Gothic 3 - CP 1.7 Countdown - #4

Dhruin

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Kostaz writes the Gothic 3 CP Patch v1.7 Countdown has reached #4. Here's the post:
Alternative A.I. Part 2

The game mode of alternative AI delivers two large changes, besides a few smaller ones:

1. The changes in the AI (Artificial Intelligence):
To cover up a little for the proverbial stupidity of the computer opponents (and also the companions), the complete reaction scheme in melee is newly defined depending on the situation.

2. Changes to the fighting system:
More specific: To make the game more tactical, the importance of blocking has been increased. With activated alternative AI it is possible for the hero and almost every opponent who is carrying a weapon, to block any attack with a weapon without suffering any damage. Blocking is therefore time limited, such that now one has to choose, which strike to block.

As result we hope that the tactic "spamclicking" will only be worthwhile now in very few cases
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For better understanding:
In general NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) always try to attack the opponent from the side, to decrease the chance that these step aside or block. When they act in a group, the one who has the focus of the adversary will act mainly defensive and block alot, will keep the adversary busy though, while the others run around the adversary until they are no longer fully in his field of view and then attack.

NPCs with weapons often try, when possible, to take out their opponent for a short time with a strong hew or a stab attack. When one is wounded by a stab, one stumbles shortly, and this time is mostly used to hit the opponent to the deck with a powerfull blow.

Mages who are pushed into melee, act completely defensive and try to leave the fight again when they step back and the opponent is not aware; they will mainly block and only attack when it will be successful. This way they should be involved in melee only shortly during group battles and most of the time be able to use magic.

Animals and monsters fail the option to block and therefore use two different tactics, combined by chance.
On the one hand they always act defensively and stay just outside the reach of the opponents weapon: the opponent makes a strike, they retreat backwards -if possible- or to the side and when the opponent takes back his weapon, they they storm forwards and try to wound him quickly with a bite.
On the other hand in between the monsters gladly use an aggressive tactic -only against ranged attackers- in which they try get in attack range of the opponent as fast as possible, jumping back if this one tries to kill them, wound them and then quickly retreat.

Together this leads to having to have a good timing against creatures to defeat them.
More information.
 
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I hope they changed the Psychic Dodge, especially with animals. It's almost impossible to hit a wolf with "a strong hew or a stab attack" in vanilla G3. :(

Btw, just noticed that they are going to launch Gothic 3: Gold Edition in May. It says it will include Gothic 3, the addon (Forsaken Bugs) and all the patches. Now, will the new CP patch be there or only official ones...?

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/9151675/Gothic-3-Gold-Edition/Product.html#
 
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Btw, just noticed that they are going to launch Gothic 3: Gold Edition in May. It says it will include Gothic 3, the addon (Forsaken Bugs) and all the patches. Now, will the new CP patch be there or only official ones...?

The CP is in. JoWood gave the source code to the developers of the community patch and are officially supporting it. IOW, it's just like an official patch, except JoWood didn't have to pay anyone to make it. How's that for a great business idea?
 
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The CP is in. JoWood gave the source code to the developers of the community patch and are officially supporting it. IOW, it's just like an official patch, except JoWood didn't have to pay anyone to make it. How's that for a great business idea?

But for those who created the community patches to have a) fixed somebody else's code and b) fix the code to the great satisfaction of the gaming community will no doubtedly perk the interest of many developers out there.

Personally, I think fixing someone else's code can be just as hard if not harder than coding something from scratch.
 
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Very true statement....it is much much harder to correct someone else's code.
 
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The CP is in.

The question is which version though? 1.6 or 1.7? CP 1.6 is deemed officially official ;) . Part of the reason for this is because Spellbound was involved in the making of the patch.
CP 1.7 on the other hand is not an official patch but once again "only" a community patch supported by JoWooD. I doubt that JoWooD would include 1.7 in the gold edition. If they make 1.7 official by including it then they can be held liable for any issues that patch might cause.

JoWood gave the source code to the developers of the community patch and are officially supporting it. IOW, it's just like an official patch, except JoWood didn't have to pay anyone to make it. How's that for a great business idea?

Well, as stated above, CP 1.6 was partially made by Spellbound who certainly did get paid and the community team -while naturally not getting any serious amounts of cash- did get some sort of compensation. Whether this was a few hundred or a few thousand Euros or maybe just a few free games per person involved is unknown.
 
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I don't know much about all that industry stuff, but this statement:

"To make the game more tactical, the importance of blocking has been increased."

...is the most signifigant thing for me about this upcoming patch. I've dipped back in to G31.6 the last few days, only the very beginning, and I've found all the familiar letdowns with the combat system that ruined the game for me many months ago. I particularly noticed how blocking was completely botched, totally useless when I tried to employ it. It meant that the only way to win was just to keep attacking... hack hack hack... yawn.

Anyway, this news is GREAT. It's possible this may make combat in G3 feel a lot more similar to G2 combat.
 
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Unless they changed what's on the map melee combat is going to be almost impossible now where there are more than a few foes.

In Gothic2 (and I presume 1) they were careful in placing foes so that you didn't face large numbers of them at once. Well, except for the besiegers in GII anyway. There are tons of places in Gothc3 where there are numerous foes who will all come after you at once. Unless you play the "lure one guy off" game or use a ranged weapon taking on those areas will be problematic. You can see the problem with the existing code in places where there are a lot of archers. You get shot down almost at once if you fight there because you can't defender against them.
 
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Yes indeed, but if it is true that the blocking can be turned off or on via the in-game menu, it might be worthwhile to do some experiments. Such as activating the menu (which we know pauses the game) and switch the menu between three, two, or single opponent mode and check the opponent reaction. It wouldn't surprise me if the opponents then continued to fight each other as they would still be in attack/hostile animation loop mode...it will be interesting to see just how these animations react. A saved game reset may well be necessary?
 
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However gothic 1 and gothic 2 only allowed attacking one enemy while g3 allows attacking multiple enemies at the same time. Also you gotta consider that cp-team balanced combat heavily by tweaking stamina and blocking..maybe now using shield will be more practical and so forth. Atleast I hope so :)
 
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