[Gothos]

Apt, on 09 June 2015 - 03:55 PM, said:

Oh no doubt I have pretty much scoured all of Vellen and most of Novigrad for anything of value at this point.

I just haven't seen any upgrade options in the game. I have noticed that to craft some armors and weapons it asks for older weapons but I sell anything as soon as it becomes obsolete. Except for a pair of back-up swords.

Eeek.

Well, you can re-make the basic versions to use for that. Sets for the bear/cat/griffon schools have 4 levels.

[Traveller]

I read something pretty early on that suggested hanging on to any witcher gear to use as upgrade components.

My problem at the moment is finding schematics for weapons that are levels way higher than I am, to be made by blacksmiths that I haven't found yet.

Also I've been bumping into creatures that I can't make a dent in, even after a prolonged amount of fighting. I guess I need to progress the main story some more.

[Gothos]

OK, finished. I must say....... such a sweet ending for me. Going to do a different playthrough though with some different choices perhaps, as I'm not entirely satisfied with

Spoiler

Nilfgaard overrunning the north completely. Think I should do a new playthrough that attempts to save the North. I wonder what does Henselt being alive change. And if there's a way to make Radowid not batshit insane (killing him felt good tbh. Ah well.

To sum up, in my gamestate Emhyr won the war completely, Radowid is dead, Temeria is a vassal of Nilfgaard, Emhyr dealt with the traitors back home ruthlessly... Cerys lead Skellige to a propserous, if less ferocious, future.
Geralt retired to the country with Yennefer and they lived happily ever after or some such. Quietly and without drama. Which is something I've always hoped for them to become true when I was reading the books. Ciri survives (always maybe?) and goes on the road as a witcher herself. I'd love some more "what happened to" for other chars like Zoltan and Dandellion... ah well.

Absolutely spectacular game. Finished lvl 35. I saw some gear on vendors that requires lvl 46 so I'm waiting for DLC with that gamestate as well as any more I will do.
Feeling kinda empty and... a bit heartbroken. I don't want this story to be finished just yet

[Traveller]

For a trainee Witcher, Ciri really seems to trip over stuff a lot.

Nearly every cut-scene so far has her falling over something.

[Tapper]

Gothos, on 09 June 2015 - 10:31 PM, said:

OK, finished. I must say....... such a sweet ending for me. Going to do a different playthrough though with some different choices perhaps, as I'm not entirely satisfied with

Spoiler

Nilfgaard overrunning the north completely. Think I should do a new playthrough that attempts to save the North. I wonder what does Henselt being alive change. And if there's a way to make Radowid not batshit insane (killing him felt good tbh. Ah well.

To sum up, in my gamestate Emhyr won the war completely, Radowid is dead, Temeria is a vassal of Nilfgaard, Emhyr dealt with the traitors back home ruthlessly... Cerys lead Skellige to a propserous, if less ferocious, future.
Geralt retired to the country with Yennefer and they lived happily ever after or some such. Quietly and without drama. Which is something I've always hoped for them to become true when I was reading the books. Ciri survives (always maybe?) and goes on the road as a witcher herself. I'd love some more "what happened to" for other chars like Zoltan and Dandellion... ah well.

Absolutely spectacular game. Finished lvl 35. I saw some gear on vendors that requires lvl 46 so I'm waiting for DLC with that gamestate as well as any more I will do.
Feeling kinda empty and... a bit heartbroken. I don't want this story to be finished just yet

Apparently, the game goes all the way up to lvl 70 already. No clue how to get there, though.

Also, after dabbling around with Blood and Broken Bones difficulty, I restarted in Death March this weekend, and it is much more rewarding. The Royal Griffin finally became a royal pain in the arse, and I am forced to Quen, oil and potion for fights. The talent tree will probably look completely different from the 'all-red' B&BB build.

[Traveller]

Hm, got a bit dizzy playing this last night. Don't know if it's me or the game.

But walking round and round up and down the steps in a fort was seriously giving me a headache; I even jumped off a low balcony to save yet another whirly trip down, but it killed me, so I turned it off.

Even the camera movement outside was making me wince a bit, weird.

[Avatar]

I just started this week, played for some hours. Great game already. I love the freedom, exploring feels very rewarding. Somehow it has the feel of the first Witcher game for me. And although I also loved the second one (even more), this is a good thing.

[Mentalist]

Played about 4 hours yesterday. Impressions on systems from messing around the starter area:

Technical: running on mostly Low, some Medium, but high-res, playing @ FPS 16, cutscenes drop to 10. CPU tends to overheat and throttle occasionally. Further tinkering needed, may invest in a few more fans on the weekend.

"Open-world": lol, I know i'm still in training area and all, but, "Approaching edge of the world. Here there be dragons. Turn back or perish!" quickly goes from cute to annoying.

"Points of interest" okay idea, but of the 8 I visited so far, I had 2. "Guarded treasures", 1 "trap and treasure", 1 place of power (helloo, first skill point!), 1 "abandoned village" (which I liked), and THREE "bandit camps". Ugh. Me not like those stats.

More systems: combat is fine. I still roll away more than I dodge. (Where the F is my Vran armour and uber-swords, CDPRED??!!). It would. appear they've made Yrden cover wider area, meaning it may actually be useful now (i've always been and Aard and Igni type of player, personally)

Interface: I upgraded to 1.06, and ALL buttons are customizable! For the "locked" set, there's now an option to "unlock", so that they can be rebound. This. Is. A. Good. Thing.

Alchemy: don't like how each potion/oil now requires specific alcohol. + plants instead of one's containing "elements" fromm before. It's more rigid, which isn't a good thing.

Crafting seems to involve MORE steps then before. Double ugh.

Investigating mechanics ("Plauing with Fire")- neat. May get tiring, depending on how well (or not) it'ss all written, but generally I like it.

Intro horse race: after remapping. Some keys, works fine.

Swimming: animations look pretty poor. Best way to do 3-D swimming is breast stroke (see Soul Reaver, Darksiders II). Haven't tried diving yet.

Gwent: seems complicated, I blundered through the intro game. Too early. To judge still.

Plot: really not much to say yet. I'm messing around and exploring. Almost @ Lvl 2, then gonna do the Noonwraith contract, it seems to involve much more research this time.

-I don't like that Glossary's been reduced to "Bestiarry" and "characters"- I liked the "general interest" topics in the lore!

Almost forgot, the skills system: it looks more flexible and robust. Yet to see how that'll work in practice.

Map of Velen certainly looks huge. I expect this game will take me ages to play. So far my impressions are "good". Will it surpass 1 and 2- still too early to say.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 14 July 2015 - 02:11 PM

[Aptorian]

About Alchemy and crafting. Everything is an unlockable now. First time you craft something you never need to craft it again. It gets replenished every time you meditate.

Regarding gwent, never pass up a game and always choose cards as a reward for a quest.

Still waiting for Patch 1.07 and hopefully some useful XP mod before I continue playing the game.

This post has been edited by Apt: 14 July 2015 - 02:38 PM

[Dadding]

Finally got my computer back and I'm 65 hours into the game. I just made it to Skellige, and still have some stuff to do in Novigrad. It's hard to compare it to Witcher 2, because it was my baby and I played through the whole thing 5 or 6 times, but its safe to say that the Witcher 3 is a better game in almost every way.

The quests are terrific. My favourite quest so-far involved hunting for a certain serial killer, and while it's a secondary quest, there's as much thought put into it as any other quest in the game. Sure there's still a bit of fetching in quests, but for the most part, you know who you're fetching for, and why you're fetching. I've had some quests where I just really wanted to figure out how they would end, or how my actions would come back to haunt me later on. Obviously, the game does a great job of carrying out your decisions.

Spoiler

I loved the part where that random guy would keep coming up to you and duel you to defend his woman's honour

I love the new alchemy system. I'm a hoarder, so I would always keep potions for when I would "really need them". I don't run into that problem anymore, because I have several stacks of alcohol and I know they'll replenish. So I find myself in a more Witcher-like mindset, actually drinking the requisite potions and using bombs and blade oils. On that note, bombs are amazing, and my next play-through is definitely going to be a bomb-centered one. That being said, I like the limited number of items between meditations too, because it forces you to vary up your attacks and not just spam one bomb, or keep drinking swallow.

There was a Forbes article that talked about how crafting was useless, and I disagree while agreeing at the same time. Witcher gear is ridiculously OP and useful, so crafting that is a must. Beyond that though, there's not much to craft in terms of weapons and armour. Crafting crossbow bolts, and runes still pays off though. Exploding bolts all the way.

I love that you can have two different versions of each sign. The alternate Igni, Yrden, and Quen are all extremely useful and allow for some much needed variation. The same thing can be said about being able to dodge on top of rolling. I rarely roll anymore (though I did it compulsively at the beginning to harken back to the previous game) and find dodge is much more useful. But rolling is nice against big powerful enemies like golems and certain contract monsters.

Gwent is amazing, and much better than the Poker-Dice minigame from the first two. I think a comment from an innkeeper on Skellige sums it up: "I'm always in the mood for Gwent". Though your deck gets a bit OP as the game progresses, I haven't lost a game since Velen. I'm glad the clunky mechanics of arm wrestling don't make a reappearance, and I really like the new fisticuff mechanics. It's more like a real fight, and less like a QTE. And fist fighting a guy way outside your level is more of a challenge, though possible if you can manage to counter/parry him effectively - incidentally I like that mechanic a lot more than the previous game. And redirecting arrows is actually useful now!

I could go on for ages, the game is simply put, a lot of fun. The pseudo-open world bothered me a bit in White Orchard, though I haven't hit the edge of the world since, and I still have hundreds of points of interest to explore. I love the bestiary actually being useful, I love that I could hop on a boat and sail down the Pontar and just stare at the beautiful landscape, and most of all I love that it references the books and previous games so much. Two events really come to mind:

Spoiler

The bookstore in Novigrad where you receive a letter from 'A' just left me sitting there with my mouth open.
When Geralt gets Dudu to transform into Ciri and he sees her grown up for the first time I shed a tear, just thinking about the things they've been through, and how long it's been, and the relationship the two of them had and was ripped away.

I think Erikson puts it well in TTH: "The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief"

This post has been edited by Dadding: 14 July 2015 - 02:49 PM

[Mentalist]

Impressions on White Orchard, Part II:

Technical: downgraded graphics to Low, turned off all post-processing, and turned down the resolution to the next full-screen. Now my game looks like TW1 on max settings (which isn't exactly a bad thing), and I gett steady 25-20 FPS. Only thing that's cringe-worthy is how the enemy decals go all blood-soaked right after they die, it's a bit excessive and bland at the same time.

Having played another 6h untill about 2:30 AM on a work night, I can certainly admit the game is addicting.

More thoughts on Combat: Axii rules now. They've nerfed Aard (again!) to be only useful against weak sword-and-no-armour foes. For guys with shields, Axii is a must have now.

(incidentally, the "Axii as Jedi Mind Trick in convos animation SUCKS!!! I liked the subtle TW2 gesture)

What else? Level design. Climbing the foresty mountains to circumvent that gorge with a locked-gate bridge feels awesome.

Got the first Viper set. Need to craft it.

Thankfully, swimming underwater DOES use breast stroke animation. still feel that part of controls is a bit finicky. Further remapping may be in order.

Economy: haven't spent much time on this, but money seems to be a problem. (big part of this is probably b/c I decided to keep looting every inhabited house I see to a bare minimum). Also b/c I'm even more reluctant than usual to sell any alchemy components.

There are lots of small things that give small amounts of Exp. I'm wondering how those stack up with main story quests in terms of XP, b/c so far i'm through most "optional" White Orchard content, but only Lvl 2 with like 100 smth Exp. I think I have smth like 4 skill points to invest right now, though, thanks to all those wonderful Places of Power, (it took them 3 games, but they finally made them useful, )

I'm going to try to take a break from the game today, to give my sleeping pattern a chance to recover. Game feels pretty great so far though. Not sure how my OCD play-style will reconcile the open world with the urgency of the plot once the game picks up, though. I can excuse myself in White Orchard, b/c I'm trying to throughly familiarize myself with the game's mechanics. Once I get to Velen I'll probably turn off the question marks on the mini-map and just wander aimlessly.

[Mentalist]

Killed the griffin. I was spectacularly poor at fighting it, but nevertheless, managed it in one go. I dread to think if I was playing on an actual high difficulty.

Just about wrapped White orchard, but now I discovered the riverbed may be littered with chests full of recipes. Now I gotta make sure to skim all the water before leaving.


Crafted the Viper swords + the "military leather armour" which was an upgrade from my existing one.

Got loads of skill points (Lvl 4), but really ionno what to do with them, as all the attack skills seem pretty bland.

Looking at the number of beasties I can make recipes out of makes me happy, that means a huge variety of things to hunt and murder.

tech-wise, game running nicely, logged my CPU temp- close to overheating, but within safe parameters, no throttling. will look into those fans on Sat.

Once I'm done checking the river, bring on Vyzima!

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 July 2015 - 06:07 AM

[Morgoth]

I remember stepping out of White Orchard and being more than a little overwhelmed by the massive map.

[Tapper]

Skill-wise, if you play Blood & Broken Bones or Death March, Sun and Stars is a must-get - it is a must-skip if you play on the lower two options, though.

The Cat-school white talent is decent early game as all armor is light up until lvl 12 or so.

Axii advanced for dialogue options (and stun), and for fighting all the different ghosts, you could do worse than upgrading Yrden. Having 2 overlapping circles for 20 seconds each is pretty good to give you dodging and rolling space.

Anything that lets you keep Adrenaline or use Adrenaline is also pretty decent.

Alchemy has great talents but on lower difficulty, you won't really need them to give you an edge.

[Mentalist]

Tapper, on 17 July 2015 - 07:00 AM, said:

Skill-wise, if you play Blood & Broken Bones or Death March, Sun and Stars is a must-get - it is a must-skip if you play on the lower two options, though.

The Cat-school white talent is decent early game as all armor is light up until lvl 12 or so.

Axii advanced for dialogue options (and stun), and for fighting all the different ghosts, you could do worse than upgrading Yrden. Having 2 overlapping circles for 20 seconds each is pretty good to give you dodging and rolling space.

Anything that lets you keep Adrenaline or use Adrenaline is also pretty decent.

Alchemy has great talents but on lower difficulty, you won't really need them to give you an edge.

My no 1 pick was the personal skill that gives + 500 HP, naturally. No 2 was Axii boost, to use for convos.
3 was the bloody "block arrows" skill--- think it's the only one I have to keep re-learning in all 3 games.

Now I'm really not sure what else I need. All the damage + Adrenaline boosts seem so miinute. Once a 4th skill slot opens up, I'll. Probably put in the improved Yrden there.

[Dadding]

Mentalist, on 17 July 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

Tapper, on 17 July 2015 - 07:00 AM, said:

Skill-wise, if you play Blood & Broken Bones or Death March, Sun and Stars is a must-get - it is a must-skip if you play on the lower two options, though.

The Cat-school white talent is decent early game as all armor is light up until lvl 12 or so.

Axii advanced for dialogue options (and stun), and for fighting all the different ghosts, you could do worse than upgrading Yrden. Having 2 overlapping circles for 20 seconds each is pretty good to give you dodging and rolling space.

Anything that lets you keep Adrenaline or use Adrenaline is also pretty decent.

Alchemy has great talents but on lower difficulty, you won't really need them to give you an edge.

My no 1 pick was the personal skill that gives + 500 HP, naturally. No 2 was Axii boost, to use for convos.
3 was the bloody "block arrows" skill--- think it's the only one I have to keep re-learning in all 3 games.

Now I'm really not sure what else I need. All the damage + Adrenaline boosts seem so miinute. Once a 4th skill slot opens up, I'll. Probably put in the improved Yrden there.

Alternate Quen, Igni, and Yrden are all definitely worth getting!

This post has been edited by Dadding: 18 July 2015 - 04:56 AM

[Tapper]

Dadding, on 17 July 2015 - 02:10 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 17 July 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

Tapper, on 17 July 2015 - 07:00 AM, said:

Skill-wise, if you play Blood & Broken Bones or Death March, Sun and Stars is a must-get - it is a must-skip if you play on the lower two options, though.

The Cat-school white talent is decent early game as all armor is light up until lvl 12 or so.

Axii advanced for dialogue options (and stun), and for fighting all the different ghosts, you could do worse than upgrading Yrden. Having 2 overlapping circles for 20 seconds each is pretty good to give you dodging and rolling space.

Anything that lets you keep Adrenaline or use Adrenaline is also pretty decent.

Alchemy has great talents but on lower difficulty, you won't really need them to give you an edge.

My no 1 pick was the personal skill that gives + 500 HP, naturally. No 2 was Axii boost, to use for convos.
3 was the bloody "block arrows" skill--- think it's the only one I have to keep re-learning in all 3 games.

Now I'm really not sure what else I need. All the damage + Adrenaline boosts seem so miinute. Once a 4th skill slot opens up, I'll. Probably put in the improved Yrden there.

Alternate Quen, Igni, and Yrden and all definitely worth getting!

That. The defensive skill that prevents Adrenaline loss upon being hit is worth it - that opens up a lot of combo's. I do agree % of faster Adrenaline gain aren't worth specific investment.

[Mentalist]

Impressions after a few (about 5) hours in Velen: HOLY SHIT, SO MANY THINGS CAN KILL ME!


atm, I'm barely lvl 5. I'm decently competent at killing things level 10 and below. anything higher means I generally die, or run away.

right now it's turned into an exploration of "where can I go w/o being instantly murdered". still fun. I'm considering drawing a map of Velen to keep track, since I turned off "points of interest".

Right now I really need a smith....

[Gothos]

There's a weaponsmith in the village next to the Baron's bailey. And yeah, early on you seem starved for things you can challenge, though if you follow a few story quests you'll soon be starving for challenging content. The pacing is somewhat off in this game, I'll admit.

[Mentalist]

Gothos, on 18 July 2015 - 03:18 PM, said:

There's a weaponsmith in the village next to the Baron's bailey. And yeah, early on you seem starved for things you can challenge, though if you follow a few story quests you'll soon be starving for challenging content. The pacing is somewhat off in this gpame, I'll admit.

Having just finished a TW2 replay, i'm pretty sure the issue is primarily how CDPRED dole out EXP- hundreds for main quests and 50-100 (250 tops) for optional stuff. As such, in order to get a "balanced" game, you have to take long breaks from "main story" to do side stuff. The miniscule exp drips from completing side stuff means you're not gonna run into a "overlevel" issue. But it's at odds with the. "Rush to find Ciri before the Wild Hunt does" imperative of the story. I'm yet to come to grips with how I'm gonna reconcile the "I should be playing the story" with the "I enjoy just being lost in Velen exploring it one square click at a time" conflicting motivations.