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Morrowind
YesNoMu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, fine, no crazy acronym:
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
So, on the advice of some forumers here, I picked up Morrowind for cheap off Ebay. Damn, it's fun. Let's look at why:
The Plot:
Ehh, not so much, really. The main quest of the game is so far not terribly interesting, and is wholly unnecessary for your enjoyment of the game. Note! I have received advice suggesting not to badmouth the plot until I get further. This warning is duly noted. You're a prisoner, released by personal order of the Emperor into the island of Vvardenfell, in the eastern province of Morrowind. You have access to the small frozen island Solstheim to the west (which is a terrible place, as every NPC will be happy to tell you) in the expansion Bloodmoon.
You are here. And there, too, if you shell out more cash.
(Why isn't the game called Vvardenfell? Morrowind rolls off the tongue much nicer. See: Oblivion, rather than Cyrodiil) You're the newest member of the Blades, the Emperor's Secret Service, and are sent to investigate rumors of [very light spoilers start here] ancient evils stirring in Vvardenfell's central volcano, the long-lost Sixth Ruling House rising again, and an ancient prophecy of the coming messiah of the native Dunmer (Dark Elves). Along the way, you begin to suspect that-- GASP! You're not just some random criminal the Emperor picked out of a hat! No wai! Didn't see that coming! :P
Anyway, the plot isn't very important. Skip it entirely if you like, and let's get to the real points of the game: Your character, and the world.
The Character:
One possible warrior, out of hundreds.
Here we go. You have an unprecedented (though easily surpassed by Oblivion) amount of control over your character's appearance, class and role. You can play as either sex of any of the game's seven races and choose from several faces and hair types (and many more with mods). Then you define your class, either through a barrage of moral questions to pick the class most suited to your alignment; picking straight from a list; or defining your own by picking the skills that you favor.
My character is a Bosmer (Wood-elf) Assassin, skilled with the bow and shortblade. I pick locks for a living, and will steal anything that's currently unsupervised and has a good value-to-weight ratio (At least 4:1 for optimal loot). This has served me rather well: I'm over 5000 septims at the moment, and I estimate an honest character would have under a tenth of that. Of course, my Thieves' Guild missions have taken players' rampant kleptomania into account when picking quest rewards.
So, fantastic. But a custom hero's nothing without a world to loo-- er, save. Which brings us to:
The World:
Two of the many, many places you can explore. On the left is my current home turf, Balmora.
The world of Vvardenfell is without a doubt the reason you've signed up. At over 6 square miles of hand-rendered terrain (the random generation of Daggerfall was criticized as too repetitive), Vvardenfell takes hours to walk across by foot. (Your walking speed is really slow, which helps) On this island, you will find ancient, abandoned ruins; massive cities holding hundreds of NPCs; deep lakes; twisted, blackened fields; and one big honkin' volcano. I've been playing the game for three days now, and have been to maybe 1/20 of the world map. This even isn't counting the vast caverns dotting the map, only one of which I've really explored at the moment. There is so much to see, it overwhelms the imagination.
But size is nothing without detail. And this is Morrowind's crowning achievement: Every square foot of the game world is packed with it. From the hundreds of unique items; to the thousands of NPCs, many with a name and unique things to say; to the ~300 books (of which many give a stat boost, cleverly encouraging you to be lost in the imagined history of the world), it seems impossible that anyone could see everything there is in the game. With all this detail, Morrowind seems like a real world that you visit (and more importantly rob blind), not contained on a disc and loaded onto your computer. This game blows me away, and I can see myself spending many hours within.
The Mods:
One of the things I like most about the game is the ease with which you can mod it. Here's a partial list of my mods, all of which can be found here. To download, you unfortunately have to sign up with fileplanet, sorry about that.
-Better Bodies, Better Heads, Better Beasts: Probably my favorite mods so far. They replace all the fugly original character models with sleek new ones. This makes the game look so much nicer, it isn't funny.
-Marksman: Makes long range combat better. Raises the hit rate to a more acceptable level (not acceptable, but closer), and adds badass ranged weapons all over the world. I wanted it as an archer, you might not.
-Morrowind Comes Alive: Adds around a thousand NPCs to the world, some of which can be persuaded to join you on your quest. Some funny ones, too: I met "Eowyn" on the balcony of the Vivec Foreign Quarter. I can't imagine playing without this mod.
-GIANTS: Adds a variety of enemies to the world. Not sure if I've met any yet, they seem to be really strong ones for the later game.
-Animal Realism: Yay for semi-realistic animals! Yes, now wildlife in Vvardenfell mostly obeys "live and let live." If you don't attack them, they won't bother you. Some exceptions, including the *nix-hounds (way too easy to make that joke) and everyone's favorite pterodactyl: the cliff racer. Makes the world a bit less annoying and a bit more realistic.
-Cait's Creatures: Adds farm animals for that extra dose of realism. I'd download the Wilderness mod, which has even more types, but I've heard bad things about the quality of the models. Cait's look ace.
-Where Have All the Birds Gone: Adds birds. Pretty self-explanatory. Adds some more life to the world.
-Water Life: Like Birds, but underwater. I laughed when I noticed a group of Regal Tangs.
-Leveled List Merger: Syncs all of your mods so that their leveled lists (scripts based on your level) are aligned. Just makes extra sure all the mods are compatible.
That's all I got for now. I'm runnning some more, like a couple of werewolf mods for realism and some inventory icon changes, but this list is a good set of mods to totally revitalize the game. Well worth checking out.
More to come later, like shots of my character in my awesome looted Dark Brotherhood outfit and Exquisite Robe. For now: more images!
On the left: Morrowind has spectacular atmospheric effects. Right: BEARS! This shot's from Bloodmoon.
Left: A peaceful pastoral community. About to be burgled so hard, they'll wake up with kidneys missing. Right: A silt strider, one of the best ways to get around Vvardenfell quickly. No, you can't buy strider armor. Sorry.
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
So, on the advice of some forumers here, I picked up Morrowind for cheap off Ebay. Damn, it's fun. Let's look at why:
The Plot:
Ehh, not so much, really. The main quest of the game is so far not terribly interesting, and is wholly unnecessary for your enjoyment of the game. Note! I have received advice suggesting not to badmouth the plot until I get further. This warning is duly noted. You're a prisoner, released by personal order of the Emperor into the island of Vvardenfell, in the eastern province of Morrowind. You have access to the small frozen island Solstheim to the west (which is a terrible place, as every NPC will be happy to tell you) in the expansion Bloodmoon.
You are here. And there, too, if you shell out more cash.
(Why isn't the game called Vvardenfell? Morrowind rolls off the tongue much nicer. See: Oblivion, rather than Cyrodiil) You're the newest member of the Blades, the Emperor's Secret Service, and are sent to investigate rumors of [very light spoilers start here] ancient evils stirring in Vvardenfell's central volcano, the long-lost Sixth Ruling House rising again, and an ancient prophecy of the coming messiah of the native Dunmer (Dark Elves). Along the way, you begin to suspect that-- GASP! You're not just some random criminal the Emperor picked out of a hat! No wai! Didn't see that coming! :P
Anyway, the plot isn't very important. Skip it entirely if you like, and let's get to the real points of the game: Your character, and the world.
The Character:
One possible warrior, out of hundreds.
Here we go. You have an unprecedented (though easily surpassed by Oblivion) amount of control over your character's appearance, class and role. You can play as either sex of any of the game's seven races and choose from several faces and hair types (and many more with mods). Then you define your class, either through a barrage of moral questions to pick the class most suited to your alignment; picking straight from a list; or defining your own by picking the skills that you favor.
My character is a Bosmer (Wood-elf) Assassin, skilled with the bow and shortblade. I pick locks for a living, and will steal anything that's currently unsupervised and has a good value-to-weight ratio (At least 4:1 for optimal loot). This has served me rather well: I'm over 5000 septims at the moment, and I estimate an honest character would have under a tenth of that. Of course, my Thieves' Guild missions have taken players' rampant kleptomania into account when picking quest rewards.
So, fantastic. But a custom hero's nothing without a world to loo-- er, save. Which brings us to:
The World:
Two of the many, many places you can explore. On the left is my current home turf, Balmora.
The world of Vvardenfell is without a doubt the reason you've signed up. At over 6 square miles of hand-rendered terrain (the random generation of Daggerfall was criticized as too repetitive), Vvardenfell takes hours to walk across by foot. (Your walking speed is really slow, which helps) On this island, you will find ancient, abandoned ruins; massive cities holding hundreds of NPCs; deep lakes; twisted, blackened fields; and one big honkin' volcano. I've been playing the game for three days now, and have been to maybe 1/20 of the world map. This even isn't counting the vast caverns dotting the map, only one of which I've really explored at the moment. There is so much to see, it overwhelms the imagination.
But size is nothing without detail. And this is Morrowind's crowning achievement: Every square foot of the game world is packed with it. From the hundreds of unique items; to the thousands of NPCs, many with a name and unique things to say; to the ~300 books (of which many give a stat boost, cleverly encouraging you to be lost in the imagined history of the world), it seems impossible that anyone could see everything there is in the game. With all this detail, Morrowind seems like a real world that you visit (and more importantly rob blind), not contained on a disc and loaded onto your computer. This game blows me away, and I can see myself spending many hours within.
The Mods:
One of the things I like most about the game is the ease with which you can mod it. Here's a partial list of my mods, all of which can be found here. To download, you unfortunately have to sign up with fileplanet, sorry about that.
-Better Bodies, Better Heads, Better Beasts: Probably my favorite mods so far. They replace all the fugly original character models with sleek new ones. This makes the game look so much nicer, it isn't funny.
-Marksman: Makes long range combat better. Raises the hit rate to a more acceptable level (not acceptable, but closer), and adds badass ranged weapons all over the world. I wanted it as an archer, you might not.
-Morrowind Comes Alive: Adds around a thousand NPCs to the world, some of which can be persuaded to join you on your quest. Some funny ones, too: I met "Eowyn" on the balcony of the Vivec Foreign Quarter. I can't imagine playing without this mod.
-GIANTS: Adds a variety of enemies to the world. Not sure if I've met any yet, they seem to be really strong ones for the later game.
-Animal Realism: Yay for semi-realistic animals! Yes, now wildlife in Vvardenfell mostly obeys "live and let live." If you don't attack them, they won't bother you. Some exceptions, including the *nix-hounds (way too easy to make that joke) and everyone's favorite pterodactyl: the cliff racer. Makes the world a bit less annoying and a bit more realistic.
-Cait's Creatures: Adds farm animals for that extra dose of realism. I'd download the Wilderness mod, which has even more types, but I've heard bad things about the quality of the models. Cait's look ace.
-Where Have All the Birds Gone: Adds birds. Pretty self-explanatory. Adds some more life to the world.
-Water Life: Like Birds, but underwater. I laughed when I noticed a group of Regal Tangs.
-Leveled List Merger: Syncs all of your mods so that their leveled lists (scripts based on your level) are aligned. Just makes extra sure all the mods are compatible.
That's all I got for now. I'm runnning some more, like a couple of werewolf mods for realism and some inventory icon changes, but this list is a good set of mods to totally revitalize the game. Well worth checking out.
More to come later, like shots of my character in my awesome looted Dark Brotherhood outfit and Exquisite Robe. For now: more images!
On the left: Morrowind has spectacular atmospheric effects. Right: BEARS! This shot's from Bloodmoon.
Left: A peaceful pastoral community. About to be burgled so hard, they'll wake up with kidneys missing. Right: A silt strider, one of the best ways to get around Vvardenfell quickly. No, you can't buy strider armor. Sorry.
YesNoMu on
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i want to cast "die in a fire" on him.
(also, i want to play morrowind some time)
Jesus, I thought something in the forums had fucked up and it was some kind of code.
Also, you're making me want to dig up my old Morrowind cd, you bastard.
I wonder how it'd run on a virtual machine....
Sadly, no... But here's a list of what you will get out of Rock Band:
[too much to fit in a sig, thats what]
Sadly, no... But here's a list of what you will get out of Rock Band:
[too much to fit in a sig, thats what]
Oblivion's only true flaw, in my eyes, is how severely they weakened enchantment. Make me have to be the uber-badass-supreme-mofo to make a ring that gives me back 10 health every second, but don't just say "Nope, can't do that". That's retarded.
Sadly, no... But here's a list of what you will get out of Rock Band:
[too much to fit in a sig, thats what]
Oblivion was, I dunno, I just didn't like the gaming world in which it takes place, it reall feels bland and uninspired. Also, I didn't like that the world was smaller then Morrowind (which is supposedly much smaller then Cyrodill, check the map), that it was so empty and there was just nothing to discover outside of the towns, and other thing that added up like the new travel system or the underwhelming combat system (which HAS noticeably improved from Morrorwind though).
If you have a powerful computer, try to find the infinite draw distance mod...which I can't find right now. It's complicated to get running but really neat to see.
http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm
Um, I'm pretty sure Oblivion was quite a bit larger than Morrowind. Fast Travel makes it feel smaller.
I believe someone actually timed it, and it was quite obvious that one would take longer, walking/flying at the same pace, to get across Morrowind's world than Oblivion's. Which means either some scale shifting is going on here, or Cyrodiil is the fabled home of giants.
Godammit, Bethesda.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Jesus fuck, did Fileplanet get even WORSE? I apparently can no longer download a file off a free server.
...Don't suppose one of you fellows has Better Heads and Combat Enhanced and can toss 'em my way so I can actually play this thing?
Does combat enhanced not fix that whole randomly-not-hitting thing that Morrowind has?
:x
LIES
The storyline of the main quest is one of the very best aspects of this game. If you take everything at face value, sure it seems pretty like formulaic "become the hero, kill the bad guy". But if you dig a little deeper into the story, you find that not everything you're being told is the truth.
The beauty of Morrowind's story is that so much of the background history is unreliable. There are so many conflicting accounts and parties who are very interested and willing to say whatever it takes to make you do what they need done.
It's perfect for such an open-ended game, because it lets you interpret the story any way that pleases you:
Are you doing the main quest as an Imperial Agent, hoping to undermine the Tribunal in an effort to expand Imperial authority?
Are you the prophesied reincarnation of an ancient hero, returned to the land to destroy evil?
Are you a pawn of the Tribunal, sent to destroy the last remaining witness of Nerevar's murder?
There are so many ways to look at why your character is doing what he's doing, all supported by different facets of the in-game story.
If you play Morrowind completely ignorant of the story, you're really missing out. Don't play it expecting things like cutscenes, romances, witty banter and good choice/evil choices like a Bioware game. Morrowind has those things, but not in the same way. Instead of giving you your story, it gives the world a story and lets you make up your own.
Take the time to dig a little deeper. Read every piece of information that is given to you in the main quest.
edited for spoilers since OP hasn't played it yet
And I get the message! I'll get further on the main quest before I go criticizing its plot.
Potions!
Also, the OP mentioned that non-sneaky characters wouldn't have 5000 gold yet, but I feel I should mention alchemy: the portal to infinite money and super stacked stats!
edit:
Re: Hambone
What I like about the Morrowind story is that it is the quintessential interactive story. There's a lot of strangeness and neatness going on, but if something below the surface is to be revealed to you, it isn't through its action, but rather through your own action (as opposed to most games where anything important is revealed to you along your set patch etc or in other media where you're told by the author what to know, and you have to search for subtext meanings. Not trying to say this is superior to literature with subtext, I just mean that it's delightfully different than the standard)
Edit2: Also, hooray for subtlety in storytelling.
To work the skill up, just the mortar and pestle, and it is the most important part. Gun for a masters or grandmasters ASAP! The other stuff enhances the potions in different ways. Some vendors will instantly restock, and your potions will be worth more than the two ingredients required, meaning you can buy a ton of mats, make stuff, sell the potions (I ran out of people to sell too eventually), and generate money that way. It's very easily a game-breaking skill which sort of saddens me, but oh well.
My first character in Oblivion was being raped by trolls. Now I underlevel my characters... now theres no loot...
I love Morrowind though. I think I'll play that now instead. I have this one character where I just filled that one guys house in Balmora with awesome loot. And skooma.
Dammit all.
I think this castle was ruled by a woman. All I remember is the size of it - there was literally no space left on the island itself. I think it had a jetty, too.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten