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About this mod
This mod introduces offensive alchemy (poisons) in a lore-friendly, balanced, and entertaining fashion. It adds a selection of magical traps; you can store a single potion in a trap—when an NPC or creature gets near, the trap explodes and applies the potion to everybody nearby. It works with all potions, whether vanilla, mod-added, or player-made
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
As modders, I feel that we've been skirting around the issue of Morrowind's alchemy for some time now. The issue is that you cannot really play an alchemist in the vanilla game; however good you may be at brewing potions, you need to invest time and effort into a weapon or school of magic to deal any damage. For this reason, your "alchemist" options are restricted to a spell-casting mage who dabbles in alchemy, a thoroughbred warrior who picks wild flowers, or a stealthy rogue who keeps a stash of Invisibility potions on hand.
There are a few mods available that attempt to change things: Shanjaq's Alchemical Warfare and Scruggs' Alchemist's Arsenal come to mind. These mods are fantastic, and they inspired this one, but they fail to get to the core of the issue (mostly because of scripting limitations). They both allow you only to choose from a small list of preset "alchemical weapons". I don't think that this jives with Morrowind's vanilla potion-making mechanic, and it certainly doesn't offer the same sort of freedom the game is known for.
I think the whole situation is bollocks. In Apoapse's Alchemy, I added a selection of alchemical matrices, which solve the alchemy issue in a lore-friendly, balanced, and entertaining fashion. You can store a single potion in a matrix—when an NPC or creature gets near, the matrix will explode and apply that potion to everybody nearby. This works with all potions, whether vanilla, mod-added, or player-made. There are additional details, which I discuss below.
Once you have placed a potion in its inventory and closed your menu, the matrix is activated. Clicking it again will give you a new menu. You can no longer access its inventory, but you can pick the matrix up. If you do, you will lose the potion you placed inside.
Once activated, the matrix will wait for an NPC or creature to enter a (roughly) 6 foot radius. The matrix will then explode, subjecting everybody within that radius to the potion you initially put in the device. Dead NPCs and creatures will trigger this as well, so be careful where you activate your matrices.
There are five varieties of alchemical matrices, sold by many enchanters and found in random loot:
Each matrix has a certain number of charges, shown in the matrix activation menu. When the number of charges drops to the next level down, your matrix will change its name and color to reflect that. For example, when a Grandmaster's Alchemical Matrix drops to 20 charges, it changes to a light blue and becomes a Master's Alchemical Matrix. When a matrix drops to 0 charges, it changes to a dull white and becomes an Inert Alchemical Matrix. It can no longer be used, but it can be put on a shelf and admired.
Notice that these devices work on both friends and enemies. In other words, you can use this as a magical trap for your opponents, or you can use it to give your companions (and yourself and other bystanders) positive effects.
Installation and CompatibilityThis mod requires MGE XE 0.10.0 and MWSE 2.0. They can be found here and here respectively. If you don't know whether you have these versions, you almost certainly do not.
After that, you can just tick the Apoapse's Alchemy box in your Morrowind launcher and start the game. You should be able to use this in an existing game, but you may have to clean your save file first. To give yourself one of these alchemical matrices, use one of the following console commands:
This mod should be compatible with most things. It does change many of the enchanters in Morrowind (but not Folms Mirel, so the Master Index mod is compatible), and it adds a few things to leveled lists. If you're concerned, have your other mods load after this one and merge your leveled lists.
The scripting is entirely my own work. Because the scripts are long, complex, and finicky, I am going to deviate from my standard mod sharing policies. If you want to use any part of this mod in your own work, you must contact me first. There are no exceptions.
There are a few mods available that attempt to change things: Shanjaq's Alchemical Warfare and Scruggs' Alchemist's Arsenal come to mind. These mods are fantastic, and they inspired this one, but they fail to get to the core of the issue (mostly because of scripting limitations). They both allow you only to choose from a small list of preset "alchemical weapons". I don't think that this jives with Morrowind's vanilla potion-making mechanic, and it certainly doesn't offer the same sort of freedom the game is known for.
I think the whole situation is bollocks. In Apoapse's Alchemy, I added a selection of alchemical matrices, which solve the alchemy issue in a lore-friendly, balanced, and entertaining fashion. You can store a single potion in a matrix—when an NPC or creature gets near, the matrix will explode and apply that potion to everybody nearby. This works with all potions, whether vanilla, mod-added, or player-made. There are additional details, which I discuss below.
How to Spot an Alchemical Matrix
Alchemical matrices are not very complicated, and they blend in well with Morrowind's existing magical goodies. You carry these matrices around in your inventory until you are ready to use them. At that point, you place it on the ground and click on it (press your standard "Activate" button). At this point, you can pick it right back up without any consequences. You can also do nothing to it, in case you only activated the matrix by mistake. The third option here is to activate the matrix. This opens the matrix's inventory, which can take only a single potion. If you try to place other items (or more than one potion) in the matrix, it will return those items to you immediately. This is to prevent players from using these as free storage devices.Once you have placed a potion in its inventory and closed your menu, the matrix is activated. Clicking it again will give you a new menu. You can no longer access its inventory, but you can pick the matrix up. If you do, you will lose the potion you placed inside.
Once activated, the matrix will wait for an NPC or creature to enter a (roughly) 6 foot radius. The matrix will then explode, subjecting everybody within that radius to the potion you initially put in the device. Dead NPCs and creatures will trigger this as well, so be careful where you activate your matrices.
There are five varieties of alchemical matrices, sold by many enchanters and found in random loot:
- Apprentice's Alchemical Matrix. This has 5 charges, weighs 3 units, and costs 100 drakes. It can be found in leveled loot starting at level 1.
- Journeyman's Alchemical Matrix. This has 10 charges, weighs 3 units, and costs 500 drakes. It can be found in leveled loot starting at level 6.
- Master's Alchemical Matrix. This has 20 charges, weighs 3 units, and costs 1500 drakes. It can be found in leveled loot starting at level 15.
- Grandmaster's Alchemical Matrix. This has 30 charges, weighs 3 units, and costs 2500 drakes. It can be found in leveled loot starting at level 22.
- Inert Alchemical Matrix. This has 0 charges, weighs 3 units, and costs 30 drakes.
Each matrix has a certain number of charges, shown in the matrix activation menu. When the number of charges drops to the next level down, your matrix will change its name and color to reflect that. For example, when a Grandmaster's Alchemical Matrix drops to 20 charges, it changes to a light blue and becomes a Master's Alchemical Matrix. When a matrix drops to 0 charges, it changes to a dull white and becomes an Inert Alchemical Matrix. It can no longer be used, but it can be put on a shelf and admired.
Notice that these devices work on both friends and enemies. In other words, you can use this as a magical trap for your opponents, or you can use it to give your companions (and yourself and other bystanders) positive effects.
Installation and Compatibility
After that, you can just tick the Apoapse's Alchemy box in your Morrowind launcher and start the game. You should be able to use this in an existing game, but you may have to clean your save file first. To give yourself one of these alchemical matrices, use one of the following console commands:
- player->additem a_trapitem5 1 ; Apprentice
- player->additem a_trapitem10 1 ; Journeyman
- player->additem a_trapitem20 1 ; Master
- player->additem a_trapitem30 1 ; Grandmaster
- player->additem a_trapitem0 1 ; Inert
This mod should be compatible with most things. It does change many of the enchanters in Morrowind (but not Folms Mirel, so the Master Index mod is compatible), and it adds a few things to leveled lists. If you're concerned, have your other mods load after this one and merge your leveled lists.
Acknowledgments and Permissions
I would like to thank the MWSE team for their hard work. I couldn't have done this without their script extender. The meshes I used for this mod were originally created by Qarl—I retrieved them through Clavis' Crystal Resource Pack. I later edited the meshes to fit my purposes.The scripting is entirely my own work. Because the scripts are long, complex, and finicky, I am going to deviate from my standard mod sharing policies. If you want to use any part of this mod in your own work, you must contact me first. There are no exceptions.