Gothic Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos mod for Gothic 2

[Danikas]

 

[Jaedar]

Wow, merchant guild is real stingy, making you pay for your own armor.

Also, killing bears with only tier 2 magic is a real pain, takes more than one fully charged wind fist, and the npcs won't even let you train mana above 50.

 

[agris]

Question for those who have finished the mod. I'm in Chapter 5 and

Spoiler

I have left Araxos, joined the ring of water, and am ready to go into Vardhal. I have the first royal envoy quest in my journal, the one where you need to find incriminating evidence against the band in extremo.

I'm inclined not to do this quest and all the envoy quests because I don't want to support the monarchy, I'm hoping there's an opportunity to support Ulrych taking over the whole island. My question is: does completing the envoy quests actually impact the end-game? I saw someone else mention that there's an envoy quest to clear all the orc encampments. That made me wonder if I'm screwing myself and the end-game by skipping them by starting the Vardhal expedition.

TLDR: does completing the envoy quests have an impact on the end-game, and does completing them impact our ability to support Ulrych later?

Please try to keep your answers as spoiler free as possible.

 

[Jasede]

A shocking amount of quests impact your Fallout-style ending slides, including this one.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Question for those who have finished the mod. I'm in Chapter 5 and

Spoiler

I have left Araxos, joined the ring of water, and am ready to go into Vardhal. I have the first royal envoy quest in my journal, the one where you need to find incriminating evidence against the band in extremo.

I'm inclined not to do this quest and all the envoy quests because I don't want to support the monarchy, I'm hoping there's an opportunity to support Ulrych taking over the whole island. My question is: does completing the envoy quests actually impact the end-game? I saw someone else mention that there's an envoy quest to clear all the orc encampments. That made me wonder if I'm screwing myself and the end-game by skipping them by starting the Vardhal expedition.

TLDR: does completing the envoy quests have an impact on the end-game, and does completing them impact our ability to support Ulrych later?

Please try to keep your answers as spoiler free as possible.

Wrap up everything you want to do before starting the expedition. This is your last chance to do it.

It's canon that In Extremo is sent to the colony. You might as well be the one to incriminate them, I guess. If you don't, you miss out on a major orc-related quest.

Nothing you do at this point will impact Ulrych' agenda.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Asking for advice: I'm doing a one-handed melee build (unless the next major update makes two-handed weapons much better and I decide to jump over), and I want to do a wizard-based playthrough sometime in the future. I want to join the guards in one playthrough and the merchant's guild in the other. In your opinion, which character build is a better match for which faction?

 

[Tygrende]

Asking for advice: I'm doing a one-handed melee build (unless the next major update makes two-handed weapons much better and I decide to jump over), and I want to do a wizard-based playthrough sometime in the future. I want to join the guards in one playthrough and the merchant's guild in the other. In your opinion, which character build is a better match for which faction?

I don't think it matters much. For 1h there's literally no difference. I think guards have a slightly easier time with magic because Tengral will teach them mana, not sure if Araxos can learn from him.

 

[Tweed]

Asking for advice: I'm doing a one-handed melee build (unless the next major update makes two-handed weapons much better and I decide to jump over), and I want to do a wizard-based playthrough sometime in the future. I want to join the guards in one playthrough and the merchant's guild in the other. In your opinion, which character build is a better match for which faction?

It doesn't really cost much LP to learn to forge your own weapons and self-mades tend to be the best, it's just a question of how long you want to wait to learn master forging. What's nice is that dexmonkeys didn't get left out in the rain this time so either stat-focus will net you very nice weapons.

 

[Sjukob]

Arrowgrab
For a mage the guild is irrelevant. All of the important trainers and gear are freely available for both factions.

agris
There's nothing you can do to change the outcome with Ulryk. I recommend you actually complete quests for Grayson, you might be very surprised to see how it turns out.

 

[Reina]

Completed it yesterday. What a beautiful game, even if Gothic fatigue started to wear me a bit a little in final chapters. Still, devs of Archolos handled it much better than Piranha Bytes. Like I mentioned before, writers of City Guard quest chain deserve a bloody medal.

Aside from minor bugs, I can't find anything wrong with Archolos. Well, maybe there are a bit too many "you can't pass through until plot happens" doors around the game world, but hey, I can stand that. Otherwise, this is the ultimate Gothic experience. Hell, even ending slides are great, compared to encyclopedia endings of, let's say PoE.

Now, since I'm binging entire series, let's give another try to Gothic 3... again. Jesus. What a mess it is compared to Archolos. How could've PB wreck their winning formula so much, I'll never understand.

 

[Konjad]

Completed it yesterday. Whata beautiful game, even if Gothic fatigue started to wear me a bit a little in final chapters. Still, devs of Archolos handled it much better than Piranha Bytes. Like I mentioned before, writers of City Guard quest chain deserve a bloody medal.

Aside from minor bugs, I can't find anything wrong with Archolos. Well, maybe there are a bit too many "you can't pass through until plot happens" doors around the game world, but hey, I can stand that. Otherwise, this is the ultimate Gothic experience. Hell, even ending slides are great, compared to encyclopedia endings of, let's say PoE.

Now, since I'm binging entire series, let's give another try to Gothic 3... again. Jesus. What a mess it is compared to Archolos. How could've PB wreck their winning formula so much, I'll never understand.

I tried to give G3 a try a few times. At release and years after. People kept saying online "it's good with community patch, it fixes issues", "it's the best gothic, very open world" etc but for me it was, is, and will always be an utter garbage that I couldn't finish any time i tried. I already vented in G3 thread though, so I won't shitpost in this prestigious thread.

Archolos is the only real third Gothic, and I'm happy we have got it. In this day and age I did not expect anything this good to come out.

 

[Alphons]

Well, maybe there are a bit too many "you can't pass through until plot happens" doors around the game world, but hey, I can stand that.

Definitely this. I also had to stop mugging random NPCs, because 3/4 of them are set as immortal, can't be damaged and kill you with 1 hit.

Also the way certain choices are presented to the player annoys me. In Gothic 1 majority of characters (only exceptions are Kalom and his henchmen) can be knocked down with a normal weapon and then killed. Choice what to do, for example with Gomez is presented to you organically.
Archolos meanwhile stops the combat and gives you something straight out of Telltale game: KILL or SPARE.

Aside from this scripting is well done and offers enough choice between different paths, so it doesn't feel railroading.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Archolos meanwhile stops the combat and gives you something straight out of Telltale game: KILL or SPARE.
.

I found it interesting that the baddies I spared got theirs in one form or another anyway.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Well, that big ben fight was underwhelming. It was hyped so much he even got huge dark souls HP bar. Even as a hybrid mage (granted i was pretty overleveled since i cleared the map twice in ch 2 and 3 (qt least those i can beat in chapter 2) he went down in a few hits using 1h melee.

 

[agris]

Well, that big ben fight was underwhelming. It was hyped so much he even got huge dark souls HP bar. Even as a hybrid mage (granted i was pretty overleveled since i cleared the map twice in ch 2 and 3 (qt least those i can beat in chapter 2) he went down in a few hits using 1h melee.

Yeah, if you're familiar with the Gothic Formula(TM), it's easy to be overleveled for everything.

If I ever play this again, a big if given the time commitment, I'm going to try to restrain my autismo tendencies so that I'm challenged more consistently. Hopefully by then they have patched in the rumored hard mode, as well.

 

[agris]

Whew, just finished it. What a great ride, this really is a distillation of Gothic down to its core elements, then executed in such a refined manner to make even G1 pale by comparison (it's been too long since I played G2).

Much like the others though, I am glad to be done with it and have this monkey off my back. Those ending slides were great, Innos bless the slavs who took Fallout to heart. Some questions on the ending, and parting thoughts:

Spoiler

• Is there any way to ultimately support Ulryk, or does he always lose with the Wolf Son's fortress turned into a paladin training ground?
  
• Is it possible for Grayson to not end up disgraced, without a post?
• I got the good Silbach ending, except the beast came back a few months after it was flourishing. Is there any quest-driven way to remove the beast, or should I have merked Detlow after the beast quest was done?
• I poisoned all of Scoundrel's Haven, which meant I was locked out of most of its content post-Chapter 3. In the ending slides, it says that they fled. What are the other outcomes for this area?
• Lorenzo was killed during the attack on the city, and the guild ending slide said that it fell apart into smaller trading organizations. I read that if you send the Southern fighter you find while locating supplies for Cortez to the city/guild, Lorenzo lives. Does that have a significant impact on the ending slides?
• Stone turned into an alcoholic from the Vardhal expedition - is this inevitable?
• Kessel never left the Vardhal chapel - is it possible to convince him to leave?
  
• I got no slides for: Big Ben, Gris, Cortez, Rita's Vineyard, Coal burners, Woodcutters, Bee Keepers, Royal or Guild mines. Are there any? Ben and Gris came with me to Vardhal, I did all the quests for Rita's and coal burners/woodcutters/bee keepers, freed the royal mine from the corrupt guard, and liberated the guild mine from Bloodwin and his corrupt gang by letting Lorenzo know.

Very good ending. Ultimately, I couldn't help but be sympathetic with the argument that Volker was making - the king was wasting lives and resources through his mismanaged war, and Volker / Ulryk wanted to separate from the monarchy. The specifics of their plan meant it would never have worked to begin with (i.e. you find the draft document in Volker's mansion indicating he intended to turn on Ulryk to be made a royal vassal), but it's a shame there was no way to remove the royal yoke from the neck of Archolos. But much like the statues of innos quest, I guess a unsatisfying ending that stays with you and leaves you wanting is the price you pay for well designed content that engages you.

This being a gothic game, of course it was a power trip - but there were a lot of conclusions that ultimately made you recognize that you were not in control. Kudos to the devs for that. We don't see much of that design philosophy in commercial releases these days.

 

[Mikeal]

Whew, just finished it. What a great ride, this really is a distillation of Gothic down to its core elements, then executed in such a refined manner to make even G1 pale by comparison (it's been too long since I played G2).

Much like the others though, I am glad to be done with it and have this monkey off my back. Those ending slides were great, Innos bless the slavs who took Fallout to heart. Some questions on the ending, and parting thoughts:

Spoiler

• Is there any way to ultimately support Ulryk, or does he always lose with the Wolf Son's fortress turned into a paladin training ground?
  
• Is it possible for Grayson to not end up disgraced, without a post?
• I got the good Silbach ending, except the beast came back a few months after it was flourishing. Is there any quest-driven way to remove the beast, or should I have merked Detlow after the beast quest was done?
• I poisoned all of Scoundrel's Haven, which meant I was locked out of most of its content post-Chapter 3. In the ending slides, it says that they fled. What are the other outcomes for this area?
• Lorenzo was killed during the attack on the city, and the guild ending slide said that it fell apart into smaller trading organizations. I read that if you send the Southern fighter you find while locating supplies for Cortez to the city/guild, Lorenzo lives. Does that have a significant impact on the ending slides?
• Stone turned into an alcoholic from the Vardhal expedition - is this inevitable?
• Kessel never left the Vardhal chapel - is it possible to convince him to leave?
  
• I got no slides for: Big Ben, Gris, Cortez, Rita's Vineyard, Coal burners, Woodcutters, Bee Keepers, Royal or Guild mines. Are there any? Ben and Gris came with me to Vardhal, I did all the quests for Rita's and coal burners/woodcutters/bee keepers, freed the royal mine from the corrupt guard, and liberated the guild mine from Bloodwin and his corrupt gang by letting Lorenzo know.

Very good ending. Ultimately, I couldn't help but be sympathetic with the argument that Volker was making - the king was wasting lives and resources through his mismanaged war, and Volker / Ulryk wanted to separate from the monarchy. The specifics of their plan meant it would never have worked to begin with (i.e. you find the draft document in Volker's mansion indicating he intended to turn on Ulryk to be made a royal vassal), but it's a shame there was no way to remove the royal yoke from the neck of Archolos. But much like the statues of innos quest, I guess a unsatisfying ending that stays with you and leaves you wanting is the price you pay for well designed content that engages you.

This being a gothic game, of course it was a power trip - but there were a lot of conclusions that ultimately made you recognize that you were not in control. Kudos to the devs for that. We don't see much of that design philosophy in commercial releases these days.

Speaking about beast you have to find most of the clues in forest during hunt: magic scrolls, mana potions, dead animals, check horn first after finding Allan's body. After killing beast exhaust all dialog options with NPCs on party and after that go to the Detlof's mansion and talk to him. Marvin will automatically accuse him of being suspicious and Detlof after a while will confirm it.

 

[Alphons]

Some questions on the ending, and parting thoughts:

Stone:
https://gothic.fandom.com/wiki/Stone

In Gothic he mentions that he accidentally killed a guy while he was drunk and that's how he ended in the Valley.

 

[Sjukob]

agris
I say it's more about it beaing realistic. In real life you usually do not have solutions that would satisfy everyone, especially when it comes to economy and politics. I think people got too used to games having good (correct) and bad (incorrect) outcomes, I'm glad that Archolos tried a more realistic approach where politics are mostly a shitshow with corrupt, greedy and insane people in power. It's why I compared Archolos plot to Deus Ex, which did the same thing, but not as well defined.

 

[Konjad]

• I got no slides for: Big Ben, Gris, Cortez, Rita's Vineyard, Coal burners, Woodcutters, Bee Keepers, Royal or Guild mines. Are there any? Ben and Gris came with me to Vardhal, I did all the quests for Rita's and coal burners/woodcutters/bee keepers, freed the royal mine from the corrupt guard, and liberated the guild mine from Bloodwin and his corrupt gang by letting Lorenzo know.

I got slides for swamp camp (but I led an attack force to destroy it), vineyard, an guild mines (though i'm not sure now if both).

As Mikeal already told you, you haven't actually found the beast.

 

[agris]

For the beast quest, I knew I should have reloaded and tried again. I found the potions, and several other clues but I think i did it in an odd order that broke the scripting for the real reveal.

What happens with Rita’s Vineyard and the guild mine?

 

[Anthedon]

You can actually miss the beast? Neat.

 

[Konjad]

For the beast quest, I knew I should have reloaded and tried again. I found the potions, and several other clues but I think i did it in an odd order that broke the scripting for the real reveal.

No, Marvin doesn't get "AHA! So the beast is this and that!" in the forest. Your scripting was fine, you just didn't connect the dots as a player and didn't look further as the game hinted you to.

 

[Karwelas]

Spoiler

• Is there any way to ultimately support Ulryk, or does he always lose with the Wolf Son's fortress turned into a paladin training ground?
  
• Is it possible for Grayson to not end up disgraced, without a post?
• I got the good Silbach ending, except the beast came back a few months after it was flourishing. Is there any quest-driven way to remove the beast, or should I have merked Detlow after the beast quest was done?
• I poisoned all of Scoundrel's Haven, which meant I was locked out of most of its content post-Chapter 3. In the ending slides, it says that they fled. What are the other outcomes for this area?
• Lorenzo was killed during the attack on the city, and the guild ending slide said that it fell apart into smaller trading organizations. I read that if you send the Southern fighter you find while locating supplies for Cortez to the city/guild, Lorenzo lives. Does that have a significant impact on the ending slides?
• Stone turned into an alcoholic from the Vardhal expedition - is this inevitable?
• Kessel never left the Vardhal chapel - is it possible to convince him to leave?
  
• I got no slides for: Big Ben, Gris, Cortez, Rita's Vineyard, Coal burners, Woodcutters, Bee Keepers, Royal or Guild mines. Are there any? Ben and Gris came with me to Vardhal, I did all the quests for Rita's and coal burners/woodcutters/bee keepers, freed the royal mine from the corrupt guard, and liberated the guild mine from Bloodwin and his corrupt gang by letting Lorenzo know.

Very good ending. Ultimately, I couldn't help but be sympathetic with the argument that Volker was making - the king was wasting lives and resources through his mismanaged war, and Volker / Ulryk wanted to separate from the monarchy. The specifics of their plan meant it would never have worked to begin with (i.e. you find the draft document in Volker's mansion indicating he intended to turn on Ulryk to be made a royal vassal), but it's a shame there was no way to remove the royal yoke from the neck of Archolos. But much like the statues of innos quest, I guess a unsatisfying ending that stays with you and leaves you wanting is the price you pay for well designed content that engages you.

This being a gothic game, of course it was a power trip - but there were a lot of conclusions that ultimately made you recognize that you were not in control. Kudos to the devs for that. We don't see much of that design philosophy in commercial releases these days.

It is good to hear you had good time playing it man, it really is Gothic some of us were wating for... well, for years!

Spoiler

• Is there any way to ultimately support Ulryk, or does he always lose with the Wolf Son's fortress turned into a paladin training ground? - Ulryk's agenda is to remove any outsider with any sort of power and say (these who don't want to subject to his rule in case of the Guild) and he is doing it hard way. By that time, Marvin is one powerful man in his old way and Ulryk probably would use him before attempting a disposal, a easy one at that, after he would win. Same play he got for Volker and Volker for him, in fact.
  
• Is it possible for Grayson to not end up disgraced, without a post? - He gets blamed for the situation on Archolos because of the failure to notice the entire mess and because it happened right after visitation of his - it also shows how the Kingdom will end up soon (as it is already fucking corrupt hole with retarded nobles), along with Lee getting framed for murder of the Queen and send to Colony. By doing his questline, you do save the island from Orcish advance. It is a shame one of endings isn't sailing with him away.
  
• I got the good Silbach ending, except the beast came back a few months after it was flourishing. Is there any quest-driven way to remove the beast, or should I have merked Detlow after the beast quest was done? - You just approach Detlow in his house in Old Town, where he gives you his argumentation, before extending his hunt on you.
  
• I poisoned all of Scoundrel's Haven, which meant I was locked out of most of its content post-Chapter 3. In the ending slides, it says that they fled. What are the other outcomes for this area? - You can do quest called "Crownless King", where you kill Cortez and either slaughter the boys or - if you did the quests the right way - they accept the conditions and agree to surrender, before being sent to the Colony for their crimes. You can also try to escape with them, but by some stupid bullshit power move, you get onto a Paladin force ship and get arrested, which is fuckup on the part of the team, in my opinion.
  
• Lorenzo was killed during the attack on the city, and the guild ending slide said that it fell apart into smaller trading organizations. I read that if you send the Southern fighter you find while locating supplies for Cortez to the city/guild, Lorenzo lives. Does that have a significant impact on the ending slides? - Yes, the guild survives the whole mess and together with Roderich, they rebuild the city and raise the island from its knees to new era of prosperity.
• Stone turned into an alcoholic from the Vardhal expedition - is this inevitable? - Yes, Stone ends up in Colony regardless. Kinda explains his story in the game.
  
• Kessel never left the Vardhal chapel - is it possible to convince him to leave? - Yes, Kessel never leaves the fortress. As he says, Marvin can't save everyone, despite being good young man. He is broken (by his own realization of how foolish he was and that his own god wouldn't approve of what he was doing and neither what Water Mages were) man, who gives up there, serving as kind of warning to Marvin. Don't forget that Vardhal is cursed as fuck, it is possible that the curse finally took the toll on poor man.
  
• I got no slides for: Big Ben, Gris, Cortez, Rita's Vineyard, Coal burners, Woodcutters, Bee Keepers, Royal or Guild mines. Are there any? Ben and Gris came with me to Vardhal, I did all the quests for Rita's and coal burners/woodcutters/bee keepers, freed the royal mine from the corrupt guard, and liberated the guild mine from Bloodwin and his corrupt gang by letting Lorenzo know. - Sadly, that is another one of fuckups i can't really understand on part of the team, it would be great to have these for each companion.

 

[agris]

For the beast quest, I knew I should have reloaded and tried again. I found the potions, and several other clues but I think i did it in an odd order that broke the scripting for the real reveal.

No, Marvin doesn't get "AHA! So the beast is this and that!" in the forest. Your scripting was fine, you just didn't connect the dots as a player and didn't look further as the game hinted you to.

I don't know what you're talking about, it's obvious that Detlow is the beast. I found his potion pile in the woods before I found any of the bodies, then once I found the bodies the plot rail-roads you into the velociraptor den through cutscenes.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I don't know what you're talking about, it's obvious that Detlow is the beast. I found his potion pile in the woods before I found any of the bodies, then once I found the bodies the plot rail-roads you into the velociraptor den through cutscenes.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts and the same thing happened to me. Didn't see any option after these events that allowed for alternative outcomes. Got the achievement and everything, but the ending slide was still negative.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

I don't know what you're talking about, it's obvious that Detlow is the beast. I found his potion pile in the woods before I found any of the bodies, then once I found the bodies the plot rail-roads you into the velociraptor den through cutscenes.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts and the same thing happened to me. Didn't see any option after these events that allowed for alternative outcomes. Got the achievement and everything, but the ending slide was still negative.

Likewise. I suspected Detlow, but I didn't see any option to act on it. Tried speaking with him afterwards, exhausted all options. After that I suspected Bodowin, but that was also a cold trace. I guess I should've inspected Detlow's house, but I didn't know where he lived.

 

[Jaedar]

Is it possible to join the hunters in the araxos guild? I've done the same amount of quests for both lieutenants, but I only got offered to join the mercs.