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RandomPal and the Morrowind Modding Community

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RandomPal

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About this mod

Overhaul of almost every settlement of Morrowind, inspired by concept art and aimed at a vanilla+ feeling.

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Permissions and credits
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Here we are! This is the culmination of my work on the settlements of Morrowind.
My love letter to this old and beautiful game. To its alien and magic atmosphere that still manages to draw me in, 20 years after its release.

Hours upon hours of work at my desk, with Aphex Twin in the background and my girlfriend telling me I should stop spending my time tweaking the position of a barrel or a crate while running around as an half naked dark elf with a bun.


EXPLANATION FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NEW TO MY TOWN OVERHAULS

This is a comprehensive overhaul project focused on town and cities, inspired by an appreciation for Morrowind's original worldbuilding design and Michael Kirkbride's concept art.

Rather than forcing something new into the game, the goal was to enhance vanilla, adding details and restoring some elements seen in concept art but never implemented by Bethesda.

A big effort has also been made to keep the FPS cost as low as possible, and the archive has over 90 compatibility patches, as one of the goals of this project was to be highly compatible with other mods.


List of edited locations

Here's a list of locations that are already covered by Beautiful Cities of Morrowind. The idea is that you shouldn't install any scenic/aesthetic overhaul or enhancement for these locations as Beautiful Cities already covers them. This includes both interiors and exteriors.

West Gash: Balmora, Gnisis, Khuul, Caldera, Ald Velothi
Bitter Coast: Seyda Neen, Hla Oad, Gnaar Mok
Ashlands: Ald'ruhn, Maar Gan, Molag Mar
Ascadian Isles: Vivec, Suran, Ebonheart, Pelagiad
Azuras Coast: Sadrith Mora and the Wolverine Hall, Tel Aruhn, Tel Fyr

Other locations already covered:
Ashlander Camps
Imperial Forts
Holamayan Monastery
Mount Assarnibibi
Seven Shrines
Dren and Arvel plantations
Ship interiors (but not Shipwrecks, so it's compatible with OAAB Shipwrecks)

Some locations were not edited for compatibility with a few mods that complement this project and that are recommended.


Why use this instead of standalone mods - what's new here?

Beautiful Cities is more than a simple merge of mods

The mod page used to have a list of merged mods since the mod initially started as a merge of standalone mods. However, over time, the project has evolved into something quite different from what you would get by simply using all the credited mods together. The mods and their respective authors are credited in the credits section, but the mod list no longer representative of what this project has to offer.

The general principles that guided me throughout the long updating history of this project were:

  • Less is more. No unnecessary additions, excessive clutter, or "creative ideas" that result in weird cobbling.

  • Coherence and consistency: when introducing a new asset, it should be naturally integrated throughout the entire game. Similarly, the style and density of clutter should remain consistent from one location to another. An issue with installing different mods, created by different authors, for various towns is that it can result in a lack of a unified artistic direction.

Practically speaking, this is what's been done: 

  • In many cases, the mods I used as a foundation have undergone significant reworking to ensure that their quality is up to standards.
    The polishing process has been ongoing for over two years and has involved more than just fixing minor bugs and issues. As I gained more knowledge about Morrowind and collaborated with the TR team, my skills as a modder improved.
    Some of the core issues present in the mods merged into this project were related to design rather than a lack of polish, and I am confident that I have addressed those as well.
  • Assets and FPS optimization: don't underestimate this point. To give you an example, the original HOTV (used as a base for Gnisis) had over 1200 refs in the main cell. The version included here has a bit more than 800, plus optimized and atlased versions of the new assets, resulting in a 15 FPS gain when compared with the original, standalone mod.
  • TR_data and OAAB_data integration for an overall more organic experience when using Tamriel Rebuilt and the OAAB mod series. Using OAAB and TR_Data also means that assets are going to be consistent and coherent for each location while most standalone overhaul mods make use of different resources.
  • There is a significant amount of new content included in this mod that is not available as standalone mods. I have focused extensively on overhauling interiors, such as revamping every common/imperial shop using the expanded set provided by TR_data and OAAB_data, or the integrating the dunmer middle class set (covering more than 30 interiors). Other additions include an extensive rework of all the ships in the game, a remake of the Ghostgate, integration of OAAB Gatehouses and much more.
  • Compatibility: the patch zip contains over 90 compatibility patches, making this a surprisingly compatible project, considering its scale and scope. Some additional patches are also available here and here.


INSTALLATION
The mod uses a fomod installer with instructions about requirements and how the various patches should be used.



REQUIREMENTS
OAAB_data
Tamriel_Data



PLOX
For those who don't know about it, PLOX is a simple software that can sort your load order automatically and inform you about mods that are are not compatible with BCoM or redundant. PLOX is a soft requirement for this mod as there's a lot of things that can break if your load order is not correct.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


Can I install this on an existing save?
I would say no because some information gets stored on the save file, such as the position of activators, NPCs, lanterns, etc. Installing the mod on an existing save might lead to floating objects, misplaced objects or NPCs. OpenMW handles this a lot better than the vanilla engine, so you might be fine using OpenMW. However, I would still recommend against installing the mod on an existing save.

Can I update this on an existing save?
I would say no, for the same reason of the previous question.

What can I do about this error?  "One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on".
You can either ignore the warning, as it is completely harmless, or you can learn to sync master files with wrye mash.

I have a lot of missing meshes (yellow triangle error), what can I do?
You likely forgot to register TR_data's bsa files, or you installed a patch without installing the needed assets from the original mod.

Is this compatible with...?
If there's no patch in the zip, it's likely that the mod is compatible, as I put a lot of effort into compatibility. Luckily, the community has repaid my efforts by taking BCoM compatibility into account, so most new mods are released with compatibility patches for BCoM when needed. Other than that, just use common sense. For example, don't expect a highly transformative Balmora overhaul to be compatible with BCoM.

Why don't you make this a modular mod?
A modular approach would exponentially complicate things, particularly with the patches. Imagine making an Animated Morrowind patch for every single location that needs one, and then accounting for different combinations (for people who only install Balmora, or those who just install Ald'ruhn and Sadrith Mora ecc.).
I hope this example makes it easy to understand how it's just too much to handle for a single guy, and how this would also discourage people from making BCoM patches in the first place.

CREDITS
Details about the credits are in the specific tab.
What I'd like to say here is that this project stands on the shoulders of many many members of the community who let me use their work or who helped me out when I needed help of feedback. I'm am grateful to all of you.