An Open Letter to the OpenMW devs
Posted: 13 Feb 2019, 00:52
Dear OpenMW Development Staff,
This has been something I've been meaning to do for a while, and it's about time I did it. There have been negative things said about OpenMW, such as "Lua/MWSE support isn't here yet" and "If this isn't on par with (input external program here) then it's not good enough" etc, etc. I have been lurking on here for a very long time, and made an account a while ago to help with mod testing (really should be adding more reports, using so many mods). I have watched this project grow over the years, and seen what it's become.
I want to take this time, not to complain or ask for feature x,y, or z, but rather to thank you. Sincerely, and with the utmost gratitude. Words cannot describe what this project is to me, or what the work you've done means to me. OpenMW is literally a dream come true for me. I mean that. Ever since I got Morrowind, on the OG Xbox, long ago, I have been loving it. It quickly became, and still is, my favorite game of all time. There were some things missing from it, things that I (in my young teenage mind) thought were just locked away or hidden. I didn't understand then how the game worked, nor the engine, or anything really. Certain features that weren't available on Xbox, or even pc for that matter, seemed like something that should be par for the course back in the day. Things like multiplayer. I found M'iaq the Liar, and his topic of Multiplayer got my hopes up. I found out later that it was, in essence, impossible to do. My younger brother and I sank many hours in a co-op character that we shared just to get something close to the experience. We longed for the day that we could play a game like Morrowind, or even Morrowind itself, together.
Now I started on Xbox, but moved to PC when I finally had the money. I had a crappy Toshiba Techra, and it barely worked when running Morrowind, but it still worked. It was then that I started looking for mods to enable such a feature. My search turned up a few wonky engine hacks, and nothing more. Failed projects by people with the same desire I had. I gave up hope. I had no hope that Morrowind would be so loved by the community that it would ever get what it deserves, a new engine that enabled you to Co-op with a friend. That is, until OpenMW came along.
OpenMW caught my eye in a random search for Morrowind Multiplayer. See, I had given up hope, but I had thought about looking into the projects that had tried it, to see what they were all about. Maybe some people in my family that understood code could help me make it a reality. Mind you this was before TES3MP. I found the OpenMW FAQ's, and saw that it was, indeed, technically possible. My heart jumped for joy! My dreams for Morrowind had grown more complex since then, and seeing this engine gave me massive hope!
See, since I got it on PC, I suddenly wanted other things. Not just mods, but performance, stability, and no save game corruption. Things that are still difficult to get out of Morrowind today without OpenMW. With the combined power of MGE/XE, MCP, MWSE, 4GB Patch, EXE Optimizer, and Wrye Mash, and Mlox, you could get a fairly okay running game... but that's a lot of programs to run to get the darn thing to work right. OpenMW delivers on most of these features, and I know with time more shall come. I am a patient man, and am more than willing to wait until 1.X to get X feature in the game. I am not one to rush a beautiful thing such as this.
I wanted to let you know that there are many of us out there that support and will continue to praise your project. Take your time, do things right, and don't let some "hot shots" in the modding community or elsewhere get you down.
As of May the 4th, I shall be married, after that, I shall start learning C++ and whatever else is needed to try and help with this project. Coding, and IT in general, is in my blood. Most the men in my family know how to do that, and I will have a massive reservoir of knowledge from them to help me learn. It's the least I can do. This project means a lot to me, and soon I shall be able to play on a stable version with my wife, and my brother, and be able to fulfill my dreams!
Morrowind has been an obsession of mine, I dream of it often, listen to it's music, I even have custom made Morrowind things like a nice MUG and journal.
I also want to state that all the people nay saying, no external program can do what OpenMW can as of this point. With all 7 or so external programs you can't get the same stability, multiplayer, or save file continuity as you can with OpenMW. I have never had OpenMW crash on me, even when using the nightly builds (aside from that one time with the save errors), and I almost only use the nightly builds. I have never had issues with a save, loading, or anything else. I don't have to spend hours trouble shooting or reinstalling, nor do I have to remember the order to run extra programs. I can change the load order in the launcher with ease. OpenMW is, in my mind, the perfect direction for Morrowind to go in. You awesome folks are crazy, in a good way, and I can't wait to see this thing grow even more!
I run a page on facebook called Morrowind Is Home, we will continue to share your work with people and get them to give it a try!
-Kind Regards and greatest thanks
Gabe the N'wah
This has been something I've been meaning to do for a while, and it's about time I did it. There have been negative things said about OpenMW, such as "Lua/MWSE support isn't here yet" and "If this isn't on par with (input external program here) then it's not good enough" etc, etc. I have been lurking on here for a very long time, and made an account a while ago to help with mod testing (really should be adding more reports, using so many mods). I have watched this project grow over the years, and seen what it's become.
I want to take this time, not to complain or ask for feature x,y, or z, but rather to thank you. Sincerely, and with the utmost gratitude. Words cannot describe what this project is to me, or what the work you've done means to me. OpenMW is literally a dream come true for me. I mean that. Ever since I got Morrowind, on the OG Xbox, long ago, I have been loving it. It quickly became, and still is, my favorite game of all time. There were some things missing from it, things that I (in my young teenage mind) thought were just locked away or hidden. I didn't understand then how the game worked, nor the engine, or anything really. Certain features that weren't available on Xbox, or even pc for that matter, seemed like something that should be par for the course back in the day. Things like multiplayer. I found M'iaq the Liar, and his topic of Multiplayer got my hopes up. I found out later that it was, in essence, impossible to do. My younger brother and I sank many hours in a co-op character that we shared just to get something close to the experience. We longed for the day that we could play a game like Morrowind, or even Morrowind itself, together.
Now I started on Xbox, but moved to PC when I finally had the money. I had a crappy Toshiba Techra, and it barely worked when running Morrowind, but it still worked. It was then that I started looking for mods to enable such a feature. My search turned up a few wonky engine hacks, and nothing more. Failed projects by people with the same desire I had. I gave up hope. I had no hope that Morrowind would be so loved by the community that it would ever get what it deserves, a new engine that enabled you to Co-op with a friend. That is, until OpenMW came along.
OpenMW caught my eye in a random search for Morrowind Multiplayer. See, I had given up hope, but I had thought about looking into the projects that had tried it, to see what they were all about. Maybe some people in my family that understood code could help me make it a reality. Mind you this was before TES3MP. I found the OpenMW FAQ's, and saw that it was, indeed, technically possible. My heart jumped for joy! My dreams for Morrowind had grown more complex since then, and seeing this engine gave me massive hope!
See, since I got it on PC, I suddenly wanted other things. Not just mods, but performance, stability, and no save game corruption. Things that are still difficult to get out of Morrowind today without OpenMW. With the combined power of MGE/XE, MCP, MWSE, 4GB Patch, EXE Optimizer, and Wrye Mash, and Mlox, you could get a fairly okay running game... but that's a lot of programs to run to get the darn thing to work right. OpenMW delivers on most of these features, and I know with time more shall come. I am a patient man, and am more than willing to wait until 1.X to get X feature in the game. I am not one to rush a beautiful thing such as this.
I wanted to let you know that there are many of us out there that support and will continue to praise your project. Take your time, do things right, and don't let some "hot shots" in the modding community or elsewhere get you down.
As of May the 4th, I shall be married, after that, I shall start learning C++ and whatever else is needed to try and help with this project. Coding, and IT in general, is in my blood. Most the men in my family know how to do that, and I will have a massive reservoir of knowledge from them to help me learn. It's the least I can do. This project means a lot to me, and soon I shall be able to play on a stable version with my wife, and my brother, and be able to fulfill my dreams!
Morrowind has been an obsession of mine, I dream of it often, listen to it's music, I even have custom made Morrowind things like a nice MUG and journal.
I also want to state that all the people nay saying, no external program can do what OpenMW can as of this point. With all 7 or so external programs you can't get the same stability, multiplayer, or save file continuity as you can with OpenMW. I have never had OpenMW crash on me, even when using the nightly builds (aside from that one time with the save errors), and I almost only use the nightly builds. I have never had issues with a save, loading, or anything else. I don't have to spend hours trouble shooting or reinstalling, nor do I have to remember the order to run extra programs. I can change the load order in the launcher with ease. OpenMW is, in my mind, the perfect direction for Morrowind to go in. You awesome folks are crazy, in a good way, and I can't wait to see this thing grow even more!
I run a page on facebook called Morrowind Is Home, we will continue to share your work with people and get them to give it a try!
-Kind Regards and greatest thanks
Gabe the N'wah