Vanilla or Modded for first playthrough?

[Ash]

Yes, I have 30 some hours on this game but I've never finished a playthrough. Or hardly gotten far at all. Just wanted to hear if I should install mods or play vanilla. I know its an older game.

EDIT: I hate Wrye Mash, I'm too stupid to understand how to use it correctly, modding this game is a chore. I'm going vanilla.

EDIT 2: I'm using openMW.

[piccolo255]

Eh, I have 300+ hours on Steam, and at least 3~4 times that when the game first came out, playing modded for most of that time, and I've never finished a playthrough either

My advice would be:

* Morrowind Code Patch, Patch for Purists (or Unofficial Morrowind Patch), and MGE XE are a given. If you don't have them, install them ASAP. A broken game is no fun.
MCP: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/19510
PfP: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45096
MGE XE: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/41102

* Other than that, if you're having fun, keep playing vanilla! Otherwise, keep reading.

* If some parts of the game are very annoying, (try to) find small mods to fix them. Mods that add some QoL improvements are nice to have at any point. There's no need to suffer the technical and design limitations of the Good Old Times. Some recommendations:

Sophisticated Save System: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45608
- Multiple quick save slots, etc.

Continue: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45952
- Add "Continue" button to main menu :)

UI Expansion: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46071
- Filter & search inventory, magic menu, etc.

Modern User Interface: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42526
- Looks much better, though a bit too flat.

Better Dialogue Font: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/36873
- Also all other fonts.

Descriptive Descriptions: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45991
- Adds hidden but important stats like weapon reach, enchant capacity, etc. to the tooltips.

Tooltips Complete: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46842
- Adds lore flavor text to item tooltips, for better immersion.

Happy Harvesting: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45627
- The "take items" dialog for plants was my biggest annoyance - now it's gone, and the world is a much better place.

Poison Crafting: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45729
- Use alchemy for offense. A different type of QoL from the above, but feels like it should've been in vanilla.

* If graphics are jarring (as you say, it's an older game), drop in some graphical mods -- I recommend better heads/bodies, a texture replacer, and MGE XE with water shaders (my personal favorite).
Better Heads: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42226
Better Bodies: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42399
Better Clothes: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42262
Enhanced Water Shader for MGE XE: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45432

* Things like extra armor sets, weapons, magic scrolls, etc., are nice to add after you start to get bored with the existing set of items. There's a lot in vanilla, but after hundreds of hours, it can get a smidge repetitive. At ~30ish hours, I'd say it's still a bit early.

* It's far too early for "large content" mods, like Morrowind Rebirth, Tamriel Rebuilt, etc. Give it at least a couple more hundred hours, maybe more. Once the game starts feeling a bit stale or limiting, revisit the large mods. I'd say, only past a thousand hour mark, but that's very subjective

* Bethesda's "official plugins" are also mods, and IMHO should've been added to the base install.
Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/43931

[Ash]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Eh, I have 300+ hours on Steam, and at least 3~4 times that when the game first came out, playing modded for most of that time, and I've never finished a playthrough either :lunar2019grinningpig:

My advice would be:

* Morrowind Code Patch, Patch for Purists (or Unofficial Morrowind Patch), and MGE XE are a given. If you don't have them, install them ASAP. A broken game is no fun.
MCP: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/19510
PfP: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45096
MGE XE: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/41102

* Other than that, if you're having fun, keep playing vanilla! Otherwise, keep reading.

* If some parts of the game are very annoying, (try to) find small mods to fix them. Mods that add some QoL improvements are nice to have at any point. There's no need to suffer the technical and design limitations of the Good Old Times. Some recommendations:

Sophisticated Save System: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45608
- Multiple quick save slots, etc.

Continue: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45952
- Add "Continue" button to main menu :)

UI Expansion: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46071
- Filter & search inventory, magic menu, etc.

Modern User Interface: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42526
- Looks much better, though a bit too flat.

Better Dialogue Font: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/36873
- Also all other fonts.

Descriptive Descriptions: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45991
- Adds hidden but important stats like weapon reach, enchant capacity, etc. to the tooltips.

Tooltips Complete: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46842
- Adds lore flavor text to item tooltips, for better immersion.

Happy Harvesting: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45627
- The "take items" dialog for plants was my biggest annoyance - now it's gone, and the world is a much better place.

Poison Crafting: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45729
- Use alchemy for offense. A different type of QoL from the above, but feels like it should've been in vanilla.

* If graphics are jarring (as you say, it's an older game), drop in some graphical mods -- I recommend better heads/bodies, a texture replacer, and MGE XE with water shaders (my personal favorite).
Better Heads: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42226
Better Bodies: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42399
Better Clothes: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42262
Enhanced Water Shader for MGE XE: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45432

* Things like extra armor sets, weapons, magic scrolls, etc., are nice to add after you start to get bored with the existing set of items. There's a lot in vanilla, but after hundreds of hours, it can get a smidge repetitive. At ~30ish hours, I'd say it's still a bit early.

* It's far too early for "large content" mods, like Morrowind Rebirth, Tamriel Rebuilt, etc. Give it at least a couple more hundred hours, maybe more. Once the game starts feeling a bit stale or limiting, revisit the large mods. I'd say, only past a thousand hour mark, but that's very subjective :lunar2019grinningpig:

* Bethesda's "official plugins" are also mods, and IMHO should've been added to the base install.
Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/43931

Awesome! Just what I needed. Thank you very much!

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Ash:

Awesome! Just what I needed. Thank you very much! :flowey:

You're welcome!

Just be aware that Morrowind modding system is also "old", and can be a bit of a chore -- especially if you later want to remove a mod. There are some mod managers around, though I've only used Wrye Mash; it works well and is quite powerful, but it's not particularly user friendly.

[Dixon Sider]

+1 for Vanilla. This is one of the best made games of all time, and pretty much every mod I have tried has changed something that upset me. Graphical mods are w/e if you can find some good ones, but I would suggest not trying to change the game mechanics at all because this is one of those games that are so huge, the bugs are a large part of its identity and character. Nothing else like it has ever come out.

[Ash]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

+1 for Vanilla. This is one of the best made games of all time, and pretty much every mod I have tried has changed something that upset me. Graphical mods are w/e if you can find some good ones, but I would suggest not trying to change the game mechanics at all because this is one of those games that are so huge, the bugs are a large part of its identity and character. Nothing else like it has ever come out.

I'm thinking of maybe just going back to vanilla because the only mods I planned on installing were bug fixes / UI improvements. Plus just trying to install the small mods I planned on doing is a pain in the ass! I HATE WRYE BASH / MASH / RASH whatever its called! Nexus mod manager doesn't work either. Its just really annoying to deal with.

[DukeoftheAges]

vanilla, the game doesn't need mods at all.

[Ash]

I'm going Vanilla. Modding this game is a nightmare! I've never had so many problems installing mods in a Bethesda game, and yes I have used other mod managers before. Apparently I'm too low IQ to understand how to use Wrye Mash correctly. Thanks everyone for the input.

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Ash:

I'm going Vanilla. Modding this game is a nightmare! I've never had so many problems installing mods in a Bethesda game, and yes I have used other mod managers before. Apparently I'm too low IQ to understand how to use Wrye Mash correctly. Thanks everyone for the input.

Eh. It's rough, and there's a bit of a learning curve, but I've seen worse.

FWIW, you don't need a mod manager. Wrye Mash is required in the following cases:
1) For merging leveled lists (i.e., loot tables).
2) For cleaning saves of broken references and other stuff. Also useful for vanilla, that stuff just accumulates until your save becomes unplayable (the game engine is... buggy). For this, just run it, go to the "Saves" tab, right click a save and select the "Repair All" command. Done.

You can install mods manually by extracting the files into Morrowind's Data Files directory, and enabling the ESP (if there is one). You can uninstall mods by deleting those files. If a mod has a lot of files, it's a chore to delete them. If two mods conflict, and you overwrote a file when installing, you'd have to restore the earlier one. Wrye Mash simply automates those tasks.

Sometimes a mod loading order is important -- you can change it by manually modifying the dates.

That's pretty much it.

Now, the main point: QoL mods I listed above? Most of them are tiny, if they even have an ESP their load order doesn't matter, and several are just MWSE scripts. Extract them into Data Files, and you're done. Many graphic mods are the same -- just a bunch of textures and meshes that you can copy over.

If you later want content mods, that's where the things start to get complicated, and you're better off learning Mash; for now, you don't need it.

Finally, MCP and MGE XE are not installed through a mod manager, they're standalone programs you copy to the games main directory (NOT Data Files) and run from there. And Patch for Purists and Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched can be used as-is, if you're not adding any other content mods you don't need to merge lists. Extract and enable EPSs.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

at the very least, youll wanna use MGEXE and code patch. the MCC leveler mod is also a good one, that just makes it so you cant ruin your character. wyre is completely not needed, just dont go installing a ton of mods that do the same thing. if you wanna play "vanilla", just use openMW. dont expect it to look good though.

[Bou]

Use OpenMW if you are going to play vanilla.

[Ash]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Originally posted by Ash:

I'm going Vanilla. Modding this game is a nightmare! I've never had so many problems installing mods in a Bethesda game, and yes I have used other mod managers before. Apparently I'm too low IQ to understand how to use Wrye Mash correctly. Thanks everyone for the input.

Eh. It's rough, and there's a bit of a learning curve, but I've seen worse.

FWIW, you don't need a mod manager. Wrye Mash is required in the following cases:
1) For merging leveled lists (i.e., loot tables).
2) For cleaning saves of broken references and other stuff. Also useful for vanilla, that stuff just accumulates until your save becomes unplayable (the game engine is... buggy). For this, just run it, go to the "Saves" tab, right click a save and select the "Repair All" command. Done.

You can install mods manually by extracting the files into Morrowind's Data Files directory, and enabling the ESP (if there is one). You can uninstall mods by deleting those files. If a mod has a lot of files, it's a chore to delete them. If two mods conflict, and you overwrote a file when installing, you'd have to restore the earlier one. Wrye Mash simply automates those tasks.

Sometimes a mod loading order is important -- you can change it by manually modifying the dates.

That's pretty much it.

Now, the main point: QoL mods I listed above? Most of them are tiny, if they even have an ESP their load order doesn't matter, and several are just MWSE scripts. Extract them into Data Files, and you're done. Many graphic mods are the same -- just a bunch of textures and meshes that you can copy over.

If you later want content mods, that's where the things start to get complicated, and you're better off learning Mash; for now, you don't need it.

Finally, MCP and MGE XE are not installed through a mod manager, they're standalone programs you copy to the games main directory (NOT Data Files) and run from there. And Patch for Purists and Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched can be used as-is, if you're not adding any other content mods you don't need to merge lists. Extract and enable EPSs.

Do I need to install the code patch AND Patch for Purists? The code patch isn't enough? Figured that would fix most things.

[Ash]

Not going to lie, I was trying to use Wrye Bash to install the code patch

[Ash]

Originally posted by Chad "The King" Thundercock:

at the very least, youll wanna use MGEXE and code patch. the MCC leveler mod is also a good one, that just makes it so you cant ruin your character. wyre is completely not needed, just dont go installing a ton of mods that do the same thing. if you wanna play "vanilla", just use openMW. dont expect it to look good though.

Watching a video on openMW right now. So just a superior engine, and various game fixes? I heard them say there aren't shadows, but I could care less about that. Can I still install the code patch and better text fonts with openMW? Or are all of those issues already fixed just playing openMW?

[Ash]

And just to make it clear, since I never really mentioned it before. I only want to install bug fixes, and UI improvements. I don't want any extra content like armor / weapons, as I feel that takes away from the base game experience and will change too much for my first playthrough.

[VaderDFXB]

Originally posted by Ash:

And just to make it clear, since I never really mentioned it before. I only want to install bug fixes, and UI improvements. I don't want any extra content like armor / weapons, as I feel that takes away from the base game experience and will change too much for my first playthrough.

OpenMW it is then. Literally the vanilla game just in a better and modern engine.

Also nice to see somebody actually wanting to play vanilla the first time around. It's the only way to play any game the first time.