What did you like in Oblivion over Morrowind? : IV - Oblivion

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:38 am

-Radiant AI
-Switching between magic and you're weapon in combat is now much easier.
-Buyable houses, though I wish they were a little bit more customizable.
-Horses, though they die far too quickly for my liking.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:55 pm

Lol well only one or two have actually said "nothing" which suprised me. I was expecting more then that. Since i preferred Oblivion i'l refrain from making a gigantaur list.

Why refrain? That is what this tread is for after all.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:07 pm

Anyone who says factions, did you even play Morrowind? And not every quest has to be epic (like the painter quest). I personally kind of liked the quests from the khajiit in the Balmora MG to get a bowl from the pawnbroker. It was so basic that it felt, real.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:56 pm

the combat was the biggest thing for me mainly with swords, in morrowind you had the dice and roll thing and i just hated it in oblivion each hit did less damage then in morrowind but every single hit at least did damage and that is huge for me

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:06 pm

I own both games, but I never got really far in Morrowind. This had a bit to do with my age at the time, and relative inexperience with sandbox RPGs, but there's also a number of points that made it easier to get into Oblivion than into Morrowind, which saved the game for me, even though now I'd prefer not having some of those options anymore. I'm talking specifically about fast travel, quest/location map markers, and generally needing less time to find/achieve what I want (in Morrowind I often had no idea where to go/what to do, not just with quests).

However, these days it does ruin the immersion a bit. As suggested earlier in this thread, I'd prefer fast travel only working for general areas, instead of dropping you right in front of a random cave that you once found. I love that when I cleared a dungeon with tons of good loot, that I can just fast travel between the dungeon and a random city where I can vendor the loot. But in general, I prefered Morrowind's system of travel with those big bugs

More in general, I prefered the following (note that some things might actually have been in Morrowind as well, but as I said, I never got far into that game):

Graphics (but the style of Morrowind was more unique, although I didn't like it at the time)
AI (Radiant AI wasn't what I hoped for, but it was still a huge improvement)
Combat (I never even wanted to play anything but a mage in Morrowind, in Oblivion I just never seem to be able to stay pure-mage, I like wielding a weapon with any character)
More direction. Although it is a sandbox game, I like at least having the option of following directions. Oblivion took me more by the hand when I wanted it.
Sneak actually having a point. It already did of course, but it felt much more natural/useful in Oblivion since it gave you a big combat bonus. Combined with poisons and the good bow system, playing a sneaky assassin became my first choice.
Improved physics. Although it could've been used more, I was already impressed with how much gameplay was added with realistic physics.
Spoken dialogue, and the lore was presented in a way that was more enjoyable and easier accessible. I also liked the random conversations, for about two days. After that it just became repetitive, too random, ...
Fatigue system and mounts made traveling less tedious.
Skill perks.
Regenerating Magicka
Regenerating Magicka (yes, I liked it enough to list it twice. Having to rest to regen, what's up with that?)
Other stuff I can't think of.

I can see where your coming from. I first played morrowind for about 10 hours at which point I got stuck in a wall permentaley and had to create a new character(on Xbox at the time). I didn't touch morrowind for about another month when I finally started again and got into it which was great! I loved exploring and randomly finding stuff, everything was new and exciting

I ended up playing morrowind for about 30 hours before I found out there was a main quest in the game.... So i can understand why you like oblivions quest marker. I toke the package to Cassius Something-rather and dropped it on his floor and nothing happened so I thought the quest was broken. I agree with you on the fast travel bit, of and the Big Bugs are called Stilt Striders.

Also I completely forgot about AI and sneak

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:02 pm

Disagree with you with fatigue and fast travel.
Make fatigue like in Realistic Fatigue mod, and add panting sounds to when you're tired...
and get rid of fast travel completely, or make it optional and add some sort of travel system like in Morrowind.

I stand by my original statement. It does break immersion a bit but I prefer it for gameplay purposes. I would be slightly disappointed if Skyrim were to have draining fatigue when running but its not too important to me.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:27 pm

Things Oblivion did better than Morrowind:

Graphics
Run speed
Animations
Magicka
Spellcasting
AI
Mounts
Sneak

Things Morrowind did better than Oblivion:

Level scaling
Factions
UI
Magic effects
Enchantments
Spells
Amount of items
Weapons
Apparel
Skills
Traveling
Quests
Houses

Sounds about right!

Thanks for the input.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:44 pm

Not having fast travel is a pain in Morrowind. I don't mind walking someplace once but having to trek the same boooooooring terrain from Balmora, to Pelagiad, to Vivec time after time after time after time is about as interesting as watching the grass grow. There's realism and boredom and, believe me, I'd rather break immersion than shatter interest into tiny pieces.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:38 am

Many, many things improved over Morrowind (though you might not know it from some posts).

Obviously Graphics, including Animations. Animations where one of the worst things in Morrowind.

Also lots gameplay improvements like enemies being able to open doors. No alchemy exploits (In Morrowind you can stack intelligence potions for impossibly powerful potions, and can drink unlimited potiosn). Poisons. Improved Stealth and Sneaking. etc

Larger world. More diverse hand created dungeons with interesting architectures and layouts.

Diverse enemies like Will o the Wisp, Land Dreughs. A whole subculture of Goblins.

Much more complex and realistic quests. Most of the Morrowind quests are simply "take me there", "deliver this", "kill this guy" type quests. In Oblivion you there are long mulitstage quests.

Voice acting, though not the best, it adds to the immersion.

Radiant AI. Again not the best, but it results in a much more immersive game than having someone stand in the same place forever. And it leads to interesting, unpredictable and sometimes humorous events, which keeps the game fresh.

Ownable houses.

A lot more I haven't mentioned. Morrowind is a great game. And certainly has some features that are better than Oblivion (like skill requirements to advance in a guild), but frequently, it seems, the improvements tend to get overlooked.

Agreed completely

I always get the feeling people on this forums are more forgiving of Morrowind simply out of nostalgia rather then actual gameplay. The Devs need to know that many of the things they changed in Oblivion were good changed despite people constant [censored]ing. The only thing I really hate in Oblivion is the Level Scaling. Not a perfect game but so be it.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:53 pm

(Unintended) NPC hilariousness.

-Hi!
-Heard any news from the other provinces?
-Nothing Id like to talk about
-I see
-*cough*
-Heard any news from the other provinces?
-They say Daedra worship has become..

Or them just randomly doing crazy things.

I liked that I didnt have to put away my sword to cast a spell.

And I liked the graphics.

And thats it.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:51 am

That reminds me. I prefer the way Morrowind's enchanted items recharged, the way Morrowind's soul gems listed the names of the captured beings, being able to enchant regardless of one's faction in Morrowind, as well as Morrowind's skill trainers. However, specifically, I prefer the way Oblivion's magicka regenerates, use of sigil stones, trainers requiring tasks for training to be available, and the black/white soul distinction in Oblivion.

Yes, bring back named soulgems, think of the fun if you combine them with black soulgems. Remember I collected souls of named monsters.
Ok with no automatic recharge of enchantments, but kind of liked the enchant skill, making enchanted weapons more a mage domain.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:17 pm

If other methods of fast travel were supported in-game as well, then you surely would not have to use the fast travel method, but if like in Oblivion, they were omitted, then you either used fast travel, or walked or ridden there.

And that is not a heck of a choice.

other forms for transport become pretty redundant with fast travel. Yes you could add a coach service at the stables, I guess it already exist multiple mods for it. Select destination from a list, but you could also restrict fast travel to between the cities.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:34 am

Let me add the typical thought. You play on the console and I hate you!!!!

Now that the elitist PC player opinion is out of the way I have to say I love it. If it weren't for mods I know MANY more players would be on the console. Mods are the life jacket of a dying console. Don't get me wrong, I'd play PC too if I were rich and could afford such a machine. Mods are awesome. However mods are the only thing keeping players on the PC, wonder why you don't see a constuction add on for PS3 or 360? There you go!

PC has multiple benefits in addition to mods. Less than one second loading times, game loads in seconds, most pc has enough memory to load most of the dvd to ram. Better graphic, more accurate controls, nice with long range archery or spell casting. Console; nice with ctd if stuck in rocks.
For Bethesda mods has not only kept the Oblivion forum active in four years, Morrowind is still a active game 8 years later, have fun getting it to run on a console unless you buy an old xbox1 on ebay.
Both games had the benefit to Bethesda of requiring a high end computer so many bought it for a console first, then on PC for mods.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:47 pm

In addition to most of the points in the first post, I also prefer the nature, landscape and architecture in Oblivion. That doesn't mean I want Morrowind to look like that. I like both games for what they are, but I personally just prefer the visual style in Oblivion.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:59 pm

There are some things that were absolutely better in Oblivion than in Morrowind, such as what was written in the OP. However, most people don't consider this because Oblivion failed to match Morrowind with a lot of key things that made Morrowind so great.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:33 am

The main thing I like about OB over MW is the fluid gameplay, especially during battle. MW was simple and clunky hold a direction and press the attack button.