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Gothic Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos mod for Gothic 2

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
5,016
Location
UK
I've tried playing G1/G2 with kb+mouse but it never felt right, always stuck with arrow keys + control.

I understand it can get a bit annoying with turning speed being a tad slow, but once you speed hack it to about 1.4x, it's not really a problem anymore.
 

Marat

Arcane
Wumao
Joined
Jan 6, 2017
Messages
2,729
Then no, at least to my knowledge. The other team that emerged from the split did, though. PB's Facebook profile likes the History of Khorinis page.
 

Black_Willow

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
1,866,286
Location
Borderline
That's a dick move. This mod has probably revived interest in and generated more than a few sales of the old game, of a series that they are trying to reboot.
Well, some years ago they said something like "You can't expect another game like G2 to be made nowadays", yet here we have this mod.
Acknowledging the existance of Archolos would only highlight PB's own incompetence.
 

Minecrawler

Educated
Joined
Jun 13, 2020
Messages
80
Some observations after finishing the mod as a city guard.
1. Exploration (up to ch. IV) is very good, and that is one of the most important things for Gothic games.
2. The mod/game used the Risen I formula: take G1 and G2, chop them into bits and mix together. The city is upscaled Khorinis: everything is the same, but bigger. It would be a nice surprise if I didn't find the bandit camp in the swamps for once. Or if craftsman apprenticeship system wasn't simply borrowed from G2 with some extensions.
3. 'Main' city guard quest starts promising, but then you quickly realise that straight railroad lies ahead and you'll have little choice, if any.
Deserters have plenty connections around the island, but you won't be able to stay with them and utilize that to find your brother. Maybe the ambush against Salvi turns into a trap, because some of the higher ups are working with him? Nope. You are then explicitly told that some of the guards work for the Usurer, but you won't see that even in the final battle.
4. Arbitrary restrictions that range from strange to outright fucked up. Like that quest with the ram, with a key inside. The shepherd is immortal, because of course he is. But if you manage to kill the ram outside of his line of sight, you will always be reported, even at night. Why? Because there's female npc inside the house neaby, which NEVER MOVES, has no routine and simply stares at the wall all day and night. She sees through that wall, too and she gets a nice view of me slitting that ram's throat, because it's literally her only purpose in life. And she can't be killed, too. Just, why? This was the first quest that made me extremely wary, and I was proven right when I saw legions of immortal npcs afterwards.
5. Chapter 6 is the final chapter, and I understand the desire to make player focused. It's not a bad experience per se, but it's definitely not what PBs would do. You could clear the Old Camp in G1, but it was still the same Old Camp, part of the open world. Here you get a part of the world turned into a MMORPG-style instance with literal invisible walls everywhere.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
5,016
Location
UK
Some observations after finishing the mod as a city guard.
1. Exploration (up to ch. IV) is very good, and that is one of the most important things for Gothic games.
2. The mod/game used the Risen I formula: take G1 and G2, chop them into bits and mix together. The city is upscaled Khorinis: everything is the same, but bigger. It would be a nice surprise if I didn't find the bandit camp in the swamps for once. Or if craftsman apprenticeship system wasn't simply borrowed from G2 with some extensions.
3. 'Main' city guard quest starts promising, but then you quickly realise that straight railroad lies ahead and you'll have little choice, if any.
Deserters have plenty connections around the island, but you won't be able to stay with them and utilize that to find your brother. Maybe the ambush against Salvi turns into a trap, because some of the higher ups are working with him? Nope. You are then explicitly told that some of the guards work for the Usurer, but you won't see that even in the final battle.
4. Arbitrary restrictions that range from strange to outright fucked up. Like that quest with the ram, with a key inside. The shepherd is immortal, because of course he is. But if you manage to kill the ram outside of his line of sight, you will always be reported, even at night. Why? Because there's female npc inside the house neaby, which NEVER MOVES, has no routine and simply stares at the wall all day and night. She sees through that wall, too and she gets a nice view of me slitting that ram's throat, because it's literally her only purpose in life. And she can't be killed, too. Just, why? This was the first quest that made me extremely wary, and I was proven right when I saw legions of immortal npcs afterwards.
5. Chapter 6 is the final chapter, and I understand the desire to make player focused. It's not a bad experience per se, but it's definitely not what PBs would do. You could clear the Old Camp in G1, but it was still the same Old Camp, part of the open world. Here you get a part of the world turned into a MMORPG-style instance with literal invisible walls everywhere.
Yeah I had a similar experience, went with the city guard path too.
Overall pretty good but could have been more open in general.
 

Marat

Arcane
Wumao
Joined
Jan 6, 2017
Messages
2,729
Devs have put impressive effort into 'openness' as is and while I agree it's far from perfect, they set out to tell a focused story, not create an immersive sim sandbox. Such railroading is necessary when you want to tell more intricate stories and have limited time and manpower - also, while it does constitute something of a departure from the Gothic formula it cannot be called a flaw in itself, lest we condemn the whole genre (yes, I know it can be argued that we should, sometimes even by myself, but that is an entirely different discussion).
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
5,016
Location
UK
Is that history of khorinis one more openbox or similar style to archolos?
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
5,016
Location
UK
Apparently you can reverse engineer the polish voice overs into english:
https://vocaroo.com/1a0BayxU1pyf

I got that from the polish voice over of marvin and apparently the AI is able to take it and reinterpret it into english.
Doesn't sound exactly the same, but pretty close, hard to say without him ever trying it though lol.
 

cvv

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
18,959
Location
Kingdom of Bohemia
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
4. Arbitrary restrictions that range from strange to outright fucked up. Like that quest with the ram, with a key inside. The shepherd is immortal, because of course he is. But if you manage to kill the ram outside of his line of sight, you will always be reported, even at night. Why? Because there's female npc inside the house neaby, which NEVER MOVES, has no routine and simply stares at the wall all day and night. She sees through that wall, too and she gets a nice view of me slitting that ram's throat, because it's literally her only purpose in life. And she can't be killed, too. Just, why? This was the first quest that made me extremely wary, and I was proven right when I saw legions of immortal npcs afterwards.
:what:

Started playing yesterday and so far it's a total fucking honeymoon, haven't had so much fun with an RPG for years, but this sounds really, really bad.

So far I keep thinking "jesus them Poles get it, they get it so much" but what you describe sounds like their ability of getting things has limits.
 

Justicar

Dead game
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
4,617
Location
Afghanistan
4. Arbitrary restrictions that range from strange to outright fucked up. Like that quest with the ram, with a key inside. The shepherd is immortal, because of course he is. But if you manage to kill the ram outside of his line of sight, you will always be reported, even at night. Why? Because there's female npc inside the house neaby, which NEVER MOVES, has no routine and simply stares at the wall all day and night. She sees through that wall, too and she gets a nice view of me slitting that ram's throat, because it's literally her only purpose in life. And she can't be killed, too. Just, why? This was the first quest that made me extremely wary, and I was proven right when I saw legions of immortal npcs afterwards.
:what:

Started playing yesterday and so far it's a total fucking honeymoon, haven't had so much fun with an RPG for years, but this sounds really, really bad.

So far I keep thinking "jesus them Poles get it, they get it so much" but what you describe sounds like their ability of getting things has limits.
Just play the game and dont listen to codextards.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
34,368
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It was the best RPG I have played in years. Is it without flaws? No. Is it the best thing we've got since the decline started turning everything into shit? Yes.

Is it the closest thing to a new Gothic after Risen 1? Yes. I loved Elex but this is much closer to classic PB fare than modern PB games are.
 

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,825
:what:

Started playing yesterday and so far it's a total fucking honeymoon, haven't had so much fun with an RPG for years, but this sounds really, really bad.

So far I keep thinking "jesus them Poles get it, they get it so much" but what you describe sounds like their ability of getting things has limits.
it's very good as long as you're not trying to kill peaceful NPCs.
 

Darth Roxor

Rattus Iratus
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,879,040
Location
Djibouti
4. Arbitrary restrictions that range from strange to outright fucked up. Like that quest with the ram, with a key inside. The shepherd is immortal, because of course he is. But if you manage to kill the ram outside of his line of sight, you will always be reported, even at night. Why? Because there's female npc inside the house neaby, which NEVER MOVES, has no routine and simply stares at the wall all day and night. She sees through that wall, too and she gets a nice view of me slitting that ram's throat, because it's literally her only purpose in life. And she can't be killed, too. Just, why? This was the first quest that made me extremely wary, and I was proven right when I saw legions of immortal npcs afterwards.
:what:

Started playing yesterday and so far it's a total fucking honeymoon, haven't had so much fun with an RPG for years, but this sounds really, really bad.

So far I keep thinking "jesus them Poles get it, they get it so much" but what you describe sounds like their ability of getting things has limits.

Your honeymoon will be over the moment you run into the first "this can't be opened" door and try to beat up the first NPC that you should logically be able to beat up to resolve a quest.
 

Sjukob

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
2,093
So far I keep thinking "jesus them Poles get it, they get it so much" but what you describe sounds like their ability of getting things has limits.
That is true, though. The game can be really obtuse about some limitations and the examples are plentiful.
 

thesecret1

Arcane
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
Messages
6,683
Your honeymoon will be over the moment you run into the first "this can't be opened" door and try to beat up the first NPC that you should logically be able to beat up to resolve a quest.
You know it's a 10/10 game when the worst criticism levied against it are nitpicks like these. "Oh no there's like, 10 doors in the game that you cannot just open, you need to wait for a quest trigger! Shit gaem!!!!" Jesus
 

Darth Roxor

Rattus Iratus
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,879,040
Location
Djibouti
Your honeymoon will be over the moment you run into the first "this can't be opened" door and try to beat up the first NPC that you should logically be able to beat up to resolve a quest.
You know it's a 10/10 game when the worst criticism levied against it are nitpicks like these. "Oh no there's like, 10 doors in the game that you cannot just open, you need to wait for a quest trigger! Shit gaem!!!!" Jesus
Except the nitpicks are not the worst criticism to throw at it. The abysmal quest design, especially in the city, as well as just about everything related to the city except for its impress size and layout, is by far the biggest one.
 

Lyre Mors

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
5,433
I love Gothic 1 and 2 more than most people, but you have to be looking through some seriously rose-tinted glasses to think their quest design is leaps and bounds above what you find in Archolos.
 

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