SOme noob MW questions

[Hayashi]

After spending some time with MW, I hope someone can clarify some questions I have on the game.

Thus far I've completed most (all?) of the quests in Seyda Neen, and am about to leave for Balmora:

a. Did Flatfoot's quest re: Fargoth
b. Did taxman's murder quest
c. Found the "flying mage" with scrolls of icarus
d. Cleared out the bandit cave & freed the slaves (man, that mage almost *killed* me)

My questions:

- are the prices set by the trainers fixed, or dependent on the character's mercantile/personality scores?
- do different trainers (for the same skill) set the same price, or do prices differ?
- does training improve the score for that particular attribute by just *one* point, or is it a random number? (If just by one point, gosh, I'll need a lot of gold!!)
- is there more to combat than just standing still trading blows?
- why does eating alchemy ingredients sometimes fail? I can understand why making potions depends on alchemy skill, but surely *eating* ingredients should be an automatic success? I almost drowned in the pool in the bandit cave.
- is it a good idea to explore some of the ancestral tombs now, or leave it to later (i.e. after gaining a few levels)?
- ditto for the outlying islands (I'm not sure if I can swim *that* far)
- how does one swim anyway, as opposed to walking on the sea floor?
- what's the diff b/w drakes & septims?

Thanks.

[Radek]

(1) All prices depend on your Mercantile and on how much you are liked by the trainer, trader, etc. Increasing Mercantile causes "deflation" in Morrowind: all prices go down but also you will sell at lower prices. The liking can be improved by bribing. The bribing has a permanent effect.

(2) The prices differ slightly. They depend on the trainer's (trader's, etc.) Mercantile skill. The higher is the skill , the higher are the prices.

(3) Skill: always one point. Attribute when levelling up: 1 - 5 points depending on how much you have improved skills with with have the attribute as the "leading attribute". It is unimportant which particular skills you have improved, only the sum is important. You need 10 points for "x5" multiplier. The improvements aren't random.

(4) ???

(5) If you eat an ingredient then only one effect of the ingredient is applied. It can be the right one, it can be the unwanted one. Most of ingredients has 4 effects.

(6), (7) Skeletons are bit tougher than rats and kwama foragers. Wait with the tombs a bit but you need not wait too long. The islands are the same as the mainland: some places are dangerous some are not

(8) Go into the water and move forward (not down). You will swim on the water level. If you get hit then you usually get underwater, well, move up, back to the water level.

(9) None.

[Hayashi]

Thanks Radek. About Q#4, what I meant is that is there any technique in melee combat? What I've done thus far is stand toe-to-toe with the enemy and just slugged it out. Other games I've played (Anvil of Dawn for eg), one could "dance" such that when the enemy swings, the player could take a step back, then step forward, swing & hit, step back again etc.

[Radek]

You can "dance" but, IMO, it's better to concentrate to your sword and attack as quickly as possible. There is an exception: it's a problem to switch from weapon to magic and back during a melee combat. It helps if you run away and switch during the run. Then turn back and continue the fight.
Speaking the switching: potions do not suffer from the recovery penalty of the weapon-magic change. You can open your inventory (and stop the game time) immediately without any penalty, use the potion and close the inventory - again, without any penalty. The potion effect takes place immediately after closing the inventory. Therefore, it is a good idea having some healing potions and restore fatigue potions in your inventory. Especially at low character levels [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Hayashi]

Useful tips, thanks.

[Oruboris]

A lot more to combat than that: most attackers telegraph their moves. You can step back to dodge, step forward as you make your own strike.

You can also try to get a couple blows early with your ranged weapons\spells, then close for your main attacks.

Summoning skeletons [etc.] often gets early level attackers attention so they aren't going after you exclusively.

Early in the game, I found it imperative to stay out of range of certain critters. IE: you can usually step in, land a couple of blows on a hammer weilding skeleton, and step out again while he swings and misses. Very important not to have your back against a wall! Depends on the range of your weapon and your speed, of course. Don't ignore your 'block' button, either.

With ranged attackers, I had to close with them quickly. Most aren't good at melee, and will go down quickly if you can close, but will out duel you with bows [or ranged spells] almost every time.

When possible, initiate. When it comes to attacks, better to give than recieve! Attacks while you are hidden also do a lot more damage.

A lot depends on your playing style. For me, creating a fun-to-play character meant understanding and exploiting the leveling/bonus points system to get the maximum 15 bonus, assigned the way I wanted, with almost every level. I personally preferred to spend the time tracking and training my skill bumps than reloading every time I died, and dieing a LOT. The quality of your opponents relates to your level, and making the most of each level keeps you slightly ahead of the curve.

[Sever]

Originally posted by Oruboris: Don't ignore your 'block' button, either.

No block button in Morrowind. Blocking, if you have a shield equipped, is rolled automatically.

[Legolas]

Also, you can make combat a little more challenging by not automatically using the weapon's best attack. Depending on what you're using, you may need to be mobile to do most damage.

[Oruboris]

Sorry for the bad on the 'block' button: been a while since I played it.

Have a vague memory of standing around while rats and those flying things wailed on me, thought it was 'blocking' in some form, but I was probably just training an armour skill or something.

[Kyrvias]

With blocking, as far as I can tell, all you have to do is hold a power attack. The one where you raise your shield in front of you, and your sword above your head. Oddly enough, that's the only time I've been able to successfully block. Go figure.