Morrowind: It's actually playable and fun now

Games
1

Ok, if you get the patch:

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

All the official plugins:

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

And the dynamic fps adjuster:

http://www.morrowind.nm.ru/

…the game is actually playable now. Hooray! A word of warning for those obsessive types, like me: do not ever pick up something worth less than 1000 gold in this game. There’s way too much high-dollar l00t sitting out in the open to bother. Oh, make sure you create a character with a high starting speed, or it’s pretty tedious going at the beginning.

I’m currently role-playing a bald eagle (according to Ben Franklin, the eagle is a bird that spends its entire life making off with everything that isn’t nailed down), in hopes of getting enough cash to buy my way into spellcasting.

2

Morrowind was perfectly playable and fun before the patches.

3

I got 15fps on the release version, so maybe it’s just my hardware?

4

I noticed a bit of a boost in fps when I installed the no CD patch. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was just enough to make the game smooth (sorry, no actual fps numbers).

5

I thought so too, though the frame rates were pretty lousy. First patch seemed to help that a little, or maybe I’m just imagining things.

6

> thought so too, though the frame rates were pretty lousy. First patch seemed to help that a little, or maybe I’m just imagining things.

I’ve heard that the patch removed the safedisk checks to duplicate the effects of the NOCD unofficial patch, although there’s nothing in the readme.

I dunno, I’ve played more Morrowind than any game I’ve ever played, so I’ve obviously found it fun and playable from the outset, heh. I’ve always played it on 1600x1200 too, with view distance maxed (but a few other tweaks, like no shadows)

7

I play it the way Desslock does, and I have had no problems. There was noticeable slowdown before the first patch. After that, only those brief load times between zones. Otherwise, I am good to go! Love this game! Like Desslock, I have played it as much or more than any other game, and definitely more than any other CRPG.

8

It was fine with a PIII 600 and base GeForce DDR. Then I added GeForce4 4200 TI and it’s even better. Then again, I don’t play shooters and expect their FPS in everything…

9

You are lying, a game cannot be fun, Tom Chick has said so. Please use another word.

10

You don’t need a high starting speed if you know where to find the boots of blinding speed (quest reward, +200spd). Once you’ve played with them you can never go back. Also learn how to use mark/recall and divine/alimsivi intervention properly. Finally train alteration to ~30 and make a spell of levitation 1pts for 11 sec (1 pt mana cost) and the game is a total of 102.8% funnier and travel is no problem anymore.

I could tell you where to find the boots if you want.

11

With the 1.2 patch, I can actually play the game now.

Months of Bethesda saying “It’s your fault… I know you have the drivers we tell you to have, but we still think it’s your fault” culminates with “it was our fault and we fixed it”.

Anyway, now I’m trying to find the time to get around to playing it now that it doesn’t crash every time I step into an outdoor zone.

12

Yeah it’s weird; I didn’t get any improvement in frame rates by bumping the resolution down, so I played at 1200X900 or something. Full view, no shadows. It’s not silky smooth but it’s livable.

13

The dynamic FPS adjuster is really everything thats needed to fully enjoy the game.

With it I get whatever framrate I desire, without it the game slows to a crawl at times.

It’s a shame really that a tiny app written by a single programmer in a month could accomplish something Bethesda couldn’t do or didn’t think of during four(?) years of game production

14

Arise from the grave!

So I took advantage of the Steam sale on Morrowind, and saw the link in the bargain thread about getting it to work with mods.

On that site there was a link to a “super” set of mods, but the specs the author was recommending were well above the laptop I plan to play the game on.

Does anyone have recommendations on any mods that are absolutely necessary for playing Morrowind these days? Are they still the ones listed above in this thread?

15

Is 7 1/2 years a new record?

16

Tom Chick killed fun 7+ years ago.

For all of you saying PC gaming is d0med, take note… gaming has been a zombie all this time. You cannot kill that which is already dead!!

17

Try to search “octopus overlord mod compilation” or something like that.

18

i reckon the only morrowind mods you really need are the texture mod, the anti-cliffracer mod and maybe a sign post mod.

apart from that, it’s great as it is.

oh, and the fps adjuster in the first post, so you can ramp up the draw distance on a modern pc.

19

What about a mod to “fix” the allegedly horrible combat? (I say allegedly because my memory of Morrowind is dim and while I don’t recall the combat being that good I also don’t recall it being horrendous, but maybe I had different expectations back then.)

20

I bought it from the Steam sale as well. I’m playing it on a 22" widescreen. I’m not too worried there are no widescreen settings, I have it on 1600x1200 and it’s close enough to my native 1600x1050.

But is there any setting I can change to make the menus bigger? The wording is pretty damn tiny and a strain on my old eyes.