Topic: Modding This Goddammed Game (Read 372 times)

xboxretard · « **on:** September 22, 2004, 12:51:00 AM »

i am a freaking retard yes i know I ask only one thing... to get some infomation that will help me! I know that this question has been asked heaps but... How the shite do i copy mods i made on the pc for Morrowind GOTY to the xbox and get them working.... First off..... is there anyone who could point me in the direction of a web site that actually has all the infomation under the sun about modding Morrowind GOTY... FOR XBOX GODDAMMIT. Secondly could somebody take the time out and explain to me (remember i am a god dammed retard) how to step by step (and i mean step by step goddammit) put mods on my xbox. By the way what the %$(% is a cashe directory and where the @^&$( is it located.

Ta

Lepain · « **Reply #1 on:** September 23, 2004, 06:55:00 PM »

Go to a mod site. I like www.euro-morrowind.com.

Pick out some mods you want.

Find TESDTK. READ THE README for info on how to use it. You will have to copy the morrowind.esm from the xbox to the PC for this. Remember to back it up.

Fire up TESDTK and load up a mods' esp (or esm) file with it.

If the mod has Tribunal or Bloodmoon dependancies, remove them so they are only dependent on morrowind.esm. Also change the version number so that it matches the morrowind.esm version. If you have any problems with this part READ THE README.

Turn on the xbox.

Load Morrowind

Turn off the xbox. This puts the morrowind game into the cache folders.

Look at the xbox files on your computer with whatever method you use to ftp.

The cache folders are either x, y, or z.

Find which one has the data files folder and the morrowind.esm.

Put the esp file you modified in the data files folder.

Go back to the spot with partition folders c,d,e,f,x,y,z.

Find which folder you put your xbox games in, either e or f.

Find the morrowind game and search its contents for a second data files folder.

If your mod had folders with it like textures, meshes, icons, etc... Put them in the data files folder.

I put the folders there to save room in the cache, which may reduce dirty disk errors while moving to new cells.

Fire up the xbox

Start a new game.

Look for some of the changes to verify that the mod works.

Repeat again for each mod. It sucks when you put a bunch of mods on at once and can't figure out which one is screwing your game.

This method has problems with mods that change dialogue. Topics will show up in the wrong spots and most of the time not at all. You'll find out what I am talking about if you can't get out of the Census and Excise office in Seyda Neen. It also seems that morrowind is picky with file extensions and textures that use non-unique filenames. Example, clothingpeicewhatever.dds and clothingpeicewhatever.bmp in the same folder may cause a rainbow effect. This is more common with the one million different head replacers that are out there. I'd just pick one that does it all and stay with it.

There is a small thread with some mods that work, check that.

There is also a method for putting mods on the box that combines the 3 esm files. Apparently it is flawless... but unfortunatly i think it may also be top secret, as no one will explain in any detail how to do it, what verson or morrowind (GOTY or original) they are using on the xbox or what files they combined... the Xbox GOTY esm and the 2 PC expansion esms or just the 3 PC esms or the original xbox morrowind esm and the 2 expansion esms. I have all of them and have tried some different methods to merge the files, but I just crash the construction set, which no one has really explained how to prevent other than to just keep trying.

If anyone would like to put into writing how to merge the esms and get them to work, feel free, as I am starting to think that this is like trying to find a resurrection potion in Final Fantasy 6 to revive General Leo.

Reznik Akime · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2004, 01:02:00 AM »

Good analogy there. XD

Ive been trying for the last few hours to merge the damned things, but no luck. I tried to use that TESAME and I guess they merged, but when I tired a new game it gave me that DDE..

So would someone please reveal how do to the damned thing? I would keep playing it on my computer, but due to a chain of unfortunate events (First my monitor loses its green channel due to some short in a wire or summin, then I end up blowing up my brother's video card by pumping too much voltage into it, so I had to lend him mine. Yeah, im usin an old Voodoo3 card and you cant play the game with that..) im stuck with the xbox again.

Lepain · « **Reply #3 on:** October 01, 2004, 06:01:00 PM »

82 views and still no answer on how to merge the esms. CONSPIRACY!!

Reznik Akime · « **Reply #4 on:** October 02, 2004, 01:54:00 AM »

Yer watchin this topic like a hawk too, eh? I know how to fix it actually.. or.. why it does it actually.. but I dunno how to change it. If you could help me with figuring it out, by all means, send me a pm man. Maybe you would know how to shave a few bytes offa dialogue.

Hopeful · « **Reply #5 on:** October 04, 2004, 07:17:00 PM »

If anyone still hasn't got this figured out, Here is a seemingly dependable way to merge the files.

What you will need is

1) Xbox Morrowind Game of the Year Edition. (Yes the Game of the Year Edition. Do not use any files from the regular edition of Xbox Morrowind.)
2) The 3 morrowind PC esm files. All 3 of them for the PC. You do not use the Xbox morrowind.esm. You end up replacing the xbox file with a merge of 3 PC files.
3) The Elder Scrolls Construction set, and the entire pc version of morrowind Game of the Year including expansion packs installed on your computer. There is absolutely no way to get around this part.
4) TesDTK, The Elder Scrolls Dependancy Toolkit

I don't know if this is the only way, but it seems like a safe, reasonably reliable way to get the PC master files to merge and work on your xbox and then start merging mod plugins into it.

Before you start editing the files with game tools, you'll want to open your morrowind.ini for the PC in your notepad or any word editor. Let's enable merging and skipping redundant error messages. Search for the line "AllowYesToAll" and make it = 1. If it's not in the .ini file you should edit it in directly under the "ThreadSleepTime" line. (Directly under it - no spaces.) Then search for the line "WhoCanMerge". If it doesn't exist in your .ini file put it 3 spaces below the "Open Preview" line. (I don't know if spaces affect anything here. Put a space under the YourUserName=1 line too.) Where it says "YourUserName" I mean that what goes there is whatever the name is that you log on to your computer with. (there are no spaces at all in this unless your user name has spaces.)

[WhoCanMerge]
YourUserName=1

First off, you will need to create the files for merging. Take TesDTK and use it to make .esp files out of Tribunal.esm and Bloodmoon.esm. Take these files and COPY them to your PC data files folder. Do not move them. Merged files disappear into the morrowind.esm. Also COPY the original PC morrowind.esm file into your TesDTK folder with your other two files and always COPY them from this folder without moving them. It's important that you keep these files since they're all irreversable once merged and are all needed to make the esm. (I'm going to say it again so that you know it wasn't just a typo. You use only the PC files. There are no xbox files involved in the merging at all. This is a step by step explaination that doesn't leave anything for you to assume. That's what I wanted when I didn't understand how to merge the files.)

Then, open The Elder Scrolls Construction Set and open "File>Data Files". Select Tribunal.esp. (Put an x in the box next to it by double clicking.) Press "Set As Active File", and press OK. Let the files load up, which may take a few minutes. Open "File>Data Files" again, and remove the x from morrowind.esm, so that the only x is next to tribunal.esp. (Not sure if this step is necessary but it works.) Press the "Merge to Masters" button. Carefully select morrowind.esm from your (PC) morrowind data files directory. Relax while the files merge, and make some toast. You don't make toast, you blow the whole procedure.

Then, Put an X in the box for Bloodmoon.esp. Press "Set As Active File", and press OK. Let the files load up, which again may take a few minutes. Open "File>Data Files" again, and remove the x from morrowind.esm, so that there is only an x for bloodmoon.esp this time around. (Still Not sure if this step is necessary but hey.) Press the "Merge to Masters" button. Once again select morrowind.esm from your (PC) morrowind data files directory. Relax while files merge and overwrite the esm once again.

Fire up your FTP program, smiley.

Connect to the ftp of your xbox. Now it's time for a badass little maneuver. Rename your original Xbox Morrowind.esm to Morrowind.esm.xxx if you want to back it up, then commence to ftping the PC Morrowind.esm into your Xbox Data files directory. Now check to make sure if to your pleasant surprise, your morrowind is up and running. When that works, jump up and down three times and yell "woohoo" for me, cause I said so.

Now to try to get a mod working. One thing at a time. Copy the texture, icon, meshes, music, etc. folders into (Xbox) "Morrowind\Data Files" directory. This is the "data files" files folder inside of whatever folder your Morrowind Game of the Year Edition game is in. Move the sound folders into the root folder. (The root folder is the folder that your morrowind game is directly in. Basically, it's probably called something like "F:\morrowind" in most cases. The sound folders are usually somethin like Vo, Fx, etc.)
(I'll say it again. For mods that are merged into a PC Morrowind.esm, you never have to copy any files to the cache for any reason. For these mods, all required textures, meshes, and icons folders work directly from the data files folder of the game; all required sound folders work directly from the root folder of the game. In that order, those folders are probably usually F:/Games/[Your Morrowind Game of the Year folder]/Data Files and F:/Games/[Your Morrowind Game of the Year folder])

Anyway, now load the .esp for the plugin in TesDTK and use it to delete bloodmoon and tribunal dependencies, but keep morrowind.esp dependencies. (I'm not sure if you're supposed to add morrowind dependency if it doesn't exist) Press the version button and select your pc morrowind.esm to match the versions. Then you wanna move the new .esp file from TesDTK into your (PC) data files folder and then merge it like you did for the bloodmoon and tribunal esp files. (Go to data files, Select plugin for your mod and set it as the active file, press ok and let it load, then open data files again and make sure the esp is the only thing with an x, and press the merge button, sit back, etc.)

Now, connect to your xbox via ftp, but don't ftp your new .esm just yet. Go to your tested and working .esm and add an extra extension (A file extension is like .xxx, .bak, .poo, etc. Use whatever letters or numbers you want) to it so that you have a backup of a working file. Some people might want to make a new numbered backup every time if they have a lot of space. (For example, something like Morrowind.esm.b01 - so that you can go back however far you want.) Now ftp your new esm file into your morrowind data files directory. That's it, bobby! If you have a mod that no other mod conflicts with, and it is clean and compatible with the xbox version, it is now up and running. I don't think it's wise to add more than one mod at once. I'm not sure if it can even break multiple mods that would otherwise work together.

That's it. Step by step with nothing left out. If anyone has any other tips to ensure that mods work, or to make unclean or not-xbox-ready mods work, please add. Thanks.

Reznik Akime · « **Reply #6 on:** October 05, 2004, 02:48:00 PM »

Ah! Works like a damned charm it does! Good show!

With this im gonna try and merge as many mods as I can allow now that I actually know -how- to merge properly. Ive got alot of free time.. so why not do summin productive with it.

Hopeful · « **Reply #7 on:** October 05, 2004, 03:32:00 PM »

I search the horizon for triple jumping yet I see none. The shame!

Your lack of toasted bread will be your morrowind downfall.

Reznik Akime · « **Reply #8 on:** October 05, 2004, 03:41:00 PM »

Im too lazy to jump and dont like toast.

Lepain · « **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2004, 05:35:00 PM »

Wow this is great. I already added a couple of the mods that i had working the other way. But I still have some questions... Does this method have problems with dialogue... Does this method have problems with scripting? Those were the major problems that I had with the cache method.

I released a mod called the Scamp Lord and the Doppleganger (you can search for it on www.euro-morrowind.com) and the scripts were pretty complex and I just wanted to know what everyone else has had problems with and what has been successful before I merge something that I don't want to. For example do mods like the Illuminated Order work properly?

Thanks alot for the info Hopeful! Hey, if you're Telvanni be on the lookout for a mod that I am making that is involving the expansion of Tel Uvirith and the surrounding areas.

Hopeful · « **Reply #10 on:** October 10, 2004, 06:54:00 PM »

Lepain · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2004, 04:49:00 PM »

Has anyone tried NPCReplace3.0 or better heads, I'm sure that someone has... some of the faces show up and some don't... just the rainbow effect... Any suggestion on how this could be fixed? Plus, has anyone had any mods with dialogue work properly when they started a new game.

Hopeful · « **Reply #12 on:** October 24, 2004, 10:44:00 PM »

What counts as dialogue?

Got unas elves working. The race changes some things the characters say...
I think the ones that add new npcs work too.
Better Heads and Better Bodies both work perfectly as far as I've seen.
Did you stick the BH folders in textures and meshes? Don't know if it makes a difference but the version I know is 2.0.

DragonOmega · « **Reply #13 on:** October 26, 2004, 04:01:00 PM »

extremely nice Hopeful! Sadly enough i think i am so in love with this game to shell out the $30 for the PC GOTY in addition to the Xbox one.

Sigh, i love this game...

y0_diggity · « **Reply #14 on:** October 27, 2004, 04:37:00 PM »

Author Topic: Modding This Goddammed Game (Read 372 times)