stebbinsd Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 I've been thinking about getting Morrowind. I've played Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 4, and I love those games to death. But I've heard that Morrowind had such wretched problems with its game engine that even the most die-hard fans admit that they're problems. I was wondering what your recommendations are for the best mods to fix these problems. 1. Combat. Hands down, this is the most universally panned mechanic in all of Morrowind. Combat is almost exclusively based on chance. Like most classic RPGs, your hit chance was based on RNG. You could improve your chances of scoring a hit by increasing your skill in a weapon class, but that didn't stop the monotony and drudgery of just spamming the attack button until one of you got lucky and scored a hit. It didn't make combat fun; it just made it so that the pain was over sooner. I've seen mods that supposedly make you hit 100% of the time, but I've heard that these don't make combat fun either; it just makes it overpowering. After all, scoring a hit, especially with really strong weapons, tends to stagger enemies (something I've seen myself by watching footage of the game). So always hitting means you'll stagger lock even the mightiest of foes. Stagger-locking is OP enough as it is in Skyrim, which was designed around "always hit" combat. So what we really need is a complete overhaul of Morrowind's combat engine. Taking away the stagger for all but power attacks would definitely help, but I'd imagine that would cause some other aspect of the combat system to break in ways I can't possibly predict. So to ensure that doesn't happen, practically the entire combat engine would have to be redone from the ground up. Any suggestions? 2. Quest directions. I've heard that quest markers are impossible under Morrowind's engine. But let's face it: The quest directions in this game are, quite simply, broken. I've heard legends of the Mages' Guild quest "Warlock's Ring," which gave you directions that sent you in the COMPLETE OPPOSITE direction you're supposed to go! Whether they add a quest marker or fix the written directions, what mod would you recommend to make the quests easiest to navigate? 3. NPC dialogue and personalities. With only a few exceptions, the NPCs in Morrowind are completely interchangeable. And I mean ... 100% interchangeable. They literally offer the exact same copied-and-pasted dialogue for every conceivable topic. Their backstories (the few NPCs that have them) are basically Mad-Libbed, and the rumors they give are all pulled from one giant list of rumors they can convey. But what's worse is that dialogue with NPCs is more like navigating a wiki than it is actually talking to a person. Certain key words are highlighted. Clicking on these keywords gives you additional information. This was still a problem in Oblivion to some extent. A handful of dialogues gave you complete sentences to tell (e.g. "They killed the Emperor, you fool!" or "Please continue, Mr. Lachance"), but most of the quests just had a single word or phrase that stood in for your response (e.g. "Thieves Guild Special Jobs" or "Join the Mages Guild"). But at least it was structured in such a way that you could imagine what your character might say in an organic manner. Morrowind, as I understand it, didn't even have that. You literally clicked on key words inside the text itself to get the NPC to dump more info like a data vending machine. What mods would you recommend I use to fix these two problems? The way all NPCs are interchangeable, and creating a dialogue system that actually feels like conversation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 1. I thought the combat was fine, but I play as a mage most of the time. It's based on your skill level, plus a random modifier, and I don't see a problem with that, so I can't help there. 2. I don't believe quest markers are impossible. Special effects are possible, and positioning is possible, so it should be possible to make a mod that calculates a vector from your present location to a location picked from a database of known quest objectives, and displays a temporary directional arrow in front of you to point the way. It would require a lot of work, though, and would not help for user-made mods with new quest objectives. You might as well just look up the location of your quest objectives on the interactive map on UESP. 3. The dialogue they offer is conditioned upon a complicated network of their faction, location, race, occupation, and other factors. You'll find similarities between NPCs in a particular region, but since the colour for explored dialogue options is different from unexplored options, you'll always know when there's something you haven't seen before. However, you can install Less Generic NPCs to increase the variety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stebbinsd Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 You might as well just look up the location of your quest objectives on the interactive map on UESP.Why should I have to take myself out of the game? Why can't there just be a mod that re-writes the directions to make them clearer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stebbinsd Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 since the colour for explored dialogue options is different from unexplored options, you'll always know when there's something you haven't seen before.That still doesn't help the complete lack of immersion when it comes to navigating their dialogue like a wiki, making them feel more like information vending machines than people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Can't answer those questions or help your lack of immersion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stebbinsd Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 Can't answer those questions or help your lack of immersion.Well, this comment certainly served a purpose that couldn't possibly have been served by simply not replying at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 I think it's the last one you'll get with that attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon32 Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 1 - Combat Enhanced by Aerelorn. Needs his Morrowind Enhanced - Search here: http://mw.modhistory.com/ 2 - No quest markers. Get the Unofficial Morrowind Patch, 1.6.6 beta is the latest - http://www.theassimilationlab.com/forums/files/file/1050-previous-patches-unofficial-morrowind-patch/ 3 - LGNPC - http://lgnpc.org/ And be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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