Morrowind FAQ version 1.5 - part 2 by Gavin "kathode" Carter (kathode@themasquerade.org) Submitted with permission by Dave Booth @~Continued from last issue Section 2: General Information 2.1 When will the game be released? The official release date is "late 2001". Pete Hines, PR director for Morrowind, has stated many times that "we WILL make 2001". 2.2 Is Morrowind a 2d or 3d game? Morrowind is fully 3D. 2.3 What are the minimum system requirements? The game is over a year away at the time of this writing, so system requirements are little more than conjecture right now. It has been stated that what constitutes a top of the line system today will probably run Morrowind with anywhere from substandard to satisfactory performance. The developers have stated that they are shooting for what will be available at the time of release. If you want the best performance out of the game, be prepared to upgrade closer to release. More information will be posted here as it is known. Until an official statement, this is all that is known about system requirements. Because people tend to be somewhat belligerent about this topic, I will provide a good guesstimate on the MINIMUM system requirement, as stated by Pete Hines, PR Director, on the official forums. P3 500 128 RAM 3rd Gen Vid Card (GeForce on up) These are NOT OFFICIAL REQUIREMENTS. These are GUESSES approximating how the technology will be MORE THAN A YEAR FROM NOW. The actual requirements won't be known until the game is very close to completion. 2.4 Is Morrowind a first-person game, a third-person game, an isometric view game, or what? For now the answer is that Morrowind is a first-person game. A third-person view will be included in the game. It is primarily for viewing your own character in his/her stunning arraignment. The dev team refers to it as the "vanity mode". Even with this option, the majority (and I mean 99%+) of the game will take place in first person, as it is reportedly much easier to play in. 2.5 Will the game feature full speech throughout? No. With all the options available for the main character, it would be virtually impossible to record all of the dialog over and over for each race/gender available. Also, you'll be able to pick your own name in the game, and NPCs will use it a bunch, which would be very difficult to do with full speech. NPCs will have bits of spoken dialog (in WAV format), saying things to indicate their mood or color their personality. The majority of dialog will be text. Animations will also synchronize with the WAV file, adding realism to the dialog. 2.6 What format is the game's music in? The music is all mp3. Speech will be in .wav format. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi) 2.7 When will the beta test be? There will be a very small public beta, about 200 people or less, in the future. Probably sometime in mid-2001. You can't apply for it yet, so please don't try to. The beta test will only be open to US residents and people over 18. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi) 2.8 Will there be nudity in Morrowind? No, there will be no nudity in Morrowind. Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi) 2.9 What format will the game be released on (CD, DVD, etc)? Too early to say. 2.10 Will there be any OS or console ports of the game? 7.14.00: Too early to say for sure. However, Todd Howard has confirmed that Microsoft is talking to him about the possibility of porting the game to the X-Box. (Reference: GA-RPG Article http://www.ga-rpg.com/article.cfm?id= 4314) 2.11 Will Morrowind feature rendered cutscenes like Diablo 2 or Vampire? Probably, although the majority or perhaps all of them will be rendered in the game engine (think the scripted sequences in Half-Life). Todd Howard stated "We're using in-game cutscenes. I'm not a fan of rendered cutscenes unless Blizzard does them. So perhaps my friends over there will do me a favor." (Reference: RPGPlanet Interview http://www.rpgplanet.com/features/interviews/morrowind/index 2.sht ml) 2.12 Will Morrowind feature a tutorial-type section at the beginning to help new players? Yes, Daggerfall had this feature and so will Morrowind. Todd Howard hinted in an IRC chat that he had big plans for this, but dodged further questioning. 2.13 I'm planning to upgrade for Morrowind. Would I be better off to spend my money on a new CPU or new video card? The Morrowind engine is much more video card intensive than CPU intensive. You will get more frame rate bang for the buck by going with a video card upgrade (that is, of course, assuming you're not using a 486/66 or something =) Also, you'll want a card with T&L capabilities, as the engine takes maximum advantage of these features. Section 3: Gameplay 3.1 Will the game's controls be customizeable? Yes, the controls are 100% customizeable. (Reference: Official Forums http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi- bin/Ultimate.cgi) 3.2 Will the game be able to support other methods of control such as gamepads or joysticks? Since gamepads, joysticks, and the like are all controlled natively by Windows98, Morrowind will support them. Basically, the signals from the game controllers first go through and are interpreted by the operating system, and then are sent to the game. The game interprets them the same way as if they were keyboard commands. For example, you're customizing your controls, and for attack, you push "Button 1". The operating system receives the command and sends it to the game as "Button 1". The game puts the command in the control configuration. From then on, whenever the game receives the command "Button 1" from the OS, it looks it up in the control config, and sees that it should attack. For the best game experience, however, a keyboard and mouse are recommended. 3.3 Will there be other modes of travel available in Morrowind besides walking? Yes, quite a few. There will be a fast travel system, via silt striders (large, bug-like creatures with very, very tall legs), to take the player to and from major points in the game. There will also be other modes of fast travel available to the player, including caravans. Also, there is a screenshot featuring the player taking a ride in a gondola in the city of Vivec. Hopefully, that is just one of many transportation methods available. Fast travel will work via a "fade out/fade in" method where the screen fades out on one location and fades in on another. 3.4 Will there be a journal system in the game that automatically records pertinent information? Yes, there will be a very advanced journal system. It has been described as being "like a Windows Help file". All entries will be hyperlinked to other entries and there will be a robust search feature included. (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 3.5 Will there be a quick-save/quick-load feature? Yes, there will be buttons for quick-save and quick-load. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 3.6 Will game music be dynamic, changing depending on the situation? Yes. 3.7 How detailed will object interactions be? The Morrowind world is very object oriented. Nearly every object will be able to be picked up, examined, and used in some way. Do not expect for a full physics engine to be in the game (i.e. you throw a bucket at an enemy and it hurts him/her), however, the team is striving to make all items as usable as possible. An example of the level of detail is that you can pick fruit off of a tree, and in time the fruit will grow back. 3.8 Will my character be required to eat or drink to survive? No, although food does help lower your fatigue level quickly. Starvation or dehydration are not factors in the game, however. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 3.9 Will creatures in the world respawn, or will there be a set number of creatures for each location? Both. Spawn points can be set or randomized, and spawning monsters can be based on the player's level. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 3.10 Will I be able to set the clipping (view) distance to whatever I like? Yes, the clipping plane is adjustable. The distance you can push it out to greatly exceeds that of Daggerfall. Section 4: Gameworld 4.1 Where does the Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind take place? Morrowind's setting is Vvardenfell, the dreary volcanic island home to the Dunmer, or the dark elves. Vvardenfell is an island in the province of Morrowind in the Elder Scrolls world of Tamriel. The game, Morrowind, only takes place on the island of Vvardenfell, not the entirety of Morrowind (although the island is approximately 80% of Morrowind). For the rest of this FAQ, when I use the phrase "in Morrowind", what I mean is "in the game called Morrowind". When I refer to the actual game world area of Morrowind, I will restrict myself to saying "in Vvardenfell". 4.2 How big is the game world in Morrowind? That's a more difficult question that it seems on the surface. How does one truly measure a 3d gaming world? You can't really do it in miles or any standard measurements. It has been stated that Vvardenfell will be approximately 50 times the size of the world of Redguard. However, it has also been said that the world will be slightly smaller than Daggerfall. Suffice it to say that there will be enough world included with the game to keep you experiencing new things for many, many weeks, and in the event that you finally do see it all, you can always add on to it with the TES3 Construction Set. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) (Reference: http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,258501 8,00.html - Gamespot Interview) 4.3 Will there be much variety in the landscaping of Vvardenfell? Yes, we have been assured that there will be a tremendous amount of variety in the game world. It was one of the major complaints people had with Daggerfall, and is on the top of the list of things to address in Morrowind. Among the varieties of landscaping you will see are grassy, sandy, desert, badlands, mountains, etc. The editor itself will ship with eight different terrain types, and these can be blended together to create smooth transitions between two types of terrain. (Reference: http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/ 0,10869,262 2653-2,00.html - Gamespot Feature) 4.4 What Real World(tm) cultures influenced the aesthetics of Morrowind? The team was influenced by several different cultures. The buildings of the Empire will have a very Nordic feel to them, while other areas are influenced by Egyptian, Middle-Eastern, and Japanese themes. (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 4.5 About how many towns/cities will be in the game? No official number has been released. It is widely rumored that the number is around 30, which doesn't include dungeons and the like. (Reference: http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0, 10869,262 2653-2,00.html - Gamespot Feature) 4.5 - Will different areas of Morrowind feature different architectural styles? Yes, architecture will vary from culture to culture. The major factions of Morrowind each have individual architectural styles. Imperial settlements feature medieval castle-type architecture. The Redoran faction uses the curved shells of the silt strider in their buildings. The Hlaalu's build adobe-type structures. The magical Telvanni actually grow their houses out of living matter. (Reference: http://www.gamecenter.com/Pc/Previews/Mrwd - Gamecenter Feature) Section 5: Skills and Experience 5.1 - 5.1 How will the player's character grow and develop? Will it be a "leveling" system like most other CRPG's? Yes, but not exactly like other games. A player in Morrowind will specialize in a certain number of skills, chosen at character creation. The player will advance in those skills based on how much they are used. So a mage will become better by casting spells, and a thief will advance by picking locks and stealing. A player goes up in level based on how much those skills have increased. So a thief won't advance very fast at all just going out and killing things. You can automatically increase your character's skills through repetition, while you can increase your attributes over the course of the game with the points that you gain when you advance in character level. There are other ways that you can increase skills beyond their designated action; for instance, reading books on any particular subject can improve a character's skill. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/ morrowind_b.shtml - RPGVault Interview) (Reference: http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0, 10869,2622653-5,00.html - Gamespot Feature) 5.2 Will Morrowind feature the classic RPG character classes? Sort of. The idea is to not lock a player into a narrow, specific role, thus you probably won't see a "class" specialization choice during character creation. As stated in the above question, you will choose what skills you want to concentrate in, and that will basically determine what kind of character you will play. For example, a person wanting to play as a mage would specialize in magic skills, instead of armor skills. Having skills instead of classes gets rid of the RPG standard that, for example, "a thief can't wear this type of armor". In Morrowind, anyone can wear any type of armor. It's just that if your skill is low, you will suck at it. Another thing that determines your "class" is which one of the three major factions you choose to join. The Redorans are the feudal knights of Morrowind. The Telvanni are the keepers of magic. The Hlaalu are a consortium of merchants, thieves, adventurers, and anyone else out to make a quick buck. These roughly correspond to "Fighter", "Mage", and "Thief" from classic RPGs. Picking a faction will give you rewards and quests that are commensurate with those rough guidelines. (Reference: http://www.gamecenter.com/Pc/Previews/Mrwd - Gamecenter Feature) 5.3 Will the skills be the same as they were in Daggerfall? Todd Howard stated that they have tweaked the skills by eliminating the ones that someone would not choose as a major skill. Todd stated that if there was a skill that the team decided wouldn't be useful as a major skill "we got rid of it or combined it with something else so that every skill could possibly be a major skill for somebody". (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 5.4 How many skills will be in the game? Straight from Project Lead Todd Howard: There are 27 skills in the game (in addition to the eight attributes). There are nine combat skills, nine magic skills, and nine stealth skills. (Reference: http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/morrowind_a.shtm - Gamespy Interview) 5.5 How will the skills be balanced? Once again, I can't put it better than Project Lead Todd Howard: We're still polishing them, but the idea is that each skill has real "punch" to it, so that any skill is important enough to be a major skill. It's hard because everyone uses certain skills more, but we further balance them by setting how hard they are to raise. (Reference: http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/morrowind_a.shtm - Gamespy Interview) 5.6 What are a character's base attributes? Characters are defined by eight basic attributes: strength, intelligence, willpower, agility, speed, endurance, personality, and luck, as well as five major and five minor skills. (Reference: http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/morrowind_a.shtm - Gamespy Interview) (Reference: http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/ 0,10869,2622653-5,00.html - Gamespot Feature) 5.7 Will character classes come with inherent skill sets? Character classes have five major and five minor skills from a combination of these groups. You can create custom character classes as well choose skills from the three groups. (Reference: "http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/ 0,10869,2622653-5,00.html - Gamespot Feature) @~To be continued next issue - o -