Support NeoGAF

[strwrsxprt]

Yep he's been posting neat Witcher 3 stuff over there for years now. Here's another cut quest thing:

OK, I'm back in Poland and jetlagged to hell. As promised, I'll tell you about one of my cut quests.

OK, so Geralt gets flagged down by this servant character, who directs him to speak with his mistress, a noble-lady who has an "occult" club with other courtly ladies. When Geralt meets her, she explains that her club (including her sister) were conducting a seance at an old elven amphitheatre when something strange happened. The wind began to howl and the noble-lady's sister began sobbing uncontrollably. When one of the other members of the club tried to comfort her, she grabbed a knife and attacked her. The other woman was merely injured, but the noble-lady's sister then ran off into the night.

The noble lady wants Geralt to help find her sister, she is seeking out Geralt because 1. she thinks something magical might be going on 2. he's famous and her club will be impressed.

Geralt goes and tracks down the sister. Unfortunately, she's dead (it's a witcher game, natch) it looks like she ran off into the woods before cutting off all her hair with a knife, then driving the knife into her own heart. After some investigating, Geralt finds a nearby cenotaph with an old elven poem on it. The poem memorializes the sad story of an elven maiden who fell in love with a human noble, despite the taboo and class differences. There's an anti-elf pogrom, and the maiden is saved and sheltered by her human lover, but he refuses to do anything to save the rest of her family or stop the pogrom. Her family is completely wiped out. She runs off into the woods and stabs herself to death.

Geralt realizes he's dealing with a Banshee, (which can force the living to re-enact the banshee's trauma) and goes to talk to the noble-lady. The lady is distraught but Geralt can convince her to help him avenge her sister and lay the banshee to rest. The occult club goes back to the amphitheatre and summons the banshee again, Geralt is able to use the noble-lady's body to trap the spirit and force it to become corporeal with an exorcism. In the process of the exorcism we learn that the noble-lady and her sister are actually the descendants of the elf-maiden and the human nobleman. The maiden was saved from slaughter because she was preggo with the nobleman's child. Swordplay. The banshee dies.

The noble lady is really upset because now she knows she's part-elf, and all her nasty friends in the occult club won't associate with her anymore. Her status at court is now in jeopardy. She says some racist shit. Sad trombone. Fin.

Also this cool one:

If you need something to keep you busy:

Spoilers for BaW, The Warble of a Smitten Knight*

Spoiler

If you don't encourage Viv to let Guillaume help, she can later be found in Novigrad, I know some people already know this. A tiny number of people know that she'll show up in Skellige too. But there's a third state I don't think anyone has found yet.

*The original title of the quest was The Knight Stalker

 

[Luxorek]

Spoiler

If you don't encourage Viv to let Guillaume help, she can later be found in Novigrad, I know some people already know this. A tiny number of people know that she'll show up in Skellige too. But there's a third state I don't think anyone has found yet.

Can you really meet

Spoiler

Vivienne

in Skellige? She mentions she's going there, but as far as I know there is no way to actually meet her there. Tried searching YouTube and no deal. Perhaps it got cut as well and he didn't know about it.

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

Can you really meet

Spoiler

Vivienne

in Skellige? She mentions she's going there, but as far as I know there is no way to actually meet her there. Tried searching YouTube and no deal. Perhaps it got cut as well and he didn't know about it.

You can meet her in Novigrad.

 

[Luxorek]

You can meet her in Novigrad.

I know that. The dev mentions her 'showing up' in Skellige, as in physically. That doesn't happen in the game as far as I know.

 

[Strangelove77]

Is there a good way to make money? I'm level 6 and I'm more or less constantly broke.

I'm replaying it and I don't remember it being so stingy with money.

 

[Ferrio]

Beat HoS, man the final boss ...wow what a horrible way to end the expansion. Oh well time to take a big break before starting B&W, since I'm getting burned out and I got Yakuza 0 waiting for me.

 

[Tenacious-D]

Some more stuff about the cut Iorveth content.

Yeah, he [Iorveth] was in the base game but got cut for reasons. He just never made sense for the expansions or DLC for other reasons. His previous role in the game was in a quest chain that eventually became the basis for Hearts of Stone, but between the initial implementation (for W3) and the full expansion (HoS) it was totally rewritten, to the point that you wouldn't recognize the quest at all. It was a story about the Catriona plague, Mr. Mirror, and some Nilfgaardian researchers. Maybe after we're all done with the game I can drop some more details, the cut stuff with Iorveth was mostly my stuff, so it makes me sad we never got to use him.

I think one of my big disappointments with some of the cut content in W3 is that we lost a lot of the darker shadings on the Nilfgaardians. The cut stuff wasn't the same quality as the rest of the game and there's no way we'd have had the time to finish it, but the Nilfgaardians do some pretty heinous shit in the name of law & order. Yeah, they create order and prosperity, but what is that worth to the people they crush to get there? Wealth and rule of law are pretty pointless when a significant portion of your population have no (or at least very limited) access to either.

Originally Iorveth showed up on Velen searching for a cure to a plague ravaging the south, including Mahakam. Geralt has to team up with Iorveth, and Roche, Ves, and Thaler for very complicated reasons to try and get this cure. The whole plague plotline mostly got cut, though there's some elements of it drifting around in places, like the guy with the corpse wagon who claims he's immune. The quest where you have to get Ves out of the fight with the Nilfgaardians was also part of this plotline, though in a substantially different form (I think the cuts and rewrites really hurt her character, sadly. )

In the version of her quest that I liked best, she's pissed off because the village of Poppystone helped the Partisans escape Velen, but the Nilfs found out about it and are going to execute some people. Ves asks Geralt to help her liberate them behind Roche's back. Ves and Geralt go, save some folks and kill some Nilfgaardians, they have a really nice scene together where they talk about constellations and elven mythology, then go back to the camp and Roche throws a hissyfit because he's secretly got a deal with the Nilfgaardians.

Most of the quests that characterized the Nilfgaardians as maybe not the most enlightened people in the world, got cut. The remainders of that questline are Eye for an Eye (significantly reduced from design), Patrol Gone Missing, and Blood Ties. Coincidentally, all mine, though I don't think they were my best work; and divorced from the main quest most people never even see them.

In Eye for an Eye, the Nilfgaardians were in that village to kill the people who helped the Temerian partisans escape Velen. Which is fair in war, I suppose, though the original design was for them to be in the village capturing slaves. (I must admit, the slavery thing was not my design, and I'm glad it got removed.)
In Patrol Gone Missing there is a hidden event that probably 99% of people never see that reveals that the Nilfgaardians were executing prisoners of war.
In Blood Ties, the dwarf "coachman" for the noblewoman is actually a slave, though it's never explicitly mentioned.

I wonder if this would have tied into the mage Alexander's notes about the plague, during the quests with Keira and Fyke Isle. Also, I guess that's what the bottom area of the map was for, the area that's all desolate with the spectres and general filth. Also, considering the questline was going to involve the Catriona, I wonder if Shani was involved from the beginning as well, or if she was only added later on.

 

[MadYarpen]

Man I am almost starting to wish the game would be released now, with all this content

 

[Tenacious-D]

Man I am almost starting to wish the game would be released now, with all this content

I'm pretty sure that the big bad-guy of the plague questline was a guy called Martin Hector Krafft Ebbing, who was probably voice acted by David Annen, the guy who did Dethmold in TW2 and BB in B&W. In the leaked docs, one of his fingers gets cut off and dies summoning a demon (post isn't 100% accurate as we now know that Iorveth was involved in that questline) Considering the comments that this quest was an early, very different Hearts of Stone, I'm assuming that the demon he summoned was Gaunter O'Dimm.

You know the mask you get in Blood and Wine

Spoiler

from Regis when he asks you to pick mandrake roots

, that was called Martin's mask originally (image 1).

 

[teacupcopter]

I've got an ok PC which could run this ok on medium or a PS4 pro and nice big tv at 4k (upscale I guess but still)

Is the PS4 version with expansions any good? Or just stick to pc? Price isn't an issue. It's just it feels like this could be a good controller game. But I heard bad things about the port.

 

[EatChildren]

Man I am almost starting to wish the game would be released now, with all this content

It'd be nice, but that's the nature of game development. I guarantee the quantity of cut and altered content in total is far greater than even this one example. Big open RPGs like this naturally end up with a lot of stuff that has to be trimmed due to time and budget.

 

[leng jai]

I've got an ok PC which could run this ok on medium or a PS4 pro and nice big tv at 4k (upscale I guess but still)

Is the PS4 version with expansions any good? Or just stick to pc? Price isn't an issue. It's just it feels like this could be a good controller game. But I heard bad things about the port.

Game isn't Pro patched so there's not a huge difference even with boost mode. I'd get it on PC purely because you can run it at 60fps. I honestly think the game's controls are insufferable at 30fps, I can't stand it.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Some more stuff about the cut Iorveth content.









I wonder if this would have tied into the mage Alexander's notes about the plague, during the quests with Keira and Fyke Isle. Also, I guess that's what the bottom area of the map was for, the area that's all desolate with the spectres and general filth. Also, considering the questline was going to involve the Catriona, I wonder if Shani was involved from the beginning as well, or if she was only added later on.

Oh, fascinating stuff. Would've loved to see expanded events for W2 characters, and especially Thaler. Also, I think W3 does a good enough of job showing why Nilfgaard is undesirable as a ruler, so it doesn't suffer that much from the cuts; though perhaps that's just my memory from W1 or W2 bleeding in...


And re: Shani, I probably missed something, but in the whole of base W3 that I saw, the only mention of Shani is by, like, an NPC or two in the major cities; they don't have a definitive answer for where she is. So she could've been anywhere before you bump into her in HoS. But man I'm glad they brought her back, and for such an awesome questline too.

 

[Kadin]

Just picked up the GOTY edition for GOG via cdkeys for $25 and change. Been playing the base game with no extra dlc on XB1 but figured it was time to step up to PC. I can already see it was well worth the purchase. Any mods I should think about right off the bat?

 

[leng jai]

Just picked up the GOTY edition for GOG via cdkeys for $25 and change. Been playing the base game with no extra dlc on XB1 but figured it was time to step up to PC. I can already see it was well worth the purchase. Any mods I should think about right off the bat?

Go to the Witcher 3 Nexus site and check the top files section. Most of them are good but double check the comments to see if they are compatible with 1.31. It's not super active like Skyrim's modding community so some of them are old and don't work anymore.

 

[JustinBB7]

Just picked up the GOTY edition for GOG via cdkeys for $25 and change. Been playing the base game with no extra dlc on XB1 but figured it was time to step up to PC. I can already see it was well worth the purchase. Any mods I should think about right off the bat?

No mods are really needed honestly. Most of the mods out there are cheat mods like no weight limit etc.

 

[Vasilisk 2038]

Thanks for posting those tidbits about the cut content, I agree that some places of the south of the map felt too "empty", but I took it like that was a deserted area because of the war. Anyway, fascinating stuff.

 

[Kadin]

Go to the Witcher 3 Nexus site and check the top files section. Most of them are good but double check the comments to see if they are compatible with 1.31. It's not super active like Skyrim's modding community so some of them are old and don't work anymore.

No mods are really needed honestly. Most of the mods out there are cheat mods like no weight limit etc.

Thanks guys. I looked at the mods and quite a few are outdated so I'm just going to enjoy the game vanilla for now. Still pretty blown away how much better it looks on PC with a decent machine.

 

[Kaffeemann]

Thanks guys. I looked at the mods and quite a few are outdated so I'm just going to enjoy the game vanilla for now. Still pretty blown away how much better it looks on PC with a decent machine.

Couple QoL/visual mods I use and recommend for a first playthrough:
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2034/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/943/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/986/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1024/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/659/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/497/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1021/?

 

[Tenacious-D]

Thanks for posting those tidbits about the cut content, I agree that some places of the south of the map felt too "empty", but I took it like that was a deserted area because of the war. Anyway, fascinating stuff.

This is my favourite, regarding pam pam param.

Q: Are we supposed to know what that song is? Or is it just made up?

A: I think it was originally supposed to be the melody to "poker face" but wound up just being improvised nonsense (it's funnier as improvised nonsense).

 

[MartyStu]

Oh, fascinating stuff. Would've loved to see expanded events for W2 characters, and especially Thaler. Also, I think W3 does a good enough of job showing why Nilfgaard is undesirable as a ruler, so it doesn't suffer that much from the cuts; though perhaps that's just my memory from W1 or W2 bleeding in...


And re: Shani, I probably missed something, but in the whole of base W3 that I saw, the only mention of Shani is by, like, an NPC or two in the major cities; they don't have a definitive answer for where she is. So she could've been anywhere before you bump into her in HoS. But man I'm glad they brought her back, and for such an awesome questline too.

Yup. That relationship is so realistic in its messiness.

Actually, all the relationships in the game are like that. I really wish the non-romantic ones were as nuanced.

 

[Kadin]

Couple QoL/visual mods I use and recommend for a first playthrough:
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2034/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/943/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/986/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1024/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/659/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/497/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1021/?

Thanks. Grabbed the HD mod for now, might do a couple others. I do remember how annoying it was not being able to jump in water...

 

[Sarek]

The Gourmet skill is a game changer. Feels like taking it dropped the difficulty down by couple notches. Went from having to be really careful with packs to basically just running in and slaughtering everything. Even on Death March only way regular mobs seem to be able to kill me now is if I get stuck between bunch of them.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Oh wow, I just did the No Place Like Home mission in Kaer Morhen. I'm in tears, that writing was so good. I had to stop and think how far I wanted to escalate things, but I just threw caution to the wind.

"Lambert...you're a genius."

 

[finalflame]

Just picked this back up and and am just past the

Spoiler

Bloody Baron

quest line. Man, this game is good. So far I've had a pretty tough time get any money and I haven't found as many oil recipes as I'd like but I'm working on it.

Still also kinda getting used to the combat. I think it'll continue to be my only major gripe with the game; that, and Roach's movement near obstacles being so finicky.

 

[jtb]

It'd be nice, but that's the nature of game development. I guarantee the quantity of cut and altered content in total is far greater than even this one example. Big open RPGs like this naturally end up with a lot of stuff that has to be trimmed due to time and budget.

I agree, but I think it's too bad that "the original game, but with more content!" is a harder sell than completely new areas. I would love an expansion that just repopulated Velen/Novigrad with meatier content (not unlike Hearts of Stone) that occurred concurrently with the main quest line. But that would be a hard sell, and probably would necessitate rebalancing a lot of the main quest, etc. Though, iirc, not a whole lot unlike what they did with the enhanced editions with W2 and (especially) W1?

Like Novigrad... such a rich, lively locale with so little to do.

 

[Strangelove77]

Should I hold off on the expansions til I do all the normal content or can I just start doing them as soon as I'm the recommended level to do them?
What makes more narrative sense?

 

[JustinBB7]

Should I hold off on the expansions til I do all the normal content or can I just start doing them as soon as I'm the recommended level to do them?
What makes more narrative sense?

Main story, than Hearts Of Stone and then Blood & Wine.

Try to finish everything before you start Blood & Wine for best satisfaction. Since Blood & Wine truly is the end of the entire series.

 

[ParityBit]

So I am running around the islands of Skelleg and I stopped using the boats. They are just so infuriating when they get attacked. I just end up waiting for the stand up animation to happen and jump in the water to crossbow everything. Half the time I lose part of the ship before I can actually stand/draw my sword.

I actually just started to swim everywhere, holding down the button to fast swim and watching TV as I move between '?' on the map.

Anyone else do the same? Or is it just me?

 

[V1LÆM]

Should I hold off on the expansions til I do all the normal content or can I just start doing them as soon as I'm the recommended level to do them?
What makes more narrative sense?

you can do them whenever you want. well i think you need to at least reach the Velen map for HoS and have done the "Poet Under Pressure" quest for B&W. recommended level for HoS is 32 and 34 for B&W i think. you're not gonna get to that until near the end of the game.

B&W has the true ending to the game/series. the base game offers a nice conclusion if you weren't to play the expansions. i'd just play the base game > hos > b&w.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Reading about all this. It makes me wish that the developers would release a lot of the cut content so that the modding community could complete it!

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

So I am running around the islands of Skelleg and I stopped using the boats. They are just so infuriating when they get attacked. I just end up waiting for the stand up animation to happen and jump in the water to crossbow everything. Half the time I lose part of the ship before I can actually stand/draw my sword.

I actually just started to swim everywhere, holding down the button to fast swim and watching TV as I move between '?' on the map.

Anyone else do the same? Or is it just me?

You can use the crossbow and kill enemies while manoeuvring the ship

 

[jtb]

You can also fast travel really easily in boats. Worst case scenario, boat to where you want to go, then fast travel back.

The water mechanics aren't great in the game, but it (+ a jump button lol) is better than not having one at all (W2).

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

Finished BaW and while the content is so much superior to HoS, Gaunter is the main man

 

[Lender]

250h+ hours, 4th playthrough. Still amazed at how amazing this game can look....

 

[Exentryk]

I'll do another playthrough maybe next year when HDMI 2.1 is out and once I get a new OLED tv. Playing this in 4K on that would be amazing!

Anyway, have a beautiful screenshot.

 

[Embearded]

The GOTY edition is 25€ on PSN, is it worth it with a standard PS4?
I've played Witcher 2 on PC and i really liked it.

I am also pretty sure the GOTY edition contains the 2 DLC, but there is no reference on the DLCs in the description.

 

[leng jai]

The GOTY edition is 25€ on PSN, is it worth it with a standard PS4?
I've played Witcher 2 on PC and i really liked it.

I am also pretty sure the GOTY edition contains the 2 DLC, but there is no reference on the DLCs in the description.

Can't play this on PC?

 

[V1LÆM]

The GOTY edition is 25€ on PSN, is it worth it with a standard PS4?
I've played Witcher 2 on PC and i really liked it.

I am also pretty sure the GOTY edition contains the 2 DLC, but there is no reference on the DLCs in the description.

it's fine on PS4. it hasn't been patched for PS4 pro and never will be so it will run exactly the same unless you enable boost mode and all that will do is make the framerate a solid 30fps. not that it really needs it though because i felt it held 30fps quite well throughout the game. if anything there are little dips in the city areas but nothing major.

if your PC can handle it then get it for that of course.

the GOTY contains the base game + 16 free dlcs + 2 expansions + all patches. well there might be 1 or 2 patches you need to download as those were released after GOTY launched.

 

[Sarek]

The GOTY edition is 25€ on PSN, is it worth it with a standard PS4?
I've played Witcher 2 on PC and i really liked it.

I am also pretty sure the GOTY edition contains the 2 DLC, but there is no reference on the DLCs in the description.

Absolutely worth it. I'm playing it on standard PS4 at the moment and haven't noticed any issues and the game looks absolutely gorgeus. Also got the GOTY myself and it includes all the DLCs ever released for the game.

 

[Embearded]

Can't play this on PC?

No, my setup is pretty old now and i won't be able to upgrade any time soon. My gaming has moved to PS4 only since last year.

it's fine on PS4. it hasn't been patched for PS4 pro and never will be so it will run exactly the same unless you enable boost mode and all that will do is make the framerate a solid 30fps. not that it really needs it though because i felt it held 30fps quite well throughout the game. if anything there are little dips in the city areas but nothing major.

if your PC can handle it then get it for that of course.

the GOTY contains the base game + 16 free dlcs + 2 expansions + all patches. well there might be 1 or 2 patches you need to download as those were released after GOTY launched.

Absolutely worth it. I'm playing it on standard PS4 at the moment and haven't noticed any issues and the game looks absolutely gorgeus. Also got the GOTY myself and it includes all the DLCs ever released for the game.

Thanks! That's what i wanted to hear as i bought it and it's now downloading! I will take it slow and savour every moment!

 

[Atomic Playboy]

The Gourmet skill is a game changer. Feels like taking it dropped the difficulty down by couple notches. Went from having to be really careful with packs to basically just running in and slaughtering everything. Even on Death March only way regular mobs seem to be able to kill me now is if I get stuck between bunch of them.

I had read a couple things about this skill and just always ignored it, but I'm on a New Game+ playthrough and I've got 25 ability points or so built up and NOTHING to spend them on, so I figured, OK, take a shot at this and see what the hype is. And I'm looking through the skills... Gourmet isn't one of them. There was something else that sounded similar, but it said it increased food to last for $|%$ time. I tried enabling it and it did literally nothing.

I did some digging, and it turns out that early GOG patches didn't delete previous patches correctly, so certain things wouldn't display properly ingame. Gourmet was one of them. I found a fix, loaded things back up, unlocked the correct skill (which now was correctly named in the menu), and wow, does that make a difference. I mean... you basically can't die. Take a nibble of bread, play for 20 minutes, eat a chunk of raw meat, play for another 20 minutes, and enjoy functional immortality. Just make sure to always have Quen active, and if you get overzealous and get swarmed take a White Raffard's Decoction for full health. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Just finished my first playthrough and the credits are rolling. Fantastic game, but what a waste of a main antagonist. I was excited after reading the books and their appearance in Witcher 1, but then

Spoiler

he gets 10 lines of dialogue, and five minutes of screentime. No meaningful interaction with either Geralt or Ciri.

I probably fucked up my story at some point, because I didn't like my ending at all. As soon as I finish the DLC, it's straight to another playthrough to seem if I get something better.

Edit: I think I ended up getting literally the worst ending possible.

 

[Into the Light]

Is the upgrading, craft system, and branching abilities or what ever a little over whelming?
Its the one thing that kept me from playing this game, but I think I am ready. The one thing that turned me off, was the above mentioned looked over whelming. How does this play one the Xbox One S now?

 

[V1LÆM]

Is the upgrading, craft system, and branching abilities or what ever a little over whelming?
Its the one thing that kept me from playing this game, but I think I am ready. The one thing that turned me off, was the above mentioned looked over whelming. How does this play one the Xbox One S now?

it can be a little confusing at first but it's not that complicated. it will show you all the ingredients/materials you need to craft items. they have improved the UI since launch to make it easier to get around.

for abilities you get 1 point with every level and from discovering "places of power". the more points you put into a certain group the more skills it unlocks. you can only have a certain amount of skills active at one time. you can then improve your stats by apply mutagens. everything is colour coded. if the skill is red then you want to apply a red mutagen. the blood & wine expansion adds more depth to them and that's when i felt it got a bit too overwhelming.

 

[Into the Light]

it can be a little confusing at first but it's not that complicated. it will show you all the ingredients/materials you need to craft items. they have improved the UI since launch to make it easier to get around.

for abilities you get 1 point with every level and from discovering "places of power". the more points you put into a certain group the more skills it unlocks. you can only have a certain amount of skills active at one time. you can then improve your stats by apply mutagens. everything is colour coded. if the skill is red then you want to apply a red mutagen. the blood & wine expansion adds more depth to them and that's when i felt it got a bit too overwhelming.

Thank you for the explanation, it helps me understand what I am getting into. All in all its still worth it right? To make that kind of a time commitment?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Thank you for the explanation, it helps me understand what I am getting into. All in all its still worth it right? To make that kind of a time commitment?

Oh yes. If you don't feel like trying to figure it out on your own, there are tons of guides and recommended builds that take all the guesswork out of it so you can focus on the game / story. It's not a bad idea to use those as a jumping off point anyway, and then start tweaking them as you figure out what playstyle is most enjoyable for you. They've made crafting menus a little nicer to navigate too, since it will now tell you if the merchant you're talking to sells the specific item you need to complete a recipe. And with all the oils / potions / decoctions, you only craft them once and then you have them forever; you just meditate to refill them.

 

[Angst]

Oh yes. If you don't feel like trying to figure it out on your own, there are tons of guides and recommended builds that take all the guesswork out of it so you can focus on the game / story. It's not a bad idea to use those as a jumping off point anyway, and then start tweaking them as you figure out what playstyle is most enjoyable for you. They've made crafting menus a little nicer to navigate too, since it will now tell you if the merchant you're talking to sells the specific item you need to complete a recipe. And with all the oils / potions / decoctions, you only craft them once and then you have them forever; you just meditate to refill them.

Never noticed this. How does it work?

 

[MadYarpen]

Thank you for the explanation, it helps me understand what I am getting into. All in all its still worth it right? To make that kind of a time commitment?

Sure. Enjoy the ride. I envy anyone who can play it for the first time.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Never noticed this. How does it work?

Let's say you want to craft a sword that you have a diagram for. You talk to a Blacksmith and ask him to craft something. You highlight the sword and see that it calls for certain materials; using the base Griffin steel sword as an example, you need leather scraps, steel ingots, a monster brain and a monster eye. You already have the monster brain, so no worries there. You don't have leather straps or steel ingots, but they're highlighted in the crafting menu that you're looking at, which tells you that this blacksmith also sells them. You don't have a monster eye either, but it's not highlighted, which tells you this blacksmith doesn't sell that item and you'll need to get it elsewhere. You can also pin diagrams, which will cause highlights to show up in the shop menu anytime an item needed for a pinned recipe is being sold by a craftsman. This works for blacksmiths (weapons), armorers (armor), herbalists and alchemists (alchemy), along with the occasional shopkeeper selling alchemy supplies. The one thing that it still doesn't show you is what items you have in your inventory that can be dismantled to produce the ingredients you need, which comes up infrequently but can still be infuriating if you run around for 3 days looking for powdered monster tissue before realizing you could just dismantle some of your 8 million pounds of specter dust.