Gothic 3 New to Gothic 3

What patch(es) should I apply? I notice the official homepage for Piranha Bytes
does not have 1.6. Is 1.6 a third-party unofficial patch (edit- I see it's a fan community patch)?
You'd think if PB liked the 1.6 they'd point to it on their webpage or mention it.
Haven't started the game yet.

BTW, it's Collector's Edition; are there any downsides to patch 1.6? I might start a game and check for patch version on main menu then start a second game as different character
for 1.7; will 1.7 also be fan-made?

Welcome to our forum!

PB and JoWooD discovered they were sick of each other after patch 1.12. Months later an agreement was found. Since then only JoWooD talks about Gothic 3 and 4 ( = Arcania).
The Community Patches are official. JoWooD gave them the source code. But of course there only so much even gifted amateur can do. Especially difficult things like a new combat system are simply not on the table.

If you want to play now just try CP 1.6 and see if the game is stable. Playing 1.12 or and earlier CP doesn't make much sense.
I'd rather wait for CP 1.7 though. It will be the biggest CP so far. The number of changes from 1.12 to CP 1.7 will be more than 1200. It's already clear a restart will be necessary to take full advantage of CP 1.7.

Is JoWood the publisher or what?

Yes, JoWooD = Dreamcatcher is the publisher. It's unclear whose fault the messy G3 release was. So let's just say both discovered it's better to move on without the other.

Thanks. Now to play.

Hello Buglunch,

I'm currently using the 1.12 patch, playing any community patches (which i've tried) doesn't make much sense to me, they make the game so mediocre, some quests are dumbed down and some hard goal quests have been by-passed and tampered with beyond the original concept difficulty. The game runs beautifully for me, PB themselves said that G3 is capable of being played as intended with the 1.12 patch....and with a suitable pc obviously.

I tend to disagree with Wulf -> The game is playable, but there are also some bugs resolved when you compare it with 1.6. I would say that 1.7 is the one you should wait now for

The reworked memory manager included with the community patch alone helps quite a bit. You won't crash while saving with the community patches, where you might quite often with 1.12.

(Never had a glitch or crash with 1.12)

Yes - if feedback says the game is more difficult and challenging as suggested per the 1.70 change-log - i'll most likely give it a blast to compare with PB 1.12 ver'

I believe the patch is almost ready - per Hans Trapp on JoWood forum -->
http://forum.jowood.com/showthread.php?p=2452614#post2452614

Thanks for the info. Seems the patch is really close to release.

It looks like it's the 1.6 version so I have no choice. I normally avoid
mods and fan patches.
Some of the missions are awfully easy. Money is tight and training is
expensive.

One thing that really bugs me is that the hero does a 180 when you're
done taking things from bodies and talking to people.

Buglunch said:

Money is tight and training is
expensive.

Click to expand...

You can make money by selling animal skins and teeth (you need 130p of hunting and can learn the skills from the hunter outside Kap Dun) and smithing. Once you have iron ore (learn the prospecting skill from a smith to double your ore yield) and the blueprint for a bastard sword you can sell those babies at 4800 apiece. Fighting in arenas will also often net you some skull shields and bastard swords that can be sold for good cash.

Right now I have to save pelts for trainers that want them; I've pilfered some
wolf hides for that trainer. Got two bison pelts but I didn't sell them because I
thought I need some for a quest. Do I have to keep sneaking around and stealing wolf pelts until the trainer is satisfied? I never get them from killing wolves.
Current quest is to hunt the shy deer for that guy in the Stonehengy place but I went east like he said and don't see any all the way to the lighthouse where Jack is. Are these regular deer or will they be labelled "shy deer" when I aim the bow at them?

As to faction conflicts: should I pick a side and do their missions or everybody's?
I chose not to turn the escaped slave in did what he wanted but it seems like bad roleplaying then to turn around and betray him. I'm doing rebel missions and some for the guys at the back of Cape Dun but I don't know the relation of the rebel mole to the quartermaster and the thief. It seemed obvious stealing the goblets from the orc warehouse guy would be a good idea.

there's over 10 wolf pelts in cape dun so if you pick them up there he will teach you.
the deer should be west of the stone circle but be careful of the deers fleeing. they will sometimes run very far and you may end up completing the quest a month later when you finally find your last deer. generally the only quests that will upset the factions on either a faction or city level are attacking the rebel bases or liberating the cities. also if you kill more than one person in a city you will be in trouble with that city, but not the faction as a whole. you are also able to steal a certain amount from each city/camp before a warning, then you can try paying, or making an excuse if you have the thieving ability. usually if you aren't stealing straitaway when you go into a city you can steal all the items you need for a quest(s) without permanetly upsetting them. make sure you aren't seen while doing it as no one just lets you go through their things!

i can't recall but i believe the thief and quartermaster are not in relation to the mole (why he's a slave and not a merc) and usually most orc mercenaries will fight with the orcs when you liberate a town so be forewarned. not counting ardea, you can only liberate 2 more cities in the midlands without making all orcs hostile to you. usually its best to not to do any of these factions 'til later as you'll miss out on quests and more importantly remove your end game possibilities perhaps..

by the way i've been playing it myself for the past week or so with the latest community patch. i agree with Wulf in that it does many thing wrongs but have been intriguied to see if it fixed what little problems i had when i played it twice 2 years ago. it ran almost fine for me when i played it those 2 years ago and that was even before patch 1.12. i rarely crashed until i got into past 100 hours playing an in nordmar. playing it now i crash less on time and more on how many loads i make, sometimes it will crash after 15 minutes of play or less. i notice no improvements in melee combat though i always liked some of the aspects of it myself. and of course ranged combat is still the best of any game with a bow i've played. actually the only really good thing i can say about the community patch is the rate to which magic ore blanks appear in metal chests has greatly increased. the teach "make poison" skill still seems to be broken unless the only trainers are in varant; haven't been there yet so i don't remember.

all in all great fun and running through the wilderness at night with the full moon above and kai's wonderful guitar in the ears...well these things are only possible in a gothic game

The stone circle guy said the shy deer were east but I'll try west too.

i think they were originally. they possibly moved them with the community patch as they were very close to the horde of hostile orcs to the east.

They get scared as one takes one out and run away. They can be anywhere between Vengard and the lighthouse.

Before disturbing them they often wander in the small canyon (is that the right term?) between the stone circle and Vengard. They tend to return there after a while, so I usually shoot one or two, go away and do other things, and come back after an in-game day or two. In all this is a fairly frustrating quest for a measly reward and I often ignore it.

actually in my first playthrough i found the last one outside faring!

curious said:

actually in my first playthrough i found the last one outside faring!

Click to expand...

Sneaky deers, I thought they wouldnt go past the orcs