Gothic 3 Starting Gothic 3-Questions about gameplay

Alright, I've never been able to get into the Gothic games. I hate being forced to play as a melee fighter and the earlier games almost forced this. I bought Gothic 3 for 19.99 and want to give it a go. I've played around in the first 3 areas just enough to get my feet wet. Here's my questions, please help out if you can:

1. Reputation or Orcs vs Humans. Without giving away details, does it matter if I tackle the game logically? By this I mean, complete all doable quests in Ardea, then all quest in Reddock, then all quests in Cape Dun, etc. I'm thinking that Gothic wants you to ride the fence. That's the way I feel so far. If I played by my nature, I'd join the rebels immediately and start killing every orc I can find. Will the game be enjoyable that way or is it really meant to be played on the fence?

2. Magic. Is magic feasible this time? I can find a trainer almost immediately this time, but I see you need 50 LP and tons of gold to be able to throw a stinking fireball. Gothic 3 is again forcing melee and/or archery on the main character. Too bad I don't get to make the choice in what role I play. Can you find and cast damage spells quickly in Gothic 3? It looks like the only shrine in the first areas is to the God of no damage spells.

3. What skills are vital to obtain quickly to maximize cash potential? One of the things I think Gothic nails is the economy. You're going to need every dime you can scrape up for several levels. Please note that I installed community patch 1.4 so that I don't get weapons that sell for ungodly amounts. I want to earn my money legitimately I'm guessing hunting might be the most vital beginning skill. I'll want to pull teeth, skin animals, etc. Is this valid? Should I raise hunting with lifepoints rather than by doing quests? What about prospecting? Is it viable early or should I wait until I start finding mines?

I remember in the other games I always got frustrated because I had mis-spent my LP's. I was trying to become a mage quickly and the games just didn't allow it. I'm trying to avoid that frustration by finding out which skills I should purchase early-game and which can wait.

Thanks!

1. Feel free to play however you want. You'll figure out when a quest will have further reaching consequences (hint: their names begin with "Liberate", or "Destroy"). Even if you join the rebels, though, you probably will also want to infiltrate orc society too (though you can just swing your sword at every orc you come across, it probably won't be very easy).

2. Magic is very feasible; your beginning fighting skills are enough to carry you for at least 100 LP or so, if not more - by that time, you'll magic will be good enough. You'll actually do well with just a single damage spell, at least for a while (Innos has Fireball, Beliar has Lightning; there are shrines for both in the starting area).

3. You've guessed correctly, hunting skills are a good way to earn money. Get the first few, and you'll definitely be fine for the game; you might, however, have some trouble in the start - money can be scarce then.

As I've said, you can get a decent amount of LP with just your starting skills, and after that you'll be able to fight however you wish. The magic path might be a bit hard on the start, mostly due to mana: you'll have to balance your investments between AK (= more damage) and mana (= more, well, mana).

Hope that helps.

Thanks, Vperic. Feel free to chime in here too folks. I know there are a lot of Gothic lovers on this board.

VPeric mentioned the most essential things. I can, however, add that liberating cities is probably the fastest way of making money, but it is quite hard in the beginning.

Also, unlike previous Gothic games you now spend LPs to increase your health - if you go for a melee character, spend some points in getting it up to 300+ relatively fast. It will help you avoid quite a few reloads.

Thanks for the tip, Maylander. I restarted and focused on hunting for the first several levels. I wanted to get it to 130 so I could get teeth, skins, and reptile skins before tackling the first cave. I generally shoot one fire arrow and then close to melee. Copper will attack if I shoot something, so he gets aggro. I wish I could give him a better weapon, but I can only hand him healing potions.

I've just been playing the first few areas but it seems like most fights are really easy if you use the fastest attack. The only time I reload is if a monster hits me repeatedly and the keyboard totally stops responding. I can't jump, move, swing, etc. I guess I'm stunned or something. Of course, I think that's what is happening to all the orcs I fight. They like big long swings and the little jabs just keep them from even fighting.

Is Copper the dumbest companion on the planet? He never attacks any monster except the one I'm already killing. I don't need help killing my creature. Fight one of the other 3 that are trouncing me from behind!

NPCs will only attack if:
- You attack a target. They will then procede to attack the same target. You can switch target though, and he will keep fighting the first target, so a nice tactic is to pull using a ranged weapon, let the NPC take aggro, and go off to fight something else yourself.
- You get attacked. The NPC will then attack your attacker.
- He gets attacked. The NPC will then attack the attacker.

As long as you manage to get NPCs into combat, they'll keep fighting new targets untill everything hostile in the area is dead.

crpgnut said:

Is Copper the dumbest companion on the planet? He never attacks any monster except the one I'm already killing. I don't need help killing my creature. Fight one of the other 3 that are trouncing me from behind!

Click to expand...

wait until you get to the bandit's cave mentioned in Cape Dun (Ortega, i think).. he will get in the way so much that i normally leave him outside the cave..

also as mentioned before, hunting skills are ultra-important..

Favorite new tactic. I found a control animal spell and now have a friendly rhino. This thing kicks serious butt I just led it into the cave with all the bandits and Ortega. It's so big that if feels the passage. I shoot a bandit up above and they come down and meet the rhino who has a bad attitude They kill it eventually, but he killed about 5 of them first.