Is Morrowind overrated?

People keep saying that they want to keep it as close as possible to the original TES 3, so why don't they play TES 3? There are combat mods and everything so that you hit every time so swing or whatever.

because its not just that its the graphics, performance, gameplay its all obsolete now.

AlienFirefoxI hate having to think I just want to play

Then I suggest you give up RPG and play action games like God of War or something. It is the whole point of RPG to think about what you're doing and how you wanna do it.

LASentryPeople keep saying that they want to keep it as close as possible to the original TES 3, so why don't they play TES 3? There are combat mods and everything so that you hit every time so swing or whatever.

In most cases I don't want Skywind to keep close to Morrowind, except for things that game did RIGHT. The loot system and exploration were two of those things and their dynamic shouldn't be changed... Too much. I'm perfectly okay with expanding and cluttering dungeons to be more unique and exciting. Hell, I have plenty of ideas for interesting twists to most of them (some involving smithing quests in order to get perks). Skyrim's dungeons were great, but level scalling made their exploring obsolete since we could pretty closely estimate what we'll find there, and that there was no chance to find a 30000 worth glass greatsword on level 10.

Having said that, I still DO play Morrowind on a regular basis :P That's why I can easily say that I have a pretty fresh look on how the game plays. I have Morrowind Overhaul installed, and MGE with distant land is enough to not get lost all the time. In Morrowind you could only see like 30 meters ahead, so it was very hard to follow landmarks described by NPC.

An rpg is about building your character and growing your character into a powerful character. thats where the rpg is and thats like saying that skyrim is  not an rpg because skyrim and oblivion is how i want morrowind to be.

RPG is about playing a role. I mean, that's where the freaking acronym comes from.

SquallyDaBeanzI'd rather see more than half of the "useless" dungeons taken out, and instead, revamp the most important and interesting ones with a new tiles set, and have larger, more meaningful exploration. If we are truly bringing Morrowind to 2014/2015, then I think this should happen. Sure, people would miss some of the dungeons, and old fans would notice, but it would be a fresh and rewarding experience to do this.

I understand what you mean and actually the focus on quality is why I find Skywind so intruiging. I get that more tileset parts would help to avoid seeing the same stuff to often and I fully support that. But cutting the more boring dungeons so that only really unique and interesting looking dungeons remain is something I personally wouldnt like in the TES universe.

In my mind interesting caves only become really interesting when there are also caves that are not interesting. When you have been through 3 caves that had very disapointing loot and are visually just a regular cave, but your 4th cave is something unique (like that first dungeon in Skyrim) you will appreciate it much more than if every single dungeon is forcefully unique and diversified.

Its good when exploration is rewarded, but it feels just more natural and motivating if you have those moments when you think "man now I cleared this cave and get nothing!?". At the same time you know that its not really a problem that that cave was boring, as you know that there are hundreds more to explore! Its clearly a modern age problem that every efford of the player needs to be rewarded, I dont like that, I can stand a few hours without über loot and stuff.
If you just had half of the dungeons and you run from one super awesome demonstration of developer creativity to another, I think that it wouldnt feel believable and in the end more boring to me.

How would you make Kwama caves more unique and memorable? I rember that I often simply didnt explore kwama caves as I knew that for the most part those dont have great loot, but I need them in my game as they are hooked to the lore in that they are an important part of Vvardenfells economy. They dont need to look unique and they dont need loot or an shocking story twist, they are just boring caves with strange animals in them. Thats all and thats great.

My lust for exploration is not limited to watching nice looking scenery, there is much more to it and Morrowind is the only one of the last 3 TES games that did it right in my mind. Visually not perfect but the whole gameplay makes exploration in MW a joy like in no other game.

Dragomir
I have Morrowind Overhaul installed...

Oh really, now I have no more trust in you as the leading concept artist here :p
MGSO in my mind is a complete mess, it has no design direction whatsoever, its clearly a mixture of a variety of different authors different skills and directions. I much prefer the consistent look of the original game toghether with the awesomeness that is MGEXE.

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That modpack is fully customizable, and big chunk of the stuff I replaced with mods I picked manually afterwards :P Mostly because it was convenient to not install 100+ mods I'd have anyway. Things like sound overhaul, different texture packs, animations, better interior lighting that includes day/night cycles and even lightnings during storms, and incredibly important to me DARK DUNGEONS, improved models (ones that stay true to original, just have the amount of polies increased)... I could go on all day about how many things I'd have anyway and just can't care to search for myself and install individually, which would make a process that took me 1 hour with MGSO (that includes adding mods that were not in the package) into a few good days of research, installing, compatibility issues etc.

As for the looks...
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I don't think it's THAT bad. However keep in mind that mods that would make Morrowind look as I'd want it to simply don't exist. Never seen a mod that would for example change most trees to corkbulb, and so on. No face replacer cuts it for me either, as none of them is lore friendly (I use Better Faces mostly for animated eyes, but not for all races). I encountered hatred towards MGSO before and I sincerely think it's widely overblown. Yeah, some replacers are total crap, like Vurt's Grazelands or Ashlands, but the installation process allows for customization, and I simply don't check to have them (as well as many other features).

 

PeterBittMGSO in my mind is a complete mess, it has no design direction whatsoever, its clearly a mixture of a variety of different authors different skills and directions.

In your mind. It's actually surprisingly consistent for a modpack if you leave out a few mods that change too much. Most of it is simple improving of quality while keeping to the same design.

I agree. MGSO may seem like a randomly thrown-together set of mods, but I think overall, with a bit of selection, it improves the game much quicker and easier than having to install a whole host of mods individually. Obviously, if you have the time, and require the very best, hand-picking each and every one would work better. But MGSO does look pretty good without betraying the lore too much. However, I'm not sure I like the way it make Balmora look. The texture of the walls is very clear, for sure, but it almost looks over done.

But as I mentioned before, the way I made my Morrowind look is not something I would want to copy with Skywind designs, and I think you can already tell, quite easily. I've redesigned armours and NPC's mostly, because those were the things that desperately needed an update (as opposed to pretty good looking scenery which is getting a lot of love in Skywind as well). As awesome as Kirkbride's artworks are, they're a horrible and hard to read reference for any modeller. They sell out the idea but you can't expect 3D artists to translate it into the game too easily, and majority of the in game content didn't even get a design. Was alright for Morrowind considering the level of detail in its graphics, Skywind needs more detailed concepts. Keeping to armour/NPC looks in Morrowind doesn't cut it either. The technological limits crippled their visuals severely. Some stuff looks great to date, especially from a design point of view, but most of it is nearly impossible to make out what it really is when looking at it.
 

HappyChappyMGSO effort to reward is undeniably brilliant.

As a person who has literally dissected the assets contained, I made a spreadsheet with statistics on poly counts, textures, you name it, so that I could ascertain what might be good to use as replacers for Skywind. There are some shockers however that have slipped in. If you wonder why you might have bad stutter in places you can rest assured some of the models are horribly created. It lacks quality assurance.

It's a modpack. They needed to replace everything needing replacement, and they were allowed to use mods made by hundreds of different people, but they were not allowed to modify the models, so obviously MGSO has pretty much no optimisation, or art direction. And I never expected any. However, for what it is it's still very useful.

HappyChappyWe are still subject to authors of different skills and directions. I'm constantly blown away by everybody efforts, there really hasn't been submitted model that I was truly not pleased with, but we lack the work flow of a dedicated professional team to not have a variable assortment of models and textures. This is not a bad thing for a community based project, so please don't complain when its not a AAA game.

You have some amazing talent here and as I understand Ravanna is doing some kind of polishing to some of the submitted models to make sure everything looks consistent. I have never seen anything in 10 years of Morrowind mods even close to the level of the stuff many of your authors make today. Even if you can not be to harsh about your design direction as none of your artists are paid and you propably dont have that many of them, I am still sure that in the end Skywind will look absolutely amazing and tasteful.

 

DragomirIn your mind. It's actually surprisingly consistent for a modpack if you leave out a few mods that change too much. Most of it is simple improving of quality while keeping to the same design.

Yeah of course thats just the way I see it, and I might be a little bit insulting. I feel rather strongly about MGSO as its a fact that the majority of new players use it for their first playthrough without ever getting to know what made the original design so unique. I could write a book about every single element in MGSO thats not to my liking but I skip that for now :D
The vanilla faces, while widely considered ugly and MWs biggest visual fault, just make a big part of the games character for me. I love them for their uniqueness in the fantasy genre, they have so much character, reflect the personality of their race so nicely, especially together with their voices. Exchanging these with those existing, standard fantasy game face mods is a good example of stylistic changes that I wouldnt dare to make.
Skyrim faces I do like too tho, but making something closer to Morrowind for Skywind would be cool, altough propably to much to worry about now.

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Thats just one example, another big thing is the coloring, but as I said I will not ramble about this now lol.

DragomirThe vanilla faces, while widely considered ugly and MWs biggest visual fault, just make a big part of the games character for me. I love them for their uniqueness in the fantasy genre, they have so much character, reflect the personality of their race so nicely, especially together with their voices. Exchanging these with those existing, standard fantasy game face mods is a good example of stylistic changes that I wouldnt dare to make.

Skyrim faces I do like too tho, but making something closer to Morrowind for Skywind would be cool, altough propably to much to worry about now.

We're intending to actually remake the faces, Ravanna has already been working on the human races, and I'm drawing concept art for elven (mostly Dunmer so far). And yes, the alien look of the races will be, if anything, emphasized. Cute elves make me sick. Granted, elven races looked pretty good in harsh, low fantasy, down to earth gritty Skyrim, but feel a bit out of place in alien, dreamy, exotic and ethereal Morrowind.

Another thing is that faces of Morrowind in many cases seem good, since imagination comes to play with them. We need to go for a more detailed design for them, but keep to the core spirit. Look at this comparison of Kaushad for example (I used him as one of the concept templates for ashlander faces)

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Dragomir
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Love it, just as your other concepts. Clearly vanilla faces just give a rough direction as they definitely lack detail, but I like what you do with them!

If you dont get bleeding eyes from blocky meshes and blurry textures, I suggest you try a completely mesh and texture replacer free vanilla installation plus MGEXE. I think it would help your inspiration and it really isnt as bad as the majority assumes it is. Its a (blurry and blocky) Gesamtkunstwerk wich cant be messed with on a small scale like individual modders did in the past. It can only be matched by what you guys do, a coordinated efford by truly skilled people. (and a modern engine, honestly I dont get the point of high res tapestries without bump maps, they look really unfitting in my mind)

This is a slight deviation from OP.

As someone who literally spent thousands and thousands of hours in this project, here are a few things that I would like to say on this topic. Don’t want to sound pompous but I certainly earned this right? (and if you don’t agree, I stop the releases :P)

Note: all of the below is not taking into account assets replacement for legality purpose.

1/ What Skywind is not.

It is not Morrowind and its mechanics (ex: combats, skills...) with just a new graphical engine. For this, go see openMW, as it is a very respectable project.

2/ What Skywind  is.

Skywind is a mod for Skyrim.

Skywind intends to recreate morrowind locations, quests, monsters, npcs etc.. using Skyrim mechanics and graphic engine.

3/ When can we say Skywind is complete? (aka let's be realistic)

If you read my previous point, it’s pretty simple, right? It means that basically we could say that once we have all the quests, locations, assets, creatures etc set up, then the job is done.

My definition of completion (or say 1.0 release): have all quests, all monsters, all locations and as few crashes as possible.

BUT we are perfectionists so we want to go the extra mile.

What is the extra mile? Updating the assets to 2014 standards, updating landscaping, cluttering, all graphical stuff, etc... making the world you explore look like Morrowind was released today, adding “immersive stuff” (patrols, scenes, more immersive quests, …).

Now, for one second, browse the forums, the list of ideas is endless. We can certainly create the best mod/game in the world from those. But will we have the time? No. Let’s be realistic.

My approach on my work on quests and dialogues is let’s make it 1:1 (it is in Morrowind, it must be in Skywind 1.0) . I have implemented enough of these quests to be fully aware that some are simply go-kill or go-fetch quests but my goal for 1.0 is to have them working. I can still update them later. I listen to every idea in the forums but they are priority 2 at best.

For every blocking stream (missing meshes, quests, creatures, etc…), I strongly suggest that we follow the same approach. Let’s fix what we have to in order to reach the point where we can say: “Well this is playable. Maybe not perfect graphically, but perfectly playable”.

4/ You’re a dumbass (aka what about the rest and the future?)

Am I suggesting that no landscape, no cluttering, no beautification, no immersification etc… should happen ? God, no. Of course, not. Why? Because all of us have different knowledge, interests etc.. If you have time to invest in Skywind, please do and use your skills. Now if you know how to do multiple stuff, and like them equally, please focus on the tasks that are priority 1. If you “only” know how to landscape, I’ll take it of course.

Will Skywind be closed once it’s completed? No. Was Skyrim closed once Bethesda released? No. What I mean is that beautification, landscaping, cluttering, immersification… can and (hopefully) will continue after release 1.0.

You know what I dream of (outside of bikini babes, and euro bills filled swimming pools)? I dream that when we release Skywind v1.0, some people say “I want to change this or this or enhance that” and they join us or just release mods for our mod (some that we could, depending on the content, merge in Skywind).

Also, something that is almost never covered in those discussion is that we try to make the Skywind’s master as independent from Skyrim as we can: we want to be able to port our work into TESVI as easily as possible. Everything we do today, we do it for Skywind, TESVI-wind, TESVII-wind. And I certainly hope when Skywind is upgraded for the next games, some new ideas, landscape updates, new content will be added!

Skywind is a vision of the far future. Will I still be in it? No idea. Will you? The only thing I know is that if we don’t focus on the priority 1 tasks, even Skywind, the closest vision, will never come to life.

Now stop reading the forum and go work!

tl;dr: we need to have a list of showstoppers (= priority one tasks). When they are addressed Skywind 1.0 can be released and work on other tasks can continue.

 

Additional point:

• With regard to boring locations. Certainly we want to enhance them: clutter, graphics, enemy patrols, layout change (gasp) what have you. Can we do them all? Certainly not for v1.0. Even here we can have priority (eg: start working on all quest locations before working on generic ones). Although it is a little against the elder scrolls spirit, we can also temporary block entrance from some caves that we feel are not impressive or underwhelming.
• How to speed things up? If an existing model or textures or else exists in Skyrim/Dragonborn, please use it. It can always be replaced later by custom models.

You make fair points Digi. I wonder what is your view on a few issues though. For example, you say we import dialogue from Morrowind 1:1. Problem is, that is not possible, since the dialogue systems of both games work differently. Morrowind's wikipedia doesn't really translate to the Skyrim's system, take shared lines for example. We'd have to record the very same line, said by every NPC say in Balmora, in 20 different voices (10 races x 2 genders). That doesn't make sense. We can either lose all the shared lines and therefore majority of the lore we learn, or... We can go for improvement over Morrowind and try to make those particular lines more personalised, perhaps at the cost of their quantity (only few would be talkative enough to tell you about their city). This applies to many things. When we need to fix things when they contradict - I see it as an opportunity to improve.

Just add bards bartenders or regional homeless (or even children) you can bribe for local rumors and advice.

Don't get me wrong, dialogue don't work the same. Your assumption is actually kinda off because most of the more generic dialogue still have a notion of location, class, etc.. I bet the numbers of topics available for every race and gender is pretty low (and I have updated almost every lines of dialogue in skywind).

I'm constantly overhauling dialogue and I'm puting more conditions, excluding certain races of certain dialogue, making them "say once" so you don't get them over and over etc... Try a recent build and you'll see the huge improvement.

I'm totally ok to exclude some NPC from saying certain lines. However the choice shouldn't be based on voice actors availablity IMHO, but only on lore/content.

When I said 1:1 for this particular topic, I mean let's deal with the content we have for now and make sure it's 100% ok before adding new dialogue. And I'm not for rewriting existing dialogue, at least for now. They might be cumbersome but they work.

Denevir

So I take it I'm the only one who plays vanilla GOTY with only (un)official patches and official plug-ins installed? (But I confess I have an encumbrance modifier installed, since the weight limits hinders my collect-and-then-sell capabilities).

That makes two of us. I used to mod until Oblivion and Skyrim. Now I go there for a story, not graphics.

Yours Truly

That makes two of us. I used to mod until Oblivion and Skyrim. Now I go there for a story, not graphics.

Even though the story is important, if I can improve the graphics without destroying my performance, I will. For me it can only make the game better.

Sorry for going so far of topic :)

Lots of the mods, as well as the graphics compliment the story really well. The biggest mod I use though is something not many people use and I find it essential - Better Music System. Oh man, the 8 tracks Soule made were awesome, but after hundreds of hours of playing they get tedious and don't really fit many locations. I have a folder of over 80 tracks from many different soundtracks I felt fit Morrowind's athmosphere, and they are so helpful in creating Skywind soundtrack too, as reference.

so oblivion and skyrim arn't rpg's to you than. yes rpg is about playing a role in a game building up your character.

RPG=Role Playing Game

I started playing morrowind when i was 11 on the original xbox so lets see...... that was 3 years ago, and at that time i have never even heard about the elder scrolls, never seen or heard about skyrim or oblivion, i had NO idea what i was doing but i LOVED the game. i played it for hours and i still do, original vanilla, and i am not bored with it at all. I do not think it is overrated. i got the anthology pack which came with ALL the elder scrolls games and DLCs and i have played arena, daggerfall, oblivion and skyrim and out of all of those morrowind was still my favorite.

In my mind most texture/mesh replacers dont go well with original Morrowind. I only use MGEXE as a visual mod. The coloring and resolution makes MW almost look like a painting in places (many textures are hand painted too) and texture mods destroy that look. Main problem is the coloring really, it is rarely truly the same in texture mods. Many of those high res tapestries tile heavily from a distance (good example is balmora) as they seem to focus on microsocpic detail without noticing how inferior the textures look from a distance. In many graphics mods I simply have the feeling that people who made them are most likely not as professional as for example some of the Skywind artists. But that might just be me.

Edit: Oh I sound like I could do better but I dont. Just voiced my honest opinion.

DragomirThe biggest mod I use though is something not many people use and I find it essential - Better Music System.

Watch out for a release of a cool mod in the next days or weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9dHbpUNM7g

It will be much more polished, bug free, performance friendly, consistent and comprehensive than BMS and all the sound mods. The video is outdated, we will upload two release videos soon.

AlienFirefoxso oblivion and skyrim arn't rpg's to you than. yes rpg is about playing a role in a game building up your character

Yes indeed, they are much more of an action type of games to me rather than RPG. They Morrowind wasn't really that much of a real RPG either. Doesn't mean anything that isn't pure RPG can't be fun though.

PeterBitt

In my mind most texture/mesh replacers dont go well with original Morrowind. I only use MGEXE as a visual mod. The coloring and resolution makes MW almost look like a painting in places (many textures are hand painted too) and texture mods destroy that look. Main problem is the coloring really, it is rarely truly the same in texture mods. Many of those high res tapestries tile heavily from a distance (good example is balmora) as they seem to focus on microsocpic detail without noticing how inferior the textures look from a distance. In many graphics mods I simply have the feeling that people who made them are most likely not as professional as for example some of the Skywind artists. But that might just be me.

That's why I don't use many of the textures from MWO, and use some different, less intrusive texture packs in places that require it. Also bump maps really help to make the high definition textures look less artificial. Not all of them are completely accurate, but neither are they breaking my experience of the game.

PeterBitt
Watch out for a release of a cool mod in the next days or weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9dHbpUNM7g

It will be much more polished, bug free, performance friendly, consistent and comprehensive than BMS and all the sound mods. The video is outdated, we will upload two release videos soon.

Now this looks extremely promising. I hope there will be an option to change the music files and customize it? I have a very concrete idea on how Morrowind music should sound, and Soule doesn't cover even half of it, even if I use many, many of his soundtracks (NWN, Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars, Oblivion, Skyrim, Morrowind I currently use and I still need different music for some parts). I can't for example imagine walking into a Dunmer cornerclub, and not hearing this song. And this one will always be the theme for Vivec city exterior to me. Also nothing else feels like arriving at Maar Gan to this music, with an intent to go into ashlands and find the Urshilaku camp. You know the trip will be hard and long, and that track perfectly illustrates the tension before it.

DragomirI hope there will be an option to change the music files and customize it?

You will have to edit one or two scripts to change trackname and lenght, there is no other way unfortunatelly. But its doable and we will have detailed instructions about this.
Yeah our main goal was to have a consistent music mod in the first place, so its almost exclusively Soule music. It is kinda generic rpg music I agree, but for me it always works well in a TES game.
I like that kind of music you posted and whats shown in the Skywind music thread. Sure underlines the alien nature of Vvardenfell. We have to finally release that mod tho, after spending two years its time to finish it :o

BMS required editing scripts to fit the length and names of tracks as well, so I guess I can manage :P And by the way, is Logitech Polish by any chance? I knew an insane modder from Polish forums, years ago, and his nickname was Logitech as well :P And he has shown interest in my idea to make a music mod for Morrowind (I had the idea like 6 - 7 years ago, but lacked knowledge to pull it off).

Lol yes hes polish, and he is insane, insanely genius! Funny coincedence. 
We got in touch because of a soundmod I was working on. I was just about done simply exchanging sounds from another soundmod. Now its two years and ton of new features later :)

So many words :)

I hope u dont forget that Morrowind is ascetic world.

I don't understand the point of this thread but i will love to share my opinion...

First i have to say i am one of those that started TES saga with oblivion and i hate it.....i loved more skyrim but i really dislike how skyrim improved something and dumbed down other things...((like leveling stats..and magic))

 

Gameplay differences:

While some side of the original morrowind are outdated like the mechanic of hitting percentage i really enjoyed the stat system...Also the magic system was awesome because basically unlike skyrim a spell user character had so much to choice to develop his or her character... Spell like waterbreathing...waterwalking..levitate..the mysticism school of magic even the enchantment system was just amazing... 

The enchantment system and the spellmaking system added so much way to customize your character..

Enchanted items that add you spell on use...The mechaninc of the soulgem basically allowed you to trap in them not just petty small normal soul ecc but you was able also to trap special character souls end and with a huge source of power in your hand you can use to enchant a weapon and create an utterly strong artifact.....

Collettables and Uniques..

Morrowind was not scaled and was so much rewarding on exploration.. Powerfull artifact was indeed powerfull ones..Unlike skyrim where all is leveled and with an already maxed enchantment skill and perks you can trow those artifact outside the window because they become useless...

Perk System vs Skill System

I disliked the perk system in skyrim...Becauce basically restrained the freedom on how you can design your character...While perk force you to follow determined skill tree the old system permitted with a nice effort to create a unique and versatile character.. I did an experiment i created a spellsword in skyrim and in morrowind as well the difference?

My spellsword in morrowind was way more efficent than skyrim one due to custom spell i created and also to the old system that allowed me to tweak and balance my character and also add fancy stuff like the opportunity to levitate.. walk in the water.. or even drain ennemy attributes or protecting myself by elemental attacks due to the spells i have...

World and Exploration:

Maybe some dungeon in morrowind are pretty empty i am referring to the burial tombs mostly.. But always worth a try since the loot on them was interesting enough and even the variety of ennemy... It dosn't matter if some dungeon are small if they provide me a challenge..Sure they can be visually improved adding some decorations but most burials tomb are meant to be empty.. Sure more details like ruined wall vegetation penetrating inside can enhance the experience but when people says copy paste interiors.. that thing was way more present in oblivion than morrowind...

Discovering:

Morrowind was way more immersive than skyrim due to his rich lores and things to discover at every corner... I remember when i was in a burial tomb on the northern ashland at the end of it there was a corpse a skelekton with an old note at the side..

The note basically was the last writing of a thief mortally wounded with the spine fractured by the rock falls..that felt very immersive to me and added a sense of living world...

Not even mentioning the factions.. the quest that are WAY more different and vary from the skyrim one..And the amazing story that makes you feel worst than a nobody in the beginning.. in a really hostile alien land where people dislikes outlander...you will finally understand more of yourself and you find yourself merged in the awesome dunmer culture......

so in the end Morrowind is overrated?

No to me oblivion a skyrim are indeed overrated... Morrowind for me is the best of the series...

 

If you've played Oblivion and Skyrim, then gone back to Morrowind of course the game is going to look dated and boring. I started off on Morrowind and at the time it was an amazing game. It seems crazy to say now but at the time it was a beautiful looking game. Can't wait to see it brought up to date tesrenewal!

actually i started playing oblivion then moved to morroblivion,  i still  play skyrim and right now i am playing morrowind and i can say that morrowind is pretty fun! Morrowind is not overrated and i like the last 3 tes games equally (more a less).

But isnt everyone here trying to bring morrowind to a new engine? that is why i am not surprised that people here love morrowind...

I just joined the forums and am interested in working on the task of cluttering/detailing cave and dungeon interiors.  Many good points have been raised here.  Would it be possible to design entirely new caves inspired by the old layouts but larger, more open and interesting or are all the interiors simply being imported into the mod and retextured and cluttered?

I think it's certainly possible, it's just an absolutely enormous amount more work for all those people like yourself who are doing so well and not many people are willing to undertake it. If this was to happen, I think people would just have to take it upon themselves to redesign a dungeon or cave one at a time and then put it to the forums to see if it is approved and get it replaced. In terms of there being a decision to give up on the old designs? No, I can't see that happening.

And seeing as this a topic on whether or not Morrowind is overrated- These days it is, yes. Even at the time it was released it had fundamental flaws in gameplay and game systems (and Skywind is in part about remedying some of those flaws) but for me that really didn't matter, as it completely captured my imagination. Morrowind was all about the world- the design, the places, the creatures, the culture, the lore. And in those respects no, I don't think it's overrated at all :)

I don't see so much Redeem with the skyrim system...Ok is more smooth more responsive the combat is better but...The lack of stats.. Birthsigns....Weapon HP...To me ruined a lot Skyrim.... In morrowind and even oblivion i was able to make so much different characters so many combinations.... THe skyrim perk system forced me  to make a limited character.... You can do a mage... a thief....A warrior.... and you don't notice any differences at all... In morrowind this was different since even the races had better bonus....And the stat system allowed to make character with different  gameplay opportunity...Unlike skyrim where mage pew pew... thief..stab stab...And warrior smash smash 

I will never forget how I was raiding  Caldera ebony mine for the first time, believing that this would allow me to build my own ebony armor! At this time everything was possible in Morrowind. The game was really great, but I would say that Solhsteim was even greater! Helping to build your own village, see a stronghold being destroyed, drink mjod with northern leaders and hunt some witches, werewolves and bears. Man, that was the times.

There has been some modding involved around Morrowind. For instance I had a program which interpoame was really great. Alwo shaders and lighting made the game look better that it does in construction set. 

You project allowed me to review the old lands, even having nothing but buggy landmasses as grass sticking out of everywhere gave me the old feeling of being home. Man, thanks a lot for that feeling! I hope that this project really becomes finished.

DenevirAgain, no offense Andrey. Skywind is more of a "remake/reboot/update" rather than a simple mod (notice the quote-unquote, by which I mean those words aren't being used literally). After all, it's been 12 years and the lore has changed a lot. 

• >Implying classes weren't simple pre-set skill bonuses.
• >Implying you couldn't create your custom one.
• >Implying there is no point in it when you have perks, which give much more customization options that having 5-10-15 more points in any given skill.
• >Implying Perks makes levelling up much more fun than just watching a bar fill up.
• >Implying the guy wasn't being a pretentious elitist who was throwing a hissy fit because Beth removed an outdated mechanic, because how dare they make things more efficient

Skywind is a restoration project. Not all the pieces may be restored. Some pieces may be lost, other might be needed to be made up and some pieces might me dropped. There is absolutely no need to spend hours upon hours making scripts to allow us have 3 types of armor, having all the original skills or have all the dialogues voice acted. Nothing was voice acted in Morrowind, so this project is already modifying the original game. 

In my opinion every major restoration should be done from the bottom, you start with basics (importing everything from mor to skyrim and unbugging the coarse process), then you go upwards modifying pieces that look the worst (start with items that make up bigger items so at the moment when you start building caves you have all the cave and stone models done). 
Only the sky is the limit, but in my opinion all the small details, like skills or armor type, should be the last thing that has to be done. Build the looks and then decide if you bother to change the mechanics.
 

Implying classes weren't simple pre-set skill bonuses.

They were skill bonuses which allowed customization of the character - how is that a bad thing?
They also allowed player to decide which skills will contribute to level-up.
And if you picked magic skills as major, you were given starter spells in that school of magic..

Implying you couldn't create your custom one.

You could - again, why is that bad?

Implying there is no point in it when you have perks, which give much more customization options that having 5-10-15 more points in any given skill.

Perks and classes are not mutually exclusive and in fact do completely different things (Oblivion had "perks" too, BTW).

Implying Perks makes levelling up much more fun than just watching a bar fill up.

Maybe, but again, the addition of perks doesn't justify the removal of other aspects of character development.

Implying the guy wasn't being a pretentious elitist who was throwing a hissy fit because Beth removed an outdated mechanic, because how dare they make things more efficient.

Define "more efficient".

Well, I have no idea what "4chan speak" even is, so your disclaimer didn't work :D

I truly don't understand why you had to restart because of 1 "wrong" skill. This game is not at all that hard as some people say nowadays. First time I played Morrowind, I picked one of the default classes and finished the game with all expansions with no problems. Seriosly, any character in Morrowind becomes a demi-god eventually :)

I anyone is to be called "casual" here it's me, because I never given a crap about getting "triple +5s" and advice everyone to do the same.

Also, I don't get why you're putting classes together with the dice-roll. Dice-roll was removed in Oblivion, but it still had classes (slightly different but concept was the same).

The main point of class system is to show that your character had a life before the events of the game - and that he\she has different starting skills because of that.

I only had 1 character in Morrowind with thousands of hours in play time. I recall disliking the leveling system in Oblivion a lot when I transferred to it from Morrowind, and dislike it even today. At the same time simplification of the leveling system in Skyrim made it just plain broken (making endless improvements to items via alchemy/enchanting/smithing or hitting caps in defense/damage). Morrowind had the best leveling system in my opinion. Simplification and the perk system made the player play for skills and desired perks instead of having same abilities from level 1 and just enjoying the game trough exploration, not leveling in the special order to get a specific perk or ability.

I like pretty much everything about Skyrim, except Skyrim (the land) - it's so dull and always looks the same.

The perk system utterly detroyed the skills in skyrim...Skills in skyrim need only to unlock perks.... you can even have 100 at a skill in skyrim but if you don't have the perk the skill will be not effective...Now Perks are limited at 1 for level....This of course limits a lot the shaping and the customization of the character...Like if remove attributes was not dumbing down enough...This new system went in skyrim at an huge costs...Say hello to all the cool spell mages had mage in skyrim just pew pew destruction summon heal and use defensive spell via alteration... Unlike morrowind when you had amazing spell like waterwalking waterbreathing..Blind...Silence...Sanctuary...Levitating..The vary Detect,Animals,Enchantement,Key..Skyrim did a nice job for melee fighting but utterly destroyed the beauty to play a mage character..Not even mentioning there is not spell making in skyrim...And the soul gem system was dumbed down since oblivion...There was no need for a perk system....It don't improve nothing it just add something unwanted and kill the character customization..

 

Another problem skyrim had:

The value of the items...It have no sense at all hunt for unique items since with the crafting you can do item 200 times more powefull...Even enchanting in SKyrim was dumbed down....Skyrim did a nice job when it comes of dungeon (and not the puzzles that was ridicolus) and overall ambient...Less generic than oblivion..But for the rest is a mess..

Leveled encounter: Sucks... i don't know why bethsheeda insist with this nonsense....Worse was in oblivion but even skyrim is a bit broken for that...There is not challenge...There is not Rewarding battles....You can walk even naked in a bandit camp and kill everyone whitout effort...Even in oblivion there was a bit more challenge (due because the leveled list in oblivion was so broken then more you level more the ennemy gain HP so you have to swing like 40 times with a daedric sword to kill a simple bandit..))

Yeah, I have to agree with pretty much everything Mebrilia said.  Especially about the 'puzzles'. The puzzle solving in Skyrim was absolutely stupid.

What bothers me most about Skyrim compared to Morrowind is the start. In Morrowind you were just thrust out into the world with nothing but rags and a limeware platter, but in Skyrim you come out of the opening sequence with full steel gear, weapons, and enchanted robes. It makes the game so much less fun when the opening part of the game isn't a challenge. I find its not just Skyrim, but every single game that comes out lately. The developers feel like they have to make a "tutorial world" and if the game is too hard at the beginning, no one will play it. Its so annoying.

My love for Morrowind is two-fold. One being that it's a fantastic game; the other that it was the first open-world RPG I've ever played, so it introduced all of those concepts to me.

There are 2 things I think really set it apart from the other recent TES games. One was a diverse environment with rich colors (swamps, mountains, coasts, plains, snowy island, organic buildings, inorganic buildings) yet they all interweave into each other seamlessly. Skyrim and Cyrodiil felt skewed towards a constrained color pallette (although Skyrim's atmospheric effects and sunlight are top-notch and breathed more life into it). There's also less contrast in Morrowind's textures, and thus easier on the eyes.

The other key element I think is the full fantasy-effect of the beastiary -- almost zero were purely real-world animals, save wolves and bears in Solstheim. Oblivion and Skyrim injected horses, deer, rabbits, pheasants, chickens, foxes, oxen, pigs, goats, salmon, walrus, and others. I think it watered down the creature-list a bit -- perhaps it couldn't be helped since they are more Human-oriented lands, but compared to the exotic feel of Vvardenfell, it's just simply not as unique.

Puzzle in Morrowind:  A pilgrimage through a maze of water canals to get to a 'shrine' with only a pseudo-Bible verse for the faithful to "Breathe the waters of his glory and the way will be made clear."  Most of the shrines you just had to click on the shrine you were presented with to complete the pilgrimage.  Not this one.

To find the real shrine, the faithful had to hold themselves submerged until they literally drowned - their breath meter deplenished and their health bar nearly negated.  Then they would black out and be fully healed, with a hidden chamber now available with the true shrine.  Can you think of a better test for the faithful?

"Puzzle" in Skyrim:  Just match the symbols on the bottom of a claw you probably got moments earlier before being sent to this dungeon with the 3 symbols on the three rings of a door.  Or even better, look around the room you're currently in to find three pictures and match the symbols of three obelisks to them in the same order.  Hint hint, the symbol is probably over the obelisk itself!  Oh, but one of the obelisks is missing!  Could it be the symbol on this crumbled obelisk?  No way!  Thanks Blue's Clues for teaching me the useful skills I would need to face such immersive and challenging puzzles!