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[demosthenes]

To anyone playing this for the first time: please, play Gwent! It's so good.

Gwent is love. Gwent is life.

I missed the tutorial at the start. Should I just youtube?

 

[Rex_DX]

If you're lost then yes. It is pretty simple though but with just enough strategy to be a fun distraction. Anyone who's played or even watched a game of Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering should get the gist pretty quickly.

It is not a deep game.

 

[JeTmAn81]

Finishing up the main Skellige stuff. Cerys should've been a romance option, amiright?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I messed up the Gwent tutorial on my first playthrough because I didn't realize it was best of three rounds and used every one of my cards in round 1. That upset me, so I avoided Gwent for that playthrough and most of my second. Eventually I gave it a try, and now it's one of my favorite parts of the game. It's a bit tricky learning what the different types of cards do, but much less complicated than standalone card games. You could certainly check out a Youtube tutorial just to familiarize yourself with it. The number one rule I can offer; buy every single card offered by merchants. Every time you beat a new opponent at Gwent you'll win a card; building your deck is the most important thing you can do. If the players in the official "Gwent Players" questline are too hard for you, it's just because you need to go around buying cards from merchants and winning them from blacksmiths and innkeepers and such (who are usually much easier to beat). Northern Realms is the best deck for the majority of the game. Spies are the best cards you can get; always have every spy you own in your active deck. If you're playing against Northern Realms or Nilfgaard, have a couple decoys too, since they'll probably use spies against you and you can hit right back.

A good strategy early on. The default Foltest leader ability clears weather effects (only can use it once though). Use a weather card on a single row and stack a bunch of your own soldiers in the row with the weather (ie use Biting Frost on the close row and then load it up with Blue Stripes Commandos). Eventually your opponent will forfeit the round (because the AI is kind of stupid and forgets that you can clear the weather) and then you can bust out your leader ability and all of your 1 point front row cards will now be face value again (especially useful with Blue Stripes since they have close bond and double or triple in value based on how many you have). That's usually good for capturing one round.

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

Finishing up the main Skellige stuff. Cerys should've been a romance option, amiright?

Not really. She's the daughter of Crach who's Geralt's friend.

Just like Crach treats Ciri as his daughter, Geralt treats Cerys.

 

[JeTmAn81]

Not really. She's the daughter of Crach who's Geralt's friend.

Just like Crach treats Ciri as his daughter, Geralt treats Cerys.

I feel like this wouldn't matter to game Geralt. Unlike book Geralt, he's quite the man-ho.

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

I feel like this wouldn't matter to game Geralt. Unlike book Geralt, he's quite the man-ho.

If you're trying to say that Geralt doesn't care about age then that's probably true but he does value relationships, book or game.

 

[Rex_DX]

This.

While Geralt has no qualms shacking up with Keira or Shani for a night, the guy isn't going to fuck a close friend's daughter. He might be down for a good time (hell, book or game so are the sorceresses, sometimes even more so than Geralt - staying sexy for a few centuries makes you horny I guess) but his loyalty and deep-seated morality are intrinsic to his character.

This is at odds with the general perception of what witchers stand for and is a keystone in Geralt's complexity.

So no, I don't think book or game Geralt is down to fuck a friend's daughter. Plus, imagine his reaction if Crach made a move on Ciri. The candle burns both ways.

 

[endlessflood]

I missed the tutorial at the start. Should I just youtube?

The OP of the Gwent thread should bring you up to speed, I posted a link on the previous page.

 

[Durrzerker]

Hey guys, doing a replay and anyone got a rough sense of how much Sign Intensity I need to be able to reliably make signs useful with a hybrid build?

Basically I'd like to run a Whirl/Signs combo build using the griffon and eventually Wolf set once I get to Kaer Morhen.

This is on Death March, btw.


Related, does this sound right for each sign? It's what I've experienced so far:


QUEN

Basic Form - Incredibly valuable. Eats a free hit, quick to cast, great safety net.
Alternate Form - Possibly the best shit in the game. Massive health restoration and the shockwave you can talent into is like a mini-aard when it drops.


IGNI

Basic Form - Decent %-based damage and crowd control on enemies. Great against humans and necrophages in particular.
Alternate Form - I really can't find a use for this. The damage sucks even with 100%+ sign intensity, it takes forever to apply burns, and locks me out of other attacks.


AXII

Basic Form - Not very useful. A quick stun that can open up shield-users, not much else.
Alternate Form - Extremely powerful. Opens up free combo chains on anything you mind control and turns people against each other.


AARD

Basic Form - Very strong against smaller enemies.Solid knockdown for a free finish.
Alternate Form - Pretty much just a better version of the basic form, full AoE.

YRDEN

Basic Form - Good for slowing down wraiths and making them tangible, and big enemies like golems. Not a lot else.
Alternate Form - Used to be incredible, now it feels terribly weak.

 

[Dr.Acula]

Blood & Wine crafting question...

Spoiler

Is there a point to getting the diagram for the grandmaster feline armor if I haven't gotten the base version already?

Spoiler

You need the previous tier of armour to upgrade to the following tier. Also the component requirements for the GM stuff is insane

Why are we spoilering?

 

[Hoplatee]

Perhaps a stupid question but I started Blood & Wine recently and the silences in ambient music seems odd to me. Is this normal/intended? Or a bug? I did play a little when B&W was just released but I can't recall having the same issue back then but maybe I have just forgotten it or did not notice it since I only played around two hours back then.

Just wanering/exploring around in Toussaint it often takes upwards of 1 minute or more for music to start while in Skellige/Velen the music is there constantly and transforms if you move to regions with different music. In Toussaint it feels like 75% of the time I am just playing without any music since it also doesn't loop.

Example - if I explore Toussaint / enter/leave the city in Toussaint it takes ages for music to play. If I move from Velen fields into Novigrad different themes start playing instantly and change depending on where you are, etc. Skellige also works normal. There is *always* music in those regions so Toussaint feels very odd.

I am playing the Steam version on a save that finished the main game and HoS.

 

[Coreda]

Perhaps a stupid question but I started Blood & Wine recently and the silences in ambient music seems odd to me. Is this normal/intended? Or a bug? I did play a little when B&W was just released but I can't recall having the same issue back then but maybe I have just forgotten it or did not notice it since I only played around two hours back then.

I encountered audio issues of a different kind in my playthrough. Music in Toussaint would sometimes cut abruptly when traveling between areas without the smooth transition heard in the rest of the game. Another was certain dead enemies still produced noises. Coming from the otherwise seamless experience of the rest of the game it became rather noticeable.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

After buying the complete edition on Black Friday, I was finally able to read through all the books and the recaps of Witcher 1 and 2 and begin Witcher 3.

I gotta say, starting right after reading the books allowed me to instantly get into it. It was fun finally seeing visual representations of the characters, which I purposefully avoided while reading, and seeing how close I got with my mental image of them. (Geralt's witcher friends were exactly as I pictured them, Emhyr decidedly not.)

The game is pretty tough though. Is it a mistake to play with only food healing your vitality? I'm on the next to hardest difficulty and going through food fast.

I wish I could come across Geralt's fellowship he had in the books.

Spoiler

Too bad they all died at the very end,even Regis.

Story/plot question: The Wild Hunt is

Spoiler

the group of elves Ciri met in the alternate dimension when she entered the Tower of Swallows, right?

Gonna post again when I get further, most likely about the characters that pop up from the books.

P.S. Gwent is amazing.

 

[Tenacious-D]

After buying the complete edition on Black Friday, I was finally able to read through all the books and the recaps of Witcher 1 and 2 and begin Witcher 3.

I gotta say, starting right after reading the books allowed me to instantly get into it. It was fun finally seeing visual representations of the characters, which I purposefully avoided while reading, and seeing how close I got with my mental image of them. (Geralt's witcher friends were exactly as I pictured them, Emhyr decidedly not.)

The game is pretty tough though. Is it a mistake to play with only food healing your vitality? I'm on the next to hardest difficulty and going through food fast.

I wish I could come across Geralt's fellowship he had in the books.

Spoiler

Too bad they all died at the very end,even Regis.

Story/plot question: The Wild Hunt is

Spoiler

the group of elves Ciri met in the alternate dimension when she entered the Tower of Swallows, right?

Gonna post again when I get further, most likely about the characters that pop up from the books.

P.S. Gwent is amazing.

Well, don't worry too much about

Spoiler

Regis.

Yeah, the Wild Hunt are the Aen Elle elves that... err, have some nefarious motivations when it comes to Ciri and the continent that the bulk of the story takes place on. They haven't translated the last book, The Lady of the Lake yet, so unless you read the fan translation, or are Polish, you won't know all the backstory.

I can't remember which book it was in, but the game will very early on spoil who Ciri's biological father is.

 

[Rex_DX]

The game is pretty tough though. Is it a mistake to play with only food healing your vitality? I'm on the next to hardest difficulty and going through food fast.

Not at all. I strongly suggest new players start out on Blood and Broken Bones (2nd hardest) or even Death March (hardest).

Anything below these makes the need to prep for fights - applying oils, stocking potions, swapping perks - nearly useless. For me at least, this takes the fun out of the combat entirely. Also - even Death March gets fairly easy after level 10 or so.

The combat in this game is often maligned but it can be surprisingly deep assuming the difficulty requires you to use all of Geralt's abilities.

Meditating to restore health ruins the game for me because it becomes feasible to just pop a squat everywhere and anywhere and piss away an hour just to heal.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Well, don't worry too much about

Spoiler

Regis.

Yay! I also confirmed my question ingame when Eredin's name popped up in the database, sweet!

Not at all. I strongly suggest new players start out on Blood and Broken Bones (2nd hardest) or even Death March (hardest).

Anything below these makes the need to prep for fights - applying oils, stocking potions, swapping perks - nearly useless. For me at least, this takes the fun out of the combat entirely. Also - even Death March gets fairly easy after level 10 or so.

Yes, I'm on Blood and Broken Bones. Currently doing the quest with Keira Metz in the ruins with no food and foglets fucking me up, but thankfully I just found that I was able to make a Swallow potion for health. I'm just level 4, so I think I'll dive into alchemy more soon.

 

[GGNKovalski]

Yay! I also confirmed my question ingame when Eredin's name popped up in the database, sweet!




Yes, I'm on Blood and Broken Bones. Currently doing the quest with Keira Metz in the ruins with no food and foglets fucking me up, but thankfully I just found that I was able to make a Swallow potion for health. I'm just level 4, so I think I'll dive into alchemy more soon.

There is a general skill that makes it so when you eat food, your vitality regenerates for 20 minutes. Very useful for newcomers on higher difficulties.

 

[Hoplatee]

I encountered audio issues of a different kind in my playthrough. Music in Toussaint would sometimes cut abruptly when traveling between areas without the smooth transition heard in the rest of the game. Another was certain dead enemies still produced noises. Coming from the otherwise seamless experience of the rest of the game it became rather noticeable.

Yeah, the dead enemies making sounds sometimes also happens to me. It all feels so odd.

It's a bit lousy. The little bit of googling I managed to do about the music bug (or not) didn't tell me much. Don't really dare to search a whole lot deeper either in fear of spoilers.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Yes, I'm on Blood and Broken Bones. Currently doing the quest with Keira Metz in the ruins with no food and foglets fucking me up, but thankfully I just found that I was able to make a Swallow potion for health. I'm just level 4, so I think I'll dive into alchemy more soon.

You might want to level up before going too much further. I mean, a lot of times the "suggested" level to a quest is a bit forgiving, but at lower levels, when you have fewer skills available, the difference between level 4 and level 6 is actually noticeable. At the very least, go searching for the place of power stones and activate them for some free skill points. The only thing that saved me in that particular quest was having the secondary form of Quen available so I could regenerate health from enemy attacks. I think I was level 8 or 9 by that point and still getting knocked around a bit. But figuring out how to heal damage in combat without resorting to food is good to consider. There's a skill in the second tier of Alchemy called "Refreshment" that makes it so taking ANY potion restores some health; that one is pretty nice as well (but requires a big investment in Alchemy which is hard to justify at lower levels).

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

You might want to level up before going too much further. I mean, a lot of times the "suggested" level to a quest is a bit forgiving, but at lower levels, when you have fewer skills available, the difference between level 4 and level 6 is actually noticeable. At the very least, go searching for the place of power stones and activate them for some free skill points. The only thing that saved me in that particular quest was having the secondary form of Quen available so I could regenerate health from enemy attacks. I think I was level 8 or 9 by that point and still getting knocked around a bit. But figuring out how to heal damage in combat without resorting to food is good to consider. There's a skill in the second tier of Alchemy called "Refreshment" that makes it so taking ANY potion restores some health; that one is pretty nice as well (but requires a big investment in Alchemy which is hard to justify at lower levels).

Yeah, I've been doing the main story quests and then going out of my way to do the sidequests that pop up, but some have had a really high level recommendation, so I think I need to just pull back from the story quests and ride around a bit just to get a couple more levels and find those places of power. Currently level 7 and have done the Crookback Bog and Bloody Baron quests with a few side quests.

On a plot-related note, the Crookback Bog witches are some of the creepiest fucking things I've seen in a while.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Yeah, I've been doing the main story quests and then going out of my way to do the sidequests that pop up, but some have had a really high level recommendation, so I think I need to just pull back from the story quests and ride around a bit just to get a couple more levels and find those places of power. Currently level 7 and have done the Crookback Bog and Bloody Baron quests with a few side quests.

On a plot-related note, the Crookback Bog witches are some of the creepiest fucking things I've seen in a while.

One of the biggest failings of the game that I've found (and something you can mod out on PC, although I haven't), is that due to the way XP is given for quests, if you don't prioritize sidequests around your level, you risk overleveling for them very rapidly. Main story quests give out much more XP than sidequests, sometimes to the point of literally leveling you up multiple levels in a single quest (albeit the larger story ones). If you wait to do quests until you're 5+ levels over them, they give out token XP (usually 1 XP), which is useless. So if you get a sidequest a couple levels beneath you and say "I'm really caught up in the story, I'll come back," you may find yourself overleveled and you'll get no XP. Between that and not knowing the suggested level of a quest before accepting, you can end up with a lot of junk filling up your questlog. Consequently, it's not a bad idea to take on interesting looking sidequests early just so you don't risk making them pointless.

 

[Angst]

Eurogamer interview with Geralt's voice actor:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-27-the-voice-behind-the-witcher

 

[Wolf Akela]

Yeah, B&BB is a good challenge early on. However, at around Lv16 ish I found that it was already too easy. It's probably because I went for a Sign build focusing on Igni. Every enemy just gets locked into a burn animation and I regenerate stamina extremely fast.

 

[Rex_DX]

Eurogamer interview with Geralt's voice actor:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-27-the-voice-behind-the-witcher

This was a really nice read. Thanks for posting!

Living in the States, I always forget to check Eurogamer which is sucks considering their features put most American publications to shame. Lookin' at you, IGN. Will need to get in the habit.

 

[sdijoseph]

Playing through Witcher 3 for the first time, and have it on mostly ultra settings at around 30-40 fps. However, whenever I use Igni the fps tanks to 14-15. Is there anyway to fix this in the settings (I'm guessing the fire effects are CPU intensive and I am still using an i5 2500k)?

 

[V1LÆM]

Playing through Witcher 3 for the first time, and have it on mostly ultra settings at around 30-40 fps. However, whenever I use Igni the fps tanks to 14-15. Is there anyway to fix this in the settings (I'm guessing the fire effects are CPU intensive and I am still using an i5 2500k)?

i don't think so. it's just one of those effects the engine struggles with. i always get frame drops with igni or when wraiths appear.

 

[Rex_DX]

Playing through Witcher 3 for the first time, and have it on mostly ultra settings at around 30-40 fps. However, whenever I use Igni the fps tanks to 14-15. Is there anyway to fix this in the settings (I'm guessing the fire effects are CPU intensive and I am still using an i5 2500k)?

I remember seeing a mod that tweaks and optimizes the igni effects. Sorry I don't have a link but check out the nexus.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

I'm sure this has most likely been brought up numerous times, but I just got to the part of the Novigrad quest where Dandelion...talks.

He's more or less how I imagined him from the books, look-wise, but then he opened his mouth. I had to pause the game and look up how he sounded in the first two games, and yep, all awful. I imagined a hilarious, preening fop, not some dude off the street of Milwaukee.

Yet the accents of Geralt, Vesemir, and Lambert don't bother me.

 

[Coreda]

I'm sure this has most likely been brought up numerous times, but I just got to the part of the Novigrad quest where Dandelion...talks.

He's more or less how I imagined him from the books, look-wise, but then he opened his mouth. I had to pause the game and look up how he sounded in the first two games, and yep, all awful. I imagined a hilarious, preening fop, not some dude off the street of Milwaukee.

For comparison a clip of the Polish version from that same quest, including voices of Geralt, Priscilla and Zoltan:

https://my.mixtape.moe/fazldv.mp4

 

[Angel Chay]

Just finished white orchard zone. Does every map have those little ? Places that dont give u much

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Just finished white orchard zone. Does every map have those little ? Places that dont give u much

My sweet summer child... It might be in your best interest to just not look at the map anymore. Because, without spoiling too much, there are multiple new maps awaiting you, all of which are significantly larger than White Orchard, and all of which have ten times as many question marks, which, as you mentioned, are often useless. I played the game for over a year before getting all the question marks in

Spoiler

Velen/Novigrad

and I can't imagine I'll ever attempt getting them all in

Spoiler

Skellige

. And that's without considering the expansions, which add even more. Yeah, you'll be buried in question marks for a while yet. The worst bit is you still want to explore them because they might be something useful like a place of power, but 90% of the time it's lame treasure or a bandit camp. At least they're good for a little coin here and there.

So I just started yet another playthrough; New Game+ off my save post-Blood and Wine. I'm happy that New Game+ now scales to player level, as the first time I did it it was just 30 levels above default and I was already level 34 when I started it. This time I was level 54 and everything is scaled properly. It's a little intimidating seeing some "medium" level quests being level 80 or higher. My wife asked why I bothered starting a new game yet again and I told her, honestly, Gwent. I still never managed to get Dandelion, and I'm remedying that. Her response (as a non-gamer who has watched me play way too much of this); but that's not even a very good card. It's a commander's horn I can resurrect! That's a good thing to have, by gum. But in my haste to get Gwent cards, I'm jumping ahead of the story, and it's doing weird things to the Gwent quests. Probably should focus on story stuff until I'm properly leveled for

Spoiler

Destination: Skellige

and take it from there.

 

[His Majesty]

Just finished white orchard zone. Does every map have those little ? Places that dont give u much

Tip: turn off the question marks and enjoy the game.

 

[jtb]

Forgot how hilarious Hearts of Stone was.

The heist is hilarious (the entire hostage sequence), the wedding is just pure joy, and the third wish is incredibly beautiful and evocative (if not particularly fun to play through again).

 

[bisoner]

Forgot how hilarious Hearts of Stone was.

The heist is hilarious (the entire hostage sequence), the wedding is just pure joy, and the third wish is incredibly beautiful and evocative (if not particularly fun to play through again).

I've just played Hearts of Stone for the first time. The wedding part had me chuckling away too.

Now onto Blood and Wine and loving every minute. About 2 hours into the main storyline so far.....

I've been gaming for too long but consider Witcher 3 to be one of the all time great games. I'm going to be sad when it's all over but an embarrassing backlog means I need to call time on Witcher 3.....

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

Just finished white orchard zone. Does every map have those little ? Places that dont give u much

That area is nothing more than a training zone and introduction to the series

Aaaaanyways. So I just finished HoS and its damn amazing. I would want Evil return to any upcoming Witcher games.

 

[lazerfox]

Games&Symphonies just uploaded an awesome orchestra of The Witcher 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzCq7Fjj9Z0

 

[Stantron]

PSA: Steam has the expansion pass on sale for $15. (goty for $30) Sale ends in a day.
I've usually only seen the base game on sale, so this is a nice change.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/355880/

 

[Leonsito]

I finally finished almost everything in the game (a few POI left, but they are not very compelling), I put about 490hours in the game, and I don't know what to do right now with my life lol

Btw, a few history achievements didn't unlock in GoG Galaxy, did it happened to anyone?

 

[Vitet]

Games&Symphonies just uploaded an awesome orchestra of The Witcher 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzCq7Fjj9Z0

Awesome!

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

Extremely early in Blood and Wine expansion and my first fight with the

Spoiler

Bruxa

. Prepped like shit since its death march and enemy level scaling on

Cast Aard and then option finish off

 

[GutsOfThor]

Loving this game! In Velen right now visiting everything that I can with the exception of places with enemies way more powerful than I.

I noticed that it is raining almost constantly in my game. Did I do something I wasn't supposed to during a quest or something? I play for about 3 hours a night and it rains the entire time!

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Loving this game! In Velen right now visiting everything that I can with the exception of places with enemies way more powerful than I.

I noticed that it is raining almost constantly in my game. Did I do something I wasn't supposed to during a quest or something? I play for about 3 hours a night and it rains the entire time!

Try meditating until the next day; usually triggers a weather switch. You might also try fast traveling back to White Orchard to see if that causes a change. It does rain a fair bit in Velen, so it's not inconceivable that it would rain through an entire session, but it should clear up.

On another note, I just have to vent about the absolutely stupid quest system in this game. Take the opening area. You go in, grab some quests off the local noticeboard, then keep pursuing the main quest because you're interested in fighting the griffin. Oops, two sidequests just failed because apparently you were supposed to know that you needed to finish them BEFORE progressing in the story that you didn't realize was wrapping up in this particular section. And that's hardly the only time that happens. You'll have a seemingly innocuous conversation with someone, it triggers a quest you didn't know about, and then some other quest in your backlog immediately fails. Why? There's no warning, so all it does is get you paranoid thinking "I better save before I talk to ANYBODY or I may lose out on a quest."

And then there are the quest levels. We all know that you get token XP if your level is outside a certain range (usually within 5 levels either side of suggested). But if that's the case, and you put certain barriers up to entering new areas (a level 3 quest to leave White Orchard, a level 16 quest to get to

Spoiler

Skellige

), why in the name of God would you have any quests in that new area BELOW that level? If you progress by aligning yourself primarily with the events of the main story, then getting to Novigrad means doing a fair number of quests in Velen before

Spoiler

the Bloody Baron

gives you a pass to cross the river, at which point you're usually around level 9-10... and then you find a dwarf outside the city offering you a LEVEL TWO QUEST. Why?! Even if you go to Novigrad first thing after leaving Vizima, you're still probably overleveled for that quest! And then there's the quest line from

Spoiler

Lambert in Novigrad

; starting it will fail a level 12 quest in a place you theoretically can't even reach before being level 16. What kind of absurd design decision is that? If you put up level barriers to entering a zone, nothing in that zone should be below that level; that's videogames 101. And it's doubly infuriating on repeat playthroughs because I'm trying to speed through things to get to specific events but I have to do all these piddling sidequests that become time-sensitive or I lose access to them forever. It's wildly illogical.

 

[jtb]

The quest XP system in the game is completely broken. It makes sense for enemies, but the game gives out way too little XP once you've leveled out of the quest level range. 5 XP is ridiculous. At least do like 25 XP minimum or something.

It's not your fault the game wildly overlevels you due to enormous XP drops for the most trivial main quest stuff. I get that the designers were terrified that people wouldn't stick with the game all the way through the critical path, but it doesn't make sense to pack a game full of side quest content then actively disincentive playing any of it lol.

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

Toissant is screenshot galore

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

I'm finally down with Gwent now that I have a lot of hero cards. Been winning almost all my games and I now understand why people were excited for the standalone Gwent game.

 

[Ferrio]

Working my way through Hearts of Stone. Ewald might be the stupidest character in this entire game.

Spoiler

"I worked 15 years getting revenge and my inhertance back, let's fight the witcher to the death!"

Moron.

 

[QFNS]

I'm finally down with Gwent now that I have a lot of hero cards. Been winning almost all my games and I now understand why people were excited for the standalone Gwent game.

Yeah once you get good cards the game is much better. The hero cards are REALLY overpowered in the game, but apparently don't function the same in standalone Gwent. I dunno I'm not in the beta tho.

But yeah in W3, Gwent is rad. Spies are OP AF and its still cool.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Yeah once you get good cards the game is much better. The hero cards are REALLY overpowered in the game, but apparently don't function the same in standalone Gwent. I dunno I'm not in the beta tho.

But yeah in W3, Gwent is rad. Spies are OP AF and its still cool.

Spies are OP to the point where rolling anything but Nilfgaard or Northern Realms is pointless. Monsters, Scoiatel and Skellige get zero spies between them (outside of Avallach who can be in every deck and should be since it's the best card in the game by a country mile). It's like playing two completely different games; if you're playing someone with one of the non-spy decks and you use a non-spy deck, it's fun. If you're playing spy deck vs. spy deck it's fun. If you have a spy deck against a non-spy deck, you will win 99% of the time unless you have a horrible draw. If you are playing a non-spy deck vs. a spy deck, you will lose even if you decoy every spy they send at you. It's kind of annoying actually since it reduces the strategy of Gwent to "play spies constantly until you're sitting on twice as many cards as your opponent and then steamroll them." It did make the

Spoiler

Blood and Wine Skellige

tourney interesting since it restricts your deck and you can't use that same strategy; at least force people to try something new, you know? But as it stands, Gwent is a card game with a single strategy. I still find it entertaining and play it constantly; spies are just too overpowered (especially in Northern Realms where none of them is more than 5 points against you and one of them is only 1; Thaler might actually be a better card than Avallach since he can be decoyed or resurrected).

 

[Tenacious-D]

Anyone have a something awful account? I'd love to interrogate ask this guy some questions.

Yeah, but it's super abstract. By the time we realized that Iorveth's quest wasn't working (he was actually a secondary character in a much bigger story about the war) it was way too late to add something new. About the only thing we'd have had time to do would have been to put his dead body somewhere with a note, which was suggested. I think that would have been a pretty poor conclusion to his story, so it was better to just leave him unresolved.

For an idea of what we need to do to even add a small quest. First I need to draft the quest in paper, get approval from quest lead and the director. This can actually take a couple of weeks, longer if the quest is important. Level design, environment art, character art, audio, cinematics, animation all need to get asset requests. For a small quest I'd try to avoid making more than one new character request, more than 2-3 locations. Some of the assets will go to outsource, most will be done in house.

While that's taking place (months and months of work) the quest and story teams draft the quest. This can take a while, since a lot of stuff that works on paper doesn't work in game, for many many possible reasons.

Once story is done, the text goes to localization (our writers all write in PL). From there lines are translated into a dozen languages, then sent to the studio to get actors to perform them. Those lines flow back to audio and cinematics, who put them into the game and make sure they sound right.

Meanwhile QA and quest bug-fix and iterate on the quest, basically until we ship. This includes bugs of course, but also general feedback. During this phase entire locations might be moved or redone, characters change, etc, and each team needs to respond to each change. So if QA realizes that we made a mistake and *actually* this character shouldn't say this or this... also he should have a red sash instead of a blue one... also his house is in a swamp and it needs to be in the forest... etc. Each of those changes means that different teams need to jump in. Textual changes are particularly nasty because it means literally hundreds of people, producers, translators, managers, actors, directors, audio technicians, cinematic artists, etc, all have to deal with it.

So I mean, in the super abstract, yes, you are right. Giving Iorveth his own side quest wouldn't have been hard. Actually, we gave him a huge quest and multiple side quests and it was even playable*. But it got cut and it wouldn't have been simple to replace it at that stage of the project.

*Asterix to remind you that as a dev, my definition of playable is not the same as yours. No one who hasn't worked in gamedev really has any idea how janky and ugly games are until very very late in development.

The quest was pretty nilfgaard-centric and involved a renegade general (and demonologist) who was doing crazy wizard poo poo in Velen. Thaler was there, and so was Vincent Meis (but he got cut early). Iorveth was in there, trying to steal something from the demon-summoning general guy so that he could cure a plague that was killing his doods. Some parts of the old story stuck around, Eye for an Eye, Patrol Gone Missing, and... uh whatever the one is with the lady who wants you to find her redheaded kid? There was also a tiny quest in the Nilfgaard camp about some soldiers who stole a pig and tried to make it look like a monster took it. It got cut because it was bad (It was my quest, I'm allowed to say that.)

The whole nilfgaardian war stuff got cut for mostly just not fitting in well with the rest of the game and simply not having enough time to finish it properly.