Mod Sites

[Commissar MercZ]

Here are a list of sites you may go to for mods (courtesy of The Elder Scrolls forums).

Elric Melnibone's site
MorrowindDot at RPGDot
MORROWIND-MODS.org
Morrowind Summit at RPGPlanet
Oblivion Source
TESSource.net
TheLys' Morrowind Mods page
Unforgotten Realms

Some lists of mods
Asian-themed mod list
kwshipman's House Mod list
Mythic Mods themed mods list
Petrells' Morrowind Links
Ronin49's Mod Lists and Links
Telesphoros' List o'Mods

Unzipping Tools

Many Morrowind mods come in a compressed file format, and will need tools to extract them. Here are some good ones-

7-zip
Power Archiver
Rar Lab
Winace
Winzip
Zipgenius

From the Elder Scrolls Site-

2. UNZIPPING TO A TEMPORARY DIRECTORY (FOLDER)

Double click on your downloaded mod file. The program should open it, displaying the files inside. Depending on which mod you are unzipping, it should have an .esp file (looks like a swiss army knife), a "Meshes" folder, an Icons folder (if the mod adds items that can be picked up), a "Textures" folder, and lastly a README file. Sometimes mods will have all their files placed into mock directory folders, like so:

Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind\Data Files

this is for automatically unzipping the files in to Data Files, which I NEVER do. You're bound to come across a mod that will not unzip correctly and you'll have loose files cluttering up your folders. This is a MANUAL installation guide after all, so back to it:

Select ALL the files by highlighting them. Then select the program's "extract" feature and a new window should come up asking WHERE to unzip it to. You will now need to pick a folder to be a temporary folder, I choose "My Documents"...

Unzip the files to the temporary folder. Then open that folder and open any folders the mod was inside. You should see these folders:

"mod file".esp
Meshes
Textures
"mod file README".txt (or any text filetype)

POSSIBLY you will have these folders:

Icons
Sounds
Music
Splash
Book Art

Icons being the most frequent addition.

All you do for the mod's .esp file is copy it to the "Data Files" folder in your game. Now the other stuff....

3. MESHES

Now, look inside the mod's Meshes folder...

Are there more folders inside? Alot of mods will have other "subfolders" that contain the mods meshes, and are for the purpose of being easy to locate for troubleshooting or for uninstalling with ease.

Most mods have something like a letter, "A" or "W"" or the modder's name...I use "LOCH" for my meshes. Some mods do not do this and place their meshes loose in the 'Meshes" folder, which is all you have to do in that case.

Now take these "subfolders" and move them to the meshes folder.

*DO NOT take the game files out of the "subfolders" as they are indexed by the game engine as being in THAT FOLDER*

So if you have an "A" folder, place THAT folder into your "Meshes" folder. If you already have an "A" folder, THEN you must open the mod's "A" Folder and copy the files into the existing "A" folder already in your game's files. In short:

Meshes/A ----> Meshes

UNLESS you already have an "A" folder, then:

files inside Meshes/A ----> Meshes/A

Repeat this for all mesh "subfolders" from the mod.

4. ICONS

Do EXACTLY the same procedure as in the previous step (meshes) for icons.

5. TEXTURES

There are two ways this could go:

1 - the textures are loose in the mod's texture folder...easy. All you do is copy them all to the Textures folder in your game. You're done.

2 - "Subfolder" textures is the other way some modders set up their mods. THIS way has a "subfolder" inside the textures folder. You should copy that "subfolder" and paste it into the textures folder, much like you did for meshes and icons.
5. OTHER TYPES OF FILES

Most sound and music files need to be placed into the same name folder in your game where they are in the downloaded mod files. All other files are basically the same as the meshes, except splash screens, which are placed loosely in the "Splash Screens" folder.

6. PLAYING IT

All you do now is open Morrowind and check the new mod so that it is "x'ed" and start the game. If you did everything correctly, you should have no problems with your newly-installed mod. You're done...

Hopefully this will be bookmarked for future reference, so that no one will have to explain it time and time again. It may not be the one Miltiades made, but it's something. Cheers!

Two Tools I highly recommend
Morrowind FPS optimizer
Wyre Mash

If you have any other questions on how to install a mod or how to use a site, ask here.

[-Ghost-]

Nice list there, GDICommando, I've used a few of those sites before, myself, like TheLys', Morrowind Summit, and Unforgetton Realms. I'll sticky this so other people have the same resources.

[Krizit]

does anyone know if the wizards island mod is a good one?

[-Ghost-]

I've yet to try out Wizard's Island, but it looks really good, with high quality models, good story, and just overall good graphics, as far as Morrowind goes.

[Eglaerinion]

Originally Posted by Krizit

does anyone know if the wizards island mod is a good one?

Yes it's brilliant, you do need an above average PC to run it though. I loved the architecture, especially a massive cathedral and some really vast and nice dungeons.

[Commissar MercZ]

Originally Posted by Eglaerinion

Yes it's brilliant, you do need an above average PC to run it though. I loved the architecture, especially a massive cathedral and some really vast and nice dungeons.

Yea, but just make sure it's compatible with all of your mods. Many mods conflict with Wizards' Islands location on the world map.

[Cap'n Rommel]

and just make sure that you got both expansions