Mod Reviews: Merchants

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 28, 2002 3:51 pm

There are a lot of Morrowind mods that have appeared, and many under development. I thought we might try doing up a few categories of mod reviews, just to pass on our own experiences with some of these mods. This one's for new merchants, added for one reason or another to the game.

The mod I'll lead off with is called Zed. I've seen it on several boards. Zed is a merchant who shows up in the broad, open area in the left fork of Balmora, west of the river. He's across the street, in the open, from the Fighter and Mage Guilds.

I found Zed's stock interesting: very expensive weapons for the most part with heavy enchantments, like the ability to drain large doses of health. That particular weapon was 17,000 drakes, quite reasonable when you compare it to other items of similar quality in the game. On the other hand, the modder added in several items among the bunch that were just as powerful but were selling for approximately 120 drakes, which indicates that his mod was sent out without being well-examined.

On top of that, there's no uninstall. If you unclick the Zed box under data files before loading Morowind, you'll get several error statements. The game will still run, but parts of the mod are also included. Poor programming.

All in all, I'd pass on this. Badly designed, poorly tested, it's not worth the effort.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Tue May 28, 2002 4:45 pm

Someone needs to tell us about a good "rich merchant" mod. I don't care about them selling extra items, just about actually having enough gold to buy my loot. Having to leave daedric weaponry behind because it just isn't worth lugging an 80 lb daedric dai-katana worth 120,000 gold to a shop where I can get 1000 for it, is getting really depressing

Doc Atlas · Post by **Doc Atlas** » Tue May 28, 2002 11:22 pm

Thanks for the info, look forward to reading future reviews. I tend not to download mods but if I hear about a really nice one I may.

And about the rich vendors... That would be cheating, daedric weapons were obviously not meant to be sold, either you can use them or you leave them. I put mine around my stronghold as a status symbol (not sure why, noone will ever see them, lol).

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Tue May 28, 2002 11:28 pm

Funny, you could sell daedric weapons for what they were worth in Daggerfall. Was that cheating? Come to think of it, you could in Arena, too. Was that cheating? How about in Redguard?

Hey, my character worked to earn those weapons. So why shouldn't he get paid for them? I doubt you'd appreciate it much if you worked for your boss for a week, he hands you a check, but all the banks will only give you one tenth the value of the check.

Sirius_Sam · Post by **Sirius_Sam** » Tue May 28, 2002 11:31 pm

Fable posted this link for one of the mods there (Shakti's Book of Secrets, I think). There is another that adds NPC Merchants at each Temple location. Each merchant has 250k (enough to buy some of our high value loot) and has a PC-usable chest next to her for storage of things you don't want to sell. At the very least, it lets you max out your carrying capacity and ALMSIVI Intervention or Divine Intervention to quickly sell/dispose of those heavy weapons.

http://home.austin.rr.com/shakti/morrow ... lugins.htm

S_S

EDIT: Fixed Link

Sirius_Sam · Post by **Sirius_Sam** » Tue May 28, 2002 11:42 pm

As an addendum, It's so ridiculously easy to earn money in the game anyway, I don't really see how giving the vendors a decent stash of coin would affect gameplay in the slightest (except maybe to cut down on some travel time).

If you want to be a "bartering" character, it's nothing to spend a few hours purchasing common soulgems in Tel Branora...filling the gem with an Ancestral Ghost (or some other 4k drake soul)...then selling the filled gems to the Creeper in Caldera. Instantly lucrative and you'll never run out of money.

Wealthy Merchants would just streamline the process and make dungeon crawling more lucrative and, possibly more enjoyable

S_S

Doc Atlas · Post by **Doc Atlas** » Wed May 29, 2002 12:19 am

cjdevito: Think about it, I play this game too... Do you see me complaining about not being able to sell some loot? When I sell my high end weapons and armor I do it within standard gameplay, without special mods designed to generate huge amounts of money.

I guess you would rather cheat than spend more time but have the satisfaction of making the money within the game's designed boundaries. Anyway, since you are highly intelligent, I will tell you how to sell your stuff. First sell things to a vendor that are just within their bargaining range. Over time they will amass a bunch of mid-high end gear that will give them bargaining power. Then trade your phat loot for the stuff you sold them previously. Stack all that stuff on the ground, go to a bed, rest for 24 hours, go back, sell the stuff on the ground to the vendor again, repeat.

Now stop whining!

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed May 29, 2002 6:05 am

Guys, let's not get into the Famous Cheating Argument, here. Instead, let's just focus on people putting up reviews of merchant mods they've encountered--what they offered, how well it worked, etc. Okay?

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Wed May 29, 2002 8:34 am

Of course, Fable. I wouldn't want to be accused of whining by pointing out how Doc's system is an exploit designed to get around the same problem I have issues with. Can't have that.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Wed May 29, 2002 8:42 am

Wealthy Merchants would just streamline the process and make dungeon crawling more lucrative and, possibly more enjoyable

Thanks, Sam. It's nice to see -someone- got the point.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed May 29, 2002 9:15 am

Glad to see you take the high road.

flash95 · Post by **flash95** » Wed May 29, 2002 12:28 pm

it just takes a bit longer...
I was able to sell 130K worth of armor using skamp

now I sell to no one else