Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition - any additional patches needed?

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Hi,

I have installed Morrowind: Game of the year and was wondering if i needed to install additionnal patches or fixpacks, since the Bloodmoon CD of the pack already patches the game.

Thanks!

 

Nope. You're good to go. Though it may be a bit buggy in some areas, you can fix it easily with the Construction Set.

 

Ok thanks Felinoid.
So I've never played any elder scrolls game before...hmm now for character creation... that might take a while!

 

Don't worry, Edmond Dantes. Felinoid is our resident expert on Morrowind. He got me playing it and has been a big help. So don't hesitate to ask questions.

 

ha, thanks for the kind words nakia!
So I'm thinking a "ranger" type character, good combo of ranged and melee + a bit of stealth... Would scout do the trick?

 

Make your own. Choosing one of those pregens is almost guaranteed to get you redundant skills.

General guidelines:
*Pick an armor type and make it a major skill. The less damage you take, the better.
*Pick a weapon type (or two, if you also want ranged) and make it a minor skill. You'll be using it a LOT, so you don't need the rate boost that major gives.

"Necessary" skills (strongly suggested, but I would also urge you to make your own choices):
* Athletics - minor. Because running can get old fast, so you want it to go quick.
* Acrobatics - minor. Because you don't want to levitate to get over a two foot step.
* Security - minor. Because spells can take care of locks, but NOT traps.
* Enchant - major. Because just about anything that a spell can do, an item can do, out of its own continually recharging energy instead of your magicka pool. (Major because the Enchant master trainer is hard to find, and is also hostile. This means your chances of training it up to an extreme level, at least the first time through the game, is almost nil, so you'd best get it moving on its own as quickly as you can.)


Useful skills:
* Marksman - Covers every single type of ranged weapon. But ultimately, you'll be doing the majority of your fighting up close and personal.
* Long Blade / Short Blade - Let's face it, the game is centered around swords. Swords swords swords swords swords. But there *are* other weapon types out there. Give 'em a shot if they interest you; it takes a little work, but they can surprise you.
* Block - For those times you don't want to take damage at all, rather than simply reduce it. Note that you can have a shield while wielding a two-handed weapon, but if you do that it will only add to your Armor Rating. When you're wielding a two-hander, your shield disappears and thus won't block.
* Alchemy - Because even items run out of charge sometimes. Plus you can get some HUGE benefits out of potions that you wouldn't be able to load onto an item, and done right, they can weigh as little as a tenth of a pound each. Rather one-use, though.
* Speechcraft - Manipulation of NPCs is great. Admiration (or bribing) can make merchants' prices lower and get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise, and taunting...well, I won't spoil that one for you.
* Armorer - Because sometimes you want your weapons and armor in top shape regardless of how far from town you are.
* Sneak - Getting in the first hit, at four times damage? Sign me up. You don't even have to be behind someone to backstab, though it does help you remain undetected.


Skills to avoid:
* Unarmored - Uses a "squared" progression instead of direct progression, and can only hit 65 tops. Maybe grab it for beast races (since they can't wear boots or CLOSED helms, and so are bound to have unarmored areas), but otherwise, pick another armor skill unless you're trying to make the game harder.
* Medium Armor - No master trainer in the unmodded game, plus the armor is heavier but no better protecting than Light Armor unless you mix and match from three different armor types out of the Tribunal and Bloodmoon areas. It is NOT becoming.
* Spear - They suck. They really really suck. If you want a high-damage slow weapon, go with axes or, of course, long blades; at least those might have decent enchantments and have one-handed versions. And did I mention spears suck? (Note: one of only two constant effect Spell Absorption items is a spear. But even that shouldn't be used as a weapon except as a last resort.)
* Mercantile - You use this every time you try to ask for a gold value that's "better" than what comes up automatically. Even as a miscellaneous skill, it'll bump itself plenty often.
* Hand to Hand - You've got to take out both Fatigue *and* Health, with no weapon enchantment or ability to increase damage? No thanks.


Now, I know I've actually given you eleven skills out of the "necessary" and "useful" areas, but this is YOUR character. Taking skills strictly for powergaming will tank your experience. Make your own character. Even the "skills to avoid" can be good picks depending on your character. If you want a monk, you go ahead and pick the Unarmored and Hand to Hand skills. It'll be tough (I've tried it myself), but it'll be worth it to conform to your ideal. Never forget that this is a roleplaying game, first and foremost.

[ October 27, 2007, 01:56: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

Honestly I found it to be fairly useless. You never seem to get a "damaging" attack in and you have to charge the shot for it to be of any use (and for it to make the distance )

 

Well what else are you going to do when they're running slowly at you? Plus, with sneak, you can usually get two or three full shots off. Not as much damage as if you'd snuck up behind them and stuck them in the ribs with something pointy, but sneaking at a distance is a lot easier to pull off. Not to mention the extreme advantage that marksman gives you against spellcasters. Nock your arrow and let it fly, then as you're pulling your bow a second time, you can just casually skip out of the way of the spell they cast at you. Even Vivec is a total breeze.

Aim is important, though, and there's a learning curve. Each of the three types of marksman weapons (bow, crossbow, and thrown) has an "off-target" area. Basically, you have to aim a little off from what you're shooting at. It takes practice to learn where exactly that area is, as well as to get used to how altitude seems to work the opposite way than it should: if you're firing upward, you aim lower than you would; if you're firing downward, you aim higher than you would. It's messed up, but once you learn how to do it "properly" (ha), it's very effective.

 

Is marksmanship worse in morrowind then? In Oblivion my character had it at about 20 and at level 35 was taking out trolls no problem without charging the shot hardly at all.

In fact, if you "charge" the shot for about 3 seconds it's almost the same damage as charging it for the full amount. Short distance, but the fact that you can shoot and retreat at the same time means you don't have to spend a lot of time in armor or blocking or taking damage in general.

This is of-course Oblivion experience, not morrowind, so you'd have to wait for felinoids post to see if my comment isn't useless .

 

*cough* Telekinesis *cough* Works fine on the XBox GotY version. I haven't tested it on PC yet, but I assume it's no different.

How useful marksmanship is depends on your character. For sneakers, it's great. Full-blooded warriors might find they never use it, and mages likewise. Aiming can be hard, but my experiences match Fel's and omnigodly's. I really miss it if I don't have it.

 

One of the big complaints regarding Morrowind is combat but I never had any real problem with it. Of course I had Felinoid for a teacher.

My Khajiit was great with hand-to-hand and the graphics even showed her using her claws. Sure the hand-to-hand could have been improved.

With swords, axes and blunts I had no problem. I even had one character using spears simply to try them out. She had gotten one of the magicka spears.

The shorter the weapon the closer you need to be to the enemy just as in real life. And I used block.

I have only used marksmanship a little bit since a fire ball spell will usually do the job. Especially since that fire ball will go until it hits something. The downside is running out of magicka so a bit of marksmanship can help imo. Practice makes better in everything.

Telekinesis works on the PC, Magpie.

I've cheated a bit with magic because I downloaded a plug-in that raises the magicka slowly while you are awake and of course not using it. A few things Oblivion did do right.

 

In some ways, I find combat in Morrowind is more fun than in most other RPGs. This is because once you progress beyond a certain level, there's very little that can easily kill you. Some would say that this makes the game too easy. Me, I prefer it that way, because I can equip my character in a way that is pleasing to the eye and completely in character as well. For example, you can choose to wear a complete set of Imperial Steel armor while you're doing their quests, even though it isn't exactly the best of armors, which appeals to my sense of aestethics.

High armor rating might be convenient, and you'll certainly notice the benefits in battle, but you can manage just fine without it.

Also, spears don't suck. If you want to keep out of range of an enemy's attack, use your spear and back up while attacking. This way you'll also automatically use the spear's most powerful way of attacking.

Your reasons for not picking this skill seem at odds with your choice to group Acrobatics with the useful skills. And Alchemy, for that matter. Acrobatics is so easy to level up, it's almost always the first skill to reach 100 for me, even if it's just a miscellaneous skill.

Alchemy is similarly easy to level up with. Just find a merchant who sells ingredients and restocks every time you talk to him, buy a wadload of ingredients, create potions, and sell them back to buy even more ingredients.

I do agree on your choice of Enchant and Athletics as major skills. They level up only slowly, and so can use the boost majoring in these skills gives to skill increase speed.

 

Sounds like you're using the "jump for forward movement" approach, or possibly the "jumping up slopes" cheese. For me, I do a lot of running, and not a lot of jumping unless it's either down (and I want to increase the fall distance), or I need to in order to reach the area. Putting both as minor skills, they level up very evenly when I play. (Current level 50 Nord has 66 Athletics and 64 Acrobatics.)

Mercantile, OTOH...well, even if you never adjust the amount, you're going to be swimming in money by level 20. I usually make piles of 100,000 drakes in my stronghold, or wherever I've decided "home" is for that character, because I don't feel like my character should be carrying around that much gold as zero weight. To put it bluntly, you don't need Mercantile *at all*, especially if you've got good Speechcraft.

Grinding...ugh. I always make Alchemy a miscellaneous skill, but not because it's easy to raise. I do it because I really don't need high-level potions. I'll train up to 40 or 50 using trainers (usually Balmora Mages Guild), make a couple types of disease-curing potions (one of which also restores health), maybe some levitation potions or water potions, and then let it sit unless I need to replenish my custom potion stock.

EDIT:
Spears...well, let me give you my reasoning, and you can decide for yourself. First the cons:

-All two-handers, so no blocking with a shield. The only weapon style that has no one-handed variants. A minor inconvenience, but still.
-Of the three possible attack types, one is good and the other two are terrible; no just "decent" secondary. (With the exception of the versatile dwarven halberd.) In addition, the one that is good is not the default (for stand and hack when you get bored with combat), and to top it off, it's the forward and back one. So unless you're using the "always use best attack" option, you're forced to look at something during combat akin to a video taped by a guy who would have made love to the zoom button on the camera if he could.
-Slow weapon speed. Usually not even a consideration when paired with high damage, but...
-Low damage for a two-hander. Unless you're wielding a daedric spear (or you've got a Devil Spear, with its Bound Spear enchantment) you're not going to see much damage. Even the piddling-est of battle axes or warhammers can do up to 30 damage, and when a daedric war axe (one-handed) can outshine a daedric spear, AND let you use a shield...well, it's pretty much over.

OTOH, the pros are pretty much limited to unique weapons, where they do have a bit of an edge, at least when comparing them with axes. I won't spoil those here, but some of them are fairly good.

[ October 28, 2007, 13:35: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

Yes, I find jumping faster, especially if you don't want to become too low on fatigue. Plus, jumping is fun. Especially once you get the boots of blinding speed. I could just run and jump around all day (and in the Bloodmoon part of the game you've got no other choice either). Jumping from rooftop to rooftop in Balmora is a fun way to get around.

And what's "jumping up slopes" cheese? Do you mean jumping up a slope so you can jump in quicker succession so you level up acrobatics faster? If that's what it is, then I don't do that.

I see your point about mercantile, though. Although I only sell stuff so I have enough money for an occasional trainer and soulgems and such, having enough money is never a problem, and so you reason that mercantile is never really needed as a skill.

Well, would you really slap people with a spear? Also, the zoom thingie only works that way if you press forward while attacking. If you're doing that, you're not thinking about the weapon you're holding. The spear has the longest range of any weapon, and you should use it as such. So move back while attacking. You stay out of the opponent's range, and use the most powerful attack at the same time.

While this is true for normal weapons, I'd like to return to the argument that you don't need to use the most powerful equipment all the time to survive and thrive in this game (though it does help). While I certainly won't argue that spears are a powerful choice for weapons to use, I find them quite fun to use from time to time, and certainly not useless.

On this theme, there's a benefit to being unarmored, aside from the aesthetical aspects. That is: you can jump a lot higher without armor to weigh you down. The difference is very noticeable, and a part of the reason why I like to wear only common robes. Going cross country in the Ashlands region (that is, jumping from one mountain range to the other), it's almost a requirement.