Morrowind for the first time; char build?

[Dwemer Puzzle Box]

And don't get me started on spears that only caused players to whine because those players were too dumb to use their unique advantages.

Like "learn how to avoid shit, pump your speed a little and you'll never get hit in close combat"?
@ebony mail

Spoiler

Isn't it available without joining the Temple just by completing the House of Troubles quests?

 

[DraQ]

Are you fucking idiot? You're comparing apples with refrigerators. We're talking about realness of content, not whether the setting is realistic.

I don't know what *you* are talking about, but *I* was talking about how your objections to illusion of scale are plain silly.

As for the content, Vivec may compare somewhat unfavourably to the other major cities in terms of quests per unit area, but it still has significantly more related quests than any of the other settlements, even considering that Balmora is effectively your HQ for the significant part of the MQ, and that Balmora, Ald'Ruhn and Sadrith Mora are the seats of the three great houses with holdings on Vvardenfell.
Note that by "related quests" I mean anything that either starts in or takes you to given city.

Don't listen to DraQ, he is a blind fanboy that can't see the weaknesses of the game.

Fun fact, I've always criticized all the terrible flaws Morrowind *does* have. Just not the one it doesn't.

Don't be a fagot, use every mod from BTBs site.

BTB's Morrowind Mod List http://btb2.free.fr/morrowind.html

Sure, do use mod that removes pretty much every interesting thing they've cut between Morrowind and Skyrim. Also lets you snack on glass for beneficial effects.

 

[Norfleet]

The best way to build a character in Morrowind, or, for that matter, Oblivion, is to pick as your class skills only the skills you will never use, so that you can control when and how you level up for MAXIMUM POWER. Otherwise, that level scaling is gonna GIT YOU.

 

[Night Goat]

I see you haven't actually played Morrowind, Norfleet.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I don't know what *you* are talking about, but *I* was talking about how your objections to illusion of scale are plain silly.

Illusion of scale wouldn't bother me if it didn't directly interfere with gameplay like Vivec does. You can put a huge holographic castle on the event horizon, where i will never be able to travel and that's ok. When you put a humongous settlement that takes hours to explore through and through just to realize that 95% of it is window-dressing, complaining about it is not silly at all.

Fun fact, I've always criticized all the terrible flaws Morrowind *does* have. Just not the one it doesn't.

You seem to ''complain'' about non issues that most people wouldn't even notice, while ignoring an elephant in the room. That's some good faux criticism.

I see you haven't actually played Morrowind, Norfleet.

But he's right. I had forgotten about leveling mechanics myself and now i wish i didn't put all my frequently used skills in primaries. Main problem here being that whenever you rest, the game forces me to level up no matter how many points i have acquired in stats via skill use. Obviously i'd prefer all fives, but that's impossible if you have all your frequently used skills in your primary/secondary pool. Quite often i quicksave and go tobed just check how many points i have in each stat and then reload to go and rise the appropriate skills a bit more before going to proper sleep. With all the dominating skills being in misc. pool this problem wouldn't exist as i could control when i want to have level up more easily, while upping my favored stat boosting skills in the meantime. I remember it was the case in Oblibon, but was under illusion that Morrowind was more logical about that.

 

[Night Goat]

Inevitably the game will lose all challenge, do you really need to get there faster?

 

[deuxhero]

Gnidrologist
Morrowind lets you run off and train some random skills associated with the stats you are trying to raise after quick loading, Oblivion does not (because when trying to kill training abuse, they made it unusable for the one non-broken thing it did, let you raise low level skills to the point where they can be used without blowing up in your face and made it a chore you have to use up every level or be gimped, but did little to stop improving already good skills).

Morrowind did however make it best to avoid majoring/minoring in skills favored by your race as it reduced the max possible level without going to jail, but unlike maxing out your strength and endurance early, that doesn't really matter during the time you are not completely untouchable.

 

[Greatness]

Morrowind did however make it best to avoid majoring/minoring in skills favored by your race as it reduced the max possible level without going to jail, but unlike maxing out your strength and endurance early, that doesn't really matter during the time you are not completely untouchable.

That might've been true for Oblivion/Skyrim due to the level scaling, but it's definitely not for Morrowind. The only part of MW that is even slightly challenging is the beginning. Purposely nerfing your start by avoiding race-favored skills will just make it harder on yourself. Even if you're looking toward late game, the highest start skills possible will still get to level ~70, which is long past the point where your character reaches godlike status.

 

[Chateaubryan]

Besides the point : install Galsiah's Character Development, it will make your initial choices of skills, race and constellation meaningful throughout the game, as it affects the growth rate and maximum of all your character stats. Each skill having its own favored stats.

For example, if you choose mainly weapons and armors as your primary skills, your top stats will be Strength and Endurance. Can't play Morrowind without it.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Inevitably the game will lose all challenge, do you really need to get there faster?

Morrowind was never about challenge.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

...so why do you need the +5's during the level-up screen?

 

[Monocause]

Every single Morrowind thread unfolds in a funnily predictable fashion

1. someone asks a question,
2. there's a few answers,
3. someone chimes in with "IT DOESNT MATTER ANYWAY GAME IS BROKEN THERES NO BALANCE ALCHEMY SPELLCRAFTING CREEPER LOLOLOLOL"
3a) mods are brought up followed by "modders will fix it" and "nothing can fix this"
4. someone chimes in saying he reckons the game is shit
5. Draq shows up defending the game
6. Lore discussion "It was really cool when Vivec turned out to be a rapist and then killed his seven sisters who raped him when he was their rapist slave"
7. It continues for 10-15 pages and no one gives a fuck about the OP anymore.

 

[Maschtervoz]

I don't understand people who obsess over +5s and maximum levels in Morrowind. If I managed to beat it as a dumb 10 year old by just picking the premade warrior class and smashing things in the face, nobody should have any trouble doing the same without bothering to grind random misc skills because hurr optimized leveling. It is a fairly easy game as long as posses common sense and understand basic RPG mechanics such as the fact that you're not supposed to cast spells if your highest magic related skill is 7. Max level is even more irrelevant since you become a god around early 20s anyway.

A magic focused build is probably the most fun to mess around with, maybe with a decent weapon and armor skill for survivability when low on magicka. Also, it allows you to progress through House Telvanni, which is the obviously superior faction compared to the various other gangs of unwashed peasants.

 

[granit]

To whoever talked about the "must choose skills you never use", that is not true. You can do the full autist mode calculated level ups (I do enjoy that way of playing sometimes myself), you can do half and half - pick some controllable skills and some you will use often (This is a great way of playing too). You can also pick whatever you want for skills and not give a shit about when you level up and what bonuses you get. Morrowind is very open and free to how you want to enjoy it. You can LARP, you can powergame, you can do jack-of-all trade multi faction super hero style, you can do super niche build with your own game goals - sounds like you just need to actually you know play the game and you wouldn't be here complaining about it.

 

[Snorkack]

To whoever talked about the "must choose skills you never use", that is not true. You can do the full autist mode calculated level ups (I do enjoy that way of playing sometimes myself), you can do half and half - pick some controllable skills and some you will use often (This is a great way of playing too). You can also pick whatever you want for skills and not give a shit about when you level up and what bonuses you get. Morrowind is very open and free to how you want to enjoy it. You can LARP, you can powergame, you can do jack-of-all trade multi faction super hero style, you can do super niche build with your own game goals - sounds like you just need to actually you know play the game and you wouldn't be here complaining about it.

This whole discussion leaves me in two minds. On one hand it is like debating on how to plan your workout in order to beat the crap out of toddlers the most efficiently.
On the other hand i sympathize with anyone who levels up in Morrowind and and faces the pain of being able to raise two stats by 5 points and one by 4. Or even worse: Being able to raise three by 5 but knowing that you won't be able to max out on Luck if you don't spend a point on it with each levelup.

 

[Grinolf]

On the other hand i sympathize with anyone who levels up in Morrowind and and faces the pain of being able to raise two stats by 5 points and one by 4. Or even worse: Being able to raise three by 5 but knowing that you won't be able to max out on Luck if you don't spend a point on it with each levelup.

But you don't need to spent point on luck every level up in order to max it. Even without using exploits or picking luck at the start player should have more than dozen of spare level ups, so it's overall a good idea to raise 5-5-4 or 5-5-5 when oppotunity arises. Not to mention that maxing luck is just powergaming that hardly affect your game at all.

 

[Snorkack]

On the other hand i sympathize with anyone who levels up in Morrowind and and faces the pain of being able to raise two stats by 5 points and one by 4. Or even worse: Being able to raise three by 5 but knowing that you won't be able to max out on Luck if you don't spend a point on it with each levelup.

But you don't need to spent point on luck every level up in order to max it. Even without using exploits or picking luck at the start player should have more than dozen of spare level ups, so it's overall a good idea to raise 5-5-4 or 5-5-5 when oppotunity arises. Not to mention that maxing luck is just powergaming that hardly affect your game at all.

Yes, that's true and all but... my point was: It is just the pain to do something suboptimal and being perfectly aware of that. For example the 5-5-4. This is infuriating for the ocd-prone gamer I am.

 

[Necroscope]

Hey, does anybody know what happened with openmw project? The site is gone for about a month now.

 

[deuxhero]

Morrowind did however make it best to avoid majoring/minoring in skills favored by your race as it reduced the max possible level without going to jail, but unlike maxing out your strength and endurance early, that doesn't really matter during the time you are not completely untouchable.

That might've been true for Oblivion/Skyrim due to the level scaling, but it's definitely not for Morrowind. The only part of MW that is even slightly challenging is the beginning. Purposely nerfing your start by avoiding race-favored skills will just make it harder on yourself. Even if you're looking toward late game, the highest start skills possible will still get to level ~70, which is long past the point where your character reaches godlike status.

Like I said, "that doesn't matter during the time you are not completely untouchable"

Necroscope

There are no news posts, but the forums are still active. They're currently discussing finalizing .35 (which seems to have few missing features and bugs left to quash and, middleware updates aside, is practically finished) from the looks of it.

 

[Norfleet]

I see you haven't actually played Morrowind, Norfleet.

Actually, I have. It's been awhile, but my points remain.

Gnidrologist
Morrowind lets you run off and train some random skills associated with the stats you are trying to raise after quick loading, Oblivion does not (because when trying to kill training abuse, they made it unusable for the one non-broken thing it did, let you raise low level skills to the point where they can be used without blowing up in your face and made it a chore you have to use up every level or be gimped, but did little to stop improving already good skills).

Yeah, Morrowind is slightly less obnoxious about it, but the fact remains that by choosing skills that will NOT contribute to your level, you can run off into the hills and do your needed business without accidentally using those skills as you fight your way past the damn Cliff Racers. If you tagged Athletic and Acrobat, for instance, you're going to possibly gain points just bunny-hopping your way through the countryside to grind your other skills.

Yeah, Morrowind was amusing about the bunny-hopping, too. For some reason I recall bunny-hopping being the fastest way to travel on foot. Oblivion may have been a hiking simulator, but Morrowind was the kangaroo simulator.

 

[eremita]

Doesn't matter. TES games are easy as fuck and it's not like there's much replayability besides combat...

 

[bloodlover]

Doesn't matter. TES games are easy as fuck and it's not like there's much replayability besides combat...

Unless we are talking about Morrowind where you can't have all factions/all quests/all rewards at the same time.

 

[Maschtervoz]

Morrowind did have a big problem with skills where the way the game and its content were designed resulted in about half of them just building up on their own, while the other half required you to actively go out of your way to grind that shit like a boring chore. Your armor skills and whatever you used to do damage increased by just roaming the countryside fending off the rabid, suicidal and respawning wildlife. Stuff like alchemy, enchanting, speechcraft and several others, however, were total nightmares. I'm still haunted by the memories of grinding fatigue potions, that failed 8-9/10 times until managing to increase alchemy up to about 45-50. Also making and spamming custom 1 magicka spells to increase schools other than destruction at a decent pace.

Sure, trainers work well enough as a band-aid solution, but the system and the way it's implemented are still flawed.

 

[Sykar]

Doesn't matter. TES games are easy as fuck and it's not like there's much replayability besides combat...

That depends entirely upon whether you can resist the derptation to abuse the flaws in the system or not.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Every single Morrowind thread unfolds in a funnily predictable fashion

1. someone asks a question,
2. there's a few answers,
3. someone chimes in with "IT DOESNT MATTER ANYWAY GAME IS BROKEN THERES NO BALANCE ALCHEMY SPELLCRAFTING CREEPER LOLOLOLOL"
3a) mods are brought up followed by "modders will fix it" and "nothing can fix this"
4. someone chimes in saying he reckons the game is shit
5. Draq shows up defending the game
6. Lore discussion "It was really cool when Vivec turned out to be a rapist and then killed his seven sisters who raped him when he was their rapist slave"
7. It continues for 10-15 pages and no one gives a fuck about the OP anymore.

Don't have the time right now to peruse the entire thread, so did someone already do #4? Just in case they haven't, the best Morrowind character build is the mighty Uninstaller. I hate Morrowind, but if you are going to play it, I would suggest a straight up swordsman or something along those lines, because while still shitty, at least it won't be as broken in terms of balance as Magic users, alchemists, etc.