Gothic I, worth it?

[SoupNazi]

Just try not to be a jack of all trades, it doesn't really work in Gothic. Either focus on thieving skills only or hunting skills only etc. Don't even think of becoming a mage at this point. Sneaking is pretty useless except for sneaking into people's homes at night and looting them, so if you don't plan to do that, there's no point wasting those SP on that. Picking locks is good and opens a lot of doors and treasure chests with phat loot.

But if you're shit at combat as you say, you should definitely focus on improving your STR so you can wield better weapons and hit for moar DMG. You can always get those special skills later, after all you should always kill everything in the chapter before advancing to the next, which will get you enough EXP to learn those other skills later.

 

[MisterStone]

I don't think it's so much that I the player suck, the problem is even with the best weapon I have found so far I can't even hurt a lot of people/monsters. I guess I should plug some SP into fighting skills or stats?

 

[TsongaKralj]

What's the damage of the best weapon you found so far? Weapon skill doesn't affect damage dealt in Gothic,it means you wield the weapon with more ease and have a slightly higher critical chance so if you find you deal too little damage boost up your strength or find a better weapon.

As for lockpicking skill,unless you're really hardcore it's pretty much useless,it only lowers the chance of your lockpick breaking but you can pick locks from the very start of the game as long as you get your hands on some lockpicks.
When you kneel down over a chest if it doesn't open when you press action and forward then it's locked so hold down action and press left or right,when you picked the right direction the char will say it's sounds good.Each chest has a right-left combination so it's easy to save before trying to pick a chest,fiddle with it until you learn it's combination and then reload.

Sneaking is also pretty meh,you can easily wonder into huts at night and just beat up people as they get up from their bed.

 

[SoupNazi]

I don't think it's so much that I the player suck, the problem is even with the best weapon I have found so far I can't even hurt a lot of people/monsters. I guess I should plug some SP into fighting skills or stats?

Yeah that's what I meant. As the guy above me said, invest into strength, not weapon skills.

 

[MisterStone]

That's good to know. Lucky me I figured out how to get that peasant guy in the camp to train me in +5 str for free. I can probably at least hurt stuff now, assuming my twitchin skills are up to it.

 

[TsongaKralj]

That's good to know. Lucky me I figured out how to get that peasant guy in the camp to train me in +5 str for free. I can probably at least hurt stuff now, assuming my twitchin skills are up to it.

Congrats BTW the owner of that bar(Silas?) has a really nice 1H axe,it should make life a lot easier for the first part of the game if you can beat him up and loot it from him.Once your strength+weapon damage is over 40(which is his armor value)you can try it out.

You can use a bit of a cheesy tactic when you're trying to take out an NPC,draw out your weapon,wait for him to draw his,sheath it and then while he's spouting some inane shit(you've been lucky there,I would have kicked your ass or something similar)draw weapon again and start beating him,you'll have a few hits advantage over him.

Ah fuck it,I'm starting up Gothic again.

 

[SoupNazi]

Yeah, there are so many ways to fuck around in it. I'm gonna start up as well.

 

[Murk]

I'd recommend at least upgrading your weapon skills by 1 tier so you can use proper combos instead of the clumsy two-handed flailing you start out with.

Also, if you don't plan to use ranged weapons don't raise DEX at all.

Misterstone, a brief explanation on how combat works in G1 (not quite the same in G2, mind you)

Str + weapon damage - enemy's armor = damage dealt. You'll notice that your strength also limits what kind of weapon you can use, so raising strength increases your damage very easily -- but you are still limited in what weapons you can FIND or buy. For instance, a proper two handed weapon is going to be very difficult to find in chapter 1, so you may just want to stick to one handers.

Weapon skill - each weapon type has 2 tiers that you can upgrade to. These tiers allow you to attack faster, more fluidly, and to chain together combos. DEFINITELY upgrade your 1-handed weapon skill to at least the first tier so you can start attacking at a level that's vaguely competent and aren't getting raped by all NPCs that aren't bums. If you've tried to fight in the Arena in the Old Camp without any weapon skills then you probably got your shit fucked proper by even the lowest combatant.

Initially, you can't upgrade your two handed weapon skills until you master one handed... but there is a way around that, depending on which camp you join. Note, however, that there is more than enough LP in the game to let you pick up skills that you don't absolutely need or just want to try out.

Archery -> Crossbow works the same way, except that it increases chance to hit over range and rate of fire.

 

[MisterStone]

Well I trained 1 Handed once, but it only shows that I have a "5%" skill in it... so if there are only 2 tiers, what does the 5% mean?

Thanks for all the info btw

 

[Murk]

chance of crit, max is 10% at tier two (if I'm not mistaken)

In Gothic 2 it was changed to range up to 100+% but the system there worked much differently than in here (not sure if you've played G2 before, might be confusing you if you have).

edit: to explain, in g1 you always do str + weapon - enemy's armor, in g2 you did weapon + (skill% chance of)str - enemy's armor, and 'critical hits' were defined in g2 as "adding your strength" to the attack. What this meant was that at 100% melee weapon skill you always did full damage (minus the enemy's armor, of course).

 

[Elzair]

The fact that you are fragile as shit throughout the whole game, but at the same time you can take on pretty much every damn enemy with a rusty sword if you master the combat system.

It's also pretty much the best marriage of character and player skill in gaming. If you're reflex impaired, pumping into crits will most likely save your sorry arse. If you're Laser-Jesus level awesome in blocking and dodging and attacking, however, raising crits only makes the killing faster.

I love the Gothic combat system too, but I have to take issue with a few of these statements. One problem with Gothic 1 & 2 (and probably NotR, but I never played it) is that late-game mages are totally unbalanced. With Sixth Circle spells you can pretty much kill anything in both games without breaking a sweat. Of course, melee fighters are pretty much screwed.

 

[TsongaKralj]

I love the Gothic combat system too, but I have to take issue with a few of these statements. One problem with Gothic 1 & 2 (and probably NotR, but I never played it) is that late-game mages are totally unbalanced. With Sixth Circle spells you can pretty much kill anything in both games without breaking a sweat. Of course, melee fighters are pretty much screwed.

Mages are overpowered in later stages in almost any RPG game(one of the reasons I very rarely play as them),the difference in Gothic being that atleast it isn't available right away and you have to rely on your other skills to survive until you got to wield uber awesome magic so it somewhat balances out.

Besides in Gothic ranged combat kicks ass in later stages of the game just as much if you max it out,you can pretty much kill anything that moves on map before it can reach you even if you don't bother to find higher ground so the enemies can't get you because of stupid pathfinding.

 

[TsongaKralj]

Archery -> Crossbow works the same way, except that it increases chance to hit over range and rate of fire.

As far as I know Archery/Crossbow skill increases critical hit %(as with the melee weapon skills) and rate of fire while your precision depends solely on Dexterity.

 

[dr. one]

One problem with Gothic 1 & 2 (and probably NotR, but I never played it) is that late-game mages are totally unbalanced. With Sixth Circle spells you can pretty much kill anything in both games without breaking a sweat. Of course, melee fighters are pretty much screwed.

i disagree, or more precisely, i disagree with this being a problem.
in both games, G2 especially, the vast majority of playtime occurs before mages get access to fifth and sixth level spells. and until then, they are arguably the weakest class, or at least they require more work/character build precision to be on par with others. in both games it also takes some time to become a mage, so it´s quite likely player will use some learning points for skills he won´t be using much as a mage later. also, for some special situations which are best to be dealt with spells, the non-mage classes have scrolls at their disposal. and with NotR, mages have it definitely harder.
i say the "unbalancement" that occurs in final two chapters is a justified prize for the class.

 

[Zomg]

G2 with NotR makes the classes a lot less distinct in general, you get the extra armor from the expansion that matches several of the tiers of faction/class armor and the game has a huge number of high powered scrolls that even a mage will use so he can cast fire storm in chapter 1 if he wants. Plus you get so many bonus stat points with tablets and potions that you're always gonna have half-decent stats across the board. The main difference in gameplay (as opposed to quests) is that paladins and mages get to cast heal and mercenaries have to learn the max health potion recipe to fill up the gigantic HP pools enabled by NotR

 

[Stabwound]

I've played about 5 hours of G1 now, and it's actually decent. I still don't have any armour so combat is a pain, but I like how you're struggling to survive at first, as ore is so hard to come by. I was just running around the countryside looking for caches of items to sell, pretty fun.

I'm sure there are probably easy ways to get a ton of ore quickly if you know how, but if you're new it's a pretty big pain.

 

[MisterStone]

I think a good way to get started is to go to the new camp and take on the weed dealin' job. Also you can rob people, miners are probably the only thing in your range at first. Just walk into their hut, beat them down and loot them, then loot their chest. Actually they don't have too much loot, but it's more than nothing.

Picking chests is another cheesy way to make money; you can sometimes find chests in no-risk places (such as the blacksmith's area at night, when no one is around).

You can make some cash by picking up herbs and selling them, but I am concerned that these plants might be useful later on, so I try not to sell them off.

 

[bhlaab]

I've played about 5 hours of G1 now, and it's actually decent. I still don't have any armour so combat is a pain, but I like how you're struggling to survive at first, as ore is so hard to come by. I was just running around the countryside looking for caches of items to sell, pretty fun.

I'm sure there are probably easy ways to get a ton of ore quickly if you know how, but if you're new it's a pretty big pain.

Every time you level up your maxHP goes up, so soon you'll have a ton of plants worth selling. (there's no alchemy in G1 so not much danger of herbs doing anything besides what the inventory tells you) That on top of stealing and robbing people. Might want to look into learning how to harvest animal parts.

Something I found handy was that arrows and bolts are worth exactly 1 ore each so you can think of them as a seperate but equal form of currency.

Not sure about New Camp, but you can get some shitty-but-still-better-than-nothing armor from someone at the old camp.

 

[ksjav]

Not sure about New Camp, but you can get some shitty-but-still-better-than-nothing armor from someone at the old camp.

If memory serves me right, armor in the Old Camp is worth around 300-500 ore, but you can actually get one for free in the New Camp, however on my first playthrough I completely missed that area until way later in the game.

 

[fragonard]

Yes, you have to go past the camp to the mine and ask for digger's outfit. This will also allow you to enter the new camp tavern for free.

 

[Murk]

I can't remember if you need to have a pickaxe in order to get the free Scraper pants, but yes it is better than shelling out cash for the digger's trousers... also, you can buy a novices' loin cloth from the Templar at the entrance of the sect camp, talk to the one on your right as you're walking into it and ask him about his armor.

In regards to the crossbow/bow skill and dexterity, I stand corrected, Dexterity is indeed precision and damage.

 

[Stabwound]

Obscure question, but is there something you have to do to get Ian to give you the list Diego wants? He sent me to get the list, but when I went to Ian he just denied me and now has no dialogue choices. Or do you have to be level 5 to get the list?

 

[bhlaab]

Obscure question, but is there something you have to do to get Ian to give you the list Diego wants? He sent me to get the list, but when I went to Ian he just denied me and now has no dialogue choices. Or do you have to be level 5 to get the list?

Talk to diego. He will tell you how to get ian to give you the list. But keep in mind, giving the list to diego might hurt your ties with the other camps slightly.

 

[Stabwound]

I sure do love running back and forth between camps all day.

 

[bhlaab]

I sure do love running back and forth between camps all day.

This one is your fault for not finishing up the conversation tree so suck it up queermo