Have you cheated on your first run of G3..?

[Wulf]

I personally think it's a sad state of affairs when i see G3 players reverting to cheating, inserting items etc' especially on the first run through the game. Later on maybe after completing a few/couple of games it's then o.k, i do this also - but to buy the game then begin to cheat somehow doesn't seem challenging - although in certain situations (the save game bug for example) it seems easier to cheat than restart.

[Hindukönig]

I had to. I needed one of the anchestor's stones, but the orc shaman who had it ran away.

Oh, and I created a swampweed packet, because I couldn't get to Gonzales otherwise. Yeah, I know. But when I play a game I want fun and progress, not frustration. And Gothic 3 was the most frustrating game for me ever. I don't know how my table survived my outbursts of fury, which happened very often when my nameless hero died a sudden death because a bloodfly looked in the wrong direction. Well. So, cheating was some kind of revenge.

[Lethal Weapon]

Gothic games were never easy and I can understand how casual/younger players feel the need to cheat their way through the game.

[Prime Junta]

The problem with G3 isn't that it's challenging; it's that it's (a) bug-ridden and (b) god-awfully unbalanced. I didn't cheat; I soldiered on until about level 50 and then gave up on it. I certainly wouldn't have blamed anyone for cheating, though.

Needless to say, I was awfully disappointed. I had been looking forward to G3 for a long time...

[Acleacius]

Not cheating when its broken. ;)

[aldee]

I do confess bug-using on the first run. I started getting so tired while looking for the tomb entrances in Nordmar, that I flew over the mountains to get a better overlook. It's the first Gothic title I did something like this during a "regular" playthrough, though :-).

[Neo]

Never. I don't like cheating. Only when one has finished/completed the game once or twice, cheating can be used to make some fun in the game. But for serious playing cheating is weak IMO.

[hwfanatic]

Combat in Gothic 3 is a form of cheating on its own imo. The hero always fights only one opponent, while the rest of them are idling by. And the whole fighting thing seems to come down to locking your opponents into a swing death-trap, one by one. I consider this to be a built-in cheat in a general meaning of the word.

[curious]

gothic 3 requires no cheating. completing a quest another way is an acceptable solution. for example the shy deer quest. it is not necessary to complete this quest. people really need to think about what the npc's and game are telling them. the deer are shy and if you chase something that is shy, ie a girl for example, you had better be quick about it otherwise they will slip through you fingers. i lost one of the deer but was rewarded 40 levels later when i found it. people who are cheating in nordmar are seriously missing out on one of the most challenging and fascinating worlds created in a game. i can understand if people are getting there and are so far through the game they just want to finish, but damn, it would be such a shame to miss the experience. at least in your next game try going to nordmar before you go to varant.

2 swampweed packages can be earned so there is really no excuse for insterting it. remember taking back a gift you gave someone else is part of the game design and not cheating, unless from a roleplaying aspect and you are playing a true good character.

there are also many of the quest that require you to 'fetch' animal trophies that can be completed if you are not a hunter at all. when i finish the game this time through i will post a report. so far lurker trophies, and shadowbeast horns are the only things i haven't been able to aquire. though i do find it odd that dark snappers give up their skins without you having to learn the skill. also the rotten beasts (a type of lion) do this as well. i think these should be fixed in a patch though.

[Hindukönig]

Don't lecture me. I played Gothic 1 ten times without cheating because it never was frustrating. In Gothic 2 I had to cheat because I lost a mainquest item, but that's better than not having the ability to cheat at all!
I wanted to finish Gothic 3. I had the two swampweed packets but somehow I sold them or so. Visiting every trader in the whole world to find those packets ... no, thanks. It's just tedious. When I cheated I just imagined that I found the trader and got my packet back. It's the same effect. I already looked into the forums to find out if the Mora-Sul-quests were just bugridden or if I did oversee anything, so this wasn't so hard to consider.

If I had been sure: yes, I don't need that quest to finish the game, or: yes, I can solve this also by knocking Gonzales down without losing other quest-possibilites ... it probably would have been otherwise.

If Gothic 3 had not been so frustrating in combat, story, design ... yeah. For me, it's just like Ultima 9. Another third part which doesn't resemble its precedessors. I don't regret cheating or looking in the internet for solutions, because I'm truly disappointed with the game, and my disappointment would not have been vanished if I didn't cheat. Quite the opposite.

[Bartacus]

At the daily smile I just posted my way of cheating -> I'm to lazy to load and save everything, so when I know I can finish of an animal ... I just can't stand those long load screens and I want to move on. F8 is my savekeeper.

[JemyM]

I used the "goto" command a few times near the end. The reason was to reduce the time it took to walk all the way to a NPC that I already met before.
Also many of the guides tend to "get lost" in Nordmar and I had to use goto to find them again.

I kinda had a panic because I had promised myself to be done before NWN2 was released.

[curious]

@i Hindukönig - i was giving you alternatives, i would never want to tell you how to play a game. but it's just nice to know if there are other possible solutions. i basically cheatiedmy first time through the game as well because i had originaly given the moonblade to gonzales, but had to reload my game and the next time i gave it to ishmael the smith. and having set the slave free i had no way of getting 75 reputation so i thought i could steal it(the key) from gonzales but there is no way without killing him so i actually ended up more or less cheating by climbing through the top of the mora sul temple. my only time cheating in the first 2 gothics was the same as well with that artifact for vatras in night of the raven. that was a game stopper though and why i pointed it out as a difference from gothic 3 which has no 'game stopping' bugs to my knowledge.

[txa1265]

I haven't yet, and don't plan to ... I'd rather soldier through reload times (my biggest frustration) than not get a true feel of the game for myself and my reviews.

[Melvil]

Cheated to skip the nordmar quests, no patience for the ancestral tombs. Glad I did too, the ending of the game was sorta disappointing to me.

[curious]

its funny jemym, i was trying to finish gods land of infinity before i got gothic 3. some games i only play for hours, some days, a few for weeks and the rare ones in play for months on end, not letting any other game in. gothic games have always been one of those rare games for me and its just wierd to see so many people 'moving on' to the next game with such haste, but i guess everyone has different tastes into what game they really want to play.


if rushing towards the finishline offen results in disappointing rewards - then long journeys are something to be remembered rather than enjoyed, right? i sadly have hastened through many games, partially because that is all most games ofter, a nice ride. i have a closet shelf full of some good and not so good rides. but gothic games are like jurassic park for me, and i never want to leave.

[Corwin]

I feel the same way about Ultimas!!

[Zaleukos]

I used goto a few times for the same reason as JemyM. I only think it could be considered cheating in one instance, when I used it to find Milten who hadnt reached the monastery after 50 (!) days. It helped me get him unstuck. That quest isnt necessary to finish the game though.

Couldnt get to Gonzales either, but I bit the sour apple, ran past the guards, and slaughtered him with a few blows.

I'd probably cheat if I accidentally sold one of the quest items too. Searching for the right vendor doesnt add to gameplay IMHO.

And I dont think either of these instances is "cheating". Late-game trekking between NPCs and already visited occasions is in my opinion a standard design flaw of RPGs. Gothic somewhat reduces the amount of backtracking with the unlimited inventory, but there is still some of it, especially in the desert. It is only justified when things happen along the way (like in Baldurs Gate II). I only wish I had a goto cheat for Arcanum that I am playing now...

[Sparow]

i cant cheat because i dont know what _ is in gothic 3:D

[Sepulchrave]

gothic 3 requires no cheating. completing a quest another way is an acceptable solution. for example the shy deer quest. it is not necessary to complete this quest. people really need to think about what the npc's and game are telling them. the deer are shy and if you chase something that is shy, ie a girl for example, you had better be quick about it otherwise they will slip through you fingers. i lost one of the deer but was rewarded 40 levels later when i found it.

I was so tempted to cheat with this one. But that's because I sat there and watched one of the deer run right through a cliff and disappear before me eyes. Figured it wouldn't be coming back. Though, like most things that disappear into the void in this game it did eventually pop back out after I left the area and came back later.

[Zaleukos]

I remember a specific cheating instance. At a point you have to escort a mage out of a cave, through some undead. After slaying the undead, and well in sight of the cave exit, he walks into a wall. Since it is an escort quest I thought he would stay there until I got close enough, so I used the goto cheat to enter the surreal world of the void:p. That made him start walking again, and his pathfinding AI showed us the way out of this netherworld and we got out safely:p

Unfortunately I doubt Piranha will fix all the void issues. There's just too much surface to search for "holes"

[Sepulchrave]

The funniest "void" issue I had was up north. It was in a place in the east that literally went off the side of the map. There was a heard of woolly bison there. There were also a bunch of ice wolves. Anyway, I'm standing in the middle of this herd of bison when I start getting shot at with fireballs from below me. (Luckily they weren't heat seeking fireballs, the kind that tend to curve around rocks, this one rare time.) So anyway I whip out my halberd and hit one of the bison before I realize what is happening. I killed them all only to watch a group of goblins slowly float up out of the ground to attack me. Afterwards I found out there was a goblin cave nearby and I was standing over it when all of this occurred.

[migwell]

Normally I do not cheat in games that I have some respect for, and the first 2 Gothics were such games. This one, I made it up to level 45 with no cheats when I took the Ancestor Stone quest and saw quickly that I would be doing basically the same endless slog 6 times over... God mode!

Wander around with that crappy map battling animals, goblins and Orcs to finally find a cave chock full of skelly's, and then have to go back out and clear out the nearest Orc camp to find the stone... 6 times! Took days on God mode and my mouse fingers are falling off.

Also took on the Smelter's approval quest and finally just used 'goto Larson', who had headed north (thanks for that handy clue!)... Just endless, aimless, frustrating wandering around.

[curious]

i was lucky my first time through the game to go to nordmar first so i didn't suffer from the fact that like most people i was already 2-3 done with the game with spending at least a minimum of 60 hours. i can understand peoples frustrations with some of the ai bugs. but nordmar is not boring. it is difficult (more than any part of night of the raven in my opinion) and one of the best/intricate outdoor levels ever designed.

the orcs only have 4 of the stones by the way...but i guess you would of had to found them to know that. and yes larson was hard to find, even the second time for me. but it makes sense where he is, right below the prospecting camp. its confusing with him behind a cliff and there is a another campfire a few hundred feet away that is right near the main road and then the prospectors campfire as well.

nordmar makes me trully appreciate the places in life i've been that have had the touch of natures otherworldly archeticture.

[JemyM]

its funny jemym, i was trying to finish gods land of infinity before i got gothic 3. some games i only play for hours, some days, a few for weeks and the rare ones in play for months on end, not letting any other game in. gothic games have always been one of those rare games for me and its just wierd to see so many people 'moving on' to the next game with such haste, but i guess everyone has different tastes into what game they really want to play.

if rushing towards the finishline offen results in disappointing rewards - then long journeys are something to be remembered rather than enjoyed, right? i sadly have hastened through many games, partially because that is all most games ofter, a nice ride. i have a closet shelf full of some good and not so good rides. but gothic games are like jurassic park for me, and i never want to leave.

Hmmm. I did do everything in Gothic 3. Every single quest possible except the ones that broke (one of the Druid quests broke for me).

I used the goto command a few times to speed up running the extremely long distances I had already ran before. Since I already ran thoose distances once before I did not feel like I gave anything up and considering I dropped everything with a single fireball I did not feel like I skipped danger either. After all, I did explore every corner of the map. Using goto felt a bit like using a town portal, it saved me pointless trekking over countryside that I already explored 110% and killed everything on already. I do not think the game is more rewarding just because you physically walk your way to every paladin to return their chalices for example. All you get is a few potions anyway.

[SirDeity]

I generally never cheat. The whole idea behind cheating makes the taste in my mouth go sour. It ruins games for me. Morrowind was completely ruined for me because I had to cheat just to get around a bug that broke the main storyline (which prevented me from finishing the game). That was heartbreaking. However, in the Gothic games, with the availability of the insert NPC options, I usually go to the cities just before I'm ready to uninstall the games (after I've beat them as many times as I care to play through the game) and insert a bunch of beasts or badies and just watch as the city falls into chaos and everyone battles. It's kind of fun to watch big fights. But I never keep playing after that...

[Sir Markus]

Kind of a strange 'cheat' I found. I'm probably not the only one that's found it, so if this is redundant, I apologize. Anyway, if you find any of the herbs that permanantly raise your stats (not the ones that restore), go to the inventory and double click on that particular herb, making sure to watch the stat number on the left that is specific to that herb. The instant you see that number go up, hit the 'I' key to close the inventory. Then open up the inventory screen again and the herb should still be there. You can use it over and over. I stopped using this cheat once I confirmed it's repeatability, but it's there.

[hwfanatic]

Also, you won't die of poison when your inventory is open. Your health will be zero, but you will not die.