Gothic 3 Crossbow and Bow.

Acleacius · October 21, 2006

There has been lots of disscusion about the changes in Melee but not much on Range yet and I am not really sure how I feel about the new range weapon's funtions.

What is the deal with the randomness of the loading a bolt in the crossbow?
I wondered if maybe the replay by the PC was an translation error or something as in English he says, "With what", as if somehow it thinks there is no ammo to load.

This is horrible as it happens very often in battle and with the animation effects scripted by PB having priority over our keyboard functions.
I.e if we press a key during an animation the animation continues anyway, which is very unrealistic.
So consequently we are forced to sheath the weapon, redraw and load it again, (which btw could only fire once before doing this whole process over again).

Next is crosshair, why can't there just be a small (scalable?) dot, to simulate the parallax view of aming in RL, uggh.

Addtionally the amount of time to draw the bow versus the distance seems very off against the PC.

Maylander · October 21, 2006

The crossbow thing is a bug, and I expect it to be fixed soon.

I feel ranged weapons work great as it is - you can go through most of the game using only range if you want, as long as you have ammunition at least.

Acleacius · October 21, 2006

Ahh, good too know its a bug, thanks.

Corwin · October 21, 2006

I quite like the bow, but I find a Fireball does more damage!!

Plus I can fire them off faster than I can pull the bow.

Sem · October 21, 2006

I haven't tried a crossbow yet, but I think fighting with a bow is very intuitive and fun.
The bow fighting is like in Enclave, a moderate game but with good archery.

mute · October 21, 2006

The Bow / Crossbow thing. The bug with "With what" is stupid, but manageable. The trouble with crossbow is the reload time. You really don't want to use it cause you might be standing reloading the thing when you want to back off. In mine experience (I did go for a shield/sword fighter with crossbow) the crossbow is mostly "worhtless". Its okey with enemy that takes 2-3 hits to die, but when fighting with orcs, ogres or something bigger, the crossbow is a big misstake. The bow, with lower damage is much better, more nimble and you don't get caught on your feet trying to reload the damn thing.

When i replay gothic i will not be using crossbows at all. But if you don't want to put some skills in hunting to get better bow, it might be fun to have one.

Perhaps i will find some better crossbow elsewhere which does alot of damage and i will revisit this opinion. Again.

(I have som now that does 150 + some special quarrel, but its more like suicide tryingt o use it...).

If anyone have some tips on using it better please let me know!

Maylander · October 21, 2006

Crossbow works great as well if you have master crossbow, as the loading time isn't too bad, and you get quite a knockback on it, so enemies stop. What you have to do is back away, back away, load(takes a few seconds), back away, shoot, back away, load, etc.. just keep backing away except when loading, and you can get 5+ shots into most creatures(except fast ones). Also, crossbows have MUCH higher damage and accuracy - easier to aim with on longer distances.

I use mine mostly for puling though, as I have a Krush Tarach(req 400 str, 200dmg, the very long orcish polearm) which has such a long range I can keep almost all creatures at bay with it and never get hit myself unless I'm fighting a pack.

I was thinking of trying a bow only game, but I imagine undeads being quite a problem, so I'll probably go with dual-wield and rapiers or something as well.

Wulf · October 22, 2006

Has anyone tried the poison arrows skill? - havn't reached that far yet.

Maylander · October 22, 2006

I find any DoTs(damage of time) spells and abilities useless, so I never use it a lot. Same for spells like Weakening and such - G3 has so fast combat people die before the effects are noticable. Still, I think it could be useful if you like hit and run tactics - tag 2-3 creatures in the pack with poison, run back a bit, tag them again, etc.

Corwin · October 22, 2006

If you're not careful, that doesn't work either. I was trying something similar on a Lizard, but I ran too far and when I went back, it was at full health!!

Maylander · October 22, 2006

Yep, it seems they have implemented a WoW style of creature system - as soon as it gets out of range of the player it will regain health very fast.

Jabberwocky · October 22, 2006

Sem said:
I haven't tried a crossbow yet, but I think fighting with a bow is very intuitive and fun.
The bow fighting is like in Enclave, a moderate game but with good archery.

Been awhile since someone mentioned Enclave. I thoroughly enjoyed that game despite its MANY flaws. The graphics were incredible IMHO. I'm just glad that Gothic finally adopted the archery style that I've been whining for since the first game!

elkston · October 23, 2006

Jabberwocky said:
Been awhile since someone mentioned Enclave. I thoroughly enjoyed that game despite its MANY flaws. The graphics were incredible IMHO. I'm just glad that Gothic finally adopted the archery style that I've been whining for since the first game!

Yeah Enclave was one of those games that just had that "charm". Despite
some bad points, it was just a blast to play and the game looked gorgeous.

As I was playing I just kept thinking how it would be great if it was a "full" RPG with
dialogue choices and more world interaction.

Wulf · October 24, 2006

If you want interesting immersive gameplay, i suggest using the bow as much as possible, as a hunter with 220 skill, i've just cleared all the orc's from Vengard using the Nimrod bow only - no melee weapon, it was awesome, i equipped 500 arrows and 150 pieces of roast beef just in case - - and had plenty left over.

Maylander · October 24, 2006

Only drawback with bow/crossbow is the slow killing compared to large 2h weapons or magic(provided you have mana regeneration). It sure is fun though, and almost without risk unless you face spellcasters.

Wulf · October 24, 2006

Yes indeed, In G3 you can see the opponents spell (for example the ice block) coming at you with trail line behind it whereas in G1/G2 it was almost instant, this slight delay before being hit is sufficient to be able to sidestep left or right and escape the spell by a few feet. The opposing caster has to stand still to cast and this helps the bowman while straffing from left to right to continue firing arrows, havn't used any spells yet - just a poor humble hunter

but iv'e yet to face powerful spell casters perhaps, i wouldn't possibly stand a chance against the instant sleep spell and others. Yet i am determined to get to the end an archer/hunter. :-/

Dez · October 24, 2006

I'm also playing a humble ranger character. I just love sniping enemies and collecting throphies on the side of it. Although I'm not a pure archer. I weild two swords and use them when i want to get my hand dirty or when enmies give no chance to stay afar...

Only downside with this archer business is that I'm running short of arrows! And 90% of the merhants sell only ammo for the CROSSBOW :>

Acleacius · October 25, 2006

Stilll as with G2 and G1 the biggest problem with Ranged weapons is the lack of either a Crosshair or a smaller Hitbox, makes it imposslbe to traget (the most important ability for Range) in a group of Mobs, this problem even severly hurts Range Magic.

If a group of charging Wolves or whatever once hit usually you can get one or two but then some may start getting in close range but the Targeting has you locked on a dead body still acting animations or on a distant target unable to point and aim where yoiu want.

This has always been a huge problem for picking up Loot also, constantly being forced shift your postion to try to get and angle on a body you know you have Not looted yet and when its a Boss with a MQ or even SQ specific item it becomes infuriating and heartbreaking to lose or waste hours of gametime.

The fix is so simple for this, its very irritating that they just neglected such an important and fluid concept in gameplay when 99% of everything they design is just brilliant.

mudsling3 · October 25, 2006

Been using crossbow...that loading bug occurs from time to time. One more bit...you can't put it away or switch weapon right after shooting, got to wait for the hero to finish loading a new one. However, the crossbow is always empty when you pull it out. I hope this could be fixed as well. I am a archer in real world, got a very nice Samick Hawkeye 40#. PB's attention to small details in their game is admirable...love those little noise. Make me worry the bow were about to snap in halves though

My bow only makes a little "thub" noise upon releasing an arrow.

MonGoliat · October 29, 2006

Enclave! Finaly someone that has actualy heard of it! I got it when I was in Rusia som i thouth that no one had that game. I agree, the bow system is realy nice! But the story suck though...

Ive got a Hunter-Twoblades'ish charater, he rock! But I dont use that bow that much, i let my two flame-swords do the talking. And I havent realy got a good bow jet.

Gothic 3 Crossbow and Bow.

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