Since I never even started the main storyline in previous attempts, I just started replaying Morrowind (the patched original - although Tribunal and Bloodmoon are now so cheap I might buy those as well) with a new Mage/Thief style character, and was rather hoping someone could suggest some good mods. I already use the Improved Signposts and Realistic Animal Behaviour mods, but am always looking to improve. What are the modules you guys can't go without?

Housing mods. I have "Latest and Greatest", but I can't find the damn place to BUY the house!

Better Heads and Better Bodies are good. The Lightning Mod might be good for thief characters; it adds bonuses and penalties to Sneak depending on day/night and weather conditions, as well as darkens the game substantially. A dark cave is now near pitch black. TLM is a bit draining on your system, though, so make sure your comp is up to the task.

Aragorns Monk Mod is another excellent mod. It tweaks the Unarmored and Hand-to-Hand skills without being overpowered.

Morrowind Visual Pack and it's update is another good one, but again a bit system draining. It's replaces textures in the game with higher rersolution ones.

Atmospheric Sound Effects it's updates is another keeper; it adds alot of differrent ambient sounds to the game, crickets at night, frogs in swamps and various wild animal sounds in the wilderness.

This is just a few of the around 20 mods I constantly used.

Sir D: I'm currently looking to join House Telvanni (I'm already a member of the mage guild - hope that won't cause any trouble) and obtain my own stronghold. Does that leave the need for a house?

Stratos: those look truly awesome and I'll be sure to check them out. One question though: just how draining is the visual pack?

Visual Pack is not so draining, but of course that depends on how close you are to the game's minimum requirement. The Lightning Mod is, on the other hand, quite draining.

If you want to play Telvanni, make sure to look for any mod that adds some form of teleportation to your stronghold as the Telvanni stronghold is located in the middle of nowhere.

In my last game, I used a Creeper Merchant mod which gave him a rather bigger purse than most people have in vanilla Morrowind, convinced as I was that it was illogical that no-one could afford to purchase my hard earned supply of Daedric items.

In my most recent game, a friend directed me to the Vvardenfell Druglord mod, which adds a subplot and quests surrounding the underground Skooma trade where you can take over a lab and start mass producing the stuff yourself. :D
When I first learnt that it was impossible to make skooma in the game, I was a little disappointed so this mod is very enjoyable and also realistic in that you can actually become addicted to the stuff! Becoming the Lady Scarface of Vvardenfell never felt more fulfilling, parading around with a pack guar and over 100 vials of lovely stuff. ;)

Not quite a mod, but I also like to add my own rpg oriented mp3s to the game's soundtrack which includes some mororwind remixes, since the morrowind soundtrack itself always feels too short. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've been tempted to try a few mods like those already listed, but haven't really been sure my PC is up to the task. Any interesting romance mods people have enjoyed out there? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Heh.. that sounds great. How do you add mp3's, btw?

Its nice and easy, but a little tedious if you don't like renaming files...I've never tested it without renaming them however! But anyway, this is what I do:

1. Choose your mp3 tracks!

2. Go into your Morrowind/Datafiles/Music directory and choose which of the three subdirectories you want to add to. (Special/Battle/Explore...I mainly use Explore and Battle)

3. Copy/Paste your tracks at your leisure!

4. Rename them similarly as listed, with a number that comes after what is currently listed.
For example, if the last track in morrowind/datafiles/music/explore is mx_explore_7.mp3, simply rename the first one you add mx_explore_8.mp3, then 9..10.. And so on...

Hopefully that makes sense and works for you.
Cheers! [img]smile.gif[/img]
CD
P.S:
Ultima remixes work well too, I'm finding.

P.S.S!
Oh before I forget! I could probably do with the "realistic animal behaviour" mod if it alters the belligerent nature of the bane of every Vvardenfell adventurer...the dreaded CLIFF RACER! :D

[ 12-28-2005, 03:04 PM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]

It does. I recall running through the Ashlands with over a dozen Cliff Racers on hot on my heels. :D Well, no longer. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Edit: thanks for the advice on adding MP3's btw. I have the entire Planescape Torment MP3 collection on my HD. I'll be sure to add some of those. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ 12-30-2005, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Dreamer128 ]

One of the first "essential" mods i discovered was the [b]NoCliffracers.esp[b] mod. It does away with 95% of all the cliffracers in the game. Which makes sense if you think about it. Vvardenfell is too small to support that many critters at the top of their food chains. Haven't looked back. ;) :D

Another mod which i highly recommend is the Fishing Academy v2.0 mod by MADMAX. Though i never use the 'fishing' elements, i've never come across a mod that opens up the world of Vvardenfell as well as this one does. The seas! The coastlines! The rivers! They're all your's to explore in your fully sailable ship! A very well thought out mod. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Is the ship free, or do you have to pay for it? I'm kinda pissed at all the mods that just GIVE you stuff.

Dreamer - I tested a few mp3's by just copying them, without renaming and it worked just fine.
So I've been superfluously renaming files all this time not realising that it wasn't necessary, hehe.

I decided to add some Arx Fatalis ambient loops for some additional combat themes. Makes exploring Daedric ruins just that bit more sinister. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]
The Planescape soundtrack is a nice choice too -
I have that aswell.

@ Sir D
You don't have to download them Sir D. :D
Not that I'm particularly interested in freebies either...adding deeper roleplaying situations and encounters to the game is what I'm more interested in.

Thanks for the mod name Sev, I'll have to look into it I think! Getting sick of even popping them off from distance to cheesily raise the marksmanship. ;)

Heh.. thanks for the heads up, as I was in the proces of renaming half my mp3 collection. ;) I find it hard to find tracks that fit, even though I have the soundtracks of quite a number of games. A few mp3's I do use are 'Duel of the fates' (lightsaber duel track from Star Wars episode I) for combat and some of the tracks from Knights of the Old Republic to serve as 'exploration music'. I also replaced the standard Main Menu Music with one of the opening tracks from Gladiator. (yes, the movie) [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmm, then this may be just to your liking. The whole mod is basically an angling club located on a new island east of Gnaar Mok. I just wanted the ship so i never really bothered with the new guild or the new fishing elements it adds to the game. The ship costs 50 pearls IIRC and there's repair tools and other whatnot that you'll need which can only be bought from the island academy. There's an upgrade that can be purchased for the ship (a cannon - not real Morrowindy IMO) and a few neat little mod features that i've never seen elsewhere like a real-time journey to the island by hire-boat from Gnaar Mok. (Actually that last bit's not as good as it sounds - it's pretty boring out in deeper seas.)

Everything you need to know to use the mod can be found in the readme. A pleasant change from some of the other advanced mods i've tested. All in all, a good, solid mod that provides an element to the game that i feel should have been implemented by the devs. In fact, if the aspect of sailing the seas were left to Bethesda, they probably wouldn't have done as good a job as this guy's done.

There's just one gripe. All those impossibly spikey rock formations placed in the sea to give an indication/illusion of space/distance haven't been removed. And they're a pain in the ass. But that's what the accompanying dinghy and repair tools are for, i guess.

i'm most concerned with pretty much anything to do with how everyone looks ingame.

[Game Files]
GameFile0=Better Bodies.esm
GameFile1=Better Heads Bloodmoon addon.esm
GameFile2=Better Heads Tribunal addon.esm
GameFile3=Better Heads.esm
GameFile4=Bloodmoon.esm
GameFile5=Morrowind.esm
GameFile6=Tribunal.esm
GameFile7=World_Of_Faces_Master.esm
GameFile8=adamantiumarmor.esp
GameFile9=AreaEffectArrows.esp
GameFile10=Balmora_House.esp
GameFile11=Better Bodies.esp
GameFile12=Better Heads Bloodmoon addon.esp
GameFile13=Better Heads Tribunal addon.esp
GameFile14=Better Heads.esp
GameFile15=Cleaned PlayableFacesPack v. 2.esp
GameFile16=Dwemer Sky Glider.esp
GameFile17=Gem Seller.esp
GameFile18=KP_Vampires_and_Necromancers_Faces.esp
GameFile19=Leias_Dual_Wield_03.esp
GameFile20=MugFix.esp
GameFile21=NightWolf.esp
GameFile22=OfficialMods_v5.esp
GameFile23=RealSignposts.esp
GameFile24=RheddHeads Bret_M01.esp
GameFile25=RheddHeads Imp_M01.esp
GameFile26=RheddHeads Nord_M01.esp
GameFile27=RheddHeads Vamp.esp
GameFile28=RheddHeads WElf_M01.esp
GameFile29=Sheikizza_Aedric_Armour_Collection_v01. esp
GameFile30=Sheikizza_Daedric_Armour_Coll_V0.1.5.es p
GameFile31=Sils_Long_Hair_Mod_v1.0.esp
GameFile32=Sils_UCM_Shirt01_BB.esp
GameFile33=TravelingMerchants-1.2_BETA.esp
GameFile34=World_Of_Faces.esp
GameFile35=AV_female_armor.esp
GameFile36=AV_fem_armor_Trib.esp
GameFile37=Clean SR_Orcs_heads.esp
GameFile38=UQFsFaces12.esp

:D

V***V

And for some fun and full of emm..relaxation mods. I present..

1. Earthly Delight
2. Vampire Embrace
3. Children of the Night
4. Morgenna the Witch
5. Laura Craft

There is somemore but i couldn't remember. :D