I am currently working on: A Morrowind mod!

I have joined a group working on an already established mod, I won't say who or what... But I'm very happy to be exercising the creative side of my brain that has all but atrophied over the last year. Which is what working at a software company writing systems to be used in insurance broker's offices will do to you.

I really do love that game, it is just over 8 years old now, originally released in May 2002. When you look inside the editor it really shows it's age, but a dedicated crowd of fans has stuck with it over it's lifetime; perpetuating yet more generations of followers, who in turn carry the modding torch.

The mod on which I am working has a lot of dialog writing involved, which is what I'll be doing, since my experience actually using the Elder Scrolls Construction Set(CS) is minimal. Even though I am just writing dialog transcripts it has to be properly formatted, for easy insertion in to the mod using the CS. And that job is done by an other dedicated editor in the team. Because I have to write in this CS friendly structure I am actually learning quite a bit about certain aspects of modding Morrowind.

Over the years following Morrowind, mainly by lurking about the official forums, I have encountered people who despise the dialog system of Morrowind. They denounce the NPCs as walking encyclopedias that spout copy-pasted reams of text at you. But after delving in to the CS I have discovered that it is entirely possible to structure dialog in a manner similar to that of Mass Effect and other modern Bioware games. With branching trees and choices that are remembered by NPCs.

This is not easy however, and after actually learning the process I don't blame Bethesda for the, admittedly inferior, dialog system that Morrowind uses. Masochist that I am, I will strive to create a more modern experience with the mod that I am working on.

I plan on writing a few more articles about Morrowind and my experience with modding in the coming months