MWSE tinkering: Levelling, Progression, Difficulty

Now to the final part of this guide: Mod configuration and balance tweaks. As we know, the main challenges of Morrowind progression and difficulty are:

• Becoming too powerful too early = Too fast level/skill progression (as world is un-scaled, as compared to Oblivion or partially Skyrim). This kills sense of achievement later on and can inhibit freedom in exploration and/or provoke a "min-max" approch to exploration (breaks immersion)

• Some skills do not progress "naturally" (aka by use in role-play situations) and require grind (fragments immersion and roleplay); Examples are: Enchant, Alchemy or Speechcraft (Carpal tunnel torture)

• TR and Vanilla Morrowind can disrupt each other's balance. ^{(This is addresed already by the Vvardenfell content mods [Section 4 in Modlist] and the TR_Factions plug-in [See discussion])}

To try and adress these issues, this modlist helped install some MWSE mods that are easy to configure and test in-game, from the MWSE Mod Config Menu, and help fine-tune Morrowind's problematic progression and difficulty balance. These MWSE-only mods that we already installed are:

• Ashfall (balances exploration, introduces basic needs, enhances interaction with the environment)

• MULE (eliminates levelling min-max, naturally increase attributes by skill usage)

• Proportional Progression (can be used to change % rate of any skill increase rate; helping slow down skills that raise too fast, and help raise others without grind. Works well with MULE)

• Silver Tongue (balances NPC Disposition towards player based on social categories, makes Speecraft usage such as bribes and admire/intimidate much more engaging and with consequence)

• Real Disposition (NPC disposition changes brings a whole new range of NPC reactions. Works with Silver Tongue very well)

• Enchanting Services (overhauls Enchanting, offers scroll transcription and decypher services, can adjust Enchant prices for better economy balance)

• abot's Smart Merchants (overhauls Mercantile and Game economy without affecting items or creating mod/balance conflicts. makes it harder to sale very expensive items; recalculating actual barter based on PC/NPC mercantile skill levels and dispositions; works well with Silver Tongue)

I believe all these mods come with good default values. So if you want to play without doing anything, do it.

However, all of these mods values can be changed at any time from the Morrowind Main Menu/Esc Menu Mod config. You simply open Mod Config and you will find all mods on the left; with options to change as you like on the right. Most have tooltips with info for each option. If you want to try, here are my recommended values: ^{(You can make a photo with your phone or open in the browser and then configure it in game as Morrowind OG is too friendly with alt-tabbing..)}

Note: If you follow my values, change only the mentioned ones; leaving the others unchanged if not specified.

There are no consequence to testing mid-game or on an existing char as these are all MWSE based. You can change and test as you please. Just some changes might require game restart (should mention) In-game Mod Config changes does not require mod hygiene routine (PLOX reorder, etc)

• abot's Smart Merchancs [mercantile / item price calculation changes] :

  • Buy Percent 200%; Sell percent 80% — I feel this is a good balance which promotes Mercantile skill grown and actually makes some item values plausible (Enchanted ring for 6 gold, really?) while keeping overvalued items (12000 Daedric sword) from making you infinitely rich and break the game. Feel free to experiment with other values as you please to strike the right progression 4u.

• Ashfall: [Survival Mechanics rates]

  • Time scale (20, Default); Hunger 35, Thirst 45 (makes more impact without being too aggravating, water and food are mostly everywhere but default values I find too low) Tiredness 55, Sleep Bed 65 (You should rest well even when powernapping in an actual bed)

• MULE: [determines Skill <> Attribute relationship and progress rate]

  • Skill decay NO;

  • Major/Minor Default; (2 Major/Minor Skill increase = 1 Attribute Point).

  • Misc Skills:

    • Level gain from Misc: (not too impactful as levels do not bring Attributes when using MULE, just Skill Usage/ Skill Raise Increase raises Attributes

    • Level to gain attribute from Misc: 25 (or higher if you want to delay Attribute increase from Skills)

    • Misc Skills for Attribute point: 4 (means 4 misc Skills increases ⇒ + 1 attribute point which governs them); or use 0 if you want hardcore roleplaying only through Major/Minor

• Proportional Progression: [determines actual Skill Rate Increase / progress rate by use/succesful Skill action; aka hit with Short Blade = Short blade increase; etc]

  • There are two Tabs in which I recommend changing values as to not be to complex: General and Skill Modified

    • Global: 75% Skill Rate (All) ; = Slows down all skill rate increase by 25%; feel free to drop this lower as you play if you feel you are becoming powerful too fast still as you advance in quests/factions. I use 75% and drop towards 50% later on. OR you can use Level-Skill % changes options. By Lowering Global Skill Rate % we solve most issues with fast levelling, making for a better progression curve in TR and large-content playthroughs. However I feel some Skills require adjusting still:

    • [with Global 75%] Skill-Modif: [leave all 100% default except:]

      • Athletics 70% (increases too fast otherwise)

      • Alchemy, Alteration, Enchanting - 120% (as to not grind; or lower then 100 if you do grind!)

      • Short Blade 80% (raises too fast)

      • Marksman 90%

      • Speechcraft 270% (as I said, default is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome fast-lane. I feel it is more natural and real-like to use the skill less and not grind; again if you do grind then keep it 100% or lower it)

    • Feel free to experiment with any other Skill rates and/or Level + Global rate as you find fitting. The above numbers worked for me, but you might find another balance more suited as per your character/build/playthrough focus

These other mods I recommend leaving on Default values, with no changes.

• Enchanting Services: Default, as it comes

• Real Disposition: Default (Installed with Light Preset during Install already)

• Silver Tongue: Default