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Hi All,
I've been working on doing a speed run for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. No seriously, it can be completed in less time than it takes to watch the extended editions of all three Lord of the Rings films. However, before I say just how quick it can be done in, what rules would be imposed on a Morrowind speed run?
Firstly how would it be timed? The SDA rules mention 'internal timer'. While Morrowind has a game clock/calendar that ticks while you are playing, and you can tell the hour of day and day of month at any time, I assume this would not be the clock you use to time a run. Its only accurate to the nearest hour, so its not wildly accurate for speed timing purposes. Indeed if you wait, sleep, get some training, or travel by ship/siltstrider, hours will pass in the game clock during only a few seconds of gameplay time. I assume that gameplay time would be measured instead, which falls in line with other speed runs, but would have to be done by timing the recorded movie, as there is no gameplay clock in Morrowind.
Secondly, what to time. I would assume a run would purely consist of completing the main quest. i.e. Starting from the time you wake up on the ship at the beginning, finishing when you speak to Azura in the Facility Caverns (and cutscene starts) after you destroy Dagoth Ur and Akulakhan's Heart. There are a few different paths you can take between that start and finish, one of which lends itself nicely to speed running
Thirdly, saving. You can save at any time. Some things in the game are random. By reloading you can affect the outcome of certain events (such as whether a potion is created, whether a spell is successfully cast, or whether you successfully persuade an NPC). However, your skill in particular areas also affects randomness. High enough skills always succeed, and higher 'Luck' attribute affects success in all random events. Should saving be allowed? Morrowind is not a stable game. If you can manage a single segment time without it crashing to desktop you are lucky indeed. So, what should the penalty be for saves?
Finally, Morrowind allows you to do a great many things, many of which are handy (or indeed essential) for speed running. I've been using the following extensively:
On the whole, if you only time the gameplay time, you can make use of the above to complete the game pretty quickly. However your game clock time will be high. As much as it pains me to suggest this, my instinct is to put some kind of penalty on anything that involves time passing faster than real time, i.e. waiting, sleeping, training, ship/silt strider travelling. Again, what should that penalty be? I assume it would be a penalty per hour passed outside of real time.
I think that covers most aspects. Whaddya think?
I've been working on doing a speed run for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. No seriously, it can be completed in less time than it takes to watch the extended editions of all three Lord of the Rings films. However, before I say just how quick it can be done in, what rules would be imposed on a Morrowind speed run?
Firstly how would it be timed? The SDA rules mention 'internal timer'. While Morrowind has a game clock/calendar that ticks while you are playing, and you can tell the hour of day and day of month at any time, I assume this would not be the clock you use to time a run. Its only accurate to the nearest hour, so its not wildly accurate for speed timing purposes. Indeed if you wait, sleep, get some training, or travel by ship/siltstrider, hours will pass in the game clock during only a few seconds of gameplay time. I assume that gameplay time would be measured instead, which falls in line with other speed runs, but would have to be done by timing the recorded movie, as there is no gameplay clock in Morrowind.
Secondly, what to time. I would assume a run would purely consist of completing the main quest. i.e. Starting from the time you wake up on the ship at the beginning, finishing when you speak to Azura in the Facility Caverns (and cutscene starts) after you destroy Dagoth Ur and Akulakhan's Heart. There are a few different paths you can take between that start and finish, one of which lends itself nicely to speed running
Thirdly, saving. You can save at any time. Some things in the game are random. By reloading you can affect the outcome of certain events (such as whether a potion is created, whether a spell is successfully cast, or whether you successfully persuade an NPC). However, your skill in particular areas also affects randomness. High enough skills always succeed, and higher 'Luck' attribute affects success in all random events. Should saving be allowed? Morrowind is not a stable game. If you can manage a single segment time without it crashing to desktop you are lucky indeed. So, what should the penalty be for saves?
Finally, Morrowind allows you to do a great many things, many of which are handy (or indeed essential) for speed running. I've been using the following extensively:
- Travelling by Silt Strider/Ship allows you to travel to other towns with silt striders/ships. This cost you money to use and takes hours of game clock time (but seconds of gameplay).
- Mage Guild Teleporting allows you to travel to any other Mage Guilds (there are only 5). Also costs you money to use, but is instantaneous in game clock time and gameplay.
- The Mark/Recall spells are probably the most useful, allowing you to Mark your current location so that you can teleport (Recall) back to it whenever you like. You can only have one Mark at a time, and can only Recall to a visited (Marked) location, so it's not all powerful. Requires Magicka (mana) to cast. Magicka regenerates when you drink a magicka potion, or sleep.
- The Divine Intervention spell takes you to the nearest Imperial Shrine and Almsivi Intervention spell to the nearest Temple. This means if its quicker to run from a temple/shrine to a location than it is to run from wherever you are, you can cast it and get there quicker. You don't need to have visited the temple or shrine to teleport there, but you don't have a choice about which temple/shrine you go to (always travel to nearest). Requires mana to cast.
- Training - makes it very easy to level up quickly in terms of gameplay time, so long as you have the money to pay for it (which gets more expensive for higher levels, and you can't train higher than your trainers skill level). Training does actually take a fair amount of game clock time (2 hours per skill level which is the equivalent of 20 hours per character level, plus sleeping time to level up). Some of the quests you have to do require you to be of a minimum character/skill level, so one way or another you have to level up, and this is the quickest route.
- Alchemy exploit - Alchemy allows you to create potions that allow you to create more powerful potions (i.e. Fortify Intelligence potions). The more you create and drink, the more powerful subsequent potions are. There is no apparent cap to this, but it ultimately allows you to create very powerful potions. Potions require ingredients, which in turn cost money. Some ingredient sellers do not run out of some ingredients. Powerful potions are also worth a lot of money, so you can sell potions for a lot more than their ingredient's worth.
- Money - Required for a great many things. Creeper and the drunken Mud Crab buy items at retail price, allowing you to get your money's worth from any items they will buy. As with all retailers, they can only buy so much per day before their money runs out, but they have a large pot of money to start with. Therefore by selling an expensive item and waiting 24 hours, selling another item, waiting, selling, waiting, etc you can build up a large pot of cash in little gameplay time (though large game clock time, so time really is money here).
On the whole, if you only time the gameplay time, you can make use of the above to complete the game pretty quickly. However your game clock time will be high. As much as it pains me to suggest this, my instinct is to put some kind of penalty on anything that involves time passing faster than real time, i.e. waiting, sleeping, training, ship/silt strider travelling. Again, what should that penalty be? I assume it would be a penalty per hour passed outside of real time.
I think that covers most aspects. Whaddya think?
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