were the Morrowind icon. They will run and exit as if they were one program.

Morrowind process priority is a tricky, tricky number. It may give you greatly increased performance. It may also make Morrowind crash every five minutes. Make sure your game is running stable before fiddling with this, then try bumping it up. If things get ugly, put it back to ‘normal’.

Hints, Tricks, and Help

Here are a few tricks and links that can help you keep things running their best.

The easiest trick – you have just installed a game, two expansions, and more than 70 plugins. This would be an excellent time to defragment your hard drive.

Morrowind performance is more affected by visual settings than by resolution. Resolution rarely has a major impact on performance in Morrowind. As a result, you’re better running at a higher resolution with less antialiasing/anisotropic filtering than you are at a lower resolution with more.

Here are the official Morrowind forums: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/ They are probably the best place to go for tech help (just don’t ask when Oblivion is due out.)

Second is Telesphoros’ List o’ Plugins. This disk is a collection of the basics to get you started. Telesphoros’ is a comprehensive list of all of best plugins out there. This list (and Telesphoros himself) was invaluable in the creation of the selection of plugins for this list: http://www.mwmythicplugins.com/telesphoros.htm (if the list is down, he also maintains a copy on the official forums, above.)

Along with Telesphoros, Ronin49 keeps a fantastic selection of mods, lists, guides, and links dealing with Morrowind: http://www.mwmythicmods.com/ronin.htm

The best place for a guide to damned near anything having to do with Morrowind is, or course, Gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/3365.html

An excellent guide on tweaking Morrowind is at Tweaktown: http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=316 It is still mostly accurate, but remember that a modern PC is much more powerful than the ones that guide was designed for.

Next, here is a link for a series of three guides designed to make your computer do its absolute best. They aren’t for novice PC users, and can be a bit aggressive, but they can really get your system working its best:

first http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=411,

second : http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=324,

and third http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=434

Now I will give you a few links to some of the best Morrowind plugin download sites on the ‘net, just in case this collection has whetted your appetite for more. Your first source should be Telesphoros’ List, but when you’re done with that, here’s where to browse:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.List

http://www.unforgottenrealms.net/downloads2/pafiledb.php?action=category&id=11

http://khalazza.production.free.fr/all_plugins.php

Last, Octopus Overlords, the website that spawned this project. You’ll find me there most of the time: http://www.octopusoverlords.com

Special Thanks

Thanks to the people who helped with the generation of this project – Telesphoros, Hetz, Meghan, plus many others who offered up a suggestion or two.

Thanks to Zaxxon for being my techspert for the patch.

Thanks to the people who are doing their part by burning this and getting it out to the people who will enjoy it.

Thanks to the horde of plugin artists who created all of this joy.

Thanks to Bethesda for Morrowind and the rest of the Elder Scrolls universe, even if I can’t get Redguard to run worth a damn. ;)

Thanks to the Octopus Overlords for allowing me to exist to serve them.

Thanks to Kathode who dragged me into Morrowind plugins with a private little house in Balmora the day the game was released.

Thanks to Rich

Copyright

All materials herein remain the property of their respective authors as described in the documentation accompanying each individual piece. All original materials are copyright D. Budd, 2004. This document may not be modified in any way without prior authorization.

D. Budd,

blackhawk@insightbb.com