Monocause
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2008
- Messages
- 3,656
I've been playing the game extensively for some three days (again) and wow, seems like I finally tailored it precisely to my taste!
- Morrowind Code Patch with most of the balance improvements enabled (not to mention the excellent casting system revamp a la Oblivion). Fixes plenty of bugs, annoyances and balance issues - increases enchantment prices, alters the soul gem values making it totally dependent on the soul trapped and not on the gem itself (so no more 2000 GP for a skeleton soul for you). Fixes pickpocketing and dozens of other stuff. Fixes the fortify health effect.
- Galsiah's Character Development - fixes the terribad leveling system, replaces with something that actually makes sense and doesn't penalise you for picking useful majors/minors. Also promotes specialisation, much tougher to be a jack-of-all-trades until late end-game.
- Cliff Racer Exterminator - self-explanatory
- HotFusion's economy adjustments WITHOUT the misc addon - improves merchant mercantile skills, making your own mercantile very useful. Fixes cash replenishment rate of normal merchants - they now regain gold 1/day. Removes creeper and the talking mudcrab. Alters ingredient prices, reduces daedric drops.
The misc addon makes a single blunder - multiplies the training prices by a factor of x5 or so. This may seem like a good idea but it made the pacing slow down to a crawl, and training skills on your own goes way too slow in most cases (magic, for instance).
- Improved Thieving (lockpicking, traps etc) - Makes security skill more important. Makes traps lethal (especially combined with the hidden trap fix optional in the code patch) and reliant on security skill just like locks. Increases the mana cost and price cost of the Open effect, reduces the effectiveness of premade spells (Ondusi opens only lvl40 locks). Traps can be a tough nut, but are easy enough to avoid for a mage character by using the telekinesis spell.
- Euthanasiologist's Armor and Weapon fixes - these fixes try to make each and every weapon/armor type distinct and useful. Medium armor is now a viable choice. Glass armor is still awesome but has pitiful durability. Blunt weapons have increased weight so they'll stun enemies more often etc. The armor fix is somewhat incomplete (fe. the iron cuirass still has 2000 durability instead of 200) but it's a huge improvement anyway and you can fix the leftovers yourself (not like you'll be using the iron cuirass for long)
A couple of tips:
- Until the midgame go only to places the quests make you go to. Don't pick up that sword of white woe in Balmora, generally avoid abusing your foreknowledge of easy to get uber equipment. Don't steal equipment that'll make you overpowered (fe. the orcish set from the Balmoran armorer, the master alchemist set from the mage guild in Caldera).
- Pick athletics as your major or at least minor, especially if you're planning to use heavy armor early on. Slow running speed can make this game extremely boring.
- Don't join every possible faction. Pick only the ones that make sense for your skillset. Yes, this is LARPing.
- Set the difficulty to +50 right from the start.
- Needless to say - don't abuse alchemy by increasing intelligence and making potions of IT'S OVER 9000.
I'm hugely enjoying the game right now. Playing as a Breton warrior-mage, combat is challenging (especially considering that I still have less than 50 health despite being lvl4), I'm broke pretty much all the time. The progression rate feels just right. I'm constantly torn between purchasing better equipment or training.
- Morrowind Code Patch with most of the balance improvements enabled (not to mention the excellent casting system revamp a la Oblivion). Fixes plenty of bugs, annoyances and balance issues - increases enchantment prices, alters the soul gem values making it totally dependent on the soul trapped and not on the gem itself (so no more 2000 GP for a skeleton soul for you). Fixes pickpocketing and dozens of other stuff. Fixes the fortify health effect.
- Galsiah's Character Development - fixes the terribad leveling system, replaces with something that actually makes sense and doesn't penalise you for picking useful majors/minors. Also promotes specialisation, much tougher to be a jack-of-all-trades until late end-game.
- Cliff Racer Exterminator - self-explanatory
- HotFusion's economy adjustments WITHOUT the misc addon - improves merchant mercantile skills, making your own mercantile very useful. Fixes cash replenishment rate of normal merchants - they now regain gold 1/day. Removes creeper and the talking mudcrab. Alters ingredient prices, reduces daedric drops.
The misc addon makes a single blunder - multiplies the training prices by a factor of x5 or so. This may seem like a good idea but it made the pacing slow down to a crawl, and training skills on your own goes way too slow in most cases (magic, for instance).
- Improved Thieving (lockpicking, traps etc) - Makes security skill more important. Makes traps lethal (especially combined with the hidden trap fix optional in the code patch) and reliant on security skill just like locks. Increases the mana cost and price cost of the Open effect, reduces the effectiveness of premade spells (Ondusi opens only lvl40 locks). Traps can be a tough nut, but are easy enough to avoid for a mage character by using the telekinesis spell.
- Euthanasiologist's Armor and Weapon fixes - these fixes try to make each and every weapon/armor type distinct and useful. Medium armor is now a viable choice. Glass armor is still awesome but has pitiful durability. Blunt weapons have increased weight so they'll stun enemies more often etc. The armor fix is somewhat incomplete (fe. the iron cuirass still has 2000 durability instead of 200) but it's a huge improvement anyway and you can fix the leftovers yourself (not like you'll be using the iron cuirass for long)
A couple of tips:
- Until the midgame go only to places the quests make you go to. Don't pick up that sword of white woe in Balmora, generally avoid abusing your foreknowledge of easy to get uber equipment. Don't steal equipment that'll make you overpowered (fe. the orcish set from the Balmoran armorer, the master alchemist set from the mage guild in Caldera).
- Pick athletics as your major or at least minor, especially if you're planning to use heavy armor early on. Slow running speed can make this game extremely boring.
- Don't join every possible faction. Pick only the ones that make sense for your skillset. Yes, this is LARPing.
- Set the difficulty to +50 right from the start.
- Needless to say - don't abuse alchemy by increasing intelligence and making potions of IT'S OVER 9000.
I'm hugely enjoying the game right now. Playing as a Breton warrior-mage, combat is challenging (especially considering that I still have less than 50 health despite being lvl4), I'm broke pretty much all the time. The progression rate feels just right. I'm constantly torn between purchasing better equipment or training.
