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jldawson
Head Merchant
Joined: 27 Dec 2001
Posts: 50
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| my impressions, likes/dislikes |
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Hi,
k. been playing all day, and here's what I think...
npcs: ok, this is the biggest detractor of the game to me. I was expecting to be able to interact with all different kinds of people, and really it's not like that at all. All npcs do is dish out the same information as everyone else in their class. Occasionally you meet one that has a task for you. But there are no personalities, no opinions, stories, etc. Just information. once I learned to dispense with the notion of interacting with the characters I was able to enjoy it more, but I lost much of the immersion I'd normally feel in an rpg like this (well, in say Gothic or any Ultima)... oh, and might I add how annoying it is when you go into a town and *everyone* you talk to has this HUGE list of items you can select in conversation, and every list is the same?! it's almost impossible to navigate when you're talking to someone who has something else to say as well. aaaagh! this whole part of the game pisses me off.
stuff going on: no npc schedules, they stand out in the rain, like everyone complained about with UA. and there really is less going on in the environment, the world doesn't feel as much "alive". of course it's not as bad as like a Final Fantasy type console RPG...
journal: the journal plain sucks. after playing Gothic I got used to having some kind of structure to the journal, some way of seeing what quests I am currently involved in and which ones I have completed. and because it logs so much, it's even worse than navigating the journal in Ascension.
creatures: I read on here that the monsters get harder as you level up? I don't know if this is true, since I haven't gotten all that far. and I don't know if we're talking about getting harder== new monsters spawning or getting harder = same monsers spawning with super duper strength. if it's the latter, then that's lame! what sense does it make to have some ultra-tough CRAB just cause *my* character gained some skill? is the evolutionary process this quick? I don't really know if this is the case, tho...
sound effects: mixed bag. when you jump and hit the ground, it sounds like someone's hitting a bass drum. some of the effects are good tho, like when it rains, or when you're underwater as it's raining.. but like, with footsteps and other types of regular ambient noises, I just got Res Evil for Gamecube and now every other game has to live up to that standard! morrowind sadly does not. and hey, I kinda got used to voice acting in RPGs. I miss it. of course, see point #1 - the NPCs have nothing useful to say.
non-linearity: This is a cool thing, I believe. it just takes some getting used to. I find myself puzzled at what I *should* be doing to get money and gain experience. after playing for a day I seem to be learning,...
music: the music is excellent, real memorable stuff, there's just not enough of it!
grahpics: great looking scenery, reminds me of Gothic. the water effect is definitely cool and unmatched. The character models? well.. yeecch. I see now why it's in first person mode by default.
game world- very large... kinda sucks how it has to load for everything though, huh? Like with the interior of houses. I think that's why Ultima Ascension was much slower. Instead of loading a house when you opened the door, it would always be loading the interior of whatever was around you, and the constant drive access kinda slowed things down a bit. With that I must say I'm puzzled why Morrowind has such high system requirements? I am running it on an Athlon 1.2ghz, 512MB DDR ram, and Geforce 3 Ti200 and it runs "acceptably". actually it runs sort of like Ascension does! I can't imagine how it's gonna run on XBox...
ok. So I guess this seems more like a complaint list, and a whole lot of nit-picking. but if I've found that the more I play the more I am getting into it. so... hey. . guess I'll have to see what happens. maybe it will turn out to be my favorite rpg. for now though, I'd say that I am a bit disappointed with it, and that Gothic was a lot more fun. I do plan to keep playing tho.
bye now !
jon dawson |
Sun May 05, 2002 4:02 am |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Nice character and nice impressions . |
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Sun May 05, 2002 7:16 am |
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Mephy
Guest
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Thanks for the impressions. As for the 'monsters who grow stronger', I think you mean the all mighty 'ninja monkeys'. A ninja-monkey is a monster that will be roughly the same strength as you are. So if you are lvl1, it will be a crab. If you are lvl40 it might be a daedra. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 9:39 am |
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Somnus
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 26
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Why do I get the feeling you're a major Gothic fan? 
Somnus |
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Sun May 05, 2002 9:48 am |
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JemyM
Vault Dweller
Joined: 28 Nov 2001
Posts: 753
Location: Sweden |
*lol*
I am a major gothic fan, and actually, I do agree with him 100%...
Specially the NPC interaction is what made Gothic so good and sucked me in, here it feels rather useless to speak with NPC's...
I havnt seen that you reicive a XP award for doing quests either.
Best Regards
JemyM |
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Sun May 05, 2002 12:48 pm |
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belliott
Village Dweller
Joined: 13 Apr 2002
Posts: 4
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I think the world is beautifully rendered. But, it seems empty to me. The NPC's don't have a schedule. There's no ambient noise in the world like when you were walking around a city in Balder's Gate. I woke up one morning at 5am so I could witness the sun coming up. Walked outside of the village I was in and was impressed with the sun slowly rising. The only thing missing was bird's chirping, dog's barking in the distance, etc. When you walk into a tavern there should be ambient noise. People coming and going, lauging, music being played by a bard. I'm I crazy or do you guys think these things should be in the game too?? Wonder if Bethesda could patch this or provide a sound/speech pack add on?? Still like the game so far though. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 1:08 pm |
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GhanBuriGhan
Noble Knight
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 208
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quote:
Originally posted by JemyM
*lol*
I am a major gothic fan, and actually, I do agree with him 100%...
Specially the NPC interaction is what made Gothic so good and sucked me in, here it feels rather useless to speak with NPC's...
I havnt seen that you reicive a XP award for doing quests either.
Best Regards
JemyM
Well, Gothics NPCs WERE pretty darn cool, but i found talking with them actually quite lacking (few choices of what to say), Many NPCs (e.g. Diggers) have nothing to say at all and you cant even ask them about info. it was cool to see them go around after their business though (despite some things became obviously repetitious like the guy hammering his board in the old camp).
In MW you have to distingusih between quest related dialogue and general dialogue, and you could compare that to "main characters" and diggers" in Gothic.
Also from what I know of the dialogue system it should vary based on the affiliations of the NPCs (Citizen of what town, member of what guild, your reputation with him), but that might only become obvious when travelling around further and having made more friends and enemies in the game world. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 1:50 pm |
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Drow21
Guest
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I agree with many of your points.
Npc's - Mixed bag here. Even though you get the feeling of 'why bother', it's all the same. Many of them have useful skill, spells and items that you may buy. Any of them can help you find someone or your way around and many of them have useful information! They could trim down the off colored comments a bit but sometimes they are funny! One time I came into town with a sliver of health left and someone exclaimed, "Your half DEAD!"
Journal - Totally agree with you there. Would it be so hard to make one like BG did?
Creatures - Not too sure about creatures leveling on you. I worked my mage/thief type up to level 3 and the little critters barely put a dent in my health.
Sound - I think they are fine, although when you land from a jump it DOES indeed sound like someone struck a base drum! lol.
Non linearity - I always liked this aspect of the series.
Music - Ditto
Graphics - They seem ok to me but I definatley have in my mind what a 'dark elf' and 'high elf' should look like and I don't like the choice Bethesda made here but it's thier game...
Game world - Awesome - except for the constant loading. It's minor though and doesn't take too long.
And a couple of this of my own...
1)Combat & Magic - At first, I didn't like them too much. I felt the combat (against humanoids anyway) was very rigid and lacked finesse. I'm fine with it now after playing for a few days. I would like to see a little more input from the player however. For example, when you fight a creature, YOU aren't in control of dodging/blocking an attack. Your skills are. Which is all good with me because if your skill sucks, your gonna get hit anyway but I feel that I should still have SOME control over whether I dodge or block an attack. Would be nice.
Magic - At first when I started out with my original spells, it was difficult to tell if the damn thing worked! I was also concerned if damage over time spells would SHOW that they were working. After playing for some time, I know what to look for if my spell succeeded and yes, dot's are visible! At least the one that I casted, hehe.
Using magic from scrolls and items - For the longest time, this just completely stumped me! The book said that you use these things as if you were casting a spell but doesn't walk you through exactly how to do it. SCROLLS - I thought that you ready it by dropping it on your cutout. Nope. It just opens the scroll as if you were looking at it. The book fails to tell you that to USE a scroll, you have to go into your inventory. Scroll all the way down to magic items and select it that way! This puts the spell where the spell icon goes and THEN you may cast it. Same thing for effects on items. I have a gripe about this though... I have a dagger of the viper or something like that. It cast a poison effect for a small range of damage but to get that effect, you have to READY the dagger as above and cast it as a spell! Meaning you unequip your dagger and ready your magic?! My question is - WHY? Why not just give the thing a chance to 'proc'? (PROCess for those of you that don't know this term) Also, they all have a set amount of charges. Can't we have one stinking item that 'procs' without phsyically having to cast and uses NO charges???
Finally, i'd like to comment on the weather in game. Great stuff, no doubt but it rains CONSTANTLY in the starting areas anyway! Sometimes I feel as though i'm in EQ running through the Karanas!  Methinks the devs are a bit TOO proud of the job they did and want to make sure you notice?
Well, that's all I have to say. Except for those minor gripes, i'm having a good time! |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:01 pm |
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pakaraatzi
Counselor of the King
Joined: 27 Dec 2001
Posts: 359
Location: Ontario, Canada |
Theres a lot of big things in the game that make it good, but its missing a lot of smaller things that I think they should have put in. Sometimes it kinda annoys me when I find a cool item, and I could see so many things in the game you could do with it, but when I try to do them, you cant, its just a prop. I found a fishing pole once, and since I like to fish in IRL, I stole it off the guy who had it, but apparently this nice looking object is useless  Then theres also buildings I've found, and NPCs tell me what happens there, and I think how cool that would be, but it turns out like in Gothic where somethings were there but didnt actually have anything happen in them for one reason or another.
Those things are pretty small, but it really irks me for awhile, until I forget about it, which usually happens fast with all the things I CAN do in the game |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:03 pm |
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PZ
Guest
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I think your expectations where all abit to high.
And remember, Morrowind has many many many more NPCs then gothic (alot of which didn't say anything and those who did didn't say much) image if you will that all of those subjects that seem to be the same from NPC to NPC didn't exist, and all you had was the Dialog which was original for that particular NPC,MW would still have a HUGE amount more original NPC specific dialog, I find it funny that you think that gothic had better NPC interaction when in reality Morrowind just has the extra feature of allowing you to ask each NPC about certain subjects which are common knowledge and have them give you a generic answer.
I wont disagree with the fact that NPCs in Gothic had better scripted AI patterns, (pounding boards etc) but in gotchic that wasn't really anything more then for show, the NPC was always fixing the same board at the same time, and he never fixed the damn board and moved on to the next one or started building another shack etc. was just for show, and again this could not be accomplished in morrowind with this insane amount of NPCS.can you imagine the technical problems not to mention the time it would take to script a AI pattern for all the NPCs in the game? |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:18 pm |
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jldawson
Head Merchant
Joined: 27 Dec 2001
Posts: 50
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The common knowledge questions are a feature?! I thought it was cause most NPCs have nothing else to say. Maybe they could be put into a separate menu or something ?, because it gets really hard to sort through.
It's unfair to say I had high expectations because I really didn't know what to expect. I read a lot of positive comments here and decided to go for it.
Hey, I don't mind having the "commoners" and such repeat the same crap. Gothic had that too. I just wish that the more important characters would distinguish themselves somehow, more than just having a few added conversation choices.
Yeah, the scripted events in Gothic were mostly just for show. Doesn't make a difference. You still got the feeling that the world was moving along quite fine without you... |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:26 pm |
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PZ
Guest
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also thats MUCH better with MWs NPCs when compared to Gothic's NPCs that no one seems to mention is that in MW. People have a disposition twords you, if your in the fighters guild the merchants who are also in the guild will like you and thus be more open with information and sell you items cheaper, the fact that you can taunt (in order to get them to attack you so you would get in trouble when you kill them) intimidate (a quick great improvement in demeanor twords you that wears away with time to a demeanor that was less then before) and admire and bribe which both increase demeanor, not to mention the fact that all of this is effected by reputation which actually makes a difference in MW unlike Gothic where you could kill half the people in old camp and everyone would still treat you the same way. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:26 pm |
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jldawson
Head Merchant
Joined: 27 Dec 2001
Posts: 50
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I admit that's a nice feature, but it still doesn't make the characters interesting. *grin* |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:30 pm |
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PZ
Guest
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"Yeah, the scripted events in Gothic were mostly just for show. Doesn't make a difference. You still got the feeling that the world was moving along quite fine without you..." Yea, I agree I was simply saying that it was ambiance and not some revolutionary feat of AI.
The reason the general comments are there is because in reality you don't know exactly what to ask a someone to generate a unique response, you don't know whats going to push some ones button, inless of course someone else tells you, there for they allow you to be able to get lucky and discover someone "hot topic" if you feel like drilling them, but most of the time if they don't mention they are having a problem or say something unique when you first talk to them you know to just move of and consider them a "common npc" someone to kill if your characters a homicidal maniac or a vampire etc. other wise if a char doesn't have a unique response when first questioned but does have one to one of the "topics" there is another NPC out there who can tell you about it, hey go ask such and such about this for me, or I hear so and so is a necromancer, so you you seek out so and so and and cycle through the chat options and choose necromancy and thus get your unique responce. its realistic. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 2:35 pm |
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