Talk to me about Archolos. Is it as good as they say? Better than Gothic 3? Even as good as Gothic? How does it differ from Gothic 2 mechanically? and how does it stack up against other large-scale modding projects such as Legends of Ahssun?
Archolos
Just play it and see for yourself, you dumb Black personhomosexual. Slurp a bowl of cum soup.
It's Gothic 2 with a more grounded story(no saving the world/Chosen One stuff) and a shitload more good sidequests
Mechanically it's similar to NotR minus the minmaxing, you can use stat boosters at any time without fricking yourself over
sounds pretty good!
its the real gothic 3
It is easily better than any of their games after Gothic 2.
Mechanically it is almost the same of Gothic 2 NotR with few good changes (one of them is that a certain monster can run now)
I will never understand why PB has stopped making games like they used to. was it in order to appeal to a broader market? that'd be hilarious, because no one likes their new shit games whereas a lot of people still play the classics. also, archolos proves that people still know how to make a good gothic - PB simply doesn't care to.
The problem is that they keep making the same game each time
I wouldn't mind if they kept remaking G2 / Risen 1, but after Risen 1 they went completely off the deep end and just released some shoddy action jank for consoles every 3 years. the quality of their releases has dipped so hard, it's sad really.
>I wouldn't mind if they kept remaking G2 / Risen 1, but after Risen 1 they went completely off the deep end and just released some shoddy action jank for consoles every 3 years. the quality of their releases has dipped so hard, it's sad really.
Honestly i enjoyed Risen 2 and it's pirate aesthetics, to bad i couldn't finish it due to bugs... But gothic too had many bugs, so I'm inclined to think it's just community to blame. They grow up/don't care/can just mod gothic.
But elex was a terrible game for sure.
>I will never understand why PB has stopped making games like they used to.
It's because the PB who made G1 and 2 went bankrupt shortly before NotR came out and after the buyout most of the original team was gone, G3 and onward PB is PB in name only.
Overly scripted BS with oblivion tier essential NPCs.
elaborate
He means that there a lot of invincible NPC
Which was also true in original Gothics, but only for main story essential ones
It's not a big deal unless you want to go on a murder spree, which the games are not designed for
almost every NPC related to a quest is invincible, even if killing them would be a logical solution to the quest, there's also npcs that kill you in dialogue rather than let you fight them
This was some Age of Decadence type of garbage that I also absolutely hated. In the original Gothic there are only a handful of NPC that are immortal. And for all the people talking shit on Morrowind at least that game gives you the freedom to kill anyone.
Playing all these overly scripted games morons fawn over really made me appreciate how many ways Morrowind lets you approach a quest despite its simplicity.
Really good, the story and the narrative are an improvement over original. Of course this has enforced some form on storytelling forms not present in original two Gothics but never than less they are not as intrusive as some make them out to be.
I love Gothic 3 and played it 5 times but Archolos is better.
Mechanically it adds new features as cooking, does not cuck you when you take stat increases and is similar in other regards.
Would making a BOTTOM TEXT appear after killing essential NPCs like in Morrowind satisfy your genocidal desires?
>Talk to me about Archolos. Is it as good as they say?
It hooked me for over a 150 hours, and I probably visited every possible hidden cave etc.. Whole game is modern designed, I mean things, like limited backtracking, cheap fast travel, rewarding crafting and choosable difficuilty (its not chosen at the start, but rather you can easily differ the region powerscaling due to visible differencies in fauna).
>Better than Gothic 3?
Sry dude did not played this one, but I could say the developers of Archolos openyly disregarded Gothicc 3 as non-canon (or contradicting canon of G1, G2), and they stayed lore friendly to G1 G2 Cannon.
>Even as good as Gothic?
I liked it more than original, but I'm certain thats a preference. But honestly comparing it to G1 is a mistake. Its real predecesor is G2 NotR, which is in fact bigger game than Archolos. Sure, more content is always welcome (and NotR is an expansion per se, but at this moment you cannot legaly buy G2 without expansion), but expanded G2 gets tiresome, and is long as heck. Archolos is shorter and more compact story, and 10h of non mandatory exploration is better for me than mandatory 10h grind. As I said - its a preference.
>How does it differ from Gothic 2 mechanically?
Well, the melee weapons are changed into 4 categories, instead of 2.
You have:
single handed swords (use agility)
single handed blunts (use strenght)
double handed spears (use agility)
double handed swords (use strenght)
Crossbows need strennght, and bows need agility. First have bigger damage in the same tier, than latter, but the agility makes bonus damage for both the crossbows and bows, so going full agility will in fact have bigger damage output (and going full strenght will yield better swords at same level - so its a choice).
cont.
>Archolos is shorter
I'm honestly not sure about this, Archolos with all side content took me over 80 hours
A typical completionist playthrough of NotR takes me about 50-60. The world is bigger and there are more quests initially, but past chapter 2 NotR gets streamlined and can be finished pretty quickly without skipping anything
I think You're right, NotR is streamlined more, which is another thing why Archolos is great for.
Thou I cannot estimate how much only main quest would took, since I prefer to be a completionist at first playthrou, while all the stuff is shiny and new for me. I'd guess it would be about 70/80h. Developer claims the game is 50-60h long.
>I am curious if I'll like this. One of the things about Gothic that I enjoy most is how it forces you to become familiar with the world around your through all the backtracking. I know that it's usually seen as bad design, but I really lilke the relationship you build with the world over the course of the two games.
See
post. You can backtrack as much as you want to, neat thing is you do not have to. Also there will be sonic potions in game, so your tactic is totally viable.
As for teleportation - you need to be phisicaly close to a pentagram to teleport, like 10 meters most. And you need to buy/craft/find a teleport rune to be able to teleport there.
PS: (OP) I'll be there for at least two hours, so ask away if you need something.
>PS: (OP) I'll be there for at least two hours, so ask away if you need something.
thanks man, I just love talking about the Gothic games and having a place on /vrpg/ where slow and in-depth discussion is possible unlike Ganker makes me happy. wish I had the time to play these games like when I was a kid.
>Whole game is modern designed, I mean things, like limited backtracking, cheap fast travel, rewarding crafting and choosable difficuilty (its not chosen at the start, but rather you can easily differ the region powerscaling due to visible differencies in fauna).
I am curious if I'll like this. One of the things about Gothic that I enjoy most is how it forces you to become familiar with the world around your through all the backtracking. I know that it's usually seen as bad design, but I really lilke the relationship you build with the world over the course of the two games.
>Archolos openyly disregarded Gothicc 3 as non-canon
good
>Archolos is shorter and more compact story,
great. G3's downfall was trying to compete with Oblivions large oopen world, which is the exact opposite of PB's design philosophy up to that point. and oh boy did it show lmao
thanks for the effort post!
>One of the things about Gothic that I enjoy most is how it forces you to become familiar with the world
Archolos is the same really, you can travel using caravans between settlements + teleporter network
If anything, it's more limited than before, you can't just teleport from anywhere and have to get to the nearest teleporter stone
cont.
Another addition is expanded cooking; you will finally have a use for tons of vegetables/roots/meats/consumables hoarded through the game, since Archolos have very long list of recipies, you will always find a way to make some use of all the swag you collected Gods know when and what for. Cooked food will provide much higher regeneration than eating it raw.
Another neat thing is that best recipies, such as troll meat soup, or other hard to find/kill/obtain weeds/meats/consumables will permanently increase your statistics.
Whole cooking neither need any exp to be learned, nor give any exp for cooking, its completely non mandatory, and is a good support skill for a melee character, that do not want to go into alchemy.
> and how does it stack up against other large-scale modding projects?
No idea, never played it. Im more of a Fallout Autist.
I gave it 10/10 thou, since sheer scale of a mod (voice acting, dude!), delivered promises, and really restoring the classic feel of the Gothicc game, without any of the 2000 gaming bullshit mechanics, and gameplay (listed in first post) that existed solely due to engine/tech limitng (f.e. memory limits prohibited good fast travel for a long period of time), and were nothing but loss of time of the player.
Archolos is briliant in a way it respects the player to take as much of amenities as they want - you dont like fast travel? dont use it, its that simple. You like it too much and are lazy? Well, it costs ingame currency to fast travel (very little, like seriously traveling in a wagon is cheaper than buing a fricking bread) and there are places that you cannot fast travel to.
Or are you a completionist/hoarder, and want to experience every single crafting in your playthrough? Got you senpai, after you complete all quests for your craftsmaster, theres gonna be another one master avaible for you to learn from and craft with. Or you do not like crafting at all? Sure thing, just complete a single quest, and be done.
this makes me rockhard, I absolutely love cooking mechanics in games and always wanted more of the already cool base that G2 provided
>expanded G2 gets tiresome, and is long as heck
>oh btw I love this 150h game which is more compact and shorter
Bro are you shilling or trolling? Because this cannot be a serious comment not just because of the contradiction, but also because Gothic 2 just isn't that long or big.
Poles take it to themselves to latch onto this mod as some sort of national pride like football fans. Just look at him, how can anyone say anything is better than original Gothic, of course they're going to be illogical and irrational in their fanboyism.
>how can anyone say anything is better than original Gothic
Did you play it?
NTA, and not a Pole. It's objectively a very high quality mod. Original Gothics, as much as I love them, were far from some flawless masterpieces.
Yes it's an objectively very high quality mod but that's all it is, a mod. Nothing will ever top the original experience that Archolos is more akin to wow classic in the same manner. And there is one major flaw with the mod btw, mages suck.
Good. Frick them mages.
I already admitted in
that NotR is in fact a shorter (more streamlined) than Archolos.
>150h
>70-80h
Those are not same numbers. Did you suffer permanent brain damage?
Which part of
> It's a preference
You did not understood moron?
Hard to understand an ESL fanboy sperging out because not everyone hiveminds a polish mod
ESL?
returnigs be mad
El creatura filtrada
On a serious note, the mod is 10/10 mechanically for me at the very least after trash talking it for years because I've honestly never even gotten to the town without dying but then I got gud
>homosexual raetardis
Take the melee pill and get gud, it's absolutely worth it. Especially if you plan on playing other mods like Odyssee, absolute nightmare cleaning varant if you can't fight multiple opponents
>Odyssee
>varant
what
My bad for the spoiler, just play it.
where download
Worldofplayers
Rpgrussia
YouTube
https://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/download_522.htm
>fight multiple opponents
>in gothic 2
How? I always ever kite them to go 1 on 1.
Use back steps invincibility frames for vanilla and most mods. Kite in a semi circle in the beginning then try to vary your movements like zigzagging or variations of different spacings between your opponents. For humanoids it's easier because you can parry and attack e.g right click right click then left click. Chaining attacks too. It's mostly patience. You're waiting for an attack while looking carefully at their attack animation. Unless you're autistic, have a lot of time and want bragging rights for absolutely no point whatsoever then go ahead. Too many people get gud at gothic to dab on noobs but literally nobody cares so don't do it for that reason, it's beyond bdumb and there's too many zoomers already trying to do that in this community.
>the developers of Archolos openyly disregarded Gothicc 3 as non-canon
Archolos is set before the other Gothic games, before the Mine Valley barrier even existed. There are a lot of references to things from all 3 Gothic games, and many mentions of things we only learned in G3, like the politics on mainland Myrtana.
It doesn't retcon, but rather add more to the pre-existing lore. They handled it very well
I loved Archolos, it has a really immersive setting and characters are decently written. Though after Returning mechanically it's very easy to play, which is a good thing for most people since the Gothic engine is extremely janky as it is.
how do the guilds in Archolos stack up against the ones in G2?
I think the guilds in Archolos offer more content, and I felt more invested and tied into the identity of the guild in Archolos vs G2. Archolos did it better imho; though it's been a while since I played G2.
i consider it to be slightly better than notr as it improves on all the strengths of the original gothic games. it has better quests, real consequences, a better crafting system and so on.
the downsides are the writing and the missing voice acting. i dont know if it is due to the english translation, but i find the writing not very good and sometimes ridiculous. maybe in polish its better. they do have voice acting.
also, mages suck.
>missing voice acting
Anon, you should have just downloaded the polish voice files, even if you don't understand it(I don't either). Gothic without voice acting just doesn't feel right, and the polish VAs here sound quite good.
On the topic of a g2 mod, let's talk about g2 too:
How to alt tab out of this game without getting an access violation crash? I've got the gold edition with the system pack, but the game still won't let me play windowed even after changing the ini.
Its as good as the original titles if not better, considering that its been released in these grim years for videogames its a masterpiece.
There's some justified complaints about unkillable NPCs where they shouldn't be and a bunch of scripting. But I enjoyed it a whole bunch, top comfy and overall improvements on the gameplay of Gothic 1/2. At least for dex or str players.
>At least for dex or str players.
Why do people even complain that mages are shit? You can safely play mage if you agree to pump either strength or dexterity as well instead of autistically investing all your points into mana. I had a hybrid character that branched into magic around level 20 and it worked very well.
I recently started my first run of Gothic 2 NotR and I REALLY miss Gothic 1's combat system
It's basically the same aside from blocking though.
Actually in retrospect the block change is a considerable step back.
You're forgetting the moronic critical hit system, it's so frustrating fighting with 30-40% chance, hoping to roll better than my opponent
Fair point, I always forget about it because the novice/intermediate animations feel so cancerously bad compared to master I always max a weapon skill first thing in every playthrough.
It also added backstep iframes, with is a great improvement against animals and monsters
I dunno about that. Sounds fine in theory, but in practice the timing never worked for me, attacking right after the enemy started the attack animation seems to be better against every single enemy I can think of.
It's way easier to backstep against all types of wolves, snappers, lizards etc, even if you have a long weapon. The timing is very easy, the invulnerability window is massive
>the invulnerability window is massive
The backstep doesn't create enough space for you, you're gonna get swamped by multiple enemies as their attack covers more ground than your defense. I don't fancy backstepping until the ai decides to be stupid and stops pressing me.
Whereas attacking makes the whole group backstep away from you instead, giving you room to press them on or turn and bail.
>I became Costantino's apprentice because I thought it was the most appropriate for a fire mage
>Then I found out that dark mushrooms can boost your mana
Kek, annoying isn't it?
Bosper is the best choice regardless of character, you can learn alchemy from shitloads of characters, while Bennet is a better smith than Harad and smithing is a waste of lp anyway.
Even roleplaying wise you're better off going with the dude than just wants you go go off in the countryside hunting shit than the guys looking for a in-house assistant.
Hey, can someone who played the game help me out? I'm in chapter 1 and the village chief just asked me to get my fellow immigrants to work.
I've gotten my brother (to peel turnips with Bastian's intervention), the guy who was going to get stabbed by the pirate captain, the widow, the girl harassed by the local, the guy from Varant, and the guy who came to bring back the widow from the cave with me to work. The village head asked me to get three workers, but the quest isn't progressing
The grieving father, the other b***hy girl refused outright. Fabio told me to get a food item I cannot fricking find. Any suggestion where to find this item so I can continue the main quest?
Fabio is a gay, don't kill any sheep for him. Either buy the meat, or wait until a random guy gives you some mutton in front of the baker's workshop. Not sure what the trigger is.
To get the father to work, arrange the funeral for his daughter. He's a merchant, so after some grieving, you should be able to get him a job with a trader (your journal has a quest for that).
I know there is a way to humble the b***hy girl, but i forgot it.
Three workers should actually be enough, so i'm not sure why the quest is stuck. Try some other side quests in the mean time, maybe there is a time trigger
>Three workers should actually be enough, so i'm not sure why the quest is stuck.
I reloaded an earlier save and I think I got stuck because of criminal behaviour. The "pay the fine" conversation overwrote the triggers for the quest continuation and any dialogue options afterwards. Better be careful about committing crimes in Silbach while there are ongoing quests with Albyn.
What item? If it is sheep meat go to chiefs home kitchen, If it's something else ask around villagers who trade food or misc.
easy 10/10 if you like gothic and 9/10 or 8/10 at worst otherwise.
I like gothic and it was a 7/10 at best.
with "if you like gothic" i mean "if you love gothic and think g2 is the pinnacle of rpgs".
why do you rate archolos as 7/10 though? all the downsides i come up with are relatively minor when looking at the game as a whole
Brittle scripting, invincible NPCs, too many animated cutscenes. I never wanted Gothic to be full of in engine cutscenes or to tie off every NPC loose end with you finding them dead in a sewer. I ended up uninstalling Archolos somewhere in Chapter 4 when the game was still giving me shopping lists to do things for quests that could logically be solved by beating the shit out of someone if they let me.
What guild did you guys pick?
Which would you say is the best?
Pick Ring of Water at the end when asked.
ring of water doesn't have anything worthwhile.
Just finished Gothic 1 on Saturday (pure fricking kino) but I can't get Gothic 2 gold edition on GOG to run properly. It's choppy as frick despite having the system pack fan patch. Should I just try Archolos instead?
Also if somebody could point me to a good guide for installing or getting the mod to work I'd be very appreciative. I just want to play more kino
Archolos is a gothic2 mod, so if g2 makes problems expect archolos to do the same. i played via steam and both performed the same (mostly good, but after some ingametime i got buggy textures which i could only fix with restarting the game).
For the ultimate archolos experience i recommend playing gothic2 first. the more you know about the world of gothic, its history, its gods and its different factions, the more you will appreciate archolos imo
Cheers lads
>Should I just try Archolos instead?
No. Gothic 2 is GOAT. Play it first.
How to Install-
polack showing simple installation
you can skip all of the plugins and just play the game vanilla without crashes or bugs
If you decide to use plugins etc then follow this guide:
russian showing the installation indepth about options/plugins like
Directx11, Union and various quality of life stuff like quickloot etc
If you don't trust mega/repacks/youtubers etc.
Install manually from forums then.
https://worldofplayers.ru/threads/40376/
Download UNION here
Click the ENGLISH tab in the thread for explanation
https://worldofplayers.ru/threads/41486/
Thread for Plugins like Quickloot, hotbar etc.
Google translate and use the links. Then drop all of the files into Data folder as shown in the video.
https://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/download_651.htm
German version
If you just follow the video step by step EXACTLY you can't frick this up and you'll save yourself a ton of time and energy for a great playthrough. You can also "just install spine" which is a shittier version of Union because in my view the code there is complete backwards trash, which isn't even getting updated.
here's how you install Spine just so you have all the options available to you
it should be ok for a playthrough of G2, even though personally I think it's worse than Union it shouldn't really matter that much for a first playthrough
Just get G2 on steam and install spine. From spine you get Union, texture pack, 4gb patch and whatever else you like. Easy as frick
Spine works with any version, if he already has the GOG one there's no point in getting it on Steam
My gog version of gothic 2 doesn’t work anymore, but the steam version runs well. No idea how that came to be.
Where the frick is the molerat bounty? I've been going up and down from Silbach to Valerio's wineyard to the city to the Amber coast and I've found nothing.
This is a pretty great mod, a bit unstable but perfectly playable. Kinda weird how it causes more stuttering and loading times than the original though, is Archolos all that much larger than Khorinis? Doesn't feel like it.
>Talk to me about Archolos
Frick black bears. That's all.
.
How can I use Gothic 2 mods with Archolos?
Along with Gothic 1 and 2 this game's what I'm going to be thinking till I'm on my deathbed I'd wager.
Kind of frustrating to be so obsessed over something that's relatively obscure and most people wouldn't get.
tfw Gothic and Morrowind mean the peak of gaming ended over 20 years ago.
Yes, exactly. It still makes me extremely fricking salty whenever i think about it
>Better than Gothic 3?
Lol yes, by miles. Not even a fair comparison, not having to deal with the genome engine alone would be enough to make Archolos better, nevermind when you count the game going back to the old gameplay formula instead of wannabe tes with mmo quests and rep system.
>Even as good as Gothic?
Depends on what you liked about it. If you're one of the guys who raves about the "originality" and "atmosphere" of the VoM setting then definitely not. Archolos is a little bit better than Khorinis, but pretty standard rpg fare. The plot is about on the same level as 1, which is to say meh, the characters are more in line with G2's.
>How does it differ from Gothic 2 mechanically?
A few noticeable qol improvements like lp costs not going up if you use permanent stat potions, g1 elements like the inventory making a comeback, etc. Minor stuff, the gameplay is basically NOTR with base game g2 difficulty.
Gothic 3 is flawed of course but at least it's not cucked to death with cutscenes and unkillable npcs.
That's literally the one thing "gothic" 3 has over Archolos, but it's certainly true. All those forced cutscene deaths were abominable, and the cutscenes in general were responsible for literally every single bug I found in the mod. Still, considering g3 is much worse at everything else I'd still maintain that Archolos is far better.
Honestly, they should have just ditched the genome after g3. I'm replaying Risen right now, right after going through g1, g2 and Archolos and it feels like such a gigantic step back it's heartbreaking.
It's unanimously agreed upon that G3 is bad but I still would give it a try based on several mods out there
Bros, Archolos was pretty good, any other mods (with decent english subs if they're german/russian) on that level?
Alternatively, what are some games that scratch the same itch as Gothic 1/2? Not other stuff by PB, I've played them all already and they're all trash anyway.
Read the thread, already posted
Legend of Ahssûn is the obvious one but there's others
I thought Ahssun only had a google translate english patch though. Did they actually make a decent one lately?