A Confession

I'm wrapping up my re-play through Might and Magic VIII (thank you GoG!) and I'm thinking about firing up G3 + the community patch to give that game another complete playthrough.

But I have to confess. I did cheat quite a bit on my first playthrough. I pretty much cheated (God Mode) freeing each city from the orcs. I honestly have no idea how anyone could survive the onslought of orcs without cheating your way through those battles.

So, can any of you that beat G3 without cheaing give me some tips on how you surivived the orcs when you set the process of freeing the city in motion.

Been a long time since I played but I did not cheat. I played when it came out and so without a community patch if that changes the difficulty. What comes to mind is I had regenerating mana and I would timestop bubble, then lightning/hailstorm(?), and sometimes meteor/firerain(?). This made me effectively a god. By the way, I started early in the game using a spear/polearm(?) which allowed me to attack while staying out of reach and once stamina/endurance(?) was built up I remember making 3 or 4 360degree attacks back to back.

@Michael Ellis - some really good stuff you wrote. Thanks. My first playthrough I was melee (sword and shield). I'm going to play a mage class this time as you did.

Don't try the liberations too early.
Level up first. Do all quests in one town, then move on, until you've wrapped up all of Myrtana like that.

The melee build is the hardest one. I'm doing a playthrough of G3 as well, at the moment. I had planned on a melee character, but switched to more of a ranger/hunter type pretty soon.

You should see the pincushions I'm leaving behind…

Don't free up cities early in the game. You need to be able to survive the north, which usually means being able to do most of the stuff in the center and south first.

Originally Posted by Pladio
Don't free up cities early in the game. You need to be able to survive the north, which usually means being able to do most of the stuff in the center and south first.

Are you saying that when I can survive in Nordmar I might be getting strong enough to free the cities?

I wouldn't say that being able to survive Nordmar necessarily means you're ready for liberation. Also, don't forget that liberating three or more cities makes *all* Orcs in the game hostile towards you, which will eliminate some of the optional sidequests.

Bottom line: don't liberate that 3rd city until you're close to the end of the game, imo.

Also, the village/town that you liberate at the start of the game doesn't count towards your total number of cites liberated.

Originally Posted by JDR13
until you're close to the end of the game, imo.

Also, the village/town that you liberate at the start of the game doesn't count towards your total number of cites liberated.

Thanks for the awesome tips!

Yes and no I'm saying that if you're not able to survive in Nordmar, don't bother with the liberations yet. This is just my opinion, so you could try, but I wouldn't recommend it.

For me it's not about being able to survive as much as not wanting to close off potential sidequests.

Very useful tips! So should one not liberate or do rebel quests until you've explored and done everything else?

You can do Rebel quests, athough you have to keep on eye on your reputation.

Iirc, you'll start to encounter Orc hostility if your rep with the Rebels goes over a certain amount. I don't remember what the exact amount is, or if that was changed in the later patches.

I think it all depends on personal preferences. For me, liberating towns and completing rebel missions was my favorite (and in my opinion, the most interesting) part of Gothic 3, so I didn't wait too long to start pursuing that path. I really loved that concept in an open-world game, and wish that someone else would attempt it again; the feeling of an actual conflict going on in a very real and believable manner was very immersive for me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You can do Rebel quests, athough you have to keep on eye on your reputation.

Iirc, you'll start to encounter Orc hostility if your rep with the Rebels goes over a certain amount. I don't remember what the exact amount is, or if that was changed in the later patches.

Can you adjust by doing quests for Orcs in that case? As a side note, that kind of ruins the roleplaying aspect, though, and becomes more of a gaming strategy…

Originally Posted by Nerevarine
I really loved that concept in an open-world game, and wish that someone else would attempt it again; the feeling of an actual conflict going on in a very real and believable manner was very immersive for me.

Absolutely.. it's one of the few games where I felt like I was really having an impact on the game world.

G3 would easily have been in my top 5 crpgs if they hadn't flubbed the combat so badly.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Can you adjust by doing quests for Orcs in that case? As a side note, that kind of ruins the roleplaying aspect, though, and becomes more of a gaming strategy…

As I recall, your rep can only go up. It makes enough sense in-game though.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Absolutely.. it's one of the few games where I felt like I was really having an impact on the game world.

G3 would easily have been in my top 5 crpgs if they hadn't flubbed the combat so badly.

Those are my thoughts exactly on Gothic 3. It's really the only open-world game that I've played that got the whole "epic conflict/war in the realm" idea implemented in a real and meaningful way, and I loved being able to have an impact on that conflict. It truly is a shame that G3 stumbles in a few serious ways (such as having mediocre combat), because I think that the ambitious design was brilliant.

Sadly, no one has tried to implement this idea in an open-world RPG since then, and even PB doesn't appear to have the desire to try it again, leaning more towards their traditional open-world design. That isn't a bad thing necessarily, as they are great at what they do, but I sure would love it if they tried the Gothic 3 approach again.

My advice would to take on as many side-quests as possible until you reach a mid-high level and then start with the towns that are closer to the location where the game starts - I'm not sure if this is correct, but it seemed to me anyway that those towns were a bit easier to take over than the ones that were further away from the starting town.

Also, if a town is difficult to take - either because of the strength of the orcs or the games own combat system is cheating you (stun-lock anyone?) - try some hit and run tactics to isolate individual orcs or at least a small group of them and weaken them gradually instead of fighting them all at once within the actual town. Even with some rebels on your side, liberation battles can be quite messy in a head-on fight.

Originally Posted by JDR13
As I recall, your rep can only go up. It makes enough sense in-game though.

I meant, can you stop having problems with Orcs once you've crossed their line, or is there no return?

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I meant, can you stop having problems with Orcs once you've crossed their line, or is there no return?

I'm pretty sure that there's no coming back once you cross the line. If I remember correctly, there might be a cheat that resets hostility, but I never used it - why should I care about what some dirty orc thinks of me? But if you want to be a completionist or feel that you aren't ready to take on the orcs, you might want to look into this cheat.

OK, thanks. I prefer not reverting to old saves if there is an in game way to repair bad consequences (kind of like the real world).