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Post by Seyheb on May 5, 2014 10:52:32 GMT
I was busy dusting out the deepest recesses of an old backup HD ready to re-use it, when amongst the odds and ends piled up in a corner I found these: Of course these aren't going on the tip! I had thought I'd deleted all of my old Morrowind screenshots long ago to create space, but I found just a very few surviving shots on this drive. They date from 2003. I still have Morrowind archived along with my saves, but unfortunately I can't find the game CD at the moment and the CD was required in the drive to play the game.
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Post by blockhead on May 5, 2014 12:29:08 GMT
Yay! Good 'ol Morrowind.
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Post by Seyheb on May 5, 2014 12:38:43 GMT
And good ol' Laura Craft (by Emma), who was my constant companion throughout my Morrowind adventures. I never played The White Wolf of Lokken though. Some day I'd like to re-visit Morrowind and take a look at that mod.
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Post by blockhead on May 5, 2014 13:12:00 GMT
I never played The White Wolf of Lokken though. Some day I'd like to re-visit Morrowind and take a look at that mod. I love that plugin. Best plugin ever. p.s. If you ever do try it, be high level, like level twenty or so. Some tough critters there.
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Post by jgf on May 5, 2014 16:12:44 GMT
Morrowind still occupies nearly 6gig of my system, though I've not played since last summer (for a mere 20 minutes) ...and haven't seen Laura even longer.
When I think of the hours I spent in this game 10-11 years ago.... (near midnight, "I'll finish this quest then quit" or "I want to explore the rest of this cave before going to bed") I have such fond memories of Morrowind that I'm continually drawn back to it; but then I fire it up, wander around a bit, maybe finish a quest, and it's "been there, done that". Thomas Wolfe wrote the five saddest words in the English language, "You can't go home again".
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Post by blockhead on May 6, 2014 0:51:56 GMT
Morrowind still occupies nearly 6gig of my system, though I've not played since last summer (for a mere 20 minutes) ...and haven't seen Laura even longer. When I think of the hours I spent in this game 10-11 years ago.... (near midnight, "I'll finish this quest then quit" or "I want to explore the rest of this cave before going to bed") I have such fond memories of Morrowind that I'm continually drawn back to it; but then I fire it up, wander around a bit, maybe finish a quest, and it's "been there, done that". Thomas Wolfe wrote the five saddest words in the English language, "You can't go home again". That is very sad. As for me, when I am able to play it, I enjoy the hell out of it. That unique ambiance of the place works its magic on me and I'm on a quest (or two, heh) or I just wander around and stumble onto things.
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Post by jgf on May 6, 2014 20:38:35 GMT
It's just that I've played through so many times with so many characters that I've practically memorized the game, so I might as well be reading a walkthrough while playing. My current character was started about six years ago and has actually been one of the most enjoyable - a Keynari played as a pure mage, no armor or weapons skills at all. She's very weak physically, with a meager carrying capacity and so little health that if an opponent gets the first blow she's in serious trouble; but she wields spells that can bring down an Ascended Sleeper at a hundred yards, coupled with an assortment of clothing that provides anything from 100% reflect to 100% chameleon she's quite potent. I wish there were more mods like White Wolf, adding quests and quest strings. I started a couple of extensive mods that would have added many new quests, but these stalled when I realized I have absolutely no aptitude for scripting and dialog. One was "Ebonheart Suburbs", which adds a village to the island just south of Ebonheart (screenshots - imageshack.com/a/Gx1c/1). Quests include: a teacher who is a Twin Lamps member (the slaves you free in the default game must be led, singly or in groups, to her, by various means, while evading slavehunters and guards); a long, irritating, humorous quest involving a "Beavis and Butthead" pair of Nords who stole a family heirloom then dropped it somewhere when they found it had no monetary value; a commoner working as a menial in the duke's palace who is love with a general's daughter (of course the general will not allow their marriage), he overhears a plot among other Imperial officers to get the Dunmer hooked on skooma so they will be easier to control, you accompany him on a perilous quest to obtain evidence to take to the general (infiltrating the plotters group to uncover the identity of their operatives in the Dunmer camps, obtaining skooma without getting caught, later "eliminating" these operatives) ...you can guess the outcome of this quest; a young apothecary who has found remnants of a manuscript describing a Dwemer machine capable of making the most wondrous potions... but does it really exist?, if so, where is it?, how do you operate it?; a haunted house with a very dangerous ghost who will not be placated til you discover the secret of the house (no combat, unless you try to fight the ghost, just detective work and puzzle solving). The other mod was somewhat functional, requiring occasional use of the console to progress, but most of the work was lost on my old XP system. Have you ever noticed how the main plot line of Morrowind is reminiscent of a James Bond movie? In a Bond movie there is a megalomaniac genius who builds a difficult to access (remote island, mountaintop, volcano, etc.) quasi-military compound in which to construct his ultra-sophisticated machine/weapon for taking over the world, 007 must infiltrate this fortification and thwart said genius' plan; in Morrowind we have a megalomaniac demi-god making use of ancient facilities in a dormant volcano to construct a machine (giant robot, from the looks of it) with which to subjugate his world, PC must infiltrate this compound and thwart Mr Ur's plans. With that in mind, and spurred by the irritation that old DU was way too easy to defeat (I've done in the old boy with a level 15 Khajit), I converted the entire area within the Ghostfence into a guarded compound. No longer could you waltz into the old Dwemer facilities at any time, all the doors were sealed and the PC must find the "keys" to gain entry. There were four "keys" for each facility, but none marked so you could actually possess twelve of them and still not be able to gain entry anywhere. Within each of those four facilities you must find another "key", these four being required to open the portal to the Upper Facility of Dagoth Ur's citadel; once in the Upper Facility you must find four receptacles, one for each of these last keys, when each key is in its receptacle the door to the Lower Facility will be unlocked ...and the Upper Door will again lock (like an airlock, both can't be unlocked at once). The Upper Door will only unlock again with the death of Dagoth Ur. These sixteen keys were scattered around the island and you were put on their trail by finding an old Dwemer manuscript and having it translated. All five facilities were enlarged with more areas to explore, and more ...many more... opponents to deal with. I devised some "Hexen" like areas in here; though no death traps, this was definitely not a place for low level characters. Dagoth Ur was a much stronger character, I felt he should be the most formidable opponent in the game, even counting the liche in Mournhold (if he's such a pushover, why hasn't Vivec and/or Almelexia already taken a stroll up to Red Mountain and taught the old boy the error of his ways and returned to become an even larger hero to their people?). The final chamber was greatly enlarged, with places to hide and more defenders to impede your progress. You not only had to handle a more powerful Ur, but also his associates, and his summoned minions (including four small variations of cliffracers, each with a different ranged spell - fire, frost, poison, shock - so it was difficult to defend against all at once). (My thanks to Crusty and Mitzi, who helped immensely; all I did was devise the plot and make the creatures and the facilities. We never finished this, though it was basically playable, and I lost contact with them.) A much more elaborate mod (for which I lost what little I had built to the same malware attack on that XP system) would completely change the endgame, which I thought too easy and anticlimactic; it would have been triggered if you lost the fight with Dagoth Ur in the above mod. Instead of dying you get an option screen "You have lost the battle with Dagoth Ur. Do you deserve a second chance?"; answering no gives you the standard death animation and the prompt to reload the last save, answering yes starts the mod. You awaken, naked, with nothing in inventory but the Moon and Star ring, laying in the dirt near the inner switch to the Ghostgate; you are barely alive, and all stats are a tenth of normal ...even a rat attack could kill you now. Dagoth Ur's voice taunts you and Vvardenfell, "Behold your great champion! Is this the best you could send against me? Nerevarine! I could have killed you easily, but that would merely make you a martyr. Do you miss your trinkets? They lie around this mountain, gather them if you like; i have no need of such rubbish. I did leave your precious ring, what good did it do you? Go! Return to your people and tell them of me. Go! and trouble me no more, for I will not again be so lenient." You stagger into Ghostgate to find its residents not only disappointed but repelled, for you have corprus again. So you know the next step - a long, hazardous trip in your depleted condition, with only what weapons, armor, etc., you can acquire along the way. If you survive, Divayth Fyr is fascinated and begins new research, sending you to the Corprusarium; you shuffle down there, fully in the grip of corprus. Eventually you are summoned and this time truly healed by Divayth Fyr ...and told that twenty years have passed since you arrived. The world has changed; Dagoth Ur escaped form the mountain and, along with his minions, ravaged the countryside. His whereabouts are unknown but daedra wander the land, killing and terrorizing the people; towns, villages, forts, all lie in ruins. You are welcome to stay in Tel Fyr, which is safe, but you know your destiny. The people who have survived are holed up in caves, remote areas, ruins of temples and forts, etc., and all blame you for the current state of affairs; some wary of you, most outright hostile. You have few friends, and your companion(s) survived, but you must find them. Your stats are slowly regenerating but your only possessions are what little you left Tel Fyr with (your previous possessions are still scattered around Red Mountain ...we never figured out how to accomplish this, so they were in a well hidden, well guarded chest). In each area of the island are spawn points for each type of daedra, each will produce six of that deadra, you must kill all six in 72 hours to deactivate that spawn point for that area; once you have deactivated all the spawn points in an area the residents of that area will slowly start to accept you again. Quests then revolve around helping them rebuild (the ruins would, in 2-3 steps, return to the default buildings), searching for materials, food, lost friends and family, etc., while rebuilding your character and fighting off the normally spawned creatures. Eventually you hear that Dagoth Ur has taken up residence in Mournhold, where his giant automaton occupies the plaza, so you must find the person to transport you there for the final battle. For this mod I had worked on new 3D models of the ruined buildings, along with a slightly animated automaton (he would slowly rotate and fire powerful flame and shock bolts whenever you were in front of him). But this overall was far beyond my capabilities (I did about 80% of everything except the scripts and dialog ...but I consider script and dialog to be 80% of the mod), several others helped over the years and we had bits and pieces of it playable. Some years ago I asked for anyone interested to help finish this, but no one was. All that remains now is the idea, along with the quest plots and a few 3D models.
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Post by blockhead on May 7, 2014 3:41:27 GMT
It's just that I've played through so many times with so many characters that I've practically memorized the game, so I might as well be reading a walkthrough while playing. Understood. I guess the difference with me is one of play-style? In all my years of playing Morrowind, I've only actually played through five times. It takes me years to play a single character. So things are familiar, yet fresh. For me, some of the plugins are like seperate games. Something like Lokken or Booty Island (It's a Pirate-themed story & landmass plugin) is like playing a new game for a few days ... but with my same Morrowind character. It's as if one had a hundred games for the price of one. For comparison, if one goes to GameStop and buys your average shooter, one buys a single story. Game-play time, max, two weeks. With Morrowind, especially when modded, you get several hundred stories, many of them as long as a single "regular" game, and you get to take your same character between them. As for your planned plugins, I totally understand. Like you, I had several ideas that never got anywhere because I never could get a handle on the dialog system. One was a living Sotha Sil city, complete with a complete "faction" quest-line. The faction was to be a family, sort of like the Medici family in Renaisance Italy ... but in this underground city. I had the maps drawn out on paper (main city, districts within the city, outlying mine and cave/dungeon areas) but I didn't go much beyond that because I knew I'd never get it done.
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Post by jgf on May 7, 2014 8:07:56 GMT
I've only played through the entire game (killing Dagoth Ur, etc.) three times, but have played up to that point at least a couple of dozen times, and started numerous characters that lasted a few days to a few months (game time) before I tired of them (House Redoran was so boring I only joined it once), or a glitch in the save game forced me to quit.
Some things I've done to add variety: -character can only join two factions (two guilds or a guild and a great house) -play an ethical, moral, character; no stealing or killing unless absolutely necessary for the plot -become a collector; pick any single item in the game (a particular book, yellow candles, wooden spoons, etc.) and collect every one you find, even if you must steal or buy it, even if it means leaving more valuable loot (the first time I did this it was lanterns, I started stacking them in the plaza in Balmora, eventually this was about two dozen levels tall with about thirty lanterns per level ...an amazing sight in the dark but an unbelievable frame rate killer) -use only your major skills -be a vagabond character; no home, no hoarding loot; sell everything you can't carry with you; buy, or steal (if you're not an ethical vagabond), whatever you need -compute a reasonable amount your character could carry and limit yourself to that (no carrying fifty potions, five swords, three helmets, etc.); this goes for your companion also, but a pack animal is allowed, though only for food, a tent, extra arrows, a few more potions, etc.; combine this with the vagabond for an interesting game
Morrowind is definitely one of the best bargains in computer game history; my first copy came bundled with a new vid card in summer '03, the marksman bug finally irritated me too much and I gave it away a couple of years later; but I missed playing it and picked up the GOTY edition for $20 not long afterwards.
And this conversation makes me want to play again. (Wonder if I've been procrastinating continuing my Keynari mage because once she kills Mr. Ur the game is essentially over... and I've had so much fun with this particular character/game.)
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Post by mewgull on May 18, 2014 21:41:40 GMT
Morrowind, way back in the past... I have never ever been so enthralled by a game. Ever! And by the 1st encounter with Laura Craft. This is how a myth is born. About Lokken: Everybody should have played it at least once. Best time to do is around Christmas. I did so and I got completely caught up in it´s atmosphere. What was the name of the 2 cubs? Freddy and Teddy? Sooo many fond memories.
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Post by Seyheb on May 19, 2014 8:25:07 GMT
I haven't been able to find my Morrowind CD. I bought another for just 6 pounds, but it turned out to be for Steam and my old files won't run under the Steam version. I may have to start afresh under Steam, but not just yet.
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Post by jgf on May 19, 2014 13:10:27 GMT
Amazon has the GOTY edition for $6 (US).
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Post by Seyheb on May 19, 2014 13:49:14 GMT
Thanks, but the GOTY edition from Amazon is Steam only.
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Post by jgf on May 20, 2014 10:49:57 GMT
I thought Steam was download only, not retail disks.
But you should be able to find the real GOTY edition online.
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Post by Seyheb on May 20, 2014 16:52:36 GMT
It is quite common to be able to buy CDs that are nothing more than ways of buying keys to Steam games. As for the GOTY version, all those that I have investigated have been steam versions. I even bought one cheaply and it turned out to be nothing more than that. However for my old game I think just the basic original game disk should do the job. I still have the whole game and its addons archived,
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