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Downloading the Game from Steam/GOG

To create Gothic modifications, you need the original version of the game. Gothic is available on two digital distribution platforms: Steam and GOG.

Which Version?​

Daedalus modding is possible for two games: Gothic I and Gothic II: Night of the Raven. Both use the ZenGin engine and share a very similar scripting system - the differences between them are small.

In this wiki, we focus on Gothic II: Night of the Raven - it offers a slightly more developed version of the engine, has the largest modding community support, and contains everything that Gothic I has.

tip

Choose Gothic II: Gold Edition - it includes the base game and the Night of the Raven expansion in one package.

Steam​

  1. Open the Gothic II: Gold Edition page on Steam
  2. Purchase and install the game
  3. Default installation path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gothic II

GOG​

  1. Open the Gothic II: Gold Edition page on GOG
  2. Purchase and install the game using GOG Galaxy or the offline installer
  3. Default installation path: C:\GOG Games\Gothic II Gold
tip

The GOG version is usually a better choice for modding - it has no DRM and is closer to the original game version.

Directory Structure​

After installation, the game directory should look roughly like this:

Gothic II/
├── System/             ← EXE files, DLLs, settings
│   ├── Gothic2.exe         ← main game executable
│   ├── Autorun/            ← Union plugins (DLLs)
│   └── ...
├── Data/               ← game data (models, textures, worlds)
│   ├── Meshes.vdf
│   ├── Textures.vdf
│   ├── Worlds.vdf
│   └── ...
├── _work/
│   └── Data/
│       ├── Scripts/    ← Daedalus scripts (we work here!)
│       │   ├── Content/
│       │   └── System/
│       ├── Worlds/     ← world files (.zen)
│       └── ...
└── Saves/              ← save files

The most important directory for a modder is _work/Data/Scripts/ - this is where the Daedalus scripts we'll be editing are located.

Verifying Installation​

Before starting work, make sure that:

  1. The game launches - start the game and check that it runs correctly
  2. You have access to scripts - check that the _work/Data/Scripts/Content/ directory exists and contains .d and .src files
  3. Gothic.src exists - check that the file _work/Data/Scripts/Content/Gothic.src is present
info

If the _work/Data/Scripts/ directory is empty or doesn't exist, you may need to extract scripts from .vdf files using Gothic VDF Tool or GothicStarter.

Next Step​

After installing the game, proceed to installing Visual Studio Code - the editor we'll use to write scripts.