DarthMRN on 25/5/2005 at 23:00

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I've been looking for mods to alter the weather in Morrowind (original) to the worse. I want more rain, lightning etc.

I have been to Morrowind Summit and several other places, and found a lot of suitable mods. The problem is, I can't figure the way these mods are supposed to be installed. From what I figure I have to put the mod files into their designated folders myself.
I don't have a clue about this sort of thing, and so I have now filled my texture folder with so much crap I don't know half of it. The game still plays, and it has had a grim makeover I am quite pleased with (I installed something called Darker Morrowind). But apart from the textures I have nothing. The bad weather effects did not load, as well as a billion other little things I downloaded.
In short: Ive made a mess of my Morrowind folder, and not made any real progress towards my original goal.

My plea: Give me a link to someone with a "bad weather" mod that comes with its own installer, like that texture thing. I am much to computer illiterate to be messing with any program files.

cyrano on 25/5/2005 at 23:47

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It can be frustrating to figure out where things go after unzipping a mod if the person didn’t pack it very well. Here is a (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23) link to a thread at the official site. The second post describes in detail where various files go. The majority of mods are packed using Bethesda’s directory structure, so you copy anything in the icon folder to Morrowind/Data Files/Icons and anything in the meshes folder to Morrowind/Data Files/Meshes, etc.

A mod such as the one you describe would not likely have anything other than a single script that alters the weather in each region. That would be part of the .esp file (plug-in) and it is copied to the Data Files folder directly. Here is a mod that a quick search turned up: (http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/modcontrols/mod.asp?modid=4245) Mal’isirion’s Realistic & Expansion Weather mod. I have not loaded it, but is sounds promising and I think I would try it in the future. It may not provide the frequency of bad weather that you desire. It would be comparatively easy to make your own mod that would do what you want, if you are willing to venture into the construction set. The function ModRegion will edit the default weather settings for a given region. The syntax is: ModRegion, “Ascadian Isles Region”, 10, 20, 25, 10, 25, 10, 0, 0 . The numbers represent the percent chance of a specific type of weather (they must add up to 100). They represent: clear, cloudy, foggy, overcast, rain, thunder, ash, and blight respectively. Do that for each region (check the proper name for each region in the editor). There will be the small matter of starting the script, but I won’t discuss those options unless you are interested.

cyrano on 26/5/2005 at 15:00

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,,,Where to start?

As far as copying files, I have seen place textures in their own folder within Bethesda's ‘Textures' folder. This may work because the pathway had been established when the mod was developed. I don't know if that will work if you have Morrowind/Data Files/Textures/Textures/. Generally, you dump all the new texture files in with ‘the mess' of the existing files. It does make if more of a challenge to later remove the elements of the mod should you decide to un-plug it, but we all have to live with that. In short, the last thing you said: add them to the soup.

I am not familiar with Darker Morrowind, so I am unable to comment on how it performs. I have heard of the truncation error but I have never encountered it myself (I don't use very many mods). I think it is serious; it may be solvable, but I don't recall how that might be handled. Later, I will try to research it. The second error” Region (region name) weather chances do not total 100 percent. relates to something I mentioned in my first post. The mod may not actually flawed in that regard rather it may be referencing weather types not available in basic Morrowind. It may include new weather types, or (more likely) it references the snow and blizzard weather types included with the expansion Bloodmoon. Does this mod have Bloodmoon dependency? Do you have the Bloodmoon expansion? If it does and you don't, that could account for that error.

Without knowing anymore about the plug-in, I suppose that Darker Morrowind does more than merely make the weather more severe and that may account for the additional files beyond the .esp. Unless, you specifically want those other features I would advise you to forget about trying to make that mod work for you. In less time than it would take for me to figure out how to make Darker Morrowind work for you, I could write the mod you want to alter the weather. If you are interested, post the regions (all?) you want to change, and the percentage of each type of weather you want to have (refer to my previous post for the eight weather types). As long as you don't get too silly (50% blight storm in the Ascadian Isles ;) ) I can do this for you. There are two ways to initiate the changes that will be made via a script: typing StartScript at the console to launch the global script, or place a local script in a specific interior cell (e.g. Seyda Neen, Excise Office) that will self-start as soon as the player enters that interior. Let me know how you want to handle it, and also confirm which, if any, of the expansions (Tribunal and/or Bloodmoon) you are running. I am at work, so I won't be able to get at it until later.

cyrano on 26/5/2005 at 18:22

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Yes, I would do that for you, but I need for you to be very specific about the frequency of each type of weather and whether you want it to be different in each region. Again, the eight types (excluding Bloodmoon's additions) are: clear, cloudy, foggy, overcast (I think this means complete cloud coverage as opposed to some clouds), rain, thunderstorm, ash (storm, and blight (storm).

E.g., for the Bitter Coast you might want 5% clear, 5% cloudy, 10% foggy, 5% overcast, 30% rain, 45% thunderstorm, and 0% ash and blight (since these should not happen in that region). Again, this is not a realistic weather scheme, but one consistent with your preference. Edit it as you want it to be; just make certain that for each region the total is 100% (Bitter Coast, Ascadian Isles, Azura's Coast, West Gash, Grazelands, Molag Amur, Ashlands, Sheogorad(sp?), and Red Mountain). Red Mountain shouldn't be changed, but after the main quest is completed, Bethesda changes it in a way that is out of character with the rest of your weather scheme. I'm not certain what ill be the best way to handle that will be, but it is doable. Also tell me how you want to implement it: from the console (e.g. ~StartScript, “DarthWeather” ), or local script that will run once when the player steps into the excise office in Seyda Neen (as in, but not restricted to, a new game).

cyrano on 26/5/2005 at 22:23

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Well, get excited, because when you wake up tomorrow morning you will have a new mod. :D

I will do as you ask (although I am sorely tempted to through in a 10% chance of ash storms in the Ashlands and Molar Amur regions (it just doesn't feel right to be without the unexpected storm chasing the player to find shelter. I'll be off work in a few hours (west coast) and I will be able to work on it. It will consist of an .esp. file only that should be copied to the Data Files folder. Of course, you will have to select it to load with the master file and any other plug-ins that you run. To use it in an existing (save) game, you need only visit the excise office in Seyda Neen (where the player was thrown off the boat). The script will run once and then retire. Any new game you start will also run the script as you pass through that office. (I will include a messagebox line that will inform you that the script has run.) The file will be quite small (less than 10 Kb, so I could e-mail it to you as an attachment, if your e-mail address is included in your profile. If not, I will provide a link to a download site (my webpage).