I thought Morrowind would be hardcore

[Lolopel]

I just started first time ever, with MGSO 3.0 (I think it might add some playability "fixes" to the game, there was a screen at installaation dedicated to improving in game functionallity) only, Imperial Crusader, got my armour, weapon etc, and went on to fight those bandits in the cave. That wasn't very easy, but I woke up targeted by the Dark Brotherhood, killed the assasin and got his entire armour and stuff. Then with the huge money I got from selling that dude's stuff I got myself some really nice everything, and now I think I'm OP tank, as I travel around the surrounding area.

Is this normal? I'm playing normal difficulty, was I supposed to notch it up to a harder one?

By the way, very nice game :)

[psychotron666]

Yeah it's normal. Heavy armoured warriors are the easiest characters to play early on.

The dark brotherhood gear is a little op though. The Xbox game made it so they don't show up until you're level 5 or so, but pc never fixed it besides third party mods. That's the start of the tribunal expansion which was supposed to take place after the main quest.

But just keep playing. Level 1 bandits and a dark brotherhood guy are still low level weak enemies. Wait til you find daedric shrines and sixth house bases.

[pw1108]

Well, lots of so called hardcore games are actually, not that hardcore.
they are actually become convenient if you understand their systems.

[K§H]

There's a reason I never play MW without Rebirth and a mod that delays the DB attack until much later in the game. I also turn the difficulty to max from the get go, and I use console commands to balance my character better and more role-playing "realistic" than Bethesda could (I for example limit character health to a certain level and use skills and armor etc to improve etc.). With all this in place the game is quite hardcore and my character at level 49 (a mage) is not a god at all, and will die repeatedly if doing something stupid. In vanilla the game is typical Bethesda: you become a god that no one can challenge.

I also NEVER reload a save to change an outcome, except in the case of death. Save-scumming ruins every game, and especially RPGs. My character's failures are just as interesting as his successes.

[Lolopel]

Originally posted by K§H:

There's a reason I never play MW without Rebirth and a mod that delays the DB attack until much later in the game. I also turn the difficulty to max from the get go, and I use console commands to balance my character better and more role-playing "realistic" than Bethesda could (I for example limit character health to a certain level and use skills and armor etc to improve etc.). With all this in place the game is quite hardcore and my character at level 49 (a mage) is not a god at all, and will die repeatedly if doing something stupid. In vanilla the game is typical Bethesda: you become a god that no one can challenge.

I also NEVER reload a save to change an outcome, except in the case of death. Save-scumming ruins every game, and especially RPGs. My character's failures are just as interesting as his successes.

Very interesting approach, I did something similar in Skyrim, in which all the mods I used that became beneficial to the player I balanced by playing Legendary from the get-go. Skyrim doesn't have many "choices", so most of the time you screw cause you die. I'll try to take a similar approach as yours.

[Lolopel]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Yeah it's normal. Heavy armoured warriors are the easiest characters to play early on.

The dark brotherhood gear is a little op though. The Xbox game made it so they don't show up until you're level 5 or so, but pc never fixed it besides third party mods. That's the start of the tribunal expansion which was supposed to take place after the main quest.

But just keep playing. Level 1 bandits and a dark brotherhood guy are still low level weak enemies. Wait til you find daedric shrines and sixth house bases.

I'm thrilled with the game, I wish I could run faster though haha. I think this is the kind of feeling that later on becomes nostalgia.

[psychotron666]

You can run really fast with no armour or light armour.

The higher your encumbrance, the slower you move.

Then there's items like the boots of blinding speed.

[K§H]

Originally posted by Lolopel:

Very interesting approach, I did something similar in Skyrim, in which all the mods I used that became beneficial to the player I balanced by playing Legendary from the get-go. Skyrim doesn't have many "choices", so most of the time you screw cause you die. I'll try to take a similar approach as yours.

The way I approach it with not loading save games when something goes wrong is also how Bethesda intended TES to be played originally, just see the manual to Daggerfall and you'll see what I mean. I guess you can call me an old-school roleplayer, and I always roleplay my characters down to their specific phobias and insecurities, and I find Morrowind the most interesting TES game to do that in. I am afraid I have completely given up Oblivion and Skyrim, as they are developed with very different principles in mind and they are much more difficult to use as roleplaying sandboxes (in Morrowind I can at least choose the topic to talk with someone about much more freely, and I only choose topics that are consistent with the situation and my character's interest - you don't have to press all topics from top to bottom like some people do and they complain about it afterwards). After I am done with my current playthrough (where I am also using Tamriel Rebuilt) I will start a new character in Daggerfall. But probably at least 1000 hours to go on my current character (roleplaying is fun, but slow-going).

[StreamWhenGuy]

It isn't as hardocre as "old-school hardcore" gаymers want it to be. It's pretty easy, very slow-paced and boring.

[K§H]

Originally posted by StreamWhenGuy:

It isn't as hardocre as "old-school hardcore" gаymers want it to be. It's pretty easy, very slow-paced and boring.

Of course "hardcore" is relative. I am an avid NetHack player, and the depth and unrelentlessly punishing nature of that game makes Dark Souls seem like a walk in the park with god mode activated in comparison. Morrowind is obviously not even close to that in "hardcoreness", but for people that only play the latest multiplatform AAA releases, Morrowind will seem " hardcore" in comparison. I play Morrowind more for the roleplaying potential and I play NetHack when I want to experience a difficulty level where one single small mistake might end your entire game, one little moment of carelessness such as forgetting that a Succubus took off your boots and then step right on top of a cockatrice corpse and then turn to stone (more or less instadeath) as you didn't have any means to counter the stoning. If you play slow like me, that little mistake can cost you months of gameplay right then and there. Now that's hardcore.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by StreamWhenGuy:

It isn't as hardocre as "old-school hardcore" gаymers want it to be. It's pretty easy, very slow-paced and boring.

Nobody says it's hardcore. Just kids who came from skyrim who don't understand stats think it's hardcore.

[StreamWhenGuy]

Yea, old story, almost every topic or reply screams how further TES games are being casual and not immersive. But to be fair Morrowind without mods feels like a garbage nowadays, just like almost every Bethesda game. Oblivion and Skyrim can be as immersive and possible to role-play as you want them to be.

[Rusted Cake]

Morrowind can have a few tough moments depending on your build, but like almost any game that people say is "hardcore" it most certainly is not. As can be said with almost any modern "hard game" long as you think before you act your playthrough should not be too challenging in vanilla :D! (Do not pick fights you cannot win like fighting a enemy squad far beyond your own level without a plan). If at any point you feel like you might lose a fight, simply walk away & either level up more or think up a plan, or both! -Example- On my first playthrough I had a breton battlemage, of whom had little hope of clearing a daedric shrine, so I had him make spells & potions that would exploit the enemy & then used tactics to lure them into a 1v1.

[darinbob]

Tribunal works best when you don't add it until you finish the main quest. As for difficulty, it is relatively easy in this game to get amazingly overpowered if you're a typical armor wearing melee combat type. Ie, if you're keeping track of skills being advanced so that you can apply a +5 to an attribute at level up, then you're going to be overpowered in no time.

[Mr. Whiskers]

TES has generally been an easier, more casual series. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you're looking for something hardcore this really isn't the series for you.

[The Flying Rodent]

No, this is pretty much normal.

Morrowind has arguably not very intuitive combat and a lack of level scaling, so to start with it can be hard to hit anything and there are certain enemies that can one shot you.

However, the player eventually levels waaaay ahead of just about every enemy on the mainland, and it is possible to find/sell shiny stuff and pimp yourself out in OP gear within hours of starting the game. So for experienced players that know where to go, the main game is pretty easy.

The expansions are intended for characters of a higher level (20+), and contain even more powerful gear that can be found in the normal game. Case in point are the Assassins, which can provide the player with high level gear from level 1, which unbalanced things a bit. There’s a mod called the Delayed DB Attacks, which delays this from happening.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823877018

Personally, I play on Max Difficulty with builds that prioritise manoeuvrability (Athletics/Acrobatics and Jump/Levitate spells) , like the one in the link above. This makes things silly and fun for the whole game (and bypasses the movement speed slowness that can happen with some Morrowind characters) , and allows me to zoom my way through whatever quest line I happen to be undertaking. :)