Returning After Several Years/Looking for Game Play Advice

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:20 pm

Back in early 2003 I recieved Morrowind that came packaged with my then new ASUS Ti4200 video card. I really didn't have a clue as to what type of RPG it was except for a few online readings. My experience was in line with the classic D&D RPG, so Morrowind was definitly a whole new world (with no pun intended).

To make a long story short, I didn't "get" Morrowind. In fact, I was a long way from finishing it before I uninstalled it. A major reason for doing so was because it was eating up way too much time. A second major reason was that I realized that I went off on a tangent meaning I concentrated solely of the Fighters Guild quests, ran all over the place exploring here or there and getting off on other tangents, realizing I never took character creation serious enough in the beginning or along the way, and I lost track of the main quest. I couldn't even remember how to get back to the main quest! A lot of this, again, had to do with my inexperience as well as misunderstanding the genius behind Morrowwind. A third reason was that I experienced game crashes even after patching. So [with minor spoiler in #2]...

I'd like to reinstall this game and start out on the right foot. I realize it is an immense world and there is a lot of specializing you can do, so when I say "on the right foot" I don't mean linear play just smarter roleplaying in this vast open game. My first and only character from years ago was a Breton. Here are my questions:

1. I want to play this game on my socket 939 system. I have Windows XP Pro SP2, Athlon 64 3200+ cpu (2.0), 2 gigs of RAM, and an X800GTO 256 meg card. Since Morrowind is an older game will I experience any conflicts with this newer hardware?

2. At this time I only want to install Morrowind. I do have Tribunal and the reason I purchased it then was because it fixed the horrendous quest Journaling.

Spoiler

However, Tribunal also sent assassins your way until you entered Mournhold. I was getting sick and tired of waking up and dying!

So is the latest patch for for Morrowind sufficient? Are there non-official patches that are also helpful?

3. What mods do you recommend to increase gameplay and where can one find them?

4. From your own gaming experience what advice can you share that I might want to consider in order to enjoy Morrowind more? I do remember that the travel became tedious, but I am sure I wasn't wise in tackling that either.

5. I do not like playing mages, but I do like magic supporting a fighter class or a thief, so my favorite combinations are fighter/mage or thief/mage with the fighter/mage combination my first preference. What do you think are the most important 5 major and minor skills that would be good to concentrate on?

Thanks for reading this very long post and thanks for any advice you can give me.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:10 pm

Be sure to read the mod sticky threads at the top of the forum page. Lots of recommendations, there.

If you can clarify what categories of mods you want--houses, rules tweaks, ease of use, new towns, stores, etc--we'll all be glad to help.

Oh, yes: mods, mods, MODS, muwa-HA-HA-HA-HA...!

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:51 pm

Hi, welcome to Game Banshee!

When I saw the title of this thread and noticed Fable was the last poster, I somehow just knew his reply would involve mods...

Seriously, mods definitely enrich the game and make it far better, so they are worth exploring.

A second major reason was that I realized that I went off on a tangent meaning I concentrated solely of the Fighters Guild quests, ran all over the place exploring here or there and getting off on other tangents, realizing I never took character creation serious enough in the beginning or along the way, and I lost track of the main quest. I couldn't even remember how to get back to the main quest! A lot of this, again, had to do with my inexperience as well as misunderstanding the genius behind Morrowwind.

I think this is very common for people playing Morrowind. Since I am very easily distracted I find it works very well to have an idea of what I want to do before loading up the game. So, for example, I will decide in advance if I'm going to: work on the main quest, work on one of the factions, gather alchemy ingredients, or simply explore.
This is not to say that I never fire up the game and just allow myself to wander and pursue random things, but again, I usually make that decision beforehand. Doing this, at least for me, helps greatly.

However, Tribunal also sent assassins your way until you entered Mournhold. I was getting sick and tired of waking up and dying!

I strongly advise installing Tribunal, and also Bloodmoon (if you can buy it separately these days). Beyond making the journal easier to use, many excellent mods require at least one of the expansions, if not both.
Once you have been able to survive the attack (just make sure you have lots of restore health potions on you), follow the instructions given in your journal, and once you have properly followed up on those, the attacks will stop.

Regarding mods, as fable said, if you give us an idea of the types of mods that interest you, we'll be able to offer suggestions. There are: quest mods, housing mods, texture improvements, tweaking mods... companion mods.... clothing mods... armour and weapon mods... and the list goes on..

Also, in addition to checking the sticky Fable mentioned, you might find these threads of interest:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 85427.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 79816.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 76622.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 76452.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 76103.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 75830.html

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:45 pm

Thanks to both of you for your replies and your welcome. Man, after reading on the mods it is like being in a candy store! :mischief:

I am going to think long and hard on what ones I'd like to add. It makes my head spin with all the options; certainly a creative community. I can tell you that...

1. I'd like to have a mod whereby merchants can actually have the gold to purchase from you high priced items, etc.

2. Graphic enhancements to the landscape, creatures, etc. Story/plot is what I most look for in a game. I have seen too many FX driven games but lacking in any plot whatsoever which means quick boredom. Yet, any graphics enhancements are certainly a plus.

3. I read the sticky that fable pointed me to and I like the idea of the magic enhancements.

A few more questions:

A. If I load the Tribunal expansion then I won't need another patch, correct? Have all bugs been dealt with? I remember my game crashes were due to something in the .ini file but I can't rtemeber what it was.

B. How does one load mods?

C. Can you load mods at any time or must they be added in the beginning to avoid save game corruption?

D. As I asked in my previous psot, are there any newer hardware issue with Morrowind? My system is 5 years after its initial release.

Thanks again.

Bloodstalker · Post by **Bloodstalker** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:02 pm

Well, fable and DW are more modlingual (invented word

) than I am, but I do recall seeing a mod not too long ago that was supposed to stop the assasination attempts on your character from the Tribunal expansion until a certain point. I can;t remember if it was level or event triggered though. I'm thinking I found it at planetelderscrolls, but could be wrong. Just search around the site for it.

Also, the game should probably run fine on your system, but I haven't encountered anyone who didn't have problems with the game crashing at some point. I would advise you to save often since it's kind of a recurring theme, at least in my experience. There are also some things you can do to improve perfomance here :Tweak Town Guide - Planet Elder Scrolls

To load mods, usually it requires simply placing everything into the data files folder. The mods should come with instructions for that though, just check the readme after you unzip them.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:46 pm

Three mods I'm currently using are Juniper's Twin Lamps, Oluhan (very good) and Herbalism Lite, a must have IMO.

I'd definitely recommend Tribunal at least, a lot of the better mods need it, and I agree with DW (no surprise there

) about getting Bloodmoon if you can, for the same reason.

The Dark Brotherhood attacks aren't a problem if you do two things, (Spoilers Highlight to read)

Spoiler

1. Always sleep with your back to a wall/large rock, basically anything to stop the buggers spawning behind you.

2. Always make sure to have a Frost Bite spell ready to fire (all DB Assassins are Dark Elves and therefore extremely resistant to fire, but vulnerable to frost). Zap them, and despoil their corpses, good for 2000 GP each, and they wear good armour for early in the game too.

Don't be frightened to use the construction set, it's fairly easy to gt the hang of. you can always de-select the mod you create if you mess up. Just avoid creating new items until you know what you're doing. One thing you can do is to edit Creeper thus (Another spoiler:

Spoiler

Under the 'Creature' tab look for Scamp_Creeper and double click to select; Select the AI tab at the bottom of the subsequent page; select the 'Services' tab on the next page; change the value of Barter Gold (currently 5000) to whatevr you like; save; save; then save the file using whatever name you like. Select your mod in 'Data Files', and voila money's no problem. Creeper can be found in Ghorak Manor in Caldera.

Enjoy, it really is a great game.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:58 am

Ferrick wrote:Thanks to both of you for your replies and your welcome. Man, after reading on the mods it is like being in a candy store! :mischief: I am going to think long and hard on what ones I'd like to add. It makes my head spin with all the options; certainly a creative community. I can tell you that...

I know that feeling... due my computer being a bit old, it's actually very hard to select which mods install each time, as there is tons of very good and interesting ones...

1. I'd like to have a mod whereby merchants can actually have the gold to purchase from you high priced items, etc.

There are severall which does that, including several other things:
Private Island - House mod, which includes trader who has enough money to bo everything...
Seyda Neen Complete - Heavy city mod which expans Seyda Neen (the starting village) very much, also includes several traders with huge ammount of cash.

Or, you can just search from Planet Elder Scrolls fro mods, I'm sure there are plenty of those...

C. Can you load mods at any time or must they be added in the beginning to avoid save game corruption?

Some mods works fine to older saved games. This is usually stated in the mod description and/or readme file. But it's preferable to start a new game after installing any mods.

D. As I asked in my previous psot, are there any newer hardware issue with Morrowind? My system is 5 years after its initial release.

Shouldn't be, though I'm not 100% sure if there is conflicts with specific hardwares...
It's actually good that you have newer computer, as it's then able to handle more and heavier mods...

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:30 am

Believe it or not I was able to find Bloodmoon as a stand-alone. I decided that I will install Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon all in one sitting.

So while I wait for Bloodmoon to arrive this gives me some time to consider Mods that would like to download. I really appreciate the many links and I have read many of them. Still there are so many to chose from and so many online Mod sights to read that it is a daunting task to choose! This is what I have been thinking so perhaps you can steer me in the right direction:

1. Better character as well as NPC textures, i.e., heads and bodies. When you compare the original to community builds, community builds win hands down.

2. The ability for merchants and peddlers to a) have more expendable gold to purchase items from my character, b) said merchants and peddlers to gain more gold over time, c) perhaps rare or hard to find items.

3. Better magic recovery.

4. Definitely landscape textures.

* If you think of anything else that would be a good addition I'd appreciate your suggestions.

* I have been thinking of playing a Breton fighter/mage with the birth sign of The Lady or The Mage. I still need to consider my major and minor skills.

Can you join two guilds at the same time? I was thinking of taking this course of action in order for me not to do what I did before: Begin with the main quest and do a few of the requirements, then join the Fighters Guild in Balmora and do a few of the quests, then join the Mages Guild in Balmora and do a few quests as well and then cycle through, i.e., main>fighter>mage and then back to main and keep repeating. Doable?

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:34 pm

First .....great big welcome to the forums...

May I suggest looking through some past threads....DW, Fable, Kipi and I have all, at one time or another listed the mods we were/are using......
Don't remember title of all the threads, but 2 recent have been...
Bad new, good news, re-install....and I believe Kipi's had re-install in the title somewhere.....Also has discussions on conflicts and problems.
My problem is every time I read a new thread..I get more ideas for mods...:laugh:

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:46 pm

Ferrick wrote: 1. Better character as well as NPC textures, i.e., heads and bodies. When you compare the original to community builds, community builds win hands down.

2. The ability for merchants and peddlers to a) have more expendable gold to purchase items from my character, b) said merchants and peddlers to gain more gold over time, c) perhaps rare or hard to find items.

3. Better magic recovery.

4. Definitely landscape textures.

* If you think of anything else that would be a good addition I'd appreciate your suggestions.

* I have been thinking of playing a Breton fighter/mage with the birth sign of The Lady or The Mage. I still need to consider my major and minor skills.

Can you join two guilds at the same time? I was thinking of taking this course of action in order for me not to do what I did before: Begin with the main quest and do a few of the requirements, then join the Fighters Guild in Balmora and do a few of the quests, then join the Mages Guild in Balmora and do a few quests as well and then cycle through, i.e., main>fighter>mage and then back to main and keep repeating. Doable?

1. *[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=213"]Better Bodies[/url]
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=661"]Changing Faces NPC Replacer[/url] or [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1007"]New NPC Replacer[/url]. These are both excellent, it really boils down to personal preferences. Each of these replacers also adds playable heads and hair

2. *[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1179"]Suran Estate[/url]. This is actually a house mod, but it comes with a merchant that has a large amount of gold. Ravensong's house mods are very nice, so if you want a place to live as well, this might also appeal.
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2710"]Black Orchid Trader[/url]
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1249"]Creeper Gold[/url]. This one is a pretty serious cheat, I'd personally suggest Black Orchid instead, but obviously, your call

* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4475"]Consignment Chests[/url]; this one is also less of a cheat since even though you can sell high priced goods, you don't get full value in return.

3. I'd suggest one of the following:
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2665"]Advanced Magicka Regeneration[/url]
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1222"]Amulet of Magicka Regeneration[/url]
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1391"]Aproga's Magicka Regenerate[/url]
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=888"]Fair Magicka Regen[/url]

4. *[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3821"]Ultimate Textures Complete[/url]
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3913"]Ultimate Textures landscape add-on[/url] (be sure to get the fix for this, there is a link on the same page.)
My older machine runs Ultimate Textures surprisingly well.
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=403"]Visual Pack XT[/url]. This apparently is hard on older machines.

4. Your character sounds just fine. Yes you can join multiple guilds, just be careful of conflicts, for example there is a conflict between the Thieve's and Fighter's guilds. You can also join a Great House, though only one.

Other suggestions:
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4054"]Book Jackets[/url]. Replaces all of the book jackets in the game, this is absolutely stunning work, be sure to get the accompanying mods for Tribunal and Bloodmoon as well. (install after your main texture replacer)
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3149"]Lantern Replacer[/url]. I never play without this, it's gorgeous!
* [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5161"]Souly Soul gems[/url]
*[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4311"]Subtle Magic Glow[/url]. Best magic glow replacer I've used, gets rid of the "plastic wrap effect" while maintaining a soft shimmer that indicates an item is magical. Gives a choice of three different looks.
[url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3943"]Alternate Enchanted Items[/url]. Gets rid of that ugly blue swirl on enchanted icons and replaces it with something far classier. Another one I never play without.

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:52 pm

I am certainly checking out the various mods you are directing me to. Thanks. I have another question that I promise you I attempted to research but I couldn't find an answer. So, Bretons receive a racial bonus of 50% resistance to magika. My question is, does this innate resistance interfer with magical items you wear or spells you cast on yourself?

In other words, let's say I need to restore my health and I cast Restore Health on self. Does a Breton's innate ability interfer by making in less potent? How about if I am wearing a ring that allows me to walk on water, is it negated or hampered? Or a weapon that adds extra damage? Are the bonuses dampened? Thanks.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:10 pm

Ferrick wrote:I am certainly checking out the various mods you are directing me to. Thanks. I have another question that I promise you I attempted to research but I couldn't find an answer. So, Bretons receive a racial bonus of 50% resistance to magika. My question is, does this innate resistance interfer with magical items you wear or spells you cast on yourself?

In other words, let's say I need to restore my health and I cast Restore Health on self. Does a Breton's innate ability interfer by making in less potent? How about if I am wearing a ring that allows me to walk on water, is it negated or hampered? Or a weapon that adds extra damage? Are the bonuses dampened? Thanks.

You're welcome

I have never found that the Breton's innate resistance to magic interferes with beneficial magic that you cast on yourself. Others here may have had different experiences, but, personally, I have yet to encounter any sort of a problem.

Indeed, because of their magic resistance, Bretons can become very powerful (though they tend to be weaker at first), this is even more true if you couple their natural resistance with the Atronach birth sign which absorbs 50% of all magic cast at you as well as providing a significant boost to your magic pool, the catch is that your magicka does not replenish by resting, though that really is not a handicap once you know how to counter it.

Just one more suggestion for a mod, which will take full advantage of your having bought Bloodmoon:
[url="http://lovkullen.net/Emma/lokken.htm"]The White Wolf of the Lokken Mountain[/url]
This is a very well done quest mod that eventually gives you companions (if you so choose), and a very nice reward at the end

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:14 pm

See what I mean, Ferrick.....

DW's mentioned another mod that I have not tried....so looks like another download this weekend.:laugh:

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:25 pm

BlueSky wrote:See what I mean, Ferrick.....
DW's mentioned another mod that I have not tried....so looks like another download this weekend.:laugh:

You make me sound as though I'm a corrupting influence or something....

Seriously, Lokken is a really nice mod, it's one of the few quest mods I've actually completed, more than once in fact! *surprised gasp*

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:30 pm

BlueSky wrote:See what I mean, Ferrick.....
DW's mentioned another mod that I have not tried....so looks like another download this weekend.:laugh:

Yeah, I do! There are so many cool mods. In my opinion it is the modding community that keeps a game alive and fresh. I believe this is the reason that the original Neverwinter Nights and the Thief series is still being played though Thief I think is waning.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:36 pm

@Ferrick,
I just remembered something I should have thought of earlier.
When you install everything, doing so in the following order is critical:
Morrowind
Tribunal
Bloodmoon
Bloodmoon Patch
textures (starting with whatever complete texture package you use)
mods

You will, in fact, need the Bloodmoon patch, it fixes a few bugs.

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:38 pm

dragon wench wrote:@Ferrick,
I just remembered something I should have thought of earlier.
When you install everything, doing so in the following order is critical:
Morrowind
Tribunal
Bloodmoon
Bloodmoon Patch
textures (starting with whatever complete texture package you use)
mods

You will, in fact, need the Bloodmoon patch, it fixes a few bugs.

I am really glad you told me this because I didn't know about textures before mods. I take it that you can add mods as you go, but textures need to loaded in the beginning. Correct?

Also, in my 'net research I keep coming across this "Unofficial Patch for Morrowind" and it is designed my Morrowind players to take care of remaining bugs that the other official patches didn't address. Now I know that the Circle of Eight made an unofficial patch for The Temple of Elemental Evil because there were so many bugs that even the two official patches didn't touch. It is actually an excellent patch.

What are your thoughts on the Morrowind community designed patches?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:31 pm

Ferrick wrote:I am really glad you told me this because I didn't know about textures before mods. I take it that you can add mods as you go, but textures need to loaded in the beginning. Correct?

Also, in my 'net research I keep coming across this "Unofficial Patch for Morrowind" and it is designed my Morrowind players to take care of remaining bugs that the other official patches didn't address. Now I know that the Circle of Eight made an unofficial patch for The Temple of Elemental Evil because there were so many bugs that even the two official patches didn't touch. It is actually an excellent patch.

What are your thoughts on the Morrowind community designed patches?

You can add textures after mods, but if you are using the landscape textures you need to be really careful, because a lot of them raise the land. What this means is that if you are using any housemods or the like, there is a far greater chance for conflicts if you load them afterwards. This is not to say that you'll avoid conflicts installing in the order I mentioned, but you will decrease the chances a bit.

To be honest, I've never had cause to use any of the community designed patches... I'd strongly suggest doing a lot of research before installing any of them though.

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:04 pm

I know that a number of great mods are accessed on FilePlanet. However I noticed that it costs money to join; is this acroos the board or only in certain cases.

In other words, are any mods free or does it require me to pay in order to pay, so to speak?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:18 pm

Ferrick wrote:I know that a number of great mods are accessed on FilePlanet. However I noticed that it costs money to join; is this acroos the board or only in certain cases.

In other words, are any mods free or does it require me to pay in order to pay, so to speak?

It's actually free to download mods from File Planet, but they try to make you think you have to pay.
[url="https://login.fileplanet.com/login.aspx?r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fileplanet.com%2fgsid.aspx&sl="]Here[/url] is the page on which you can register, and there is no charge.