Morrowind finished in 14:26

[Dave Long]

http://speeddemosarchive.com/Morrowind.html

That's 14 MINUTES 26 SECONDS.

Found it at Gaming Age. Haven't watched it yet myself, but knew it had to be posted here.

--Dave

[Robert Sharp]

There's a finish to the game? Hmmm....

Anyway, I have never understood these speed gamers. What's the point? It's like watching a movie on fast forward, or just reading the first and last page of a book. I don't even finish 3/4 of the games I play, and that doesn't bother me at all. The journey is everything.

[Kevin Grey]

As someone who probably put well over 50 hours into Morrowind but never finished it, I was curious as to what the finale was like.

After watching that video- that was it? The final battle and ending seemed pretty underwhelming. Hell, the final dungeon there looked no different than numerous dungeons from earlier in the game.

[Kalle]

I think the point is that they challenge themselves. It's also a high score, of sorts in games where there is no other measurable way to compare performances.

[Matthew Gallant]

I finished Morrowind in about 30 minutes myself. After the 20th or so, "speak quickly outlander or go away", I took the go away branch, and the victory.

[Igor Muravyev]

What the ??? Don't you need to equip the Wraithguard in order to kill Dagoth Ur?

I dunno but looks like he was using at least one plugin
Mage teleport to Ald-ruhn I don't recall there being mage teleportations in vanilla Morrowind

I dunno though, the thing with Morrowind is that you could look at the editor and find out everything that you need.. not quite the same as doing speed runs in FPSes.

Plus you could reload whenever a spell failed, or make some kind of script that would "rest" really quickly and then cast the spell again, I dunno.. :-\

[BobJustBob]

Mage teleportation was absolutely in the base game.

[Igor Muravyev]

Mage teleportation was absolutely in the base game.

Really? I always thought it was a really popular plugin. I guess I was wrong :P.

[Wobbo]

There's a finish to the game? Hmmm....

Anyway, I have never understood these speed gamers. What's the point? It's like watching a movie on fast forward, or just reading the first and last page of a book. I don't even finish 3/4 of the games I play, and that doesn't bother me at all. The journey is everything.
Its interesting from a gameplay point of view to see how the game world can be manipulated to create a "sucess" in as little time as possible - much like the 8 move checkmate in chess

Alpha Centauri has amazing savegames with completion in 150 turns for example. Of course its more fun as a player to experience the game the way it was designed, but for people who look at games like *games* and not linear experiences you can tweak its very fascinating to see how much the system can be bent and broken

One of the many flaws in doom3 is that speedmapping is now an old tradition, rendered pointless by the fact that the game is so linear. (to be fair, it also comes from the fact that quake 3 also had a similar phenomenom from being so nonlinear) that Watching speed runs in doom and quake was just as fun as professional multiplayer recorded demos

[Thomas Wilde]

Anyway, I have never understood these speed gamers. What's the point? It's like watching a movie on fast forward, or just reading the first and last page of a book. I don't even finish 3/4 of the games I play, and that doesn't bother me at all. The journey is everything.

It's a way to add an artificial sort of replay value. For many games, you need an insane degree of mastery in order to even think about a speed run, so you put a lot of practice in to attain that high score.

I used to talk fairly regularly with a guy who has the European speed records for Resident Evil 2 and Dino Crisis 2, and the kinds of things you need to just know are pretty mind-boggling.

[Peter Olafson]

I'm a little unsure what I'm seeing here. The character doesn't appear to have Wraithguard ... but does have the hammer Sunder (which can only be equipped when using Wraithguard), and I don't think he actually picks up Sunder, either. (It just sort of appears in his hand, doesn't it?)

Peter

[Sean Hargraves]

He gets Keening and Sunder (the details as to where are in the notes) but not Wraithguard.

He mixes a ton of fortify intelligence potions drinking them as he makes them, increasing their potency as he continues. I couldn't read it too clearly but his intelligence was way over 3000 at one point. He then starts making other potions and due to his enormous intelligence, they are very potent.

Before he equips Sunder and fights Dagoth Ur he quaffs a few Restore Health potions which looked like they restored 70+ hit points per second. I believe it is the Restore Health potions which keep him alive while wielding Sunder without Wraithguard.

[Peter Olafson]

Thanks, Sean. I'm afraid it was too fast for me, and I couldn't follow everything. (I'd overlooked the notes, and confused the Warhammer of Wounds with Sunder.)

While I have no ambition (or skill) to play a game this way, I have to admit it's ingenious. (Even deconstructive, in its way.) A kind of "Morrowind Xtreme" that somehow puts me in mind of the super-hard quests unlocked when I finished Mafia.

Peter

[Chris Nahr]

The final battle and ending seemed pretty underwhelming. Hell, the final dungeon there looked no different than numerous dungeons from earlier in the game.

That was my impression as well back when I finished the game. The tiny final dungeons were seriously disappointing. Looks like they just ran out of time to properly design the last stages.

[Houngan]

Sounds like he's using the flaw that I had to use, but that then ruined the game for me. Mix Int potions, drink, repeat until super Int potion. While Int is 2-3k, Permanent Enchant something (amulet) to permanent fly, thus getting around the dreadful, dreadful walk speed and annoying trash monsters on the roads.

Unfortunately, kiting was hyper-effective, and I'm a douchebag, so I kited my way to all the uber armor and weapons in no time.

H.

p.s. On reflection, it was still the endless travel that killed the game for me. Brilliant otherwise, but just not made for non-hardcore gamers.

[KaiSeun1]

There's a finish to the game? Hmmm....

Anyway, I have never understood these speed gamers. What's the point? It's like watching a movie on fast forward, or just reading the first and last page of a book. I don't even finish 3/4 of the games I play, and that doesn't bother me at all. The journey is everything.

Though it may seem pointless, I believe these speedruns are just like the 100m. Even though proving that you are the fastest runner (for a given region), doing so won't help solve world hunger. It's 'just' a competition, it's 'just' another way to entertain, and so on.

[Robert Sharp]

All these reasons for speed gaming make sense, I suppose. I guess it just isn't to my taste. Of course, I hardly ever replay a game once, much less the number of times it woudl take to set up something like this. But if that's what some people find entertaining, more power to them.

[Thrrrpptt!]

I just love the idea that there's this super powerful, god-like villain who has around 14 minutes to live as soon as this puny, level 1 character with a perfect game plan steps off the boat.

[xahlt]

I just love the idea that there's this super powerful, god-like villain who has around 14 minutes to live as soon as this puny, level 1 character with a perfect game plan steps off the boat.

That made me laugh hard. Although when it comes to free-form RPG quick runs, I do prefer the Fallout 2 power-armor run through to this because it seems like it exploited less of the flawed game mechanics -- I felt super cheap using the intelligence-boosted alchemy at all in Morrowind, let alone the exponential increase type stuff.

[scharmers]

I just love the idea that there's this super powerful, god-like villain who has around 14 minutes to live as soon as this puny, level 1 character with a perfect game plan steps off the boat.

Dagoth (looking at watch): "Shit. Bastard's probably at Ghostgate by now. Fuck."

[Shadari]

I still remember with great fondness when I managed to break into Vivec's palace before I was supposed to and he more or less told me to get the fuck out. I loved that game.

[Igor Muravyev]

Finally watched it!

Synopsis:

Argonian Assassin. Travels using mage guild and amulets.

Steals some armor/weapon, sells it to Kreeper, buys ingredients, goes on to make fortity intelligence potions, quaffs them, and makes more of them...

Now this isn't even funny, his intelligence went up to like 8887 at one point , then he proceeded to make Fortify Health & Strength potions (one potion to fortify both), Boost Speed potions, Levitate potions. Speed is now 456, Luck 412.

..... Then bought some Scroll of Mark in Ald'Ruhn, takes some Levitate potion and flies really really fast to Vemynal. Quaffs the Fortify Strength/Health Potion.. Using a Warhammer of Wounds knocks out Dagoth Vemyn and takes some kind of item (probably Sunder), teleports to red mountain and goes to Odrosal. On the way puts a Mark at Dagoth Ur.

Knocks out Dagoth Odros, takes some key-looking thing and picks up a weapon of some kind (probably Keening), teleports to Dagoth Ur. Anyways, he runs to Dagoth Ur, knocks him up in 2 or 3 hits, runs inside the chamber...

By this time he's got 565/35 health, 7808/7815 mana, 515/515 Fatigue
409 Strength, 7815 Intel, 826 Speed, 783 Luck.

He quaffs a bunch of fortity health potion, then Sunder in his hand goes and uses it in Akulahan's Chamber. Then uses Keening. I believe the mortal wounds would usually kill you, but he had a crazy amount of health and thus didn't even need to wear the Wraithguard. Then he somehow teleports next to Azura (I think she was outside) and waits for a couple of seconds for Dagoth Ur to die , and then the main quest ends with the movie.

===========================

So looks like a pretty thorough bug exploit. You'd think it would be a quick skill run , but instead it exploits the fact while you are in inventory the game is paused and you can quaff as many potions as you want.. one would think Bethesda would've put a limit on how much you could buff your stats, huh? It's pretty stupid IMHO, why are you limited to 100 in stats by default but not limit to getting buffs?

and I thought me getting a glass set as a level 1 was pretty cool.. heh :). I hope this guy didn't use the construction set, otherwise it seems like a pretty good culmination of his skills and why Morrowind was so awesome!

[Enidigm]

Yep this illustrates basically why as cool as Morrowind was the overall lack of challange (if i may - balanced rewards) sunk its value for me over the long term.

The first time i played as a clueless Healer and was really excited about finding how i could steal Kwama eggs in the mines and make over 100 gold! (or drakes, whatever). Blissful ignorance. Later i could "hop off the boat" and be strong enough to kill, quite literally, almost half of the enemies in the game.

The game was just too enthusiastically easy....

"Please take this worthless item across the street."
"Ok"
"You did it! Your a superhero! Here's a million gold!!"
"Uh... sure!"
"Can you also walk ten feet away and drop this item behind a box?"
"Why not?"
"I can't believe it, you did it again! Here's a thousand free scrolls!"
"wha...".
"Now, can you click on the right conversation item? (don't worry it keeps going around until you do)"
"...ok"
"I can't believe it, your wisdom is indisputable! Now your the Grandmaster!"
"Gee thx, is there anything else to do now?"
"... have you heard the rumors for today?"

As for the potions; yea, i quaffed enough intel to have i guess around 50k intel, playing around in my out of the way and utterly useless Telvani Stronghold. Exploiting two bugs actually :). If you summoned a Golden Saint and selected it to loot it. just as it was dying, you could grab whatever high end item it was wielding at the time. So i spent some hours enchanting all sorts of super-godly weapons.

[Timemaster Tim]

Morrowind is absolutely crazy fun to powergame once. There's all sorts of inventive ways to become well nigh invulnerable.

I made a regenerating health and stamina(or whatever its called that measures your tiredness) ring with constant effect. It cost a lot but what it meant was I could run forever without getting tired and any of the normal monsters in the game couldn't hurt me hard enough and fast enough to outpace my regeneration.

Then there was the Elric of Melnibone inspired sword I got enchanted. It slices. It dices. It steals souls! Yay for me!

Ad some high speed flying boots and glow in the dark armour and it was a recipe for mindless stomping.

But really, although Morrowind can easily be abused by powergaming, I had a lot of fun, and played it "straight" without resorting to these tricks and had a lot fun playing it through several times with different classes and factions.

[RichardC]

"AAH! YOU! AAAH! CANNOT! AAAH! KILL! AAARGH! A! AAARGH! GOD! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

[scharmers]

(shrug) Morrowind, since it's a completely open-ended system, is extremely easy to powergame and exploit. Half the people who bitch about Morrowind in one way or another are those people who can't resist the temptation to a)deliberately break the game system through well-known flaws, or b)uber themselves through the construction set.

I will admit that vanilla MW can be a less than optimal experience that encourages the tempation to powergame, and it takes a lot of experience with the mods out there to tweak MW into a balanced and continually interesting "offline MMORPG". Once it's done, though, MW ranks right up there in time-sink fun.

--scharmers

[Sander]

Just out of curiosity, what add-ons have you found to help out the game?

I bought it when it first came out based on fond memories of the first ES game (Arena?) with it's sprawling dungeons, but the slow walking speed combined with the lackluster story/interaction wore me down.

The giants mods sounded interesting and of course some simple tweaks like speedups and changing the signs to English.

My interest is in making the game something a little more along the lines of grand theft dungeon.

My original hope was that I could play it from time to time, say a couple of hours a month, but Morrowind with it's glacial pacing just was never able to hook me.

[pg]

I never really see the point of speed runs which rely on game breaking exploits. I find runs which actually have to use skill and go through a significant portion of the game a lot more interesting...

[Desslock]

I'll have to check this out when I get the chance -- without exploits, I used to know Morrowind well enough to be able to finish it within 2 hours, so I'm not entirely surprised, since I never used potions in those speed-throughs.

[Mattc0m]

I played the Xbox Morrowind and really enjoyed it. However, my question is it worth getting Morrowind for the PC? Basically, is there enough interesting and high quality mods out there that extends it's gameplay? I never really experienced the full "600+ hours of gameplay", but I did play for about 100 hours, which is a LOT more than I usually do.

Or, any good RPG recommendations would be great. I've been itching that single-player RPG need for awhile now, but haven't found anything that great.

[extarbags]

From what I understand, the expansions make Morrowind much, much better.

Other RPGs: Gothic 2, Vampire, KOTOR2.

[Peter Olafson]

I played the Xbox Morrowind and really enjoyed it. However, my question is it worth getting Morrowind for the PC? Basically, is there enough interesting and high quality mods out there that extends it's gameplay?

Yes. Overall, the mods are uneven, but there are many that significantly enhance the experience. I particularly liked one that added ambient sound effects and another that added schedules to NPCs.

Edit: ... in certain cities. The idea was to give schedules of everybody, and they did do this in several towns/cities. But I don't know if the project was ever completed.

Basically, if there's something you wish the game had, invariably, you'll find someone somewhere has supplied it. And some of the mods offering significant new content (Wizards's Island, The Underground and Sea of Destiny are three that come to mind) are pretty spectacular. :)

Peter

[Igor Muravyev]

The deal with Morrowind is that once you're experienced with the game enough to realize how to "powergame" you should probably install as many plugins as possible and maybe purposely restrict yourself from using the exploits.

The aforementioned GIANTS mod makes the game harder by introducing leveled lists that are hard to kill even if you max out some of your skills (I had a 100 Strength, Goldbrand, and took quite a few whacks to knock out the Dragons :)).

One of my favorite plugins is the Green Uvirith plugin, it adds a city around Tel Uvirith (your stronghold if you're Telvanni) .. it's really cool cause it feels like you own it (guys give you free stuff and the guards talk respectfully to you hehe).

Some of those are so good Bethesda should polish them and put it up on their site as "recommended."

Of course if you got the Xbox edition you could still theoretically load plugins on there, if you knew how to put files on your xbox harddrive :).