Now, I'm not a person who usually judges harshly. I like to try to experience things from all sides and see things from different points of view.

What I'm seeing is that usually people rather like Oblivion better, or like Morrowind better.

I happen to have both, but Morrowind... never took off for me. I don't know what it was but after two hours of playing I turned it off and never really went back.

The first experience was walking into a cave where somebody talked about a bandit and said that somebody should do something, I went in, and I got killed within 50 seconds. I couldn't block, and my attacks missed most of the time. It was pretty off-putting.

So, I started again and wandered around for a bit and started the main quest a little, and then I decided to go to Vivec City. Immediately I was lost, this game lacked a compass to tell me which way was up. I've been stuck on the second level of the city for a few minutes and I was thinking "Okay, just got to find a way down."

Well, about an hour later I still couldn't find a way down and when I went in the sewers some random Orc killed me for looking at him wrong.

I sighed, loaded up the game and started looking around for a way down. Couldn't find one.

The whole magic system confused me, my bow was... ineffective, at best, and I kept hearing an annoying wolf-ish "Ooooooh" from nowhere, and I don't even have Bloodmoon.

I still experienced most of the features people talked about loving. It's just Morrowind was too aggravating and confusing for me, I couldn't remember how to switch/cast magic so I didn't even try using that.

I'm willing to give it a second try, but the game confused me beyond no end. Should I just let this one slide or try it out again. I just don't see how everybody calls it enveloping and enthralling when I tried to deal with it but couldn't stand how slow-paced but most of all, uneventful it felt; and I'm a person who reads, draws, and meditates from time to time. Which anybody who does them knows, are usually pretty time-consuming, uneventful, and slow-paced.

I don't mean to offend anybody by saying all of this, I'm just confused how so many call Morrowind a great game. And I'm actually willing to listen and I'll try it again, I'm not just ranting.

I think the biggest thing was that in Morrowind, each town was different. The architecture of each town was unique and awesome. Cyrodiil was just so dull, every city looked the same except each had a different layout and different colors.

There are more, but that's the biggest thing. The environments in Morrowind were a bit lacking, but the towns were so great that it made up for it.

The hand-place artifact. I hated oblivion for not letting the player get an artifact without the daedric shrine quests.

I miss the hand place artifact as well.

I think you just have to take it really, really slow. This isn't Oblivion where you can just go out of the sewers and immediately run across the map without fear of dying. As you saw, at lower levels it's hard to even hit anything. You're helpless at lower levels as creatures don't level with you and you need to get stronger to survive.

If you haven't yet, you should read http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players.

I guess I should check them out more. :nod: I never did do much sight seeing... if only I can find a way out of Vivec City.






I remember hearing something about that. I found Umbra without a daedric shrine quest though, but I think that's the only exception. I do have to admit, hand-placed artifacts would have been cooler.



I skimmed over it, but I guess a thorough reading is in order... I sound like I'm 50 at the age of 16... ughh...

Anyway, I'll heed your warnings, read that, and also I'll look out for Cliffracers.

I found I could suspend my disbelief better in TESIII than TESIV.

NPCs:
- NPCs in Oblivion were usually well-to-do with no real job other than to wander around a bit in their leveled armor.
- NPCs in TESIII came from all walks of life, with distinct characteristics based on class (clothing quality) and knowledge (possible dialog of events), and occupations.

Landscape:
- TESIV's terrain features were sadly lacking. There was one spot that was my favorite to gather those lilly pad blossom thingies - a series of three pools dumping into each other via waterfalls. Most of the country-side, apart from ruins and caves, consisted of rolling hills, sparse tree cover, and billboard rhododendrons. A few places, near the mountains, had interesting steep paths and rope bridges. I have a hard time believing such a supposedly large area as an entire province could have such homogeneous landscape features. In Oblivion, the differences in regions was left to "gold grass" for Colovia, "snowy grass" for the northern mountains, and "green grass" everywhere else.
- In contrast, Vvardenfell exhibited a changing, distinct, varied landscape suitable for its size. Swamp, marsh, grazeland, high mountains, deep ravines, calderas, foyandas (lava flow canyons), rocky plateaus, flat beaches, pools of water, lakes, small waterways and rivers... I recall distinctly Azura's coast, the Bitter Coast, the Ashlands, the Ascadian Isles.

And that's just the start of a long laundry list.

I had fun exploring Cyrodiil, and I certainly made my adventure long and drawn out as I leveled my character primarily through hunting deer and bandits. I traversed the map completely at least five times, probably more. I saw it all and did it all and I put the game away.

There are still great swathes of cells I have yet to explore in TESIII, and the mutually exclusive guilds ensure that I can't do everything with a single character.

This thread has gone rather badly off topic. Some posts are going away. This is not the place for dissertations on the subject of whether you think Oblivion is a good game or not. The OP wanted to hear what members liked about Morrowind in comparison to Oblivion. Not to extol or bash Oblivion at excessive length.

Morrowind plays a lot different from Oblivion. Oblivion has pervasive level scaling, allowing you to go just about anywhere at a low level and stand a good chance of fighting your way out of trouble. Morrowind has some level scaling, but you are going to get your :spotted owl: kicked if you wander into places you aren't told it's suitable to go early in the game.

In Morrowind, talk to everybody, especially early in the game. If NPCs tell you it's worthwhile, or dangerous, to go somewhere early on, they're usually telling the truth. Also, you had better be prepared to defend yourself from the first day off the boat. Your first order of business should be to secure a weapon or destructive spells that you have some skill at. The leading cause of death among released prisoners is attempting to defend themselves with a weapon they are unskilled with.

What I like about Morrowind is that you "sure be a stranger, and in a strange land." It's no longer state of the art, but it doesn't insult your eyes, either, and its shortcomings are made up by the atmosphere and the stories that play out in the game. And I hope you got the GOTY edition, because I still believe Bloodmoon is Bethesda's best work (and the best werewolf RPG, period).

I enjoy Morrowind's richness of lore..the political intrigue. The conflicting guild obligations..the fact you couldn't do everything or be everything with any one character, and you had to play at least three times to experience every quest.

I liked that you could actually feel really weak, or really strong depending on your experience and gear. I like that you actually had to explore to find things, and there were many, many things that were far off the beaten path and not a part of any quest.

I liked the sheer variety of dialogue (screw voice acting. I enjoyed the content) I liked the sheer variety of EVERYTHING. So many more weapon and armor types, and clothing types, and unique architecture in every town.

Morrowind felt like a real world. You knew you were playing a game, but it wasn't so..... look I love Oblivion to death but after you beat it a time or two, it's almost like you can see the game mechanics working behind the scenes. But with Morrowind I never lose that sense of immersion.

Try coming back to it. There are many stories I've heard from people who say their first Morrowind experience was terrible, but after coming back to it a few months or even over a year later, they say it just felt right and they got into it and never looked back.

You probably had low skills and related attributes. Keep this in mind; A skill has a cap when you are making a character. It is limited by what category it is in (misc, minor, and major in ascending order) and by its governing attribute (it can not be higher than its governing attribute). What one should do if they wish to have a higher skill is to put their most important skills into Major and then set their two primary attributes (it gives a bonus to the selected attributes, which also gives a bonus to your governed skills and raises the cap as well) to the ones that govern those major skills. Essentially, pick skills that usually share a major attribute and then put your preferred attributes as the ones that govern those. You can start out with upwards of 65+ in a skill, which allows around a 2/3 chance of success in hitting an enemy. Combine this with well chosen star signs (although not nearly as important) and you can have some very large skills and attributes early on. I love making 70 Speed Khajiit thieves under the steed sign.

Look at your minimap. See the arrow in the middle? That is you and which way you are pointing. If it is pointing up, you are looking north, down is south, etc. It is both a compass AND a topographical math.

Hehe, we've all been on the receiving end of that maniac. Its part of discovering the game and all the surprises that come with it.

On the Xbox the button to switch to magic is Y. I don't recall what it is on the PC. Press attack to cast. To switch magic, open the menu, go over to a screen that looks like a list of things. Those are your spells, powers, and castable enchantments and scrolls. Select one and close the menu to start casting! Alternatively,, on the xbox (there is a control on the PC also, still don't remember), press and hold Y and then press R or L to cycle through spells (if my memory serves me right, that is).

The magic in the Morrowind usually is in the small things, definitely. Finding a rusty dagger that looks like a piece of junk, only to become a powerful artifact later. Taking a gem and getting beat down by a daedra bound to it to protect it. Talking guar....the list goes on.

Perhaps with my aid you can play it effectively and see for yourself!

I guess I'll try it out again, and I'll get Bloodmoon/Tribunal if I like it this time around. :nod: Thanks.


I see your point(s).

I'm thinking of some ways I can cope with the frustration quite easily. Including if I get a house mod (if there's such a thing for Morrowind, I've never looked at Morrowind mods).



I do think that learning my way around a city is usually 100x more fun than pulling out a map and going "Okay, this is where I need to go.". In most games I usually prefer not to take out my map (I know the Temple District, Market District, Waterfront, Anvil, Bruma, Bravil, and many of the settlements like the back of my hand.), I guess I was just in sort-of a rush to get everything done at once.

But I think you've all helped me a lot, and tomorrow I'll give it a try again. (I'm on the East Coast, so It's 10:43 PM)

:D Thanks everybody!

Don't forget about your paper map (hopefully your copy came with one). It provides hordes of information, even giving you dungeon locations and all that. Just look closely for small caves on the side of mountains and hills on the map. You'll know when you see them.

Anyways, I'm happy I could help.

There where things I liked about both, but since this is Morrowind compared to Oblivion I shall do that.

For me Morrowind was like a book, it was like I was reading through and just could wait to get to the next part...so maybe I should say it was like a good book, with a beat up cover, some of the mechanics where off but I looked past that because I loved the game.

Oblivion on the other hand was like a decent book with a really shiny cover...that happend to be the sequel to the first book. It was good but after about 3 quests you knew what was going to happen in the end. I've only finished ob's main quest 1 because I think they took the depth out of it in comparison to Morrowind, which had an awesome main quest.

Thats the way I see it, that and I don't play either of them vanila any more.

Ghost

I prefer Morrowind to Oblivion in only two ways:

1. Morrowind's writing/dialogue/lore is really damn good. Oblivion's is like baby talk.

2. Morrowind has only occasional, limited level scaling. Oblivion has BLANKET level scaling.

Oblivion is better than Morrowind in a whole host of other ways. Fighting mechanics, magic mechanics, stealth mechanics, draw distance, graphics, NPC schedules, size of the world.

But those two flaws are SO big that they really overwhelm everything else. They are two ridiculously bad decisions that make Oblivion a pretty much worthless game to me.

OOO solves the level scaling problem, but nothing solves the baby talk.

Woooh I hate Morrowind because if I want to enjoy playing it I have to use tremendous amounts of imagination !!!

That amount is beyond my power I just couldn't get into it and I tried 2-3 times!!!

Graphics,fighting...I even had to imagine that I am fighting with somebody !!! (yeah it's that much lame)

I am sorry If I offended some of the Morrowind's really devoted fans.

Forgive me...

At least it's a talk,and you can hear someone talking.And you don't have to read what character "says".

Ah, thanks, I didn't notice that before. I don't know if I'll play with or without using the map. I'll see how it goes without it, and if I get stuck I'll look it up.

Thanks again.



Mhm, a lot of people seem to be saying that Morrowind's more detailed. It kind of felt like a story-book setting too, so did Oblivion, but more-so Morrowind. I live where it snows, and when the summers get hot and sometimes the ground's so dry it cracks, so the whole environment was pretty "normal" to me because I've got everything around me from Pine Trees, to Weeping Willows, to Apple Trees, to different kinds of grasses and tons of different flora and fauna. It was like walking outside and into the woods and finding Imperical City, lol.

And you could join the guard in Morrowind, which I find to be a big plus.



I think I'd like to figure out what happened in Morrowind too, just as a Story that preludes my characters I've become so attached to.


Well, I'm pretty hyped about playing it again tomorrow, but I can see where you're coming from. I'm going to try to look past it, maybe there are some good graphics enhancing mods to help me convert from Oblivion more smoothly.

We'll see tomorrow. But thanks for your opinion.
(And I prefer the voice-acting too. :nod:)

I'm lazy again so I'll just borrow a segment of my post from http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=1066840&view=findpost&p=15526775:

In Morrowind, you felt as if you were a part of the world - a dynamic, changing world. A world with a scope and scale far beyond your own actions. For instance, even when you weren't running an errand for a Great House, you could still feel its presence in the world, and witness the ways in which its actions, both past and present, have affected the setting of the game. Basically, it felt as if things were going on in the background that were completely detached from you. Ancient Dunmer customs you could not partake in, powerful factions and social elite you were detached from, and you felt the need to adapt to survive in a province where the rules were set down by those long before you. In Oblivion it feels as if everything that is there in the world was placed by the developers solely for your own entertainment and not to reinforce any sort of immersion.

Morrowind basically feels like the real world, in that you cannot do everything or affect everything, whilst Oblivion feels like a science experiment, where you have control over all the variables and there's nothing beyond them. Oblivion is just too consistent, too predictable, too tame.

I know that I am going to get flak for this, but I can't honestly say that oblivion has better graphics, shinier and prettier yes, but better I say no. I don't think they suit the game (that and I almost hate looking at the characters, they all look so similar) they're almost cartoonish if you ask me, I know beth was trying to make it open to a winder crowed but I think they took the girt out of the graphics and that for me makes them worse then Morrowinds for me.

Ghost

p.s. sorry if that was a little off topic, but I felt I need to voice that (I'm not a morrowind fan boy, I still play oblivion, I just think it has flaws)

One thing that you will love about morrowind is the enchanting. You can enchant more than 1 effect on a piece of armor, and you can even enchant a weapon that will summon a creature when equipted!!!

Erm...


At the same time, Morrowind's NPCs mostly stay in the same spot. I'm sure they might be more unique than Oblivion's NPCs, but it seems strange that you say Oblivion's NPCs have no job to wander around everywhere, when many NPCs in Morrowind do barely anything at all. With regards to that aspect, Oblivion could arguably be better at the believability of NPCs, and Morrowind better at the uniqueness and culture of NPCs.
But then again, I haven't played Morrowind yet, so this is rather pointless.

:nod:

Some great immersion would be nice. People saying more than "You're the Champion of Cyrodiil!" and "Mudcrabs, what's the point?" when you talk to them.



Well, if you see the FaceGen program there's a option that goes from "Average" To "Attractive" To "Typical" To "Caricature" to "Monster". I think they slid it more towards "Typical"


Oooh, I never heard of those before. I could have a permanently summoned sidekick to help me on my adventures.
Thanks.

To everybody:

Alas, I shall venture to the land of dreams to awaken for another day of school.

See you guys! And thanks for all the helpful advice/tips/descriptions.

Some things just can't change.......

Devoted fans are devoted fans,they won't accept one single fact that goes against their game to whom they are devoted....if you know what i mean.

And there is a lot of devoted fans here especially Morrowind's......it becomes annoying and very lame if you ask me ...

I'm getting out of here !!!

Oh you know what I mean.

Morrowind fans have admitted several positive things about Oblivion. You have not admitted one positive thing about Morrowind. I have to conclude that you really didn't give Morrowind a chance and don't know what you're talking about