I am in what I think is the final area of the game and I'm encountering a problem that I think is one of the game's numerous script errors. I have taken out 3 of the undead orc priests and I have come to a room where I fought one of Cor Kalom's templars.

Near this room is another room with holes in the floor where spikes come up when I hit a switch on the wall with my crossbow. After I hit that switch (I trigger it from outside the room because the doors lock right before the spikes shoot out), a wall in the spike room comes down and a little piece of the wall slides away to reveal another switch. Shooting this switch doesn't do anything in my game.

I have looked up some guides and learned that hitting this switch is supposed to open a gate to another room nearby, but this doesn't happen.

So my question is this: does anybody know a way around this problem? Perhaps a console command to trigger the event that switch is supposed to trigger? I'm thinking it must be one of those ztrigger commands, but I don't know what the command would be.

wild guess, it's a long time sinve i've last played gothic 1:

i think there is some safe spot in that room from where you can hit the first switch(watch the floor for some place where no holes for the spikes are). when the spikes are out you can just walk through them to the second switch.

There is a place earlier in the area where you have to fall into some spikes and then activate a switch on a sarcophagus that seems to match what you're describing. However, that's not the trouble I'm having.

There's a later room with a floor with holes in it and a switch high up on the wall that you have to trigger by shooting it with a crossbow or bow. When you shoot that switch, it makes spikes shoot out of the ground and then after the spikes, it makes a wall come down and reveal another switch inside a little recess in the wall. I already am able to survive to this part.

What I'm supposed to do next is shoot the second switch, which, from what I have been able to tell, is supposed to open a gate that will let me continue on further. But this switch isn't working. I shoot it and it makes a click, but nothing is triggered. That's the trouble I'm encountering.

I think this is a problem of the graphics mod, try saving, running the normal executable, shoot the switch, and if it does open, move past the gate, save, and continue with the graphic mod executable.
It is possible that I am mistaken, but there is such a problem with one of the gate switches in the Sleeper's Temple.

JMich, I tried what you suggested, but it didn't work. I guess something just broke the script attached to the switch. Thanks for the suggestion, however.

Kuchenschlachter, the event triggers you supplied did the trick. Many, many thanks! This is my second time trying to play through the game from the beginning and I was afraid this attempt was going to be thwarted too. (The first time, I built my character incorrectly and didn't do enough Chapter 1 quests to boost my experience. I wasn't strong enough to kill the orcs in Chapter 3.)