Morrowind mods are a fucking jungle

[Delterius]

I'm finally playing Morrowind. This is about the billionth time I'm trying to and I now see the reason I never got into the game before.

Every single other time I casually 'warped' myself to Balmora only to pick flowers for a catgirl a few minutes later.

Now, I didn't. I'm walking towards Balmora and exploring every tomb I manage to. The game is actually fun.

This is probably obvious to most of you people, but I must say: new guy? The silt strider is bullshit. Don't take it. It's a trap.

 

[Sceptic]

Silt Strider (as well as all other forms of fast travel) is there for zooming around quickly once you've already walked this or that road. First exposure should always be by foot.

The major problem with Morrowind is that it requires you as a player to invest a lot of effort in not letting some of the game's designs destroy your enjoyment. If you manage to do this though you're in for a treat if you're an exploration an lorefag.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

At the beginning, it's better to take the strider, as Balmora provides you with a bunch of goals and training opportunities (yes, picking flowers for Ajira is boring because it's basically the Alchemy tutorial, but it takes like five minutes). Yeah, the freedom that walking off in a random direction gives is great, but you'll get frustrated because your noob character is incapable of achieving anything interesting in the wilderness, and you still don't know enough about the game to make up for your character's pitiful stats. Found a cool tomb in the middle of nowhere? Good luck with the undead inside.

Of course, once you know the game from the inside out you don't need this help, but for most people Balmora is a base of operations that will make the beginning much less frustrating. I imagine the WHERES CAIUS CANT FIND HIM people just sprint along the road and end up dead halfway to Hla Oad.

 

[baturinsky]

Traveling by foot before you can do it at bearable speed? No, thanks.

 

[Delterius]

I get your advice CK, but I expected the wilderness would be much more unforgiving towards my character. The first time I played Morrowind I was afraid of cliffrunners lol only to kill them rather easily - the seyda neen NPCs built up an expectation that the Bitter Coast region simply does not match.

But, actually, as a mage the undead (so far I've met only ancestral ghosts and bonewalkers) are the least of my problems. Had the hell of a time on a slaver cave way off the coast (Oh, Uriel, I can explain. Its only a small detour towards Balmora. Please don't throw me in jail), but I eventually got them too. The ancestral ghost works wonders and by then I already had long-range attack spells (shitty, but now the ghost can tank). So far I got a nifty magic ring and quite a deal of money, looking forward to actually exploiting the Mage Guild facilities' this time.

Mind you, this is the second game I've played while ignoring the damn strider. The first time I got 'lost' (went the wrong way) on the way to Balmora and had the whale of a time exploring tombs and such. So what's amazing is that going the CAIUS COSOADIS-gen way made my game better than paying attention to the npcs.

Traveling by foot before you can do it at bearable speed? No, thanks.

So... you stay put? Never walk anywhere? Does the silt strider improve your athletics somehow?

 

[Turjan]

I didn't take the silt strider on my first playthrough and first did a few things around Seyda Neen. When I had finally reached Balmora, I could finish the "flower picking" assignment from my inventory.

 

[Delterius]

baturinsky

I do get what you're saying though, Morrowind walking speeds are tedious. So I'm doing the same thing I did when re-playing BG and got to the less interesting wilderness areas, I turn the game's sound off and put something more interesting in the background. Some funny podcast or video. Whatever.

I didn't take the silt strider on my first playthrough and first did a few things around Seyda Neen. When I had finally reached Balmora, I could finish the "flower picking" assignment from my inventory.

Yep, and if flower picking is the introduction to Alchemy, well, I'll be in Balmora with quite a lot of experience already.

 

[Turjan]

I take it you chose a Dunmer mage, which is a pretty weak combination. Which, for Morrowind, isn't a bad thing. It's what I played on my first playthrough, by the way. I noticed soon that it in some way sucked, but nowadays, I'm not sure whether that "weak" choice wasn't actually the reason why I liked the game so much.

 

[Delterius]

Actually, the game is mostly quite easy. I'm still learning how to play with my character but nothing was unkillable so far. I'm breton mage.

 

[Turjan]

Ah, Breton mage, that makes more sense. Which sign?

 

[baturinsky]

So... you stay put? Never walk anywhere? Does the silt strider improve your athletics somehow?

1. Some way to recover stamina 2. Boots of Blinding Speed (and some way to get 100% resist magic, even if just for one second) and (optional) 3. Athletics trainers.
After that, you are ready for hiking.

 

[Delterius]

Every other time I went with the Mage sign. Playing safe and, ultimately, just too safe. But this time I picked the Atronach sign, to see how things went, it seemed to match bretons perfectly. Was surprised when I finally realized I could exploit the Ancestral Spirit summoning to restore my mana. It feels quite a bit cheezy on my part, if not exploitative, but its not so different from just resting, is it? Unless there are really long dungeons later on where you're not supposed to easily recover mana, but I somehow get the feeling that another mage would have another equally exploitative way to recover mana.

I suppose the magick resistance and the mana exploit will make the game feel, respectively, too easy and too convenient later on, if not already for the latter, but I'm still having fun. Bar Skyrim with Requiem and possibly older TES, I don't think the Atronach sign is this interesting so I'll stick with it for now. Might begin another game with the Apprentice sign.

So... you stay put? Never walk anywhere? Does the silt strider improve your athletics somehow?

1. Some way to recover stamina 2. Boots of Blinding Speed (and some way to get 100% resist magic, even if just for one second) and (optional) 3. Athletics trainers.
After that, you are ready for hiking.

I don't know, I just don't mind the hiking. And I'd rather not know right now where to get these apparently really cool boots. Gotta play somewhat blind.

 

[Turjan]

Gotta play somewhat blind.

Oh, believe me, you can also do that with those boots :D.

Anyway, looks like a fun character! Let's see how your path goes on.

 

[baturinsky]

Heh, I played Atronach Breton myself too. And also tried to limit wiki-using initially. Found boots early naturally,

Spoiler

on my first trip from Caldera to Gnaar Mok

 

[Delterius]

Very much appreciated, sir. But I won't spoil myself, I've done this too many times these days. But I'm looking forward to finding them ^.~.

Anyway, I have a question. Any lore-related reason why the merchants can tell I have moon sugar? Is it supposed to glow or smell really strong? Because guards don't seem to care and I'd think that a better way to convey their ilegality would make it so that most refuse to buy it and loose considerable disposition should you insist and THEN demand that I be rid of it. Better than just laying the items in front of them before bartering, every time.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Supposedly you open your bag on the table to show all your wares to them (of course, a non retarded person would hide the drugs in his pockets, but that's adventurers for you). There is a mod that makes them ignore it, iirc. Ther merchants have a "I can't buy that item" dialog, they could have just used that. Don't know how the playtesters didn't notice how annoying it is.

 

[Delterius]

Heh, I played Atronach Breton myself too. And also tried to limit wiki-using initially. Found boots early naturally,

Spoiler

on my first trip from Caldera to Gnaar Mok

Found the boots, they are hilarious. And quite broken on a Breton.

And you know what? I think they made the old walking speeds of early Morrowind totally worth it. I have the feeling that without the inconvenience of Athletics and realistic fast travel (need to find the strider/boat service), the odds of such an item being implemented just decrease.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It isn't worth it, no. Items that exist to remove tedium are cancer because the tedium shouldn't exist in the first place. You could have boots with, say, an obscene Jump effect and have the same "whoa!" effect without being bothered by the otherwise glacial walking speed.

 

[Delterius]

Actually, even if you're not bothered by the walking speed (like me), it still isn't worth keeping Athletics in simply because next time I play Morrowind I'll just game the system in order to get a high skill and or the boots early on. Its a novelty that is best removed from sequels - and not necessarily because of the new crowd.

But I was talking from my newbie point of view. The first time I dumped 5k on an Athletics trainer led to a really interesting experience. Its not often that such a simple aspect of character growth can be fun. I also don't actually think that interesting items only occur when the game's mechanics are obnoxious, but I think that this boot specifically wouldn't have been thought of if Athletics wasn't a pain. It just feel like a carrot that the devs like to dangle in front of the wimpy newbie character (that isn't a Breton).

 

[Carrion]

I don't think Athletics should've been removed, but it probably should've been merged with Speed (which in turn probably could've been merged with Agility). There definitely should be a difference in how fast a thief can run compared to a mage, for instance.

 

[Delterius]

There definitely should be a difference in how fast a thief can run compared to a mage, for instance.

Why?

EDIT: The whole point of the TES progression systems seems to challenge such notions. You gain speed according to your activities. My mage here has almost maxed out Speed and fairly high Athletics.

Though it is a bit weird that he is no more agile than before after gaining levels of short blade, the lack of Agility paint him out as a magical combatant, without denying the hours of hiking that the game enforces on us.

 

[Carrion]

Why?

Because being swift and agile is one of the defining characteristics of a thief. For example, in Skyrim you cannot be swift or agile because everyone moves at the same speed.

The whole point of the TES progression systems seems to challenge such notions. You gain speed according to your activities. My mage here has almost maxed out Speed and fairly high Athletics.

Poor wording on my part. I don't mean that movement speed should be related to the character's class, just that it should exist as a stat in some form.

 

[DraQ]

I don't mean that movement speed should be related to the character's class, just that it should exist as a stat in some form.

I would either shunt Acr to Agi, and parts of Ath to Speed and Endurance respectively, while getting rid of the skills, or made the conditions for skill-ups more specific (to avoid unintentional autogrind) and let other modifications to leveling system take care of wanting to grind everything.

The whole point of the TES progression systems seems to challenge such notions.

It challenges nothing because all implementations of it have been lacking.

Make developing any skill exhaust your character's future potential and players will be picky over whether they want to run fast or maybe cast better spells.

Of course, no skill, nor stat should be first and foremost tedium remover, so movement skills shouldn't be useful for continuous travel.
For example make running skill/stat affect only sprinting and long distance running unsustainable, etc.
Of course alternatives help too - if you have mount, you won't need to run just to get somewhere.

 

[Delterius]

Make developing any skill exhaust your character's future potential and players will be picky over whether they want to run fast or maybe cast better spells.

As far as Morrowind goes, that would work only with the Speed attribute, you choose wether to increase it or not. But not with the skill system, you don't get to choose wether to level Athletics or not.

Wouldn't it be better if skills were near impossible to master if not Majors? The idea being that if your class doesn't support it, you stop experience points in Athletics about the time regular trainers can't coach you anymore. Or just make the progression exponentially more difficult by then. This keeps the novelty of the use-driven system and maintains the identity of the classes, without oddities like some guy who hikes across whole continents but can't keep his breath.[/quote]

 

[Delterius]

Weeks playing the game and I just discovered the quick keys submenu.

I hate myself.