Let's Play Morrowind [Overhaul is Awesome]

[Vindictus]

After a considerable amount of effort [not really] I have discovered how to take screenshots from the game in Morrowind! It requires changing a single number in a single file, apparently. OTOH, using screen capture programs... Eh. Does not work, it seems.

So, anyway! Onwards, to ADVENTURE~!

[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtFkIdanNEs[/embed]

The game starts with the character being apparently woken from some sort of nightmare by a fellow prisoner- Juib the Dunmer. Seems like a friendly sort, with the massive peircings.

Some of you who have played Morrowind may have already noticed, but in the original version Juib had no peircings [Also, only one eye]. Well, that's the joy of Modding- The version of Morrowind I'm playing has had it's graphics updated somewhat. I didn't install the full graphics-pack, as I feared it would be too resource demanding... But even the little bit I did throw on makes a hell of a difference.

So, where was I? Oh, yes, names.

Naturally, I put down my own name. Funny story about that, 'Vindictus' was originally my Imperial Rogue from this same game. I guess things have come full circle, now.

The guard shows up, and demands I follow him to the deck. Meanwhile, in the background, 'Moving' is enabled and a small prompt giving instructions on how to move the character around shows up on screen.

Juib quietly suggests that I do what the man says, and as I look at about half of a human skeleton scattered amongst the hold's crates I can't help but think that's a good idea.

The ship is a small-ish one, and after following the angry guardsman up a ramp and into a second room- This one filled with hammocks and yet more crates- The guard turns on me and tells me to get off the goddamned boat.

Well. You don't have to tell me twice.

Welcome to Vvardenfell. Bright skies, beautiful trees... Miserable festering swamp. Eh. Two out of three's not bad.

Again, I am really impressed by the Overhaul graphics. I'm not using the best version, mind you, so it's hard to tell- But the full version of the Morrowind Overhaul is better then Oblivion, and possibly even on a level with Skyrim. Or so I hear, anyway- I personally think the people were a bit distracted by the realistic grass physics [Which I did not include, because seriously, resource hog much?]

Finally noticing the Legionnaire on deck [Lies, I knew he was there this whole time] I move to greet him... Only to promptly get told to shove off. Well. How polite.

There's another guard waiting at the end of the docks. I make my way down, and am asked to correct their faulty records. And by this, they mean that they're not certain of my gender, or even race.

This is the default option- Dunmer, Male. I could change things up to match names and characters and stuff but, well... I don't really feel like it.

A few minor cosmetic changes later, and the quite-possibly-racist guard ushers me into the Census and Excise office. Note- This is the only one of those in the game, despite Seyda Neen being the ass end of nowhere.

Inside, there is a man.

Apparently, their terrible records keeping is so bad, they aren't even sure what I did before they sent me to prison. Bandit, Theif, particularly unscrupulous Necromancer? They haven't the slightest. Naturally, I get to fill in the blanks... With a personality quiz?

No. No, I think I'll go ahead and just tell you what I did. And by that, I mean make a custom class from scratch.

The basic custom class is titled creatively as 'Adventurer'. It'd be a much more solid combat class if it wasn't for it's stubborn belief that more weapons are better despite the fact that you can only use them one at a time.

Speaking of, there are three class 'Specializations'-

Combat, Magic, and Spealth specializations each give a five-level bonus to each of the skills beneath it. In the long run, the most useful of these is Magic, since there is a wide variety of spells that are quite useful, with Stealth coming in second and Combat a distant third.

Sorry Combat, but you can only have so many ways to stab someone before it gets repetitive.

You also get to select two 'Favored Attributes'. There are eight in-game attributes to chose from, and you can only select each once-

These stats are pretty intuitive in what they do. Strength has you hit harder and carry more, Speed lets you run faster, Agility lets you dodge better and climb steeper slopes... That sort of thing.

It doesn't take me long to build an acceptable class for my playstyle-

Can't help but feel I'm forgetting someth- Ah, yes.

Adventurers are so last season. Dragoons are in again.

... Wait, I know your records are terrible, but seriously? You got a letter telling you, but it didn't mention-? Argh.

Welcome to the final step of Chargen, selecting your Starsign. Yes, this actually is important and gameplay relevant.

There are a LOT of choices here. Buuut, in the end, as always- I choose the one with the greatest assets and fewest issues.

A total of 50 points bonus is nothing to sneeze at, especially when the other options tend to have... Unfortunate downsides. Like 'Fire burns you worse' or 'When you poison the other guy, you get poisoned too!'.

I mean, the steed is cool, but there's only so far you can take the 'Goes Faster' jokes, right?

Anyway, finishing with that lets us finally get our release papers, which I imagine the scribes must have been filling in like crazy while we told our life story just now.

Wait. That's it? Not even any legalese?

If you lot had records worth a shit, I could have been out of here already!

Yeah yeah, I'm going, I'm going... [Shuts door carefully behind himself]

... Well, if they didn't want this shit stolen, then they wouldn't have left it out, right?

And it's time to leave. Stepping out...

A very nice, walled-in courtyard. You can hear a cat yowling in the distance, as the Cliff-Racers trill their alien song...

Let's look in this barrel.

Magic rings in the garbage? I'm sure nobody will mind if I take it- Especially since the game won't let me go any further if I don't!

I step into the final room, and come face to face with the commander of the Seyda Neen Legion Detachment- Sellus Gravius.

A short 'Conversation' occurs, in which I quickly get told to go find some old guy in Balmora.

And bam. That's it. Your tutorial level is over. Go forth and conquer, Elf of Indeterminate Age!

 

[Larekko12]

You're not gonna be cheesing that weak ass crafting shit are you? I heard it got gamebreakingly crazy in this game.

Like literally break the system.

 

[Torgamous]

What crafting shit? This isn't Skyrim. The Dragnborn might be willing to stoop to creating his own armor, but the Nerevarine is too good for that unless you've got a mod.

 

[Peanuckle]

Dunno if it's legit, but it's funny.

 

[Larekko12]

What crafting shit? This isn't Skyrim. The Dragnborn might be willing to stoop to creating his own armor, but the Nerevarine is too good for that unless you've got a mod.

Click to shrink...

I seen the crafting loop be used to jump mountains and beat the game in less than 20 minutes.

 

[Torgamous]

You mean enchanting and alchemy? Not much point in doing a Let's Play with that.

 

[Larekko12]

They're in his skill list.

 

[Vindictus]

They're in his skill list.

Click to shrink...

For utility and monetary purposes, I assure you.

I've heard of the Int Feedback loop, but there's a slight issue with it in that IIRC it's actually really hard to find significant numbers of reagents with the 'Fortify Int' property without deliberately modding a vendor for infinite supply. Restore Health, Telekinesis, and Levitate are much more easily obtained.

And, you know, recharging your enchanted items.

Fast, easy money and leveling was a consideration though, I'll admit.

 

[Guile]

For utility and monetary purposes, I assure you.

I've heard of the Int Feedback loop, but there's a slight issue with it in that IIRC it's actually really hard to find significant numbers of reagents with the 'Fortify Int' property without deliberately modding a vendor for infinite supply. Restore Health, Telekinesis, and Levitate are much more easily obtained.

And, you know, recharging your enchanted items.

Fast, easy money and leveling was a consideration though, I'll admit.

Click to shrink...

You mean you won't be scrabbling in the muck for every coin like a true adventurer?

You've sold out to the Man, Vindictus, haven't you?! Admit it!

 

[Vindictus]

You mean you won't be scrabbling in the muck for every coin like a true adventurer?

You've sold out to the Man, Vindictus, haven't you?! Admit it!

Click to shrink...

Haha, no.

I bought out the Man. Let me see if I can find one of my less 'Fair' characters...

Huh. Only 15k gold? Oh, wait, yeah, spent the rest on levels and stuff.

Yeah, Alchemy can easily be used to break the economy.

Anyway, on to playtime~! For a couple hours. I do have work later.

 

[kinglugia]

Hey Vin, the screenshot pic is blurry-ish when magnified.

 

[Vindictus]

What's the first thing you do when you go to a new town, where you don't know anybody?

If your answer is 'Kill Everyone', this is probably the sort of game you'll absolutely love. That said, Mister Murder is not on the menu today- Instead, I'm going to [shudder] make friends.

This is Fargoth. He immediately complains about having had his ring stolen. Ring. Riiing. Why does that sound familiar-?

Oh, right, THAT ring! Here you go buddy.

Fargoth is... Well. Do the words "Wow, Much Joy, Very Happiness, BFFs" bring any images to mind? He promises to tell all his friends about me, even as his Favor-Meter rockets up to 100 percent.

In addition, he mentions his very good friend Arrile, who runs the tradehouse, and suggests I go meet him. Tradehouse. Hmm. Well, I suppose that just carrying all the loot I stole would be a bit silly, wouldn't it?

I quickly find the tradehouse by memory, step inside, and... I am blinded by the Bishounen. The overhaul, it seems, has given the High Elves an astonishing makeover- Like a mad beautician, erasing the wrinkles and creases, exfoliating and carefully braiding hair.

Just for comparison, this is Arrile pre-overhaul:

So. Yeah.

Moving on, SELLING THINGS! Arrile is the only merchant in Seyda Neen, and if you don't make friends with Fargoth he's more than happy to charge you out the nose for early adventuring essentials- Armor, Weapons, lockpicks...

Fortunately, with the good first impression our kindly deeds have given, he doesn't charge us too much. In fact, all said and done, we make a five-septim profit on the transaction!

He also gives us some friendly advice- You want to stay alive long, you need to keep sharp. The best way to keep sharp is to kill things. Bandits and wild animals are free game, but non-criminals- And by that, he means explicitly 'People who haven't been caught doing something illegal'- are off limits.

He also points out that there's a handy little cave crawling with outlaws just outside town that the guards have been ignoring. Now, he just met you, and this is crazy... But Outlaws are bad, so kill them maybe?

Well, maybe in a little while, but if the guards aren't willing to tangle with them I'd like to get a somewhat firmer foothold myself before I go trying to stab El Bandito over there.

Armed, and with very nearly a full suit of armor on [No greaves! JUST LIKE SKYRIM!], I head off to practice stabbing wild animals. But hey, why swim when you can walk? Water walking leaves you completely safe from the rampaging Slaughterfish that smell you from a mile away and swarm you like the freaky snake-sharks they are.

Stabbing the Mudcrabs is somewhat irritating. I'm going to need to raise my spear a bit, stabs just keep on whiffing...

Oh, hey, a dead body. I'll be back to loot him once I take care of these ANGRY, ANGRY RATS.

After pocketing the dead man's gold, I quickly look over the slip of paper in his pocket. It seems that Processus Vitalus was a tax collector before he was killed.

How strange. What possible motive could someone have to kill a tax collector?

After grabbing a few more ingredients- And stabbing a few more mobs- I note that I really am getting low on health, and head back to town.

Since a dead tax collector is a serious issue, I find a couple people to ask about it-

Huh. They seem rather blase about the whole 'Random and brutal murder' thing. Perhaps I should get a third opinion-

Wow. You, like, really don't give a shit, do you? Well, if I remember correctly, your murdering someone means that legally, you're free game for me to murder and loot the shit out of. So... Yeah, sorry mate, I need some spear practice.

I apparently need quite a bit of spear practice, as it takes me a distressingly long time to kill a half-dressed and unarmed man. Well, all's well that ends well, right?

I should probably talk to Socucius about this. I take the back gate, picking the lock and sidling in like an unwanted cat.

I should note here, that if you immediately go to Socucius about this, he'll ask for the taxman's gold. However, if you solve the mystery without asking for his input, then you just get a sack of money thrown at your face and a polite request to leave.

This story isn't quite wrapped up yet, though-

It seems Procesus had a local lover- The kindly young dunmer woman running the lighthouse. Remember Foryn talking about Processus flashing his jewels around? She bought them for him, as a token of her affection. Foryn killed Procesus for an imaginary slight.

Such a tragic story.

... Won't stop me from stealing the lady's expensive book and liqour upstairs, though.

It's getting late, and my character is wounded. I head to Arrile's tradehouse to unload those stolen goods I don't want to keep, and rent a bed...

... Huh. It seems my memory is faulty, and there aren't actually any beds to rent in town. I did get some valuable information, though, and fortunately I know a certain house that's recently come up empty. I'm sure nobody will mind me sleeping there till morning...

EXCEPT FOR THE ASSASSINS.

I roll out of bed, and quickly whip out my weapon, only to discover that I still have a lockpick equipped. I'm not going to get far with that.

It doesn't take too long for me to switch to my spear. The battle is long, arduous, and involves a great deal of mutual perforation. Those health potions I was given are quickly made good use of, and eventually I stand victorious over the dead body of the assassin.

That's a nice suit of armor you've got there, lad...

Assassin dispatched, I turn right back around and go the fuck to sleep again. Seriously, it's the middle of the night! Talk about poor manners. Those dark brotherhood chaps are the worst.

 

[DuskAtDawn]

And now you don't need to worry about armor for a very long time.

By any chance, do you plan to make use of the HOLYFUCKI'MINTHESKYNOW scroll?

 

[Vindictus]

Icarian Flight can be useful to get to Balmora fast, buuut... It's even faster to just buy a ride there.

As far as things go, my current plan is to work my way to Pelagiad, then on to Balmora- Killing off one or two bandit lairs on the way to build up a nest-egg to fund alchemical entrepeneuring.

 

[DuskAtDawn]

Hopping like a bunny the entire way, I'd assume. Gotta get that Acrobatics up, particularly since it's a major skill.

 

[Selias]

How do levels work in Morrowind?

 

[DuskAtDawn]

You get character exp for every major and minor skill you raise a level. You raise skill levels by using them repeatedly.

That means a painful amount of repetition for some things, and easy cheesing of levels for others. Athletic you can level up easily by leaving a key pressed down, Acrobatics by just jumping everywhere you go, Spells by crafting a really cheap 0-duration spell and just casting it all the time, everywhere you go, you get the idea. Hence, the bunny-hop method of travel.

The ones you can't level easily are a bitch to get up, though, like weapon skills, block (early on, anyways), and... I know there's another that was absolutely evil to raise, but I can't remember it right now.

 

[Guile]

Never played Morrowind, but this seems pretty entertaining.

In a murderhobo kind of way.

 

[DuskAtDawn]

Speaking of murderhoboism, are you planning on killing the god or just playing normally?

 

[Vindictus]

After my interrupted and restless night's sleep, I crawl out of my recently appropriated shack to greet the dawn. Sadly, there's nothing but grey skies and rain out. Ugh.

With my new, classy black assassin suit, I feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of tackling the local smuggler's den. First, though, I stop by Arrile's to sell my old armor back to him, and drop off the unpleasant-looking facemask that came packaged with my new stuff.

While I'm there, I take some time to look over the spells good old Arrile teaches-

He's got a fair variety, although nothing too powerful- A basic fireball and lightning blast, some healing spells, and a variety of other little bits and bobs. Children's stuff, the sort of thing you'd pretty much expect a trader out in the ass-end of nowhere to be able to teach.

Since creating an enchantment requires knowing at least one spell with that effect, I pick up a couple of the things- Fireball, Sparks, and Hearth Heal- before I go a-slaying. I also grab a couple cheap potions of healing, just in case I get in over my head.

This is Addamasartus, the not-quite-mandatory intro dungeon of the game that everyone in town will strongly imply you should use as your first training grounds. Going by memory, there are 'Only' three bandits in here- So this should be easy, right?

Wrong. The very first bandit is an agile little bitch who won't stand still and let me murder her, armed with nothing but a simple dagger made out of, of all things, chitin- And yes, she does shank me to within an inch of my life, despite my using a basic shield spell to reduce damage. I quickly loot her corpse and stumble back into town to sell the loot and pass out for a bit.

After a few hours- Four, to be exact- my horrible wounds have scabbed over and I'm raring to go once again. I head through the first room, and turn left up the stairs to go see what's there when suddenly a fireball goes whizzing past my head.

Say hello to Bandit Two, Wizard Boogaloo. This bastard doesn't give me time for many screenshots, and in fact about the only reason he doesn't burn me to oblivion is A) I am a dark elf, and thus resistant to fire and B) The shiny lights around him make him a relatively easy target.

You'll be excused for thinking I did as well against him as the first lady, just judging by the health bar, but actually I had to down both health potions to avoid dying.

Climbing back up to where I was headed, I come face to face with a gate. What contraband do the smugglers have locked up beyond this door? Drugs? Booze?

Nope, it's slaves.

You see, slavery is legal in Morrowind, but in the rest of the empire it's not. So the local slavers have a thing going on with smugglers- The smugglers kidnap and bring young, able beastmen into the country, and the slavers give them gold for the fresh blood.

Now, there are a couple things I could do here- I could leave the slaves be, stab them to death for weapons practice, or- And this one is a stretch- I could be a nice guy and set them free.

Let's be honest, how many of you actually thought I would use the slaves as punching bags to level up? ... Actually, don't answer that.

Moving on, here's something you're not likely to notice when you first play through this game- There's a 'Secret' passage hidden to the left when you exit the slave pen, behind some rocks and stalagmites where you can't get a really good view.

But those of you who take this route, beware- For it is dark, and you are likely to be eaten by a...

... Rat?

Still, it's pretty dark, and hard to see what you're doing. I'd suggest using a torch, but you can't wield both a torch and a weapon at the same time, and thus any fights are doomed to be in pitch-like blackness. Get some potions or spells of Night-Eye instead, as they let you see in the dark without compromising your own stealthiness.

This route is worth taking despite that, because it's got some cheap armor and an enchanted ring, not to mention some gold, scattered around from the rat's previous meals.

There is a following session of diving into cold, black waters and swimming through submerged tunnels to attempt to ambush the final bandit from behind. Unfortunately, my stealth-fu is weak, and Bandit number three hears me creeping up behind herself. She promptly spins around and begins throwing shuriken at me, apparently in the belief that this is a ninja fight.

Hint- Don't bring gimmick weapons to a swordfight, lady.

Speaking of better weapons, this is a nice upgrade from my rusty iron pig-sticker.

I quickly loot all the things, and then notice- Another placid pool of water, just sitting there. Hmm. I wonder...

Yup. There's a hidden chamber full of submerged loot. Nothing really special, just a sword and some gold, but I'll take it anyway.

By the time I get out of the cave, it's late evening. I head back to Foryn's shack to sleep the night away, and am pleased to note a distinct lack of assassination attempts in my sleep.

I stow away the illegal contraband I snagged, and sell the more-or-less legal stuff for a decent enough sum.

Next up, the Long Walk to Balmora!

 

[Vindictus]

You know, I can't help but notice that the current gamma settings are, like, unbelievably dark in-game.

So I now have them on the brightest setting possible.

I'll also be investing in Nighteye ASAP.

Anyway, uploading the Walk to Balmora as we speak, will have the next update out shortly.

 

[Selias]

Upping the brightness? I am incredibly happy to hear that. The update, too.

 

[Vindictus]

The day starts off bright and sunny, rays of fresh light piercing through the trees and hitting the swampy earth beneath. It seems like a good day for travel.

After a short ways down the path, the swamp fades off and we enter the Ascadian Isles region.

Flowers line the sides of the path, giving the impression that we've stumbled into a massive and splendid garden. Unfortunately, the rolling hills and constant flowers, in addition to the criss-crossing paths, can easily lead to you getting lost. Fortunately, I have vague memories of where to go, but I'm distracted by a man walking about to the right.

Oh. It seems I've stumbled across a bandit. Friendly enough, though- He only wants a handful of gold coins, and then he's perfectly willing to be friends!

I note that he's a skills trainer, which implies he's well above the average cutthroat, and consider how well my last couple of fights went. You know what? It's just fifty gold.

Nels accepts the money in good cheer, and tells me to look him up at the bar in Pelagiad next time I'm in town. He's sure that he can find some way to help me out.

As a side note, if I had been playing as a female character, Nels would be absolutely smitten with me, and begged a kiss rather than a pouch of gold. In addition, he's one of the earliest ways to crank up your rogue class skills, assuming you're playing as a stealthy type- Which I'm not, this time- and have a bit of gold free.

Turning back around, I head to the crossroads and then take a quick dip in the lake. There's a few mudcrabs nesting amongst marshmarrow plants on the north bank, which I go ahead and kill. The Halberd makes much quicker work of the beasts then my last weapon, killing them in a single good hit.

After gathering what reagents I can from the plants and corpses on the bank, I climb to the top of the hill and get my first good look at Pelagiad.

It's a smallish town, which sprang up over time around the local fort as legionnaires settled down and bought farms. That's the backstory, at least- I didn't actually notice a whole lot of farms.

I take a minute to step into the Halfway Tavern, and look over some of the people there.

There's a frustrated Khajit, someone who's supposedly able to switch the background music temporarily [doesn't seem to work], few friendly individuals who give me directions around town, and our good friend Nels, who is now willing to train us in lockpicking, stabbing, and ambushing. I idly consider upgrading my security and sneak skills, but I decide to save my gold instead for now.

Oh, and there's a surprisingly eloquent ashlander who claims to be terrible at speaking 'Old Elf' when you first greet him.

A quick visit to the trader, and I've obtained a very snazzy robe to hide the fact that I'm decked out in Dark Brotherhood armor. Not that anyone actually seems to mind at all, but yeah.

The smithy, sadly, doesn't have anything worth buying for me. There was a Steel Halberd, but given I've already got one, I didn't see any point in wasting the money.

Head north, get jumped by a rat. Blasted things.

While heading north and searching for a very specific flower, I stumble across yet another person mulling about on the side of the road. Doesn't seem very bandity... Let's go talk to her, maybe?

It seems that she's not a bandit. In fact, she was robbed by a bandit. And what did that craven bastard steal?

Her heart.

Oh, and also some precious jewels, but really, who cares about trifles like that?

I agree to deliver a token of affection to the bandit, one Nelos Onmar. On the way back, I notice one of the multiple signs that confused the fuck out of me the first time I played this game-

Yeah. Sometimes, the signs are helpful. And then there's the places where they lead you in circles. Fucking signs.

Ah, romance. Make sense? Why on earth would you demand that? But hey, star-crossed lovers aside, we apparently now have an in with Emuset, who trains Restoration, Alteration, and Destruction in Tel Ahrun.

Right, so turn left here...

Kill the angry little worm...

Keep going past the fort..

And as the sun sets, I finally reach Balmora.

Now I just have to find this 'Caius' fellow. How hard could that be?