Registration deadlines, challenge dates, and prizes will be proclaimed here and on the Morrowind Modding Showcases channel. Sharpen your Construction Set.
1. Form and Register Your Modding Teams
This is a team-based modding competition, and that means you need to form a modding team and register it in order to enter the competition. Given the timeframe of the competition and the number of veteran modders involved, you're going to want at least one partner to share the load with!
Modding teams can be composed of a minimum of two modders and a maximum of five modders, and ideally, you'll want to gather a team of modders from different fields in order to make the most creative mod possible. Making a quest is always a good way to boost your mod, but what if one of the opposing teams has a talented modeler? Certainly you can outmatch their innovation by just using vanilla assets, but do you really want to take that chance? Likewise, a professional scripter will make your mods come alive, and that might well give you the edge in this creative battle of wits and madness. Whoever you pick to be on your team, you'll need to work together, collaborate, plan out your mods, and successfully release them on time in order to win and claim the top prize.
In order to register your modding team for the competition, you need to first make sure you've got a list of your fellow modders who you want to team up with and who have agreed to work with you, then you need to come up with a team name and submit that team name along with your list of modders through the team registration page by the registration deadline. New teams cannot apply for the competition after registration closes; the organizers need to have a firm list of participating teams by then!
Once you've got your modding team assembled, be ready to start on the announced competition date with the first and only challenge for the Madness!
2. Meet the Challenge and Rise Through the Ranks
Similar to recent seasons of Morrowind Modding Madness, there will be only one modding challenge, and each team will have to make a mod that fits the challenge criteria in a single four-week timeframe. The challenge will be a randomly generated set of themes and criteria that each mod will have to meet in some possible way, and this could mean that we'll see some truly bizarre theme combinations that will hopefully lead to some really creative results.
Now, alternatively to releasing just one mod, teams could also choose to release a series of smaller mods designed to work together, keeping in mind that, collectively, they'll still need to match the randomly generated criteria.
In addition, the competition includes randomly generated optional objectives, which teams can pursue in order to secure extra prizes (though these optional objectives will not affect the end score judging). These optional objectives could be things like adding a quest with multiple branching outcomes, building a Telvanni tower player stronghold, adding a new tavern or shop to the game, or any number of random objectives, which may or may not fit in with the core themes and criteria that each mod must meet.
In any event, in order for your mods to count towards the competition, when you release a mod for the challenge, remember to include a line at the top that says “Part of the Morrowind Modding Madness Competition” and a line right below that with your team name, like “Team Cliffracer” or something similar. Your mod will automatically be entered into the competition and be sent to our judging panel for scoring. You must upload your mods to Morrowind Nexus in order for them to be counted for the competition (we'll alternatively accept other uploading sites, assuming you send us a link to where we can find the mod).
At the end of the competition, all mods submitted by each team will be featured in one big finale showcase video, so all mods will receive roughly equal attention on Morrowind Modding Showcases, regardless of when you submitted your mods.
Keep in mind, you must release your mods by the announced submission deadline! There's a 24-hour grace period to account for time zones and uploading issues, but no mods released after the grace period will be accepted!
3. Earn Points from the Judges
Once again, we'll be using a completely judge-based scoring system, with scores tilted in favor of creativity. At the end of the competition, judges will go through and play each mod for seven days, providing feedback where possible. Teams are encouraged to use the first week after the competition to update and fix their mods based on judge feedback; any improvements they make will go towards improving their final score. After the announced feedback and update window closes, however, the state of each mod will be locked in for the final judging process, with final scores due by the announced judging deadline.
And to go into detail regarding the scoring, each mod (or collection of mods) can receive a max of 100 points for the competition, broken down into four categories.
Here's the criteria that each judge will be looking at for each mod:
- 15 Points for Mod FunctionalityMod does what it's supposed to and is also clean of GMSTs/dirty refs.
- 40 Points for Mod InnovationIs the mod original and creative?
- 25 Points for Judge PreferenceDid the judge enjoy or like the mod?
- 20 Points for Theme SuitabilityDid the teams use both themes for their mod?
4. Prizes
As always with these competitions, we have a fairly large set of prizes set aside for modders to win, both for the overall competition and for any bonus objectives that modders might try to meet. Besides the fame and glory of coming out ahead of your fellow modding teams in gladiatorial creativity, the top three teams will get a set of Steam and indie game prizes that they can choose from, not to mention the overall competition winners will of course be declared the Ultimate Modding Champions, with all the bragging rights that entails!
Morrowind's modding community continues to reach new heights, with a steady stream of new mod releases, not to mention ongoing developments with Tamriel Rebuilt and OpenMW. There has never been a more exciting time in the Morrowind Modding Community! It is a marvel that even after more than two decades, Morrowind's new golden age has yet to show any signs of dimming, and indeed, is becoming brighter all the time, and hopefully that will continue with another enticing modding competition!
Best of luck to all of the contestants, I hope this competition can be a fun and exciting event for all of you, and may the best modding team win! Happy Modding and May The Best Games Never Die!