Denina's Morrowind Forums

[Drac]

Abot's Water Life
by Abot (oddly enough :} )


Description from the download page:
Water Life is an attempt to mix the scripting techniques developed in the "Where are all bird going?" plugin with the best aquatic creature modding resources to bring more life into Morrowind waters.

This plugin mainly adds to Morrowind (most) peaceful aquatic creatures based on the wonderful models & textures by Cait Sith, Lady Eternity & Proudfoot, Brash.

The main goals of the plugin are:

- make waters and shore feel more alive, especially deep sea diving in wilderness desert areas

- tolerable/dynamic fps hit

- no install/uninstall/reinstall quest/game consequences

- compatibility with all existing & future plugins, thanks to the dynamic, real time placement/deletion of all items and water areas recognition.

What makes this plugin really different is the way (with pros and cons) creatures are placed in the world and the effort to make them more "alive".
You can hate or love this way of placing creatures, but I think it's worth a try.

Download Page: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=258

[Drac]

I've used this mod at times very nearly since it became available, and while it's not quite a must-have... it definitely makes exploring about underwater a great deal more interesting and worthwhile.

Concept: Superb
The idea that all of the lakes, rivers and seas about Vvardenfell have only two kinds of fish, plus Dreugh, scallops and a few plants, and if you get away from the island that the sea is dead except for a few knots that appear suddenly seems awkward to me. However, this mod makes all water (aside from a few puddles and pools of swamp-gunk) come alive.

Lore Accuracy: Fair
Admittedly, there isn't much lore available for Tamriel's fish and other creatures, but instead of giving the creatures the names they bear in Earth, I'd like to've seen some Tamrielic names instead of "Perch", "Great White Shark", and so forth. One exception: the Water Netch, which is decidedly Vvardenfell in nature.

Design: Excellent
The methods of spawning water creatures is interesting and novel, and configurable in a number of ways, some of which help prevent creatures from suddenly appearing in the player's view. Also, since now plant-groups, complete with underwater glow where appropriate do appear, the sea-floor never seems quite the barren waste that it does in vanilla Morrowind. A special 'configuration ring', a timescale-setting ring and a fishing-pole all appear when the character wakes up, and the mod will notice if they've gotten lost and replace them; a nice self-correcting feature.


Attention to Detail: Excellent
The interactions that can happen between creatures is handled nicely; it's quite possible to find a shark attacking some fish and then eating them, and a dolphin might very well decide to attack a shark... sometimes in pods of several... just as is possible in reality. I'm not entirely certain about groups of angry penguins attacking a bear, but this is Vvardenfell, not Earth so... :}
In addition, a slain fish (such as shark or tuna, or many others) will turn belly-up and slowly rise to the surface; just as in reality. The sheer number of different creatures is excellent; tiny sea stars (starfish), small fish, medium, large and enormous are all represented; the variety is very good. I was pleased to run into several small seahorses trying to flee a larger fish, for example.

It did seem a bit odd that an orca (killer whale) or dolphin might offer a ride in the wild, but it does make for an interesting touch, as well. The fishing pole can be a little difficult to use, but I did manage to catch several fish after a bit of practice, and you can harvest some interesting new alchemical ingredients as well, all appropriate to the species from which they're taken.


Technical Achievement: Superb
Given the constraints of Morrowind's animation methods and scripting language, this was surely a difficult and time-consuming project, and yet within the available limitations, Abot has given us a very nice and practical addition to the Morrowind experience. I'm impressed.

Known Incompatibilities: I know of none myself, and Abot has made strong efforts to make Water Life compatible with a number of other popular mods, such as Necessities of Morrowind.

Of course, as I'm reviewing this now, my current Morrowind game certainly includes Water Life. It genuinely enhances the feel of the game.