Modder's Interview: Darknut

How long have you been modding and what was your first complete mod?

Over 20 years! I modded Duke Nukem 3D & The 1st Unreal Tournament before I got into modding Morrowind. My 1st Morrowind mod was “1st person Helms”.

How do you approach modding?

Playing the game & seeing something I want to change is usually what gets me in “Mod” mode. I have no specific workflow, it changes depending on what I’m trying to do.

I've used CorelDraw Suite, Blender (various versions), Hash Animation Master Just about all the modder-made tools that have dropped over the years.

Is there a mod you are especially proud of?

There is something very satisfying about building something from scratch, putting it in the game & it actually works! Lol. Darknut’s Greater Dwemer Ruins is my favorite mod. Trying to make DNGDR a coherent flowing mod that made sense was a challenge. The scale is big, probably too big & trying to make sure I didn’t miss anything took forever. Also as deadly as DNGDR is, a lot of it was way worse at first, I dialed it back a lot. Lol.

Are you working on a mod these days?

Not at the moment. I have quite a few mods still in progress but life got in the way. I will be back at some point.

How much do you play Morrowind, not counting play testing?

Usually, I play the main quest through every couple of years. Due for one now.

How did you discover Morrowind?

I played the Elders Scroll 1 & 2 so I knew it was coming. I expected it to be Daggerfall 2.0. I was blown away by Morrowind! I would give a lot to be able to play it through again for the first time. It was just, holy shit,over & over, lol I will never forget it!

What makes Morrowind special for you?

The modding community. As good as Morrowind is, it would be long dead without the modders!

You took part in the Morrowind Modding Madness, how mad was it really?

Let's see:
Getting up at 2:30AM every day for a month. (Sleep deprivation) Modding faster than I thought was possible. Having to be told to tone down my traps & creatures, lol. Made some new friends. Winning round 2 was amazing. It was one of the most fun things I’ve done!

The mod is question is The Demon of Knowledge where Darknut created a whole new tileset and a bunch of animated and scripted models.

What are the mods you simply cannot play without?

I can’t play vanilla Morrowind at this point. I play all my own mods & 90- 100 others. Seriously there are too many to name, lol. No way I could play unmodded Morrowind at this point.

Do you play and/or mod other games?

Morrowind & Fall Out New Vegas are my favourite games of all time. Ironically I have never really modded FNV. All I’ve done is tweaking a few existing mods to my liking.

I liked Skyrim but didn’t love it. I hated vanilla Oblivion, no, I loathed vanilla Oblivion. I have played it recently modded to death & it is pretty dang good! I think I liked it better than Skyrim.

I didn’t like Fallout 4 at all... not even modded.

I like the Baldur's Gate Series a lot. Not many modern games that I like but I do like “The Outer Worlds.” It feels old school though, it's probably why I like it, lol.

The only modding I’ve done lately is making Liveries ( textures for the cars) for iRacing. I’ve gotten into Sim Racing a lot as of late.

And by the way, what's the story behind your user name?

A Darknut is an extremely annoying creature from the 1st Legend of Zelda game. I picked the name when I first played early 1st person shooters with a group of friends. The nickname stuck & all my friends still call me Darknut. Lol.