PC Morrowind HELP!!

[Monica]

Ok, I just got the game today, and it installed and plays great...but the weird thing is, when I go in the door to the left of the dagger you get after you register your class and stuff to that guy, IT SHUTS THE GAME OFF! No errors or anything, it just turns off and goes to the desktop as if I exited the thing myself. I made 2 Chars, and went there twice, and I dun't wanna keep doing it. My comp's a Dell Pentium III with WinME and my dad loves to play Nascar on it so he makes sure it can support stuff. What is the problem? Is there any way I can avoid that door? Please help! ;_;

[Brian]

Hmm... I had a similar problem where the game crashed after I picked up my papers at the start of the game every time. I know the case with the dagger is a known problem and is listed under their technical support webpage (I remember it from looking for my problem) I think the solution may be to update your drivers, the same as it was with me. Update your video and sound drivers and you should be fine. If you don't know how or where to find them, post your graphics and sound cards and I'm sure someone here can help. (though I don't remember the exact website where I got mine, usually you can go to the manufacturer's website)

If all else fails try calling them. Thats what I resorted to since my problem wasn't listed. You have to hold a while, but nothing beats help over the phone for a problem like this. (short of on site help that is)

[Monica]

Well, my dad says the comp meets every requirement on the box, but I don't know what the cards are called. Can someone give me the addy to the windows update page please? The one the little alert msg for updates takes you to? I can try to find the drivers from there. Thanks for any help.

/me goes to reinstall Morrowind.

[Brian]

I'm not sure where that page is, but try searching around Microsoft.com for it. Still, I don't really think that would have what you're looking for- from the sounds of it it would update Windows rather then your drivers, which are files that tell your hardware how to operate. You will most likely need to go to the company who made your video and sound card's website to find them, although some technical support websites have lists of links. And it woulden't matter if your computer meets all the requirements listed on the box. They don't list the drivers needed for each individual graphics and sound card. You can see what drivers you have through the Direct X Diagnostic program, if you want.

What are your video and sound cards, anyway?

[Monica]

Yes! I did it! :) Thank you for your help, Brian. I updated to DirectX 9.0 off the Microsoft site and the game works great now! But everyone in the town wants me to go to the Trading House, but it said you have to be at lvl 70 to unlock the door. What do I do?

[Brian]

Heh, glad I could be of help. But anyway, just go up the stairs to the left of the main door and use the door in the back. (its the main door for the store) Kind of backwards, isn't it? ;)

[Monica]

Oh ok, thank you! :)

[Monica]

Ok, I need a little more help, I kinda took a wrong turn in the ravine and ended up at Ghostgate. Can anyone please give me directions to Baltmora, or at least on how to reach the end of the ravine. (I can't remember the names of everything)

[Paradox]

do you have the map that came in the box? balmora is to the southwest of the middle (ghostgate).
i just started playing a couple of days ago and i'm at balmora training with that cassius guy that i had to deliver a package to.

[Monica]

Cool, I think I've found my way by myself now. :) I'm at that place that the guy in the fighters guild told me to go to.

I guess I'll make a poll outta this. If you play Marrowind, what's your Char like?

[Paradox]

i'm a male imperial agent. sign of the tower.
member of blades, the fighters, theives, mages guild and house hlaru (sp?). i'm just behind you monica, going to the place the fighters guild guy told me to go to now. BTW, if you want a fighting challenge, right outside balmora in that fort, if you go see a guard in a bedroom he tells you to kill the people in the council club.

i'm quite good at stealing things, which is useful when i need money. most of my weapons have come from stealing - go in to every house you can see and look around, there's always stuff you can grab. i also can unlock 50-point doors with my powers. but bad at killing, the only guy i killed is the guy i needed a key from in a theives guild quest. turns out i wasn't supposed to kill him to get the key, so i didn't get money for completing it, but at least i got some great expensive clothes.

i've also semi-accidentally been to vivec, before i knew where to go with the quest. vivec (to the east of the starting town) is HUGE.

[Brian]

My main character has beaten the game, is the official Nerveraine (sp?), and is a Knight for his class. He is the Knight of the Imperial Dragon for Vvardenfell, and therefore the commander of the Imperial Legion there. (that is the highest rank for the Imperial Legion faction) He is also near the head of the fighter's guild, and if I play again I just have to kill the current leader to become the leader.

Some advice- you WILL need a character who is good at killing. That means the stealth only classes are prety much no good. You can get your magic through scrolls and magic items, as I did, but it would have been more convienient to have some of the magic skills myslef (though I did have restoration, which was very helpful). So, if I were you I would make at least a character who can fight well, and possibly decent at magic.

[Paradox]

what do you suggest i should do to better my killing ability? just start over (it would be a pain)? or find money somewhere and get a lot of training?

[Brian]

It depends. If you don't have a good weapon skill in either major or minor skills, I would start over. You would be saving yourself a lot of trouble in the long run. If you have combat skills (decent weapon at least) in minor, you could keep going but your game will be a lot harder for it. If I were you I would start over and put either long blade of axe as a major skill. Armor is very useful as well, but not quite as essential as weapons. Anyway, you're not far at all in the overall game, so it would probably make your overall experience more enjoyable. Training is only so useful in this game- it can't very well be used to compensate for a very low skill that you want to raise.

Or you could just use the editor to make you weapons and armor better, but that would be cheating woulden't it. ;)

[Monica]

Cool guys! :) I'm a Nord Adventurer, am mostly a fighter, my major Skills are Long Blade, heavy Armor, athletics, Speechcraft, and Strength, I have the Lady as my sign, I'm in the fighter's guild, and a Blader, and I try not to do anything illegal, but I try to help whoever asks me. I got the cube and now hafta go to the mages guild, and I'm at Level 4.

[Paradox]

ok, i restarted. partially because of brian's advice and partially because i died almost every time i tried to kill something with a weapon (like that wizard/skeleton guy you meet when going to get the puzzle box).

i'm now a redguard. custom class. i'm great at longsword, axe, and blunt weapons. not to mention blocking and stuff like that. don't have much magic, but by looking at my stats i think this character is better than my last one. except that my personality is worse, and i don't have a great speechcraft skill, which makes it more difficult talking/influencing people.

i rushed through what i've already done so i haven't gained levels or anything. in balmora, 11pm day one. (my other one was traveling to the ruins/puzzlebox and was midday of day 7.)

i never really sleep unless i need to. sleep doesn't do anything but heal you, and i don't need healing unless attacked. kind of freaky/fun traveling in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.

[Matteo]

i love this game.. just started playing it today.. i am the "red" class forget what its called.. adventurer with a mix bag of skills... long sword is one of my main ones... I am on day three.. i don't know what to do and i don't care.. thats the beauty of it..

Quick question:
My game seems kind of slow... I put the resolution and all other video options down and I made sure the music was off but it still seems kind of sluggish... My computer will play other simliar games really fast.. just wondering is it just the game that is slow in itself (the way it runs) or perhaps I need to upgrade ( i have XP) (i tried the patch and it made the game stop working) or should i try and get the latest direct x? i am not sure if i have the latest direct x but games like return to castle wolfensteing run perfectly at a high resolution. The cpu is pretty much brand new... no fancy video but i think its got 128 mb. thanks!

[Paradox]

i've got the same problem. slow framerate. i've turned the resolution to 640x480 and the distance viewing to minimum, but it's still choppy. i just learn to deal with it, as it doesn't affect the gameplay itself, unless you're in a big battle and you can't afford to have lag.

[Brian]

I think the game in general has a slow frame rate at times, especially on less-then-stellar PCs. There are some things you can do, mainly what you already said. Turning down shadows and view distance also helps. In addition to this you can turn thread load on, which makes it so it loads areas all at once. (you get a fairly big pause every now and then instead of the small pauses that come fairly often) You have to go into the Morrowind customization file (a notepad file) and turn Threadload to = 1. I forgot the exact name of the file, but it shoulden't be very hard to find. I think having this option on helps a lot.

[Brasel]

I have a level 50 something Dark Elf with a custom class. Most of my skills are over 50 points, in the major, minor and misc skills. (I like to be very well balanced). I'm the leader of the Imperial Legion, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and the House Hlaalu. I beat the game and the expansion pack.

My character has a combat based class with short and long blade skills as the main weapons, and both are at 100. He uses all types of armor at at least 60. Speechcraft is at 60 something. Athletics is pretty high too. My character's custom class is probably the most well balanced created class one could make...give or take a few choices of skills.