Today’s game is Morrowind. I wanted to try mixing things up a little and had gotten this last december so i decided to dick around for a bit in it. I ended up being a little surprised by how much i enjoyed all the reading it needs. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s incredibly tedious and annoying sometimes, but it comes with satisfaction upon finding your way around with the journal and having to navigate in an almost realistic manner.
I ended up reusing my Daggerfall character Nazita for it, even though with the timeline it doesn’t really work timeline wise. I made her a Rogue, though i’m not a fan of daggers so i’ve been training the longsword skill so i can use those instead in combat.
Speaking of the combat, I can’t say i’m a fan. Maybe there’s something i’m missing but it’s definitely a lacking point of it. I just find myself jabbing at the enemies until either one of us drop dead.
Graphically though? I find it to be really pretty. I really like the water especially. I’m not sure what comes from OpenMW and what comes from base Morrowind, bur at a core level i think it’s pretty.
I ended up just walking all the way to Gnisis to join the Empire and got the quest where you have too get the land deed. I ended up just stopping there though after heading into the mine and then turning back. I thought i had to go there to handle the Land deed morally, but apparently not.
Overall i think if i have to pick an Elderscrolls game that’s got overwhelming depth to it while still controlling a little weirdly, i’d have to pick Daggerfall. I still think Morrowind has a lot going on for it that i love but i think i prefer how Daggerfall looks, plays, and sounds.
Omg, the water is so cool in Morrowind, at the time I bought a brand new GeForce 3 & it was the only card that had the shaders for the water!
Good times.
I also have a soft spot for it’s rpg fight mechanics, I’m not saying they are great, but it’s a certain charm & perhaps era (few years) specific nostalgia.
I’m also currently playing with OpenMW for the first time - it’s such an amazing project (also almost/basically finished).
The water really is pretty. It’s got the same quality that makes me love Ocarina of Time’s Water.
I can get home people love the combat, even if it’s not for me, all that depth and RPG like qualities makes it interesting
Yes!!
And oh no, I didn’t say I love the combat (maybe a bit at higher levels, but then again you can be kinda op at very low levels as well), it’s not a strength of the game, but that it’s still “interesting” to me might be the right word for it. Kinda like pumping skill into a slot machine (& it’s actually working).
Fun memory of mine from playing Morrowind when it first came out…
#1 was having a printed map that came in the game box that got used A LOT. No directional aids in game, and a quest giver would give you directions to a place like going to a southerner’s cousin’s house before GPS (“go west out of town along the river road, you will pass 2 dwemer ruins on your right and there will be a small path breaking off to the right. Follow that until you see the strange statue and look for a cave entrance to your west.” Yea, I needed that printed map and I basically wore it out playing the game).
#2 early on in the main story, the quest giver tells you he needs to look into some information and asks you to come back and check in “after 2 moons have passed”. Well, having been forced to read the book “walk 2 moons” in school recently at that point and having my teacher explain that “a moon” was a month because of moon cycles… I was shocked this quest giver wants me to wait TWO BLOODY MONTHS to continue the main story quests… I get to looking and sure enough there is a whole ass calendar system in Morrowind, so I tried to write down what month it was and wait to see when 2 months had passed… I became the top dog for the mages guild, fighters guild, thieves guild, etc… Explored basically the entire continent. Come back to him and continue the quest but now I’m powered up to fight a god on basically day 4 of the main story. I find out after this that the guy wanted me to wait two nights. TWO NIGHTS. not TWO MONTHS. TWO FUCKING NIGHTS. As in he meant “see the moon twice” not see it go through it’s entire fucking cycle twice. I never even tried talking to him for 2 entire fucking in-game months.
I should go back and replay Morrowind…
I’ve been using an Online map to navigate. It’s how I got to Gnisis. It was a fun experience, even if I did miss fast travel.
when I was younger I could totally see myself thinking a moon meant a whole moon cycle.
No quick travel?
Are you saying your recall spell doesn’t get you back to the Balmora mage’s guild YOU N’WAH!
Also there’s a bugbus to Gnisis.
Damn. If I had known about the bugs going there I would have just taken that
Why walk when you can ride?
I love that first screenshot. Sometimes possible ads for his service still pop into my head:
“While not everyone can spend every waking minute with a flea the size of an elephant, you can experience my joy for just a small fee.”
“Not encountering enough nightmare fuel during your arduous journey through the wilderness?! Why not experience a relaxing ride to your destination, with ample nightmare fuel right below your saddle?!”
Edit: One more!
“Sure, you could pay me to lead this montrosity out of your sight. But consider - if you sit down right on it’s back, you’ll be the only one who never has to look at it!”
I started the original Oblivion not long ago, been playing for some tens of hours. First time experiencing the Elder Scrolls, it’s an interesting game with quite some depth. I got turned into a vampire and am doing a vampire quest and it’s a bit tedious with not being able to stay in the sunlight but other than that it’s a good game.
Oblivion doesn’t feel too far from modern game mechanics, but what about morrowind?
Morrowind is practically exactly in the middle between Daggerfall and Oblivion, in terms of mechanics complexity. May elements are “dumbed down”, but many remain as complex (if changed). Oblivion “dumbs down” a couple of extra elements, but nothing as drastic as Skyrim.
The combat makes more sense if you custom class and put your preferred weapon skill into Major. And keep stamina high. A Redguard with Longblade and the appropriate weapon can kill a mudcrab in two seconds at level 1. You ideally want to start with your main combat skill over 40, if not 50-60. The best part: you don’t need to min-max since the level scaling is minimal. Just pick your favorite armor type/weapon in Major and the rest can be whatever you want.
The game does NOT make that all clear, unfortunately. It took me a few tries to wrap my head around it before falling in love with the game.
I might try that after starting over then (or see if there’s a console command to let me redo the class selection so i don’t have to start over)
The shot reminded me of Elder Scrolls Online at first, and I had that very real PTSD twinge that made my stomach lurch.
When I was going through the worst part of my life, losing everything, burying my family and pets, closing down my business and having my home foreclosed due to family medical issues, I played Elder Scrolls for a couple years for no other reason than to spend time with other people, including someone I cared about a lot. I hated the game, it was exciting for the first couple hours until I realized how far it deviated from the actual franchise and how limited the gameplay really was, how everything was just a funnel towards premium content and skins.
I drank like a fish and laid in trash watching my life fall apart as I sat in Elder Scrolls listening to people chatter and watching them duel, because I didn’t want to be alone because I didn’t trust myself to be alone.
I did start over and everything is a lot better now, but holy shit, that game ruined Morrowind, Skyrim and the entire game world for me.
I’m glad you’re doing better! I notice it’s a reoccurring theme for people to go through stuff like that with MMOs.
My best friend went through the same thing with ESO and FFXIV because he felt alone and wanted to connect with people. He had spent roughly 400$ on FFXIV subscriptions alone until he got better, so I know how rough it can be.
But yeah, I have mixed feelings on ESO, and FFXIV while we’re on the subject. I had fun, but damn with how much money they try to siphon from the player it makes me not want to touch them and kind of cheapens the experience for me
Someone said it best describing Destiny 2, that it’s a perpetual feeling of building towards something that’s always just around the corner, but when you get around that corner, it’s just more grinding and pushing premium content, just around the corner. It’s gonna huge bro, I promise. Big stuff coming. Just ahead, just buy one more season bro.
I notice it’s a reoccurring theme for people to go through stuff like that with MMOs.
I think we all have our check-out bottom we will fall to when life hurts too much, some people will just rot in bed and some will watch old movies and some will camp in the woods. We have breaking points in life, and sometimes an online game where people seem to be having normal lives just feels like being someone still connected to the world. When I was little and my parents would go on week-long drug benders and spend the whole time screaming at each other, I would check out into comics and books, so it’s probably where I learned how to do it inadvertently.
Speaking of the combat, I can’t say i’m a fan. Maybe there’s something i’m missing but it’s definitely a lacking point of it. I just find myself jabbing at the enemies until either one of us drop dead.
One thing that’s perhaps not obvious from today’s viewpoint, is that stamina affects your hit chance quite a bit.
It is also a good idea to be rather skilled in your weapon of choice.
And of course, the real pro tip is to install a mod which changes the hit feedback. 😅
I just didn’t like hit chance being a thing in a first person melee game. At all. If my sword connects with the enemy then it should be a hit. When the game decides to roll a miss it makes the game feel broken. It’s like clicking an icon on your computer and it not opening up. Then you click again and it opens. If it’s just randomly not opening it feels broken and unreliable!
Yeah, then you should get a mod for that. I can absolutely understand your qualm. Morrowind came out in an era when RPGs were still computerized DnD, and that’s a design decision which aged particularly poorly.
Admittedly, it was also perhaps just a bad design decision in general. In DnD, you don’t either roll a dice for each sword hit. Nor are you able to miss an enemy from just not being near enough. At the very least, they could’ve played a different sound, if your sword connects, but does no damage.
It’s really critical for me, to have it feel good.
Daggerfall also had this issue with missing but you could get your accuracy up a lot more easily and then you’d hit pretty much every time. The graphics of Daggerfall are of course much less advanced than Morrowind but the “thwack” sounds in DF feel chunkier and heavier, and the simple animations have an abruptness to them that really works for the game. It’s quite strange but combat just feels better to me in Daggerfall than Morrowind.
Of course Morrowind has the far better atmosphere, music, worldbuilding, exploration and all that. DF has the truly gargantuan dungeons though!
Stamina is the green bar, right? I had actually read about that after doing a surface level reading into the combat, I’m just not really sure how to incorporate that into the combat if it makes sense, as I believe it drops with attacks.
I’ll try getting my weapon skills up to help though, and maybe the mod too lmao.
You could always make stamina recovery potions for combat with basic food items and greatly increase your effectiveness. If you sprint everywhere and have zero stamina before a fight you won’t hit shit but potions or scrolls like argent glow can really change that.
Yeah, it is the green bar. And yes, it drops from attacking.
As has already been said, stamina potions are often quite worth it. But it also helps, if you switch to walking for approaching an enemy, for example (instead of running). If you’re sprinting across the landscape and get ambushed unexpectedly, then yeah, the game punishes you for being exhausted.
In general, Morrowind is much more roleplay than the later parts. You can optimize the fun out, by waiting around until your stamina recovers, every so often. But the game gives you enough opportunities to become filthy rich and overpowered, so that you shouldn’t need it.
I misread game as grave. I was worried there for a second.
Combat in Morrowind: *whoop* *whoop* *whoop* *whoop* AH!!! *whoop* AH!!! *whoop* *whoop* *whoop*
Fucking love this game. 10/10
Maybe there’s something i’m missing
Yeah, you’re missing a lot. That’s the big problem with the combat system =P
BTW, you might enjoy this.
Definitely enjoyed that relic. I stopped and checked the date and had to do a quick check because I was thinking “Oh. Six years ago? That was like what, 2012? 2013?”. Nope. 2020. I feel ancient
Good news is that Young Scrolls is still going strong. Better than ever, even. The Dark Brotherhood album from a few months ago is just incredible.
Fucking love Young Scrolls!
Welcome to Morrowind, outlander.
Why walk when you can ride?
Hottest pick-up line imaginable tbh
Morrowind is probably one of my favorites, but it definitely has not aged well. Going the mage route with custom spells can absolutely make you overpowered though. A single Damage Strength spell can cripple most enemies, as they become over encumbered by their few items in inventory.
The magic was what made me initially interested. I hear people talking about how utterly broken it is with very little restraints and it made me want to try it
Climb aboard. We’ll make a special trip, just for you.
Same low pric… (the end of that line always seems cut off to me).
It is
