i just started playing gothic 2 and this is the most nooby question but i must ask. how do you fight people? like i click attack and it does nothing but when i moe forward i swing my sword. kinda confused.

Attacking is done by holding down the action button (default Ctrl or LMB), then pressing either forward, left, or right (for different swings). Blocking is done by pressing the action button and down.

Go into the options and disable the classic controls option (it's labelled "Use Gothic 1 controls" or something like that). This will replace the unusual control scheme with a standard one where you only need to push a single key to get the desired result.