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[Alexios]

Yeah I'm not far but it seems most of the difficulty is from not having decent skills yet. Before adding a point to the skill that makes your hits damage nearby enemies I couldn't go in that cave with the loads of nekkers at all but after that I just went and hack and slashed like mad and came out almost unscathed, the potions were wasted.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

What? On easy the game more or less plays itself, as long as you don't specc in a completely insane way, and can endure the first couple hours where you're absolutely underpowered. The average gamer is not *that* stupid or impatient.

What? On easy if you zerg into even a group of 3-4 enemies you will die instantly. Its more difficult than DA1/DA2 by a huge fucking margin. And the "average" gamer bitched so loud about those they had to patch in a difficulty adjustment. Even "normal" is going to be beyond many.

This also says nothing about the fact the most common complaint so far seen is "Game wont work" followed by "Its too hard".

 

[Riposte]

I really miss styles, mainly the group style. Being a tornado of doom was a shining gem in The Witcher's otherwise shitty combat.

This game's combat actually holds you attention(tough!), but seems pretty boring as far as strategy goes. Tedious might be the right word. I get the feeling I'll hit a certain point where everything goes from being too tough to too easy and that is no good either.

 

[Kyaw]

Spoiler

Where is the second ship for the Mystic River quest?

Killed the Kayran and all. Took me about 6 tries on normal.

I am loving the combat apart from the slightly annoying animation delays.
That would be my biggest complaint atm.

 

[Alexios]

tornado of doom

There's a skill for that as per my last post. After you choose it it's always active, not a separate style.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

Vergen has got to be one of the coolest environments I've seen. Fucking christ this game...After an amazing ACT I I just can't wait to keep going.

As I level up Sword path, combat is really a gem. They completely overhauled it and made it amazing. I'm very glad they did so.

 

[thetrin]

Ended up having to do the same, and the difference in difficulty between easy and normal is outlandish.

I really wish developers wouldn't makes boss battles like this. It just always feels so cheap to me and hurts my overall enjoyment of the game. In this case it was particularly annoying because you've been taught certain limitations throughout the game which makes it all the more obvious that he is not bound by them. It's like playing online with someone who is using cheats. :/

In Witcher 1, there was a boss battle outside of an old mage tower. The enemy was tough, but still just a guy and winning was satisfying. This "inexplicable super-being" nonsense is just annoying.

To quote Random City Dweller Lady in The Witcher: I'm mad.

But who knows... maybe in the end it will turn out that he has a sword infused with a piece of an ancient and evil dwarven relic from the Deep Roads and then it will all make sense.

Yeah, as I said earlier, I wish there was a half step between easy and normal. Normal can be utterly punishing, and easy is WAY too easy. You don't even have to use 90% of your tools for most fights.

 

[Corky]

well then something is obviously borked sigh.

I registered the game do I have to enter something in the redeem code box?

I pressed the download button again and it's still just saying "downloading" and when I close the window by pressing "X" a window pops up saying " invalid code " :S anyone?

 

[Riposte]

Both Intimidate and Axii have worked every time for me, but I don't know why.

I really would like to know the science behind it. Couldn't even find it in my journal. It being random and not being able to be enhanced is off-putting. Diplomatic skills is always my priority in games.


Is there a sex 'em all element to this game or is it just for random fun?

 

[Animator]

Oh my fucking GOD @ that chapter 2 opening. *bows to cd project

 

[Deleted member 17706]

While we're on the topic of Troll Trouble, i got a key for

Spoiler

the bandits hideout after killing Dmitri

where is it exactly?

Awesome, I stumbled on that

Spoiler

bandit's hideout

and dispatched all of the guys there, but couldn't enter due to lacking the key.

Where is

Spoiler

Dmitri

?

 

[Corky]

For anyone who ordered the game of D2D : did you get a dlc code or something of that nature?

 

[VisanidethDM]

I would ask the man how many rpg games with sword play and magic there are that have better combat than this. In my opinion, its combat would even beat a lot of straight up action games. Demon's souls is the only game I can think of that has comparable quality, and its not as deep or as visually pleasing.

It's not a very easy question to answer, since TW2 is an action RPG that is extremely unbalanced towards the action part of the equation than the RPG one.

I could start a long rant, but the bottom line is that the "slower" parts of the combat system aren't deep enough to rival titles such as Vagrant Story or the various SO/Tales subsystems, and in its more action oriented moments, it's not tight or precise to feel as natural or entertaining as Zelda or even more recent action games outings like LoS.

It's miles ahead of TW1, but it has a number of not-venial flaws, animations and hit detection above all, but more importantly consistency and feedback. Some things reek of inexperience, like how basically every combo and move is animated with Geralt progressing towards the opponent, which is sort of absurd in such a defensive oriented game, and leads to somewhat disappointing battle animation (like Geralt shuffling against the opponent he's hitting like he was striding meters and meters while he could hit him standing still, and the target not even recoiling from his hits). There are moments (expecially when fighting beasts) when your blade hits feel like they have real impact and the feedback is satisfying, and others when you're slashing at man-at-arms and your (or their) hits barely register and the game seriously look embarassing.
And I don't want to spoiler anything so I'll be scarce on details, but there are times when the game REALLY tries to be a God of War clone and it's held down by its nature, as it's still an RPG and not a pure action game, and lacks the fluidity to be something it is not (

Spoiler

I'm not just referring to group finishers, when at some point I foundt myself hacking at tentacles and watching scripted events leading to bosses become vulnerable it really felt like the game wasn't sure enough about its own strengths and simply became an absurdely pretty version of the GoW clone of the week, complete with inadequate action controls

).

I'm actually not negative at all about TW2's combat system (a huge improvement over the first), but I'd hardly call it ambitious.

 

[zonezeus]

I really would like to know the science behind it. Couldn't even find it in my journal. It being random and not being able to be enhanced is off-putting. Diplomatic skills is always my priority in games.


Is there a sex 'em all element to this game or is it just for random fun?

I think it works because the choice between Axii/persuasion/intimidation is almost always logical, so you subconsciously choose the correct method. It failed me only once, at the very beggining in La Vallete castle.

Oh, and I think you can check what level of axii/persuasion/intimidation you have somewhere in character sheet.

 

[Salaadin]

Awesome, I stumbled on that

Spoiler

bandit's hideout

and dispatched all of the guys there, but couldn't enter due to lacking the key.

Where is

Spoiler

Dmitri

?

Spoiler

Troll Quest

For anyone who ordered the game of D2D : did you get a dlc code or something of that nature?

Im assuming your game is registered, right? The DLC menu only opens once the game is registered and the Troll DLC is just there for download, no code needed. If youre able to get in there and start the download, im thinking you should be good to go.

Have you tried restarting the launcher?
Restarting your PC?
Is your internet connection ok?

Maybe CDPR are having server issues right now or something.

I didnt order from D2D btw, just brainstorming.

 

[WanderingWind]

Sigh. You know a game is great when you're at work and all you want is to go home and play some more. 5 hours to go...

 

[VisanidethDM]

Sigh. You know a game is great when you're at work and all you want is to go home and play some more. 5 hours to go...

I play too many good games then .

Spoiler

I'm also a very easily satisfied person, probably. I rarely fall in love with something and throw mad praises at it, but it's rare I don't find something to like in what I play, and crave to play some of it more.

 

[zonezeus]

Sigh. You know a game is great when you're at work and all you want is to go home and play some more. 5 hours to go...

8 hours, 5 minutes.

 

[Animator]

I have two weeks off from works. It couldnt have come at a better time. I have been playing witcher 2 all day every day since it unlocked.

 

[VisanidethDM]

What? On easy if you zerg into even a group of 3-4 enemies you will die instantly. Its more difficult than DA1/DA2 by a huge fucking margin. And the "average" gamer bitched so loud about those they had to patch in a difficulty adjustment. Even "normal" is going to be beyond many.

This also says nothing about the fact the most common complaint so far seen is "Game wont work" followed by "Its too hard".

I wouldn't hold the challenge of fighting groups of enemies as a pro, to be honest. It's not "good challenge", it's more the system going under stress when facing something it's not exactly designed for, or if it is, it's not a brilliant achievement.
There's a serious amount of "run away giving your back to enemies to lure one out relying on Assassin's Creed-like-I'ma-take-my-turn AI" that doesn't really please me. It's NOTHING like Arkham Asylum, to be honest. Much more complex, much more varied, much less elegant.

 

[Corky]

Spoiler

Troll Quest

Im assuming your game is registered, right? The DLC menu only opens once the game is registered and the Troll DLC is just there for download, no code needed. If youre able to get in there and start the download, im thinking you should be good to go.

Have you tried restarting the launcher?
Restarting your PC?
Is your internet connection ok?

Maybe CDPR are having server issues right now or something.

I didnt order from D2D btw, just brainstorming.

Aye I registered alright. Restarted the launcher several times aswell as my pc. And my connection should be strong enough for a 7mb file.

edit : keeps giving me a fucking invalid code message, I havent typed in anything in the redeem code section and from what I know you dont need to

 

[Circle of Willis]

I have two weeks off from works. It couldnt have come at a better time. I have been playing witcher 2 all day every day since it unlocked.

I thought really hard about taking a "sick day" but my conscience won out....so far..

 

[Brandon F]

I could start a long rant, but the bottom line is that the "slower" parts of the combat system aren't deep enough to rival titles such as Vagrant Story or the various SO/Tales subsystems, and in its more action oriented moments, it's not tight or precise to feel as natural or entertaining as Zelda or even more recent action games outings like LoS.

I

To be fair, having finished Vagrant Story earlier this year when it hit PSN, the combat structure in that game is OBSCENELY overrated. The concepts at large are absolutely wonderful, but the execution of those ideas are vastly underutilized to the degree that most players probably never actually understood. As an action game, it's well...not one at all. As a stats game, its attempt to weave all of the data crunching subsystems never quite materializes(mostly due to shoddy enemy stat foundations). Game has too many gaping holes in it's design(again mostly arrangement of stat priorities and enemy design) to ever take proper advantage of the framework. You'll repeatedly use the same strategem ad-nauseum by the mid-game as nothing is designed to force otherwise. If ever a game needed a better realized sequel it's Vagrant Story. Great concept, but broken first effort.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Spoiler

Troll

Quest

Yeah, I'm at that point in the troll quest, but have no idea where the guy is. I'm happy to keep looking on my own if it's more interesting that way, though.

Giant Bomb quick look is up, by the way!

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/17-4139/

 

[Salaadin]

Aye I registered alright. Restarted the launcher several times aswell as my pc. And my connection should be strong enough for a 7mb file.

Thats shitty. Might want to shoot CDPR a message and hope they respond soon:
http://www.en.thewitcher.com/support/

Sucky part is that the DLC is an Act 1 quest so if you really want to do that, youre stuck in Act 1

Only other thing I can think of is what you were asking before...that D2D users get a special code for it.

Goto Documents/Witcher 2/ directory. I think theres a folder in there called "DLC". Check to see if troll.dlc is in there. I never tried this so I have no idea what itll do but maybe cancel the download, close the launcher, and delete troll.dlc and try again?

Yeah, I'm at that point in the troll quest, but have no idea where the guy is. I'm happy to keep looking on my own if it's more interesting that way, though.

Giant Bomb quick look is up, by the way!

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/17-4139/

Spoiler

Cemetary near Lobinden. Make your way towards the troll. On the way there is a small branch path off to the left that goes upwards. Youll get the climb prompt on the way there. After that is a small dropoff where youll see Dmitri

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I wouldn't hold the challenge of fighting groups of enemies as a pro, to be honest.

Who said it was a pro? I said the game is one of the most difficult RPG's I can recall. You disagreed while not really offering anything to substantiate said disagreement. And now you do so once again even further from the core topic. Not really sure what you are attempting to accomplish but if its a conversation you are horrible at it.

Your observation about Witcher 2's difficulty being "system cheating" is entirely inaccurate as well. Its not the "groups are a systems dat does not work!" because the game has multiple variations and tactics to address such a problem. The difficulty in Witcher is not the route of DA2 of just breaking the game. Its more difficult because the enemies drastically increase in capability between levels. You can be killed EASILY by any small group of enemies I have so far encountered. You must in fact employ specialized strategy or you will die nearly instantly. You can be insta gibbed by most mobs on "hard". They do not even cheat to do it.

Witcher 2 is a very difficult RPG, period. Strange equivocation and inane responses need not apply. Or if you feel the need to respond in such a fashion at least provide an example.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Can anyone check if their Steam version DLC shows Polish language pack?

 

[fanboi]

How in hell do you level up? I have 6 talent points and cant distribute em

 

[Corky]

Thats shitty. Might want to shoot CDPR a message and hope they respond soon:
http://www.en.thewitcher.com/support/

Sucky part is that the DLC is an Act 1 quest so if you really want to do that, youre stuck in Act 1

Only other thing I can think of is what you were asking before...that D2D users get a special code for it.

Goto Documents/Witcher 2/ directory. I think theres a folder in there called "DLC". Check to see if troll.dlc is in there. I never tried this so I have no idea what itll do but maybe cancel the download, close the launcher, and delete troll.dlc and try again?

Spoiler

Cemetary near Lobinden. Make your way towards the troll. On the way there is a small branch path off to the left that goes upwards. Youll get the climb prompt on the way there. After that is a small dropoff where youll see Dmitri

Didnt't work . Thanks anyway mate, I give up, fuck this. I'm already at chapter 3 so I might aswell forfeit all hopes of dlc present and future. Blergh, if its one single god damn thing with consolegaming it's that XBL had two states : Working, Not working. Not giving me infinite cryptic error messages when I'm trying to do the most mundane shit.

 

[How About No]

Chapter 1: I'm in the middle of fucking up Nekker nests and Spider queens at the moment, high on Swallows and sword enhancements. I've tried several of the quests around, but I usually get messed up by a swarm of Nekkers or Wraiths, so I'll be waiting until I level up and gain the Whirl ability, and find a way to craft Spectre oil, or whatever this game's equivalent to that is.

I'm only on normal, but I've died so many damn times! You really need to meditate for battles and block. After playing Crysis 2, I'm just glad I could spam F5 again lol.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Ok the damn Kyran keeps throwing rocks at me, the hell am I supposed to do!?

 

[Dog Problems]

Ok the damn Kyran keeps throwing rocks at me, the hell am I supposed to do!?

Spoiler

Keep rolling over to the left and go up the broken piece of bridge.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

How in hell do you level up? I have 6 talent points and cant distribute em

Press the C key.

 

[How About No]

Also, how bad will the copy/paste be in this game? In Witcher 1, several NPCs and dungeons are repeated over and over, even for important characters!

So far, I've seen quite a few look-a-likes in Floatsam, and that one dungeon looks a bit similar to the Prison from the prologue...

 

[thetrin]

How in hell do you level up? I have 6 talent points and cant distribute em

You guys seriously need to READ your journal.

Also, how bad will the copy/paste be in this game? In Witcher 1, several NPCs and dungeons are repeated over and over, even for important characters!

So far, I've seen quite a few look-a-likes in Floatsam, and that one dungeon looks a bit similar to the Prison from the prologue...

The hospital uses the same tile sets, but the map isn't the same, and the enemies are totally different. I mean, yeah, you're going to see underground stone prisons looking the same. That's kind of how they are in real life too.

 

[wwm0nkey]

How in hell do you level up? I have 6 talent points and cant distribute em

Press C, you unlock the other 3 branches after you hit level 7.

 

[Salaadin]

Didnt't work . Thanks anyway mate, I give up, fuck this. I'm already at chapter 3 so I might aswell forfeit all hopes of dlc present and future. Blergh, if its one single god damn thing with consolegaming it's that XBL had two states : Working, Not working. Not giving me infinite cryptic error messages when I'm trying to do the most mundane shit.

Damnit

Maybe its on their end. Id shoot them an email and try again later.
Anyone else right now registered but not able to download the DLC or getting DLC errors like Corky?

 

[thetrin]

Press C, you unlock the other 3 branches after you hit level 7.

It's not after level 7. It's after investing 6 points in the Witcher tree.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Ok the damn Kyran keeps throwing rocks at me, the hell am I supposed to do!?

That part annoyed me, too--I died twice on that part before figuring it out.

Spoiler

After you drop from the tentacle, a big slab of stone will fall near you which you can run up. Once you reach the top a cutscene will trigger where Geralt kills the beast

. You only have a couple of seconds to do this, so you need to hurry. I really dislike how they handled that. Those boulders are nearly impossible to dodge, and you only get a couple of seconds before he starts hurling them at you. Cool fight overall, but not very intuitive.

 

[Confidence Man]

Didnt't work . Thanks anyway mate, I give up, fuck this. I'm already at chapter 3 so I might aswell forfeit all hopes of dlc present and future. Blergh, if its one single god damn thing with consolegaming it's that XBL had two states : Working, Not working. Not giving me infinite cryptic error messages when I'm trying to do the most mundane shit.

Right now their login/register functions don't seem to work at all, so that might be the issue. I can't even register the game atm.

 

[Corky]

That might be it, I was under the impression that their servers were up an running after the maintenances they had.

Anyways some random bugs roundup :

1) Dismembering enemies, were the first 10 enemies in the game made of weaker moral fiber? Because those were the only ones I could dismember. Haven't chopped of anything of a foe since the prologue.

2) Sometimes ( 10% ) when I throw the Grapeshot (?) bomb I totally lose control of geralt and my controls spazzes out! It is soo wierd that I can't even explain how he acts, outside of me not having control other than either reload the game or hope that someone hits me thats when I get back control. Oddly enough this particular bomb is the only one that triggers this asshole bug.

 

[Deadly]

That part annoyed me, too--I died twice on that part before figuring it out.

Spoiler

After you drop from the tentacle, a big slab of stone will fall near you which you can run up. Once you reach the top a cutscene will trigger where Geralt kills the beast

. You only have a couple of seconds to do this, so you need to hurry. I really dislike how they handled that. Those boulders are nearly impossible to dodge, and you only get a couple of seconds before he starts hurling them at you. Cool fight overall, but not very intuitive.

What? I thought the boulders were easy as hell to dodge :lol

 

[Manik]

Took a break from playing this evening (Just a little into chapter 1) and thought I'd give the papercraft models a go.

3 long hours later... I clearly suck at any kind of papercraft, but...




Totally worth it

And so, to celebrate, more Witcher 2!

 

[Snuggles]

jesus, what's wrong with dandelion's face?

it's something out of nightmares

 

[Sober]

What? I thought the boulders were easy as hell to dodge :lol

You can dodge them without any points in the dodge talent either (I'm seriously contemplating the 200% just to travel faster, haha). Also, if you stand behind some rubble, you are safe to regenerate hp before

Spoiler

running up to kill to boss, though I pretty much got hit once and knocked back down

.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

You can dodge them without any points in the dodge talent either (I'm seriously contemplating the 200% just to travel faster, haha). Also, if you stand behind some rubble, you are safe to regenerate hp before

Spoiler

running up to kill to boss, though I pretty much got hit once and knocked back down

.

Really? The first time I died, I was specifically standing behind a large piece of rubble and I still got hit by the boulder.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

It's not a very easy question to answer, since TW2 is an action RPG that is extremely unbalanced towards the action part of the equation than the RPG one.

I could start a long rant, but the bottom line is that the "slower" parts of the combat system aren't deep enough to rival titles such as Vagrant Story or the various SO/Tales subsystems, and in its more action oriented moments, it's not tight or precise to feel as natural or entertaining as Zelda or even more recent action games outings like LoS.

It's miles ahead of TW1, but it has a number of not-venial flaws, animations and hit detection above all, but more importantly consistency and feedback. Some things reek of inexperience, like how basically every combo and move is animated with Geralt progressing towards the opponent, which is sort of absurd in such a defensive oriented game, and leads to somewhat disappointing battle animation (like Geralt shuffling against the opponent he's hitting like he was striding meters and meters while he could hit him standing still, and the target not even recoiling from his hits). There are moments (expecially when fighting beasts) when your blade hits feel like they have real impact and the feedback is satisfying, and others when you're slashing at man-at-arms and your (or their) hits barely register and the game seriously look embarassing.
And I don't want to spoiler anything so I'll be scarce on details, but there are times when the game REALLY tries to be a God of War clone and it's held down by its nature, as it's still an RPG and not a pure action game, and lacks the fluidity to be something it is not (

Spoiler

I'm not just referring to group finishers, when at some point I foundt myself hacking at tentacles and watching scripted events leading to bosses become vulnerable it really felt like the game wasn't sure enough about its own strengths and simply became an absurdely pretty version of the GoW clone of the week, complete with inadequate action controls

).

I'm actually not negative at all about TW2's combat system (a huge improvement over the first), but I'd hardly call it ambitious.

A few fair points for sure, but a question: are you using a controller or kb/m?

 

[CabbageRed]

(paraphrasing) "Aye, he was a niggard of a king and a niggardly plower!" If ever a line in a game needed an asterisk. That, or maybe pause the audio and have some guy with a British accent speak up. "Hello and thank you for purchasing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. We hope you're having as much fun playing it, as we had making it. It occurs to us that not everyone may be aware of the definition of 'niggard.' First off, let us assure you that..."

 

[Chiggs]

(paraphrasing) "Aye, he was a niggard of a king and a niggardly plower!" If ever a line in a game needed an asterisk. That, or maybe pause the audio and have some guy with a British accent speak up. "Hello and thank you for purchasing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. We hope you're having as much fun playing it, as we had making it. It occurs to us that not everyone may be aware of the definition of 'niggard.' First off, let us assure you that..."

I honestly don't care. The developers have a right to use any dialogue they want in order to convey the characters in the gameworld.

No pussyfooting please.

 

[Zeliard]

I'd be really interested in playing CDRP's attempt a party-based RPG.