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The Witcher |OT| Damn all dissonances
- Thread starter Bossman
- Start date
Jay Shadow
Member
This reminds me. I hope in Witcher 2 they cap the frame rate so the dice game doesn't try to fry modern video cards again.
Minsc
Gold Member
Ultrabum said:
If you prefer the lighting on high (I know I did), you can also fix the problem by running the game letterboxed, in a 16:9 resolution - I was able to run 1920x1080 perfectly with 1:1 pixel mapping on my 1920x1200 display, with all settings maxed.
Edit: oops, didn't see this was already addressed.
Ultrabum said:I'm running 1440 x 900sad.
Run a real HDTV resolution 1280x720!
Damn scaling on a LCD display though
Jay Shadow said:
Really? That's the first I heard of that, heh. Another victory for the people using D3DOverrider though (caps framerate to 60).
Dog Problems
Banned
gdt5016 said:
Yeah, that will work.
Jay Shadow
Member
Yeah, my last play through was the first one with my current video card, which is still only a 260. In dice the fan goes into overdrive and gets extremely loud and the temperature shoots up to hotter than Crysis. A few other games have that issue too, where the scene is so simple that it actually starts rendering it too quickly. Alien Swarm's menus had that problem, and I first learned about it was when Starcraft 2 had that issue on release.Minsc said:
Okay hold up. I'm still in chapter III and I think I may have started down the Order path.
Is there any way to get back on the Witcher/Neutral path?
Also is there any more reason to keep picking up Salamander brooches after talking to that Merchang guy?
In the bank hostage quest I told that elf dude I was gonna try to stay neutral, and then told him I wasn't gonna kill a bunch of human for him. That's when I was forced to join Siegfried in taking out the rest of the Elves and Gnomes. Now Geralt is telling Triss he's decided to help the order.
Is there any way to get back on the Witcher/Neutral path?
Also is there any more reason to keep picking up Salamander brooches after talking to that Merchang guy?
Jay Shadow
Member
You can get back to neutral, but the squirrel option is gone.RedSwirl said:
Jay Shadow
Member
Yeah, chapter 3 narrows it down then chapter 4 is the final decision. Dandelion will make it very obvious when it's the final choice.RedSwirl said:
I'm playing this through for the first time (I guess I'm not alone), and really enjoying it. Took a while to get used to the very claustrophobic OTS view (tricky in group combat) and the combat in general, but I'm really starting to get to grips with the combat.
Now I need to work on Alchemy a little more. Should I be experimenting randomly to discover new things? I tried it once and just gifted myself a few seconds of pain.
I'm through chapter I. Not looking at any guides or anything for choices (although I'm doing a little research on the talents), I'm just going to play this as I would any other game. So, in essence, choose the option that's most likely to get Geralt laid.
Now I need to work on Alchemy a little more. Should I be experimenting randomly to discover new things? I tried it once and just gifted myself a few seconds of pain.
I'm through chapter I. Not looking at any guides or anything for choices (although I'm doing a little research on the talents), I'm just going to play this as I would any other game. So, in essence, choose the option that's most likely to get Geralt laid.
I don't understand how they tried to balance the monsters in this game...
Here i am beating some drowners in the swamp of chapter 2, barely taking a hit, then some stupid giant plant come out of nowhere from underground and "omgwtfjusthappened" kill me in a matter of seconds...
Also, game crashed like 2 or 3 times since i started.. =/
Here i am beating some drowners in the swamp of chapter 2, barely taking a hit, then some stupid giant plant come out of nowhere from underground and "omgwtfjusthappened" kill me in a matter of seconds...
Also, game crashed like 2 or 3 times since i started.. =/
Bisnic said:
That's basically a rite of passage for everyone who is playing Witcher for the first time. It's a trophy boss as well, so expect lots of deaths if you try to take it head-on at low levels.
Those Archespores are rooted, so use Igni, run away, and watch as they harmlessly die.
Gully State
Member
RedSwirl said:
He's also a total wuss
Mister_Bubbles
Member
Bisnic said:
After your opponent's first roll, when it goes back to your dice you click on the ones you want to roll again.
For those of you who are having trouble in the early-mid game, learn to charge up igni (hold right click with igni selected), hit them with as powerful blast as you can and then kite them. Hopefully you have enough talent points at this rate to have incineration (and then later, fear/pain). Utterly destroys most encounters/bosses in the game.
SneakyStephan
Banned
RedSwirl said:
Each save is about 28 MB large (and gets bigger as you go along).
Remove all but 10-20 saves from your save folder and it'll go back to being instant.
It was taking 20 seconds for me to see my savegames ingame when pressing save, so I checked my save folder and it was 5GB in size.
Make sure to update to patch 1.5 too, improves stability, fixes a lot of crashes and some bugs.
My framerate is much less choppy it seems since I patched it, before I was getting 40-80 fps according to fraps but it didn't feel very smooth (microstutter) , but it feels a lot smoother after patching.
Maybe placebo effect, but I doubt it because I wasn't even checking for a performance change.
Few dice tips:
If you don't roll anything at all, leave your highest dice on the board and reroll the rest, (instead of rerolling them all), to increase your chances of at least getting a high pair.
If you both get two pairs on the first roll and your opponent has the higher one, you should obviously reroll 3 of your dice (giving up a pair) in the hopes of getting 3 of a kind.
Don't forget about the straight : with a terrible first roll (e.g you roll 2 2 3 4 6 and the other guy rolls 3 of a kind or two pairs with high pair 6) you may still win because you have a 1/6 chance to make a comeback by rolling one of your dice (a 2 in this case) for a straight attempt. (i.e 1 2 3 4 5 or 2 3 4 5 6)
Always bet the maximum as you can abuse quick saving before games.
Going outside the inn then back inside resets the other player's money, so you can play him again right away for unlimited money.
Speaking of patch 1.5, any of you have a good link to download it?
Last time i tried to get the patch 1.5, it couldn't even identify my version of Witcher... and i bought it from GOG, its not some hacked version.
I tried getting it from the official website, but their link is down.
Last time i tried to get the patch 1.5, it couldn't even identify my version of Witcher... and i bought it from GOG, its not some hacked version.
I tried getting it from the official website, but their link is down.
Bisnic said:
After a bit of digging around, it seems that the GOG edition is already completely patched as suspected. No idea about that 1.4.0 though.
Witcher 1 retail required one to register the game in order to get the auto-updates from the game launcher. The Steam version might be similar, unless someone is willing to clarify otherwise.RedSwirl said:
Is it me or does this game have the coolest-looking launcher menu of any PC game?
Also, overall, I actually don't really know why I like this game or why I keep playing it. I mean all its elements are pretty strong except the engine it's built on, but nothing really stands out for me. The way the plotline flows is great but that's not quite it.
I think the reason is just because The Witcher feels a lot more playable than most of today's games. It kinda feels like the way RPGs used to be made (even JRPGs) - there's very little that gets in the way of me just playing the game and enjoying it for myself.
EDIT: I've also confirmed that the Steam version of Enhanced Edition is in fact 1.5 (still crashes quite a bit though).
Also, overall, I actually don't really know why I like this game or why I keep playing it. I mean all its elements are pretty strong except the engine it's built on, but nothing really stands out for me. The way the plotline flows is great but that's not quite it.
I think the reason is just because The Witcher feels a lot more playable than most of today's games. It kinda feels like the way RPGs used to be made (even JRPGs) - there's very little that gets in the way of me just playing the game and enjoying it for myself.
EDIT: I've also confirmed that the Steam version of Enhanced Edition is in fact 1.5 (still crashes quite a bit though).
jim-jam bongs
Member
I've been playing it in long chunks this past week, it is very compelling. I actually started on Easy because I assumed that would be the best way to get through quickly to just experience the story, but restarted on Hard because I was really enjoying Alchemy and without challenging combat encounters it's basically just a continuous fetch-quest with 10 minutes of jogging between objectives. An extremely well-written fetch-quest, yes, but still not really very interesting.
The combat is basically the best ARPG combat system I've played for a really long time. I've always thought that RPG difficulty should be entirely related to how much you engage with the mechanics at your disposal; that is, a hard encounter should be able to be made substantially easier by utilising all the tricks the game gives you. The way that Alchemy is implemented is just perfect because almost every challenge has a hard-counter in Alchemy, but the toxin system means that you need to always be balancing between making encounters easier and killing yourself. Nothing like popping a White Rafard's and only getting half the effect because you're so full of poison.
Oh and a couple of little tips for anyone who hasn't made it to Chapter 5 yet:
I was at the Chapter 5 fight with
The combat is basically the best ARPG combat system I've played for a really long time. I've always thought that RPG difficulty should be entirely related to how much you engage with the mechanics at your disposal; that is, a hard encounter should be able to be made substantially easier by utilising all the tricks the game gives you. The way that Alchemy is implemented is just perfect because almost every challenge has a hard-counter in Alchemy, but the toxin system means that you need to always be balancing between making encounters easier and killing yourself. Nothing like popping a White Rafard's and only getting half the effect because you're so full of poison.
Oh and a couple of little tips for anyone who hasn't made it to Chapter 5 yet:
- Stock up on alcohol because there aren't many places to buy it. The Druids in the swamp cemetery have a good supply, as does Kalkstein, but that's all.
- Make sure that you spend a couple of silver talent points on bleed and blind resistance, and keep some Willow handy.
- Make sure that you spend a couple of silver talent points on bleed and blind resistance, and keep some Willow handy.
I was at the Chapter 5 fight with
Azar, and I had to go back a lot of saves to go down 2 levels so I could get the necessary talents. I barely survived the fight against his giant enemy crab with all the bleeding and blinding. Being down to my last Swallow made it even worse. I've made it back to there now with a bag filled with potions, and some helpful resistances to boot.
RedSwirl said:
Yes, plenty from all I've seen.
Here's a cut and paste from the googlecache of their currently down forums.
I had some success at alleviating crashes by increasing addressable space.
http://alfred.co.in/how-to/witcher-vista-crash-fix-how-to/
shintoki said:
The cultist is a non-quest, and more of a lair of enemies that can be killed. Nothing more to that as far as I can remember. The lost boy is one of those quests that span multiple chapters.
jim-jam bongs said:
Unfortunately, there were too many complaints with regards to the eccentric combat - a lot of them from people who didn't give the combat system a chance to grow on them. It wasn't perfect - Geralt would sometimes fail to attack/cast signs, and casting signs interrupted the combo - but I still liked it over the other traditional combat systems used in RPGs like Risen, Gothic, etc. I would have greatly loved to see them improve upon the combat system by adding more depth to the mechanics, since I liked the fact that after I began a combo chain, I could start planning my future moves in advance waiting for the combo animation to finish. Moreover, the combat animations for the level 4 moves in the combo sequences were quite spectacular - they accurately captured the description of Geralt's moves as 'dance-like', which is rarely seen in other games.
I ran into constant crashes every 15 minutes while playing the original release on Vista 32. I had no trouble with W7 64 bit and the enhanced edition. Have you tried deleting your old save files ? That might help.RedSwirl said:
I'm thinking i screwed up somewhere with my investigation with the detective in chapter 2... somehow i ended up with the alchemist being one of my main suspect, yet i need this guy to stay cool with me for the quests surrounding the tower right? Should i just ignore the investigation quest chain until i'm done with the tower?
jim-jam bongs
Member
Van Buren said:
I can understand a lot of the complaints. I must admit that when I first started playing it I kept looking around for a block button until I realised that Geralt doesn't need any man to tell him when to parry; he just knows. Once you get into it though it's just amazing and quite unique. Very much about rhythm and movement rather than button-mashing.
There are definitely a few things I'd change, like allowing you to slip signs/bombs in between combo moves as you alluded above, but overall I find that it works really well. I just can't get over how well the stats, talents and alchemy mechanics are woven into the combat. When you take a potion like Wolf or Wolverine which boosts your attack/crit stats, you can actually see the difference immediately, but the toxins guarantee that if you try to break encounters you're more likely to just die from poisoning. It's such a great way of making crafting extremely viable without overpowering it.
Totally agree about the fluidity and dancing of the whole thing, it's really spectacular to watch him wading through a crowd of Drowners using the group-style. Also, my build is heavy int/stam and emphasis on using Ard for crowd-control, so I get to see the execution animations a lot. I don't get into ultra-violence in games but the stark brutality of Geralt's combat is stunning to behold. Everything about it just feels dirty and visceral in spite of the balletic grace Geralt brings to his swordsmanship.
Also, this may be a little controversial but... does anyone else think that Dragon Age: Origins borrows pretty heavily from The Witcher? Spoilers for both games below:
The story is about a group called Grey Wardens/Witchers; they are monster slayers who have an initiation rite which kills most of the people who do it, and which strengthens them physically. They are feared and reviled by the general populace, but reluctantly called upon to solve problems too big for regular people.
The main story arc is about personal vengeance interwoven with the dynamic and racially charged politics of the human capital. It begins at the home of the main character which they are forced to leave because of a major event, and the final chapter takes place in the capital as it burns down around them.
The main story arc is about personal vengeance interwoven with the dynamic and racially charged politics of the human capital. It begins at the home of the main character which they are forced to leave because of a major event, and the final chapter takes place in the capital as it burns down around them.
There are a lot of other little examples too. It's kind of funny because The Witcher is actually the game which I was expecting DA:O to be and it came out 2 years earlier!
Bisnic said:
Keep playing. Without spoiling anything, one of the sidequests could give you insight into the whole situation. Or, you can just skip the sidequest and see what happens by just doing the main quest.
jim-jam bongs said:
Funny you mention that, since in one of the 'hype' interviews leading up to DA:O's release, the Bioware rep stated that GRRM and Witcher were influences. They wanted to create ambiguous moral situations where choices are not black and white. Apart from the similarities to the organization of Witchers, there is also the political struggle between the two central factions in the DA games.
The end result of all this was the glorious, completely logical and non facepalm-inducing way DA2 handled the Templar/Mage conflict.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Van Buren said:
Wow, well at least they gave credit where it was due. It's funny to me because they seem to have completely missed the fact that every moral choice in The Witcher is essentially a losing option, whereas Bioware can't resist putting a "correct" option in for most choices. Basically shit is all fucked up regardless, you just choose which side of the equation to balance. Either way, good people are going to die and bad people are going to prosper; there is no "save the world" condition.
Van Buren said:
Hah, I'll take your word for it. I spent about 150 hours playing DA:O and DA:A and had zero interest in the sequel, although I may pick it up on Steam for a fiver if the opportunity comes up.
jim-jam bongs said:
Come to think about, they tried to do something similar in DA2. Without spoiling anything, every CRPG fan ought to experience how they attempted to do what you state in ACT 3. Their execution is one of the reasons why the game is so revered in RPG circles.
Joking aside, it gave me a whole new perspective on the phrase, 'how bad can it be?', and made me appreciate gems like AP and Witcher more.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Really? People use the phrase non facepalm inducing in sincere comments so often it was hard to tell.Jenga said:
Jokes aside, I now look forward to the cringe described by VB.
Hey, is there a way to switch the difficulty for the game once started?
After 5 minutes of TW2 I feel lose already so I want to kinda breeze through this game if I can. And I die too much >_< I suck...
Oh, and I found with poker that if you get a decent first roll, do the highest bet you can and they often pass and you win!
After 5 minutes of TW2 I feel lose already so I want to kinda breeze through this game if I can. And I die too much >_< I suck...
Oh, and I found with poker that if you get a decent first roll, do the highest bet you can and they often pass and you win!
Downloaded the game from GOG (the gog downloader), and installed it. Installed fine, but this comes up when I wanna launch it.
"The program can't start because d3dx9_35.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
Odd. This is the second time this happened. Last time I uninstalled, deleted everything, and downloaded the whole thing again.
Edit: Okay, something to do with DX9, updating now. I have a 6770m, btw. This better be it dammit.
"The program can't start because d3dx9_35.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
Odd. This is the second time this happened. Last time I uninstalled, deleted everything, and downloaded the whole thing again.
Edit: Okay, something to do with DX9, updating now. I have a 6770m, btw. This better be it dammit.