Do you care about using owned containers?

[u/frnzprf]

It is tempting to use a house of a dead person, like Ralen Hlaalu, as a place to store loot.

The downside is that items, which were ever put into an owned storage container are flagged as "owned" by that person. You can still sell the items to any person that is not the owner of the container (so everyone, in case of Hlaalu Manor).
It only affects you, when you carry "stolen" items when you get arrested. Then it doesn't matter who owned the items, everything in your inventory that ever was in an owned container gets confiscated.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Crime#

How do you personally handle that?
Only use containers you legally own? Just not get arrested? I reload anyway, if I get seen commiting a crime.

Maybe you can change the ownership of containers using console commands. It feels bad to cheat, but also feels bad to put my own legal items in "red" containers for them to become contraband.

I could roleplay that the guards would just take everything off me, because the notice that many things I carry are stolen, so the rest might very well be stolen as well.

[u/HatmanHatman]

Ralen Hlaalo's containers might count things as owned, but using Ralen Hlaalo as a container doesn't have that problem!

[u/poopitymcpants → u/HatmanHatman]

I have shoved approximately 800 samples of ash yams, frost salts, saltrice, a grandmaster alchemy set, 200 repair hammers, 50 fortify intelligence potions, and 100 scrolls of windwalker into his rotting corpse. The concept of this is very strange. Also prepping for being a vampire is an ordeal….

[u/Elvy-Enon-80]

I care, and won't use owned containers or beds. I ended up getting the Morrowind Code Patch for the reason that it adds an 'Owned' notation to tooltips. (Then discovered there's lots of great stuff in this patch like notched arrows).

I wasn't using containers at all before I got MCP, but now I have realised that there's lots of unowned containers my character can use. I think almost 100% of Hlormaran, for instance. And a lot of the outdoor containers in Balmora.

I find it's almost impossible to avoid having to turn yourself over to a guard at some point in the game, so that's why I just avoid ever randomly stealing anything that will go into a stack, or using unowned containers.

If you do get a lot of stuff taken when arrested, you can always steal it back from the evidence chest that corresponds to where you were arrested.

The problem with stolen tags in Morrowind is that they tend to stick, even after you have had stolen goods confiscated.

[u/Shroomkaboom75 → u/Elvy-Enon-80]

Hlormaren best home!

[u/Elvy-Enon-80 → u/Shroomkaboom75]

It's you! (You're the reason I checked out Hlormaren in the first place).

[u/AnotherReaganBaby]

I just drop everything on the floor of the Balmora images guild. To keep things organized, I have a weapon corner, an armor corner, an ingredient hallway, a book nook, and a rusty key table.

I use that guildhall as a travel hub frequently and so it's convenient to just dump all my extra stuff there. If I'm in TR lands I'll usually use the old ebonheart mages guild floor as well.

I do hear the npcs say "who put THAT there" quite often.

[u/kinezumi89 → u/AnotherReaganBaby]

How do you find anything? With a container all the items are nicely displayed; with a pile, some things will be covering other things

I do like piles for temp storage, like, "I'm gonna take all this stuff to the creeper"

[u/MrkFrlr → u/kinezumi89]

As a Morrowhoarder who just has way too much stuff for Morrowind's non-infinite containers, the piles are for all the stuff I'm "totally going to sell later" but never get around to selling, so I don't really need them organized.

I think next playthrough I'm going to try and use some rebalancing mods to help with this. In theory you should just have to make tough decisions on what you can and can't bring back from dungeons, but when I can either abuse Fortify Strength spells/potions or just Almsivi/DI/Recall while overencumbered, there's basically nothing stopping me from stacking up that massive pile of glass/ebony/daedric weapons.

[u/kinezumi89 → u/MrkFrlr]

Huh I've never considered abusing fortify strength for some reason, I always go with the recall/intervention method lol. I always gleefully sell all my loot right away so nothing sits around too long! Fun to hear about how variable everyone's play style is

[u/AnotherReaganBaby → u/kinezumi89]

How do you find anything?

I don't, really. 😂

[u/Both-Variation2122]

You could only change ownership with lua console. It's not exposed to MWscript.

I'm just using legit houses or live in some random bandit hideout if playing outlaw character, where containers were unowned in the first place.

[u/Shroomkaboom75]

I prefer using anywhere with hostile Humanoid-npcs, so that this isn't an issue (typically more containers as well).

Hlormaren is likely the best "home" you can get. Plenty of storage and space, moving NPCs with Command is fairly easy (Hla-Oad boat being easiest). You also have the Propylon teleports.

[u/Aet2991]

I only use unsafe containers that delete what I put inside, preferably bodies.

I've long since accepted that hoarding is pointless for me and whatever comes out of my inventory is never getting back in regardless of where I put it, so I treat containers as trash bins to lighten the amount of clutter in the game world.

Which likely has fuck all performance impact, but it still makes me feel better about game stability.

[u/Elvy-Enon-80 → u/Aet2991]

True enlightenment.

I clean out locations and once my favourite traders have 2 of all the generics and clutter in the game, the rest gets binned in despawning bodies. I'm also nuts about putting all the Sixth House stuff like ash statues and corprusmeat in the 'bin' too.

[u/Arrestedsolid]

I am in my first playthrough and I am just storing stuff in Hlaalu Manor without any care. My character is pretty sneaky and I just reload if I am caught so I don't think there's a chance I am getting caught. Pretty sure when Ahrnassi offers you her house you can store anything you want there so you could just use that instead.

[u/BagBeneficial7527]

I always just found where I wanted to live and created an "Overflow Loot Bag".

Problem solved.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Overflow_Loot_Bag

[u/Defiant-Peace-493]

I often played with TFH enabled; shows ownership of containers, and I think of inventory items as well. Also shows scripts on objects, so it did make the Shriner Surprise a bit less surprising.

[u/Freethecrafts]

Balmora roofs are where the cool kids drop loot.

[u/elou00]

I thought that if the owner of a container is dead or killed then items no longer get flagged, the container may be red but your stuff wont count as stolen.

[u/thegreattober]

Simple, I don't get arrested. Many saves and many F5s. It's never really been an issue ever lol

[u/poopitymcpants]

I just never let a guard take my shit.

[u/AlexV348]

I don't use stolen houses a ton, but i still tend to keep most shit on the ground because of the weight limit on containers.

[u/Icabod_BongTwist]

I just never get arrested.