ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

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Godspeed101
Posts: 2
Joined: 29 Dec 2019, 01:21

ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by Godspeed101 »

Hello all!
I am registered as Godspeed101 here but most will recognize my as Sandman101 and modder of the H.E.L.L.U.V.A. series.

I have been away a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been planning and working on Morrowind.
I have had my life turned upside down in the past few years after releasing HELLUVA.
Since then several computers, several HD crashes, several new iterations of HELLUVA lost but, it has all led to this project now which I have a full head of steam on and a brand new computer!

This is the first announcement of the evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A. to CoMWind.
Common Morrowind.

CoMWind will be different in that it will not just be Leveled lists, armor, weapons, etc..
The idea is to make it the one download you need to get just about everything you want in a game.
Mods are disappearing, people have disappeared, emails are dead, sites are down.
Some mods don't install properly because of bad file structure some need patches.
Players don't want to sort through hundreds of older mods to find the real gems.
I want to make it so it is easier to bring people to and back to Morrowind and it seems like there is a resurgence of Morrowind.
In the past, file size was an issue for downloading and MW was harder to run on some PCs. This is no longer the case, even a very cheap computer can run MW, MWSE, MGE, OpenMW, etc...
Currently there is over 350 modders work included in this project.

So, what will be in CoMWind?
Everything that HELLUVA was and more.
Races
Creatures
Ingredients
Statics
Interior models
Exterior models
Containers
and more

The main functions will be:
# 1 Items to augment all leveled lists - To this end it may be dependent on -
- CoMWInd specific lists
- Creatures (most current)
- MCA (Maybe)
- The Undead (Maybe)
- ?
By doing this it will allow me to add to the Leveled list and not have to add more.
But I am not up on the best iterations of these type of mods and am open to suggestions.
Some Leveled lists may be added for atmospheric reasons. Add passive creatures, pets, domesticated animals.
I intend to incorporate HELLUVA Merchant Containers, HELLUVA Glorious Guards and HELLUVA Philotherian Pets.
All stock MW items are to be left alone except in rare instances, which will be documented and listed. This should be limited to number of leveled lists and scripts added to stock items like boots and armors unless there is a new, better way.
For instance, I have to attach scripts to stock MW Boots to give Legging choices.
I am aware of Onion so I know that body slots are not as much of an issue as they once were. This will help with quivers, backpacks, etc...

# 2 As many resources for modding as I can get permissions for!
World building items, building interiors and exteriors, signs, banners, pictures furniture, plants, retextures ect...
This would mean as long as you have the CoMWind resources installed you only need to make/release a .esp

# 3 If you want to update a older mesh or textures for a specific item, Replacers will be very easy with the setup of CoMWind.

# 4 I intend to use a installer to customize a few choices. Such as, New BB races only(there are quite a few old Pre-BB races), New Races added to Bandit/NPC list, Creatures added to Leveled lists, Passive Animals added to towns, and so on.

Some other things that I would like to see implemented later:
Dual weapons
Quivers
Backpacks
Furniture placement MAYBE
PC voices MAYBE
Buyable and placeable mannequins
Buyable and placeable weapon racks MAYBE
buyable and placeable shield racks MAYBE
Compatible with Book rotator
Etc

Anyone who contributes to the project will get credit.

I intend to make videos and post them so you can see what is in CoMWind and how to find and remove items you don't like (Yes it will be easy).
It will be as simple as deleting a leveled list and saving. The Legend will give you all the information you need to find the list.
I also plan on having videos highlighting races, armors, weapons, and more.

I hope to get a few people to help on aspects. I have started what is going to be "The MW Spreadsheet of all Spreadsheets" or "The CoMWind Bible" so I can keep track and credit EVERYONE who has had any type of hand in contributing, Permissions, emails and access read me info.
- To that end, I need help on the best way to handle all of the readmes. I have a way now but it isn't optimal. I am using Open Office because everyone has access to it and even of they don't want to install it there is a portable app that can open it easily without installing anything on your computer.
All of the readmes get renamed. This is necessary because most are named "readme". I rename them (Modder name) - (Mod name).
My current way now is to paste them into a sheet and hyper link to the sheet. It works fine until I have to do a prolific modder like midgetalien who has over 100 mods. The problem is the rows of the spreadsheet. Each readme goes into a column and the rows can get odd the more readmes you have. I am completely open if someone has a better way or can help with creating a database of all the readmes. At the time of writing this I am at 1,156 readmes.

Also, since I have been out of the loop, anyone wanting to help point me to resources is appreciated. I have just about everything I can get from Morrowind Mod History and Great House Fliggerty Download section. I will get to Nexus and sort through those.
2-10-2022
The past 2 months I have been sorting through all of my my HD's and flash drives trying to figure out exactly what I still have. I have recently been downloading tons of resources again. Now begins the sorting and logging in the spreadsheet.
4-20-2022
I have finished sorting and organizing all the material I have. I have did a massive amount of renaming and folder restructuring. As of this date I am converting what resources I have open, free access to and am into the "B's".
5-10-2022
I have been working my way through my files. As of now I am working on "F"
7-22-22
Still working my way through my files. As of now I am working on "T"

The file and CS id structure of CoMWind will be simplified and easy and a Legend will be available.

I also would be grateful for anyone looking to help with various aspects.
Scripting - I would love to see various scripts modified and adapted to make the best use of OpenMW (leggings, open face or closed face helm, sheathing, bows, quivers, backpacks, etc...

Mesh editing and optimization and downgrading OB versions with available permissions -

Balancer - Balance stats and appearances to level

As I go along I will be collecting a list of modders that I can't contact or find any permissions for their items.
Essentially anyone who can help with this in a historical aspect or can help track down these modders or permission status would be appreciated!

PR - someone who like to make videos, tutorials, keep up with threads, releases, complaints, bugs etc,,, essentially help keep up with the projects community involvement.

I am also looking for a writer to fill in the scrolls and books various modders have provided as a resource with notes and stories that are appropriate.

Dialogue - There will be approximately 100 different races, many would benefit from being voiced. A large number of the can just have stock resource files made to work with them. I am not proficient in this area so I am asking for someone who wants to help or provide a specific tutorial with steps on how to do this. Some of the "races" will actually be used as creatures so they will need a little more work.

This will not be a quick project nore do I see a end of work for a long time. I hope to have a alpha stage to release in 6 months or so and it could easily be longer, but since I am working on this huge project alone I can't set a timeline.
I would love to see this expand to a team and continue to grow.

~Sandman101 aka Godspeed101
claudekennilol
Posts: 92
Joined: 01 Aug 2012, 20:48

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by claudekennilol »

Getting permissions from individual authors to redistribute their mods should be a thing of the past now. And a lot of the work you want to do is also already encapsulated in a nifty little tool named Wabbajack. With that you can download any number of mods, set up your load order, modify ini files for individual mods, add in optional sections, include any necessary custom patches, and it all just works. With this you don't need individual permissions because you're essentially just creating a recipe that the tool (Wabbajack) follows. It does all the downloading necessary, unzipping, putting the files in the proper place, etc. And I trust it a lot more than I trust a random installer found on the internet.
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psi29a
Posts: 5355
Joined: 29 Sep 2011, 10:13
Location: Belgium
Gitlab profile: https://gitlab.com/psi29a/
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Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by psi29a »

claudekennilol wrote: 30 Aug 2022, 14:56 Getting permissions from individual authors to redistribute their mods should be a thing of the past now.
Licenses and copyright law haven't changed, so it's still required to ask permission if no license is explicitly given. Email is considered good enough as it being documented. I had to do that when trying to sift through an Ultima total conversion mod. I only managed to to track down a third of the assets used that I got permission for and licensed under one of the CC licenses.
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2666
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by AnyOldName3 »

That's not how Wabbajack works, as he explained in his post. It's roughly analogous to a machine-readable version of modding-openmw.com, and obviously that site's not violating anyone's licences. It upsets some mod authors as if you've got Nexus Premium, Wabbajack can download files directly from the Nexus API without you having to visit each mod's Nexus page, but they've granted the Nexus a licence to let them distribute the mod that way by uploading it there, so it's not a licence violation.
claudekennilol
Posts: 92
Joined: 01 Aug 2012, 20:48

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by claudekennilol »

Yeah I realize that first part could be misunderstood as its own point, but I just wrote it out in a confusing way. What I meant was specifically that Wabbajack circumvents requiring permissions by making the user download the mod instead of "you" redistributing the mod for the user.

Is there anything on modding-openmw that would keep WJ from targeting it for downloads? Nexus is ideal for a tool like WJ now that a specific mod is always available for download--that means a list can't go obsolete. But there's nothing precluding it from targeting other sites.
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2666
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by AnyOldName3 »

It's not a file hosting site, it's a list of modding guides. It's just a bunch of lists of mods that work together and the instructions for how to install them.
claudekennilol
Posts: 92
Joined: 01 Aug 2012, 20:48

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by claudekennilol »

Oh I clicked around a bit and saw that it even had pages with mod descriptions so I assumed it was also hosting them. Going back I see that it is definitely not the case.
Godspeed101
Posts: 2
Joined: 29 Dec 2019, 01:21

Re: ComWind - The Evolution of H.E.L.L.U.V.A.

Post by Godspeed101 »

claudekennilol, I think you do not understand what I am doing. I have been modding MW since it came out. I have permissions to use mods that have disappeared from online and I no longer have the original compressions due to HD crashes. Many of the resources I am using have no esp, they are pure resources. Many have mesh or texture errors and they need fixes to work. Many look for textures in the wrong places. I have one mod that had 1800+ meshes that the texture paths had to be fixed. How many users would take the time to correct these mistakes. Some of these resources have never seen the light of Morrowind in game. Some of these models are amazing.

The goal is to make a common file that has wide usage for the average user and resource for modders too.
In some ways this will be like COBL for Oblivion.
This is not just a compilation of mods.
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