BrinStar

Leme start off by saying I've never done any MMORPG, the whole "Pay to Play" thing felt like an intrusion on my gaming rights. So I've never done Ultima Online or Everquest or any similar OL RPG. If Morrowind is like those, then please forgive my ignorence.


I played Morrowind on PC for about 10 game hours, 2 weeks ago and there was no doubt in my mind that it is the best RPG I've played in years. Its a First Person, sword/magic action oriented RPG. Fully customisable character, you can be anything human or lizard, thief wizard or fighter, good guy or bad guy, Its your character you make him the way you want him.
But the sweet part is, the story and events unfold around you and involve you no matter what alignment you are, so the story is SUPURB even if you are a self titled Assasin.

With over 15+ towns, a HUGE game world island (about the size of the state of Maine. No realy, its about that big and around the same population too), a story that (so far) kicks super arse (starts off simple and seemingly has nothing to do with you, then thrusts you into the limelight of a world you do not belong in), EVERYTHING you see in the world you can pick up (plants can be used to make potions, candles on tables may be swiped to light your way later). The world is REAL.
The cities have laws, the people have personalities and if your a jerk they will hate you, you can create your own customised spells with effects you want (for a price), dungeons, dissesess, its just WOW.



I played it on PC while on vacation and fell in love with the whole everythingness of the game, but my PC could SURELY never run it like it should be run (massiveness). So I decided to try it out on XBOX and see if the controller was equivalent to a mouse/keyboard config. Took me afew hours to get used to it, but once I got the hang of the controlls the XBOX version was preferable to the toned down version my PC would have to run. (The controlls are similar to Halo, afew more buttons to deal with, but the action is slightly slower too, ballance.... mmmmm I like that)

Since the game has an extensive Guild/House mini-quest system you can participate in to train you and your char, you can play literaly days of the game and never get into the primary story, or if you want continue on with the primary quests and push the tale ahead.
After playing it on PC I decided to spend ALOT of time working for the guids (fighters guild, mages guild, and one of the major clan houses) before starting the main storyline. So I've put in 20+ hours of game time, and I'm a level 24 player and I'm only now getting into the thicker main plot. (which can be reached in about 5 hours of play if you realy want to go that fast)


Anyways, this game has literaly rocked my world as far as immersive RPGs. Best thing is, its not online and its not Pay-To-Play, something I thought you HAVE to do in order to have a world as realistic as this. Plus since its single player only, the plotline can be that much more directly about YOU and no one else.

I can rant about this game all night and day.
Anyone else played it? Thoughts?


Heres my stats, about... I cant remember well and I'm away from my BOX.

Level 24
Imperial
Combat Specialty

Str: 72
En: 65
Spd: 43
Wis: 52
Int: 54
Agl: 62
Prs: 58
Luck: 42

Main Skills:
Long Sword
Heavy Armor
Mercantilism
Marksman
Speach
Destruction
Mysticism


I'm doing really well for my level, especialy in my skills. (cant remember the numbers)
Heres a tip for quick and easy leveling up and skill gaining. Kinda cheap tho so I only do it when I REALLY need to up a skill.

1: make merchantilism one of your main skills and work it up to around 45 or 50 (takes some time).
2: find a guild merchant who has lots of gold and teaches the skills you want to improve.
3: sell them one of your more expensive items (armor, good scroll, or just a set of potions) Sell them high, the higher the better.
4: buy back what you just sold, only cheap. The difrence in the prices is the amount of cash your going to make out of the deal.
5: repeat untill the merchant is almost out of cash.
6: spend all that money you just made (riped off) on training the skill you want to improve.
I think the money you spend on training goes back into the merchants pocket for you to rip off all over again. Its leagal, it improves your merchantilism skill, and after training 10 times you gain a level and thats good too.

Dont worry about taking all thier money, if you come back later they will have magicaly regained thier "base" level of cash.


This takes away from the fun of the game a little, but it also lets you build up some of those seemingly imposible to build miscelanious skills.



Anyone else play this?
I give this game a perfect 10A+

timewaster

I liked the game initially and started to get worn down and tired of it due to the scope of the game. Those flying birds were extremely annoying at the end and there is no way to avoid them.
Also alot of the quests involved finding someone to give something to. It got kind of tiring wandering around looking for someone. Even with all these negative comments, I'm still recommending it though.

The Bus

i think it's great and almost feels like playing UO with no PKs around- -- I just cant sit down to play it for 15 minutes that's all, you really need to invest at least 1 hour to get anything done.

BigDave

My wife is playing it right now. She didn't know what she got her self into.

Like several other threads that mention Morrowind, I've said it's a great game. It's not for everybody, but if you want a really in-depth RPG, this will do. I've never played the MMORPG either as my PC isn't really used for games other than the occassional Civilization game.

Here's my character:
Race: Dark Elf
Class: Knight
Sign: The Lady

Level: ~22

I'm a fighter that everybody likes. I just finished becoming the guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild and I think I'm going to go do the Mage's Guild now. I have a feeling that when I'm done doing all of the side-quests that the main quests won't be too hard.

Does anyone know if you can tell how many hours you've played? All I know is that I'm in around Day 150, but that includes lots of resting.

SpacemanSpiff

man, i just upgraded my pc to a athlon xp1800 geforce 4 ti4200, 512mb ddr, and it STILL doesnt run that good, with more settings turned up but still!

doh!

moh:Aa runs amazing though, this pc flies

BrinStar

I think it says in your save game files.
I duno about PC tho.

The XBOX version has a whole window about the save file, Memory blocks used, location, life, day, how long you've been playing.

Check the load game area for info.



I just reached a good point in the main story to stop and go back to the minor quests. I'm close to making fighters guild guild master and same with the mage's guild.
I've got alot of armor that I don't really want to use and is worth a fortune, only problem is I can't find anyone who can aford to buy them from me.
Glass Armor, light, I specialise in heavy so its not much use to me. Worth around 75,000 a piece (roughly).
So I keep the set in a chest in the Balmora fighters guild right now. Any chance that later on there will be merchants that cary that kind of gold?

Kellehair

How's the inventory management in this game. Constantly shuffling and cleaning out my inventory is what turned me off to Baldur's Gate 2.

Thunderball

I've beent rying to play this game for a week now.

I just cannot get into it...at all.

I keep dying in the woods, by little worm creatures

The Bus

Thunderball: You should stick to towns --- you're a gigantic weakling (your character) and until you get a decent weapon and are Level 5 or so there's no reason you should be outside.

I'm level 15 and there's whole areas of the island I still avoid.

That way it keeps the game challenging.

BigDave

I don't think this is a spoiler, but a good technique to sell top-dollar items:

In Caldera there's a manor that has a skamp on the 2nd floor with 5000 gold. He will buy your weapons/armor for full price. Just sell him some stuff under 5000 to build up his inventory. With that you can barter your high-dollar items and then sell back the lesser items to him. Just rest 24 hours to replinish his gold. It takes a while, but it works well.

There's also a mudcrab somewhere on the east coast with 10,000 gold, but I haven't tried to find him yet.

SpacemanSpiff

im baldora getting flowers. in the mage thing, just started the game

woo

Cuman

Great game, I haven't come upon a game in a long time that has sucked up so much of my free time. Big tip for when you can afford to do it. Enchant a bunch of items with spells and stuff that you commonly use. Things like night vision or levitation comes in real handy during the game. It'll make your game life a lot easier. I just enchanted a ring that restores 4 hp every second (I think thats the time) and an amulet that restores 12 fatigue points every second. It'll cost around 150k for those two items, but definately worth the cost.

karnblack

Awsome game with so many things to do. I was just boxing with people and got my hand-to-hand skill up from 5 to 50. I'm a Redguard level 12 custom class. The thing that really sucks is my girlfriend is obsessed with this game so we have to share. I may have to get another Xbox and another copy of this game. Hmmm...$250...it's worth it.

Shawn

How much gold do you guys have? I'm just wondering since I just rented it and only have about 60-70 so far.

- Shawn

BigDave

You're probably going to be pretty poor for awhile, but once you get a few guild quests under your belt, you should start bringing in some money. I have about 150,000 gold and it has taken me some time to get to that level. Once you're able to kill some of the tougher enemies, you'll be able to take their weapons/armor and sell it. That's a good way to make some cash.

If you like this game, renting is not the way to play it. Just buy it and forget about doing anything else for awhile.

young

i have a xp1700 w/ geforce 3 ti200 (oced to ti500)... you're basically saying that that isn't good enough? that sucks...

i, too, never played any online game mainly b/c it's a cost issue. but morrowind sounds pretty decent.

SpacemanSpiff

yeah dude, the view distance still isnt how i like it, its just about half way with 1024x768 and what not

Shawn

For some reason, I have a feeling that's exactly what'll happen. This game is that good.

Since you are all experts and I am just a lowly novice, , I have a question. I killed a guy (and am now living in his house, hehe ) and my health went down to 16 because he kept hitting me before he died, and I know this is a really stupid question, but I don't know how to raise it back to normal. If anyone could help me find a healer and tell me what to do once I'm talking to them, it would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!

- Shawn

SpacemanSpiff

use the bed

khai

He's not actually on the east coast. That's how huge this game is.

He's at the bottom/central area on an island in map. If you have the game map handy (the map that came with the game), look east of Vivec where a bunch of islands are and find the name Mzahnch. He's on a small island where the last "h" is in the name Mzahnch.

Make sure you can swim pretty fast cuz those annoying fish bit me down to only a quarter of my energy when I went on my search for the mudcrab. Also be careful to NOT KILL ANY MUDCRAB AROUND THIS AREA. Because you might just accidentally kill the mudcrab merchant.

Shawn

After going back to the game, I realized that it is a hammock, not a bed. I don't know if that matters, though. Anyway, I slept for 24 hours straight and my health did not increase at all, so does anyone have any other techniques to get healthy? Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

- Shawn

BrinStar

Sounds like he might have dannaged your Endurance or Max HP level with a spell or something.
(or it could be that the hammock doesn't refill life/magick)

Go into your stats menu and look at your endurance rating, if the numbers are redish then they have been lowered by an effect of some sort.
If this is the case then you need to find a temple, alchemist, apothicary, or just some merchant someplace that sells "... Restore Endurance..." It might be "Bargan Restore Endurance" or somesuch, just dont buy a "Fortify Endurance" one, fortify only raises it for a temporary amount of time, even abouve your current max.
And if your Strength or anything else is red, then you need to buy that corresponding "restore" potion.



If nothing is red, then find a real bed to sleep in.
Or just walk out side of town and sleep in the woods. Nature Boy.

Alot of things lower your stats untill you restore them (with a potion, spell, or scroll). Some magic weapons do it, some spells do it, some potions do it (temporarily I think to), and especialy disseases do it.
Infact right now over half my stats are hurting because I havent restored them since I cought a nasty case of Corpus.
(Corpus Dissease is equivelent to becoming "The Flood" in Halo. Nasty stuff.)



One thing to watchout for is when they lower your Strength. When your Strength lowers, the max weight you can cary lowers, so you may become over-encomberd. So you cant run untill you drop stuff. So they can beat the snot out of you.
IF you survive the fight you have afew options (maybe):
1) Drop your excess items and walk back to a town and buy potions and restore. THEN walk ALL THE WAY back to your droped items and continue on.
2) Drop your items. Cast "Mark". Walk to town. Restore. Cast "Recall". Pick up and move on.
3) Do not drop your items. Cast "Mark". Cast "Divine Intervention" (teleport you to the nearest temple where you can restore and heal) Then drop your items, restore, pickup your items. Cast "recall". Go on.

Moral of the story?
Mark-Recall and "Intervintion" spells are GOOOD. Never leave town without them.

Also wouldn't hurt to cary afew "standard restore strength" potions, just in case.

BrinStar

Oh, and as far as "sleeping" goes, I recommend (unless your trying to pass time) always choosing "rest untill healed".
More efficient and you know you'll be healed when its done.

Shawn

Brinstar thanks for the reply but I already figured it out. The "moral of the story" is that I'm retarded. You can restore health in a hammock, I just didn't see the button that said "Heal" next to it. Anyways, thanks again for the reply, sorry I wasted you time.

Tuan Jim

I'm now a lvl 22 Nord Knight (didn't feel like customizing, but now I see some wasted skills -- ie. my focus in axe even though long blade is also included in major skills).

Reputation 9
Member of Fighters Guild, Imperial Legion, Ashlanders, House Redoran and one or two others IIRC.

Starts getting difficult keeping track of all my pending quests -- they could have handled that better with a checklist or something. I think I've also completed all the quests as Ahnassi's Special Friend. -- on the last one I discovered a 250 AL cuirass (heavy) on my way up a secret passage to the Ebonheart Imperial Commission - Very very cool.

My other main problem aside from the quest listings or lack thereof -- is the fact that many of the potions or spells don't actually tell you what they do. I've been playing for days without knowing what the rising force potion did, till I finally got stuck and as a last resort, drank one and managed to get out of my predicament. Now I know what recall and mark do -- I'll have to pick up some more of those next time in the store.

Oh yeah, one last word of advice -- the only really great sign to choose in character creation is "the Lady".

Oh and about expensive armor and junk -- sooner or later I'll just stop picking up all the obsidian daedric weapons and daikatanas I keep finding around the place -- sure they're worth a lot, but they're heavy as crap and you'll never get market value for them anywhere.

Tuan Jim