Gothic Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos mod for Gothic 2

[Justicar]

Well dammit. Karin caught a stray arrow when walking away (cuz sure, a Fire Lizard is wandering in the village, no worries anyone) from Sailor's Retreat to play at the vineyard for 'Heartbreaker' and is now full aggro (and immortal) when I show up. Naturally I went off to do other crap a dozen overwritten saves ago before showing up for the big evening.
Is there a console command to save this quest?

just drop your gold and weapon and let her beat you up negro a bit of bdsm never hurt nobody.

 

[notpl]

I just checked replies in comment section of that video. Sort comments by: newest and you'll see Devs replying several times in last few days. Basically - they continue the work, but tell us to not expect release any time soon

It takes much less manpower to reply to comments on social media than it does to record an orchestral soundtrack, voice acting for 40+ actors, and program an entire game though. I get the feeling that, while plenty of the former is happening, not much of the latter is.

I hope to be proven wrong, though.

 

[The Wall]

Is there some modder drama between History of Khorinis and Chronicles of Myrtana modding teams? Someone stole someone's sword 3D model or girlfriend?

 

[notpl]

Is there some modder drama between History of Khoritis and Chronicles of Myrtana modding teams? Someone stole someone's sword 3D model or girlfriend?

"History of Khorinis" has been in development since 2012 or so. In 2017, some of them developed some kind of grievance or another (they've been very professional about not airing their dirty laundry) and quit to make their own mod, called Chronicles of Myrtana. Four years later, Chronicles of Myrtana is a complete game that puts most professional productions to shame and is immediately beloved by hundreds of thousands of gothic fans, and History of Khorinis has had no meaningful updates.

Just reading between the lines.

 

[The Wall]

Thanks for brief history lesson. You told me everything I need to know. Hey, at least we got Chronicles of Myrtana on our hard-drives!

 

[notpl]

On the bright side, the insane Russian modder who made Returning is still working on his magnum opus, due out some time in 2023, and he claims it's going to be much less fanfiction jank this time.

 

[agris]

Hearing that the devs sold themselves to cdpr is depressing. Another small group of incredible potential is swallowed by another big soulless company. They all probably think that this is a dream come true. Fuck cdpr.

People rage about it, but 99% of people in this thread would have done the exact same thing if they were offered a (probably) well paid job.

Talent alone fills no bellies nor pays rents or mortgages.

That said they probably could have found success as an indie studio.

Where is this "gone to CDPR" info from? I saw it mentioned a few pages back, but it was just a throw-away comment.

 

[notpl]

Hearing that the devs sold themselves to cdpr is depressing. Another small group of incredible potential is swallowed by another big soulless company. They all probably think that this is a dream come true. Fuck cdpr.

People rage about it, but 99% of people in this thread would have done the exact same thing if they were offered a (probably) well paid job.

Talent alone fills no bellies nor pays rents or mortgages.

That said they probably could have found success as an indie studio.

Where is this "gone to CDPR" info from? I saw it mentioned a few pages back, but it was just a throw-away comment.

Nothing specific, but when asked if they intend to make another mod, devs have commented that several of them have already been hired to work at "other Polish game studios" based on their work on the mod and don't intend to work with Gothic any more in the future.

I sincerely *hope* they've been hired for an enormous salary to make popcorn games for the rest of their life, because it's terrible to imagine that they're giving up modding to make slavjank no one has or ever will hear of.

 

[Justicar]

Where is this "gone to CDPR" info from? I saw it mentioned a few pages back, but it was just a throw-away comment.

They got hired by Techland or Cdpr as they are always looking for fresh meat and dont shy away from hiring modders.

Example.
https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-hires-community-mod-makers-to-work-on-cyberpunk-2077/

https://forums.cdprojektred.com/ind...st-design-coordinator-philipp-weber.11014292/

"I started out using the modding tool for The Witcher 2 called “Redkit” and created my mod “Lykaon”, which won a Redkit modding competition. I got a beautiful prize for it: a one-of-a-kind replica of Aerondight, the silver sword Geralt receives from the Lady of the Lake.

After that, I was contacted by Pawel “Banan” Panasiuk from CD Projekt Red, who asked me if I would be interested in applying as a level designer for The Witcher 3. Of course I was, so I prepared a level design test and had an interview with the company. Funny enough I wasn’t hired as a level designer, but as a quest designer instead, because I didn’t just want to build a level, but also added a story and characters to it.

Just a few weeks later I joined the company and started working on Wild Hunt."

 

[fantadomat]

Finished it,last two chapters were total garbage lol. Also shit writing,no choice at all,feel good that i voted for black book as goty,far better game.

 

[Ghaad]

Dex weapons have higher damage because when you score a critical hit strenght is added to damage not dexterity so to compensate they made dex weapons have higher damage. Still I think 160 damage strenght weapon would have higher dps than this with all the critical hits.

Those are the two best 1h for each stat, yeah. Given that damage formula for melee is weapon damage + STR on crits (divided by 10 on non-crits), pure ore would deal 420 damage when you are ready to equip it while sailor woud deal 290 assuming no STR bonuses at all. You would need 140 STR on top of 175 DEX for sailor to deal the same damage as pure ore at 200 STR, no DEX required.

Given the insane amount of bonuses you can get throughout the game, I wouldn't be surprised if combining strength and dexterity gives you the biggest numbers, however I'm not sure about this. Here are my stats just before the final boss fight. I imagine that it's actually possible to get the best of both.

Looking at your build, if you take out the magic circles and the mana investment you get 390 LPs, enough to train to 90 STR and 90 DEX and have 50 LPs left (which you could use to get master blacksmithing-.. and if get rid of pickpocket, also master bowmaking). That means 152 STR and 128 DEX - considering you wouldn't make/ buy spirit potions, but STR/DEX ones, a hybrid looks doable, at least on paper.

Later edit: A bit of theorycrafting
- 113 LPs - 20 + 60 + 33 LPs to get to 71% xbows + 4 from dialogue choices + 15 from set = 90% xbows (I think i read you can get +5% from books and another +5% on the best xbow, so maybe even 100%);
- 27 LPs for all trophy skills (10 skins, 3 lizard skins, 3 claws, 3 teeth, 1 mandibles, 1 stings, 1 wings, 1 fat, 1 shells, 1 tongues, 1 shadowbeast horns, 1 hearts);
- 20 LPs to get 1H to 30%;
- 35 LPs for master blacksmith;
- 35 LPs for master bowmaker;
- 60 LPs for master alchemist;
- 125 LPs to get STR to 75 (20 + 60 + 45) + 60 from made/found potions = 135
- 125 LPs to get DEX to 75 (20 + 60 + 45) + 60 from made/found potions = 135

TOTAL = 540 LPs. It all comes down to how many extra bonuses you get.

 

[Tygrende]

Forget DEX melee, I took a look at crossbows and STR ranged seems like it might be overall superior to DEX.

Best crossbow requires 200 STR and deals 280 damage, 290 with base 10 DEX. It also has 100 armor penetration which is basically 390 damage vs. anything that has at least 100 armor vs. projectiles, which is basically everything that isn't killed instantly anyways at that point.

Best bow is 215 damage, at 200 DEX it's 415 damage.

So with equal investment there's only 25 points of difference between the two. All a crossbow build has to do to be equal to a bow build is get to 35 DEX, it should be possible to go over that by a lot. Bows will have an edge vs. enemies that have little armor but I'm pretty sure all enemies that are a pain to fight ranged have high armor rather than inflated hit points. You also get to be much better at melee, with some DEX to use superior DEX weapons and STR to make them even stronger.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

There's a secret ending. Apparently you can only unlock it by avoiding all sidequests (so definitely not an enjoyable playstyle).

Spoiler

 

[Sjukob]

I wanted to write this yesterday, right after I completed the game, but felt too lazy to do it, so let's do it now.

I want to talk about some things, but I don't feel like explaining the obvious, how Archolos has excellent exploration, really captures the feel of Gothic and stays true to the originals in spirit. I want to adress something else.

First, I want to start with the downsides, I think it's a great game and frankly there are only a few of them:

1. Immortal NPCs everywhere. It's absolutely overdone and reaches outright retarded levels. I can understand why NPCs crucial for the plot are immortal, but why are almost all sidequest related NPCs are immortal too? Why are some random schmucks like Leonzo, fish merchant that sells rotten fish, chalice scammer at the swamps and many others are immortal too? Just what the fuck were they thinking?! I think the dumbest occasion I've seen of this happens in chapter 3, when you have to deal with supplying wine for Cortez. The guy at the entrance to the cave asks you to show a coin and if you don't do it he kills you, he's completely invincible and you can't do anything to him. But if you show him a coin and talk to his boss, 2 minutes later you are free to kill everyone you see. What was even the point of making the guard immortal in the first place? The devs didn't even try to comprimise here, they could've made those NPCs at least beatable, but no, they are just plain invulnerable. Shit like this will be annoying you throughout the whole game;
2. Something that's strongly related to the previous point. Cutscene deaths, not as annoying, but it still is stupid. Basically if you make wrong choices during some of the dialogues you will be insta killed, no matter how strong you are. At times it's not limited to the dialogues, if you go to certain places too early or do it in the wrong way, you will also be killed in a cutscene. Combined with the previous point at times it feels like the game restrains you too much;
3. The protagonist, I don't really like him. I understand what the idea behind him was - a goodnatured young lad from a remote shithole faces dangerous degeneracy of the big metropolia. But Marvin is just so boring most of the time, he even speaks very monotonously without much emotion in his voice, can the guy get angry, excited or something at least once? I only really liked him in the final chapter, when he enters "Kill everyone!" mode;

Now, I want to talk about the elephant in the room - the story. I think that Archolos has one of the absolute best stories I've ever seen in a videogame, really, it's up there with Deus Ex. I would even say that it might be used as a textbook example of how to make a story in an RPG. A protagonist gets caught up in middle of big and important events, while trying to solve a personal issue, it's not about being the chosen one or saving the world, just looking for a close person as the civilization around you gets destroyed, because somebody is absolutely sure that he knows what would be best for everyone else. The big and scary dragons, ancient demons, overpowered mages and similar things are entirely absent and it's how it should be, you don't even have to invent supernatural evil when humans exist, and Archolos is a great example of that. Personally, I could never take epic stories about the end of the world and the eternal battles of light and darkness seriously, but Archolos showed a proper way for development stories in video games, it's about turning away from overly epic stuff and focusing on things resembling events that happened in real life, let the fantasy elements stay in background, it's better that way.

Another thing I want to complement is that the developers were not afraid to explain literally everything in the game and put a big period at the end of the story, so in the end no questions remain unanswered and you are not left wandering about what would happen next. In my eyes this should be a gold standart in video game industry, I just outright hate it when the developers are constantly teasing for the sequel and don't have the guts to answer the questions and finish the story.

Too bad that it will be completely ignored by pretty much everyone and won't leave a mark in history. The big companies will ignore it for obvious reason, the players, because it's just mod bro, lol or because the mentioned above downsides scared them off, or because they simply want to kill dragons, or because they didn't play it during their childhood, or for some other reason. And even the development team fell apart, what a fucking shame.

I have no idea how people can even play trash produced by modern Piranha Bytes after trying out this.

 

[Sjukob]

By the way, Ash are you playing this?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And even the development team fell apart, what a fucking shame

What

 

[Jarmaro]

People who talk about the development team 'falling apart' are not up to date with the history of the mod. When the team really fell apart, 4 years ago, one of the main reasons was that some members wanted to not only make a good Gothic mod, but also, as the original members of the project put it, 'use the mod to catapult themselves into game-dev'. And that they achieved. Nothing suprising, nothing new. They were in it just to make a great mod and use it for their careers.

 

[HoboForEternity]

While understandable, it's sad they cannot stay independent. I wish it could have turned out like the forgotten city dev where they could release a successful commercial product.

 

[Sjukob]

And even the development team fell apart, what a fucking shame

What

Nothing specific, but when asked if they intend to make another mod, devs have commented that several of them have already been hired to work at "other Polish game studios" based on their work on the mod and don't intend to work with Gothic any more in the future.

I sincerely *hope* they've been hired for an enormous salary to make popcorn games for the rest of their life, because it's terrible to imagine that they're giving up modding to make slavjank no one has or ever will hear of.

People who talk about the development team 'falling apart' are not up to date with the history of the mod. When the team really fell apart, 4 years ago, one of the main reasons was that some members wanted to not only make a good Gothic mod, but also, as the original members of the project put it, 'use the mod to catapult themselves into game-dev'. And that they achieved. Nothing suprising, nothing new. They were in it just to make a great mod and use it for their careers.

Either way, it's very unlikely that will make something worthwhile again, not necessarily another Gothic, but something completely new on an original engine.

 

[Skall]

I got this bug as well, and it seems to be present in my non-quicksave saves. Quest-progression NPCs are missing now and don't trigger, and there's no "insert sh" in the mod. Restart?

 

[Justicar]

Before I played this, I had a small penis, no girlfriend and no will to live. None of these things have changed, but the game is pretty good.

 

[Tygrende]

Immortal NPCs everywhere.

We can only hope someone who cares hard enough will eventually make a mod that simply replaces the "immortal" flag with "refuse to finish off" flag. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Finished last night. Played for 120 hours. Fantastic mod, I'd give it 8/10. Would've been 9/10 based on early-mid game.

The thing that impressed me most was probably how alive the world felt. The initial group of refugees seeking different paths throughout the game, constant influx of new refugees & the construction of shelters, orcs gradually arriving & building war camps, the comfy festival in Silbach, etc. Compared to Gothic 2 they also did a fantastic job with all the QoL improvements, the new crafting content, and the amount of well-written consistent lore. Extra props for solving PB's buggy ladder problem!

I think the main story was poorly paced though. From early in chapter 2, towards the end of chapter 4, the main question was still just "what happened to our brother when he was taken to the city?". The entirety of chapter 3 just got us another confirmation that yeah, he was taken to the city. Gothic 1-2 did a much better job progressing the main story in a meaningful way.

The final 30% of the game was least enjoyable to me. Kept hoping for it to end soon, because I start to lose interest when I feel overpowered (the game is too generous with permastats) and have explored everything. The last part of the game was also less stable to me (frozen cutscenes & CTDs), and sometimes it felt as though I could hardly take a few steps without some new scripted event triggering (I may have shouted "LET ME PLAY" a few times).

My biggest pet peeve was the daytime city music. The devs did the same mistake as Kai Rosenkratz did with the Gothic 3 combat music: It was too dominant and repetitive. Aside from that, the music was top notch.

Final stats:

Spoiler

Incidentally, I'm glad I played as militia in my first playthrough, to get it over with. Mercenary always feels best to me in these kind of games, so I've got that to look forward to.

 

[Tacgnol]

The final 30% of the game was least enjoyable to me. Kept hoping for it to end soon, because I start to lose interest when I feel overpowered (the game is too generous with permastats)

I think the biggest issue is how many perma bonuses are accessible early on. Probably could have done with distributing some more of the dragonroots/king sorrels to end game areas.

Make more of the perma potions finds in dangerous areas rather than just for sale. Same with some of the stronger books.

 

[Justicar]

I think the biggest issue is how many perma bonuses are accessible early on. Probably could have done with distributing some more of the dragonroots/king sorrels to end game areas.

Make more of the perma potions finds in dangerous areas rather than just for sale. Same with some of the stronger books.

They are working on a difficulty option for veteran players so hold out on second playthrough.