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[RedSwirl]

Seems to me like this game portrays the Nilfgaardians in a better light than the Northern Kingdoms, if only somewhat after you take all things into consideration.

The Nilfs seem to have a more effective government and stronger economy. Most importantly they aren't racist like most of the Nordlings. The only thing displayed in this game that's really bad about the Nilfs is how they practice total war.

 

[Elysium-777]

Seems to me like this game portrays the Nilfgaardians in a better light than the Northern Kingdoms, if only somewhat after you take all things into consideration.

The Nilfs seem to have a more effective government and stronger economy. Most importantly they aren't racist like most of the Nordlings. The only thing displayed in this game that's really bad about the Nilfs is how they practice total war.

The issue with the North is that Radovid let the Light of the Eternal Fire have free reign, leading to most people taking up their bigoted views. If Foltest was still around instead of Radovid, I'm sure things would have played out differently.

 

[His Majesty]

Even without the Eternal Fire humans would actively despise non-humans and vice versa. They haven't forgotten how the Scoi'atael have helped Nilfgaard in previous wars and the Scoi'atael haven't forgotten how Nilfgaard sold them out during the peace treaty. I also don't think Foltest was too pleased with the actions of the Scoi'atael during his absence. But yeah at least he wouldn't have held a giant summer barbecue in Vizima.

I think it is fair to say non-humans are treated better in Nilfgaard but I doubt Nilfgaard holds any sympathy for the Northern non-humans and merely sees them as a tool to be used and discarded when necessary.

 

[Coreda]

The effect duration for different foods is shown in the inventory screen. I believe cow's milk and water have the longest duration.

Speaking of which I'd like to see a mod that allowed for vitality regen stacking of the same kind of food. Some have posted that consuming two or more of the same kind of food increases the HP regenerated in the same time but I haven't noticed this.


Also got around to watching some of SIGGRAPH 2015 presentation clips up on 4gamer.net and came across an explanation by the technical art director Krzysztof Krzyscin on why the more dynamic stormy waves in the early concepts were toned down for release.

Initially [the art department] wanted to have really powerful storms and huge waves and that thing but that was making the water behaving not really consistently between the shallow water and the deep water so we kind of decided to [make] something average.

 

[Davide]

While games like Dragon Age, Skyrim, Oblivion, have their interesting RPG worlds, they all eventually bored me immensely. I loved Oblivion, but never really took the time to invest in the lore. Dragon Age 1 had a nice story and lore that was worth reading. Inquisition was lame.

Agreed with everything in this post. After forcing myself to play Inquisition for over 100 hours without caring for the history or characters and still couldn't beat

Spoiler

Corypheus

in the end I was worried I'd burnt myself out on long RPGs. The Witcher is something completely different, I want to know all about the history and bought the compendium and the books. I've really enjoyed every hour of the game.

I'm getting into university now so I'm debating whether to finish this game quick beforehand or take a break from it, play MGSV, and wait for the first expansion before finishing the game.

 

[Venture]

Just now finished it. What an amazing ride! Out of all the things I love about Witcher 3 the one thing that really stands out is the world itself. I've never played another game where the world felt so alive. I think they've even topped what Rockstar did with RDR and GTA5, which is quite an accomplishment.

So, is there no way to get your actual play time? According to the game it's 682 hours, but I'm pretty sure that's not accurate. Also what's with some of the ridiculously high-level sword diagrams? I've got one that's level 46. I finished at level 35 and there's no way I'll get near that level with what little I have left to do. Maybe with the DLC.

 

[Anteater]

i like this blacksmith

 

[ToyMachine228]

I just finished the Final Preparations chain and I'm heading to Skellige. Am I almost done? Game has been dragging on for quite some time now...

 

[Anteater]

I just finished the Final Preparations chain and I'm heading to Skellige. Am I almost done? Game has been dragging on for quite some time now...

nah, there's a whole line of new quests in skellige, they're interesting but if you're looking for some huge story progression it doesn't really start until after you're done

 

[Coreda]

Also what's with some of the ridiculously high-level sword diagrams? I've got one that's level 46. I finished at level 35 and there's no way I'll get near that level with what little I have left to do. Maybe with the DLC.

Most of the swords have lower-level versions found as loot or from blacksmiths, with some exceptions. The Black Unicorn for example I don't think can be found outside of the crafting it from the diagram, which is kind of crazy with the level 46 requirement. I exploit the merchant 'feature' where swords have different stats each time you check their stock and pick one with the highest damage at my current level (or one higher).

I'm happy with the Harvall steel sword/Harpy silver sword combo. Both have slender hilts, short guards, brown sheaths and dual-headed pommels. The Harpy is better than any of the Witcher mastercrafted silver swords with 427-523 damage + 20% chance to cause bleeding and with only a level 37 requirement.

 

[mattiewheels]

I keep noticing that a lot of interiors have really flat lighting, so I looked up if there were any lighting mods...I see one that changes world lighting to cutscene lighting, anyone used that?

 

[Squishy3]

nah, there's a whole line of new quests in skellige, they're interesting but if you're looking for some huge story progression it doesn't really start until after you're done

well, he only has those 3 main quests to complete and then he can go right to the ending.

 

[Venture]

Most of the swords have lower-level versions found as loot or from blacksmiths, with some exceptions. The Black Unicorn for example I don't think can be found outside of the crafting it from the diagram, which is kind of crazy with the level 46 requirement. I exploit the merchant 'feature' where swords have different stats each time you check their stock and pick one with the highest damage at my current level (or one higher).

I'm happy with the Harvall steel sword/Harpy silver sword combo. Both have slender hilts, short guards, brown sheaths and dual-headed pommels. The Harpy is better than any of the Witcher mastercrafted silver swords with 427-523 damage + 20% chance to cause bleeding and with only a level 37 requirement.

I've actually found a couple of Black Unicorn swords. They were fairly low level low though. I remember getting one off a Leshen I killed.

The Harpy looks nice. I can probably get to level 37. Seems like I've been holding onto that diagram forever.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Beat the game today finally and got the best ending (didn't even look at any guides for choices, just tried to go for what I thought were the right ones to make).

Now to wait for Witcher 4.

 

[Coreda]

I've actually found a couple of Black Unicorn swords. They were fairly low level low though. I remember getting one off a Leshen I killed.

Maybe I've picked them up in the past and sold them Wasn't until late-game I paid much attention to the names of the swords.

Now to wait for Witcher 4.

You'll be waiting a while.

 

[electroflame]

I keep noticing that a lot of interiors have really flat lighting, so I looked up if there were any lighting mods...I see one that changes world lighting to cutscene lighting, anyone used that?

I currently use the Cutscene Lighting mod.

It's not a drastic change, but with the Reshade profile I'm using it helps a little bit, especially in interiors.

 

[nick nacc]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

 

[Venture]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

I settled on feline. I like all of them except the enhanced version. They look properly Witchery to me and have a really nice attack bonus.

Mastercrafted Ursine is nice too.

 

[Squishy3]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

I like the Griffin stuff but actually have no idea what the Mastercrafted version looks like, outisde of the boots. I just wasn't going to farm dimeritium since I was right at the end of the game.

Wolf armor set looks good, the Mastercrafted version looks ace.

 

[Coreda]

An Craite shieldmaidens are so fly.

 

[Cannon Goose]

I settled on feline. I like all of them except the enhanced version. They look properly Witchery to me and have a really nice attack bonus.

The basic Feline set is my favourite look by far, it's so different from all the other sets. I wasn't really a big fan of the enhanced or superior versions but then I wound up loving the mastercrafted gear. And yeah, it's kind of hard to go past the attack bonus. With the bleed on the Feline swords I was ripping through enemies like there was no tomorrow.

 

[Venture]

An Craite shieldmaidens are so fly.

Whoa, I was just going to mention the shieldmaidens! The design in this game is truly outstanding. Even on the incidental characters.

One from Clan Drummond

I do like the An Craite best though. I think it's the hat. Your screenshots are beautiful BTW.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

I've been in these OTs a lot and the most popular armors by far and beyond are the Feline and Wolf armor sets, both in terms of stats and looks. There are plenty of nice-looking armor in the game for sure, though.

 

[teokrazia]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

Talking about Basic, Ursine was definitely my fav.
Now that I have all of them in Superior version I can't really choose: every Set progressively showed a strong personality that matches my taste in its specific way.CDPR has done a really great job with their design.

In recent hours, I loved also these ones:
http://i.imgur.com/qG5dBdJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/k4l9eOQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gu8PGCg.jpg

 

[GeoGonzo]

Finally done, a fantastic experience even if its filled with jankiness. It would have been an even better game if they had dialed down the ammount on content and focused a bit more on improving UI and squashing bugs... but it may still be my favourite game of the year.

I'll almost certainly buy the expansions.

Oh, since I finally finished every quest I decided to visit a vendor and check how much weight I've been carrying around in books and documents only: Seventy five!? Crazy.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Sure this has been asked before. But what is your favorite armor. A lot of people seem to be partial to the Ursine stuff but that does nothing for me. I currently am rocking the Undvik armor and don't seem to like anything else.

Wolf Armor is my overall favorite.

Tastes and all, but I don't like the starting armor at all (Kaer Morhen armor). It looks ugly to me.

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Bloody Baron sidequests spoilers :

Spoiler

Anna Strenger is dead, the baron hanged himself, I freed the spirit in the tree...I feel like I fucked up big time :/ Well I hope I'll still be able to see the best ending

This game never ends right ? I'm just free roaming and finding quests, they don't end !

Spoiler

They're also really interesting so doesn't feel like I'm wasting my time.

I really loved one quest about fighting and becoming the brawling champion in Velen (don't know the English name) :

Spoiler

There's a fight where your opponent speaks to you before the fight and tells you he sees you're stronger than him, and asks you to let him win because he's just a poor fisher and winning would grant him a bag of wheat. I wanted to go on with the quest and win but felt a little bad at the time. I felt awesome to speak with him after and giving him 5 gold coins to buy food. I really felt I was part of the world and that was coherent with my playstyle and how Geralt would've acted.

 

[Alpende]

Bloody Baron sidequests spoilers :

Spoiler

Anna Strenger is dead, the baron hanged himself, I freed the spirit in the tree...I feel like I fucked up big time :/ Well I hope I'll still be able to see the best ending

This game never ends right ? I'm just free roaming and finding quests, they don't end !

Spoiler

They're also really interesting so doesn't feel like I'm wasting my time.

I really loved one quest about fighting and becoming the brawling champion in Velen (don't know the English name) :

Spoiler

There's a fight where your opponent speaks to you before the fight and tells you he sees you're stronger than him, and asks you to let him win because he's just a poor fisher and winning would grant him a bag of wheat. I wanted to go on with the quest and win but felt a little bad at the time. I felt awesome to speak with him after and giving him 5 gold coins to buy food. I really felt I was part of the world and that was coherent with my playstyle and how Geralt would've acted.

Regarding the Baron quest:

Spoiler

At least you saved the kids, if you choose to kill the spirit in the tree like I did the Crones kill and probably eat the kids. The baron and Anna live, the village is fine but the kids are not. There are no true winners in that quest. It's great.

 

[Coreda]

Deleted Geralt + Yenn Act 3 dialog scene uploaded on the Youtubes. Transcript.

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Regarding the Baron quest:

Spoiler

At least you saved the kids, if you choose to kill the spirit in the tree like I did the Crones kill and probably eat the kids. The baron and Anna live, the village is fine but the kids are not. There are no true winners in that quest. It's great.

Spoiler

yeah it is. Personally I freed the spirit becausd the Crones seemed too fishy to me and dishonest. Which I was right about

I have a question related to the Gwynt and the bloody baron :

Spoiler

Now that he is dead I can't get his card...does that mean the whole Gwynt sidequest segment becomes impossible to complete ?

 

[Davide]

I have a question related to the Gwynt and the bloody baron :

Spoiler

Now that he is dead I can't get his card...does that mean the whole Gwynt sidequest segment becomes impossible to complete ?

Spoiler

Pretty sure you can't get it after that quest even if he lives. You've got to get it before.

 

[Elysium-777]

Spoiler

yeah it is. Personally I freed the spirit becausd the Crones seemed too fishy to me and dishonest. Which I was right about

I have a question related to the Gwynt and the bloody baron :

Spoiler

Now that he is dead I can't get his card...does that mean the whole Gwynt sidequest segment becomes impossible to complete ?

It should

Spoiler

be on the desk in his office.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Deleted Geralt + Yenn Act 3 dialog scene uploaded on the Youtubes. Transcript.

Sheesh, that is way out of character, even for Yenn.

I sincerely hope they cut it because it made no sense, not because they didn't have enough time.

 

[Alpende]

Spoiler

Pretty sure you can't get it after that quest even if he lives. You've got to get it before.

Nah, they patched that.

Spoiler

It's on his desk

 

[JohnnyFootball]

This was definitely the hardest fight in the entire game for me. Nothing came close.

Yep same here. Hardest fight on deathmarch.

However, on the attempt that I beat him I learned that he was always going to teleport behind you and to set it so that you would easily roll away when he teleported.

 

[Skii]

Just started The Witcher 3 again but on PC this time as I wasn't enjoying the performance problems on PS4. Anyway, I'm in the second area now (Velen) and was just doing some of the question marks on the map before I realised I'm terribly underleveled. I think I'm level 4... Is that about right for the beginning of Velen? Why are the enemies consistently level 9+ with certain monsters at level 13?! I feel like I'm underleveled.

Playing on the "hard" difficulty so it's not too difficult but I feel like I'm underleveled considering some enemies are one-shotting me.

 

[Elysium-777]

Just started The Witcher 3 again but on PC this time as I wasn't enjoying the performance problems on PS4. Anyway, I'm in the second area now (Velen) and was just doing some of the question marks on the map before I realised I'm terribly underleveled. I think I'm level 4... Is that about right for the beginning of Velen? Why are the enemies consistently level 9+ with certain monsters at level 13?! I feel like I'm underleveled.

Playing on the "hard" difficulty so it's not too difficult but I feel like I'm underleveled considering some enemies are one-shotting me.

You're not underleveled, I started Velen at level 3. Once you start doing some of the main quests and some contracts, you'll quickly start gaining levels. I also recommend that you turn off map markers in the options menu. It's a lot better if you stumble upon the question marks randomly, than actively going after them.

 

[Skii]

You're not underleveled, I started Velen at level 3. Once you start doing some of the main quests and some contracts, you'll quickly start gaining levels. I also recommend that you turn off map markers in the options menu. It's a lot better if you stumble upon the question marks randomly, than actively going after them.

Ah okay. I keep neglecting the main quests until I do majority of the question marks. I have a problem. I can definitely see the benefit of turning it off but I'm scared I'll miss some cool items/armor/weapons if I do lol.

 

[Hoplatee]

I see farming cows is only 'not allowed' in White Orchard. Found some farm in Velen with 10 or more cows that respawn after every short meditate session. Sometimes even lots of sheep pop up. Using wealthy vendor mod so 1 stack sells for about 28k haha..

So yeah. One hour later after killing countless cows with Igni while watching some football with autoloot on I have more than 1.5 million worth of cow hides. Rich Geralt!

The things you do while waiting for achievements to be fixed again...

 

[Jay Shadow]

Witcher panel about to start at PAX for anyone interested http://www.twitch.tv/pax2

 

[RedSwirl]

Undvik so far is probably the most interesting single location I've visited in the game so far, both visually and from a gameplay standpoint. Lots of mysterious places to investigate with really good scenery and music to match. And I haven't even reached the tower on that island yet.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Well finally getting back to trying to finish the Witcher after not really playing it for a couple weeks and just had Geralt reunite

Spoiler

with Ciri

.

That was probably one of the most awesome, emotionally engaging scenes I've seen in an RPG in a while. The music just makes that little scene INCREDIBLE, especially right at the 2 minute mark. Game gave me goosebumps!

 

[RedSwirl]

I think this game has some issues with the distribution of blacksmiths. It seems to rely on fast travel while I've tried to play the game using fast travel as little as possible.

For instance, on the east side of Velen there doesn't seem to be a single blacksmith south of Lindvale. I don't remember if there's one in the Nilfgaardian camp but there should be. There should at least have been one in Downwaren or maybe one of the little towns east of it.

The worst though is when essential gameplay elements like blacksmiths become temporarily unavailable during events. I came back from doing that quest on Undvik carrying a shitload of loot -- I was overweight, but thought it was fine because I could just sell or dismantle all of it at the armorer as soon as I got to Kaer Trolde, but one of the major side quests started when I got there and I had to walk around at slow speed throughout the whole quest. I know this is kind of a spoiler but I'm just gonna post this and highlight it for anyone still doing those two quests in the islands west of Ard Skellig: If you come back from those islands full of loot, stop over at Kaer Muire first (the big castle town on the southwest corner of Ard Skellig) to sell/dismantle that stuff. On top of that, so far the only journeyman blacksmith (sword forger) I've found in west Skellige is in Kaer Muire -- almost on the other side of the island from Kaer Trolde.

Things like this are what makes the big AAA publishers put a ton of anti-frustration features in their games that ultimately end up removing the sense of challenge though. BioWare or Ubisoft probably would've solved this problem in some blanket fashion like letting you craft anywhere or maybe removing inventory entirely like in Mass Effect 2. Instead developers just need to do a better job of balancing this stuff. Witcher 3 mostly does a great job in terms of designing the layout of its world so it feels fun to explore and traverse. There seems to be just the right frequency of secrets and extra things to find, but it all seems to be placed sensibly and organically. I almost never use fast travel and haven't gotten bored going from place... except when trying to reach blacksmiths.

 

[Dr.Acula]

I think this game has some issues with the distribution of blacksmiths. It seems to rely on fast travel while I've tried to play the game using fast travel as little as possible.

For instance, on the east side of Velen there doesn't seem to be a single blacksmith south of Lindvale. I don't remember if there's one in the Nilfgaardian camp but there should be. There should at least have been one in Downwaren or maybe one of the little towns east of it.

The worst though is when essential gameplay elements like blacksmiths become temporarily unavailable during events. I came back from doing that quest on Undvik carrying a shitload of loot -- I was overweight, but thought it was fine because I could just sell or dismantle all of it at the armorer as soon as I got to Kaer Trolde, but one of the major side quests started when I got there and I had to walk around at slow speed throughout the whole quest. I know this is kind of a spoiler but I'm just gonna post this and highlight it for anyone still doing those two quests in the islands west of Ard Skellig: If you come back from those islands full of loot, stop over at Kaer Muire first (the big castle town on the southwest corner of Ard Skellig) to sell/dismantle that stuff. On top of that, so far the only journeyman blacksmith (sword forger) I've found in west Skellige is in Kaer Muire -- almost on the other side of the island from Kaer Trolde.

Things like this are what makes the big AAA publishers put a ton of anti-frustration features in their games that ultimately end up removing the sense of challenge though. BioWare or Ubisoft probably would've solved this problem in some blanket fashion like letting you craft anywhere or maybe removing inventory entirely like in Mass Effect 2. Instead developers just need to do a better job of balancing this stuff. Witcher 3 mostly does a great job in terms of designing the layout of its world so it feels fun to explore and traverse. There seems to be just the right frequency of secrets and extra things to find, but it all seems to be placed sensibly and organically. I almost never use fast travel and haven't gotten bored going from place... except when trying to reach blacksmiths.

I guess for lore purposes you can just act like blacksmiths aren't common and drop your heavy items. You don't have to loot and sell everything you find.

 

[Sai]

There's a Journeyman Blacksmith in Kaer Trolde; works right next to the Armorer near the entrance. He's not available as often as the Armorer though.

 

[Coreda]

*snip*

I can see how not using fast travel regularly could make weight management more challenging, for sure.

For the most part I while playing I'd sell things to merchants/blacksmiths/armorers frequently either along the way or via fast travel so weight was manageable, even pre-1.07 with no stashes and when alchemy ingredients weren't zero weight. With the Zerrikanian saddlebags and the Fiend decotion active my max carry capacity is 180 which for per-quest loot is usually enough depending on how much existing gear one is carrying.

If an action required more momentum I'd sometimes drop a bundle of goods in an accessible place and come back once I'm done. I learnt the hard way to not to do this on the (Act 2 location)

Spoiler

Isle of Mists

however

 

[teokrazia]

Spoiler Reason of State

Spoiler

I wasn't ready for this

 

[Griss]

The game really is incredible. Arriving in Skellige will go down on my all time 'mind-blowing moments' list. That part of the game is as good as anything I have ever played, ever. I've gone from hating the game over the first few hours to wondering how it could ever be topped in terms of size, scope, writing, characters, world-building, and I'm not even finished.

My next mission is

Spoiler

The Battle of Kaer Morhen

. I'm excited, unfortunately someone spoiled it earlier in this thread with a really poorly used spoiler tag that I won't quote as it would make it worse.

One thing that bothers me at this point in the game is how many low-level quests I have sticking in my quest list. Every side-quest is so good that being able to breeze through a low-level one doesn't seem right. I feel like they should have separated the side-quests into 'Main Story'; 'Supplemental' and 'Secondary' lists, with the Secondary ones scaling up to a certain extent once you hit certain story markers. As for Supplemental I mean political quests, romance quests and 'Gerald's friends' quests. The ones that really make a difference in the world, that feel like borderline main story-line quests. (Especially when you're doing Brothers in Arms, felt like there was a bunch of side quests that became all but mandatory there, and as such were almost mislabeled). These are also the quests that (I believe)

Spoiler

you fail if you don't complete by Isle of Mists.

I realise that level scaling is hard as hell to do right, and it shouldn't apply in the open world, but it just sucks to see all these level 7-11 quests and feel like I won't get the 'proper' experience unless I wait until NG+.

 

[teokrazia]

My next mission is

Spoiler

The Battle of Kaer Morhen

.

That one in my opinion is underwhelming in terms of impact, level design and gameplay.
TW2 managed

Spoiler

alot of 'war' moments so much better

Speaking about emotional investiment, in the other hand... well, you'll see.

 

[nick nacc]

Still blows my mind they still haven't fixed the horse trot stuttering issues. They don't even seem to be putting it on their to do lists.