Morrowind Online

Slaiv · August 12, 2004

Let me restate that:

THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND IS NOT ONLINE. NO ONE HAS EVER DONE IT. NO ONE EVER WILL. IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

Now, let me elaborate:

Despite what many have claimed, no one has ever been able to mod Morrowind in order to make it multiplayer. There are so many complications and technicalities to list here, but, suffice to say, there are enough to make sure that it never happens.

No one ever will, too. Unless they have direct access to both Bethesda and the source code, it is impossible. To make Morrowind online, you would have to edit the source code, which is not available to just anyone. Plus, editing the source code is illegal. So even if you were to somehow access the source code and spend hundreds of hours editing and adding code, you would most likely be arrested and your mod shut down and removed from existence.

A quote from Daerk [quite a while ago]:

Zenogias wrote in this thread:

Re: Morrowind: TOTAL - New Year Announcement [Re: QuiTu]
#2111211 - 01/02/04 09:36 AM

I saw that post by Daerk.. all he said was that "It's a load of bullshit, Morrowind can never be online, How many times do *I* have to explain it?" and then locked the thread. Seems like a textbook 'online Morrowind' reaction to me, maybe he didn't even actually read about this particular project, as he didn't seem to explain why this particular project can not work. Instead seems to have just seen the words "Morrowind" and "online" together and immediately screamed in recoil at how Morrowind can never be online because he says so, and locked the thread so people can't even discuss it. How silly.. this project obviously has at least some credibility, and if Daerk (assuming he is not the ultimate be-all end-all of knowledge) says its impossible, then maybe they know something Daerk doesn't.

Here's my response via PM to Zenogias:

Just a note, considering the fact that the mods have shut down the Morrowind:TOTAL thread:

I read your post. Basically, here's my statement...

I've done more decompiling work and "reverse-engineering" coding work for major industries (including military) than likely anyone on this forum or the official ES forums. I have done extensive research into the Morrowind vanilla binary, as well as the patched Tribunal binary and the patched Bloodmoon binary.

It is impossible for the engine to handle two "player" data streams, and even if one were to utilize some form of hacked frontend that loaded a player's stream and then created an NPC version of them for display in your own stream, the streams are not able to be refreshed unless a full forced save is performed and then a force load is parsed. This means that it'd only be possible if you literally saved, exited to the menu, and then loaded again... once every second of ingame time.

This would be the ONLY way for the Morrowind engine to parse multiplayer capabilities.

The main reason is, although Bethesda Softworks purchased a license to use the NDL NetImmerse Engine, they received the engine as source code and then edited it for their needs. They completely removed the tcp/ip hooks and then compiled their own customized version of the NetImmerse source. That means that although the NetImmerse engine supports multiplayer on other games, it is IMPOSSIBLE on the Morrowind game unless Bethsoft recompiles the binary, or someone creates their own Morrowind binary from scratch, which is illegal.

As such, it is impossible for Morrowind to be multiplayer.

-- Daerk

And finally, a quote from Peregrine, which I believe sums up everything in this post:

Those people are idiots, it's that simple. Either they have no idea what they're talking about, or they're lying to get attention. For the (apparently) 10 billionth time, MULTIPLAYER MORROWIND IS NOT POSSIBLE. To add multiplayer ability to Morrowind would require completely rewriting the game engine. Which is completely illegal, even if it is somehow possible.

Yes, programmers can do almost anything. But not when they don't have access to the source code, and they have a threat of lawsuit if they modify the wrong things.

Multiplayer Morrowind is never going to happen, and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar or an idiot (if not both). End of discussion.