[Czudak]

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Join PATREON to support this modification.


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Enter DISCORD to discuss this modification.

GAME: Risen (any CD/DVD or GOG/Steam in 1.10/1.11 version)
CURRENT MOD VERSION: v1.0b
MOD LANGUAGE: [Bild: dp7pspw83vdr9skdj.gif] English only
COMPATIBILITY WITH: All language versions. (You will have English subtitles/captions/descriptions with the dubbing in the language of the originally installed game.)

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Elusively Patched Unit is a project that has two main goals. First: to gather everything about Risen's bugs, discrepancies, errors, issues, and problems and solutions, fixes, and remedies for these in one forum like place (because screw Facebook and Reddit). Second: to expand upon the now ancient Unofficial Patch v1.3 (it's the base for EPU!) and add new quality fixes, possibilities, and stuff that fits the game's general premise. Since a new, quite promising avenue opened up (right here), the future looks brighter than ever, thus you might want to pay attention. Nonetheless, know this is a fresh thing and might contain changes that will have to be refined, updated, and improved upon later stages of its development. Still, as it keeps close to the fandom beloved "lore", anyone should find this to their liking.

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THE SCREENSHOTS:

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THE INSTALLATION GUIDE WITH DOWNLOAD LINKS:

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It's really rather straightforward, because it's in the form of handy installer, but since you're almost guaranteed to be a boomer or zoomer with 5 seconds attention span thanks to your easy dopamine overloaded receptors, let's write this anyway... do NOT install and/or apply:
- Unofficial Patch v1.3 (since it's already included!)
- Random fixes and/or solutions you saw on Reddit posted by UrSexeBunny69 or PepeForChurchill92
- LAA/4GB "hack"
- Risen Extended/Enhanced and other ancient buggy mods that are no longer developed (they are not compatible!)
- Weird plugins and/or scripts from 2009 you found on Rapidshare at WebArchive's copy

Those above are not needed and the rest will be figured down the road with more of the creative audacity. If at loss, refer to the FAQ below.

Required:

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1. Install clean, unmodded, and preferably even not launched once Risen as administrator. // If you somehow managed to change the game's language inside the config files to any other than English, it's time to change it back.
2. Download the Risen Elusively Patched Unit v1.0b installer.
3. Launch and intuitively go through the installer's pages. // Windows might want to scan the thing and/or request Admin rights. Let it and allow, for both if demanded, you feel me?
4. Play and report bugs (or any stuff you always wanted to report; there's even a chance someone will read your comment... no, really!).

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THE DEVELOPMENT ROAD:

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A short list of things to come (don't hold your breath).

Core:

1. Addition of a new "Hardcore" difficulty level.
2. Removal of duplicated items from the world (they will be replaced with new stuff).
3. Expansion of the arsenal... melee, ranged, and magical alike.
4. Extra polish for the texts.
5. More to come!

Installer:

1. Setting the language to English (for maximum launch compatibility).
2. Setting the proper resolution and refresh rate (for maximum launch compatibility).
3. Setting the proper mouse sensitivity (for maximum launch compatibility; plus it's fairly super quick at above Full HD resolutions).
4. Disabling the intro movies (for maximum launch compatibility; plus everyone saw them already).
5. Adding the set of aspect ratio matching screen save/load images.
6. Disabling/enabling fullscreen/windowed (even though it's a somewhat bugged option).

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THE FULL CHANGELOG:

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v1.0b

Main/Core:

1. "Fight Against Aric" quest is no longer canceled instead of the "Trick Aric" quest upon successful completion of the "Fight Against Aric" quest.
2. Experience is no longer cut when player receives more experience than needed to reach the next level.
3. Received experience is no longer lost while player is transformed (Ash Beast or Nautilus).
4. Kalib no longer dies during lizardmen attack on the Monastery, allowing the player to start and complete the "Secure The Gate!" quest.
5. Kalib now successfully finds his way to his guard post outside the Monastery gates upon completion of the "Secure The Gate!" quest.
6. The player will be able to get the winning money from Craig after defeating him in the arena even if the player already bought the fragment of the sword from Craig beforehand.
7. It is no longer possible to start the "Romanov's Chest" quest after the "Sergio Wants Romanov's Gold" quest was already completed.
8. It is no longer possible to start the "Find Garth!" quest (making it impossible to finish) by speaking with Weasel if the player already talked with Garth at the meeting point with Cutter beforehand. The "Find Garth!" quest now automatically succeeds even if player finds Garth before starting this quest with Weasel.
9. The player can now get the permission from Carasco to question Olf and be allowed into The Don's house by Hernandez.
10. The player can now learn prospecting from Enriko upon completing the "Protection Against The Ghosts Of The Ancestors" quest (as long as the player does not join the Monastery).
11. During the "Follow Taylor!" and "Follow Kalib! quests, Taylor and Kalib address the player automatically when reaching the training area and the player's chambers.
12. Restored some lost lines in the dialog with William and Tucker (asking them to train during the "Sweep Out The Chambers" quest).
13. Restored some lost lines in the dialog with Erikson and Patty (asking Erikson about Patty's father and reporting to Patty that Erikson was nervous).
14. The "The Path To Truth" quest no longer becomes impossible to complete after losing a duel with Ash twice.
15. The "Talk To Master Illumar" quest is now canceled and no longer remains incomplete in the quest log if the player joins the Monastery.
16. If Oscar already agreed to teach before the player joined the Monastery, the dialog option to pay 100 gold for teaching is no longer shown after the player joins the Monastery.
17. Telling Ignatius that Pallas has no task before asking Pallas about his task no longer prevents completion of the "The Tests Of The Masters" quest.
18. It is no longer possible to give Eldric his staff if the player does not have it in his inventory.
19. The "A Package For The Don" quest is now closed upon joining the Monastery. Consequently, it is no longer possible to simultaneously become a member of two opposite factions.
20. It is no longer possible to speak with Erikson about the search for Steelbeard's clues after the player have found a clue hidden on the small island south of the main island.
21. Fixed the infinite experience and gold exploit with Rhobart.
22. Edgar no longer offers to increase the player's Strength by 5 points if the player already has more than 95 but less than 100 points of Strength during the training.
23. Kayleigh no longer confronts the player about her husband Cid leaving the town before Cid have actually done so.
24. The Amulet Of The Holy Flame is no longer available for sale (previously was sold by Cyrus in the Chapter 4) and became the exclusive gift item for the mages.
25. The mages no longer gather in the Hall of the Holy Flame for the initiation of the player into a Master Mage before the player tells Ignatius that he is ready.
26. It is no longer possible to complete the "Steelbeard's Nautical Map" and "The Titan Breastplate" quests in a way that allows Patty to remain a permanent party member.
27. It is no longer possible to complete the "The Search For The Map" quest in a way that allows Drok to remain a party member.
28. Changed the category of the "Drive Out The Intruders" quest from the "World" to the "Volcano Keep".
29. Recovered the lost dialog line in Ursegor's dialog.
30. Sergio no longer has the quest item of Large Gold Bowl he is not supposed to have.
31. Changed the category of the following quests from the "World" to the "Volcano Keep": "The Initiation", "Support Of The Mages" and "Sirius has problems with Abrax".
32. Restored the audible commentary of the player when using empty ore deposits.
33. Removed silence at the beginning and at the end of some ambient sounds to make them loop correctly.
34. After the player becomes the Inquisitor, Magnus behaves accordingly in all situations.
35. The player no longer mentions the Inquisitor's business to the town gate guards after becoming the Inquisitor himself or helping The Don to return to the town.
36. Carlos no longer confronts the player with the Inquisitor's whereabouts before the start of the Chapter 4 if the player have chosen Warrior of the Order or The Don's path.
37. Fixed the infinite experience exploit with Caspar.
38. Fixed the inability to loot the following NPCs upon beating them: Belschwur, Elias, Flavio, Jack and Pavel.
39. The great gate in the dungeon beneath the volcano no longer opens if the player uses a single winch, saves, and then reloads.
40. The stone door blocking one of the passages in the dungeon beneath the volcano no longer changes its state if the player opens it, saves, and then reloads.
41. Removed the secret wall ring in the dungeon beneath the volcano that triggered the non existing entity.
42. The "Open The Great Gate" quest now automatically succeeds as soon as the player opens the gate in question. As a result, the "Open The Great Gate" quest no longer becomes impossible to finish if the player completes the "The Tunnel" quest before receiving the "The Tunnel" quest from the Inquisitor.
43. Fixed the inability to use the Woodcutter Axe and all self forged weapons on the quickbar.
44. The Stone Plate and Smith's Hammer can no longer be used on the quickbar.
45. Now the player has the option to learn Scribe Scrolls skill from Illumar in the Chapter 4 upon completion of the "Find A Mage Who Can Help You" quest if he has not done so beforehand.
46. Now Walter provides information on the amount of obsidian ore needed to trade for the bastard sword blank as soon as that blank becomes available for trade.
47. Deactivated the leftover quest "Duel With Finn".
48. All quest items with no use for the player beyond the related quest are removed from the game world when they are given away by the player to finish the quest.
49. Fixed the quick load command to load only the saved game produced with the quick save command rather than any latest saved game.
50. The NPCs (animals, monsters, humans, etc.) can now power their attacks up in order to break through the player's block/parry or to deal more damage.
51. The cap for the three main attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom) was removed and now they can increase beyond 200 points each.
52. Restored the "click window" for all melee attacks.
53. Disabled the "auto target lock" when blocking/parrying.
54. The NPCs (animals, monsters, humans, etc.) now switch more consistently between melee, ranged, and magic types of combat depending on their abilities, weaponry, and distance to the player.
55. Made the descriptions in the "character sheet" more detailed. Especially the descriptions of the weapon talents to give the exact numbers tied to their specific tiers.
56. Fixed the levels of 2-9 in the ranged combat talents not giving bonuses to the drawing and reloading speeds.
57. Enhanced the trainers' descriptions in the journal to make their level of advancement clearer (and thus how much knowledge on the given topic they can pass onto the player). The descriptions are:
- "basic/advanced/expert" refer to the skills that have 3 tiers of advancement; the tiers are self explanatory
- "seasoned/veteran/master" refer to the attributes *and* skills that have 10 tiers of advancement; "seasoned" is up to 40/4, "veteran" is up to 70/7, and "master" is up to 100/10
58. Fixed the levels 7 and 9 for polearm weapons correctly increasing damage (for all attacks by 20% and counterparries by 50%, in this order) as intended.

Installer:

1. Added the fix for the infamous "airwalk"/ledge climbing disappearance bug and exploit. [It's strongly preferable to fix this issue via the graphic card's control panel for RISEN.EXE manually {instead relying on the provided dynamic library that might include various lags} by either enabling Vertical Synchronization (Adaptive/Fast) or capping max framerate to about 90. Enabling both might be required too. Test it yourself!]
2. Added the fix for inability to bind Quicksave/Quickload to F5/F9 keys from the menu. It now enables and binds these.
3. Set the texture filtering to linear and disabled the depth of field effect by default plus the initial resolution to 1024x768. [For the first: it's strongly preferable to set antialiasing/anisotropic filtering/texture filtering enhancement/override via the graphic card's control panel for RISEN.EXE manually. For the second: it works but is applied globally, thus unnecessarily interfering with the close graphics too. Test it yourself! For the third: for maximum launching compatibility.

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THE FAQ:

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- Added the newer version of Fmodex.dll that supposedly fixed a few minor memory leaks and should help with stuttering in certain cases. If feeling really adventurous, the author of G3 Parallel Universe Patch created a beta FmodEx wrapper for Risen too, to improve things even more. Download it, then paste and overwrite in X:\Risen\Bin\ directory (don't forget to make the backup, yo). MEGA WARNING!!! Might result in randomly high volumes for certain sounds!

- As for the LAA/4GB "enabler", one needs to remember it is indeed a hack and is not needed for the vast majority of users at all, since Genome (the engine used in Risen [all Risens, and Gothic 3, and both ELEXes as well) is already enabled for that much memory. That's right: you'll get a placebo experience at best by using that hack on the game executable. There is no real good reason that should excuse applying it (if you consider those shabby "remasters" with machine AI "improved" textures that require using the hack in question as "essential" mods, then take a hike).

- The game requires the certain versions of Visual C++ 2005 Redistributables to be installed and will not run if they are not there or out of the mentioned "range." If experiencing problems when launching, one might want to uninstall the current set of said VS C++ from their system and reinstall those from here (both x32 and x64 if using a 64 bit OS; the IA64 from the downloads is not needed). Alternatively, you can install a Visual C++ Redistributables combo pack from here.

- Additionally, the nVidia PhysX is required as well, for all users (no matter if you are on AMD, Intel, or nVidia graphic card) and will not run if it is not there. If experiencing issues when launching, one might want to uninstall the current PhysX and reinstall from this link.

- Finally, in the (not so) rare case of everything failing, there is a possibility of erasing all Gothic/Risen/ELEX and PB related entries from the system registry with this slinky batch file.

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THE CREDITS:

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Baltram (scripts, plugins)
KonradAr (stuff)
Kuchenschlachter (scripts, plugins)
NicoDE (everything!)
PowerGamer (a lot of stuff)

Also, feel free to check out my other mod for the other PB game of Gothic II NotR/Gold:

Yet Another Unofficial Patch (Gothic II NotR/Gold)

[Jobesky]

How exciting! Tell us more about the Hardcore mode!

[Czudak]

How exciting! Tell us more about the Hardcore mode!

Introducing the new difficulty tier of "Faranga". The basic principles:

- the player’s received damage is multiplied by 6
- the player acquires only 7 LPs per level up
- halves the selling value of all items at merchants and vendors (works only in the respective window and not in dialogs)

This is what the new "hardcore" tier means. It's the idea of CzarnyAfgan who worked with me on the Risen EPU prototype some time ago, but now busy with something else. Also, it will be titled "Faranga" in the mod to reflect on the new, deadlier reality of the island.

[Jobesky]

Interesting... I wonder how you guys will or have already accomplished editing trader values... I changed each trader's purchasing variable (20%) in each of their template files to 10% and they still give my 20% when buying my items.

I am also interested in how you will expand the arsenal. I used the Risen Balance mod to add more weapons and it's nice but staves for example are still incredibly lacking. The game is so biased towards swords that it borders on silliness and pointlessness if you want variety in anything else.

[Czudak]

Interesting... I wonder how you guys will or have already accomplished editing trader values... I changed each trader's purchasing variable (20%) in each of their template files to 10% and they still give my 20% when buying my items.

I am also interested in how you will expand the arsenal. I used the Risen Balance mod to add more weapons and it's nice but staves for example are still incredibly lacking. The game is so biased towards swords that it borders on silliness and pointlessness if you want variety in anything else.

On the first: we will simply have to manage.

As on the second: creating and implementing static 3D models for Risen is banality (for those who already know what is what), including their textures, so this is sure to be one of the most expanded elements of EPU, hehe.

[Voodoopirat]

It's so nice to see that there are still people that create mods.

[Czudak]

The v1.0a was repacked into an installer with the newest NSIS of v3.09. This should stop issues when launching and/or installing under (specific?) Windows 10/11 configurations. Otherwise, it's the same as v1.0. Cheers.

[Czudak]

Updated the mod with v1.0b in preparation for the next, fully fleshed, proper release. Remember: this won't work with the new 64bit re-release from THQ Nordic!