WHAT DA FUCK? - a Gothic 4 thread

[Vault Dweller]

Was there a shitstorm though? MotB previews and interviews didn't contain anything stupid and the reaction ranged from healthy skepticism based purely on NWN2 to "very promising".

 

[Vault Dweller]

And to be clear, I'm cynical too, and I'm not trying to laud laurels on Spellbound--I'm just trying to reserve criticism until we get more substantial details. Sure it's fun to speculate about how horrible the game might be. But the splicing of quotes from the articles is disingenuous if one actually reads the whole article, attempts to see what is spin and what the developer actually says.

So what does the developer actually say? Enlighten us, please.

 

[Ivy Mike]

This goes beyond everything that has ever been retarded in cRPG development.

Will they release a toolset so that we can make our own superior ARRPEEGEE too?

Will it include Patrick Stewart? Will it, MOTHERFUCKER!?

 

[Claw]

We don't have the details of fast travel, but can it be any worse than teleport stones or mounts?

Yes, it can. That was a stupid question.

There's plenty to like about the new iteration that I can see, the new armor, and weapon systems, a new protagonist, an improved combat system with a subtle lock on ability, smaller map, so hopefully more depth.

Eh, these don't sound very intriguing to me. The PBs had been promising a subtle lock for Gothic 3, too. Now that it's a different team, maybe they will actually manage to deliver.
I don't really see much promise. I don't see much of anything at this point. You may hope, though.

I personally hate the idea for the new protagonist. More precisely, I don't appreciate the new backstory for the old one. As far as I am concerned, I am the Nameless Hero myself. I'd rather decide if I want to be an evil king myself.

The point is that drinking healing potion while fighting in Gothic was impossible.

So? I was never particularly fond of how Gothic handled health and mana regeneration anyway. I always felt guilty gulping down potions after every combat, especially playing as mage. I even went as far as installing a mana-regen mod for Gothic 2 so I'd only have to drink potions if I expected another combat soon or in some cases during combat. The mana cost of spells was ridiculous compared to their power.
I always thought you should be able to regen mana quickly after combat and use potions for the quick refresh during combat or to be ready for the next battle faster.

The problem is not if it is realistic or not, Gothic have system where you can't re heal during combat, that makes the combat more interesting.

At the end of the day, you could always run away far enough to gulp down a potion. As long as you can't pause in mid-swing and gulp down ten healing potions to restore yourself to 100% health after being nearly dead, it's still cool in my book.

 

[Dogar]

I'm not upset by this news at all. I actually appreciate it for the laugh I get out of the color palate nonsense and so on. Imo the people who are truly annoyed by this news should just close their eyes, hum a happy tune, and think of RPB.

 

[Kraszu]

Claw

I don't really like mage-mana system, as for healing potion running away was not alweys possible, or easy. Running far enough to open inventory select potion, and drinking it was often not an option.

It was repetitive/boring when you had to drink potion after every spell mid game, and you simply could not have enough mana potions (maybe if you are a fan of looking for flowers but I never liked that). I would prefer system where there is some cool down for every spell (trough when you cast spell some cool down should be added to all spells, it could be less then to spell that you had used to promote using more spells), cool down time would depend on statistics.

 

[Lumpy]

Claw

I don't really like mage-mana system, as for healing potion running away was not alweys possible, or easy. Running far enough to open inventory select potion, and drinking it was often not an option.

It was repetitive/boring when you had to drink potion after every spell mid game, and you simply could not have enough mana potions (maybe if you are a fan of looking for flowers but I never liked that). I would prefer system where there is some cool down for every spell (trough when you cast spell some cool down should be added to all spells, it could be less then to spell that you had used to promote using more spells), cool down time would depend on statistics.

That's why mana regeneration is your friend. In Gothic 3 at least.

 

[Pseudofool]

And to be clear, I'm cynical too, and I'm not trying to laud laurels on Spellbound--I'm just trying to reserve criticism until we get more substantial details. Sure it's fun to speculate about how horrible the game might be. But the splicing of quotes from the articles is disingenuous if one actually reads the whole article, attempts to see what is spin and what the developer actually says.

So what does the developer actually say? Enlighten us, please.

You know those little quotation marks, typically they set off what is being said by the previewer, the developer and the publisher. I also would be careful not to conflate what the publisher is saying with what the developer is saying, for instance the IGN article quotes the Dreamcatcher guy pretty heavily, and of course, since his company is the NA branch of JoWood he's going to emphasize the particulars of his job (Northamericanizing the game) whether or not that's actually a significant aspect to Gothic 4's development. As far as what the developer from Spellbound actually says, there's not much that worries me, and his concerns about Gothic 3-- how the overall story related to the specific quests, the underdevelopment of the PCs motivation for allying onesself with the different factions--jived with me.

The major concerns you're drawing from the artcile comes manily from the preview's authors which, by god, are working for IGN and Gamespot so they're going to Oblivion-ize everything whether the comparison is applicable or not, because that's what they peddle.

I take it all with a great big grain of salt.

Personally, I think there's just a lot of common-sense fixes for Gothic 3 that could go a long way to making a great Gothic 4 (from story telling to combat to exploration). As a long as Spellbound doesn't diverge too far from the Gothic 2's formula, while using the technology and expansion of Gothic 3, it can be a good game.

The thing that worries me the most is the emphasis on magic, but th at's all in how it's implemented.

 

[Pseudofool]

Yes, it can. That was a stupid question.

The point is there already is a "fast" travel system--the teleport system. I seriously doubt they'd revamp that, I think it was just a not so subtle allusion to mounts, something they evidently don't want to announce yet.

Eh, these don't sound very intriguing to me. The PBs had been promising a subtle lock for Gothic 3, too. Now that it's a different team, maybe they will actually manage to deliver.
I don't really see much promise. I don't see much of anything at this point. You may hope, though.

I agree I don't see "much of anything at this point" either, that's part of my point about why its foolish to gripe at this point.

As far as I am concerned, I am the Nameless Hero myself.

Do you also wear a handlebar mustache? Considering the lack of character creation I've always felt that I was decidedly not the Nameless Hero.

 

[Binary]

The team invested months of research into the differences between European and American gaming preferences, so much so that there will be two different color palates for Arcania: North American (bright and beautiful) and European (muted and gritty).

Come on, this sentence is clearly the giveaway that nothing of this is true and the interview must be a big joke...

...right?

 

[Lumpy]

As far as I am concerned, I am the Nameless Hero myself.

Do you also wear a handlebar mustache? Considering the lack of character creation I've always felt that I was decidedly not the Nameless Hero.

Considering I was able to decide what side he takes, and thus what his moral principles are, I was the Nameless Hero.
I don't think PB would've wanted to make a sequel to Gothic 3 anyway. It had those fine slideshow endings, with different fates for both the world and the Hero. Now, apparently they assume you chose the Innos ending.

 

[Shannow]

Well from that screenshot with nameless on a mount which is on its own mount they seem to have up the ante on "mounts" a combination of WoW and Oblivion.

I hope you are not talking about this:

I only used that to show what I think of bloom and shiny fantasy for a GOTHIC world. The pic itself is from some asian mmo. Sorry if I caused confusion. Sadly I misplaced my web-comic pic with the development of graphics and the bloom apocalypse

 

[DoppelG]

That pic is pure awesomeness.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Wait... Shannow, you mean it isn't a photoshop? Shit like this actually exists in a real game? Humanity, you failed your creator.

 

[Shannow]

http://www.perfectworld.com.my/

Perfectworld is the name. I'd advise against visiting the site though. You may be scarred for life.

And Pseudofool: G3 was already a step in the wrong direction. It already all the oblivionisation Gothic can take without starting to suck. Now all information we are given whether it is "journalist" interpretation or press release/dev statement points to casual/oblivion gamers. Which I personally find horrible.
And I noticed that you carefully avoided the question about the codex being "wrong" before.

 

[Lumpy]

http://www.perfectworld.com.my/

Perfectworld is the name. I'd advise against visiting the site though. You may be scarred for life.

And Pseudofool: G3 was already a step in the wrong direction. It already all the oblivionisation Gothic can take without starting to suck. Now all information we are given whether it is "journalist" interpretation or press release/dev statement points to casual/oblivion gamers. Which I personally find horrible.
And I noticed that you carefully avoided the question about the codex being "wrong" before.

Yeah. I became suspicious when I saw the multiple ways to do quests, and the ability to choose between rival factions. But when I realized that the game had three different endings and slideshows depending on your actions throughout the game, I said "Fuck this - they sold out to please the Oblivion crowd" and started using the CD as a coaster. Fuck Piranha Bytes.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

http://www.perfectworld.com.my/

Somebody shoot me.

 

[MetalCraze]

ah this bloom burns!
it burns my eyes!

 

[coaster]

The point is there already is a "fast" travel system--the teleport system. I seriously doubt they'd revamp that, I think it was just a not so subtle allusion to mounts, something they evidently don't want to announce yet.

As long as the travel system has some sort of in-world rationale, I don't care. The thing with Oblivion is that you point and click at a place on the map and hey presto - you're there. Not even a cut-scene or dialogue saying "You spend x days on the road and finally reach your destination." It's like you have some unexplained uber teleport system in your backpack.

 

[JarlFrank]

I have a strange urge to play the game in Lestat's screenshot there. I don't know why I want to do this, it's probably more masochistic than playing Wizardry 4 in ironman.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

I have to lay of the pills, I'm seeing shit.

 

[GeneralSamov]

 

[Kraszu]

http://www.perfectworld.com.my/

Perfectworld is the name. I'd advise against visiting the site though. You may be scarred for life.

And Pseudofool: G3 was already a step in the wrong direction. It already all the oblivionisation Gothic can take without starting to suck. Now all information we are given whether it is "journalist" interpretation or press release/dev statement points to casual/oblivion gamers. Which I personally find horrible.
And I noticed that you carefully avoided the question about the codex being "wrong" before.

Yeah. I became suspicious when I saw the multiple ways to do quests, and the ability to choose between rival factions. But when I realized that the game had three different endings and slideshows depending on your actions throughout the game, I said "Fuck this - they sold out to please the Oblivion crowd" and started using the CD as a coaster. Fuck Piranha Bytes.

They fucked the combat while trying to make UI to be like in every other game through.

 

[Vault Dweller]

G3 ... already all the oblivionisation Gothic can take without starting to suck.

Like?

Wait... Shannow, you mean it isn't a photoshop? Shit like this actually exists in a real game? Humanity, you failed your creator.

Rephrasing Clerks 2:

"In as much as God sent his only begotten son to die on the cross to redeem mankind and all we did to pay him back was make terrible fucking MMORPGs..."

You know those little quotation marks, typically they set off what is being said by the previewer, the developer and the publisher.

So now we eagerly discard the non-quotation texts in previews because ignoring it should help us stick with our hopes and dreams a bit longer?

The major concerns you're drawing from the artcile comes manily from the preview's authors which, by god, are working for IGN and Gamespot so they're going to Oblivion-ize everything whether the comparison is applicable or not, because that's what they peddle.

Or they repeat what the developer told them, which, considering JoWood's Oblivization focus, the dumbing down and hand-holding, and the fantasy focus, makes more sense.

As a long as Spellbound doesn't diverge too far from the Gothic 2's formula, while using the technology and expansion of Gothic 3, it can be a good game.

I wouldn't count on it.

 

[hiciacit]

We can say little tweaks are being made to ensure combat feels less sluggish. Quaffing potions, for example, no longer requires your character to put away his weapons and enter a lengthy drinking animation that more often than not gives your attackers time to interrupt. It's not going to be Diablo-quick, but the system will speed up the process significantly.

Drinking potions gives your attackers time to interrupt? Well, that's just crazy.

They've implemented a special ingame potion guzzling system: