Gothic TW: CoM - DISCUSSION THREAD (please address here for comments. I'll happily answer)

[rafmc1989]

Guys,

I open this thread to keep order for all comments, suggestions and thoughts you may have about the mod, the gameplay, the features, etc...




For anything that may come up in your mind (e.g. something in the game which is not clear to you, questions about the features, the factions, the units, or aspects and mechanics of the mod) just put here your comments and I will assist you...


Hope to receive soon your first impressions...

[IBSXYPNTS]

Well I love this mod! Great work! I just seem to run into a CTD on the Undeaad turn very often after turn 70, not sure why.

Also I noticed that the text seems translated to english, I am a native english speaker and also have very proficient in German. So If you need me to go through the text files and perhaps smooth out some of the translations I am willing to work on that.

[rafmc1989]

Yuppy!

I got the first comment on GothicTW. I was thinking that this thread was becoming a monologue.. such a shame that here on TWC nobody knows the Gothic saga...


Ok, for the texts I would really love if you can give me a hand. First, I'm not a native English speaker and second I had to translate the whole game from Russian, so I didn't pay attention to the minimal details of the grammar.

Actually, ok, I'm gonna contact you very soon, as I have other material in the store and I must inform you about that and my plans for it...

We can discuss further about the gameplay in PM!

[rafmc1989]

So, guys, with the new release of GothicTW CoM 2.6 I'll be there to answer to you for any comments, doubts, and questions you may have about the mod...

Feel free to ask about the Gothic lore, I know that most of you are unaware of it, but I can provide you everything you want to know

[Assur Nikator]

First of all, let me congratulate the mod makers for the massive amount of content. I've played Gothic I and II many times so I know my lore. I started a campaign as the Brotherhood of the Sleeper and the game feels challenging yet rewarding at the same time. I won't focus on the good parts, which are many, but on the issues to be improved/clarified:

1. The scale of the map: The scale of Khorinis is kind of strange to me in this setting, seeing that the Dead Harpy can turn into a settlement churning out soldiers - I get what you were going for, trying to include every character and important location of the game, but this should be looked at in future releases. Perhaps turn these places into proper settlements namewise, twisting the lore a bit but increasing overall believability. So, for instance, Dead Harpy could start out as a tavern, but you can explain in the description that refugees/etc., built up the area.

An alternative would be to stop some of the settlements from being upgradable, which would be simpler and would make more sense. Even so, it's strange to have a tavern as a strategic point on a map which includes so many factions.

2. The translation: I really, really, really recommend you get help with translating the mod properly, since its current state will turn off some newcomers. This starts already in the main menu, where you have expressions like "one player" instead of "single player" and so on. Make sure you use proper english starting with the main menu and the quotes you give during loading screens and you will have a much better first impression.

3. The hero: it is not really clear what the Nameless Hero is expected to do. Should he wander the map "trading" for the resources he finds? For instance, I took him to Xarthas' tower, expecting to find something, as the description tells us, but nothing happened in 4 turns.

4. The seekers: they can be a serious problem, is this normal? - at least they were in my case, since they assassinated almost all of my generals, including my faction leader, who was well protected by my own assassin!

5. The Brotherhood: just what is the Brotherhood expected to do campaignwise? After some turns Myrtana declares war and if I somehow keep them at peace and focus on the southern orcs to reach the old Swamp Camp I am then faced with the Valley of the Mines going crazy with dragons, plus a south orc invasion.

6. Difficulty setting: I play all my campaigns on hard difficulty. (I know for instance that in EB II the AI only recruits mercenaries on hard) What is the level recommended here?

7. Lastly, about your general presentation of the mod on modb: Don't go into so much detail with every Gothic title from I to Arcania, much better would be a paragraph detailing the world of Gothic, then a list of the features brought by your mod. Perhaps a list of the factions with very short descriptions would also be a good thing. This will help newcomers be more interested in the mod, I believe.

All in all, a great mod. I can only recommend you make some cosmetic changes and with some extra polish it will gradually be one of the best out there.

[rafmc1989]

Hey thanks a lot!!

Well, coming to the points:

1) limiting the upgrading of the Dead Harpy could be an alternative, indeed
2)translation: I know it's not perfect in terms of grammar, and especially now with my new commitment it's kinda impossible to focus on it. I'll need someone for sure!
3)the hero-adventurer is fair simple: you must build up his skills with the construction of the six rpg systems that you see in-game. Namely: the study of the alchemic arts, of smithing, of hunting, of runes creation, the army consensus facilities and the "adventurer camps" (which is the one pumping up his searching values). Only after that, he will manage to find the raw materials for creating new items.
4)the seekers: yes they are the most deadly agents of the game, so they may cause a lot of damage if your faction is not prepared enough
5)the brotherhood is a very tough challenge to players:for the early campaign you'll need to defend a lot and myrtana will be on you all the time (it's all scripted), and the s.orcs will soon plunder the central area of Khorinis too (again all scripted). So my advice, heavy defence at first and when you have economy, you can start expanding
6)difficulty settings:absolutely VH!! You'll get the highest challenge as all the scripts you see are set to give you maximum difficulty when playing VH. Don't worry of mercenaries, I forced their preferred recruitment for the AI by boosting the recruitment priority offsets of the EDU.
7)presentation on ModDB:here too I could make it more appealing for the newbies (although I'd assume on ModDB the Gothic lore has a higher resonance than here), but could be presented in a more fashionable way, sure (it's just I'm struggling with time a lot ahah! )

And so many many thanks, and as you can see from my threads, a new nice addition regarding the hero-characters with special abilities will come quite soon

[Assur Nikator]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Will the new additions be save-game compatible? I want to restart a campaign tonight or tomorrow.

Also, another question on the Brotherhood: the general who is defending the Abandonned Monastery gets penalties as soon as he exits the building - it says that the troops wish to return to a native settlement (and the penalty doesn't go back down if I return him to garrison duties). I suppose this is because he needs to sit in a proper settlement rather than a castle?

[rafmc1989]

mmh, hero abilities are not in any case..... (but still some time needed for it)

Yes, that's the BYG reality supplies system (kinda the same used in SS 6.4 for example)... When the troops are tired and their morale lowers (due to the lack of resting in their homelands), you'll need to bring back your generals to their native lands for some time in order to recover. This is to avoid the steam-rolling habit that usually players prefer when playing (a lowered and more tactical approach is better rewarding).

[Assur Nikator]

Yep, the supply issue is clear to me - and one of the reasons why I like this mod so much.

The problem here is that the general maintains the maluses even if I let him stay in the monastery. After 10 turns it says troops are close to deserting. So I can't actually use him in combat at all.

[rafmc1989]

that's because it's not one of your native provinces (speaking for the brotherhood), the only way to restore the supplies is by bringing him back to your starting locations or substitute him with a new general (you'll need to switch a lot your generals across the campaign to keep the logistics efficient, you'll see)...

[Assur Nikator]

At turn 71 I get a CTD during the Undead turn. Suggestions?

[rafmc1989]

In my gameplays I had 0 crashes (you can see in the other thread I played up to 118, and then continued a bit further for myself and everything smooth)

I played CD version with 1.5 update.

Might be a problem whether of Steam or of bad installation.
In any case, try to reload the last save and proceed from it.

[Assur Nikator]

I tried and the problem persists. The only way to make it go away is - hilariously enough - to make a separate save during the auto-turn and, sometimes, toggle the fog of war off. The problem is almost always starting with the last 3-4 factions. It's a bit annoying, but it got me to turn 97 so far. My guess is that there is a general/agent somewhere who is trying to receive a trait but the coding is wrong or incomplete.

[rafmc1989]

if it was problem of coding it would crash as soon as the start of a given faction begins after the turn button is pressed, hence cannot be if the engine processes the entire given faction first, prior to the crash (and I already checked the .log in my entire gameplay turn x turn without weird notices).

As said, never had problems with the version current released and I play smoothly... In any case, ahah, fair good (didn't know about this mechanics of toggle_fow/save on the go!), but it's fine, new learnings!!

Ah, moreover, never activate the "autosave" function, as I know for Steam it's enabled as standard (I always remove it for the CD version)...

[eatme]

Hey just a heads up here after having tried this mod. Really loving very much all the hard work you guys put in it !!! The scripting alone must have been insane effort -). Great job indeed for the mod team.
Word of advice needed, have you noticed / tried to reduce the game loading time ? Which is ridiculously long.

[rafmc1989]

Mhm, yes we were aware of the loading times, but this is a consequence of the scripting missions and chapters that are unlocked as you go along with the lore of the game (there are several conditions which require time for loading)... little can be done in this aspect :/

[paleologos]

Does any of you have a SSD?
Are loading times still bad with an SSD?

[rafmc1989]

mhm, pal sorry for my ignorance... SSD stands for??

Btw, also LAA can help to smooth the loading times (due to the 4gb extension)...

[paleologos]

An SSD is a Solid State Drive, those are much faster than Hard Disk Drives (HDDs).
So the question was if the complaint about the loading times was from someone who has installed the game on an HDD or an SSD.
Do people who have the game installed on SSDs notice the loading times?

My turn to ask what are "LAA" and "4gb"?

[eatme]

I figured out it would be due to scripting load. Have you tried to parse scripts for the load?
As for the drive, I sure do have SSD, as I guess most ppl with non obsolete pcs. My point is, regardless of the drive type, compared to many other mods, even script heavy ones like 1648, this one loads up significantly longer. Ridiculously long in fact. Even on SSD, and on HDD it would be even longer.
This does not detract in any way from the top quality of the work though . Just smth to work out in future releases.