Piranha Bytes RPG teaser site

[WorstUsernameEver]

The melee wasn't perfect but it was a step-up in the right direction for Pyranha and it generally kept a good balance between character skills and player skills, meaning that battle would become easier as your skills went up but without losing too much challenge.

Ranged combat however was pretty flawed.

[HoonDing]

Melee combat never really became easy in Risen. Lizards could kill you in two hits if you screwed up no matter what, and considering one fought groups in small quarters in the final chapters this happened all the time. Just like in Gothic 3 where groups of wilderness animals could rape your character in seconds even when you were level 50.

 

Easiest way to win the game in Risen is maxing out Ice crystal & swords. That way you can simply freeze & shatter everything. In a way Gothic 3 was more challenging since it took much longer before one became strong in magic... and first time one played the game one had absolutely no idea how to boost Ancient Knowledge quickly.

Edited April 15, 2010 by virumor

[Tigranes]

Bump, because I am now totally addicted to Gothic 3.

 

I actually played through the release date monstrosity with a minimum-requierments computer, which meant everything ran at 10fps with stutters, and the DRM froze the game for 5 seconds every 1 minute to check for CD. Together with the dreaded stunlock animals bug (where they hit you as fast as a machine gun once they get one hit and you just die), I think it took me nearly a month just to do the first 3 towns... then I gave up.

 

With the final version of the community patch this game is awesome. It's basically Oblivion, but better - no level scaling, more interesting quest design, more gritty art style, more interesting main plot, challenging. Of course, I'm pretty useless at this kind of third person melee combat, so I've had to resort to cheese (high ground + bows) for more than one fight, but loading times aren't too bad now.

 

I've done most of the first region (human kingdom) now and at level 30 or so - and for most of this time I only had one spell, Summon Animals. I thought it would summon an animal ally, and enemies get a lot easier when they're not attacking you, but it turns out the spell makes nearby animals attack the target (nice translation). But it turned out to be an awesomely useful spell - lure some strong animals like shadowbeasts near your target and then cast, and watch the mayhem, or just have a pack of animals duke it out against each other.

 

For those of you who've played (that is, mkreku), any spells I should be investing in? I've completely ignored Smithing, I've mainly built up fighting and hunting to 200 and just enough thieving to be able to pick locks. I still have about 75 ancient knowledge from bookshelves and tablets, though.

[mkreku]

For those of you who've played (that is, mkreku), any spells I should be investing in? I've completely ignored Smithing, I've mainly built up fighting and hunting to 200 and just enough thieving to be able to pick locks. I still have about 75 ancient knowledge from bookshelves and tablets, though.

It is an awesome game. The main flaw that's not fixable through any patch is the weaker companions, compared to Gothic & Gothic 2 + NotR.

 

I do not use spells. I don't like magic. No recommendations here. Although on the forums, people are always talking about Rain of Fire and Army of Darkness.. You should probably aim for those.

 

What I do know is that you'll find high quality chests out in the wilderness if you are thorough in your exploration. After opening something like 12 of them, you'll spawn a fantastic blueprint for a sword of some kind (although actually forging that sword is extremely tricky). Ignoring smithing is wrong!

 

General tip though: Increase your hitpoints. Every potion, healing herb or healing item is percentage based while enemy damage is raw number based. So when you have 100 hp at the beginning of the game and someone you fight hits you for 20 hp, a healing flower that heals 5% will only heal 5 hp. But (after a great number of levels) when you have 1000 hp, that same creature will still hit you for 20 hp worth of damage, only now that 5% healing flower will heal you for 50 hp.

 

Yeah, you'll get a lot of ancient knowledge just from running around and finding tablets and books. Also check out all the merchants as they sometimes sell tablets. Gold is infinite, tablets are finite.

[HoonDing]

Gothic 3 is awesome, but I screwed up the main quest by wiping out Cape Dun shortly after the beginning of the game and forgetting to pick up a fire chalice from an Orc merchant. Whoops. Not sure if it can be cheated back into my inventory... I quit playing doing things in Mora Sul when I realized what I had done.

 

I found it easiest to use ranged against wilderness animals. Melee against a pack of wolves is just hell. And it's too much work trying to beat an ogre or troll in melee. Like in Risen, it's ridiculous how animals can dodge blows and even block (mine crawlers), and generally fight better than humans or Orcs.

But ranged combat is teh win... taking out the demon in the paladin fortress is very easy with ranged as well. To boost ancient knowledge, it's best to visit Varant as soon as possible. There's a lot of tablets & pillars to be read there.

 

Best sword I forged was the ruby sword, I think. I never found the flaming sword blueprint that can supposedly bought somewhere very early. Heck, I should probably reinstall the game sometime.

Edited April 20, 2010 by virumor

[Tigranes]

I'll probably not do too much with magic, as it's not particularly developed in G3 anyway. Maybe I'll pick up a few smiithing skills if I can, though I haven't found any interesting blueprints yet despite combing large parts of the countryside.

 

I got the battle bow (gives you level 3 bow skill) plus big game hunter - finally, FINALLY, wilderness animals aren't a big threat.

 

Gotha demon I just lured to the orcs then got the finishing blow.

[HoonDing]

I think any character should learn Ice Lance spell. It makes liberating cities (and melee combat) much much easier... especially that city way in the north with the 4 or 5 Orc shamans. The best spells in the game like summon golem/demon take 200+ ancient knowledge, IIRC.

 

What I really like about the game is the beginning. One is immediately thrown in a pretty tough fight, instead of being forced to trudge through an insipid 1 hour tutorial or "origin" story. It reminded me of Beyond good & evil... I have fond memories of wiping out the Orcs, then heading to the beach and getting owned by wolves in two or three hits.

Edited April 20, 2010 by virumor

[mkreku]

I think the best sword is called the Rune Sword or something of the sort. I distinctly remember having a Rune Shield and a Rune Sword.. hope it wasn't in Risen though.

 

There are lots of things to like about the Gothic games. The no-handholding beginnings is one of them. I know this probably puts off a lot of players (who are used to Bioware's softer approach), but I absolutely love it. Being beaten to a pulp 15 minutes after starting Gothic 2 by a humongous, raging orc is one of my fondest video gaming moments (it happens if you step off the path to the first town ever so slightly).

[Tigranes]

Where the hell do you learn spells apart from Innos/Beliar shrines? I don't think I've seen Ice Lance anywhere.

 

Just managed Cape Dun liberation through the time-honoured 'arrows from rooftops' strategy + a heal other for Wenzel.

 

Trying to get past 500 orcs in Vengard now, the one bit I think Gothic combat is not good for is mass fighting. The targeting system is very unpredictable so sometimes you keep turning away from the guy you want to hit.

[Oner]

You can learn from druids too, somewhere.

[Tigranes]

Montera liberation was a bitch, the slaves, poor things, don't last for long and my insistence on sticking with sword & shield means that the orcs with longer range weapons give me real trouble. When there are two or more of them swiping at me I can't get close. Took me over an hour, including reloads, and when I was done the place was not so much liberated as exterminated - of the resistance only a single rebel remained.

 

Also hack and slashed my way through Vengard, the paladin companion was great as a meatshield but the shamans were a problem. In the end I had the paladin lure the other orcs, sneak round the back and stab the shamans to death - great stuff.

 

Venturing into Nordmar now.

[HoonDing]

I'd save Nordmar for last. It's the most difficult area, even at high levels.

 

Varant has some interesting dungeon crawling and even a couple of quests involving... women.

[Tigranes]

Yep. I used my fire wave scrolls to get Eimar's helmet, but man Nordmar is tough. I ran for my life just to get the Wolf Clan teleport, but now I'm in the desert. Wilderness seems more boring here, though.

[~Di]

I love Gothic 3! My strategy is always to liberate Cape Dun and Montera to up my rep with the rebels slightly, but not so much that the Orcs won't talk to me. After I've gone to all the cities in Myrtana, then I start liberating them one by one. By then my rebel rep is very high. I do the same thing in the desert, liberating only the city where a certain friend needs help, then visiting all others, including the capital before I start liberating them. If you liberate too soon, you won't be able to get any quests, etc., from the capital and you'll be attacked on sight. You don't want that, because you miss too many darned quests.

 

Last I head to the snow country, rinse and repeat.

 

This way I get nearly every quest (and goodie!) the game offers before choosing sides and going past the point of no return.

[Tigranes]

Well, I am now reaching the endgame after 2 weeks of insane addiction.

 

As I sort of expected, I didn't find Nordmar and Varant as fun as Myrtana - the desert was just so boring to trek through, and apart from quest-related places there's not much to find. Nordmar is just amazingly confusing, it's as if the designers tried to make you get lost a hundred times on purpose. After a while of going back and forth already trodden ground I decided to use maps from the net and god mode and just jump jump jump. Really missed the levitate spell from Risen.

 

Also thought the designers got a bit too needlessly obtuse in areas - it's fine not handholding you and making you figure things out, but sometimes there is so little information inside the world that you are not so much relying on players using scraps of hints to figure things out, but players exploring and just killing everything and opening every chest. I'm reasonably thorough, but the only indication that you need the staff and sceptre seems to be a passage you read on the ancient knowledge bookshelves. These are not clearly differentiated from the five artifacts either, and there's noe xplanation why you need them - as opposed to the chalices, which were very well designed yet not easy to find.

 

Still, the game remains fun (and challening, even at high levels). I've ended up going for a jack of all trades though, that might be why - 200 str/hunting & 300 ancient knowledge. I am using the El Bastardo sword + Round Shield, the Adanos crown, Paladin armor, Adanos amulet & rings, about to upgrade to Nimrod bow. I've already liberated Varant (the hashishin have low health/armor and are easy to chop through) and Nordmar (that was hard, had to jump on top of their tents and spam AOE spells while dodging arrows and shamans), and completed most of the quests out there.

 

1) I have one pure ore and the skill, are there any blueprints for pure ore weapons?

2) Going to find Xardas and see what he has to say before committing to one side, sensible?

[~Di]

It's been a while since I played, but IIRC you get the blueprint by doing a quest that goes back and forth from Varant to Myrtana. That's why I never liberate more than two cities, then visit every other town in all three countries first, so I don't end up killing questgivers or making them enemies before I even get to talk to them. Or maybe it's the ship blueprint I'm thinking about. Others may remember more vividly.

 

There are a ton of quests in Varant, but if you make 'em hostile too soon, you won't get any of them. The same thing goes for Myrtanna and Nordmar.

 

Absolutely talk to Xardas before you commit to one side, presuming you haven't already liberated the capital cities and killed off the king, ruler, etc. If you have, you have fewer options.

 

I must replay this again soon. I always find something I missed!

[Tigranes]

Yeah, I left liberation till the end - it turns out I was pretty much at endgame with that one. I went for Innos this time and basically went Paladin + Fire Rain = truly warrior of the fire. Ended at level 70 or so, I was pleasantly surprised by the Fallout-style slides ending - nice.

 

Started again and will go all out thief/mage this time, going for lots of magic & Murder, we'll see how I go. I'll probably pick Xardas' option at the end.. of course, not having played Gothic 1 & 2, the game does jack all at telling you which Gods are for what and why Xardas wants them gone.

[~Di]

Oh, if you haven't played Gothic 1 or 2, then you won't have a clue about your history with all your main mates. The backstory of the first two games gives so much flavor and closure to this game. Golly, you don't even know how you got to Myrtanna or where your big boat came from! When you hit a gaming lag, you really should try to play at least Gothic 2. It's a fabulous, fun game (slightly better than Gothic 1) and you'll know all you need to know for Gothic 3 to be more personal, make sense and give closure. The entire trilogy is great fun, though.