World of Gothic: |
Are there any changes in the combat system? Was the behaviour of the opponents changed, with the result that multiple NPC's can attack simultaneously? |
Kronos: |
One major change has already been revealed: Several opponents can attack the NH at once. In addition, we tried to improve the logic of the reactions of magicians and long-range combatants. |
Solandor: |
Some changes will have an effect on the AI of NPC’s. The upcoming trailers for the CP will give a demonstration of that. |
World of Gothic: |
Which of the changes and improvements is the Community Patch Team especially proud of? And why? Where these changes and improvements technical challenges of a special kind? Or did they have a major impact on the game? |
mdahm: |
Of course there are some things I am especiall proud of. But on the whole, I am very happy with the bandwidth of themes that we dealt with by now. There aren't that many aspects of the game left, in which we didn't at least change some minor things. Actually, a very simple but effective change can be just as motivating as a technically complicated one, which takes days of work and will catch the eye of only a small fraction of the gamers. |
Urban: |
My personal highlight is the adaptation of the AI. The possibilities to alter the AI were very limited, for instance because desired animations were not available.
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RoiDanton: |
What can I say? I tend to be mostly proud of the overall performance of this Team. Especially if you take into account that we did all the work in our leisure time.
Regarding the patch all I can say is that it will breathe new life to Gothic 3. |
Humanforce: |
Probably everyone of us will be proud of his/her own creations and flashes of genius. In the end though we all project our pride on the patch as a whole.
My personal highlight is the concept behind the .…. no, I will not disclose this secret yet. ;-) |
raven: |
My compliments go to ANNOmaniac for his large-scale changes in the game world, and to Hans Trapp for securing these changes with the required data. The changes in the game world make the game shine in a new splendour, and compensate for many mistakes.
The help of Spellbound was very welcome, the effects of their help already visible in CP 1.6. |
World of Gothic: |
Where there some exceptionally difficult issues you had to deal with? Things that cost you a lot of time and work or which were very hard to realize? |
Hans Trapp: |
Compiling the game world gave me a lot of grey hairs. Probably nobody will understand this. |
RoiDanton: |
Yes, to find someone to translate the string table entries into french for us. ;-) |
Humanforce: |
The words „a lot of nerves” are missing in the question. On some days I could have thrown everything out of the window, because my ideas and concepts just didn’t fit into the big picture. I wasted many hours. |
Urban: |
One of the many challenges for me was to adapt the Post-Processing Shader, because it wasn’t optimized for many runs. So we had to change a number of things. |
raven: |
There were many things: Like the changes in the game world, technical changes in the engine, but also in the gameplay. In principle everything needs time to get well-engineered. |
World of Gothic: |
Will there be a changelog including all the changes and improvements? |
Kronos und Solandor: |
Just like with the previous patch there will also be a changelog this time. |
RoiDanton: |
Advancing the release the changelog will be published completely. |
Humanforce: |
It will be a long… very long changelog, and there will be another medium (ed. teaser videos) to present changes. The information will certainly be passed on to all those who are interested in it. |
World of Gothic: |
Can you give us a time frame in which we can expect the release? Or maybe you can even give us a specific date? |
Kronos und Solandor: |
Somewhere at the start of 2009. |
RoiDanton: |
I'm sorry for those who would like to hear of a date, but the release has not been fixed. We will only release the Community Patch when we are satisfied with the product. |
World of Gothic: |
Can you describe what Gothic 3 will be like with this patch? |
Urban: |
“The big is the best never take the rest.” But seriously, have a look at the answers from the people who are testing for us. I think they are the better judges. |
RoiDanton: |
From this position we like to leave this to the people testing the patch, because they can answer this question better than us. |
Bartle: |
In the course of the year my expectations were surpassed by far. The patch brings Gothic 3 forward with a giant step. An extreme amount of bugs was removed. And especially the latest changes are a real update compared to the relative small Patch 1.60. Finally the game can be played meeting allmost no plain mistakes – a dream. I only say: Combat system, opponent behaviour, logic, game world, AI.
Author Jörg Luibl from German web magazine 4Players.de once wrote in 2006: “Apart from the fact that we don’t test a game after a game has been patched: I’m not going to play it any more.” Maybe at some time they should reconsider. ;-) |
Lobedan: |
Well, I would say, had the game been released at the level of CP 1.70, then, instead of dropping complaints, it would have seduced some to give positive critics.
The player who has followed Gothic 3 all the way from its release, will not recognize the game again. Compared to Patch 1.60 an awfull lot has been done: As if you didn’t install just a patch but a true Content Update instead.
The new possibilities allow the player to make choices he/she never had in Gothic 3. The player will be forced to choose for more than just a god at the end of the game. But above all, players finally have the possibility to enjoy G3, instead of despairing. |
Supernova: |
The answer is easy: Patch 1.70 is better than the combination of patches 1.12 and 1.60 and will be a cause of marvel in the community. |
RobinSword: |
The patch will make Gothic 3 probably the most bug-free game of all times. :)
Beside a great many bugfixes and improvements in the details, two big functional changes will be causing joy:
The refined and now more challenging combat system, and the finally tactical-sensible game play, as well as the improved balance, which cause the development of the NH to be well-balanced.
Moreover, with CP 1.70 Gothic 3 makes a leap forward regarding the graphics. The game now has Vsync included, allows the graphic detail setting “very high”, and contains a high-quality anisotropic filter. This hurls the textury quality and with that the whole presentation to a new level. |
World of Gothic: |
Will CP 1.70 be the final patch or can you imagine to come up with other patches in the future? Is there in your opinion a need for further patches, or will CP 1.70 make Gothic 3 ‘complete’? (Excluding fundamental changes like a new combat system or a more dense story line.) |
Kronos: |
CP 1.70 will definitively be the final patch. There are still things that need change (when it comes to the story line I put my hopes on the modders in the Community), but overall Gothic 3 now makes an impression that is satisfactory. That’s my opinion of course. |
mdahm: |
Even after CP 1.70 the repair of Gothic 3 can theoretically be continued. Gothic 3 will still suffer from bugs with this patch, especially on PC’s with older hardware. After the patch, the Team will dissolve over time. And because no one else has access to the source code (except Jowood and Spellbound of course), it can be expected that not much will be undertaken at this level. Whether there will be initiatives from individuals I cannot say. But most of us are likely going to be exhausted for a while. |
Hans Trapp: |
There will always be a need. But at some point it’s got to end. Now G3 should be enjoyable for all! |
RoiDanton: |
Yes, this is the last patch. I can’t say what each of the members will do after the breakup: Whether they will give support to modders or will in some other way help with Gothic 3.
For me the “Community Patch” chapter will be closed after CP 1.70. I will continue to follow what happens in the forums, but my concentration will be mainly on my studies. |
Humanforce: |
For me CP 1.70 is definitively the last patch. (Hopefully we don’t have to create CP 1.70 hotfixes.) |
Solandor: |
Gothic should be finished with that. That a hotfix will be delivered later on I will not rule out. But beside that – we are done. |
raven: |
Everything has an end, also our patching. CP 1.70 will definitively be the end of our work. I believe that many members have lost enough grey hairs by now. I don’t see a need for more patches. A new story could turn Gothic 3 into a real gem. But we, with our jobs and studies, are not capable to achieve something like that. |
Urban: |
Surely, there is always a need. But does it make sense to continue eliminating bugs at an ever rising cost? I think CP 1.70 should suffice, so that the book Gothic 3 can be closed.
We all have invested a lot of time in this project and many other things were neglected. The whole of it soon turned into a full-time job. I have made many new experiences, positive as well as negative ones. |
World of Gothic: |
Would you as a team be willing to create patches for Forsaken Gods, or Arcania, should this game be released in a similar state? |
Kronos: |
No way. I hope this will not be necessary for G4. I think SB knows its job. |
ANNOmaniac: |
This is out of the question. I am of the opinion that Spellbound seems to be on the right track. Concerning Gothic 4, I am looking forward to be able to relax, to play and enjoy it, without being bothered with thoughts of the technology in the back of my mind. :) |
Hans Trapp: |
No, there is no way that we will do such a giant project again. |
RoiDanton und Humanforce: |
A short answer - No. :-) |
Solandor: |
Only one Gothic-3 project team suffices. Also because now there is a development team (Trine) which produced the addon with Jowood as a publisher. To these two partners bugs should be communicated. And therefore: No. |
raven: |
No. Forsaken Gods is the responsibility of other people. I am absolutely convinced that G4 will not arrive on the market in such a state, because we experienced executive producer Jochen Hamma as a nice, open-minded, but professional human being. |
Urban: |
We also cooperated with Spellbound, and we got to know them as a highly professional team. This is why I think that Gothic 4 will be finished when it is released.. |
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Translation by bigsnappy
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