Gothic I, worth it?

[Twinkle]

Yup. Plundering houses is remarkably profitable.

Yes,plundering houses and knocking out shopkeepers and taking all their stuff,then when in the next chapter when they refill their stock slugging them again and taking their new stuff.Basically it's OK to act like a robbing bastard in Gothic,it goes with the setting.

But wont the Old Camp guards queue up a line and rape me to death if I fight with someone?

No. Though, you need to provoke your opponent verbally first. Making people rage then beating the shit out of them and robbing them is probably one the highest points of Gothic experience.

 

[Murk]

Don't you have to pay the guards off before provoking someone to attack you?

Incidentally, just sneaking and stealing works great too.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Thief 2 actually aged rather nicely.

A shame it can't be said for Thief 1 which is ugly as hell nowadays.

hmmm, they kinda have the same graphics. The models in thief 1 are worse, but there's a patche that uodates them to the ones used in thief 2. T1 don't have support for hi-res textures, and colored lighting, but this things only really matter for new made levels, and most of those are made for T2 anyway.

in fact, I think gothic aged pretty well. The texture are not that blurry, and the characters have some kind of uniqueness. I really can't recall any main character using the same model, though i might be wrong.

Well, concerning 3d models, the fact that the ones in gothic are not made by separated blocks for articulated parts (like the avatar in ultima 9) looks very acceptable and tolerable to me.

 

[MisterStone]

Yeah I think the G1 graphics are starting to grow on me. The animations are actually pretty good, just the models that are bad. Also the landscape is very blocky. Also, lots of clipping and other clumsy stuff like that. But it's good for its time I guess.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, look at risen, the game is rather new and have lot's of graphic effects, but the models are uglier than gothic 1 models.

 

[octavius]

I don't suppose there is any way of playing Gothic 1 in a traditional 1st person POV with proper WASD controls?
I guess I can get used to the clunky interface but the camera-on-my-character's-ass POV is just to consoly for my taste...

 

[Murk]

If you use the mouse-based controls you can raise the camera up above the shoulders. I basically set the left mouse button to be the "action" key and would hold it down to interact/attack with the directional keys.

 

[bhlaab]

I don't suppose there is any way of playing Gothic 1 in a traditional 1st person POV with proper WASD controls?
I guess I can get used to the clunky interface but the camera-on-my-character's-ass POV is just to consoly for my taste...

You can get WASD controls going pretty well if you enable the mouse.

You can run around in first person but taking out a weapon will switch to third person. You wouldn't want to try combat in first person anyway.

Also not certain how a game being third person makes it a console game? Surely the interface having zero mouse support would be worse?

 

[TsongaKralj]

Yup. Plundering houses is remarkably profitable.

Yes,plundering houses and knocking out shopkeepers and taking all their stuff,then when in the next chapter when they refill their stock slugging them again and taking their new stuff.Basically it's OK to act like a robbing bastard in Gothic,it goes with the setting.

But wont the Old Camp guards queue up a line and rape me to death if I fight with someone?

Well if they see you but there aren't that many of them around so getting into people's homes at night,knocking them out,taking their stuff and looting their chests is very doable.Just be careful of few patroling guards like Bloodwyn and Jackal,as long as they aren't near you'll be fine.If you do get into trouble with the guards,just run into the nearest available bed,sleep until morning and everything will return to normal.

If you are having trouble with money at the start,it would be agood idea would be to loot blacksmith's chest(in the Old Camp) for a bunch of raw steels,forge crude swords and sell them(each one sells for 50 ore I think),at the night no one is there so picklocking his chest is very easy.You don't need any skill to forge swords,just ask the smith how it's done but it's pretty logical so you can figure out the process yourself.

Also if you have followed Mordrag to the New camp you have probably met Cavalorn on the way,he has a decent amount of stuff to sell,restocks each chapter,is alone in the hut(no guards/shadows to come to his aid)and is pretty weak so knocking him out shouldn't be too much of a hassle.Just don't finish him off once he's on the ground cause as I said he has new stuff each chapter and also he'll teach you bow skill to master level free of charge.

 

[Konjad]

he'll teach u bow skill to master level free of charge for beating him up and stealing from him every chapter

 

[yellowcake]

I don't know if it's common knowledge and I don't see it mentioned here but there is a funny in-game hack for tedious travel in G1. There is a long jump skill to be learned somewhere and you can chain-link them indefinitely with proper timing. Looks hilarious and can get you killed by falling off the ledge, but makes travelling few times faster. Not recommended for unexplored terrain as it can break some scripted events AFAIR.

 

[Konjad]

u can just hold jump key.

 

[Murk]

I don't know if it's common knowledge and I don't see it mentioned here but there is a funny in-game hack for tedious travel in G1. There is a long jump skill to be learned somewhere and you can chain-link them indefinitely with proper timing. Looks hilarious and can get you killed by falling off the ledge, but makes travelling few times faster. Not recommended for unexplored terrain as it can break some scripted events AFAIR.

Buster in the new camp teaches it to you - and as silly as it is it is actually necessary to reach certain areas that have some teasures. Also, it allows you to take less damage when falling from heights. Overall, worth the 10LP (or was it 5lp?) in my opinion.

It is most useful when going on a slight decline as your jump is mostly horizontal (straight forward) than vertical, that is, it has a low angle of trajectory, and so you won't suffer damage in most cases. Also, its fun to just suicide jump off the higher areas of the game.

 

[Claw]

Buster in the new camp teaches it to you - and as silly as it is it is actually necessary to reach certain areas that have some teasures

Really? I was pretty certain I could get anywhere with a "Transformation into Bloodfly" scroll.

 

[Murk]

To be honest I never used it in G1 so I'm not sure if it can let you actually FLY over straight up gaps and/or up vertical walls.

 

[Nex]

hold left and right when falling to not die

 

[Stabwound]

I seriously wish this game had teleportation or fast travel or something to that effect. There's nothing fun or challenging about staring at the protagonist's ass for 5-10 minutes while running between camps. Does G2 have some kind of way to deal with annoying travelling?

 

[Murk]

Ummm G1 does have teleportation, you're just not given it immediately at chapter 1. G2 also has teleportation through the use of runestones and the expansion added in certain teleporters in some areas.

Can't say I ever had much issues with the running around in the Gothic games... If you're having that much of an issue buy scrolls of teleportation and turn into a basic animal -- they run faster than your character.

 

[Stabwound]

Oh, okay... guess I can stomach it for now then.

 

[TsongaKralj]

he'll teach u bow skill to master level free of charge for beating him up and stealing from him every chapter

Hehe,well I normally leave the guy alone since he's so nice he teaches me skills for free but of all shopkeepers he's the easiest target by far.I mean being all alone in some hut while having some valuable stuff isn't a good idea with all those thugs and robbers out there in the colony .

I don't know if it's common knowledge and I don't see it mentioned here but there is a funny in-game hack for tedious travel in G1. There is a long jump skill to be learned somewhere and you can chain-link them indefinitely with proper timing. Looks hilarious and can get you killed by falling off the ledge, but makes travelling few times faster. Not recommended for unexplored terrain as it can break some scripted events AFAIR.

I don't think that's an ingame hack really,I mean even the guy who teaches you acrobatics(Buster as someone mentioned here)said you can even use it to quickly escape from enemies so I think chain-linking acrobatic jumps was meant as a faster alternative to running.

Really? I was pretty certain I could get anywhere with a "Transformation into Bloodfly" scroll.

As a bloodfly you can you can go up some vertical slopes but you can't outright fly over gaps and chasms(atleast I never could)so acrobatics is necessary to jump over some gaps(like the one in the old monastery with that damn pillar).
I did find bloodfly form necessary for one optional quest in the game.

I seriously wish this game had teleportation or fast travel or something to that effect. There's nothing fun or challenging about staring at the protagonist's ass for 5-10 minutes while running between camps. Does G2 have some kind of way to deal with annoying travelling?

As Mikayel said you can turn into some animals with scrolls although not all of them are faster than your protagonists(not even some you'd expect to like wolves).Bloodfly and Scavenger forms are one of the useful ones for quick travel.Keep in mind that human NPCs will try to kill you if you're in animal form.

There are also some speed potions which allow you short term sprints,Baal Cador in loony camp sells them(although I don't know in which chapter he starts to sell them).I think there are some in Gomez's castle as well,in the area you reach when you pick the door in Bartolo's room(lots of chests to loot there).

 

[Murk]

The real benefit of the wolf transformation is that orcs won't attack you in that form, although I could have sworn travelling as a wolf is faster than in normal form...

What was the optional quest that requires bloodfly transformation?

 

[TsongaKralj]

The real benefit of the wolf transformation is that orcs won't attack you in that form

That's awesome,I never knew that,will have to try it out.

I could have sworn travelling as a wolf is faster than in normal form...

Well it's been a while since I replayed Gothic 1 but I remember being disappointed by how slow wolf form was.

What was the optional quest that requires bloodfly transformation?

It was:

Spoiler

Chromanin quest,the first location you need to get to after you found the book is the top of the tower in the ruins where that Orc shaman was hiding,I couldn't get there without bloodfly form

 

[dr. one]

transform into bloodfly was my favourite way of traveling in Gothic.

It was:

Spoiler

Chromanin quest,the first location you need to get to after you found the book is the top of the tower in the ruins where that Orc shaman was hiding,I couldn't get there without bloodfly form

it isn´t exactly easy, but jumping works there too.

 

[SoupNazi]

And be careful with acrobatics. I remember I once closed off my way to the New Camp with the gate, just messing around, knowing that I can jump back with normal jumping just by climbing the cliffs nearby. However, acrobatics made this impossible for some reason (don't really remember). So just remember that if you need to scale cliffs, acrobatics can hamper your ability to do so. And there's no way to unlearn them, unfortunately.

 

[Micmu]

Transform into Shadowbeast, then slaughter all NPCs.

 

[TsongaKralj]

transform into bloodfly was my favourite way of traveling in Gothic.

It was:

Spoiler

Chromanin quest,the first location you need to get to after you found the book is the top of the tower in the ruins where that Orc shaman was hiding,I couldn't get there without bloodfly form

it isn´t exactly easy, but jumping works there too.

I guess it does but for me each time I tried to grab the 2nd ledge PC did an acrobatic jump forward instead(maybe it's a bug,the game has its fair share of them) so I just turned into a bloodfly,went up the 2nd slope,reverted back into human and climbed on the roof.

 

[MisterStone]

OK so theres a lot of skills to choose from by the time you visit the New Camp. But I am not sure what my priorities should be. I blew a bunch of skill points just learning dex and str from Lares, and spent 10 SP to learn the acrobatics skill (which is pretty hilarious, but probably not very useful right now). I could easily learn pick locks and sneaking from Wedge in the NC, and start cracking chests for the loot. But what would I spend it on? My combat skills are pretty shit right now, even if I could buy better quality stuff I'd still be slaughtered easily. So is it a good idea to spend SP on weapon skills early or what?

And for what it's worth, the early quests are still somewhat like FedEx quests. Tell X dude to leave the camp. Give away this weed to people. Sell my weed for me. Get me some bug meat for my soup. Etc. Etc. Pretty decent writing though, I imagine it's going to get better before long.