Interesting... that would explain it then... they came across as having been MW's version of bunnies in the multiplying department.


That is one aspect that I did not get into in my one play-through. There were so many systems and the character I was using was more melee-focused that I did not fiddle much with the spell enchantment aspect.

In fact, the biggest reason I stayed away is that magicka had no regeneration like health did, and to me that meant I was making my character even MORE gimped in the start, so I shied away. By the time it became viable I was already a melee powerhouse it just did not matter most of the time.

That is why one of my must-have mods anytime I play now is magicka regen.

Yeah i hear you. Resting would regen your magicka, or making your own potions if you can get ahold of the ingredients to make them with alchemy. Probably why i did more enchanting then spell casting.

Course that's sorta a lie. I tried to use all the systems equally, so i made really really really really weak versions of spells so i could build up my skills, then constantly would re-cast the spells with almost no failure chance (light 1 second, regen endurance 1 second, conjure weapon 1 second) but don't put more than one spell effect as only one of them at random gets credit for being used.

Using enchanted items had no failure chance so i put healing on my clothing and would use those rather than relying on potions. For weapons i'd specialize in one weapon until i got 100, then swap to another weapon type i hadn't mastered yet. I don't think i finished with the bow but most of my skills were 80+.

Alchemy... was broken; Only because you could buy cheap ingredients and sell potions you make for more than the cost (early on). Rinse and repeat until you have 100 Alchemy and can sell what cost you 2 gold in ingredients for 100 gold per bottle of regen-endurance. If the value was 1/5th the amount or 1/10th, the problem goes away. I sorta wish while making it you could put caps on how strong it was, then it could create the same potions as you could buy from the merchants rather than making 100 new types of potions because your skill increases slightly and so you add 1 second more to one of the effects, or it weighs 0.1 less per bottle...

I liked Morrowind because of its lore. Each time I played it (and there were many playthroughs) I discovered new things and connected them with the plot of the game. I like games in which their setting is so much larger than the campaign you get to play. I still haven't read all the in-game books.

Then there's the world for you to explore. One of the first games with a true 3D engine and freedom of exploration, though it somewhat lacks in the diversity department. The graphics were simply stunning for that time. Coupled with music by Jeremy Soule, it was almost a religious experience.

It should be noted that there are books in Morrowind that both tie and predict the future games of Oblivion and Skyrim, which is a unique way to pull the games together with source material that already exists. I don't know of any material that covers the online game or the games of Arena and Daggerfall.

Interesting exploit. Alchemy was the other system I did not touch much. I dabbled with it, but I kind of waited until late in my play-through when I had enough of every ingredient stockpiled I could have opened my own shop! Tried it for a few times, and thought: eh, will have to save that for another play-through. The skill was still very low as I ignored it completely, so it did not give any potions that met my satisfaction, and I just at that point could not be arsed to work at it.

FYI - one mod set that may interest you is BTB's Game Improvements. It is a collection of re-balancing mods that address various aspects of the game with consideration given to each system and its interplay with the other systems, with an especial focus on eliminating exploits. The readme is extensive and each change is explained in a very well-reasoned manner.


I am curious now as to these books. I tried to collect each one, but as I tended to stay away from stealing activities on my one multi-hundred-hour playthrough I am sure I have not collected them all. I read them too, but it was far enough back that I do not recall any Skyrim tie-ins/predictions, and Oblivion was in development so I was aware of it but do not recall seeing any tie-ins/predictions with that game either. Will have to look into those.

Edit: I am sure that there is a book in-game that addresses Daggerfall, titled "The Warp In The West". It pretty much gives away the ending, with the assumption that some of that game's multiple endings all occurred at the same time instead of only one of them. I am reasonably certain it was in Morrowind. Oblivion for sure, but I think also Morrowind.

I know. His fixes for enchanting was to make enchanting almost impossible to do, and secondly enchanted items didn't recharge automatically, you had to recharge with a soul gem (which gave you 5x experience vs vanilla). Alchemy he simply made the sell value of potions 0.

Both are too harsh, but making both of them more difficult to exploit would have been better. If i make a dozen potions i can't sell, either i use them or i throw them away and never make them again. As for enchanted items, i really don't want to spend several thousand gold to make a puny amulet and then be forced to keep recharging it. There's re-balancing, and then there's micromanagement. If you want super micromanagement play a rouge-like or an RTS where you can't queue anything up and you have to give direct orders to every individual unit rather than a group... Okay maybe that's a bit extreme, but you should get the point.

Well to be fair, that's how Oblivion and Skyrim fixed the issues with enchanting, and let's be honest, enchanting in Morrowind is way too overpowered anyway. I feel that the soulgem thing makes you rethink your approach to enchantements and instead of using them as something close to cheats which make you nearly invincible, you suddenly have to carefuly weight every use of every item. I like.

That doesn't work, but not for your answer it's the progression of the system in general. Say we take Oblivion, you have the guards who have say 50 in their skill in swords and armor. Then there's you and you have 40 in swords and armor, that's fine for whatever reason. 4 months later they still have 50 in swords and armor, and potentially have better armor, but you can max out all your skills, health, wealth, magic knowledge, etc.

As a hero or legendary character, you are expected to be better than the average, and to progress and get better, but no one else can. A quest you fail at (say, stealth based) you can just ignore the quest and come back when you know you will beat it, with no regards to the skill of your opponent because they can't change.

Now if you want to really play a grindy game in order to get an advantage, than that's great. But the game shouldn't be you at all odds with every tiny little task. Just because you can abuse a system doesn't mean it has to be fixed. I can easily abuse the jump spell getting +100 jump, know what happens when i use it? I fly like a million feet in the air. Yeah it sucks since you'll drop to the ground so fast you can't use featherfall in time (plus limited draw distance) to keep from dying when you land... :P

Also just because you can get free abilities by using enchantments doesn't mean it's unlimited or cheating. A ring of healing that gives you 100 hitpoints of healing in a day isn't overpowered, since when you've used it you can't use it anymore. The big cheating as it were, is when someone decides to wait/rest for 8 hours after every encounter before going to the next encounter.

Hmmm i wonder if i should go into enchanting a bit more... The Depth that the video talked about was quests you give yourself and not you are given, and things you can make, not only what you can find based on limits. I guess it's the difference between fetch quests and DIY.

I get your point and agree that many of the fixes were indeed harsh (for instance: that potion fix pretty much eliminated the ability to role-play an alchemist that creates potions for a living). I disliked the removal of the ability to enchant constant-effect, and I think that is half the fun at times: finding creative ways to give yourself an advantage. However as explained in the readme he had to work within the limits of what could and could not be modded (some things were just embedded in the engine). There were aspects to the economy that were hard-coded and that is one thing I am hoping will be addressed once the OpenMorrowind project is completed: a better re-balance of the game now that variables and such within the engine itself can be tweaked, which hopefully leads to an economy re-designed to allow the PC to sell potions in a more-balanced/less exploitable manner.

I know. I guess there's such a thing as over-correcting or over-balancing. I do hope the finished OpenMW project finishes and a lot of problems are removed or fixed. I really do...

Morrowind Patch 1.9
Better bodies
Robe Replacer

Those are the ones I use. They don't change the balance of the game, just make it prettier (smooth seams on bodies, for instance)

IMO......
Morrowind = atmosphere/world design
Oblivion = story/quests
Skyrim = gameplay

And for kicks:
Arena = has whole of Tamriel to explore
Daggerfall = replayability

Personally, OP, if you're looking into getting into TES series I'd begin with Skyrim then work my way down in opposite order.

Oblivion = dungeons/mines :P

True, but I'm in the minority where I actually enjoyed the repetitive caves/mines lol.

Oh I loved Oblvion although I found I couldn't play marathon sessions with it like other games. Also, and this has nothing to do with the quality of the game, my PC isn't great and when the spires started showing up my FPS died.