In order to celebrate the nearly imminent release of Morrowind Overhaul international version ( here’s the official website), created King_pix and his team, RPG Italia interviewed the boy who have allowed this little miracle, in order to get new information:
So, let’s talk about the team behind the project: how many of you are working on Morrowind Overhaul? How is this project born?
Kingpix: Two years ago, after playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Morrowind, installing lots of mods and experiencing a lot of configurations for 6 years (from the day when Morrowind was released), I decided to make these changes available to anyone, without having to go for years of testing, changes and everything that involves modding. At the beginning it was a small project which didn’t include too many mods (I still remember the first post about this). I remember perfectly that people started calling me “crazy”, telling myself that doing the project was an impossible thing and that it was impossible to make working all the mods for Morrowind, in the same way for all those who have downloaded mods. I began looking for the mods, in forums and in the official websites. The amount of work available was impressive. Thousands and thousands of mods were placed in the network and it was my turn to choose, one by one, test them and decide whether or not to incorporate in my project. I decided create a site dedicated to my work (morrowindoverhaul.net) to assemble all the advices and criticisms to what I was doing. After my first release in late 2009, the forum began becoming populated and the first users started following my work. But it was in February 2010, with my second release, when a parade of people came and with them came the people who would become the other members of the developer team. Now we are 10, each of them helped me in different ways and I think it’s right to make a list of the members here: Kingpix, Fafolo, Yoae (and his wife), Darkvalca, Nick93, Cancrena, no1, Julianross, Andracos and Chantalion.
How many time did you spend to complete the first part of the project? Are there reasons to believe that the second part of Morrowind Overhaul will keep you busy for a significantly longer time?
Kingpix: Overall, we have been spending two years, counting also my personal problems that prevented me from following the project. For a lot of time I remained uncontacted and I couldn’t work on the project. I take this opportunity to thank the people who remained faithful even not seeing working me! Thanks you too! As regards the second part of the package: yes, it keeps us busy for a very long time! Of course, less than two years, because (I hope) there will be no more accidents like one I told before. The reason for this is that the package requires a second test more accurate than the previous one, requires a special focus on the original fidelity’s atmosphere, but above all, requires that all models would be perfectly compatible with each other (we’ll modify them, for example). Another challenge is the fact that we’ll try to make any changes consistent throughout the game and this means a lot of additional work. Needless to say we’ll do our best to expedite and increase the quality of work, but we are sure that we can do it!!
Why did you decide to create a mods compilation for Morrowind and not for Oblivion?
Yoae: It’s a matter of personal taste. Morrowind was a masterpiece that redefined the genre of RPG, a game with an unique and fascinating setting as ever it hadn’t seen until that moment. I still remember my first few games, when everything was still unknown and every step was a new discovery (Yoae cries touched). After all this time Morrowind still occupies a place in our hearts and it seemed right making a gift to a game that has given us so many emotions. Oblivion… Well, it doesn’t hit us in the same way. Indeed, to be honest, a similar idea for TES IV have never touched our brains, we are lucky because there are other people who thinks about it.
From a graphical point of view, do you believe Morrowind Overhaul can be compared to Oblivion? The minimum requirements for Morrowind Overhaul are less than those required by Oblivion?
Yoae: Well, my dear, I’d say that a direct comparison is very difficult to do. Until recently the answer would be Oblivion, but Morrowind has recently recovered from two features of which you really missed: the bump mapping and dynamic shadowing. The time now is immature, because there are many characteristics which aren’t well developed, but the modders have never failed us. If we want to compare the two games on a stylistic level, Morrowind wins. I mean, there are houses built into giant mushrooms! And there are Guars! Concern to the requirements, I would say that the two games, if modded at most, have the same requisites: today with a mid – range computer you can enjoy all the improvements being noticed with the settings of MGE. For example: my PC is equipped with a 275 GTX and a E8400 and never has had problems running our Morrowind Overhaul.
Can you explain to RPG Italia’s users the content of the package “Game Experience”, which it’s going to be published soon?
Kingpix: The simplest definition of the package “Game Experience” is that this group of mods edits everything that isn’t relating to graphic or sound. More specifically, the second package is going to set all the quests, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the opportunities, new locations, the growth of some characters and the like. The changes are many, very different and in them you can find the best quality available! Morrowind will become an “infinite” game, because you will never finish everything the game offers, because there are lots of new adventures that can be complete in different ways, having various ends. Finally you’ll have more realism in the character growth, balancing every aspect of the game; you’ll have news relative to the combat system, you’ll have news relative to the families and the vitality of the cities… therefore, there are a lot of irons in the fire! We can assess the duration of the game with the package “Game Experience” with all the new adventures and small quests about 2000 hours and with 2000 hours to complete everything is practically impossible finish the game. We’ll try to keep everything balanced, homogeneous for the game world and perfectly integrated in the original atmosphere. Oh, I think that this “Game Experience” is a very big smasher!! Can I say that?!
What do you think about Morrowind 2011 and about legal issues that have forced the author to withdraw the project? Have you got all the necessary authorizations from this point of view?
Yoae: Morrowind 2011 was a surprise. An unwelcome surprise. I say that not for its purposes, which were more or less the same of the Overhaul; I say that because it was published in a manner which have mined the Overhaul’s possibilities of being accepted and supported by modders. The collection’s creator made the same our mistake of two years ago, because he didn’t ask permission to use the mod. When Morrowind Overhaul debuted for the first time it was a disaster. We were in good faith, we thought that our project couldn’t be a problem, but reading what the modders said we understood their point of view and our downlaodable package disappeared. But after few years Morrowind 2011 jumps out. When we saw the package published on the Internet we’ve already known what would happen, and the answer of the modders wasn’t late to come. But – surprise! – the author of the compilation rose against the creators of the mods, saying that he can do what he want, using the work of other people without any permission. On his blog distorted the facts so as to make it appear that the reason was on his side and soon began to sprout articles which supported him in his fight against the “evil modders”. Of course we haven’t repeated the same mistakes: Kingpix wrote individually to every modder, obtaining all the permission. And now we have the full support of the community!
Kingpix: As told by Yoae, I personally contacted each author in order to respect the rules and their will. This hasn’t only “legalized” Morrowind Overhaul, but made the community very happy! Concerning the Morrowind 2011′s quality, well, there wasn’t a detailed guide and there were many errors: for example the package contained several mods that were in conflict with others and contained useless plugins, too. But Morrowind Overhaul and Morrowind 2011 are very different: in fact, Morrowind 2011 changes completely the colors and the original atmosphere. Morrowind Overhaul is designed to do just the opposite!
Kingpix: A similar projects is already working on it from Rvb3n, which has a dedicate section on my forum (http://morrowindoverhaul.net). The approach is essentially the same, and he’s doing a great job! Now he’s a bit busy, but he assured me that he’ll return to work on the package as soon as possible. And there is a similar project for Fallout 3, which is near to the release, of course, including less mods!
Are you going to provide support and updates even after the final release?
Kingpix: Yes, since the project was born, I always had the intention to keep it updated, even by inserting new arrivals! Every update will be a simple patch of few mb, so that you won’t have to re–install all the package for people who have an older version. After about 4 patches, I’ll create a new release that will include all the updates found in the patches, only for convenience.
A particular thanks to: Marco, the interviewer; Kingpix and Yoae, who answered all our questions; the developer team of Morrowind Overhaul: Fafolo, Yoae’s wife, Darkvalca, Nick93, Cancrena, no1, Julianross, Andracos and Chantalion; Rvb3n, who is making a package of mods for Fallout 3 and Oblivion; RPG Italia (http://www.rpgitalia.net) and his user Hugo who translated all the interview.
Thanks for your attention.
