DeAnn
2009-02-21 01:48:34 UTC
Things Mother Should Have Told You
....about Morrowind
(or, Not-so-frequently asked questions)
SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN. Morrowind is unstable on many systems. You
can do quicksaves with the F5 key, in addition to 'named saves'. On
rare occasions, save games get corrupted. So use mulitple save game
slots instead of just one or a small number. The save games do not
take up a lot of space, so you can probably make a new one every game
day or so and not have problems filling up your disk. The newest
saved game appears at the top of the save game list.
THE CONSOLE IS YOUR FRIEND. To open the console, hit the tilde key
(~). In the console window you can type assorted commands to alter
the game state. You can cheat severely with the console, so use
discretion here. Do not type the single quotes ('), and hit return at
the end of the line. Close the console when done.
'tcl' for 'toggle clipping mode' will let you move freely through
the landscape. It is useful for gettting "unstuck" if you find
yourself somehoe permanently attached to the landscape.
'fixme' can also get you unstuck, but does not always work as it
seems to move you a bit in a random direction, and this may not be in
a direction that unsticks you.
'tfh' for 'toggle full help' will display additional information
about where your cursor is pointing (like whether or not an object has
an owner) as well as more information in the console window.
'twf' for 'toggle wire frame' toggles between normal viewing mode
and wireframe mode, and is primarily useful for debugging mod
interface problems. Oh, and finding that ring in the pond near Gnisis
if your monitor doesn't show contrast well.
'tgm' for toggle god mode toggles between normal play and making
you invulnerable. It is hard to imagine when this would not be a
'cheat.' Except maybe when facing that really fast bulldozer circling
thingie in the Clockwork City in the Tribunal expansion pack; it might
not be cheating then.
'ra' for 'reset actors' moves npc back to their starting position
in a cell. This is useful if they have disappeared into the
landscape, fallen through floor tiles or are just plain blocking your
path.
'placeatpc "sharn gra-muzgob", 1,1,1' will place the npc who's ID-
name is "Sharn gra-Muzgob" in front of the pc. This is useful if the
npc has disappeared, as Sharn was want to do in the game before her
tendency to fall through the floor of the Mage's Guild was patched.
You can also place objects at the pc location by using the appropriate
identifier. If you have an npc who has dissappeared, you may need to
go the construction set or to an earlier save game to get their ID-
name. You can get the ID-name of an onscreen character by opening the
conole and clicking on the character. The ID-name will show up at the
top of the console window.
'resurrect' will bring a dead character back to life. Click on
the body, type 'resurrect' then press the ENTER key.
If you have teleported and your companion is no longer following
you, open the console, click on the companion (so that their ID-name
shows up at the top of the console window) and type 'StartCombat
player'. That should fix the problem. Usually, they will not
actually attack you. If they do, open the console window again and
type 'StopCombat'. Usually, you will only have a companion in this
state if you have added a mod to the game that adds the companion.
'ori' for Output Reference Info. Very handy if you use a lot of
mods. It tells you which (if any) mod placed an object in the world.
It's particularly useful when when you find something wierd or wrong,
like a giant tree growing out of a building, you can quickly find out
what mod is responsible.
WHAT KIND OF CHARACTER SHOULD I PLAY? Morrowind is a well balanced
game. Fighters, Mages, Thieves, good-guys, bad-guys, all can do quite
well. You can choose attribute bonuses that match your play style for
a faster start, or choose contrary bonuses to get some variety. You
can choose by rolling a die or by intense study of how Morrowind's
strange leveling system works. The game is so well balanced that all
of these approaches work pretty well, though some may be easier for
the neophyte to get started with. The answer to the question 'what
kind of character should I play?' is really 'well, what kind of
character would you LIKE to play?' Role play that character, and you
will likely have a good game start to end.
I'M HAVING TROUBLE GETTING STARTED--WHAT SHOULD I DO?(Mild spoilers
follow.) If you are having difficulty getting started role playing
your character, try investigating the little village of Seyda Neen
much like you might investigate a new place you visit. Talk to
people; they will have rumors and tips to tell you. One is about a
missing tax collector, you might try investigating that. Look around,
there are a few valuables stashed around for the picking up (a magic
axe, a magic dagger, a silver cup and gold are stashed in hollow trees
in and around the town, for example). If you are inclined to
stealing, there are items to 'acquire' in the Census office and Excise
Office. Be warned, though, than if you steal an item, all items of
that type will be marked as 'stolen' for the entire rest of the game.
If you are inclined to alchemy, there are lots of ingredients to
gather. You can also sell these for a small amount of gold.
I'VE BEEN PLAYING A WHILE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE MAIN QUEST WAS OR
WHERE I LEFT OFF (spoilers follow). When you first get to Seyda Neen,
you are given a package for Caius Cossades--at least you are if you
talk to Sellus Gravius about all his conversation topics. Check your
journals early entries to see if you got this, and what you did about
it. If you did not get the package, go back to Seyda Neen and see him
again. If you did, perhaps you joined the Blades. Look for those
Blade journal entries. If you took the package to Caius but did not
join the Blades, go see him and agree to join.
Undocumented features
To get spells off your spell list, hold shift and left-click on the
spell.
Shift-click will also pick up a stack of items. (Instead of asking how
many). Ctrl-Click will pick up only one.
To use the 'printscreen' to capture a screenshot, edit the
Morrowind.ini file line that reads "enable screen shot=0" to "enable
screen shot=1". Make a backup of the Morrowind.ini file before
messing with it.
To see your frame rate, edit the Morrowind.ini file line "Show
FPS=0" to "Show FPS=1". Make a backup of the Morrowind.ini file
before messing with it.
Basic Commands:
W - forward
A - strafe left
S - back
D - strafe right
R - Ready Magic
F - Ready Weapon
E - Jump
T - Rest
Tab - Toggle View (Hold to view character with mouse. (use mouse
wheel
to zoom in/out))
Caps Lock - Toggle Run
Shift - Run
Ctrl - Sneak (not a toggle - must be held down)
Activate - Space
J - Journal
F5 - Quick Save
F9 - Quick Load
F1 - Quick Menu
Quick Keys - 1 through 9
Using Quick Keys - F1: Use Quick Keys to assign any item or magic
to a number key.
Hand to Hand - 0
Previous Spell - -
Next spell - =
Previous Weapon - [
Next Weapon - ]
Left Mouse Button - Use
Right Mouse Button - Menu Mode
Q key toggles auto-walk on/off. (I think this came with one of the
expansion packs)
WHERE CAN I STORE STUFF? You can drop things on the ground anywhere
and they will stay there forever. Note, however, that a few mods
"reset" some locations as a part of the mod advancement, and those
reset locations can disturb (eliminate) stuff stored on the ground.
The only particular such place I am aware of is that Booty Island can
reset Arielles (sp?) Tradehouse in Sedya Neen (I lost Lilarcor that
way in one game, sigh.) Most (maybe all) of the storage chests in the
game reset after a (long) while. All generic chests with items in
them reset. However, eventually you can join a Great House and earn a
stronghold. It will have storage containers that you can use. Many
mods add either storage containers or a house with storage containers.
Link to map showing location of various mod landmasses: (as with any
URLs, this link may not stay valid indefinitely).
Loading Image...
WHERE CAN I FIND MODS? Well, URLs come and go. Here are a few URLs
that have been around for a long time and link to many mods.
Morrowind Summit has a huge selection of mods and has been around a
long time:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.List
Telesphoros Lists many mods by categories and has also been around for
a long time:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.List
Emma's site has helpful tutorials, a good set of companion mods, and
links to other compantion oriented sites. It has also been around a
long time.
http://lovkullen.net/Emma/modsbyemma.htm
Taddius & Nymeria have only made a few mods, but their Necessities of
Morrowind and Balancing Packs are staple mods for many gamers
http://www.tadnan-hideout.com/MW/main.html
Elric hosts many mods
http://www.tadnan-hideout.com/MW/main.html
As mod sites come and go, some of these sites may not be available at
any point in time.
WHERE CAN I FIND XXX IN THE GAME?
Try Hannah's "Wereisit Morrowind" at
http://www.buttersky.com/morrowind/#marandus
....about Morrowind
(or, Not-so-frequently asked questions)
SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN. Morrowind is unstable on many systems. You
can do quicksaves with the F5 key, in addition to 'named saves'. On
rare occasions, save games get corrupted. So use mulitple save game
slots instead of just one or a small number. The save games do not
take up a lot of space, so you can probably make a new one every game
day or so and not have problems filling up your disk. The newest
saved game appears at the top of the save game list.
THE CONSOLE IS YOUR FRIEND. To open the console, hit the tilde key
(~). In the console window you can type assorted commands to alter
the game state. You can cheat severely with the console, so use
discretion here. Do not type the single quotes ('), and hit return at
the end of the line. Close the console when done.
'tcl' for 'toggle clipping mode' will let you move freely through
the landscape. It is useful for gettting "unstuck" if you find
yourself somehoe permanently attached to the landscape.
'fixme' can also get you unstuck, but does not always work as it
seems to move you a bit in a random direction, and this may not be in
a direction that unsticks you.
'tfh' for 'toggle full help' will display additional information
about where your cursor is pointing (like whether or not an object has
an owner) as well as more information in the console window.
'twf' for 'toggle wire frame' toggles between normal viewing mode
and wireframe mode, and is primarily useful for debugging mod
interface problems. Oh, and finding that ring in the pond near Gnisis
if your monitor doesn't show contrast well.
'tgm' for toggle god mode toggles between normal play and making
you invulnerable. It is hard to imagine when this would not be a
'cheat.' Except maybe when facing that really fast bulldozer circling
thingie in the Clockwork City in the Tribunal expansion pack; it might
not be cheating then.
'ra' for 'reset actors' moves npc back to their starting position
in a cell. This is useful if they have disappeared into the
landscape, fallen through floor tiles or are just plain blocking your
path.
'placeatpc "sharn gra-muzgob", 1,1,1' will place the npc who's ID-
name is "Sharn gra-Muzgob" in front of the pc. This is useful if the
npc has disappeared, as Sharn was want to do in the game before her
tendency to fall through the floor of the Mage's Guild was patched.
You can also place objects at the pc location by using the appropriate
identifier. If you have an npc who has dissappeared, you may need to
go the construction set or to an earlier save game to get their ID-
name. You can get the ID-name of an onscreen character by opening the
conole and clicking on the character. The ID-name will show up at the
top of the console window.
'resurrect' will bring a dead character back to life. Click on
the body, type 'resurrect' then press the ENTER key.
If you have teleported and your companion is no longer following
you, open the console, click on the companion (so that their ID-name
shows up at the top of the console window) and type 'StartCombat
player'. That should fix the problem. Usually, they will not
actually attack you. If they do, open the console window again and
type 'StopCombat'. Usually, you will only have a companion in this
state if you have added a mod to the game that adds the companion.
'ori' for Output Reference Info. Very handy if you use a lot of
mods. It tells you which (if any) mod placed an object in the world.
It's particularly useful when when you find something wierd or wrong,
like a giant tree growing out of a building, you can quickly find out
what mod is responsible.
WHAT KIND OF CHARACTER SHOULD I PLAY? Morrowind is a well balanced
game. Fighters, Mages, Thieves, good-guys, bad-guys, all can do quite
well. You can choose attribute bonuses that match your play style for
a faster start, or choose contrary bonuses to get some variety. You
can choose by rolling a die or by intense study of how Morrowind's
strange leveling system works. The game is so well balanced that all
of these approaches work pretty well, though some may be easier for
the neophyte to get started with. The answer to the question 'what
kind of character should I play?' is really 'well, what kind of
character would you LIKE to play?' Role play that character, and you
will likely have a good game start to end.
I'M HAVING TROUBLE GETTING STARTED--WHAT SHOULD I DO?(Mild spoilers
follow.) If you are having difficulty getting started role playing
your character, try investigating the little village of Seyda Neen
much like you might investigate a new place you visit. Talk to
people; they will have rumors and tips to tell you. One is about a
missing tax collector, you might try investigating that. Look around,
there are a few valuables stashed around for the picking up (a magic
axe, a magic dagger, a silver cup and gold are stashed in hollow trees
in and around the town, for example). If you are inclined to
stealing, there are items to 'acquire' in the Census office and Excise
Office. Be warned, though, than if you steal an item, all items of
that type will be marked as 'stolen' for the entire rest of the game.
If you are inclined to alchemy, there are lots of ingredients to
gather. You can also sell these for a small amount of gold.
I'VE BEEN PLAYING A WHILE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE MAIN QUEST WAS OR
WHERE I LEFT OFF (spoilers follow). When you first get to Seyda Neen,
you are given a package for Caius Cossades--at least you are if you
talk to Sellus Gravius about all his conversation topics. Check your
journals early entries to see if you got this, and what you did about
it. If you did not get the package, go back to Seyda Neen and see him
again. If you did, perhaps you joined the Blades. Look for those
Blade journal entries. If you took the package to Caius but did not
join the Blades, go see him and agree to join.
Undocumented features
To get spells off your spell list, hold shift and left-click on the
spell.
Shift-click will also pick up a stack of items. (Instead of asking how
many). Ctrl-Click will pick up only one.
To use the 'printscreen' to capture a screenshot, edit the
Morrowind.ini file line that reads "enable screen shot=0" to "enable
screen shot=1". Make a backup of the Morrowind.ini file before
messing with it.
To see your frame rate, edit the Morrowind.ini file line "Show
FPS=0" to "Show FPS=1". Make a backup of the Morrowind.ini file
before messing with it.
Basic Commands:
W - forward
A - strafe left
S - back
D - strafe right
R - Ready Magic
F - Ready Weapon
E - Jump
T - Rest
Tab - Toggle View (Hold to view character with mouse. (use mouse
wheel
to zoom in/out))
Caps Lock - Toggle Run
Shift - Run
Ctrl - Sneak (not a toggle - must be held down)
Activate - Space
J - Journal
F5 - Quick Save
F9 - Quick Load
F1 - Quick Menu
Quick Keys - 1 through 9
Using Quick Keys - F1: Use Quick Keys to assign any item or magic
to a number key.
Hand to Hand - 0
Previous Spell - -
Next spell - =
Previous Weapon - [
Next Weapon - ]
Left Mouse Button - Use
Right Mouse Button - Menu Mode
Q key toggles auto-walk on/off. (I think this came with one of the
expansion packs)
WHERE CAN I STORE STUFF? You can drop things on the ground anywhere
and they will stay there forever. Note, however, that a few mods
"reset" some locations as a part of the mod advancement, and those
reset locations can disturb (eliminate) stuff stored on the ground.
The only particular such place I am aware of is that Booty Island can
reset Arielles (sp?) Tradehouse in Sedya Neen (I lost Lilarcor that
way in one game, sigh.) Most (maybe all) of the storage chests in the
game reset after a (long) while. All generic chests with items in
them reset. However, eventually you can join a Great House and earn a
stronghold. It will have storage containers that you can use. Many
mods add either storage containers or a house with storage containers.
Link to map showing location of various mod landmasses: (as with any
URLs, this link may not stay valid indefinitely).
Loading Image...
WHERE CAN I FIND MODS? Well, URLs come and go. Here are a few URLs
that have been around for a long time and link to many mods.
Morrowind Summit has a huge selection of mods and has been around a
long time:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.List
Telesphoros Lists many mods by categories and has also been around for
a long time:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.List
Emma's site has helpful tutorials, a good set of companion mods, and
links to other compantion oriented sites. It has also been around a
long time.
http://lovkullen.net/Emma/modsbyemma.htm
Taddius & Nymeria have only made a few mods, but their Necessities of
Morrowind and Balancing Packs are staple mods for many gamers
http://www.tadnan-hideout.com/MW/main.html
Elric hosts many mods
http://www.tadnan-hideout.com/MW/main.html
As mod sites come and go, some of these sites may not be available at
any point in time.
WHERE CAN I FIND XXX IN THE GAME?
Try Hannah's "Wereisit Morrowind" at
http://www.buttersky.com/morrowind/#marandus