Lemon Of Life said:
So, I've had this game for ages, and could never go into it, which is a pity because it seems like a huge game with alot of potential. I loved Oblivion, but I guess it was a bit more accessible. In Morrowind, I do a bit of the story, then get stuck on what to do, wander around, eventually get killed.
I don't want you to tell me how to get through the story, for that I could use a walkthrough, what I'd appreciate is people giving me tips and some good locations in the game world that offer quests or are interesting. Are there any guilds in this game? Are there horses? Is the main storyline worth playing through? I've also got the expansions, which came in the box, so I feel a bit overwhelmed, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Otherwise, share what you like about the game, and did you think Oblivion was that big an improvement?
You want to make the game easy as possible for your self so you can get into the game? Choose a Bretton as your race, The Atronach as your Starsign, and head North of Caldera (which is a short walk north of Balmora, which is the first city the main quest sends you to). On the path, you will meet a Redguard woman with some glowing boots. Either help her or kill her and take her boots. Brettons have 50% magic resistance, so the boot's blinding effect will only darken your screen 50% and not 100%.
Along the way, pick up a spell or enchanted ring that Summons Ancestral Ghost. If you start to run low on Mana, just summon the ghost and punch it a few times. Your Starsign will recharge your Mana when the ghost attacks you.
Also, right at the VERY beginning of the game, you can steal everything off of the shelves to sell for money. The only hitch is that you must drop the item on the ground before the guard comes to stop you. If he talks to you while you are holding the stolen item, it will be removed from the game and you won't be able to sell it. There is a platter on the shelf that is worth 650g, so that, plus the rest of the lootable materials in those two buildings is enough to get you some nice armor and weapons to start off. So move the contents of all the shelves onto the floor before you finish character creation, and then come back and pick them up to sell them.
Anyway, I hope this all helps. Morrowind is my favorite game ever, so I get really hard-core on how to play it for maximum fun. I'm playing some Oblivion right now, and it just feels so dumbed down compared to Morrowind.
Also, a few words about the combat system in Morrowind. It would be a good idea to have some proficiency starting out with either short swords for the dagger you find on the table, or long swords for the Iron Sparksword you find on your way out of Seyda Neen, if you take the North-west path. Your skill in a weapon and fatigue determine your chance to hit, so you won't hit much if you are at level 5 skill with either of those.
And as always with Elderscrolls games, if you want maximum HP each time you level up, raise your Endurance before rest. That means get at least 10 levels combined in Spear, Medium Armor, and Heavy Armor before you level your character up. Once your Endurance is 100, you won't have to worry about that though. I just strongly encourage it because the longer you don't have 100 Endurance, the less HP you will have later. It really isn't a big deal though, my first character didn't do much with the Endurance and ended up with 1/2 the HP as some of my other characters, and she still kicked ass.
Lastly, DO NOT focus on mage skills while you play. Spellcasting is a joke in Morrowind. You can make up for it greatly with enchantments, but if you expect to be fighting all your battles by throwing fireballs, you had better be doing it with a magical ring and not your character's mana pool.
EDIT: well a few more posts came in while I typed this and I see a Redguard as suggestion for a character build. While I won't say it's a bad choice, I just wanted to clarify why I told you Bretton and Atronach for your character. Both race and Starsign grant you things that you can NEVER make up for while playing the game. Brettons get increased mana and the magic resist. You can get the magic resist as a non-permanent, but it's hard to get it up to 50% as a constant. Same with the Atronach startsign. You will find it hard to get 50% magic absorption* on your own (and the mana boost is insane!). The Tower starsign might be good in the short game, but it's not hard to make your own open 100% lock spell that you can cast more than just once a day. The nice thing about the Redguard race is that it grants a few more levels in weapon skills to get you started out. Though that is easily made up for with some training with NPCs or just beating the shit out of your enemies with your weapon of choice
*50% magic absorption means that for the course of the game, you have a coin-flip's chance of not being affected by an incoming spell AND gaining mana for each time you absorb. It's pretty awesome when you fight a mage because he can't do much to you.
