VD's Gothic 3 impressions

[Vault Dweller]

VD can you tell us more about what skills you tryed. With that i mean what skills did you learn at certain levels, how many learning points you used on certain skill ect. Oh and what fighting styles (sword, sword and shield ect) did you try and what is your favourite one?

When you level up you get 10 points. Each skill costs 5 points plus money to pay for the training. Attributes increases are 1:1. Increasing Strength by 5 points, for example, costs 5 learning points plus 2,500 gold.

Skills have pre-requisites, for example, dual wielding requires 150 Str and "strong swordsman" skill, not to mention a trainer willing to train you.

Like I said, there are plenty of skills to choose from, so you can try different builds. I bumped my Strength from 100 to 150 to get "strong swordsman". Now my attacks are less clumsy and more effective. Securing my survival, I decided to invest into some hunting techniques. I bumped my Hunting (equivalent of Dexterity) to 120 and got removing teeth, claws, etc. I got a tongue from a lizard, stinger from a blood fly, and a truckload of claws and teeth. I'm considering spending 5 points on skinning lizards.

I want to be able to craft weapons, so I got me ore prospector skill, and hone weapons. I also want to get open difficult locks (it's a shame to leave all those locked chests behind), and learn to brew potions, especially the permanent ones.

 

[Magistrator]

... Now my attacks are less clumsy ...

Let me get this straight: the way you control your sword feels less clumsy since you have "strong swordsman"? Can you describe what differences you're noticing?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Have you played the previous games? It was always like that. You get higher rank and now you hold a sword visually differently, your swings are more fluid and also different, etc. You can see the transformation from a clumsy novice to a swordmaster.

 

[hoochimama]

Yeah, the game's a bit of a sausage fest...

Well,the jerries love eating it.

 

[hiciacit]

Have you played the previous games? It was always like that. You get higher rank and now you hold a sword visually differently, your swings are more fluid and also different, etc. You can see the transformation from a clumsy novice to a swordmaster.

Well, I've been upgrading my rank in staff fighting (I'm at the second one currently), but don't see much difference actually. I've wondered if this might be a bug or just happens to be my lack of perception.

 

[Magistrator]

Have you played the previous games? It was always like that. You get higher rank and now you hold a sword visually differently, your swings are more fluid and also different, etc. You can see the transformation from a clumsy novice to a swordmaster.

Yes, I played Gothic II some time ago, but can't recall any of those differences at a higher rank. It's a shame I didn't notice.

So, would you say that most of the problems that many players seem to have with Gothics' combat (not talking about the famous boar-scene) is due to a low skill-level/rank? And that it becomes much more controllable at higher ranks, even for players that can't rely much on their player-skills? (In other words, regarding combat, how important are player-skills in Gothic III?)

 

[Vidken]

Gothic III's lack of chainmail bikinis would be the first step of many to my actually giving enough of a shit to try a demo or even buying the game. I can't express with words how much I fucking hate flash fantasy. Supermodel characters, 10' swords, "I can survive a nuclear bomb to the face because I'm level 32", and cliche-as-hell "save the world" storylines are seriously getting very old. It's all some big joke that stopped being funny decades ago.

Honestly? I like your impressions VD, so far at any rate. I'll wait for your full review and the English version of the game (if it isn't out already) before I make my descision. I had a massive brain fart earlier this year and flushed $50 down the toilet for Oblivion, so I'm incredibly paranoid and jaded.

 

[chestercoldsaw]

I always preferred two handed swords in the previous games but with the addition of shields and the general unwieldiness of the large weapons class in this one I've decided to stick with shield/sword. Does anyone know if the thief skills "murder" and "haggle(?)" are worth a damn?

My main complaint about the game, and it's more a complaint about the series, is that you have to play as such a shithead. He has some of the worst, undiplomatic dialogue, always demands to know "what's in it for me" regardless of the situation, and probably strangles babies for experience. Basically he has no soul and I hope he gets hanged in the end.

SPOILERS... emoticon: :shock:







After liberating Silden (which has particularly nice scenery) I decided to go to Nordmar because, hey, snow. Unfortunately there's lots of big, angry animals in Nordmar. It's also very cold. Stamina doesn't regenerate as fast, there's hundreds of beasts that want to kill you waiting in every nook in cranny, orcs attack you on sight, very rarely does the weather permit you to see more than half your normal view distance so finding landmarks is a megabitch, and every goblin party has atleast one rpg toting wizard. My introduction to the new setting was very similar to that of the Ashlands in MW; wander around looking vainly for a town until I'm cornered and eaten by some flavor of monster, reload, and go back to the temperate hill country.

When I went back I stumbled upon an orc fighting a wolf at the mouth of a cave. The wolf won of course because animals attack at such a higher rate that they can get even the toughest humanoids in 'stunlock' (bug?). Anyway I adventured my way into the cave the orc came from and started fighting the rest of them. After killing the twentieth orc and seeing even more of them coming I realized this may have been mistake. After killing fifty of them, seeing still more of them, and noticing my healing munchies were starting to run out I got worried. Finally, after a hundred or so were dead I got a message that I had completed a quest I hadn't even heard of (this happens a lot in the game, you're rewarded for doing things - specifically killing people or finding important things, locations - which have quests tied to them regardless if you've even gotten the quest, which I guess is fair).

emoticon:

 

[Jasede]

My main complaint about the game, and it's more a complaint about the series, is that you have to play as such a shithead. He has some of the worst, undiplomatic dialogue, always demands to know "what's in it for me" regardless of the situation, and probably strangles babies for experience. Basically he has no soul and I hope he gets hanged in the end.

Strange thing, that. While I don't consider Gothic games to be a fully fledged RPG in the classical sense (because you are forced to play a set character), I always enjoyed the main character for his cynicism and dry wit. Must be a German thing. He would make a good Codexer, at any rate.

 

[Vault Dweller]

So, would you say that most of the problems that many players seem to have with Gothics' combat (not talking about the famous boar-scene) is due to a low skill-level/rank?

No. I was experimenting and killed all kind of enemies, including a boar and a lurker, at rank 1, Str 100. So, either the problem has been fixed in the latest patch or people are stupid. The combat system is much more enjoyable now, in my opinion.

In other words, regarding combat, how important are player-skills in Gothic III?)

Reasonably important as in any RT system. Button mashing will get you killed. Using some strategy, changing attacks (fast, regular, power) - works great, btw, very intuitive, you use different combinations of mouse buttons; knowing when to advance and when to retreat, etc.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

My main complaint about the game, and it's more a complaint about the series, is that you have to play as such a shithead. He has some of the worst, undiplomatic dialogue, always demands to know "what's in it for me" regardless of the situation, and probably strangles babies for experience. Basically he has no soul and I hope he gets hanged in the end.

Strange thing, that. While I don't consider Gothic games to be a fully fledged RPG in the classical sense (because you are forced to play a set character), I always enjoyed the main character for his cynicism and dry wit. Must be a German thing. He would make a good Codexer, at any rate.

I like him too, though he's sometimes a bit... stupid.

 

[Ladonna]

I have always liked him. Whether I like him without his ponytail....well, we shall see.

He looks like he has been downing a few too many beers this time around actually, bit fat round the midriff, maybe its just poor movie quality that I have seen.

After the horror stories have started to go away, I am a little more confidant about this game, but the performance issues are still a worry to me.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Here's a tip for ALL of you; stop liberating cities. It can really fuck some stuff up and make a lot of the main quest harder to do. Wait until you're forced to choose a side, then get to liberating... I did it just there. Pissed Xardas off something awful.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Here's a tip for ALL of you; stop liberating cities. It can really fuck some stuff up and make a lot of the main quest harder to do. Wait until you're forced to choose a side, then get to liberating... I did it just there. Pissed Xardas off something awful.

Damn, I've liberated about 3 already, but only because the orcs pissed me off.

If I find a city that is ruled over by some really cool orcs then I'll leave it as it is...

what kind of stuff can it mess up? Does the MQ involve the orc leaders in some way?

 

[suleo]

One thing about skill points and leveling: Unlike about 90% of RPGs in existence, including previous gothics, in this one, when you level up you DO NOT gain HPs. You need to spend learning points to get your hitpoints up, at a ratio of 4HP/1LP. Same goes for endurance and mana.

Seeing that armor is currently sort of bugged, spending 50LPs to get 200 more HPs is a very good investment that will ensure a smaller amount of reloads

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

good, games are the man's domain. now back to baking pies and popping out babies with you

PS: if anyone from pyrhana bytes is reading this: don't listen to them, the glory of Rome was built on buggery, there can be no shame in it! (as long as you're pitching)

I actually think playing as a barbarian koala would be interesting.

Regarding Rome, I had heard they were less keen on boy-boning and dude-diddling than the Greeks. Perhaps the Romans just thought of themselves as less gay, like how Americans thinks all Brits sound gay, the Brits think the French are poofters, and the French use some insult I don't know but I bet sounds really insulting from a Frenchmen in reference to the inhabitants of Belgium. I'll stop know to prevent that subject from hijacking this thread as well.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

or people are stupid.

pretty much, after years of easy games it's nice to see people getting utterly and completely owned.

 

[suleo]

Corrupt savegames

Some advice for VD and others: don't just depend on quicksave. Rotate your saves (I am sure most people do that here but anyway), because the savegame bug is bound to happen to you sooner or later. If you only use quicksave, you can kiss your char goodbye...

Until the patch fixes that nasty piece of work, either rotate saves and save often OR use this tool:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148

It's in german but it's easy to setup (I don't speak german).

It has saved my butt about 10 times in the last 2-3 days. Initially and for about 5 days, I didn't have any savegame bug issues, but in the last 2-3 days I keep having them more and more frequently. So beware.

I've also seen some other solutions/workarounds to this bug, like reserving some memory for savegames (apparently the bug is due to a mem leak) or whatnot, but the easiest way is that tool above.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Here's a tip for ALL of you; stop liberating cities. It can really fuck some stuff up and make a lot of the main quest harder to do. Wait until you're forced to choose a side, then get to liberating... I did it just there. Pissed Xardas off something awful.

Damn, I've liberated about 3 already, but only because the orcs pissed me off.

If I find a city that is ruled over by some really cool orcs then I'll leave it as it is...

what kind of stuff can it mess up? Does the MQ involve the orc leaders in some way?

It can. It makes things a lot easier, as you get a map to certain locations which you need to find - I did it by hefty consulting of the JoWooD forums and trial-and-error - and a few later cities (Geldern) which require you to speak to the leader to get aid for the revolution.
If it's any consultation, liberating 3 means it's too late. Speaking to any orc leader now will turn every orcish city hostile.

 

[suleo]

It can. It makes things a lot easier, as you get a map to certain locations which you need to find - I did it by hefty consulting of the JoWooD forums and trial-and-error - and a few later cities (Geldern) which require you to speak to the leader to get aid for the revolution.
If it's any consultation, liberating 3 means it's too late. Speaking to any orc leader now will turn every orcish city hostile.

Heh thanks jimbob, you saved my ass with this advice yesterday, as I was about to start liberating Geldern (I had found a very nice sniping point too!)

I had a hunch this would happen, as the game gives you hints. The orc leader after the 2nd liberation said something like "if this goes on, we will only open our cities to the ones we trust". And he alluded that they don't trust me

So now, with 2 cities liberated, I'll hold off liberating a 3rd one until I've visited them all first and see what they have to offer.

One thing I've noticed though is that the cities, when liberated, are not as enjoyable/fleshed out anymore, as most if not all of the "named" NPCs are dead. They become populated with nondescript "rebels" which are for the most part, boring (plus they don't give any extra quests...). Kind of sad, really.

 

[Voss]

good, games are the man's domain. now back to baking pies and popping out babies with you

PS: if anyone from pyrhana bytes is reading this: don't listen to them, the glory of Rome was built on buggery, there can be no shame in it! (as long as you're pitching)

I actually think playing as a barbarian koala would be interesting.

Regarding Rome, I had heard they were less keen on boy-boning and dude-diddling than the Greeks. Perhaps the Romans just thought of themselves as less gay, like how Americans thinks all Brits sound gay, the Brits think the French are poofters, and the French use some insult I don't know but I bet sounds really insulting from a Frenchmen in reference to the inhabitants of Belgium. I'll stop know to prevent that subject from hijacking this thread as well.

A bit less. People actually had to remind Greek men that they were married, and to pop the kiddies off their cocks long enough to father some children. The Romans were very similar to modern America in this sense. As in, it happened, and while people knew it was going on and were either indifferent to it or rabidly against it, it was often used as a political smear.

Some of the Caesars got shit about it, as I recall. Particularly in 'The Histories' (which should be called 'The Gossips'), and some of the other surviving 'historical' texts. Which were obviously written for the court of public opinion and not accuracy.

 

[Volourn]

So, is VD still sucking this non RPG's dick?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

It can. It makes things a lot easier, as you get a map to certain locations which you need to find - I did it by hefty consulting of the JoWooD forums and trial-and-error - and a few later cities (Geldern) which require you to speak to the leader to get aid for the revolution.
If it's any consultation, liberating 3 means it's too late. Speaking to any orc leader now will turn every orcish city hostile.

Heh thanks jimbob, you saved my ass with this advice yesterday, as I was about to start liberating Geldern (I had found a very nice sniping point too!)

I had a hunch this would happen, as the game gives you hints. The orc leader after the 2nd liberation said something like "if this goes on, we will only open our cities to the ones we trust". And he alluded that they don't trust me

So now, with 2 cities liberated, I'll hold off liberating a 3rd one until I've visited them all first and see what they have to offer.

I'd just wait. You HAVE to liberate all the cities if you choose one of the three paths; and if you're into the rebels/liberating/Innos, that's probably the path you'll choose.

 

[HanoverF]

So, is VD still sucking this non RPG's dick?

No he's moved onto fisting it, or it's fisting him, I forget the exact insult.

Considering his love for the combat, theres deffinetly something 'Fisty' going on.

Anyway concerning the 'liberate three cities=boned' thing, are you counting the first one you're thrust into liberating, or no?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

So, is VD still sucking this non RPG's dick?

No he's moved onto fisting it, or it's fisting him, I forget the exact insult.

Considering his love for the combat, theres deffinetly something 'Fisty' going on.

Anyway concerning the 'liberate three cities=boned' thing, are you counting the first one you're thrust into liberating, or no?

No, Ardea doesn't count.

 

[hiciacit]

Here's a tip for ALL of you; stop liberating cities. It can really fuck some stuff up and make a lot of the main quest harder to do. Wait until you're forced to choose a side, then get to liberating... I did it just there. Pissed Xardas off something awful.

Yeah, heard this before. I stopped lioberating cities after Cape Dun. Got a little suspicious of those rebels and wanted to see what Xardas had to say first.