Morrowind: It's actually playable and fun now

[Jason McCullough]

Ok, if you get the patch:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_patches.htm

All the official plugins:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_plugins.htm

And the dynamic fps adjuster:

http://www.morrowind.nm.ru/

.....the game is actually playable now. Hooray! A word of warning for those obsessive types, like me: do not ever pick up something worth less than 1000 gold in this game. There's way too much high-dollar l00t sitting out in the open to bother. Oh, make sure you create a character with a high starting speed, or it's pretty tedious going at the beginning.

I'm currently role-playing a bald eagle (according to Ben Franklin, the eagle is a bird that spends its entire life making off with everything that isn't nailed down), in hopes of getting enough cash to buy my way into spellcasting.

[Sean Tudor]

Morrowind was perfectly playable and fun before the patches.

[Jason McCullough]

I got 15fps on the release version, so maybe it's just my hardware?

[Anonymous]

I noticed a bit of a boost in fps when I installed the no CD patch. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was just enough to make the game smooth (sorry, no actual fps numbers).

[Gordon Cameron]

Morrowind was perfectly playable and fun before the patches.

I thought so too, though the frame rates were pretty lousy. First patch seemed to help that a little, or maybe I'm just imagining things.

[Desslock]

> thought so too, though the frame rates were pretty lousy. First patch seemed to help that a little, or maybe I'm just imagining things.

I've heard that the patch removed the safedisk checks to duplicate the effects of the NOCD unofficial patch, although there's nothing in the readme.

I dunno, I've played more Morrowind than any game I've ever played, so I've obviously found it fun and playable from the outset, heh. I've always played it on 1600x1200 too, with view distance maxed (but a few other tweaks, like no shadows)

[Robert Sharp]

I play it the way Desslock does, and I have had no problems. There was noticeable slowdown before the first patch. After that, only those brief load times between zones. Otherwise, I am good to go! Love this game! Like Desslock, I have played it as much or more than any other game, and definitely more than any other CRPG.

[Anonymous]

It was fine with a PIII 600 and base GeForce DDR. Then I added GeForce4 4200 TI and it's even better. Then again, I don't play shooters and expect their FPS in everything.......

[Dr Fear]

Morrowind was perfectly playable and fun before the patches.

You are lying, a game cannot be fun, Tom Chick has said so. Please use another word.

[Erik Andersson]

You don't need a high starting speed if you know where to find the boots of blinding speed (quest reward, +200spd). Once you've played with them you can never go back. Also learn how to use mark/recall and divine/alimsivi intervention properly. Finally train alteration to ~30 and make a spell of levitation 1pts for 11 sec (1 pt mana cost) and the game is a total of 102.8% funnier and travel is no problem anymore.

I could tell you where to find the boots if you want.

[Jim F.]

With the 1.2 patch, I can actually play the game now.

Months of Bethesda saying "It's your fault... I know you have the drivers we tell you to have, but we still think it's your fault" culminates with "it was our fault and we fixed it".

Anyway, now I'm trying to find the time to get around to playing it now that it doesn't crash every time I step into an outdoor zone.

[Gordon Cameron]

I've always played it on 1600x1200 too, with view distance maxed (but a few other tweaks, like no shadows)

Yeah it's weird; I didn't get any improvement in frame rates by bumping the resolution down, so I played at 1200X900 or something. Full view, no shadows. It's not silky smooth but it's livable.

[Kalle]

The dynamic FPS adjuster is really everything thats needed to fully enjoy the game.

With it I get whatever framrate I desire, without it the game slows to a crawl at times.

It's a shame really that a tiny app written by a single programmer in a month could accomplish something Bethesda couldn't do or didn't think of during four(?) years of game production

[Wader]

Arise from the grave!

So I took advantage of the Steam sale on Morrowind, and saw the link in the bargain thread about getting it to work with mods.

On that site there was a link to a "super" set of mods, but the specs the author was recommending were well above the laptop I plan to play the game on.

Does anyone have recommendations on any mods that are absolutely necessary for playing Morrowind these days? Are they still the ones listed above in this thread?

[LionelThompson]

Is 7 1/2 years a new record?

[Aszurom]

Tom Chick killed fun 7+ years ago.

For all of you saying PC gaming is d0med, take note... gaming has been a zombie all this time. You cannot kill that which is already dead!!

[TurinTur]

Try to search "octopus overlord mod compilation" or something like that.

[moss_icon]

i reckon the only morrowind mods you really need are the texture mod, the anti-cliffracer mod and maybe a sign post mod.

apart from that, it's great as it is.

oh, and the fps adjuster in the first post, so you can ramp up the draw distance on a modern pc.

[Creole Ned]

What about a mod to "fix" the allegedly horrible combat? (I say allegedly because my memory of Morrowind is dim and while I don't recall the combat being that good I also don't recall it being horrendous, but maybe I had different expectations back then.)

[Gremlinclr]

I bought it from the Steam sale as well. I'm playing it on a 22" widescreen. I'm not too worried there are no widescreen settings, I have it on 1600x1200 and it's close enough to my native 1600x1050.

But is there any setting I can change to make the menus bigger? The wording is pretty damn tiny and a strain on my old eyes.

[moss_icon]

What about a mod to "fix" the allegedly horrible combat?

the combat in morrowind is merely a few mouse clicks in the way of exploring the world and story.

[Creole Ned]

Yeah, that's mostly how I recall the combat, too. But some people have gone on about how it was so bad it effectively ruined the game for them.

[Demon G Sides]

What about a mod to "fix" the allegedly horrible combat? (I say allegedly because my memory of Morrowind is dim and while I don't recall the combat being that good I also don't recall it being horrendous, but maybe I had different expectations back then.)

Yeah, the anti-cliff racer mod is just that.

[Shadari]

Yeah, that's mostly how I recall the combat, too. But some people have gone on about how it was so bad it effectively ruined the game for them.
They're action gamers. What do you expect from them?

[Rock8man]

They're action gamers. What do you expect from them?

I expect something more fun than what they have. Something more like Oblivion, where the melee combat actually feels like it has weight, and doesn't feel like you're clicking and poking stuff with a stick. I just couldn't enjoy Morrowind despite all the mods because the combat felt so horrible. That first cave where you find the paralyzing sword near the starting town? I couldn't even get through that without thinking "wow, there are many better games now to be spending my time on". YMMV of course, but when the core mechanic feels that week, I just have a lot of problems continuing to play a game like that. I moved on from that cave, thinking maybe I just won't get into many fights, but I inevitable encountered more enemies later.

My favorite combat engines are still turn-based, but I realize that's not possible in a game like this. I did love Fallout 3's compromise with the VATS system though. Mostly though, if a mod could make the hand animations and feel of the sword combat feel more like Oblivion, I'd probably revisit Morrowind again because it was a wonderful game.

[malkav11]

I don't think the combat is Morrowind's core mechanic at all.

[tiohn]

Ok, so how does Morrowind run on a netbook these days?

[TurinTur]

Yeah, Morrowind combat sucks. We all agree.

But it had other strong points, that made it worth it.

[Austin Arlitt]

Even admitting Morrowind's combat to be subpar, I still had way too much fun with the game. It felt more like an open-ended Thief at the beginning, and then after hours of exploration (which was worthwhile in itself) I came across the Morag Tong, which began a new trail of thought; and those missions tipped me off about this other thing called . . .
It was more the ability to trail off & discover new places that kept me interested, but I admit I hadn't played that many open world games by then.

Just for reference, Morrowind ran fine on the GeForce 3 Ti 200 64MB I had at the time. It even rendered the water properly, which is more than could be said for my friend's GeForce 2 MX.

[Larinson]

Morrowind without cliff-racers is just not Morrowind.

Incidentally, I just went and watched a couple of videos on Youtube of Morrowind. Man, that music was awesome. Just listening to it brought back great memories of adventuring through a fantasy landscape. I don't care if the combat was awful, the game rocked!

[krayzkrok]

I seem to recall combat in Morrowind being a lot more fun as a magic user. They put a lot more effort into spell effects than into physical combat. I always preferred the atmosphere in Morrowind to Oblivion - the world seemed more, I don't know, "real".

Does the cliff racer mod get rid of cliff racers entirely, or simply reduce their density? I only found them annoying because there were so many of them.

[Arbit]

the combat in morrowind is merely a few mouse clicks in the way of exploring the world and story.
Exactly.

I like the combat in Oblivion less because of the weird bastardized half stats, half reflex mix. It was really jarring to land a good clean power attack right on a guy's head, only to have it register as a glancing blow and barely do any damage at all, then block an attack only to have it take off a huge chunk of health because he got a really nice damage roll. But you can't just space out and spam attacks like in Morrowind either, because if most of your attacks are blocked you will lose fights that you could have won with a little footwork and timing. Essentially, there are enough reflexes required that it forces you to pay attention and play a combat game that isn't very fun and pretty random, and if the combat isn't going to be fun, I'd rather just furiously spam attacks to victory like in Morrowind and be done with it.

[Gordon_Bleu]

I bought it from the Steam sale as well. I'm playing it on a 22" widescreen. I'm not too worried there are no widescreen settings, I have it on 1600x1200 and it's close enough to my native 1600x1050.
The Morrowind FPS Optimizer (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=utilities.detail&id=22#Files) allows you to specify a widescreen resolution. I just tried it out and it seems to work with the Steam version of Morrowind.

[ElGuapo]

I remember a mod for Morrowind that made a slave trader that sold you slaves you could get to follow you around or do stuff like bring you beverages. It also had a whole sex slave element to it complete with fading to black screen and porn sound effects.

Ah, mods.

[Dan_Theman]

I seem to recall combat in Morrowind being a lot more fun as a magic user. They put a lot more effort into spell effects than into physical combat. I always preferred the atmosphere in Morrowind to Oblivion - the world seemed more, I don't know, "real".

Does the cliff racer mod get rid of cliff racers entirely, or simply reduce their density? I only found them annoying because there were so many of them.Depends on the particular mod. It sounds like you might want this one:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1385
They're all there, but they won't attack unless you attack first. I haven't tried it myself, but tons of pleasant comments appear underneath.

[Shimarenda]

I used the Passive Healthy Wildlife mod. Being attacked by every nonhumanoid on the island got a bit old after a while. This mod meant that creatures only attacked first if they had the blight or if they were described as aggressive, like alits and nix hounds.

[Tim James]

I seem to recall combat in Morrowind being a lot more fun as a magic user.I thought someone said the magic system was even worse than Oblivion. So what kind of character build should I play to avoid most of the crap and just enjoy the rest of the game? Something I can stealth around with everywhere?

[Kalle]

Tim, you want the 100% Chameleon-enchanted outfit.

[JM]

I thought someone said the magic system was even worse than Oblivion. So what kind of character build should I play to avoid most of the crap and just enjoy the rest of the game? Something I can stealth around with everywhere?

It's "worse" in that it's hilariously unbalanced, which is probably something that can be said about Oblivion as well.

[Rock8man]

Yeah, ultimately that's why I stopped playing Morrowind originally, around level 24 or so I think: it became a cakewalk. I could defeat every enemy in the game after first casting a spell to entrap them in my crystals, which allowed me to make even better equipment and spells, which made the game even easier!

But some of the mods I installed when I came back to the game would have dealt with the imbalance problem and promised to make the game tougher later on so it wouldn't be so boring. However, as I said, I couldn't get past the pokey pokey combat in the beginning of the game, sadly.

[Tim James]

Hey this thread is only a month old.

I had to buy a new video card recently and was bummed that even this 5850 struggles with distant land. I only get 20-30 frames per second with MGE running, and plenty of split-second hitches. I know it's an RPG and I don't need 200 fps but aren't people getting better than this? I'm wondering if there's one particular option I have enabled that really slows things down. I figure it will take some research to get it right though.

[Paul_cze]

Oh my spaghetti monster this is so beautiful ! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qRXm_CjuM&feature=related)

I wish someone would compile all necessary mods into "next next finish" package, I would re-play Morrowind immediately.

[farfrael]

Oh my spaghetti monster this is so beautiful ! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qRXm_CjuM&feature=related)

I wish someone would compile all necessary mods into "next next finish" package, I would re-play Morrowind immediately.

damn, damn, damn ... it is stunning. You can see his gfx card chugging a bit at times though
Any idea which mods he is using? (yes, I am lazy, did not see anything listed on the youtube vid page though)

[Paul_cze]

It is all listed there. Just click on the arrows.

The song is very nice too. I had to download Morrowind Music Overdose even if I will never use them ingame.

[Hawkeye Fierce]

It's not exactly what the video uses, I think, but there's a great guide for making MW look awesome right here: http://morrowind2009.wordpress.com/

[Matthew Gallant]

Stop bumping this thread, the title will never be true.

[scharmers]

I'm pretty sure the majority of that video's power comes from a completely unlocked view distance + a nice sun occlusion shader.

[Citiznmatt]

If you look at Video #1 in that series, he lists which mods he's using. Basically it's Morrowind Graphic Extender, with some updated shaders and distant lands enabled through MGE + various texture packs.

Hawkeye's link above provides everything you need except a couple of additional shaders, which can easily be added to MGE.

[Jason McCullough]

This thread is old. Using that mod pack I made (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=63537) to fix most of the broken gameplay has resulted in me paying a lot more attention to the world this time. That, and finally breaking myself of the habit of looking in every goddamn little bag and box in the world. Only chests have anything worth your time.

There is fucked up shit in this game. The biggest example I've found is Divayth Fyr (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Divayth_Fyr), the 4000 year old leader of the tower of Tel Fyr (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Tel_Fyr). He runs the Corprusarium (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Corprusarium) as a hobby, but that's only kind of strange.

No, what's really strange is that he 4 daughters. They're his clones. And he talks about having sex with them; they call themselves his wives. A console game that includes this happened.

[extarbags]

There is fucked up shit in this game. The biggest example I've found is Divayth Fyr (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Divayth_Fyr), the 4000 year old leader of the tower of Tel Fyr (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Tel_Fyr). He runs the Corprusarium (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Corprusarium) as a hobby, but that's only kind of strange.

No, what's really strange is that he 4 daughters. They're his clones. And he talks about having sex with them; they call themselves his wives. A console game that includes this happened.

Yeah, that guy and everything around him is one of my favorite parts of Morrowind.

Edit: he's also friends with this guy:

http://images.uesp.net/thumb/d/d2/MW-creature-Yagrum_Bagarn.jpg/600px-MW-creature-Yagrum_Bagarn.jpg

[Jason McCullough]

Megafatty dwarf is awesome. Come to think of it, where did his legs go?

[Telefrog]

No, what's really strange is that he 4 daughters. They're his clones. And he talks about having sex with them; they call themselves his wives. A console game that includes this happened.

I love their names. Alfe, Beyte, Delte, and Uupse.

[Gordon Cameron]

Megafatty dwarf is awesome. Come to think of it, where did his legs go?

I remember that bit. Definitely one of the cooler NPCs in Morrowind.

[scharmers]

Guess Morrowind is what happens when you have a experienced, real P&P RPG designer leading it (Ken Rolston) -- a bizarre, often surreal environment where it's the "generic fantasy" city (Ebonheart) that feels out of place. Bethesda has done nothing that comes close in any of their games that gives the player such a delightful "stranger in a strange land" feeling.

[Jason McCullough]

I'd guess that's because high fantasy is a license to print money, by contrast. Us cultural elitist types like it, but the broad market wants Orcs, Orcs, Orcs, Orcs.

[Gordon Cameron]

To some extent they are constrained by lore, no? Cyrodiil for example is more of a conventional high-fantasy locale than Morrowind.

What bothered me about Oblivion's gameworld was less the bog-standard high-fantasy feel than the peculiarly homogeneous nature of the landscape. Different regions of Morrowind had very distinct feels, whereas in Cyrodiil it all kinda felt like a green forest/pasture dotted with ruins. Skyrim has done better in that regard, though still more homogeneous than Morrowind IMO.

[scharmers]

Different regions of Morrowind had very distinct feels, whereas in Cyrodiil it all kinda felt like a green forest/pasture dotted with ruins.

What's funny is that it should be the exact opposite! Vvardenfell is like this little island way up in the corner of Tamriel, but it has swamps, grasslands, ashlands, rocky beaches, etc. etc. etc. while as you mentioned Cyrodiil (which, I imagine, is a lot bigger than Vvardenfell) is Gondor.

[malkav11]

Guess Morrowind is what happens when you have a experienced, real P&P RPG designer leading it (Ken Rolston) -- a bizarre, often surreal environment where it's the "generic fantasy" city (Ebonheart) that feels out of place. Bethesda has done nothing that comes close in any of their games that gives the player such a delightful "stranger in a strange land" feeling.

Wasn't he the lead on Oblivion too, though? Which is nearly as generic as generic can be.

[Disconnected]

Wasn't he the lead on Oblivion too, though? Which is nearly as generic as generic can be.

I only vaguely remember the broadest strokes, but it wasn't as simple as you just made it sound. As far as I recall (and that's really not very far in this case!), the three guys in charge (Rolston being one) basically wanted to make three different games: Morrowind++, Sim Sandbox, and something very much like the game Oblivion ended up being (which I believe you should credit Todd Howard with, more than Ken Rolston).

But you should probably ask your friendly neighbourhood search engine, rather than take my word for it. I'm absolutely not a reliable source of info on this.

Additionally, the Oblivion = Generic thing is not exactly accurate. I'll readily agree just about everything in the game was beaten into conforming with the dread Standard High Fantasy Template Construct. But even so, you need look no further than the game itself for evidence that just about everything in the game initially was designed to break with said dread STC. It would seem they iterated the originality out of the game, for some reason.

[De_Treville]

To some extent they are constrained by lore, no? Cyrodiil for example is more of a conventional high-fantasy locale than Morrowind.
Actually they went out of their way to replace the interesting lore they had established in previous games and turn Cyrodil in a generic pile of high fantasy shit. Before Oblivion Cyrodil was described as a jungle with big rivers, rain-forests and mangrove swamps.

[malkav11]

I only vaguely remember the broadest strokes, but it wasn't as simple as you just made it sound. As far as I recall (and that's really not very far in this case!), the three guys in charge (Rolston being one) basically wanted to make three different games: Morrowind++, Sim Sandbox, and something very much like the game Oblivion ended up being (which I believe you should credit Todd Howard with, more than Ken Rolston).

But you should probably ask your friendly neighbourhood search engine, rather than take my word for it. I'm absolutely not a reliable source of info on this.

Additionally, the Oblivion = Generic thing is not exactly accurate. I'll readily agree just about everything in the game was beaten into conforming with the dread Standard High Fantasy Template Construct. But even so, you need look no further than the game itself for evidence that just about everything in the game initially was designed to break with said dread STC. It would seem they iterated the originality out of the game, for some reason.

You may be right about the provenance of Oblivion's genericism (and relentlessly samey content spread, for that matter). I was legitimately asking whether that was the case - I wasn't sure. I'd like to think so, because it would make me significantly more sanguine about Kingdoms of Amalur, which has such a weird pedigree spread that I'm not sure what to make of it (to wit, Big Huge Games? Yay. Ken Rolston? I dunno, but I sure loved Morrowind! Curt Schilling & co? No clue. R.A. Salvatore? Sigh. Todd McFarlane? Ugh.).

And I gotta go with Oblivion being generic, still. It may have been intended to be much more interesting at one point, but it didn't get there. The -lore- isn't generic, but most of that is only really on display in the books, and most of -those- were written for Daggerfall and Morrowind.

I can't remember if De_Treville is right about how Cyrodiil was described before (that stuff sounds more like Black Marsh or maybe Elsweyr, but I've not read all the books in the TES series and I'm foggy on that), but even if it were a more generic location than Morrowind, it surely should have been possible to spice it up more than they did. Skyrim's setting isn't as weird and exotic as Morrowind's either, but it's far more compellingly rendered.

[extarbags]

What's funny is that it should be the exact opposite! Vvardenfell is like this little island way up in the corner of Tamriel, but it has swamps, grasslands, ashlands, rocky beaches, etc. etc. etc. while as you mentioned Cyrodiil (which, I imagine, is a lot bigger than Vvardenfell) is Gondor.

http://images.uesp.net/thumb/c/c3/TamrielMap.jpg/400px-TamrielMap.jpg

Just eyeballing it, Cyrodiil looks to be bigger than Skyrim and Vvardenfell combined.

[extarbags]

I can't remember if De_Treville is right about how Cyrodiil was described before (that stuff sounds more like Black Marsh or maybe Elsweyr, but I've not read all the books in the TES series and I'm foggy on that), but even if it were a more generic location than Morrowind, it surely should have been possible to spice it up more than they did. Skyrim's setting isn't as weird and exotic as Morrowind's either, but it's far more compellingly rendered.

Even if Cyrodiil was necessarily as bland as it ended up being in Oblivion, they could have spiced that game up by just not choosing to set it in the blandest setting they had.

[De_Treville]

I can't remember if De_Treville is right about how Cyrodiil was described before (that stuff sounds more like Black Marsh or maybe Elsweyr



...
Cyrodiil is the cradle of Human Imperial high culture on Tamriel. It is the largest region of the continent, and most is endless jungle. The Imperial City is in the heartland, the fertile Nibenay Valley. The densely populated central valley is surrounded by wild rain forests drained by great rivers into the swamps of Argonia and Topal Bay. The land rises gradually to the west and sharply to the north. Between its western coast and its central valley are deciduous forests and mangrove swamps.
Which admittedly sounds less alien and exotic than Morrowind but is still miles better than Oblivion's Cyrodiil.

[Disconnected]

I'd like to think so, because it would make me significantly more sanguine about Kingdoms of Amalur [...]

I don't know why you should feel sanguine about KoA or any other game at a similar stage, but it certainly looks intriguing. Not because of any one particular guy, but because they're trying to marry Brawlers and RPGs.

As for Rolston, you probably need to look a bit less at the name and more at who he's working with and what the project is intended to be. It's all well and good and fine and stuffs to be lead designer, if the design didn't originate with you and you're not allowed to change it in any noticeable way. In the case of KoA, I'd be surprised if Rolston can do anything significant to Salvatore's contributions. Because why else hire Salvatore?


I can't remember if De_Treville is right about how Cyrodiil was described before (that stuff sounds more like Black Marsh or maybe Elsweyr, but I've not read all the books in the TES series and I'm foggy on that), but even if it were a more generic location than Morrowind, it surely should have been possible to spice it up more than they did. Skyrim's setting isn't as weird and exotic as Morrowind's either, but it's far more compellingly rendered.

Until I actually saw Cyrodiil, I had envisioned it as ancient mangrove jungle territory littered with the ruins of a civilisation that, compared to the present Empire, had been almost god-like. And I envisioned the Empire as a sort of cross between the Roman Empire, the Venetian Republic, and America of 200 years ago. In other words: just as weird and alien as Morrowind.

I haven't played Skyrim yet and barely seen it in action. My initial impression, though, was that it still fell pretty far short of things like Risen and Divinity?

Finally, Oblivion probably deserves a little bit of a break for managing to look normal. I don't know about you, but it was the first time I ever went "wow, this looks just like the place I used to live outside Cottbus" in a video game. Not very fantastic or inspiring, to be sure, but on occasion it was surprisingly mundane. Which can be just as compelling, no?

[Airscrew]

Still very much work in progress, but this makes me excited indeed:

http://openmw.org/en/
OpenMW, the open source Morrowind engine

[Zak Gordon]

I only vaguely remember the broadest strokes, but it wasn't as simple as you just made it sound. As far as I recall (and that's really not very far in this case!), the three guys in charge (Rolston being one) basically wanted to make three different games: Morrowind++, Sim Sandbox, and something very much like the game Oblivion ended up being (which I believe you should credit Todd Howard with, more than Ken Rolston).

Pretty much. Rolston left shortly after Oblivion was out and left an interesting read on Hardocp that is no longer around, but i found this titbit from it:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ken-rolston-oblivions-lead-designer-retirement-interview.13289/

I remember the original article in general came across very much that Oblivion was not his baby (he was more proud of Morrowind) and in general it was Tod Howard who called the shots. Which might be why he left?

And if i remember correctly isn't Tod known for a quote about how he would find it cool for TES games to be like Halo, just set in Tamriel? Something like that?

Imho, Modded Morrowind is one of the best sandbox single player crpgs (and i still play it today). In comparison I kept Oblivion for about six months before selling it on, even modding it couldn't really remove that fps like feel, which is fine if you are not wanting to play a crpg.

[Nephrinn]

I just modded Morrowind with the Overhaul mod (http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/) and HOLY CRAP does it look nice. Especially the water and view distance with the depth of field effects. Wow! Sooo getting back into this now. :D

[lord_pall]

Sold, even though I played the crap out of morrowind when it first came out.

Grabbing the overhaul visuals.

Any recs for additional mods? Preferably a pack since i'm lazy.

[peterb]

I want a mod that reduces to "increase default character walking speed to something like in Skyrim."

[tylertoo]

I just modded Morrowind with the Overhaul mod (http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/) and HOLY CRAP does it look nice. Especially the water and view distance with the depth of field effects. Wow! Sooo getting back into this now. :D

Thanks for pointing this out. I had grabbed the Morrowind GOTY steam sale for $5, added in this overhaul, then re-installed my last save game from when I was using the disc version. Runs and looks great. That save game, btw, was from 2008. I was about one-third of the way through the main quest, but had spent many hours meandering around before that. My character feels like an old friend who I haven't seen in a while.


I want a mod that reduces to "increase default character walking speed to something like in Skyrim."

I use the mod "Slower Fatigue Running" and then just run all the time. Never get tired, I'm in great shape.

[Zak Gordon]

I want a mod that reduces to 'increase default character walking speed to something like in Skyrim.'

many mods exist for this (Nymeria's Faster Walk etc) or the short-cut way is to open the console with ~ then type: Player->SetSpeed 500 (or whatever you feel is fast enough).

You could use the starsigns in char creation to give you a natural starting speed boost (The Steed).Or after playing a char to around level 9 (doesn't really take long) you can focus on improving your speed, or you can use magic/find/buy or make a magic item to increase your speed (rings are quite common). Or use the fast-travel services like silt-riders/mage guild teleports etc.

Mostly though i find after playing for an hour or two, my leveling up has enabled me to improve my speed to about 2x the typical starting state, and that is fast enough for me, ymmv.

In relation to Oblivions 'boring' setting/look, that is funny as many TES fans were up in arms at the changes that Morrowind introduced to the look of the series as presented in Arena and Daggerfall, that were much more traditional/medieval/european in look overall. So i think they tried to recreate that in Oblivion.

I really liked the trees around some of the water features(lakes/rivers) in a few of the towns, those willow like things. Overall Oblivion felt a little smaller than Morrowind, and that might in part be down to the less diverse/exotic look compared to Morrowind. I like them both visually, and from the crpg aspect Morrowind offers the most, and the mods...well no contest imho.

[DoomMunky]

Just another bump to repeat the recommendation for the Overhaul Mod. It's AWESOME. Version 3.0 is fast approaching.

Other than all the amazing stuff contained in it I installed only Galsiah's Character Development (makes the leveling transparent and non-powergamey) and 'Fair Majicka Regen' which ups the regen slightly. Makes the game more fun.

I spent like 200-300 hours on this back in the day, and now I'm back in. Damn!

[Zak Gordon]

I'm old-school, so i liked building my modded morrowind by hand, and it just dawned on me Morrowind is 10 years old! Another old game that just keeps giving. And yes i really have no idea how many hours i've sunk into my long running current game (started this char over two years ago!).

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p199/BlackBart06/MMWmap.jpg

All those stats, all those skills (which all have in game emergent game-play, guilds require certain skill levels etc) , all the extra landmass! And even at level 32, and with some good skills+stats, i'm no tank. Awesome.

[tylertoo]

There's no 'like' button on this here forum, so consider this post as such.

Morrowind is one of the few games I always have installed and like to re-visit now and then.

[Telefrog]

What is that oddly square landmass off to the West?

[phero.1]

What is that oddly square landmass off to the West?

There's a joke in there somewhere, think dammit! think!

[Wo1verine]

Maybe someone created a Borg mod for Morrowind. After all, resistance is futile.

[Zak Gordon]

What is that oddly square landmass off to the West?

It's from the Silgrad Tower mod (which i think is hard to find these days? or the latest version had some issues......something like that, i just know the version i have installed is the 'best' version of that mod):

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Silgrad_Tower

Which shows it is actually part of the landmass shared with Skyrim. I think the original plan/aim of this modding team was to build all that additional mainland landscape that is actually part of Morrowind (as opposed to just the main island of Vvardenfell that the morrowind game is based in). They only got as far as that huge chunk (it really is pretty big), which is not bad for a mod team effort. I have been to it once, in a previous game, and while not of the overall standard of the main game, it is still decent and big enough to add lots more content to explore etc. I can't remember how you get there, i think maybe i swam last time (killing lots of Slaughtersharks and regular sharks on route!), but there is usually a transport option somewhere for all the extra landmass mods, the thing is i have so many i've lost track of where all these transport links are!

I used this map to help me select as many as i could that did not clash with each other:

http://fessicsfavorites.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/map-o-mods.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fessicsfavorites.wordpress.com/category/morrowind-stuff/&h=1626&w=1748&sz=370&tbnid=vRIQtFiwaTSdIM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=97&zoom=1&usg=__uuUEP6_ahS408Iqo7Ps9_cp6kCQ=&docid=I0YMTFoWvOfI-M&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=cH3AUI4wxNzhBOKcgNgK&ved=0CCMQ9QEwAQ

Most of the additional landmass is not lore correct (apart from Silgrad Tower), but then the official Solstheim was not either (iirc, going on the original map for the world from Arena etc? I could be wrong on this as some of the older looking maps may have it?). Anyway, i've added stuff like Pirate islands for a different theme and just to see something that looks different from the typical morrowind experience. Some islands based on those old book roleplaying adventures from the 'Fighting Fantasy' series (i loved those as a kid), and as many of the highest rated landmass mods as i could fit without clashes.

You'll note that on my map it does not cut off some of those map mods from displaying (like the island of Veldion in the south), as i must have tweaked something for that....in fact i have quite a large scrollable 'blank bit' all around my map....not sure what i tweaked to get that, but it might come in handy if i ever want to create some new landmass mods myself :)

The biggest downside of Morrowind (compared to Oblivion and Skyrim, (but not Daggerfall!)) is that it does crash. Even the base game was prone to this, and my massively modded morrowind (well any modded version also) more so. I have to be careful to save quite regularly (every 30mins to 1 hour) and to clear out and organize my save games to not hit the crash you get from having too many save games! You get the hang of it after a short while, and i certainly don't notice it now.......except when i forget and get that CTD.

Other than that, i have so many ways to play (stats completely matter to success or failure), so much content i'm taking ages to get through it (as you can see on my map!), so many tough choices due to the many extra elements the mods i've chosen have added or simply emphasized, and so much more actual role-playing ability (over the whack-a-mole version of a crpg that Oblivion and Skyrim represent), well i'm a very, very content TES gamer in his ten year old awesome crpg. When will it end? In two years time? What else have i to discover? I just don't know, it's just massive (but not perfect off course).

[Desslock]

Be sure to check out other threads by OP:

"Portal - it's actually playable and fun now"
"iPad - it's actually usable and doesn't collect dust now"
"Goodfellas - it's actually watchable and not boring now"
"Michael Phelps- he actually doesn't drown and can compete now"

[Mike O'Malley]

Be sure to check out other threads by OP:

"Portal - it's actually playable and fun now"
"iPad - it's actually usable and doesn't collect dust now"
"Goodfellas - it's actually watchable and not boring now"
"Michael Phelps- he actually doesn't drown and can compete now"

"Qt3 - it actually contains snarky comments now"