Modjam 2021 has now come to a close and it's time to judge the huge amount of mods that were released over Easter weekend. I shall be updating this post as I review each mod.
As there are so many mods to review, I won't be playing them all at any great length, but enough to see if they work properly and complete all the quests and see all of the additions.
Please note: These mods will be tested (and judged) on an absolute clean Morrowind install and I have no idea who made the mods prior to working out their Modjam score.
(Clicking the mod title will open the Nexus download page)
The Blight
This was judged on a two-way basis. Luckily, I didn't have to test it all as Merlord had kindly streamed himself checking it out.
Lovely coding and sexy decals make this a nice feature. Being able to pass on your infection by talking (random) to people makes a lot of sense (Covid anyone?).
The bandana-wearing during a storm is a great addition on its own.
Sadly, the Blight worsens over time, but the decals stay the same. I can feel an update coming for this though.
The flora can also pick up Blight which is another nice touch. If people and animals can get it then why not the plants.
I left it on for a little while and after the novelty had worn off (this is the wife by the way, not me) it became annoying. It's not something you want if your build is based on a warrior type with little magic abilities, but it's still a great add-on either way.
Definitely worth the download and installation, and very immersive. As I know who the authors were on this one, I wouldn't have expected anything less.
SkarFace
When I say, "simply a new model", being a modeller I know how much time and effort went into this which is something most judges will sadly overlook.
Nice changes, well worth adding to your mod list.
The Other Council Club
This one took me a minute or two to sort out, I stupidly misspelt the TR_Data.BSA when registering it which led to all sorts of yellow triangles of doom! (NOT the mods fault).
I must say, I am very glad that I bothered to take the time to track down my error as the mod itself was worthy of the effort.
It really set the atmosphere as I believe it should be. The lighting, the relaxed cushion sitters and the cosy corners reminded me of a hash den I had visited in Afghanistan, many years ago.
This one is definitely staying on the playlist.
My only bugbear with this mod was that it had utilised meshes from both OAAB and TR Data and required them both to work. I would like to see modders extract the required files from these BSA's and supply them within their own mod instead of the user being forced to download and install such vast quantities of excess files.
Other than that, cool mod.
Redoran Heat
Well, no idea what to say about this one. The idea behind it, from what I can make out, was ok.
It runs along with the old Hollywood favourite of; Man kills wife, man misses wife, man learns necromancy to bring wife back.
It wasn't so much the execution as the mod worked. It was the dialogue. It really felt as though this was written in another language and then Google translated it into English. For this, I can not roast the author.
The clues could be less cryptic in nature as it had me (and some other judges) baffled. The end reward was way too much, and the parting of the wizard was way too sudden.
It took a trip around the construction set to figure out what was going on and where to go. I would like to see the dialogue in its native language (I do hope the author isn't a native English speaker after saying this!) to see if it made more sense before Google butchered it.
Rating? Not sure, still baffled. Download at your own risk.
The Beacon of St Rilms
This mod provides a cosy little outpost (pub) on the way to the Ghostgate from Ald-Ruhn. It provides the two most important things there are. Bed, and beer.
I have been trying to judge and review these mods without knowing the author prior to playing them, but I just had to check the mod page for information. This was one of those mods.
A lot of thought and Construction Set effort has been put into this boozer, and better still you can spot it a mile away with the handy glowing light of Rilm's beacon. "I can see the pub from here" has never been so right.
I especially liked the little bookcase/ alcove shown above in the screenshot. Nicely done.
It is yet another one of the mods that will be staying in the playlist.
Redoran Archmaster's Office
This is another mod that should be implemented across the board. All that work you put yourself through to get to the top and what do you get for it? Not a lot.
This changes that and gives you a huge room with lots of storage space to do archmastery stuff in.
I must say, it was a pain in the arse doing the quests to get to be Archmaster, in the end, I just cheated my way there and broke into the room!
Nice layout, a good amount of thought and CS effort put into this one. Happy to keep it in my play list (well, the wife's playlist as I don't play anymore).
Archmaster Perks
Another tough one to judge...
After cheating my way to the top, I can indeed confirm that you can still join another house! Adds so much it's hard to list. I didn't go through this with a fine-toothed comb, but a list of things is on the mod page.
Free booze! Something I must repeat.
Teleportation ring back to the council hall? Check. Fast travel is always a handy reward. I especially like the Master level training that becomes available to you as well.
Good mod. Someone should do the same for the other factions.
Marandus Rebuilt
This mod did make Marandus more tolerable and give it more to explore. Some extra tileset parts have been used that don't quite fit and leave an open end of a beam on display when going from rooms to the corridors. The lighting could do with moving a tad here and there as it creates light-seams in some areas.
For some reason, the tower model wasn't there in my version, but I'm sure that is because of my install and not the mod itself. The interior of the tower was there though, and I felt it could have been filled out a little more than it was. I'm not going to nail this mod because of a sparse tower due to the time frame which it had to do as much as the author has done.
What can I say? It's better than vanilla. I would have liked to have seen the meshes etc being separated from OAAB data instead of being forced to install an extra esm.
Old Blue Fin
What can I say about this one? It gives Old Blue Fin a bluefin. Something that Bethesda should have done in the beginning.
Redoran Hortator Armour Chest
Kitbashing at its best from Stripes. A "new" Hortator armour and an enchanted armour can be found in a locked chest within the Redoran practice room. The chest is keyless and can only be opened if you possess the ring of the Hortator (or cheat like I did).
The enchantments are useful and not overpowering as I've found with some of the Modjam rewards thus far. Such a shame that he didn't bother to put a little quest together as well.
Redoran Concept Art
This one was extremely hard for me to judge. It adds little touches to Ald-Ruhn, inspired by the original concept art with subtle additions of banners atop of huts and some other bits and pieces.
Redoran Bard
As you walk down the ramp from the Silt Strider in Ald-Ruhn you will come across an armoured agent that will throw a forced greeting at you, asking for your assistance in rescuing his sister who has been enslaved.
You must speak to him again after closing this greeting and he will give you a little story and offer you several options.
This mod did give me the run-around (in a good way), from Ald-Ruhn to Suran, Vivec, and a trip around a Dwemer stronghold to find what I was looking for.
The highlight of the mod for me was the attention to detail the author has put into the mudcrabs speech impediment that had me rolling.
I didn't play with the eventual companion too much, but she appeared to be useful, and with little to say. Her ability to throw out useful spells could be handy.
Nice little mod and well worth the download.
Redoran Amulet
Another short quest, very similar to the Umbra quest but with no promise of anything good within the dialogue. The warrior is quite tough so I did the decent thing and cheated my hand-to-hand to 100 to kick his arse.
What you get is a full set of armour and what looks like a crappy amulet you would generally ignore. On further inspection in the construction set, the amulet has a very high enchant possibility and has been retextured enough to set it apart.
Not bad. No quest, just a good old fight and a nice reward that's easy to miss.
This mod had obviously been cleaned and supplied a readme. +
The Watchman
This mod does exactly what it says (apart from the directions of course). It places a hut North-West of Maar Gan.
I noticed two things before running this mod that I wasn't fond of, one, an easy fix, the dates were wrong in Wrye Mash. Two, it used OAAB Data as an esm rather than extracting the few minor meshes it used from it. I decided due to my experience with OAAB that I would put up with floating yellow triangles for this one.
The Watchman's hut was well decked out and looked the part (see above screenshot) and the Watchman had a small amount of unique dialogue to greet me with.
Not much more I can say really. If you want to add a Redoran trainer to your game then this is a mod for you.
Anvi the Ash Hound
Cliff Racer Revenge
Everybody's favourite Morrowind creature is the feature of this particular mod as the name suggests.
Lost Redoran Relics
Redoran Exile Armour
