Today, on the 22nd birthday of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the team behind the Skywind total conversion mod has shared the first first behind-the-scenes progress update video in three years (though last year we got a gameplay demo).
The video, titled 'The Road So Far', starts by looking at the very beginning of the mod, shortly after The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released. However, the most important part is the progress showed in each and every department of Skywind.
98% of 2D concept art is complete, and the team is no longer actively seeking 2D artists (there are five already in the team). As for 3D art, progress is at 85%, with over 13K assets ready and 550 left to build. The main backlog in this area is clothing, which accounts for two-third of the remaining non-tileset work. As for tilesets, 27 of 30 are now complete. That said, some of the remaining 3D arts is very complex, so the relatively high completion percentage shouldn't be taken as a hint that the work in this area will be finished shortly. If you have experience with 3D clothing/modeling or texture design, the Skywind team could definitely still use your contribution. The team has been adding facial animations to custom creatures and custom hair styles for character creation.
Level design is well underway, and several regions are already fully implemented with Quality Assurance work going on. Others are around 60% complete. Out of the 1,032 interiors to design, such as settlements, cities, houses, shops, caves, forts, and tombs, 466 are in review, 446 in progress, and 120 still need to be started. Work on Navmesh interiors has begun as well, but is not as far along as level design.
Skywind will also include custom animations for 15 of Morrowind's 44 creatures. The animation team also works on custom spells and weapon animations. As for visual effects, the current focus is on spells, with 51 out of 105 complete with custom VFX. Once work on spells is finished, the VFX team will move onto weather conditions, though these are already 95% done and implemented. Meanwhile, sound effects still have a long way to go.
Possibly the largest part of the team is dedicated to voice acting. There are 44 voice actors active right now; in total, Skywind will feature over 3K NPCs voiced by 300 voice actors, whereas Skyrim only had 1.1K NPCs voiced by 70 voice actors. Over 2K NPCs have been voiced already, with another 500 currently in progress and the rest still left to do. Casting is due to reopen this Summer, in case you're interested in joining the voice cast.
Filecutting (voice acting quality assurance) is 77% complete. However, mixing and mastering is far behind, with only 19 submissions completed and 400 still left to do. As such, the modders are exploring streamlined methods like batch processing for non-essential characters.
Meanwhile, the writing team is filling gaps, expanding existing quests, and creating new quests for faction leaders or new features like the smithing skill. All NPC dialogues from Morrowind have been adapted to Skyrim's system, and dozens of new random encounters, chats, greetings, and farewells are complete; a few brand new NPCs are in progress. When it comes to quests, only the Fighters Guild and the final step of the main quest are left. In total, 72% of the 490 quests that will be in Skywind are done.
When it comes to the main Morrowind features, spellcrafting is still a work in progress, while weapons repair, armor slots, projectiles, and spears are already back. Regarding perks, the team adopted a hybrid approach inspired by Oblivion and classic Fallout, providing players with new abilities every 25th skill level. All 27 of Morrowind's skills have returned, but the custom spell system still has a long way to go. The team also still needs to craft NPC schedules for the three thousand characters featured in the game, each with dynamic daily routines. And, of course, a balance pass will be needed before the mod is complete, polishing areas like dungeon difficulty, loot distribution, and in-game economy.
In short, Skywind is progressing well and the team says it's starting to see the end at the end of the tunnel, but it's nowhere near done yet. While that might be disappointing, the level of transparency from the team is certainly refreshing. The best way to quicken the massive mod's development is to join the team if you have the expertise and time to contribute.
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