Morrowind

[Marek]

Whoah, I never knew you could have your own house. I basically just entered a place in Balmora, killed its residents, threw out all their crap and used their shelf space for my important but heavy items. Since the world is persistent, you can safely leave stuff anywhere.

[MrHoatzin]

I can barely withhold myself from showing my absolute nerdism and correct some of the errors you made there, Kingz

What errors, punk?

[Roderick]

Join one of the three local houses. You finish some missions and get a place to call your own. They actually build you a house in the wilderness. If you join the Rosomethingorother your house would be southwest of Balmora on the Odai Plateau, if you join the crazy wizards out east you get an awesome mushroom house somewhere close to Uvirith's Grave, and if you join the noble xenophobes that rule the crab's shell in Ald-Ruhn your house will be somewhere in the ashlands on the road between Maar Gan and Ald-Ruhn.

By Rosomethingorather your probably mean Redoran. But it is they that live in Ald-Ruhn under Skar. The xenophobe dunmer, called Hlaalu (and the House of choice because they're so sneaky and political) have their base set in Balmora. You can flay me now for nitpicking.

[MrHoatzin]

By Rosomethingorather your probably mean Redoran. But it is they that live in Ald-Ruhn under Skar. The xenophobe dunmer, called Hlaalu (and the House of choice because they're so sneaky and political) have their base set in Balmora. You can flay me now for nitpicking.

No actually, the xenophobes are under the Shell in Ald-Ruhn. By Resomethingorother I meant Hlaalu. It's been a while. I know that one house had a name that started with R... I just confused them, thasall... I did join the Hlaalu the first time I played the game and had me a house on the Odai Plateau.

I confused the house names, but I am looking at a map of Morrowind when it comes to the place names...

[Roderick]

O.K.

I didn't know the Redorans were xenophobes though. Although I guess that all Dunmer are distrustful of outlanders...

[MrHoatzin]

Every freakin' time I had to deal with the Rododendrons they mumbled something about me being an outsider and therefore untrustable...

[Erkki]

Thanx for the tip. I had actually already joined Hlaalu and now I found a 'land deed' for sale in their treasury in Vivec, which was probably for that house in Odai, I think. It cost 5000. That was all I had at the moment so I decided to wait till they just give it to me for doing quests.

Now I'm back in Mournhold, but still too weak for some of the quests... And nobody is selling healing potions in quantity, and I don't have any herbs and I haven't learned magic blablabla.

Mournhold is great for earning money, though.

[Erkki]

Heh... you can actually buy lots of potions. After you buy what the seller has they reappear in his/her inventory.

I managed to kill a Dark Brotherhood leader now, but lost my companion in the battle (the one who offered to join me at the Royal Plaza). He was getting annoying anyway, always lagging behind.

One thing that is annoying about the sewers in Mournhold is that the monsters respawn way too fast. It seems they do that every time you exit and re-enter an area. We entered one of the Dark Brotherhood "manors" and when came back out again, about 10 of the brotherhood members were waiting for us.

BTW. Is the Brotherhood leader in Mournhold supposed to drop a bow? He fought me with one, even as I was hacking at him with an axe, but his dead body only had a magical short sword and some arrows. Half of him fell *into* the wall/ground, so maybe a bow fell below the ground as well?

I hope it's not a really good bow, if it did

[Metalmickey]

Nice to read about all your Morrowind adventures I really got into for a month, about a year and a half ago now, but stopped playing when I went abroad for 5 months. By the time I got back, it was just too intimidating to continue with, though I keep telling myself I will. So many quests, places, friends and enemies to remember. I believe I may even have some actual paper notes lying around somewhere too.

Going back to the selling of expensive items, I particularly loved trying to launder all that black/green glass armour from the smithy in the gatepost at the edge of the barren ash bit near the middle. Part-exchanging endlessly for less valauble and heavier goods, then eventually starting to have to spend money on ways to let me carry more and leaving stashes of admantium and plate armour everywhere. I never really looked on the net for the best way of doing things, but had a great time figuring it out myself. I also got to the stage where there's a huge list of items that I can't sell to certain shopkeepers, since I robbed the same items from them before, and they'll realise I'm the thief it I try to sell back to them, even if it's a while ago and not even exactly the same item, but just the same type.

From anyone who's played through the 2nd half of the main story, or been through the tribunal expansion part, do you think it would be worth spending the effort to resume my old game again, or will it just be more of the same? I.e. Are the harder to reach areas and quests more interesting, or just different? I will also have to find and re-steal a vital quest item from wherever your confiscated goods go after a guard catches you

[Erkki]

I think I discovered that the monsters in areas like the Mournhold Sewers respawn ONLY when you dispose of their bodies?

Is that true? Because every time I went back for the loot to the Dark Brotherhood hideout when the bodies were still there, I didn't find any new brothers there, but when I took all the loot and got rid of the bodies, they were there again, demanding my blood.

[Trithemius]

I can barely withhold myself from showing my absolute nerdism and correct some of the errors you made there, Kingz

Amen. my brother nerd. :x

[Trithemius]

By Rosomethingorather your probably mean Redoran. But it is they that live in Ald-Ruhn under Skar. The xenophobe dunmer, called Hlaalu (and the House of choice because they're so sneaky and political) have their base set in Balmora. You can flay me now for nitpicking.

Oh well, if you caved, then so can I!

Most of the dunmer are xenophobes, although the Great Houses on Vvardenfell are less xenophobic than some of the Houses on the mainland.

The Telvanni are the kooky mushroom wizards who (generally) prefer outlanders to be slaves, the Redoran are hokey warriors who are Temple traditionalists (but not as traditionalist as the Dres), the Hlaalu are the sneaky rogues who are split into two factions - one who profits from Imperial governance and another who wants them out.

The Redoran are based in Ald'ruhn and grant a manor at Bal Isra (between Maar Gan and Ald'ruhn), the Hlaalu are based in Balmora and grant a manor on the Odai Plateau (south along the Odai River, near Hla Oad), and the Telvanni are based at Sadrith Mora and grant a manor at Uvirith's Grave (in the northern parts of the volcanic region of Molag Amur). These are all visible on the 'paper map'.

[Trithemius]

Every freakin' time I had to deal with the Rododendrons they mumbled something about me being an outsider and therefore untrustable...

Joining the Tribunal Temple fixes this - since the Redoran are quite orthodox.

If you were a Hlaalu then they probably weren't fond of you either - the players faction membership effects how people treat you (even moreso if you are using Wakim's Game Improvements).

[Trithemius]

Thanx for the tip. I had actually already joined Hlaalu and now I found a 'land deed' for sale in their treasury in Vivec, which was probably for that house in Odai, I think. It cost 5000. That was all I had at the moment so I decided to wait till they just give it to me for doing quests.

The Hlaalu, true to form, will probably make you pay for it.

Now I'm back in Mournhold, but still too weak for some of the quests... And nobody is selling healing potions in quantity, and I don't have any herbs and I haven't learned magic blablabla.

The good potion vendors should restock pretty quickly - I know that Nalcarya of White Haven (the alchemist in the rich part of Balmora) sells the best (and lightest!) healing potions, two at a time. If you start a new conversation with her, these potions replenish. I expect that the vendors in Mournhold probably work the same, and suggest investing in some bribes to make them friendly.

[Trithemius]

BTW. Is the Brotherhood leader in Mournhold supposed to drop a bow? He fought me with one, even as I was hacking at him with an axe, but his dead body only had a magical short sword and some arrows. Half of him fell *into* the wall/ground, so maybe a bow fell below the ground as well?

I hope it's not a really good bow, if it did

Loot should always appear on the corpse - so as long as you can target part of the corpse, it it all good.

I don't recall any bow on the guy, but it has been a while...

If anyone is having any bother with Morrowind quests then they should definitely check out the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Page. It is very handy, and often has tips for how to work around the niggling bugs in the game (like when critical NPCs get stuck in walls while following you).

[Trithemius]

I think I discovered that the monsters in areas like the Mournhold Sewers respawn ONLY when you dispose of their bodies?

Is that true? Because every time I went back for the loot to the Dark Brotherhood hideout when the bodies were still there, I didn't find any new brothers there, but when I took all the loot and got rid of the bodies, they were there again, demanding my blood.

That seems to be true of most monsters. As a consequence I rarely dispose of cliff-racer corpses (at least until I can make an 'Encounter Off' magical item).

[MrHoatzin]

Dude. Stop spamming. You could've said all of that in one fucking post!

[Trithemius]

Dude. Stop spamming. You could've said all of that in one fucking post!

Sorry, used to threaded views. Dude.

[Erkki]

Has anyone done a behind the scenes look at Morrowind? I searched in a couple of sites but didn't find anything.

[loonyboi]

Behind the scenes in what sense?

I did a couple of interviews with Todd Howard back in my Shacknews days, but I don't know of anyone that actually did a "making of" kind of article.

Considering how long the game was in development, that would be pretty hard to do.

[Roderick]

Bethesda's own site offers some behind the scenes peeks in designer diaries and journals and whatnot. So I think your best bet would be http://www.elderscrolls.com.

[Erkki]

Thanx, i hadn't noticed those.

I actually meant something like the Behind the Games features at GameSpot, not individual designer diaries. But I guess as there don't seem to be any, designer diaries it is

[Erkki]

I can't decide wether to install the "Zed the Merchant" plugin... On one hand I will be able to sell all my expensive stuff, including a Her Hands armor set. On the other hand if I do this I will never have to worry about money again and the sums received from completing quests will be even more ridiculous than they are now. At the moment I have about 130,000. I spent about 100,000 on training already till I got tired of the 'aaaah' sound...

Now if I could sell all my Ebony and Her Hands stuff, I'd probably have more money than I'd ever need in the future?

Damn those RPG traditions. Simply leaving expensive stuff be seems so unnatural

[Roderick]

Crap.

This monday I went to a local toystore. I saw there a budget rerelease of the two expansions for Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, two cd's in one DVD-case. There was no price, so I asked how much it costed. Only 7,50 Euro's! For some reason I still don't know and which is making me kick myself right now, I didn't buy it then.

I returned for it today, and fortunately, it was still in the store. But when I went to buy it, the display suddenly said 49,95! WHAT THE HELL?! Now I don't know whether the first dude was mistaken, but I may have been able to get it for real cheap back then! Why didn't I buy it on monday, WHYYY?!

So I'm kicking myself right now.

[Erkki]

My enthusiasm for the game is kind of starting to wear off (I've probably played too much, should take it slower). I'm moving around so much that it no longer feels like adventuring -- I'm now mostly just solving uninteresting quests and trying to get from A to B in the most efficient way. And the quests that involve dungeons are really boring. Well, most of the combat is boring and even more so because now my character can beat anyone I need to fight easily.

Thankfully, there isn't too much combat required. But the Cliff Racers are getting highly annoying (they actually do respawn even if you leave their bodies be).

And all the places are starting to feel very flat and desolate and there's not much variation in colors. Gothic's (both) worlds seemed to have this more mountainous and colorful look (and more realistic I think). I don't know if it's simply because Gothic was more hand-designed or that Morrowind's mountain ranges are running parallel too much and are nearly always of the same height (well, except the red mountain, which I've been near once so far).

I still like it a lot, though. But I think there is actually too much to do, too many places to visit. I hope Oblivion will be a bit more focused, but still very open-ended.