OT: Morrowind?

[AgentZero]

I was in a game shop today and noticed that they're selling Morrowind and its two expansions for 20euro. I'm just wondering, is it any good? I remember seeing plenty of good reviews for it, but I'm just wondering what the general consensus is. My RPG collection is dominated by BioWare titles, the odd ones out being Diablo II and Sacred (neither of which I managed to finish). I prefer RPGs with a lot of character interaction, Baldurs Gate II being my all-time favourite, and I'm wondering how Morrowind stacks up in that department. And all the other ones, of course.

[LordAxel]

I have morrowind for xbox and its pretty good. There are alot of different paths you can go in the game. You can put the main mission off as long as you need. To go through all the different paths of the game will take quite sometime. I did however get bored with the game after awhile, some objects are very small and hard to find even when at the location they are at. Very difficult game to excel at without using a guide of some kind fortunately there is a free one on the net that helps as little or much as you need.
http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/morrownd.php
gives good information to about the game

[Phoenix-D]

Its good, but two things:

A. It is a resource hog.

B. it takes a LONG TIME to get through. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also, if you get the PC version there are quite a few mods out there to improve the experience. They is a lot more interaction than Diablo but less than Baulder's Gate since you're on your own 98% of the time.

[NullAshton]

I thought it was slow, but some people might like it. Graphics aren't the best in the world, but still pretty good. The best part about it is the open-endedness. There's a way to get the best weapon in the game near the beginning, and it involves little danger.

[Gandalf Parker]

I liked Daggerfall alot more. I thought Morrowind was kindof a downgrade. But its worth buying cheap

[boran_blok]

The freedom is sometimes too much, but it is a fun game.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

The graphics aren't the best because it was released in 2002

[CovertJaguar]

I played it for a good long while, had fun, but eventually got bored a long way before I finished the main story. It's just so huge, especially if you want to go somewhere off the beaten path. You can wander in the wilderness for hours on end and never see another soul, just things that want to kill you and the occasional lost ruin that you had no idea was there. The map that comes with the game is an absolute necessity or I can guaranty you that you will get lost. And if you DO get lost, good luck finding civilization again. I don't know how many hours I wandered around out in the middle of nowhere. That aside it is a fun game and some of the magic is very useful and not often seen in games. How would you like to fly or walk on water or even breath under water? You can become head of the local guild, the greatest thief there ever was, or you can enchant your own items with what ever combination of spells you can dream up. You can go treasure diving off the coast or ruin hunting deep in the mountains, its all up to you.

[deccan]

I just saw this in QT3: someone finished playing Morrowind in 14 minutes 26 seconds:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/Morrowind.html

Really illustrates just how broken Morrowind's mechanics are if you're a munchkin gamer.

[Starhawk]

He's full of crap It takes 14 minutes just to get from Scyda Neen to Balmora! Much less to get the stuff together to make anything.

PLUS it took my dad and other folks i know that have played it ages simply to get the fighting power to kill Dagoth Ur....not to mention the level up and money required to do what that guy said....and the time to recharge spells and sleep.

That guy is lying big time so don't rust him one lick.

[deccan]

Starhawk said:
He's full of crap It takes 14 minutes just to get from Scyda Neen to Balmora! Much less to get the stuff together to make anything.

PLUS it took my dad and other folks i know that have played it ages simply to get the fighting power to kill Dagoth Ur....not to mention the level up and money required to do what that guy said....and the time to recharge spells and sleep.

That guy is lying big time so don't rust him one lick.



He took the stilt strider from Seyda Neen to Balmora, he didn't walk. Also, notice the massive amounts of potions he drinks. That's what gave him the temporary fighting power to kill Dagoth Ur.

[Starhawk]

Let me address this in a few point breakdown:

A.
Okay point being it takes about 5-10 minutes to get from Silt Strider port through to the mages guild and then to talk to the necessary people and buy things from them.

B.
It takes a LONG time to get the funds to buy the sheer weight in potions it would take to affect dagoth at all.

C. It's not JUST a matter of strength, it's a matter of skill and weaponry to kill Dagoth Ur, the levels it would require to handle the weaponry and then the cash required to buy the weaponry to do any damage at all would be exhorbitant.

D.
NO normal weapon can hurt DU it takes some of the heavily enchanted weapons that I after 3 weeks of playing hadn't even gotten, you can't just pick up any old weapon of the street and take out the biggest baddest Bad guy in the universe.

E. It takes about 20 minutes to actually go through the ghost gate and get to the black mountains because you have to fight a lot of nasty critters that would easily kill that jackass in a matter of seconsd.

F. What this fool doesn't bother mentioning is that there is another Dagoth priest that you have to kill before you even find OUT anything important enough to kill DU.

G. He's acting like Killing DU is a one shot deal when in fact you have to kill 3 incarnations and each one has different strengths and levels that you can't just take a dagger to, in fact the third one is totally invulnerable to ANY weapon he could have picked up in 14 minutes of gameplay.

H. He probobly never actually played the game or if he did he just cheated his *** through to the levels required to kill DU.

[NullAshton]

There's also another way to do this, he could have used a glitch in the game. It's possible to create spells that have permanant effects. I'd tell you how, but that might ruin the game for you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As for the speed through, I'm watching the video now. Gotta love fast cable connections http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Starhawk]

Yep after watching that video I am more convinced he cheated rather then convinced he's just really good.....the spells he created and the enchantments used would have cost so much cash it's hard to beleive and even with all that crap killing DU in 2 hits or 3 hits is just not possible!

Not to mention the fact that did anyone notice he ran everywhere yet never had the "you're gonna pass out" warning?

Oh and add to that he didn't do any of the story necessary to get anywhere?
Yeah somethings wrong with the way he did that, I don't know whether he created a "mod" flat out cheated or edited other data files but he did something.

[boran_blok]

I guess mod.
anyways, that 14 min thing is a moot point,

the point is that you'll spend several hours on this game no matter what.

[Ron_Lugge]

Starhawk said:
Yep after watching that video I am more convinced he cheated rather then convinced he's just really good.....the spells he created and the enchantments used would have cost so much cash it's hard to beleive and even with all that crap killing DU in 2 hits or 3 hits is just not possible!

Not to mention the fact that did anyone notice he ran everywhere yet never had the "you're gonna pass out" warning?

Oh and add to that he didn't do any of the story necessary to get anywhere?
Yeah somethings wrong with the way he did that, I don't know whether he created a "mod" flat out cheated or edited other data files but he did something.



You can pass out? I never had that problem. Must not run enough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

BTW -- could someone E-mail me that instant-uber-weapon thing?

[AgentZero]

Well, given the pricetag, I think I'll pick that up as soon as I swing myself a day off. I've been looking at some FAQs for the game, and it defininatly looks good, though the lack of a proper party is a bit of a downer. I have to say I'm not a big fan of the shift away from party-based RPGs. NWN and KotOR only allowed two companions, and a lot of the newer ones just seem to have NPCs that fight alongside you now and then but don't really form a proper party. Temple of Elemental Evil is the most recent party-based RPG I can think of... Does anyone have any recommendations on the subject?

[Alneyan]

Wizardry 7 or Wizardry 8 perhaps? You might also wish to give the Arcanum series a look, especially Blades of Avernum, which comes with a scenario editor. Their website is available here (http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/).

No other game springs to mind for now. Then again, I usually prefer playing a single character rather than a whole party, so (Daggerfall!).

[Phoenix-D]

Ron_Lugge said:
You can pass out? I never had that problem. Must not run enough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

BTW -- could someone E-mail me that instant-uber-weapon thing?



Its a mod. In the default game you can run as long as you'd like, BUT if you try to fight while out of stamina you'll get your *** kicked.

[Puke]

i enjoyed it a great deal. i often thought about picking up the expansions, but there are so many other games out there that are worth playing, i'll probably just wait for Oblivion rather than doing the add-ons for MW.

great game though. hundreds of hours of gameplay, if you like playing open-ended games. the various quests and faction-plots are great.

it can be easy if you find the best way to "min-max" your character. an optimized fighter can easily destroy most creatures in the game, even at low levels.

I first started as a balanced class, between fighter-thief-mage. i could do most things, but they were all fairly challenging. when i played again as a pure fighter, i cleaved through a room full of opponents at 2nd level, that before required me to gather strength and resources up to 8th level before i could face them.

if you put all your resources into being the best mage possible, instead of focusing on combat, it will be MUCH harder.

How you level up and spend your points and optimize your stat-gain is also very important. its easy to be a munchkin-gamer if you try, but also easy to overlook or not impliment the abusive aspects of the game, if you just play casually.

i mean, its not really fair to say that a single player game is broken if you abuse it. all you have to do, is NOT ABUSE IT. its like playing the AI in se4. you KNOW when you're cheating at technology trades, and you dont HAVE to offer them empty engineless escorts in exchange for their warships.

[deccan]

Puke said:
if you put all your resources into being the best mage possible, instead of focusing on combat, it will be MUCH harder.

...

i mean, its not really fair to say that a single player game is broken if you abuse it. all you have to do, is NOT ABUSE IT. its like playing the AI in se4. you KNOW when you're cheating at technology trades, and you dont HAVE to offer them empty engineless escorts in exchange for their warships.



I recently bought Morrowind GOTY and tried playing it normally, wanting to make a wood elf archer, but I ended up not being able to resist abusing the system. It's just soooo easy to make a few cantrips and practise casting spells for several days until you become an uber-mage...

Incidentally, anyone want to join me in playing Anarchy Online? It's free now...

[Starhawk]

Yah abusing the system cheapens the gaming experience and ruins it for me so I generally don't cheat/exploit my *** off http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[deccan]

I don't have the bandwidth to download the Morrowind speed run, but here's an explanation of how it was done posted by Igor Murashkin in QT3:


Finally watched it!

Synopsis:

Argonian Assassin. Travels using mage guild and amulets.

Steals some armor/weapon, sells it to Kreeper, buys ingredients, goes on to make fortity intelligence potions, quaffs them, and makes more of them...

Now this isn't even funny, his intelligence went up to like 8887 at one point , then he proceeded to make Fortify Health & Strength potions (one potion to fortify both), Boost Speed potions, Levitate potions. Speed is now 456, Luck 412.

..... Then bought some Scroll of Mark in Ald'Ruhn, takes some Levitate potion and flies really really fast to Vemynal. Quaffs the Fortify Strength/Health Potion.. Using a Warhammer of Wounds knocks out Dagoth Vemyn and takes some kind of item (probably Sunder), teleports to red mountain and goes to Odrosal. On the way puts a Mark at Dagoth Ur.

Knocks out Dagoth Odros, takes some key-looking thing and picks up a weapon of some kind (probably Keening), teleports to Dagoth Ur. Anyways, he runs to Dagoth Ur, knocks him up in 2 or 3 hits, runs inside the chamber...

By this time he's got 565/35 health, 7808/7815 mana, 515/515 Fatigue
409 Strength, 7815 Intel, 826 Speed, 783 Luck.

He quaffs a bunch of fortity health potion, then Sunder in his hand goes and uses it in Akulahan's Chamber. Then uses Keening. I believe the mortal wounds would usually kill you, but he had a crazy amount of health and thus didn't even need to wear the Wraithguard. Then he somehow teleports next to Azura (I think she was outside) and waits for a couple of seconds for Dagoth Ur to die , and then the main quest ends with the movie.

===========================

So looks like a pretty thorough bug exploit. You'd think it would be a quick skill run , but instead it exploits the fact while you are in inventory the game is paused and you can quaff as many potions as you want.. one would think Bethesda would've put a limit on how much you could buff your stats, huh? It's pretty stupid IMHO, why are you limited to 100 in stats by default but not limit to getting buffs?

and I thought me getting a glass set as a level 1 was pretty cool.. heh Smile. I hope this guy didn't use the construction set, otherwise it seems like a pretty good culmination of his skills and why Morrowind was so awesome!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

In Oblivion, you will be limited in the number of potions you can quaff. The limit will go up with your alchemy skill.

[Kamog]

Sounds like a pretty good RPG. If I see it on sale, I think I'll buy it and try it out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Alneyan]

deccan said:
Incidentally, anyone want to join me in playing Anarchy Online? It's free now...



I suppose free applies to the game itself, and not the monthly fee? I hope so anyway; otherwise, that might remove one of my main ways of avoiding MMORPGs (not having a credit card handy to pay the monthly fees). Must resist... spending my five months... of holidays... playing...

[NullAshton]

It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!

[wake_of_angels]

This is a great game, in which you can do anything you want!
Playing a sorcerer? Create your own spells and magic items!
A warrior? Make potions with many bonus, such as flying, fire wall...

[Alari]

Morrowind is a great game, BUT, unless you are very patient and don't mind frequent lengthy pauses, you're going to want to have a pretty uber computer to play it. On my 950mhz w/512mb it pauses often to load new areas or complex models. The game has one of the WORST loading routines and memory management methods ever, apparently, since other games of similar or better graphical quality and complexity run much more smoothly. I'd say you would want at least a 2ghz or better and 1gb of ram or more to play it smoothly. And even then you'll want to have the Morrowind FPS Optimizer (http://www.lowgenius.net/Games/Morrowind/mwind_fps.asp) running.

Once you get past that, it's one of the best computer fantasy RPGs I've seen, and definitely one of the most expandable (http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/modcontrols/mods.asp).

I liked Morrowind much more than Daggerfall though. I was constantly annoyed at how Daggerfall had no roads. (Or they didn't show up for me, either way it was annoying.)

[Alneyan]

NullAshton said:
It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!



Hmm, let's see in my random quotes... "Hey, let me know if anyone starts saving up to get an Assassin for you". Or maybe "A shame I cannot kill you without a contract; I would love to take you out free." Both quotes are only approximate though.

Well, thanks for the information. You have now made my life much harder, as I need to raise my Willpower to avoid falling into the pit of MMORPGs. Thankfully, my connection is highly unstable, so that would make playing a MMORPG much harder... then again, I did play MMORPGs back in the days when I was disconnected every 32/33 minutes.

[Hugh Manatee]

NullAshton said:
It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!



Where? How Big? Does the file download support resume?

[NullAshton]

Aw, comeon. MMORPGs need more people.

[Rasorow]

Morrowind is an awesome game... I have played Elder Scrolls since Arena..

I played Morrowind on a Athlon 1700XP with 512 megs of Ram... never had any speed, loading, or other issues so I dont know what the problem is with that but it never happened to me.

What did happen is the unpatched game will crash after a bit. Patched I have no problems (still play it).

Flat out the 14 minute guy is simply a cheat. His character didnt know to go do those things. He hadn't even completed the first Blades assignment. If you dont know something, how can you do it?

Morrowind is for RPGers not mutchkins.

BTW there is no reason to Mutchkin Morrowind - its meant to be solved between lvls 20-30.

Rasorow

[Gandalf Parker]

NullAshton said:
It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!



Im back to playing Ultima Online. The only thing I really hated about it before was that it was too crowded. Now that I can play it for free on hundreds of shards (mostly empty) its a LOT more fun.

Gandalf Parker
-- My wife LIKES me playing Ultima Online
I get to pack-rat, try my hand at making things, visit other peoples junk sales, kill & skin animals... all the things she hates me doing in our garage.

[Alneyan]

My biggest gripe with Ultima Online is the "solo" part; in other words, what you do when you are alone. I always found that part to be very weak, even on servers having worked on it... but I did not try some of the most innovating servers, as I cannot really play on a US server (silly time zones).

You are almost tempting me of playing a MMORPG, but I shall know how to stay away from them.

[AgentZero]

Food for thought, methinks... Or maybe I'll just pick up a copy of Guild Wars. The reviews I've seen have all been favourable, & even if it's not the greatest MMORPG out there, I think it's approach to marketing (pay for the game, no subscription, only have to pay for expansions IF you want them) deserves all the support it can get.

[deccan]

Hugh Manatee said:

NullAshton said:
It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!



Where? How Big? Does the file download support resume?



Download for the client for free players is about 800 mb. The files are distributed via bit torrent.

Look out for in-game ads on billboards though. The first day I tried it, I saw billboards showing "PC Gamer: Galaxy's Greatest Magazine!".

If anyone wants to play AO, I'm "deccan" on Rimor server. Send me a tell, and I'll give you some starting capital and equipment.

[NullAshton]

In-game ads aren't that big of a deal, it's a inventive way of advertising if it's incorporated into the gameworld.

[Ron_Lugge]

WoW: World of Warcrack

Its da bomb baby!

[El_Phil]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/27/sony_character_trading_everquest/

Not a player of these sort of things myself, but I just wondered what you guys think of it. Seems a bit.... I mean I thought the whole point of such game was the advancement RP type stuff. If you just buy all the stuff of the shelf what's the point?

[Alari]

Rasorow said:
I played Morrowind on a Athlon 1700XP with 512 megs of Ram... never had any speed, loading, or other issues so I dont know what the problem is with that but it never happened to me.




Well I guess it's processor speed then. ^.^ Basically, those brief pauses in the 14-minute demo thing are 10-15 seconds long for me.

Then again I can cover half a "zone" in a single jump so I'm seeing them every few seconds if I'm trying to travel fast. I'm also running a TON of mods, which doesn't help. :> (75 mods at last count, plus all three expansions)

[AgentZero]

deccan said:

Hugh Manatee said:

NullAshton said:
It's completly free. They mainly do that to advertise it's expansions. DO NOT RESIST! PLAY IT NOW!



Where? How Big? Does the file download support resume?



Download for the client for free players is about 800 mb. The files are distributed via bit torrent.

Look out for in-game ads on billboards though. The first day I tried it, I saw billboards showing "PC Gamer: Galaxy's Greatest Magazine!".

If anyone wants to play AO, I'm "deccan" on Rimor server. Send me a tell, and I'll give you some starting capital and equipment.



Well, as a great man once said, "Resistance is futile!" Never played a true MMORPG, so I figure if I don't have to pay a thing, I may as well give it a go to see if I even like it. deccan, expect a request for funding soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[NullAshton]

Another person has joined us...

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
Well, as a great man once said, "Resistance is futile!" Never played a true MMORPG, so I figure if I don't have to pay a thing, I may as well give it a go to see if I even like it. deccan, expect a request for funding soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



No problem, but since AO doesn't have an in-game mailing system like WOW, we'd have to meet up sometime. Also, my main is neutral so I can go anywhere, but if you choose a sided faction, there will be places you can't go too.

You'll start in Newbie Isle anyway, and once you leave you can't go back.

[deccan]

NullAshton said:
Another person has joined us...



Yeah, and if we get enough, we can start our own SEIV org in AO! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[CovertJaguar]

I've been thinking about giving AO a try as well. We'll see how it goes.

[kaekaze]

In order to really enjoy morrowind:
1. Learn all the features the map has
2. Do not rely on guilds/jobs for money(plenty of faqs on money pumps in game)
3. TRAIN YOUR SKILLS at the trainers
4. The designers did a horrible job of directing the player so get an online guide, pick a quest and complete it howver you want.
555555.......!!!!!!! The original morrowind IS DULL after about 20 hrs of play. Thats where mods come in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif There are a huge variety of mods including themed mods like AVP, gameplay mods like sri's alchemy, visual effects like BetterBodies and there are entire lists of mods online(some of the mods might even have QUESTS lol)

OH YES, if you do play morrowind at least, at the very least, i beg you to get the morrowind enhanced and combat enhanced mods. They make the game twice as enjoyable: www.freewebs.com/aerelorn (http://www.freewebs.com/aerelorn)

[Gandalf Parker]

OK since it was free I just took a stab at AO also. Interesting, but I think I will probably stick with UO

Gandalf Parker

[Caduceus]

I played it when it first came out on the PC and got the first expansion pack after I beat Morrowind. It was a great game, very immersive and quite a time hog. It probably took me ~100 hours to get through the main story with several added quests, restarts etc. Not a GREAT game, but quite good. There are aspects I would change (the magic system, for example), but worth the bargain bin dive, if you can allot the time.

[PTF]

I still like it. You can change almost every aspect of this easy customizable RPG. E.g. I prefer playing with an alternative levelling system (without caps), it is pretty new: http://uk.geocities.com/galsiah/

... and with economy revamp mods like:
economy adjuster modules (http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&r eq=viewdownloaddetails&lid=92)

... and with children (http://lovkullen.net/Emma/index.htm)

The list goes on and on... I have got about 250 mods installed altogether. You have to love it, or you hate it. I am MW addicted.

[deccan]

This is great stuff! I wish someone would make an all-in-one Morrowind mod for lazy people like me...

[David E. Gervais]

This thread prompted me to install morrowind and give it another try... grrrrrrrr.. big mistake.

On my computer, for some reason whenever I confront the guy who killed the taxman and he attacks I'm a dead duck. What gets me is that no matter how much armor or how good a weapon I have I never score a hit and he basically punches me to death. (Yeah it's really funny, right) I even did a test and 'cheated' up my equipment and stats and guess what he still beat me to death, I cannot hit him. wtf? now I remember why I uninstalled this game.

1) Yes I installed the patch.
2) yes my video drivers are up to date. (but this has nothing to do with this 'quirk'
3) I know it's not a necessary 'quest' for the main plot. But I'm the kind of guy that likes to do every side quest he finds to help gain experience.
4) It also take me like 20 arrows to hit a darn mudcrab and my marksman skill is at 50 to start.
5) something is way wacky with the 'to-hit' ratio in my version of the game.

..the game has been uninstalled, thanks for inspiring me to be agrivated.

Cheers!

P.S. in case you think my 'Agility' is too low, it's at 45 which is as I understand it very good for a starting character.

[PTF]

Dave, you kick the game too easily. The issues you describe are kind of unusual. The guy who killed the taxman, ok ... he has a very high hand-to-hand fighting skill, I mostly do not kill him before my mage reaches a level with a "sudden death" fire or poison spell. Morrowind is just not this kind of hack and slay thing of the Diablo caliber, where you can beat everything with a low level character. You need to train a lot, you do not have to fight at the beginning, there are a lot of peaceful quests to do for a new character...

But like said, you have to love it or you hate it. Just a hint if you (unlikely but...) give it another try: there is a difficulty slider from -100 up to +100 at one of the option windows. "Minus" 100 seems to be your friend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[David E. Gervais]

I might reinstall it, but I'll read my manual end to end first and see if there are any strategy guids online. (not a walkthrough, a players guide) Since there seems to be a lack of good RPG games out there right now. Maybe I'll see if I can find Wizardry 8 or 9 (whichever is the last one they made) in the bargain bin.

Thanks for the tip about the 'difficulty slider' and '0' (zero) is probably more of a friend than -100. The latter being more like a cheat.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Puke]

you can optimize a pretty strong fighting character from the start of the game. but unless you really twink out your character, you need to avoid combat at the beginning.

the problem with hand to hand (i think he might be the only hand to hand fighter in the game, unless you attack unarmed civilians) is that they do stun damage and they might ignore armor. stun damage harms your fatigue, which is also reduced each time you swing or move.

hence, you see the problem of being easy to KO. you can actually resolve that taxman quest peacefully without killing the guy (and still be able to solve the tangent quest with the taxman's girlfriend). the great thing about MW is that there are usually at least two ways to complete any given quest.. not counting the option of failure (why, i think i'll just keep this for myself!)

[AgentZero]

deccan said:

AgentZero said:
Well, as a great man once said, "Resistance is futile!" Never played a true MMORPG, so I figure if I don't have to pay a thing, I may as well give it a go to see if I even like it. deccan, expect a request for funding soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



No problem, but since AO doesn't have an in-game mailing system like WOW, we'd have to meet up sometime. Also, my main is neutral so I can go anywhere, but if you choose a sided faction, there will be places you can't go too.

You'll start in Newbie Isle anyway, and once you leave you can't go back.



Currently milling around Newbie Isle blowing up cargo droids... Playing a neutral adventurer to start out with (loosely based on a character from my latest story, which I haven't had time to work on, but hasn't been forgotten), but don't really have a lot of free time lately, so I probably won't get off Noob Isle for another week. If we do manage to swing a rendez-vous, just try not to look shocked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I killed the tax-man killer without to much trouble. And mudcrabs are easy. Don't know why you guys are having such trouble.

[deccan]

David E. Gervais said:
4) It also take me like 20 arrows to hit a darn mudcrab and my marksman skill is at 50 to start.




David, never mind if you already know this, but when using bow and arrow in Morrowind, it isn't click to fire, it's click, hold to draw back bow to max, aim, then fire. I'm just saying this because it took me forever to figure this out but when I did, gosh, are bows ever powerful...

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
Currently milling around Newbie Isle blowing up cargo droids... Playing a neutral adventurer to start out with (loosely based on a character from my latest story, which I haven't had time to work on, but hasn't been forgotten), but don't really have a lot of free time lately, so I probably won't get off Noob Isle for another week. If we do manage to swing a rendez-vous, just try not to look shocked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Cool, for myself, I've moved from the "must play AO every day" to "let's log in for an hour occasionally to muck around a bit" phase. This is mainly because I have no real in game friends now.

Earlier, I had a bunch of people I regularly grouped with, but most free newbies (froobs in AO parlance) seem to lose interest around level 50 or so. Currently, I'm at level 75. There are a lot of sub 50s, and a lot of established post 150 players, but not too many mid-level players it seems.

Maybe next week when I have more time I'll go scouting for a good org to join, which should open up more of the game to me.

[Hugh Manatee]

David E. Gervais said:
This thread prompted me to install morrowind and give it another try... grrrrrrrr.. big mistake.

On my computer, for some reason whenever I confront the guy who killed the taxman and he attacks I'm a dead duck. What gets me is that no matter how much armor or how good a weapon I have I never score a hit and he basically punches me to death. (Yeah it's really funny, right) I even did a test and 'cheated' up my equipment and stats and guess what he still beat me to death, I cannot hit him. wtf? now I remember why I uninstalled this game.

1) Yes I installed the patch.
2) yes my video drivers are up to date. (but this has nothing to do with this 'quirk'
3) I know it's not a necessary 'quest' for the main plot. But I'm the kind of guy that likes to do every side quest he finds to help gain experience.
4) It also take me like 20 arrows to hit a darn mudcrab and my marksman skill is at 50 to start.
5) something is way wacky with the 'to-hit' ratio in my version of the game.

..the game has been uninstalled, thanks for inspiring me to be agrivated.

Cheers!

P.S. in case you think my 'Agility' is too low, it's at 45 which is as I understand it very good for a starting character.



Question, what are you trying to hit him with? Do you have restore fatuige potions? In the beginning of the game all your skills are about 30-45(not stats, skils, like short blade, long blade, hand to hand), this is somewhat weak. It's notthe actual pourpose of the stat, but I think the number is about the percentage of a chance your attacks will land, in addition to being the damage modifier. A skill around 60 or so is when your really ready to start kicking obscene amounts of ***. Also the lower your fatuige the more tired yuo are, the less of a chance your attacks and spells will work, and since this guy damages fatuige first you have even less of a chance of taking him down as a newbie character. I was like that too.

Small Spoilers and some early quest advice.

My advice for a new morrowind character... Role play an Avon Door to Door Sales Lady. No I'm not kidding, I've done this before and she was a rich *** whupping beeyotch.

Set up a character, preferable breton, wood elf, imperial or kajit with alchemy, speechcraft, merchantile, and a weapon, like marksman, blunt or long blade and conjuration and mysticism in the major skills, other magics like illusion, alteration, an armor type or unarmored, and some skills like sneak, security, illusion and whatnot. As your primary traits take luck and intelligence and magic or stealth as your specialty. Then take the atronach as your birth sign, ALWAYS take the atronach it's the best most useful sign, you get insane amounts of MP and you can absorb more magic from enemies.

The reason you take alchemy, speachcraft and merchantile is because it is very easy to get good alchemy equipment, and you can literaly buy dozens of 1 gold ingrediants at a discount and use the alchemy to turn them into a potion worth 50-100 gold(do the math dude). Alchemy is also one of the more powerful skills in the game, you can give your level 1 character stats in the 500s easily. The reason you take conjuration and a weapon type is with your high atronach boosted MP you will be able to summon one of the most powerful weapons in the game for about 30 seconds, that's all it takes. The reason you take luck as a primary stat is because it's a hard skill to boost and it helps prevent "wiffing". The reason you take mysticism is because it's the most powerful offensive magic in the game. Absorb Health and Absorb Fatuige are very strong spells that heal you while hurting your enemy. A spell with absorb health 5-15 for 3 seconds will kill most early enemies(including the dark brotherhood) with 2-3 aplications.

Now for Hugh Manatee's Ill cheapo powergaming morrowind Avon Lady early game pyramid scheme walk through....

Step 1: don't do any quest other then the fargoth ring thing, and don't turn over the cash, keep it, you can pay the stooge back later. Then run up north a bit to find the "falling mage", take his stuff because it's stylish and he has a nice sword. Then go to balmora, join the mages guild.

Step 2: Use the "guild guide" to get to caldera. In the caldera mages guild there is a door downstaris that leads to a tower, up there is a full set of masters alchemy equipment(3rd best quality, second without cheating). Borrow it, noone is looking and you are an official guild member...

Step 3: Guld guide over to wolverine's hall in sardith mora. Talk to the High elf and buy up all his ingredients that can make "restore fatuige", this is the easiest porion in the game to make. If yuo exit the barter menu and bater again he will have all his inventory back, so keep buying till you have about 30-40 each of crab meat and hound meat. Exit the guild and go downstairs to the imperial hall, there is a man there who sells Bloat and ash yams, buy as many as you can afford and carry, about 20-30 of each. Now it's time to start baking....

Step 4: First off, to use alchemy, equip a piece of alchemy gear like it's armor or a weapon and a menu pops up. It should show 4 boxes on top with all your best gear and 4 boxes below where your ingredients will go, and a list on the right that tell the effects and the name of the potion on top. Click the boxes and select the bloat and ash yams, click the button to creat potions, and keep going till it's successful, it may take a few tries. When you have a successful fortify INT potion stop brewing and drink it, exit the inventory menu so it takes effect, then get back tothe alchemy menu, brew some more till you have another success, drink it, let it take effect, proceed like this till you are out of ash yams and bloat. Alchemy runs off of INT, the higher INT the stronger and more expensive the potions, which means with each INT potion make and drink the stronger your spells will be. When you have attained sufficient enlightenment(IE are good and **** faced, liquered up, stoned on Fortify INT potion), it's time to use the restore fatuige ingredients you have been hoarding. You should get about 20 potions from 40 each of crab meat and hound meat, worth 80-120 apiece, make as many as you can afford to and can carry. Your alchemy stat should go up a few notches too. Now it's time for the Pyramid Scheme....

Step 5: save enough gold for a trip back to Caldera. Go to the mansion with all the orcs in it, find the scamp named "Creeper". Sell all the Fatuige potions you've made(I like to give them clever names, Diet Spizz, Extract of Mud Crab, Vita-Crabba-Hounda-Meata-Min...) a few at a time, and be sure to sell for a few gold above what the creeper asks for. Do this till he's tapped out(he has 5000) and hit "t" to wait in the house for 24 hours, the next day he will have went to all the villages and sold your potions and gotten another 5000 gold, sell him more of your potions till you are satisfied with the amount of gold you have, save a few of the restore fatuige potions. Now that you're loaded with G, and your merchantile is boosted slightly time to go SHOPPING!!!! weeeeeeeee.....

Step 6: Ok there are a few essential spells you need to find consult a FAQ or a find it site, first find someone with an Absorb Health and Absorb Fatuige spells. Then find someone with the bound weapon of your choice. Get a jump spell and a levitate spell, mark, recall, divine intervention, and almawhatever intervention. Go buy a few Quality Restore magica potions or the ingredients to make them(cromberry, frost salts). Head for the crab shell mall in Ald Ruhn, and get some exquisite duds, a belt, 2 rings, amulet, pants, shirt, gloves, skirt, shoes and robe. Get a good weapon, silver or better, preferable ebony or daederic. Get some good armor of your type, or skip it if you are unarmored. Find a trainer to boost your prefered weapon, armor(or lack of), and magic skills too. And be sure to train the lesser skills to get bonus stats when you level up. After you get an Absorb health spell, head to a spellmaker who likes you and make 3 spells, one that can be cast on target for about 10-20 and last about 2 -3 seconds, a cast on touch that is cheap, last 1 second and does about 5-10, and a strong on touch spell(5-30) that last 3 seconds. Use the weaker 1 second on touch to deal with rats, crabs and such, the ranged one on the big lizards and lesser daedera from far off while you run away, and the strong on touch for NPCs and stronger dadera. if you run out of cash, go back to the pyramid scheme. Now that girl got her groove back....

Final step: Your character should have high INT, good alchemy stats, oodles of Magicka, be able to afford most anything you want, and with those things be able to really whup on your enemies(including tax dodgig murderous n'wa), or buy the skils that will allow you to. You should be able to bribe at will, and later on you can get good soul gems, trap monsters like golden saints and ascended sleepers and make constant effect spells on your exquiste stuff, like a healing ring or belt that constantly restores health and fatuige, pants that let you float around, or a complete outfit that reflects or absorbs magic %100. Once you get an ebony or daderic weapon and a good soul in a gem you can make weapons that suck health from enemies, doing well over 100 damage a hit.

As a rule, In the beginning of the game Magic is more powerful then physical attacks and in late game magic loses it's potencey, and it's all about the enchanted ebony staff.

[David E. Gervais]

What is AO? (America Online has a rpg game now?)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[deccan]

David E. Gervais said:
What is AO? (America Online has a rpg game now?)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Er no, Anarchy Online (http://www.anarchyonline.com/content/downloads/tryout/) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Also, for Morrowind combat, don't just click, click and hold for about a second (Someone already posted this for bows, but it applies to *Everything*). Your damage will be 3-5 times higher, if I remember correctly.

Narf's guide to getting rich: (It isn't as fast, but it'll give you plenty of enchantment stuff).

There is a trader attached to a telvani tower, the one owned by a man-hating telvani. That's ok, the trader is with the merchants faction and doesn't hate you. I can't remember the exact name, but it's on one of the islands. Help, someone? This trader re-stocks 5th, 4th and 3rd level soul gems every time you trade.

A 5th-level soul gem costs 10gp. A cliff-racer soul gets you 200gp. Soul gems for scamps cost 20-40gp, I think. A scamp soul nets you 2000gp.

Get stinking rich and have enchanted anything you want.

Plus, get revenge on the cliff racers and make them usefull at the same time.

[PTF]

Tel Branora, Fadase Selvayn, I presume. Yes, this is one of my first teleport marks also. But now I have got Balmora expansion, there is a so called "magic shoppe" with an enchanter who re-stocks 5 of the 3rd level (common) soul gems.

[PTF]

Hugh Manatee said:
...
Set up a character, preferable breton, wood elf, imperial or kajit with alchemy, speechcraft, merchantile, ...



Be careful with mercantile. A high mercantile skill also reduces your sales prices down to almost nothing!

But there are some new plugins which address this problem, I know of two economy "adjusters". I prefer the no. 1, because no. 2 still has some issues with dialog driven script starts...

1) http://www.pirates.retreat.btinternet.co.uk/METF.htm

2) http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&r eq=viewdownloaddetails&lid=92

[Gandalf Parker]

David E. Gervais said:
What is AO? (America Online has a rpg game now?)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Actually they do, and have had for a long time. In fact, Neverwinter Nights was an RPG on AOL like 14 years ago. It was old 2d like early SSI games. Kindof like Bards Tale.
Gandalf Parker

[Phoenix-D]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Also, for Morrowind combat, don't just click, click and hold for about a second (Someone already posted this for bows, but it applies to *Everything*). Your damage will be 3-5 times higher, if I remember correctly.




Almost everything. Daggers you can stab quickly with, big weapons you have to hold longer, and IIRC crossbows are press and release as well.

The bigger the damage range on the weapon the longer you have to hold for full damage.

[AgentZero]

AgentZero said:

deccan said:

AgentZero said:
Well, as a great man once said, "Resistance is futile!" Never played a true MMORPG, so I figure if I don't have to pay a thing, I may as well give it a go to see if I even like it. deccan, expect a request for funding soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



No problem, but since AO doesn't have an in-game mailing system like WOW, we'd have to meet up sometime. Also, my main is neutral so I can go anywhere, but if you choose a sided faction, there will be places you can't go too.

You'll start in Newbie Isle anyway, and once you leave you can't go back.



Currently milling around Newbie Isle blowing up cargo droids... Playing a neutral adventurer to start out with (loosely based on a character from my latest story, which I haven't had time to work on, but hasn't been forgotten), but don't really have a lot of free time lately, so I probably won't get off Noob Isle for another week. If we do manage to swing a rendez-vous, just try not to look shocked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Hey, I'm quoting myself. How wierd is that? Anyway, just got off Noob Isle, and I freely admit to be completely lost. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing because all the equipment is really expensive and all the missions I get give you piddling amounts of credits and XP. How am I gonna afford that 50,000 credit gun (which seems to be the only one my character could use right now), when each mission only nets me about 200 creds?

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
Hey, I'm quoting myself. How wierd is that? Anyway, just got off Noob Isle, and I freely admit to be completely lost. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing because all the equipment is really expensive and all the missions I get give you piddling amounts of credits and XP. How am I gonna afford that 50,000 credit gun (which seems to be the only one my character could use right now), when each mission only nets me about 200 creds?



Note: I'm posting the AO advice here because it might e interesting to other people. But if it bugs people, then I'll remove it.

An essential part of AO is using the Clicksaver (http://www.marquentein.dk/clicksaver/download.htm) external program. Basically, in AO, you can generate random missions to do. The missions will give you a random item as a reward for completing the mission. Clicksaver gives you the exact name of the reward item and can automate the random mission generation process so that you can type in the item you want and it will request missions from AO until one turns up with the item you want as a reward. In my case, I never spend any money on armor pieces (weapons don't apply to me since I'm a martial artist), I simply clicksave my way to a new set of armor every 5 to 10 levels. Note that you can clicksave for nanos as well.

In my opinion, the early levels are the worst money-wise, but things get better very quickly, which is why some starting capital of 100k credits or so from a friend works very nicely. Over the long term, the only money sinks are:

1) Yalms
2) Player cities

Other than that, you should be able to make much, much more money than you can spend on NPC shops so long as you clicksave for most stuff. I prefer clicksaving anyway. It's actually far less tedious and more fun than trekking to every city and checking out all the shops in all the cities for the stuff I want.

The real need for money comes when you need to buy stuff from other players, either services or goods. But you shouldn't have to worry about that until post level 50.

At the early levels, I would recommend clicksaving for a decent set of weapons and armor, then enter the abandoned subway dungeon, preferably with a good group, and the levels will literally go by faster than you can spend the IPs. When you're about level 25 or so, you can start hanging out at the Temple of Three Winds. That dungeon is something of a money maker since the mobs there tend to drop okay amounts of cash.

Currently at my level, the only real expense I have are:

1) Implants.
2) Medical equipment.

I'm rapidly outgrowing the store buyable implants though, which is another reason why I'm thinking of joining a good org with engineers who can build custom implants for me.

[AgentZero]

deccan said:

Note: I'm posting the AO advice here because it might e interesting to other people. But if it bugs people, then I'll remove it.




I don't mind at all. In fact, I really appreciate it since there seems to be a dearth of useful information for new players. There's scads of info on how to build super-duper guns once you have 500 skill points in weapon smithing, but very little on where to get an effective low-level weapon. So if you want to provide more newbie hints, or have any good links, please do share.

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
So if you want to provide more newbie hints, or have any good links, please do share.



Hmm, here are a couple more tips then, though you might have seen them elsewhere before:

1)

Some items that low level characters can get are especially valuable to higher level players. These are generally low QL items that buff specific stats or skills, e.g. Concrete Pillows which buff stamina and strength, Old English Trading Co. Pistols that buff intelligence etc.

The stat buffs are very helpful when you need to meet the "to wield" requirements of higher-than-your-level equipment. This is one way how those super level 50 agents can run around with quality level 100+ sniper rifles and do uber damage.

This is especially relevant to low level characters because they can mission for low QL versions of these buffing items. Higher level characters can mission for them as well, but they can only mission for their higher QL equivalents. However, the buffing stats on the items never change with QL, only their damage and wielding requirements, and since no one wants these items for their damage dealing abilities anyway, only for the stat buffs, the best items are the lowest QL versions with the lowest wielding requirements. This is why low level characters can sell such items to high level characters for good amounts of money.

2)

You should know by now how to buy and use your profession specific nanos, but you should also be aware that you can use general nanos that are open to all professions. The mostly useful ones are the expertise / proficiency line of nanos that boost specific skills. For example, my martial artist uses the Martial Arts Expertise nano, which is a general nano. This is also helpful when you need to buff your skills up high to meet the wielding requirements of bigger weapons.

3)

Be aware of what professions can cast which buffs. If you walk around Borealis a bit, you should notice people asking for mochams or wrangles.

Mocham's Gift is a Metaphysicist only buff that boosts all nano skills. This is immensely useful for engineers who want to cast a bot much higher level than themself.

The various wrangles are trader only buffs that boost all weapon skills. This is, as above, useful to help players to meet the higher wielding requirements of bigger weapons. However, be aware that wrangles also drain the skills of the trader casting them, so it is sometimes customary to give the trader a tip for casting a wrangle on you.

4)

I chose to stay neutral for the ability to go everywhere and explore, but be aware that you're giving up a lot for this. Omnis and clanners have xp bonuses of about 10%, which really adds up. Omnis also generally have better equipment and they get more money when they sell loot to Omni NPC stores. And of course, neutrals don't get the token boards that Omnis and Clanners get. When upgraded, the token boards can give very significant bonuses.

One advantage of being neutral though is that you get to listen to all chat channels while the OTs and Clans only get their sided ones. This is especially useful when you want to buy / sell a lot with other players as you get much more market information from the various shopping channels on who wants what and what items go for what prices.

BTW, what is the name of your character anyway? I assume you are now RK2 as well?

[AgentZero]

deccan said:
BTW, what is the name of your character anyway? I assume you are now RK2 as well?



Well, I started as a male a soldier character, but I got hassled so much on Noob Isle to join people's team that I started up as a new character who's a short, slender build female named Saraea and nobody bothers me at all.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Morrowind: Does anyone know of a mod that adds an adamantium helmet to the set? (I can't remember if there's a shield in the official mod; but if not, that would be nice too.)

[narf poit chez BOOM]

In that redoran quest to get back the founder's helmet, what does it take to get the guy to attack you?

[Phoenix-D]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
In that redoran quest to get back the founder's helmet, what does it take to get the guy to attack you?



Have you tried the obvious? (hitting him, taunting him)

[Puke]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Morrowind: Does anyone know of a mod that adds an adamantium helmet to the set? (I can't remember if there's a shield in the official mod; but if not, that would be nice too.)



its a quest, part of the official releases from bethesda. it came out before the full suit, so if you have the patch with the full suit, you also have the helmet.

i dont remember where you learn of the quest, but i know the helmet is in a ruin on one of the north west islands.

its an above average helm, has nice magic properties. very cool, even without a high rank in medium armor.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Thanks. 'The Adamantium Helm of Tohan'?

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_plugins.htm

[AgentZero]

Few questions for those AO players out there who care to answer.
1) How does one go about crafting items. If I have say a Basic Right Hand Implant, and a Matter Creation Nano-Cluster, how do I go about sticking the two together to make an implant I can use?
2) Does your skill in things like Assault Rifle or Burst affect how well you use the weapons or how often/well you use the special attack?
3) Where the devil are the Whoompas in Borealis?
4) Where exactly is the Perks menu? Manual says click the Perks button in the left hand menu, but I have no such button on any menu. Was it moved? Also, what are good perks to take?
5) How does one increase their title level?

That's about it, really. And if any of you want a level 13 Adventurer pestering you, feel free to tell Saraea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...Now I'm thinking about playing AO...

Evil people! EEEEEVIIIIILLLLLL!!!!

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
1) How does one go about crafting items. If I have say a Basic Right Hand Implant, and a Matter Creation Nano-Cluster, how do I go about sticking the two together to make an implant I can use?




Did you upgrade your starter weapons on noob isle? If so, you should be familiar with the Tradeskills button. It has two slots in which you enter the two items to be combined. However, making implants requires skills in nanoprogramming, and as an adventurer, you shouldn't be investing points in nanoprogramming.


AgentZero said:
2) Does your skill in things like Assault Rifle or Burst affect how well you use the weapons or how often/well you use the special attack?




Yes, but each weapon has a listed max beneficial skill. If your skill is above that, then only the max applies. Examining a weapon will also tell you what skills contribute to making you effective at it. I'm not sure about the frequency of special attacks however. In my case, the cooldown for my MA special attacks are fixed, except for Dimach which apparantly drops in cooldown period gradually after reaching a specific skill plateau.

Edit: I hope you only mentioned "assault rifle" as an example. As an adventurer you shouldn't be using assault rifles. You should be using either dual-wielded 1 hand edged weapons, or dual-wielded pistols.

Yeah, this is something particular to AO as many professions are more or less locked to a particular weapon type in order to be at their max, intended effectiveness. Only professions that don't rely on weapons for their damage are free to wield anything they want, mainly picking what they think looks good on their avatar, e.g. pet professions like engineer, bureaucrat and metaphysicist; and nano-damage based professions like doctor and nanotechnician.


AgentZero said:
3) Where the devil are the Whoompas in Borealis?




When you first exit noob isle, you should zone into Borealis next to an old man who can give you a start quest. From the man, if you go left and down the slope, you get to the abandoned subway entrance. If you go right, you go past the mission terminals and arrive at the whoompas. There are only two whoompa connections in Borealis, to Stret West Bank and Newland.


AgentZero said:
4) Where exactly is the Perks menu? Manual says click the Perks button in the left hand menu, but I have no such button on any menu. Was it moved? Also, what are good perks to take?




Sorry, perks only apply if you have the Shadowlands expansion, i.e. must pay up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Froobs don't get perks.


AgentZero said:
5) How does one increase their title level?




Your title level increases as your level increases. The title levels are IIRC:

Title Level 1: Level 1-14
Title Level 2: Level 15-50
Title Level 3: Level 51-99
Title Level 4: Level 100-149

And so forth.


AgentZero said:
That's about it, really. And if any of you want a level 13 Adventurer pestering you, feel free to tell Saraea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Sorry I couldn't find the time to get online early in the morning like I said I might be able to. But if you're on Friday evening your time (Saturday morning my time), I'll be happy to show you around. I'll take you to Rome and the Omni Entertainment Arena. Rome is awesome the first time you get there. I could also use your help in transferring some stuff to my level 11 alt.

[deccan]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
...Now I'm thinking about playing AO...

Evil people! EEEEEVIIIIILLLLLL!!!!



Haha, another one succumbs to the dark side...

Seriously though, it's a fun little game, with lots of places to explore and a very large diversity of skills and equipment loadouts possible, but like in all mmorpgs it'll only hold your attention for long if you have friends online, so that you can go do stuff together. Otherwise, it's just a pointless, boring grind.

But it's free! Can't beat that.

Also, be aware that sometimes the chat channels can be very vulgar. It appears that chat is unmoderated at all (unlike WOW which censors pretty much everything). The other night a couple of guys were making explicitly racist and sexual comments on public chat. A number of people, including me, protested, but no moderators intervened.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Wouldn't like it, then.

[deccan]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Wouldn't like it, then.



Well, there's always the /ignore command.

Like anywhere else on the internet, there are all sorts of types, except in AO, the chat channel seems to be a free for all. My general impression is that high level players ignore the public chat channels entirely and communicate via private organization channels.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

There is, yep.

I guess it depends on how often I'd have to use it?

[AgentZero]

deccan said:

Did you upgrade your starter weapons on noob isle? If so, you should be familiar with the Tradeskills button. It has two slots in which you enter the two items to be combined. However, making implants requires skills in nanoprogramming, and as an adventurer, you shouldn't be investing points in nanoprogramming.



Blast. I was rather hoping to get ahold of a bunch of implants to boost my skills in things I shouldn't be investing points in. What should an adventuerer invest in, anyway?



Edit: I hope you only mentioned "assault rifle" as an example. As an adventurer you shouldn't be using assault rifles. You should be using either dual-wielded 1 hand edged weapons, or dual-wielded pistols.



Erm, blast. I've already invested a good few points in assault rifle, since the one I upgraded on noob isle does considerably more damage than my (also upgraded) pistols & I can't seem to get ahold of a useable pistol set. My pistol skill is currently about 70 & all the pistols I find either do less damage than the ones I've got, or require a much higher skill then I have.



Sorry, perks only apply if you have the Shadowlands expansion, i.e. must pay up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Froobs don't get perks.


Blast again. Are they worth it, in your opinion? What do they do, exactly?



Your title level increases as your level increases. The title levels are IIRC:

Title Level 1: Level 1-14
Title Level 2: Level 15-50
Title Level 3: Level 51-99
Title Level 4: Level 100-149

And so forth.



Sweet. Almost there.



Sorry I couldn't find the time to get online early in the morning like I said I might be able to. But if you're on Friday evening your time (Saturday morning my time), I'll be happy to show you around. I'll take you to Rome and the Omni Entertainment Arena. Rome is awesome the first time you get there. I could also use your help in transferring some stuff to my level 11 alt.



Wow. I've never even heard of Rome. Are you sure froobs are allowed?

[Suicide Junkie]

Hey, if you guys are looking for an RPG without all the tedious bits, check out:
http://www.progressquest.com/
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Most embarresing moment in Morrowind: One of my first, first-level characters, un-optimized and very weak, got killed by a scrib. It just kept paralizing him and he got nibbled to death, without being able to take a shot. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Hugh Manatee]

Since there is AO pushing in a morrowind topic, why not push Guild Wars.It seriously kicks ***, it's like morrowind with a team. There is less class customization, so no more building up every skill in the game to 100 through trainers, but that's more a balancing thing so you have each party member truly diverse, you need a tank warrior, a healer, a caster, and a maverick for special tactics.

Some people on these forums might call it a "clickfest" because it's real time, and sometimes quick decisions and reflexes are required, but I think it adds a nice action element to keep things from getting boring and dull. Careful planning before you head out eliminates the "clickfestines".

If anyone wants to get together in guild wars, look up Thora Von Clemson, or Etna Krichevskoy.

[Gandalf Parker]

GW is too competitive for me altho I do understand that some of the developers have blamed it lately for the slowdown in beta updates http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[deccan]

Hugh Manatee said:
Since there is AO pushing in a morrowind topic, why not push Guild Wars.



Yeah, I realized also that AgentZero started this thread to ask for opinions on Morrowind and I sort of distracted him with AO. Heh. Morrowind is a good enough game that I wonder if what I did wasn't a crime of some kind. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Personally, the big reason why I'm playing AO instead of some other MMO is because it has a downloadable client. For many newer MMOs, even if the client is sold online and downloadable, there's still a "Not Valid for Customers Outside USA" condition. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[AgentZero]

Distracted, yes, but happily distracted! I know Hugh Manatee is a fan of Guild Wars, how about anyone else. I figure between GW & AO, and SEV of course, my gaming needs will be thorougly satified.

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
Blast. I was rather hoping to get ahold of a bunch of implants to boost my skills in things I shouldn't be investing points in. What should an adventuerer invest in, anyway?




Hmm, didn't notice this post earlier.

Best place to get this kind of advice would be to read the official AO adventurer forums here. This thread in particular looks like a complete guide:

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=112446


AgentZero said:
Blast again. Are they worth it, in your opinion? What do they do, exactly?




I've upgraded myself, so to answer:

Perks don't do much at low levels, but since multiple levels of perks all stack, they become very powerful at high levels.

But the big advantage of upgrading is access to Shadowlands itself and all the Shadowlands only equipment. I think SL is much prettier than Rubi-Ka, but one point that grates on some players is that SL makes AO look more like a fantasy game than an SF game.

Also, SL players can go heckling. Basically, in each SL playfield, there is an area called the Brink, which supposedly represents where the forces of Chaos are enroaching and trying to corrupt the SL.

In the Brink are special mobs called Hecklers. In the starter SL playfield, Nascence, meant for levels 5-50 players for example, the hecklers there are level 80. So they're tough, but they are incredibly rewarding in terms of xp and money. The first time I went heckling with a team, I jumped from level 46 to level 58 in less than an hour of play. Each heckler killed gave me about 15k xp. I only stopped because I wanted to finish exploring the Temple of Three Winds, which won't let you enter if you're level 60 or above.

Apparently, there are people who do nothing but powerlevel on heckles until they reach the high-end content, which is frowned upon by many people on the forums, because they end up being very high level but know little about the rest of the game.

Personally, I avoid heckling too much with my main. My main character gains xp mostly by exploring the SL (generally SL mobs give more xp on average than RK mobs, but never drop cash) and doing quests (essential for gaining access to fast travel methods in SL). Occasional I will heckle to hit specific target levels, as when I wanted to go from level 78 to level 80. Now I'm back in RK, soloing level 88 missions in order to get level 88-90 equipment for free. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif


AgentZero said:
Wow. I've never even heard of Rome. Are you sure froobs are allowed?



Well, you've seen Rome now. One thing I forgot to mention during my tour guide session was that the live events team in AO has an e-mail address to allow players to opt in or opt out of live events. During live events, AO employees or volunteers role-play key NPCs who give out new plot development information.

Also, I forgot to take you to Reet Retreat. If you pay attention to the news channels, the live events team sometimes organizes parties at Reet Retreat. About a month back, there was a Pirates vs. Ninjas party during which they gave out free pirate / ninja costumes and drinks at the club.

[deccan]

I just had an amazing experience today in AO. I was exploring between Varmint Woods and Tir County when I noticed this huge starship in the sky. Another guy went on chat about it. As it turned out he was near the front of the ship and I was near its rear end, and we worked out that its length was at least a quarter the length of the Varmint Woods playfield.

We tried to work out where it was heading and I arrived first at the player city it was heading to attack. It launched a bunch of scout ships that beamed down aliens. I only caught the tail end of the battle though, and arrived just in time to see two level 220 city defenders take on the giant alien general.

There was no chance of me actually fighting anything, since even the general's honor guard was way too high for me, so I just hung back and watched the pyrotechnics. Fun!

[AgentZero]

Coool... Here's a little question for all you more-experienced-than-me AO players. When you're given a mission to retrieve something, and bring it back somewhere, what the devil do you DO? I've retrieved whatever it was I was supposed to, and got a new mission waypoint. I went there, and it's just a mission area with nothing in it. Am I supposed to drop the item and leave or what?

[deccan]

No, you return the retrieved item to the mission terminal you got the mission from. Use the retrieved item on the terminal.

[AgentZero]

Cool, thanks. Probably never would have figured that out on my own, daft as it may seem.