vanilla - clunky alchemy system.

modded - spending more time modding than playing

I can see money made by the Mages Guild vendors going to the guild, not any individuals.

This.

It's Morrowind - modding IS playing

Dice roll

The worst thing about Morrowind is that the nymphs from Daggerfall were left out. I ran all over that island in '03 and couldn't find a one, bummer!

Wow, I'd be pretty disappointed too if I traveled all over the entire damn island looking for something from the previous game and couldn't find it. Vvardenfell's pretty big.

Animations.

They are not that bad for a ten year old game.

I disagree. Morrowind's animations were poor even by 2002 standards. One example: Neverwinter Nights, released one month after Morrowind, had far superior animations, including some nice dodging and weaving animations during combat. I'd say even Dungeon Siege, released one month before Morrowind, had better-looking animations. I could go on...

The worst part of Morrowind for me I have to say is the atrocious default movement speed.

It is nightmarish how slow it is. Literally. It feels like one of those dreams where you are trying to run, but can't move. Morrowind's movement speed is awful.

Oh, so RPG's are meant to be tedious and boring?

I did not know that. I thought they, like any genre, were supposed to be engaging and fun.

And let me bring in Deus Ex once again. Far better graphics and animations in combat where enemies duck before firing and run away when mortally wounded. And that game was released two years before Morrowind.

What??? How long since the last time you played that game? Shall I upload a screen cap of what the characters look like in that game? A video showing how they move too?

Played it last fall so I do remember how they looked and how they moved and I still think it′s better than Morrowind considering that game is two years ahead. Vanilla Morrowind faces and bodies are atrocious in comparison imho.

Animations are rather bad.
Combat is hellish.
Sneaking is annoying.
Merchants are difficult to deal with, they have so little cash whereas some of the higher level stuff is worth tens of thousands of drakes.
Beds are awful. How do I know which one I rented?
But the worst thing by far? The journal. I hate the journal. So Cluttered. So disorganised.

Although Morrowind is a very good game, I have to agree here.

What is "tedious and boring?" What is "engaging?" What is "fun?" These are all subjective terms. They have meaning only for you. They do not mean the same thing to you as they mean to me. They do not mean the same thing to me that they mean to someone else in this thread.

For my part, I feel a sense of accomplishment, a sense of progression in Morrowind's combat that I have never felt in Oblivion or Skyrim. In Oblivion and Morrowind we hit our targets at level 1 and we hit our targets at level 50. I feel no sense of accomplishment in that. In Morrowind I feel an exhilarating sense of accomplishment when I begin to hit my target at last. I feel like I've mastered a weapon. I've earned that ability. To me that is what I call engaging. Oblivion and Skyrim hand me that ability to hit right from the beginning, unearned. And, to me, that can be very boring.

I don't feel a sense of accomplishment, because it has nothing to do with anything I did, and everything to do with the game finally deciding that I can hit my target.

I don't feel a sense of accomplishment, I feel a sense of "it's about time I am finally able to do something that I should have been able to do from the beginning"

"Dice roll" combat is about the worst idea ever, it takes the outcome of the situation completely out of the hands of the player and puts it entirely in the hands of the game. That is not a sense of accomplishment, and that is not okay.

As much as I love Morrowind (and trust me, I do, as far as I'm concerned it set the standard of what an RPG should be), and I do understand why dice roll combat exists, the combat in that game is the one reason why it is so hard for me to go back to it, and instead just fire up Oblivion or Skyrim instead. Dice roll combat is an inferior system, and the realistic combat of Oblivion and Skyrim is the best thing to ever happen to the series.

It is in ur hands when u decide which atributes goes where. They overall effect the dicerolls, thats what the dice rolls go off of. Its more also as far as fatigue getting higher chance rather than lower fatigue because really are ya in real life gonna most likely be a badass in most situations when ur about to pass out from being tired and worn out?

I think the formula works great when u think about all the factors that go in and why.

Given the way the system works, I have no problem with Fatigue making you worse as it goes down, and I'd have no problem with Fatigue playing more of a factor in the newer games as well - lower fatigue, you don't do as much damage, etc...

But in a video game - especially one that is a "real time" game like Elder Scrolls instead of a turn based game like Final Fantasy - I hate the very idea of dice rolls and taking control out of the hands of the player. It's one thing if it is a turn based game, and combat consists of nothing more than "click a single button for combat", but in a real time game like Elder Scrolls that does utilize player skill and isn't just a "sit and watch while the game plays itself" like other RPG's, if I get myself in striking distance of my target, if I successfully aim, and I swing, I should hit.

Somehow I feel Morrowind was caught in between the traditional dice-roll point-and-click combat RPGs, and the new player-controlled real-time combat RPGs. If I have learned anything from the world of cars it′s that hybrids are never the best choice.

lol, nice.

I don't want it to be confused with any kind of Morrowind hate, however. I absolutely love that game. It was my favorite game ever until Skyrim came around. And even then, it's still pretty close.

I don't really find the %chance-to-hit to be a problem. It's primarily a function of character planning. If you have (and you should if you're combat oriented) a major combat skill with a bonus (in the 40-45 range) and at least 40 agility, you'll be hitting over 50% right away and probably over 70% before level 5. Make some fortify luck potions and you're at 100% pretty quickly.

BTW: It's not a die roll, it's a skill based chance-to-hit - big difference.

In Morrowind if I'm too low a level, I get killed, or I fail at landing a blow and have to run. If I have the experience, with a little skill it's wrapped up quickly.
In Skyrim or Oblivion, if I'm too low a level all that happens is that I spend 5 minutes pummeling on the guy.

I wont say ones better than the other, but Morrowind's system needs better presentation/animations to show what's happening, where with Skyrim taking the aRPG route, it's no better if you ask me. It's another work in progress system. It can't hold a candle to combat in other aRPGs like Dark Souls, The Witcher 2 or even an oldie like Dark Messiah. Combat has always been a weak point.

I do like character based combat for a game like TES myself, even though I greatly enjoy other aRPGs.
Chance based systems are not obsolete if there are people who enjoy them. Games are not meant to simulate life; they're meant to be fun.