Game News Everything you've ever wanted to know about Gothic 3

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Gothic III; Piranha Bytes

Here is a summary of an upcoming <a href=http://www.gothic3.com>Gothic 3</a> preview in PC Action (German mag), courtesy of <a href=http://www.worldofgothic.de/>World of Gothic</a>:
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<blockquote>* There will be around 550 different quests, of which 25 belong to the main story. It won't be possible to do all quests in one game, because a large part is only available when a certain group favours you.
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* The hero will have 9 different attributes.
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* There are about 70 different talents/perks in seven different professions:
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o Fighting (17)
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o Hunting (10)
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o Magic (11)
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o Forging/Smithing (5)
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o Thief skills (11)
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o Alchemy (7)
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o Other talents (6)
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The developers think it will be possible to reach about level 30. For every level you'll get the usual 10 learning points and every skill or talents costs 5 LP.
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* It'll take about 50 hours to finish the main story. For the rest of the quests you'll need another 100 hours.
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* The player will spend about 60% of the time in the woods and fields of Myrtana. The other 40% will be spend in the desert area of Varant and the snowy planes of Nordmarr, about 20% each.
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* There are around 1000 different items to be found in the entire world.
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* For the 250.000 dialogs 62 different voice-actors were used. That is about 18 hours of spoken dialog.
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* The zoom options of the camera range from first-person perspective to bird-eye view.
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* The following system requirements are mentioned in the article:
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Minimum
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2 GHZ
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512MB Ram
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128 MB Graphics card
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Recommended
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3GHZ
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1024 MB Ram
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Geforce 6800</blockquote>Sweet. They had me from "It won't be possible to do all quests in one game, because a large part is only available when a certain group favours you."
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Jasede]

Ah, excellent. PC Action is a very.... Codex-like magazine in some ways [it's full of profanity, for example]. They are to be trusted.

 

[Elwro]

Sweet. They had me from "It won't be possible to do all quests in one game, because a large part is only available when a certain group favours you."

They had me from the first "*".

 

[Gambler]

Forging/Smithing (5)

What annoys me in Gothic is that Forging leads nowhere. Yes, you can make a good sword, but when you find a better swords and get some money, your forging talent becomes completely redundant. It would be interesting to have some kind of system where you are able to make adequate weapons later in the game.

 

[somnium]

:D 550 quest where of a large number are only available if a certain group favours you, this seem like my kind of game.
The 9 attributes and 70 different perks should really allow some customisation of your characters, something that was missing from the previous gothics in my opinion.

What I really like about gothic though is that the game (especially the game) mechanics seem to actually improve with each new instalment, unlike most games these times.
Wile I look forward to this game I look even more forward to the next. I wonder how they will improve the game the next time, a feeling I thought I lost long ago.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

In Gothic 2, IIRC, the best weapon (ore dragon-slayer two-handed thingy) had to be forged by you. Couldn't get it any other way.

Birds eye view would be an interesting way to play, Gothic heh.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What I really like about gothic though is that the game (especially the game) mechanics seem to actually improve with each new instalment, unlike most games these times.

Wile I look forward to this game I look even more forward to the next. I wonder how they will improve the game the next time, a feeling I thought I lost long ago.

Yep. A long forgotten feeling indeed.

In Gothic 2, IIRC, the best weapon (ore dragon-slayer two-handed thingy) had to be forged by you. Couldn't get it any other way.

Yep. Forging was well done in G2. Out of top 3 melee weapons, 2 are forged ore blades.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

If they get the voice acting right, and some balance to the game with a decent interface and controls, I'm there. Oh, and have a plot that's interesting.

However the amount of skills seem like it's possible there's some oversaturation. I'd place money on there being a fair few skills that turn out to be completely useless.

 

[Surgey]

But what if, instead of putting points into forging, you put them into other things, like fighting. Wouldn't that mean you wouldn't need the sword, because you're just really good at using a sword that isn't as good, so that it's about the same or better in power? At least, that would make sense to me.

 

[Nedrah]

You really had to get a profession in G2. Every profession would give you certain advantages, forging only being one of them. I always liked being a hunter for example, as the "work" consisted of killing things and snuffing really big bad monsters had the added bonus of earning you the $$$ for their skin. But brewing your own potions or what have you obviously had it's advantages, too - enough so to offset not geting the forged swords, actually. Pretty damn fine balanced if you ask me.

 

[elander_]

550 quests looks like an exageration even for a game with 100 hours of gameplay. Either these are very short quests or these are mostly isolated quests with little influence on the world (except for the main quest of course). I would rather have less quests but more complex and with more side-effects and consequences over different factions of the world.

Anyway it looks like this is going to be an action game with rpg elements better than most rpgs.

 

[Crichton]

Naked Lunch wrote:
In Gothic 2, IIRC, the best weapon (ore dragon-slayer two-handed thingy) had to be forged by you. Couldn't get it any other way.

Yep. Forging was well done in G2. Out of top 3 melee weapons, 2 are forged ore blades.

If we're talking about NOTR, than this isn't true

By damage, (and ignoring Beliar's Claw, which also isn't forged)

1. Berserker Axe (not forged at all)
2. Dragon Slicer (not forged at all) (Note, due to better reach, Dragon Slicer is better even though it does slightly less damage)
3. Upgraded Holy Sword (forged by Harad and then blessed twice, you don't do any forging)
4. Ore blade (bennet teaches you how to forge it)

In straight G2, the best three were (holy sword, ore blade, dragon slicer, so one of the top three was)

In any case, the mercenary gets his best melee weapons by forging (again igoring Beliar's Claw), no one else does. Forging is still the best money-maker since there's a huge (infinite in NOTR) supply of raw materials and it's nice and quick. Sadly there's no point in learning how to make better swords until you get to the ore blades.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

"There will be around 550 different quests, of which 25 belong to the main story. It won't be possible to do all quests in one game, because a large part is only available when a certain group favours you."

Sounds good, especially the "won't be possible to do all quests in one game" part.
Gothic 3 devs cured from recent Oblivionitis? I hope so.

 

[Volourn]

550 quests (minus exclusive ones) in about 150 hours? HAHAHAHAHA! I forsee deep, complex, far reaching quests galore! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

[somnium]

550 quests (minus exclusive ones) in about 150 hours? HAHAHAHAHA! I forsee deep, complex, far reaching quests galore! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

It seem that you a have a problem with reading

Combine this

It won't be possible to do all quests in one game, because a large part is only available when a certain group favours you.

With this

It'll take about 50 hours to finish the main story. For the rest of the quests you'll need another 100 hours.

It seems obvious to me that they mean 150 hours for a single play through. Still it sounds a bit small indeed, even if more then half of the quest can't be completed in one play through.

But I don't think you can use quest time as a measurement for how deep the quests will be. Because for example a dungeon hack quest could take a few hours to complete (if the dungeon is long enough and has enough monsters) but a well thought moral decision could only take a few minutes.
We will have to wait and see how the quests are going to be.

 

[Volourn]

"It seem that you a have a problem with reading"

It seems that you have a problem with reading.


I wrote: "(minus exclusive ones)"

Are you just daft, or just stupid?

 

[somnium]

"It seem that you a have a problem with reading"

It seems that you have a problem with reading.


I wrote: "(minus exclusive ones)"

Are you just daft, or just stupid?

Mmmh, I might be a bit daft. But I thought that you meant that only the main quest where restricted by your reputation so to speak, witch is not true. I guess that there will about 200-300 quest that you can complete in one play through

 

[Thrawn05]

Any word on combat control yet? Gothic 2 gave me mallet finger.

 

[Crichton]

Any word on combat control yet? Gothic 2 gave me mallet finger.

The same thing they said about G2, everything's redesigned and everyone (old fans and new) will love it. Gameplay videos seem to indicate that things won't be as jerky as the previous games, my guess is something like oblivious, a far cry from the gold standard (jedi academy)

 

[Lord Chambers]

WHO THE FUCK GIVES A SHIT ABOUT HOW MANY QUESTS THERE ARE?! Honestly. I was NOT given the memo when this became the motherfucking focus of every motherfucking game on the plane.

I like going around "doing stuff" in Gothic 2 because they are all logical things to do given the events in the game. A quest to kill an orc so I can prove myself to Harad is sensible. This quest is nested in the bigger goal of becoming a citizen, which of course is so I can access the upper quarter. I don't give a shit how many quests there are, or whether I'm completing quests or not. I'm motivated by the story and the far-off goal in Gothic 2, and that's why I like it, as opposed to Oblivion where the gameplay consists of going on a quest, then returning back to the person who gave it to you for a meaningless status upgrade in the guild and to get a new quest that also has little coherance with anything else in the game.

The difference is a focus on the quest versus a focus on the plot. I'm disheartened to find Gothic 3's development might be heading toward the quest paradigm.

 

[Binary]

WHO THE FUCK GIVES A SHIT ABOUT HOW MANY QUESTS THERE ARE?!

YEAH!!! We just want the platemail bikinis, platemail thongs and platemail platform high heels! Is there anything more important on a RPG?!

 

[Thrawn05]

Is there anything more important on a RPG?!

Bugbears on Rollerskates.

 

[Gambler]

YEAH!!! We just want the platemail bikinis

Your post is pointless, and Lord Chambers is actually right. You should not measure a game in terms of quest numbers, or any numbers for that matter. And good game should be coherent.

 

[elander_]

YEAH!!! We just want the platemail bikinis, platemail thongs and platemail platform high heels! Is there anything more important on a RPG?!

Some nice piece of female butt and boobies to put all that stuff on???

 

[Elwro]

I like going around "doing stuff" in Gothic 2 because they are all logical things to do given the events in the game.

Damn right. While the main story is not impressive, the "small stuff" you get to do is where the game shines and where, I think, lies the key to the famed immersion.