Finally Finished Morrowind (some notes)

[D.A.Lewis]

At least the main quest.

Thanks OOers for putting together the DVD/CD with all the goodies. I always admired and liked Morrowind but it was so open ended that I never felt I had to complete the game. The DVD certainly helped. This time (my fourth start) I only joined one faction (the Temple) but never really got involved in their politics. I mostly centered my game play on world exploration and the main quest.

Up until my finaly assult on Dagoth Ur I mostly ran everywhere. Unless of course it was cross continent. But even then if the cross country trek involved exploring undiscovered territory then I would usually hump it. I can't begin to tell you how many ruins I encounted on these treks. The game has so many distractions. It is so very easy to lose track of doing what you are supposed to be doing.

Two things kept my from running full time.

1.In late game I enchanted an amulet with constant leviation and nite vision. Very helpful in late game.

2. The prophylon index. This was a quest given to me by a mage in Caldera. Completing this quest allowed free travel to those Strongholds. This saved a lot of time doing the Ashlander Tribes main quest.

I ended the game a level 35 character with 100 in strength, agility and speed. My athletics and acrobatics were in the 80s. I was able to do this with my Redguard by once I reached 100 in long blade I swithed to Axe. And after I reached 100 in axe I swithed to Blunt Weapon. By constantly swithing it allowed me a lot of level up points. I did not cheat in the game (editor) although I did once buy my way into two level ups. Afterwards the game kept crashing until I left that city.

As everyone knows MW is a huge world, maybe even bigger than the world in Sacred. At least in Sacred I had explored about 80% of the map. In MW I think I got to about 60%.

By sticking with the main quest I never got that I-am-lost feeling I got the other 3 times I played the game. It's been about 3 years playing MW off an one. My Avatar is ready to tackle the MW expansions, but I'll hold off for a bit to finish some adventure games I need to complete. It's not like there are a ton of other single player RPGs begging for my attention.

It's funny but Morrowind is a good game. As a matter of fact it is one of my Desert Isle games (if not number 1). But the over all gaming experience ranks Morrowind somewhere in my top 15 list of RPGs not my top 5.

[Meghan]

Congrats! Only 4000 more mods to go!

The Temple has some interesting quests. I think you'll enjoy the expansions.

[Eel Snave]

Would you guys say the DVD is necessary to really enjoy the game? I don't have internet access, so I can't download any mods...would I still have fun w/o the DVD?

[disarm]

Would you guys say the DVD is necessary to really enjoy the game? I don't have internet access, so I can't download any mods...would I still have fun w/o the DVD?

you can definitely have a good time without a bunch of mods. i played the game for months before i started looking for improvements, and i still haven't used many that really change the gameplay. most of the mods i use are either visual improvements, or little convenience mods that make routine aspects of the game simpler. it's a good game straight out of the box...although getting Tribunal or Bloodmoon for the journal improvements is a big help 8)

[D.A.Lewis]

The various mods come in a million different flavors. Some are out right cheat but many just improve upon very minor things like the visual images in the game.

For example the game out the box had some very boring facial features. There are mods that give the game more facial variety. The city signs on the Morrowind roads are unreadable because they are in the Vvadenfell script which makes for nice atmospher, but it's unreadable. There is a mod that addresses that. Many of the cities are made more lively with more people doing different type of things.

Some mods give you an instant home. I wish all RPG adventues would make this a part of the feature set. I mean after all, if you are exploring all over the land you are bound to find a nice little hidey hole to stash your loot.

But the previous poster was right you dont need the mods to play or finish the game but the mods do allow you to tailor the game to suit your needs.

[Blackhawk]

The first time I played Morrowind and got so utterly hooked was with only a single mod (Kathode's Balmora House, one of the first plugins made.)

The second time I only had a couple. No, plugins aren't necessary to have fun, although a few can certainly enhance the fun.

D.A.Lewis' post is exactly the reason that I made the DVD - to take some of the guesswork out of which mods to use to make the game more fun without cheating.