[osterac]

I'm also a celebrity pharmacist. Seriously though, I'm new here and I wanted to say hi. Also, if you didn't know, there is a sale on at GOG.com this weekend. The Gothic series is on sale for $5 a game. I bought 1-3, is Forsaken Gods Enhanced Edition any good? Here's a link:
http://www.gog.com/promo/rpg_weekend_promo_150213
I'm new to the Gothic series, so I'm stoked to start playing. Should I start with Gothic 1, or has it not aged well? Are there mods to make it look more up to date, like there are for Morrowind? I get so caught up installing mods for these types of games that I almost forget to play them.

[MikeLitoris]

I think Gothic 1 is still very playable and you should definitely start with it. And yes, there are mods but they're not as numerous as mods for TES games.

For Gothic 1 you should search for playerkit 1.08k required to install mods and then install texture pack and FPS patch(raises FPS from 25 to 60). There are mods that change the game like Dark Mysteries(huge mod, changes the game A LOT) and Golden Mod(smaller) but I recommend you for your first play through to make it as vanilla as possible, so just install player kit, texture pack and fps patch.

For Gothic 2 there are some mods that change the game drastically so I don't recommend you using them before playing through the game. However, there is an expansion Night of the Raven which makes the game significantly harder. I recommend you playing through the game without expansion the first time and then when you are in mood for a second playthrough to play with NotR.

For Gothic 3 you should DEFINITELY install CP(Community Patch) 1.74 at least. You don't have to install any previous patches, they're all included in 1.74.

I don't know about FG, but the word is its awful and buggy. You should definitely buy NotR though, prioritize it over FG.

Just go to downloads section and search around a bit to get a better picture.

[guru666]

my opinion is the same, just start with Gothic 1-> then Gothic 2 (I rather say just play with Gothic 2 notr the story is same but with more quests and new weapons, equipment, larger world and a bit harder)-> Gothic 3 1.75 patch ->Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods with the EE patch (is playable without major bugs) -> Gothic 4 after you finish and you will like the gothic series you will must start new games with other class because you can't resist

[MrGookles]

Oh boy, congratulations to you mate for getting the Gothic series! Like the lads above said, first do in Gothic 1, then Gothic 2 together with the Night of the Raven addon and of course, by the time you'll play through those, you'll most likely see... THE Gothic 3 Community Story Project!

... and if you're quicker then that is published, before you'll get all the patches and what-all fixed, I believe it'll be out!

[Bild: kettenhemd.png]

And never forget, he will guide his flock onto the right path, for Innos watches over him!

[NCONiall]

Pretty much what MikeLitoris said.

Play them in order and out of the box(with the exception of Gothic 3, use CP 1.74/5), you'll get a better experience that way. After that replay them with mods; Dark Mysteries and Velaya are very good ones.

Night of the Raven will probably be too hard for you because it's really easy to under-develop your character but if your up for the challenge go for it.

[osterac]

I bought Gothic 2: Gold, so it has NOTR I think.<br>I looked at several texture packs, and Gothic Reloaded is looking nice but it looks like it's not finished. Could I use it alongside another pack to fill in the gaps? If so, which would be a good one? One that I came across was Sattis Texturepatch, but there aren't any ratings or comments on the mods that I can see so it's hard to tell if one is better than the other just by looking at it.

[MrGookles]

IMO... I find the graphics of G2 perfect as they are by vanilla standards. If you've overplayed G1 as the most of us did, you'll see that G2 is quite nice, even without them texture packs!

Texture packs... that's like makeup on a natural pretty face, you don't need it gurl!

[MikeLitoris]

I agree G2 doesn't need texture pack but G1 does. Playing G1 without texture pack is acceptable though, but FPS patch is a MUST. Do I even need to explain how different it is playing with 25 and 60 FPS?

[osterac]

Sorry, I was actually talking about texture packs for Gothic 1. What do you guys use? Can I mix and match?

[asddsa]

I'm also a celebrity pharmacist. Seriously though, I'm new here and I wanted to say hi. Also, if you didn't know, there is a sale on at GOG.com this weekend. The Gothic series is on sale for $5 a game. I bought 1-3, is Forsaken Gods Enhanced Edition any good? Here's a link:
http://www.gog.com/promo/rpg_weekend_promo_150213
I'm new to the Gothic series, so I'm stoked to start playing. Should I start with Gothic 1, or has it not aged well? Are there mods to make it look more up to date, like there are for Morrowind? I get so caught up installing mods for these types of games that I almost forget to play them.

I'd say you don't need to patch anything made before Gothic 3. Gothic 1 has shitty graphics but fantastic gameplay, plot and dialogues, so you'll be entertained, also because it's the most bug-free of all the Gothic series.

It would be probably a good idea to play vanilla Gothic 2 next, since it's much easier than with NotR installed, but to tell you the truth, you'll be disappointed a lot after having beaten the first one. Vanilla Gothic 2's plot is average compared to other RPGs, but compared to its predecessor, it's simply bad. NotR makes up for it greatly by implementing many more Gothic 1 characters and nicely written quests. Still, NotR will require a lot of patience from you, as it's a frustratingly difficult game at times if you're not an exp hunter that would spend a lot of their free time between quests on killing poor wolves in the woods. The choice is yours, of course.

Gothic 3 is unplayable if you don't download some community patches - the newer the version, the better, of course. It's much different than the previous ones, better in graphics and gameplay and a lot worse in plot, but it's still a game worth playing.

You should never play anything made after Gothic 3, though. Forsaken Gods was a horrible joke - by the time it came out, I had played through each game at least 4 times, done every single quest there was and I even knew most of the dialogues by heart, yet that expansion was so bad, I rage-uninstalled it before I went out the first town. Dull dialogues, and a plot that's murdered the spirit of the series for good. Also, not surprisingly, it wasn't taken care of by the community so well as Gothic 3 was, so it's never been patched and is full of bugs that can randomly mess up your quest log badly, as they did with early Gothic 3 versions.

The Arcania games are practically a spin-off to the series (Forsaken Gods, with a little good will, could be treated equally), with beautiful graphics and no playability at all if you at the very least enjoyed any of the previous games. It's sad such a fantastic series turned into something as bad and dull as Forsaken Gods and Arcania games...

[osterac]

I appreciate a well made game but if there is a texture pack available that makes the game look better, especially if the game is dated, why not get it?

[MrGookles]

Actually, the graphics of G3 are freakin' good, hell, they can easily compare with the newest games such as Skyrim, proven at my other topic which can be found here.

If I would want any fix via graphics, then it would most likely be the horrible way the NPC's were done. I mean, there exist only FAT or VERY FAR or VERY THIN people, and nothing else. Hell, it's a time of war and such, sure there should be some starvation, but how the heck can a fat person charge into bat- I guess it's the reason why the Rebels are hidding in the woods and don't do anything.

I say, wait for the G3 Community Story Project before kicking Gothic 3, that's the best way to get a quality time with G3. But then again, you can't deny Gothic 3, it should have been the jewel of the series, and we were given a lot. We have a good soundtrack, we have an amazing land and we have the oppurtiunity to mod it, so we shouldn't say no to that!

[MikeLitoris]

I think he was talking about graphics for G1 and 2. I'm not even sure which one I had TBH because some mods also replace textures. Dark Mysteries f.e. improves textures too but in a bit different way, it makes them more similar to G2.

First you should install G1, then patch 1.08k from Downloads->G1->Patches. Then you can install playerkit 1.08k from Downloads->G1->Modifications. Then install the "Textures Patch" which is also listed in modifications(yes, its called Texture PATCH but its listed in MODIFICATIONS). If you want to see the differences between normal G1 and one with Textures Patch, see this thread:

http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum...22#post2380022

You should also install the frames/screen patch. You should try the one found in 2nd post here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1807515

There are some good mods for G1 like Golden and Dark Mysteries but IMO you should play the vanilla first.

For G2 there aren't any texture/FPS patches cause it doesn't need them. IMO you should play G2 without NotR the first time you play it cause its really easy to fuck up your character in NotR. Well in any case I'm glad I played G2 vanilla before I played it with NotR even though I like NotR more.

For G3 simply go to Downloads->Patches and download the latest version of Community Patch. Some people say that you should wait for Community Story Project and I say all in its own time. You got G1, 2 and all their mods/add-ons waiting for you. Think about how you'll play G3 when the time for it comes.

MrGookles - I agree about that SO MUCH. That is one of the things I miss about G1 and 2. There were so many different faces and shapes, just like with real people so I literally remembered people by faces. And with G3 there is only that bald, ugly, generic face that everybody has >.<. The character design, animations and combat system is is what really ruins the game. Everything seems just so goddamn mellow, plastic and generic like I'm playing a fucking TES game. Its still playable and entertaining though, mostly cause it still preserved the Gothic feel + it has beautiful graphics, decent gameplay and interesting world design.

[MrGookles]

Well, that's true. The guys over at G1 and G2 had some believable faces and all that, and their bodies weren't ridicolous as they are over at G3.

But yea', Gothic 1 might have some, shitty graphics by our standards, but the only thing I really miss, is the dense feeling that G2 has. I mean, the grass, the bushes, the trees, G2 really packed me into all that perfectly, and that's what I miss over at Gothic 1. If that could somehow be done, the game would have SUCH a golden playthrough for me, even after grinding it to the last limit possible.

[MikeLitoris]

I think its because G2 is an island and VoM is well...a prison valley. Its also possible that the accident with barrier somehow destroyed a huge part of vegetation. I know what you mean but I don't take that as a bad thing.

[MrGookles]

No, no, no, no... I don't mean the Valley of Mines after the destruction of the Barrier. That's known that it destroyed a lot of vegetation. I mean in Gothic 1, the Valley looks... empty. And not because it has no vegetation, it's because it wasn't added. There are green trees, grass painted onto the ground, but it'd be better if that grass would look out, like it does with G2. That's what I meant, the VoM in G2 is fine as it is.

[asddsa]

I appreciate a well made game but if there is a texture pack available that makes the game look better, especially if the game is dated, why not get it?

Gothic 1's graphics, although once, long ago were way above the standards, are terrible from present perspective. The texture patch does make the game look prettier and if that is all you expect from a game's graphics - to look pretty - go for it and install it. The problem with that patch is, it makes the grim, dim world of Gothic 1 look as vivid and lively as it does in Gothic 2, and all that grimness and dimness greatly enhanced the game's setting of a mine colony inhabited by thieves, murderers, convicts sentenced rightfully and those who were imprisoned there by accident, all of whom want to escape or at least survive. Gothic 2's graphics are damn bright and colourful not only because the game was made several years after Gothic 1, but also to signify the joy of freedom and peace - which, on the other hand, bit by bit vanish as the plot goes on. You can perfectly see this as you compare the places you've seen in Gothic 1 appear in Gothic 2: what was white is now gray, what was gray is now black. You'll never experience those nuances, as well as the evolution of the game's graphics, if you choose to play it the first time not how the authors wanted it to be played.
In my opinion, playing with mods from the start is the same like using cheats the first time you play a game - sure, no one will ever tell you not to, but why would you do that, if enjoying the game depends as much on the game along with its graphics, engine and combat system, etc., as it does on the player - how much they're willing to cooperate with the authors to gain entertainment.

[MrGookles]

By Innos... you're right. Holy fuck, now I see it!

HOLY fuck, I didn't knew that PB had it in them to such a degree, that they even put the effort to make up the feeling of freedom. I did realize that the world gets darker as you progress, loved that, but this first bit... wow. Damn you PB, you're a genious!

[asddsa]

By Innos... you're right. Holy fuck, now I see it!

HOLY fuck, I didn't knew that PB had it in them to such a degree, that they even put the effort to make up the feeling of freedom. I did realize that the world gets darker as you progress, loved that, but this first bit... wow. Damn you PB, you're a genious!

All good RPG stories are written the same way as good literature - thought through from the beginning to the end before the first sentence is scribbled down... It's not Piranha Bytes that's brilliant here, but other game developers who never know what story they'll tell before they start telling it.
And, mind you, as you can clearly see I like the series a lot, I believe a lot of its potential was wasted, presumably due to deadline rushes and JoWood butting in all the time, and the end result is far from what the authors wanted it to be.

Nonetheless, Gothic 1, 2 with NotR and 3 as a whole is a fantastic story and a must-play game. Anything after that is a poor attempt at leeching some more money from the fans of the series.

[MrGookles]

That's true my friend. A lot of potential was lost to the deadline and JoWood's pushing manevours, but they did a good job nonetheless!