Hi everyone.

I've been lurking the Bethesda forums for quite some time now. I started my TES addiction with Oblivion, and regularly visited that forum, until moving to Skyrim.

For a long time now, I have heard people declare Morrowind as the best TES in the series, and only recently, spent a good deal of time reading through many of the topics here.

One thing that has struck me is how mature and helpful you guys are. I am 28 years old, and feel the "Morrowind crowd" share much more in common with my own tastes in gaming.

I am humbly asking for some direction from you fine folks. I think that I should give you some background on the type of experience I am looking for first, so that you can guide me accordingly.

Why Morrowind?

Like I said before, I started with Oblivion. Before that time, I had never played anything resembling an RPG. I was a "twitcher"; Rainbow Six, COD, all that stuff. But then I saw Oblivion in a game store, recently after release. I was drawn by the "be anyone, do anything" marketing angle.

Believe it or not, I subsequently bought and sold Oblivion five times before I understood the mechanics. "Attributes"? "Leveling up"? "Reading books"?! What is this nonsense, I thought. Until on the fifth attempt, it clicked. I was a TES junkie, and all those shooty shooty games were no more.

"But Oblivion is dumbed down", I read in the forums; "It holds your hand". And after about 200 hours of playing, I thought, those guys are right.

So I installed Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. I was really proud because I'd spent so long working out how to install mods properly. And everything changed. I loved how hard it was at the start. But what I loved even more was that you had to specialise to survive. I couldn't be the king of everything, like I had become in the vanilla game. I went on to play OOO for a further 600 hours. I was hooked.

I created a Nord Warrior. All the combat skills, the Warrior birthsign, and vowed never to cast any magic or steal anything. For healing, I bought potions. After the tutorial dungeon, I dumped everything I had picked up, leaving only my sack cloth pants, so I really felt like I was starting from scratch. In fact, this slow start gameplay is amongst my most favourite part in all my TES playthoughs.

I made little tasks for myself: "Today, I will kill mudcrabs on the beach with my bare fists, so that I can sell the meat and buy a shirt, some shoes, some food and drink, and a bed for the night". Then I would make acquiring a simple iron dagger my next task. After a while, I was hunting down goblins to train myself. By the time I had a full set of iron armour, I felt I really deserved it.

I am hoping to get this feeling from Morrowind. A slow and hard start, a need to specialise, and, something I have not often experienced with TES, the need to really think.

Mods?

From what I've read, the main reasons people seem to give up on Morrowind are:

• Old graphics / animations
  
• Slow run speed
  
• Hard to hit enemies
  
• Slow start
  
• Lack of direction

As explained above, the last two points are something I relish, so no problem there.

As for slow run speed, I think this is not a problem because it gives an incentive to specialise, again something I really like in a game.

As for chance to hit, I'll come to that later.

So this leaves graphics and animations. I may be wrong, but I understand there is not a great deal that can be done about the animations, and to be frank, I'm not bothered. I'll get used to it.

As for the graphics, first I shall say this: I am not a graphics junkie. If the game is good, I won't care. Also, I think there is a certain mystery that comes with the fog i have seen on some gameplay videos. Having said all that, I am considering installing Morrowind Sound & Graphics Overhaul 2.0, as it does look like a rather impressive feat (well done Mr. Kingpix).

Is there anything "special" I should know about installing this overhaul, or can I just use the guide on the MSGO thread (can't post the link)?

Also, are there any other mods you would suggest, given my tastes? I do like the idea of experiencing the game as vanilla first, however one point I would like to make is that I have just bought the Steam version of GOTY, and if there are any silly "go here to start the expansion" messages at the start of the game, perhaps there is a mod that will let me discover them for myself? I certainly don't want an expansion put upon me in my first few hours of the game.


My planned character build

I would be very grateful if you could give me some direction on character build. I have already decided that I want to be a pure Warrior. I have just spent 170 hours roleplaying a pure defensive Mage in Skyrim, using only Alteration, Illusion, Restoration and Shouts. I did not use any weapon or armour, so I am looking forward to the change.

Basically what I'm after is the purest Warrior tank I can make. The skills that I pick as major and minor will be the only ones I use. I really don't like to "change-up" half way through.

What I'm not sure about is the favoured attributes. Strength, Endurance, Agility, or Luck? I know it's not like Oblivion; I've read that you can be swinging right at some guy's face over and over without hitting. That's fine, I know if I specialise then it'll get better, so which to choose?



For the few that have read through all of that, thank you. Feel free to just answer one of my questions; I realise they are a little sporadic.

I can't wait to start my adventures!

for mods i'd suggest a must have for anyone is the morrowind code patch (fixes LOTS of hard to reach bugs, simple to install and pick select which particular fixes you want), better bodies (just get it, you'll see why. also easy installation), and the v1.6.5 btb edit of the morrowind patch project (another bug fixer, mostly world related stuff like quests, items and so forth. google b.t.b morrowind mod list)

a favourite mod of mine that i never play without is galsiahs character devolopment. (GCD). basically it increases your attributes automatically as you raise skills associated with that particular attribute. in vanilla morrowind/oblivion you're faced with the choice of grinding up unrelated skills to get x5 multipliers. GCD removes this completely. but to compensate, your attributes and major/minor skills can be raised above 100, it makes every character feel unique, instead of the '100 in everything' inevitability of vanilla. it also has a fair mana regen component which bafflingly wasn't included in the original game. for me this mod is essential but others may have a different opinion.

attributes remain largely the same from oblivion. a few skills have different govening attributes (security/intelligence for example) but the biggest difference is luck. in a game where failure is a part of the fun, luck plays much more of a role in morrowind. it still governs no skill, but it affects them all in a much more important way. at 50 you're luck neutral. above 50 it's a help, below and it's a hinderance.

skills. go for a custom build as some of the premade builds have skills all over the place. read your tooltips and you'll be fine. small nuggets of wisdom though, pick one armour type and stick to it (unless you want to only wear a few pieces of armour and go without for the rest of your body. then add unarmoured into the mix). same with weapons. pick one type and a backup. (eg swords and bows). no matter which build you go for i'd suggest at least one melee weapon type.
speech is pretty useful imho. 50% of the game is in the dialogue. it also allows you to get away with murder

gameplay tips http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players

hope that helped, and that you have fun too. welcome to vvardenfel

Then, you'll need a mod like Delayed DB. The Tribunal expansion does get in your face right at the start in the vanilla game and it's pretty annoying.

Thanks supermark

I didn't realise Speech was a viable skill in this game, in Oblivion it was pretty much useless. I might go for an Imperial Knight type then, because I actually really like using speech (thought new vegas did this great).

As for luck, what you've said has convinced me - i was originally going to pick Strength and Endurance as my favoured attributes, but now I might pick Luck for the +10, then I can just up the combat attributes upon levelling.

About the mods, they sound great, I'll definitely get the bug fixes, but I was wary about installing too many for crashes and such, plus I'm a bit lost with all the names...

Should I just install

MGSO
"Morrowind Patch Project"
"Morrowind Code Patch"
"Better Bodies"
...and I'm set?

FOr the character development one, sounds cool, but I dont plan on using magicka anyway, and I'm never bothered if I get the x5 either way, but thanks man.

Just not sure about the mods though, can I just install them all on top of each other? I'm used to using OBMM, could never get my head around Wrye Bash and am looking for a quick start up.

Cheers man


@ Logorouge: just seen your post, thanks, that's exactly what I'm trying to prevent!




P.S. all these "better heads", "better bodies", "better clothes"...are they not all incorporated into MSGO?

This site might be helpful
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players

I use the “better” series and a mod that enhances Balmora. That’s about it. So I can’t help you there. However, a great warrior build I can advise is a Redguard with The Lady for birth sign and Endurance and Luck as favored attributes. Then take major skills of Longblade, Heavy Armor, Block, Marksman and Athletics, with minors of Alchemy, Speech craft, Enchant, Armorer and Sneak.
The Redguards have the best combat boost and with The Lady you’ll have lots of starting health. Favoring Endurance will add to this. You can boost all of your attributes with potions, but if you don’t have enough health when you take damage, then you die. The majors I listed will put a tiger in your tank. Athletics svcks, but as a major you will move faster right from the start which makes everything else you do happen sooner. The minors can all be maxed out in the safety of a town, so you really don’t have to draw a weapon until you reach level 40, but that is up to you. Good Luck!

With a race that gets a weapon skill bonus, Fighter as a specialty, plus picking that weapon as a major, missing will only be a minor problem for a short while at worst. Agility makes a difference in hitting, and in avoiding knockdowns, so it's very helpful to put a few points into it. Strength only affects damage and carrying capacity, so it's important, but not critical.

In fact, MW's less-levelled and almost totally unscaled world makes it far less important to make a good character build from the start, because you can tackle the game at your own pace and confront the harder challenges when you're ready. In the later games, they scale to your level, so your build and how you level is more important.

Speed is only an issue if you're heavily encumbered. In OB, your speed was at maximum until you reached your encumbrance limit, and then became 0. In MW, it decreases to about half-speed before that. "Travelling light" = travelling fast. As a Fighter, your armor may give you little choice other than to be slow; a Thief or Mage without a lot of gear can move pretty quickly.

A decent graphics replacer could bring the look up to at least the "reasonable" level. Using MGE and an animated grass mod with "distant land" enabled can make it look almost as good as OB in most places, and better in a few (and I prefer its art). The animations are still pathetic at times. Better Bodies is the defacto standard body replacer, and is desperately needed to avoid the nasty "puppets on strings" look of the vanilla segmented bodies. There are even higher-resolution textures that work on top of it.

MADD Leveler is a lot more forgiving for "mixed class" characters than GCD, even though I consider GCD to be the more polished mod. Either is a huge step up from vanilla, in my opinion. I'd recommend GCD for a "pure" build, MADD for a "cross class" build.

I'll also second or third the suggestion to use both the Morrowind Patch Project and the Morrowind Code Patch to fix some of the problems. The MCP is highly configurable, and some of the settings are definitely "a matter of taste". You won't know which ones you'll want to use until you play the game for a while, though, so look for suggestions first.

Enjoy. I've been doing so for many years, and still find new places and things to do.

Here are some suggestions to help enrich the roleplaying experience even further all of which are very popular and typically considered essential 'must haves' amongst roleplayers.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8707 Adds the requirements to eat, drink, and sleep

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4077 Adds numerous trade skills that allow you to make a living from crafting items

http://lgnpc.org/ The Less Generic NPC project adds masses of new dialogue to all the NPC's


http://www.mwmythicmods.com/realism.htm A list of realism type mods some of which may be of interest.

Even an RPG becomes an action hack-fest if you play it that way. Some say Oblivion and Skyrim are not truly RPG:s and I highly disagree. It becomes what you make it into, it′s really not harder than that.

*Points to sig*

Thanks everyone for all your great advice!

I've been playing for about 10 hours so far and I absolutely LOVE this game.

I picked an imperial, going the honourable knight route,

Favoured attributes:
Agility, Luck

Major skills:
Long Blade
Block
Heavy Armor
Marksman (purely for crossbow)
Speechcraft

Minor skills:
Armorer
Athletics
Mercantile
Medium Armor
Short Blade


Really enjoy playing with the added challenge of not using magic. To heal, I rely on bought healing potions.

Only picked medium armor because there were no other combat type skills left (and I'll save blunt for a Orc type character, and axe n spear for a nord outdoor dude). Picked shortblade cos they're light.

I love how slow the start has been. I've only levelled up once, and was trying to play dead is dead, until I was accosted by a dude near pelegrad (?) who offered me a proposition: 50 gold or my life. I would have happily paid at this early in the game, but didn't have the gold, and couldn't run fast enough because of my heavy armor.

The only other time I died was when I took on the challenge of finding a lady's jewels from thieves near caldera, and underestimated the scamps near the den.

I am playing on default difficulty and love it. Ive had to run away quite a few times, the first thief near caldera was decked out in flashy armour, and took a decent chunk of my health, so I legged it.

I've been talking to people and learning loads. For example, I now know to drink Mazte and Shien before a fight.

Ive joined the Imperial Cult, with the view of joining the Legion soon. Recently realised that i wont be able to progress past my novice rank with my skills (which i love) so im off to Gnisis soon, as ive heard they might take on new Legion recruits up there.

I've done a few quests for the Cult as a shrine sergeant: loved the trip to Gnaar Mok through Hla Oad to find a stolen bowl, and the dodgy vibe down there. In fact, I travelled all the way back to Ebonheart as I felt too unprepared (trying to die as little as possible, makes battle really tense). Got shook down AGAIN by a guy near there for 100 gold and loved it: luckily I had learnt from my previous death and now I carry round shakedown money lol. Soon I'll be powerful enough to kill the robbing bleeders (in 50 hours, maybe)

I love how, if you think, "I want to ask this barkeep about this specific thing", you usually can. Whereas you can't in OB and Skyrim. I actually prefer the text talk: much more deep.

Overall, this game is amazing. Love how many factions there are, using signs, directions, love actually needing my "guide to Vvardenfell".

2 questions though; can't find the answers myself:

1) how does armour rating work? I've managed to acquire nearly a full set of iron armor, and each part has a 10ish armor rating, yet with it all equipped, my armor rating under my picture says 10...?

2) how does speechcraft work? I started with a skill of 40, yet have not successfully progressed it at all: my admires always fail, and I haven't tried to intimidate/taunt yet for RP reasons.

Whoops, just read this on UESP:
"Unfortunately, raising disposition by admiring is difficult with a Speechcraft and Personality both under 50. If you plan to admire someone, you should increase your Speechcraft by training or using insignificant NPCs such as guards for practice".

I played Morrowind for hours, and my experience tells me that a specialised character is not as strong as a mixed character.
As an example: on one hand, you have to rely on weapons, since you can′t really afford to spam destruction or conjuration spells. On the other hand, the spells of the schools of Mysticism and Alteration are quite useful for travelling.

If I look at your build, I′d say throw Medium Armor and Mercantile out, switch into Heavy Armor minor skills and add Alchemy and something else, like Mysticism because of Soul Trap, Mark/Recall, Almsivi Intervention and Divine Intervention.

Unfortunately I don′ t really know, how the armor rating works, but it is usually rather low for armorsets like iron.

Nice build, that should work fine. The Athletics is somewhat of a waste in the long run, since it's so easy to increase anyway, but there's no "problem" with it.

Armor rating is the average of all of your armored locations, at your level of skill. As your Heavy Armor skill increases, the ratings of each Heavy Armor piece will increase, as will your overall armor rating depending on how much of it you wear. I often wear one or two pieces of other armor classes, just to edge them up a bit for later in the game, when I may want to wear a unique item or even change the character's overall goals and directions due to events.

Speechcraft is a bit difficult at first, although an Imperial with Speechcraft as a Major should be able to get a few successes here and there on his or her own, right from the start. With an Imperial, taking Speechcraft as a Major and Personality as a favored Attribute, I've done successful Admire and Taunt routines on NPCs to provoke an "incident" involving bribed officials for a quest at Level 1 for an officer at the Imperial fort near Balmora (the patches now delay the quest until a higher level). Other Imperials will have high Personality and Speechcraft skills of their own, so they'll be harder to impress. Merchants are a bit hazardous to attempt, since a failure could lead to paying more for everything for a long time. The best option is to practice on "nameless" NPCs who will regenerate eventually (guards, for example), or routine townfolk who will generally not be required later for quests. Note that Taunts work best on NPCs who hold you in some regard, so I generally try to Admire (or Bribe) up to about 60-70 before Taunting. It generally takes several successful Taunts to provoke an attack, although a few NPCs may be "borderline" enough to go after you on the first success.

My first MW character to finish the MQ was an Imperial "official", an Atronach using no "cast" magic (although semi-proficient with both Alchemy and Enchanting). I pictured his overall attitude as "Good morning, Mr. Ur, I understand that you've been dumping ash without an Imperial permit....."

Consider at some point building up your Alchemy. It's easy enough to get going, by just sampling ingredients, and having a wide variety of magical effects available as needed in the form of potions makes it worthwhile. Plus, given the sheer diversity of the landscape, and the way flora differences aren't hidden (as they are more or less in later games), you'll never lack for ingredients to try.

I think you're right to try the game in a near-vanilla state, first. However, I would recommend you check out http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=User.EntriesListing&id=7636. These affect nothing but the game's immersive atmosphere--that's all. You can get a sense of what abot does by taking a look at her silt strider mod. Instead of fading out and in on another port, you actually travel there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRUadDc1onc She has another for boats, a third for gondolas, and adds birds and waterlife in two more. Those are the ones I've tried, and I wouldn't be without them.

Best of luck. I've been playing Morrowind since it first appeared; reviewed it at the time. Great game.

A bit to add to Kovacius' armor rating help post. The Cuirass armor slot is 40% of your armor rating. All the others are 10% each: helmet, pauldrons, gauntlets/bracers, greaves, boots and shield. Whenever you take a hit, it's random what armor slot takes the hit. Since there are six armor slots, I don't know if the possibility is 100% / 6, or the same as the total armor rating percent (40% Cuirass, others 10% each).

Anyway, your armor type skill (Heavy, Medium, Light, Unarmored) determines how close to its full potential you can utilize that kind of armor. I don't know the details though. The total armor rating of your character is some kind of a mix of your armor type skills, and what type of armor with what ratings you're actually using and in what armor slots. Whether a type of armor you're using is your Major, Minor or Misc skill doesn't affect it, though, other than Major Skills develop the quickest, then Minor, and Misc the slowest. Hypothetically, if you train your Miscellaneous Light Armor skill to 70, at that point you're better off using as much Light Armor as possible, even if your Major Heavy Armor skill was 40 (or even 69). Only it will still develop slower than your Major skill would.

I guess the Blocking skill associates with 10% of your armor rating ("shield" slot). And of course all this armor rating stuff is somehow measured against the opponent's weapon and skill in that weapon type, and how much his/her governing attribute (e.g. Strength for Long Blades) is. Then there's always a chance to miss as well. You see, the whole hitting/missing and armor rating system is pretty complicated, but fair. And it works, at least in my opinion!

+++
These are extremely immersive. And you have many options. You can even dismount at anytime during the route.
(Only thing is: Siltsriders & Boats disable the head-movement from the game. If you clean the esps with for example escog, it's back, -but as a side effect your head faces the siltstrider your on, means it is constantly moving down. Same with boats: Your character always looks upwards). Matter of preference.

I know what you're saying, but I dont really play TES games to become as powerful char as I can. I play them to play a role.

I picked Medium Armor and Mercantile because I felt they best benefitted the role i wanted to play. My Imperial Legion wannabe doesn't really care for casting magic. I'm not really bothered about maxing Attribute increases on leveling, either. I just play the role and see how things develop.


Cheers man.


That is really cool. I love how other Imperials will generally be more difficult to impress. Some really good info, thanks.


Whoops. I'm worried there may be a tiny lil' spoiler in there, that I wasn't aware of yet. Ah well.


I most certainly can't wait to RP a Nord hunter/forager type, or Argonian assassin. Just no picking flowers for my Honourable Knight dude. And cheers for the mod recommendations


This is really helpful, thanks. I think all these calculations seem pointless to some people, but actually, it makes the game more realistic (although I don't like using that word for video games).


The mod looks really cool, and I'm the sort of person that would watch the whole journey in a GTA taxi ride rather than skip it, but I',m ttrying to go easy on the mods. I'm running MGSO, MCP, and a DB attack delayer, it seems stable so far, so didn't really want to mess with it. As for using mod tools, I haven't really got the patience or enthusiasm to work it all out right now. I just wanna play


And just as an update...

Coming from a Morrowind newbie, about 15 hours into the game (and playing slow)...

This game is superior to Oblivion and Skyrim IMO, because there are way more opportunites to actually RP. Its as simple as that. Its also more "hardcoe", which I absolutely love!

It′s more hardcoe maybe, but imho definitely not more RP friendly. I have put almost 1700 hrs of gameplay into one character in Oblivion and much more than half of that is pure RP.

A minor one at worst. It'll be "common knowledge" soon enough, especially if you ask in the right places, regardless of your level. I won't go any further into it.

Besides, at that stage of the game, the humorous nature of the comment can't be appreciated (not that it's all THAT humorous).

I hear ya, bro. Morrowind is a great RPG. It has some flaws, but patched up properly, it's a pretty solid game. The combat can feel a bit stale after playing Oblivion or Skyrim, but if you've played "attack/damage-based-on-dice-roll" type RPGs you should know what to expect. Also, I'd recommend something that adds schedules to the NPCs like Morrowind Comes Alive. That way the shops close up at night and people aren't always standing or wandering in the same spot 24/7.


I'd *definitely* recommend this mod if you haven't gotten in already. The DB attacks get *really old* after awhile.

I've always used NOM in my games, in Morrowind and Oblivion. Some people don't like it, but I think it invests you more in your character's survival and sense of a "virtual second life."

Good luck and enjoy! Morrowind's main quest is longer (or feels that way) than the sequels, so it takes lots of focus (especially if you are distracted by every side quest like me!) to finish, if that is one of your goals...

Cheers!

Woah, dude, on one character? that is crazy lol, you musta really gotten into that role!

All I meant is, there's so many more factions in MW than OB, and there seems to be more variety in quests, so more chance to play a really distinct role.

Just out of interest, did you use OOO or FCOM? cos 1700hrs is a long time to play vanilla!


I thought it was funny! Made me feel less weird for imagining little bits of dialogue in my head as I play, hehe

I suppose having an imagination is a prerequisite to playing an RPG



Skyrim does look pretty damn amazing, but I prefer combat being dependent on character skill rather than player skill.

Anyways, just had my level 3 imperial knight travel to Aldruhn, on way to Gnisis to meet up with the Legion. I'm completely broke and love it. I really love the challenge at the start. I'd never dream of robbing the census office at the start of all possible items like I see some LPers do on YouTube!

Morrowind Comes Alive may add schedules, but it also adds about a gazillion overpowered and over-equipped respawning hostiles to the game. It's something that you might consider adding to up the difficulty later, but not as a new player. Some of the weapons and armor are beyond "spoilerish", and I had one character in an MCA game who picked up a full set of armor, sword, and bow as good or better than Daedric by Level 8. The earlier 4.1 release wasn't bad, but I won't use the later 5.x and 6.0 versions because of the blatantly excessive loot and overpowered waves of high-level adversaries in too many places, even at low level. In one Dunmer Fortress, I hit one MCA bandit from ambush, and was almost instantly surrounded by at least 8 (possibly 10-12) assorted bandits from every direction, wielding Ebony, Glass, Daedric, and other enchanted weapons, along with one's summoned Hunger. I didn't even have time to open my inventory for a Recall potion before I was hit by enchanted arrows from two archers and almost simultaneously hacked to death by at least 3 bandits....all of which moved at a pace that either required some exotic potions and/or 100 speed. Somehow, I don't find that "fun".

Starfires' NPC Additions does the same job as MCA of adding NPCs to the world, but they're not decked out in exotic gear and wearing stuff that's glaringly out of place with the rest of the game. I can spot an MCA NPC in a crowd of vanilla NPCs from clear across town (thanks to MGE's fog settings), but Starfire's sometimes blend in well enough that I need to get within conversation range to be certain. Besides, I think that there is (or was) a mod that simply adds opening and closing hours to stores.

Yup, one character. I′m so used to having just one character in a game so it′s not that hard for me to just play him.

I agree on the factions part. Didn′t really think of them tbh.

No OOO,MMM or FCOM. Some minor mods like Spell Delete, FG Porters No Follow and Witchcraft. But those were added very late so yeah, about 1300 hrs or so plain vanilla

I understand. I've been playing Oblivion since it first hit the stores and it has only been the past 2 years that I discovered mods such as OOO, MMM and Better Cities. Big difference there but then I added Companion Vilja. Now It's become almost more than a game, it's somewhere my char lives.

Vilja keeps telling me that I should go back to Morrowind and I'm thinking of doing that. I to am looking into different mods to freshen up the look of Morrowind. BTB's list and the MGSO set both look good for starters.

It′s really nice when that happens, isn′t it?