Morrowind Mischiefs, A Characters Update thread Options

[ghastley]

The sleeping rules are the hardest part of the game to get used to. You can walk out of town, and you'll cross some invisible line between "can't sleep" and "can sleep", and you won't be able to see any difference between the locations.

And later in the game, you'll start to get people attacking when you rest, more so if you have the expansions active. So turn it on its head, and go clear out the nearest cave, and you'll have your safe place to sleep. In fact, my recollection of the very start of the game was that if you managed to kill the first enemy in the nearest cave, you could rest by the fire there before moving in and clearing the rest of it. I've read that some players have made that their home, as it's right next to a Silt Strider stop, making it easy to return.

My Lucrezia, the poisoned/enchanted dagger specialist, is doing the circuit of the Ashlander camps to convince them she's the Nerevarine. She's just got the request for a Telvanni broad bride, and is headed for the slave market.

Clark is settling in to his quarters in the Ebonheart Council Tower, courtesy of a mod I downloaded and butchered to his tastes. There's a nice big canopy bed there, and Diablita and Angeline expect it to get used.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Aug 15 2017, 03:17 PM

[ghastley]

Lucrezia finished the Fourth and Fifth Trials, but detoured a bit to do the Morag Tong quest-line.

So now she has a decent little secluded apartment in Vivec, as Grandmaster.

She may well stall at this point, as I started another Smurf in Skyrim to work on the house mod.

[Renee]

Wow, I love what she's wearing. Nice job on her place too. Damn.

And later in the game, you'll start to get people attacking when you rest, more so if you have the expansions active. So turn it on its head, and go clear out the nearest cave, and you'll have your safe place to sleep.

Ha ha well... Yor did try to take down the first lady he saw in that cave. He got a few decent hits in, but she then demolished most of his health with some sort of lucky strike. So he high-tailed it out of there! Last I saw, he was collecting ingredients around the Seyda Neen area so he can sell them for money.

He bought a chitin cuirass and boots, but *oops* that's when I remembered his Class is Knight, meaning that he really should be wearing heavy armor, not light. Chitin == Light. Ooops.

It's all good though. He managed to find the next town over from SN. It's got an inn, so at least he doesn't have to sleep in rain anymore.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 21 2017, 06:49 PM

[ghastley]

The armor class isn't all that important to early combat, as any armor increases your defence, (unless you raise the Unarmored skill, in which case it could go down when you wear it). But using a weapon you're not skilled with is futile. Make sure you buy or find one that's for a skill you have at least 15 points in. Later you can afford to train up to match what you have, but at the start, a different weapon is the cheap path. A Knight wants a long blade, so grab a sabre as the best bang for the buck. You'll want to get training in Marksman or a magic school to give you a ranged attack later. Again, under 15, and you won't get a hit, or your spell will fizzle.

Most of my characters in Morrowind have used Unarmored, just because it wasn't in any of the other games. When I created Lwanda's gear, I had to script her shield so that it wouldn't decrease her armor rating when she equipped it! They've also bought the Devil Spear from Ra'vir to build up their Conjuration and Spear, because any class benefits from Intelligence and Endurance, as they translate directly to health/magicka. Even if it's just a backup weapon, it helps.

Endurance is the one you want to max first, as this contributes to your health (hit points) every level. A Knight doesn't have that as a top attribute, so needs to built it fast. The Heavy armour helps there, so you may be able to ignore Spear. The other skill that builds Endurance is Medium Armor, and you'll wear Heavy instead. Armor Skills increase when you get hit, so I prefer to use Spear as then the opponents are taking the pain.

[Renee]

Cool, thanks for all your advice there. Yes, he's been thinking of archery, since this is a good way to make sneak-attacks. Yes I was noticing his Health is really low at just 45. So Endurance makes sense to build up first.

Lwanda's shield looks stunning, did you make that?

As it turns out, Yor Azzizmyyn went into Pelagiad's fort and spoke to some of the guards in there about joining up with the Legion. He's supposed to go to some other fort / town if he wants to do this.

He's not going anywhere soon though. I'm not sure if it's considered stealing, but he grabbed a bunch of heavy armor which was in this fort, in crates or just lying around. So now he's mostly-kitted up in Heavy Armor. Is this stealing? We don't know. So he snuck around as he was taking stuff.

He also bought a longsword from one of the merchants in town. Went for a walk and made his first kills: two mudcrabs located along some shoreline! ... He then got more confidence to return to that cave near Seyda Neen. Went back there, totally pwned the initial baddie he found. But later on there was this wizard in there who removed almost all of Yor's health with just one fire-blast.

The weirdest thing about this game so far isn't the fog, or the mushroom trees, or the otherworldly feel of the game, it's NOT being able to sit down. That'll be one thing I'll see if I can mod once I start Morrowind on PC. I'll also see about changing the character walk animations. And the menu text looks like it's written in some modern font, something even more generic than Arial. Gonna change that. This game deserves a more gothic-looking menu font.

[ghastley]

The problem will be that there not only are no sitting down animations (in the later games you need three - sit down, sitting idle, stand up) but there are no furniture markers to indicate where you can do them. And the engine doesn't have the concept of furniture, making it hard to add them.

I made some of the shield. The handles were on another shield, as the easiest method was to replace the panel of an existing one. The script was the hard part, making it put back the AR it took away from her Unarmoured level.

The Legion will actually give you a decent set of Heavy as you progress, each time you level up in their ranks, you get a new piece, or a better replacement for one they gave you at an earlier rank. They may not be as good as you can find or make, but they'll sustain you, and they're not as heavy as the top-end stuff. A full set pf Daedric armour plus weapon is about all you can carry with maximum strength. You need strength boosting equipment, or feather enchantments to use it. And you can't get a full set without the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions anyway. Legion/Heavy is a good way to go.

[Renee]

Okay, I see what you're saying about there not being any way the game's engine can make people sit down. Bummer. I'm not sure if he will join the legion actually, we shall see.

Well it is Last Seed 24 (Day 7) and the sun is going down. And I'm pretty sure Yor got attacked by his first cliff racer. The thing was flying and it had this long tail with (what looked like) a stinger on its end. Yikes.

The thing is, Yor was winning the fight. He was getting some good hits on the creature, whatever it was. But then tables turned, and Yor's health began to fall. Dammit! I really wanted to destroy that thing! Yor had to run though. He's got a healing ring, but this item barely renews any health.

He ran between as many mushroom-trees and boulders as he could. This seemed to slow the creature down. It kept hitting my Dunmer though. Luckily, Yor managed to find that magic spot. The creature got stuck perhaps. We can still hear it somewhere in the distance! Spooky. Sun is going down though. Time to head back to Pelagiad. Hopefully Yor made some decent money today, picking up ingredients and such.

++

Edit: he's now in a cave called Adanumuran, which is full of Dunmer baddies and nix hounds. But good news: Yor Azzizmyyn is living up to his name! Again and again, 'your ass is mine." It feels good to knock some enemies down for a change.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 30 2017, 12:16 AM

[SubRosa]

That was a Cliffracer. They have a very distinctive cry. As far as I recall, they are the only flying critter in Morrowind. Get used to it, there will be one every ten feet later in the game.

[Lopov]

When you get Morrowind on PC, Renee, the first mod to install will be the one to make cliffracers less aggressive.

[ghastley]

My latest Morowind character is a pirate wench, using some of Korana's pirate resources pack. I made her a shirt that's more like Clarisse's from Skyrim, but haven't worked out how to give her a hat yet. That would be relatively easy if I hadn't wanted rigged hair, as the hat and hair could be combined as one item. Rigging the hair means it must be a single mesh and texture, or it won't work. She's using a Steel Sabre as it's reasonably cutlass-like but I have a Korana Cutlass that I'll add later for an upgrade.

She's also using the Devil Spear to raise her Endurance as fast as possible, combining that with Heavy/Medium armor training, even though she's Unarmored. The sabre (long blade) is keeping her Strength progressing, too. Once she hits 100, the Spear will drop.

She's marked the ship Grytewake (near Gnaar Mok) as her future home, and already killed off (legally, after taunting) the sailors who are not on deck. However, the captain is level 16 and she's only level 5, so she has to wait a while before she can manage him (or maybe just use the Amulet of Shadows after the fight starts).

The ebony she's looted from the ship is paying for a lot of training, so she's soon be ready for another attempt to board and seize. There's more than she can carry, so it's several trips, but she has amulets of Almsivi Intervention, Divine Intervention, Mark and Recall. She's literally marked the ship, and so amulet each way between there and Balmora.

She joined the Fighters and Mages Guilds for services, and is doing some of the FG quests. Not doing MQ, and hasn't visited Caius Cosaides at all. That has meant no Blades Trainers freebies, but she's doing OK with the FG quest payments. Once the ship is hers, she'll probably go freelance and start exploring tombs and caves nearby.

Edit: She went back after a couple of levels and took over the ship. Grytewake is now home. Took a few screeshots, but forgot to copy them over to the web server, so you can't see them yet.

She has a good collection of amulets, now having added Slowfalling and Levitation ones to the travel set. She made a ring to restore strength as a precaution against bonewalkers, and wants a similar "on use" item for health. There are enough of those to wait until one turns up, except for the rule that says that you never find what you want.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Aug 31 2017, 02:28 PM

[Renee]

Your wench sounds fun to play, g. Is it easier modding outfits and appearance stuff into Oblivion or Morrowind? I'd imagine Morrowind is easier, huh? Although maybe not. It seems simpler to me, but maybe this also means there aren't as many options, huh?


Last Seed 28, late night

Ugh. Cliff racers are no fun. Luckily, Yor hasn't encountered another. He saw one in the distance a couple days before the 28th, but he made sure to keep low, and get nowhere near the thing.

Right now he is in Addamasartus, that same small cave near Seyda Neen where he'd previously got chased away by that wizard. Well...not this time. THIS time, my dark elf got a rather cunning idea. He noticed (as he walked into the cave) that the same wizard was stading ready. He yelled at Yor, and began throwing fire spells....

.... straight into a pillar. Seriously, all Yor had to do was occasionally duck into the guy's line-of-fire, but then dodge behind the pillar, and the wizard would just throw his spells straight into this stone. Or he would miss the pillar but also miss Yor. Which doesn't seem very bright. Would the wizard keep thowing his magic into an inanimate object? ... Turns out the answer is "Yes." As long as Yor kept on dodging behind that pillar, the wizard kept throwing his spels.

Would the wizard continue to throw his spells, until the point he lost all his magicka? Turns out, the answer is "yes." Yor then got the idea: this fetcher is going to come after me, when his magicka runs out. Would this happen? ... Yes it did. And that was Malar Borom's doom. He came after Yor Azzizmyyn, wielding nothing more than a cheap daggar, and wearing nothing more than robes.

Your ass is mine! Yes it is, Yor. Good job.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 1 2017, 01:33 AM

[ghastley]

All I can really say about the modding of outfits is "different" The Morrowind game allows layered clothes, but they also cover more than one body slot, so the assignment gets complex. And Better Bodies makes it even more interesting by making some of the body slots free for extra items, so a dress (like Angeline's) may use the left ankle slot.

Anne Bonnie, pirate wench

Because her shirt doesn't hide her chest, it's not defined as chest slot, so it doesn't replace it. Instead, it's another left ankle, and her pants are just left knee.



This post has been edited by ghastley: Sep 1 2017, 02:23 AM

[ghastley]

An inquiry about porting my Skyrim Vampirella mod had me making a version of her for Morrowind. I spent the holiday weekend with her building her Unarmored and Hand-to-Hand skills, until she could destroy the Vampire clans of Vaardenfell with her bare hands. Now she's looking for any others to exterminate.

That all meant doing a bunch of other things along the way. She's raised Spear for the Endurance (needed for Health increase) as she's not using Heavy/Medium armour. She's trained those for levelling purposes, however. She did the Main Quest up to corprus immunity, so she can't catch vampirism herself, and she's trained up Agility and Willpower to help with Fatigue. The Agility also helps with the H2H combat. The Boots of Blinding Speed let you train Unarmored with the Master, as your effective Speed is 200+, so that was her first skill maxed.

Her suit and boots didn't take long to make. The major effort was making her hair, as nothing existing looked right, and I wanted rigged long hair anyway.

I'm still trying to get some representative screen-shots. I really need three hands for that. One to hold tab for vanity mode, one to click the mouse button for the punch, and the third to press the print screen key at the right time. Weighting down the tab key has the problem that I need to let it up to reposition her if her target moves. If anyone knows of another method of toggling vanity mode, it would help.

[Renee]

I've done that before: held three buttons down just to get a screenshot, usually some sort of action shot. Not in this game though. In my case, it usually involves a couple fingers on my controller, with one on the keyboard or mouse.

I started a new gal yesterday (it was one of those sunny, humid days when rain just sort of shows up unannounced out of nowhere). Her name is Miss Terri, and she's a Sorcerer. I had some trouble with her name. Nobody in medieval times used "Miss" or "Mister" (etc.) as far as I know, but oh well. I've been bouncing that name around, Miss Terri, for years now. Finally I'm using it. Anyway, yesterday was my daughter's first day of school so I hadn't the time to game with Terri much yet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her yet. I need to learn the game a little more and then give her some sort of starting mission, because she ain't doing the main quest. And neither is Yor.

Yor Azzizmyyn on the other hand is up to Level 4. He's become much more confident, and actually got to L4 by pwning multiple cliff racers, along with a few of these large, carnivorous guar-looking creatures. He met some dark elf lady along the road, and she wants him to take her to some location up north, but Yor merely took her back to the inn of Pelagiad. Because she's his girlfriend right now, ha ha.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 6 2017, 01:03 PM

[ghastley]

I've been playing a couple of Unarmoured/Hand-to-hand characters to try out a few options, and I'm finding that H2H is quite viable, but tedious. You rapidly reduce your opponent to being unable to harm you, but then it takes forever to finish them off. I've worn out the left button on one mouse already.

So I started looking at ways to boost the damage dealt, and even 100% more skill (from an enchanted ring) doesn't have much effect. So I looked into even higher levels by applying the same enchantment multiple times, and even a Golden Saint soul can't get much more than I already have. It's either a limited amount of boost to the skill, or an inadequate time to use it, as those trade off against each other. The higher levels would shorten the fight, but not enough to offset the shorter duration. It looks like the fortify will wear off too soon whichever way I choose, even if the cast drains the ring completely.

Presumably the only way to get a quick kill using H2H is to use Vivec's or Almalexia's soul, and getting those will take hours without it.

H2H is also not very good against multiple opponents, because of the slow fights. You may incapacitate one of them, but the others have all the time in the world to attack you while you deal the first one.

[Renee]

Lopov had a character who used hand-to-hand primarily. You guys are patiently brave.

Last time I saw Yor Azzizmyyn he discovered Vivec. Good lord. Overwhelming! He went there because he's desperate for something to do, in his quest to become rich. He's joined the Fighters Guild, which has given his first task, but we have no idea where to go. He needs to retrieve some ring from some other person in some other Canton.

I got about that far yesterday when the sun came out (outside, the real sun) and I only play ES games when it's drab outside.

[Lopov]

Last time I saw Yor Azzizmyyn he discovered Vivec. Good lord.

Now that's a real town, eh? Very easy to get lost there and even when you think you already explored it in full, there's always something new to discover. Vivec has its own sewer system too.

[Renee]

Mm hmm, you said it. I wonder how we'll ever be able to figure our way around Vivec? You know me and my crappy memory. I hope I don't have to rely too much on my memory to get around. I noticed there's more than one of these huge buildings, but I don't see much difference between them, you know what I mean? Compound all of this with the fog...

I just hope there's some sort of signposts, at least. Like on roads, it points our way toward different places.

Wow, there are apartments? Not just inns, but apartments we can rent? That's what this NPC is telling Yor right now.

[SubRosa]

I disabled the fog, which makes the game look so much nicer. The UESP site's Map helps with keeping track of which canton is where as well. Though you would need to view it on a laptop or tablet while you play.

[Renee]

Thanks for the link. I remember Wyrd saying several times how he missed the fog, once he started Oblivion. He even modded his game so it was constantly foggy. Well, not me.

Heartfire 14 (Day 30) -- Yor managed to finish his very first quest, which was a fetch quest. He did figure out a little system for finding our way around Vivec: he dropped heathers in several key places, so he would know important areas to make a turn, or go through particular doors. He was able to find the Hlaalu Canton and fetch the ring, and bring it back to some orc in the FG.

His next quest is pretty vague. The Fighters Guild next wants him to go find some inn (or tavern) in Ald'ruhn. Doesn't say where Ald'ruhn is though, or even what it is (a town? a temple? Good lord). Yor has an idea though. He's going to try walking up to one of the stilt strider areas. Maybe there's an option to travel there by riding one of those giant insects.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 12 2017, 10:25 PM