A Confession

Regarding the rep thing:
The trigger is actually not how many cities you've liberated, it's talking to various Orc Warlords afterwards (in other cities). This means you can liberate all the cities and max out the Rebel rep if you want to, just make sure that you don't ever talk to any Orc Warlords/Commanders/etc.

I strongly recommend that you either do it that way, or wait a very long time. Making the orcs go hostile will cause quite a few problems, as even the orcs in the desert will attack you on sight (including the ones related to the Hashishin).

I generally complete all the sidequests in both Myrtana (forest) and Varant (desert) before liberating the cities. It's simply easier that way.

PS. This info is based on the pre-community patched game. I can't confirm whether or not the community team changed how Rebel/Orc rep works.

@Maylander: IIRC that is the case too with the latest CP (been a year or so since my last replay though… )

Glad to see I am not alone in the appreciation of this game and what it tried to accomplish btw (it is indeed in my all time fave list, warts and all, but not as high as its siblings ofcourse).

The CP alleviate the worst offending bits to a large degree and make this very playable
even to non fans of the series imo…

Originally Posted by Maylander
I generally complete all the sidequests in both Myrtana (forest) and Varant (desert) before liberating the cities. It's simply easier that way.

It wasn't clear to me which side quests reduce rep with the opposing factions. For example there are rebel quests and orc quests that aren't liberation quests, but certainly indicate a bias towards one faction and against the other.

Unless I'm remembering wrong, you can only increase reputation. Doing quests for one faction doesn't cause your rep with another faction to reduce.

Even if it results in the liberation of a town? Or another bad effect on the apposing faction?

You can't lose reputation that you've already earned. Increasing your rep with an opposite faction is pretty much the same effect.

Afaik, the only way to decrease your rep is to summon a special NPC who has dialogue options that allow you to adjust your rep with various factions. He's not in the regular game though, you have to summon him with a cheat code.

OK, so it's the relative reputation that determines if one side hates you enough to dismiss/kill you?

Orcs=10 Rebels=10

is the same as

Orcs=0 Rebels=0 ?

Not entirely. There are some thresholds at which you're allowed to do somethings or when the other faction starts hating you and stuff like that.

So up to (for example - as I don't know the exact numbers) 19, then yes Orcs = 0-19 is the same as Rebels = 0-19, but if you get to let's say 20 for either one then something happens like you getting entry to some place.

So there is really no safe order in which to do all quests that please one faction or the other? You've got to stairstep them both, and at some point you irrecoverably cutoff one side? That would be OK, just as long as I could see my reputation somewhere.

Faction reputation mainly determines which armor you can wear. Also, for the Orcs it determines when you're allowed to do their "final" quest (requires 75 rep). That's it. There is nothing to it beyond that.

Liberations, on the other hand, actually make a difference, as they'll make certain quests unavailable, turn the enemies hostile (if you talk to their leaders) and so on and so forth.

Basically, just stay clear of liberations and you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Some quests require you to pick a side in that particular quest, but they usually only provide city based reputation.

Thank you very much for the clarification. So rather than just a global reputation, there are local reputations, too? Wow!

Every major city has reputation. The local reputation usually determines when you get to meet the leader of the city, which in turn leads to faction specific quests (quests that give reputation with the faction as a whole, instead of just in that specific city).

Some localities stretch out a bit too though. I think that the orcs near the rebel camp at the start are part of the closest orc town or something like that.

And yes ! I agree, this game could have been the best RPG ever in my opinion. It's a shame they got rushed. I think now there are too many similar quests and almost no NPC that I really care for, even the friends aren't anything special. A few black mages have some personality, but that's it in my opinion.

I only wish they had made the game slightly smaller, even by half if they needed to if it would have meant adding more substantial things in between. The gameworld is just massive now and it doesn't have to be. I spent more than 15 hours in the Old Camp in Gothic I. And I spent probably 30 hours in the city in GII. I find those places much better than any of the places in GIII.

I even stopped playing GIII after about 100 hours of playtime. I just got tired of it. It just becomes the same thing after a while.

Originally Posted by Pladio
I only wish they had made the game slightly smaller, even by half if they needed to if it would have meant adding more substantial things in between. The gameworld is just massive now and it doesn't have to be. I spent more than 15 hours in the Old Camp in Gothic I. And I spent probably 30 hours in the city in GII. I find those places much better than any of the places in GIII.

Agreed. Khorinis is still my most favorite "game city" to date. So… alive.
Though that might also be nostalgia kicking in.

Originally Posted by Pladio
I even stopped playing GIII after about 100 hours of playtime. I just got tired of it. It just becomes the same thing after a while.

Same thing happened to me. I've never actually finished Gothic3, even though I've explored about 95% of the map and completed most of the quests.

That was my second biggest complaint after combat.. way too many simililar quests, and a lot of them were far too generic. Find this, or kill X amount of that. I just got burned out towards the end. I also didn't find the overall story nearly as compelling as either of the previous games.

I replayed Gothic 3 with the latest community patch and a couple of mods over the summer just gone with a mage build. Overall, I had a wonderful time with it.
I also appreciate the overall vision and philosophy that PB demonstrated with the game, but regret the graphical style and combat compared to the first two games.

Still, I loved the gruelling struggle and atmosphere of Nordmar so much!

Who knows, maybe with a different publisher behind them now, after Risen 2 - the approach seen in G3 could make a return?

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
… but regret the graphical style and combat compared to the first two games.

What's wrong with the graphical style? I thought it looked just fine.
Except maybe for the strange transformation of the Orcs…

@wiretripped

There was just something slightly more cartoonish or brightly brash about the style in the third game compared to the previous two - the appearance of the orcs being a good example. I remember being quite wary of the orcs just because of their more menacing appearance in 1&2, whereas I don't think they had the same presence in G3.

There's the bloom element as well which makes the game kind of feel like an obvious competitor to what Oblivion was doing at the time. Minor quibble though, really.

Don't get me wrong, I still find it beautiful overall. The vistas are incredible in that game.

EDIT: damn, I replied to a months old post

Originally Posted by Thrasher
OK, so it's the relative reputation that determines if one side hates you enough to dismiss/kill you?

Orcs=10 Rebels=10

is the same as

Orcs=0 Rebels=0 ?

At least pre-CP reputation did squat all for how the other factions viewed you. Faction reputation had two functions:

Allowing you to buy armour (75 required for the best armours).
Giving entrance to the capitals of the Orcs and the Hashishin (75 again).

Originally Posted by JDR13
You can't lose reputation that you've already earned. Increasing your rep with an opposite faction is pretty much the same effect.

Afaik, the only way to decrease your rep is to summon a special NPC who has dialogue options that allow you to adjust your rep with various factions. He's not in the regular game though, you have to summon him with a cheat code.

That NPC is a debugging tool Reputation isnt meant to go down and there is no reason to lower it unless the CP changed basic mechanics.