elkston
Sentinel
One of the old traditions of Gothic I & II was the idea of a "quick start" savegame.
In this savegame, all the quests that were necessary to join each particular faction were complete -- leaving out only the player's final consent to join the group. Furthermore, these inititiaion quests were completed while making few, if any, changes to the character or the game world: non essential monsters and items were left alone, characters not involved in the quests were not spoken to, locations not pertinent were ignored.
The result of all this careful, directed gameplay is a perfect "point of departure" savegame. One that players could always reload and quickly jump into the game with a different strategy or guild. Because LPs were left unused, characters
could quickly be configured with ample attiributes and skills that fit their particular choice of guild or playstyle. The mostly un-touched world meant monsters, NPCs, and locations were still fresh and ready to be discovered.
Gothic 3's faction and reputation system prevents this type of quick-start savegame, IMHO. There are no guilds to join -- only varying degrees of alliances and hostilities. The game is also chapterless. There is no clear line in the narrative to separate the "picking your group" phase of the game from the "getting on with the story" phase.
One could walk a sort of faction tightrope - zig-zaging between missions for the Hashishan, Rebels, and Orcs while never fully commiting to either side. All along the way you save up LPs and try to leave the world alone. The problem is-- this is nearly impossible because doing missions for these groups is the game. By preparing yourself for a side you are actually playing through a moderate portion of the quests and if you go that far, you may as well do it with the character you want.
Then again, if one has the patience to not spend LPs or do unecessary exploring during this build-up phase, then a sort of "mid-point" savegame could be possible.
In this, you can quickly define your character, pick a side you want, and then proceed with the MAIN plot.
I'd be interested in hearing people's ideas for a G3 "quick start" or any type of flexible G3 savegame that allowed efficient replays with different character builds.
In this savegame, all the quests that were necessary to join each particular faction were complete -- leaving out only the player's final consent to join the group. Furthermore, these inititiaion quests were completed while making few, if any, changes to the character or the game world: non essential monsters and items were left alone, characters not involved in the quests were not spoken to, locations not pertinent were ignored.
The result of all this careful, directed gameplay is a perfect "point of departure" savegame. One that players could always reload and quickly jump into the game with a different strategy or guild. Because LPs were left unused, characters
could quickly be configured with ample attiributes and skills that fit their particular choice of guild or playstyle. The mostly un-touched world meant monsters, NPCs, and locations were still fresh and ready to be discovered.
Gothic 3's faction and reputation system prevents this type of quick-start savegame, IMHO. There are no guilds to join -- only varying degrees of alliances and hostilities. The game is also chapterless. There is no clear line in the narrative to separate the "picking your group" phase of the game from the "getting on with the story" phase.
One could walk a sort of faction tightrope - zig-zaging between missions for the Hashishan, Rebels, and Orcs while never fully commiting to either side. All along the way you save up LPs and try to leave the world alone. The problem is-- this is nearly impossible because doing missions for these groups is the game. By preparing yourself for a side you are actually playing through a moderate portion of the quests and if you go that far, you may as well do it with the character you want.
Then again, if one has the patience to not spend LPs or do unecessary exploring during this build-up phase, then a sort of "mid-point" savegame could be possible.
In this, you can quickly define your character, pick a side you want, and then proceed with the MAIN plot.
I'd be interested in hearing people's ideas for a G3 "quick start" or any type of flexible G3 savegame that allowed efficient replays with different character builds.
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