Gingerbread Man on 26/9/2003 at 23:21

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So I just upgraded my computer from a P2 333MHz with 64M RAM (stop laughing) to an athlon XP2500+ and (so far) 512M DDR. Which means I am suddenly able to play Morrowind, a game that has been sitting on my shelf for months.

And I have been playing it.

Here's the thing: I'm not really a big CRPG guy. Closest I have ever got to a CRPG I enjoyed was FF7. I didn't like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale much, but that had more to do with isometric cameras and reveal-as-you-go terrain than anything else. But I want to play Morrowind, as much for research as enjoyment, and so I am. And I really like it so far, even if I am still kinda fumbling with the finer points of control and interface.

So I thought I'd contruct a little amusing thread about GBM in Vvardenfell.
(Anyone who offers me any forward-looking spoilers or info will get frowned at... Offering info about things I have already seen or done would be helpful, though.)

Please note: I do know a LOT more about the game than I am letting on, but I'm trying to present this from the character's POV, not mine. ;)

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After spending 30 seconds or so trying to beat the snot out of some scary-ass looking dude in the hold of some boat, I realised I should probably follow the guard. WELL IF THEY'RE GOING TO DROP YOU OFF RIGHT IN SOME GOBLIN'S FACE AND EXPECT YOU NOT TO GET FREAKED OUT THEY NEED THEIR HEADS EXAMINED. >:|

Out of the boat, over the bridge, answer some questions, get frowned at for trying to take something off the table. Whoops. Got let off with a warning, which was sweet of them. Turns out I'm an archer, according to what's his name's Quizzilla Personality Test. Wewt.

Found some stuff in a barrel, got processed and given the task of finding So and So in Balmora, wandered outside into the shabbiest, grimmest town I've seen in ages. Breathtaking. I really love the way all this stuff looks, even if NPC interaction is a bit clumsy and repetitive. Some dude said he'd lost a ring, and I realised it was one of the things I found in the barrel, so I forked it over. I think he's in love with me now.

Wandered around a bit, trying to get my bearings. Climbed up the lighthouse and just gawped a while at the scenery. Discovered some luminous mushrooms, and decided to go on a mini-quest of my own devising: Colledt alll the mushrooms and fungus and plants and ONO WTF IS THAT?

Tried unsuccessfully to unlock what I later determined to be a Mudcrab. Luckily the thing was slow and goofy and only got a couple of shots in before I realised that I was poking it with a lockpick instead of a dagger. Once that was sorted, I had a dead Mudcrab on my hands, and I felt bad so I disposed of the corpse. I assume I buried it or something, because when I looked around it was nowhere to be seen.

I talked to a few people, trying out my Persuasion abilities. Most were unreceptive, but one guard I talked to seemed to like me. This old woman got all peeved when I started sweet-talking her, though. Crusty old bitch. >:|

So I eventually found some place I could buy stuff. I had a pocket full of flora and a ton of cutlery, plates, bottles, and lanterns I had filched in my journey of a hundred yards, and I figured I could maybe sell them for a few gold and then buy something better than a dagger if there were going to be more of those icky Mudcrabs.

I had a look at the stuff for sale... The tables and shelves of the store had a decent variety of things, most of which I had no idea what they were. I figured I'd pick one up and bring it over to the cashier...

After I'd been killed by four or five angry people (hard to tell how many there were... someone was winging magic at me, and a dude with rather fierce armour on kept hitting me with a stick... I tried to get him between me and magic-winging-elf-boy, but no dice) I started again.

The Quizzilla "What Morrowind Class Are You?" quiz seemed reliable... I was an archer again. Wewt.

Got the ring, gave it to buddy, lalalala...

Back in the shop, I figured out how to buy and sell things without getting my ass kicked, and I left the store in a brand new set of chitin armour, a chitin bow and a bunch of arrows on my back, and a sword in hand. Stalked off to murder that fucking Mudcrab, but it wasn't there. >:|

After filling my pockets up with mushrooms and plants, I wandered over to some staggeringly huge flea with legs like a freaky spider. Some mahout-like dude said I could catch a ride to Balmora this way, so I gave him some cash and away we went.

It was dark when I got to Balmora. Way cool. Have I mentioned how gorgeous I find this game? Recall that I have recently stopped using a P2 333MHz with 64M RAM. I haven't seen anything like this before, not on my machine anyway.

So I stumble into Balmora around midnight. I have no idea where I'm going, but there's a place that seems to be vaguely like an inn. I talk to a few people there, try unsuccessfully to sell some Assassin fellow some of my marvellous glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, and wander around looking at stuff. Oooo... there is stuff in this crate... I will take it...

So after having been killed by a few dudes in the Council Club, I load up from just before I took the strider to Balmora (GBM is a clever monkey and now knows how to save games). I decided this time to walk to Balmora, collecting plants and mushrooms along the way. Took me all night (what with all the plant-collecting and getting lost etc) but I eventually ended up at the gates of Balmora.

Went in, explored a bit, it started raining (omg so cool), and then I fell in the river.

After learning how to swim in a hurry, I crawled out of the river, chitin armour dripping wet, and tried again. I talked to a bunch of people, checked out some shops, and eventually found the shirtless dude I was sent to find. He told me what was what, and sent me off to learn more about myself and get better at things before coming back to see him. Somewhere along the way I think I accidentally joined the Thieves' Guild, which I'm rather happy with since apparently they can do something about bounties placed on my head if I get in trouble with the law. It's all good.

So what to do in the way of Self-Improvement, I asked myself? Let's go see what Vivec is all about, I hear it's lovely.

Strider dropped me off in the MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE. Oh wait... that must be Vivec over there.

After wandering around the bottom of some building for a couple of hours, I finally found out how to get inside it. Up I went, up again, found myself in what I think some guy in a freaky set of armour called the Hlaalu Canton's plaza level or some such. Fair enough. I didn't find a lot there to interest me at the time, so I wandered down again, intending to take the strider back to Balmora or somewhere else, just to have a bit of a touristy vacation.

BUT FUCKING VIVEC IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE I discovered.

So I fell in the canals under the canton (bad luck) after wandering though some kind of vaults. That'll teach me to open random trapdoors to see where they go (hint: no it won't) or to wander off walkways into canals (hint: again, no it won't). I found out I have no idea how to get out of the canal. But, luckily, I had a save from right before I fell in, so I got out of the Underworks and bumbled around until I got back to the strider, which I took back to Balmora. I will return to Vivec when I am confident enough in my interface-handling abilities to NOT GET JUMPED BY SOME SCARY-ASS DUDE IN THE REDORAN VAULTS FS. Twice he killed me, and I had to reload. (Have I mentioned that I'm not so good at CRPGs at first? Once I get into the swing of things, I'm fine, but at first I am hilariously bad at it all)

Anyway. Back in Balmora. Still blown away by the way this game looks. Still kinda frustrated with the NPC interaction paradigm. Decided to wander around in the wilderness outside Balmora.

So, at the time of this post, I am bedding down for the night in some nice-looking swampland just northwest of Balmora. I think it's northwest of Balmora. I still have to figure out about navigating and knowing where the hell I am. Some little creatures keep pestering me, but they stop when I back off a ways. It's all good.

Sun's gone down hours ago, my lantern is dying out, and I've found a comfy spot in the moss next to some luminous mushrooms which I will pick in the morning. Then maybe I'll have a wander back to those miners and their campfire, see if I can get in that mine and have a look around. Or maybe I'll go to Pelagia or whatever that woman on the road said it was called... the place her bandito has gone. Sounded interesting, and I have time to kill before I go back to ask Mr Shirtless for instructions.

So far, I'm loving this game, for all it's mildly irritating aspects (NPC interaction, slow / clumsy mouse on inventory interfaces, GUYS IN THE REDORAN VAULTS WHO JUMP ME AND HIT ME WITH STICKS), and I'm really starting to get into things. And the best bit is that I know everyone reading this post is saying "OMG DUDE YOU HAVEN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET!!! WAIT UNTIL XXX!!!!"

And trust me, I'll get there. I'm just playing slowly and honestly and playing the character not the gamer. I know about balance issues, I know about the fact that it's too easy to become Übermensch, I know, I know. But I don't play games to beat them. I play games to live in them and enjoy them as they are.

I'm thoroughly enjoying what little I've seen of Morrowind so far.

cyrano on 27/9/2003 at 00:17

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Welcome to the forums, Gingerbread Man. Well, you've met Tuco now. I think Tuco, like the rest of us, is envious that you have the entire world of Morrowind yet to explore with both exciting discoveries and mundane encounters just beyond your AI distance setting. We are also grateful that you are willing to share your adventures with us, so that we may re-live the experience through the freshness of your eyes. Enjoy your travels (but save often :) ).

Celtic_Thief on 27/9/2003 at 01:44

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You'll be estatic when you meet the wonderfulness that is the cliff racer.

Komag on 27/9/2003 at 04:27

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Hey, I'm playing Morrowind right now! You REALLY should get some of the mods for it to make the game MUCH better, such as:

- balancing the difficulty better for starters
- adding more realism like sleeping or eating requirements
- Tons of new monsters and stuff
- some AMAZING new skins to enter some truly beautiful women into the mix
- even a whole banking system that works exceptionally well
- Plus new skill classes if you want (I like Herbalism a lot)
- the ability to purchase real estate with your own servants and the like
- added quests if you want
- traveling merchant traders
- and the possibilities go on and on and on!!!

Of course, don't forget to nab my new crosshair :D

easterlingman on 27/9/2003 at 04:59

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To perhaps save you a bit of frustration, I was never able to activate the dialogue with that lady's bandit. Extremely bothersome, since it took so long to find him.