How to properly enjoy Morrowind?

[Neffivae]

I'm having some trouble getting into this game. After spending nearly a thousand hours on Skyrim, I thought I'd give its predecessors a try after hearing so much praise towards them. My first impressions are positive thus far, but I feel like I'm not fully enjoying it as I should.

I was only six years old when the game first released, and played Nintendo games pretty much exclusively until about five years ago when I first got into PC gaming. I hadn't even heard of The Elder Scrolls series until Skyrim came out. I ended up buying it after a few months and have enjoyed it a lot, spending a lot of time playing as well as searching for an installing hundreds of different mods. After growing so accustomed to Skyrim's gameplay, I find it hard to go back and fully appreciate Morrowind. I feel like I should go into it with different expectations than I currently have, but I don't know what exactly that would mean.

Morrowind is clearly a very different game from Skyrim, and there are things I like and dislike about it. The world of Morrowind in general seems so much more exotic and interesting than Skyrim's, despite its dated graphics. I also like how Morrowind's quests make you do a bit of investigating to figure out where you need to go and what to do, rather than having a big fat immersion-breaking quest marker that tells you everything. I usually turn off quest markers using mods, but that doesn't help much. Asking NPCs for directions and getting detailed descriptions of how to get somewhere feels much more immersive than what Skyrim does, which is "follow the magical white arrow." Skyrim still lacks those immersive directions whether the compass and quest markers are turned off or not.

In most fantasy RPG games, I enjoy playing as anything that wields magic, and often find myself more drawn towards pure mage or spellsword playstyles in TES. I find the spellmaking system really cool, and am disappointed it didn't return in Skyrim. The ability to make a spell that perfectly suits your playstyle makes a mage character all that more appealing to me.

At the same time, the combat system in Morrowind often frustrates me. I find myself constantly running out of magicka and having to either run far enough away from a fight to rest and regenerate it, or try to use a sword in desperation, missing almost every swing since I didn't major or minor in any weapon skills. 'Restore Magicka' potions would obviously fix that problem, but I find that it's very hard to find any merchants that sell them, and I've never found alchemy to be interesting in any Elder Scrolls game, so I can't craft those potions myself.

My character is only level 3, so maybe I just need to progress a bit farther to reach a point where this isn't a problem, but after 9 hours I feel like I haven't progressed at all. I understand that Morrowind is more of a classic tabletop/D&D-style RPG compared to Skyrim, which is more of an action RPG, but this bothers me quite a bit.

I don't really know what to do to get the full enjoyment out of Morrowind. I think I could potentially put several hundred hours into it just as I have with Skyrim, but with how I've grown accustomed to the quality of life changes that modern RPGs have and lack of nostalgia for Morrowind, I don't exactly know how I should change my mindset going into this game.

TL;DR: How does someone that is accustomed to newer RPGs change his expectations to fully appreciate an older RPG like Morrowind?

[You takin notes]

Try downloading the Morrowind Overhaul, It's a bundle of all the best mods, really improves the game.

http://www.ornitocopter.net/morrowind-overhaul/

If you are still having trouble with the game, maybe look up some guides. I know the combat can be pretty ♥♥♥♥ at first, but depending on what stats you choose first, it can get really fun.

[You takin notes]

Originally posted by Geek:

Originally posted by Confused Potato:

Try downloading the Morrowind Overhaul, It's a bundle of all the best mods, really improves the game.

http://www.ornitocopter.net/morrowind-overhaul/

If you are still having trouble with the game, maybe look up some guides. I know the combat can be pretty ♥♥♥♥ at first, but depending on what stats you choose first, it can get really fun.

Thanks, downloading this now. It looks really good.

As for stats, what majors/minors would you recommend to someone wanting to play a pure mage or maybe spellsword? I initially went with Intelligence/Willpower attributes, Mage sign, Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration, Restoration, and Unarmored for my major skills, and Illusion, Enchant, Mysticism, Speechcraft, and Mercantile for my minor skills.

I don't know if that's an ideal setup for someone planning to focus on magic. I've been told that Speechcraft and Mercantile can take a very long time to level, and I haven't really found myself making very heavy use of these skills. But having lower prices seems like a good idea, since spellmaking can get expensive from what I've seen so far.

Well, it does depend on your build. I usually play a stealth character, so I went into all the agility and one handed skills. I think you basically chose all the right stuff. However, if the combat is still too hard for you, stick with it. It's still pretty hard even when you pick the right stats. Once you're a good level, everything will be fine. Enjoy the game.

[Kanantus]

Morrowind can be very tough at low levels and that goes double for pure mages. I would perhaps recommend a mod that replenishes magicka slowly since without magicka you are screwed as a mage. Playing a fighter or thief is much easier than a mage. But once you can create your own spells you can create some very powerful ones and use magic to get out of harms way. But if you really want to play a pure mage and not a battlemage type then I highly recommend a mod that will restore magicka over time.

[Logorouge]

Pure mages are not easy in the beginning and are kinda like sleepaholics in this game. So if you don't plan on installing a magicka regen mod, start looking into enchanting right now. That will be your backup plan. Rings shooting cheap elemental attacks will get the job done and slowly recharge over time. I do recommend using the services of an enchanter until your own enchant is very high. If you really need to use a weapon, try to use your bound dagger spell you got at the beginning. Bound weapons have an hefty bonus to accuracy. It still won't be much, but at least you'll have hope of doing some damage.

As for getting used to this old rpg, I think once you learn how to deal with combat you'll be able to get into the story and the world itself and won't even need to think about it anymore. So although I think you've chosen the toughest path to start with, stick with it. I think you can do it!

P.S: Forget about magicka potions. Apart from the Mages Guild's supply chests, that stuff is ridiculously rare.

[Big Dumb Object]

For me, the biggest obstacle in the way of enjoying Morrowind and Oblivion is the levelling system. Not a fan. I highly recommend installing a character-generation mod like Galsiah's Character Development (link here: http://www.moddb.com/games/morrowind/addons/galsiahs-character-development) which does some really cool things to the levelling system and allows you to just play the game instead of strategically grinding to get the best levels. It works seamlessly with the Morrowind Overhaul (MGSO).

If you install MGSO and a char-gen mod, you really don't need much else (except . I think the Morrowind Code Patch (MCP) bundled with MGSO has a magicka-regen option along with all the other essential game tweaks, which balance mage builds really nicely by making them playable at low levels.

Just remember that MGSO is in need of an update and the bundled MCP is outdated, and there are a couple of potentially game-breaking bugs that require minor fixes. I used this mod to direct me to the necessary patches: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/43463/?

I also found this forum post really useful when I was modding Morrowind and looking for mods. Includs a lot of the best mod lists compiled over the years, and some essential resources: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/

This list is arguably the definitive mod list, if you haven't come across it already: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1155980-povuholos-tomorrowind-a-mod-recommendations-list-for-today/

P.S. Combat still blows for the first few levels, but I find the initial "swing-and-miss" more believable than landing a hit every single time.

[Hjelpmooglene]

Originally posted by logorouge:

P.S: Forget about magicka potions. Apart from the Mages Guild's supply chests, that stuff is ridiculously rare.

He could always try crafting them. Comberry and some other ingredient would work.

[Logorouge]

Originally posted by SaveTheKupo:

He could always try crafting them. Comberry and some other ingredient would work.

Without any skill in alchemy I doubt it. Short of throwing big amounts of gold in training, he'd just be wasting ingredients.

[Hjelpmooglene]

True, and many people would see using fortify intelligence as an exploit.

[reaper2259]

for me i find the best way to play the game is to not use the internet for help, i played morrowind alot when it first came out then i decided to pick it up again recently and on my first character i did everything wrong and didn't like the game as much as i remembered but then i decided to make another character but this time not using google to help find directions and locations etc and instead of just skipping all dialgue i decided to read it this made a major difference when it came to immersion.

as for gameplay on my first char i picked a pre built class which was marksmen or something but i was so stuck in skyrim mode that even though i chose a ranged profession i tried to do melee but for my second char i decided to create my own custom class and pick the skills i wanted, i find in morrowind you really need to know what u want to be before even beginning were as in skyrim you can discover that along the way, for example my current char i decided to choose heavy armour, axe and blocking as some of my major skills so now in game thats all i will use, i also have a minor skill of short sword but i find the game works alot better if you stick to one thing so now all im using is a one handed axe, a shield and heavy armour and focusing on them

[Sigilbreaker]

In terms of doing damage without draining too much magicka, I find bound weapons (requiring the conjuration skill) to be the best. They cost barely any magicka but as long as you have a reasonable skil level in that type of weapon (20-25) and high fatigue then you'll be doing lots of damage, especialy early on. Destruction spells can drain your magicka really quickly, especially in fights in caves where you cannot sleep.

So I would try to level up long blade or blunt weapon or short blade to 20-25 ish and get the bound spell for one of those, until you get to a high enough level that you have high magicka for Destruction spells.

Aso, join either House Telvanni or the Mages Guild.

[Monkey-Melon]

My tip,being someone who recently got into Morrowind and finished it,is to just try and have fun,and make sure to try and level up the skills you actually want to use a lot first.

You can get the most out of leveling up by picking three class types,and raising the stats of the skills tied to them. As in paying for training in Armorer,Long Blade,Axe,Blunt Weapons and so forth,to get your strength class up to the maximum five points once you level up.

You'll need to level up two skills within each class five times I believe to get the maximum effect,but that helps in earlier stages of the game,when you're pretty weak and can't really explore without being destroyed.

So just pick one or two class types you wish to raise the stats of,and train towards getting better in those particular classes.


But overall,the key I've found,is to spec your character the right way from the start of the game,and then find ways to get lots of money,and spend it all on training and better gear,which will go a long way.

Makes you more effective when in combat and such,that should let you have more fun once you start making contact with the majority of your strikes.

[JustRed]

Ok so...It sounds like you're actually on the right track to bloody loving it :p just a couple stumbling blocks
The magicka problem....you're gonna need alchemy, there's no two ways about it, but it's dead easy and i'll get back to that in a minute... 'Spell Absorption' can be handy, takes a percentage of an incoming spell's magicka cost, and adds it to your own pool.
Customising your spells is also a great way to reduce costs, for example I've been playing with a necromancer type character, and all the summon creature spells are at default, 60 seconds. Yet everything is dead within 20seconds, so I created new spells with 20second duration for a fraction of the cost.


About weapons/hitting stuff, as a couple people mentioned, bind weapon/armour spells are awesome (especially since you're a mage too). They equip you with a daedric weapon, and fortifies the appropriate skill.
Bound Longsword = daedric longsword + longblade skill 10pts
You can make yourself a spell to bind a full suit of armour and a weapon of your choice (Scotty, Kit Me Out)


Now for the alchemy bit...i'll try not to bore you lol (go to balmora for this)
mortar & pestle, alembic, calcinator, retort, any one of these will let you do alchemy, a full kit makes your pots way better though. (alchemist shop has some gear)
See ajira and buy some alchemy skill. I know you said you didn't want to, but the really early levels are pretty cheap....just something to make the next part smoother

Food items like kwama eggs, crab meat, bread, nixhound meat, saltrice etc, will restore fatigue, these are the easiest and cheapest way to get alchemy going. Just spam rubbish pots like there's no tomorrow. Sell the pots afterwards to get your money back (see last part)

I would say, around 30 alchemy skill and you're set. It's really quick to increase, and just gets quicker.
Restore Magicka pots. Comberry + Frost salts (void salts too but they're more expensive). You can buy all the mats in Balmora, you can find comberry bushes everywhere outside though (bushes with berries on). When you know what to look for, Alchemy allows you to pot on the go. I wouldn't recommend trying to make magicka pots at early levels though, they cost a lot if they fail.


Problem is everything i've suggested requires MONEY MONEY MONEY so, here's a little trick for you.
Take the mages teleport to Caldera and head outside. Ghorak Manor, near the southern exit of the town. Upstairs, theres a creeper merchant, he'll buy the potions you make off you, for the price they're actually worth. Consider you make a potion worth 30 drakes, using 2 ingredients that cost 1drake each, that's 15 attempts to make a potion, and break even with the costs. If you skip the first levels of alchemy by buying skills, then there's nothing but profit ahead of you. It's a shock at higher levels when you fail a potion!

aaaaaand sorry I wrote you a huge essay
overly complicated too, honestly, it's dead easy lol

[Birdy]

grafics : overhaul (mod collection) for english steam version (textures, faces, hair, body and new handmodels, new lightning, god rays, water, plants and trees ... .)

as a mage : the better you are in a school of magic the less magic is consumed. Alchemy is inportant. Enchanted items regenerate (very slowly). mana management is required.
Enchanted items are important. Remember you can enchant every item you are wearing- and put a robe on ... .

Character Race and profession have to fit. You should start with 20-30 in your main stats.
No boots/shoes for animal races (

The game works completely different than skyrim or oblivion.
It rolls DICE (in the background).
You ARE a WEAKLING early in the game.
The weight you carry influences your chances of success and speed. Don't run in combat - don't start a fight with low STAMINA (green bar).
Quest can run out of time, if i recall correctly.

Exploring the world gets rewarded and don't be ashamed to run. Finding a nice ring, helmet is like X-mas/brthday.

Train your skills on weak opponents.... like mud crab .... but don't get sick.
PS: free bed in the cellar of the imperial office in the vilage at beginning.

Keep your gear in a good shape !
Some enemies are immune to certain damage types- weapons.

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