The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Author's Foreword
Creating Your Character (An Overview)
The Skills
The Races
The Signs
Controls
Magic & Combat
Crime & Punishment
Goods & Services
Coming Soon
Version History, Credits, & Contact Information
Morag Tong Guild
Power Leveling Skills
  
  
For those of you fortunate enough to be playing the PC version of this game, this section is dedicated to helping you get accustomed to the game's controls. I also denote several things that the game doesn't make glaringly obvious to you from its outset, so this section is worth perusing even if you are familiar with Morrowind's controls.

First things first, let's go over the commands themselves. You have the ability to set up your controls in any manner you please, so it helps to know a little something about the commands available to you, as well as which ones will and won't be helpful to you. The following chart details each command in the game:
Command Usefulness Comments
Move Vital Forward, back, right, and left- your basic and obviously vital movement commands. The mouse is used to look around and to turn, and the left and right movement commands can be set to either turn or strafe in the controls menu. Also note that if a controller with a d-pad is utilized, the d-pad will serve these functions by default and cannot be changed.
Use Vital This is essentially your character's all-purpose "attack" command. It'll use whatever weapon, item, or spell you have readied. If nothing is at the ready, this button does nothing.
Activate Vital Used to talk to other characters, open doors, take things, and to otherwise manipulate your general surroundings. It will only effect the area covered by the crosshairs visible in the 1st-person mode, and your range is rather limited barring the use of a telekinesis spell.
Ready Weapon/Spell Vital The "ready weapon" command will set your character's currently selected weapon or item to ready; "ready spell" will ready the currently selected spell or enchanted item. The "use" command will utilize the readied equipment/spell, or you may press the appropriate "ready" key a second time to set your character at ease (nothing at the ready).
Next/Previous Weapon Handy Cycles through all weapons available to your character. Of limited use after you've looted a dungeon or armory and are lugging around fifty thousand fucking weapons, but it is otherwise useful in toggling between ranged and melee weapons, assuming you have only one of each.
Next/Previous Spell Useless Cycles through a character's list of known spells. While not entirely worthless, even the lowliest mage tends to know quite a few spells, which makes selecting them via the sub-menu far less of a hassle.
Jump Vital Self-explanatory.
Sneak Handy/Vital Hold button to enter sneak mode, in which your character will attempt to remain unnoticed by anything nearby. Depending on your teyp of character, you'll either use sneak mode a lot or barely at all, but it's a command worth having access to simply as it is useful in determining if anyone can see you at any given moment.
Run Useless Hold this button down to run, or so the game says. Due to an apparent bug, this button more often than not won't work, making the "Always Run" option your only method of running.
Auto Run Useless Press once to make your character walk (or run) forward until told otherwise. Only useful if you're really lazy.
Always Run Vital Toggles the "always run" option. When this option is active, your character will always run rather than walk. A vital command since the basic run command never seems to want to work.
Toggle POV Handy Switches between 1st-person and 3rd-person view. Hold this button down and move the mouse to examine your character from all angles. Picking up objects and aiming ranged weapons are both much easier to do in the 1st-person view since a targeting mark is provided there.
Menu Mode Vital Pulls up your character's sub-menus: stats, inventory, map, and spells & magic items. Also pauses the game.
Rest Vital Brings up the rest menu, and also pauses the game.
Journal Vital Views your character's journal, as well as pauses the game. Press the journal button again to exit back to the game. Unless you have a super memory, you'll need access to this command, but it needn't be in a readily accessible position.
Quicksave/Quickload Handy Saves to and loads from a quicksave file. Frequent saving is highly necessary in this game, as crashes do occur from time to time.
Quick Menu/Quick Keys Handy Allows you to assign up to nine spells, weapons, or items to "quick keys" from the "quick menu". 0 - 9 are the default quick keys, with 0 unable to be assigned to any command other than "set weapon: unarmed". Highly useful for any player with hand-to-hand as a major/minor skill.
Console Vital Pulls up the console, which can be used to cheat, fix glitches in the game, or both. This command cannot be assigned to any key other than the ~. A list of console commands can be found near the end of this section.
 
Now that we've gone over the various commands available to you, your first priority should be to organize a controller configuration that you will be comfortable with. The mouse will invariably factor into your controller setup, as it is the only method of looking up and down, as well as interacting with several of the on-screen menus. By default, the game is set up to have you control it with one hand on the mouse, and the other on the keyboard. Some players may find that the enjoy this setup, in which case not much adjustment is necessitated. However, if you're like me and prefer a convenient USB controller to the awkward settings of a keyboard, let me give you a few pointers to keep in mind when setting up your controls.

The game is unfortunately kind of glitchy when it comes to setting up controllers. The best way to set up your controller configuration is to turn the controller option off, and then to assign all of the commands that will not be placed on buttons on your controller. This includes commands that will be assigned to your mouse buttons. Once that is taken care of, turn on the option that allows for the use of a controller and set those buttons. Even though you will not be able to see any of the mouse or keyboard assingments, they will still remain in the position to which they were set unless you change them.

There is a bug in the game, however, where several controller buttons are preset to certain positions. While these positions may be switched to other buttons on the controller, they will always revert to their original positions each time you start up the game. It is possible, however, to assign these commands to a mouse button or keyboard key and have them maintain the selected settings in addition to the preset controller buttons. The affected commands (and buttons) are: Activate, B0; Journal, B7; Rest, B8; Toggle POV, B9.

When selecting button assignments for a configration that involves the use of a controller, there is first and foremost one major thing to bear in mind. That is with that one hand on a joystick or d-pad, and the other on the mouse, there are only so many buttons that are readily acessible without moving one of your hands to another position (either to the keyboard or the other half of the controller). Ergo, the most important commands (use, activate, and menu mode) should be placed in buttons easily accessible from either position. This will include both of the buttons on your mouse, the mouse wheel (if applicable), and also any applicable shoulder buttons on your controller (i.e., the L1 and L2 buttons on a mock-Playstation controller). Also note that the sneak and toggle POV commands are also two major candidates for those positions if you use them.

It's also very important to note that, for controllers only, a button can trigger more than one command. Assinging two commands that work well together to one button can be very helpful if done correctly. For example, I enjoy setting both Sneak and Use to the same button on my controller. Not only does this help to conserve my available buttons, Sneak and Use are two commands that are often used in conjunction with one another. Holding my Sneak/Use button down will command my character to sneak up on her opponent as she prepares to strike (refer to section II.B. of the FAQ for more information). Sneaking without hitting something is as easy as putting her weapon away beforehand.

Next up, I'll speak about the console. Pressing the ~ button at any time during the game brings up the console window, which is basically an in-game game editor. To use the console window, simply type a command into it and press enter. There are literally hundreds of commands that the console will understand, but the vast majority of them fall under the "advanced users only" category. There are, however, a few basic commands which would behoove any player to know. Those commands are detailed in the chart that follows:
Command What It Does
ra Resets all NPC's and monsters to their default positions. Useful for moving NPC's that are blocking doorways or replacing silt strider operators that have fallen from their platforms.
tcl Toggles collision. Essentially, if your character becomes somehow entrapped by his or her surroundings turning this off should allow you to free yourself. Thanks for one, Bec!
tgm Toggles god mode. When god mode is activated, your character cannot be damanged.
tfow Toggles the fog of war. When this option is active, any part of the map that your character has not seen will be blacked out on the menu screen. The default setting for this option is on.
fillmap Marks every city and indoor location on your map. The marks are visible even through the fog of war, and the effect is permanent unless you revert to an earlier save or restart the game.
filljournal Adds every possible entry to your journal. It takes an obscene amount of time, even on a faster machine, and is only useful to demonstrate just how many things there are to do and see in this game.
coc "x" Will instantly transport you to most cities in the game, where x is the name of the city.
player->setx"y" Allows you to alter any of your character's stats or skill levels, where x is the name of the skill or stat, and y is the desired value.
setpccrimelevel"y" Sets your character's bounty, where y is the desired value. Be warned that you will be attacked on sight by any manner of law enforcement if this number gets too high, and that the console is the only method of restoring it to zero past that point. Please refer to section II.C. of the FAQ for more information.
lock"y" Allows you to lock any door or container in the game, where y is the desired lock level. To indicate the desired target, left-click on it while the console window is open (its name should appear on the title bar of the console window).
unlock Allows you to unlock any locked door or container in the game. To indicate the desired target, left-click it while the console window is open (its name should appear on the title bar of the console window).
 
Something I should probably talk a little about, also, is your character's sub-menu screens. As you should already know, hovering your mouse over any of your character's skills will yeild additional information about that skill, as well as your character's progress towards gaining a level in that skill. What you should have also guessed, but I'm going to tell you anyways is that doing the same thing to just about anything else in any of your sub-menus will have the same effect. This is specifically important in helping you idenfity all that crap you're no doubt carrying around in your inventory.

Speaking of the stuff in your inventory, using it is normally as simple as picking it up, dragging it over to the portrait of your character, and clicking on him or her. This is how all manners of weapons and armor are equipped, how items such as torches and lockpicks are equipped, and how potions and alchemy ingredients are consumed. It is also how the game's more advanced activities are initiated, such as creating potions with alchemy equipment, repairing your equipment with hammers and prongs, or using soul gems to create or recharge an enchanted item. Occasionally, it may become necessary to discard an item from your inventory. To do this, merely pick an item up by clicking on it, and then click anywhere outside the inventory window to drop the item onto the ground.

Lastly, before I wrap this section up, there are actually two more special commands in the game (besides the console, which I already mentioned), and they are special in the sense that neither of them are mentioned in the manual, or anywhere else, for that matter. The first is deleting spells, which can be very important in reducing unwanted clutter from your spell menu. Simply hold shift and left-click on any spell that isn't granted by a birthsign to delete it. The second command enables you to take a screenshot at any time during the game with your keyboard's "print screen" key. In order to do this, you must first enable screenshots in the "Morrowind.ini" file. To do this, use Notepad to open the file, which is located in the game's main directory. Locate the line that reads "enable screen shot=0", change the 0 to a 1, and then save your changes and exit Notepad. All screenshots you take will be saved to your game's main directory.
    
Last Update: December 13, 2005 Contributors: BTB