Skywind Team Reports on Progress
Vvardenfell is Calling...
Much like the highly anticipated Skyblivion project, a dedicated group of modders has been working diligently to bring The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to the modern Skyrim engine, and their latest developer diary shows off just how far they’ve come in the last twenty years.
This ambitious project began with an idea to recreate Morrowind within the framework of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but when Skyrim launched in 2011, they shifted their focus to the new engine. They pivoted their focus once again in 2016 when Bethesda launched Skyrim: Special Edition, favoring its stability and other improvements.
The developer diary gives a brief overview of the history of the project before getting into their progress. They state that they have completed all 2D assets needed for the game and have moved on to needing 3D artists to complete the environments and items experienced by the player. Most notably, the team needs to model equipped assets such as clothing and robes, as well as tilesets to begin making explorable maps for the player.
The team boasts using 300 voice actors for over 3,000 nonplayer characters and makes their stance known that all lines will be done by human talent, and that nothing will be done by AI. Unfortunately, there appears to be a bottleneck on the editing side of voicing, as a fraction of submissions have been edited and mastered for audio quality. Despite this, most of the project is written and implemented, awaiting on level design and voice acting to be completed before it can be played.
The team is modernizing several mechanics, attempting to keep Morrowind’s complexity in harmony with Skyrim’s more streamlined system. All 27 skills from the original game return, but with an upgraded perk system that borrows ideas from classic Fallout titles. Instead of the six-slot armor system that is used in Skyrim, Skywind brings back Morrowind’s 14-slot system that breaks armor down into smaller pieces for finer customization.
The project is always looking for volunteers, and you can apply to provide your skills on their website. While they do not currently have a release window, the team is confident in their progress and urges that volunteers will help the massive mod release sooner.