Morrowind FAQ version 1.5 - part 3 by Gavin "kathode" Carter (kathode@themasquerade.org) submitted with permission by Dave Booth. @~Continued from Issue 72 Section 6: NPC Interactions 6.1 Non Player Characters in Daggerfall were pretty flat and boring. Is the team working to address this in Morrowind? Yes, it is a top priority. Morrowind NPCs are every bit as complete as the playercharacter himself, in terms of stats, inventory options, etc. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind.shtml - RPGVault Interview) 6.2 Will NPCs have 24hr scheduling? It is unknown whether NPCs will have 24hr scheduling. It is almost 100% certain that the majority of them will not. Gameplay specific behavior is at the top of the team's AI list (you expect this character to be here at night, and he is, for example). 24hr schedules will follow that. The editor does allow you to setup schedules for NPCs, though. For the standard game, however, the team is taking a "wait-and-see" approach. (Reference: ../features/velog.shtml - VoodooExtreme Chat) (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 6.3 Will I be able to kill any NPCs? Yes, all NPCs will be able to be killed by the player. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 6.4 Will there be any negative effects for murdering NPCs? There's the obvious consequences of the potential to lose a plot- essential NPC. There will be a message warning you if you attempt this, however. Killing random NPCs will also affect other NPCs' judgement of you. As for an experience/ability/stat penalty for being evil, there is none. The game is free-form enough to allow you to be as evil as you wish. Also, designer Ken Rolston had this to say about killing NPCs: Murdering NPCs is against the law. In addition to negative NPC reactions to outlaw PCs, outlaws are pursued and attacked by guards, and fines and sentences handed out to captured or surrendered PC offenders. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 6.5 Will I be able to have other NPCs in my party? The short answer is no. Morrowind does not feature a full party system. The long answer is that from time to time, you will be able to hire additional help, such as an NPC to carry stuff for you, or perhaps even a mercenary to help you in battle. These joinings will be very temporary however, and the NPCs will never be under your direct control. 6.6 Will NPCs have feelings toward your character? Will their responses to you depend on how they feel about you? Yes, there is a very developed disposition system in place in the game. Each and every character in the game has a certain disposition towards your character. Their disposition will be indicated by the color of the dialog bar used to talk with them. You can influence an NPC's disposition toward you in several ways. First, during dialog, there will be a "persuasion" button, which you can try and use to improve the NPC's disposition toward you. Persuasion is a skill, however, and if you're not very good at it, it might backfire. You might also try performing a quest for the character, or joining that character's faction or Guild. Conversely, if you attack the character or one of his/her minions, you will obviously harm that character's attitude toward you. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 6.7 Will this disposition system be affected by Guild/faction interactions on a whole, or just operate on an individual basis? Both. You can improve a whole guild's disposition toward you by joining that guild, and you can improve any one individual's disposition toward you through individual interactions and dialog. Conversely, being a member of a Guild that is an enemy of another individual's Guild will impose penalties on their disposition toward you. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 6.8 How else can I affect an NPC's disposition toward me? During conversation there will be several different attitudes that you can take on, such as aggressive, admiring, etc. You can affect an NPC's disposition toward you by successfully pulling off one of these attitudes. Conversation is a skill, and if you fail the skill check you could create the opposite result of what you want to happen. You can also affect disposition by the clothes you are wearing. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 6.9 Will I be able to steal from NPCs? Will they have line-of- sight vision? Yes, you will be able to steal from NPCs and they will have line-of-sight vision. This adds an element of stealth to the game. 6.10 How many NPCs will be in the game? According to Lead Level Designer GT Noonan, his "guess" is that the number will be somewhere in the 1,000s. In a recent interview, Lead Designer Ken Rolston placed the estimate at 2,000. (Reference: http://www.rpgdot.com/html/morrow1.html - RPGDot Interview) 6.11 Will NPCs teach me skills and/or spells? Yes, they can teach you the skills and spell effects they know best. A few will be extremely difficult to find, since the particular skill or spell effect is only known to one person. Section 7: Factions 7.1 What exactly are factions? Factions function like guilds did in Daggerfall. Basically, factions are organizations to which your character can belong, and thereby benefit from relationships and items or quests gained through other faction members. 7.2 The faction/guild system in Daggerfall was a great idea, but had poor implementation. Will there be a faction system in Morrowind? Yes, factions will be a major part of the game in Morrowind. They will be much improved over Daggerfall. 7.3 How many factions are in the game? There are approximately 10-15 major factions in the game that you can join. Of those, the three major ones are the Great House factions, or the ruling factions of Morrowind. It is not possible to be a member of more than one of those factions, nor is it possible to change from one to another. There are also the Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Dark Brotherhood factions, of which you can be a member of more than one. There is also the Morag Tong, or the Assassin's Guild. Further details on factions are being held back, as some entail key plot elements. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind_b.shtml - RPGVault Interview) 7.4 What are the benefits of joining a faction? Straight from designer Ken Rolston: "At lowest ranks, factions provide shelter, training, and wares at discount prices, or free, and unique quest opportunities. At higher ranks, members may gain special abilities, or gifts of unique magic items, or borrow other even more exceptional magic treasures." Also, you can improve certain characters' disposition toward you by joining their factions (see NPC Interactions section). (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind_b.shtml - RPGVault Interview) Section 8: Races and Classes 8.1 What races are playable out-of-box in Morrowind? The races playable out-of-box (i.e. with no use of the game editor) are High Elf, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, Nord, Breton, Cyrodiil, Redguard, Khajiit, and Argonian. (Reference: http://m0use.net/~xanathar/ - Xanathar's Library) 8.2 What advantages/disadvantages will the choice of race carry with it? It is confirmed that specific race abilities will be in the game, that will be unattainable by anyone other than members of that race. Presumably, race selection will affect stats, and perhaps starting equipment/position. Also, the beast races will not start out with any special handicaps, even though they are slave races in Morrowind. (Reference: http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/morrowind_a.shtm - Gamespy Interview) 8.3 How does the character selection process work? Bethesda is keeping quiet on everything concerning the starting character and the options you will have available in creating him/her. Section 9: Graphics Engine 9.1 What engine will Bethesda be using to develop Morrowind? Will it be a licensed product or an inhouse developed engine? Bethesda has been, and will continue to be for some time, very quiet on the subject of their engine. Todd has stated in an interview that the graphics engine will feature "lighting, shadows, extreme poly counts, huge textures, skeletal animation" and more. A July 2000 PCGamer article on Morrowind states that the engine has been built from scratch. Bethesda refuses to confirm or deny the statement. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind.shtml - RPGVault Interview) 9.2 What renderers will the engine support (OpenGL, Direct3D, Glide, etc)? The engine is Direct3D only. (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 9.3 Will the engine feature Transform & Lighting acceleration that my GeForce card can take advantage of? Yes. (Reference: http://www.m0use.net/~crodo/teaser/ - The Essential Site Interview) 9.4 Will the engine have anything to do with the XnGine used in Daggerfall? No, the engine is something completely different and separate from the XnGine. The XnGine has been "granted rest" according to GT Noonan, level designer for Morrowind. (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) 9.5 What kind of animation system will the engine use? The animation system is a full skeletal system. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind_c.shtml - RPGVault Interview) 9.6 Does the engine support effects such as "paper-dolling" your character (i.e. changing clothing)? Yes, there will be paper-dolling supported in the engine. Armor and weapons will be visible on your character. 9.7 Does the engine have support for real-time shadows? Yes, real-time shadows are in. (Reference: http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/interviews/morrowind_c.shtml - RPGVault Interview) 9.8 Does the engine support a weather system? The press release announcing Morrowind stated that the game will feature the most detailed weather system in any game, ever. The standards should be in, like rain and snow, and there will also be effects specific to the volcanic wasteland of Vvardenfell, such as ash-storms, which are a snow/sand storm hybrid. An additional cool feature of the weather system is that clouds will cast shadows on the ground. Todd Howard stated in an interview that the weather system is made up of three disctinctly cool elements. The first is the awesome realistic sun/moon system. The second is that weather will realistically scale up or down, so you don't enter an area and suddenly be engulfed by a huge storm. The third is that some weather effects will affect you in physical ways, such as movement rate. (Reference: http://www.ga-rpg.com/article.cfm?id=4314 - GA- RPG Article) (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com - Official Site) 9.9 What about NPC lip movement? Yes, the engine features realistic lip and eyelid movements for all NPCs. (Reference: July 2000 PCGamer) 9.10 Will interior maps (houses/dungeons) be separately loading maps like in Daggerfall? Yes, as in Daggerfall, interiors will load separately from exteriors. The team experimented with dynamically loading everything, but there was a major performance hit along with major technical problems. The team collectively decided that the performance hit and extra development time outweighed the benefits of loading interiors, and decided to load interiors separately. 9.11 How will characters' clothes be handled in the game engine? Will it just be different textures? The clothing system in Morrowind is near revolutionary. The clothes/armor aren't just textures applied to a model of a character, they are actually models themselves that are "pasted" onto character models. All armor moves realistically with the character. Robes deform as you would expect and armor realistically slides over the character's body. Also, the level of customization with clothing is incredible. You can get individual pieces to go on every part of your body, including asymmetrical designs, such as differing shoulder pieces. Clothing will also scale with body size, so that it should look good on both stocky and skinny characters. (Reference: http://morrowind.telefragged.com/features/trip1.shtml- My Trip to Bethesda) 9.12 How detailed will the game's physics engine be? What type of collision system are they using? The physics system of the game will be a standard fantasy physics system. Have a high acrobatics skill and you can jump incredibly far. The collision system is a full per-polygon system. (Reference: ../features/editedlog.shtml - Developer Chat 2) (Reference: http://www.elderscrolls.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi - Official Forums) @~To be continued - o -