Author Topic: Witcher 3  (Read 18502 times)

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Offline karajorma

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Well I had to find a torrent in order to download the game I ****ing own cause I couldn't download it from GOG but I finally managed to install it. Galaxy fortunately recognised it as legitimate so it's just like they had another way to download the game other than HTTP as far as I'm concerned. At which point the game refused to start up. A few minutes poking around the forum suggested it's an issue with Galaxy. Uninstalling Galaxy allowed the game to run. So I was already rather annoyed by the time I started the game.

Fortunately I'd say it was worth the trouble. I'm having a lot of fun with the game, in fact I can't remember an RPG I enjoyed more. Just roaming around the countryside looking for trouble is kinda fun. Although that said, unlike previous Witcher games the sheer openess of the game means that you can very easily run into trouble. After the first village area you are allowed a hell of a lot more freedom and on at least two occasions that meant stumbling into a monster ridiculously higher than my challenge rating. Plus once you get further into the game the sailing option opens up and you can sail around the lake looking for trouble.

Dice poker is out (thank **** and good riddance to that save-scumming inducing rubbish) and has been replaced by Gwent, a collectable card game of the Magic:The Gathering ilk. Quite frankly Gwent is addictive enough that last night I spent 2 hours ignoring the rest of the RPG and going around the map challenging anyone I could find with unique cards. Who'd have thought that Geralt of Rivia would turn out to be a massive nerd? :p

There is a lot less reliance on the 3 schools of fighting in Witcher 3 than the other games. Combat is basically reduced to weak attack / weak attack / dodge / strong attack / set the ****er on fire with igni. But I don't mind that too much, the methods of combat in the first two were nice but somewhat annoying when you noticed that the reason some weak monster weren't dead yet was cause you'd forgotten to switch back to strong attack.

I'm not very keen on the level up system. Basically you get a point to spend on upgrades every level and can get more points by finding places of power). So by level 6 you can have spent 5 point on fast sword and one on Igni or you can distribute them around and be more of a generalist. BUT once you have spent those points you only have a limited number of slots you can put them in. So for instance at by level 10 you might have 16 points or so but you can only activate 6 slots meaning that you pushed to specialise in combat, signs, or alchemy. You can try to be a generalist but you will spend a lot of time on the character screen switching which upgrades you have in your slots. And that's before I mention that in order to activate the second level of power ups you need to have specialised. Let's say you want to upgrade your igni sign, you need to have spent 5 points in just igni to max out level one but also need have spent another point or two in other signs before the level 2 power ups even unlock. But since you probably don't have enough slots you have to specialise what you spend there, you can't just upgrade all your signs by one point.

That said, despite my complaints the level up system hasn't spoiled my enjoyment of the game. It was just that I found it much less open than the choices in the previous games. In general, if you liked the first two games, you'll love this one.
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Offline karajorma

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Seems rather quiet on here, am I the only one playing?


As for the game, I managed to find myself in Novigrad's high class brothel. I immediately looked to see what goods the madam had for sale. She had some cool Gwent cards so I bought them up. Then I went to chat to the girls in the brothel, at which point I noticed I no longer had the coin to hire one of the ladies. So you see it's true, get your kids into collectable card games and they won't have the money for drinking, drugs and whoring. :p
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Beat it on Death March, lvl 35, around 240 quests completed and I can't find the rest, uncovered all the undiscovered locations, running mastercrafted feline armor, crossbow, and steel sword with a mastercrafted Ursine silver sword(that critical damage is too good with superior thunderbolt).
The game says I'm doing up to 3971 DPS with my silver sword when I have full adrenaline and superior thunderbolt running. Feels kinda glass cannon-y.

I found a way to convert coins to xp with the Vivaldi bank, but I'm too paragon to actually exploit it. I'm absolutely loaded with money(around 120 thousand crowns) but there's no real way to get xp anymore, monsters give like 1-2xp and there are no quests left.

And... never actually got hairworks to run at 1600p on my 290X. Had 3 BSODs while I was trying to over-overclock it but I just couldn't get past the 45s when I messed with tessellation and hairworksMSAA in the config file.


I'm still blown away by how good every little quest is, even the hidden treasures had little notes on dead bodies or in chests explaining what happened to the unfortunate owner of that lvl 21 cool armor that I'm just going to sell for extra crowns.

The only thing I didn't really like was how amazing Witcher Gear was compared to everything else. Seriously, lvl 25 Witcher gear out-stats most lvl 30+ relics and other non-Witcher gear, especially the early Feline swords. The bleed chance means you can kill just about anything as bleeds are based on monster max hp and ignore armor.
This leads to Geralt powerspiking at levels where new Witcher gear is availible and basically stays at the same power level in between those upgrades. It makes a lot of epic gear that's even talked up in the narrative basically pointless as your mastercrafted witcher swords will out-stat it.

Like, thanks for that amazing relic named sword that has a lot of emotional value and has been in your family for Generations An craite, but I'm just going to sell it 5 minutes later as my mastercrafted Feline steel sword is better in every way.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline karajorma

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Yeah, I'm finding that to be an issue as well as frequently finding weapons at the end of quests that are basically nothing compared to the stuff I already have. Why is the weapon at the end of a level 20 quest something that I have more powerful weapons than by level 16?

It is a fairly minor issue and it will probably go away when people start modding the game (seriously, when is REDkit coming out?)
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Offline Turambar

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Just reached level 10.  Banged my first sorceress (mostly to piss off Yen, who was pissed at me for having a thing with Triss WHILE I HAD AMNESIA but that's really somewhat minor).  Met Letho, who I let off the hook at the end of Witcher 2, and he's off heading to Kaer Morhen now to lie low. 

Getting the hang of fighting finally, dodging a lot more, watching my enemies more closely, lots of quen and axii, and parrying arrows back at the archers.

My skills are all spread out, 6 points in alchemy, 5 in signs, 4 in swordfighting, but it seems to be working for me ok.  I usually keep a Swallow and a Tawny Owl on my quick access.

How are your games going?
10:55:48   TurambarBlade: i've been selecting my generals based on how much i like their hats
10:55:55   HerraTohtori: me too!
10:56:01   HerraTohtori: :D

 

Offline karajorma

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Letho is in the game?

Wow, did not know that. I killed him in Witcher 2 and I expected that they'd just leave him out of the game. I wonder, if you have a romance with Shani in the first game, does the thing with Triss never happen in the second (and therefore 3rd) game?

I'm level 26, kitted out in superior feline armour (which I'll upgrade to masterwork as soon as I'm high enough level to wear it). I'm highly specialised sticking almost all my points in signs and quick swordfighting (which goes with me being cat school). I've done almost all the side quests so far with only a couple that are level 29 and 30 left before going back to the main plotline. I'm also a gwent playing monster. Played in the tournament and beat the final player by over 50 points in the last round.
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Honestly, levels 26-31 were the worst for me. There aren't enough sidequests left to get that 10000 xp you need for mastercrafted armor if you decide to do a lot of sidequests early. Then it's a grind through main quests until they finally start giving you decent xp, and that only happens nearing the end of the game.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline swashmebuckle

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At level 19, do gwent opponents get better later on? I had to play the Bloody Baron like 10 times to beat him with the crappy early game cards you get but I haven't lost a game since. Really enjoying the game so far.

 

Offline karajorma

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To get a good gwent deck you just have to be persistent about it. You need to challenge everyone you meet to play so that you can get cards off them. For me there seemed to be a bug though and I only started getting cards after gaining entry to Novigrad. Which means I had to then go back and find / challenge everyone all over again.

FrikgFeek, I do tend to agree with you about that. I did a load of the side quests first and since then progress has been really slow cause all the mainline quests give me about 5 XP points each. The game really should up the level of the monsters or something depending on your current level. It's not like I haven't seen level 20 ghouls, etc.

Also, is Bald Mountain important later in the game, cause I'll be ****ed if I can see how to get up there and the entrance is shut. I'm assuming that there is a quest there at some point but if there isn't just tell me and I'll try finding another way up there. Don't tell me how, I'm trying to avoid any help with the game.
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Offline swashmebuckle

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Oops I worded that unclearly, I meant that I got beaten to a pulp by the Bloody Baron in the early going, but ever since I started picking up hero and horn of battle type special cards I have been crushing everyone. Just seemed to be sort of a weird difficulty curve for me where it was moderately challenging before the Bloody Baron, then that one opponent was extremely tough, then everyone since has been a bit of a pushover by comparison.

Downloaded the free DLCs yesterday and am styling with the alternate gwent hero card portraits.

 
It is important, and it's a maingame quest. Don't worry, you'll get to that undiscovered location eventually, it won't have to haunt you forever.

It is technically possible to get up there before that quest, but it involves a lot of glitching and rolling, unless you want to scar your immersion forever I wouldn't recommend it.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline karajorma

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I should have mentioned it earlier but the scene with Geralt, Eskel, and Lambert drinking together is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in a computer game. I actually cried with laughter when they use the megascope.
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Offline Mr. Vega

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Letho is in the game?

Wow, did not know that. I killed him in Witcher 2 and I expected that they'd just leave him out of the game. I wonder, if you have a romance with Shani in the first game, does the thing with Triss never happen in the second (and therefore 3rd) game?

I'm level 26, kitted out in superior feline armour (which I'll upgrade to masterwork as soon as I'm high enough level to wear it). I'm highly specialised sticking almost all my points in signs and quick swordfighting (which goes with me being cat school). I've done almost all the side quests so far with only a couple that are level 29 and 30 left before going back to the main plotline. I'm also a gwent playing monster. Played in the tournament and beat the final player by over 50 points in the last round.
You're always with Triss at the start of Assassins of Kings.
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking.
-John Maynard Keynes

  

Offline karajorma

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Finally finished it. Probably the best RPG I've ever played. Definitely the best one of the series.

Spoiler:
I loved that stupid, in-character role-playing stuff I choose to do like refusing the emperor's coin and snowball fighting with Ciri made a difference in the end
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Offline Turambar

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Helping Dandelion open up his Cabaret, so he'll stay out of trouble while I'm off looking for Ciri some more.

He'll probably still get into trouble.

Before I head out to Skellige, I'll track down my Enhanced Cat School Gear, so I can look properly cool.
10:55:48   TurambarBlade: i've been selecting my generals based on how much i like their hats
10:55:55   HerraTohtori: me too!
10:56:01   HerraTohtori: :D

 

Offline Turambar

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Just hit level 23.  Been to 3 islands on Skellige, and still no Ciri to be found.  To be fair, she can jump through time and space and even end up in different realities, so it's to be expected.

In the books, she has been almost-raped like 6 times.  Good thing Geralt taught her how to be a badass when she was little.
10:55:48   TurambarBlade: i've been selecting my generals based on how much i like their hats
10:55:55   HerraTohtori: me too!
10:56:01   HerraTohtori: :D

 

Offline karajorma

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Are the English versions of the books any good? I've heard mixed reviews.
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Offline Turambar

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There are even more swings in quality when it comes to the fan-translated versions of the last 2 books, and sword of destiny.

My biggest gripe is how they use Witcher 2 concept art as cover art and it has nothing to do with what's going on in the book at all, but I'm just reading it because I want to know what happened to these characters.

10:55:48   TurambarBlade: i've been selecting my generals based on how much i like their hats
10:55:55   HerraTohtori: me too!
10:56:01   HerraTohtori: :D

 
Letho is in the game?

Wow, did not know that. I killed him in Witcher 2 and I expected that they'd just leave him out of the game. I wonder, if you have a romance with Shani in the first game, does the thing with Triss never happen in the second (and therefore 3rd) game?

Spoiler:
It does happen, but if you developed something with Shani, Shani's biography in your journal mentions that the doom scenario that Geralt mentions during the romance (Basically, a Witcher's lifestyle is ill-suited for settling down) happens. As such they break up and Geralt finds solace with Triss.

 

Offline Turambar

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Letho is in the game?

Wow, did not know that. I killed him in Witcher 2 and I expected that they'd just leave him out of the game. I wonder, if you have a romance with Shani in the first game, does the thing with Triss never happen in the second (and therefore 3rd) game?

Spoiler:
It does happen, but if you developed something with Shani, Shani's biography in your journal mentions that the doom scenario that Geralt mentions during the romance (Basically, a Witcher's lifestyle is ill-suited for settling down) happens. As such they break up and Geralt finds solace with Triss.


Well, we can't blame all of Geralt and Yennefer's problems on Yennefer...
10:55:48   TurambarBlade: i've been selecting my generals based on how much i like their hats
10:55:55   HerraTohtori: me too!
10:56:01   HerraTohtori: :D