11-01-2003, 08:35 PM
Readme must be outdated then. ;) Imperial Smiths was another little plugin that I was working on, although I forget exactly what it did. At any rate, it's not needed. The only ESM needed for Armor Rebalance is vanilla Morrowind. Armor Rebalance Adamantium adds in the official Adamantium armor plugin from Bethesda, so as to cut down on the need to load multiple ESPs at startup.
As for whether it affects existing armor, I'm not entirely sure. I am pretty sure that any armor NOT found, bought, etc. will be automatically transformed. Any armor that you're currently wearing and/or carrying in your inventory, however, I cannot say for certain. My guess would be that it, too, would be updated once the plugin was loaded, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, I haven't noted any save game problems. Obviously, if you load a saved game without the plugin, you may get an error message - not 100% positive, as it's been a LONG time since I played Morrowind (WAY too addictive). However, it almost certainly won't affect your game in any way (that I've noticed, anyway - yes, I playtested these to some extent, both with new characters, and existing characters). What WILL happen, though, is when you save your character AFTER loading the plugin, and try to load that character later WITHOUT the plugin, you will get an error. It shouldn't affect your game at all, since I didn't make any massive changes (tweaking armor values in Morrowind is like tweaking armor values in Diablo II - it won't hurt anything; OTOH, changing NPCs, places, etc. WILL cause issues, but that's a LOT further modding than I was willing / able to go at the time), but it's always best to play it safe.
Bottom line: the plugin should be safe for any character, be it new or old, and even if you load a a character affected by the plugin without the plugin being loaded as well, you should be fine.
Give it a shot, if you like. I took a fair amount of time in drawing it up, first (as you'll note by the inclusion of a spreadsheet document, openable with OpenOffice 1.1), before actually building it up. All you Light Armor types (Thieves, Scouts, etc.) will certainly feel a pinch (I know I did, since I LOVE thievery in this game, but it wasn't unbearable by any means), but those who opt for Medium armor (Barbarians, Rangers, etc.) will feel a great boon. There's MUCH better spread of armor values among Medium Armor now, making it a much more viable choice. Heavy Armor, obviously, will afford the most protection, but you'll need some pretty high Strength to be able to utilize it properly. ;) And of course, the Armor tree overall got more streamlined (a common thing in my modding, wouldn't you say? ;)), so it's much more progressive than it used to be - not nearly as jerky and bouncy. Imperial Armor is actually fairly decent now, so you can feel good about not having to swap armors after you join the Imperial Legion (Imperial Armor used to suck, so you'd commonly have to swap armors while adventuring, and swap back when you wanted to talk to the Imperial NPCs), as well as staying in-character for the role, and actually be able to SURVIVE. :D
I don't remember all the changes off-hand, in terms of weight adjustments, enchanting, etc., but I summed it up nicely in the ReadMe. Specific changes, however, are vague, hence why I kept a data record, and provided it for download with the plugin. I believe that Light Armor may have had some minor reductions in weight here and there, and I'm almost positive that Heavy Armor got some adjustments (most likely made heavier, but not necessarily). Medium Armor probably got some tweaks, too. All in all, I feel it's much more balanced - not just in terms of Armor Rating, but also in terms of Enchanting, Weight, and Cost. It may have an adverse effect on some Merchants, however. ;) Dwemer Armor on an NPC who lacks the strength to wear it properly might prove amusing, if you feel like plinking away with arrows or spells from a distance, while he stands there helpless. ;)
Enjoy the plugin, and let me know what you think. :) Maybe someday I'll resurrect my Weapon Rebalance mod, which was going to completely overhaul weapons (as well as potentially add in some new ones for Archer-type characters, as they most certainly got the short end of the stick).
As for whether it affects existing armor, I'm not entirely sure. I am pretty sure that any armor NOT found, bought, etc. will be automatically transformed. Any armor that you're currently wearing and/or carrying in your inventory, however, I cannot say for certain. My guess would be that it, too, would be updated once the plugin was loaded, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, I haven't noted any save game problems. Obviously, if you load a saved game without the plugin, you may get an error message - not 100% positive, as it's been a LONG time since I played Morrowind (WAY too addictive). However, it almost certainly won't affect your game in any way (that I've noticed, anyway - yes, I playtested these to some extent, both with new characters, and existing characters). What WILL happen, though, is when you save your character AFTER loading the plugin, and try to load that character later WITHOUT the plugin, you will get an error. It shouldn't affect your game at all, since I didn't make any massive changes (tweaking armor values in Morrowind is like tweaking armor values in Diablo II - it won't hurt anything; OTOH, changing NPCs, places, etc. WILL cause issues, but that's a LOT further modding than I was willing / able to go at the time), but it's always best to play it safe.
Bottom line: the plugin should be safe for any character, be it new or old, and even if you load a a character affected by the plugin without the plugin being loaded as well, you should be fine.
Give it a shot, if you like. I took a fair amount of time in drawing it up, first (as you'll note by the inclusion of a spreadsheet document, openable with OpenOffice 1.1), before actually building it up. All you Light Armor types (Thieves, Scouts, etc.) will certainly feel a pinch (I know I did, since I LOVE thievery in this game, but it wasn't unbearable by any means), but those who opt for Medium armor (Barbarians, Rangers, etc.) will feel a great boon. There's MUCH better spread of armor values among Medium Armor now, making it a much more viable choice. Heavy Armor, obviously, will afford the most protection, but you'll need some pretty high Strength to be able to utilize it properly. ;) And of course, the Armor tree overall got more streamlined (a common thing in my modding, wouldn't you say? ;)), so it's much more progressive than it used to be - not nearly as jerky and bouncy. Imperial Armor is actually fairly decent now, so you can feel good about not having to swap armors after you join the Imperial Legion (Imperial Armor used to suck, so you'd commonly have to swap armors while adventuring, and swap back when you wanted to talk to the Imperial NPCs), as well as staying in-character for the role, and actually be able to SURVIVE. :D
I don't remember all the changes off-hand, in terms of weight adjustments, enchanting, etc., but I summed it up nicely in the ReadMe. Specific changes, however, are vague, hence why I kept a data record, and provided it for download with the plugin. I believe that Light Armor may have had some minor reductions in weight here and there, and I'm almost positive that Heavy Armor got some adjustments (most likely made heavier, but not necessarily). Medium Armor probably got some tweaks, too. All in all, I feel it's much more balanced - not just in terms of Armor Rating, but also in terms of Enchanting, Weight, and Cost. It may have an adverse effect on some Merchants, however. ;) Dwemer Armor on an NPC who lacks the strength to wear it properly might prove amusing, if you feel like plinking away with arrows or spells from a distance, while he stands there helpless. ;)
Enjoy the plugin, and let me know what you think. :) Maybe someday I'll resurrect my Weapon Rebalance mod, which was going to completely overhaul weapons (as well as potentially add in some new ones for Archer-type characters, as they most certainly got the short end of the stick).
Roland *The Gunslinger*