Preview Gothic 3 details at WoG

[Spazmo]

Tags: Gothic III; Piranha Bytes

Gothic fansite <a href=http://www.worldofgothic.com/>World of Gothic</a> managed to talk to Mike Hoge</a>, who I guess is involved with Gothic III. Their man on the scene returned with <a href=http://www.worldofgothic.com/?go=artikel_bremen>a full report.</a><blockquote>The philosophy of giving as much freedom to the player as possible had to be balanced with the need of retelling the story. To get on with the story they concentrated on dialogues the player had to "work off". In Gothic3 they want to break with this system and let the player choose how he wants to play the game. There won't be a defined way of upcoming meetings. Hoge used an example from Gothic2: You won't need to join a guild to get to Lord Hagen, it would be one out of many ways to reach your target. If you meet Lord Hagen it doesn't mean that he listens to you willingly, you'll maybe have to do some favours for him. The system doesn't only require different solutions but also results in different endings.</blockquote>Different solutions and different endings? You're talking my language, designer man.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</A>

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Sounds promising.

Now if they could just do something about combat...

 

[Whipporowill]

Nothing wrong with the combat, rather than your hand-eye coordination. Tsk tsk.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

It was too jerky for me. There is nothing wrong with my hand-eye coordination. Believe me. I just would like to see a more Blades Of Darkness style combat setup as well as a possible targetting system.

 

[Old Scratch]

I think the combat in Gothic is fine. I would prefer they continue to focus more intently on furthering the other aspects. Has it been announced if you will still be stuck as The Guy in the third one?

 

[Whipporowill]

Yes, you will be "the guy" for the third installment. And you're supposedly not a total n00b either, as in the other two games.

 

[Old Scratch]

Guess that makes sense, considering the little twist with the Xanos guy or whatever his name was. Glad they're not going the noob route again though, that would be a little ridiculous for a second time.

 

[voodoo1man]

I just would like to see a more Blades Of Darkness style combat setup as well as a possible targetting system.

It's people like you that make baby jesus cry.

 

[Eclecticist]

I would personally find it hilarious if you started out as a n00b once more...

Ah, the old Gothic combat debate. My contribution: Gothic combat = Good.

 

[Fez]

They are taking out the NPC schedules and there are the usual rumours of mounts and other possible transport too. I hope they make this one more mod friendly at least.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

It's people like you that make baby jesus cry.

Let him cry, I say. :twisted:

 

[Whipporowill]

Taking out the npc schedules? Wtf?! Where did you hear that? Only major difference I heard about was that the guilds are optional this time - you don't have to join.

 

[fnordcircle]

Taking out NPC schedules would be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of unless they were talking about making them more dynamic and less scripted.

NPC schedules was the top of the list of things that set Gothic apart from Morrowind.

AND THE COMBAT WAS FINE YOU UNTALENTED JERKS, SO GO CRY IN YOUR SPILLED WASD MILK.

 

[Visceris]

Never played the first Gothic but the second one sucked ass. The combat was terrible. In a CRPG you are supposed to use you character's skills to fight, not the player's. The graphics was irksome, there was no character creation, and the overall GUI sucked major ass. Man, it is the only game in my collection I would rate lower than NWN.

 

[fnordcircle]

In a CRPG you are supposed to use you character's skills to fight, not the player's.

Hey, that's great considering Gothic lets you do both.

 

[Old Scratch]

Never played the first Gothic but the second one sucked ass. The combat was terrible. In a CRPG you are supposed to use you character's skills to fight, not the player's. The graphics was irksome, there was no character creation, and the overall GUI sucked major ass. Man, it is the only game in my collection I would rate lower than NWN.

It was a mix of both. You couldn't do shit on player skills alone, but they could help you gain an advantage. The graphics were some of the best I had seen in a game at the time, so that makes no sense.

If I remember what you said at the lair Visc, you didn't even play it for more than thirty minutes to an hour, did you?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Well, I thought the combat blew chunks. Simple as that. Don't like it? Shove that wasd up your ass.

 

[Old Scratch]

It's ESDF for me, so put that in your pipe and smoke it! And the combat was good. It wouldn't win any action game awards, but it was effective. You're simply delusional if you disagree.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Oh yeah?! Well... well... MY DAD CAN BEAT UP YOUR DAD!!!! :D

 

[Visceris]

If I remember what you said at the lair Visc, you didn't even play it for more than thirty minutes to an hour, did you?

I couldn't get that into it because it sucked so bad.

 

[fnordcircle]

I couldn't get that into it because it sucked so bad.

I'll remember to keep my replies to you under two sentences, Colonel Attention-Span.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Gothic's controls sucked pretty bad. I don't like how Gothic 2's default controls reverted to the "Gothic" controls and I was playing with them for the first couple of hours before realizing that it could be changed. It was also awkward how you, a hero of no little amount of fame manages to get his ass kicked by a pair of goblins.

 

[Dhruin]

Taking out the npc schedules? Wtf?! Where did you hear that? Only major difference I heard about was that the guilds are optional this time - you don't have to join.

Can't find the right reference at the moment (not helped by my German) but I've seen a different interpretation / translation of the bit in Mike Hoge's recent speech covered below that suggested the schedules had to be backed off to accomodate some of the other stuff. Not sure how real this is and I might check with our GothicDot guys for their interpretation.

http://www.worldofgothic.com/?go=artikel_bremen

. In the beginning, he describes that they had to reduce their fantastic ideas and the size of the world because they reached the limits of their technical capabilities and had to meet deadlines. They had to cancel the multiplayer and the graphic restricted facial expresses of the NPCs in dialogues.

 

[Fez]

I can't find the references, maybe Dhruin will turn something up, but I do remember the developer saying they were cutting them out. They are expanding the world greatly and including other features, so it is not considered feasible by them to include the schedules anymore.

 

[Fenris]

From the german Article:

Er erläutert anfangs, nach einer Begrüßung, die Zielsetzung der Gothic Teile, eine glaubwürdige lebendige Welt zu erschaffen, was durch bestimmte Mittel wie z.B. das der Tagesabläufe der Charaktere gewährleistet wird.

I would translate it this way:

He explained at the Beginning that the goal of the Gothic Series is to create a credible, living World, what will be achieved through certain Things i.e. daily schedules of the Characters.