As some of you may recall from http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1292463-would-it-be-worth-buying-morrowind/ thread I was a little hesitant about buying Morrowind due to its age.


However, I have decided to buy it. It is said to be rather challenging and therefore I am asking if anybody has any tips that I will find useful. It is the GOTY edition and I'm downloading it from Steam.

I appreciate your responses in advance.

http://www.uesp.net/

As mentioned in your other thread, check out http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players for the big differences you need to know about. Especially the main characteristics and combat section. Fatigue is very very important for everything.


Also to fix many of the bugs Bethesda never fixed, get the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:Morrowind_Patch_Project and the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19510.

My biggest suggestion is have patience. The game starts out pretty slow - you're weak, you've just come off a boat from years in prison, and the world is ready to chew you up and spit you out. There's also a steep learning curve, so while for the first few levels it's tempting to stop playing and say 'ugh this is too hard' or 'ugh this svcks' just give it a bit more time. You'll start to appreciate it before long.

Everything about Morrowind is more deliberate - you need to read paragraphs of information when you meet a new, important quest giver to really know what's going on. You can ask so many more questions, and get so many more answers. Factions have many more quests, and longer ones too - you'll be sent out to some rural, backwater place on the island and you'll need to walk there - and then walk back unless you were prepared enough to take advantage of the game's limited fast travel magic, which are your friends. (Almsivi Intervention takes you to the nearest Dunmer temple, Divine intervention takes you to the nearest Imperial temple, 'Mark' marks the place where you're standing, and when you use the 'Recall' spell you will be teleported instantly back to wherever you marked. Also, take advantage of the spells in Morrowind that Bethesda cut from subsequent games. There are spells that allow you to swim faster, walk on water, jump really high, and even fly! All are necessities for playing a magic character, but any character should think about possessing items with these effects enchanted into them.

Even the pacing of the story is different.

Skyrim and Oblivion have you thrown into combat, fighting for your life, escaping, and then 'hurry up the world needs you'. 'Go slay a dragon'

With Morrowind you leisurely step off the boat, tell the immigrations agent what your race, class, etc. is...and then you're on your own. No one is screaming at you to do something, no dragon is swooping down on you. If you choose to do the main quest, you show up at Caius Cosade's house, and he is the grandmaster of Vvardenfell blades. First thing he'll tell you is that you look like a noob, here's 200 gold, and here's the nearest trainer. Now go shape up and come back in a few levels when you're more of a badass.

Not too bad so far. Almost at Balmora. Killed a slug thing and a mudcrab and stole a health potion from a store in the process.

So you've not already quit because you missed during combat?

Because I know that oh so many people stopped playing for this stupid reason.

Getting to Balmora is a good first step, the major guilds are there as is the Main Quest so there's loads of things to do.

First of all, good luck on your first play in Vvardenfell! The first time you play this do not let the combat system fool you into giving up. It becomes much better and easier to understand as you level up.

I suggest as a first playthrough to play as a battlemage on easy difficulty. This way you start out with good destruction and enchantment with other spell levels as well as your longblade skill, heavy armor and axe (you could even create a custom class to specialize in whatever melee weapons you choose).

Also, you may want to set your character up to start at a good speechcraft level as in most cases speech is mightier than the sword.

Find a city or small town and become familiar with it, ( the shops, taverns, guilds, trainers) and then travel only small distances from that area and loot tombs, kill wild beasts, anything you can do to level up your weapon and armor skillsand gather some loot . After collecting some loot sell it to some shop owners and use the money to pay trainers to help you level up in your major and minor skills. In this game you are not limited to how many times you can use a trainer to level up your skills but you have to have enough gold to pay for it. I do suggest though that when your characters main level is ready to be leveled up do so as soon as you can because skill points do not carry over into the next level gain. You must sleep in a bed to level up your character also, so make sure you keep enough gold to pay for a room at a tavern (which is usually 10 gold) or you could simply find an abandoned home and set up shop there.

I suggest joining the fighters guild and the mages guild as you'll be able to have better access to weapons and magic at better prices and you can sleep in the guild halls for free. From there you can get a good grasp on spell usage and creation of spells and potions and enchanting while also training your melee and armor skills.

One last thing, always make sure you have plenty of restore health and restore magicka AND cure common disease potions when you are adventuring in the wild. Cure blight disease is also very important to have but it's a little hard to come by at first and the prices for buying is kinda high. You can also use temple altars to heal any diseases and restore health and any attributes that may have been damaged.

That's about it really. Good luck and keep us updated on your playthrough!

Don't ignore the fort on the way to Balmora. Speak especially to one of the religious brothers near the altar, who will tell you of the three paths for joining the Imperial's religious order. Also check out the Dummer temple in Balmora, for a different take on matters.

Harvest any flower ingredients you find--and things you ikill will often yield these, as well. Alchemy is a very nice deal, since potions give you spells without magicka consumption, as well as plenty of money if you travel between cities (and you don't need to walk them, you can take the silt strider).