LE Morrowind Rebirth

[Natterforme]

I have been thinking about this for a while now, even before Skyrim was released. I would like to propose a serious discussion for organizing a group of willing modders to dedicate time to remaking Morrowind on the Creation Engine. I will say this again: this is a serious discusion to make Morrowind in the updated graphics engine. Here is a list of things I would like to see accomplished if such a project could be established:

 

What this project would do:

-be free(odd that this would be the first thing huh? well I think mods should be free to play since this topic has been hot recently)

-be lore-friendly(hopefully)

-remake the entire main quest of Morrowind+expansions(Tribunal and Bloodmoon)

-remake all side quests(faction oriented) with possibility of adding unjoinable factions(aka Dark Brotherhood)

-add in orginal skill trees, traditional leveling system, and birth signs( as it was in TES 3 and 4)

-fix bugs and glitches where appropriate found in original game that were fixed with mods but not officially fixed(that is to say to review the unofficial patches and bug guides to avoid future pitfalls and improve original gameplay experience

-add all weapons and armor found in TES 3

-add an option for the removal of quest markers or fast travel like in Morrowind (though it would be used as they are in TES 4+5)

-the addition of fast travel methods found in Morrowind(i.e stilt riders and boats)

-keep horses, adding types

-children for all of the races( in addition to the Nord children) though not killable

-add all weapons and armour found in TES 4+5 as easter eggs or optional load outs

-add all NPCs found in TES 3 updating to take advantage of improvements in A.I. scripting(i.e. NPCs not standing only in one place in a shop, daily routines)

-update the game world to use meshes and textures found in vanilla and modded Skyrim

-give Argonians and Khajit reverse jointed legs once more

-Vampires and Werewolves that are as lore friendly as possible

-playable Liches that are as lore friendly as possible(that is you can become one, you cant simply start as one) possibly with a quest line

-add the ability to wear:multiple pieces of clothing, pauldrons, and upper and lower body equipment

-add enchanting effects from morrowind to be used in suplimentation to current Skyrim enchanting, as well as "breaking" the feature by allowing the player the ability to have multiple effects added on to a piece of equipment in addition to allowing all enchantments to go on any piece of equipment(i.e. Enchantment/Alchemy Suit)

-possibly duel weilding/spellcasting unless it is found that it significantly breaks traditional Morrowind gameplay

-add all spells and ingredients found in Morrowind but left out of later TES installments(i.e. levitation, soul capture summoned creatures, intervention spells, etc.)

-add the ability to make potions using upgradable alembics, pestles, retorts, and calcinators, while maintaining the streamlined efficiency used in Skyrim(i.e. can make multiple potions at once, have designated alchemy tables, not having to manually drag and drop ingredients that have similar effects into a box, can see price, weight, and effect load out all at once, eating multiple ingredients gains alchemy experience but without killing you like in vanilla morrowind,being able to pick ingredients without having to select them from an environmental container)

-adding the ability to dye clothing to desired colors at dye shops or with ingredients(possibly used to improve a skill

-crafting skills for armour and weapons

-new voice talent for NPCs, both for variety and immersion(from fellow modders willing to lend their voice for the cause)

-take advantage of graphical and narrative improvements for story telling purposes( i.e. dynamic lighting, realistic dungeons,NPCs with more dialogue options, both voiced and textual)

 

What this project would NOT do:

-simply porting the Morrowind game data into a new system(avoiding MorrOblivion fiasco and copyright issues hopefully)

-adding dragons, dragon shouts, dovahkin, etc. and other plot elements clearly only intended for Skyrim gameplay, which would break the game

- interconnectivity between Skyrim and Morrowind/Vvardenfell and Cyrodiil, to maintain story and plot intentions( so you cant start playing Morrowind as a level 50 nord with full daedric equipment without the use of the console) (at least to begin with)

- have a pornographic focus, though nudity would be acceptable in my view(though what you do with your own game afterwards is beyond my control)

-killable children(possible toggle option, Im on the fence about this one right now^^)

-be an outlet for all nasty and twisted human desires(i.e. rape mods, sex mods, prostitution mods, skimpy clothing or obscine behavior)( I would hate to see so well an intended project be shut down because of immaturity)

 

 

Obviously this is a very short list but it is a start and I will add to it as I think of more changes that can be made

 

I would seriously like to hear all well intended input, as well as constructive criticism. I am sure that we have all had a "what if Morrowind had this feature" moment and I would like to see it implemented.

 

It has been speculated that the reason Bethesda has included terrain outside of the playable area of Skyrim is for the future implementation of "massive dlc." What could be larger than Morrowind getting a ten year make over? I think that since they did all of the work creating the height maps and terrain for a large chunk of Tamriel, it would be a waste if modders did not jump on this chance to do them one better. I know we will have to wait a while for the SDK to be officially released before any real work can be done, but I defiantly want to hear from any of you that interested or are having similiar ideas. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you have, as I will do my best to answer them to the best of my ability.

 

I will be the first to admit that I dont know everything and that I can not do everything better than anybody else. I am also not above asking for help! If any modder who reads this has a mod or a resource that they believe could be useful for this project, or would like to see it implemented, please let me know and I will start making a list. I want to be perfectly clear that I respect each modders hard work as their own and I want to give everyone involved proper credit.

 

If this idea has already been brought up, simply redirect me to the proper channels please^^.

 

I have currently placed a placeholder in the Skyrim mods section under Morrowind Rebirth, which is hidden for now.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 

-Natterforme

Edited December 25, 2011 by Natterforme

[Fatalmasterpiece]

This, along with a multiplayer mmo mod has always been the ghost haunting over TES modding community. Yeah, this has been discussed... "who wants to remake one of the largest games of all time from scratch!?"

 

Any team capable of this is far better off creating an entirely new game like Nehrim.

[ub3rman123]

I'd say you should scale back your mod some. Take the elements that can be their own mod and make them their own mods. Eg, the part of re-adding in Morrowind enchantments to Skyrim, or playable liches. They all really don't absolutely need to be a part of the mod, and it could cause conflicts and redundancy later down the line.

[HadToRegister]

I don't know if we're allowed to talk about that "mod" here, but I'm playing Morrowind using Oblivion Graphics and interface

[Natterforme]

I'd say you should scale back your mod some. Take the elements that can be their own mod and make them their own mods. Eg, the part of re-adding in Morrowind enchantments to Skyrim, or playable liches. They all really don't absolutely need to be a part of the mod, and it could cause conflicts and redundancy later down the line.

 

I have considered this for some time and I believe you have a good point. For sure, this would be a large project and some of the elements could be stand alone mods themselves. I believe that a playable Dragon Priest mod has already been added and, with the SDK, it is only a matter of time before a quest to become a lich would be added. But I do not necessarily give up on updating Morrowind with modern graphics. I would want the focus to be on remaking the original game in its entirety while maintaining as close to a lore friendly experience as possible. If possible, after completing this goal, certain Skyrim gameplay elements could be considered as an alternative option, that could be choosen individually by the player as to whether or not to implement.

 

To make my intentions more clear, recreating Morrowind's original gameplay first would be the primary goal of this project. I absolutely understand that certain updated elements could break the game( such as shouts and broken enchanting methods). Also, I would not want to add unnecessary lore and plot elements(such as dragon shouts) that would diminish the work of team which originally created Morrowind.

 

When looking for examples of similiar projects, I turn to the newly released anniversary edition of Halo:Combat Evolved. The designers recreated the game with the Reach Engine and remade the entire game from scratch, apparently without changing anything, in the new engine. Im not saying that this would be easiy accomplished with Morrowind, but I would defiantly argue that it can be done. To be fair, the updated version of Halo was done by a professional team with a level of finances beyond that of average mod teams. That aside, I wish to achieve with this project a similiar outcome to the Halo anniversary edition: the exact same game gameplay wise, with a ten year face lift. Now I havent turned off the borders with my version of Skyrim, but apparently much of the rest of the unplayable game world has already been heightmapped, and, from what I could gather from land expansions in Oblivion and Morrowind, this was one of the hardest and most frustrating parts to do. I think Bethesda is practically daring modders to fill up this space with their own creations.

 

@fatalmasterpiece

 

While I agree with you that a topic like this is not a new idea, I would prefer using these tools for, at present, improving the TES experience. While Nehrim was fun, fresh, and different, it was not intended to be TES related. I would like to excite TES modders and players by bringing this project to it fruition, if possible. As to an mmo style multiplayer though, it is my personal opinion that a single player experience is just fine for me, or at most, a party of a max of five players or so. Bethesda has proven that they can make single player games well, and I would only get behind a game with more player interaction if it did not break with certain lore principles. TES games work because the player has the potential to become a fulcrum from which major events in the games' history pivot. Adding multiple players takes away this aspect by making players less individually important. This is not to say that I am not in favor of modders pushing this idea, because I would love to see this option explored. It is simply my personal decision to play in single player mode.^^

 

@hadtoregister

 

Best not to talk about MorrOblivion, it was and is a big headache. Plus I would not like to see you get banned^^.

[JimboUK]

What about Bloodmoon? that could be put together from Skyrim assets and would be a far smaller project.

[Natterforme]

What about Bloodmoon? that could be put together from Skyrim assets and would be a far smaller project.

 

It was my intention to cover all of Morrowinds officially supported content, which would include the Bloodmoon expansion. If creating the island of Solstheim first would excite others to help or support tackling the island of Vvardenfell then I would be all for it. I recently scouted around on the island and could immediately see potential uses of current cells and basic buildings. I believe that, when creating the buildings and environment for Skyrim, the build team at Bethesda went back to Morrowind and looked to improve their basic designs from a previous game. The architecture of the tribal villages, as well as the layout of the interiors, are very similair to buildings in Whiterun and Windhelm. This is, of course, because Solstheim is the closest environment to Skyrim, since both have snow, large trees, mountainous terrian, and nordic architecture.

 

Plus, as you said, the scope of the project would be much smaller and would not scare off potential modders from its shear size.

 

Would anyone wish to help support recreating Solstheim first? It doesn't matter if you have little or no experience with modding, all are welcome! Simply reply here and send me a PM afterwards if you would like to^^.

[JimboUK]

I've haven't built anything since FO3 but it should be easy enough to pick up again, I'm not much use for anything else though. :unsure:

 

@HadToRegister Morrowind with Morrowind graphics looks much nicer. :tongue:

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/234717-1324991626.jpg

[Natterforme]

I've haven't built anything since FO3 but it should be easy enough to pick up again, I'm not much use for anything else though. :unsure:

 

@HadToRegister Morrowind with Morrowind graphics looks much nicer. :tongue:

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/234717-1324991626.jpg

 

What sort of things did you do for FO3? I mostly made clothing models for Oblivion but Im sure it cant be too complicated to try other things(otherwise no one would do it).

[JimboUK]

I've haven't built anything since FO3 but it should be easy enough to pick up again, I'm not much use for anything else though. :unsure:

 

@HadToRegister Morrowind with Morrowind graphics looks much nicer. :tongue:

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/234717-1324991626.jpg

 

What sort of things did you do for FO3? I mostly made clothing models for Oblivion but Im sure it cant be too complicated to try other things(otherwise no one would do it).

 

Buildings mostly, I do like a good dungeon crawl and I built enough homes for the population of the wasteland to have several each. :biggrin: