(Re)installing Morrowind, Pt. 2: Morrowind Code Patch (and More) | Morrowind Modding Guide 2023

Last updated May 11, 2023.

Continued from Part 1: Basic Morrowind Installation.

So, we’ve got the game installed and working, what’s next?

Well, before you do anything else, now would be a good time to back up your Morrowind folder. Just copy it somewhere so if you make a horrible mess of your installation, you can just start again from a clean, functioning, otherwise-untouched version of the game. I make backups frequently, with different names such as “Morrowind – Clean Install” or “Morrowind – Step x done” (according to the steps outlined in this blog) and I even include a text file of what exactly I’ve done to them if I feel I’ll be confused later. I wish it hadn’t taken me 12 years to learn how to do this, but that’s why I’m writing this for you, isn’t it?

If you’ve decided to use MO2, a bit of good news is that this “Clean Install” backup is likely the only backup of your Morrowind folder you’ll ever need to make. One of the major benefits of MO2 is that it keeps your Morrowind folder relatively untouched, so you can more safely choose to ignore my upcoming prompts to back up the folder.

If you want to use MO2, this is also the ideal time to install it — you have a clean Morrowind installation ready to go. Visit Using Mod Organizer 2 with Morrowind – Tutorial and do the following:

1. Review “Step 1: Your Morrowind Installation” just to make sure you’re set up correctly (you should be).
2. Follow everything starting with “Step 2: Other Requirements” all the way down to “Step 5: Setting Up Additional Tools in Mod Organizer 2.” The section in there labeled “Requirement: the Morrowind Code Patch” is the part that will refer you back to the guide entry you’re reading right now.
3. You can stop before doing anything in “Morrowind Graphics Extender XE (MGE XE)” because that’s the next guide entry after this one, or just plow ahead with the tutorial and switch back to the main guide (this guide) later — you’ll be referred back to the relevant guide entries when necessary. If you stop the MO2 tutorial to come back here first, you can go back to that part of the MO2 tutorial when you are finished with the Morrowind Code Patch.

So what is the Morrowind Code Patch, anyway?

The Morrowind Code Patch

The Morrowind Code Patch (MCP) includes both fixes to problems with the game’s base code (things hardcoded into the .exe that can’t be fixed by simple addons) and additional features to alter or improve gameplay. It’s not compatible with OpenMW, but it’s an essential part of any traditional Morrowind installation. Visit the Morrowind Code Patch page on the Nexus. I recommend you read through the description you will find there, as well as the Readme that comes with the download. But how to download it?

Many of the tools and addons we use will be downloaded from Morrowind Nexus. You need to make an account on the Nexus to download anything from it, but a free account is perfectly sufficient. You’ll find the actual downloadable files on the Files tab (surprise, surprise) and usually with an option for “Mod Manager Download” and “Manual Download.”

Now, which one should you use? That usually depends on whether you’re using a mod manager (like MO2) or not, but in some cases, you’ll be using “Manual Download” regardless. The Morrowind Code Patch is one of those cases. Hold off on downloading it for a minute, though.

If you are installing mods manually (i.e. not using MO2), when you’re downloading a mod from the Nexus, always choose “Manual Download.”

For the MCP to work, you need Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86), which in all likelihood is already on your computer. If you’re not sure, or you get an error when trying to run the patch, you can download the correct package here.

Most of the things you will download will be compressed into an archived file (like .zip, .7z, or .rar) that you need to extract. My favorite program for this is 7zip because it’s free and works very well. Another thing you need to understand though is that it’s crucial that everything you install goes into the exact right folder. Extracting an archive directly into the intended folder isn’t a great idea — a lot of archives are packed inconsistently, and extraction programs also vary in function, so sometimes the extracted contents will be inside another superfluous folder. You’d then have to move everything around into the right place and that’s annoying. So my recommendation is that you always extract archives into a new folder and then drag and drop the contents where they need to go. It’ll save you quite a few headaches.

Now it’s time to download and install the Morrowind Code Patch! Download the main file (“Standard exe version”) via Manual Download. Extract the archive and drag and drop its contents into your Morrowind folder. Remember, you are NOT putting it in Data Files or any other subfolder, you are putting it in the main Morrowind folder.

At the time of writing, the MCP is at version 2.4, but you can also install the MCP 2.5 beta update to access a few additional fixes that haven’t been rolled into the main patch yet. Some of these are REALLY good, including an option to reduce the size of character hitboxes to make it easier to slip past NPCs in tight areas (amazing) and a fix to stop falling enemies from clipping through objects (not as awesome, but this has always annoyed me when it happens). Visit MCP Skunk Works and download MCP beta from the files tab. Unzip the archive and drop everything into your Morrowind folder just like you just did, and let it overwrite whatever it needs to.

Look inside the Morrowind folder and open up Morrowind Code Patch.exe (remember to run as administrator. I will keep reminding you to do that).

Even if you’re using MO2, you do not need to install or run the MCP through it. You can install the MCP before even touching MO2, but if you decide to switch to MO2 later, you’ll need to run the MCP and “Apply chosen patches” again (as described shortly) even if you didn’t change any of your selections. (At least, I had to.) You won’t need to completely redownload or reinstall it though; I switched to MO2 after installing the MCP and it worked fine (I just had to click the “Apply Chosen Patches” button again like I said). If you want to use MO2 it’s still better to install it before the MCP anyway.

Now let’s look at the MCP window:

You will be presented with a list of patches you can apply by checking their boxes, organized by categories you’ll see at the left side of the window. Make sure you actually click the checkbox to activate or deactivate a patch; just selecting it in the menu won’t do it. Don’t worry about getting everything right the first time. You can change your choices whenever you like simply by running the patch again. It will load up with your previous selections intact so you can work from there. Clicking on the name in the list will tell you what that particular patch does, and I’ll add some of my own comments below on patches that I feel are particularly notable. Make sure you read what it says about each item in the MCP window — my notes below are just expansions on that information and don’t explain everything. Also, if I don’t mention it below, it doesn’t mean it’s not important, it just means I personally had nothing to add, so please look at all the patches yourself!

Note that some of the MCP’s fixes remove some well-known exploits from the game. Trust me, you will enjoy it MUCH more without them, especially since you’re on PC and can use the Construction Set and the console instead if you really do desire to cheat. There are even some mods that add similar exploits (or better alternatives) back in!

Now, here are my perspectives on some of the patches, going tab by tab.

Beta

Sorry, this tab isn’t in my screenshot above — I’ll fix that, I promise. Anyway, check everything in “Beta” except for Morpher anim controller fix. (Honestly, that one might be fine too, but I’m not sure.)

Game Mechanics

These are optional features that alter things about the game that technically aren’t bugs. Some of them are quality-of-life improvements, and others affect gameplay. Many of them come down to personal preference. There are a few I’d like to point out, however.

• Toggle sneak. Usually the sneak key must be held down. If you’d prefer to toggle it, use this. This is one that comes down to personal choice. I’m only mentioning it because I got used to a toggle while on the Xbox (since it was annoying to both hold down AND move the left thumbstick, I’d just toggle it) so if your playstyle was similar to mine this will probably work better with your muscle memory than having to hold down the key.
• Swift casting. This is a BIG one. In normal Morrowind you must press the “Ready Magic” key to get into “magic stance” (like having your weapon out, but for spells) and then fire your spell like swinging your weapon. In Oblivion, Bethesda reworked this system so that you can use spells seamlessly while in any stance, without having to “ready magic.” This option changes the spellcasting system to be similar to Oblivion’s. The key that formerly put you in “magic stance” will now actually cast your selected spell regardless of the stance you are in. I find this to be a huge improvement, and it makes the game a lot smoother for anyone coming to Morrowind for the first time after playing Oblivion or (to a slightly lesser extent) Skyrim. You can still enter “magic stance” with the M key, if you want to.
• Pickpocket overhaul. Recommended.
• Slowfall overhaul. I haven’t played with this one much as of yet. Click the name in the MCP and read the description, and decide from there whether you prefer this functionality over the default. It DOES seem more balanced to me, and does include a bugfix.
• Healthy appetite. It never made sense to me that your Alchemy skill should affect whether eating a raw ingredient gives you its effects (what, do you have to know a secret way to chew it, or something?). In my opinion, the patched functionality makes sense, and makes ingredients a lot more useful at all levels (and even to a non-alchemist), however this is not a purist option.
• Two-handed weapon removes shield. I recommend this because it gets rid of an exploit, and really, it makes sense. We’ll have ways to automatically re-equip your shield later.
• Enchanted item cooldown. This is a balance change — in unmodded Morrowind, you can fire off cast-on-use enchanted items as fast as you can click the button. If you turn this on, you will have to wait three seconds in between each use. Turn this on if you don’t want to be able to use enchanted items like a semi-automatic firearm; leave it off if you like your magic items to go pewpewpew as fast as your finger can move.
• Item recharging rebalance. Makes it much more reliable to recharge an enchanted item using a soul gem.
• On-use ring extra slot. Gives you an extra slot for a cast-on-use ring so you can keep two constant effect rings equipped. Is it a cheat, or simply convenience? It’s up to you.
• Fortify maximum health. ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY unless you like dying when your buffs wear off. This includes spells and potions that fortify health and also the Orcish racial Berserk power. Without this checked, your regular health is lost FIRST and then the fortified health afterward, so when the fortify effect disappears, your health can drop below zero and leave you eating the floor. You have no idea how embarrassing it was the first time this happened to me. You might think it’s intended to work that way and you’re supposed to heal yourself super quickly when the effect wears off, but there’s isn’t time; it doesn’t drain away slowly, it just disappears all at once. While you can heal while the effect is still active to avoid death, I don’t think you should have to, and I feel this is a design oversight that renders fortify health effects near-useless including the source of Orcs’ much-vaunted combat prowess. Checking this box ensures that the extra health is lost FIRST, so when it wears off it won’t take the rest of your health bar with it.
• Racial variation in speed fix. Depends on whether you prefer characters’ height to affect their movement speed, or you want it to rely purely on their stats. I left it unchecked because it’s natural for taller people with a longer stride to be able to run faster, but it’s completely up to you. Do note that speed being partially dependent on race (rather than entirely based on stats) isn’t intended in Morrowind’s design — it’s supposed to be stat-dependent. Leave this unchecked for “realism” (I guess) or check it to make characters’ movement speed fully stat-dependent.
• Allow gloves with bracers. While you may be tempted to enable this to allow your character to equip more items at once, resist the urge. The game isn’t balanced around this and the graphics don’t account for it either — gloves and bracers will overlap and clip with each other and look terrible. Just don’t do it.
• Argonian clothing choice. Recommended unless you like your female Argonians to look rather more… mammalian. Note that it is actually lore-correct for Argonian women to have boobs, so you can leave this unchecked unless you really hate liberties being taken with pseudo-reptilian biology.
• Allow stealing from KOed NPCs. Necessary bugfix. As an alternative to pickpocketing or killing, you are supposed to be able to punch someone till they fall on the floor and then loot their items, but it didn’t work. (The official Morrowind strategy guide even suggests it sometimes, but they didn’t know it was broken!) This fixes it.
• Exhaust NPCs with Damage Fatigue. Combining this with the one above means you can knock someone out with magic and then steal everything off their unconscious body, and who doesn’t want to do that? (Note that you can already KO NPCs with Drain Fatigue and this simply extends that ability to Damage Fatigue spells as well, which makes sense to me.)
• Avoid blame for neutral NPC deaths. This change prevents you from being unfairly punished for deaths caused by other NPCs that happened to be attacking you.
• Detect life spell variant. Highly recommended. The vanilla Morrowind spell only detects animals and not NPCs (because NPCs don’t have a trappable soul). This makes it much more useful, and more in line with the later games.
• Attribute uncap and Skill uncap. If you’re coming to Morrowind from Skyrim (which had a famous uncapper mod included in several popular installation guides), you may be considering turning these on, but you should resist the temptation for now. As you grow more familiar with leveling up in Morrowind, you may want to install a more immersive leveling mod, and these MCP settings may not be compatible with it. You can always come back to the MCP and uncap your skills and attributes with this setting at a later date, if you’re not using any conflicting mods and you decide you do need this. However, be aware that certain skills and attributes can actually make the game harder or even break it entirely if they get too high. For example, too-high Strength can stick you to the ceiling for a good several minutes if you jump indoors, and too-high Speed can make it hard to control your character and even cause you to glitch into cells before they’ve fully loaded, leaving you to fall endlessly through an empty void. Both have happened to me (although due to physics-breaking magickal fortification rather than to natural stat gain) and I don’t recommend it.

Visuals

• Rain/snow collision. Use this if you don’t want to see the rain coming through awnings and overhanging roofs and such. I consider it a must-have. You can change some settings in a file called Morrowind.ini in order to see this at full effect, but it’s not required. Take note of the .ini changes anyway, as I’ll discuss this more in-depth later.
• Bump/reflect map local lighting. Turn this on, it’s a graphical improvement that works with some of the mods we’re going to (optionally) use.
• Over-the-shoulder third person camera. I tried this because I’d gotten used to this perspective while playing Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online beta, but it’s not the same; you can’t zoom in or out. I like the angle, but the fixed zoom distance is kind of annoying. It’s possible to accomplish this instead with MGE XE (the next tool we’re going to install), and you’ll still be able to zoom; more on this later. Just leave this turned off unless you can’t use the MGE XE feature and it doesn’t bother you that you can’t zoom.
• Reduce camera clipping. In almost 100% of cases you will want this turned on.
• Vanity camera lock. This is fun to play with if you like to take lots of screenshots of yourself. Just remember how to get back out of it.

Mod Specific

These are changes that may be required by certain mods. Most are safe to ignore for now, but you might want to look them over anyway just to familiarize yourself with them. There are three that are necessary for this guide and there’s another one I do like to check, regardless of mod use. These are below.

• Separate axe inventory sounds. Turn this on; it’s needed for another patch we’re installing.
• Hi-def cutscene support. Turn this on; it’s needed for higher-definition video such as the opening movie.
• Creature voiceover enable. Turn this on; it’s also required by a later patch.
• NPC AI casts zero cost powers. This one is not required by any mods currently in the guide, but I like to use it so I’m offering it for your consideration. It does make the game harder, but I find it very interesting to have to adjust my fighting strategy for the enemy NPC’s race. For example, I need to get in as many weapon hits as possible before that Dunmer fires off his Ancestor Guardian power. Sometimes I actually have to run away and wait a bit for things to wear off. It makes fights much more strategic, and planning more valuable.

Interface Changes

• Map expansion for Tamriel Rebuilt. You may need this in the future but you don’t right now. Save it for later when or if you actually install TR. Note: I’m pretty sure that once the map is expanded, you can’t get it back to how it was before, so don’t use this before it’s required. I’ll let you know when, I promise.
• UI display quality fix. To quote the readme: “Seriously improves UI clarity, by fixing the code for aligning UI drawing to the screen. Text, icons and frames should appear as sharp as the source textures are, no longer blurring by up to half a pixel radius. Warning: Currently causes problems with MGE shaders (but not MGE XE), that appear as shaders applied on top of the UI. MGE expects an unaligned UI when detecting when to apply shaders, and so fails to detect the change, instead drawing shaders on top of everything.” Since MGE XE does not have this problem, this is a definite recommend unless you’re stuck with the older MGE, discussed in the next entry. Assume for now that you will be able to use MGE XE and toggle this on.
• Convenient defaults. This one is automatically checked, but I find it more of a personal preference.
• Don’t loot on dispose. This gives you the option of disposing of a corpse without looting all the items from it, by holding Ctrl as you click the “Dispose of Corpse” button. Technically you may not want every tiny little object an NPC was carrying when you, erm, stuck a sword full of justice through their face, so this gives you the option of “disappearing” the items you leave behind along with the body. Erasing items from the world does have its benefits. Just don’t hold down Ctrl while looting, unless you mean to.
• Shortcut key improvements. I love this; it feels much more intuitive.
• Better haggling. I like this one and recommend it, but I want you to remember that it’s not compatible with the Morrowind FPS Optimizer, which I describe in the next entry. The odds are pretty good that you will NOT need the FPS Optimizer, so you can toggle this on now, or wait till later when you’re sure whether or not you’ll actually be using the FPS Optimizer.
• Better typography. Leave this unchecked for now, since many texture replacers don’t make the needed adjustments — or take the risk of a slight misalignment and turn it on. You can always turn it on later when the right textures are installed.
• Ownership tooltip. Can be extremely helpful.

International

These are options to help customize the game for non-English localizations. Leave these unchecked unless your language needs them, and remember that this guide is only fully supportive of English installations.

Bug Fixes

Make sure ALL these boxes are checked. Again, some of these remove exploits, but you don’t need them anymore!

(Note: the above screenshots are in widescreen, which I’m covering in the next entry. These are a throwback to the first version of this guide when the order of these entries was reversed.)

Once you’ve checked all the patches you want to use, click the big “Apply chosen patches” button at the bottom and MCP will directly patch your Morrowind.exe. A backup will be created called Morrowind.Original.exe. If you ever need to get rid of the MCP and simply using its uninstall feature isn’t working, you can just delete the altered Morrowind.exe and rename Morrowind.Original.exe.

When the patching is complete, you can simply close the program. You’ll know it’s done when you see “Patch succeeded.” in the right-hand pane of the window.

During the patching process, MCP 2.3 or later will also redate your .bsa files and patch your Morrowind.exe for 4Gb RAM/64-bit Windows! (Morrowind, being a 32-bit application, only recognizes up to 2Gb of RAM, leaving the extra power of 64 bit useless. Now, it’s still an old game, so don’t expect miracles, but the 4Gb patch helps.) If you don’t understand what I mean by “redate your .bsa files,” don’t worry, I’ll explain later; all that’s pertinent now is that the MCP saves us a step that can trip up a lot of newbie modders, especially those coming from Steam.

Now would be a good time to test the game out, and maybe decide on some features you’re not sure you want to use. But does Morrowind crash instantly when you open it? It’s probably your antivirus, like I mentioned in the first entry. Exclude your Morrowind folder from all scans and shields.

Morrowind.ini

Morrowind.ini is a file that contains some of Morrowind’s settings, and you’ll occasionally need to edit it in order for some of your addons and optimizations to work to their full potential. You can find the .ini in the Morrowind folder and edit it with any text editor that can understand the file type (I prefer Notepad++) and you can edit it from inside MO2 as well (instructions for this are on my Using Mod Organizer 2 with Morrowind – Tutorial page). The only edits you’ll need to make right now are optional and serve to make MCP’s weather changes a little more impressive, but you can always wait until later to do it. Just make sure you back up Morrowind.ini before you make any changes!

Open up Morrowind.ini and find the heading [Weather Rain]. Then change the following entries to match what you see below:

Rain Diameter=1200
Max Raindrops=1500

Then find [Weather Thunderstorm] and change these:

Rain Diameter=1200
Max Raindrops=3000

Last, under [Weather Snow] change these:

Snow Diameter=1600
Max Snowflakes=1500

These settings increase the range and intensity of the weather so the changes applied by the MCP (collision with statics) are more obvious. You can save this step for later if you feel nervous about editing this file now or if you’re afraid your PC can’t handle increased weather effects.

By the way, if you make these changes in a text editor and then later install MO2 and use its INI editing feature, the changes you made will still be there, so don’t worry about that.

Make another backup of Morrowind.ini after you make these changes, too. In fact, back it up anytime you do anything to it. Once in a while something goes bananas and ruins your .ini and you don’t want to need to make all your changes again, especially once we get deeper into customizing it.

There’s one more tool I’d like to discuss before we move on.

EXE Optimizer

Timeslip’s EXE Optimizer is an optional utility that (maybe, sometimes) improves Morrowind’s stability, especially when it comes to CTDs (crashes to desktop). It seemed to make a much bigger difference on older computers, but if you’re using a relatively modern machine, I haven’t seen much of an effect. Overall, the Morrowind modding community has been divided on the topic of the EXE Optimizer, with some saying it significantly helped their game, and others saying it did nothing at all. The general consensus as of 2023 seems to be that it’s not necessary on modern computers, but it’s up to you if you decide to try it. Keep in mind the newest version is only for Windows 7, though, and I don’t know if it will work on 8, 10, or 11 as I personally don’t use it.

If you do want to use the EXE Optimizer (say, if you’re crashing a lot and want to see if it helps), you need to have Microsoft .NET 2.0 installed to run it. If you don’t already have it, this should be the required version for 64-bit Windows, although I had to update this link in 2021 and AGAIN in 2023 and I’ve been unable to confirm for myself that this is the correct one, because I already had it installed (sorry!). If you’re still using a 32-bit OS for some ungodly reason I think this is the version you need. If you’re on Windows 8 or 10, you can also enable .NET 2.0 in your Windows settings.

Download the EXE Optimizer from the above link and unzip it to a new folder (I always kept it in a folder inside the Morrowind folder, just for ease of use). It comes with a ReadMe with more in-depth instructions. Make sure it’s excluded from your antivirus (as I mentioned above), or it won’t run!

Don’t be alarmed if it says it can’t find your Morrowind installation; just click “Find Morrowind manually” and navigate to your Morrowind folder. Then click “Patch Morrowind.”

The EXE Optimizer will create a backup of the original Morrowind.exe which you can go back to whenever you need to make changes to your MCP settings. Afterward, you’ll need to run the patches again (more information on this later).

Important Note Regarding Patch Order

If you’re using the EXE Optimizer, you need to use the Morrowind Code Patch first. The MCP won’t work if you try to apply it to an optimized Morrowind, including after your initial install when you may want to open it to change your applied fixes, but that isn’t really a problem; simply patch first with the MCP and use the EXE Optimizer afterward. If you later on want to change one of the options you’ve selected in the MCP, all you need to do is replace the patched .exe with the backup created when you ran the patch. Simply do the following:

1. Throw away Morrowind.exe
2. Rename the Morrowind backup called “Morrowind.exe.fpu2ssebak” or something similar back to Morrowind.exe
3. Run the MCP and make your desired changes
4. Run the EXE Optimizer again

All this does is revert to the .exe that the MCP can recognize; it doesn’t remove any of your MCP changes, and then you’re just redoing the EXE Optimizer afterward. It works — back when I used the EXE Optimizer, I went through this process numerous times because I couldn’t figure out if I hated the MCP’s over-the-shoulder camera or not. Morrowind.exe.fpu2ssebak is the backup created by the EXE Optimizer so that’s the one you’ll want to restore if you want to alter your MCP setup — Morrowind.Original.exe is just what it says: the original. Restoring that one will wipe away your MCP changes.

Continue to Part 3: Morrowind Graphics Extender (and More), in which we tweak the game for widescreen monitors.