Morrowind - non-logical prices?

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Hi,

Well this is my first run through Morrowind, and I am enjoying it a lot. Although now I am level 21, and I put the difficulty on 50 because it was getting to easy. Still the exploration and freedom is great. You can really use your imagination to personalize your game experience.

However, there are some flaws (as in every game), but the main one I really get annoyed with is the price system. Most magical items are just too cheap. For example, I just spent 40,000 gold on making an enchanted invisbility ring (i stay invisible on use for 60 seconds), but the price when you try to sell it is 125 gold!!!???? It makes no sense. Same goes for lots of other items. Most magic items you can buy are underpriced I feel, not to mention you find them everywhere.

I think the game would have won a lot in challenge and player interest if Magic items would have been much more expensive (at leat the double the price it costs to enchant, which makes sense), and also a little rarer for the more powerful ones (ring of stormhand etc...)

anyhow, my two cents worth on this great game.

Now I'm back to fufilling the Nevarine (sp?) prophecy

 

While we're on the topic, I'm having trouble with getting items enchanted in a useful manner. Now that I'm getting soem top of the line Daedric armour, I notice it doesn't take enchantment well--even though I have trapped soulds of Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers (Highest value, royal pain in the backside to kill). Is there a guide somewhere on what takes enchantment best?

 

Exquisite clothing and jewellery, daedric tower shields, ebony staffs...
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Enchant

The low sell price on enchanted items is deliberate, to prevent making ridiculous amounts of money from the process, although it hardly matters as money is so easy to come by.

 

Many items are not enchanting friendly, most armor for example. Your enchantment skill is a big factor in self enchanting, so is your intelligence. Cheesy players brew fortify intelligence potions, drink them, make more, drink them ad nauseum. That way you get about a 1000 intelligence and enchanting becomes a breeze.

No fun though, and I finished (not really finished though for some reason, but high level) without enchanting easily.

 

The low price might be deliberate, but it makes no sense especially since as you say money is easy to come by - by the time you're good enough to make powerful enchanted items automatically, you probably have loads of ebony, daedric, and glass items in stock, so it defeats the purpose of selling enchanted items at a high price. Plus, there are so many ways to abuse the economics and make tons of money anyways (int potion + alchemy for example), that the argument of battling the risk of making tons of gold off enchanted items seems non-relevant.

Also, if magic items cost much more to purchase, then it balances the fact that they are worth more to sell, although this should be a 3-1 ratio (let's say I can sell an enchanted item for 1000, then buying that same item should cost at least 3000).
But when you spend 45,000 enchanting an item, and realize that you could have bought it in a store for 125 gold, then it kind of makes paying for enchanted items seem stupid.

Also, since we're on the enchanted items topic, they should just have made enchanted items much rarer, and enchanting much more difficult (for example, enchanting would not only require a soul and an item, but other ingredients, books, etc...), just to avoid the quick sense of uber-power you get. I mean, I'm just level 21 and nothing can stand in my way at difficulty 50 as I have a daedric longsword with an enchantment to do 30-50 shock damage per hit.
All I needed was gold and a soul gem with a good soul (since I have soul drinker, they're fairly easy to come by). Now if I needed let's say (I'm making this up), a rare book of powerful lightning enchantment, lots of Storm Arnoch remains, and stuff like that, and that the actual enchantment process would take weeks to complete, then I would probably still be looking for the various ingredients and my character wouldn't end every battle in two hits. I'll probably end up cranking the difficulty to the max, but it's a shame that a begginer as myself can breeze through the game's challenge this way.

My point is, and don't get me wrong, I am one for some type of uber items in every rpg game, that it's just so easy to make powerful items (because it's so easy to get gold), that you become too powerful too quickly. Then the game loses a bit of appeal (but that's just my opinion). I feel that changing the enchantment process by adding other very rare elements would add depth and challenge, and would avoid having a begginer with a char not even halfway through the game's main quest, but already nearly invincible. Remember your first BG2 run when it took you forever to obtain the parts of special items, and the satisfaction of making them? This lacks in Morrowind.

Since we're talking about power issues, I feel you just level-up way too fast in Morrowind. I'm ONLY level 21 because I choose not to rest to not become too powerful, but I could gain like 20 levels in a row right now. Skills just go up way too fast. Plus the perverse effect is: you get good at a skill, you use it more succesfully, you improve faster. So in the beggining, your skills are slow to progress, but then they increase all the time very fast. I like the "use the skill to progress" system, but it should be a much slower progression. Also, training is too overpowered, you should only be able to progress 10 points per skill max by training (a single trainer should only train you once per skill only, then it's kind of "you learned all I know thing" - this would add interest to finding the trainers, kind of like finding the sermon of vivec books.) and not be able to train a skill to more than 30 (except with books or maybe a handful of rare trainers could train you a couple of points for a high skill level at a very high price)

So my question are:
1/ Is Morrowind worth finishing? I mean are there tough battles awating, great twists, etc.. Or is just a succession of explorations and looting and "go there kill him" quests? Are there some great dungeons to explore, unique characters etc, that would keep me moving on and wanting to see more? I feel I'm already powerful enough that I'm not interested in char progression anymore, so I'm looking for some good reason to push on and finish the game

2/ how does Oblivion address these uber enchanted item issues and level progression issues? I actually have it in a box and never played it. The scalled-levelling always turned me off.

Wow, I just wrote a mouthful!!! Ok it sounds like I hate Morrowind, but I really don't. It's one of the best games I've played, and I loved the whole beggining and all. Then I quickly reached level 20 or so, bought a uber sword, and it became too easy of a left click frenzy. Now, it just lacks that little something to keep me hooked and wanting to see more after a while, since your char becomes to powerful too quickly

whew, ok that's it ;-)

cheers and happy holidays



Thanks.

 

The severe level-scaling of Oblivion was done to address what you're now experiencing in Morrowind: getting too powerful too quickly and the game becoming too easy. The Morrowind expansions address this to an extent: those werewolves of Bloodmoon will rip you to shreds!

Whenever I play Morrowind I intentionally try to take my time with a character and not get too focused on getting powerful. You can completely ruin your game by getting uber rich and training yourself up to high levels really quickly. Or cranking stats to 1000 with various cheezy methods. Sometimes it's best to set limits on yourself to keep the game challenging.

 

Hi Sir Fink,
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it was my first run-through Morrowind, so I was unaware of how easily overpowered you become so early (I mean I expect to be uber powerful towards the end of a game not just so early in). And I did so without cheese (practically never trained nor used alchemy cheese). If I had known I would have limited myself, but I really don't want to start over it's just too long - btw there should be an option to rest without leveling. I think I'll put difficulty to 100 and avoid powergaming.
Anyhow, the level-scaling dosen't seem that bad know, I heard of some good Mods to make it viable (Fransceco's or something?)
I think for know I will put down the Elder Scrolls game and return to a good ol' BG2 game with some new mods... Funny how I always come back to that!!!

 

Magic is very common in the Morrowind world.

I always thought the high price of enchanting something took into account the labor involved. Same reasoning diskettes cost a nickel to make, but $5 to buy.

 

Kuemper,

If the high price of getting an enchanted item made includes labor, then its retail value should be even higher. So if a ring cost 40,000 to make then it should be sold for 40,000 plus added value / anticipated profit margin.

 

Thanks Luiz.

Actually, once I get to a certain point, I only train when I need a skill raised immediately. The Levels will even out if you have the occasional skill that does not raise quickly (mind you I'm about level 41).

Yes finishing the game is worthwile. I find that some of the enemy bases have the tougher fights you ask for...

Edit: The link gave me some insight into how to set up a constant fortify Strength item. This is important for us Heavy armour types (5 Daedric pieces that are not enchanted)...

 

Okay, a little non-sequitiur-ish here, but I figured it's better than starting a whole new topic for one moment's amused observation.

Had to practice Mercantile for improvement, and I had a batch of dwemer mugs & bowls and stuff, which I took to a merchant.

I sold one mug, then one mug, etc. each time going from the offered 60% of base value of 10 up to 80% - small skill gain, but no 'haggling' so the merchant's disposition improved with each trade.

Then I wondered, "what sort of markup is he offering on my stuff?" so I took a moment and asked to buy one of my mugs back...

He was offering it for 6, just like he offered to buy.

So then I started selling the whole batch of mugs with a haggle up, then buy the same mugs back with a haggle down making about 10-15gp with each 'cycle'. I not only gained one level in Mercantile, I practised the other two I needed instead of paying for training the other levels, and best of all I got all the merchant's 'bankroll' AND kept my dwemer stuff!

I love a high Personality character.

 

The abundance and variety of enchanted items in Morrowind means that most spell effects you might want from an item already exist and can be found without too much difficulty. Plus enchanting your own items is pointless unless you use the fortify intelligence potion cheesiness.

The best bet is to have your items enchanted by someone with items for sale, that way you can trade your gold back.

Find a friendly mage (i normally use folms muriel in caldera) open up dialogue, barter but don't bother buying anything, go back to the dialogue window then go to enchanting and supe up some piece of equipment. If its all gone well your spent gold should now be in his inventory (it normally isn't unless you open a barter window with them before you start them enchanting) and buy it back.

Provided your disposition is good with him it won't take too much loot to get your gold back. That's why i prefer talking to Folms as the 'Master Index' quest raises his disposition by 10 for each one you find. Plus its a good place to set your recall point and dump stuff you don't need as it has good transport links: a mage guild guide and (eventually) a way to travel to each stronghold.

@Edmond Dantes: you can get a 30sec invisibility ring quite early on from the morag tong shrine (mephala's quest) that will have enough charges to get you through most problems.

@Gnarfflinger: I wouldn't even bother enchanting heavy armour as it already has the best selection of enchanted items available in the game. Feather Breastplate and Greaves. Fists of Ranagulf. Helmet of Malacath. Ten Pace Boots. Wraithguard (great if only so you can wield Sunder). Ward of Ibar-dad. Lord's Mail. Dragonbone Cuirass. Her Hands Armour. Daedric Tower Shield (not magical but can hold alot of enchantment).

Hmm thats pretty much the equipment setup of my last Battlemage, except i had on the boots of blinding speed.

The only reason you should have to enchant items is if you aren't planning on having any magical ability and need the spell effects to survive or if you want a decent set of enchanted clothing to go under the armor. Exquisite shirt/skirt/pants/belt can all be enchanted to provide some minor but very useful effect such as 2pt heal health, 2pt heal fatigue, 1pt levitate (good with blinding speed) and 24pts sanctuary.

 

pseudospawn,

Yes I know you can get that ring of Kajhitt or something with nifty invisibility. My point is why would such a ring cost over 40K to make, but yet could be purchased for under 1,000 gold?

I mean look at it this way, to make such a ring, you need a good soul in a good soul gem: so first, you need to get your hands on a good soul gem, then you need a soul from a very strong creature to put in the gem, then you need to have a higher enchant skill than your average joe. Would you risk your life to go kill some greater daedra and train so long in magic just to produce an item not worth more than a handful of gold? Shouldn't the price reflect this? I mean you have this grand soul gem with some powerful creature's soul trapped within it, you can sell this gem (that is useless in any other way, except to enchant, but as itself, it has no use) for a fortune. But then, when you actually use this 50,000 gold gem to enchant an valuable object, the object you end up with is worth not even 1,000???? I'm sorry but there is no way to justify this, it is a mistake plain from the programers, plain and simple. This is where the prices are illogical in my mind.

 

I agree with Edmond. This was improved in Oblivion. On the other hand I think the mercantile system in Oblivion is ridiculous. Maybe the Developers were trying to stop the players from doing the 24 hour trick from Morrowind. It is my opinion that Developers should allow players to play the way they wish. Trying to cover all bases just ends up with a game that makes no one happy. Cheese can be fun. Players come in many varieties and we don't all like peach Ice Cream.

 

Here is a great site with many enchantments that should not be possible on weapons and armor, but they are. SR71 used to be a poster on gamefaqs.com and a sure bet for a great enchantment would be any of his enchanting lists on this website

http://imperialthrone.com/forum/kb.php?mode=stats&stats=latest

Enjoy.