Morrowind from the perspective of a new fan.

[Phil_Violated]

Relatively new to be more precise.
Played it for the first time when it was given away at Bethesda net for the 25th anniversary of Elder Scrolls when I was about 17, and have played it since from time to time on the same low-end laptop.

I believe like most new players, I have struggled to get into the game due to its rather strange design decisions with the combat being the most standout example, but still, there were things about the game which I very much admire, that made me stick with the game, with the atmosphere, setting and the journal-focused quest tracking and navigation.

I'll be honest, I have restarted the game from scratch multiple times, and I have yet to finish the main storyline as I have continuously tried to understand the game's system in order to better experience it, also watched a few videos on the systems, and I believe, for my current playthrough, which has about 30+ hours of playtime, is going to be the one where I finally complete it.

As previously mentioned, I find the atmosphere to be the most enchanting part of the game, and perhaps one of the major reasons why I stuck to this game combined with its navigation system, it's honestly one of the most immersive feeling open worlds I've been in. I think it's saying something when I simply preferred just walking to locations doing fetch quests, not running, but walking while appreciating the music.
Although I do wish you could buy mounts to move faster.
Also, big fan of the transport system with the silt striders, mages guilds and boats, honestly wish more games did that, as that involved me getting quite invested in the world's geography.
I very much admire the variety in the open world, from the Ascadian Isles, West Gash region, Bitter Coast region etc, they feel like totally different places at times, even though the map is relatively small compared to newer open world games, it still feels big and that is what I could ever ask for (also yeah, Vivec is too big even for this game).

One of the things I did not like at first but later grew to admire was the way how the quests handle your character build and how certain quests are significantly easier with a different build, like the one where you can free a slave being transferred to Balmora if you have high enough Personality, some quests being just a lot easier with stealth builds etc. It's not a perfect implementation, but still a fan of this hardcore RPG-focused approach.
Adding to that, I also admire how the starting build you have significant changes in how your opening hours go, something the souls games have in the modern games.

Overall, I believe that despite the many flaws of the game, it is still quite worthy at providing a memorable experience even in the modern age. I honestly would appreciate it more if more newer games followed and built upon this open-world system. If I am not wrong, Elden Ring somewhat has sort of similar navigation but without the journal, but I have yet to play it due to my hardware limitations.

And if you have anything similar to recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[lonetrav]

You could have a look at all other TES games, Oblivion is probably most similar to Morrowind among them, Arena and Daggerfall (the first two games of the series) may appear odd for players used to today's games - while Skyrim (the 5th game of the series) may appear odd for older players not used to more console-style and streamlined games (with that said, Skyrim's gameplay is equally interesting and diverse as that of the other TES games).

[Phil_Violated]

Originally posted by lonetrav:

You could have a look at all other TES games, Oblivion is probably most similar to Morrowind among them, Arena and Daggerfall (the first two games of the series) may appear odd for players used to today's games - while Skyrim (the 5th game of the series) may appear odd for older players not used to more console-style and streamlined games (with that said, Skyrim's gameplay is equally interesting and diverse as that of the other TES games).

I have played Oblivion and Skyrim yes, I believe those are enjoyable games but they do not seem anything like Morrowind if you ask me.

[lonetrav]

Depends what exactly you base your comparison on. For me, they are both similar and different. But it's all a matter of personal perception and opinion.

[psychotron666]

Skyrim is more like morrowind than oblivion is for me, when it comes to design philosophy.

Some of the things that sour oblivion for me (besides the obvious atrocious level scaling), is how every city is available for fast travel from the get go, how there is no in universe fast travel, and how the map is really just one giant flat space where you can run in a straight line from any location to any other location without terrain getting in your way. (Oblivion was pre generated using algorithms, whereas every other Bethesda game was hand crafted, and it shows by how generic oblivion world is.

Those things really kill the open world for me, and I'm glad Skyrim went back to in universe fast travel alternatives, mountainous and diverse landscape, and cities aren't marked on your map or available to fast travel from the get go. You actually need to know the world a bit before you can teleport everywhere.

And Skyrim took another step in the right direction back to atmosphere, having factions of different politics and different cultures within Skyrim itself, while oblivion lacks any atmosphere in this regard whatsoever.

But yes, morrowind is an experience Bethesda has never been able to replicate.
Obsidian came close with new Vegas, though their design philosophy went more the direction of complex branching quests and dialogue.

[lonetrav]

I agree with your Oblivion critique regarding world design and fast traveling (I've decided a long time ago to not use it, unless very late in the game, to save time), but not regarding the leveling system (it's not ideal, but you can live with it - and if not, there are mods ...).
Oblivion's strength are the quests, and for those who can manage them, the numerous mods which let you modify the game in many different ways (which is true for DF Unity, Morrowind and Skyrim, too).
On the other hand, I'm struggling with Skyrim, not because of its design, but because of it's UI, and to some degree, with its dungeons. In addition, I don't like mandatory questmarkers ("mandatory" means that playing without is almost impossible, because the design assumes that you use them - no useful in-game hints), which exist in both Oblivion and Skyrim.
With that said, Skyrim is a fascinating game (for me).

[seblav]

My very first TES was Oblivion. Since I never player any elder scroll before that, I didn't had any comparison. After that I played Skyrim. Morrowind was my third entry and I must admit at first it was hard, mainly because I didn't understood how the mechanics worked.

I gave up my very first run, mainly because of the no fast travel (on map click I mean) and the role dice battle model.

My run after that went better, because I decide to forget everything I knew about TES 4 and 5 and to try to learn the mechanics of Morrowind. Now I really enjoy it and still continue to learn new stuff from it.

There is still some flaw in my opinion, such as the possibility to sell quest item (unless I misunderstood something) and the hard money collecting, but other than that it is a great game.

[mbrowne999]

Originally posted by seblav:

...
I gave up my very first run, mainly because of the no fast travel (on map click I mean) and the role dice battle model.
...

Yes. Getting from place to place, the actual traveling, is part of the game. Way better than just clicking on a map and being at the end point.

[seblav]

Originally posted by mbrowne999:

Originally posted by seblav:

...
I gave up my very first run, mainly because of the no fast travel (on map click I mean) and the role dice battle model.
...

Yes. Getting from place to place, the actual traveling, is part of the game. Way better than just clicking on a map and being at the end point.

At the time, I didn't knew about the other fast travel method, silt strider, boat, mage. So I thought we had to always walk from one place to the other all the time. There is still lots of walking, but with those it helps.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by seblav:

Originally posted by mbrowne999:

Yes. Getting from place to place, the actual traveling, is part of the game. Way better than just clicking on a map and being at the end point.

At the time, I didn't knew about the other fast travel method, silt strider, boat, mage. So I thought we had to always walk from one place to the other all the time. There is still lots of walking, but with those it helps.

There's actually six methods of fast-travel in the game. The first three are ones that you'e already identified: boat, mage, and silt-strider. But the other three are the Almisvi/Divine Intervention scrolls, the Mark Potion + Recall Potion combo, and the Propylon Index Network. The scrolls will drop you at the nearest Almsivi Temple or DIvines Chapel, and the potion combo will warp you back to where you were when you drank the Mark potion. I've never used the Propylon Index Network, so I don't know much about how it works.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by seblav:

At the time, I didn't knew about the other fast travel method, silt strider, boat, mage. So I thought we had to always walk from one place to the other all the time. There is still lots of walking, but with those it helps.

There's actually six methods of fast-travel in the game. The first three are ones that you'e already identified: boat, mage, and silt-strider. But the other three are the Almisvi/Divine Intervention scrolls, the Mark Potion + Recall Potion combo, and the Propylon Index Network. The scrolls will drop you at the nearest Almsivi Temple or DIvines Chapel, and the potion combo will warp you back to where you were when you drank the Mark potion. I've never used the Propylon Index Network, so I don't know much about how it works.

All the dunmer strongholds (big rectangle stone looking things) throughout the landscape have propylon Chambers. Each index you find teleports to that specific chamber from certain other forts.. if you have them all (or the master index from the free dlc) you can teleport to any dunmer stronghold from any other stronghold. And usually those strongholds are in the middle of nowhere.

[lonetrav]

Master Index: Ask a guy at the Mages Guild in Caldera for "Work" to start the quest. He sends you to 10 different places to retrieve 10 indexes. Once you have them all, he gives you the master index. With the master index you can teleport from the propylon chambers of the 10 (uesp lists a total of 11) Dunmer strongholds) whose indexes you have collected to the Caldera Mages Guild, and from there you can get teleported to any of these 10 strongholds. A bit clumsy, but it works. And there may be mods making using the master index easier.

When you play the total conversion Sword of The Perithia: This mod has the 10 indexes (including quests to find them - more interesting ones than in the original game, in my opinion) and the master index, too (in the world of the total conversion). Nice!

[Andzeiy]

If you want to move faster find boots of blinding speed. Boots have 200speed but also have 100% which you can counter with 100% magic resistance spell for 1 sec or wear hide of savior from tel fyr tower but this will make you screen darker

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by Andzeiy:

If you want to move faster find boots of blinding speed. Boots have 200speed but also have 100% which you can counter with 100% magic resistance spell for 1 sec or wear hide of savior from tel fyr tower but this will make you screen darker

Or being a Breton or orc is enough to counter the effect of blindness.