Help With Morrowind

[Eli]

I wanted to play some RPG game for a long while now, and after seeing the thread here I decided to get the newest one. Morrowind.

This the first RPG game I play(2 M&M6 hours dont count), and I have no idea what to do.
Since I dont want to learn all the magic stuff in my first games, I prefer a warrior charachter, but which one?

Any basic tips for the newbie RPG gamer will be appreciated.

[Eli]

Ok, I started playing and left the first building.

From some reason I decided to swim in the nearby lake. By the time I figured that i'm not stabbing the fish who attacked me, but his shadow, I already drowned.

Oh, can I somehow change the mouse speed?

[Eli]

Am I supposed to remember all the stuff people tell me?

[Scouse Gits]

The joys of RPG...
You will quickly get used to it ...
then immersed in it ...
then addicted to it ...

Be warned

SG[1] - who hasn't got Morrowind yet ""

[loinburger]

Don't try swimming too much unless you have Water Breathing (f'rinstance, if you're an Argonian, or if you have the spell Water Breathing). An alternative is to get Water Walking (only available as a spell), or else to only go into water that isn't over your head (there are quite a few ponds that fit this description). At low levels, I prefer the latter (I don't play Argonians).

I recommend that you go to Options (Esc key, or whatever you Isrealis use, then Options, then Preferences), and click "always use best attack." I'm a "veteran" of the "swing your mouse around" combat system from Elder Scrolls 1 and 2, but I prefer this new system they've got--it greatly simplifies matters.

What is your class (or what are your major/minor skills, specialties, etc.)? Your gaming style will vary considerably from class (skill-set) to class (skill-set). F'rinstance, right now I'm primarily a magic-user with low Strength/Endurance/Speed/Agility but with high Intelligence/Willpower/Personality, so my requirements are much different from El Tanko.

I suggest that your class be a Warrior if you're a newbie. Mages tend to suck at early levels (not enough spells to start out), as do thieves ("sneaking" doesn't do much good when your first attack is too weak to kill). Move on to the more advanced classes later, for now you've just got to get a feeling for the game etc.

[loinburger]

Okay, here's something else to keep in mind when selecting your skills:

High quality light armor (glass armor) is actually better than high quality medium armor, so if you're selecting your armor skill specialties with only your final skills in mind (i.e. the skills that your character will require when equipped with its ideal set of armor) you should (if you're only specializing in one type of armor, like me) either pick Unarmored, Light, or Heavy. Don't even bother with Medium. I suggest Light, since Light armor can be enchanted while No armor cannot (and light armor is, well, light, so you won't have an encumbrance problem even early in the game) or, if you're hard-core, Heavy (although non-warrior types will find that their early set of Heavy armor will weigh them down horribly, so I'd recommend Heavy only if you really need a good set of armor early (e.g. if you're a warrior)).

[Eli]

Level - 1
Race - Redsomething
Class - Warrior

In the first town, I found the ring for Fargoth(ot whatever his name was) and I found Fargoth's hiding place for the guy on the second floor in Arriles' place.
I was told that there are bandits somewhere near the lighthouse, but I couldnt find them.

Now i'm in Barnola/Bargola, I joined the Fighters guild and I need to kill some rats. And to find the guy in the Southern Wall(?).

How the hell am I supposed to remember the names of all those places and people?

[loinburger]

Most of the names get recorded in your Journal. Hit J (or whatever the Isreali equivalent is) to see the journal, and you'll get a recording of your assigned quests.

The bandits are there alright, they're on the road to Balmora right near the first town (after the first fork in the road). Check out the doors on the sides of the road, that's where the dungeons often are. (Especially in the Newbie zones, I've noticed some of the more advanced dungeons being off the beaten track a bit).

A lot of the names don't really matter, you can just find them out again by talking to people. F'rinstance, maybe you've forgotten where you're supposed to kill the smugglers in the first town? Then just wander around asking people about rumors, secrets, etc. until somebody tells you. Unless everybody suddenly decides to stop liking you (which they probably won't do, unless you start robbing or murdering people) then they'll tell you the same information as before. I walked all the way to Balmora (save some cash and get some experience while I'm at it), and all I did was read the road signs. If I forgot the name of my destination ("Was I going to Balmora or Ebonheart?") I'd check my journal.

Also, almost all quests in Daggerfall were untimed. I assume that it's the same deal in Morrowind.

[Eli]

I'll try walking to the next city I'll have to visit.
Do I actualy need to sleep or rest once in a while? I slept once just to check what happens and apparently nothing changed.

And I have exactly the same keyboard you have.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Eli
I'll try walking to the next city I'll have to visit.

Try it, that's the best way to find random dungeons--most of them are scattered around the wilderness. In Daggerfall you'd rarely find a dungeon in a town, the dungeons would always be off the beaten path a bit. So far Morrowind seems to be the same way.

Do I actualy need to sleep or rest once in a while?

You've got to sleep in order to level up (you'll get a message like "You should meditate on what you've learned," which means that you should sleep ASAP), but otherwise sleep is only necessary for regaining health/fatigue/magic points (you won't get "tired" or whatever, since fatigue points regenerate on their own). Right now I've got spells that restore my Health and Fatigue points, and I've got a magic item that automatically regenerates my Magic points, so unless I level up I never actually have to sleep.

And I have exactly the same keyboard you have.

What's the fun of being an Isreali, then?

[loinburger]

A note on walking to cities: I have a map that came with my game that shows the relative locations of all of the cities in the game. Hopefully you have the same map. Before you walk from one city to another, check the map to make sure that the cities are relatively close to one another. You don't necessarily want to find yourself walking across the entire map.

[Eli]

Ok, thanks.

I'll continue with Barmola(? I'll never remember this name) tommorow.

[Tuberski]

Are there any "cheats" yet? Like in Daggerfall where you took the High Elf for the immunity to paralysis, and then took the Critical Weakness- Paralysis?

Just curious of course?

[loinburger]

They've done a much better job of preventing "cheats" like in Daggerfall (my favorite was to give myself weaknesses like "Cannot wear leather armor" or "Cannot wear chain mail" to balance my "Regeneration" attributes)--you no longer have quite as much flexibility when designing your class (you specify race, skills, and specialization, but cannot specify things like magic multiplier or weaknesses/resistances except as determined by your race/birth sign).

However, there is a powerful editor that comes with Morrowind, so you can design your own race/class/birth sign and tweak it as much as you want. I tried it out, and gave myself a Daedric breastplate that gives +50 to all of my stats, as well as a Daedric helm that gives me 100% resistance to fire, cold, shock, poison, paralyzation, disease, and magicka. I'm not using them (I'm trying to beat the game legitimately first), but if you want to cheat (be it a little or a lot) the editor certainly lets you--you just have to work a little bit harder than you did in Daggerfall (at least you do for the moment, but pretty soon people will probably have their cheat files available online for anybody to plug into their game).

[Tuberski]

I wouldn't want to start out that way, but the Paralysis loophole was just too good to ignore.