Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos

This is a total conversion mod that was released fairly recently. It's an absolutely amazing experience and I highly recommend playing it. It's the Gothic 3 we wanted but never got. It's available with Polish voice acting (which is incredible although I don't speak Polish) or with German TTS. I prefer the former. By now there is also Russian dubbing.

Unlike vanilla Gothic II, this mod can be installed and run on Steam without any hassle which is why played it there. The developers really did a great job on this. If you want to add further mods, there is only little work involved as details below. I assume, it is necessary to own Gothic II on Steam for this to work but I was not able to test this because I had it already.

Manual Instructions

Warning

This mod does not support Ninja! If you install it, it will not launch. This means that many of the recommended functional mods listed in this blog post won't work because they depend on Ninja. Any Union plugin will work just fine – provided you installed Union, of course.

Generic Launcher (e.g. Lutris)

1. Install base game (download from GOG)
2. Install Voiceover (I like the Polish original, can be downloaded from GOG)
3. (Optional) Install D3D11 Renderer (with DLL overrides)
4. (Optional) Install Union (only needed for Union plugins)
5. (Optional) Install Union Plugins you like

Steam

1. Add the mod to your Steam library.
2. (Optional) Add the Polish dubs as well.
3. (Optional) Download the latest release of the DX11 renderer, unzip it and move it inside the system folder. This is located at $STEAM_FOLDER/steamapps/common/TheChroniclesOfMyrtana/system/
4. Add this to the launch options: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n,b" %command%

This will let you play the vanilla mod without much hassle. If you want to add some QoL-mods, you need to perform a few additional steps:

1. Download Union files here, unzip the archive and move the files inside to the appropriate locations (i.e. the system or Data directories of the game).
2. Find your desired mods (see here for a small selection), download them and copy them into the Data folder.

Lutris Install Script

description: "Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos"
game_slug: chronicles-of-myrtana-archolos
gogslug: chronicles-of-myrtana-archolos
installer_slug: chronicles-of-myrtana-archolos
name: "Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos"
slug: chronicles-of-myrtana-archolos-gog
gogid: 1565201708
version: GOG
year: 2021
notes:
  "Hassle free installer of Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos. Click \"Continue\" button in\
  \ any pop-up during the installation. Please be patient, some steps take time to\
  \ execute. The mod executable must be downloaded manually and provided to the installer at \
  \ install time."
runner: wine
script:
  files:
    - setup: N/A:Select the GOG game setup file
    - voiceover: N/A:Select GOG voiceover executable
    - union:
        filename: Union.exe
        url: https://www.worldofgothic.de/download.php?id=1625
    - gd3d11: https://github.com/kirides/GD3D11/releases/download/v17.9.7/GD3D11-v17.9.7.zip
  variables:
    gamedatapath: drive_c/GOG Games/The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos/Data
    gamepath: drive_c/GOG Games/The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos
    gamesystempath: drive_c/GOG Games/The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos/system
  system:
    env:
      UNIONPATH: $GAMEDIR/drive_c/ProgramData/Union/System/
  game:
    arch: win32
    exe: $gamesystempath/Gothic2.exe
    prefix: $GAMEDIR
  wine:
    overrides:
      ddraw: n,b
      dinput: n,b
      dsound: b,n
  installer:
    - task:
        arch: win32
        description: Creating 32-bit Wine prefix
        install_gecko: false
        install_mono: false
        name: create_prefix
        prefix: $GAMEDIR
    - task:
        app: win7
        arch: win32
        description: "winetricks: win7"
        name: winetricks
        prefix: $GAMEDIR
    - task:
        arch: win32
        args: /SP- /SUPRESSMSGBOXES /LOG /SILENT
        description: Installing Game
        executable: setup
        name: wineexec
        prefix: $GAMEDIR
    - task:
        app: dotnet48 vcrun2022 dxvk
        arch: win32
        description: Install wine dependencies. This will take some time.
        name: winetricks
    - execute:
        command: mkdir -p $UNIONPATH
    - execute:
        command: printf "\r\nC:\GOG Games\The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos\\\\\\r\n" > $UNIONPATH/history_d.cs
    - execute:
        command: echo "ENG" > $UNIONPATH/Language.cs
    - task:
        args: /S /D"C:\GOG Games\The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos"
        arch: win32
        description: Install Union patch
        executable: union
        name: wineexec
        prefix: $GAMEDIR
        working_dir: $GAMEDIR
    - task:
        arch: win32
        args: /SP- /SUPRESSMSGBOXES /LOG /SILENT
        description: Install Polish voiceover
        executable: voiceover
        name: wineexec
        prefix: $GAMEDIR
        working_dir: $GAMEDIR
    - extract:
        dst: $GAMEDIR/$gamesystempath
        file: gd3d11
    - write_config:
        data:
          Display:
            Brightness: 1.0
            Rain: 1
            RainEffects: 1
            TextureQuality: 16384
            UIScale: 1.0
            VSync: 1
          FontRendering:
            Enable: 1
          General:
            AllowNormalmaps: 1
            AnimateStaticVobs: 1
            DrawWorldSectionIntersections: 1
            EnableDebugLog: 0
            EnableGodRays: 1
            EnableInactiveFpsLock: 1
            FpsLimit: 60
            SunLightStrength: 1.5
          HBAO:
            Bias: 0.5
            BlurSharpness: 4.0
            EnableBlur: 1
            Enabled: 0
            PowerExponent: 3.0
            Radius: 1.0
            SsaoBlurRadius: 1
            SsaoStepCount: 0
          SMAA:
            Enabled: 1
            SharpenFactor: 0.2
          Shadows:
            EnableDynamicLighting: 1
            EnableShadows: 1
            EnableSoftShadows: 1
            PointlightShadows: 2
            ShadowAOStrength: 0.5
            ShadowMapSize: 2048
            ShadowStrength: 0.4
            SmoothCameraUpdate: 1
            WorldAOStrength: 0.5
            WorldShadowRangeScale: 8.0
        description: Updating GD3D11 config
        file: $GAMEDIR/$gamesystempath/GD3D11/UserSettings.ini