Board 8 > playing Morrowind for (mostly) the first time

(+) Yeah! (+)

Gonna play some later tonight. Stealth bump for more followers.
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I really don't have the time but...should I reinstall Morrowind???
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Apparently I don't have it on Steam, which means i'd have to dig out my discs.

Crisis averted, I'm too lazy for that.
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get it on GOG!
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Fun topic. Puns, you seem to value some of the same stuff I'm into. All about that atmosphere.
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About to get started.

Jeff Zero posted...

Fun topic. Puns, you seem to value some of the same stuff I'm into. All about that atmosphere.

<3
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the morrowind main theme is so good
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bng_mmmk posted...

the morrowind main theme is so good

Yes. Have you had any run ins with the law yet?
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MenuWars posted...

bng_mmmk posted...

the morrowind main theme is so good

Yes. Have you had any run ins with the law yet?

No, but man! Just got called out by a merchant for having some moon sugar. I'll be getting none of his business, no sir.
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OK so progress. I broke myself of my fear of dying. Ever since I played diablo on hardcore I sort of developed this complex where I get very compelled to quit a file altogether in any rpg once I die the first time. But I'm persisting because I can't go on not having played Morrowind. It's just not right.

Got home tonight and I'd had a few drinks, so I guess that absolutely played out in my Morrowind life. Wandered back and forth on the streets of Balmora for bit, took a Silt Strider back to Seyda Neen, went directly to Elone or whatever her name is and tried to use persuasion on her, when it failed, went around the streets and tried to persuade everyone I saw until a third of the village hated me, wandered up the road (to the left!) until eventually I found a cave called Zainsipilu. Wandered in and boldly went right for the guy at the entrance. Got pwned down to 1% health very quickly and instinctively opened the menu. Looked at my health, saw I was doomed, accepted it, then repeatedly loaded my "at the door" save and got my ass kicked a few more times for good measure.

Fear of death: conquered.
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The good thing is this happened a lot sooner than in FFX.
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Pmub
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bng_mmmk posted...

No, but man! Just got called out by a merchant for having some moon sugar. I'll be getting none of his business, no sir.

I love that you can just drop it on the floor in front of them and then they will be fine with dealing with you.
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I'm somewhat busy this weekend. Apartment hunting and doing the whole "please give me my deposit" cleaning effort on my current place. Plus a joint birthday outing for multiple friends.

Going to play some though, for consistency. Time to live out my Morrowind version of "wtf happened last night?" and try to get my life back on track.
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Alright so I'm just going on pretending that I drunkenly wandered up to the door of the cave and then suddenly came back to and realized that I should walk back to town because I'm a really stupid drunk.

Fittingly, it was 2am in game.

Went back to Seyda Neen and talked to someone who said "I STILL don't like you. I bet nobody in Seyda Neen likes you. Why don't you act right?"

Man it's a little too real here, but also awesome lol.

I...guess I'm going to repeat the walk back to Balmora.
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Made it back to Balmora, although the journey wasn't quite as uneventful as before! I actually managed to make a wrong turn. >_> Looked at the signs at a four-way intersection and got disoriented I guess as I was turning from the sign back to the road.

This lead me to encounter a cliff racer. In two swings of my sword, it was at about 20% health and had barely harmed me. But then I kept trying to push W to do my thrust attack since it's my weapons best damage range, and it was causing me to move forward ever so slightly to where my attack would miss. It was like an awkward angle because the thing was right above me. My health eventually dropped some, and it wasn't even close at all to killing me but it definitely got my blood pumping a bit. Especially when right after I finally killed it I was immediately attacked again by...an invisible cliff racer?? I was spinning all around and couldn't find the sucker anywhere. But...oh. It was a rat. lol. Then right after I killed the rat I was engaged by a second cliff racer.

Had my first combat sequence that actually felt real! huzzah.

Also I've encountered a couple scribs, or I think that's what they're called. Once I saw one I remembered passing one when I was drunk and convincing myself I'd just been sneaky, but today I learned they're just passive. Won't attack even if I walk right up and look them in the eye. They're kinda cute and don't want to murder me on sight so I left them alone.

Oh also, after my battle I realized I probably could have killed that guy in that cave if I'd just used my sanctuary power. Ah well, it never actually happened anyway!

When I got back to Balmora there was an argonian walking in place in the air. That was kinda funny. I tried to take a screenshot and it popped up a message telling me to edit the .ini file. lol. OK.

Went back to Caius Cosade's place to rest and realized some satisfying nuance. Under his bed are three objects: 'bottle', 'spoon', and 'Good Skooma Pipe'. Heh. Also, I think this was just coincidence, but the very instant my cursor hovered over the moon sugar on his nightstand, he cleared his throat like "don't touch mah moon sugar, boy". I chuckled.

Also learned that my ring, and presumably other items with charges, restore themselves over time? That's fucking wonderful.

There's a little red bar under the charge items, which indicates their charge. But I noticed there's also one under my normal spells like Fire Bite. Does that indicate how close the relevant skill is to leveling up?
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When Nine-Toes gave me the moon sugar, he mentioned there was a merchant somewhere in Balmora who would deal with me despite having illegal substances. I kinda forgot the name, and I know I can just drop the moon sugar and then people will do business with me and I can pick it back up, but this falls into one of my quirky RP things where I prefer to just track down someone who will actually buy the moon sugar.

Anyway the point of me saying that was I walked into someone's house whose name vaguely sounded like the merchant I think I'm looking for. She had a cave rat infestation and said the Fighter's Guild was supposed to have sent someone over to deal with it. Having slain a rat myself, I was all friendly and like "I am a great rat killer, I will handle this!" and so I killed the cave rat and she doesn't even acknowledge that it happened. >.> I guess I need to actually be sent here by the fighter's guild to do the quest. I wonder if I broke the quest now. Or if I would just walk into her house and it would be done already.

She had a book on her shelf called "36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 20" and I have no fucking clue what I just read. (http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:36_Lessons_of_Vivec,_Sermon_20)
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"The first monster was actually two, having been born twice like his mother-father, Vivec."

Opening line of the book.
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Well, Part 20 was never as good as Part 19 for obvious reasons.
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It's an ingame bible equivalent. Or... more like religious myth texts. Somewhere along those lines

Some books boost your skills when you read them for the first time

And some players collect books. ALL THE BOOKS
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I like to find all the books and sell them to Jobasha's Rare Books.

Then I kill Jobasha.

Then I become Jobasha.
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Oh forgot to mention, though I think this goes without saying

Not everything written down is true
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Yeah, I'm familiar with the skill books from other games, and I've found a few so far here. Unarmored, Long Blade, Athletics. I think that's it, maybe one other one that didn't seem very relevant.
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bng_mmmk posted...

I wonder if I broke the quest now.

Nope, you haven't actually fully taken care of her infestation yet.

Also, you don't always HAVE to use your best attack. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to use your weaker attacks.

Are you holding down the mouse button to "charge" your attack? It makes it more accurate and deal the maximum damage. The damage range isn't actually random - but rather, it's determined by how long you hold down your mouse button.

That being said, rapidly attacking is a great way to build up your skill with that weapon.
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BowserCuffs posted...

bng_mmmk posted...

I wonder if I broke the quest now.

Nope, you haven't actually fully taken care of her infestation yet.

Also, you don't always HAVE to use your best attack. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to use your weaker attacks.

Are you holding down the mouse button to "charge" your attack? It makes it more accurate and deal the maximum damage. The damage range isn't actually random - but rather, it's determined by how long you hold down your mouse button.

That being said, rapidly attacking is a great way to build up your skill with that weapon.

Ah, I'll leave the rest of her rat problem for later.

I didn't explain this in my post but yeah eventually I just started hacking away at the cliff racer (once I lost some health) and realized it super didn't matter if I was using my best attack when it was nearly dead anyway.

But wow, good to know that the damage isn't random at all. I did know about holding the button, but I figured it just applied a modifier.

Is spell damage/healing random within the given range?
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bng_mmmk posted...

Is spell damage/healing random within the given range?

Yes, though I think Luck actually weights it forward or backward depending on how much you have. I could be wrong.
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Yeah Luck is a reaaaaaally powerful attribute in early TES games.
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MenuWars posted...

Yeah Luck is a reaaaaaally powerful attribute in early TES games.

Which is why, I suppose, it's so difficult to actually increase it.
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Luck is kind of insane all the way up until Fallout: New Vegas.
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Leasing offices are all closed for the day and I've got about an hour to kill before the birthday shenanigans. Let's see what we can do.
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Oh snap, the name of the person Nine-Toes mentioned was in my journal. Derp. Alrighty.
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Finally found the guy's place. The sign outside just says "Trader". He's a Khajiit (cat person) and as soon as I walked in he sniffed and growled/purred and said "Sweet moon sugar." Oh yeah, this guy is my new homie.
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Good job squeezing some game time in. I always wanted to play for hours in a row
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oh ffs. If I'd just talked to Caius about orders he would have given me 200 gold right away. lol. Welp that's helpful. I've picked up a shield and some boots. Guess I'm going to join the Mages Guild.
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Oh hell yes. First mage quest is to go pick mushrooms. I'm stoked lol.
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Morrowind is the best Bethesda game because of the unique and varied world, the lack of hand holding, and the pre-placed/set item and enemy placements

Ventured out in search for mushrooms, following Ajira's directions.

Killed a mud crab and a couple kwama foragers. I saw a camp with a couple people...I assumed they were bandits and so I just avoided them. lol. Maybe later I'll revisit.

Wandered a bit too far and encountered a diseased Kagouti. That's the most fearsome thing I've fought so far. Fortunately I didn't contract any disease.

Headed back to town and did Ajira's next task which was to stash a fake soul gem in another guild member's desk. So mischievous. I guess the point is to make him look bad? Idk. Felt kinda shady but figured whatever, might as well just do what it takes to advance.

Got another quest from Ajira to go pick flowers by a lake. Pretty sure I already have 3/4 of them, but I'm excited to venture out again. Gotta call it quits for now.

Oh and there was another cliff racer.

OH and I bought a cheap medallion for like 5-10 gold that restores fatigue and has several charges, and recharges somewhat quickly. That was a really satisfying purchase because now I feel like I can run and run without worry of suddenly getting into combat and being out of fatigue, and also without having to continuously dump money into potions.

It's always a great thing in an RPG when a relatively simple/cheap item is worth getting excited about.
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bng_mmmk posted...

OH and I bought a cheap medallion for like 5-10 gold that restores fatigue and has several charges, and recharges somewhat quickly.

Good find!
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Enchanted items automatically recharge over time - the speed of the recharge increases as your Enchant skill does. You can also use filled soul gems to recharge items faster; doing so raises your Enchant skill.
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Uncapped enchanments mmmmm. Late game Morrowind is basically like being Deadpool on PCP in GOT.
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A spell for you to try once you a Damage Ability spell:

Damage Speed 10 points for 5 seconds on Target

You may not want to use this spell full time because it'll make the game too easy, but...

It's a good demonstration of the power of Destruction magic.
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BowserCuffs posted...

bng_mmmk posted...

OH and I bought a cheap medallion for like 5-10 gold that restores fatigue and has several charges, and recharges somewhat quickly.

Good find!

Are items in the shops different each game or are they always the same?


Not_an_Owl posted...

Enchanted items automatically recharge over time - the speed of the recharge increases as your Enchant skill does. You can also use filled soul gems to recharge items faster; doing so raises your Enchant skill.

Ah, great to know, thanks!

MenuWars posted...

Uncapped enchanments mmmmm. Late game Morrowind is basically like being Deadpool on PCP in GOT.

My first thought was that you meant prof playing in GoT mafia and this confused me a great deal. I forget that deadpool is a character. But that seems pretty nuts!

BowserCuffs posted...

Damage Speed 10 points for 5 seconds on Target

I've spent at least an entire hour since reading this wondering what makes it so great. I suppose it (obviously) slows enemies down, probably to the point they can't catch me. But if it's only 5 seconds I'd need to either be changing spells really rapidly to burn them down and keep them slowed or do some sort of sword dance thing where I am just in range to hit them without getting hit myself, which doesn't sound too reliable.
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Morrowind's menu/looting sounds are the best.
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Damage "stat" magic, iirc... doesn't ever naturally recover (without a restore ability potion/spell or similar). (Drain "stat" magic does recover at the end of).

So 10 pts for 5 seconds = permanent 50pt speed drop after those 5 seconds.

This could be entirely wrong, as it's been ages since I've played around in Morrowind.
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bng_mmmk posted...

Are items in the shops different each game or are they always the same?

They do seem to be somewhat randomly generated, yes.

bng_mmmk posted...

I've spent at least an entire hour since reading this wondering what makes it so great. I suppose it (obviously) slows enemies down, probably to the point they can't catch me. But if it's only 5 seconds I'd need to either be changing spells really rapidly to burn them down and keep them slowed or do some sort of sword dance thing where I am just in range to hit them without getting hit myself, which doesn't sound too reliable.

I think you have Damage Attribute confused with Drain Attribute.

Damage Attribute permanently damages the attribute and can only be cured with a Recover Attribute spell.

What this will do is, in one or two casts, permanently root any enemy in the game that isn't immune to magicka. They can't move, they can't do anything until you get in melee range, allowing you to fight them at your leisure.

It's also much more magicka efficient than Damage Speed 50 points.
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Ohhhh....yep that'd do it. lol.


So another question about enchanted items. For comparison, my engraved ring of healing has 20 charge points or whatever. Using it appears to spend 5 points. My stamina amulet only has 5 points of charge and using it seems to spend 2 points.

What exactly determines the total charge and how many points a charge uses? I guess it's just based on the potency of the magic?
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So with mercantile...does each transaction have a small amount of impact on it increasing? Or is it strictly amount of gold? Like is it technically best to sell my 40 flowers one at a time if I'm trying to increase that or does it make no difference?
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bng_mmmk posted...

So with mercantile...does each transaction have a small amount of impact on it increasing? Or is it strictly amount of gold? Like is it technically best to sell my 40 flowers one at a time if I'm trying to increase that or does it make no difference?

This one is a little more complicated - the amount of experience you gain from a transaction is based off of the percentage difference between the asking price and the bargained price.

So if you sell a 1 gold item for 2 gold (which is most likely impossible without super mercantile), you get more mercantile experience than if you sell a 100 gold item for 125 gold, even though you're technically getting more gold with the second one.

That being said, it's usually best to bargain your items individually rather than selling them in bulk, because the individual mercantile increases you get total up more than if you simply sell your entire stock of junk for as much as you can bargain it for. At least in my experience.
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Oh, gotcha.

I look forward to a time where it is irrelevant to me that I can sell 40 flowers individually for 40 gold, or sell them all at once for like 14.
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I find it amusing that I was doing these quests for Ajira in order to help her get Journeyman rank before someone else, and in so doing I ended up getting Journeyman before either of them! Without writing any reports on mushrooms or flowers.
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