Tes3: morrowind

It has now been over four years since Daggerfall's release. As quickly as computer games come and go, I have been surprised and delighted to find that gamers all over the world are still discovering and enjoying it. If my e-mail is any indication, the fascination with Daggerfall transcends national boundaries. Gamers from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Argentina, the Czech Republic (I still want to call it Czechoslovakia -- call me old fashioned), England, Norway, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China (to name the ones I can remember) have written to rave about the game and/or the site.

Recent questions have concerned the next installment of The Elder Scrolls, "Morrowind". I have not been keeping on top of developments at Bethesda (getting married does that to you), but here is what little information I have:

• there was some Morrowind artwork floating around at about the time of Redguard's release. Being cursed with a very slow Internet connection at the time, I did not pursue it, but there used to be a link at the official Redguard site.  Perhaps it is still there.

• Morrowind was supposed to be on a "two-year development cycle" (Bethesda's description). The last I heard (and this was a comment from someone at Bethesda that was forwarded to me), it is scheduled for release in 2001.

• Morrowind is supposed to be a full-blown RPG, as compared to the single-quest adventures like Battlespire and Redguard.

• There is an official Morrowind website (www.elderscrolls.com) with artwork and whatnot to whet our appetites. Additionally, there are a few Elder Scrolls fan sites up with as much current info as they can lay their hands on.

Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. I think I can safely make a few prognostications (that's a two-bit college word that means "wild-ass guesses") about it:

• the story will center around something in the province of Morrowind;

• there will be a lot of Dark Elves running around

• you'll be dealing with swords, spells and armor as well as the occasional critter that thinks your character looks a lot like lunch;

• you will be able to pick up some money and magical-type items along the way;

• the programmers will try very hard to close up a lot of the "holes" that I've described in Daggerfall (i.e., you might be able to gain levels by sitting in your tavern room and casting spells, but stores will really close for the night);

• the game will have hardware requirements that translate into buying a new computer before I can play it;

• the game will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50(US).

Within the framework of TES, I can also throw out a few hopes for Morrowind:

• I hope they keep the item/potion/spell-makers. These were great ideas that were a tremendous addition to the game. Generally, they worked very well without seriously unbalancing the game (the low-level character with a gazillion GP's acquired through "Midnight Adventurer's Supply" being the notable exception). (according to an interview with Todd Howard, this is a done deal)

• I hope they expand the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood and do something with the Necromancers Guild. The glimmerings of an extensive underworld were there in Daggerfall (you'll find them in the text.rsc file) and the Necromancer in "Redguard" was truly delightful (what race was he/she/it, by the way?). Take those ideas and really implement them.

• I hope they make the dungeons smaller. The idea of using modular dungeon construction was inspired, but the dungeons were WAY too big for what the player was supposed to accomplish in them. For the opening dungeon, Privateer's Hold was about right, but it would have been a little too small for a normal quest. Something in-between would be much better.

• On this same topic, I hope Bethesda provides a few clues about what dungeon items do. The Mantellan Crux was a wonderful dungeon, but it took a lot of lever-pulling and running around to see what happened or opened. Sentinel (for the Lich's Soul quest) was essentially a binary combination lock with an outrageous frustration factor. The scenic signs and arrows in Redguard were quite helpful. Perhaps something along those lines will carry over into Morrowind.

• I hope they keep the "open-ended" feel to the game. The faction-quests (guilds, merchants, nobles, etc.) were wonderful concepts that generally worked very well in execution. A suggestion: provide a mechanism for player-generated quests. Sierra, in "Caesar III", provided an editing utility whereby players could create scenarios and Microprose did the same for "Civilization II". A similar utility would probably go far in keeping player interest at a high level (there are one or two for Daggerfall, but their workability is kind of "hit or miss" as they were created by reverse engineering the game's quest-handling code). (according to recent interviews with the Morrowind developers, this is a done deal, too – yippee!)

• I hope they either refine or get rid of Vampirism and Lycanthropy. The ideas were wonderful and well implemented, but there were not enough consequences to counter-balance the benefits. They simply made the game too easy, especially for a low-level character. Perhaps increasing the amount of damage a vampire takes in sunlight/holy places and eliminating the Hircine Ring?

• I hope they fix the "Spell Absorption" ability so that it works consistently in custom classes.

• I hope they refine the interactions with NPC's. The dialogue concept was good, especially the "rumor mill", but the NPC's had no personality. The NPC's in Redguard definitely had personality, but I think it would be a programming nightmare to carry that out to a full-blown RPG.

• I hope they either do something with the concept of languages or drop the idea entirely. Language skills in Daggerfall were just about useless.

• I hope Bethesda makes a ton of money on it so we can start begging for TES4.

• I hope they let me write the official hint book. (I asked and got "we'll get back to you", which is usually a 90's way of saying, "go away, kid. You bother me.")

As for what will actually happen, I guess we'll have to wait for 2001 to find out. But don't let me see you in line in front of me when it's time to buy the game or I'll have to have Guido rearrange your kneecaps.