Yet Another Morrowind Thread

[prengle]

So i am trying to get a new playthrough going with a magic character to play through TR with the new update. I want to have a few difficulty adjustments that won't kill the fun of the magic gameplay. The bartering mod that funposter mentionned seems like something I would want in my load order as I think it solves a lot of issues.
I was thinking of Morrowind Rebirth but i have no idea if it destroys magic gameplay the same way BTB does ?

ive never played the game with rebirth before, nor have i kept up with its progress, but afaik it gimps alchemy and makes a ton of balance changes (like btb's old gameplay improvements mod) that i dont think you can disable since rebirth is this massive fucking nonmodular overhaul, although it looks like trancemaster put up a lite version that reverses a bunch of thse changes apparently. i still wouldnt really recommend using rebirth tho - its incompatible with so many other mods and some of the things that trance has added are uhhhh questionable at best. i will admit that he's put an insane amount of work into it over the years and i think it has more merit than mgso 3.0 but im still not a huge fan of it

if you're hellbent on using rebirth, just assume that if something looks like it's incompatible with it, it probably is

 

[deadmeme]

I just uninstalled the game other week. I rage quitted because of the skill leveling system and efficient leveling. I am really annoyed with practicing my skills to improve them (even though Wizardry implemented it perfectly). It ends up with me in a room training skills for hours. For me it is more fun to smash things in a dungeon. Don't get me wrong, Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time but I just can't take it anymore.

 

[Arrowgrab]

I just uninstalled the game other week. I rage quitted because of the skill leveling system and efficient leveling. I am really annoyed with practicing my skills to improve them (even though Wizardry implemented it perfectly). It ends up with me in a room training skills for hours. For me it is more fun to smash things in a dungeon. Don't get me wrong, Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time but I just can't take it anymore.

You could try Galsiah's Character Development mod. Your skills improve the same way, through use, but the whole metagamey element of managing exactly how many points of skill improvement get you those five-fold multipliers to attribute scores is ripped out entirely. Instead, your attributes just follow some mathematical formula and increase as your relevant skills do. No more "do 1,000 jumps and 750 training spells to get the multiplier."

 

[luj1]

You could try Galsiah's Character Development mod.

GCD is very old, script-heavy and probably obsolete. It has been superseded by this which is Lua-based.

 

[Funposter]

You could try Galsiah's Character Development mod.

GCD is very old, script-heavy and probably obsolete. It has been superseded by this which is Lua-based.

I've been using MULE on this latest playthrough and it's fantastic. It has some hardcore autism features too, like misc. skills not contributing to attribute gain until they are over level 30. My Witch character running 6 Magic Skills and 4 Stealth rightly has no STR or END, and the awful HP gain per level to match.

Edit: Default flat HP gain of 5 per level is arguably too high, though, especially for the default difficulty.

 

[deadmeme]

Ty for recommendations guys. I am playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines right now, and after that I will go for Arx Fatalis and Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. But when time comes to play Morrowind again, I will try the mod.

 

[Morroweird]

The 'serial killer loose in Vivec' quest makes no sense, the cops tell you the suspect killed several outlanders and two Ordinators before they even managed to draw their weapons, then I found and killed her with my Khajit agent still at level one (Eye of Fear + multiple stabs to the back)

 

[MWaser]

Killing someone before they draw their weapon in Morrowind is as easy as successfully landing a hit with one of those silly weapons with 10 second paralysis effects on them.

 

[Morroweird]

Killing someone before they draw their weapon in Morrowind is as easy as successfully landing a hit with one of those silly weapons with 10 second paralysis effects on them.

And that's what I hoped to get from her corpse, but in fact she only had Dagoth Dagger, which does:

Cast When Strikes
Absorb Fatigue 20 pts for 30 secs on Touch
Drain Fatigue 20 pts for 15 secs on Self

Not bad, but not good enough to do a number on two Ordinators.

 

[luj1]

There is probably a mod which addresses it. You could also manually buff the cultist up.

 

[MWaser]

There is probably a mod which addresses it. You could also manually buff the cultist up.

I guess it could be pretty interesting if the cultist actually had something like a ranged paralysis ring that would require you to have spell reflection/absorption or resist/cure paralysis to fight them, and would also explain it storywise how they were so deadly.

Although without any greater script changes, you can naturally resist paralysis with willpower.

 

[DraQ]

There is probably a mod which addresses it. You could also manually buff the cultist up.

I guess it could be pretty interesting if the cultist actually had something like a ranged paralysis ring that would require you to have spell reflection/absorption or resist/cure paralysis to fight them, and would also explain it storywise how they were so deadly.

Although without any greater script changes, you can naturally resist paralysis with willpower.

Drain willpower 100pts, paralysis, duh.

(I know several better ones too).

Anyway, what was implied there was sneak attack. A good sneak attacker won't necessarily be all that good at self defence. A formidable warrior (like ordinator) won't necessarily be effective when attacked by stealth or subterfuge.

 

[Morroweird]

True, lore-wise it could be explained by stealth or by more exotic tactics (I don't think it's a coincidence that she was described as 'Dunmer woman wearing a skirt)'.

I think the Skyrim quest 'Blood on Ice' (a nod to Bathory? ) was a decent development of this idea. Can't remember if Oblivion had an equivalent.

 

[Funposter]

Killing someone before they draw their weapon in Morrowind is as easy as successfully landing a hit with one of those silly weapons with 10 second paralysis effects on them.

And that's what I hoped to get from her corpse, but in fact she only had Dagoth Dagger, which does:

Cast When Strikes
Absorb Fatigue 20 pts for 30 secs on Touch
Drain Fatigue 20 pts for 15 secs on Self

Not bad, but not good enough to do a number on two Ordinators.

The weakest Ordinator in the game is Level 13 and has 257 Fatigue, so this dagger would knock them out after 13 seconds, not taking into account anything that they may do to wear themselves out, like chasing after a weirdo who just stabbed them in the back with a dagger. It's not that far-fetched that she was able to maybe score a couple of sneak attacks on guards and then evade them for 10 seconds or so before they lost consciousness.

 

[Butter]

True, lore-wise it could be explained by stealth or by more exotic tactics (I don't think it's a coincidence that she was described as 'Dunmer woman wearing a skirt)'.

I think the Skyrim quest 'Blood on Ice' (a nod to Bathory? ) was a decent development of this idea. Can't remember if Oblivion had an equivalent.

Closest in Oblivion is A Brotherhood Betrayed probably.

 

[shidder]

Started my first playthrough and just hit level 13. I think I should have put more points into Endurance as I get absolutely destroyed by anyone wielding a two-hander. I've done some quests for each guild in Balmora and have gained a a few ranks. When is a good time to continue with the main quest?

 

[Funposter]

Started my first playthrough and just hit level 13. I think I should have put more points into Endurance as I get absolutely destroyed by anyone wielding a two-hander. I've done some quests for each guild in Balmora and have gained a a few ranks. When is a good time to continue with the main quest?

It's hard to say since you're apparently still struggling with hard-hitting NPC enemies. A well-built (arguably powergamed) character can very comfortably complete the main quest and several factions around Level 15-20. I think in a playthrough from a couple of years ago using the crappy premade Knight class I was able to finish the Imperial Legion, House Redoran and the Main Quest all by about Level 17/18 or so, but that's really not a difficult feat when nearly all of your level ups are coming from increases to weapon and armour skills, allowing for very high Strength and Endurance, which then leads to the snowball effect of using heavier and better armour, turning you into a walking tank.

If you mean "continue" as in go back to Caius after he's told you to gain some experience, then you won't have any problems at all. All of those early quests are made to be completable even by a Level 1 character and are pretty short dungeon crawls without any difficult enemies. The point where you go to meet the Ashlanders should still be very comfortable at Level 13, although the dungeon crawl is more extensive and has a couple of tougher, unique enemies, but it will also likely be the point where your character finally encounters some high-tier gear for the first time if you haven't already found some. The next quest, 'Sixth House Base', isn't particularly difficult but it will have a few Daedric enemies spawning based on levelled lists that might cause you some trouble since you're getting close to the point where any Daedric enemy can spawn, which could mean getting sandwiched by Golden Saints or something. This is also the point where the Main Quest really ramps up, and without going into spoilers, will keep you occupied without any oppurtunity for a break, which is uncharacteristic of Morrowind's questing system.

I'd say go for it, since you the gear you find in these dungeons will likely be the main thing bridging the gap between a scrub character still getting smacked around by bandits and a competent adventurer ready to dive into most of the game's dungeons.

 

[JDR13]

Difficulty in Morrowind is an oxymoron. Combat in the vanilla game becomes trivial before the halfway point.

 

[octavius]

You could try Galsiah's Character Development mod. Your skills improve the same way, through use, but the whole metagamey element of managing exactly how many points of skill improvement get you those five-fold multipliers to attribute scores is ripped out entirely. Instead, your attributes just follow some mathematical formula and increase as your relevant skills do. No more "do 1,000 jumps and 750 training spells to get the multiplier."

Too bad it adjusted your character level on the fly if you equipped any stats enhancing equipment. Unless it was eventually fixed.

 

[Wayward Son]

You could just... not powergame... Morrowind isn’t that hard, you don’t need an optimal build to complete the game. My first time at 14 I didn’t even use any spells since I built a stealth character and played him as such with little to no grinding.

 

[Thal]

Started my first playthrough and just hit level 13. I think I should have put more points into Endurance as I get absolutely destroyed by anyone wielding a two-hander. I've done some quests for each guild in Balmora and have gained a a few ranks. When is a good time to continue with the main quest?

You're fine for the MQ, but don't come asking for tips here. Just build your character and enjoy the ride. Once you learn how to powergame, you'll never enjoy it the same way as before.

 

[Wayward Son]

Started my first playthrough and just hit level 13. I think I should have put more points into Endurance as I get absolutely destroyed by anyone wielding a two-hander. I've done some quests for each guild in Balmora and have gained a a few ranks. When is a good time to continue with the main quest?

You're fine for the MQ, but don't come asking for tips here. Just build your character and enjoy the ride. Once you learn how to powergame, you'll never enjoy it the same way as before.

Agreed. Now that I know how to powergame Morrowind, I don’t think I’ve even reached a level near 13 or 14. It just gets boring.

 

[DraQ]

True, lore-wise it could be explained by stealth or by more exotic tactics (I don't think it's a coincidence that she was described as 'Dunmer woman wearing a skirt)'.

I think the Skyrim quest 'Blood on Ice' (a nod to Bathory? ) was a decent development of this idea. Can't remember if Oblivion had an equivalent.

Blood on Ice was a pretty decent quest - accounting for partial failure and different levels of success.

That's something oblivion quests didn't do on principle.

It's not ideal, mind you, for example, you are not able to find the actual killer before he strikes even though you should be able to.

 

[Butter]

True, lore-wise it could be explained by stealth or by more exotic tactics (I don't think it's a coincidence that she was described as 'Dunmer woman wearing a skirt)'.

I think the Skyrim quest 'Blood on Ice' (a nod to Bathory? ) was a decent development of this idea. Can't remember if Oblivion had an equivalent.

Blood on Ice was a pretty decent quest - accounting for partial failure and different levels of success.

That's something oblivion quests didn't do on principle.

It's not ideal, mind you, for example, you are not able to find the actual killer before he strikes even though you should be able to.

The quest also breaks really easily, even with the unofficial patch.

 

[Carrion]

Blood on Ice was a pretty decent quest - accounting for partial failure and different levels of success.

That's something oblivion quests didn't do on principle.

It's not ideal, mind you, for example, you are not able to find the actual killer before he strikes even though you should be able to.

It was a neat quest in theory, but the execution was shit. As far as I remember, you can pinpoint the killer with absolute certainty, with more than enough evidence to support it (the game even gives you enough hints to do so!), yet the only thing you can do is follow the script and finally catch the killer red-handed, no real deductions required on the player's part. The one good thing about the quest is that you can actually fail it, and probably even will if you're just meekly following quest markers.

Many of Skyrim's seemingly more ambitious quests are like this, which arguably makes them more disappointing than a linear quest with no pretense of choice in the first place.