Finally got around to this

[Link]

Well, I finally got around to playing Morrowind, after it had been lying on my desk collecting dusk for.. well, an eternity or so it seems. Because my former computer had the nasty tendensy to quit on me every 2 minutes or so, I couldn't get myself to play Morrowind thoroughly. On top of that, each and every game I started, I found myself staring at a corrupt save game because of the chronic restarts. One can imagine this is not good for the progress of finishing any game.

Anyhow, I'm enjoying my stay on Vvardenfell at the moment, I'm a Redguard (after trying out Nord and Dunmer in previous games) Spellsword, currently at level 13. I've been doing some minor questing, nothing too much, at the moment roaming around Vivic, buying some much needed books (Vampires of Vvardenfell), solving some murders (search for the Dunmer woman with the dagger - needle in a haystack anyone?!) and generally trying to withstand the urge to slit the throats of more grumpy Ordinators.

A few things I was pondering about:

1) There's no way to get your skills trained above 100, is there? My Longblade skill is at 100 now, so my only way of progressing a level is using my other weapons (Axe & Blunt Weapon) or getting dents is my newly acquired Orcish armour (courtesy of the aggressive half-orc gang in the Foreign Quarter Underworks).
2) Although Alchemy is a Major Skill of mine, I haven't tried it out. Well, to be honest, I have, but failed miserably at creating potions. Is it a good idea to boost my skill in Alchemy by visiting trainers and then try and make something decent out of the countless ingredients rotting away in my backpack? Just so you know: yes, I have found and tried out mad=dog's Alchemy site/Jave application.
3) Is there a decent mod out there that I just have to get? Something like a journal organizer (I heard/read something about Tribunal solving that particular issue, but I haven't yet bought any of the two expansion packs). Any other mods that make the life of a hard-working adventurer even more sweet?

Most important of all: My Speed and Endurance are currently highlighted red on my character screen. I've got no clue as to how my speed got stuck at 62, but one of the Orcs mentioned above did carry a staff that drained my Endurance, so I'm guessing something similar happened to my speed. Any way of fixing this (the Morrowind equivalent of a Lesser Restoration scroll)?

Nothing more that I can think of now, I'm just exploring and learning.

[johnny]

Well, your attributes definitely do get over 100, your skills don't. You'll find out ffor yourself once you find the right items, or once you trapped a few souls and went to an enchanter.

I suggest getting a mod that increases the amount of cash most traders have to spent, otherwise you'll never be able to sell Glass, Ebony, or Daedric Items. In my game, there's at least one or two traders in each town with 60K to spent every 24 hours. That's still not sufficient to buy a Daedric Daikatana for instance, but i'll settle with 60K. Eventually you'll have so much money, you don't care anymore what they offer you. Also, get all the official Bethesda plugins, they're all worth it. And a few houses for yourself where you can rest and store goodies. Right now i have one in Vivec, Balmora, and an underground hide out in Molag Mar. I'm thinking of adding one or two more somewhere up north, preferably near the Urshilaku camp.

[johnny]

Oh...about your skills being red....either cure yourself with a spell or a potion, or go to a Temple, and get cured by donating 35 gold to the shrine inside and receive a blessing of your choice.

[Link]

Alright, will do. I visited the Bethesda website for the patch and saw the official plugins, but never installed them. I think I'll do so right away.

Do they work with exisiting games?

[johnny]

Yes, you can install them anytime.

[Aelia Jusa]

Yes is it helpful to have a relatively high alchemy skill before trying to make potions, unless you don't mind wasting a few ingredients. I think mine was 50 (highest you can get from non-master trainers) when I started and I still failed quite a bit. Luckily I had about 400lb of ingredients to play with since I compulsively collected them . It is also best to have the best apparati you can - I had masters level mortar and pestle, alembic, calcinator and other one I can't remember the name of.

Yes you will need to increase your other major/minor skills to increase more levels. It might be a good idea if you have the carry capacity to have an axe/blunt weapon which you use to kill easy things like rats or cliff racers as you roam about and keep your longsword for killing tough baddies where you can have the benefit of your high skill. Because obviously if your axe skill is low you will miss a lot more which isn't good against things that might kill you! I always feel sorry for the poor cliff racers and so on - if only they weren't so aggressive, I wouldn't have to kill them all the time! I find it tedious and I'm sure they appreciate being alive more than dead, so it would be a mutually advantageous arrangement

[johnny]

There's a mod for that too, just so you know. Cliffracers ignore you from then on. It's so annoying that they all attack you on sight. I once ran at full speed from a certain point straight to Ghosthate, and once i stoppped and turned around, i had like a dozen of em trailing me, as if their only purpose in the game is to annoy you.

[Link]

I'm kind of tied at the point of cliffracers. One part of me applauds Bethesda for being able to cause that much real life annoyance over a virtual critter, but the other part of me curses out loud again when the ambient sounds and soft music make way for the battle music, heralding the arrival of yet another cliff racer. I think I dreamed about their inane "graw graw" last night... *shudders*

As for your suggestions, Aelia, thanks! I have to mention, though, that I already carry around both an axe and a blunt weapon and try to use them every now and then. Suffice to say, that after a dozen or so swings without hitting the target rat or kwama forager, the finger automatically shifts to button number 1 -- the quickkey for my Viper Longsword
I do look around for trainers to boost my axe and blunt weapon skill the easy way though, I have enough money to do so now.

Just a minor addition to my experiences so far: I've been running and boating around Vivec the past few days, doing errands (making the invisible boy visible, killing the rats, but also killing the lady who murdered the seven people -- I had imagined her to be tougher, then again, she didn't stand a chance with me cloaking myself using the Amulet of Shadows ) and even taking a jab at the Puzzle Canal as well. Figured out what to do myself - saving beforehand of course - but the ending was quite .. lame! I thought there was more fighting and action, but none of that I suppose. Ah well, back to the usual crypt-hunting and villain-killing I guess [img]smile.gif[/img]

So far this game rocks! I keep hitting myself over the fact that I didn't get to this point sooner!

[Ilander]

Took me two and a half years to play and beat Morrowind...mostly because the computers I was running it on just couldn't handle it...they CTD'd after half an hour, had to keep the view distance waaaay down.

Then, I installed it on HossCat, played it the way it was meant to be played, and had a lot of fun...then downloaded some mods, some of which I didn't like, and saved after I got them installed, so now I have to play with them

Watch out for that! Make backups of your saves!

[Kyrvias]

I have yet to beat it. I don't suffer from computer problems, or anyhting like that, as I'm on the xbox. There's just too much damn stuff to do! I get distracted!