Starting Tips

[Tyrion]

Im starting out my first Morrowind game, and im taken aback with how big the game is!
What should I do first? What quests are good for a beginner, to get a feel for the game? Where should I go?

[Paladin2000]

- First, you will have to decide which guild to join. Choose your allegiance carefully as some guild's quest might hurt your standing with others. Never, never accept a quest to murder/kill another member of the other guild which you belong to or it will make it rather hard for you to gain ranks in the offended guild(s).

- For a start, visit various homes and buildings close to Balmora, Caldera and Seyda Neen(?) because there are plenty of things to loot. It is very hard for you to venture out without some starting equipment.

- If a particular quest is too hard, take some time off and gain some levels first. Most of the quests do impose any time limit, so you could always take a break and do something else.

- Save often. One of the worst thing that could happen to you is to spent countless hours playing and loose it all due to "CTD" error -- Crash To Desktop. For Morrowind, CTDs is something that will occur very often when you least expect.

- There are always more than one way to complete a quest. For example, if you are asked to murder a person in cold blood; you could either:

a) Walk up to him (or her) and whack him. You will have to paid fine for the crime and your stolen goods will be taken away. You will probably loose more than what the quest is paying you and not to mention that your action will anger certain people.

b) Insult and provoke him into attacking him. As long as your are not the one that initiate the attack, you are merely "defending" yourself, which is quite legal in Morrowind. As a bonus, any passing guard might also assist you in getting rid of the "attacker". What a way to kill off someone...

Naturally, the best choice to make is the second method. But if you like to play as a hardcore criminal, your are free to try the first method. However, playing as a criminal with low level character will make your gameplay a little too frustrating since most people will attack you on sight, so I would advise you to stay on the side of the law until you have acquired the right levels and skills to look after yourself.

That's all for now...

[ 09-15-2004, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

[Radek]

1. As Paladin2000 has said, save, save, save ... Yes, the game crashes often and it always carashes in a moment when you don't expect it at all and when it doesn't suit you at all.

2. After creating your character in Seyda Neen, you should go to Balmora. Take a fleabus to Balmora, do not try to go there yourself. Well, you can if you know the game enough so that you can manage to stay alive even with bad stats, skills, and equiupment.

3. Once you arrive to Balmora, you can join guilds and start doing quests. The clashes between guilds aren't so hot as they have been described. Only one thing: Do not join both the Thieves Guild and the Warriors Guild if you do not know how to bypass problems with the Code Book quest.
As far as killing guild members during some quests is concerned, if the killing is a quest goal then it often has no consequences for you as a member of a guild. For example, most of Morag Tong quests are "kill somebody for Hlaalu or Telvanni House". Even if you are a member of Telvanni, killing a Telvanni will not affect your standing in the guild. Naturally, unnecessary killings are something else.

4. Another thing you should do in Balmora is exploring the crates on the street. You will find some money, some items which you can use and a lot of items you can sell. The crates in Balmora do not belong to anybody so that looting them isn't a crime. Note: Crates in other towns can be owned so that looting them can trigger alarm and summon guards.

5. Do not haste with the main quest (Caius Cosades). Wait until you reach level 10 or so and until you gain some acceptable equipment.

[Jonas Strider]

or do what i do, just let her rip and run around like you just don't care. get lost, get crazy, go in any strange places and maybe get killed. eh, live and learn. then when you have enough learning to get an idea of the gameplay, then restart a new game with a better idea of what to do. well that's how i did it. i'm more grounded now.

[LS0158]

Grab stuff from plants in the wild. If you're good with alchemy, make potions. Or just sell the ingredients.

If there's no one nearby, you could take anything lying around.

One way to tell if you're being watched is to hit ctrl, or whatever stealth is assigned to. If you're not being watched, an icon showing a hand and ring will appear.

You get levels up by improving major and minor skills.

Pearls are valuable, and fairly easy to get. Just find shells in the water and swim down to them, but make sure you're not being attacked.

[Too Darkpark]

i think that alchemy is probably the most usefull skill in the entire game. not only can you make some great potions (healing, invis, levitation, stat boost, etc...) but you can also make some great money with it by selling the potions that you make.

[ 09-17-2004, 09:51 AM: Message edited by: Too Darkpark ]

[armageddon272]

i personally suggest what i did, if your a beginner like me, start out as a kajit thief. You can get money really early in the game, the security skil is useful no matter what missins you do, you move around fast, you can see in the dark, you can frighten your enemies so they can't attack, you can dodge attaks easily. one thing tharts useful, you use shortblade and there is someone in the fighter's guild who will sell you a nice paralyzing shortsword that can do a good deal of damage. also, you can just steal stuff and make money that way, its really easy to level up, and the thieves guild and morag tong guild missions pay A LOT.

[Jonas Strider]

Originally posted by armageddon272: i personally suggest what i did, if your a beginner like me, start out as a kajit thief. You can get money really early in the game, the security skil is useful no matter what missins you do, you move around fast, you can see in the dark, you can frighten your enemies so they can't attack, you can dodge attaks easily. one thing tharts useful, you use shortblade and there is someone in the fighter's guild who will sell you a nice paralyzing shortsword that can do a good deal of damage. also, you can just steal stuff and make money that way, its really easy to level up, and the thieves guild and morag tong guild missions pay A LOT.

The Dwemer Jinksword? I love that thing. Helped me alot. Still have it.

[armageddon272]

my charachter is too high leveled for it. it was just weighing me down so i sold it to creeper. it was simply no longer needed.