Gothic Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos mod for Gothic 2

[Riddler]

For those of you that don't speak potato, are the potato voice overs a buzz-kill as far as enjoying this? Gothic games never had the greatest voice overs in terms of talent, but to me, they always brought a lot atmosphere-wise.

As a non-potato I found the VA to be great!

 

[Sjukob]

Does pickpocket let you steal keys to otherwise impossible to open doors? Like the backroom of the water mage at Silbach and the door outside Bodowin's hut, they give me "pickpocket the key" vibes. If so it sounds worth, if it's just some gold then meh.

You can not steal keys to those doors specifically, you will only be able to go there in chapter 5. You can steal the key to the merchant's guild storage from their blacksmith, it's the only thing that is locked behind pickpocketing as far as I remember.

 

[agris]

As an fyi there are no ambient subtitles for most things so you'd be playing through a game eerily devoid of life. How is that not a 100% inferior experience.

Yes, and this should be rectified with floating subs. The NPC chatter and town crier for instance. There's a lot of missed atmosphere there. It took me until mid Chp3 or 4 to learn you could install the Polish language pack for the GOG version. Feels bad man.

Everything in the game is subtitled, including ambient chatter, the trouble is that gothic is really bad about displaying those subtitles even if you have all the relevant settings turned on.

What combo of ini settings work for you? I've got everything enabled that should cause them to be displayed, yet they aren't.

 

[Sjukob]

In other news ELEX 2 will be a much better game than that Archolos mod.

Ah yes, Elex - the game:

1. With terribly bland visuals due to having no art direction whatsoever, it's almost like Piranhas just took some assets from the internet and mashed them together without even thinking about it;
2. With extremely generic and forgettable soundtrack;
3. With a complete mess of a combat system. The only thing that it arguably does better than it's predecessors is ranged combat, arguably because the implementation is very, very janky;
4. With mostly dull and uninspired writing, the occasional decent dialogue does not help, generally I don't care about notes or what NPCs have to say;
5. With completely retarded progression and leveling system, I legitimately can not understand how somebody in his right mind thought that it was a good idea to implement such shit.

You know, I don't really like Risen I, but due to it having visuals with at least some effort put into it, and combat and progression systems designed by actual humans it looks and plays all around better than Elex. Elex is just a "hurr durr, look how retarded we are, huehuehue!" type of meme, it has never been a worthwhile game to play.

By the way, I've watched an Elex 2 related video for the first time 2 days ago, it's just going to be more of same, right? The visuals have all the same issues as in the first game, except that the animations became even worse. Are Piranhas really going to release the game with those animations? Are they even trying at all? Are they putting at least minimal effort into this shit? Why do games released 20 years ago, like Gothic and Severance, completely shit all over it when it comes to animation quality? Why does the game has steeper hardware requirements than Doom Eternal, despite Doom looking 10 times better than Elex 2?

In comparison to Archolos, which is free, Elex 2 seems to be terrible, a complete fucking trash.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

Disagree

 

[Mauman]

does using (and then eating) dark mushroom related dishes count towards to the bonus mana effect (ie eat 50 mushrooms, get +5 mana)? If there's apple dishes (I assume there are at some point), same question but for the strength bonus?

Or is the "eat food for stat bonuses" mechanic even still a thing in this mod? (based one what I've read, at least the apples are. Couldn't find anything about the mushrooms).

 

[Tygrende]

does using (and then eating) dark mushroom related dishes count towards to the bonus mana effect (ie eat 50 mushrooms, get +5 mana)? If there's apple dishes (I assume there are at some point), same question but for the strength bonus?

Or is the "eat food for stat bonuses" mechanic even still a thing in this mod? (based one what I've read, at least the apples are. Couldn't find anything about the mushrooms).

Yes, all foods that include ingredients that count towards perma stat bonuses (apples for STR, raspberries for DEX, shrooms for mana) still count towards a stat increase. If given food has 5 shrooms in the recipe, you're 5 shrooms closer to a mana bonus. I'm doing a DEX build and so far all foods that include raspberries work as intended.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

There are a couple of loose items in my inventory tied to quests I assume I missed:
Roy's weed stash, found in the ruins above Sailor's retreat. He won't discuss it if you speak with him.
A 'missing cutlass' found near/in some body of water.

A gripe: the quest 'A small gift' is railroaded. You can't open the box, question or report the jogger. If you search the body later in the hotel room the guards automatically aggro.

Can I assume there is a combination of subquest actions that prompt the rest of the pirates to stand down after you fight Cortes in the arena in the later faction quest?


Edit: worth joining Ring of Water?

 

[Alphons]

Guy in the city asked for something to scratch his back.
No dialogue choice, Marvin proposes a skeleton hand from starting beach, guy accepts and I get 400 EXP.

 

[Zariusz]

 

[Tweed]

Who sells the amulet of the myrtanian?

 

[fantadomat]

Who sells the amulet of the myrtanian?

One part of the set could be found in the merchant chick next to the water temple in the city,tho i don't remember if it was amulet. The other two parts are found later on.

 

[Mauman]

Wow....I'd forgotten how incredibly bad two handers are at early levels. Not that far in, so I think I'll just restart and go 1hander early on.

 

[Reina]

For a first time since... since I can remember, I am not rushing through the game, I am savoring every minute of it. 25h in, only middle of second chapter, and I'm blown away by quality of this modification. I replayed both Gothic and Gothic 2 and can safely say, this is superior experience to vanilla, very much so.

One thing I didn't see talked much here is how mod team got natural progression right, something that NoTR expansion fucked up in original G2. Original Gothic 2 was quite well designed, with clear break points in character strength (i.e. - you start chapter 2 unable to fight orcs, end with being able to handle one warrior at the time, then when you return to the valley chapter later, you can finally start taking out elites and groups - while in NoTR, because of new area, you usually enter valley of the mines capable of beating orcs comfortably) and sensible character progression (you can usually wield any weapon you find, and many are upgrades, yet skills like smithing feel still worthwile - unlike NoTR, where LPs are too scarce to waste on non-combat stuff, and weapons you find early usually have extreme requirements that player who's not familiar with various secrets and exploits wouild not wield until late game. I.e. in my recent mercenary run I ended up with loads of high-str weapons I never really got a chance to use, because even weakest of them, which I got early in ch1, required 60 str, which I reached only in chapter 4.)
In Archolos, I either wield any found weapon (of my class) outright (and I'm not overeating apples like some madwoman to bump my str!) or it's within my range. Decision to not make permanent buffs count towards LP costs of stats was a genius one. Makes exploration much more rewarding when I can use my spoils right from the getgo, instead hoarding it for later chapters. Furthermore, I love how many areas on the island are designed, with each major location being essientally surrounded by rings of progressively stronger monsters.

There were some quests that blown me away. Shout out to city watch recruitment quest chain, especially night patrol around the city. I don't think a grin ever left my face when I was doing it, the dialogues are bloody masterpieces. So much creativity, so much fun. Thank you, truly, Archolos team.

 

[Sjukob]

Roy's weed stash, found in the ruins above Sailor's retreat. He won't discuss it if you speak with him.

It's one of the items related to the quest where you have to get Yanick to transport you to the swamp. One of the way to get rid of the guards is to find a pack of weed and hand it over to them.

Can I assume there is a combination of subquest actions that prompt the rest of the pirates to stand down after you fight Cortes in the arena in the later faction quest?

There's a way to get them to surrender, but I personally don't know the requirements.

Edit: worth joining Ring of Water?

Yes, why not take the additional xp? Make sure to finish your faction quests before you leave.

 

[Tygrende]

It's one of the items related to the quest where you have to get Yanick to transport you to the swamp. One of the way to get rid of the guards is to find a pack of weed and hand it over to them.

You can also give the package to pirates on your 1st visit to convince them you should be let in.

 

[Tacgnol]

There's a way to get them to surrender, but I personally don't know the requirements.

I hit those requirements in my first playthrough without realising there was anything special to do. It still required picking the exact right dialogue options after the fight against the leader though.

Things I did:
- Beat Big Ben
- Gave Cortes all the missing parts of the shipment
- Lied and didn't mention the Orcs

I generally did all the quests I could find in the swamp camp and didn't "rock the boat" too much. I also killed the vineyard guy who was helping the bandits that tried to rip Cortes off.

I've no idea what the exact criteria is for making them surrender rather than fight to the death.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Re. Roy's Stash: It's too far back but I must have talked my way into the Haven in some other manner.

Re. surrender: I did everything above but lie about the orcs. The dialogue seemed to indicate that Cortes would figure it out on his own and be angry if I lied. The dialogue in the arena did not offer choices.

There's an achievement to recruit four guard characters (assuming you've a guard and have done the relevant individual NPC quests). I suppose choosing randoms like Big Ben or the Wolf Son in the brothel, etc. is 'cosmetic' and changes nothing of concern.

 

[Tacgnol]

There's an achievement to recruit four guard characters (assuming you've a guard and have done the relevant individual NPC quests). I suppose choosing randoms like Big Ben or the Wolf Son in the brothel, etc. is 'cosmetic' and changes nothing of concern.

You can use them as combat companions in the ruins, so technically characters like Big Ben and the paladin might be slightly better in combat than the guards.

That said, it doesn't seem to influence anything else.

 

[Whisper]

How is this mod? Worth playing?

How is exploration done? Many secrets?

 

[Reina]

How is this mod? Worth playing?

Very much so.

How is exploration done? Many secrets?

Excellent. IMHO better than in original Gothic 2.

 

[Tacgnol]

How is this mod? Worth playing?

How is exploration done? Many secrets?

It's a classic Gothic title in all but name/legitimacy.

Hopefully that answers both questions.

 

[covr]

Exploration 10/10, secrets 10/10.

 

[Tygrende]

I feel like there's too many things hidden in shallow water while not nearly enough deeper down. So far had no reason to use the water breathing potion, ever. Barely anything to be found further from the coast. Small lakes on the other hand have loot on the bottom more often than not.

 

[agris]

bros, how do i get into this?! i can get on top of that big rock outcrop above it, but there is a stone arm going over the top that prevents you from dropping down onto the ledge. does a clime-able object fall on the ledge after chapter 3 or something??

big ass image