Gothic - New Compilations Coming

[Gorath]

Your last couple of questions have already been answered hours ago.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Your last couple of questions have already been answered hours ago.

Wasn't sure these were your own statements or annonced statements since there was no link came with your comments, so I was eager to ask.

 

[Gorath]

Such infos are always from WoG. Wouldn't make much sense to link to 15 different foru, posts, all in German.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Thanks for your efforts and replies Gorath.

 

[killias2]

Anyone have any advice for starting into this series? I have all the Gothic games and Risen.

 

[Gorath]

Thanks for your efforts and replies Gorath.

You're welcome. It's not much effort. The infos are easy to find.

 

[Gorath]

Anyone have any advice for starting into this series? I have all the Gothic games and Risen.

Start with Risen. It's very similar to Gothic and G2, just much easier to get into and generally slightly weaker. If you enjoy this type of game enough to commit to the real thing, download JemyM's FAQ and start with Gothic 1. (You can map the controls to an old gamepad, if it's more comfortable to you.) The learning curve is 3*5 minutes if you know where to look - or hours if you try to find everything out on your own.
Then play Gothic 2 vanilla all the way through, but don't try all the different solutions in chapters 1 and 2. The interface is an optimized version of Gothic's so you simply go on without reading the manual.
Then play G2 Gold until the end of chapter 2. That's where the fresh NotR material ends, so it's a convenient exit point. The overlap is something between 5 hours and 20 hours, depending on your playing style. Look under every rock and don't waste any skill points. NotR is very hard.

Gothic 3 is a different game, more similar to the Elder Scrolls. Play it whenever you feel like it, but make sure to patch it to the latest CP (the upcoming 1.75) and read the pdf for the CP before you start. It's a long game with one of the best RPG worlds ever, but a couple of serious issues. Hit or miss.
Ignore the G3 add-on.

 

[killias2]

Start with Risen. It's very similar to Gothic and G2, just much easier to get into and generally slightly weaker. If you enjoy this type of game enough to commit to the real thing, download JemyM's FAQ and start with Gothic 1. (You can map the controls to an old gamepad, if it's more comfortable to you.) The learning curve is 3*5 minutes if you know where to look - or hours if you try to find everything out on your own.
Then play Gothic 2 vanilla all the way through, but don't try all the different solutions in chapters 1 and 2. The interface is an optimized version of Gothic's so you simply go on without reading the manual.
Then play G2 Gold until the end of chapter 2. That's where the fresh NotR material ends, so it's a convenient exit point. The overlap is something between 5 hours and 20 hours, depending on your playing style. Look under every rock and don't waste any skill points. NotR is very hard.

Gothic 3 is a different game, more similar to the Elder Scrolls. Play it whenever you feel like it, but make sure to patch it to the latest CP (the upcoming 1.75) and read the pdf for the CP before you start. It's a long game with one of the best RPG worlds ever, but a couple of serious issues. Hit or miss.
Ignore the G3 add-on.

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. I actually started downloading Risen (on Steam, bought it a while back on sale) on a hunch before I got any reply. This makes me feel confident that I made the right decision. I'll get back to the Gothic trilogy sooner or later, assuming I enjoy Risen as much as everyone else seems to.

 

[Gorath]

Not everybody enjoys this type of game. It's hard to stomach for some people that running away is a viable option, or that you sometimes only get one chance to say "yes" in a dialog. Many fights end as you would realistically expect them to: with quickload, if you attack a strong opponent with better gear.

 

[Gorath]

Screens for G3 Enhanced.

 

[JonNik]

Hey not bad (textures, lighting, shaders and Lod)! Some "before" screens look a bit worst than my 1.74 installation though unless my eyes deceive me

Must. resist. temptation to replay. So soon after the last

 

[JDR13]

The only improvements I can discern are in the water and monster textures. The lighting looks a tad different but I don't know if it's actually better.

I was really hoping they would have an option to push the draw distance even further.

 

[SpoonFULL]

I am happy to see any enhancement to this gem called Gothic 3. It seems that I have missed some of the Hashishins in the pictures posted by Gorath - gets his dual wield paladin sword and ice sword and heads to the Hashishin by the fire singing: no one will miss you!

 

[JonNik]

The only improvements I can discern are in the water and monster textures. The lighting looks a tad different but I don't know if it's actually better.

I was really hoping they would have an option to push the draw distance even further.

I don't know, the ground and foliage (grass and trees) textures in the after pics are quite a decent improvement imo, and so is the Skybox. Also if you look at the background carefully there seems to be some improvement there too (more distant detail).

I like the lighting and contrast in the "after" pics a lot better than the "before" ones but that is a matter of taste I guess (Also it doesn't look that bad in my 1.74 setup).

Nothing earth shattering but I did not expect miracles and any free enhancements are welcome

Anyways, if you want more draw distance there is that insane ini but It needs a really powerful rig…

 

[JDR13]

I don't see any improvement whatsoever in terms of distance, and I compared the screens side by side using two browser windows.

I do notice more improved textures though now that you mention it. Especially on structures.

As far as the new lighting goes.. it seems overly bright to me, but I realize that's completely subjective.

Anyways, if you want more draw distance there is that insane ini but It needs a really powerful rig…

Can that be used with 4GB of RAM?

 

[JonNik]

Hmm I guess it will be a bit close. People with 4GB were reporting Out of Memory errors (the infamous guru kind)… With the new textures on 1.75? probably not…

It was stable for me (6GB) but I haven't really done a playthrough with it, just set it up and tested for a half hour (but then again gurus are more probable to hit on the 1 or 2 hour mark) So use with caution

 

[JDR13]

I'll probably have upgraded my rig by the time I get around to playing Gothic 3 again anyways.

Considering how cheap memory is right now, I really have no excuse for still only having 4GB.

I also like to force 8x anti-aliasing in Gothic 3 (it's almost a necessity imo), so I wouldn't be surprised if that ini.file gave me some issues on my current rig.

 

[JonNik]

Considering how cheap memory is right now, I really have no excuse for still only having 4GB.

Yep, Still banging my head that I didn't put 12 in it (I wanted triple channel you see). Now I am just bored I guess (plus 6 seem to be enough for the time being). The 1GB on my 5870 is my only problem with the current Rig (as I found out while texture modding Skyrim) but at least consoles have made certain that you really have to go out of your way to hit your machine's limitations nowadays

Anyway if Stalker 2 ever makes it out that 5870 is history... /offtopic

 

[Thrasher]

Although I have both NOTR and G3, I still haven;t played them. Hopefully someone will post a ink to DL the 1.75 CP G3 patch when available. Will the 1.75 CP patch include the "graphics improvements" from G3:FG, or is that some other patch?

 

[Gorath]

Hopefully someone will post a ink to DL the 1.75 CP G3 patch when available. Will the 1.75 CP patch include the "graphics improvements" from G3:FG, or is that some other patch?

Yes.