Gothic 3

[Monocause]

I've decided to finally get into the Gothic series, but I'd rather start with the third installment - because I've heard that there are serious problems with new graphic drivers compatibility in the earlier ones and I don't want to start this experience by fooling around with critical files. While some of you will undoubtedly bash G3, I've noticed that here and around the net there's some praise for the post-community patch game. I did read about the differences between G3 and its predecessors so it won't stop me from eventually trying them too.

My question is - what do you recommend in terms of patches? What should I download? Should I get the expansion too, or does it break the game somehow? Are there any character builds or choices that I should avoid because they're overpowered/boring/unplayable etc?

 

[Reject_666_6]

Just get the 1.7.2 Community Patch and that's it. It's really big, though: almost 900 Mb. Install it over whatever version you have because you don't need any normal patches to install it.

In terms of builds, I would suggest playing as an archer. It's the least broken out of the other two. Get the skills to skin furries, lizards and to collect teeth ASAP - they're pretty much vital in order to get reasonable ammounts of gold. Also, a big piece of slightly powergaming advice is to wait until you're completed every location's quests before you start liberating the cities of Orcs or decimating the rebel camps.

Class tips:
-Fighters are broken because wild animals will obliterate you however good you may be unless you use exploits like hitting from a higher elevation or using hit&run constantly. Also, weapons are pretty broken too cause your starting sword will be adequate against Orcs, your main enemy, for a LOOONG time.

-Archers are the easiest to exploit by just using the hit$run tactic. Basically they can kill anything eventually because there's no damage reduction in enemies, just more hp. Try to keep yourself from taking on dragons or trolls until you're higher-level, just to keep the game more fun.

-Never got far enough to try magic effectively, but I read that they're overpowered, so don't play as one.

A word of caution: I've basically completed all of Myrtana, which is one of the three continents and about 2/5 of the game which took a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG TIME, then I got bored of it and stopped playing. You WILL GET BORED and NEVER finish the game, I'm telling you. Think about that before playing.

 

[Monocause]

How about the expansion, should I get it? And maybe you got bored because - like you said - did every single quest before progressing the storyline; maybe the game's designed without having completionists in mind?

 

[Azrael the cat]

How about the expansion, should I get it? And maybe you got bored because - like you said - did every single quest before progressing the storyline; maybe the game's designed without having completionists in mind?

No, it's an odd approach: you have to get reputation in a certain number of towns to either get trusted by the orcs or get the humans ready to revolt, and that requires that you do enough quests in that area, so you're basically forced to be at least semi-completionist.

 

[Krokar]

And stay the fuck away from expansion. It's terrible. Very terrible.

 

[vazquez595654]

Just tried the game again with 1.72. It's still shit. The game is just a mess of ideas with terrible execution. Don't bother.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I tried to play G3 once. No matter the settings, it was choppy as a fucking WAAAGHing Ork.

german precision

 

[Morkar Left]

It´s a good game with 1.72. Play on hard. it´s similar to the usual challenge of the other gothic games. The AI is somewhat better on hard. The difficulty level easy allows one enemy to attack you on melee, two at normal and three at hard. Humanoids on hard are ok as enemies, but the monsters have too much hitpoints which can be annoying (or doing too much damage depending on your point of view). Fear the boar!
There is a Questpaket in german. I think it is the expansion mentioned here. It´s not bad and brings in more dialog (without voices or awful voices in german), but could have been better. I still recommend it for more flavour and breaking the linearity of the townvisits.
Here is a texture package which make the game darker like the previous gothic games.

But I would highly recommend that you start with gothic 1 + 2 (with texture packages and a balancing mod). It´s really worth it if you like action-adventures with freedom of move and rpg elements.

 

[Shannow]

For once emo sucker is right. Turning to G3 because you fear technical issues with the others is very strange...
Anyway, while I still enjoyed G3, it is broken in various ways. I strongly suggest you go with the first installments first.
If you persist in this foolery there are a few options for playing G3:
Get the 1.72 patch. Decide whether you want an easy game where you can become master of everything or a slightly more challenging game where you have to focus skills. So original balancing vs alternative balancing(AB).

Char dev tips:
Again depends on how challenging you want the game to be. I'd suggest you go with bow until you can learn the skinning skills. They are a great source of income and especially with the AB gold can be an issue. Then you can go different ways:
Melee: I don't have much tips here since I rarely used it. But with enough strength you'll be able to one-hit most stuff eventually. With the AB enemies in groups like orcs, skeletons, zombies and humans will parry if you attack them while their friends attack you from the flank.
Archer: Aim for the head.
Mage: Most powerful. You only need the base attack depending on the magic school you chose (fireball, iceball, bolt) and some versatillity spells like open lock, light, etc. If you load up the base attack, it'll do double dmg and follow enemy's movements. In the end you'll again be able to one-hit most enemies with this. You'll also gain awesome aoe spells. Try to go for mana-regeneration early.
Thief/Assassin: Never tried it. Sounded sucky overall.

You can win arena fights even if you didn't focus on melee. Tactics and cheating are your friends.

Best read through the readme of the AB.
Never played the expansion but only heard real bad stuff about it.

EDIT: The fan quest pack was nice, but I don't know how well it translates to english. The expansion pack is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_3:_Forsaken_Gods

Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods mainly obtained negative reviews.

 

[1eyedking]

Get 1.72 only for the bug fixes.

DO NOT play with Alternative Balance. It completely fucks up progression and makes big melee fights a boring chore. DO NOT play with Alternative AI. The only thing it does is introduce "marvelous" tactics such as these.

Learn to deal with early killer wolves by praying for HP; only then will you enjoy the herb-gathering experience that is Gothic 3.

 

[Mangoose]

If the problem is simply new graphics card drivers, it's pretty easy to deal with them. Grab old drivers that are reputed to be compatible Get DriverCleanerPro or DriverSweeper. Uninstall your drivers normally, then run one of the aforementioned programs. (Do it in Safe Mode if you're anal). Install the old drivers. You're set.

Anyways, I don't know what the exact situation is, but I didn't have any problems with drivers and Gothic when I built my new computer at the very end of 2007.

 

[Morkar Left]

The expansion means Forsaken Gods? Never tried that and never will. It seems to be more horrible than the release version of gothic 3 (like a very buggy fan TC).

 

[thesheeep]

I played with both alternate modes and it was quite okay. ESPECIALLY the progression!
Though IMHO it doesn't really matter.

Whatever you will take.... make your char an archer. It's the only class that doesn't suffer too much from the fucked up combat. It's cheesy, though...

 

[Darth Slaughter]

There will be a 1.7.3 version of the community patch. Though it will only fix graphics and sounds mostly.

About gothic, I played all myrtana too. I didn't get bored... and I'm a completionist. I stop because by that time, the first community patch was about to be released. And when i saw that to have all features from the patch, I would have to restart. So i decided to wait for the last patching.

 

[Wulfstand]

Mare, I've just reinstalled G1 and no problems there whatsoever, same for G2+Notr. You should really start with the first game, since both the first and G2:Notr are really all there is to the Gothic series.

In Gothic 3 Xardas (the most important npc in the series) Barely has like what, 6 lines?
Oh and I really couldn't get pass the fact that 1 wild boar/wild wolf could insta kill me, but i could take on a whole orc-ruled city with only 1 npc by my side...

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Start with Gothic, it's the best in the series. Gothic 2 and Gothic 3 are the best proof that bigger isn't always better.

 

[Monocause]

Mare, I've just reinstalled G1 and no problems there whatsoever, same for G2+Notr. You should really start with the first game, since both the first and G2:Notr are really all there is to the Gothic series.

OK, if you say it works, I'll give it a try.

I want to avoid the graphic drivers swap problem simply because nowadays I play a couple of games simultaneously in rather short sessions instead of sticking to one long-session game, like I did a couple of years ago. Outdated graphic drivers often cause a multitude of problems in newer games. It would be a pain to switch back and forth between drivers to play a different game without issues; while it would bring back the sweet memories of the ol' days when I made BG working on my PowerPC mac via a PC emulator and enjoyed it even with an average framerate of ~20 fps, these days I prefer playing games to making them work.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think Gothic 3 is a good and under-rated game.

The main problems with it are performance. Even with a good computer, there's a lot of stuttering and lag. Also, when it was first released there were a lot of bugs. I haven't played it with the latest patch, though.

It's a huge game with lots of quests to get through. Some people say its boring, I disagree. Each region has its own environments and culture. Myrtana, the place you start off, is a green, Western European-style land. The towns here are typical Medieval style. Nordmar is Arctic and mountainous, and the camps are typical Nordic in style. The south is basically a massive desert with a few oases spread about. Its ruled by the Hashashin, slave traders, and some of their cities are fantastic to look at, especially their capital in the extreme south-west.

 

[Reject_666_6]

There will be a 1.7.3 version of the community patch. Though it will only fix graphics and sounds mostly.

About gothic, I played all myrtana too. I didn't get bored... and I'm a completionist. I stop because by that time, the first community patch was about to be released. And when i saw that to have all features from the patch, I would have to restart. So i decided to wait for the last patching.

Well honestly, I could have continued playing after about two weeks of break, but I reinstalled Windows and forgot aobut G3's savegames.