Saw the steam sale and almost want to purchase Morrowind! I spent countless hours playing Oblivion years ago, and have spent a decent/okay-ish amount of time on Skyrim, but I never played Morrowind before, I just can't get passed the bad graphics!

1) How much of an improvement is there with the mods? I.E the Overhaul + other mods

2) How many hours does it take to complete a single playthrough doing a mixture of side quests and main story?

3) How many guilds are there?

4) Should I expect similarities from Skyrim, or Oblivion, in regards to the leveling and combat systems?

5) Do NPCs walk around in the cities and throughout the map, or do they just kinda chill? I always liked how in Oblivion and Skyrim, some NPCs would traverse the world and had various "routines."

1. Visually, mods can make the game easily look better than Oblivion, and some even think Skyrim. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AiB-hz2tMM )
The community Patches fix thousands of bugs/glitches.
There is a ton of great extra content that fits into the game very well.

2. I would say about 30-50. It's very easy to get sidetracked and go exploring.
All the content will take 200+ hours to see.

3. 7 full Guilds/Factions.
Plus 3 Great Houses, which act just like Guilds. (you can only join one per character)
The Bloodmoon expansion adds another Faction.

4. Morrowind is very different in many regards. I suggest reading this: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Differences_Between_Morrowind,_Oblivion,_and_Skyrim

5. For the most part, NPCs just walk in a small area. They do not have schedules.
But there are mods that give them Skyrim-style schedules.
And mods that add more NPCs to the game, who act in new ways to add life.


For more info on mods, tools, patches... head here: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/

Thanks a ton for answering these questions! While I do want more people answering to perhaps give different perspectives and maybe even contreversy / discepency, I'd like to also add another question to the list:

Which has the biggest / richest map? I understand that Morrowind didn't have fast travel (I'm sure there's a mod somewhere that gives it the feature), so because it forces people to actually traverse the map it may feel like it's a lot bigger, but in actuality, if you take away the Fast Travel abilities from Oblivion and Skyrim (imagine a playthrough without fast travel), which of the three games would have the biggest / richest map?

Skyrim and Oblivion are near in size. Morrowind is smaller.
Skyrim probably has the most detailed map, but Morrowind does feel bigger, and not just because you have to walk everywhere. There are many different types of landscape, not just forest/mountain/tundra... I mean very different, like ashlands/swamps/lava fields/beautiful lakes etc.

There are no "fast travel" mods.
But there are mods that imitate it. Like multiple Mark mods, or Teleport Ring mods.
The game also does have forms of fast travel, similar to the carriages in Skyrim. (boats, silt striders, and teleportation spells to name a few)

With the newest overhaul mod, imo alot of areas and diffently the Towns and citys looks better than vanilla skyrim.
Quite a bit, id say around 100 hours if ya the exploring type because theres no fast travel, on "taxis".
The main difference is the combat BC u can miss and enemys dodge and it throws people off because theres no animation for it. Leveling up is the same except u have a ton more skills and spells. Unlike oblivion and skyrim, u start off great and get even better, morrowind starts u off at the bottom of the totem pole. U will encounter situations where u will end up running away.

But id say the main difference would be the tone of the game. To put it as a few words as possible, ill say this. Oblivion and skyrim u start off as the chosen one, as the only person who can do this and hurry because the worlds gonna end! U start off important. Morrowind? U get ur papers and are given 80g and told to basically "hope u survive out there! By the way u need to go and find this druggie". When u do find said deuggie unlike the other games where everyone reconizes u as the baddest mofo around, u are instead in this game told..."ur a noob and ull die. Go level up and get some better gear u noob, because u aint tough enough yet."

Also id like to say whereas skyrim and oblivion have more map nodes, id consider morrowind bigger seeing how out in the ocean, in lakes, and on side of mountains u will find caves and sunken ships to go into and exore whereas oblivion and skyrim, there really wasnt any need to actually use the water ways. Morrowind made more use of its map in why id say ots bigger.

"Technically", Morrowind has the smallest map of those three. But, in-game, it feels larger, it's much more vertical than bowl-shaped Cyrodill, so you'll often find your character at a hill that you you'll have to walk around, or... levitate. Your character also moves noticeably slower than in the newer games, especially in the beginning.

My assorted tips:

-There is no level scaling, and some levelling. You'll often have to run away form enemies much more powerful than you. But, as you progress, you actually feel better, 'cause enemies don't scale.
-Sneaking and stealing is much simpler and harder than in Ob and Sky.
-There is more variety in everything, be it armors (light, medium, heavy, even unarmored is a skill), weapons (add spears, throwing weapons, crossbows) you can even put clothes under armor and robe over it.
-Dialogue is all-text, so you'll have to read quite much.
-Take it slow, stick to first village for a while and familiarize with how the game plays.

Feel free to ask more, fellow forum folks are always eager to answer!

Edit: typo

"Take it slow" is the best advice, and at the same time you're also kinda forced to take it slow anyways.

You can get to level 20 in Sky no problems, very quickly.
In MW, level 20 is a big achievement, and you will have really felt like you and your character earned it!

It's night and day. If you get the Morrowind Overhaul, provided your computer can handle it, I'd say that the graphics are easily equal to or even superior to Oblivion. In some places, notably the night sky, some water effects, fire, you could even say that Morrowind is approaching Skyrim quality.


That's such a hard question to answer. Suffice to say, it will take you many hours and I'd say even longer than Skyrim or Oblivion. There's no magic pointer telling you where to go, so sometimes there's a little bit of thinking involved with figuring out where to go next. The Main Quest itself isn't so much 'Oh my God! Hurry and save the World!' There are several points where the game really encourages you to go do other things, let events play out, and then come back and continue the main quest. All in all, the main quest is much more interesting, and better written than Oblivion and Skyrim's, and I think the pacing is much better as well.


This is where Morrowind beats Oblivion and Skyrim with brass knuckles until they cry for mercy, receiving none. Morrowind has so many more guilds...off the top of my head: Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, Thieves Guild, Imperial Legion, Tribunal Temple, Imperial Cult, Morag Tong, plus you get your choice of joining either Great House Redoran, Telvanni, or Hlaalu. Each joinable faction is at least twice, or three times as long as a Skyrim guild. With better writing, more variety in quests, and a more believable progression. Granted, the cinematic values of Morrowind can't compete with the Skyrim Thieves' Guild, but that's to be expected.

Also, there are mods which add factions, some of which I hear are quite good. Plus, as said before, there is a new faction in Bloodmoon in which you get to make a decision about which portion of the faction's leadership to support, with the opportunity to help guide the construction of a village, and your own home.


It's basically the same as Oblivion, but with more skills, and a much greater variety of spells. Also, the biggest difference is that a character's given skill is more determinant of a successful action...for example, in Oblivion to unlock a door you play a mini-game which depends on the player's skill. A skilled player can open a difficult lock, no matter what their character's lockpicking skill is. Conversely, Morrowind has no mini-games for lockpicking, and if you attempt to pick a lock there is a random chance that it unlocks, depending on your character's skill.


For the most part NPC's 'chill'. Most NPC's will wander around their house, or the streets, but Morrowind is from an era before radiant/dynamic A.I.

Pluto has answered pretty spot on.

in regards to the fast travel question... while there isn't a fast travel option as you know it (click on map and travel to specific spot) there are very reasonable options available for little to no cost to you... boats between coastal towns, silt striders over land. mages guild transport between halls. almsivi intervention spell to transport you to nearest temple, divine intervention spell to the nearest imperial base. mark and recall spells can quickly take you back to a specific spot at any time.

i've never found the lack of fast travel to be an issue as there's always a quick way around it if you so choose. you will have to walk/wander/explore to find caves, ruins, specific locations, but that's a huge part of the game in my opinion and getting back to where you started can be quite simple.

1) A lot. I've played in the last few days so I'll upload screenshots of how my game looks:
http://imgur.com/a/ALzUB
I don't use texture mods, so this is just MGE with shaders. If you want my shaders, send me a PM or something.

2) Well, I did the main quest in 11 minutes, but the first time it probably took over 50 hours. For the main quest, you can skip almost everything if you know what to do, but you'll miss most of the lore. If you follow what NPCs tell you, there's a lot to do. The guild and side quests aren't as long, but they're longer than Skyrim. They're not all that action-y, but the uniqueness of the environment and how developed the situations are makes up for that.

3) A lot:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Factions
Everything that says Joinable gives you a questline too.

4) More similar to Oblivion. Character building works very similar to Oblivion, but is slightly less forgiving, since you can miss and stuff. It's not like Skyrim at all. The biggest differences from Oblivion are probably being able to miss, blocking automatically instead of using the block button, and the fact that most dungeon enemies are not level scaled. (outside creatures are, though). If you played more Oblivion than Skyrim and enjoyed it, you'll probably be fine with this stuff. Another somewhat big difference is that leveling is slower, as has already been mentioned. However, there is no limit to training, so if you have a lot of gold you can advance by several levels at once if you pay for training.

5) Not really. They walk around areas of about 20x20 meters, and that's it. They don't sleep, eat, or do anything like that. The only time they leave their "20x20 areas" is when a quest calls for it. For example, sometimes you have to escort or meet someone somewhere, and then they'll move. But it's pretty rare.

6) Morrowind is probably the "richest' map. Skyrim and Oblivion have cluter everywhere, but it's all just useless junk. In Morrowind, if you look in peoples' houses and in random dungeons, you'll often find unique items that actually may actually be valuable or useful to your character. Also, yes the heightmap is smaller (it's about 2/3 the size of either newer games, both of which are almost the same size.), but the playable area is probably about the same, because in Skyrim and Oblivion there are many areas on the heightmap that you can't visit. If you i nstall MGE and use distant land, it actually still looks quite big. In the screenshots I posted, I drew my approximate view angle on the map in the corner, so you can look at that. It really will feel big though. Hmm, another thing to note is that the terrain is more rocky and broken up, so each region feels more like a different place, compared to Oblivion in which it's just wide open fields and large forests. I think that makes it feel more rich as well.

You should get the game, it's great!

P.S. Buy Morrowind. It's worth it. Especially for only 10 bucks.

Best damn 10 bucks u will ever spend if u ur looking for a rpg. Its not as actiony as skyrim but the things u do are so much more believeable even though the landscape goes from beautiful to beautiful acid trip. The story is 100 times better and things and quest are executed 100 times better as well. You start off as a nobody and eventually work ur way up to being a somebody...a hero. When u exit that boat, make no mistake u are not a hero yet, but u perservere and u eventually become one.


Also if ur a fan of skyrim, u have to play just to realize that the dunmers treatment in windhelm is sweet sweet poetic karma lmao.