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[Future]

If you don't get into the Diablo-esque collection or dig exploring the huge world for kicks, then yeah it gets old pretty fast. Aside from sneakin around and stealin shit, there isn't much gameplay because the combat is so weak. Definately needed a better variety of missions other than basic kill this dude or fetch this flower/book/key/whatever

 

[Nerevar]

Also check this out.. http://home.wnm.net/~bgriff/MW_Home.html

I'd seen those models before, but I had no idea they were lower poly than the ones in the actual Morrowind game. It makes you realize how incredibly bad the artists at Bethesda are, considering that a freelance artist does stuff that is 10x better with fewer polygons.

 

[Discharger]

The first time I played Morrowind, it went the same way as it did for many people in this thread who had issues with the game. I played it for 10, maybe 20 minutes and said "fuck it, this is way too goddamn complicated and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing" and got rid of it.

I knew a bunch of people who had played the game and loved it, so I gave it a second go around a few months later. That's when the addiction began. If I had to estimate, if you add up all the hours I have played it (first playthrough plus any times afterwards I was reminded of the game by something else and started again) the number would easily approach 350 hours. I've started playing it again probably 3-4 times and it's always fun. Even though there are a lot of medial things you end up doing again and again if you start over, it doesn't get boring for me.

The world is so huge and full of so much detail I don't honestly think another game will top it. EVER (part of the reason I say this is because Bethesda has said the next game in the series won't have as large of a world as Morrowind). There are so many times during my first playthrough I just sat back in my chair, slackjawed at the degree of the detail in the game. I think the first time it happened to me was the first time I went into a book store. You can SEE all the books and every single book can be read. Now, of course the books aren't actually full length novels (that would be insane, and a waste) but they all have a purpose and different content, not just repeated text over and over. No game since has come close in that regard.

As well, they nailed the atmosphere perfectly. After getting your character off his feet so he/she can take care of themselves and getting a little ways in, I had tons of fun exploring the ancient Dwemar/Daedra ruins. The architecture was awesome and there's always good rewards for those who venture in and look in every crevice. I don't think there's many games I've had more fun with since.

I could probably talk about this game for hours (which is sad now that I think about it) but my point is the following: If you didn't give this game a chance, like I did the first time, you owe it to yourself to give it a second chance. If anyone in this thread is willing to give it a second go, I'll post some essential starting off tips that will point you in the right direction and you can figure out the rest as you go. I have not played a more rewarding game since, although I hope the sequel is up for the task.

Simple tips for getting started
-if you're playing the PC version, Use is the "attack" function and activate is for opening doors and such. I thought it wasn't well explained and you will have to figure it out right away, but I figured I'd mention it to save first time players a minute or two of confusion.
-if you're given a destination to go to, talk to the people around and ask about it. you should be able to find someone who will mark it on your map so you can find your way there. if you can't find anyone who will mark it for you, try checking the local transportation to see if you can find a route there (see below)
-be aware you can and should use mass transportation as much as possible when starting the game (and later, to retain your sanity regarding the huge travel distances). when you're new to the game and coming to grips with the other aspects of the gameplay, getting around is the biggest roadblock. Use silt striders, teleportation in mage's guilds and travel by boat whenever possible
-if it's your first time playing, I would recommend you pick a fighter of some sort. it is easy enough to learn any of the skills later on in the game, when you've got more money, but the beginning of the game is TOUGH if you aren't able to take care of yourself. of course, after you're familiar with the game and many of the creatures you run into, you will be a lot better prepared to tackle the challenges earlier on

With the info you've got above, you should be able to get yourself started. If I'd known this info when I started the first time, I probably would have kept playing.

 

[tahrikmili]

Thanks for the info Discharger, but I doubt I'll be able to ever go back to Morrowind with so many games to play in my hands.. Still haven't had a time to scratch my Half Life 2 coupon yet and KOTOR 2 is out. Woe is me..

I usually am not discouraged by games with steep learning curves, but somehow Morrowind was more of a letdown then just that. It wasn't immersive, you had to force yourself to feel like something was going on in the game. I don't know why. It's probably because you started out as some insignificant peasant with absolutely no goal whatsoever except some forced duty that didn't seem to go anywhere important..

 

[fennec fox]

puhahahah

 

[ManDudeChild]

I tried to get into Morrowind several times, but I could never figure out how to get it all going in the story department. I had fun for a bit, but then I attacked that guy you're supposed to visit (forget his name), and he started throwing pink magical crap at me. Couldn't re-start, so I quit. Wish I knew how to get a strong character, as I wanted to enjoy the game.

 

[pj]

Bethesda has said the next game in the series won't have as large of a world as Morrowind

No

 

[Do The Mario]

Some sucker asked me to ascort him to some town for the “boots of blinding speed” Thanks for telling me that fucker! I killed him on the spot and got his magic boots and magic axe!

 

[Unison]

Some sucker asked me to ascort him to some town for the “boots of blinding speed” Thanks for telling me that fucker! I killed him on the spot and got his magic boots and magic axe!

Have a moment of fun yet?

 

[Do The Mario]

Have a moment of fun yet?

Yeah a few, my lvl 2 Evil crusader is running into those ancestral tombs looting stuff and getting chased out by scary ghosts!!!

 

[Unison]

Cool... I wouldn't be offended or anything if you still decided to return the game, but I am glad you at least can understand the appeal.

 

[Do The Mario]

Cool... I wouldn't be offended or anything if you still decided to return the game, but I am glad you at least can understand the appeal.

Truth be told in my whoring of the Baldur’s gate franchise I come across people that say I played it for an hour a “couldn’t get into it”, and I know they are missing out because of a hard learning curve.

At this stage I think I will keep the game I am starting to understand how to enjoy it rather then complete every quest as soon as I get it! I am picking and choosing doing what I like.

Still when you die the load times HURT!

 

[Unison]

Still when you die the load times HURT!

Yeah, it's probably better to get the PC version if possible... Can you trade in the Xbox version for that?

 

[Discharger]

No

You sure about that? I've read an interview with someone on the project who said the game world unfortunately not be as large as Morrowind. The reason? They want to get the game out without having 4-5 years of dev time.

After trying to find the exact interview (I can't remember which publication it was from) I found another interview with Gamespy that contradicts that info:

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/558955p3.html

Technically speaking, the world of Oblivion is actually larger than Morrowind, but as Howard himself pointed out, Bethesda doesn't want "hundreds of hours of gameplay" to consist of a few minutes of fun punctuated by hours of boring traveling. Instead, the game will include a revised fast travel map that will hopefully eliminate a great deal of the annoying repetitive travel over long distances.

This is an instance I'm happy to be wrong

 

[Do The Mario]

Yeah, it's probably better to get the PC version if possible... Can you trade in the Xbox version for that?

Negative ghost rider

I use an P3 laptop

 

[Discharger]

Negative ghost rider

I use an P3 laptop

I don't think the P3 aspect would be the bottleneck

I'd probably be the graphics chipset that comes with it, which is probably going to be terribly inadequate

I remember when Morrowind first came out, I played it with Geforce 3 and it ran fine as long as I turned down the draw distance quite a ways

 

[Teknopathetic]

Morrowind isn't for people that lack the mental capacity to play a game without having to be told what to do.

 

[Do The Mario]

Update: I am currently searching for a magic cube in the dark elf ruins, anyway I can handle the ghosts on the lower levels but those crab things shoot poison at my character which kills him in one hit!

Any pointers?

 

[Illusion]

The graphics (Xbox) ruined the experience for me. I could accept the limited draw distance if the framerate was smooth but it wasn't and I could accept the framerate if the draw distance was great. I ventured out of the first town only slightly and became lost because I was stuck in Turok 1 like pea soup fog.

 

[Discharger]

Update: I am currently searching for a magic cube in the dark elf ruins, anyway I can handle the ghosts on the lower levels but those crab things shoot poison at my character which kills him in one hit!

Any pointers?

Avoid them for now. The cube is actually in the main area as soon as you enter the ruins, so you didn't actually need to explore the lower levels yet. When you get all the way to the bottom [of the main room], there's the 3 doors you can go into, but you'll also notice there is a second level above you. There is a bit of a path you can go up on the side to get on top. It's on a desk, if I remember right. Either on the desk, or in it.

There are certain monsters you will run into that will just annihilate you at lower levels (and even higher levels, later on) and you need to recognize them so you can avoid them. Once you've levelled high enough and got better equipment, they won't be much of a hassle anymore. Either that or in the case of the specific monsters you're talking about, you could get some potions to increase your poison resistance or find some magic items that increase your poison resistance and try again.

Oh and Dwemar artifacts sell for a good amount of money. They're illegal, but you can sell them to certain people without problems. The General Trader in Balmora will buy the stuff off you. Also, if the person you're buying off doesn't have full money anymore because you've sold him other stuff, just press the rest key. Since you're standing right in front of him, you can't sleep, but you can just have your character "wait" for a set amount of time. Wait for 24 hours and the merchant will have full money again.

edit: Generally, when something kills you in 1 hit, that means a few things. Usually it's either because you're really weak against that particular type of attack or you don't have a lot of hit points period. The other possibility is that the one particular attack is very strong. I know for a fact the automatons you're talking about aren't terribly strong, so it's probably one of the first two. Get the cube, go back and keep up with the quests. They're a good way to level up at lower levels, but just like the rest of the game you'll notice they put you in areas you can easily die unless you're careful. They won't set you up so you can't beat the quest, but you have to be careful most of the time just to make sure you don't run into something you can't deal with.

 

[Do The Mario]

Avoid them for now. The cube is actually in the main area as soon as you enter the ruins, so you didn't actually need to explore the lower levels yet. When you get all the way to the bottom [of the main room], there's the 3 doors you can go into, but you'll also notice there is a second level above you. There is a bit of a path you can go up on the side to get on top. It's on a desk, if I remember right. Either on the desk, or in it.

There are certain monsters you will run into that will just annihilate you at lower levels (and even higher levels, later on) and you need to recognize them so you can avoid them. Once you've levelled high enough and got better equipment, they won't be much of a hassle anymore. Either that or in the case of the specific monsters you're talking about, you could get some potions to increase your poison resistance or find some magic items that increase your poison resistance and try again.

Oh and Dwemar artifacts sell for a good amount of money. They're illegal, but you can sell them to certain people without problems. The General Trader in Balmora will buy the stuff off you. Also, if the person you're buying off doesn't have full money anymore because you've sold him other stuff, just press the rest key. Since you're standing right in front of him, you can't sleep, but you can just have your character "wait" for a set amount of time. Wait for 24 hours and the merchant will have full money again.

edit: Generally, when something kills you in 1 hit, that means a few things. Usually it's either because you're really weak against that particular type of attack or you don't have a lot of hit points period. The other possibility is that the one particular attack is very strong. I know for a fact the automatons you're talking about aren't terribly strong, so it's probably one of the first two. Get the cube, go back and keep up with the quests. They're a good way to level up at lower levels, but just like the rest of the game you'll notice they put you in areas you can easily die unless you're careful. They won't set you up so you can't beat the quest, but you have to be careful most of the time just to make sure you don't run into something you can't deal with.

THX
LOL i have explored that area you are talking about, Anyway time to go back!

 

[Unison]

EVERYONE misses that cube. Only Morrowind would think of putting the item you need in a dungeon 40 feet from the entrance....

:lol

 

[SteveMeister]

You sure about that? I've read an interview with someone on the project who said the game world unfortunately not be as large as Morrowind. The reason? They want to get the game out without having 4-5 years of dev time.

After trying to find the exact interview (I can't remember which publication it was from) I found another interview with Gamespy that contradicts that info:

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/558955p3.html



This is an instance I'm happy to be wrong

Yeah Cyrodiil is something like 4-5 times the size of Vvardenfell. It's a much bigger land mass -- but the fast travel options are more comprehensive, so you won't have to continually backtrack over miles & miles of terrain like you did in Morrowind.

Oh and "Nerevar", the same artists who worked on Morrowind are working on Oblivion. You've seen the screenshots. Any complaints?

The reason the heads look "bad" in Morrowind was because of the way the head texture was organized -- it was like this:

[ O ]

A kind of low, wide strip that was cylindrically mapped around the head. The face portion of it was very small relative to the overall size of the texture, and so the result was a very low-resolution face texture. The "better heads" textures use a square texture like this:

[O]

And the texture isn't a straight cylindrical mapping. So the face portion of it is comprised of a lot more pixels (it's higher resolution), and so it looks much better. Ploygon count is only a negligible concern.

Morrowind's artists were required to adhere to the original texture design. The face textures were originally made at a very high resolution, and then scaled down to the "strip" texture I described above. This was a design decision made early in Morrowind's development -- and remember, Morrowind was made over the course of 3 years. Decisions as to texture resolution, color depth, etc. are generally made very early in the design process and have to account for technical realities. Realities of GPU capabilities, system and graphics memory, limitations of the graphics engine, etc. After the game shipped in 2002, the mod makers were bound by no such constraints.

 

[Apharmd Battler]

But I like Morrowind.

 

[Discharger]

I haven't heard of anything about Oblivion (aside from that "the world is smaller" bit, which turned out to be incorrect) that I didn't like. The graphics look awesome, and if all the gameplay changes I've heard about end up in the final game, I'll be a happy guy.

You know, it's funny, because I've heard so many people say so many things are wrong with Morrowind but when I sat down to think about it, I couldn't think of anything I didn't like. When I sat down and talked to a friend (who I ended up dragging into the game and has sunk in many hours as well) about it, I realized there were a few things that were annoying but because of how much I enjoyed the other aspects of the game, I'd forgotten about them.

The two things I would have changed in Morrowind if I'd had any input, would have been the following:

a) Cut down on the travel time when possible by either allowing mass transportation closer the location you need to get to or having a travel map like in Daggerfall

b) Sometimes trying to track down individual people or specific shops in big towns like Vivec was much more difficult than I felt it needed to be. If there was some way to improve that (I've heard a compass suggested in one of the oblivion interviews, for example) I think that would help.

My friend was most annoyed with certain quests. For example "...a quest in the fighter's guild to kill someone that unless you're a practiced thief with awesome backstab skill, you're going to get charged huge bucks for... cause of the murder... things like that". "for instance, if I enter the fighter's guild...it SHOULD be expected that I as a player have ONLY entered the fighter's guild and have no interest in the other guilds". "another example was a mage quest where I had to steal some shit... the person I had to steal from was RIGHT NEXT to the item... I had 0 thief skills, I could steal it and run away, no big deal... but then I get to pay a fine... but 95% of those if you did beat it, it cost you more in money than it was worth in experience or quest rewards".

So, between the two of us, that's what we came up with that we didn't like about Morrowind. As you can see, it's not much. In fact, I know that point a has already been addressed, and it looks like you guys are looking at point b right now so at the very least, I'll have more fun with Oblivion than I did with Morrowind (which is a lot). In the end, not even HL2 could force me to upgrade, but if Oblivion comes out even half as good as it looks right now (not just from graphics, but also a gameplay standpoint), I will pretty much buy a whole new system for it.

 

[Unison]

What about the combat interface in Morrowind? Surely that can be improved. There's only one attack worth using.

 

[Discharger]

Yeah, it wasn't so much about different attacks being better than others, it was about different weapons doing more damage. I mean, you could use thrusts and slashes (and probably 1 or 2 others I'm forgetting), but it really came down to finding out which attack your weapon did the most damage with and using it every time. Reading up on the interviews that are out there, it looks like combat and AI are getting a HUGE overhall. They're doing some pretty exciting things that I will definitely be looking forward to. You know, aside from the annoyance of cliff racers, I didn't mind combat at all. I mean, I know it wasn't great, but it didn't really bother me except in the one above instance.

 

[Unison]

You know, aside from the annoyance of cliff racers, I didn't mind combat at all. I mean, I know it wasn't great, but it didn't really bother me except in the one above instance.

There's a big difference between "not minding" combat and not thinking that it could be vastly improved. I thought it was adequate in Morrowind, but I certainly hope the sequel has a much more complex, engaging combat system.

 

[Discharger]

Yeah, you're right. As I said though, the AI and combat are getting a huge overhaul. I found out about this info off of the official website (see below). Goto the interviews on the game. If you're only going to read one, read the gamespy one as it has the most info on the game.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.htm

 

[Sysgen]

Do The Mario, When you get around to it, do the main quest as it will get you into the expansions which I thought were really good. There were a couple of quests that I didn't care for in each, but overall I enjoyed the story thorughout the game and the two expansions. The expansions are also much tougher than the main game. I suggest for the main game you turn up the difficultly 50% once you are suffciently leveled. This is what I did and when I got to the expansions I had to reset the difficulty back to the default.

 

[Legal Step]

Morrowind is like GTA SA but in first person, with more loading and none of the fun.

 

[Nerevar]

Oh and "Nerevar", the same artists who worked on Morrowind are working on Oblivion. You've seen the screenshots. Any complaints?

The reason the heads look "bad" in Morrowind was because of the way the head texture was organized

I just realized the irony of someone named "Nerevar" bitching about art in a Morrowind thread :lol

Anyway, yeah, I saw how the better heads textures were 256 x 256, versus the originals which were 256 x 128, it just struck me as very funny that they made that decision. You would think they would rather go with fewer polys and higher-res textures if it makes such a difference. It was a bad design choice, but a lot of the characters in Morrowind look bad compared to modern games due to, what I believe, were bad design choices. It's one of the reasons I'm excited for Oblivion.

 

[Discharger]

Morrowind is like GTA SA but in first person, with more loading and none of the fun.

It's too bad you feel that way. You're missing out on quite a game

 

[tahrikmili]

puhahahah

Is it by coincidence that the elf to the left looks like David Beckham or is that the intended joke? If so, who is the guy on the right?..

 

[Vieo]

I picked up the January 2005 issue of PC Gamer today. On page 54 they reveal some more tidbits about Oblivion.

- The game starts off as The Elder Scrolls: Arena did; with your character in the very same dungeon cell.
- Probably the most realistic outdoor enviornments ever in a game. "soil erosion is modeled in the game engine, based on terrain studies by geologists."
- The game world is highly interactive. Physics play a larger part this time around. If you pass by something like chain and you brush against it, it will rattle. You can do stuff like knock over plates, tables, etc.
- Combat is now based on a real-time "genuine hit" system. Instead of letting dice rolls determine if you hit something, if you're close enough to an enemy and you swing your sword, you will defintely hit them instead of having to click rapidly hoping to score a hit. If your sword physically misses them, then it's a miss. Just like in real life. =P
- Every NPC has a daily agenda; working at their jobs some days, meeting with friends, going to church, etc.
- Unlike Morrowind, every NPC will be voiced, but plenty of readin material(books) will still be provided for those who enjoy them.
- Your character will be "ultra-customizable" being able to craft your "game face".


A lot of that is new news to me. It sounds like it will be a lot better than Morrowind, and not just visually.

 

[Future]

If they keep the whole "can have a zillion quests in progress at once" in the next elder scrolls, I hope that at least have a better way of tracking them. One of the main reasons I don't want to continue my Morrowind save is because I have no idea what the hell I was doing, and I'm not about to flip through that damn journal to find out. He jots all kind of crap in there, and only some of it actually involves quests and none of it is organized. Worst quest tracking system every.

 

[Unison]

Probably the most realistic outdoor enviornments ever in a game. "soil erosion is modeled in the game engine, based on terrain studies by geologists."

I hope this just means that for the maps, they generated random textures using some sort of algorhythm, not that half the cpu will be spent calculating real-time soil erosion. :lol

 

[SteveMeister]

I hope this just means that for the maps, they generated random textures using some sort of algorhythm, not that half the cpu will be spent calculating real-time soil erosion. :lol

Yeah, it's all done in the editor's landscape generation tools. It's not done in-game

 

[Unison]

Yeah, it's all done in the editor's landscape generation tools. It's not done in-game

Good. Let Fable teach us all never to try such things again.

 

[Discharger]

I decided I wanted to start playing again (this always happens after someone starts talking about it.. it is enivitable ) and found out that since the game wasn't installed I couldn't activate the mods. I should clarify that before I get further - I have the game files on my hard drive (I keep them on a separate partition from my windows installation) but because I formatted not too long ago to fix some strange pc issues, it isn't in the registry anymore. I looked around for the Morrowind CD that came with my mobo in the software bundle, but I couldn't find it. Odds are, someone borrowed it from me and I didn't know, and now it's gone Oh well, I fixed that problem real quick. A quick stop over to Future Shop and voila!

As I said, this ALWAYS ends up happening. I never did beat either expansion though, so think I'll go hardcore and get the job done. Morrowind=the game that keeps on giving

SteveMeister: You guys make great games

 

[ManDudeChild]

- Probably the most realistic outdoor enviornments ever in a game. "soil erosion is modeled in the game engine, based on terrain studies by geologists."

... could this be the first game in which players can write their names in the snow?

 

[pj]

Yeah, you're right. As I said though, the AI and combat are getting a huge overhaul. I found out about this info off of the official website (see below). Goto the interviews on the game. If you're only going to read one, read the gamespy one as it has the most info on the game.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.htm

The fan interview is great as well..

http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/oblivion/communityinterview.asp

A developer recently stated, on the forums, that sneaking was going to get some 'tender-loving-care'. Is there anything you would be willing to share with us about these changes at this time?

That part of the game is working great, really good stuff we've been spending more time on recently. Emil Pagliarulo, who worked on the Thief series, has been working on that, and it's much more realistic, using light and shadow and how you are moving.

Can you give examples of the extent the Havok engine will allow players to interact with the environment?

Havok is by far the most fun we've had working with middleware. The depth it can add is amazing, especially to a game like ours, where we have so many items around. So anything you can pick up gets havok. Also, our artists can create areas of the world that react to physics, such as doors or chains that hang from the ceiling.

We've been having a blast lately shooting arrows into things and watching them react. So from a visual standpoint, such as bodies falling down stairs, or books and plates flying around, it is fantastic. From a gameplay standpoint, we're just starting to work those elements into things like our dungeons. One thing I can say is that the telekinesis magic is getting an all-new level of cool. More on that when we start talking about magic

Medieval gravity gun perhaps??

 

[Do The Mario]

Got another problem, it’s a quest that progresses the main story.

The chick in the “south wall” I need to get the code book off refuses to barter with me!

 

[Pellham]

Morrowind is an RPG for real RPG enthusiasts. It separates the wannabe-RPG fans from real fans of "role-playing".

To put it short, most gamers are spoiled on RPGs that spoonfeed a story to you. Morrowind puts YOU in the shoes of the main character and offers the role-playing that some people enjoy.

Inevitably, the number of people that this title appeals to is vastly smaller than say, Final Fantasy VII. It's like comparing the appeal of a good novel (Morrowind) to the appeal of a summer action movie (FF7 or comparable console RPG).

So yeah if you didn't like the game, meh whatever But among people who actually enjoy the RP in RPGs, Morrowind rocks.

 

[pj]

Got another problem, it’s a quest that progresses the main story.

The chick in the “south wall” I need to get the code book off refuses to barter with me!

She doesn't sell it to you. You either have to kill her and piss off the entire thieves' guild, taunt her until she attacks you (which you probably aren't skilled enough to do) or steal it from her (which you probably aren't skilled enough to do).

This is the quest that someone mentioned earlier in the thread as one of the things he doesn't like about morrowind.

 

[Lyte Edge]

How much does Morrowind Gold go for these days? I'd like to try the game with those mods enabled.

 

[Discharger]

How much does Morrowind Gold go for these days? I'd like to try the game with those mods enabled.

The Morrowind GOTY edition I picked up today that comes with both expansions (Tribunal and Bloodmoon) cost me $39 canadian

If you can find the standalone game it would be a lot less and since you live in the US, subtract a few more dollars as well.

 

[Do The Mario]

She doesn't sell it to you. You either have to kill her and piss off the entire thieves' guild, taunt her until she attacks you (which you probably aren't skilled enough to do) or steal it from her (which you probably aren't skilled enough to do).

This is the quest that someone mentioned earlier in the thread as one of the things he doesn't like about morrowind.

Nup I found a new way around it, I bribed her about 500 gold and she just gave it too me.

That said I will comeback and kill her latter

 

[pj]

Nup I found a new way around it, I bribed her about 500 gold and she just gave it too me.

That said I will comeback and kill her latter

Well ain't that a bitch. I put that quest off for months so I could train my sneak skill..

 

[Discharger]

Nup I found a new way around it, I bribed her about 500 gold and she just gave it too me.

That said I will comeback and kill her latter

If you persuade people up to a certain point, they will let you get away with a lot of stuff they might not have otherwise. Having a high speechcraft skill will get you FAR in this game.