Gothic 3 - Community Patch 1.7 in March

Gorath · March 4, 2009

Kostaz let us know World of Gothic has details about the upcoming final Community Patch for Gothic 3, including a teaser.

List of all known information about the Patch 1.70 until now:

Estimated release date in march (when there will be no heavy problems again)

Size: between 800-1000MB

Contain all previous patch versions, including Patch 1.12

Patch can installed over each version (but it is recommendable to make a complete new Gothic 3 installation)

installed modifications must delete (or make a backup) before installing the patch because modifications will be not compatible with the Patch 1.70

Patch is for all languages

Begin a new game is a must

Savegames from version 1.60 and before are not compatible and will be not shown in the menu

around 700 changelog entries (with every small changes and world changes there are several thousands bugfixes)

Sword sound, weather sounds

Alternative Balancing (changes at items like weapons, armors, perks, magic etc.); can be switched on/off but after that restart the game; this balancing replaces not the original fight system but it is only alternative

Hero can attack by 1-3 enemies in melee fight at the same time (depend on the difficulty); work only with activated alternave balancing

new AI (new melee fight system); can also be switched on/off; opponents are much smarter and better

increase performance (depend of the computer of the player)

Release of Humanforce's quest package at the same time (first in German, also in English I believe)

More information.

TheMadGamer · March 4, 2009

What is 'Humanforce's quest package?'

Kostas · March 4, 2009

After digging for a while in the german part of WoG I found that the patch may appear on some magazines.

If everything goes well, the patch will also appear in magazines. Consideration, we have at PC Games and PC Action.

My guess is that RoiDanton is talking about the german magazines,so if any of you lives in Germany and has trouble with downloading 800MB there's a fat chance that those 2 magazines will include it.

Moriendor · March 4, 2009

TheMadGamer said:
What is 'Humanforce's quest package?'

Humanforce is a modder and the quest package is a collection of quests that he made for Gothic 3. A major point of criticism in regards to G3 was how a lot of rare and valuable items had no quests or backstory attached to them. Humanforce decided to do something about it and as far as I can remember he started it all with a quest to obtain the mighty Katana weapon (which could be found as random loot before Humanforce made a quest for it IIRC).
From that point on he made quest after quest after quest and not only quests for items but also quests to flesh out some characters, relations between characters and locations more.

Dez · March 4, 2009

Great news, looks like its time for an other g3 rerun

Speaking of this quest package..Is it only for german g3 or is there also an english version?

northreign · March 4, 2009

1.7 sounds too good. Will need to check that out. Cool stuff.

Wulf · March 4, 2009

If the "Humanforce" integrated quests cannot be turned off by player selection, then not counting the improved playability, balancing, many bug-fixes, polishing etc' - this patch is actually a "mod" by definition - is it not?

skavenhorde · March 4, 2009

Wulf said:
If the "Humanforce" integrated quests cannot be turned off by player selection, then not counting the improved playability, balancing, many bug-fixes, polishing etc' - this patch is actually a "mod" by definition - is it not?

Does it really matter at this point? It improves the gameplay just like any patch should do, with the added bonus of making the world become more alive. I'm sure PB would of gotten around to that if they had the time or didn't have that spat with Jowood.

Although, they have the full support of the publisher. So I guess the definition could be a free addon.

ToddMcF2002 · March 4, 2009

I think they have earned the right to "mod" G3 as they see fit and call it official. 1.6 is the only reason I'm even playing G3. As far as I'm concerned, they are the development team.

Maylander · March 4, 2009

This new patch is not developed by the community though, it's made by the makers of Gothic 4, right? I seem to recall something about them making a patch for G3 while working on G4.

It certainly sounds a bit odd that a bunch of modders will patch in sword sounds, large scale rebalancing, massive changes to the AI (new melee system?), etc.

Edit: I will certainly give this patch a go once it is released.

Gorath · March 4, 2009

Not right.

Maylander · March 4, 2009

So Spellbound was only involved in patch 1.6, not 1.7?

Kostas · March 4, 2009

Wulf said:
If the "Humanforce" integrated quests cannot be turned off by player selection, then not counting the improved playability, balancing, many bug-fixes, polishing etc' - this patch is actually a "mod" by definition - is it not?

Community Patch and Quest Pack are two separate projects,they will only be compatible with each other and nothing else.And since the Alternative AI and Alternative Balancing are by default disabled the CP 1.7 is by definition a patch.

Maylander said:
This new patch is not developed by the community though, it's made by the makers of Gothic 4, right? I seem to recall something about them making a patch for G3 while working on G4.

Spellbound the developers of Arcania/Gothic 4 have helped the Community Patch Team with CP 1.6 on some technical aspects,and as far as I know they did not have anything to do with 1.7's development.

Maylander said:
It certainly sounds a bit odd that a bunch of modders will patch in sword sounds, large scale rebalancing, massive changes to the AI (new melee system?), etc.

CPT received some tools from the publisher of Gothic 3,JoWooD,thus making all those changes possible

Maylander · March 4, 2009

There's a difference between having the tools needed and having the time needed - when you do something as a job (Spellbound/PB), you spend 40++ (in the gaming industry often 60+) hours every week working on something. As a hobby that's probably 5, maybe 10.

That's why I was hoping this patch actually had something of a serious team working on it full time, as the result could've been amazing (the potential in G3 is incredible).

Keep in mind that the patch is supposed to be nearly a gigabyte - I have never seen any fan mod/patch of this size or magnitude, so I remain fairly sceptical untill I try it out (a one gigabyte patch without a serious QA department smells like bugs to me, especially considering how buggy G3 is already).

I do hope I am surprised in a good way though, and wish them all the best.

Edit: I forgot about BG Tutu/EasyTutu, which is probably an even bigger project, and very successful. So it's certainly possible, but very few have done it.

ikbenrichard · March 4, 2009

Great effort!
i thank the makers for this!

nessosin · March 4, 2009

Maylander said:
Keep in mind that the patch is supposed to be nearly a gigabyte - I have never seen any fan mod/patch of this size or magnitude, so I remain fairly sceptical untill I try it out (a one gigabyte patch without a serious QA department smells like bugs to me, especially considering how buggy G3 is already).

Similar situation was with Two Worlds. It's patch weighted 1,5 Gb if I recall correctly.

Thaurin · March 4, 2009

Maylander said:
when you do something as a job (Spellbound/PB), you spend 40++ (in the gaming industry often 60+) hours every week working on something. As a hobby that's probably 5, maybe 10.

You forget how some people spend 30 to 40 hours a week on MMORPGs, so working on a mod with those hours might not be unthinkable for some people who really enjoy that kind of thing.

For some reason or other, many people will offer to work on stuff for free for no apparent reason other than that they think it's the "right thing" to do and that they like doing it. (See: many open source projects)

Keep in mind that the patch is supposed to be nearly a gigabyte - I have never seen any fan mod/patch of this size or magnitude, so I remain fairly sceptical

I remember reading something about the way the data files and/or engine was set up that required any patches that made world changes to be this big. The whole world needed to be recompiled or whatever, which means to me that much of the existing data will reship with this patch. That is, that gigabyte will not all be original material. At least, I cannot imagine it to be.

Wulf · March 5, 2009

Thanks Kostaz for the patch info's.

So seeing as the Quest package is a separate optional download, i would be tempted to play without it to keep G3 as near to original as possible. Obviously, installing the quest package must not be installed part way through the newly 1.70 patched G3 as this would affect some of the new quests.

Kostas · March 5, 2009

Here's is some more info

RoiDanton said:
9

Before-After-Comparisons

Location: Cave near Silden

Cave CP 1.60 <> CP 1.70

The difference speaks for itself.

Edge Smoothing

Edge Smoothing CP 1.60 <> 1.70

Made with 4x AA.
It is no real hardware AA but software AA with shader (comparable with MSAA). Edges are made smoother. It needs less performance than normal AA. Works also on vegetation (gras - e.g. ssaa). Can switch off/on - 2x or 4x.
Why we haven't use hardware AA? Because it was too complex and it is not easy to make.

Water

Water CP 1.60 <> 1.70

Pay attention to the color and underwater edges.

Looks great can't wait to play it.
Some may not like the changes in the cave because it not unrealistic,but PBs didn't really succeeded on the "realistic" one

Kostas · March 8, 2009

Moving to #8

RoiDanton said:
8

Before-After-Comparisons Part 2

Rim Lighting

Rim Lighting

This is Rim Lighting. You can use it with Shader 3.0 or higher.

Improved Textures

Improved textures

Wargs will have a different texture.
Backsides of heads will have no "stitches" (gaps) anymore.
The White Shadowbeast has the correct texture now. Normal shadowbeasts still have their usual texture, of course.

Improved Materials

Improved Materials

Some weapons got new "materials". But only some orc weapons will have this, it is not for all weapons. We added some missing bumpmaps.
There are also a few new materials for walls and other items.

Gothic 3 - Community Patch 1.7 in March

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