The Elder Scrolls: Best Mods That Will Make You Reinstall Morrowind
Mods in video games have long been a way for fans to extend the life of their favorite games. Mods add content, overhaul the game's core functions, and improve things that the development team couldn't solve or couldn't figure out – at least, not without community help.
No gaming series is more of a poster child for the lifetime-extending power of mods than the Elder Scrolls series. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was the first properly 3D game in the series, and while it was revolutionary for its time, it's a dated game in 2021. Luckily, the modding community for the game is as strong as ever. What are the best Morrowind mods that everyone should try?
Updated August 7, 2021 by Erik Petrovich: Morrowind is getting a fair bit of attention nowadays as players return to older Elder Scrolls titles after the news of no work being done on The Elder Scrolls VI. Despite the game coming out all the way back in 2002, some of the best mods for Morrowind have hit the scene in 2021, and more and more interesting add-ons come out each month. Installing mods is getting more intuitive, too, with both the Nexus Launcher and Wrye Mash still able to handle 2021's more impressive Morrowind overhauls.
Installing Mods For Morrowind
One thing to keep in mind when installing Morrowind mods is that it is a two-decade-old game. As such, mod management tends to feel unintuitive and complex, and the original game wasn't made with modding in mind and tends to be pretty restrictive.
Different operating systems, editions of Morrowind, and even the game's launch location require different, additional steps interested modders should research before beginning to install mods.
Mod Managers
Using a mod manager is the best way to control and install mods in Morrowind. There are two main mod managers available: the Nexus Launcher and Wrye Mash. Mod managers allow a player to control the load order of addons, see real-time data on crashes to locate the problem, and a variety of other advanced functions. It's almost never a good idea to manually install must-have Morrowind mods.
- Nexus Launcher (Vortex): The easiest, but least complex, mod manager. Connects directly to the Nexus and offers direct download and installation. This is the easiest choice for beginners, but not too useful for some advanced or visual overhaul mods
- Wrye Mash: Not as newcomer-friendly as the Nexus Launcher but with many more features. Mods must be added to the launcher manually and it offers a lot more control to the player over installation, especially with very large mods.
Common Pre-Requisite Mods
There are a lot of mods that just about every game-altering addon requires. These mods must be sorted in the load order before their related addon so that the game can load script extensions, memory updates, and other basic alterations necessary for more complex mods to run.
- Morrowind Code Patch: A pre-requisite that most Morrowind mods use. Fixes bugs, scripts, data files, crashes, corruption problems, and other general coding errors.
- Morrowind Script Extender: Allows many mods to function, also improves game performance and functionality.
- Morrowind Graphics Extender: Fixes lots of visual issues and extends the visual functionality of Morrowind, including view distance and lighting.
- Morrowind Optimization Patch: Fixes many mesh errors in the game and improves performance across the board.
- MGE XE: Huge graphics and rendering-oriented mod used by mods that change weather, landscapes, or long-distance features.
12 Ashfall Survival Mod
Ashfall is a wide-ranging mod that changes a lot about the basic way Morrowind is played. Ashfall adds hunger, thirst, a sleep system, camping, cooking, weather effects, and other survival-oriented functions to an already difficult game.
It's the perfect addon for those who love to roleplay in the game, and it's fair enough that it doesn't feel out of place in the game's steep difficulty curve. If anything, getting used to the survival system makes a player get more used to the game's unrelenting nature.
11 Nerevar Stronghold
The Nerevar Stronghold addon gives players something sorely missing from the original game – a residence! This goes far beyond similar Morrowind mods than just spawning a simple home, though, instead giving the Nerevar their own stronghold complete with companions, guards, traders, and a manor.
The Nerevar is one of the most powerful beings in Tamriel by the end of their adventure in Morrowind. This mod gives them a well-equipped fortress to return to after long adventures, which can be upgraded and altered throughout a normal playthrough.
10 Tamriel Rebuilt
Tamriel Rebuilt adds a massive amount of content to the already huge game, in the form of allowing players to travel to the mainland of Tamriel, away from Morrowind. It's a huge overhaul that adds countless new zones, dungeons, and locale to the game.
The mod is based on in-game lore and dialogue that references the new locations but were never available in the base game. In addition to all of this, it features new questlines, new weapons and armor, new spells, and overhauls the combat mechanics. It's an all-in-one mod that reinvigorates the game with entirely new content.
9 Morrowind Graphics Extender
The Morrowind Graphics Extender mod gives access to multiple graphical improvements that will forever change the way you look at the surroundings of the third Elder Scrolls game. Most notably, it unlocks the view distance and allows players to see for much further distances.
Additionally, the mod comes packaged with better shaders, better lighting, and improved sunsets to add that extra layer of realism to this very old game. It won't make the game look like Skyrim, but it's a huge improvement over the game's old appearance that stays true to its roots.
8 Better Dialogue Font
The text in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is very difficult to read, almost as if it was meant to be read at a smaller font but had to be stretched. Luckily, the Better Dialogue Font makes all dialogue and readable text (such as in the Journal) much more legible.
Say goodbye to the minor headaches that accompany leaning into the screen to read what anybody says in this game. This mod simply replaces all the applicable text in the game with a higher resolution version, and it's available in multiple languages.
7 Morrowind Rebirth
Morrowind: Rebirth, like Tamriel Rebuild, is another total overhaul to the game – this time, though it doesn't let players access a new continent, it adds a lot of new content to the main continent. Every city, landscape, and dungeon is given better graphics and a total layout re-do. It's a Morrowind overhaul that's well worth installing.
Additionally, Morrowind: Rebirth balances out several aspects of the game and fixes bugs that were never removed from the game. It also adds new weapons, armor, dungeons, enemies, and spells, and a ton of other tweaks that make it feel like a completely new game.
6 Morrowind Comes Alive
Mods that enhance the sense of immersion in a game are unmatched, especially when re-visiting a game. Morrowind Comes Alive adds 1200 NPCs to every zone in the game, especially in cities, and gives the player many more interaction options.
The NPCs are randomized, so the player should theoretically never see two of the same person walking around. It gives every NPC a list of things to do, including traveling to other towns and entering shops. Morrowind can feel empty sometimes, and the way this mod breathes new life into the game is unparalleled.
5 Skyrim UI Overhaul for Morrowind
The Skyrim UI Overhaul for Morrowind mod does pretty much what it says on the box; Morrowind's UI is notoriously confusing, and this mod simply changes all of that to a much more digestible, much more intuitive layout.
Everything from dialogues to character skills to the Journal is changed to closely resemble the UI in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While it's not a perfect replica, it's a great mod for anybody looking to get back into the game after years away.
4 Morrowind Romance Mod
The Morrowind Romance mod adds a new subsystem of relationships and marriage to the game, similar to the system present in Skyrim. The mod lets players flirt with and eventually marry other NPCs in-game, and even allows players to have children in-game.
The mod is a bit... risque... though, as there is a "love scene" that's blacked out for the player (although it does use nude models). Male players will be able to father and take care of their child, while female players will carry the baby themselves and gain a pronounced belly bump.
3 Lovely Loading Screens
The loading screens in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind leave something to be desired. They're usually just images of enemies in-game and, despite being an old game, last for far too long. The Lovely Loading Screens mod changes all of this.
Instead of boring stills of NPCs, this mod shows fanart specially made for Morrowind based on locations throughout the island. It's truly stunning work, and it might even inspire you to seek out some of the inspirations behind the art. It's one of the few must-have Morrowind mods, as it subtly changes something so common in a player's adventure.
2 Accurate Attack
One of the biggest problems with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for modern gamers is the unreliable combat mechanics. It's a game that treats hitting enemies directly like a dice roll, and the original game has stats and systems that let the player slowly improve their chance-to-hit.
The Accurate Attack mod removes this hit calculation system from the game entirely by making every race's chance-to-hit 1000 times more than what it normally is. It makes combat much more satisfying, but you might need to turn up the difficulty to compensate for all the hits you're connecting.
1 Welcome To The Arena
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was unique for its arena system which let players put money on themselves and progress through increasingly difficult enemies in the Imperial City Arena. The Welcome To The Arena mod adds a similar system to the previous entry in the franchise.
Welcome To The Arena adds a brand new arena to Vivec and lets the player bet on themselves and others in gladiatorial combat. It's not quite as robust as the arena system in Oblivion, but it's nonetheless a well-made addon that pairs well with other combat-oriented mods.
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