This mod assigns ownership to the many, many items and containers in Morrowind that rightly should be owned but weren't, and otherwise cleans up and adjusts item ownership.
 
Ownership in vanilla Morrowind is, in many cases, a mess. Lots and lots of stuff in people's houses or otherwise civilized areas, that certainly should be owned, is in fact unowned and therefore free for the taking, right from under the nose of the rightful owner. Masses of crates, barrels and other containers are sitting around in cities just waiting to be looted for free. Many guildhalls and other faction locations can be practically cleaned out by any newbie who signs up. Farmers will just stand there while you harvest all their crops right in front of them and then pretend like nothing happened. Nobody objects when you grab up all the lanterns and torches in town.
 
This mod aims to clean up this mess. The objective is to make owned everything that rightly should be owned, and unowned everything that shouldn't be.

Details

I can't break down the changes made by this mod cell by cell (the plugin edits references in more than 600 cells), but the following describes this mod's changes in general terms:
 
- Containers in towns: Lots of unowned containers (crates and so on) were sitting around in cities free for the looting. This mod makes them all owned. In this respect it does basically the same thing as Container Ownership (or the other Container Ownership), except that this mod makes owned outright many containers that Container Ownership makes faction owned.
 
- Light sources: Like containers, many light sources like lanterns and torches in cities and towns were unowned. Not anymore. No more free light sources for you. This works best with a good lighting overhaul, such as Let There Be Darkness, True Lights and Darkness or Di.still.ed Lights, that makes light sources actually useful.
 
- Guildhalls / faction owned stuff: Much faction owned stuff is now owned outright, while some has a higher rank requirement. Previously, much (if not most) of the content of many guildhalls was free for the taking if you're a member of the faction. Now for the most part only beds, supply chests, and a few other empty chests are faction owned at the lowest rank; a few other containers are faction owned with higher rank requirements, as is some clutter in common areas, while the other stuff in the guildhall is owned. This also applies to Ashlander camps, where previously lots of stuff outside was either faction owned or not owned at all.
 
- Farmers' fields: The crops in farmers' fields are now almost all owned. No longer can you clean out a farmer's entire crop right in front of him. The exception is for ingredients that the Imperial Cult specifically sends you to collect in their ingredient fetching quests (e.g. marshmerrow at Balur Salvu's farm). These plants are now faction owned by the Imperial Cult to ensure a cult member on the quests can harvest them.
 
- Doors: Lots of locked doors to/in people's houses or otherwise in civilized areas were unowned, meaning the rightful owner would stand there and watch you pick the lock without complaint. Now all these locked doors are owned. Previously owned but unlocked doors are now unowned, because there's no point in them being owned.
 
- Mines: Most stuff in mines that are actively being worked (i.e. those with friendly NPCs in them) is now owned. This was mainly an issue with eggmines, where all those kwama eggs were free for the taking. Ore rocks in actively worked mines were already owned, but those that were faction owned have been made owned outright, and other stuff in the mines (except wild plants) is also now owned. Mines without friendly NPCs have not been changed (everything is unowned).
 
- Keys: In many cases people's keys were sitting around in their houses and other areas unowned and free for the taking. There'll be no more of that kind of shenanigans.
 
- Gold: Most of the loose gold in civilized areas was unowned. Now you'll have to be sneaky about filling your pockets with it.
 
- House strongholds (e.g. Indarys Manor): Previously just about everything in the house strongholds was faction owned. Now all the stuff in people's houses (not the main buildings) is owned outright. In the main buildings, the stuff in the leader's/your room is faction owned, but stuff in other areas is owned outright. You might be in charge of the stronghold, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz in and swipe your subordinates' personal stuff.
 
- Vampire headquarters (e.g. Galom Daeus): These aren't regular dungeons, and while you might be here on (relatively) friendly terms, that doesn't mean you should be able to grab everything in sight with no consequence. Just about everything in these locations that wasn't already owned is now owned by the clan's leader. Given the contempt the leaders have for you, I don't think they'd appreciate you partially cleaning out their headquarters.
 
- Tel Fyr: The good stuff in Tel Fyr and the Corprusarium is now owned. Divayth Fyr practically dares you to try to rip him off, but that doesn't mean he won't react negatively if he catches you at it. (The two newly owned containers in Fyr's office are vulnerable to telekinesis from the hall outside, but the key on his table is more of a challenge.)

- Ahnassi's House: The stuff in Ahnassi's house in Pelagiad should rightly be owned by her, but male characters can get invited to share her home as part of her quest, at which point it should be okay to take the stuff and sleep in her bed. This has been solved by assigning this stuff a global variable, similar to how beds for rent at inns work - you'll be permitted to take her stuff once you've been invited into her home.
 
- Dungeons: Dungeons are almost entirely untouched; in almost all cases nothing is owned. A couple very rare exceptions have been made for stuff rightly belonging to friendly NPCs in otherwise unfriendly locations (e.g. some of the stuff in Ald Daedroth Antechamber).
 
- Outcast Ashlander yurts: Most of the stuff in outcast Ashlander yurts with hostile NPCs was owned. Now this stuff is unowned. The same is true of the Velothi tower Shara, a dungeon with only hostiles.
 
- Stuff that really needs to be unowned: There are some items that, for various reasons, need to remain unowned. This is mostly stuff that a quest (for an honorable faction or otherwise not a stealy kind of quest) requires or invites you to take. Examples include Gambolpuddy in Ald Daedroth and Drinar Varyon's Dwemer tube, among others.
 
- Owned activators: In some cases activators other than beds were uselessly owned. For example, just about every furn_de_bar object in the game was owned. The waterfalls in Vivec's canalworks areas and the chimes in Ashlander wise women's yurts are other examples. This stuff is no longer owned.

Installation

Use a mod management tool such as Wrye Mash, or just copy the plugin to your Data Files directory and select it in the Morrowind Launcher.

Use either the .esm  version or the .esp version, but not both. If you're not sure which version to use, the .esm version is safer in terms of compatibility.
 
The .esm version should load after Patch for Purists but before any other .esm mods. The .esp version should be relatively early in your load order, before any other mods that touch the affected objects, unless you know what you're doing.

Requirements

This mod requires both Tribunal and Bloodmoon.

Compatibility

For the most part, this plugin edits only cell references, so mods that don't touch cell references will mostly be fully compatible. There is one exception: the mod edits one of Ahnassi's "share a care" dialogue entries to set a global variable needed to permit the player to take her stuff afterward. If you're using another mod that changes this particular dialogue entry, you might find yourself unable to legally take her stuff when you should be able to, without a patch.
 
There might also be compatibility issues with mods that change cell references (e.g. moving stuff around, or removing references and replacing them with new ones). I recommend putting this mod early in your load order.

If you're using any .esm mods that touch the affected objects (in particular some of RandomPal's town overhauls), you'll want to use the .esm version of this mod. Load it after Patch for Purists but before your other .esms.

If you use Morrowind Anti-Cheese, I recommend using the OO-compatible version available here instead. Alternatively, if you're also using BTB's Game Improvements, use the BTBGI-compatible version of Anti-Cheese here.

There should be no conflict with Patch for Purists. This mod was created with PFP loaded, then the dependency on PFP was removed afterward, so any PFP fixes to the affected objects (e.g. adjusting position) are incorporated.
 
There is a very minor conflict with any version of Diverse Ore Veins / CorrectUV Ore Replacer, including the version of that plugin packaged along with Graphic Herbalism. That mod deletes the cell references to ore rocks and replaces them with new references to new containers, and the new references are not modified by my mod.
 
This means that if you're using that mod, you won't see my mod's changes to ore rock ownership (regardless of load order). This isn't actually that big a deal. Ore rocks in mines with friendly NPCs are already owned in vanilla Morrowind; my mod only makes some of them owned outright rather than faction owned. In fact, this affects only one cell: Sudanit Mine. And it can only be taken advantage of by the Archmaster of House Redoran. So I definitely still recommend using both mods together.

Contact

Feel free to contact me on the Nexus with any comments or suggestions. You can also find me on Discord as Necrolesian#9692.

Usage

You can use this however you want.