Just got Gothic 3...

[Morgoth]

Haha, nice try. Sorry, as much as I love Piranha, they've to start moving with the times. That also means they should have some management and QA. Old school was okey like 5 years ago, but software development is now more complex, and Piranha just has to realize that. No money from me!

[mkreku]

An official reply to the problems in Gothic 3, by Piranha Bytes own Mike Hoge.

 

First, we didn't choose the "we want fast money and fool the fans" way.

That G3 wasn't finished at release was crap. That people complain about it is legitimate. We knew that there would be bugs, but we underrated the amount of problems we were confronted with when working on the gold master.

We thought that we would deliver a finished game with only a few bugs at the announced release and wanted to remove them with one patch.

 

Sadly, we are now working on a second patch but although it will fix the most known bugs, many fans will still be disappointed.

 

We tried to aim for a big target group for Gothic 3. So we made a few changes which some fans see as a step back:

- Not having to join a guild would mean freer gameplay.

- Great, free, non-linear world, with towns you can "play" in any order instead of having to return to the main town for new quests.

- Quest are "given by the world" and not only by NPC's.

- New combat system instead of only new animations (more details later).

- AI-reaction at town level instead of NPC-level (like murdering, theft)

 

These changes maybe would had been accepted by the community if we hadn't - besides the technical problems (which we have mostly fixed now) - made two big mistakes:

 

1. Balancing (NPC, items, combat)

2. Bad presentation of important characters.

 

The balancing will be fixed with the second patch. For example there was no way to use the crossbow to your advantage. But we will need more time to patch the entire combat system.

 

The story is not more or less than "There are dragons, find their master!" (Gothic 2). The problem in Gothic 3 is, in my opinion, the density. On the one hand, we consciously chose a "thinner distribution" approach, but on the other hand we gave important characters too few dialogue lines, to compensate for this. In the end, we did not have enough time to solve this problem.

 

In the future we will not to over strain ourselves with a big world like this again.

 

That is all, I will answer further questions now.

 

Source: http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showt...87post2562487

 

At least I like how they're taking the apologetic way of handling this. Let's hope that the patches can fix most of these problems. I still have faith in Gothic 3!

[Morgoth]

"In the future we will not to over strain ourselves with a big world like this again."

 

They just have figured that out now? Even Bioware which has development staff of 50-100 people per project knows it's smarter to release 30-50 hour games and get it right instead of releasing a 200 hour game and mess everything up that you just could possibly mess up. Sorry Piranha, first plan, then develop.

[Tigranes]

Or, everybody gets excited by their own projects and wants to complete their ambitions. Everybody who dreams and hopes will fall short in the end. PB simply did so in a way a bit more excessive and apparent than others. It's not a matter of basic stupidity as you imply, but a matter of a mistake, one they've admitted to, and will hopefully fix next time.

[Morgoth]

Gothic 3 Patch #2 has been released!

 

I. TECHNICAL BUGFIXES

=====================

 

Build 1.08

----------

- Several crash bugs fixed

- Performance increased

- Combat AI for several monsters improved/simplified (e.g. boar)

- Lots of AI Fixes ( Murderer Reaction from party member fixed, AI comments improved)

- Sleeping NPC's AI reactions improved

- Camera Control: Inverting the X-axis is now saved

- Lensflare/Sun doesn't shine through mountains and buildings anymore

- Rhobar and Zuben are dead after defeating them

- Revolution mechanics improved

- Lester does now talk even when not sitting at the campfire

- Epilogue fixed

- "No mission success after 2 times "not enough gold" fixed

 

II. CONTENT FIXES

=============

 

Build 1.08

----------

- Vak and Gonzales are now still there after a revolution

- There are now more weapons at traders and in chests

- Annoying NPCs from Faring arena removed

- Story and Missions in Al shedim improved. (Lester,Saturas,Wutras,etc...)

- Snorre's ancestor stone fixed

- All problems of Hogar and the southern Orcs fixed

- Ronar Trading fixed

- Less monsters/Orcs in Nordmar

- Vibald is now carrying explosive arrows

- Bogir dialog fixed

- Osmund dialog fixed

 

III. CHANGES/ADDITIONS

======================

 

Build 1.08

----------

- Crossbow handling improved

 

 

C'mon Piranha! 98 more patches and I promise I'm gonna buy your game!

[Slowtrain]

Are they going to fix that stunlock problem? Though not technically a bug, it sounds like it makes combat really unfun.

[Spider]

PB simply did so in a way a bit more excessive and apparent than others.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

More excessive and apparent? It really isn't THAT bad. Besides, the game, once you get used to how combat works (specifically how the auto targeting system works) and the somewhat low performance, it's an absolute gem. I love PB for reaching for the stars because this game is loads of fun, despite the bugs (and other than the low performance and occasional crash the bugs aren't that noticable). I'm having a blast playing it. Probably a bit too much since I've played it for far too many hours now. So if bugs is the price to pay for a game this ambitious (and fun), then I can actually live with that.

 

The stunlock issue really isn't that bad either. It's gruesome in the beginning, but when you level up some wolves and boars stop being scary. Unless they manage to get you from behind or if you get stuck in terrain somehow (if you can't back away or turn and run, you will be killed).

[Noceur]

The stunlock has been fixed by the 2nd patch... fighting animals is much easier now. Or not difficult because of being weird, I should say. The game is still hard.

There's been some rebalancing of weapons and such also, apparantly (read it on the Jowood forums).

 

The performance is a tad better, I think. Even before the 2nd patch I had great FPS in the game, but a lot of stuttering due to caching and stuff. It's pretty much the same after the 2nd patch, but with less stuttering I think.

Armor works now, hehe.

I'm still getting occassional game lock-ups, which sucks.

The bug with some terrain mesh not rendering after a while is still there... it looked like some culling problem to me.

 

I haven't really played the game long enough to form a real opinion on it yet, but so far it's been fun. With the patch a lot of the frustrating parts of the gameplay (stunlock in particular) has been removed, so now it's more performance and game lock-ups that annoys me.

 

One thing I like is that I'm feeling like I can't just run off in any direction, prancing like a daisy, secure in the knowledge that a kiss on the cheek is enough to make an run off with a blush like I did with my Nord in Oblivion. It's a dangerous world in Gothic 3. Also, the landscape is awesome in Gothic 3... a lot of height difference and stuff.

 

Graphics hozing:

View distance in the game is worse than in Oblivion, and it's handled worse I think (i.e LOD-border and stuff is very visible and there's distance-fog).

Overall it feels technically less advanced than oblivion, but the design is tonnes better in Gothic 3 in my opinion. Plus all characters etc have real animations instead of crazy-stiff placeholder animations. It feels much more dynamic and fluid because of this.

The game is also more crowded/densily populated, which is nice... wild life is actually living, with wolves attacking other animals in packs and such.

 

(The reason I'm comparing it with Oblivion is due to the fact that they're both based on Gamebryo, btw.)

 

SPECS:

Intel P4 Hyperthreading 3.2ghz

1GB ram

7800 GS 256mb

Some modifications to ge3.ini

Edited October 28, 2006 by Noceur

[Tigranes]

Spider, that was in comparison to my point that nearly every game fails on its initial ambitions. I'm not saying it's horribly unfinished compared to KOTOR2 or other games like that. I wouldn't make such a point when the stupid stupid country STILL doesnt have the game in stock. ;

 

For myself, I predict that I'll love it despite all the bugs. God knows I've played more buggy games.

 

Can anyone else confirm that the 2nd patch fixes stunlock, btw? That would be pretty cool of PB.

[Noceur]

(snippety)

Can anyone else confirm that the 2nd patch fixes stunlock, btw? That would be pretty cool of PB.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, check the jowood board.

Other than my own experience, from what comments I've read on there it's been fixed.

 

 

also: "- Combat AI for several monsters improved/simplified (e.g. boar)" from 2nd patch changelog.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Noceur

[Noceur]

I've played the game more now, and I really love it. But I think I'm going to play a lot less for week or so, then play the NWN 2 OC through before going back to serious Gothic 3 playing. The crashes and stuff are a bit too many for me, so I think it's best if I don't ruin my experience with the game (and instead, wait until it's further patched).

 

 

Me and Cyrus just downed 10-20 goblins with our bow/crossbows and a little bit of fencing from me. Then the game crashed while I was gathering my paht lewt (consisting mostly of cake and muffins that the goblins where carrying on them).

So, I feel it's best to put the game off until I've played through NWN 2. And I'd suggest those of you who'd like to play Gothic 3 do something similar.

 

I feel a bit like I'm breaking up with a lady, or summin-summin

 

EDIT: Just HAVE to add that the music in the game is almost worth the money for the game alone, in my opinion.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Noceur

[Darque]

How many more bugs need to be fixed? I've heard this game was released pretty buggy

[mkreku]

EDIT: Just HAVE to add that the music in the game is almost worth the money for the game alone, in my opinion.

Yeah, I got the soundtrack CD in the Collector's Edition. It's awesome.

[Dark_Raven]

How many more bugs need to be fixed? I've heard this game was released pretty buggy

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hopefully not PoR2 buggy.

[Musopticon?]

I just found the OST in Teh Internets, and I have to agree.

[Noceur]

How many more bugs need to be fixed? I've heard this game was released pretty buggy

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not sure if there are any game-stopping bugs in it now, or quest breaking ones.

EDIT: Seems there's still some quest breaking ones. Also, since you can finish quests (and parts of quests) without taking them, etc. you can get into quest problems of dire nature.

 

My problem is mainly with the glitches that make the game crash all the time, and stuff like if you play the game for a while it'll go choppy as hell. There's also this bug, where if you've played a while then polygons on the terrain mesh will not render.

 

And on the crashes, every single time I get a new error msg.

So, I'd say they need to work on the stability of the engine more than work on scripting bugs and such. Although, reading through the Jowood forum there's still a whole lot of bugs.

Edited October 29, 2006 by Noceur

[mkreku]

I found a review of Gothic 3 that I thought was funny:

 

http://www.rewiredmind.com/review/gothiciii

 

RewiredMind gives Gothic 3 the score 2/10!

 

I particularly enjoyed reading the comments underneath the article )

[Volourn]

Most of the repliers are likely Codexers frothing at the mouth because someone dared to smack down their newest Golden Child tm.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I found a review of Gothic 3 that I thought was funny:

 

http://www.rewiredmind.com/review/gothiciii

 

RewiredMind gives Gothic 3 the score 2/10!

 

I particularly enjoyed reading the comments underneath the article )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

More proof! MORE PROOF!

[Noceur]

I found a review of Gothic 3 that I thought was funny:

 

http://www.rewiredmind.com/review/gothiciii

 

RewiredMind gives Gothic 3 the score 2/10!

 

I particularly enjoyed reading the comments underneath the article )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Haha, yeah... saw this review over at the Codex.

Btw, I like comment no. 6.

 

The game itself is, from what I've played, really good. If they'll fix the random crashes and stuff, I think I could really enjoy it.

[karka]

A demo is on the way.

 

http://gothic3.aspyr.com/

[GreasyDogMeat]

"Comments disabled for this review due to spam and personal attacks. If you don't agree, you don't agree - it isn't the end of the world because you have a different opinion. "

 

LOL. Now, I wish I had caught the user comments.

[Cyric]

I found a review of Gothic 3 that I thought was funny:

 

http://www.rewiredmind.com/review/gothiciii

 

RewiredMind gives Gothic 3 the score 2/10!

 

I particularly enjoyed reading the comments underneath the article )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Saw this yesterday via a weblink on the Gothic forums. I see mkreku found it earlier.

 

A most asinine review if ever I saw one. :angry:

 

Anyhoo the game is a master piece, barring bugs which, as we speak are being ironed out. Be patient true believers.

 

Gothic 3 is T3H UB3RZ :joy:

[mkreku]

Oh yeah, they fixed the memory leak/save game problem:

 

http://www.gothic3.com/index.php?do=097099...099101110101061

 

Now, if only they would release the last (?) patch so I could begin playing the damn game. I still haven't even installed it.

[Walsingham]

I'm not playing this now. I had a go with a friend's copy and just found it really cartoony. It was just teh whole *yawn* saving teh world stuff. I'm not criticising the game designers, because hell, there's always new gamers for whom this is novel. But I'm too old and seasoned to enjoy yet another call to arms.

 

Having said that I understand there is an option to work for the bad guys.

 

All in all, one to wait on the shelf for the next time I get injured and can't leave the house.