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OK you've convinced me. I'm going with the safe option (the Mage) and dropping Athletics for Block. I like your class name and I'm not afraid to use it

Yeah I'm a chronic restarter when I'm trying to get the hang of a game. I'll start with a class, play for 5 minutes, then start with another one. I've already done this half a dozen times testing various things (and I'm glad I did!)

To answer some questions you almost-asked, I have installed the Area Effect Arrows plugin, alongside all the other official ones (as I said except LeFemm Armor). The main quest is indeed important to me, I consider my game "done" when I finish the main quest. I'm also a crazy completist, so I want to try and do as many side and guild quests as possible before getting there, including hunting down every artifact if I can manage (I'm looking forward to laying my hands on some of the favourites from Daggerfall). I'm going to not worry about multipliers for now (except maybe Endurance) and see how things go, if I see I'm not doing well I'll start planning them more carefully.

One last thing. Felinoid mentioned a conflict between the Fighters and Thieves Guilds. I cheated a bit and had a peak at the relevant pages on UESP to find out if there's a way past this (turns out the workaround is also incredibly easy). I don't know if I'll manage to become head of both Guilds, but I'll certainly try! My question was, is there another conflict I need to worry about? Will for example the Morag Tong ask me to murder someone in a guild and will that close off all future quests in that guild? Of course the Houses needn't be mentioned - I know I'll have to pick one and only one of the three.

I'm off to create my new Blademaster!

 

As far as I'm aware there's no problem with the Morag Tong (it's ages since I last had a Tong character).

Minor end-game spoiler:

Spoiler

Actually, they offer some assassinations of characters who are kind of plot/faction-critical - but only after the main quest is completed. Kind of neat to have some legalised payback.

Now, there are some quests from different factions that conflict, but they are designed with the conflict in mind (does that make sense?). What I mean is that sometimes you'll have to pick a side but doing so is never terminal to your career in the faction you work against... except for a very high-end quest or two towards the end of a faction's line where the conflict is *obviously* terminal, but even then there are ways to appease both sides if you explore all your options.

The Thieves Guild / Fighters Guild (Code Book quest) issue is highlighted as a problem because it is the one case where the conflict can (and will!) seriously and permanently fubar your progress in those factions right from the start, without any obviously logical work-arounds or alternatives.

Oh, and if you really are set on completing the game as thoroughly as possible... well, I guess I won't have to check this thread for at least another 6-8 months.

P.S. Sorry, I overlooked your mod-list in your earlier post - I shouldn't have needed to enquire about area-effect arrows. etc.

P.P.S. Widescreen?
I use the MW FPS Optimiser, not for any of its fancy functions, but simply for the nifty widescreen tweak. I think there are more recent versions but 1.96(static) has always worked perfectly on my low-end laptop:
http://www.lowgenius.net/post/Morrowind-FPS-Optimizer.aspx

Install it,
fire it up and click "novice mode" OFF,
hit "change Morrowind registry settings here",
select your widescreen resolution and click "OK",
go to the "misc/2" panel,
pick the appropriate widescreen aspect ratio for your widescreen resolution, under the FOV options,
go back to the "status" panel,
and hit "launch Morrowind".

P.P.P.S. Bugger. Thought of something else. (Last postscript for now, I promise! )
Now, from re-reading your intentions to squeeze as much as possible out of the game, be aware that there is a "shortcut" in the Main Quest that kicks in if your character has reached a quite advanced status (IIRC, that's Level 20 or greater AND Reputation 50 or greater... you gain Reputation from completing some quests).

Now, if you hit that tipping point in your level/reputation, you'll end up skipping some major Main Plot quests and will be fast-forwarded to the very final quests. Many experienced players actually consider this shortcut a godsend, because the skipped quests are some of the most boring to repeat, game-after-game, but if you want to do everything in the Main Plot, keep an eye on your Reputation. If it gets too high, you can use a console command to lower it to zero... then carry on... and once you've completed the main quests use the console again to add what Reputation you had to what Reputation you've since earned (bringing your total Reputation back to where it should be, without being forced to skip main plot quests!).

Not a big deal. But if you are aiming at a completist run-through, then I thought it'd be worth pointing out. Oh, and, uh... I don't exactly remember right now the syntax of the console command you need to alter your Reputation, but it shouldn't be hard to find if you ever do need it.

 

Heh, don't worry about it, I wasn't criticising you or anything

For the widescreen mod I wasn't complaining about its absence, it was just something I found odd until I remembered this game was released back when most of us were using 4:3 CRTs. I'll give it a shot and see how it looks in widescreen though.

Thanks for the details on faction conflicts (and you managed not to spoil anything too!). I'll keep an eye out for possible problems and think of workarounds for them. I think I already know which illogical one you're talking about (would that be the code book by any chance?), so I at least know how to avoid that one. If future problems appear, well... we'll see. Having to choose between two guilds might make for a more interesting game anyway, especially if the choice comes towards the end.

 

NB: I edited my previous post. Did you see the last postscript I added?
And, yes, I was highlighting the Code Book quest's potential for factional fubaration.
Oh, and I didn't feel criticised, just daft for overlooking what you'd already clearly written.

 

You must have added your last PPPPPPPS () while I was writing my post because I missed it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. This is definitely something I'll have to keep an eye on. The shortcut sounds great for a replay, but if I end up skipping half the main quest I don't want this on my first time. Thanks for providing a simple way to go around it too!

 

My thoughts on the game so far.

I went ahead with my Blademaster using Luiz's skill list outlined above. I also created a biography for my character, Cyrus the Redguard. He's a descendant of the Cyrus from Redguard, and much to his parents' dismay took after much of his namesake's personality. He's a master swordsman, a good hunter and a very charismatic speaker, but he's also hot-headed, impulsive and quick to anger. He can be a very smooth talker when he wants to but he has a tendency to switch to taunts and insults whenever he gets into an argument, and these usually end up with swords drawn. Just like his ancestor he leaves his family at a young age and does mercenary work all over Tamriel, without much care for who is emplying and paying him except that he is staunchly anti-slavery. While in Cyrodiil in-between jobs his temper gets the better of him and lands him in real trouble, as he gets into a swordfight with an Imperial guard over a lost gamble. The fight ends with the guard severely wounded and Cyrus in jail. Fortunately for him the guard survives (barely) so Cyrus gets away with only a couple of years in prison. During this time he befriends his cellmate, a Breton enchanter and alchemist who also dabbles into alteration and teleportation magic and who teaches Cyrus the basics of his craft. Prison life also alters his character subtly as he matures and decides to avoid needlessly shedding blood in the future, though his temper can still flare quickly. In the last weeks of his sentence he's put on a boat headed East to Morrowind without explanation, only being told that he'd get released once there.

Unlike the previous games, Morrowind starts in town instead of a dungeon, a nice change of pace. Graphically the game is incredible. It manages to not show its age by having superb art direction and some very pretty landscapes. Seyda Neen is small and I quickly did all the local quests. I could have taken the silt strider to Balmora, but opted to walk instead, enjoying the countryside and poking around for small things to see (including a Bosmer wizard falling down from the sky...). The only annoyance, though it's a big one, is that hiking is incredibly slow, even when running. I'll need to up my Speed soon. On the way to Balmora I stopped in Pelegiad for some more tasks, visited Fort Moonmorth and had a chat with Larrius Varro, who instantly got promoted to Favourite NPC, then finally reached Balmora.

That's where I got completely overwhelmed with things to do. The 3 guilds, the Temple, the Imperial Cult, all have things for me to do... and I've not even joined the Legion or the Morag Tong yet! That's not counting the main line (which is on hold due to Caius Cossades telling me to come back later) or all the small quests that can be stumbled on. I have a dozen active quests now, all requiring me to leave Balmora, so I may have to do that soon. My favourite one so far has been Larrius Varro's "story" with the Camona Tong. At its heart it's a simple "kill kill kill" quest, but the way it initiates (through rumours), the way it develops after talking to Varro, makes it more involved. Being aware of the potential problem I've also managed to bypass a potential obstacle with the Fighters and Thieves guilds, so I'm a member of good standing with both for now.

In the spirit of my character bio I'm going around talking to everyone. This has been the biggest disappointment with the game so far: just like in Daggerfall the NPCs feel like a search engine index rather than people. There are a few exceptions of course (Varro, Caius Cossades, the guilds questgivers) but everyone else repeats the same stock phrases when asked about the general topics. Worse, the writing for these tidbits is incredibly bland and boring, which doesn't make me terribly excited about venturing into the lore of the place. Using Speechcraft is still fun though because it makes people reveal things they otherwise wouldn't, and these tend to be the most interesting topics.

I've started building a good selection of spells, though I'm only using a few regularly (mainly Open for now). I'm trying to get the teleportation spells to make life easier, but so far I've only managed to get Recall, which is less than useful until I can find Mark. The two Intervention spells would be good to have too. I acquired Levitate, but at my current skill level its chance of success is zero. I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon.

The expansion quests got initiated rather early on, Bloodmoon the first time I asked about rumours, Tribunal when I got attacked by a Dark Brotherhood assassin at level 1 (good thing I knew it would happen). I know this is way too early to start either, but I'm wondering, when would be a good time? Should I finish the main line entirely then move to the expansions, or finish them both before I hit the end of the game?

 

I think you should go and start the dark brotherhood quest asap if only to get rid of the assassins. They will rip you apart otherwise. For half my game I got killed by an assassin half the time I tried to rest cause they get mean quite fast unless you do something about it. All you need to is talk to a guard and he will point you in the right direction, a few conversations and very little travelling will make the dark bruthas go away and you can go back to enjoying the vanilla game.

 

I've been meaning to post an update for a few days, but there's not much to say really. Two things I need to mention: I went to Ebonheart and it seems I've stopped the Dark Brotherhood attacks (though I didn't travel to Mournhold and the quest is still in my journal). Or it may be the attacks are still active, but since I'm only resting to gain levels and never at any other time this may be the real reason I've not seen any more assassins. This leads me neatly to the second point: the birthsign was a mistake. Yes, I know, I should have listened to you guys It just became very obvious I should have gone with the Atronach, as I never rest anyway. Fatigue regenerates by itself and Health I get back either from potions or from the plethora of enchanted items I have (and I can always make more if I wanted to). In fact one of the very first items yo get, while the tutorial is still running, is the ring of healing, and I hadn't realised back then that enchanted items regain their charges with time (they don't in Daggerfall). As a result I was relying entirely on potions to restore magicka, and that was working well too, as I have a huge stash of them by now can I constantly find more, and can make more whenever I want (my Alchemy skill is in the high 30s now). So... I cheated and switched birthsign to the Atronach. This thing is incredibly overpowered! The 50% spell absorbtion by itself is amazing, but now i also have a huge Magicka pool to work with, one I can restore very easily whenever I fight spellcasters (and there are quite a few around). Since I never rest anyway the disadvantage isn't really one.

Aside from this I really don't know what to say... I've been playing steadily for a week and have been doing lots of things, but the main line is still on hold because I got so busy with Guild and misc quests. I joined House Hlaalu (Redoran and Telvanni are just too obnoxious to even consider), as well as (as far as I know) all the other guilds. The Imperial Legion took a long time because the only place to join is in Gnisis, and I was too busy in other places. Wasted a LOT of time trying to figure out how to get around Vivec before I figured out the pattern, and then had the pattern break in the Foreign Quarter... Walking is no longer such a problem because I've started raising Speed and Athletics has reached a reasonable level (high 40s).

My character is level 15 and fully decked in Ebony armour, with a Daedric Katana to boot. The katana was far, far too easy to get - stumbling on the ebony mine outside Balmora brings it up as a topic, mentioning the topic to anyone in House Hlaalu directs me to the councillors, and finding Dram Bero in Vivec nets me the weapon. Considering the weapon I had at the time was an enchanted steel longsword that's a BIG jump. With the katana in hand beating Daedra becomes pretty easy, and while doing a misc quest in a daedric shrine somewhere in Khuul I found the almost-complete set of Ebony armour (it was missing the helm, but I had that from another quest). This has made combat significantly easier, as I can now deal heavy punishment without taking any in return. I've also finally got a good selection of spells and zipping around from place to place has become easier thanks to Almsivi/Divine and Mark & Recall. I've started collecting the propylon indices and these should make travelling a breeze once I get the Master Index.

I'm slowly climbing the ladder of all the factions I joined and doing other tasks on the way. There are lots of things hidden around the map and it helps that I constantly travel off-road, but I'm sure I must be missing a LOT of misc quests. I've barely explored a small fraction of the island and I'm already 10 days in. I knew this was a long game, but hadn't realised just how long! I'm not complaining though, as I'm still far from being bored.

Aside from a couple of points I mentioned last week (the slow walk speed and the uneven quality of the writing), the biggest problem is the constant CTDs. Thankfully they occur almost always on quickrestoring, so I lose no progress at all, but they occur far too frequently. I must be getting at least one an hour (maybe 2). It's also made me a bit paranoid as I'm constantly worried about one happening during saving, but I've got 3 different saves going, plus the quicksave, and I alternate between them all the time, so I shouldn't lose too much progress if something goes horribly wrong.

 

I hear you man except that my lvl51 guy is still running around with glass weapons. Found pretty much every kind of daedric except long swords. The game is immense though, as I have said before it is an MMO without other people. I am a bit over halfway through the main quest, I am the arch mage and soon the head of House Telvanni and there is still just SO much to do and the quests are reasonably varied.

I have not had a single CTD, it is extremely stable even when tabbing in and out of windows. I still have plenty of saves going but that is mostly cause the game is so free. It allows you to do so much stuff that might screw things up for you in the future.

 

joacqin: I know what you mean. One game I played the only daedric weapons that ever seemed to drop were axes, which were no use at all for my character (well, except to sell).

---

Hey Ziad,

Nice updates. Any other NPCs, encounters, etc, you've found particulary note-worthy? How about the books/lore compared to Daggerfall?

Concerning other stuff:

- It's troubling that your game is so unstable. Morrowind was never the most stable of beasts but on a reasonably strong modern computer you really shouldn't be having so many CTDs. Mostly they come about nowadays from having a huge amount of plugins running lots of scripts or from texture updates placing more demands on graphics cards, and neither of those things apply in your case. Weird. Are you running anything else in the background? Is your hard drive in need of defragmenting?

I certainly recommend you use more save slots. In fact, although I've never experienced it: apparently saves can become corrupted if you overwrite an old save with a new one (the 'quicksave' and 'autosave' slots are particulary prone to fubaration, I'm told). The Morrowind Code Patch - which I believe you're using - is supposed to fix that problem, but I've no experience with that patch as I'm uncomfortable with the notion of anything that alters the .exe. Even minor corruption of a savegame might contribute to instabilities, though.

If you are willing to go through a fair amount of hassle to see if you have any problems with your install/plugins/saves, then try Wrye Mash:
http://wrye.ufrealms.net/

You have to download Python plus a Python GUIupdate to run Wrye Mash, and Wrye Mash is very user-unfriendly at first (the UI isn't particularly logical and the instructions are rather... abstract) but once you get the hang of it, it is very good for cleaning up any potential problems (and in future, if you run a heavily-modded Morrowind, for managing the plugins smoothly).

- Dialogue. Yeah, the non-essential dialogue is very uninspired. Fortunately the Less-Generic-NPCs series of plugins really changes that. I didn't recommend it initially because it seemed to go too much against the intent of a "pure" Morrowind playthrough. But for future games... or if you just can't stand the vanilla dialogue any longer, see:
http://lgnpc.sabregirl.com/

- Varro is very cool. (And this comes from someone who generally hates the Imperial Legion faction.)

- As far as hitting the equipment jackpot goes, really, you've just been well rewarded for exploring and seeking things rather than just following the paths laid out. Good for you.

- Glad to see you are handling the travelling without apparent frustration. How are you dealing with encumberance? That's always an issue for me.

- Be interesting to see if your views on the Great Houses changes as the game develops. That's not suggestive of spoilers; rather, just that my views on the Hlaalu/Redoran/Telvanni certainly altered a bit as I got more into the politics of the island, and I'm wondering if that is unusual.

- You'll certainly not run out of stuff to do, but if the experience ever starts becoming slightly repetitive or chore-like, then you might consider doing one or two of the first main-plot quests to re-spark your enthusiasm (danger being, of course, that you'll get sucked into the main plot to the exclusion of all else ).

- Navigating Vivec can really be off-putting at first. Good that you've got a handle on it already.

- Don't worry too much about missing out on the miscellaneous quests. If you are talking to every bozo you meet you'll get most of them, and the only way I know to get every single last damn one of them is by using a big fat spoiler sheet.

 

Joacqin - there's several good sources of Daedric weapons. Dram Bero is an easy one, but they also drop quite frequently from Dremora. An easy way to get a Dremora to appear is to go into a Daedric shrine and take all the precious gems that are there as offerings; this seems to summon an angry Dremora right behind you, who your level 51 character can easily whack. I think there are also a few tucked away in some of the shrines, in hard-to-reach locations (Levitate and a keen desire to explore every nook and cranny help a lot). I got a Daedric longbow this way just yesterday, in that shrine west of Maar Gan (the one with a propylon index and that blighted orc you need to cure for a Temple quest). Alternatively the Redoran treasury in Vivec is loaded with Ebony weapons - go there, cast Chameleon (the Amulet of Shadows is great - 80% Chameleon!) and go nuts

Luiz - yeah there's been a number of memorable NPCs. Cassius Curio, Baladas, Eno Hlaalu, Creeper (!), even Trebonius for being a complete loony. You could also count the ones I intensely dislike - Sjoring Hard-Heart, Lorbumol, Orvas Dren, Vantinius (after talking to him I don't blame you for hating the Legion! though Varro and Darius are cool). I guess the unlikable NPCs are also very well done - it's obvious they're meant to be unlikable. As I got more into quests my opinion of NPCs has improved a bit. The generic ones are still boring, but there are far more non-generic ones than I thought.

The game lore is very interesting, though again it's marred by uninspired writing. It's not that the writing is bad, just much of it is bland, cold and not very involving. I've had a hard time reading books because there's so many of them and because they just fail to engage me. Some of them are entertaining though. The biographies of Barenziah were particularly fun because the quest I'd done for her back in Daggerfall specifically dealt with the book, so seeing it rewritten to show her in a much more positive light, along with the compromising chapter being nowhere to be found, is a nice touch. There's a huge amount of detail that's gone in the history of Morrowind, the Six Houses, the Dwemer (I'm slowly starting to unravel this particular mystery), and all of it is very interesting. It fits extremely well with the alien feel of the landscape.

I don't know why some games constantly CTD on me. I had the same problem with NWN on this system as well as on my older computer. I'm indeed using the Code Patch and it's supposed to fix the save corruption issues, from what I understand by cleaning the saves in a way very similar to Wrye Mash. Seems to be working so far. It may be worth getting Wrye Mash anyway and running it on the save just to be sure. However the CTDs started very early in the game, and they've not really become worse (if anything I'm seeing less of them), so I don't think it's a problem with the save, but rather with the engine not liking something about my configuration.

Encumbrance was a problem at the very beginning, then not so much because I focused on raising Strength alongside Endurance at every level-up. Then when I got the full Ebony armour it's become a problem again. Between armour, general supplies (a dozen Restore Magicka potions, some backup potions and a few scrolls) and quest items I carry around 350-400, which doesn't leave much space for loot. I've become selective about the loot I pick, only keeping things with a high value/weight ratio (Glass weapons, especially daggers, are excellent in this regard). I'm swimming in money anyway (Speechcraft is amazing) so that's not a big issue. Travel has become even more of a breeze since I got the Boots of Blinding Speed and enchanted a very nice ring with 100% Resist Magicka for 2 seconds. I'm only missing 2 more propylon indices too, once I get those I'm all set for fast travel.

I started the main quest and got the Dwemer puzzle box, though I very quickly got sidetracked (again!) after that. I'll definitely go back to it soon, but I wanted to try vampirism first, and Felinoid warned me I wouldn't be able to do that after a certain point in the MQ. So I decided to get the Master Index, then go Vampire for a while, then return to the MQ for good. Oh yeah, and I took a short trip inside the Ghostfence too. That was atmospheric - just coming face to face with the Ghostfence the first time was an impressive sight! I love this aspect of the game, walking around surreal landscape and finding strange and wondrous locations. The same happened to me a few days ago when I reached the bottom of a gorge with a massive Dwemer bridge above me (I had a very similar moment in Redguard). In fact, I find it ironic that Redguard and Morrowind, despite being as completely different as games can get, share a similar sense of exploration and discovery and similar "this looks amazing, how do I get up there?" moments. Except, of course, that Vvardenfell is several zillion times the size of Stros M'kai.

So far I'm happy with my hoice of Hlaalu, mainly because Cassius Curio is crazy-funny and Dram Bero is pretty cool. I'll let you know how my opinion of the Houses goes.

 

I have looted most of the places you mention and killed several summoned dremoras, I have just been unlucky with what type of daedric weapon they drop. I have had everything drop except a katana or longsword. Right now I am using a weapon with a name, that seems to be outside the normal classifications. Do not remember the name, M something two handed sword with good damage and on use enchantment that is quite powerful. It is worth a few hundred thousand gold, gah cant remember the name I just found it in smoe cave with mages in iirc.

I am going unarmored but I am collecting armor sets and it is hard to not use some. You can wear so much stuff, a full set of clothing and a full set of armor that is a whole lot of enchantments and with azura's star and the ability to summon golden saints it doesnt matter if the chance to succeed with an enchantment is low you got unlimited tries. Going to wait until I get a full daedric and then go heavy armor I think, just for looks (there are some wicked looking helmets out there). Too bad they stunted medium armor it is really my favourite armour type in Morrowind.

 

Forget what I said about no CtDs last night I had two in quick succession and I also noticed some graphic glitches I have never seen before. Do not know if it is the game or my computer acting up. Either way it turned me into a sad panda.

 

Sorry to hear about your CTDs. I'm still getting a few from time to time as well. What kind of graphic glitches are you getting? I think I've seen a few weird ones, but nothing too bad or distracting. One of the more annoying glitches I get in Vivec is that I seem to be able to fall through the floor and into the water if I'm in the middle of a jump when the game loads the next cell. It happens quite often on the bridges connecting the various cantons.

Not long after my last post I decided it was time for a change in lifestyle. So I found a tomb full of vampires (just West of Ald'ruhn), got porphyric hemophilia, and woke up as a vampire three days later. I got lucky and was bitten by a Quarra vampire, so I got a big boost to Strength. Playing as a vampire is much more difficult than I expected, as te vast majority of NPCs refused to talk to me and even the few who did talk (namely the Mages Guild and the Telvanni) wouldn't offer any services. This meant no training, which was a big pain at level-ups. I did manage to get quite a few vampire-only quests, and some of them were very interesting. I admit to cheating when it comes to the Mastrius quest; had Felinoid not told me about him and where he was staying there's just no way I would have even thought of going inside the Ghostfence, let alone finding his tomb. That quest did net me Spellbreaker, which was my main shield for some time (until yesterday, when I found and enchanted a lovely Daedric Tower Shield). As much as I enjoyed the uniqueness of life as a vampire it's not really a viable long-term plan. Even though I could still get Mages Guild jobs I couldn't complete them because they required talking to regular people, and the sun damage and inability to use any means of transport other than the Propylon Indices (and my own spells) made getting around irritating, so I reverted back to normal.

At this point I decided it was really time to do something about the MQ. So I went back to Caius and got it going again... only to be told, after just one mission, that he needs to "think about" the documents I got him from the informants. This game really tries its hardest to keep you away from completing the main line! Many more side quests later Caius finally gave me another task and it's been smooth sailing since. Now that I've gone a bit into the MQ I have to say it's very interesting, although it's a shame it's strictly linear (I miss the branching plotlines and complexity in Daggerfall). One interesting aspect is that almost every faction has a completely different take on what really happened between Nerevar, Dagoth Ur, the Dwemer and the Tribunal. So far no one seems to have the correct version (or maybe they all do?): the Temple claim Nerevar was killed by Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal carry on his will, the Ashlanders believe the Tribunal betrayed Nerevar and killed him, everyone has a completely different version of how the Dwemer disappeared (I've yet to find one that will satisfy Trebonius)... then while in the Sixth House Base I find this lovely note from Dagoth Ur, who calls Nerevar "old friend" (and not sarcasticfally) and seems very hurt that Nerevar betrayed him... what? Everything up to now has very, very clearly set Dagoth Ur as the Big Bad, and short of a massive Wall Banger Twist I can't see this changing. The whole "chosen one fulfills prophecy" bit had me expecting a very cliche plot, but now I'm starting to think the storyline may hold some surprises.

In other news, I now have Goldbrand, a most amazing weapon. I'm starting to see Daedric armour too (got the greaves and the tower shield so far), and with Azura's Star and the occasional Golden Saint I've started using permanent effects in my enchantments. I think I'm not too far from maxing all my attributes except Luck and Personality, the latter because Mercantile rises far, far too quickly and I didn't take advantage of the 5x multipliers it was giving me at the time, so now I'm stuck with too few increases left in Speechcraft and Illusion. I'll soon have to start raising the attribute 1-2 points at a time.

A word or several on mods. I've madea a couple of mistakes with the mods I picked. A minor one is that I got a mod that fixes an issue with Bloodmoon, then later found out the issues is already fixed in the Patch Project (which I'm using). I know, I should have checked first... and trying to load my saves without this mod causes some errors which may or may not turn nasty later on, so I've just left it in the hope the two fixes won't conflict with each other. The more serious issues has to do with the unofficial patches I've been using. The Patch Project is just great. It fixes tons of issues and it does so very naturally; in most cases I only know the bugs exist because others have mentioned them or I've seen them in the project readme. Oddly enough however it doesn't fix some incredibly glaring typos, such as two Morag Tong quests being labelled as Mages Guild in the journal (really no big deal though). The Code Patch is pretty good too, and although it modifies the game executable I can recommend it with no reservations. I've read some incredibly long rants about how some of the changes are not bugfixes, but the patcher is very informative and describes in detail exactly what each item do. The patch is also modular and you get a choice in exactly which fixes to install; furthermore they're nicely divided into "bugfixes" and "gameplay tweaks", so there's no obligation whatsoever to install any of the tweaks if you feel they unbalance the game (I didn't install any of them but went with all the bugfixes). Unfortunately, the last patch I installed, Object Permanence, is not one I recommend. It fixes some incredibly minor things, like quest items being removed from your inventory but not placed in the NPC's, but instead introduces some very nasty bugs. I've had five until now, and all but one resulted in a complete game crash. Good thing the Construction Set is so easy to use, as I just went in there and fixed the patch (hah!) myself. While doing so I was left with the impression that the mod ha some shoddy work: all of the bugs so far are due to very basic syntax errors. It shows both a lack of professionalism in the way the changes were made in the CS and a complete lack of adequate testing. It's not as if the bugs are minor - if you try to complete a quest you WILL crash the game. Unfortunately the mod description mentions that it fixes the spontaneous deletion and generation of quest items, so I thought that was all within the player inventory, not the NPC's, so I got the impression the mod was absolutely essential. As it is I'm probably staying away form this one if I replay the game.

 

The glitch I noticed was that smoe items, rings mostly I had put down on a table was all black. I have had one crash since those two so it is no biggie. I think it can be due to my saves getting big or something. I have changed the gameworld quite a bit.

I am closing in on the last third of the main quest and I really should start paying more attention to the story and such. I was vaguely aware of the things you mentioned but I tend to skim a lot.

I am archmage of House Telvanni now, it means I have a very cool stronghold. Too bad it is in the middle of nowhere and I have no interest in moving my mark spell from the mage's guild and their teleporters.

Got myself a daedric dai-katana I enchanted myself with the soul of a golden saint, 60 shock dmg on strike. I can finally oneshot all those nasty cliffbreakers. I do need to start to rest now and then or it and other items never recharge. Ziad, if you do the telvanni quests you get two kickbutt pieces of daedric armour, chest and greaves with 50pts of constant feather on them. Very very nice.

 

Been enjoying your updates, guys, as usual, but been rather busy with my own game to respond.

The tone of the lore and the books is interesting. I felt something similar, and it took effort to sit and try to digest some of them. Then I experienced several {neo}"whoa"{/neo} moments(*) and realised just how much thought had gone into the lore, history and culture of the island. The Daggerfall books were far more overtly entertaining, but in retrospect seem like Ren-Faire material compared to the core of the Morrowind writings. And Vivec's "Lessons" books are completely mental, which I love.

Baladas is one of my all-time favourite NPCs, although I only fully appreciated him playing as a Telvanni member. And you'll not satisfy Trebonius' "send this ambitious youngster away on an impossible task so they won't threaten my position" quest until much, much later...

Spoiler

ie, until after finishing the Main Quest, IIRC (and I may not be remembering correctly)

...still, his shock when you finally come up trumps is classic. He is such a pillock.

My own response to encumberance issues is an unhealthy addiction to Fortify Strength potions for "loot runs". Selective looting is far cleverer, though beyond my meagre self-discipline.

I've never tried vampirism in Morrowind, as I'd heard it kind of killed off progress - which your reports ratify - but I s'pose I really should give it a go one of these days (if only to cross it off the list).

Concerning the main quest:
One of the more unique aspects to the Elder Scrolls seems to be that personal opinions or favouritism or perspective or political expediency/necessity on part of the writers of history and keepers of lore is crucial. Perspective and bias is endemic, and it matters, if you're ever to figure out the real truth. Daggerfall did this in several key (but localised) matters in its Main Quest(s); with Morrowind the entire MQ is like that. Hardly surprising seeing the crucial events happened 3000 years previously, and every relevant faction has tweaked an interpretation of those incidents to serve their own goals in the intervening time. I like that. (Though it's a far cry from the less cynical - or realistic - treatment of lore and history that exists in most CRPGs.) Can be frustrating too. But Morrowind is one of the few games where perspective and interpretation have meaningful importance. Torment is another. The hallmark of a great RPG (as opposed to a very good one), IMHO.

Not sure that Morrowind's MQ is really that much more truly linear than Daggerfall's, although it does give that impression. IIRC, Daggerfall did give a much greater sense of non-linearity through all its optional "main" quests branching off the truly main one, but deep down they really were optional ... I think ... heh, it's been years since I last played Daggerfall though. Hmmm.

Does anyone actually use the Propylon indices to get around? I've never seen much point in them as the strongholds are usually in the middle of nowhere... why would I use them to get anywhere? (Probably I've just been spoilt with the MultiMark plugin, though.)

By the sounds of it, I should put aside my reservations about the Code Patch and give it a go at some point. Heard it was very good in giving control over what aspects to tweak. (Just always had a "thing" about unoffical patches that change an exe.)

(I'm sure I had far more interesting things to say, but I'm running low on coffee...)

(*) P.S. The Ghostfence is impressive. For an example of one of my "whoa" moments, the book...

Spoiler

Ancestors and the Dunmer

...certainly illuminated things concerning the Ghostfence, and aspects of the Tribunal Temple's outlook.

 

Joacqin - I got the same glitch as you a few days ago, except it wasn't an item but all the NPCs - they suddenly all turned black and I couldn't talk to them. I immediately quit the game and reloaded my save (which thankfully was just minutes earlier) and it's been fine since. Between the occasional CTD and this, I keep hoping the game won't completely fall apart on me.

I have the same problem as you with the Stronghold (though mine is Hlaalu and more convenient, being close to Balmora). I started it quite late and it takes a while to build, so now that it's complete I can't really be bothered to move all my stuff from the Balmora Mages Guild, especially since I feel I'm pretty close to the end. Very nice sword you've got, I'm personally using Goldbrand and it serves me well, its base damage is better than any other one-handed weapon I've seen. Since I enchanted my Daedric tower shield with +45 to Strength I really don't feel I can go two-handed anymore. Unfortunately, while I've been able to get quite a few House Redoran quests, it seems that all the Telvanni ones can only be activated if you're part of the house, so I probably won't get those nice Daedric armour pieces

Luiz - Yeah I see what you mean about the books. I did start enjoying Vivec's sermons after I realised he wasn't a "real" god, that puts a very different spin on everything he says. Baladas is pretty entertaining as is, and I've develped a strong liking for Aryon after doing the Telvanni Hortator. I still don't like either Redoran or Telvanni, although maybe the way you get control of the Houses is interesting. The way you get control of Hlaalu is very good and tied in very nicely with the MQ, the Thieves Guild and the Morag Tong, especially since I was doing all four at the same time.

That's one thing I love about Morrowind, the way quests from different lines overlap and tie into each other. With the link to the Camonna Tong all of the Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild and Hlaalu lines keep crossing each other in interesting ways. I've got to the point where I'm about to finish all three and I'm quite happy I managed to get both the Thieves and Fighters lines not to cross each other, though I had to be careful about timing the quests so they didn't conflict. Accepting any of Sjoring's jobs was obviously out of the question, but I can see how things would have played differently had I not given Eydis the Bitter Cup, or had I given it to her before doing her quests (I suppose that would have skipped the ones where she sent me after Thieves Guild people).

I've stopped looting at all now that I have hundreds of thousands and nothing to do with them (training isn't that expensive, and I have a strict "no training class skills" policy). I never rest, as I rely on soul gems to recharge all my magic items. With Azura's Star it's incredibly easy, but even before that the game throws so many empty soul gems at you. Combined with the huge number of cliff racers and you never run out of instant recharges. Speaking of cliff racers they were annoying me a lot, until I started relying exclusively on bows to take them down. With a daedric bow in good condition I can snipe them off in one hit, which is great (and boosts my level and my Agility). I do use the Master Index a lot. With only one teleport anchor I have it near the guy who gave me the Index, so I can get to him from anywhere. From him a quick Almsivi takes me to Balmora and my stash, and I can use him to instantly get to any stronghold, and from there an Intervention will take me just about anywhere on the map. The only places I have to walk to are Ghostgate, Dagon Fel and Tel Branora, but from the closest Almsivi/stronghold it's not a long walk. If you're using the regular indices then I guess it's far less useful, as you need to get to one of the strongholds first.

Regarding the MQ, it does branch out and become completely non-linear for the Nerevarine and Hortator part. That was quite good - very little dungeoneering and a lot of talking. Speechcraft is fantastic - I have no idea how you can get some of the councillors to vote for you without it. I can see why the running around would get tedious after multiple replays, but for a first time it was fun to talk to everyone and some of the tasks were very original, such as finding a bride for one the Ashlanders, or blackmailing Orvas Dren (I did that to become Hlaalu Grandmaster, at which point Orvas just gave up and named me Hortator). Then I got to possibly the most interesting part of the game so far, the meeting with Vivec. I mentioned before how much the quality of the writing varies between NPCs, and Vivec really convinced me there was more than one writer at work. As much as some of the general exposition is boring, Vivec's exposition is fascinating. What makes it really stands out is that he's the only living character (apart from Dagoth Ur) who was present at all these events, yet I'm not sure I believe everything he says. There are subtle hints he's not telling the truth on all accounts, and it's very obvious he's holding things back (he almost says it outright at one point). As much as I'm curious to find out what really happened, part of me is hoping the Ultimate Truth doesn't get revealed. Bethesda have done an excellent job at presenting multiple points of view, sometimes contradictory and sometimes not, with just enough mystery to keep me guessing but not so much that it becomes frustrating, and I feel it would be a shame to have Mr Exposition step out at the very end with a detailed of explanation of What Really Happened. I really wish they had a more polished dialogue system for the generic NPCs and had the same quality for their lines as for the major NPCs, but I guess the game would have never been released.

Thinking about the game's story somehow reminds me of Arcanum. It's funny that the two games have absolutely nothing in common. Even the details of their stories are very different - in Morrowind the PC really is the reincarnated Nerevar, whereas all the prophecy stuff in Arcanum turns out to be entirely bogus. Yet both have one point in common: a big subversion of the "chosen one sent by the good god" prophecies. Morrowind seems to follow it much more closely (whereas Arcanum completely tears it apart by the end of the game), but this meeting with Vivec got me thinking. The Tribunal are supposed to be the benevolent gods who love their people and do only good. There are several hints early on that the Ordinators are abusing Vivec's words and all their excesses and persecutions are done without his knowledge. Yet Vivec himself makes it very clear that, not only did he know, he actively pushed for these persecutions. Sure, his version of what happened to Dagoth Ur and the Dwemer is presented as the "truth", but that's only because it makes him look good, and even then he admits that, concerning the Tools, Dagoth Ur was right and they were all wrong. Even though he then claims that Dagoth Ur was corrupted by the Tools by the time they got back to him, I have no trouble believing Dagoth Ur refused to hand them because he knew the Tribunal would use them and he still believed they should be destroyed; his corruption would have come afterwards, as a result of feeling betrayed by Nerevar and the Tribunal (Dagoth Ur's words seem to support this, and while he's the designated Big Bad Guy I don't find him any less trustworthy than Vivec).

Anyway I'm probably overanalysing this way too much, but that's the nice thing about not having everything clearly spelled out: you're free to put the pieces together yourself.

 

There's no such thing as overanalysing Morrowind's MQ.

Vivec's certainly an interesting character. Admirable in many ways and rather loathsome in others. When players go into that meeting with him with some kind of picture already in mind about what he's like - as I did the first time - his complexity can rather screw with those simpler expectations.

To me, in hindsight, Vivec's involvement in the persecution of the Dissidents makes sense in many ways. He's had great power and almost total control of (much of) the island for millennia, but any dictator, however benevolent, is going to react to the waning of their power (as Dagoth Ur's influence spreads in this case) with an attempt to reaffirm control; ie, having the Ordinators stamp down hard. It's a political reflex.

(And in a nicely ironic twist on the realities of power, the Ordinators are drawn from House Indoril. There's nothing like being persecuted by a group that was once your own clan, for the crime of actually being the incarnation of that clan's greatest historical hero and leader. I'm sure that situation appealed to Vivec's sense of humour very well.)

Also, I suspect Vivec probably doesn't (/didn't) want to believe that the Nerevarine prophesy could come to pass no matter what his present difficulties were, because, regardless of the exact truth of what happened 3000 years ago, he sure as heck doesn't want an incarnation of Nerevar wandering into his hall reminding him of whatever went down. Even if the Nerevarine viewed Vivec and his past actions in the most favourable possible light, you can sort of imagine Vivec's horror at the notion of someone strolling in saying, "Hey old buddy! Y'know, I go away for three thousand years, and when I come back the whole place has gone straight to hell. What on earth have you been playing at, big vee?"

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Any thoughts on the dungeon design in Morrowind as it compares to earlier ES games?

I was kinda relieved that most dungeons and caves were more compact than those random monstrosities in Daggerfall, but disappointed in the design of a few.

The Dwemer fortresses/ruins were particularly disappointing to me. Here are these grandiose structures with soaring towers and unpronouncable names, and when you go inside there's just a handful of rectangular rooms. Seemed like the opposite of a TARDIS: far bigger and more impressive outside than in.

I was also oddly underwhelmed by the old Dunmer strongholds, mainly because of the interior textures: wooden crossbeams with black rock and mortar walls. That's so utterly generic, they could've been cut'n'pasted from any old DOS CRPG. I know these places are ancient, but I expected even the Dunmer/Chimer of old to have a more distinctive, and frankly exotic, construction method.

I liked that although 90% of the "dungeons" were fairly small, the two biggies on the MQ (Kogoruhn and the Urshilaku Burial Chambers) were truly monstrous. They kind of harked back to the days of Daggerfall somewhat, and while far less annoying to navigate, they were vast sprawling locations that you really had to patiently explore. I almost went bonkers searching every nook and cranny in Urshilaku, and I admit I had to check a walkthrough concerning Kogoruhn because I was sure I'd gone too far in and passed the third thingie you're supposed to find (seeing as the first two items were just inside the door).

----

Never got far in Arcanum; might try it again at some point but I found the party movement and navigation stuff just too annoying (classy soundtrack though).

Note to self: try the master index plugin next time around, Luiz.

 

Yeah I noticed the Indoril/Ordinators irony as well. As for meeting Vivec I expected the benevolent god whose orders are being twisted to extremes by overzealous servants (at one point I was even wondering if Vivec was still around, or if his palace was empty and the charade was still going). I did not expect him to be fully in control of every decision and so machiavellan about it. I can see why he made those decisions, but still didn't agree with him, especially since I had the constant feeling he wasn't being entirely forthcoming.

Dungeon design... at first I was relieved too, but I'm one of those people who loved the spaghetti monsters of Daggerfall (maybe closer to love/hate). Bethesda seems to have gone too far in the opposite direction with incredibly tiny and strictly linear dungeons. I couldn't understand why some are split into several areas as well, especially when each area is one small corridor and two small rooms. Frankly the dungeoneering isn't the high point of the game for me, after a while they all look the same anyway, and when they're so small there's not much to differentiate one mine or cave from another. I did get the same disappointment witht the Dwemer ruins - some look incredible while walking to them, then when you get into them they're just a couple of small rooms. That's it?

Had a fun moment today meeting Sheogorath. He was pretty nuts in Daggerfall (meeting him in the eyesocket of that giant floating skull was one of the weirdest moments I've had in any game) but he doesn't seem to be getting any better from game to game. Killing a netch with a fork? Specifically the "Fork of Horripilation"? Err... Nice change from the other Daedra though.

Since the only thing left to do on the MQ is go get Keening and Sunder and pay a visit to Dagoth Ur, I've put it on hold again while I take care of unfinished business (killing Sjoring put me head of both Thieves and Fighters). I'm especially behind with the Temple, since the very first pilgrimage took ages and I couldn't do any of their quests while getting votes for Hortator and Nerevarine.

 

Man, not played for a week. Got a CtD and lost a full 20 minutes of gametime and everytime something like that happens in a game I put it away for between a week and forever.