G3 1.6 First Time

OK long time owner of G3, first time player.

Just picked up my new laptop with the 9800 GTS, 1 gig onboard ram, 4 gig system ram and vista 64. I've tweaked the ini to make it very pretty moving the LOD out along with the blurr and maxing entitly draw distances. Looks amazing.

First time trying Gothic 3 and I'm pretty shocked. I'm certainly not playing the unfinished, unstable mess released in 2006. I tried the demo in 2006 and "where is the guru?" that was pretty much my experience then. What a difference a few years makes. With the exception of some clipping issues there are NO problems whatsoever. 6 hour session last night. The combat has some issues but this is a GREAT game in its own right. Not quite up to par with the previous installments but I'm still loving it.

My favorite moment so far is when the Orc guard stopped me and said "It seems someone has been killing our men. Do you know anything about that?" nameless just barks "NO!" and keeps walking. I was laughing my ass off

I'm glad you are enjoying it - what you are experiencing is what so many of us say - it is a solid game, just hard to get past all of the release mess.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
My favorite moment so far is when the Orc guard stopped me and said "It seems someone has been killing our men. Do you know anything about that?" nameless just barks "NO!" and keeps walking. I was laughing my ass off

Actually you need to be careful, you've obviously killed some Orcs. If you kill too many Orcs, there's a chance that ALL of them will go hostile on you and start attacking on site.

Make sure not to kill ANY Orcs within view of a city, unless it's quest specific.

The Merc farm off the west gate attacks me on site because of the cows. I've beaten them all and taken all the weapons but they have mysteriously been reoutfitted. I can still go into Meranta proper though, even though I've finished the "Slave Camp Guard" quest (which was also hilarious!).

Aye, definetly a great game all in all. Just remember that there's no reason to be a "pure class" - mix'n match often gives the best results, making combat not only easier, but also more fun. I pretty much always have ice lance (for freezing enemies) and healing.

Looooooong game. I'm not complaining exactly, but after freeing the desert and Myranta it seems slightly tedious in Nordmar.

Yes, I agree, I tend to rush that part (which is a real shame, since Nordmar is very well made). The reason is - by the time I reach Nordmar, I already have everything I want in terms of skills (experience) and gear (i.e why grind Nordmar rep leading to Nordmar armor, when the armor is rubbish compared to the Paladin one?).

Yup. Don't get me wrong I think the game is brilliant and wonderfully hand crafted. I've always loved the "no hand holding" quests and the sense of accomplishment in the series and G3 is no different. Its just so freaking long LOL.

I was going to resume playing Two Worlds right after but I'm too burned out on 3rd person gaming at the moment. My Hard to Be a God DVD should arrive in a few days (I think I'll do a review if anyone cares?) or perhaps Drakensang?

OK I finished it. Very mild spoilers….



Some thoughts. Overall I loved it, not quite as much in the end as G1 or G2. I honestly think Nordmar killed it for me. The fog was so aggrevating I wanted to stuff the designers in an ancestor cave. I found myself sleeping to get a clear morning but with 10 minutes or so inevitably the fog would return. The design is very difficult to traverse with all the ledges and whatnot that I spent easily 70% of the time back tracking, half blind, looking for entrances to towns. I also ended up solving most quests before they were assigned as a consequence.

I actually gave up placing all the ancestor stones. I left one in inventory, I couldnt remember which cave it belonged to and I was too irritated to struggle walking around Nordmar in the fog looking for the right entrance.

I also never found all the Fire Challaces. I ended up with 11 at the end. God only knows where the last one is. Could be anywhere right? Literally.

Ironically the combat never bothered me, although it is not nearly as dynamic as G2. I simply cannot imagine how the "kung fu movie" single attackers in mobs is going to work when it is removed in 1.7. I understand it is configurable, but I how anyone could liberate anything while getting swarmed by Orcs is beyond me. There are simply too many attackers and the automatic "forward draw" when you attack means you'll end up swarmed.

I won't say anything specific about the ending, other than I really felt let down by the direction they took it. I made marginal sense at best and it just seemed like lack luster writing. I was looking forward to a more "G1" or "G2" type puzzle laden ending. Oh well.

Cliff notes: Loved the game but hated Nordmar. Didnt complete all main quests. Thought ending was lame.

Overall, well worth the effort.

Walp, I just started on it. As you say, what a difference a few years make. The combat is still lame, but it's at least halfway decently balanced now -- no more stun-locks, some kind of control over the process. And the incredibly tedious technical issues are mostly gone.

I decided to go with a mage build this time around -- something I've never done in Gothic games; I've just been tinkering around the edges and have gotten my Ancient Knowledge up to 50 and learned the Fireball, as well as how to make mana potions. I figure that should give me enough of an edge to be able to do some more serious questing.

All in all, I'm already enjoying it a lot more than I ever did. Not bad at all!

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
All in all, I'm already enjoying it a lot more than I ever did. Not bad at all!

So you never played very far into G3 previously PJ?

You're in for a real treat then, G3 is great if you're the "explorer" type. I expect you're going to be sucked in pretty hard over the next week or 2.

I really enjoyed G3, not as much as either of the first 2 games, but enough to spend around 60-70 hours on it. I eventually explored all of Myrtana and Nordmar before getting burned out and moving to another game. I still have my saved game though, and I definitely plan on going back soon…

Originally Posted by JDR13
So you never played very far into G3 previously PJ?

Actually, I did play very far into G3. Going by the walkthrough, I covered the whole map and well over half the quests. I really, truly, honestly tried to like it, but it eventually wore me down and I gave up.

its a loooooooong game. I can see folks just burning out on it. I have "completitis" in general so I'll never give up. Plus it is a prerequisite for G4 or Risen in my book

I have this game perpetually running on my system, and I play it in little spurts. I must agree that technically I don't have the excuse not to finish it because of glitches, anymore, which was the excuse I had originally used.

I tend to go to Nordmar first - I love it there. I don't have as much experience in the desert, I must make a plan to spend more time there.

*sigh* Unfortunately, I'm distracted by the fact that I had recently started a playthrough of NOTR, after having only gone about halfway with the original G2. These Gothic games seem to become bigger and bigger - G1 was the only one small enough for me to finish comfortably in one go. I just hope I get to finish NOTR and G3 by the time G4 comes out.

I uninstalled Forsaken Gods, as it was messing around even worse than the original G3 had done, and also the true"Gothic flavour" seemed to be missing…

..but I'm with you, Todd, I am, thanks for the thread, and for making me feel slightly less bad because I keep burning out with this huge game. I AM going to finish it someday soon…

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I honestly think Nordmar killed it for me. The fog was so aggrevating… I found myself sleeping to get a clear morning but with 10 minutes or so inevitably the fog would return. The design is very difficult to traverse with all the ledges and whatnot that I spent easily 70% of the time back tracking, half blind, looking for entrances to towns. I also ended up solving most quests before they were assigned as a consequence.

My experience as well. Nordmar is a tough place to navigate given the terrain. That combined with the 'fog' made it quite an irritating place. Add to the fact that Nordmar was the last of the 3 major regions I explored, I was entering Nordmar at a point in my gameplay where Gothic 3 fatigue was really setting in.

Still, the gameworld was such an interesting place to explore. I think the basic storyline of freeing the towns got so repetitive that you just start to wonder what Nordmar has to offer by the time you get there, assuming it is the last region you explore. If I ever play this game again, I will try to tackle nordmar first and see how I like it.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I actually gave up placing all the ancestor stones. I left one in inventory, I couldnt remember which cave it belonged to and I was too irritated to struggle walking around Nordmar in the fog looking for the right entrance.

This actually illustrates a larger problem with G3, in my opinion of course. And that is that the quest information and quest status is too vague. When I first started playing G3, I put in about 15 hours into the game. Then I had a family crisis (my wife got cervical cancer) and I didn't play G3 for over a year. After my wife recovered (yay) I tried to continue on from my last G3 save and I was just totally lost and I had to start over.

Despite the over-the-top-hand-holding with Oblivion, one thing about that game is you clearly know what quests you've completed, what objectives have been completed (if any) with current quests and you can put Oblivion down and resume it a year later and quickly get back up to speed because the quest information and progress is very clear.

I'm hoping that Risen/Arcania can improve in this area without becoming a hand-holding-festivus for those who can play those games from beginning to end without much interruption but still provide critical quest information for those of us who like these games but perhaps play them on and off over the course of an entire year or even longer.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I also never found all the Fire Challaces. I ended up with 11 at the end. God only knows where the last one is. Could be anywhere right? Literally.

I'm curious, I always thought finding the fire chalices was a MUST. That you can't finish the game without finding them. Interesting.