As the game starts, you stand accused! And that’s all you know…
The Trial allows you to assemble a party of characters under your command. They can be instructed to join you, and sent on various offensive and defensive missions.
Each group of troops you meet has a leader. Leaders are recognisable by a) fancy armour and b) being the only characters with names above their heads.
Commands given to these leaders are automatically passed to their men. The other characters can be spoken to, but have nothing to say. Keep these leaders alive, or you’ll have no way of issuing fresh orders.
In general, people and things in The Trial do not have little labels floating above them. The world is rendered with immense integrity by the Gothic engine. If it looks like a sword, it is a sword, no label required. The leaders under your command are the only exceptions.
To give you a better view of your troops and the enemy, the camera can be pulled much further back than in Gothic.
Extract the files to your ‘Gothic’ folder. To play, you will need the Mod-Player-Kit, available here: www.worldofgothic.de/dl/index.php?go=downloads&release_id=34
Start up GothicStarter (in your ‘System’ folder), choose The Trial from the list, and hit Start Gothic. The other options are only used in development.
Once you’ve installed this or any other Gothic mod, you need to start Gothic itself from the GothicStarter as well.
If you order a Trial character to follow you, they tend to head for you in a straight line. They can get stuck on any tricky scenery in the way, and being on opposite sides of a large drop is just asking for trouble. Bear this in mind when you give this order.
Characters in combat can focus on their targets to the exclusion of all else. If the target moves out of sight, this can lead to the character ‘freezing’. The solution is to have someone else deal with the target, or just move well away, and let the AI reset the characters to whatever location you told them you’d meet them in.
Occasional freezes and access violations emerged during testing, which I haven’t been able to eliminate. Sorry. Think of it as Khorinis roulette.
The Gothic engine was not designed to tell two stories at once, as The Trial requires. You may therefore come across the odd problem on transition between the courtroom and flashback sequences. Again, sorry. This is the price you pay for being at the cutting edge of interactive drama.
All the action takes place in the narrow canyon beyond the wooden bridge by the ruined tower, and in the area in which you start. The way I’ve limited the player’s movement to this area occasionally causes problems. Stay where you’re supposed to and everything will be fine.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Alistair Thomas 23/2/03
Thanks to:
Piranha Bytes, especially Nico, for the usual reasons,
YACC and Althais for the new armour textures,
Felix Horn and Thomas Brammertz for testing.