Morrowind: First Impressions

Lord Brass · 11-27-2002, 09:18 PM

So there I was down at the local store, when I pick up this nice looking box, and think 'That'll cheer me up. I'll have that.' So armed with my new purchase, off I go to the old 'puter and load this baby straight on. That was last Monday, so I've had the game for ten days now. Sleep is not an option. Sleep is for the uninitiated. Or the crass. Get up at four in the morning, despite the fact that you know you've had a few hours in bed looking at the ceiling thinking about your character, or your next character, or...whatever, but it's all Morrowind related, and you're kidding yourself about getting any shut-eye.

So what do I think of this game really? Bl**dy marvellous in a nutshell. It reminds me of an old game (the name of which escapes me) that was for the old Atari STe. Similar sort of solo play. This game though is quite exceptional, for so many reasons.

However (and you know it's coming) there are some issues that I have with it. Some are software, and some are gameplay.

Morrowind has got to be one of the buggiest games I've played in quite some time. Crashes and sound degradation appear with alarming frequency; they appear after harrowing elements of the game occur, such as turning your character around too fast. Blimey! Crashes and freezes are unpleasantly common. They average around three a day. I've thought about reinstalling, to see if this will solve it, but I suspect that this is a sound issue (and it usually is) as others have posted. I checked the Morrowind site to see if I needed a patch before I started playing, but that isn't it. Fiddling with the sound may be the answer. Whatever the solution, this is very annoying, as playing with the sound down is so much less of a game.

As for the game itself, it's a shame you can't change your character's racial stat profile that much, but it's okay for all of that. I've toyed with the other two methods of starting characters, but I start each new character on custom. It's the only way to go! Other people prefer other methods, so whatever you prefer power to you. I would like to see a quick start, so you don't have to go through all of that intro sequence every time.

Minor game quibbles so far, and nothing really serious. Combat is a little...lacking shall we say. I would have preferred to have separate chop/slash/thrust buttons, rather than limit it to your movement. At least something that allowed me to choose the type of attack, rather than blindly slaving it to (sometimes irrational) posturing on the field of battle. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Again, it's nothing too major, but what is a real bind, and I mean really annoying, is the serious lack of map management. I've spent hours trawling around Mulag Amur, the Ashlands, the Bitter Coast, the - whatever - and all to find this person, or that place, or something I've dropped due to encumberance. This really borders on criminal for a game that is of this pedigree. I'm not saying that my characters haven't gained from spending over a day-and-a-half mooching about searching for someone or something, but I'd rather do it because I wanted to, and not because I can't resolve some irritating little side quest immediately. Why we cannot place individual markers on a local map at least escapes me.

Other than that, Morrowind is exceptional, captivating and thoroughly enjoyable. The little problems are just that - little. However, they are the things that you tend to notice. This game is so fun, that as usual, I'm on my eigth or ninth character already. Most of them are still in play (all but two I think). I have an idea and have to try it out immediately. It's a shame that leaving a game or reloading the quicksave can cause the wretched thing to freeze so often.

Well, that's my two gold's worth. On with the questing!

canadianvixen · 11-27-2002, 09:27 PM

Lord Brass this might help you with your navigation problems. I've found it very useful and I know several of the IW memebers have downloaded it to their puter's too. Hope it helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

http://lechmarch.mailru.com/

[ 11-27-2002, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: canadianvixen ]

Lord Brass · 11-28-2002, 03:58 AM

Thanks for that canadianvixen. I've just d/led it. Hopefully, that'll take some of the heat out of the problem. Now, if only I could Alt+Tab in and out of Morrowind...

Grungi · 11-28-2002, 07:41 AM

allo brass, you trying to escape baggins? no kobolds in morrowind so no protection league heh [img]tongue.gif[/img]

as for it being buggy the game itself isnt, but certain hardware it does not like, morrowind hasnt crashed on my machine at all, no sound problems no graphics problems at all, but then again im using industry standard stuff like geforce graphics and creative soundcard.

morrowind is unbelivably varied, noone plays it the same way, so many ways to approach it, finding things is a problem but consider it as a full roleplaying experience, finding things SHOULD be a problem though a decent automap with markers for anything important would help massively.

character wise im still happily using my first and only character because the way i see it classes in morrowind are very close anyway with not many differences that have a major effect on the way you play, once you hit level65 your bound to be a superb spellcaster and hard warrior anyway whatever you started as, and its hard to stay at lowlevels for long as levelling is very easy. The game is kept interesting by the hugeeeee amount of people and places to interact with , how many guilds etc you head of with your chars? IMO its the best rpg out there at the moment by a long way, just wish it was more challenging in some places and the fighting system could do with improvement, i gave up after level 10 and switched it to "always use best attack" and havent looked back because i dont feel it makes much diff anyway [img]tongue.gif[/img]

canadianvixen · 11-28-2002, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lord Brass:
Thanks for that canadianvixen. I've just d/led it. Hopefully, that'll take some of the heat out of the problem. Now, if only I could Alt+Tab in and out of Morrowind...

Strange I thought it was just my pc that had that problem. I used to be able to alt-tab out of morrowind when I had Win98 installed but since I put XP on here I haven't been able to.

Lord Brass · 11-28-2002, 07:42 PM

Hello Grungi, me ol' china. You might have seen my reply on the BG board about the very reason we're here. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Level 65 with your first character? Fella, when you play a game you really play it. Power to ya for that. Tenth level is the best I've managed so far, but I've had nearly that many characters as well. Mind you, most are still in play so that's okay.

You're right about the variety and depth to Morrowind. In fact not having a search facility on this forum makes it extremely hard to look for solutions to some of my problems without glancing at something that I didn't want to know in advance. Grrrr! I did switch the "Always use..." on even sooner than you I suspect. For one thing I wasn't happy with the attack descriptions for some of the weapons, for another, there seemed to be little point in playing without it turned on. Shame that.

Canadianvixen, I have Wintendo 98, and it does it to me. I think it doesn't like the hardware is all. I want a new 'puter optimised to play Morrowind NOW!

Grungi · 11-29-2002, 07:55 AM

well to be fair i was level 65 months and months ago and havent really played morrowind at all since then [img]smile.gif[/img] quake3 and baldurs gate getting in the way when i come back to morrowind i got about another 10-15 levels to increase before i max out, and then finish off the main quest and getting guildmaster of the guilds i havent mastered yet (mage is one of em)

and yeah hardware is v.important these days for games like this as they are optimised to particular cards, stick with nvidia and stick with creative and you'll be good most of the time

canadianvixen · 11-29-2002, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lord Brass:
Canadianvixen, I have Wintendo 98, and it does it to me. I think it doesn't like the hardware is all. I want a new 'puter optimised to play Morrowind NOW!

Well I have a P4, with 1 gig RAM, Nvidia Gf3 and, 40 gig hard drive, so if it's my system I'm not sure where it needs to be tweeked. I've tried everything to get rid of that particular but, but Morrowind is the only program I have problems with. So I gave up worrying about it and play around it. *shrug*

Keraptisdm · 11-30-2002, 07:14 PM

It's true!! The K.A.K. is spreading to the Morrowind Forum! Sound the alarm. Hello Lord Brass and grungi. I want to get Morrowind, (and Johnny told me it was a great game) but I don't think my computer specs are up for it. (Pentium III, 600Mhz, with on-board graphics. No AGP slot either, so I can't add a graphics card. )

[ 12-01-2002, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: Keraptisdm ]

Rageheart · 12-01-2002, 03:52 PM

its true grungi has no life! JK

11-27-2002, 09:18 PM	#1
Lord Brass Emerald Dragon Join Date: September 17, 2001 Location: Good ol\' Blighty Age: 52 Posts: 913	So there I was down at the local store, when I pick up this nice looking box, and think 'That'll cheer me up. I'll have that.' So armed with my new purchase, off I go to the old 'puter and load this baby straight on. That was last Monday, so I've had the game for ten days now. Sleep is not an option. Sleep is for the uninitiated. Or the crass. Get up at four in the morning, despite the fact that you know you've had a few hours in bed looking at the ceiling thinking about your character, or your next character, or...whatever, but it's all Morrowind related, and you're kidding yourself about getting any shut-eye. So what do I think of this game really? Bl**dy marvellous in a nutshell. It reminds me of an old game (the name of which escapes me) that was for the old Atari STe. Similar sort of solo play. This game though is quite exceptional, for so many reasons. However (and you know it's coming) there are some issues that I have with it. Some are software, and some are gameplay. Morrowind has got to be one of the buggiest games I've played in quite some time. Crashes and sound degradation appear with alarming frequency; they appear after harrowing elements of the game occur, such as turning your character around too fast. Blimey! Crashes and freezes are unpleasantly common. They average around three a day. I've thought about reinstalling, to see if this will solve it, but I suspect that this is a sound issue (and it usually is) as others have posted. I checked the Morrowind site to see if I needed a patch before I started playing, but that isn't it. Fiddling with the sound may be the answer. Whatever the solution, this is very annoying, as playing with the sound down is so much less of a game. As for the game itself, it's a shame you can't change your character's racial stat profile that much, but it's okay for all of that. I've toyed with the other two methods of starting characters, but I start each new character on custom. It's the only way to go! Other people prefer other methods, so whatever you prefer power to you. I would like to see a quick start, so you don't have to go through all of that intro sequence every time. Minor game quibbles so far, and nothing really serious. Combat is a little...lacking shall we say. I would have preferred to have separate chop/slash/thrust buttons, rather than limit it to your movement. At least something that allowed me to choose the type of attack, rather than blindly slaving it to (sometimes irrational) posturing on the field of battle. [img]smile.gif[/img] Again, it's nothing too major, but what is a real bind, and I mean really annoying, is the serious lack of map management. I've spent hours trawling around Mulag Amur, the Ashlands, the Bitter Coast, the - whatever - and all to find this person, or that place, or something I've dropped due to encumberance. This really borders on criminal for a game that is of this pedigree. I'm not saying that my characters haven't gained from spending over a day-and-a-half mooching about searching for someone or something, but I'd rather do it because I wanted to, and not because I can't resolve some irritating little side quest immediately. Why we cannot place individual markers on a local map at least escapes me. Other than that, Morrowind is exceptional, captivating and thoroughly enjoyable. The little problems are just that - little. However, they are the things that you tend to notice. This game is so fun, that as usual, I'm on my eigth or ninth character already. Most of them are still in play (all but two I think). I have an idea and have to try it out immediately. It's a shame that leaving a game or reloading the quicksave can cause the wretched thing to freeze so often. Well, that's my two gold's worth. On with the questing! __________________ <b>I\'ve submitted to the Choc!</b>

11-27-2002, 09:27 PM	#2
canadianvixen Baaz Draconian Join Date: February 11, 2002 Location: CANADA Age: 46 Posts: 703	Lord Brass this might help you with your navigation problems. I've found it very useful and I know several of the IW memebers have downloaded it to their puter's too. Hope it helps. [img]smile.gif[/img] http://lechmarch.mailru.com/ [ 11-27-2002, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: canadianvixen ] __________________ [url]\"http://imageshack.us\" target=\"_blank\"> [img]\"http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/6273/20041110image00075bs.jpg\" alt=\" - \" /></a>

11-28-2002, 03:58 AM	#3
Lord Brass Emerald Dragon Join Date: September 17, 2001 Location: Good ol\' Blighty Age: 52 Posts: 913	Thanks for that canadianvixen. I've just d/led it. Hopefully, that'll take some of the heat out of the problem. Now, if only I could Alt+Tab in and out of Morrowind... __________________ <b>I\'ve submitted to the Choc!</b>

11-28-2002, 07:42 PM	#6
Lord Brass Emerald Dragon Join Date: September 17, 2001 Location: Good ol\' Blighty Age: 52 Posts: 913	Hello Grungi, me ol' china. You might have seen my reply on the BG board about the very reason we're here. [img]smile.gif[/img] Level 65 with your first character? Fella, when you play a game you really play it. Power to ya for that. Tenth level is the best I've managed so far, but I've had nearly that many characters as well. Mind you, most are still in play so that's okay. You're right about the variety and depth to Morrowind. In fact not having a search facility on this forum makes it extremely hard to look for solutions to some of my problems without glancing at something that I didn't want to know in advance. Grrrr! I did switch the "Always use..." on even sooner than you I suspect. For one thing I wasn't happy with the attack descriptions for some of the weapons, for another, there seemed to be little point in playing without it turned on. Shame that. Canadianvixen, I have Wintendo 98, and it does it to me. I think it doesn't like the hardware is all. I want a new 'puter optimised to play Morrowind NOW! __________________ <b>I\'ve submitted to the Choc!</b>

12-01-2002, 03:52 PM	#10
Rageheart Emerald Dragon Join Date: September 12, 2002 Location: ??? Age: 34 Posts: 929	its true grungi has no life! JK __________________ Matt never had been on the team before, so we knew he was lying.

11-28-2002, 07:41 AM	#4
Grungi Banned User Join Date: September 4, 2002 Location: no Age: 46 Posts: 1,446	allo brass, you trying to escape baggins? no kobolds in morrowind so no protection league heh [img]tongue.gif[/img] as for it being buggy the game itself isnt, but certain hardware it does not like, morrowind hasnt crashed on my machine at all, no sound problems no graphics problems at all, but then again im using industry standard stuff like geforce graphics and creative soundcard. morrowind is unbelivably varied, noone plays it the same way, so many ways to approach it, finding things is a problem but consider it as a full roleplaying experience, finding things SHOULD be a problem though a decent automap with markers for anything important would help massively. character wise im still happily using my first and only character because the way i see it classes in morrowind are very close anyway with not many differences that have a major effect on the way you play, once you hit level65 your bound to be a superb spellcaster and hard warrior anyway whatever you started as, and its hard to stay at lowlevels for long as levelling is very easy. The game is kept interesting by the hugeeeee amount of people and places to interact with , how many guilds etc you head of with your chars? IMO its the best rpg out there at the moment by a long way, just wish it was more challenging in some places and the fighting system could do with improvement, i gave up after level 10 and switched it to "always use best attack" and havent looked back because i dont feel it makes much diff anyway [img]tongue.gif[/img]

11-29-2002, 07:55 AM	#7
Grungi Banned User Join Date: September 4, 2002 Location: no Age: 46 Posts: 1,446	well to be fair i was level 65 months and months ago and havent really played morrowind at all since then [img]smile.gif[/img] quake3 and baldurs gate getting in the way when i come back to morrowind i got about another 10-15 levels to increase before i max out, and then finish off the main quest and getting guildmaster of the guilds i havent mastered yet (mage is one of em) and yeah hardware is v.important these days for games like this as they are optimised to particular cards, stick with nvidia and stick with creative and you'll be good most of the time

11-30-2002, 07:14 PM	#9
Keraptisdm Elminster Join Date: August 23, 2002 Location: Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Age: 61 Posts: 410	It's true!! The K.A.K. is spreading to the Morrowind Forum! Sound the alarm. Hello Lord Brass and grungi. I want to get Morrowind, (and Johnny told me it was a great game) but I don't think my computer specs are up for it. (Pentium III, 600Mhz, with on-board graphics. No AGP slot either, so I can't add a graphics card. ) [ 12-01-2002, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: Keraptisdm ]

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