1.6 Submod - The Eastern Provinces

[Ogmios]

Note: on hold until 2.0.

In a spirit of industry, I've started working a bit on a limited scope submod to rework the east of the map. My modding skills are pretty limited, so while I can do a little editing of units, my work will be mostly adjusting the existing map, buildings, units, etc.

This is my rough checklist of things I'd like to do:

1. Redo names, regions, and ownership in Morrowind and Blackmarsh. Recycle minor settlements to more important ones. Better reflect Imperial presence in provinces. More lore-friendly populations.
2. Remove the Ashlander faction. Long term goal, rework into 2nd Summerset faction (Firsthold) or 3rd High Rock faction (Farrun)
3. Replace Ashlanders with rebel faction. Keep the feeling of rebel ashlanders around
4. Integrate Ashlander units as mercenaries for the Great Houses. Retool the strider port building line to include caravan stops. Add ashlander mercenary recruitment.
5. Revisit Dunmer shared roster and faction uniques. Variety of small changes - more distinct feel between factions and a more robust shared roster. Rebalancing cost, stats, and recruiting availability at all tiers.
6. Revisit Argonian roster. Disorganized tribal roster with poison to start - after barracks event more organized. Remove horses.
7. Rework Dagoth faction. Reduce unit sizes and make more elite, reflection of Temple.
8. Rework Temple/Indoril faction. Remove order of war units and replace with AOR elites.
9. Rebalance buildings for Dunmer and Argonian factions. Slave Markets for Telvanni and Dres, Banks for Hlaalu, etc.
10. Add unique buildings in Morrowind and Black Marsh. Palace of Mournhold, High Fane, etc.
11. Create unique TES resources for Morrowind and Black Marsh. Ebony, glass, salt rice, etc.
12. Create "barracks event" type progression for Morrowind and Black Marsh. Move from feudal house troops to "Kingdom of Morrowind" recruiting. An-Xileel event for BM.

For the map, I have already started some work. To get an accurate feeling end of the third age, I'm using this map for reference: http://labofabyll.com/others/Gridmap20180311.jpg. Like I've mentioned, the scope of my abilities is fairly limited. I'm not currently planning to add any new regions, or make changes to the geography of the map. Morrowind particularly is covered in small settlements that are of little strategic value and could be replaced with larger, more important towns. I'd also like to do the same process for Skyrim eventually and add more towns to Cyrodiil. My moves so far are listed below:

Seyda Neen moved to Andothren
Hla Oad moved to Helnim
Thirsk moved to Dunkreath
Silnion/Dres Horak moved up near river
Narsis moved south
Urshilaku Camp moved to Kogoruhn
Zainab Camp moved to Gah Sadrith
Erebininsum Camp moved to Almas Thirr
Raven Rock to Bosmora

1.6 Feedback that Inspires the submodding effort.

I'm a huge lover of Morrowind and have been having a blast playing 1.6. Really a dream to come true to combine two of my favorite games, MW and Med2.

I've only started one Hlaalu campaign, so I don't have a huge amount of feedback yet, but I have had some thoughts while playing.

• Some of the factions in the 3E game are far too large. Alinor and Skyrim are always powerhouses because they're gigantic, Alinor particularly. It's probably not possible with the faction slots, but it would make more sense if they were split up like Morrowind which almost never would have had inter-house warfare in the lore. At least Skyrim should be split between Winterhold and Solitude-Dawnstar. I realize even just splitting one faction into two identical ones is a PITA, but I think that would be a big help to the campaign.
• Hlaalu shouldn't start with Mournhold/Almalexia. That should be firmly an Indoril holding at game start.
• There are a bunch of regions that the Empire should hold at the game start. Off the top of my head, Old Ebonheart, Firewatch, most of Blackmarsh along the coasts.
• House Dagoth should be a little less powerful, at least to start, and the upper tier units look sort of thrown together. Outside of the ash creatures, I think Dagoth could just use recolored bonemold soldiers. Also another minor Morrowind settlement could be removed to add Kogoruhn in northern Vvardenfell. Dagoth creatures should be active in the northern ashlands, albeit in smaller numbers.
• The ashlander settlements (and faction) don't feel like they add much for taking up a faction slot. They could just be rebels. The undead faction as well.
• In general, I feel like the Morrowind factions are only their bonemold units. In the games, the impression is that the house guards are not that numerous. I'm not sure how the balancing would go, but I think all the house-level units should have slower recruitment and smaller unit sizes with some minor buffs to stats. Another basic dunmer unit or two could be added to bulk out the bottom half of the roster. Maybe a leather or chitin yari unit.
  
  • I think more could also be done with the AOR system. Like occasionally recruiting Royal Guards from Mournhold, or Ordinators in Vivec, Ghostfence, or Molag Mar.
  
  
• The silt strider units are absurdly strong. I really like the look of the unit, but it should be substantially weaker: I killed over 2,000 corprus monsters with them and took no casualties. There was no indication in any of the TES games that striders were used for fighting - they're giant half-dead spindly insects. Maybe they would make sense with people shooting off the top, but as it stands they're insanely powerful in battles, and really easy to get. Alternatively (and probably a lot easier), make them recruitable from a new stable tier that requires the strider port so they're hard to get. Also could repurpose the strider port to be a higher up building in a caravanserai chain that allows access to some ashlander mercenary recruitment.
• This is probably from how the models were made, but most of the factions have a sort of kitchen sink feel to them. Specifically Skyrim and Cyrodiil feel like the tiers of units are disconnected from each other. I like the units individually, but for example the jump from the Morrowind style legionaries to the Oblivion style legionaries feel like different games. I may be in the minority but I would prefer fewer or more similar units that are more visually consistent.

Anyway, I'm not much of a modder, although I may be able to do some of the balancing changes and maybe mock up some units. The mod is wonderful as it is. Just wanted to get my thoughts out.

[Sloul]

Heii Ogmios, your submod sounds pretty cool.
I was myself gathering some ideas to edit units / buildings to better reflect lore and diversify factions, notably Morrowind Great Houses.
I'll share my thoughts with you if you don't mind.

All my stuff are Morrowind related, I don't care so much for n'wah.

- Generally, I am not a fan of hiring Spies through Brothels or Inn
- On the subject of spies, //not sure if it's already in the mod//, I think Khaajits should have better spies.
- I don't remember which races have nightvision in the lore, but all their generals should have ''Night Fighter'' (night_fighter_capable 1).

Morrowind
- Telvanni see Mage Guild as a concurrent institution. I don't think they should recruit their mages from Mages Guilds. I think only a couple of their cities should natively give them access to mages without building anything. It's a boot on your start, but it becomes an annoyance when you expand. Should reflect their illasionist philosophy.
- I am not sure Telvanni would use siege engines, they don't seem like the industrialist sort. I think there could be an event at some point that allow the player to modernize Telvanni's society, allowing them to build siege engines, possibly to hire mages outside of their native cities (following my previous thought).
- I am not sure either that Fighter and Mage guilds should play a part in a grand strategy wargame, because to start of, they are not formal military. I don't think they have numbers like that. If they would, they would be as strong as a single nation.

- Redoran seems like a martial community, I actually edited my files so that they can hire Redoran swordsmen on barrack level 1 (instead of 2), I removed their Damner militia.
I also increased the replenishment rate of their swordsmen.
That's a big boon, but I also think that as a counterpart, they shouldn't have access to high quality economy building.
Might have better priests too (same for Indoril).

- Hlaalu better ambassadors, with special traits to decrease cost of bribebry

- Dres special farm buildings? slave farms? + growth + trade.
Siege engines manned by slaves?

- Indoril: top of the line armors, but overall more expansive roster.



I'll probably keep editing this message with further thoughts.
I am not a modder myself, I just know a few tricks, so, I am unsure what is possible to do.
And I am always fascinated by what modders achieve to do for Med2 (notable Third Age and now this mod). Impressive.

[Ogmios]

Hi - thanks! More ideas are definitely welcome. I hope to pick up the submod once version 2.0 is out since that should be the final version.

To be honest I'm not much of a modder myself, so I want to start with some more minor map and balance changes before attempting anything major with factions or units. All the guild stuff I want to rework, and I want to change or remove a lot of the extra armies or troops. I understand why the mod has them - and they're fun! - but I'd rather have more lore friendly armies and save guild units / akaviri / undead / maormer for special events.

For the Morrowind factions my ideal state would be something like:

A roster of basic Dunmer units (spearmen, archers, spellswords, mages), and individual "house guard" per house
An unlockable "Kingdom of Morrowind" tier of units with halberds, cavalry, archers, battlemages, and swordsmen
A core of Redoran unique units with redoran observer spear/bow men, swords, heavy swords, and cavalry
A core of Hlaalu unique units with crossbows, spears, maces
A core of Dres unique units with javelins and light infantry (my dream would be a skyrender cavalry unit)
A core of Indoril unique units using the ordinators, bouyant armigers, and indoril nobles
A core of Telvanni unique units focusing on mages and battlemages

I'd also like to remove the Ashlander faction and use their models for the other houses, specifically for the 6th House. I'd remove the 6th House campaign if possible since it would need a lot of work to really be fun, and in the meantime pare down their roster to the few monstrous units and actual Dunmer. I think there's a place for fighting a horde of zombies, but that's not really what the 6th House was like in Morrowind. If anything, hordes of corprus beasts should only be available later in the game after conquering and converting big cities.

[DaedraWarrior]

Little tip - don't remove Undead from game, or you"ll break the scripts, game has 5-8 free spare slots even with Sadras and Stormcloaks