The Witcher series - thread

No, something changed at some point after some patch. It's not automatically downloaded.

Err, I'm assuming it still works like that. So I just need to change my language and download 900mb, which isn't trivial for me on DSL, so I'll do that later and deal with English for a bit longer.

I got the Witcher 2 on sale a few weeks ago and honestly I pretty much hate it. The tutorial is insanely confusing, the camera is annoying, and I don't think I even have enough fingers to click all the buttons and numbers it's telling me to click. Makes Skyrim UI look like the Easy Button.

</rage>

uh huh

I don't think the tutorial is confusing, however it's still buggy at the part where you learn how to riposte.

Switching through magic signs that you don't even know yet, however, is pretty annoying.

The game also doesn't fuck around with throwing you into a triple-soldier, followed immediately by 3 more soldiers and 2 archers. SpoofyChop you should make it easier on yourself and meditate/drink the health regen potion before getting into those fights.

The tutorial is a bit too short to ease you into the game, I agree.

But fighting in this game is all about fighting multiple opponents. Early on you don't have a lot of options, so the key is to keep moving around and to try to avoid being hit. Especially in the back, which is 200% damage.

You won't win in a stand-up fight - you need to light attack from range, maybe a follow-up heavy attack, then roll away.

Yeah and it just takes practice, especially trying to figure out which attacks and combos tend to put you into range when you issue an attack order. Honestly... I liked clicking on enemies in Witcher 1 to be a more convenient way for the combat system to play itself out, and kind sad that they went with some kind of 3rd person action hybrid of WASD+targetting.

Once you got practised in The Witcher, you could usually just click through any opponent outside of the bosses. That changed in the first set of DLC, where if you tried that on opponents they'd cut you up.

Anyway, onto The Witcher 2: armour. That's pretty critical to survival. Dark Mode starts off very hard, but once you get the Dark Armour for that chapter it becomes a lot easier.

So, I have a question for people.

Should I be picking up all this junk? IE, should I be checking every single room for any crafting supplies, finding every herb, looting every chest? Or should I just be grabbing what I come across as I go? I ask because right now (I am only in the first small town after the prologue), it is filling up my inventory, and I dont have much I can ask people to make with it. Am I going to be underpowered later on if I dont find every single thing?

Is there any way to tell the "rare" crafting ingredients from the stuff that's lying around everywhere, like lumber?

Or should I be playing this more fast and loose, and just enjoying the game's plot and setting, and try to push down my completionist tendencies?

Ignore the crap. Money really isn't an issue, and you really *really* don't need all the iron and leather and shit that you come across.

AFAIK, if you play the game without mods, all the bonuses from crafting create a game that's a cakewalk in the later parts. Going into the territory of shuffling through inventory crap quickly makes a game not fun. Play the game and don't worry about what you don't pick up.

Otherwise, there are plenty of mods to deal with this issue:
http://witcher.nexusmods.com/mods/searchresults/?cat=4

If you want to keep the weight system in place, try the one that sets all crafting ingredients to 0.1

The EE changes to inventory made managing items at least bearable. Mods aren't at least strictly required any more.

Ok, thanks for the help. I will try to push down my OCD tendencies and just start questing. One more question. Is it easy to tell when the main plot will have me leaving an area? IE, should I try to do sidequests first or just do whatever I come across?

Do whatever you come across. IIRC it's really in-your-face obvious when you're about to hit the point of no return for an area, so you can delay at that point to finish up sidequests.

Twine is a surprisingly good thing to pick up to sell to vendors. Plus it is needed in a number of armours. Grab all the twine you can!

I'd say pick up stuff and once you start to get towards your inv limit, go and sell it at any vendor. The things you need for more advanced armours are studded leather, robust cloth and hardened leather, so keep them when you find them (or put them into storage at the inn). Silver ore is also something worth keeping if you plan to forge any silver swords, but in general I think I found the ones I used rather than forging them (except for the the first one that is part of a quest). Early on money is a bit of a concern, so everything helps.

You'll usually end up with a ton of timber, leather and iron ore - sell that / drop that as your first option, since there is usually more just waiting for you in the next area.

Always collect all the herbs you can - they don't take up carrying weight and can really add up in cash value, plus you can then use them to craft bombs and potions.

I grabbed basically everything. Particularly in Dark Mode, you're going to need an extreme cash infusion to make the first set, and since there's apparently an unlimited storage solution accessible only by Innkeepers, it was never really that much of a pain for me to go sweep everything up.

On some paths, however, you will end up with a mine with more Iron than you will ever need. Do feel free to leave some of that on the ground.

I'm avoiding the rest of the thread in fear of spoilers, but I need a bit of help with the combat. I'm just in the very intro when Foltest is attacking, and I'm having a heck of time dealing with 4 opponents. Any single opponent is fine, between Aard, blocking and just hitting things hard but 4 is impossible. Am I missing something?

I think I just don't get the rhythm of block and counterattack, but it looks like you only block one foe at a time. Only way I found is to run around like a loon a lot, use your Signs and pick them off one at a time. Definitely not very witcher-like. Am I missing something? :P

So I'm playing The Witcher 1. I've had it for years, but aside from playing the tutorial (and a little into The Outskirts of Vizima) on an inadequate computer right after I picked it up, it has been sitting in my Steam backlog until a couple of weeks ago.

I'm now well into Chapter 2 running around the Swamp area and I feel my attention drifting a little. This happens in most games, which leads to me playing something else for long enough that when I decide to come back to a game (RPG) I've forgotten the details of all the quests and can never get back into it. I really want to finish a game for once and this seems like a good candidate so my question is, how much more of the game do I have in front of me?

I know I'm only in Chapter 2, but it seems sizable and I'd like to know if the following chapters are similar in size or does the pace pick up? Baldurs Gate 2 had a huge Chapter 2 IIRC compared to the rest of the game. I've enjoyed the whodunnit for the most part, but was ready to move on and now the killer plants in the Swamp have dampened my enthusiasm a little. I know you can run past them, but I did manage to kill one for the quest.

My alchemy abilities seem a little lacking as well. I have several recipes but lack potion bases for several and I haven't had the best luck finding them for sale at vendors.

My main question I guess is, roughly how far percentage-wise am I into the game?

Thanks

The swamp and its killer plants are definitely a low point, and do seem to drag. While I would say you're not that far in (maybe 35%, but it's been a while since I played it) relatively speaking, the pace picks up significantly and the next 35% goes by without you noticing.

It's still a chunky game, plot-wise, and a bit overly fond of making you run around, but it definitely picks up and IMO is well worth it.

Also, not all killer plants are killer. There's I think two that will seriously mess you up, but the rest should be only slightly tougher than other monsters in the area ...

Not sure about potions. I played on the tougher level which meant making potions a LOT, and I don't recall running out of bases too much - money sure, ingredients not so much. I'm pretty sure you can use most booze as base - have you checked the inns?

Sounds like the courtyard fight with a knight and some footmen? Basically the trick is to not fight them all at once; blocking can be helpful if you find a moment when you can face just one and get a quick riposte, but dodging around is probably better. The lightning trap sign in particular is helpful as I recall.

And running around like a loon sounds perfectly witcher-like to me. ;-)

You definitely won't win fights early on by taking on any more than two opponents head on.

You'll want to have your Quen sign up during combat, so that you can take a free hit and not be damaged. Being hit from behind is a 200% damage situation, which isn't where you want to be. Combat in the Witcher 2 is all about positioning yourself to do damage, taking a health bar down a little bit, then rolling away to avoid it. If you get two guys on you within striking distance, you either have to be quick (i.e. light attack and roll away) or just roll away so that you can still hit one while avoiding the other.

Most combat is light attack in, maybe a second light attack if you have the space, then roll away. Give yourself some space to Quen up and repeat. If you come across someone with a shield, leave him until last and then cast Aard at them, then smack them around while they are stunned.

Early on it feels very funny and you feel weak, but once you've got the hang of things it does get easier. Plus levelling up a bit and finding better equipment really starts to help.

You'll end up with improved blocking if you go down the swordsman skill tree, iirc, but going with magic skills is generally considered the easier path to take.

You have a lot of the game to go. Chapter 2 is one I think a lot of people play "incorrectly." There is a TON of stuff to do in-town before you ever need to head out to the swamp. No matter what you will end up backtracking to the swamp, but it's a good idea not to go there the moment you get the first quest to go there (as if this were WoW or something). Explore the entire town and do everything you can. Spend your upgrade points on Silver Sword attacks, particularly in Strong. You're going to want this for the Swamp.

You should have enough bases (alcohol) to make the potions you need. Vitality and Stamina regeneration (Swallow), as well as Blizzard, are things you're going to want for the swamp.

There is a guaranteed encounter with a boss plant monster that kicks the shit out of everyone's first time there. He's going to keep spawning until you kill him. Get at him alone, run away, heal up, save the game, then pop the potions and get back in there. Keep using maximum Aard blasts when you can to "stun" it. You won't instant kill it but it will reduce the damage you take. Igni is sometimes recommended but I find it to be worthless at such low levels.

If the game bores you or infuriates you, just stop playing it. Don't play games that don't keep your interest. There is no intrinsic value to finishing a game just because you paid a couple bucks for it. Not enjoying a game just to finish it isn't going to get your money back.

Off-topic, but a-fucking-men. Especially when it comes to series with multi-game narrative arcs, which are often the worst offenders. Wiki up the story beats and move onto the next game if you're annoyed with it. Life's too short, and there are way too damn many games anyway.

The Big Bad Plant in the swamp isn't actually all that tough. It only seems tough at first because it gets the drop on you, and we've become accustomed to always winning and neglect to do the obvious thing -- run away from the (immobile!) plant, then come back on our own terms.

Appreciate the pointers. I had already killed the boss plant before my post but wasn't sure it was going to show up again (i.e. not a boss but a random encounter).

Now that I've gotten past it I put some more time in and am on my way towards opening the tower.

Oh, nice. Keep at it then. Chapter 3 has MOAR SWAMP but it also does more exciting things in town and then puts you into a fairly interesting moral dilemma and combat conflict.

And a friendly reminder to SAVE OFTEN.

I guess it depends. If the first thing you do in Chapter 2 is get to the swamp and you're trying to run away from it while you keep getting tagged with its ranged attacks (and/or get bombarded with two or more plants) then it can be pretty infuriating. Which is another reason to do everything you can in town, since you'll get the XP and talent points needed to be a bit more powerful with all the Silver swording you do in the swamp.

=D

By which I mean, I've been waiting to post this.

I am reading all the bulletpoints and neogaf because I am hyped as fuck, but as soon as the story is available for me, I will read through it. Nor all bulletpoint consumers are ignoramuses who do not read your hard work!

Very nice, open world + witcher story and vibe would be awesome indeed.

Scarily, outrageously ambitious though. It would be amazing if they pull it off to the level of polish exhibited in Witcher 2

Wouldn't be that amazing. They are Polish.

One of my coworkers is Polish. He's great at his job, but he's got that Eastern European thing where he tends to be rather brusque and direct in interactions with others. When asked for feedback on him, I said he needs more polish, less Polish. I was so proud of that...

Yeah, I know it's dumb.

I'm looking forward to this. I liked where the series took the Wild Hunt and want to see how it concludes.

As a pure Polack I just have to say... yeah that's pretty corny.

I just started Witcher 2 on PC this week after getting it half off on the midweek sale.

First question: is there a way to make the mouse pointer more precise and less prone to rubber-banding around as you move your mouse? I've never seen a game with mouse control that's this shoddy.

I already bought this damn game for Xbox and abandoned it because the controls there are too slippery and obnoxious to deal with, so it's disappointing to get it on the 'proper' platform only to have similar problems.

Is there a hardware mouse setting?

Have you tried this?