Hey all,
I've heard a ton of references to morrowind and seen it compared to oblivion a number of times. TES4 was my first forray into the TES universe so I have exactly zero idea of what Morrowind was like so i'm asking you. What have I missed by not playing it? I'm kicking around the idea of grabbing a copy but I wanted a little bit of your input first.

Note: I understand that the journal in Morrowind is an absolute nightmare, any mods or updates fix this? Or is the problem overstated?

You have not really missed anything, since Oblivion is not a sequel as far as the story goes. In Oblivion, you do hear NPCs talking about things that happened in Morrowind and specifically to your character, but that's about it.
Playing Morrowind after Oblivion is "difficult" to say the least. But there are some who still quite enjoy it. And yes the journal is pretty much useless.
The game is only $19 now so if you're curious, it's good to see some creatures and sights that are not in Oblivion, some different types of dungeons to explore etc etc. Just keep telling yourself "it's an OLD game" and certain things should not bother you too much.

Morrowind's downsides are mainly age related, i.e. graphics are not as good, there is little voice acting, no AI etc. The levelling of monsters stops when you reach level 23 so even if you play on the hard setting it eventually becomes too easy. The dialogue topics get you the same response from everyone.

On the positive side, Morrowind has far greater variety - more dungeon types; more armour and weapon types; more architecture; more unique artefacts. With the expansions it has about 540 quests compared to some 210 in Oblivion, there are 11 guilds (some of which are mutually exclusive without a mod); there is a purpose to becoming a vampire as there are several unique artefacts you can only get by doing so (and there are three clans only one of which you can join in game unless you have a mod to change it). There is no really evil guild although you can be a vampire or a werewolf (with the Bloodmoon expansion.) One big plus point for me is that several powerful and unique artefacts are in dungeons that do not feature in quests. This makes exploring interesting, if you are an artefact hunter.

There are also some parts of the game where you have to do either or which increases replayability.

But as WM points out, it is a rather older game and you shouldn't expect the detail you have with Oblivion.

Thanks for the info WM and Malchik.

What do you mean by no AI though? Do enemy's just stand there until you attack them? Do NPCs stand idly in place all day? Oh and I almost forgot...What exactly are these cliff-racers that i've heard about? in advance.

Morrwind was my first TES, and a worthy introduction to the series. To add a few positives: it sports open cities, makes meaningful use of the Z-axis (via levitation), and overall feels less of a hack n slash and more of an RPG. It's features are dated now, but were better implemented. Main quest was better too.



Well, the AI's pretty basic overall, but I think he was referring to the lack of Radiant AI which allows NPCS to carry out their own tasks without user input. Basically give the appearance of a "living" world. So yeah, 99.9% of the NPCs just kinda stand around waiting for you.



Cliff racers are the devil.

Thanks for the clarification Doomjockey. But regarding cliff racers...Why are they the devil? What is it that makes them so bad? Oh yeah...The poor visuals don't really bug me, in some cases it even makes the game a little more enjoyable(gives me the feeling of nostalgia even if I haven't played the game before).

Some might say cliff racers are the creepiest TES monster there is. They make this weird "bird call / gurgle" sound that after a while is really freaking creepy because you can hear it before you can see them. They are flying ninja dinosaur creatures, if it's foggy, cloudy, or raining hard, you won't know it's there until it starts trying to eat your brain. And they usually hunt in packs of about three, unless you go up into the mountains where they apparently nest in which case it's hard to fire an arrow without hitting one. Did I mention that they stalk you like an African wild cat? Yeah. And most of them carry disease so it's not a great idea to go hunting for them.

I'm sold. Now I have to buy Morrowind, If only to see a flying ninja dinosaur creature !!! Thanks Woogie!

I'm glad you're happy, I just unlocked some horrible terrifying memories. On a side note, if you get the box set, you know that little white card that falls out of the box that everyone immediately tosses into the paper shredder? You should look at this one, it tells you the order to install the games to make the patch work.

Can do Woogie, and if it's any consolation...your pain will not be in vain(hey, that rhymes!). I promise to have a blast. again!

Hey Jojo Man! Hope to see you on FEAR sometime!

Anyways,I personally think that Morrowind had a better storyline, and there was no fast travel, so the game was more immersive, and you kind of forgot that you were in a game...

Man, I really wish I downloaded Morroblivion before it got taken down!

It's a great game by itself, but like Oblivion it can be made so much better with mods.

Should you decide to get Morrowind, these are the things to look for:

Improving Graphics

Morrowind Graphics Extender
Connary's Texture Replacers'
Better Bodies
Vality's Bitter Coast and Ascadian Isle Rainforest mod
Vality's Ice Caverns enhanced

Improving gameplay
Galsiah's Character Development. I never play without it. With this mod you don't have to worry about raising the right skills just to get that x5 to strength or whatever attribute multiplier again. It also adds magicka regeneration.
Creatures New monsters!
Less Generic NPC's Unique dialogue for all! Well, for the npc's in areas that have been finished.

Other stuff
Tamriel Rebuilt The first map of the mod that aims to add the whole of Tamriel is out!


Oh and cliff racers are overrated. They are easy to kill, and only do health damage. Greater Bonewalkers are much worse, because besides damaging your health, they drain your strength too!

I really appreciate the links Povuholo. And i'm already sucked into the game. I haven't met any of the Greater bonewalkers yet, but I have already been in a few fights with the cliff racers. And i've also ran into a regular bonewalker once or twice already and both times I was almost killed. Anyways...right now i'm just trying to figure out how to join the Morag Tong. I've made my way to Vivec, and when i'm asking around town the best lead I can get is that its rumored that they have a base under the arena. When I go into the arena underworks, all I can find are a few mice. But i'm having alot more fun figuring things out for myself(unlike oblivions spoon-fed approach).

You lucky man... Enjoy it now, it's never as good as the first time you do it. Playing Morrowind, that is. Maybe surpassed only by playing Morrowind with a large bunch of quality mods installed. For me, Morrowind was much more than Oblivion will ever be.

@Povuholo: I'm glad at least SOMEONE realizes who is truly the worst enemy of them all! Their *gasp*-ing sound is probably the most terrifying part of the game, especially if followed by a fiery spell effect and a "you are over-encumbered" message.

Absolutely! Maybe you don't have to think too often in MW but in Ob you don't have to think at all. Next IMO become a clan aundae vamp and do tne misc vamp quests (you need yt have done Boethiah's quest first,)

I agree with both of you all the way! Bonewalkers really creep me out, especially when it was pitch black, and you dropped your last torch to lighten up your load, and then you hear the fighting music going, and all of a sudden you hear right behind you, "Huff! Huff!" The Cliffracers were still anoying though... That's why I bought the "Anti-Cliffracer Belt (a mod)!" they were definitely a pain in the a** for archers and "blademasters... Not for Mages though! The magic in Morrowind seemed quite a bit stronger in Morrowind... and more "Realistic." By "realistic," I mean it seems more accurate to what it would be like if it actually exsisted in real life...

And also, it seemed that Morrowind had more puzzles and diversity, whereas Oblivion has the standard "Hack and Slash" dungeons (although I gotta admit that the traps are a nice effect).

Man, now I REALLY feel like playing Morrowind...

And Jojo Man, what ever happened to playing FEAR today?

Man oh man, where has this game been all my life? Oblivion was never anywhere as much fun(except when heavily modded) as Morrowind! I never realized how much having fast travel and quest markers took away from gameplay either. And the greater number of dungeon types are really great too. Just out of curiosity, is it supposed to be really easy to make money? I'm only level three but i've already got 6000+ gold from dungeon crawling. The only two quests that i've done are the ones where I have to discover the fate of the missing tax collector and exact revenge on the killer, and the one where I have to purge a cave of slavers, so i'm not earning my income by doing work for others.

P.S. Oh, and Gman... We can slug it out on Monday!

I think this is because the dungeons are quite a bit harder in Morrowind.

BTW, what race is your Character? I was a Dark Elf, and I found a ring that gave me 25% Fire, Frost and Shock Damage resistance. So, add the fire resistance onto my already 75% resistance, and I was immune to Fire Damage! (75% + 25%=100% )

I could even walk IN lava without getting hurt at all!

I'm an Imperial Juggernaut(custom melee class). But i'll just sack a few dungeons, sell the loot, rinse and repeat. The next thing I know... I'm up to my kneecaps in cash( not that i'm complaining).

Hmmm... Your probably getting good deals because your an Imperial...

Do you have any graphics/enhancement mods installed (i.e. Better Bodies).

Did you get the GOTY Edition with Tribunal and Bloodmion?

Yeah, I have the GOTY edition, I got it for like 20 dollars. But the only mod I have installed is yours(Thanks a ton for that, btw).

Wait... What mod?

Brain fart...I honestly have no idea what I meant by that(especially because I have no mods installed yet). Sorry

That's alright.

Okay, I should probably stop spamming this thread. Sorry...

Hey, I'de just like to ask...Do the expansions add any new locations to explore? I mean like a new world\continent\dimension (you know, like the SI), not just dungeons. I ask because even though I've only played the game for a few hours, I've managed to hit both the east and west coasts, so the island is starting to feel a little small.

The Tribunal expansion adds a large city with a large underground area as well, but it isn't on the map, you're teleported to it when you ask a specific person to.

The Bloodmoon expansion adds the island Solstheim to the north west of Vvardenfell. It is covered with snow, and has werewolves!

(And map 1 of the Tamriel Rebuilt project adds a large landscape to the east of Vvardenfell, mostly Telvanni territory. But that's a mod.)

Yes, they both do. Tribunal adds the city of Mournhold (the capital of Morrowind), and Bloodmon adds Solthiem (a rather Cyrodill like Island. Both add new Creatures, weapons, armor and quests... And one contains a reference to TES 4!

Well Povohulu, it seems that we both replied at the same time...

Thanks for that Pov(And Gman!), and while we're on the subject of Tamriel Rebuilt...How far are you planning to go with it? Are you looking to rebuild the Entire continent?

Yes. Progress is slow, the only map that has been released so far is still a part of the Morrowind province and not one of the others, but eventually the whole of Tamriel is going to be done.

There is only one issue and that is that the ingame world map doesn't allow much new terrain on it too far away from Vvardenfell, so the largest part of the landmass won't show up on it. You'd still be able to go there, but if you look at the world map you won't see where you are.

The FPS Optimizer 2.0 seems to fix this (Don't ask me why a FPS Optimizer does that), with the side effect that it turns the map gray.

Yes, I have been wondering that for a while now as well...


Edit: Man, I have REALLY got to stop typing the same time as other people...

Wow, that sounds like quite an undertaking...

Say Povohulu, what do you and your team know about video game DESIGN?

A little misunderstanding there, I'm not part of the Tamriel Rebuilt team. I just keep up with the latest TR news.

I can understand why you think so though, when I look at how my last post must've sounded like.

The only modding team I'm part of consists of me and Malchik, for the Kragenir's Death Quest mod for Oblivion.

Hey, I've hit a bit of a snag...

I was exploring a room in the Hlaalu(sp?) canton of Vivec, and apparently I closed the door behind me(Tidy, aren't I?). Now some genius guard has parked himself immediately on the opposite side of the door(it swings out) so I'm trapped! I've tried to open the door mulitple times and waited for over a full real-time hour and a half trying to get out. What is the no-clip enable and disable command for the console?

tcl (toggles collision)

Thanks for that Gman! I think i'll no-clip through the door and take a few minutes to wail on that @#!%^&# guard!

watch out, the guards are A LOT harder in that game than in Oblivion...

oh yeah, don't use tcl too much, other wise it completely ruins the game play...

Sometimes NPC's will move if you rest for a while or walk around while you are a little farther from them. tcl can be a little dangerous since some NPCs might walk through walls and end up inside one, so you won't know where they've gone. If you type in "ra" it'll return all npc's to their original position. This also shouldn't be used excessively, only with such cases of "disappearing" people or similar.

Thanks Xeniorn, i'll quicksave before I try this so hopefully I shouldn't have any problem.

Be careful with quicksaves. There's no definite proof, but the MW community at the official forums is pretty sure (and so am I) that using quicksaves, or saving over one save a lot of times, can cause scripts to break. If you don't use any mods you'd be fine, but if you use mods which add complicated scripts you can get problems later on.

We're having a little discussion about whether COC and other teleportation commands can cause corrupt saves or crashes too: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=820274

Thanks for that warning, but i've been playing for a few more hours now and nothing seems out of place or anything. So it seems that i'm in the clear. And yeah, I'm running vanilla Morrrowind. I'll probably keep it that way too for a little while longer before I install those mods you recommended.

I recommend you to play through the whole game once before installing any mods. That's the only way you can feel true Morrowind, many mods will make the game better, but less than 100% Morrowindy.

Thats exactly the approach I took with Oblivion...and I kinda regret it now that I'm playing with about 60 mods installed that anymore...I just couldn't do without. But Morrowind is already a superior game in my perception, and you do have more experiance with it then I do, so I will be taking your advice.

I only had this on Xbox (goty ed.) and it amazes me how extremely playable this game still is -- even after getting into PC Oblivion for a while with all the best mods and then some. I'm considering getting it on PC so I can check out the mods.

I was wondering though if anyone knows if you can configure PC Morrowind to work with a controller like you can with Oblivion using XBox 360 controller for PC? I'm not into the whole keyboard + mouse thing for games aside from having a few useful hotkeys of course.

Yes, you can use a controller with PC Morrowind.

It's entirely possible to use a controller with Morrowind though I hear mapping problems make it buggy.

Here's a an article which might shed some light on controllers and Morrwind in general.

Great! I forgot to ask if Morrowind works on Vista. Been meaning to research this but time has been short. Does anyone know?

I had Morrowind:GOTY Edition w/ all official patches installed, very briefly, under Vista to test such and I didn't find any glaring errors and didn't even have to run it in compatibility mode, which rocked. Though I should note I only played for around four hours.

Thanks doomjockey you've been most helpful. Soon as I have time I will go ahead and buy a copy!