how to make my mod

[thisiam]

Hi. I recently dug up morrowind gotye again after like 8 years. I soon realized why i loved this game so much. I also realized a lot of "flaws" that never used to bother me but now they do. A lot of bugs and imbalances were taken care of by the MCP 2.1 but still there are a lot of important things that I would like to around in the game.

 

First I tried the TES CS but if there are ways to change game mechanics with this kit I haven't found them. I also looked for other mods but haven't found any that change the things I want to change.

 

Here is a short list outlining in general my notions of what should be changed:

 

1.) most important: the level-up system.

 

I like the mechanics of Madd leveler mod, but with a few adjustments:

Major/minor skills increase their governing attribute by 0.5 and misc skills increase their gov. attr. by 0.25.

Also I think a character should receive additional Magicka Points with each level up. For starters i would say they increase just the way health points do, but with intelligence instead of endurance.

Magic reliant characters simply need a boost to their magicka points if they are to survive.

 

2.) enchantment system is broken as can be.

A character needs extremely high enchanting skill to have a reliable chance of imbuing items with anything besides the lowest level spells.

Also If you intend to let an NPC do the work for you you need to be freaking rockefeller. However, once you can afford the price for strong enchantments on items, they become ridiculously powerful, making it pointless to cast any spell the old fashioned way.

So i want to change the formulas by which the game computes cost of NPC enchantment service and the odds of successfully enchanting an item by yourself.

 

I would also like to add a "spellcast animation" to enchanted items. My idea is that any enchanted item effect with a target other than "self" would require a spellcasting animation you normally would have to do when casting any spell. An exception to this rule will be scrolls, which will always require a casting animation, even if they only target "self" with their magic effects.

 

 

3.) armor penalties

Maybe I am the only one but I am dissatisfied with the effects of armor on the characters behavior. I want the different armor categories (light, medium, heavy) to fullfill different purposes and have a greater impact on gameplay. For example heavy armor should be heavy armor, making the wearer slow but resilient to conventional attacks. Also it should be a lot harder for a character to run, dodge, cast spells or sneak in heavy armor.

Medium armor gives good protection and makes it a little harder for the wearer to move fast or use magic, but not impossible for a skilled character. It should still be difficult for a character in medium armor to sneak though. Ever tried to sneak up to somebody in rattling chain mail in real life? I haven't but i can't imagine it would be easy. Medium armor is the choice for battlemages and warpriests (best comparable to clerics in D&D)

Light armor, as you can guess, offers least protection (aside form unarmored) but also allows for mobility and sneaking and spellcasting.

 

4.) skills

magic skills are too tedious to increase, especially considering the low magicka pool. a successful spellcast gives about 3 points of progress, but costs magicka and time. weapon skills are just too easy to increase by comparison. I would like to make the skill increase of magic schools dependant on the magicka amount used to cast the spell, instead of a flat +3 increase. A difficult spell costing 40 magicka should increase your skill by more than that, considfering you won't have the energy to cast it that often.

 

training offered by NPCs should be more expensive.

 

Successful bribes should increase mercantile skill. I read somewhere that the odds of a successful bribe are computed based on your characters mercantile skill, but give progression points to speechcraft.

 

Variable bribes: instead of just the 3 options of 10, 100 or 1000 gold pieces, there should be a window where i can freely set the amount i want to offer that particular NPC as bribe. Success or failure should depend on 3 factors: 1.) the magnitude of the bribe, higher bribe meanse better odds of success. 2) Mercantile skill of the player character. this represents how well my character assessed the greediness/neediness of the NPC to be bribed and how appealing my character let's that chosen sum of gold seem to the NPC. 3) the level of the NPC, or maybe his mercantile skill or maybe a formula using both. Obviously, higher level characters won't be as easily bribed.

 

5.) spell effects balance

 

I want to change the formulas for magicka costs of spells. a spell dealing 100 fire damage at once should be more costly than a spell dealing 1 fire damage per second for 100 seconds. additionally, i want to make poison the ultimative "damage over time" effect, since there is an extra "cure" effect to counter it. My idea is to make poison damage spells benefit more from long durations than other damage types.

 

elemental resistance: my plan is to make the magnitude represent "effective hitpoint bonus". so for example resist fire 50% gives you +50% effective hitpoints versus fire, which means fire damage reduction of 33%. right now the low magnitude resistance spells are hardly worth bothering.

 

I also have to do something about the spell effect sanctuary. the dunmer racial ability seems completely broken as it is right now. it grants 60 seconds virtual immunity to melee attacks versus a low level fighter type character.

-----------------------------------

 

so here are my ideas. i would be glad for some help or advice how i can implement those things.

looking forward to replies.

[Dragon32]

Cripes. I'm afraid I'm not expert enough in the ways of the Construction Set to help out here. I'd really suggest registering on the Bethsoft forums and posting in the Construction Set sub-forum there/

 

Some of these ideas may only be possible using Morrowind Script Extender though...

[thisiam]

First of all, thanks for your reply. I admit i was a little too optimistic regarding the measure of activity on this forum.

 

As far as your suggestions go, the bethsoft forums seem to have been down for some time now, but the morrowind script extender could be of help. do you have any more information where to find this tool and maybe a tutorial on how to use it?

 

regards.

[hollaajith]

Here is a guide for MSWE scripting. But to compile script, you need MWEdit. Also, if you are not familiar with morrowind scripting, then it becomes very difficult to make sense of MWSE.

 

PS : There are many different mods that does some of the things you want. There was one which made poisoning weapons possible. I remember reading about it at Great House Fliggerty forum. There are several mod addressing Magicka Availability in Gluby's Modlist. In that there is also a mod addressing Magic skill progression.

Edited July 26, 2014 by hollaajith

[thisiam]

Thanks for the links. I took a look at MWSE scripting but the functions there seem to be still very limited. If it would be possible to change the things I mentioned I expect It would be a long and difficult task. I am still looking for alternatives.

How was the MCP coded and integrated into the game? I think maybe thats the way it has to be done.

[Dragon32]

The MCP basically patches the Morrowind executable. As to how it was coded you'll need to talk to Hrnchamd.

 

I'd really suggest heading over to the Official Forums for more help than you're likely to get here, most modders who post comments are over there. They're a friendly lot.

[thisiam]

I'd love to visit the official forums. where can I find them?

[hollaajith]

Mororwind Forums

[thisiam]

Is it just me or is that link dead?

[hollaajith]

Its working for me.