Guides, guides, guides

My intentions going forward with this blog: for one thing, you can expect expansions to be made upon the Morrowind guide.  It will continue to stay up-to-date as the most comprehensive source on the best enhancers and replacers available to Morrowind.  It's because I'm as interested in it as you are, dear reader, and I don't mind passing the information along.

Second, I get this question a lot so I'm just going to answer it here: Yes, I am planning to do an Oblivion guide.  Soon.  Very soon.  It will get it's own page on this blog, even!  Besides that (and no promises) I may end up doing a guide for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time texture/shader enhancements (which I have done for /v/ before) and maybe the other Gamebryo games (Fallout 3 and NV).

What else, what else... Morrowind Mod Packs are all the rage thanks in part to the Morrowind2011 backlash.  It's a rule of the internet, we've all learned so long ago, that whenever someone tries to stop a file from getting around, the file actually gets around faster.  Celebrity nudes, leaked games, movies, music and now... Morrowind mods.  This has generated quite a bit of hype for Morrowind2011, a mod pack which I can tell you honestly is not up to date or as quality.  It's unfortunate that so many people have decided to install Morrowind2011 in the wake of this hype, though of course it's always a good thing when more people are playing a fantastic game.

And then, of course, there is Brorrowind.  It's based heavily on my guide, it's pro as fuck and it's bound to piss a ton of people off.  I won't say I condone this behavior, I don't.  But if you're going to download a mod pack that pisses off a ton of people because the author didn't ask for permissions, if you can't be arsed to sit through my guide, download Brorrowind.  The author made some picks against some of mine that make his pack fundamentally different (like Vurt's Trees instead of Vality's) and he has left out some mods I think are essential (like Delayed DB attacks) but his pack is still good, your results with his pack should be very similar to my screens.

There are two problems with Brorrowind as beautiful as it is.  One I have already addressed: He didn't ask for permissions.  The other is a bit more subtle: because it's distribution is not centralized and because it is a pack and not a guide, it is very hard to keep everyone using that pack hip to the latest improvements coming out of the community.  When MGE updates, that won't be easily reflected in Brorrowind.  When Tamriel Rebuild finally comes out with their next release (and they will!) that won't be reflected in Brorrowind.

These problems are really one in the same.  If he'd have gotten permissions, he'd be able to keep the package updated and he'd be able to take the old link down when there was a new link available (because he wouldn't have to be anonymous and decentralized) instead of just tossing it out into the community and hoping everyone starts referring the updated.  So my plan is, very simply, to ask for permissions of every mod author I have referred to in my guide.  Then, when I have every last permission, I will create a very very simple installer that will do 99% of the work for you.  And when the package get's updated, it will be reflected in the guide (which current users will be able to update with modularly as if they'd followed the guide in the first place) and in the link of the installer.

In summary: More Morrowind updates, Oblivion guide coming soon, and hopefully an installer for the Morrowind updates when I get permissions.

-Knots