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Jul 9, 2023 06:11
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C, we haven't spent all this time playing all sides against each other to actually pick one now.
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Jul 9, 2023 09:14
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C leaning towards A, the guy has swampweed and it's not like we won't get everyone's loot in the end.
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Jul 9, 2023 10:44
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C, just starting to get whiffs of plot, let's not kill the first dude to tell us how special we are (at least for now)
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Jul 9, 2023 16:42
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PurpleXVI posted:Update 16: The Decider You already know the stones are going to be useless crap magic and the reward will reflect that. I'd go with A: just icing the orcs for wasting your time.
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Jul 11, 2023 00:31
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I genuinely laughed at the brittle bones line. Mason is playing the long game. On the other hand... quote:Yeah, well, my moral and ethical decisions are up to a council of otherworldly shitposters I've suffered some horrible insults in my life, but I've never been called 'otherworldly', you rear end. If you feel that way, I'm not voting from now on. I never have before, but from now on I still won't be.
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Jul 12, 2023 03:13
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JustJeff88 posted:I've suffered some horrible insults in my life, but I've never been called 'otherworldly', you rear end. Would you prefer "extradimensional"? 
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Jul 12, 2023 09:19
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PurpleXVI posted:Would you prefer "extradimensional"? I will accept the title of 'extraneous malcontent'.
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Jul 13, 2023 17:12
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C, please.
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Jul 18, 2023 03:33
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Update 17: Gotha When we last left off, Montera turned out to be a dud in terms of finding more divine artifacts, which we want because they have big numbers and also because, while the game hasn't exactly stated it outright, they're interesting enough to important people to almost certainly be related to the metaplot. But! We did learn that the nearby rebels in Okara had raided a merchant who was transporting the fourth out of five artifacts(we currently have three), so we need to find Okara. Now, yes, I could just open the Journal and see roughly where it is in the map. But how would I find it otherwise? Lets start by asking some rebels. Both Runak and the orcs of Geldern also gets to live, as per everyone's votes.      The cow killer probably won't be much help, but we did meet a couple on the road from Trelis.         Just look for the dumbest place in the area, you'll spot it.      Because these big brained rebel boys decided to have their meeting place literally within perfect view of Montera's walls. I swear, so far only the nomads down in Varant have had the brains to actually stay clear of the places trying to kill them, rather than just sitting around the corner and waiting patiently. Anyway, lets get this guy off the hilltop. He's another example of some weird-rear end dialogue that needed another editing pass.   For instance, there's this bit, which sounds like a lead-in to a fight... but you can't goad him into one, so your only aggressive solution is to just attack him out of the blue.   But instead, if you've talked to Marik about him, you can just tell him to gently caress off and go away, but I didn't get the dialogue option until after threatening him so... I feel like a trigger demanding a fight somewhere in there slipped a cog and didn't go off right.     Sadly, though, this just makes Otis call us a good guy and say thanks for helping. No invite to Okara. So how DO we actually find Okara?     That requires heading back to the grain farm.   And finding Rufus.            Some of these dialogues I just can't really add anything to. Our brilliant plan for getting Rufus here out of slavery and to Okara is to tell him to just get off his rear end and run away. And you know what?    He does it, the absolute madman. And it works.    I mean it wasn't, it was just running away.    Rufus doesn't quite seem to appreciate his newfound freedom.      But THE DECIDER just tells him to shut up and keep running.    I noticed that some guides suggested clearing the path for Rufus ahead of this, but I found it to be pretty un-necessary, and not just because most of the run has no enemies whatsoever in the area.     The surroundings here remind me a lot of the wilderness in Gothic 2.    Eventually we run past some wolves, though. But you know what? They can't hurt us.    It turns out that as long as we keep running, they can never actually attack us because they need to stop, and then attack, and between their stopping and attacking, we've moved on!   And Rufus is smart enough not to attack the wolves on his own, the fighting only starts when I panic after getting a bit hung up on terrain and swing at a wolf, which provokes Rufus to start swinging as well. In any case, easiest escort mission ever. I like Rufus.      Soon enough, though, we spot a big hole in the ground, signalling that we've found some rebels. Why don't any of them live in an old ruin or something? Why is it always holes and pits?   Speaking of, this is the most baffling pit yet. They've strung what looks like some cheap camo netting over the top and tossed some (flat .jpegs of) branches on top which... which would make sense if they were expecting an airborne assault. But it's not like the Orcs have paratroopers and surveillance helicopters. Nor do mages in this setting, as far as we know, replicate spy satellites with scrying magic.     In any case, this is Okara. Its very lightly populated, having only three named NPC's.     One of them is the local blacksmith, who sells nothing of use or interest.        The other two NPC's are further underground, in this warren-like section where most of the warrens are empty. You can help repopulate Okara somewhat by doing a couple of recruitment quests around the place, but since its super out of the way and not particularly useful, you'd mainly be doing that for the XP, not because it would be a helpful hub of some sort.   One of the two NPC's is Shawn, who sleeps like a corpse even during the day. I've never seen him be up and about no matter what time I've visited Okara, so I imagine he's got a bungled AI activity script of some sort.    From zero to greed in a split second. I respect your style.  Steal anything interesting? Like, say... divine artifacts glowing with portentious power?   Well, a pack of idiots had the bright idea that with the power of the artifact, they could clear out the undead of Gotha. How did that work out for them? Do you see any idiots wielding divine artifacts hanging around the tunnels? No? Then probably they're shambling around Gotha now along with the rest of the undead. Go ask Roland for the details, it was his bright idea.     Please stop talking like that, you incredible weirdo. Sorry. Can I help you? And did you recently make any stupid fuckups that put a divine artifact out of reach of my thieving little hands? Since fighting our way through the orc lines is a no starter, I sent them to destroy the undead of Gotha and find a teleporter stone rumoured to be there. Probably super dead. Turns out all the divine artifact I gave them did was make numbers a bit bigger, so none of them have returned. Oh for Pete's sake.  I just need a quick power-up montage first. Roll footage!You got it.    So before heading to Gotha, I want two power-ups since my Ancient Knowledge has finally crested 200. From Saturas, I grab Summon Golem.    And from a Shrine to Beliar, I grab Summon Demon. I figure, heck, Gotha's got a demon hanging out, now I'll have a demon hanging out. I'll fight fire with fire.     The mountain pass down the road from the grain farm outside of Montera is the path to Gotha. It's really not far away, even though the map is good at making the distances look large.    Coming out of the wooded pass, I find myself in front of a small orc outpost in the middle of the road, built around what looks like a fortified farmhouse(also why does every tower in Gothic 3 have the stairs on the outside? I understand its because the developers are chumps and couldn't fit them inside, but it kind of ruins their purpose as a defensive structure if you can't get to the top without getting picked off by arrows.).       One of the two named locals is Narkan, a local trader who warns us not to get our dumb asses killed by skeletons).      And inside the farmhouse is his boss, Potros.    Hey, lay off with the sass, buddy, I'm just here for gossip and maybe to beat your rear end if it seems funny. What's with the prisoner?  I guess that was kind of predictable. Are you just hanging out here for the chair or do you have a reason?   Gotha was once the headquarters of the paladins, the shamans themselves prayed to Beliar for a demon to sweep the fortress clear of humans! Which it did. Then raised them all as shambling undead, which wasn't part of the deal.  That's... surprisingly reasonable. Anyway, I'm going to beat you up now. You can choose to fight Potros just because he calls you a weakling, but unlike most such fights, it doesn't really change anything, so its just for bragging rights and to steal his wallet.        Despite his saying this, as far as I can tell you can't actually ASK him for anything. Even if you want the prisoner freed, which we do later, he still makes you pay for it. Well, I already have your weapon and your wallet... that'll do!   Anyway... Gotha.     As advertised, its full of skeletons and zombies, so I call up some help. First off, the Stone Golem. In Gothic 2 it was desperately dangerous to us, immune to magic and arrows, able to physkill us by sending us flying over the horizon, sucked as a summon because of their AI. In Gothic 3? Much the same. It's less dangerous to us now, but it still has the issue that it keeps playing for distance, despite being a melee fighter, which means it does more retreating than fighting. In this case it ended up retreating so far that it aggroed the orc guards at the bottom of the slope. After a quick reload, I summon a different buddy.     Demons are a LOT better as summons. Very sturdy and one of the few summons that do decent damage. Their only downside is that they keep making a weird mumbling sound thats incredibly annoying to have in the background whenever they're summoned.      The undead here are all standard zombies and skeletons. Its kind of a shame, since it would've been a great opportunity to bring out heavily armored paladin zombies and skeletons, like we had in Gothic 2, to up the danger and really make the place feel special.     Up the first slope, the path splits in two. Stairs upwards lead to the main fortress of Gotha, while the street continues along the mountainside towards a cave or mine.    I stop to browse and rob all the buildings on the way, obviously. Skeletons don't have property rights.      Then I go for the cave, since I can hear the Demon of Gotha murmuring like my own demon from upslope, and I wanna clear him out last, as far as I'm able.     The cave appears to be a... graveyard, of sorts? Its just more undead, and I expect nothing special as I poke around and clear them from the main chamber, then head down the murky side passages.       Huh, is that a teleporter stone? Says something on the back...  If found... please return to... Monastery of Fire, Ember Street 1, Vengard. poo poo, was that maniac Roland really right? It was actually here? I better hang on to this for safekeeping.That's a treat for later. Honestly I feel like the placement of it is super bizarre, why not put it in a fancy chest on the far side of the demon or something, rather than leaving it as yet another light brown object on a dark brown surface that would be super easy for the player to miss? Anyway, speaking of said demon, lets go dunk on him.       Once you enter the first courtyard, the Demon of Gotha will come over to hang out almost immediately and he's... pretty disappointing.   I mean, sure, a demon is a pretty tough enemy, one of the toughest single non-named combatants in the game, but he isn't THAT tough and he doesn't have any special abilities. No ranged fireballs, no ability to raise the dead or anything(which would have been thematic and prevented the worst cheesing and kiting you might otherwise do), he doesn't even seem to be stronger than my default summoned demon.   I sure hope my eternal soul isn't at risk from subcontracting all my heroics to a creature of pure darkness and ontological evil. Eh. Time to rifle through the dead dude's pockets.  The Ring of Adanos is a bit underwhelming compared to the others, but still pretty great. +50 Life is effectively +20% to my current max health. It feels a bit odd, though, that they didn't give the Adanos outfit some sort of escalating set bonus. I know that they're not completely ignorant of the idea, since Night of the Raven had a few very janky set bonuses going on.     And with that, Gotha is more or less liberated. There are a few extra undead left in some of the buildings, but they go down quite easily. I think its rather funny that the demon apparently had the undead build a giant idol of him, which feels like another missed opportunity. Why not make it immortal or something, and say that you had to bust up the idol to kill it? Combined with making it able to summon undead, that could really have lit a fire under a player's rear end when trying to take it down. The only other feature of note in Gotha is that inexplicably there's an orcish-style skull-and-bones throne in one of the innermost fancy residences, suggesting that the orcs didn't build them, but just took them over from local human rulers. Either that or it was the second change the demon made around the place. Though I find it funnier to imagine that they were around all along.     I guess I should find someone to brag to...Its important to note that all NPC's seem to hate all summons on sight, so remember to tell your summons to gently caress off back to the ethereal realms after you're done using them and before you go shopping.    Heeeey Potros, heeeey! I'm not fighting you again, I have a headache.  Well, that's just rude. I'm going to go annoy your prisoner instead.  Wait... what the gently caress?   Getting my rear end kicked by tons of the undead. Ha ha, you got owned. It was going well enough until the demon showed up, I lost a magic ring up there, and then when I managed to fight my way out, the orcs caught me. Well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that ring is mine now. So are you going to bust me out, or...? I beat up the local orc leader already. He won't say a peep when you walk out.In reality he'll still demand a couple thousand gold to let Gorn out. A bit of creative liberty with the writing, here.   ...it's literally a ruin full of corpses and cobwebs. It'll just take a bit of guts and effort. Trust me. Everyone here is insane. Everyone. Whatever, I'm going to go ask Roland for a reward.Imagine a star wipe transition back to Okara here. Whoooooooosh.     When I show up, the locals are fighting a Minecrawler, which is weird. As far as I know it's a decent distance to the nearest colony of them and... why would one manage to path inside without aggroing the guards outside? No one named inside seems to comment on it either, which means its probably not a scripted thing thats meant to trigger a quest or something. I'm honestly a bit baffled so I just help bonk it and head on to Roland.      Thank you, I'm very cool. Here, take this big bag of gold. And for that, you also get to be cool.  Wait, what? I feel like I was pretty clear.   Apparently, I guess! Oh, sure, 1000 gold to rebuild an entire city and repopulate it and is everyone here insane? Whatever, take the money. I can't wait to see this poo poo. Uh-huh. I'm sure I'll see you smoking in Varant in a few months, and with all the money mysteriously gone.  I guess I should teleport over to Gotha and warn Gorn, just in case Shawn actually shows up. ... ... ...what the gently caress? Look, okay, whatever. They teleported over a bunch of people. But what did they use the loving money for? They didn't even clean up any of the goddamn cobwebs!   Gorn, what the gently caress? You're not the only one who can get things done, you know. No, I mean. Why the gently caress didn't you remove the giant unholy idol in the courtyard? Oh, we had a talk about it and we figured it might draw tourists. You know, take your picture with the cursed idol, bring the wife and kids. ...  I've collected about fifty bottles of wine during this adventure. I'm going to drink them all and either it'll kill me or it'll give me enough brain damage that this makes some kind of sense.VOTE We suddenly have multiple places we can go. A: Vengard! Lets go visit the king and see if he's a dork. B: Faring. The most distant orcish city, farther up the road past Gotha. C: Silden. A lakeside town north of Geldern, the last town before the icy peaks of Nordmar.
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Jul 20, 2023 02:29
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Let's see how Faring is faring. Visiting an Orcish city while totally blotto should go well!
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Jul 20, 2023 02:44
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C: Silden. I want to see snow and ice!
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Jul 20, 2023 19:43
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Back when I played this the demon was too big to fit through the gate so I could effortlessly kill it with arrows from outside.
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Jul 20, 2023 20:32
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Last Transmission posted:C: Silden. I think Faring has more of that, but you could get to nordmar from either.
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Jul 20, 2023 20:35
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BraveLittleToaster posted:Let's see how Faring is faring. Visiting an Orcish city while totally blotto should go well!
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Jul 21, 2023 12:53
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Do friendly NPC's get aggro'd on you when they attack summoned creatures?
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Jul 21, 2023 16:35
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Xander77 posted:Do friendly NPC's get aggro'd on you when they attack summoned creatures? Just tested and the answer appears to be no!
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Jul 21, 2023 19:55
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The obvious next question - do they drop any good loot?
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Jul 21, 2023 21:17
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Xander77 posted:The obvious next question - do they drop any good loot? Unlike Gothic 2, where summons with weapons technically constituted an extremely tedious infinite money glitch as long as you had access to a bed, summons in Gothic 3 do not appear to drop anything.
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Jul 21, 2023 21:27
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Could you partially break the game if your summon killed someone important it shouldn't have?
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Jul 21, 2023 23:12
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Almost all the NPCs in the game are killable without too many repercussions. Really as long as you don't kill that one famous arrogant dark wizard you can always get the canon ending I think. e: For the evil one you can kill literally everyone once you are on it, but I don't know if you can lock yourself out of it. The good (by some definition of good anyway) one is more picky. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jul 22, 2023 |
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Jul 21, 2023 23:19
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Keldulas posted:Could you partially break the game if your summon killed someone important it shouldn't have? The game is remarkably resilient to people being extremely dead, and I can't imagine being outright immortal except for Xardas(and even then probably not him). Considering that the evil ending, yeah, just requires you to have a stick and then murder a lot of people, that one should always be open.
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Jul 22, 2023 00:15
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He's definitely not immortal, but he's needed for the main ending.
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Jul 22, 2023 01:39
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Update 18: Trolls & Trials So last time we liberated Gotha, and things promptly got very stupid.  Uh.... where the hell am I? Last thing I remember was that everything was super stupid, and it seemed like a good idea to consume the twenty-something bottles of booze and thirty-something joints of Black Rhobar weed in my backpack to forget how stupid it was. Then... I think I went somewhere?  There was a guy in a cave and... skeletons?Rakus is a moron Fire Mage who decided to learn how to summon skeletons. And summon them he did. He summoned them to beat his own dumb rear end.   And then getting chased by weird green men but... they weren't goblins...? Man I'm never smoking a joint again if it makes me dream poo poo like that.Schrats are somewhat rare, baffling green humanoids that look like they're from some cheap asset flip game as they chase after you with spiked maces while completely naked.  Well, looks like there's a town up above, may as well ask where I am... and whether anyone can help me clean the smell out of this robe. Blech.    Ah, well, at least its obviously an orc-held town, that's nice, means there's going to be actual furniture rather than dirt.    And where's here? "Here" is Faring, also you smell like poo poo. Thanks for reminding me, now stick to the script.  I thought it would be cool to get a magic sword from the orcs up in the castle, but their smith told me he wasn't selling me anything until I killed three trolls. How about I help you kill them, you stop yelling and making my headache worse, and you try not to get yourself killed? Just shut up and show me the way to the nearest trolls.     Conveniently, there are three trolls just a short jog from Mitch. I thought it was going to be a tougher fight because Mitch insists on tanking one of the trolls himself, which would have gotten him utterly destroyed in Gothic 2, but thanks to the lowered NPC vs NPC damage in Gothic 3, Mitch tanks it like a champ and keeps it tied up long enough for me to kill the rest and then bail him out.   Now I smell like troll blood instead of vomit, which is a marginal improvement.     The next NPC along the road is Rocko, he's just a scavenger who'll like us if we clear a small cave full of goblins, which happens off-screen due to how trivial it is. Once again, the game's difficulty pacing is super strange since I cannot imagine anyone getting this far and not finding goblins a trivial challenge unless they literally ran past every enemy in the game on a direct blast straight to Faring, and EVEN THEN, it would not be a huge deal.      Would you like to buy some perfume? Some deodorant? Believe it or not, but I'm happier not stinking. Do you do dry cleaning? To get rid of that smell, I'll do it for free. You're never getting into the castle up top smelling like that, in any case, and I'd like to see what the orcs make of you. Why do you think I want to get into the castle? Everyone wants to get in there, its where the famous Kan, the mighty orcish warlord, has his seat. I wasn't particularly interested before, but maybe I can get his autograph and flog it for a few thousand gold. Well, you're going to have to befriend the three orcs in charge out here. Do your wandering hero thing, all the errands you can find, he'll like you. Took me a while to figure out what he likes, but its wolf skins. Piles of them. Just give him some booze and you're in with him. ...but wait, why are you telling me all this again? I haven't paid you or offered to do any of your work. Like I said, I have a feeling you're going to do something funny at the end of all this. I'm waiting to see what it is. I've heard worse reasons. What was this place before, anyway? I mean before the orcs. Another paladin stronghold, almost as tough as Gotha.       That doesn't explain anything. How did that help you and the orcs take the castle? Oh, while everyone was busy waiting for Xardas to unleash some terrible magic, a couple of us snuck in and took the gatehouse, let everyone in.    Maybe a bucket of water for your torch before you set my ceiling on fire? Nah, I'm good. I need some booze for the orcs, though, so they'll let me into the castle.  ...man that was easier than I expected. Everyone around here is strangely nice.   Oh, cool, you've all been waiting for me so you could help me out? That explains it. Well, I'd like a fast horse, all of your drugs, a huge sword and also a crown. Another crown, that is, to put on top of my current one. ...what I meant was: ...I didn't even know there was a pass here, but now that you mention it, I do find myself considering it to be very crossable and myself in a crossing mood.  I literally just showed up after a week-long bender. So no. Well: He's fat, he's named Ali, he's a merchant and he's from the desert, now you're caught up.    ...but you're okay with me stealing it? I never said I'd like you for it, but I'll accept that it gets the job done.     Did Connor put you up to bothering me? Yes. At least we'll get some chores done, then. Get to it and we'll see if I want you inside the walls. Courtesy of Flint. That's a strong start, Morra, you might not be so bad, but it'll take more than that. Get a move on.    Faring is essentially located along a big switchback working its way up the mountains separating Myrtana from Nordmar. There are three buildings down at the bottom, Connor's store, Flint's tavern and Tom's hut, then up the top is the gate blocking off the pass, and roughly in the middle is the castle of Faring itself. On the way up to hand some booze to Gnar and Mojok, I bump into Ali.     Everyone seems to expect that, so sure. Let's say I am. You? The same. I've found the perfect gift for the orcs to gain access. What'd you get them? I got them booze and chores. A rock. A rare rock. Well, good luck, don't mind me stalking around behind you for a while.    I follow Ali around for a while, hoping for him to go somewhere I can mug him in private, but his patrol cycle is annoying and eventually I just try to pickpocket him.   It succeeds! I think that Gothic 3 pickpocketing is like Gothic 2 pickpocketing, where you auto-succeed if you have above a certain level of skill, but I have no clue, and due to how poorly documented Gothic 3 is even by the German community, it's hard to find out and have any clue how difficult any given pickpocketing is.     Then I follow Ali to find out where he's actually hiding his chest, because I didn't find that out before stealing the key.      Don't mind me, I'm just making sure everyone's safe. Really? Really. I'll even guard your chest, just take a walk outside, its perfectly safe.  He literally did just get them loving rock, Jesus Christ.       So with that done we're halfway to being able to cross the pass. We also need to get the approval of Tom's hunter buddy, Wilson.      Wilson's quest is pretty simple. Lets go hassle Gnar.      First thing first, give Gnar the booze.   Second thing, give him some wolf pelts, warg pelts also count but... he wants 20. And by this point you will almost certainly have sold your pelts for gold, and merchants seem to clear out their inventories regularly, and the area around Faring only has 13 pelts or so. I was lucky I had missed some wolves between Ardea and Vengard, if I hadn't, I'd have had to use console commands to find some for him.    And lastly... the shadowbeast skin, which Gnar will only ever give you 400 gold for. You can protest, but you can't threaten him or otherwise get the money out of him, so we're 100 gold short of what Wilson wants.      In a lot of games, this is where you'd have the choice between paying the difference, threatening Gnar and telling the truth. Here you can pay the difference or... claim you got paid 300 or tell the truth and say you got paid 400. Saying you got 400 is the best answer, though it seems all the replies still get you XP, which is what really matters, and the mission counts as complete.  Now Wilson's happy with us, but he also has an extra quest!  This one is how you get Gorok's approval.     Note that these big brain geniuses are burying corpses right next to whats presumably their main source of fresh water.    Lurkers are thankfully not a big deal and easily get dunked on.      With that sorted, we head farther uphill and find that Faring also has an arena!  Mostly the free skill points and orc reputation, but the gold is also nice. You got here late? Great, well, have fun stomping everyone into the dirt.   Time for bonking.         None of the challengers are a notable difficulty, and none of them have pre or post-fight dialogue.    I kind of want to see how bad your advice is considering these losers you sent my way.   I cap out the one-handed skill tree line with him. The main thing about it is that it means all standard hits against humanoid enemies are now knockdowns. I repeat: They're all knockdowns. This makes it insanely easy to keep people bopped down(you can usually get another hit in while they're mid-air), you just have to walk back after every knockdown since they get a swing in as they get up and you can't attack while they're on the ground. If you for some reason don't want a knockdown, then your quick jab attacks work like usual. Before heading uphill, I also go take a nap so we can enjoy the view.       This would be a really nice vista if it just wasn't for the terrible detail draw distance.    Continuing past the gate up here leads to Rocko's little goblin cave, for anyone who's curious. Anyway, here's Mojok.    You convinced the morons down below to let you through, but I still think you're trash. Hello have some free booze.  That was a sudden turnaround. Yeah, well, I thought you were bringing me something good. I should've read the label first. Go get me a special brand of Nordmar Nogginfog only made by one weirdo down in the woods. 'kay    Hi Flint, Mojok says your booze is trash, bye Flint.     The forest brewer is past where I killed the triple troll threat earlier.     Because no one ever comes down here, what with the trolls and all. Good news, the trolls are gone. Bad news, that probably means more people are going to bother you. Also I'm one of those people, make me some Nordmar Nogginfog. Alright, I need you to go on a wild quest to get me some plants, it'll be tough! It'll be dangerous! You'll need to scour the w- Oh, that's all? I've got half a greenhouse in my pockets. Here. Take this. In fact take all of it, I think its starting to ferment on its own. So, he says a whole kettle, but he makes one bottle. And Mojok wants TWO bottles. The guy we helped kill the trolls is supposed to offer up a bottle number two, but for me he just kind of... vanished, so I had to console conjure a second bottle. Quality assurance! In any case, this gives us access to this castle... this and the dozen or so wolf skins I scoured the map for off screen. Gorok likes us because we're arena champion and killed the lurkers with Wilson. Mojok likes us because we got him some special moonshine. Gnar likes us because we brought him some wolf skins. Despite being the heart of the orcish occupation of Myrtana, its wildly easier to earn everyone's approval than less important towns like Trelis or Geldern.      At least it has a very impressive gatehouse.     And a very nice large courtyard.    It also has a secondary arena for Faring!  Firstly, hello to you too. Secondly, why should I let you? You're some weird cosplay wimp in a bathrobe. Now, either you're just making that up, and you're a weird cosplay wimp in a bathrobe that's going to be hilarious to see getting turned to red paste, or you're for real and you're a badass that'll provide a good show. Go get 'em, champ.Tarok won't let you fight in your arena unless you've cleared the Mora Sul arena, which is odd because the Mora Sul arena is WAY tougher than his is, if only because it is, I think, the only arena that has a fight against two enemies at once, and dealing with two simultaneous enemies does make the combat a bit spicier.      As said, the challengers aren't very tough, and getting the guaranteed knockdowns upgrade to my basic swordery makes them even less so.          You fight two orcs and two humans and then you're done. Though an interesting note is that your accomplishments in the Faring keep don't yield Faring reputation, but instead overall Orc reputation, which usually requires clearing out rebel encampments to gain. So that's nice.   There are two other orc quest givers here. One of them is Zakosh, the blacksmith. He'll sell us stuff if we helped beat up the trolls down below, which we did, but will only train us if we can lift the millstone in the center of the courtyard and, AND, it turns out that some guides are wrong, and you actually need 250 strength to lift the millstones, not 200, so we're still 50 strength, and thus some five level-ups, away from that.  Then there's Ur-Gosh, the alchemist.     He needs three units of King's Sorrel, which, since they're used for stat-boosting potions, is equivalent to handing over +6 in stat boosts to him. This is an objectively poor trade since he sells nothing I can't find anywhere, but it provides rare orc reputation which I want in case the thread should vote on helping out the orcs at some point or another. It has two purposes: Firstly it unlocks our access to buying high-tier orc mercenary armor(though I think the Robe of Adanos combined with the robe-using doubling of its armor qualities still makes it almost the best armor in the game), and secondly it unlocks our access to the SECOND level of Faring's keep if we can get over 75%. Since I currently have 33%, that's still some war crimes away.     Aw, but I punched a bunch of people for your entertainment and I helped someone pick flowers... I thought we were friends...    Well, I emptied out my supply of booze and weed. Now how am I supposed to cope unhealthily with the orcs not loving me?VOTE A: Go to Silden, see if we can find another way to make the orcs love us. B: Use the teleporter rune to Vengard and cry to the nearest person about how the orcs don't love us. C: Cross the pass at Faring into Nordmar and feel smug knowing that the orcs are going to miss us any day now and resulting feel real sorry about making us sad.
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Aug 2, 2023 15:27
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Oh wow an update! TY Purple, it's really fun to read. I feel like all three options are good, have a really hard time picking one. I'll stay out of the voting this time.
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Aug 2, 2023 15:44
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Go to Silden and find a way to convince the orcs that we are in fact extremely lovable.
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Aug 3, 2023 10:51
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Silden time, its an orc party.
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Aug 3, 2023 10:58
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Vengard, because rune travel beats walking.
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Aug 3, 2023 14:46
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PurpleXVI posted:Unlike Gothic 2, where summons with weapons technically constituted an extremely tedious infinite money glitch as long as you had access to a bed, summons in Gothic 3 do not appear to drop anything.
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Aug 3, 2023 17:19
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No vote, as I continue in the certainty that there is no democracy under capitalism.quote:I literally just showed up after a week-long bender. So no. Tee-hee. This made me laugh more than I care to admit.
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Aug 4, 2023 00:36
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For those following along, this LP is still getting updates, I've just been heavily distracted by games that either aren't bad or which are bad in much more funny and inventive ways(Baldur's Gate 3 and Remnant 2, respectively). Add to that, that Silden is such an incredibly bad area that I've been struggling a bit with writing the update. I think I finally found the right tack and, well, it will happen, but please be patient.
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Aug 14, 2023 20:10
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I sincerely doubt anyone here is going to fault anyone for delaying content in order to play BG3 for the first time. Game rules, and deserves to be experienced first hand.
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Aug 15, 2023 00:26
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Speaking of BG3, will you do an LP of that some day?
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Aug 15, 2023 10:10
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Lynneth posted:Speaking of BG3, will you do an LP of that some day? I think it would be difficult to LP because it's a split of things that would only work well on video: character interactions(missing out on the voice acting and the character animations would make them a lot less interesting) and combat, and things that would be very dull on video: fiddly picking through all the 5000 containers looking for delicious loot items. And I don't think I could do funny or interesting voice commentary necessarily.
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Aug 15, 2023 11:38
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PurpleXVI posted:I think it would be difficult to LP because it's a split of things that would only work well on video: character interactions(missing out on the voice acting and the character animations would make them a lot less interesting) and combat, and things that would be very dull on video: fiddly picking through all the 5000 containers looking for delicious loot items. I bought BG3 on GOG, but there is some kind of problem with the servers or some such and the game isn't really playable right now without some major gymnastics. Tech problems happen and I've plenty of other things to do, but the childish mewling on the GOG forums was a combination of pathetic/embarassing/humorous.
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Aug 15, 2023 20:42
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Update 19: Worst Town in Myrtana I'm still playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm starting to really hate Gothic 3, but I don't intend to leave an LP project unfinished. So here's me taking a break from throwing villains into the ocean and off cliffs to update my LP. The vote last time was to go to Silden and... wow, it's certainly a place. By which I mean it sucks.   And most of this update will be devoted to explaining just how much it sucks and why it sucks.  I think you're overreacting, how bad can Silden be? Look, it's a nice lakeside settlement and all.   Sure, there's some aggressive wildlife around, but where isn't there?    ...what sort of overgrown alligator eats a saw?I told you, this place is messed up.       From the outside, nothing is wrong, Silden even looks a bit different because it's on a shoreline.     But then you start talking to the people. You know what's wrong with the people?        Every single one of them has a loving fetch quest for you. Get me five wolf assholes, get me ten casks of sulphuric acid, find my lost Hoe of Destruction, where's my hat, can you guide me across the street I'm so helpless.        It makes the entire place feel like a placeholder, or a tutorial zone, rather than a real place. There's ONE quest that feels like it's not out of place in a Gothic game, and its an optional one from this guy, Zapotek. See, he's got a grudge against the leader of the settlement, but can't challenge him because he's got a shaman for a bodyguard. If you kill the shaman, he's going to challenge and kill him(or possibly get himself killed). It's not very interesting at first glance EXCEPT that it's a sneaky way for a rebel to weaken the settlement.    There's a brief bit of wackiness as Jerek here mistakes you for someone else, but it's not interesting.      This is also one of the places where you need every last scrap of rep to get the local orc leader to let you in. I think the ONLY thing you can skip is ratting out the local rebel spy.      It contributes to the local feeling of pointlessness as you need to investigate every corner for named NPC's, since practically every single one has some 2% rep quest for you.         While you were jabbering I won another arena championship, by the way. No need to thank me.   See, the issue is that even the arenas are starting to become very formulaic. You've got single swordy enemies, two-hander enemies and sword+board enemies, and they all fight with more or less the same patterns. We're not even getting any dual-wielders outside of Varant, who were interesting foes because their flurry of attacks could easily smash down your stamina if you blocked in reach of them, and the arena in Bakaresh was the only time they spiced it up with TWO enemies. Get more creative!     I can't even remember what this guy wanted, but I'm sure he sucks. Anyway, why not a fight against a beastmaster and his loyal creature? A mage and his summons? An archer and his melee bodyguard? Maybe a big free-for-all battle with multiple combatants all against each other, making you pick your moment to strike down an enemy and maneuver for space.        Hatlod here, wants us to find his tools that have been eaten by local lizards, hence the saw earlier. He also has a very profitable quest to get some new ship plans for him to use(this is where you can use the plans you get from that drug-addled merchant in Lago, Hatlod pays a cool 1500 for them which I think may be one of the highest quest payouts in the game), which is fundamentally okay except that nothing ever in the game indicates where you might look for them. It's literally just some random guy who smoked weed and had a dream about a boat and then he drew it, which this guy wants. In Gothic 2, for this quest you'd have been tasked with stealing or buying the plans from a competing ship-builder, and you'd have had the choice to warn the others and either beat this guy up or give him plans for a boat that'd sink or something instead. You'd have had an idea of where to start, and multiple ways to accomplish it. In this case, even if you kill the smoked-up merchant, he doesn't drop it! I'm not even sure if you can pickpocket it off him, so only getting him his drat rare wolf skins from Nordmar will fix it.    Hatlod also has some Deep Silden Lore, which is super stupid. For instance, the ruins in the lake were once a paladin fortress, it got flooded when someone farther downstream dammed up the river. Why would the paladins just let them do that? It was from the sound of it when the area was still controlled by the humans. Hatlod is also building boats that can't go anywhere, because downriver there are multiple waterfalls, and upriver there's a huge waterfall, in both cases well before you reach any sort of docks. So at best you could paddle around the lake a bit. Maybe he wants to commit a very creative suicide.Shush, you.      The biggest dick move about Silden is that a mandatory part of the town's rep quests are provided by Denpok, the usual guard protecting the inner orcish area of the town... except as far as I know he's literally the only guard of such a kind that provides a quest. All the others only exist to shout "STOP, YOU LACK THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF REP" or "STOP, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF REP" when you get close, so you might never think to approach him.      Now I know that's a lie, I've never met this guy before. None of my old orc shaman buddies looked this cool.Which is true! Grompel looks cool but lives in a dirt-floored shack despite being the local ruler's closest advisor, and has seen us "in his dreams" where he insists we were very important. I have to admit, why not have Ur-Shak be in this game? He was in both Gothic 1 and Gothic 2, and was, unless you murdered his friend in Gothic 2 on the orders of a paladin, the only friendly orc we'd met thus far. He could have provided interesting insights into orcish culture, there could have been quests about insinuating him into the orcish power structure to lessen their iron grip around their human subjects(in Gothic 2, that was exactly what he was trying to accomplish, to regain his political status so he could argue for peace), or you could have assassinated him for either side, or protected him or... there could have been a lot of potential questing around just one well-built character. I hope Ur-Shak is doing okay.Well, considering that you never caused him to renounce his peace-promoting ways by being an rear end in a top hat in the canon of this LP, and yet the invasion is still happening, I'd assume the others either burned him at the stake or he's hiding out in a cave somewhere with skeletons for company. Are they at least nice skeletons?No, they never do their share of the housework. Well now I'm sad.      At least a couple of the Silden quests get us outside of the town limits.          Pavel here reminds us that if we forget to breathe, we're in trouble. You know the sad part is that I actually learned something from that.Like the time someone told you it was important to hold on to your weapon and to pay attention to your enemy? Look, that was solid advice, worth every single gold coin and learning point I spent on it. While Montera had TWO quests about fetching all the brown objects from the brown ground, Silden has three: Logs, barrels of fish and furs. The furs are up here and all three items leave me running in circles for a while to find the one I'm missing because there's always one concealed in a goddamn corner somewhere.         An important source of rep points is hiding in another cabin down by the river about two minutes' jog northwest of town.        He wants me to help him hunt and kill the limited population of a rare subspecies of wolf, which makes me think: The druids seem to really have a non-presence in this game. lovely powers and forgettable missions. Why not have them opposed to the hunters of each faction? The ones who want you to go murder piles of often-somewhat-rare animals for fun and profit. I feel like the druids would be the sort of people to dislike hunting more than you need for food. Hey, I cook everything I kill.Cook AND eat, right? ...Almost two-hundred cooked steaks in your pocket. It's a good thing this game doesn't have any sort of food decay mechanic or your inventory would be a biohazard zone. Eh, I figure, space for infinite steaks, space for infinite filth. Both will fit nicely on top of the mountain of rusty swords and sticks I'm also carrying.       That sure was an exciting off-screen adventure of finding everyone's stuff.It sucked. My favourite part was when an orc asked us to find his lost pike without any hints and it turned out to be leaning against the back interior wall of an unrelated shack!I hate this place, just talk to the head honcho and let's go.      Well, he's mostly ranting about how we're an inferior species, but I infer he wants us to talk to the shaman and get escorted to the local rebel camp, then murder them all.       I think he's just hoping we'll go get ourselves killed. Nonsense! He's impressed by how I collected ALL of the barrels of fish! Even the sneaky hidden ones!      Grompel literally leads us five steps outside of town. However! If you wanted to go along with Zapotek's plan to murder him, this wouldn't be a bad time to do it, since he'd be well away from everyone. But you'd need to have accepted the quest already, since you can't get him out here twice, and to have some inkling that the option to get him alone out here existed rather than just nailing a sword through his head inside his sorry shack.   Cheer up! The local rebels have to be more fun to hang out with.They literally could not suck more than Silden unless they were all walking vacuum cleaners. Get on with it. Next time: we visit the local rebels and if they really suck, we might visit Nordmar instead of doing their dumb sidequests.
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Aug 22, 2023 17:20
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What makes you think Nordmar won't be full of suck and sidequests?
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Aug 22, 2023 20:33
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At least it has different scenery Also more monsters running about. More to the point I think we're about 2/3rds of the way through the game, please persevere Purple if you can. It's a great LP so far. fe: Vengard at least is very different if nothing else.
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Aug 22, 2023 20:44
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I was worried that this LP was getting to you, Purple. You're only one man, and all of these crappy RPGs would eat away at anyone, eventually. When was the last one that you actually enjoyed... Betrayal perhaps? I'd say go ahead and LP BG3, but I think that there is a blackout on that for a while. I bought a copy but will probably never play it, but I would read the LP.
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Aug 23, 2023 02:33
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JustJeff88 posted:I was worried that this LP was getting to you, Purple. You're only one man, and all of these crappy RPGs would eat away at anyone, eventually. When was the last one that you actually enjoyed... Betrayal perhaps? Like I said, I don't think BG3 would lend itself well to being LP'd. I actually had something different in mind for a next LP project: Crystal Project, but we'll see what happens.
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Aug 23, 2023 06:52
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