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I swear, combat must be what kept most people away from Morrowind. Love the game to death, but even now I still hate early game combat and wish they would have made it more accessible for new players. That or the draw distance, this game ain't silent hill boys.

Unpopular opinion, but I actually don't mind the combat. And this year is the first time I'm playing Morrowind. I'm not to fond of the slow speed at the beginning, though.

Same. Especially the slow speed of walking. I hate how slowly I walk. So much. And it's not like I can fast travel. So I just go super slowly everywhere. Not a fan.

Combat doesn't seem all too terrible, when compared with other things.

The walking is the most frustrating thing in the game. I don't mind the combat as much either.

Combat does seem to be difficult when starting Morrowind, but I've found Hand-to-hand to be very effective during the early game. If you can keep punching an enemy without getting killed, eventually they pass out and you can start to inflict actual damage. Then, when they get back up, it's easy to knock them down again and inflict some more damage, until eventually you can finish them off. But at first you'll need to combine punching with running away a lot, so you can get refreshed and maybe heal yourself before going back for some more action.

EDIT: Regarding the walking, I agree that it's slow and tedious until you've increased your Speed. But I think I prefer walking in Morrowind to walking in ESO:M, in the sense that Morrowind seems incredibly big with so much to explore, whereas in ESO:M you can hop-skip-and-jump from one end of the island to the other in a fraction of the time.

Ah that explains why ESO:Morrowind felt tiny. Ald'ruhn in particular felt tiny for some reason.

Unless one is really low on Speed, or is otherwise encumbered (particularly by heavy armor), I actually find the walking pace to be satisfactory. No sprinting or bunnyhopping from one side of Vvardenfell to the other. You're having an adventure. And yeah, a big part of adventure is just...walking along. It's especially good when one starts out--as I do--as a pilgrim of the Tribunal. Traveling to the shrines, learning about the world and the Tribunal.

But uh, yeah, early game combat is not terribly fun. I don't find using weapons to be too fun until you hit about 40 in your skill, and can reliably hit what you're staring directly at. Magic helps!

In part, it seems deliberate on the part of the designers that your pace is so dogged at first. It recommends that you take the strider and stick to the cities where it's safe until you get a feel for things. Otherwise, you rush off from Seyda Neen to Balmora right away with a head full of overconfidence, but end up limping into Pelagiad, poisoned and fatigued, having barely defeated a rat and a kwama forager with a broken sword and a pocketful of mushrooms. Later, in full Daedric kit with a OHK weapon and spells and enchantments that turn geography into a non-factor, you'll be deliberately pausing to enjoy the scenary (since it's difficult to actually move slowly enough to look around).

I don't think the walking by itself is the problem, it's more the terrain which makes it impossible to go from point A to point B as the cliff racer flies, necessitating a laborious quest to find a walkable route that isn't a dead end or that doesn't veer off in another direction. Levitating helps, as does jumping to a lesser extent. My preferred method of traversing the Ashlands on foot is to climb up on top of a ridge as soon as possible, because sticking to the ravines is an excercise in hair-pulling.

I actually enjoy the slow pace of the traveling. Looking at the scenery is a lot easier to do when you're at a snails pace. On the other hand, running through the landscape when cliff racers ambush you and you realize you have 0/90 fatigue is not enjoyable lol *SQUAAK*. Remember to stop and rest boys.

Or just pop a restore fatigue potion. The ingredients are plentiful.

I tend to get lost in the Ashlands when I stick to the low roads. It's embarrassing to admit, but it was only last year when playing Morrowind again that I realized you could go from Balmora to those two recalcitrant mages in the Ashlands by crossing the bridge near the fort and heading past the Dwemer ruin! I had always gone past the fort and taken the road that goes toward Suran.

And to go from Seyda Neen to Balmora I usually either take the road west and then swim up the river, or climb over the hills to cut to the road where the pilgrim is hanging around waiting for someone to escort her to the Shrine by the lake.

I'm a big fan of climbing over hills in Morrowind. And even in Skyrim I usually try to find the best places to scale a mountain rather than take the long way around-- although by the time I've managed to climb the mountain it might have been quicker to just walk around it.

I feel like getting attacked by cliffracers is some sort of coming of age in Vvardenfell. In fact, I recently restarted a game and that was the first thing I died to.

This time around I installed a couple rounds of mods, including some less generic npc dialogue mods - the official name eludes me. But it's really made a great experience. I only just got to Balmora but the dialogue was one of my favorite parts of the game, so seeing it with a fresh perspective that is well done is nice.

You know what I admire though? That old school slot inventory system. I forgot how really unique you can make your outfits, what with being able to equip pieces so separately and even add robes. So neat. They did a nice job with the designs of stuff. Or maybe it's just the nostalgia talking...

It really is weird going from Skyrim with 2 armor types and 4 main armor slots back to morrowind with medium armors, wearing clothes underneath, and left/right pauldrons/gauntlets
And so many glorious helms...

...unless you are playing Saxhleel...

I didn't say I was wearing them... my Khajiit just loves to collect beautiful helms

With the way Morrowind handled so many separate wearable items, my expectation was that the next installment would go even further with rings for each finger and adornments for tails since apparently muzzles and spring-heeled feet were too difficult to accommodate. Sadly, they went 180 degrees in the wrong direction and have reduced attire options in each game since while expanding the array of facial characteristics. It's a bothersome trade, especially after spending a good 45 minutes getting my horns just perfect in Skyrim only to watch them vanish the first time I donned a lid.

I can understand what you mean. I miss a few features of old games like Morrowind when compared to new ones, little things like this included. But, in retrospect, I think the trend is toward a more inclusive and casual kind of game that attracts more people and allows the "hardcore" gamers to go as deep as they want. I don't think it's necessarily bad. I guess as I grow up with the gaming industry, I just get more open minded to it. Heh.

That said, I will run around Vvardenfell and collect what I can to look fabulous until then! Colovian fur helms included.

While that's true for some of the features (I don't miss swinging a dagger for a minute straight to kill a mudcrab), we've lost a lot of magic schools along the way and with them went spells as well (I miss Divine Intervention, open locks, and fortify skills spells...heck, remember when you could cure your own diseases?). Not to mention the death of spellmaking.

I can understand the loss of flight and other spells that fully cheesed any encounter, but being able to get rid of Rockjoint yourself instead of returning to town or always carrying a ton of cure potions (There's always that one extra skeever or vampire than there are potions ) seems like it would lend itself more to the casual or convenient style of gaming ES is heading towards

Add. Note: I don't miss blight

Flying-- don't forget flying!

And walking through walls-- I don't think that one made it out of Arena. There are actually some houses in Arena with hedges blocking the doors, which I assume can't be entered unless you use Pass Wall-- although I haven't tried it yet myself, because my new character doesn't have Pass Wall capability.

True on the magic - nothing beats having to go find out how to use teleportation because some stuffy mage couldn't be bothered with stairs. Divine Intervention feels so necessary here in Vvardenfell; I almost forgot about it with the recent years of Skyrim and Online. I don't miss how painfully easy it is to get lost in the world map without quest markers and fast travel, though, although I don't much use fast travel in the single player games (I abuse it like whoa with Online). Turn in the Ashlands at the two tall rocks... Sure. Sure.

As for walking through walls - you got me there. It's been a long while since I've jumped through a wall of any kind! At least as far as Third and Fourth Era goes... I've done some jumping through 'em in the Second Era. Oops.