Morrowind: things not to like

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I've been playing the game on and off since it was released and have reached about level 10. I'm desperately trying to get into the game but am finding it a struggle. Here's why:

- the graphics are good for an RPG but I'm actually a little dissapointed with them (2ghz and Geforce 3) as the characters models are a bit naff as are many of the textures and the animations. The water is nice though (accept where it 'joins' the shore). Not a big problem as I prefer good games to good graphics but a little dissapointment nonetheless.

- the music is bland and boring. The fist game in ages where I wanted to turn it off.

- walking around the landscape is boring after a while. Silt Striders etc do make travelling to some places nice and quick but there are too many location that have to be reached (slowly) on foot. Running makes it less painful but then you risk being kiled by some tiny creature because your stamina has gone.

- I don't mind the combat being so simple though I feel the skill system means I can only really use one weapon type. A party of charcaters would be nice to try different things.

- the charcaters are really dull and boring. I've yet to meet anyone in the game with a personality. This has come as a big shock after oher RPG seem to have tried to push this angle of the game. Basically I just see NPCs as information boards. After the BG, PST and Gothic games you really appreciate how NPCs add to the story and the emotional tie in.

- I haven't cared about any quest I've done yet. This is partley because the NPCs are working for are so wooden. It is also partley down to not getting any real feeling of acomplishment at their completion. In fact some quests don't even seem to tell you that you've finished them.

- The journal is a pain in the arse to use. Why on why can't you have a section for completed and outstanding quests not to mention being able to sort journal entries by the quest they relate to. To overcome the limitations, I'm trying to complete quests as I get them. This is partley restricting the freeform feel of the game.

- The main story seems a bit dull. OK I haven't got that far into it but it hasn't grabbed me in the way that most RPGs do.

- The character developoment and customisation options seem to offer real potential to the expereince and also to add to the replay value. At the moment though I am frustrated that my character can't actually use the customisation options as he hasn't the right skills. I would have thought these magicians that offer services like enchartment would be able to enchanct an item regardless of your skill. Yes they can but your skill limits the process making it a waste of time.

Basically, I'm trying really hard to get into the game but am just finding it a chore at the moment. There just seem to be so many things to remind I'm playing a computer game rather than escaping into another world. I will keep playing now that I've parted with my £30 and hope that it eventually draws me in. But I really wish I'd waited for more review as that would have warned me it wasn't really for me.

In summary, the game is massive but size isn't everything.

 

I agree with every point there, except graphics, I do believe this is the best looking game I've ever played... but while I agree, I don't agree as much. Yes, the characters lack personality, yes it is a flaw, but no, it doesn't really ruin the experience. Sure, it could've been better, but that's a different story.

I just finished the game the other day, even though I played 6 hours a day for the one month I've had it. It isn't the classic that it could've been, I'll admit, but I still think it's the best rpg I've ever tried... I always thought bg2 had a bad rules system, and felt a bit too linear, this game is amazing in both those ways. I have yet to try Gothic though, I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I think all in all the problem is that Todd Howard, the main Elder Scrolls guru, still wants to make a game that's action/rpg, not pure rpg. And so you get the dull characters and the repetitive quests.

 

Yes music sucks, but one more thing i don't like: freedom is bad when it comes to quest tied items and persons, i cant finish game because one preson is missing, i didn't kill her, but if i did i couldn't finish the game, they should have somehow marked all quest important persons or do this: when you kill someone that is "quest essential", someone other takes his role (the game is to big to kill all people in the Vvardenfell )

Edit: Wildfire that is the main reason i don't like it

[This message has been edited by total (edited June 26, 2002).]

 

I don't think that the music is too bad, is just that there is so little of it, and it quickly gets dull and repetitive.

 

Total:
They do have that feature, each time you kill someone who's essential to finishing the main quest, a message will show up at the bottom of the screen saying that.

 

I just started playing Morrowind on the X-Box and its about right for a console RPG. I don't think I'd stick with it on the PC. The great thing about a beautiful looking console RPG is you can play while laying down!
Anyway, I was impressed by some of the graphics, some of the music I thought was pretty good actually but I just started. I agree the NPCs so far are a little wooden. I must say, though, the water just looks great and some of the imagery is very artful.

 

Idoru: Yes i noticed it when i killed Lord Vivec but not when Sharn died! Maybe because i didn't kill him. I think that he is dead and that is why ra doesn't work on him. I think that he died when he "fell through the floor bug".

 

BTW Total, I'm pretty sure that you can use the console to create NPCs who have been killed or are missing, IIRC. Not sure what theexact commands are though.

 

Wohohoo! Why didn't you said that earlyer! Where can i find list of commands for the console? Or some guide to use it?

Edit:
Sorry, i asked before i searched:

Quote: (from www.avault.com)
"PlaceAtPC,[ObjectID],[Count],[Distance], [Direction]
Places the given object into the world near the player. For example: PlaceAtPC "sharn gra-muzgob",1,20,1
will place one NPC Sharn 20 units in front of the player. See the editor for more object IDs."

someone made this as if he made it just for me.

Hope that this will help other!


[This message has been edited by total (edited June 27, 2002).]

 

I am a devout Morrowind fan, and here are my replies, if you care:

Graphics: These graphics are amazing in pretty much every aspect. The character models are all the same basic physical outline, and they're all standing, but so rich and high-resolution, so absolutely beautiful that you can't argue. I can't, anyway. The textures have a rare thing: you can't tell where they repeat themselves, and they are also rich in color and blend. The movies are terrible because of simple low-quality made for everyone, but that's expected. The graphics of this beat most games on the market and I don't think you should be disappointed in them, Slappy.

The music: Yeah, the theme song is nice, but there's not enough music, and the combat themes aren't exciting.

Walking around: The game's best quality and its biggest flaw. You can explore for hours just pressing the W or up arrow key until you get attacked. It's a pain to spend 45 minutes walking and then have to walk back. Once you're high enough level, Stamina doesn't matter anymore because you have so much of it - if you have high Willpower and Endurance, that is.

Combat: For fun combat you need to have an array of different weapons within the same weapon skill, you know? One that sucks life away and one that paralyzes...spells to cast...scrolls to use...be creative, and combat will be more fun and more interesting.

Characters: For a realistic world, there have to be many, many people who are exactly alike, and all very dull and stupid, as with America. It would be too difficult to create thousands of unique commoners. The NPC's who have an important role are all unique.

Quests: Get away from the Main Quest if you're bored. Find something else to do. Go recapture the ebony mine south of Balmora and get Daedric weapons from Dram Bero. Go do something fun, then return to the main plot. The Main Plot gets really, really good as you reach the end and you get to destroy Dagoth Ur. It's epic, and you can imagine it in a movie or something.

The Journal: I don't see why this matters - if you're that worried about losing a name, why not write it down on your arm or something?


Character Development: This is a high point of the Elder Scrolls...instead of goofy level-gaining and these ridiculous Feats of Dungeons and Dragons, you gain skills according to how much you use them, which is one of the decencies of reality. If you don't have the right skills, get them...make a custom class... the player-character is never a problem with the game. And by the way, enchanters will do whatever you want regardless of your Enchant skill, if that's what you mean.

Well, the game's not for you... the Elder Scrolls usually draw only a small shroud of fanatics every time they're released.

"The game is massive but size isn't everything." Just remember, neither is anything else!

 

Umm, why would I want to carry twenty five different shortblades? The simple fact that I *can* carry 8 or 9 different weapons all on hotkey avialability is pretty ridiculous, though a lot of games have this flaw. Anyway, if the 'fun' of the combat system is practicing your iaijutsu skills in mid combat, I'm inclined to think that's a problem. But the critical failing of the combat system is that at some point along the way (when depends on how you built your character), you stop being in any danger whatsoever, even if you lay off the readily available 'elite' items.

'Improve what you use' is an okay system, but its hardly realistic or fun. Unless you happen to think your character should realistically have unlimited potential in all fields of human endeavor. And its not exactly fun to mass produce potions you don't need just so you can level up your alchemy skill to meet the next rank in the your guild.

What's the point of having an in game journal if you have to take out of game notes anyway? Competently designed journals aren't exactly rocket science these days. One should be able to get the right without difficulty.

The main quest is actually the most interesting part of the game. It certainly has the best dungeons and a higher share of the few memorable NPCs.

Morrowind is fun and pretty, but it is repetitive and shallow as well. The monster variation is too limited and only a fraction of the NPCs are worth talking to. Its just *wrong* to ask an Ordinator about Dissident Priests and get the generic 'hey, did you know they locked that dissident up in Ministry of Truth?" response, for example.

There are alot of quests, admittedly, but a fair number are duplicates of each other and too many of them are completely rigid in the resolution. Worse, there are tons of dialogue and quest bugs. I got rewarded for solving the murder of some guy I had never even heard of, much less knew had been murdered. Later I did find his dead body, but I still haven't the faintest idea who killed him or what I did to solve the murder.

I also like how Indoril armor is medium in my game, but is heavy in my friend's.

But what really got to me about the game was the economic system or, rather, the complete lack thereof. I really liked the magic items that are worth less than the component parts and the gross margins on manufacturing potions. Or the "Its 7k to pay someone to enchant this item from components you provide, or you can buy a ready made one off the shelf for 500." type stuff.

I got my moneys' worth of fun playing Morrowind, but its not a 'great' game and it doesn't have any real replay value.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

Well, of course we can discuss how much fun it is, personally I think it's a lot of fun, to feel that yuore efforts are paying off, after spending a day sniping cliff racers with your bow you actually them more often. But what I fail to see is how it isn't realistic. This is the only game that I know of where you actually get better if you do something a lot. It makes perfect sense. If you compare it to other games, almost every single one uses a method like BG, where you can choose which skills to improve on levelup. Speaking of lack of realism, you can basically become a grandmaster at Axe, without even having an axe in your inventory. That makes VERY little sense.

Besides, you're wrong about your comment that any character har unlimited potential.. You can never improve beyond the governing attirbute of the skill. So, if you're a weak woodelf with say 40 in strength, you can't raise ANY strength based skills above 40, you can't get more than 40 in, say, blunt weapons. That makes more sense than any other role playing system I've ever tried, and I can't help but wonder what games you've played, if this is only ok, because I would definitely like to try them.

 

Well, I should have qualified "fun" more. It isn't *necessarily* fun, depending on the skill activity involved. Like the alchemy example I gave. It also results in too rapid advancement, but that is more a fault of the implementation, not the mechanism.

However, you are flat out wrong about the skill limit rule. You can not "train" a skill higher than its controlling attribute. You can level it up beyond that through use. Since there is generally only one person in the game who can train a given skill beyond most people's attribute level anyway, this isn't much of a restriction.

Yes, *in theory*, practice is the ideal mechanism for improvement. But that isn't anywhere near the whole story. Sitting around making 150 potions of Restore Fatigue in a few minutes of game time is not a realistic way of improving your mastery of Alchemy from 80 to 90. Nor is killing rats really gonna do much for your axe expert.

It also has various problems, like I *must* pick every lock in the game, with reason or not, if I want to improve my lockpicking skill. Even if its a Difficulty 10 lock an 8 year old could pick with a butter knife.

I don't have a real problem with that mechanism (the Chaosium games use it reasonably well), but its just as silly, unrealistic, and subject to abuse as a straight leveling game.

As for RPGs with systems I like better, I generally prefer the 'exp buys skill points' type games like Ars Magica, GURPS (though it has other serious flaws), Hero System, etc. You get experience points after each adventure or other break point, which you use to buy skills you have used in game or can justify having practices 'off map'. I don't know if any Computer games use this method, but is pretty common in PnP.

aloha
Vormaerin

 

But P&P RPGs are different to CRPGs. The former only has a set of rules as a guidline, and a good GM can interpret, or even ignore some of them, at will. A PC can't do this. And as such the Morowing/Daggerfall levelling systems have been the best I've seen.

Not enitiely convinced by the weighting of all the skills though. If I'm using skills taken as the same specialisation group at the beginning, provided I don't neglect to use those skills they should all increase around the same level. To me the weapon skills always seemed to go up a lot quicker than say block. Despite me using a long sword/shield combination. Ditto for security. I'm now to the point of having explored most of the map, and advanced nearly as far as I can in the various organisations I can join, yet that still remains around 50 (including quite a bit of training), whereas I'm a long way ahead of that on my short sword skill (despite no training, not a major or minor skill, and having chance to max out two other weapons too). Merchantile/speechcraft similarly (but I did train those).

Also casting various spells seems to have no difference on the leveling. Surely a successful powerful spell should be worth more than a couple of point wirth of restoration spell.

 

Yes, that is a major problem with this style of character development. Your combat skills rocket up in value (even as a relatively non combat character like my pilgrim), while other skills are major, tedious efforts to improve. Skills like alchemy and armorer just don't go up that fast from regular usage. So you end up doing silly things just to ensure that skill goes up.