Just got Gothic 3...

[Zagor]

I just got Gothic 3, installed it and used the patch, started the game, and realised that it was unplayable. The framerate, even on the lowest settings, was abysmal. And the game stopped every 20 second to load.

 

I could play Oblivion on medium settings without any problem, and Gothic 3 is much uglier.

 

I have a 2,8 GHz processor, and 2GB ram, and x800 pro.

 

I must say, I'm very dissapointed. I have to upgrade

[Girias_Solo]

Odd, I have been seeing many people with similar specs to yours playing the game quite well.

 

Have you defragged the HD? Apparently this game is a bit of a HD thrasher.

[taks]

yeah, and do you have SATA? i was having massive issues with even NWN not too long ago and it was the result of my HD hitting the bricks. moving to SATA cleared that up. of course, i'm back to stuttering with WCoC, which also showed up with daggerford, which is leading me to concluding the 1.68 update did _something_ to mess with performance.

 

taks

[Zagor]

I will try to defrag, thanks for the tip

[taks]

there are also issues with the way your game is partitioned vs. the OS. i.e. i've had problems in the past related to having winders on a separate drive than my game installs.

 

taks

[Maedhros]

It's nearly unplayable on my computer, which played Oblivion on medium-high settings.

[Zagor]

yeah, and do you have SATA?  i was having massive issues with even NWN not too long ago and it was the result of my HD hitting the bricks.  moving to SATA cleared that up.  of course, i'm back to stuttering with WCoC, which also showed up with daggerford, which is leading me to concluding the 1.68 update did _something_ to mess with performance.

 

taks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What is SATA? :">

[Girias_Solo]

If anyone here has G3, post your specs. Maybe some correlation will point itself out. Also say when your drive was defragged.

[Dark_Raven]

yeah, and do you have SATA?  i was having massive issues with even NWN not too long ago and it was the result of my HD hitting the bricks.  moving to SATA cleared that up.  of course, i'm back to stuttering with WCoC, which also showed up with daggerford, which is leading me to concluding the 1.68 update did _something_ to mess with performance.

 

taks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What is SATA? :">

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SATA

[Judge Hades]

Sata? You don't know who Sata Clause is?

 

Oh sad is the world...

[Slowtrain]

Is there really that much of a difference between SATA and IDE in real world performance? Last time I checked the difference wasn't such that most people would really notice it.

 

I'm running SATA on my current system and it doesn't seem noticeably different than the IDE I was running on my previous one.

[Hell Kitty]

I'm running SATA on my current system and it doesn't seem noticeably different than the IDE I was running on my previous one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Same.

[Zagor]

I've been playing for some hours now...

the framerate is still bad, even after a defrag, but that's not the only problem. the game is totally imbalanced as well.

 

I can't kill anything, except orcs and bandits. the wolfes and boars are almost impossible. I die and have to reload 4-5 times before I manage to kill a single boar.

the problem is, if the boar, lizard or wolf hits you, you get stunned, and can't do anything while the boar continues to hit you until you die.

And reloading takes half an hour (well, at least a minute)

 

This has to be the most frustrating game ever.

Edited October 17, 2006 by Zagor

[LadyCrimson]

Does anyone else with the game agree with the game balance thing? It doesn't sound...pleasing.

[mkreku]

I still haven't played my Gothic 3.. but I've been following the official forums, and tons of people are experiencing the exact same problem as Zagor. They're calling it "stunlock" and it only seems to happen with beasts in the woods. Someone had been killing an entire village of orc elites without having to heal, but the second he stepped out of the village, he ran into a boar that stunlocked his level 27 fighter to death within seconds. Noone has any problems fighting humans or orcs though.

 

There's also a movie on the net showing 10 (or so) NPC's fighting a boar that has found its way into a village. Everyone keeps attacking it, over and over and over, and I think three people dies before the stupid boar finally topples over.

 

Another huge "bug" (or feature?) is that armour.. does nothing. You spend 150.000 gold on buying the most expensive armour in the game, but the only thing you get is a few percentages less damage in combat. If a boar hits you for 40 hp when wearing the starting equipment, it will take appr. 34 hp when wearing the best armour found so far in the game!

 

I haven't seen a word from Piranha Bytes about these issues. They're almost as bad as Obsidian when it comes to frequenting their own forums. We're all hoping for a patch though.

[taks]

Is there really that much of a difference between SATA and IDE in real world performance?  Last time I checked the difference wasn't such that most people would really notice it.

yes, there is. IDE drives will be lucky to hit 30 or 40 MB/s, whereas SATA can reliably hit 75 MB/s or so. you are correct that _most_ people won't notice a difference, but games like these spend a lot of time loading and unloading large textures. SATA drives also tend to have larger buffers and lower latencies.

 

I'm running SATA on my current system and it doesn't seem noticeably different than the IDE I was running on my previous one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

in general, this is probably true.

 

taks

[LadyCrimson]

Ah...sounds like the stun thing is probably some kind of a bug then. Patchy patchy....That's too bad...hope they get a patch out quick.

[Azure79]

Looks like I'll be getting this game later rather than sooner then.

 

I have to build a new system anyways.

 

Were the previous 2 Gothic games buggy at first as well?

[Ummi]

I ordered my copy on the release day, got it next day and have been playing it ever since. I can offer some impressions.

 

The game runs near perfectly after i tweaked the graphics settings a bit. I reduced High Detail Distance setting to medium, turned off Depth of Field cause it looked plain ugly to me and seemed to affect performance too, and i toned down Anisotropic Filtering but left everything else maxed. Frame rate is smooth and the game only stutters brifly when it has lots of loading to do. My computer has 2GB RAM, C2D E6600 CPU and x1950xtx video though so all that might not tell you much

 

As for the game itself, i quite enjoy exploring the world of G3. It's much more satisfying to go on a random exploring trip in G3 than it was in say Oblivion. There's a constant sense of danger outside towns and there are enough interesting things to find and things to kill. Quests are quite fun to do cause while not exactly groundbreaking they are interesting and varied enough and also give a ton of exp so you don't have to go grinding beasts in the woods like in G2. Of course i kill everything in my path anyway

 

That brings us to the combat problems though. Killing beasts with a sword is a bitch to say the least. My usual tactic when encountering a wild boar used to be running like mad towards the nearest friendly NPCs, then slowly killing the animal with a bow while it raped everything that fought it. When the boar hits you, you go into this *i'm so hurt* animation for a second or so, but the boar attacks again before you recover causing you to become stuck and helpless. However i have discovered that moving around makes you pretty invincible in G3. When you move backwards in combat it's slow and doesn't look like you're nearly fast enough to move away from an attack however it's fast enough for the game and attacks will simply miss you giving you an opportunity to counterattack. It's even possible to escape this "stunlock" by holding down the backwards movement key. There's a problem though. NPCs can also dodge your attacks with this slow backwards motion, but due to the poor visual representation of this dodging it can sometimes cause you to make mistakes. It might seem you should be hitting the enemy while it's actually moving away from you so you miss instead and get counterattacked.

 

I've recently discovered ranged combat which is simply awesome. You can do headshots which does almost double the damage of bodyshots and with a crossbow that can be a lot of damage. I can kill those "stunlock" boars in just two shots now so they never have a chance to work their magic on me any more. However there are also many bugs such as arrows passing through enemies for no apparent reason. Standing on lower or higher ground sometimes makes you totally safe from retaliation while you slaughter everything nearby with a crossbow. It's also possible to kite kill tough enemies quite easily. You take one shot, then run away a bit. The enemy will tire of chasing you immidiately and start walking back. You can then take another shot, run, and so on till your target is dead.

 

Due to these imbalances and bugs advancing in G3 often feels not quite right and cheap because of the shady tactics you're forced to use sometimes. I still enjoy the game quite a lot despite all that. Like i said at first exploring is great fun, quests are fun, following the main story has been ok so far too. If your comp can run it and you like these sort of games then get Gothic 3 at one point

[Dark_Raven]

This sounds utterly depressing. That bad with bugs?

[Slowtrain]

This sounds utterly depressing. That bad with bugs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I agree. Frankly this is really sad. I mean, I was looking forward to the game. Not going to buy it now. Unless they patch. EVen then it might be bargain bin material.

 

Frankly, its not sad, its gross. Software publishers think they can get away with releasing this bug-ridden crap forever. Someday, eventually, people will stop buying until a game is certified bug-free. Or at least reasonably so.

[Dhruin]

Just curious. Assuming it gets patched to the general satisfaction of most players, why wait for the bargain bin if you were originally anticipating the game?

 

Don't get me wrong - I fully understand how you would be disappointed. On the other hand, you have been warned and haven't yet spent your cash...why not enjoy it as soon (and if) it is ready?

 

As for the general thing about publishers, while your point makes perfect sense in a perfect world, the reality is that JoWood is broke and has been on the brink of collapse multiple times. No matter what anyone does or says, when a company simply doesn't have the cash to continue or any way to secure more cash, they will release. The market might be able to encourage less games to be released this way, but it will always happen to some.

[Hell Kitty]

^ What's the point of buying a game now only to have it sit around while you wait for patches (that may not even come), when you can buy it later, likely for a cheaper price, once patches have been released, or avoid it entirely if the problems are never fixed?

[Dhruin]

I didn't mean now. There's a difference between, say, buying the NA release in month or so and waiting for the bargain bin, no?

[Hell Kitty]

I guess that depends on how long it takes the game to reach the bargin bin.