First Playthrough of Vanilla Morrowind. [Help]

[blackraven3000]

I am seeking advice on how to get the best experiance in playing Morrowind for the very first time.
I'm not looking to mod the crap out of the game & in no way want to change any gameplay or original art styles.

Morrowind is an older game at this point and I'm simply looking to have a smooth bug free quality of life gameplay experiance.

I guess I still start listing what I think I know and if anyone has anything they wish to contribute feel free to reply.

I own the GOTY disc version of the game so from what I understand it has the latest offical patch for the game and expansions upon installation?

Then there is the Unoffical patch. I see "future development" is pointed to a forum where people are talking about a few things.
Some of which confuses me a little. But my main question here is, is it worth it? Will this effect any gameplay compared to vanilla beyond simply fixing bugs?
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:Morrowind_Patch_Project

Graphical Mods:
I read someone recommending to use a readable signpost mod due to the low quality of the vanilla texture. I found this mod & is it the best choice for what I am trying to achieve?
Signposts Retextured
http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42126/?

also everyone keeps recommending Better Bodies. Does this mod change the orgiinal art style?

Is there a HD version of the original morrowind textures? Not HD textures that replace the morrowind textures.

I found this 'blog' but i am very hesitant to start throwing anything and everything at my nice clean vanilla experiance.
https://morrowind2009.wordpress.com/

If you managed to make it this far, I want to deeply thank you for your time and effort. I have to have the same great feelings that many of you have for a truely amazing game. Again Thank You! (sorry if this is the millionth thread with this subject)

[Oubliette]

1. Yes the Unofficial patch is worthwhile, no it doesn't change gameplay significantly. Be sure to get the Morrowind Code Patch as well.

 

2. That signpost mod is as good as any other. Really a matter of taste for what you find most legible and useful, either way the signposts are a very very small part of the game not likely to alter game play much even if you made them neon green.

 

3. No there is no "HD" version of the original textures :huh: Morrowind is an old game and there was no need of such things or desire for them before. Best you can do is find a texture replacer that seeks to maintain the original feel. I believe most consider Connary's textures to most closely resemble the originals however last I remember they'd been removed from just about everywhere. Also the site you linked hasn't been updated in quite a while and many if not all of it's links are dead.

 

4. No better bodies is not like the original design of the bodies, they were created to be BETTER. They open up slots for additional armor and clothing functionality and aren't segmented into a million badly fitting pieces. If you want the original experience then just ignore replacers in general. At best most of them were created to add polys to create a smoother object and added a scotch of artistic flare in the process, at worse they're as random as the spiderman spider replacer for Skyrim.

 

 

I do believe MW is a lovely game right out of the box and even now still occasionally putter around in it completely vanilla. Don't sweat the small stuff and enjoy yourself, you're in for a treat.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Oubliette

[hollaajith]

Beginer's guide :) About MPP, IMHO, it is essential. It fixes many many bugs. and don't forget 4GB patch (if you Vista/7/8 and have more than 2 GB RAM) and EXE Optimizer. Also, most importatnt, don't install in Program files or Program files(x86). It saves you a lot of head aches later.

 

Better Bodies is as close to the vanilla as possible, but since it smooths the body, the heads might look odd. So if you decide to use Better Bodies, then I suggest you also use Westly's Heads Replacer. He designed it to be as close to vanilla as possible.

 

As for texture replacer, Darknut's Replacers are closest to vanilla, IMO. And there are many others, but you have to search for them. I can't suggest, as I don't use many texture replacers. Just SWG's skies, MGEXE. All the other mods are gameplay related.

[blackraven3000]

Thank you so much for your sound advice Oubliette & hollaajith. I've been in morrowind for 3 hours straight now and I have to say the game already feels great to me. Combat is a little wonky but i can let that slide. I put 1400 hours into oblivion and let me say I was bored and disapointed with skyrim. Morrowind feels like all the things I loved about oblivion wrapped into a different game in the same universe.

I have one issue thus far that I had with oblivion and especially skyrim. NPC's talk when to gosh darn much if you walk past them or if they walk past you. It simply drives me crazy trying to navigate a room full on npcs and having them all look at me and spout off their repeated lines.
I am now looking for a mod that will reduce the distance at which a player must be to an npc for them to speak or to reduce the time between them speaking to you. I'd prefer not to disable it compeltely as its nice to hear it once in a while. On skyrim I used this: www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/746/? Reduced Distance NPC Greetings and it made things much more sane.
I tried doing some searching but came up fruitless, perhaps im using the wrong keywords

nvm I found this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/43310/? Thank you god!

Again I cant thank you all enough for your help in getting me going on such an excellent game!

Edited March 15, 2015 by blackraven3000

[hollaajith]

Combat is a little wonky but i can let that slide.

All you have to do is make sure your weapon skill is atleast 40. Then there is more chance of you hitting than misssing. Since there is no animation for missing a strike, it looks odd to see the weapon pass throuh and not dealing damage.

 

And don't neglect fatigue. Always keep it up otherwise you will fail at things more often, even disposition drops a little when you are tired. So don't run to places.

Edited March 16, 2015 by hollaajith

[blackraven3000]

I use to play daggerfall a lot back when it first came out. So i understand combat being more like a dice roll on each swing, with skill factor & fatigue thrown in.

 

I also was not exagerating about playing oblivion for 1400 hours, 1000 of which were on xbox 360 and 400 on pc with mods. I'm not sure I would have liked oblivion as much if I had not skipped morrowind. Kinda like how people like skyrim when they've never played any of the older games in the series. Anyways what I'm getting at is I'm starting to think morrowind is the best game in the series, It's begining to steal my #1 spot from oblivion. Maybe they tie for me. *shrugs*

Thanks for the tip about fatigue & disposition I did not know that. I'm playing through the game and trying to not meta game at all. no guides, no walkthroughs, no wiki, etc

Thank You Again!