Interesting NPCs? Not yet.

[Casul Gamer]

I'm highly disappointed. After almost 10 years I decided to give Morrowind another chance. I was told that the NPCs in Morrowind were so interesting. But I've talked to over a dozen and 95% of their answers were generic. As in each NPC gave me an almost identical answer. The khajiit shopkeeper in Balmora was about the only one interesting so far.

So I think I've pretty much given up on talking to NPCs. I'll do a few quests and exploration, but the NPCs I'll probably wait until Skywind. I did find about a mod: LGNPC, short for Less Generic NPCs. So if this fixes the dull and tedious dialogue I might give this another chance. Has anyone used this (and know where to find the latest version)?

[You takin notes]

>Skywind

kek

[Brandybuck]

Whoever told you NPCs were interesting lied. There are SOME who are quite interesting, but the vast majority have the same generic dialog that everyone else in their area does. I highly doubt that Skywind will be any better, because it's goal is to duplicate Morrowind, which implies the same lack of characterization. That does not mean the game doesn't have any strengths! There is more to an RPG than the dialog.

[Jork]

thieves guild and house telvanni has some interesting characters, and the antagonist of morrowind has a really good backstory

aside from that, they're mostly pretty bland

[Darkelfguy]

Morrowind's NPC dialogue has never been one of its strengths, don't know who told you the NPCs were interesting, but that was probably a stretch of the truth. Thought personally I like Morrowind's NPCs a lot better than Skyrim's NPCs. They may be generic, but at least they don't have only one line of dialogue.

As for LGNPC, you should absolutely try it. Not only does it add backstories, new dialogue topics, and tons of unique greetings to NPCs, but it also adds a ton of quests for you to do. Parts of the LGNPC package are a bit dated though, so the quality of the writing may vary, but you'll find a ton of interesting NPCs to talk to.

It should be noted that LGNPC is still in development somewhat, with modders like cyran0 still pushing out updates now and then, so there are some towns that haven't yet been covered by LGNPC.

That said, you most definitely won't find more interesting NPCs in Skywind. With the constraints of voice acting and thousands of NPCs, the idea that Skywind will ever have completely unique and interesting NPCs is a pipe dream that is highly unlikely to be realized.

[Siziol]

Originally posted by SuperLotus97:

I was told that the NPCs in Morrowind were so interesting. But I've talked to over a dozen and 95% of their answers were generic. As in each NPC gave me an almost identical answer. The khajiit shopkeeper in Balmora was about the only one interesting so far.

This is like saying the NPCs in GTA are bad because 95% of them are there to be run over. When people talk about NPCs in Morrowind being good, they're talking about the ones you interact with that play a part in the grand story.

They're talking about Baladas Demnevanni, Crassius Curio, Mistress Therana, Odral Helvi, Caius Cosades, Vivec, and countless others that you deal with in your journeys. These are the ones you spend the most time dealing with.

The NPCs in Morrowind are great. They are interesting. The ones you deal with have their own political intrigues and maneuvering. They deal with scheming and backstabbing and all sorts of things that later games in the series never touch on. The Camonna Tong holding the leadership of the Fighters Guild in contest with the Thieves. The Mages Guild and their Archmagister leaking things to spies while his guild tries to find out the truth. The Great Houses sabotaging each other in order to get the leg up? Each questline features brilliant NPCs that keep the game riveting.

All of that requires extremely good writing to hold together in such a grand scale static world.

[Giga Gilgamesh]

the fact you think Skywind will improve the NPCs makes me titter.

The NPCs will be entirely unchanged in Skywind. It's a HD "re-release", not a re-make.

[Giga Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Siziol:

Originally posted by SuperLotus97:

I was told that the NPCs in Morrowind were so interesting. But I've talked to over a dozen and 95% of their answers were generic. As in each NPC gave me an almost identical answer. The khajiit shopkeeper in Balmora was about the only one interesting so far.

This is like saying the NPCs in GTA are bad because 95% of them are there to be run over. When people talk about NPCs in Morrowind being good, they're talking about the ones you interact with that play a part in the grand story.

They're talking about Baladas Demnevanni, Crassius Curio, Mistress Therana, Odral Helvi, Caius Cosades, Vivec, and countless others that you deal with in your journeys. These are the ones you spend the most time dealing with.

The NPCs in Morrowind are great. They are interesting. The ones you deal with have their own political intrigues and maneuvering. They deal with scheming and backstabbing and all sorts of things that later games in the series never touch on. The Camonna Tong holding the leadership of the Fighters Guild in contest with the Thieves. The Mages Guild and their Archmagister leaking things to spies while his guild tries to find out the truth. The Great Houses sabotaging each other in order to get the leg up? Each questline features brilliant NPCs that keep the game riveting.

All of that requires extremely good writing to hold together in such a grand scale static world.

I love Vivec. Through my reading of lore and dialogue throughout the game, i grew bitter against the False Gods and proceeded through the game under the idea that once i killed Dagoth Ur, i'd go back and slaughter Vivec for his betrayal. But after speaking to Vivec and hearing his side of the story, i killed Dagoth Ur and returned to Lord Vivec in glory, revelling in Ur's defeat and celebrating with my old ally. I was astonished how well Vivec was written, that he'd actually managed to change my opinion of him.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Siziol:

This is like saying the NPCs in GTA are bad because 95% of them are there to be run over. When people talk about NPCs in Morrowind being good, they're talking about the ones you interact with that play a part in the grand story.

The problem is, you don't know which ones you're supposed to interact with, and which ones are just filler. Especially if they're all uniquely named.

I realize that random NPC conservations in Oblivion and Skyrim are rather lame, but the same wall of text for every NPC in Morrowind is just as bad. How do you know if an NPC is quest related? They have a different wall of text then the named-but-generic NPCs. The drawback is that you'll run across an important NPC but not know it because after a while you gloss over the walls of text and don't notice that one slightly different topic at the bottom of the list of twenty topics.

I don't know where the best balance is, but I lean towards the Oblivion way, just with less trite dialogs.

[Dubba_D]

One thing I'd like to see in the next ES, is Bethesda running w/ LGNPC and make us all happy :)

[Casul Gamer]

I appreciate all the comments. So no one has had any issues in terms of bugs with LGNPC? I've already had to restart once because of mod issues.

I just want to explain why I mentioned Skywind. I don't expect that mod to make the NPCs more interesting. What I do expect is that it will make the dialogue easier. If LGNPC fixes this then that's good to hear.

The biggest thing is that I'm hoping it will remove all the generic options (which could be easily put in a book titled "Guide to Balmora" or "Guide to Morrowind").

I also think voice acting *might* help. Even though the Skyrim NPCs weren't that interesting, having them voiced made things a little better (as long as there was an option to skip past the lines since often I didn't care what they said).

And lastly, I have issues with my hands and the UI with Skyrim is easier to navigate since there's an option to use the keyboard. Although the bugs in Skyrim related to mouse navigation do need to be fixed with mods.

[EgoMaster]

Originally posted by SuperLotus97:

...having them voiced made things a little better

I used to think voice acting was better like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.

[explanation]
I'm not trying to beat a dead horse by repeating an overused meme, I'm just trying to point out the disadvantages of voice acting. While "generic NPCs" is a problem in Elder Scrolls series, voice acting limits the lines spoken. If half the population of Skyrim couldn't be an adventurer like me because they all took an arrow in the knee, that breaks immersion for me as much as reading the same latest rumors over an over again. In fact, I find the "latest rumors" repetition more "logical", since every person you ask around in real life won't all tell you about different rumors. There's bound to be some repetition, especially in small towns like Seyda Neen, though not to the extent that Morrowind does it, I agree. Skyrim's problem is also a case of bad writing by the way.
[/explanation]

LGNPC helps. It helps more than voice acting but don't expect miracles. Also, if you'll install the modular version, be aware that load order is important, some modules must be loaded before others. You should consult the official site or the readme. I also remember there was an "all in one" version but I think it didn't use the latest versions of all the modules. Idk if the fixed that.

[Coalheart]

It would've been nice if Morrowind had included the ability to set redundant topics to "Mark as Read" and then grayed them out for all NPCs. That way, when some seemingly randon NPC's "Rumors" , etc ,topic wasn't grayed out, you'd know that they had something new to offer.

[Siziol]

Originally posted by Coalheart:

It would've been nice if Morrowind had included the ability to set redundant topics to "Mark as Read" and then grayed them out for all NPCs. That way, when some seemingly randon NPC's "Rumors" , etc ,topic wasn't grayed out, you'd know that they had something new to offer.

Now this is something I would agree with. I'm at a point where I've read the conversation topics through a number of playthroughs and I rarely bother to read anything anymore. Knowing what I haven't clicked as I rush through topics would prevent a lot of clicking.

Maybe there's a mod for that.

[Giga Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Siziol:

Originally posted by Coalheart:

It would've been nice if Morrowind had included the ability to set redundant topics to "Mark as Read" and then grayed them out for all NPCs. That way, when some seemingly randon NPC's "Rumors" , etc ,topic wasn't grayed out, you'd know that they had something new to offer.

Now this is something I would agree with. I'm at a point where I've read the conversation topics through a number of playthroughs and I rarely bother to read anything anymore. Knowing what I haven't clicked as I rush through topics would prevent a lot of clicking.

Maybe there's a mod for that.

Maybe you could MAKE a mod for that?
After all, you are the Wizard Siziol, creator of the Morrowind Questing Guide.

[Siziol]

haha, save for trading created quests amongst friends a decade ago my modding experience is minimal. I'll leave changing gameplay to the pros.

that being said, my epic quest across vvardenfell led up to an equally epic fight against vampires with lightsabers. wish i still had that, would be great for a laugh.