'FAQ'
What is the Community Story Project?

The Community Story Project is a project, which has as its main goal, the improvement and expansion of the somewhat meager game content (especially the story) of Gothic 3. A precise overview of the planned changes you will find in our concept.

In which categorie does the project fit?

The Community Story Project should not be seen as a patch. The Community Story Project is an add-in. The present original game will be improved and expanded on the basis of the game contents.

How is the project being financed?

Until now, the project is not supported or sustained by the makers of Gothic 3. All the work of the members is being done on a voluntary basis. Our infrastructure (server, forum, homepage, etc.) is being implemented with the help of numerous free offers, and software, which is free or of our own.

What are the most common abbreviations related to this project?

We make use of numerous abbreviations for our project, and also for other existing projects for Gothic 3: CSP (Community Story Project), CST (Community Story Team), CP (Community Patch), CPT (Community Patch Team), QP (Quest Package), CM (Content Mod).

Release

What are the prerequisites for the Community Story Project?

The only prerequisite, beside an available Gothic 3 installation, will be the current Community Patch 1.74. This patch includes some new possibilities to change the game, which are being used by us, and therefore it is required. Because of the changes in the textures, which are optional during an installation, the hardware requirements will increase slightly compared to the orginal game.

In what form will the Community Story Project be released?

There will be one single setup file, that automatically installs all involved files. This setup will also check if the current version of the Community Patch has been installed.

Progress

When will the Community Story Project be released?

We will not release the result of our labour, before it is ready and adequately tested in our opinion.

At what stage are you now?

Because the actual status of the game is of course changing continuously, it is not being included in the FAQ. Instead, progress is being reported in the news section. Anyway, a precise description of a certain stage cannot be given, because a lot of tasks run in parallel, build upon each other, or are being dealt with quicker or slower than planned.

Collaborations

Who are involved in the Community Story Project?

In this project only fans of the Gothic series are involved. An accurate listing of all current members you will find in the Team list.

Can I get involved in the Community Story Project?

At the moment we are looking for graphic designers for textures, and for scripters, who can implement game content (especially quests). If you are interested please notify us.

How can I bring in my ideas?

Of course we appreciate to hear about your ideas. Please do not send us your ideas by E-mail. Instead, please make use of one of our many Forum threads. Needles to say, we will of course not be able to adopt all your ideas and implement them. This is because we have a very strict vision on what we need, and what does not fit in. Still, you are welcome to post your ideas here. There is a chance that we will consider them. Also you should not expect to receive an answer on all your questions immediately. However, we do read everything and will take it into consideration.

Voice output and languages

Will a voice output be included in your project?

We strive to implement a voice output. However, this only becomes possible when all texts of the story have been completed, and we have an overview of the quantity of text. Therefore, we will postpone the voice-output subject until a later stage. For this reason we aren’t looking for any speakers or other team members yet, who can take upon themselves tasks related to this area.

Will there be translations of the Community Story Project into other languages?

We are in contact with numerous foreign Gothic communities, who have approached us with that wish. We will address this issue as soon as the german texts have been finished, and will then make these texts available to teams of translators from the community. We will, when the time is ready, start a call: for teams of translators to establish themselves and hand in their applications. We are aiming for translations into the English, Polish, Italian and Russian languages, but are open for other languages.

Content

What is the magnitude of your project?

The precise magnitide of it can’t be determined. What we are not doing for instance, is to include a side quest here and there, or to change a dialogue. We are revising the story of Gothic 3 at almost every spot. To try to catch the magnitude in numbers, here are some internal data for you: Internal forum with approx. 800 subjects and 11000 posts; Gothic 3 with approx. 1500 files changed or added; the story with approx. 150 pages of concepts, over 1000 pages of dialogues (on average: DIN A4, letter size 12); about 1.5 Gb of data on our development server.

Why is so little information available on the story?

It is very difficult to offer insights into the story, without betraying too much. The closer we will get to the release date, the more you will hear about the magnitude and the content of the new story.

Will you be expanding or revising fraction X, weapon Y or NPC Z?

We are putting a lot of effort in improvements and expansions. However, since we are focussing on certain core themes, we are not able to change everything. Questions to specific game contents therefore, make no sense, because these can still be changed over the course of the project.

How precisely are the weapons textures being edited?

The swords are edited in respect to the model and the texture, to adapt them to the Gothic style. Some weapons are just like the world textures: to colourful and too vivid in colour. Therefore, we want to change them for the same reason. Regarding the bows and cross-bows, we can only work on the textures because we can’t change any of the models.

Will you make changes in the regions and the landscape?

The world of Gothic 3 is big enough and offers enough room for new game content. Therefore, there will be no new regions. Anyway, for such profound changes in the game we do not have the technical means.

What will happen to the villages and camps after the revolution?

The principle of the revolution will be revised by us, including the whole order of events in the end of the game. At this stage we don‘t want to betray more about this, because it is one of the key components of our concept.

Implementation

How can you make changes in the game without a mod kit?

The modding of Gothic 3 goes a far as solely changing data by hand. There are only a few tools from the community that make the job easier. This is why most of our job consists of including or changing content directly in the files. These include files in the hex format, which construction had to be deciphered first, just like script files with simple text content and graphics for textures.

What is it that you can’t or won’t improve?

For technical problems or improvements we simply don’t have the means (source code) and it isn’t our intention to work on them. The CP Team has solved most of the technical problems, and has achieved with its work the most possible for Gothic 3. Also we dont want to expand the game with side quests. We will not incorporate functions like diving or riding.

Texture modifications

What is meant with texture modifications?

The modification of textures is a part of our project, that has set the goal to revise the colourful and too vivid graphics style of Gothic 3. A great many textures of the Gothic setting will be changed against a darker variant, in order to be able to put more emphasis on the atmosphere of the war and the destruction. Combined with these improvements, textures with a higher resolution will be inserted, to make use of the possibilities that more powerful computers offer, and to improve the overall graphical quality.

What if I do not like the texture modifications?

During setup, it will be possible to exclude the textures from the installation. So, you don’t really need them if you want to play the modified game.

Is it already possible to have a look at these texture modifications?

A first, but in the mean while, outdated version of the new textures is contained within the Quest Package 4. Screenshots of the latest textures you will find in our gallery.

Incorporation of other modifications

What about Quest Package 4?

The Quest Package 4 (or a previous version) will be no prerequirement for the Community Story Project. However, we have the permission to take whatever we need from the contents and make use of it. We will make use of this chance and build in everything that does not go against our concept.

What about other modifications?

Beside the Quest Package we also have the permission to use content of the Content Mod. Other modifications that could fit in our project, will be worked upon when the time is right. In general, we will try to implement all mods that do not collide with our own content.

'Pics'

'The Shadow of the Sun'
During our Holy Crusade, some of our brothers defected from our Lord Innos’ light and doctrine.

They preserved Beliar’s teachings that should have been destroyed with the fortresses and temples of the Dark One.

So, from the very core of our glorious church, new heresy arose and secretly bloomed.

Our former brothers are to blame for the Dark Cult’s ongoing presence in Midland.

Today, our enemies operate in the shadow. Our Inquisition and the iron fist of the paladins are searching for them and fighting them wherever their schemes bear fruit.

All of them must be wiped from the face of this earth.

'The History of the Runes'
Magical runes are widely spread all about Myrtana and its islands and are used by the followers of Innos and Beliar alike. This success is doubtlessly due to the fact that they combine the advantages of magical scrolls and Old Magic: they can be used without too much mental effort and are not destroyed upon use.

But if we say today that runes and scrolls have replaced the Old Magic, we are forgetting the long history of our runes and the fact that they were not always the way we use them now.

In fact, they have had several ancestors. It is known that Grachtnakk, the staff of the orcish Shamans of Khorinis, had a clot of magical ore on its top. As our runes are, too, made of that ore, it is likely that this staff is a primitive version of the same device.

But far more interesting are the direct predecessors of today’s runes: magical stones that did not draw their power from the magical ore. Today, only the teleport-stones are left of these artifacts, although the druid-stones and the ancestral stones of Nordmar seem to be of similar making.


Barthos of Laran

'G3 painting'