Mordrag in the Old Camp can guide you to the New Camp once you get a quest from Thorus to get rid of him. As far as ore goes you should never trade away ore during normal trading so that you always have as much ore as possible available for ore-only purchases. Investing in the hunting skills will cost you only a few LPs and will provide you with an unending supply of trophies from the creatures you kill. Once I invested in hunting skills I had enough trade goods to be able to gobble up every trader's ore reserve which left me with more than enough ore for ore-only purchases.
Risen becomes significantly more challenging in later chapters (I started playing on Medium--the default--but finally turned it down to Easy because I was dying too often for my liking). The combat also becomes harder because more powerful enemies can use power attacks that break your block. Merchants in Risen pull as much gold as they need out of thin air (as in Gothic II) so the ore preservation issue is no more, but since training costs gold as well as LPs (as in Gothic 3) money is still a serious concern until at least Chapter 2.

Risen feels like a clone of G3. That is, it has the same weaknesses, too. I find it hard to really enjoy the game, since I could just play G3 through once more if I wanted.
They should really take hints from other games, not just do the same old thing over and over again.
Mass Effect: dialogue choices
Elder Scrolls: amount of armor parts and other items

Not just do the same thing over and over?
Elder Scrolls does just that, but you like those games.
I like the Gothic Series, even Gothic 3, what I can't stand is Bethesda and their crappy Engine that crashes all the time, and their half-arsed writing and programming that
leaves it up to the community to make the game what it should've been in the first place.
Yea I play Oblivion, but only after installing a ton of mods that removes that stupid Mob Leveling system and adds a ton more different Mobs and actually makes different places in Oblivion Actually Dangerous to go to until you gain a few levels.
I like Risen, and I like the Gothic Series, but I'm also an old school CRPG fan from way back with Bard's Tale 1, 2, and 3, Might and Magic 1 and 2, Dungeon Master on Atari 1040STE
Those games had consequences if you went into an area that was a higher level than you were, just like the Gothic Series, but Oblivion? That's just some dopey Hand-Holding attempt at an RPG on Super-Easy Mode.