u/_Ungespuelt_

First off, I like playing tanks and I often pick them in Mayhem. Tank Engine and Steal your Heart existed before and they were pretty strong. I used to be one of those people to say: 'Oh, that guy got 20k HP? Well, you can just try to get % health damage and you should be fine.' But that sh*t doesn't work anymore.

Now, with all the interactions and recursive stacking, Tank Engine (especially with Dropkick/Steal your Heart) has become so absurdly broken, that I see somebody with a tank absolutely steamroll it every 3 games. I'm not even exaggerating. Out of my last 10 games I've only won/lost two games where there was not a tank with 30 k hp running around.

This is not even about the tanks that already scale with HP (Tahm, Sett, Mundo etc.), although they are even more broken now.

It is about the same augment combinations, that seemingly everyone gets offered and then gets to steamroll the game. And the deciding factor is ALWAYS Tank Engine.
Oh, you got Steal your Heart? Now you can get a few hundred/thousand extra HP, not bad, but not OP. Wait, you also got Tank Engine? Well, now every stack gives you like 400+ HP and you can basically never die and get up to 40k HP with just Warmogs and Heartsteel with ease. Of course, if you now have an HP to DMG champ or item, you basically just won the game by having two augments and not being dumb enough to constantly die.
It is even worse when you have Dropkick, that stuff constantly goes above >30% max HP threshold and everything around you just pops.

The big issues imo are that:
A) Tank Engine gives so much reward for so little risk. At a certain point you're basically unkillable and if you still somehow manage to die, you just lose 65% of the stacks which, if you got your heartsteel stacks etc. still means that you're way above 10k HP constantly.

B) The recursive interactions, especially with Heartsteel and Dropkick.

So I'd like to suggest some changes to finally balance out this stacking.

1. Nerf Tank Engine to only give 2.5% HP OR make the stacks you're losing WAY higher (like 80-90%).
2. You should not be able to get Steel your Heart or Tank Engine once you get one of them. It's just brainless and makes you snowball even faster.
3. Give Dropkick a max % execute. It's just dumb that you can execute people with >50% HP just by existing. If they set it to like 20-25% HP, it would still be strong but at least somewhat balanced...
4. Add more % HP damage options (items or augments) and maybe tweak some of the champs that have innate HP -> DMG scalings like Mundo, Sett or Tahm.

I know, a lot of you probably won't agree, because 'Muh, fun mode, play fun, you're just crying!', but you can't tell me that it isn't frustrating to see the same stuff win the game every 3 games, not because that player was playing risky or something, but just because they picked the right augments and managed not to die with >10k HP.

Even if those changes would not hit the mark or you don't like them, I still hope, that we can at least agree on the fact, that this current state is just unbalanced and unfair for a large portion of the players.

https://preview.redd.it/gaykt88l1dah1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=571aa17f2f4e78d6e5d21297e6cf5e23be6c9bec

For the most part, Gothic 2 is the more complete game and it doesn't need too many changes imo. But here are some things I'd change, what is your take on that and what would you change?

1. It was always kind of dumb and lame to me that Xardas instantly spoiled the arrival of the Dragons. He should know, that there are powerful beasts that arrived in the VoM, that are so strong that he can't even get vision there. He then should either tell you to get the Eye of Innos or that the paladins arrived and they have sent people there and that you should talk to them to get into the valley too. After all, while he is mighty and powerful, the happenings at the Sleeper temple as well as him having to summon the NH would probably weaken him a lot, so that he is no longer able to see everything around him. The story then could unfold more naturally, you first learn of the Dragons either by talking to ex-prisoners or seeing them yourself. Same logic for Raven, Xardas should be able to know that there are tremors happening and people disappearing, but that's all he can tell you. That way, you wouldn't be spoiled in an instant.
2. Make the time that passed between the two parts significantly longer. Maybe like 6-12 Months instead of a few weeks, so it'd make more sense for enemies to arrive and for everything to change so quickly.
3. Change the leveling and your scaling overall. Simple fix could be to require you to get more XP for level. Just please, Alkimia, don't use that awful LP system from NotR.

So, after saving Syra from Bullit you get the 'Escape Plan' quest, which imo is really good and I was really invested into saving her and the others.

But, sadly, the endings are just not cool and they kinda suck in my opinion. You only get these 2 endings:

1. Save Syra by killing Gomez (+ the ore barons?) after (or before) the murdering of the fire mages. Makes sense, after all you'd have enough reason to kill the ore barons at that point, but still kinda meh, because most players are either too weak to do that or it would absolutely go against the plot of the story. You are supposed to follow Milten at that point and it would make little to no sense to go for a slaughter revenge afterwards only to talk to Syra then.
2. The murder of the fire mages happens and you run away with Milten. Syra dies, because Seraphia decided to snitch. This also makes sense from a story point, since Seraphia wasn't really into the plan in the first place and also would be hella scared after witnessing the slaughter of some of the most powerful men of the colony. Also, only Velaya survives.

So, we have these two endings, which, while making sense, are not really satisfying to me. Either Syra dies because you just follow the plot or you absolutely go against everything and murder everyone and she survives. Not really cool I think.

But, there could be an easy fix by just implementing the following two options to the quest, with both requiring you to get the key to the secret entrance from Santino:

• With the knowledge of the secret entrance, you can now talk to Syra BEFORE the massacre happens. That would lead to her being excited to have a potential way out and asking you to tell the other girls about it. After talking to Seraphia, she could now either:
  • A: Be reassured, that there is actually a way out, hence she would not need to snitch. Syra could live and you could save them through the tunnel at a later part of the game (maybe after killing/sparing Gomez?).
  • B: Not snitch on Syra herself, but rather (accidentally?) tell someone about the escape plan or that there is a secret tunnel. That way there could be some guards in the way when escaping, meaning you'd have to take care of them.
• AFTER the massacre happens you don't follow Milten but instead run to Syra and try to escape only with her. What happens with the other two could be up for debate, but that way you'd actually be able to at least save her without needing to kill the entire castle.

That's only my two cents and I don't know if they would ever implement it, but that way it would be way more rewarding/cool, because it also means that the quests are more intertwined (Santino quest and it actually having weight).

Let me know what you think, cheers!

Very informative and critical at the right spots! I'm hyped!

To me, it absolutely has to be the way you can join the new camp.

While it's kinda interesting, because it works different to the other camps, it just feels not really thought out.

Oh, so you are a first time player and beat up Mordrag (who for some ominous reason now does not have the ring)? - Too bad!

You actually gave the list to Diego before talking to Lares/Torlof (which is absolutely reasonable to do as a first time player, especially if you have not been to the new camp prior to going to the mine)? - Welp, sucks, you can't join anymore!

Moreover, it just feels too easy tbh. For the other camps you actually need to convince the higher members of the camp that you are worthy. New camp just lets Lares do and decide everything based on one thing.

Imo, both ways should work. You either convince enough people (like it was done at Onar's Farm too) or you take the shortcut with the list. Because it's not fun at all to be completely locked out of joining a camp, without ever knowing what you could've done differently.

Furthermore, they should actually have some sort of punishment when you give the list to Lares. It may be the easier option, but like, does nobody at the old camp care at all? Their entire stuff just got stolen and no one gives a shit lol.

That's only my two cents, what would you like to see changed?

So, before the remake I wanted to play the original once more.

I played G2 like 6 times, G3 like 5 times, but only finished 1 once back in like 2019.
Which mods etc. do you recommend for a good Gothic 1 experience nowadays? I really always struggled with the very clunky controls, is there something better for that?

Thanks!