Difference between revisions of "Gothic"

Revision as of 12:33, 12 February 2013

General information

The 100% definition for this game is the maximum number of quests solved (42).
There is an SDA thread. Further help can be found in the German, English and Russian WorldofGothic forums.
Already published runs include:
2:05:XX by TheWonderer [DL, Youtube] (no use of glitches)
0:33:XX by TheWonderer [DL, Youtube]
0:24:XX by Blubbler [Youtube]
0:19:31 by TheWonderer [Youtube]
0:17:53 by 17petrovich [Youtube]

Glitching through gates and walls

Strafing
Strafing works on practically any gate or door. You just stand in the corner, strafe into it and then repeatedly strafe until you magically go through. How and why this works remains a mystery and no way to get it reliably has been found yet. It seems to be better to make many small strafes (pressing the key quickly) instead of a long one and to adjust the camera so that it lines up with the gate. Make a save just after getting in the right position, so you don't need to do it at each attempt of the actual glitch.

Alt + M
This is a very reliable trick for gates on a downwards slope. The very first gate in the Temple of the Sleeper is an example of it. Remove any map from your inventory, jump and hold down M in mid-air. You will get stuck in your current animation status, glide down the slope and possibly go through the gate. Then release the M key and continue.

Transformation
Transform into an animal, go to where you want to go through and transform back. It only works in some directions and there has to be enough ground to stand on behind the gate or wall. If it doesn't work in the direction you want to go, you can block the place behind you with hostile creatures you lure before. Since their place is already occupied, the game will send you to the only remaining direction. Example
It also works when an object is sticking out of the game world allowing you to go OOB. Example

Seam glitches
Sometimes walls have just not been properly connected. Example

General tricks

Duplication
In addition to 1.06l-exclusive duplication, there are 2 tricks that work in all versions:
- If you get hit while consuming an item you keep the item but get the effect. Useful to boost attributes with a single potion. There is also a very very rare chance of the animation interrupting for no reason at all.
- If an item is consumed by a pan, forge or similar, you can double it's quantity. Have the pan in your focus, open your inventory, navigate to the item to duplicate, close the inventory, use the pan. Example

Dialogue trick
This item is only useful for the very last segment of the run after the very last dialogue you need to have. Engage a NPC that talks to you automatically and press Esc at the right time so that you have the menu open while in dialogue mode. Now load a save. NPCs will no longer react to you and you cannot save anymore. This especially means you can pierce the Sleeper's hearts without opposition. Pay attention not to remove information from your recording.

Flying and surviving falls
Strafe or press the M key at the end of a fall to take no damage. M is generally preferred unless you hold a weapon. To fly remove all maps from your inventory, press and hold Alt and press M each time you want to jump.

Undocumented hotkeys

The original Gothic release documented 2 hotkeys in the readme.txt. This documentation is missing from all future releases.

Shift + Esc
This opens the menu at almost all times, even if the game would usually not allow it. It is useful but not necessary to set up the dialogue glitch. It can be used to quickly reset in a single-segment with resets run.

Ctrl + Alt + F8
This is a very powerful hotkey that works similiar to F8 in cheatmode. When you press it, you get reset a little bit above your current position. Unlike the normal F8, you are not healed and it doesn't work, when you are unconscious.
Climbing up walls: Go next to a wall and hold it down. If the wall is in the right direction, you will go up.
Going OOB: If you can do a wallclimb so that you bump into a wall above you, you may go through it and OOB.
Moving in dialogues: Press it while a NPC is talking and you can move for the duration of this piece of dialogue. Useful to get away from dangerous NPCs like the undead priests.
Another very useful feature is that if you press it while OOB, you teleport to one of these locations: - the last entry point of the map during that session: The engine remembers the last point, on which you entered the map (portals or new game) since you started a session. For example if you leave the Old Mine and then load a save in the monastery, go OOB there and press it, you will teleport directly infront of the Old Mine. The position is kept between saves, so pay attention you don't go to a position you didn't visit yet! For example teleporting to the Temple of the Sleeper instantly at the beginning of your speedrun is not legal, since you didn't visit it yet.
- the default position: If you haven't used an entry point yet, because e.g. you restarted Gothic and loaded a save, you will go to the default position. To see where it is, enter cheatmode, open the console and enter "goto pos". On the surface map it is the middle of the Old Camp. The position is not always 100% the same. If you fall through the ground, close and restart Gothic and try it again. It is possible to stand on it.
- other positions: Rarely you get teleported somewhere completely else entirely. The coordinates seem to be random and the position is rarely useful. Until it is understood and can be proven that the coordinates are the result of legal manipulation, it isn't advised to be used. It can be forced on version 1.08j, if you set the sample rate to 44khz.
The usefulness of teleportation is obvious, but pay attention that you don't remove information from the recording.

Versions

Gothic was released as version 1.06l. Patches 1.07c, 1.08h, 1.08j/Kyro II quickly followed. All future releases were based on version of 1.08j. 1.08k fixes a graphic card related crash that isn't relevant today anymore. From version 1.08j onwards there are versions with and without In Extremo due to expired usage rights.

1.06l
The original release only available in German. It contains many useful glitches that have been patched in later versions. A physical copy is hard to find, but you can convert a German 1.08j version to 1.06l using this download. Important differences from 1.08j:
- There are no chapter screens saving a few fractions of a second.
- Monster AI and parrying is slightly different.
- Not all members of the Old Camp become hostile in the 4th chapter.
- You cannot become a Magician of Fire before you deliver the eggs to Kalom.
- You can use the gate in the Old Mine infinitely to spawn infinite minecrawlers.
- The Sleeper does not throw fireballs at you during the final fight.
- The Chromanin quest is missing.
- Baloro's quest is not logged.
- You cannot move more than 10 items at once.
- You can duplicate items by moving them to the inventory of an unconscious person (at least 2 of a stack at once). - It is much more prone to crash, have texture errors and has longer loading and saving times.

1.08k_mod
If you install the modkit, you get this version. Unlike all previous versions there is no water, in which you can swim, OOB in the Temple of the Sleeper. You cannot move while OOB at all in the Temple of Sleeper in this version.

FPS patch
The FPS patch requires version 1.08k_mod and thus also makes moving while OOB in the Temple of the Sleeper impossible. It raises the fps limit from ~21 to 60. It is unknown whether this causes any differences relevant to speedrunning. The ex-member of Piranha Bytes, who developed it, explicitly said it isn't official.