This week’s modder interview is a blast from the past, as we’re talking to one of our Morrowind modding alumni, Emma. Hailing from Sweden, Emma is married with three kids, and considers herself a “countryside-girl” who enjoys nature.
Category Archives: Morrowind
Elder Scrolls Mod Interview: VagabondAngel
This week’s mod interview is Christian Dean, known also as VagabondAngel within the BGS forums. A resident of Rural Derbyshire (in England), Christian is a father of three, enjoys snowboarding and mountain biking, and his inner geek loves studying ancient history.
Morrowind turns 6 years old; Oblivion is back on Xbox Live’s Top Ten list
Blame it on Morrowind.
In 2001, Todd Howard came by my cube and asked if I could help him track some work on a project his team was working on. The project was, of course, Morrowind. I would guess the team was somewhere around 40 developers then, maybe less. A year later — and six years ago today — we went gold and shipped the following week. As successful as Oblivion has been for us, it could not have happened without Morrowind. The team, processes, tools, technology, lore, fan feedback — we learned so much from Morrowind and put it all into Oblivion. Open ended RPGs are not easy projects to work on and very few knock it out of the park on the first try.
If you liked Oblivion, try Morrowind. The Xbox version is backward compatible on Xbox 360, and the PC version should run easily on any computer that is out now. Make sure you get the Morrowind Game of the Year edition, which will include the two expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Let us know in comments which of the games we’ve worked on is your favorite.
Other good news today — Major Nelson released his top 10 Xbox Live titles today and Oblivion is back on the list at #10…a full two years after its initial release. It used to surprise me, but no more — Oblivion has got major legs. Major legs.
March Modding Honors at Planet Elder Scrolls, TESNexus
As we move into April, here’s a look back at some mods that were honored at Planet Elder Scrolls and TES Nexus for the month of March.
Let’s start with the March Hall of Fame at Planet Elder Scrolls:
- Mori Mountain Estate by Marc: This mod adds a large house inside the Northern mountain of Balmora, and is compatible with the Balmora Expansion Mod.
- Clean Dragon Blade by Phijama: Shown above, the Dragon Blade is a wicked sword, inspired by the Requiem blade.
- Svenn’s Pack Guar by Svenn: With this mod, you’ll have a new NPC within the game that sells pack guars.
- Adonnay’s Classical Weaponry by Adonnay: Adds to new weapons inspired by Adonnay’s mods for Neverwinter Nights 2.
- Slof’s Dremora Textures by AlienSlof: A retexture project to bring a new look to the Dremora.
- Midas Magic – Spells of Aurum by Xilver: As previously mentioned on Bethesda Blog, this mod adds over 100 new and unique spell types.
Moving along, here are the Files of the Month at TES Nexus. Congrats to these modders for getting the most votes:
- Kvatch Rebuilt by The Kvatch Rebuilt Team: The name says it all, Kvatch has returned in all its glory. This mod also adds new armor, a battle arena, and the opportunity to become Count(ess) of Kvatch.
- Verona House Bloodlines by DTOM: This mod adds a new quest where your character is pitted against a sinister cult and their leader. Those who succeed will gain access to an updated version of the Verona House and Verona Bay.
- The Lost Spires by Leo Gura: As you may recall, this mega mod was entered in last year’s IGF Student Competition.
- HG EyeCandy Body by }{ellKnight: A body mod that helps you customize body types in the game.
- Akatosh Mount by Saiden Storm: Saiden Storm’s ever-popular mod that allows you to ride a dragon within the game. If you haven’t seen it already, check out our interview with the creator.
That’s it for this month. Congrats to all the modders that were honored!
Around the Web: Podcasts and Opinions
Here’s a few interesting reads I thought I’d share that I’ve come across in the past few days.
The latest 1Up Yours podcast brings up Fallout 3, as well as practically every Elder Scrolls game ever made during their community segment of the show. During the segment, which starts about 53 minutes into the show, the 1Up crew uses these games as examples in a few of their debates. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are brought up several times in a discussion about the “no name characters” and the choices your characters make in games. Later on in the segment, they also bring up the Elder Scrolls and Fallout in a discussion of how Japanese RPGs compare with western-developed RPGs like Oblivion. To download the podcast, head over to 1Up’s podcast site.
February Hall of Famers at Planet Elder Scrolls
Last week Planet Elder Scrolls honored its latest group of Hall of Fame mods. Per usual, for a mod to make their HOF, it must be available for three months, receive at least 25 votes with a score of 8 or better, and it must be downloaded at least 5000 times. This month, one Morrowind mod and three Oblivion mods met the criteria.
From Morrowind:
- Widow Maker crossbow by Phijama: Adds a new crossbow, two crossbow pistols and a new bow to the game. According ot Phijama, the crossbows have “regenerating bolts added via scripted amulets in the shape of the bolts and the bow regenerates its own arrows.” Sounds cool.
From Oblivion:
- Legend in the Sky by Ravlon: This unique house mod has been in the works for some time and adds a floating home to the skies of Cyrodiil. Perhaps Ravlon is a Miyazaki fan?
- Armamentarium by Trollf: Briefly discussed in our mod interview with Trollf, Armamentarium adds hundreds of new items to the game, including armors, shields, and various weapons.
- Nicos Daes Rakan Swords by Nicoroshi: This mod adds a new sword as a prize for anyone that translates the Tengwar script on the Dreadweave armor.
Congrats to the new inductees. See you again for the March HOF entries.
Mod Interview: Dev_Akm
This week we’re talking with Dev_Akm, whose modding days started with PnP projects like Dungeons and Dragons and GURPS more than 20 years ago. Now a systems developer and analyst in Austin, he spends a fair amount of his free time modding Morrowind and Oblivion (though he also is a fan of hiking, camping and listening to punk rock). Of course, that free time is in jeopardy. In addition to raising one daughter, he’s got another on the way.
And the answer is: Morrowind!
Lots of folks got it. It was an easy one. Thanks to everyone who posted a guess for Name That Sound!
The answer is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The sample is from Morrowind’s gorgeous soundtrack by Jeremy Soule. It is my personal favorite track from the game – mx_explore_7 – and I, too, have the soundtrack for Morrowind (and Oblivion) on my Iphone.
I promise to make the next one tougher.
Here is the entire track for your listening enjoyment:
[audio:http://static.bethsoft.com/blogaudio/mx_explore_7.mp3]
Guinness reveals Elder Scrolls records
Not too long ago, I found out that Guinness – those guys that determine the world’s tallest person, longest fingernails, and the most t-shirts ever worn at one time, were coming out with a new book that shares videogame records. While it’s not the first time Guinness has recorded videogame records, it’s their first book devoted completely to games. To help create the book, Guinness worked with Twin Galaxies, who have been recording pinball and videogame records for years.
The book, Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, just recently went on sale (I got my copy in the mail two days ago), and it even features two pages on the Elder Scrolls series. I won’t spoil the whole book (soon to be a staple in my bathroom library), but here’s a few tidbits I thought I’d share:
- Daggerfall has the largest land-based game area at 63,125 square miles.
- Daggerfall is also listed as having the most NPCs (non-player characters) in any RPG with 750,000.
- The fastest play-through of Morrowind was done by Vladimir “Knu” Semenov at 7 minutes, 30 seconds. Kudos to Freddo for pointing this out a month ago.
Who knows, maybe there’s a record out there waiting for you to break it. My new goal is to beat Brian Sulpher’s record for highest margin of victory over an AI opponent in a basketball videogame. In Tecmo Super NBA Basketball for SNES, he beat the computer by 331 points. If the Pistons could score 186 points in a real-life NBA game, maybe I can pull off my own magic with their virtual counterpart.
Featured Mods at the Oblivion Files
Visiting the Oblivion Files, I noticed they’ve updated the “featured mods” on their main page.
In the “featured armour” department, AlexScorpion’s Adamantium Battlesuit is pretty sweet. After reading about it, it took me several mintues to figure out what famous character used armor like this. I asked my friend at Bungie if it had anything to do with Halo…no dice. Then looking at the armor pics, I started thinking maybe it was the body suit Raiden used in Metal Gear Solid 2. Wrong again. Finally, I came across a Wikipedia link that revealed Wolverine’s skeletal makeup and claws were adamantium. I knew I knew it from somewhere. 