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Incline Gothic turns 15 years

Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,307
That russian VA.. So bad it's almost good.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Started watching this playthrough with Returning 2.0 just out of curiosity. Very impressed with what these guys have done - probably won't touch it until the English translation is decent.

Also found this part quite funny, some new NPC called Dagon - who is he? Xardas' old roomate from Necromancer College? Lol.

"Oh hey Dagon, how's the face?..."

timstamped:

Looks great (except that font - wtf?) I'm a little unclear about what this mod is. Is it just a bunch of new quests and content to flesh out the Gothic 2 experience, or something entirely different?

Either way, I really hope they are able to improve that translation a bit. If it was confirmed they weren't going to, I'd probably just start it now and fight through the poor quality of the writing.
 

Sjukob

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
2,052
Also found this part quite funny, some new NPC called Dagon - who is he? Xardas' old roomate from Necromancer College? Lol.
Member of the keepers, they say their duty is to prevent gods from gaining too much power. If you do their quest line it will turn out that they want to destroy the world.

That russian VA.. So bad it's almost good.
Some of the people there are professional voice actors. The protagonist is voiced by the same guy who took part in russian localization, on of the merchant was voiced by the dude who gave Roshe from TW2 his voice. It's not like they are putting a lot of effort though, but considering that it was done for free I say it's alright.
 

Sjukob

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
2,052
If it was confirmed they weren't going to, I'd probably just start it now and fight through the poor quality of the writing.
And poor design and poor optimization and many other problems.

I've already made plenty of posts regarding this mod, they are all in various gothic topics and you can search for them if you want a summary.
 

T. Reich

Arcane
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Messages
2,714
Location
not even close
Oh boy, if you are planning to play Elex you are in for "fun" ride :troll:

I've already planned a ranged run for it. Seems to make sense when you have a damn jetpack, no? I absolutely hated the feel of melee from little I played of it.

So you plan on using jetpack to hang in the air and shoot at the enemies who can't touch you in melee?...
:hero:
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Joined
Jan 19, 2014
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Gothic II backstep = ELEX backstep

I knew I had seen those animations before. Now, I know that I am not crazy.

Killing some sheep with my stick and feeling 5% guilt. Better inventory and controls are nice, even though I like the first game, too.
 

Junmarko

† Cristo è Re †
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Jun 20, 2011
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Modding community for G1/2 still never fail to impress - someone has gone through in German, now writing English, adding a layer of authenticity to in-game lore books. :obviously:

Gothic & Kalligraphie by Corèyrn

https://coreyrn.deviantart.com/

the_first_circle_of_magic_by_coreyrn-dbjwsaa.png

certificate_by_coreyrn-dbbhzhy.png

almanac_by_coreyrn-db6xtno.png

cronos__letter_to_the_magicians_of_fire___page_1_by_coreyrn-db2qz1p.png

ian_s_list_by_coreyrn-db5rq9q.png
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,307
30 hours in Gothic II. Chapter II in main quest. Still didn't do anything serious in Valley of Mines, only took a short peek in it and went "lolnope". Instead joined up with water mages and running around this place now.

2u8hv1t.jpg

2zrzzfd.jpg

It's enjoyable enough and I'm digging pretending to be a bandit but also feeling an itch to finish up and get back to vanilla content already. I think for a second playthrough I might look into way of uninstalling NOTR content. I'm curious to see the difference, even if it might feel too easy after NOTR.
 
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Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I just reached chapter II. Going fire mage with some points in melee weapons. To me, this is Gothic but improved in every way. Combat is not as much of a pain as in the first game. Inventory is better. Voice acting is as usual, Piranha Bytes fare.
 

throwaway

Cipher
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
492
Are there any decent modguides for the originals these days?

I'm gonna play G2 Gold having never actually played through NotR nor the standalone in over 10 years and I'd like to take advantage of whatever the community has produced in these years.

I'm aware of the DirectX11 rendered (which however seems to have been stuck for like 2 years), and some community patches but there doesn't seem to be any non rudimentary mod guides around. I'm aware the game is mostly bugfree but it's hard to shake off the ritual of modding old games to modernity.

Besides mods I got a few practical questions that ought to be easy to answer and I would have know had my previous exposure to the game not been so long ago and under the effects of puberty:
1) Controls, specifically fighting, do people stick to the antiquated G1 controls or opt for the more streamlined G2 controls? If it's the latter, how the hell do you guys perform side attacks? Do people actually choose bindings out of the blue, cause I can't imagine many using End and Insert or whatever the side attacks are mapped onto by default?
2) Weapon Range/Damage Type, I'm fairly sure I've played through both the first games numerous times without never noticing those things (not even sure if the latter exists). So.. do they? And if so am I supposed to find the values for different weapons by trial and error?
3)I'm vaguely aware of the rebalancing that Gold had in comparison to vanilla, I guess the first question that pops to mind is do things that had an increasing XP yield as you progress through chapters (e.g. Reading books) function similarly. And more broadly whether I ought to consult some guides as I'm hoping for as close to optimal a run as possible (I already remember the various hidden things like eating apples, shrooms, Alriks sword, 6am training etc)
4)What's a viable build to progress into a mage(fairly pure one)? I remember chapter 1 being a pain as most of the merc quests were tough if one didn't invest into fighting skills and strength, I imagine in Gold that's even worse?
5) Do the combos from G1 carry over? Is it another case of figuring it out by trying (cause unlike G1 I can't remember anyone giving specific verbal instructions on combos in the sequel)?
Edit: 6)Potion hotkeys, abomination or reasonable comfort?
 
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TC Jr

Scholar
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
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160
Location
Scotland
^Sort of the same position as me although I've never played this series. Should I just go vanilla or are some mods/patches needed nowadays?
 

Junmarko

† Cristo è Re †
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Are there any decent modguides for the originals these days?

I'm gonna play G2 Gold having never actually played through NotR nor the standalone in over 10 years and I'd like to take advantage of whatever the community has produced in these years.

I'm aware of the DirectX11 rendered (which however seems to have been stuck for like 2 years), and some community patches but there doesn't seem to be any non rudimentary mod guides around. I'm aware the game is mostly bugfree but it's hard to shake off the ritual of modding old games to modernity.

Besides mods I got a few practical questions that ought to be easy to answer and I would have know had my previous exposure to the game not been so long ago and under the effects of puberty:
1) Controls, specifically fighting, do people stick to the antiquated G1 controls or opt for the more streamlined G2 controls? If it's the latter, how the hell do you guys perform side attacks? Do people actually choose bindings out of the blue, cause I can't imagine many using End and Insert or whatever the side attacks are mapped onto by default?
2) Weapon Range/Damage Type, I'm fairly sure I've played through both the first games numerous times without never noticing those things (not even sure if the latter exists). So.. do they? And if so am I supposed to find the values for different weapons by trial and error?
3)I'm vaguely aware of the rebalancing that Gold had in comparison to vanilla, I guess the first question that pops to mind is do things that had an increasing XP yield as you progress through chapters (e.g. Reading books) function similarly. And more broadly whether I ought to consult some guides as I'm hoping for as close to optimal a run as possible (I already remember the various hidden things like eating apples, shrooms, Alriks sword, 6am training etc)
4)What's a viable build to progress into a mage(fairly pure one)? I remember chapter 1 being a pain as most of the merc quests were tough if one didn't invest into fighting skills and strength, I imagine in Gold that's even worse?
Translate this page through Google (auto if on Chrome) - and just take your pick ;) The mod community is pretty rampant, so everything is up to date.
https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/forums/101-Modifikationen

Otherwise you can install the recently released Spine Mod Manager for Gothic 1/2 - it has an English option. And just pick the top 5 mods from Spine's list or something.
https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1499872-RELEASE-Spine-Mod-Manager-4
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,307
^Sort of the same position as me although I've never played this series. Should I just go vanilla or are some mods/patches needed nowadays?

G1 - System Pack with prerequisites and both texture packs. Freddy's pack first, Thielhater's second.
G2- System Pack with prerequisites and Yet Another Unofficial Patch. Textures are fine as they are, to make full use of them make sure to force Anisotropic Filtering and lots of AA in GPU panel. For nvidia users I recommend Nvidia Inspector and 16xS setting (2xSSAA+4xMSAA) with "Supersampling" enabled in Transparency AA section to smooth out vegetation even more. Not sure what Radeon users can do.

DX11 renderer is reportedly unstable and buggy so up to you if you wanna use it. You won't be able to force that sweet AA with it though and will be left with crappy SMAA with lots of shimmering.

You can also tweak a bunch of stuff in Gothic.ini and SystemPack.ini. I recommend enabling new fov formula and lowering vertical fov to 59 (16:9 users) to get rid of fish eye effect. It also gives some more fps in Gothic II, which has framerate drops if you don't refuse to live with horrible view distance. Draw distance multiplier is in SystemPack.ini, I recommend increasing it tenfold.
 
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Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Messages
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'm almost done with the expansion stuff and I'm about to progress to the next chapter of the main game. The game has been really hard at some points, but I am having fun. Relying a lot of summons with my mage, though.
 

Junmarko

† Cristo è Re †
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Up to you if you wanna go for DX11 renderer but it's reportedly buggy and unstable, also you won't be able to force any good AA using it.

It's fine with Gothic 2, it's that the developer of Gothic 1 Reloaded has communicated with Degenerated (DX11 Dev) and seemingly, asked him to synchronise the updates only with Gothic Reloaded's monthly/yearly(?) releases and his mod. He essentially threw a wrench into his own project, so everyone would have to wait until he was done. Pretty sad really. (even moved buttons/triggers inside walls if anyone broke through his Demo wall, silly fool.)

But some crafty Russian modder (Artemiano) called him out and has already found a way around it.

:russiastronk:

Download Artemianos Texture Pack (Lifted assets from GR, adds missing textures to complete omissions & fixes any further progression traps). - Last Updated September 2, 2017

Download and install Gothic Reloaded (it comes with sys pack etc) you'll also get Degenerated's current DX11 build - Last Updated August 1, 2017

So, to counter Gothic Reloaded's "Demo-wall":
  • Delete the file "[G1]\Data\ModVDF\Gothic_Reloaded_Mod_EN.mod".
  • Copy: "Texture_Pack_By_Artemiano_Gothic_I.vdf" to "\Gothic\Data\ModVDF"
  • Rename: "Texture_Pack_By_Artemiano_Gothic_I.vdf" as "Gothic_Reloaded_Mod_Textures_2k.mod" deleting original file first.
Done.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,307
Relying a lot of summons with my mage, though.

Seems like best kind of spells in both G1 and G2. I buy up any summon scrolls I can find, except for weakest ones. Seem a lot less powerful in G2 than G1 but still very useful. I remember in G1 I came across a bunch of bandit archers, must've been something like 20 of them. I would get raped as soon as I get closer to them but then I used a stone golem scroll and all of them just started running around panicked, while golem and me proceeded to pick them off one by one. Was very funny. I will definitely have to do a mage run in both games at some point.
 

Danikas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
1,605
Relying a lot of summons with my mage, though.

Seems like best kind of spells in both G1 and G2. I buy up any summon scrolls I can find, except for weakest ones. Seem a lot less powerful in G2 than G1 but still very useful. I remember in G1 I came across a bunch of bandit archers, must've been something like 20 of them. I would get raped as soon as I get closer to them but then I used a stone golem scroll and all of them just started running around panicked, while golem and me proceeded to pick them off one by one. Was very funny. I will definitely have to do a mage run in both games at some point.
Try transformation scrolls: dragon snapper and shadowbeast also firerain if you want to see true power.
 

Gimble

Educated
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
106
Essential 'mods' include: Systempack 1.7 (along with playerkit installed before that to support other mods). Fixes compatibility, resolution, etc.

Optional, but recommended: DX11 renderer - make sure to get the 17.5 build from the github page. You may still run into a couple of issues occasionally, but they have generally easy workarounds. "Yet another unofficial patch" fixes some residual bugs, one of which can still be gamebreaking.

Optional, not recommended: "NOTR customizer" if you want to 'rebalance' some aspects of the game (works with system pack, DX11, etc but incompatible with other non-graphical mods) or just plain cheat.

Are there any decent modguides for the originals these days?

Besides mods I got a few practical questions that ought to be easy to answer and I would have know had my previous exposure to the game not been so long ago and under the effects of puberty:
1) Controls, specifically fighting, do people stick to the antiquated G1 controls or opt for the more streamlined G2 controls? If it's the latter, how the hell do you guys perform side attacks? Do people actually choose bindings out of the blue, cause I can't imagine many using End and Insert or whatever the side attacks are mapped onto by default?
2) Weapon Range/Damage Type, I'm fairly sure I've played through both the first games numerous times without never noticing those things (not even sure if the latter exists). So.. do they? And if so am I supposed to find the values for different weapons by trial and error?
3)I'm vaguely aware of the rebalancing that Gold had in comparison to vanilla, I guess the first question that pops to mind is do things that had an increasing XP yield as you progress through chapters (e.g. Reading books) function similarly. And more broadly whether I ought to consult some guides as I'm hoping for as close to optimal a run as possible (I already remember the various hidden things like eating apples, shrooms, Alriks sword, 6am training etc)
4)What's a viable build to progress into a mage(fairly pure one)? I remember chapter 1 being a pain as most of the merc quests were tough if one didn't invest into fighting skills and strength, I imagine in Gold that's even worse?
5) Do the combos from G1 carry over? Is it another case of figuring it out by trying (cause unlike G1 I can't remember anyone giving specific verbal instructions on combos in the sequel)?
Edit: 6)Potion hotkeys, abomination or reasonable comfort?


To answer your questions:
1: You can individually bind the left attack keys and right attack keys. In the menu where you can rebind keys, there is an option called "more keys" I generally rebind Q/E to left/right attacks. But note that in Gothic 2, backstepping is 100% dodge (you dont even need to block, except against master level humanoid opponents who attack). With 1H weapons you can continuously use attack/backstep combo and defeat all enemies without getting damage. left/right attack is optional and useful after training to get the quicker animation.

2: If you use the "yet another unofficial patch", it adds weapon range and damage type to the description of each weapon in addition to damage/attribute requiremenmt, etc.

3: With NOTR, all XP gain (quests, monsters, bookstands, etc) is fixed irrespective of chapter, so get them all whenever convenient. You get XP with pickpocket that gradually increases with each success in NOTR (while in vanilla gothic 2, it was a function of the chapter). On the other hand, learning cost increases for each attribute, the higher you have - so, stat boosters for str, mana, dex, weapon training are better utilized until after training starts costing prohibitive LP.

4: Pure mage is the hardest to play and pretty tedious as well, especially for a first playthrough. There is no mana regen (except sleeping in beds). You will have to rely mostly on summon spells, as direct damage spells are quite inefficient for most of the game. Moreover, unlike Gothic 1, magic circle learning is limited by chapter (circle 1 in chapter 1, etc). The really powerful spells are, as you can guess, in circles 5 and 6, and generally only endgame options. You may have to resort to cheap exploits like re-equipping items that provide mana bonus to get enough mana to recast summons again and again. If you do want to "pure mage", then one option is to focus only on non-combat quests, exploit Lares escort to gain as much XP as possible, use transformation scrolls to beat tough monsters/bandits, etc, join monastery and rush to chapter 3 as quickly as possible - this will open up ciircle 3 by which point you should be able to cast useful spells to hold your own in combat. I would recommend a Dex based mage instead of a pure mage, where you use chapter 1 to build up dex to use dex based weapons (bows and rapier class weapons) for a less frustrating experience.

5: You get combos in G2 as well. They get unlocked as you train weapon skells to corresponding breakpoints. there is a much more important reason to improve weapon skill however: One major difference in Gothic 2 damage formula, compared to G1 is that you actually need weapon skill % do full damage with melee weapons - the skill % the value the game randomly rolls against to determine 'crit' hitchance. In this case, a crit simply means normal damage (weapon damage + STR bonus - armor). If the dice roll fails, you do 1/10 of normal damage, which in most cases works out to a negligible amount. In melee, a 5 HP damage is guaranteed regardless (both player and opponent).

6: Potion hotkeys work and will consume the highest suitable potion available depending on health level. the hotkey is instantaneous though and skips the potion drinking animation, so it is effectively a huge advantage (can chug potions midcombat for insta heals/mana in the middle of combat).
 

Gimble

Educated
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
106
Relying a lot of summons with my mage, though.

Seems like best kind of spells in both G1 and G2. I buy up any summon scrolls I can find, except for weakest ones. Seem a lot less powerful in G2 than G1 but still very useful. I remember in G1 I came across a bunch of bandit archers, must've been something like 20 of them. I would get raped as soon as I get closer to them but then I used a stone golem scroll and all of them just started running around panicked, while golem and me proceeded to pick them off one by one. Was very funny. I will definitely have to do a mage run in both games at some point.
Try transformation scrolls: dragon snapper and shadowbeast also firerain if you want to see true power.

Transformation scrolls are usable by warriors as well, and there are a few scrolls of fire rain scattered across the three maps as well for those who explore comprehensively. There are no transformation runes for mages. Which means, all classes can benefit from these when they can make a huge difference in the early chapters. The mages get to spam fire rain only in the endgame. In the early chapters, summons are much more efficient than direct damage as you can get multiple at a time and they can lost long enough multiple combat encounters.
 

UglyBastard

Arcane
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
821
Aren't the transformation scrolls bugged so that you don't receive hitpoints for the lvlups you gained as a beast when you go back to human form?
 

Gimble

Educated
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
106
Aren't the transformation scrolls bugged so that you don't receive hitpoints for the lvlups you gained as a beast when you go back to human form?

Yes - that is a bug. The game only reverts to the character's HP before transformation. There are a few ways to deal with it:

1. Take the HP loss and proceed: Since gold is effectively unlimited as Harad's apprentice, you can get unlimited HP from shrines through prayer (unlike other stat boosts, there is no limit on HP from shrines).
2. Correct the HP through debug mode console (marvin mode). This is easy enough to do as long as you remember to disable the debug mode afterward to not screw up the game.
3. Tactically plan the transformations to later stages of chapter 1 (and just after a recent levelup) to maximize XP gain without levelups. Use multiple scrolls from different powerful beasts - the snapper transformation can take care of wolves, lizards, etc, the warg/shadowbeast can clear bandits, dragon snapper can clear orcs and wargs and so on. The weak animal transformations will be useful later on in the valley of mines.

There is also another, potentially more serious bug with the transformation spells: Any neutral/friendly NPC will become permanently hostile if they see a transformed player even if you reset back to human form - so it is much better to do this outside of town areas, away from friendly NPC. Marvin model can be used to correct aggroed NPCs as well, but it is better to avoid this in the first place as it may break quests.
 

T. Reich

Arcane
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Messages
2,714
Location
not even close
Yup.

Transformation scrolls ar great when you want to "cheat" a bit of tough content that you're not exactly supposed to tackle at the time.
However, if one uses them to commit wholesale genocide in the name of powerleveling, I'm glad that they get punished with that bug.
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,307
I tried shadowbeast transformation a couple of times, which is apparently supposed to be super powerful and got raped both times without being able to hit anything. I guess I just don't know how to use those things.
 

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