Saturday 13 July 2002

Pic of the day: "I never feel naked with my sword." Screenshot from Morrowind, featuring the two companions mentioned below.

Morrowind mod madness

With my hand improving, I decided to give Morrowind another spin. So I went to Morrowind summit and looked at some plug-ins other players have made. I already have two that I have had almost from the start, trinkets that add teleport options to several cities in Vvardenfell. (I can't believe my speech recognition program heard me say "tentacle options"!) Anyway, I choose two plug-ins that provided some company for a lonely adventurer.

The first was a companion NPC, a knight named Aleo. He can be found in the village where you start the game, and offers to travel with you for free. He will attack whoever you fight, although there is no way to order him to attack first. At least he's not a spellslinger throwing fireballs or other area spells! Good skills to go along with such a companion are Block and Heavy Armor, or at least Medium Armor. You are still going to be attacked first, and you should be careful about swinging your own weapons too bravely, lest you hit your companion instead. This kinda clashes with my second choice of plug-in; but more about that shortly. Aleo starts at level 1 and levels along with you, according to the read-me file. I am not sure whether this means that he simply shadows your level, or whether he gains his own levels from the fighting. I guess I shall find out in due time, if I can be bothered to have him hanging around.

Oh, and he is also a merchant and trainer, it seems. Always handy to have those around, I guess.

***

The other plug-in was a talking sword named Lilarcor+3. And what a talker! It breaks the silence every so often for no good reason to babble about some random topic. And yes, it talks out loud, in your loudspeakers. During battle it will deliver shorter, more topical statements. It really seems to love battle. I guess that's what you can expect from a talking sword! Oh, and it gains experience when you successfully strike with it in battle. According to the read-me file, there are eight levels, and the highest level places it on a par with un-enchanted Daedric weapons. Man, is that nifty or what?

The problem is, of course, that the sword and the knight don't go to well together. I created a new character for this adventure, so all three of us started at level 1. The company is kinda fun, but actual fighting is not so easy. The ever helpful knight throws himself before my bloodthirsty sword, then yells at me. So far no one has been seriously hurt; my character probably gets the worst of it. Lilarcor is a 2-handed sword, so no shield allowed. Now after solving the murder on the tax collector, I have invested in some heavy armor for my character. There still remains the problem with getting experience for Lilarcor, but I'm sure there will soon be enough to fight for both of us. All three of us. Whatever.

***

I think these two mods demonstrate just how expandable Morrowind is. There were also many other plug-ins available for free download: Houses, characters, new quests, new races, new classes. I choose these two because they were particularly innovative, the talking sword especially. The companion was not the first of its kind, and also combines aspects already in the game: Trainer, merchant, follower – they all exist in the game, just not combined. The level matching is probably also new.

But a context sensitive talking weapon, let alone a weapon with levels, now that's innovation. If this is the way Morrowind is moving, then the game will probably be hot for years to come.