Unbalanced?? Well, yes!

[wolron]

First of all, I am having fun with MW and I am going to continue to enjoy the game for some time into the future. I still have Bloodmoon and Tribunal to install yet.

 

However, I am a level 55 Nord Knight and Nothing can bother me. I have so many magic potions and magic amulets, that if someone or something did bother me, I could magically counteract it immediately. I have over 140,000 septims (or drakes, or whatever...) and there is nothing to spend it on. I have about 130 ebony or daedric weapons that are worth on the average of 20,000 septims a piece, but no place to sell them (oh, I have heard that some mudcrab fellow will have enough to buy them, but so far I have not met him). I am level 100 on all my primary skills except blocking (not many opportunities to block). I am only within a few more levels of having a similar rating on the secondary skills. I have even gotten most of the other skills above 60. I am level 100 on strength, agility, personality. Luck is the only one below 80 and who needs luck in this game anyway.

 

This is the most unbalanced game that I have ever seen. I guess I could put the difficulty up from medium to high. I guess I could try to play the game without armor or weapons. But what about all this wealth. It is burning a hole in the pocket of my britches and with nothing to spend it on, I am going to be getting burnt real bad!!!

 

On the other hand, when I started out, I was so inept that I got killed left and right. In addition, there was never enough gold in my pockets. But at about level 15, the balance went so far in the other direction that I really took most of the challenge out of the game. The flashy scenery and the humongous environment are all that remains. But that is something now, isn't it.

 

Is this the common reaction to MW or am I doing something wrong?

[Kethruch]

Set the difficulty setting at 100 to start and see what happens. I was like you - beating everything in sight with only a minimum of damage, then I found the difficulty slider under options. I set it at 100, and barely got of Seyda Neen with all my teeth intact. You want more of a challenge? Try being a non-warrior race in the beginning putting weapons in your minor or basic skills only (you get to start with like 45 hp and a 35 in your best weapon). As far as the money goes, no matter what you do, it will pile up. Enchant some items with constant effect through the enchanters in the various places - that always helps drain some away. Overpay for items - it helps your relationship with them. Create new spells, then see if you can get high enough to cast them (I personlly like chameleon 90% for as long as you can get it) That chews up money as well.

[Reborn87]

or try downloading a mod or making one of your own to make the game harder. not reeally that hard take about 5 mins and u can really change the balance of the game.

[Malchik]

I agree that it gets too easy but it is a common failing with rpg's. Everything starts tough and you can hardly survive one fight to the next and then after a few weeks in the game nothing can touch you. I could list a load of examples.

 

You can make your own NPCs that are very much harder to kill and as mentioned above there is a mod that makes it harder. There is also a mod that slows the levelling process considerably and you can start at difficulty 100.

 

I am playing max difficulty now - I'm on level 35 and can't deal with two DB assassins at once yet.

 

But it will only be a matter of time before it gets easier.

 

I have a suggestion. Install Bloodmoon and Tribunal and try to those on maximum difficulty with a relatively low level character. You will surely find that a challenge.

 

BTW you can always use the money to level up. As I and others have said elsewhere you can level up indefinitely but by that time you are invincible. I took on the Black Dart Gang in hand-to-hand combat and beat all of them without even needing a potion (level 160). At that stage it all gets a bit too predictable.

 

So in answer to your question, the game is unbalanced at higher levels but you can balance it a lot more yourself if you wish to.

[Hizentaru]

For a straight forward RPG like Final Fantasy, where there is only one story line the game can get gradually harder. However, with Morrowind where there really is none, the difficulty can't get harder as the game progresses since all you're doing is traveling about in no direct order. I guess the difficulty has to stay constant since it's so open ended.

[Purgatori]

I recently started a new game - the character is an Altmer Mage born under the Sign of the Apprentice. My Agent was stronger - and easier to play. I am at level 15 FINALLY and the game is still tough, I cannot even summon a Golden Saint yet (not even a 1% chance). Still cannot figure out how to balance using magicka and getting it back - buy ingredients and create my own potions is what I am planning. Eventually I am going to enchant some of my items with constant effect fortify intellenge to increase my magicka pool. I hate running out of magic. My poor mage has unarmoured and short blade as secondary skills... so I am playing to her strengths - I haven't even started the main quest yet (I got the puzzle box but those criminals in there killed my character in one hit, they will get there's in the end). She's the Arch-Mage, soon to be Archmagister of the house Telvanni - Dagoth Ur does not know what he's in for. My character still doesn't even have 100 hps (around 80 and she started with 43!!). She just cannot take a hit - though she is getting much better now. She has 100% weakness to magicka, 50% weakness to fire, and weakness to shock and frost as well (not looking forward to Solsthiem). Don't tell me MW is easy.

 

Things I got away with easier with my Agent or Warrior I have to work around with my Mage. I hide behind doors and use telekinesis to steal things - though getting away with it is another story. I don't rely on cheaply attacking the enemy with levitation spells and dropping summoned beings (good strat. but not fun).

 

The game is constantly hard with this character - my warrior and agent earned the ease that comes from later on and so will my mage. I feel MW is rewarding that way. I have not relied on magicka (with my agent or warrior) playing as a pure mage (with huge weaknesses) is going to be terribly great fun later on - experience MW in a new way. Later on I will be casting soul trap with 20 ft area effect with 5 GSG's in hand and casting a hugely damaging poison cloud... thus capturing the souls of 5 higher level daedra at once... and selling for a high amount of septims... or to make useful constant effect enchanments (like fortify intellenge 25 pts to increase mana pool :D, or fortify alcheming 50 pts/ enchant 50 pts for 2 rings - thus saving many septims). Though the game is super tough right now (I am not using trainers or secret trainers for my mage - though it was tempting - takes less game time to practice than to be trained and it's more fun). I have built up my hand to hand so that could knock out my enemies and kill them at my leisure... makes it so they hit me less which is good for my mage.

 

MW thows level 40 wizards at you when you are at level 5!! Oh yeah! MW sure is easy... Early they could have turned my character into cinder...

[rcgamergirl]

I've noticed similar problems with my 65th level character, like having over 1 mil and nothing to spend it on. I found a mod called Advanced Morrowind, I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like it has many, many new creature for high levels. :)

 

(although I don't think it will have quite the same effect on me as killing gods!) ^_^

[Pob]

Okay, there are number of ways to make it harder

 

1) Up the diff level

2) Play a mage type (combat types will prob find game easier)

3) Play a race/class combo that doesn't fit (say an orc mage, breton warrior), your abilities won't compliment your class choice, making it harder

4) Play to your weakness's. Example warrior with 100 in heavy, 5 in light will find it harder wearing chitin than with ebony. This helps improve skills you have low values in/don't use

5) Fight Hand to Hand. You have to knock of fatigue first, making it harder

6) Install and play Bloodmon and Trib. For more advanced charcaters so clealry morte of a challange

[ObsidianKnight]

Warrior chars definitely have it easy in Morrowind. Theres loads of great armor (artifacts, anyone?) and well.... after a while a Dremora looks just plain wussy.

 

Play mage or archer types (I'm having a tough time with my current character)

Download some mods. I've heard Giants adds some pretty awesome enemies.

 

And fight... with the Fork of Horripilation!!!! Poke that Dremora to death!!

[Limorkil]

On the PC your best bet is to install a mod that makes things more difficult. You still have the issue of having too much money, but it is very hard to get around that, even with a mod. I suppose someone could create a mod where all the items in the game are seriously devalued, but that is actually a lot harder than it sounds because you would have to account for all items, including those introduced by the other mods you have.

 

I also play on Xbox, where I am more limited in terms of what I can do to make the game more challenging. It doesn't really matter what race, class or skills you pick because you will eventually max those skills and be uber. The GOTY edition was a godsend because it added the difficulty slider.

 

My Xbox character is a level 14 custom battlemage, which I have to say is a very easy character to play. Despite being only level 14 he has actually done many many quests in the game. His major/minor skills are nearly all magic related, but he has primarily been fighting with sword, axe, blunt, a shield and heavy armor. In other words, he has been levelling up slowly because he rarely uses his major/minor skills. Unfortunately, pre-GOTY he was having a very easy time and I was getting bored with the lack of challenge. With the difficultly slider I am enjoying playing him much more because he can actually die pretty quickly if I am not careful in combat.

 

Without mods, the best way to make Morrowind difficult is to choose the less effective skills and avoid the uber skills. A good example is a a pure mage who does not use any weapons or armor. Even then, a mage becomes very powerful once your magic skills get high. The other problem with a mage, or any other character designed to enjoy more challenge, is that Morrowind is pretty tough on new characters. In other words, your character may find it very frustrating surviving the first few levels. Setting the difficulty slider to zero and then raising it as your character levels is one way to address this. Another is to avoid combat as much as possible at the start and instead concentrate on obtaining cash which is used for training.