For the love of Morrowind

[Asphyxiate]

This stuff is great for those who are waiting for the game. Taken from IGN interview with the staff.

Jonric: What's the coolest in-game moment you've had while playing or testing, and what made it so cool? Todd Howard Project Leader I was busy testing some new AI for guards hunting you down in Balmora, which is a pretty complicated town, and very big. So I run around attacking guards and jumping from rooftop to rooftop to see how well the chase me. Anyway, Balmora has all these little bridges that cross over the canal that runs through town. Three of the guards were trying to come after me from the other side of the canal, so they all ran across the bridge together. There was a townswoman walking toward them on the bridge. Since all three could not fit by her at once, they decided to knock her right off into the canal so they could get me. Splash! Poor woman. GT Noonan Artist/Lead Dungeon Design This just happened recently actually and strikes me as REALLY cool. I got my Marksman skill to a pretty good skill rating and rarely missed my targets, so I was all out and gung-ho about using my bow to take out whatever struck me as nasty. Well, I came across a couple of ash slaves in the middle of the Ashlands and I knew I was in for it since they spotted me. These cats have ranged missile spells that do some hefty damage. I was down to my bow and a busted-up claymore. So, as the underdog, I had to hold them off at a distance so I could avoid their nasty magic. Problem with that is, as to where I could use my arrows to take them down, they also got to use their ranged spells. Now here's the sweet thing, I could shoot their spell missiles in mid-air with my arrows. SWEET! Instant cancellation of their missile with my arrow IF I hit it. Of every five or so they winged at me, I could shoot down about two or three. I used my weakling Chitin Arrows till the Ash Zombies ran out of magic and then I equipped some magic arrows to finish them off. The entire battle lasted a good 10 minutes and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Totally reminded me of the rock battles I would have as a kid in the woods with the other neighborhood hoodlums. First one to run out of ammo loses the battle. Matt Piccoccio Programmer As I slowly explored a Telvanni dungeon, I came upon a chest in the corner of a jail cell. I opened it up and found a piece of semi-worthless armor, but I decided it was worth it to grab it. Big mistake. A Telvanni guard and mage-warrior ran at me. The mage-warrior took one look at me, summoned a Greater Bonewalker, and ran out of the room, reaching an intersection and running to the right. I had more immediate problems in the Bonewalker. I was able to dispatch it relatively quickly, but not before it damaged my strength enough that I could not move. Meanwhile, the guard had been hanging back near the intersection, firing arrows at me while the Bonewalker did the dirty work. I still couldn't move, so I pulled out my bow and fired back at him while drinking Restore Strength potions. When I could move again, I closed in on him and smacked him down with my sword. He didn't last long. I was still getting hit, however - looking around, I saw a weak Ancestor Ghost. Laughing, I cut it into pieces, and who was behind it but my mage-warrior friend - he had been waiting out of sight for me to close in on the guard. I took off after him, and after a brief scuffle he ran down the corridor and up a long flight of circular stairs. I chased him, seeing him just pass around the corner in front of me. About every floor or so, he would be waiting for me to catch up with him; he would throw some spell into my face and keep running. When we reached the top, he summoned another Ancestor Ghost to keep me busy and took off down the stairs again. A few flights down, I finally caught him, and I dealt the killing blow. I examined my inventory and decided that that piece of armor wasn't worth the weight after all, and I tossed it on top of the mage-warrior's corpse. Brian Chapin Designer Two things immediately come to mind. One is the first time I saw a sunset. Sounds silly, but I was honestly floored not only how good the transition was, but how amazing the night sky looked. The first time it's a clear or partly cloudy night, and those moons come out, I'm guessing a lot of people are going to stare at the sky for a good long time. The second involved testing NPC settings. Trying to figure out what to set a certain character at, I lowered his fight setting and raised his flee setting. When I went into the game and stabbed him, he yelled "I'll be back, and you'll be dead!", ran to the door, opened it and ran down the stairs. By far the coolest reaction I've ever seen from a character in a game. Christine Miller Artist Well, I didn't really have one particular instance in mind until last night. I had finally gotten around to buying some slaves - and oh! what fun! Five minions, following my every move, one right in line behind the other. It was great. I wondered, "would they die for me?" I started a fight. Yes! They surrounded my helpless victim, punching and pummeling until the poor man was knocked unconscious. He came to, and tried to stand, but to no avail. My loyal followers simply knocked him back down again. Ah, the power. Then they ceased to amuse me and I slaughtered them all. Ashley Cheng Associate Producer Shooting random pedestrians with my crossbow in Balmora while trying to elude the guards by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Gotta have good athletics, otherwise it will end very badly. After killing off a few people, the guards don't bother trying to talk with you - they just take you down. Mark Nelson Designer There have been some really cool moments due to strange bugs in the game (which, of course, are long gone by now). There was a problem once where Daedroths' heads would spin around on a random axis when they died. And once my sword turned into the model for a tree, which was actually a lot of fun. Recently, though, I had a kind of cool moment in the game right after character creation. I had just made a Khajiit character, and I had to swim across a little bit of a river. A slaughterfish chased me to the shore, and as I climbed out, it stayed right by the riverbank. I decided to kill the thing, so I used my hand-to-hand skill to beat the crap out of it. When I went to third person, I couldn't help but laugh, because there was this big cat (in pants and a shirt) swatting at a fish with his paw. Eventually, the fish got scared and swam off, but I really enjoyed the image. Mike Fridley QA Lead Narrowing down all my in-game experiences to only one "coolest" moment would be an almost impossible task. Merely because there has been a ton of them. Everything from finally completing the main quest for the first time, to watching a huge, magic-blasting battle between two rival factions to the first time that a evil mage put a curse on me when I slew him were extremely cool moments. But in truth, my coolest in game experiences overall have been progressing through the many faction line quests. You start out as a lowly member of a certain guild or faction and work your way through dozens of duties on your way to the top. You also work on your skills related to the certain guild to make yourself a more valuable member of it. As you progress, it's really cool to see the attitude of all the members of the guild or faction change towards you. They start greeting you more friendly, and as you rise even higher, with more respect. I found it really cool to finish up a quest line and be the guy in charge. Plus raising your title to Arch-Mage or Knight of the Dragon doesn't suck either. [img]smile.gif[/img] Steve Meister Programmer An NPC told me of another NPC, let's call him "Mr. F", who acts suspiciously. He was convinced that Mr. F had a secret stash of loot hidden somewhere. He suggested that if I were to find a good vantage point from which I could view the town and wait until dark, I should be able to track Mr. F's movements, and if I found his secret hiding place, I could split the contents with my co-conspirator. So, I waited until night, and climbed up to a high place. After a few minutes, there's Mr. F, actually SNEAKING around. He meandered around - clearly trying to throw off anyone who might be tailing him - and eventually arrived at his cache, unaware of my watchful gaze. When he finally left, I crept down to the place and found he'd dropped of some loot. Sure, I could have gone back and told the other guy about it, but I decided to keep it all for myself! Mathew Krohn Programmer I'd have to say the first time I used a small legion of summoned and magically commanded creatures to clear out a dungeon that I would have had no chance in otherwise. I'd been getting smeared all over this particular dungeon, until I pulled out a bunch of scrolls that I'd collected (and hadn't really thought twice about.) It was probably over-kill, but it was a nice feeling to roll through there followed by several high-level monsters wasting the guys that had been wasting me for the previous hour.