Wall of text incoming IwubCheeze: In Morrowind when the quests dried up, the NPC had no further use in the game. You could still get random quests in Daggerfall and some of these quests would affect your reputation with certain groups in the game.
That's like saying your former head master doesn't have any further use anymore. Even if an important NPC in the game doesn't have a quest for you anymore, the NPC is still an important character in Vvardenfell.
The NPC will react to you appropriately to your past actions. Apart from that he probably has dialogue that only he or very few other NPCs have.
Btw, why would an NPC even have an unlimited number of quests for you?
You don't need any random quests that affect your reputation with certain groups because the regular quests already do that. If you haven't got the maximum reputation with a guild then there still are regular quests for you to do.
You are right that Morrowind lacks random quests if you've completed a guild. It would have been nice if after having completed a guild you'd get a specific task like in Oblivion.
IwubCheeze: Also, you'll never noticed I praised Daggerfall for the huge spaces but at least you could get around that by fast travel. Not so easy in Morrowind.
I've never claimed that you did but you do seem to have double standards.
You want to fast travel in Morrowind? Take a silt strider, a boat or use the teleportation services in the mages guild.
You're right. That's not as easy as in Daggerfall. But I consider Morrowind's fast travel system better because it is more complex and realistic (realistic as in what would be realistic if we accept the premises of a fantasy game).
If you really don't like navigating through Morrowind at all then you can use the "coc" console command btw.
IwubCheeze: I'm just going to call you on it.
Well you shouldn't because
you are objectively wrong.
Is Morrowind empty? Well there are caves, tombs, hills, trees, mushrooms, NPCs, lakes, rivers, boats, huts, ruins etc in the wilderness, which means Morrowind's wilderness is
objectively not empty.
What you mean is that Morrowind is
relatively empty. This is something I don't have to agree with, especially not if you don't tell me what games you compare it to.
The same goes for the cities.
Compared to Daggerfall the cities may be small but Daggerfall's cities are not standard sized cities for a video game.
Btw, the cities are so unique and you still expected more than they achieved?
I agree that vanilla Morrowind could have used more NPCs in the cities. Do you need more NPCs, though, if you want a city to not appear lifeless? That may be a subjective question.
Like I said: There is a reason to criticise these aspects because there is room for improvement but what you claim is not an objective truth.
If you don't completely detest Morrowind then I recommend taking a look at the mod (compilation) Morrowind Rebirth. It greatly improves upon the points you made.
IwubCheeze: By this I'm assuming you mean the dungeon editor. Because not much changes with the game itself.
Mostly, the changes are implied in the dialogue. Choices you have most of the time only concern your character whilst actions resulting in bigger changes (that are implied in the story) are mostly obligatory.
Compared to other TES games your ability to make choices and your impact on the world both seem more obvious to me.
What's most obvious is that you are able to kill anyone. This may not sound like much but if you are into role-playing this matters a lot.
If you do one of the Great Houses' quests you'll have a fortress built for yourself. This is not really something you can influence by choices (apart from choosing your quest line) and more like an example what quests can change in the game world. But it feels like you are changing the world.
If you do quests for a faction you are going to help it get more powerful whilst weakening its opposing factions. Unfortunately, you can't see that but it is suggested in the story and the reactions of the other factions' NPCs.
Your direct choices how to influence a quest are limited like in every TES game but you often have the choice if you want to ruin an NPC and make him hate you, not ruining him or helping him. Does that choice then reflect in the world?
Probably not, the NPC will likely still remain in his hut. But to me the choice does matter because I'll know that I have destroyed that NPCs life.
Morrowind allows you to make your choices matter for your character. Do you want to continue the Mages guild's quest line? If you do what is asked of you you'll break the rules of the Thieve's guild. Do you want that?
Morrowind is an intrigues and from rags to riches, fame and power simulator. Your choices matter as much as they need to for that kind of game. Having more impact on the world would be nice but I don't see it lacking in any way compared to the other TES games.
IwubCheeze: without expanding your point
Oh, I just didn't want to bore you as I thought my earlier post included the relevant information.
To be continued...