My opinion on mods distribution in general

I don't approve the idea of releasing modifications on the game stores. I think, it is unfair towards other good mods, especially those, which were created years ago. Most of their respective teams either do not exist anymore, or simply don't have enough time to handle game-store releases with all its bureaucracy and higher quality requirements.

There are well-known fan-sites for popular series, which host modifications and spread news on this topic. So everyone, who are interested in mods, can find them with ease. In case of Gothic series we have old good World of Gothic, which provides a lot of interesting mods, both old and new. And for less popular games there are mod-aggregation websites like moddb.

Hosting mods on game stores creates false impression, that these mods are much better than others, while in fact, it is not often the case.

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About The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos release

I am very impressed with the amount of work, commitment and attention to details, which developers put into this project. As far as I know, it is the first Gothic mod on such scale since timeless classic Diccuric.

I am glad, that The Chronicles of Myrtana team has had enough patience, endurance and motivation to overcome all challenges along the way and complete their modification for all of us to enjoy.

I like the idea behind the plot, which is dark and realistic. I hope, that developers have kept their promises and actually implemented branching quest-lines, choices-and-consequences pattern and some elements of immersive simulation.

It will be interesting to check, how their tool for making NPC's appearances unique, fulfilled its goal in practice. And how they handled shared dialogue lines, identified by voice numbers, recording the voice-over.

I am looking forward to play The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos and explore the new island in one of my favorite settings. Thanks a lot to the mod-team for creating this project. ;)

It is possible that Gothic 2 was just required to acquire it, and the mod is standalone in reality.

It is rather odd they are not promoting a Gothic 2 purchase to get the mod for free, especially as there are surely many who cannot take advantage of the free mod because they don't own Gothic 2.

Thanks!

I just want to second what Swedrami said about Gothic Reloaded Mod (500+ wishlist votes) and Dzieje Khorinis (History of Khorinis) (375 wishlist votes), if there's a way to bring them here.

You're not wrong about creating false impressions, but it does make the mods very easy to use and removes a barrier to entry that stops many players who would otherwise enjoy using mods.

This is far from the first time that GOG has done this, with the first example I can think of being Swords of Xeen, the 1995 Might and Magic fan mod (from Might and Magic 6-pack), and over the years there's been plenty more, like Gothic 3's community patch, Deus Ex Revision, and Caster of Magic (though Swords of Xeen was made official-ish, and Caster of Magic is now official.).

I would hope that GOG allows more mod creators to host TCs to major overhaul compendiums if the modders wish to do it. Would love to see Shadows of the Metal Age, the Circle of Eight modpack, or Bloodlines' unofficial patch show up on GOG. It's just convenient for people who don't want to get deep into every mod community for each game they play but still want a great experience.

When a game is designed to have modifications, it is easy to install and play mods anyway. And both Gothic 1 and 2 have official mod support.

There is no barrier to either unpack mod archive to a dedicated sub-directory, or run a mod-manager, which automatically downloads and installs mods.

For a long time Gothic mods have been set up by NSIS, which is more powerful and user-friendly installation tool, than GOG installers ever were.

As you can see on The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos sub-forum and in some reviews, there are already issues with language-packs and voice-over:
https://www.gog.com/forum/the_chronicles_of_myrtana_archolos
https://www.gog.com/game/the_chronicles_of_myrtana_archolos

They could have been avoided, installing mod manually. Let's hope, it will be fixed soon.)
It's never too late to comment on the issue.) Deus Ex is a good example: GMDX is often recommended by community instead of Revision.

Community patches are not mods, they are patches. Sure, they are both being created by fan-community, but they have different purposes.

Mods are either separate games ( so called "total conversions" ), or expansions to the main game ( like addons ). They are creative projects, a form of art.

Patches are intended to fix bugs and sometimes, balance. Well-made patches do not modify the original game, they only fix.
In this case their choice is very limited. And there is no guaranty, that actual experience will be great.)

In addition, many games have mod-recommendations threads on their sub-forums.

Cool.

So if I install the English version it would not include Polish voice overs by default (only with a workaround), very odd decision in my opinion. It's better to hear some voice even if you can't understand each and every word that nothing (I can understand some words at least).

Absolutely and wholeheartly agree. GOG needs a proper mod archive. Gothic has a ton of great mods, but Doom (holy shit those mods for that game), Morrowind, Freespace 2, Diablo, Total Annihilation, Homeworld and Mount and Blade just to name a few have lots of phenomenal mods as well. It almost feels like that half the modders are at least as good as the devs themselves. A shame that modders aren't that appreciated on here. Imagine GOG storing mods! What a huge buzz that would create.

Most people never had attempted to play mods as well and it would ruin their perception of gaming completely if they ever play a phenomenal mod like Escalation (the precursor of Escalation inspired Supreme Commander) or Blue Planet. Imagine the later being on here, holy shit!

That's great! Thanks, a lot The Chronicles Of Myrtana Team and GOG!

Will definitely give this a playthrough. :)

GOG, we need the Polish language pack please, and thank you:).

ROFL

Anyway it's strange, indeed. When you claim it, GOG page says 1 DLC added to Gothic 2, as happens with other DLC's but then you see the separated entry on the library.

Oh and thank you very much Team Myrtana & GOG! :D

I have to say I like it that way. It has sometimes been quite a hassle to set up Gothic II mods in the past, so such a standalone installer is almost luxury to me.

Very nice, thank you GOG!