Man why do people like Morrowind so much

[Carrion]

Define yourself.

Sketch out background of your character (doesn't have to be detailed, but must be existent) and minimal code of behaviour (nothing too LARPy, just general behaviour and stances on basic stuff - slavery, murder, stealing - something to create a basic personality and keep you from functioning in vacuum), make it into a build, then try to stick with it.

As for actual gameplay, you may try making an honest spellcaster. No "durr hurr will wield long sword for moar damage" or any shit like this - just you, spells, robe on your ass, some light self-defence weapon, and INT and WIL every level. Should give you good incentive to play with spellmaker.

Also, no or very little training, no grind, and no abusing obvious exploits, glitches and loopholes.

That's pretty much how I play the game, except that I like a bit more versatile characters instead of pure spellcasters (not really playing a JoAT, though, just a character who can sneak around and use a bow or a dagger as well). I just find myself constantly skipping most of the dialogues and journal entries because I can find my way around without reading that stuff anyway, and as a result the whole experience is rather tedious. I'm hoping it'll get better when I get to those parts of the game that I don't know like the back of my hand, if I ever make it there.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Walk Sim with Giant Mushrooms.

How could it not be the best in series?

 

[DraQ]

That's pretty much how I play the game, except that I like a bit more versatile characters instead of pure spellcasters

The thing is that playing a versatile character doesn't give you that much incentive for messing around in spellmaker. I'm trying to find you a gameplay hook.

I just find myself constantly skipping most of the dialogues and journal entries because I can find my way around without reading that stuff anyway, and as a result the whole experience is rather tedious. I'm hoping it'll get better when I get to those parts of the game that I don't know like the back of my hand, if I ever make it there.

Have a cold one or two before playing.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Ever trying to play character with no magic? Also I found some bug and can't enter the Glorious Jewish Temple and Imperial cult, found pcjoinfaction "" code. what was the ID for both Factions?

 

[Carrion]

The thing is that playing a versatile character doesn't give you that much incentive for messing around in spellmaker. I'm trying to find you a gameplay hook.

Maybe, but the first time I played the game I pretty much roflstomped everything with a long sword and only really used spells like Mark and Recall, so playing a notably more magic-oriented character this time is a pretty big change. Still, you've got a point. I'm thinking of starting over with a fresh character and maybe focusing on magic a bit more (like making Short Blade a minor skill instead of major, perhaps dropping sneak and armor skills entirely). Might even play an Altmer for the first time ever. Maybe I'll use spears instead of swords. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

Have a cold one or two before playing.

That's actually a really good idea.

 

[DraQ]

The thing is that playing a versatile character doesn't give you that much incentive for messing around in spellmaker. I'm trying to find you a gameplay hook.

Maybe, but the first time I played the game I pretty much roflstomped everything with a long sword and only really used spells like Mark and Recall, so playing a notably more magic-oriented character this time is a pretty big change.

That's the point. With a strong weapon skill to fall back to you won't ever feel motivated to seriously use magic in combat, and big change from your usual style should be a decent enough surrogate of playing fresh. You'll most likely still roflstomp stuff in the end, but roflstomping with magic is much more rewarding as it's at least something you actually have to earn.

Maybe I'll use spears instead of swords. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

Spears are great for lightly equipped, mobile characters - you know, running circles around enemies or jumping over them, jabbing them from outside their weapon range. They can also be handy for a conjurer type of character - summon a meatshield or two, summon bound spear (or get Spear of Bitter Mercy), try to sneak in hits whenever you have some clearance to the side of your meatshield.

Incorporeal/daedric summons can be extremely effective against bandits and other poorly equipped characters - unenchanted chitin/iron/steel/nordic weapons can't harm those at all. Lvl1 conjurer type character with lowly ancestral ghost can easily pwn much higher level nord barbarian with huge steel hammr that could smash your conjurer flat in single hit, as long as you fight in a constraining environment such as cave.

 

[Carrion]

That's the point. With a strong weapon skill to fall back to you won't ever feel motivated to seriously use magic in combat, and big change from your usual style should be a decent enough surrogate of playing fresh.

What I meant is that the character I made was already quite different from any MW character I've played earlier. Anyway, I made another character. Instead of the usual Conan the Barbarian I went to Hindu gods for inspiration this time. A ton of magic skills, spear, speechcraft and light armor. Might still change light armor to unarmored since I only barely got through chargen. Didn't light armor sometimes disrupt your spellcasting in MW? Other than that, the game has already become more interesting.

 

[DraQ]

Didn't light armor sometimes disrupt your spellcasting in MW?

Nope, all penalties from armour (apart from sneak penalty) come in form of encumbrance alone. That and repair costs.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The armor spellcasting penalty is from Oblivion. I'm kind of disappointed they removed that in Skyrim.

 

[Excommunicator]

Wasn't it randomly fizzle a spell at a higher chance the more armour, and with mana spent when it worked or failed? That was such an annoying way of doing it.

 

[Sul]

The armor spellcasting penalty is from Oblivion. I'm kind of disappointed they removed that in Skyrim.

B-but restrictions only serve to restrict the player! What about the FREEDOMS?

 

[Carrion]

I've been playing Morrowind pretty much all day. I guess the old flame never died after all, it just needed a bit of rekindling. Spent almost two hours looking for a guy because the journal lied about his whereabouts. I loved that.

 

[DraQ]

I've been playing Morrowind pretty much all day. I guess the old flame never died after all, it just needed a bit of rekindling. Spent almost two hours looking for a guy because the journal lied about his whereabouts. I loved that.

Which guy, BTW?

 

[Carrion]

One of the Blades trainers, the Nord living in the hut in the middle of nowhere. Caius said he was somewhere West of Ald'Ruhn, and the journal said he was somewhere West of Caldera. I first went to Caldera and took a beeline to the West until I reached the shore. No sign of the guy. Went back to Caius to check out his instructions, travelled to Ald'Ruhn and did the same thing, just a bit more thoroughly this time. Well, the guy was Northwest of Caldera and Southwest of Ald'Ruhn, and pretty well hidden from sight as well. Still, while looking for him I found a few cool locations and a couple of fun quests, so it was still more of an actual adventure than anything involving a quest compass.

I'm really happy with the mods as well, especially the Economy Adjuster. I'm level 9 but money is still really tight, and the mod manages to do its job without artificially inflating item prices.

 

[DraQ]

One of the Blades trainers, the Nord living in the hut in the middle of nowhere. Caius said he was somewhere West of Ald'Ruhn, and the journal said he was somewhere West of Caldera. I first went to Caldera and took a beeline to the West until I reached the shore. No sign of the guy. Went back to Caius to check out his instructions, travelled to Ald'Ruhn and did the same thing, just a bit more thoroughly this time. Well, the guy was Northwest of Caldera and Southwest of Ald'Ruhn, and pretty well hidden from sight as well.

Well, so he was west of both.

Problem?

Actually one of the problems with MW directions is that they are often *technically* correct. Like "you will find the bandit hideout a short way to the east of town. Oh, I forgot to mention it's on the other side of steep mountain range that's just outside the town, have fun searching".

They are rarely outright wrong (once or twice in the entire game IIRC), but you'll often spend several h searching for something fruitlessly, find it after switching from following directions to just combing the entire area or pursuing completely unrelated quest, look at the map and realize that, technically, the directions were correct - for example the bandit cave was just outside from Caldera but the quest giver failed to mention that you'd still be best served taking detour through Ald'Ruhn.

Still, while looking for him I found a few cool locations and a couple of fun quests, so it was still more of an actual adventure than anything involving a quest compass.

The key to understanding Morrowind:
"It will just be a short trip outside of town, they said, find some herbs come back, they said, now I'm cold, wet, bruised, and I'm trapped in the ancestral tomb on some swampy island in the middle of nowhere, with pissed cliffracers waiting for me outside and angry undead banging against interior door, wondering when did my life go so horribly wrong".

At least on early levels, then you have all the lore to immerse in and places to explore.

I'm really happy with the mods as well, especially the Economy Adjuster. I'm level 9 but money is still really tight, and the mod manages to do its job without artificially inflating item prices.

Ah, yes, some economy unbreaker is definitely a good idea in MW.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

>new playthrough
>spends a long time pondering on build
>cleans smugglers' cave near Seyda Neen to test build
>goes back to Arrille to sell the loot
>ready to set out
>notices Misc skills are rising despite using latest version of BTB's mod
>that was my favorite change from the whole list
>his site doesn't offer previous versions of the mod for download
>my face



this fucking game

 

[JarlFrank]

The key to understanding Morrowind:
"It will just be a short trip outside of town, they said, find some herbs come back, they said, now I'm cold, wet, bruised, and I'm trapped in the ancestral tomb on some swampy island in the middle of nowhere, with pissed cliffracers waiting for me outside and angry undead banging against interior door, wondering when did my life go so horribly wrong".

This. Exactly fucking this.

 

[DraQ]

Except some of it is bugs turned features.

Who cares?

And it's rather fitting given the amount of features turned bugs (like trainer system and exponential alchemy).

 

[JarlFrank]

Sometimes it really makes me sad that we're never going to see a fixed and improved Morrowind. It's a good game, and there's potential for it to become absolutely great, but modern Bethesda has strayed too much from that path and there isn't any other developer who has even attempted to make a similar game.

 

[Carrion]

Actually one of the problems with MW directions is that they are often *technically* correct. Like "you will find the bandit hideout a short way to the east of town. Oh, I forgot to mention it's on the other side of steep mountain range that's just outside the town, have fun searching".

Yeah, and "a short way" can also mean pretty much anything. On my first playthrough finding certain caves or the fucking puzzle box was the hardest part of the game whereas the "actual" quests never gave me that much trouble. This time I've found my way around much better, and except for that one instance I haven't really had to look around that much. Well, there was a shrine that I also looked for a couple of hours ("it's West of here"), but that was just me failing a lore check since I thought it would be in plain sight instead of being in the Daedric ruins nearby.

There are a couple mods I could've leaved out in hindsight, namely Creatures X and Starfire's NPCs. The former does add a couple of really good creatures, but many of them look visually kind of out of place (lots of contrast in the colours, ranging from almost black to bright red, green and yellow). So far I haven't seen any monsters that would've required different tactics than the vanilla monsters either. I hoped that the mod would've added some really dangerous high-level monsters but I haven't seen anything like that yet. On the other hand I haven't really been to that many dangerous locations anyway, so maybe there are some.

Starfire's mod is alright (don't really care about whether the NPCs are wearing lore-friendly pants or not) and makes the game world seem much more alive, but the hostile NPCs are indeed pretty annoying, and they always seem to attack you with their fists. Once I got attacked by four NPCs in Ald'Ruhn and the guards paid no attention to it. When I tried to defend myself, I immediately got a 4000-drake bounty on me. Well, I just ran out of town and slaughtered the NPCs there, but it was still very annoying and kind of hilarious at the same time considering that almost every time I visit Ald'Ruhn I get to witness an epic battle between the guards and a burra rat. Apparently four people beating up a House Redoran member isn't enough for the guards to give a shit whereas a non-hostile rat puts them immediately in full combat mode. The added merchants also seem to have too much money (2000 drakes), and they also buy skooma and moon sugar, but at least you can ignore them.

 

[DraQ]

There are a couple mods I could've leaved out in hindsight, namely Creatures X and Starfire's NPCs. The former does add a couple of really good creatures, but many of them look visually kind of out of place (lots of contrast in the colours, ranging from almost black to bright red, green and yellow). So far I haven't seen any monsters that would've required different tactics than the vanilla monsters either. I hoped that the mod would've added some really dangerous high-level monsters but I haven't seen anything like that yet. On the other hand I haven't really been to that many dangerous locations anyway, so maybe there are some.

That's why I don't use extra creature mods.


I might be convinced to use something buffing NPCs and creatures up in general, so that in game with about lvl65-70 being realistically achievable, hardest challenges aren't scaled to around lvl20 (and equipped with dumb AI and ineffective spells), but not something just throwing tutti-frutti shit into the game.

(don't really care about whether the NPCs are wearing lore-friendly pants or not)

You should. If only for the sake of visual consistency.

Respect the fact that the game looks like this:

Rather than this:

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The Oblivion elf is a commoner wearing commoner clothes. Should be ok with you.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah nothing wrong with the clothes, but that has to be the lowest-quality shot of Oblivion I've ever seen.

 

[DraQ]

The Oblivion elf is a commoner wearing commoner clothes. Should be ok with you.

Couldn't be arsed to find actual "crowd" shots, so I relied on association.

In any case, unmodded MW will have NPCs looks nicely complement the visuals of surrounding architecture, and clearly pinpoint NPCs that are out of place for whatever reasons. Starfire's mod will result in garish mishmash everywhere. Would force me to nuke all settlements empty approximately 1.5h from install.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You have issues.

And I'm not referring to the fact that your Location is unpronounceable.