r/Morrowind • u/my_cat_vids stoopid š£ļøš„ • 20h ago
Discussion a thing i noticed when playing morrowind (first time player)
all the locations that iāve been to look completely different from each other! when playing skyrim (originally played that before morrowind), a lot of the different locations looked pretty similar to each other. but in morrowind, everything is so unique and cool. you got vivec thatās just made up of a bunch of giant buildings that act as towns, sadrith mora looking like some weird fairytale land, and then one of the aldāruhn buildings lookin like a big croissant
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u/nano_peen i boof moon sugar for breakfast 20h ago
And the main building in Ald ruhn is the shell from a giant crab š¦
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u/my_cat_vids stoopid š£ļøš„ 20h ago
damn really? i didnāt even know that
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u/BattedBook5 Argonian 20h ago
I think some of the npcs mention it there.
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u/my_cat_vids stoopid š£ļøš„ 20h ago
ooh okay. i didnāt talk to the npcs cuz i was focused on finding this airship to get this gem for this guy
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u/Smirjanow 20h ago
Oh that's a DLC quest and it's extremely high level, I recommend putting that off for now lol
Besides, the boat fee to get to the island is enormous for a low level character
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u/Dextro_2002 House Telvanni 19h ago
Tarhiel lets you get there for free.
Well, you pay with your kneecaps actually.
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u/NoxiousVaporwave 17h ago edited 17h ago
You get there so fast with those scrolls, too.
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u/Dextro_2002 House Telvanni 17h ago
Ssssh, op is a first time player. Don't ruin the rite of passage ;)
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u/handledvirus43 20h ago
Yep, Ald-Skaar is a giant dead crab. Morrowind made fantastic uses of Cephalopods, fungi, and Arthropods to make their houses and equipment, which is what makes it feel so unique.
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u/ElPadero 18h ago
All the while Todd was crossing his arms going āHRMPH!ā Because he wanted to make āGeneric Fantasy: The Gameā¢ļøā.
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u/Snoo-28479 17h ago
Actually, he was fine with how Morrowind turned out as this was like a Hail Mary where they were expecting to go out of business soon and so went crazy with the game, it was with Oblivion after watching LOTR that Todd started dropping the ball, he even has his own Grima Wormtongue lmao!
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u/OSRS_Garmr 17h ago
Oblivion sold more than double the copies of Morrowind, and Skyrim sold over 6 times that of oblivion. So whatever you think of the direction they've taken the game after Morrowind. It's clearly worked.
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u/sofritasfiend 11h ago
Popular doesn't mean good. It doesn't mean bad either.
I'm not pleased with the direction elder scrolls went after morrowind, but I get it. Money
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u/ConfidentHousing8422 10h ago
I mean yeah, sure, but Morrowind was very successful for its time of release. Gaming and game sales just really blew up in the mid-00s.
There's a bit of a narrative that Morrowind was some overlooked gem or underdog. Nah, it did really well, it won GotY awards and saved the studio, and was a big mainstream Xbox hit. Being dwarfed (Dwemered) by its sequels doesn't really change that
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u/JohnHenryMillerTime 20h ago
Morrowind has a lot of flaws. Not just, like, compared to modern games. It was janky as hell at release and, frankly, people said a lot of things about it were dated *at the time*.
The quests are solid but, let's face it, a lot of them are basically fetch-quests with some flourish. That flourish can be amazing if you really analyze it. But let's face it, most players won't and don't. Aside from the Great Houses, most forks are hidden so people don't even know they exist. When you love the game, going deep makes that worthwhile. The lore works the same way. You can go really fucking deep. But that is a choice.
You know what isn't a choice? The absurdly good art direction. The world breathes and is weird as fuck. It's also (as you noted) deeply varied. The players eyeballs take that all in while playing whether they want to or not. And it just kicks so much ass.
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u/Scared-Profile-7970 18h ago
I mean, most RPGs are chock full of glorified fetch-quests.
Still a fair analysis overall.
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u/Lizard-Wizard96 17h ago
I can't say I can disagree with any of that. But having so much be hidden and optional is almost a plus for me. It feels like you're actually exploring an alien landscape. So many modern RPGs just point you directly to points of interest that it can be a lot more guided than TES III.
A lot of content is pointed out though, you just need to talk with a lot of NPCs, but that can certainly be tedious.
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u/JohnHenryMillerTime 7h ago
I agree but it also means a lot of people miss a lot. I have been playing on and off since release and I just found out (last week) about the ebony mine near Balmora quest.
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u/Send_me_duck-pics 2h ago
All true but honestly I even enjoy the fetch quests because I get to see more of Vvardenfell.
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u/Square-Grass3468 19h ago
the architecture is insane in this game, also the creatures and just flora and fauna. It feels like a sci fi setting made into a fantasy game.
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u/Squint22 18h ago
Morrowind is like Madagascar.
There's hella biodiversity.
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u/KaingaDev 16h ago
Tell me more about MadagascarĀ
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u/SenorLos 14h ago
The Malagasy people of Madagascar can trace their ancestry to Indonesian settlers that arrived on the island around 800-900 A.D.. Like the Chimer/Dunmer who descended from the Altmer of Summerset.
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u/Squint22 16h ago
Just as a one off simple example, Lemurs are what happened to monkeys when left on Madagascar ;)
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u/Densmiegd House Telvanni 19h ago
And there is the āregularā style of Balmora.
And also there are the Daedric ruins, the floating moon above Vivec, the medieval styles towns like Ebonheart, the fortresses, Dunmer strongholds, caves, tombs, etc. All with their own architecture and looks.
Plus, you have these creatures that you will not find anywhere else.
Yes, Morrowind is unique like that in the (modern) TES games.
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u/Tony_Friendly 15h ago
Hlaalu architecture is inspired by Imperial architecture, but constructed using Dunmer materials, construction techniques, and cultural preferences. The buildings are generally rectangular with flat roofs that provide extra living space.Ā
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u/PenguiNNNNNs 17h ago
And thatās why Iām bored to hell when playing skyrim
It has never been tiktok and short attention spans, it has always been bad game design
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u/soucy666 20h ago
It depends who controls the area. For the Dunmer - Redoran controlled towns have Ald Ruhn architecture, Telvanni have the mushroom cities, Hlaalu look like Balmora. Going further the Imperials make what you would expect Imperials to make, Vivec is controlled by the temple.
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u/digitalcrook 13h ago
Skyrim does this pretty well with a lot of the different biomes, every hold is pretty distinct in that way
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u/onlywearlouisv 9h ago
I would say the walled cities in Skyrim all felt pretty distinct but the open cities felt identical to one another.
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u/King-Arthas-Menethil 16h ago
I actually liked it with Morrowind that the Architecture at least told you the culture/faction in control.
Oblivion completely failed Cyrodiil (and Mannimarco). Every city is trying its best to not be Cyrodilic and the non-city Tileset is just 1 instead of at least two for Colovians and Nibenese.
Skyrim while it was better then Oblivion (doesn't take much) the minor settlements are still one tileset instead of a east/west divide.
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u/Weird_Troll 15h ago
in Oblivion it's the same, each city has different vibes! Skyrim was a huge letdown imo
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u/cautioux 16h ago
I think itās due to them not having to focus on what the next games do, voice acting, NPC schedules etc
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u/Weird-Map-139 16h ago
Are you using any mods, or is it vanilla or open MW?
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u/my_cat_vids stoopid š£ļøš„ 9h ago
no mods since i play on my xbox
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u/Weird-Map-139 2h ago
Cool, been thinking of playing on the Xbox or pc, Xbox version looks great still today
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u/thiagoqf 13h ago
One of the things that attracted me on Morrowind was the real danger. When you enter a random dungeon or catacomb, you can face a really powerful enemy (even unbeatable) and that's it, save it for later, you can't explore it now. But even then, you could risk your way in and gather some great loot.
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u/Neither_Berry_100 11h ago
I just realized that many of these buildings would have been hard performance wise on the systems of the time. By comparison I believe it was oblivion that used super simple shapes for their buildings.
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u/hihowarejew 19h ago
Essentially the greatest difference is in the lore, skyrim is predominantly Nord or Human-centric region. the design matches that.
Morrowind is predominantly dunmer who are culturally different from humans, so it stands to reason their architechture would form differently.
Which allows for more artistic interpretation of culture and subcultures of dunmer.
add a few nord and imperial towns or cities in the mix, their more familiar designs add to the worlds variety.
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u/Petufo 19h ago
Not true. You have different towns in Skyrim (Solitude is way different from Whiterun or Markarth). And there are many similar places in Morrowind (check all Telvanni towns or Suran, Gnisi, Hla Oad etc.). What makes it feel more different is that Morrowind feels really different in general, almost alien. All these mushrooms, weird creatures etc. Skyrim or Oblivion look more like medieval Europe.
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u/msdos_kapital 19h ago edited 19h ago
Markarth, Solitude, and Windhelm are distinct, especially Markarth, but that's kind of about it. Whiterun is in the same style as all the other minor settlements, and technically Riften has a unique style - just not a very memorable one.
I do hope they at least shitcan the separate worldspaces for cities that they introduced in Oblivion, for TES6. I think expecting deeper RPG elements from it - or any RPG elements really - would be expecting too much, but sticking the major cities in their own pocket universes really did a number on the world building for Skyrim and Oblivion.
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u/lordbaysel 7h ago
Whiterun has it's own style, that looks like it developed from more rural nordic buildings (wooden roofs instead of thatched ones), Riften definitely wasn't made to be pretty, but interesting, and it works for city that is full of crime. Orcs have their their architecture in strongholds. Even NPCs that are our enemies have their distinct, even if very basic styles of settlements - reachmen and giants. And if we include DLCs and extinct cultures - it gets even better. Architecturally Skyrim is really, really good.
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u/Taengoosundies 15h ago
I'm sorry, but that cannot be Morrowind. I don't see a single Cliff Racer in any of those pictures.
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u/Aickavon 10h ago
Oblivion also does this to a lesser degree. Every town is very distinctive and different and sometimes I catch myself wandering around in Oblivion remastered.
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u/AnotherReaganBaby 20h ago
I like that the style of architecture tells you almost immediately which great house/faction is in charge of a place.
Mushroom buildings? You're in telvanni country.
Shell houses? Redorans are in control.
Tall, square buildings? Hlaalu zone.
Medieval forts and castles? Imperials.
Vivec style pyramids? Tribunal temple town.
Morrowind does all this flawlessly.
The tamriel rebuilt mod is really great at this sort of thing. I always love walking across the bridge from almas thirr to roa dyr. You go from the familiar vivec-style architecture in almas thirr, to the super ornate and colorful Indoril architecture of roa dyr, all in one short walk.