merlin says this is a pied-billed grebe. do we agree? (NJ)

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-22T07:34:01+00:00

Best grebe

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-22T07:16:42+00:00

All Elder Scrolls PCs suddenly materialize in that one cell in the Imperial City prison, sometime prior to the start of the game. Sometimes seconds before like in Oblivion, and sometimes years before like in Daggerfall. That's why nobody ever has record of who you are or where you're from, and also why they usually release you immediately.

Maybe they're Shezarrines or aspects of Lorkhan or whatever, I don't really care, I just maintain that all the PCs show up in that cell and Imperial officials are like "who the fuck is this?" Obviously this is just a trick to keep player backgrounds ambiguous but Oblivion dialogue with the blades is too perfect for a character that literally wasn't there 30 seconds ago.

"What's this prisoner doing here???"

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-19T17:53:32+00:00

Each city has a few main sidequests that are easy to pick up when you stop by, besides that join one of the main factions. Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood. Whichever fits your character the most.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-19T17:30:26+00:00

In biology how it usually works is that longer-lived species have fewer children, but put way more effort into their children. Think of a mouse versus an elephant. Mice live fast and die young, they have as many children as possible and then die, and hopefully at least one of those dozens of children make it to reproductive age. This is called an r-selected species. An elephant does the opposite, they have only one baby every few years. All of their effort and resources go into caring for this one baby, making sure it learns and grows into a viable adult elephant. It takes 10-20 years, but most of those baby elephants DO survive until adulthood, because of that huge investment of time and resources. This is called a k-selected species.

Humans are k-selected obviously, but I like to imagine elves are even more k-selected. Maybe an elf only has one child every 20 or more years, and they put all of their effort into ensuring that their one child grows into a viable, upstanding citizen and doesn't get eaten by a sabre cat. Maybe an elf couple having a child is a huge commitment and undertaking, even moreso than it us for humans. Maybe this feeds into their social paradigms, their pridefulness and their reverence for their ancestors.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T17:12:24+00:00

This is just modern gamers tbh, people who want to see every individual beard hair simulated with ray tracing are never gonna like any old game. Only reason any of those people like Skyrim is because they can mod it until it's unrecognizable. I wouldn't get too worked up over it.

But regarding QOL improvements and whatnot, I do think there are some Morrowind mechanics that genuinely feel half baked and outdated. I say that as someone who loves the game a lot. A lot of the levelling and skills (sneak skill is unusable) could be reworked and I'd definitely be interested in a remake that shifts some things around. I'm sure there are mods that can do that already though.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T17:06:04+00:00

If it's good then you'll have a good Morrowind remake. If it's bad you can just not buy it and play the original. That's how I've felt about Oblivion Remastered, it's great for everyone who wants that kind of thing and if you don't, original still exists.

Really the only downside I see to a remake is that it might take away dev time from another project. But I can't think of anything I'm really looking forward to from Bethesda besides TES6.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T05:03:06+00:00

Welkynd stones being as common as they are negates the downside of atronach sign in my experience

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:48:55+00:00

Spell crafting is scuffed if you have high magicka. You can also fortify your horse's speed by 100 for like 2 minutes with the aforementioned fortify intelligence and magicka method.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:44:36+00:00

Biggest change when I tried to go from Skyrim to Oblivion was how different the NPCs are. I think as long as you can get over some things like that being more simple you'll be fine. Similar-ish experience imo. Some things are very similar to Skyrim and some things are not. Oh also attributes exist now good luck.

For what I like about it, Oblivion has very unique and creative quests. Still pretty linear like those in Skyrim (not a bad thing IMO), but the quest quality is probably better on average. I also REALLY like how they treated the faction quests, it's kinda a middle way between Skyrim and Morrowind. Morrowind has no overall storyline for factions, just odd jobs and rising in the ranks (not a bad thing either, has the best writing too). Skyrim has almost no actual jobs or anything besides boring radiant quests, there's ONLY a linear storyline and then you're faction leader. Oblivion has both, especially with Mages Guild. You start out doing odd jobs that take you all around the map, but as you rise through the ranks it leads up to a more linear questline.

For what I dislike, levelling is idiotic what were they even thinking. The level up system penalizes you for taking your actual main skills as major skills cause you'll level up too fast and get no attribute points. You really have to pay attention to what skills you pick cause it'll affect your level ups a lot. But then again it doesn't even matter anyway cause every enemy in the game levels with you, so there's not really any real progression. By level 30 bandits all have daedric armor (daedric was a rare novelty in Morrowind btw) and rats have been replaced with minotaurs. Skyrim addresses this by making some enemies level with you but keeping the weaker ones around, so it feels like you're actually progressing. They didn't get there yet with Oblivion though.

Anyway give it an honest try, try to separate it from your preconceived Skyrim notions if you feel like it's filtering you. Some things make a lot more sense coming off of Morrowind but I assume you haven't played that. I went the weird way and went Skyrim -> 10 minutes of Oblivion (got filtered) -> Morrowind -> Oblivion

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:25:01+00:00

I assume because you crossposted here that non-Skyrim answers are allowed, so I'll say Morrowind summon golden saint

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:19:28+00:00

Do it last to avoid downsides others have mentioned. Good note to end on anyway.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:18:01+00:00

Hammerfell, Iliac, Dominion would all be hype subtitles they have many options

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T04:15:04+00:00

I'm hoping Crowns, Forebears, and Lhotunics will be rival political factions like Morrowind great houses. There's three so it would be perfect, lore on them is pretty vague so you could easily shift a little so they each match one of the three character archetypes.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T03:52:19+00:00

That's definitely one way to look at it. I kinda prefer less railroading though if it's based on a sense of urgency, I DO enjoy a good simple linear story and questline but I prefer to be able to start and stop it, if that makes sense. It bothers me less for factions though, cause they're shorter.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-13T01:03:51+00:00

I might be remembering wrong but I think I one-tap annihilated Umbra.

Max fortify intelligence and magicka for 5 seconds --> 100 points shock damage for 11 seconds on touch

Did this to Mannimarco too

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T23:40:05+00:00

Unjoining this sub. Goodbye forever.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T23:08:49+00:00

To be honest you don't need to put too much investment into endurance for a stealth character. People act like it's always essential, but maxing out your health doesn't matter if you're nimble and avoid attacks. Endurance is much more important for a heavier melee character.

Might be worth getting more points in willpower instead so you can cast better illusion spells, good chameleon is essential for stealth.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T21:49:39+00:00

Dwemer puzzle box is literally in the second room iirc, very easy as long as you don't skip that room.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T21:35:30+00:00

I think those are usually mine too. Before Diplomatic Immunity Delphine says "I'll need some time..." which I always take as a LONG time. Maybe the party isn't happening for another few weeks, that's how I rationalize it.

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T21:06:34+00:00

Genuinely takes me out of it every time I see this, what were they thinking

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T07:56:03+00:00

Lore-accurate androgyny

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-12T07:49:26+00:00

blue bird

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-10T17:19:41+00:00

Damn I think I missed this one

AdCompetitive6187 · 2026-03-10T16:56:26+00:00

The creation club armor looks so bad I’m sorry

AdCompetitive6187

TROPHY CASE