Morrowind: Initial Thoughts
 

I'm REALLY early into the game, but I think I'm going to like it better than the waste of $40 that was Dungeon Siege (I realize I'm in the minority on that).

With a 1 ghz P3 and a 32mb Geforce 2 GTS, it's very pretty. I can't imagine what it would look like with a better video card (my water doesn't look as good as the clips I saw on Extended Play). So far, it might be a little choppy, but I haven't gotten to a point where that matters.

I've just explored the town that you start out in, and I'm about to see what combat is like (see, it's early).

So far about all I can say is that the game is very immersive. For whatever reason, it 'feels' real. There are TONS of objects that you can interact with. Some are boring, such as the large number of plates, candles, etc. that I've seen so far, but the fact that you can explore an area and do more than just look at the environment is kind of neat.

I've already gotten a taste of the amount of reading this game involves. Although it's optional, I'm trying to read everything I can find. Right off the bat, there are 4 books to read (8 - 10 pages each).

I think the biggest plus of this game is going to be the freedom and flexibility that it offers. Again, I haven't really gotten far enough to experience this firsthad, but based on the manual and what I've seen so far, it seems like this is almost a virtual world where you can do whatever your please. I've never played Everquest or any of the other MMORPGs, so I'm not sure how it compares.

Examples:

The character creation offers a lot of possibile combinations. You pick a race, class and a 'born under' sign. It doesn't sound like much, but each of those offers certain advantages and disadvantages. You can also create your own class, which would add even more possibilities.

There is a story, but apparently you can follow it if you choose, or just wander around increasing your skills and interacting with the world.

Skills are defined as major, secondary and minor. Obviously major and secondary skills are tied to your class, but nothing prevents you from increasing skills in other classes. There are no limitations such as a magic user wearing certain types of armor or weapons. If you want your magic user to kick ass with a long sword, go for it. The downside is that you will be taking away from his/her magic skill building.

There are lots of skills. Obviously I haven't had a chance to see them in action yet, but it looks like there's a lot of potential for tweaking your character as you see fit. Skills are developed by use (my 'security' skill increaed a bit after successfully picking a lock), books or buying training.

Your actions determine your reputation and NPCs will react accordingly. I talked to a local and got a bit of information out of her. I then tried the 'persuasion' option, choosing to butter her up a bit. It didn't go over too well and later attempts to converse resulted in her giving me the cold shoulder.

The barter system allows you to haggle. If your offer is rejected, the merchant's opinion of you will drop, potentially affecting the price of goods.

I guess that's about it for initial thoughts. Overall, I think there's a lot of potential. Rather than tradtional games that are essentially on rails, this seems more like an environment that you become a part of, defining your character through your actions.

yeah i got my copy yesterday
runs like crap on my gf2mx and p3 500, gonna have to turn the details waaaayyyy down

Pick up the Xbox version, it should run pretty well.

Haha, SpacemanSpiff is a Nintendo boy. I had no idea that his computer was that bad tho, its even worse than mine :)

Oops, nevermind Spiff. 500mhz? Yeah it's pretty old :lol: (sorry spiffy, you need to seriously upgrade). I'm not even going to attempt it on my Athlon 750. The Sims doesn't even run that well on my machine. rotfl

Thats nothing. I only have a 400mhz.

At least you can emulate MAME huh? ;)

hey its funny that joshd2012 is making fun of me

wait wait, you just upgraded from a tnt to a geforce 2, nice work douche bag


and i am building a kick ass system this summer, negative on the xbox

and the gf2mx was hot when it first came out, just now its starting to really crap out on me on games, so might as well upgrade

yeah, I'm stuck with a P3 500 as well. I might've considered picking it up if I didn't have just a tnt2, but since I do....I'm going xbox.

Tuan Jim

I only have a 400 MHZ and no 3D graphics card. :D But of course I hate gaming on the PC so it doesn't matter to me. ;)

For those of you having framerate problems - there's currently a hacked morrowind.exe floating around that removes the constant SafeDisc checks. Leads to an improvement of about 15%. Worked for me. YMMV.

That safedisc fix doesn't allow you to play the game without the CD, so no need to close this thread. :)

It does limit the CD check to the beginning of the game. People are reporting some good performance jumps with it. I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference on my machine or not. I did have the game crash when I was using the 'nocd' version of the executable though.

Very cool game. It's very playable on my system, but I'd love to see it on a faster system with a Geforce 4 card. Dungeon Siege will collect dust on my shelf (unless someone wants it cheap).

I'm running it on a p4 1.4 with 512mb ram and a gf4 ti4600 and its absolutely beautiful. I had it at max resolution but the text was too small to read so I bumped it down one.

I'm digging the game a lot. I have a feeling I'll be playing this one for months and months ;)

That makes me think a GF4 card would do me some good.

I agree about the months and months of playtime. I'm only level 2 and I probably have 5+ hours in it. That should be a bad thing, but it just feels 'right' for this game. I love just wandering around and exploring.

Can someone tell me if you can increase the font size on the PC version? I'm thinking about buying this and playing on the PC hooked up to my TV.

BUT, I hear there is a TON of text in it, and don't want to be squinting the whole time.

Well, a non-HDTV has a standard resolution of 640x480, while your average PC uses 1024x768 -- the guys here are talking about a higher resolution, which would increase detail but decrease font size respectively, so yeah, I don't think you'll have much of a problem reading it. I'm guessing it'll be around the same size as FF or other RPGs.

Tuan Jim

I haven't found a way to increase font size. I've got the res set to 1600x1200, because this game is soooo gorgeous, but the small font is a little annoying.

I keep meaning to try my tv-out on my video card, too, even though the res will drop dramatically.

By definition at that resolution the font will be tiny. You're taking the number of pixels that make up the font and drastically increasing them whenever you increase the resolution -- my technical take. At that stage I would find it extremely difficult to read the font -- I had the same problem with Deus Ex (at a lower resolution, but my monitor is only 13.8" viewable so less size).

Tuan Jim

Is this a first person game or a 3rd person game?

Either. Default is first person, but if you hit tab, it switches to third person.

The gf2mx was never a hot card unless you were talking stolen ;)


I am thinking about this one. I figure my XP1900+ with my Geforce2 GTS 32mb will handle it. I am waiting for the Geforce4 4200 before deciding on my next card. I will either get the 4200 or maybe a 4400 once i see the overclocking potential of the 4200 :)

I read that using the First person view give a significant fps increase. Can anyone confirm this?

It wouldn't be surprising given that using it would significantly cut down on the number of polygons in the picture.

Tuan Jim

what is the combat like? is it real time or turn base.
how is the character development?- what options do u have in your char?
do u have more than 1 person in your party?

I am also looking for an alternative from Dungeon Seige and have been thinking about picking this up.

Combat is real-time.

Character development is pretty deep. You select a race, a class and a birthsign (I think that's it). It doesn't sound like much, but there are a lot of combinations. Plus, you can pick a class by answering a series of questions, choosing from a list or by creating your own custom class.

You only control 1 character (no 'party').

Much more immersive and flexible than Dungeon Siege, IMO.

OK, I picked this one up over the weekend. At first I really didn't like it. Something just didn't feel right. However, I gave it a chance and after a few hours it has really grown on me.

One question though... How important is it to deliver the package from the first quest? I seem to have lost it. I don't know if I sold it or dropped it, but it is gone and the guy I'm supposed to deliver it to won't talk to me without it.

I don't think it's critical that you deliver that package. It's just a starting point so you can establish a contact and start getting quests. There are a million other ways to get started, assuming you want to get quests assigned.

Go to any of the guilds in the larger towns and join one or more of them. You will start getting assignments that will raise your reputation. Or, just explore the wilderness. It's up to you. I keep playing with the intent to do something specific. Once I get to playing though I end up finding something new and exploring a new town.

BTW, I ordered a GeForce 4 4200 today. We'll see how that affects the graphics and framerate.

I'm running a PIII 800 with 512MB and the GeForce4 4400. I'm getting a decent frame rate, but not as much as I would like. I have turned the shadows off and reduced the viewing distance in an attempt to speed it up, but it only helped a little. I thing I need more processing power.

I'm having a lot of fun with this game. I recently started over as my skill selection wasn't adequate. I haven't progressed at all in the story (in fact, I've just hung around the first town and the surrounding areas) and I'm having a great time with it.

The game looks great if you've got the horsepower to run it.

I'm still looking forward to seeing the cool weather effects.

I can see myself spending a lot of time with this game.

Grommit,
How much did u pay for the 4200? and where did u pick it up?
also which did u pick up, the 128 or 64 Meg? I'm looking to pick up a new video card right now.

I ordered the 128 mb version from atacom.com for $220. It's more expensive because it's the 'Golden Sample' version from Gainward ('regular' 128mb version is $180 I think). It comes with an overclocking utility and you can OC the memory to 520 while still under warranty. Apparently these are Gainward's boards that get the 'highest quality' stamp, so they'll still cover them if overclocked.

Of course, they have the golden sun version of the 4400 for $270, and the regular version is probably only $30 more than the 4200 I ordered, but an overclocked 4200 = a 4400.

I've heard mixed reviews about atacom.com, so I hope my order goes OK. I don't think there's another 4200 card available through retail channels yet.

If you want the overall storyline to progress then you need to deliver that package...

For sh*ts and giggles I killed the guy your supposed to give the package to and it was game over due to an npc integral to the overall storyline had died...

My "Visiontek GeForce4 Ti4600" will be delivered on Thursday :D

This game should be a great test for it.

shizawn - I fell victim to a wicked, nighttime thunderstorm while playing last night.......

Great... I've got a lot of time invested so far and don't want to start over... Know of any cheats to gain items?

I pulled this from another forum. It may help you:

"In the Morrowind.ini file I changed Font 1=century_gothic_font_regular to Font 1=century_gothic_big. This improved font quality big time. "

There are other things here to help you get the most out of your framerate:
http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5841

I got my Gainward 'Golden Sample' GeForce 4 4200 card. I think morrowind is CPU bound more than anything.

I haven't done any tweaking (other than overclocking the crap out of the video card (350/550 I think), but the only difference I see is that the water is pretty. No frame rate increase. This is on a 1 ghz PIII with 256 megs of RAM BTW.

I got it... From the console:
player->additem "bk_a1_1_caiuspackage" 1