Morrowind Editor Hands-On

The guys over at GamePen were lucky enough to try out the editor for Bethesda’s upcoming Morrowind and have written up an article describing its functionality. Here’s a taste:

While it was only the editor – and not the actual game itself – that I perused, I still got a huge sense of what the game would be like. The first thing I zeroed in on was my curiosity to how NPC interactions would be handled. To my delight, Morrowind will be using a system very similiar to Ultima IV’s – keyword triggers. Every character will have a ton of keywords that will trigger a response. This simple, but elegant, way of interaction has given way to obvious dialogue choice screens in recent years, which gave the feel of being scripted. This way, NPCs can have a wider range of knowledge, especially since it’s just text. There will be, apparently, audio segments as well, as well as reaction to the character itself, with an excellent if-then-else system. For example, the game will check your health – if you’re afflicted with the devastating Corprus disease, most NPCs will tell you they fear your condition and end the conversation there. There will be a ton of stock NPCs, of course, but this system will allow for a limitless amount of possibilities and flexibity.