What Beginners Advice Would You Give Me?

[Albromor]

Okay, I purchased a retail boxed version of my new Asus V9280/TD Ti4200 8X 128 MB video card and lo and behold they included a copy of Morrowind. Now I have read some things about the game but I never paid that much attention to it. On top of it all my copy of the game is OEM meaning no Game Manual. Thus, at this point, I can't even get a feel for this game. So here are a few questions:

1. What secondary source manuals are out there that you would suggest I purchase?

2. I have played BG1&2, IWD & Heart of Winter, and Divine Divinity; plus, a number of other genras like Thief 1&2. So, in your opinion, how hard will be for me to learn the curve of this game? Will any of my RPG experience help or is the learning curve unlike anything I have experienced?

3. Besides here at IW, what other forums would be helpful?

4. Without spoiling too much, what are the best tips and tricks you can offer?

5. How many patches do I need and where can I find them?

6. Besides the above vid card, is my system powerful enough: P3 1.2 Ghz with 256 cache, 512 Megs of 133 DIMM RAM, Sound Blaster X-Gamer sound card, Windows 98SE.

Thanks.

[Mordenheim]

1. No idea but these sites are what I use if stuck

http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/
http://www.stratosgroup.com/guides/html/200206mwes/

there are a ton more

2. Of course! This game is amazing. I started a couple week's ago. I started with a thief/mage. I just restarted a character because I have a much better idea of how I want to play the game. It is very deep and can go on for a long time or you can just focus on the main story. It is up to you. Out of the game you named it is more like Baldur's Gate but more open. There is politics, action, and about every thing you can mention. No eavy scripting, you decide what you want to do.

3. www.morrowind.com forum gives VERY quick answers. Downside is posts don't stay long and due to the traffic slide off the front page quick. However I have got a answer here everytime I posted. The rpg planet link above also has good replys but slower.

4. Play how you want! The game is so big that by the end you most like will end up with maxed out everything. Marksman was a blast (switched away though) and feel's like shooting a real bow (as close as you can get in a game anyway). Magic is so broad and so much you can do. Fighting is great. Don't pick someone just to be "stronger". Want to be a Bosmer fighter? then do it! There are a ton of way's to level up so don't worry about it. Explore and don't be so quick to play the main story line. It has ton's and ton's of quest's and places to visit.

5. Not sure since I only used the Tribunal one

6. I have a Geforce 4 4200. It has ran it beautiful. The water is stunning and I have not had any problems. My system is a little more powerful but card wise you are right on at lteast for my experience.

[Kakero]

1. www.gamefaqs.com . just search for morrowind. it got an excellent board and many of the people there seems to be masters of morrowind. though, their attitude is much to be appreciate.

2. If you like FPV RPG, you'll probably like this. however, in morrowind you can go TPV too. it's not very hard to learn this game.

3. see no.1

4. you can be anything you want. you can even be master of all 3 ( thief , fighter, magic ). this game is very open ended.

5. If you have tribunal expansion, you only need to apply tribunal patch. however, since you have only morrowind, you should install latest morrowind patch as this will fix many bugs. check up this link for patches.

6. your system spec is good enough.

[Aelia Jusa]

You definitely will want to get your hands on some sort of manual; the rules are quite different to anything I've ever played before and it takes a bit of reading plus experience in the game to get a handle on it. Any RPG experience you've had will be beneficial but like I said, it is quite different in a number of ways.

The best thing for you to do is start playing. You may well start a number of new games before you settle on a character you really like, so don't fret too much about getting your first character just right. The most important thing to do that is different from other RPGs is use your skills! The level-up mechanism is different to most games I've played, in that you don't get generic experience for kills and quests which is added to an experience bank. Instead, using your skills gives you experience in them specifically, which, when you increase them enough, levels you up and you can add points to your attributes (strength etc). So using an axe increased your axe skill, casting a conjuring spell increases conjuration and so on. So try to use a wide range of skills - run instead of walk, jump a lot, lockpick doors instead of using open scrolls, cast any spells you have, use magical items, have a range of different armour types and so on.

I actually haven't patched my game at all. I've been playing it for 8 weeks now (and no end in sight! Very big game!!) and haven't run into any problems (or at least not ones I've noticed anyway ). If you don't have quite the specs you need, you can adjust the graphics so that it's not so demanding on your system. I find I need to do this when I'm fighting a number of creatures at once because it slows down a lot. If you're going to do this though, walk out into the open at night and check out the sky first though! It's so beautiful! [img]smile.gif[/img]