Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Morrowind - First Thoughts

I'm having a real difficult time getting into Morrowind. Even with a small selection of add-ons, the world feels empty and interfacing with it is painful. Oblivion just has a much more polished feel to the user interface and controls.

But I'm only up to level 2 and still finding my way around Seyda Need (the starting area) and Balmora (a nearby city).

Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind

posted by Wuphon's at 9:25 AM (0 comments)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Morrowind - Technical Stuff

Morrowind is written for a 4:3 aspect ratio. As long as you have a more modern video card and modern NVIDIA drivers, this should not be a problem even if you have a widescreen monitor (16:9 or 16:10 aspect). In the NVIDA Control Panel, there's a setting that lets you set how you want scaling to work.

The default is to let your display do the scaling. Which doesn't do any good on my Asus, because it stretches all source out to be a 16:10 aspect at 1680x1050.

Another option is to use no scaling at all. Which means your smaller resolution games end up sitting in the middle of the screen with large black bars on the top and sides. Games that are 640x480 become very amusing, as you're trying to play by looking through a postcard sized view instead of using more of the screen.

The best option (for this at least) is to tell the video card to do the scaling, but to preserve the aspect ratio of the source. So for 4:3 video games, you end up with as big of a window as possible, but with black bars on the left/right.

For Morrowind, I chose to go with a 1024x768 resolution, scaled up to approximately 1400x1050 and centered on the screen. The 800x600 is too small (only shows 3 lines of icons in your inventory), while the 1280x960 size results in text that is slightly too small to read (but you can see 5 lines of icons in your inventory).

For the stuff that I record with FRAPS, I plan on scaling the 1024x768 source material down to 800x600 and using somewhere in the range of 800-1000Kbps XVid 2-pass to do the encoding. That leaves the text still legible, softens up the textures a bit so they're not so harsh, and reduces the required bit rate slightly.

Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind, NVIDIA

posted by Wuphon's at 7:42 AM (0 comments)

Morrowind - Custom class (Brigand)

I've always been one to play custom classes in Oblivion, partly to min/max leveling (although that is dangerous with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul), but mostly because my roleplay doesn't fit into a narrow niche.

For my first character in Morrowind, I'm going for the extremely sneaky and underhanded style. This has an emphasis on bows, stealth, and ambush attacks. Definitely living in the grey areas of the world, rather then going for heroic acts of unselfish valor.

Race: Wood Elf (Bosmer)
Specialization: Stealth
Favorite Attributes: Luck, Endurance
Sign: The Thief
Major Skills: Spear (END), Armorer (STR), Marksman (AGI), Security (INT), Illusion (PER)
Minor Skills: Mysticism (WIL), Speechcraft (PER), Alchemy (INT), Light Armor (AGI), Long Blade (STR)

It's a rather eclectic build, but one that should work out well. Marksmanship is high at the beginning, and I'll need to use 2H Spears in order to build up endurance at the start.

Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind

posted by Wuphon's at 7:16 AM (0 comments)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Morrowind - Basics

I picked up Morrowind, GOTY edition a while ago, but hadn't installed it yet. It's definitely an older game, and the graphics show it (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is much prettier and more polished). Still, I figured I'd give it a try while I wait for Wrath of the Lich King to arrive.

Naturally, UESP Wiki about Morrowind is a good place to start for information. Or the UESP Morrowind Forums.

The start up area and introduction to game play is definitely much less polished then the starting area for Oblivion. In Oblivion, you're led by the hand, with a good bit of backstory along the way. In Morrowind, you have to pick your race and class right at the start, before you really know what is going on. You'll also end up starting with nothing more then a dagger, which means that you're going to have to go shopping in the starting town.

Skills and their relation to attributes is a bit more hodge-podge then in Oblivion. If you choose to play a stealthy thief style character, you're going to have trouble getting Endurance attribute skill-ups unless you specifically level up your Medium and Heavy Armor skills.

On the PC, you can open the console using the ~ (tilde) key and type "tfh" to get information on item ownership. Especially useful before you put something in a container (putting items in container causes them to be owned now by the owner of the container).

Places to (maybe) visit early:

Thrisk Mead Hall (apparently has some items outside)

Venim Ancestral Tomb (a bow of shadow)

A link over on the official forums: Hints for Beginners.

Labels: 2008, ES3Morrowind

posted by Wuphon's at 10:35 PM (0 comments)