Yet Another Morrowind Thread

[ERYFKRAD]

Though I've tried 3 times in the past to play Morrowind and gave up for various reasons, I'm going to give it another go but as close to the vanilla experience without too many rage-quitting lack of QoL features as possible. I'm going to use the GOG GOTY version along with the latest OpenMW. Already noticing some nice perks like Dolby 5.1 surround sound, widescreen high resolution and controller support (yes, I'm a total couchtard these days when it comes to my gaming). So, unless any of you want to talk me out of this and holler something like, "NOOOOO! DON'T USE THE OPENMW VERSION! IT'S NOT THE WAY IT'S DONE, INFIDEL DOG!" I shall commence enjoyment of this classic that I always wanted to play but never did.

What're you rolling?

Homegrown. Grew it on my own deck.

By the way, I did at first install one of those huge overhauls that made everything 1000 times prettier - too fucking pretty - and I realized I just couldn't bring myself to play it for more than a few minutes. The black guard that greats me below deck at the start, for example, looked like a lavender Snoop Doggy Dog that just returned from the beauty parlor and nail salon. I could practically smell his parfume before he even came below deck. I guess I'm just an old fashioned, vanilla kind of guy so OpenMW it is then, even if the walking animations of the guards still look like they're trying to hide the fact that they just did a dookie in their armor.

I meant what character. But okay, homegrown is a good choice.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Though I've tried 3 times in the past to play Morrowind and gave up for various reasons, I'm going to give it another go but as close to the vanilla experience without too many rage-quitting lack of QoL features as possible. I'm going to use the GOG GOTY version along with the latest OpenMW. Already noticing some nice perks like Dolby 5.1 surround sound, widescreen high resolution and controller support (yes, I'm a total couchtard these days when it comes to my gaming). So, unless any of you want to talk me out of this and holler something like, "NOOOOO! DON'T USE THE OPENMW VERSION! IT'S NOT THE WAY IT'S DONE, INFIDEL DOG!" I shall commence enjoyment of this classic that I always wanted to play but never did.

What're you rolling?

Homegrown. Grew it on my own deck.

By the way, I did at first install one of those huge overhauls that made everything 1000 times prettier - too fucking pretty - and I realized I just couldn't bring myself to play it for more than a few minutes. The black guard that greats me below deck at the start, for example, looked like a lavender Snoop Doggy Dog that just returned from the beauty parlor and nail salon. I could practically smell his parfume before he even came below deck. I guess I'm just an old fashioned, vanilla kind of guy so OpenMW it is then, even if the walking animations of the guards still look like they're trying to hide the fact that they just did a dookie in their armor.

I meant what character. But okay, homegrown is a good choice.

I picked the (default?) Dark Elf but only to test things out with OpenMW. I'll probably select something with a little more thought put into it later. I have a question: does the GOTY edition from GOG already have those 8 small official add-ons from Bethesda or do I have to install them separately with OpenMW (which I already did with the GOG version before installing OpenMW... will they automatically transfer over?)? How many hours of additional content do they add?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

does the GOTY edition from GOG already have those 8 small official add-ons from Bethesda

I believe they do.

 

[Butter]

don't use the addons, they're all garbage

Master Index and Bitter Coast Sounds are fine. Siege at Firemoth is fine until the final boss that you have to cheese.

 

[Funposter]

Adamantium Armor is good if you have a mod to rebalance the economy/Mercantile so that there's a readily available but genuinely expensive set of medium armor for the player to use and enjoy. LeFemm is pointless because you need mods to fix/expand it. Area Effect Arrows is most useful for having someone other than Creeper to dump your millions of Daedric and Ebony weapons onto.

 

[groke]

OpenMW is a much better experience than the original game at this point unless you absolutely need some MWSE mod (which you don't). Don't install any of the official add-ons, they're all shit.

 

[MWaser]

OpenMW is a much better experience than the original game at this point unless you absolutely need some MWSE mod (which you don't). Don't install any of the official add-ons, they're all shit.

Master Index is ok

 

[Sigourn]

Only "good" add-on is Bitter Coast Sounds, and even that needs a patch to fix some issues. The other add-ons are either filler, poorly implemented, unnecessary additions, or broken.

 

[prengle]

contrarians like me arent going to shit on you for simply playing the game with openmw - it has redeeming qualities and its been improving recently - i just think that the vanilla engine with extensions is still objectively better for any modding whatsoever, even if its janky and unintuitive. i cant even emphasize just how much of a fucking godsend lua is, just look at all of the shit on lucevar's list. this is why i still get flustered whenever some dipshit on reddit suggests openmw for a heavily modded morrowind install, i havent even tried any of the newer mods on that github page. youre missing out on almost all of this shit with openmw (except for a few mods which had support for them specifically implemented into the engine, which tbqh reminds me of zsnes and other ancient emulators that used compatibility hacks to get games working)

also opencs isnt great, i still get graphical glitches and low fps with my amd card and i might just prefer the original engine because i have severe 'tism and ive used it for years so im used to it. i might be incredibly biased. maybe when im desperate and sleepdrunk and i give a shit about morrowind again ill try another nightly release

and yes, avoid the free bethesda plugins, they range from being harmless but mediocre (firemoth, master index, etc) to confusingly bad (lefemm) and there are so many fixed versions of them and compatibility esps that i almost never bother with them until i get antsy after noticing that firemoth is missing from the world map. combined with tribunal and bloodmoon they feel like theyre foretelling the sheer horror that bethesda unleashed with oblivion a few years later. i really really dont want to think about oblivion at 2 am... or ever, really

 

[cretin]

this looks surprisingly good??

 

[cretin]

i think its the bump maps and real time shadows making most of the difference but some of that texture work isnt bad either.

 

[Decado]

Sweet! Reinstalling. Now the game will be perfect.

 

[Robber Baron]

Shit son, now we're talking

Do these features work with TES3MP? Because I can't wait for some Tamriel Rebuilt coop now

 

[MWaser]

this looks surprisingly good??

which hell did they pull this inventory UI from though

 

[cretin]

is it blasphemy that i think that UI is better? Guys, morrowind's UI was garbage

 

[Santander02]

^Was going to rate retarded but then I remembered it's been like more than a decade since an rpg non indie games in general had a good PC ui so maybe I've been so used to suffering trough shitty console focused UI's that make the Morrowind UI look like heaven by comparission so dunno.

 

[DraQ]

this looks surprisingly good??

which hell did they pull this inventory UI from though

What kind of n'wah replaces Morrowind magic effect icons?

 

[luj1]

this looks surprisingly good??

OpenMW has barely any shader support, I think only water shader

 

[Bad Sector]

Hm, the art assets look good but IMO the lighting is off, and especially indoor areas need more ambient lighting (they're too dark). Outdoors also look too bright and clean (kinda closer to Oblivion's environments)... Morrowind isn't that clean and bright looking.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

is it blasphemy that i think that UI is better? Guys, morrowind's UI was garbage

The two pioneering CRPG interfaces are found in Dungeon Master and Morrowind.

Dungeon Master in 1987 created the "paper doll" inventory screen and for its main interface ringed the central first-person view with controls and info relating to each party member, the party members in relation to each other (and individual party member facing!), the magic system for spellcasting, weapons/items held by each character for immediate use, and directional movement --- all contained on one screen!

Morrowind in 2002 presented basic information at the bottom of its first-person (or optionally behind-the-shoulder) view but pressing the right mouse button would instantly pause the game and bring up four windowed menu screens, which could be resized and moved around as desired. The image below is from Mobygames, and the windows have been moved and resized from their defaults, but it demonstrates the separate menus for inventory, magic, the map, and character statistics.

 

[Bad Sector]

I'm not sure i'd say Morrowind's UI to be pioneering. There were games with floating windows ever since the original Macintosh and was common in Windows 3.x for games to use floating windows. It became less common in Win9x times but there were still games using them. While those were using the OS UIs, there were also some games that used their own UIs, like Legacy: Realm of Terror and Chris Sawyer's games like Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

 

[MWaser]

The way Morrowind's UI is integrated into the game is what's important. For one, it doesn't have excessive sorting tabs. For two, it has very little empty space - minimal icons where text is displayed and icons only when icons are present (inventory fitting in a tight grid as a result, and spellls being a very compact list). For three, the fact it opens instantly without any transitions makes it extremely convenient to use for any situation.

With how well it is organized for mouse usage, I'm really amazed that they were developing the game simultaneously for xbox because while I personally have never tried console Morrowind ( ) I can't imagine this mouse-optimized UI is very convenient for controllers.

 

[Bad Sector]

On Xbox the UI is a bit different. You toggle the UI with B or Select and there aren't floating windows but instead each "window" covers almost the entire screen and you flip through them using the trigger buttons. Elements inside the window are selected using the dpad. Overall it isn't that different than what you'd see in a modern gamepad friendly game, which i guess shows how flexible Morrowind's UI system is (since it does look like it is the same UI system just configured a bit differently).

 

[Funposter]

so some retard applied normal maps to lougian's shitty, mismatched texture pack and people think it looks good?

edit: i also really adore these people who think that shadows should appear PITCH BLACK at all times as if ambient and reflected light do not exist, almost like these people never leave their rooms to observe the real world

 

[cretin]

Hm, the art assets look good but IMO the lighting is off, and especially indoor areas need more ambient lighting (they're too dark). Outdoors also look too bright and clean (kinda closer to Oblivion's environments)... Morrowind isn't that clean and bright looking.

the lighting is definitely off, most the contrast IMO and the shadows are too dark, but the overall improvement to image depth is fantastic for me.