Nerevar's Mind: AF Community Morrowind Multiplayer Server

[Generic-User]

Greetings! I've taken the liberty of setting up an unofficial community server for the acclaimed Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. If this sounds like something that would interest you, read on for details on what you need to get set up and how to join the server.

 

Initial Info:

 

(Information in guide current as of December 14th, 2023)

 

The server is run using a fork of OpenMW called TES3MP that makes multiplayer possible. OpenMW is a free, fan made, open source, built-from-the-ground-up custom engine for Morrowind that helps give players a modern and smooth experience playing it. While the multiplayer fork is based upon OpenMW, you do not need to go out and install OpenMW itself, as it's already a part of TES3MP.

 

We are also running the mod Tamriel Rebuilt, which adds large portions of the surrounding mainland from the game universe into the game for you to explore, complete with towns, factions, NPCs, new questlines, and networks of transportation between them all to help you get around. The mod makes the playable area roughly two and a half to three times larger than the base game (maybe more). So whether you are brand new to Morrowind, or are a seasoned veteran, there should be plenty of stuff for you to do.

 

Key Serverside Gameplay Mechanics:

 

• Quests, bounties, faction membership/status, journals/journal entries, etc. are not shared and are unique to each player. Your progress is your own.
• The game cells (both interior and exterior) will reset every two days to minimize the amount of players traversing already cleared dungeons (see below for more specific information about this)
• A system is in place to allow you to claim a house in the world as yours, where you can keep other players out, and have a place to stash your loot without worrying about other people stealing it, and also keeping it safe from periodic cell resets (more information below)

 

Requirements:

 

• The base game (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind)
• Expansions: Tribunal and Bloodmoon
• Mods: Tamriel Rebuilt and it's dependencies (see installation below)
• TES3MP for connecting to the server
• 10 minutes of clicking through install windows

 

If you're already familiar with OpenMW/TES3MP and setting up mods for Morrowind, then the only information left you need to play the game is the server information itself:

 

Server Name: Nerevar's Mind

Password: accursedfarms

 

Current version of Tamriel Rebuilt that the server is running:

Main Release: 23.10

Tamriel Data: 10.0

 

For everyone else, keep reading.

 

Installation:

 

1. Install Morrowind (I'm assuming you don't need help on installing the base game itself). You can either have the Steam version or the GOG version. If you have the GOTY version (from either source) it will already come with the two expansions for the game, which are also required to play. If you don't have the expansions, you will need to source them. If you somehow still have the disc version, you will need to make sure it's fully patched and that you also have the expansions.

 

2. Download and install the mod Tamriel Rebuilt. The mod is comprised of two main parts: "the mod itself", and "the data files." While the mod itself needs to match the version that the server is running (ie the latest), the data files give you a choice between picking the regular or HD version of the assets. Whether you want to run regular or HD is entirely up to you, simply download the version you prefer to run when going through the install process.

 

You will also need to grab the latest hotfix (3.1 at the time of writing this).

Hotfix is no longer needed as it has been integrated with the newest release. If a new hotfix is released for the latest version, this information will be updated accordingly.

 

Note, it is strongly recommended that you use the files listed on Nexus Mods, as opposed to downloading them from the main Tamriel Rebuilt website itself. We've already had at least one instance of mismatched files when sourcing them from the Tamriel Rebuilt website itself (the Nexus Mods page for the mod is also run by the Tamriel Rebuilt team, so not really sure why this happened). Downloading from Nexus Mods seems to have solved all issues related to this, so get it from there to play it safe.

 

Tamriel Rebuilt Installation Instructions: https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/how-install-tamriel-rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt "Main" Files: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42145/?tab=files

Tamriel Rebuilt "Data" Files (get HD or Vanilla): https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/44537/?tab=files

 

If you are not familiar with modding Elder Scrolls games, make sure you pay special attention to the install instructions (especially the part about registering .bsa's). If you are having issues later on trying to connect to the server, either due to mod errors, or problems with assets in game, make sure to double check everything related to the mod was installed correctly, and to check the "Troubleshooting" section at the bottom of the official install instructions (linked above).

 

3. Install TES3MP:

 

TES3MP Download Link (for current version at time of writing): https://github.com/TES3MP/TES3MP/releases/tag/tes3mp-0.8.1

(Note, if you are a Windows user, you want the file named tes3mp.Win64.release.0.8.1.zip)

 

TES3MP Quickstart Guide: https://github.com/TES3MP/TES3MP/wiki/Quickstart-guide

 

Follow the directions in the quickstart guide above up to step 3. Step 1 has the download link, but since it can sometimes be a pain for the uninitiated to navigate Github, I went ahead and provided the link you need above the quickstart link.

 

4. Make sure your mod list is in the right order. While we're only running one mod, the base game and the expansions comprise a few different data packages already, and the mod itself is also comprised of a few more, so if everything is working properly, you'll actually have what looks like 5 different "mods" enabled.

 

Your data file list for enabled data files, both in content and the order they are listed, should match this exactly:
 

Tribunal.esm

Bloodmoon.esm

Tamriel_Data.esm

TR_Mainland.esm

TR_Factions.esm

 

5. Join the server. If everything has been set up correctly, you should finally be good to go. To connect to the server, open the server browser (tes3mp-browser.exe) in your TES3MP folder and look for the server name (Nerevar's Mind), double click, enter the password (accursedfarms).

 

Once you are in the server, it will ask for a username. This is the name that you will use to log into the server with, and the name that you will show up to other players as in-game. It will also ask you to make a password. After you've made a character and played, once you rejoin using your same username and password, you'll be right back where you left off.

 

If you get errors, consult your log file (Documents\My Games\OpenMW) to see if something specific maybe went wrong when installing the mod. It may reference a problem or a mismatch with a specific file. Refer to the main Tamriel Rebuilt installation guide linked above for troubleshooting issues, since that's the main thing that's likely to give you issues.

 

Server Rules:

 

• Griefing (repeatedly killing), continuously harassing and/or continuously flaming other players is forbidden.
• Do not post anything illegal under US law or anything that might constitute as hate speech.
• PVP is enabled so please adhere to Plato's Golden Rule: don't be an asshole and try not do anything that might have a long term impact on someone's enjoyment of the game.
• Do not kill any quest giving NPCs (the thread of destiny, yadada). This is will not break the game indefinitely due to server-side auto-corrections, but it can make gameplay for others annoying.
• Mass murdering towns full of people, while discouraged (even if avoiding quest NPCs), is not explicitly forbidden. However, if this becomes an issue that starts impacting the gameplay of other people, this rule may be revised and/or action may be taken against a repeat offender.

 

Violating any of the above rules will result in a kick/ban as appropriate, depending on the severity of the transgression. These rules may be modified or amended later if/as needed. If a situation arises that has no specific rule for it, but otherwise negatively impacts gameplay for other players, action may be taken against the offender depending on the severity of the issue.

 

Further Information/FAQ

 

Morrowind is a single player game. How does this work as a multiplayer server with multiple people running around doing quests, killing people, gameplay aspects, etc etc?

 

Since a lot of actions one would take while playing the story are permanent, the server has a script running that automatically resets things over time. This means people that are killed will eventually come back to life, and story/quest based items you need to find will reappear as well. While you can find and play with other players, you may encounter some difficulties/problems if you try to do the exact same quests at the exact time as each other.

 

Waiting/sleeping does not advance time in the server. Instead, time advances "naturally" over time, even when no one is on. While you can use the wait/sleep functions in the game (you still need to "sleep" to level up), it will not actually pass any time in the server, regardless of the length set.

 

Again, keep in mind, Morrowind is a singleplayer game that we're running as a pseudo-MMO experience. Weird stuff happening from time to time is just going to come with the territory.

 

About the "resets", how exactly does that work?

 

When a cell is first entered, the server starts a timer on that cell. After two days (in real life) have passed since that timer has started, as long as no players are actively online and present inside that cell, the cell will reset once a player enters it again (items will reappear, NPCs will be alive, etc). Re-entering a cell does not restart its timer. Be aware that If you happened to stash any items inside a cell, they will eventually disappear once it resets (items in your inventory will never disappear).

 

To be clear, this does not mean that everything in the game resets every two days. It means that it's essentially a series of rolling resets on a cell-by-cell basis depending on the last time that cell was initialized. If there's a specific cell in the game that you're waiting to be reset, you can type /resets in the ingame chat to get a list of every cell on the server that's flagged for a reset, and how long until it does.

 

Also note, because of certain wonkiness that can happen with the game, the reset script by default comes with an exclusion for the starting town of Seyda Neen, and the Census and Excise Office. If you happen to notice things around there aren't resetting, that is intentional (sorry fans of Fargoth's Ring).

 

If resetting things clears all the items in a cell, and every cell visited by a player will eventually reset, where do I stash my goods? I can't carry this stuff around forever!

 

As mentioned in the initial overview, we're running a plugin that enables player owned houses in the game. Any house set up as a player owned house will be on the reset exclusion list. You can also lock it to keep people from going in and pilfering all of your skooma while you're away. See near the bottom for specific information on how to get set up with your own player owned house.

 

I forgot my password, am I screwed?

 

Sort of, but we can work around it. To the best of my knowledge, there is no mechanism to reset a password. The passwords are also hashed before being stored, so I can't simply just look in your character file and tell you what your password was. If you forget your password, contact me and we'll get you sorted out.

 

I know of a cool mod you should add. Can we get it in the server?

 

We are most likely only going to run Tamriel Rebuilt. Deciding this off the start as the only mod that's going to be in play simplifies things and reduces the odds that something goes wrong, especially since everyone who wants to play on the server would then all have to go out and get whatever the new mod would be. If there's massive community inertia behind a specific mod that there's a strong case for adding it to the game, I might consider it, but most likely the answer will be no.

 

There's some sort of problem/issue/something with stuff in the server. Who do I talk to?

 

If you notice something wrong in the game, or if some weird stuff is happening, and it's not something that just a cell reset would likely fix, contact me and let me know and I'll look into it and see what I can do. You can either leave a post here, DM me here, or contact me on any Accursed Farms discord server that I'm aware exists.

 

Player Owned Houses

 

To help with both roleplay/immersion and gameplay, you are free to choose any house you want that otherwise meets the guidelines (below). You are not required to have a player owned house if you don't want one. If you choose to have one, you may have only one. If you find a different house later that you think you would rather have instead, you may do a swap. If the house is occupied by an NPC, as long as the NPC is not otherwise affiliated with any quests, it's advised to probably murder them. While prices can be set for houses, I am otherwise making them available to players for free to ensure everyone has access to a safe place to store their loot due to the rolling cell resets and other associated risks.

 

Player Owned House Guidelines:

 

• Must not be involved with any quests in any way. There can be no quest NPCs living there and no quest items located in the house. No quest involvement whatsoever.
• It must be something that otherwise at least somewhat makes sense as a personal dwelling. You can't claim some random tower attached to an imperial fort for example. I'm open to some weird stuff if it suits your character, but have it make sense in the larger scale of the game.
• It can't have an impact on other players. For example, you can't off a merchant and claim his shop as your new home.
• Keep it reasonable. Requests for someone's castle or large manor are probably going to get rejected. A shack, hut, small house, etc is suggested. If you really want something larger, as long as it's otherwise reasonable overall, your character may have to "buy" it from the "market" to add a sense of balance/roleplay. Conversely, if you want a small cave or something, that's fine too. You can live in absolute squalor if you want.

 

Setting up player owned houses also requires manual action on my end in order to facilitate the process, so once you find something you think is suitable, let me know (you can post here if you want or use the above contact options). Give me the name of the house (shown on the map info when standing inside) so I can go check it out and set it up if it's otherwise acceptable. If it's good, I'll get it set up for you.

 

 

That's it for the guide. If you have any questions or issues, let me know.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Generic-User (see edit history)

[Im_CIA]

I wish I could get into this. The instructions are too dense and confusing for me