Gothic 3 1.75 CPT released

I know, the original was 800 actually. I am thinking that either we brute force it and put al the values back to the ultra levels or try to raise some and see if it evens out the end result…

Oh shoot, I have a half hour to kill before diner let me take a look at that ;)

Edit: Hmm just did that run towards lester's hut. No pop in whatsoever… I am wondering if it is the difference in performance between our system and/or if some things load in an asynchronous manner…. Let me reload and try that again…

edit: Hmm no popin anywhere I can see... What does change pretty damn close to the PC are shadows though (as always)...
 
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What about the tree log on the cutting stand in front of the hut? Can you see that as far away as everything else?

I suppose there's a possibility that the game can actually auto-adjust on the fly according to how much available RAM you have, but I think that would be unlikely.

And wouldn't objects like that be more affected by video RAM anyways? I don't see how system RAM would affect an object loading.
 
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What about the tree log on the cutting stand in front of the hut? Can you see that as far away as everything else?
.

Yep, standing from the top of the hill next to Ardea. This is odd…

Actually funnily enough what you describe happens for me in Risen 2 (there is a white statue on the Big house on the starting harbor in Tacarigua that pops in waay to late despite my extreme values)
 
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I suppose there's a possibility that the game can actually auto-adjust on the fly according to how much available RAM you have, but I think that would be unlikely.

And wouldn't objects like that be more affected by video RAM anyways? I don't see how system RAM would affect an object loading.

I don't think that is likely, might have something to do with the algorithm they use to calculate those things (the values you set are bias in a function used there) but I couldn't possibly guess what ;)

If you run out of memory you'll know trust me (first textures will not load and then the inevitable crash)...
 
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The only thing I can think of is that it must be a difference in the rendering procedures of our video cards.

If that's the case, (and I strongly suspect it is), this is the first time I can recall an ATI card actually being an advantage for a Piranha Bytes game.
 
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A driver bug seems like a stretch for such a case… But I don't have anything better to offer otoh… Double check that we have the same values just in case…

Edit: On another note I put vegetation back to 18000. There is practically no apparent performance drop from 12000...
 
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The alternative balancing might be fine, but because G3 dumps you right into a battle I decided it was hard for the sake of it and turned it off. The opening battle just kept going… and going. All the humans in the town were down for the count and I was out of arrows.

Yep! My experience exactly. That intro sequence is pretty much the worst. I tried a few times now, but I've since given up. Fuck that.
 
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A driver bug seems like a stretch for such a case… But I don't have anything better to offer otoh… Double check that we have the same values just in case…

I'm not going to stress over it. It's not like I was planning to do a full playthrough now anyways. :)

I was having some fun though, and it does make me wish I had time to play G3 now. My only serious attempt (about 80 hours) was as a mage, so I always intended to go fighter for my next run. However, I'm tempted to go mage again now that all the spells are working.

I noticed a few other differences in this version. First, I could actually die in the starting battle. That came as a bit of a surprise. Also, the orcs seem to focus on the PC more now. I left Adea to go down near Lester before the battle was over, and the next thing I know there was 6-7 orcs charging me and Lester.
 
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Yeah, mage is a lot of fun. It can seem almost NOTR tough in the early game to the uninitiated, with A.I and A.B on hard, but once you get AK and mana up and start those fireballs going, things start to fall in place.

Late game is particularly satisfying… Even more so because you worked so hard to get to the level that you own anybody and everybody's ass ;)
 
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I played as a hybrid, mage with swords; maxed both after about more than 120 hours of going all over the place (but not completing all quests ofcourse). My ultimate joy was when I was able to summon the dead army (near the end as you can only get this when you align with one of the gods - Beliar I think). I can take whole armies with those zombies and skeletons - well I used fireballs and lighting storms as well! The melee, especially the dual wield is very satisfying and you can hack and slash with style to your heart's content.
 
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I never realized I could be a mage and still get dual-wield.

Also, you say you had to align with Beliar to get the Army of Darkness spell.. does that mean you could only get the Beliar ending?
 
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I never realized I could be a mage and still get dual-wield.

You could be anything you want, if you put enough hours in the game (in addition to being a warrior and a mage, I also maxed out my bow skill - only useful at the beginning but becomes useless when you have re-generating mana and fireballs).

Also, you say you had to align with Beliar to get the Army of Darkness spell.. does that mean you could only get the Beliar ending?

As far as I remember, each god has their own 'ultimate' spell and if my memory serves me, it was Beliar that can give you the army of darkness (I could be wrong as it might be Innos). But yes, you only get the ending associated with god that gave you the army of darkness spell (as then you have eliminate everyone else!)

If you want to see all endings (Beliar, Innos or Xardas), just make a game save when you have all the artifacts after speaking to Xardas where he will want you choose, then go back to that save to explore all the three endings.

This game is amazing, I did the main quests in the game in the most ilogical way and yet the game dealt with all the possible situations naturally!
 
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I remember that each each god had 3 special spells that you could pick after you sided with his "representative".
For example Innos had Bless weapon, Meteor (even more badass than Rain of Fire, think it took 5 of them to clear all the orcs that were outside Vengard) and Word of Dominance which under AB is substituted for Rain of Fire.You could get those spells in common shrines (and I guess Druids/Water Mages/Xardas(?) in the case of Adanos) but under the category of higher ancient magic.

Regarding visual tweaks, does anyone know if it's possible to reduce/get rid of the fog in Nordmar? Even with ultra .inis it remained a virtual labyrinth, since it's the fog reducing visibility rather than which areas are loaded, and while I appreciate how you are supposed to feel uneasy and unsafe while hunting the complicated geomorphology is IMO enough to set the mood.
 
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Yep, Beliar => Army of Darkness, Innos => Fire rain, Adanos => Hailstorm.

And pretty much what limits you from getting a skill is the requirements (attribute and a previous skill) and getting the trainer to teach you (usually gold and perhaps a quest).

So to get to the high level skills you need to have done some serious investing on that path. But yeah, there are enough XPs (quests and monsters) in this game that a lot of mixes are entirely possible in time... I never play a 100% pure anything myself either ;)
 
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Yep, Beliar => Army of Darkness, Innos => Fire rain, Adanos => Hailstorm.

Iirc, Adanos goes with the "canon" Xardas ending, right? I guess I won't be getting Army of Darkness then since that's the ending I want.

I wish they hadn't limited those spells to which path you choose, and I also wish you didn't have to wait until the game is nearly over to get them. Oh well…

What does Word of Dominance do? I don't remember that spell, and I can't seem to find a description anywhere.


there are enough XPs (quests and monsters) in this game that a lot of mixes are entirely possible in time… I never play a 100% pure anything myself either ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's still possible to be a "Jack of all Trades" with Alternative Balancing enabled. At least that's what the new manual claims.
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's still possible to be a "Jack of all Trades" with Alternative Balancing enabled.
Not necessarily wrong, but I´ve played the game with 1.73 or so (alternative balancing enabled) and I think I got a pretty good taste of most of what the game has to offer character development-wise during that one playthrough, but it was more on a gradual basis and via (sub)class switching of sorts.
IIRC, I´ve spent roughly 1/4 of playtime as hunter, 1/4 with 1 handed weapons + shield, 1/4 with two handed, 1/4 dual wielding + I was developing some of the other skill groups on the side (starting with thievery). I´ve also learned some lower level spells, used spell scrolls liberally and in the last 1/4 of the game or so I even got some fair fun with more advanced spells like fire rain (also via scrolls).
Playing a jack of all trades right from the start likely isn´t feasible with AB, but my character certainly felt like one during the second half of the game in terms of available gameplay variety.
At least with AB, developing a character who leans more strongly towards magic seemed like one either has to meta game quite a lot, suffer through the first half of the game (and Gothic 3 is fucking long), or both.

My character´s sheet before the end credits (though I suspect there´s some exp inflation, because I´ve likely taken the screen after going on a "reload-after-the end-rampage", I probably finished the game "proper" at about 3-5 levels lower):
x3KJi.jpg

Looking at the screen reminds me why I remember Gothic 3 as a game with the most engaging character development of all Piranha Bytes games :).
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's still possible to be a "Jack of all Trades" with Alternative Balancing enabled. At least that's what the new manual claims.

Indeed, what the added requirements do, like I indicated above, is make such a scenario like DeepO described a lot more difficult in reasonable play time. (*)

This is quite an extreme scenario though and I personally can't imagine having fun spending that much time in the game (in one go) so I can put it away for ever (I rather replay it every 1-2 years). I usually finish around level 55-60 myself (a meaty run of about 80-90 hours). That gets me at least some archery/hunting in the early game (too fun to pass in a PB game for any build) a bit of sword (up to strong at least) and lockpicking. After that I may pick one Main and/or a secondary discipline and focus on that so I can make my character climb up to comfortably powerful levels pretty soon. After that it depends on how much extra time I feel like devoting in that run..

Regarding spells, you will find a couple of Army of Darkness (and several very useful summon lightning) spells in chests if its any consolation…

(*I believe some people claim that levels close to 100 are possible though. That means still not enough to max out 100% of everything probably and some things are tied to end game choices as we discussed. Also keep in mind that if you want to be reasonably powerful and utilize i.e spells correctly you need to pump AK and mana up and not only have the min values just to cover the requirements etc and that means a lot of Lps, same for strength or hunting skill etc)

Edit: Hmm word of dominance. I am sure I've taken that one but I have a mind block at this time. A pillar of flame from the sky ? no that was the meteor… Hmm

Edit2:Oh wait does it work like a charm? (put an NPC under your command)… Yes that might be it…
 
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Looking at the screen reminds me why I remember Gothic 3 as a game with the most engaging character development of all Piranha Bytes games :).

True.. but I also think G3's system hurts replayability compared to their other titles.


Regarding spells, you will find a couple of Army of Darkness (and several very useful summon lightning) spells in chests if its any consolation.

I almost forgot about spell scrolls. So those haven't changed then.. anyone can use them, and they're only 5 mana points to use, iirc.


Edit2:Oh wait does it work like a charm? (put an NPC under your command)… Yes that might be it…

That seems right. I found this -> http://www.worldofgothic.com/gothic3/?go=g3insert_magic

"Word of Dominance" - You must follow me, said Innos, and humans obeyed.
 
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True.. but I also think G3's system hurts replayability compared to their other titles.

Only if you are determined to invest a huge amount of time (to make the disciplines perform) and really go out of your way to do that. It was much more organic to me to have my fill without even coming close to doing everything in a run… And lets not forget that after a certain percent of Rep you are excluded from certain content to some factions…

I certainly agree with DeepO here, by far my favorite PB char system (with the AB changes) and I would say that replayability is up there with Gothic2+NOTR for me.
 
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