|
limp_cheese posted:The game gives you this false sense that everything has to been done right after another for the main story. The area is also set up poorly enough that it feels like there isn't any thing other than the main story. I just started chapter 2 and I had to laugh that after arriving, fighting off an army of cursed wraiths; attending a war council; witnessing a poisoning; and being instructed on all the intensely crazy poo poo I have to accomplish IMMEDIATELY.... my Geralt was free to take it all on-board, then go run around the village looking for people to play Dice Poker with 
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 03:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 07:27 |
|
|
gently caress Dark mode. Even with a cost-reduction cheat mod I still had to scrape every piece of leather in all of Chapter 2 to craft this thing and some of the steel swords I get from quests are already out-pacing it. I'm about halfway through the main quest in Vergen but there's no way I'll get enough parts together to make whatever Chapter 3's version is unless I mod the Mysterious Merchant. Between this and the desaturation during combat, I'm playing on Hard next time.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 03:47
|
|
|
There is a mod in the OP that removes the desaturation effect from the Dark mode swords.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 04:07
|
|
|
I found the dark mode swords to be pretty worthless, especailly without the life stealer bonus. The armor pieces are nice, but I found that on Dark armor doesn't really matter a ton when you're one or two shotted regardless. The next time I play on that difficulty I'll probably ignore the extra armors entirely. The costs to make them are obscene for how little of an advantage they give.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 04:09
|
|
|
Perfect Potato posted:I found the dark mode swords to be pretty worthless, especailly without the life stealer bonus. The armor pieces are nice, but I found that on Dark armor doesn't really matter a ton when you're one or two shotted regardless. The next time I play on that difficulty I'll probably ignore the extra armors entirely. The costs to make them are obscene for how little of an advantage they give. This is what I do, now, but for really superficial reasons. I don't like how the Dark mode armors look. There's such awesome color to be had from the other armors in the game, black and white armor is just boring.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 04:19
|
|
|
Beat witcher 2 finally.. Wasn't there going to be a section of the game that takes place in a snowy place? It was shown in a preview a long time ago. Maybe they cut it. Anyway, great game and very good production values all around. I was kind of expecting the game to be longer than 3 chapters though... And I wish more was told about the past and flashbacks. They barely touched on it. I'll probably go through roche's path soon. He seems like a pretty awesome dude...
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 15:14
|
|
|
GoldenNugget posted:Beat witcher 2 finally.. Wasn't there going to be a section of the game that takes place in a snowy place? It was shown in a preview a long time ago. Maybe they cut it. Loc Muinne has some snow patches on the mountains outside. For a full ice themed area, there's only (Witcher 1 Spoiler)the vision of the Ice Plains, basically post apocalyptic Vizima that has been Day After Tomorrowed. Speaking of Loc Muinne, what is with the glowing, thorny vines that show up all over the place if you don't pick the path specific penultimate mission? Are those ever explained?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 15:54
|
|
|
Asehujiko posted:Loc Muinne has some snow patches on the mountains outside. For a full ice themed area, there's only (Witcher 1 Spoiler)the vision of the Ice Plains, basically post apocalyptic Vizima that has been Day After Tomorrowed. I remember the preview showing Geralt walking around this gigantic military camp in a snowy area. They also had qtes with regular dudes so it could've been cut. yeah it's this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JciyoGmnGyo&feature=player_detailpage#t=68s I think those vines are from that sorcerer and his group cleaning up and locking down Loc Muinne for another time. I do remember seeing some sort of Golem or Draug behind one of those vine walls which I don't know much about.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 16:33
|
|
|
GoldenNugget posted:I remember the preview showing Geralt walking around this gigantic military camp in a snowy area. They also had qtes with regular dudes so it could've been cut.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 16:38
|
|
|
GoldenNugget posted:yeah it's this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JciyoGmnGyo&feature=player_detailpage#t=68s That's a REALLY old video of an alpha version. It even had the old Witcher 1 style combat.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2012 16:42
|
|
|
So the Dark Mode-exclusive items are apparently rear end. What about the Dark Mode quests? Anything interesting to be had?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 02:30
|
|
|
Oxxidation posted:So the Dark Mode-exclusive items are apparently rear end. What about the Dark Mode quests? Anything interesting to be had? The Dark mode quests are to make the Dark mode sets. Nothing extra (except more awesome Dandelion journal entries). EDIT: Trolls are awesome and there should have been a third Act 2 where Geralt says gently caress this and hangs out and gets drunk with a bunch of trolls  
Namnesor fucked around with this message at 02:43 on May 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 02:39
|
|
|
Then given the nonsense I'm dealing with just on Normal, think I might give Dark Mode a pass. Facing down the Big Choice at the end of Act 1. I am in an agony of indecision. On one hand, idealism and overthrowing the system and all that jazz, but on the other, I can watch Loredo die! I just don't knoooooow
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 02:54
|
|
|
Coughing Hobo posted:EDIT: Trolls are awesome and there should have been a third Act 2 where Geralt says gently caress this and hangs out and gets drunk with a bunch of trolls Agreed and anyone who killed any of the trolls is a terrible person. Oxxidation posted:Facing down the Big Choice at the end of Act 1. I am in an agony of indecision. On one hand, idealism and overthrowing the system and all that jazz, but on the other, I can watch Loredo die! I just don't knoooooow Well actually you can kill Loredo on Iorveths path as well. Oxxidation posted:So the Dark Mode-exclusive items are apparently rear end. What about the Dark Mode quests? Anything interesting to be had? Actually the Darkmode gear (at least the armor) is the best in the game, the problem is with the way darkmode works this really doesnt help you that much. So yeah feel free to skip it if you dont want to deal with the difficulty.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 03:36
|
|
|
SpRahl posted:Agreed and anyone who killed any of the trolls is a terrible person. Out of my two playthroughs I tried to be as different as possible, but there were two things I couldn't do in either. One was I couldn't bring myself to kill Letho and the other is I couldn't bring myself to kill any of the trolls. The trolls are awesome. 
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 03:42
|
|
|
I will get the insane difficulty steam achievement before the trollslayer one.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 05:11
|
|
|
Just finished TW1 EE and a couple of the premium modules too, enjoyed it a ton, gameplay and all. Was about to get TW2 but after watching some YouTubes I've got a few fairly critical questions: 1) Is there a mod to replace Endregas/Arachas with other monsters, at least in appearance? 2) Failing that, is there a mod to mess with the camera so you get a very zoomed-out angle (a bit like F1 in the original game)? 3) Failing that, how many Endregas/Arachas does the game basically throw in your path, and how many are in optional areas you can skip? They don't quite trigger my phobias (i.e. reflexively Alt+F4), but from the YouTubes I can say that I would very much not enjoy playing this game whenever one of those is on-screen. Oh, and also: I played the original game without rebalance mods, because I figured 'hey, it's my first playthrough'. Ended up regretting it when towards the end of the game I was a demigod and realised just how many completely useless items talents were in the game. In light of that, if I can somehow address the above issue, I'm almost certainly going to play TW2 with a rebalance mod or two, just to be safe. The question is: is it universally agreed that Better Combat + Complete Equipment Overhaul make for a more solid and balanced game than vanilla?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 06:09
|
|
|
NihilCredo posted:Just finished TW1 EE and a couple of the premium modules too, enjoyed it a ton, gameplay and all. Was about to get TW2 but after watching some YouTubes I've got a few fairly critical questions: 1.) Not that I know of. 2.) No, but in combat the camera does pull back smoothly to give you a better view. 3.) In Act 1, you'll encounter the most endregas. There's a sidequest involving hunting them that can be safely skipped without losing out on any other quests or story later on, but doing the quest substantially thins them out of the forest for the rest of the act. Without doing the quest, you'll encounter them in small packs, at most four or five, and they'll often come at you one at a time or very slowly. There's two mandatory Arachas fights, one in act 1, one in Act 2 or 3 depending on who you follow. Outside of Act 1, endregas are super rare, and arachas are strictly "boss"-like encounters.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 06:15
|
|
|
Thank you for the answer. What about the rebalance mods? I'm thinking of playing on Hard, if it's relevant. Another couple of questions since I didn't find either answer in the wiki: can you change difficulty back and forth in midgame, and are there any cheat codes available? I'm thinking of just blazing through the endregas with blind Igni spamming, kinda like lategame TW1.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 09:32
|
|
|
You can't change the difficulty, but for me endregas really aren't quite spiderlike at all. You can't skip fighting the Arachas tough.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 10:34
|
|
|
You can change between easy, medium and hard. Dark or insane can't be changed to/from for obvious reasons.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 11:07
|
|
|
Oh yeah, sorry about that. Been playing on dark, it's been a while since my normal run.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 11:21
|
|
|
90% of the endrega population is found in the forest outside Flotsam(act 1). There is a quest to kill their Queens that will significantly reduce their numbers but is a. very hard early on b. you need to kill endregas for the best sword in act 1. There's also a few of them in each act after that in an out of the way location but those are mainly there so you can obtain their ingredients. Arachas are hilariously gimped varieties of Endrega Queens and if you are made uncomfortable by their design, take heart in the fact that they all can be killed in 10 seconds. There's one mandatory one in each act and two optional ones in act 3 to get the best sword in the game. If you want to really minimize the time fighting them, tactics below in spoilers: Endrega Worker: Heavy Attack their face. They can't block, their melee attack is slow as poo poo and HA staggers them out of it. Endrega Warrior: Still very vulnerable to heavy attack but deal a bit more damage if you are absolutely terrible at the game and let them get the first hit in. At a distance, they may do a knockdown charge, which is signalled by them sticking their butt in the air and making a squawking noise. Roll sideways to avoid, them stab them in the rear end for an easy kill. Endrega Queen: A newbie's folly is often to do the contracts first. Don't. Nekker swarms are the deadliest non-human enemies you can face this act and the Queens are a close second. As for their tactics, they follow the blocker/charger pattern most large enemies have. They are vulnerable to heavy attacks for a while, after which they fold their claws infront of their face and gain 125 armor in addition to staggering you with recoil. Don't attack them after they do that because that marks their own attacks, which is either a frontal lunge or a charge. In both cases, dodge sideways. After a lunge you can go back to smashing their face and if they charge, you can use a light attack with the built in jump/dash to get behind them while they try to unstuck their heads from the arena wall and backstab to your heart's content. Arachas: Like an Endrega Queen but with less HP and less damaging attacks. Heavy attack until they block, then get out of the way and resume heavy attacks. By act 3, you probably do enough damage to kill them before their first block/attack cycle. Igni is not really spammable, you a limited to 2-8 shots depending on equipment and talents and after you run out, your sword damage is badly nerfed from "fatigue". I recommend Alchemy for maximum burnination because it has buffs for traps, oils and bombs, which are both fun to use and very effective. Against creepy crawlies there is the Insectoid Oil, purchasable in act 1 that when buffed with Alchemy skills, gives you a 35% damage bonus before resistances against everything with more then 4 limbs. Dancing Star bombs, which you can carry a near infinite amount of, are easy to mass produce from common ingredients and set everything on fire, including the scenery, which sets enemies that walk near it on fire as well. Being on fire stuns most enemies as they try to put themselves out in addition to being the most damaging debuff available. Last but not least there is the reason why endregas are in acts 2 and 3 for ingredient farming because the mighty Conflagration
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 12:10
|
|
|
Yrden makes the Endrega Queens piss easy. Once they trip it, go in and hit them with heavy attacks. Be aware that Yrden won't always ensnare them. If they stop moving, but keep turning to face you they aren't ensnared or if they obviously keep on walking. You'll get probably 4 or 5 attacks before they'll block and counter attack. Also, they have a limited area they can move in. If you get far enough away, they will get stuck on the edge of their leashed area. If you want to be cheap, you can lure them to that point then hit them from afar with signs or bombs while they can't touch you.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 15:32
|
|
|
Torsade de Pointes posted:Yrden makes the Endrega Queens piss easy. Once they trip it, go in and hit them with heavy attacks. Be aware that Yrden won't always ensnare them. If they stop moving, but keep turning to face you they aren't ensnared or if they obviously keep on walking. You'll get probably 4 or 5 attacks before they'll block and counter attack. Also, they have a limited area they can move in. If you get far enough away, they will get stuck on the edge of their leashed area. If you want to be cheap, you can lure them to that point then hit them from afar with signs or bombs while they can't touch you. Yrden is really boss overall for dealing with tougher bad guys like the guys with shields or the bigger stronger monsters.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 15:34
|
|
|
Oh hey, new patch: http://en.thewitcher.com/patch3-1/quote:1.Fixed the display of inter-chapter movies in aspect ratios other than 16:9.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 15:42
|
|
|
Torsade de Pointes posted:Yrden makes the Endrega Queens piss easy. Once they trip it, go in and hit them with heavy attacks. Be aware that Yrden won't always ensnare them. If they stop moving, but keep turning to face you they aren't ensnared or if they obviously keep on walking. You'll get probably 4 or 5 attacks before they'll block and counter attack. Also, they have a limited area they can move in. If you get far enough away, they will get stuck on the edge of their leashed area. If you want to be cheap, you can lure them to that point then hit them from afar with signs or bombs while they can't touch you. Pick up 10 snare traps. Drop all in the exact same spot, no need to move at all, traps can occupy the same space in Witcherland. Mark with Yrden, kill egg sack, draw queen over your glowing traps, queen dies instantly. Collect your 10 snare traps, strut out to the Bee Gees.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 15:55
|
|
|
OAquinas posted:Oh hey, new patch: http://en.thewitcher.com/patch3-1/ This talk of videos not playing properly on 16:10 displays (like mine) makes me worry I might have missed some during my current playthrough (I didn't finish Act 2 last time, and have been holding off giving the game another go until EE). I'm currently halfway through Act 1. Will I have missed any of the videos?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 18:01
|
|
|
Maelin posted:This talk of videos not playing properly on 16:10 displays (like mine) makes me worry I might have missed some during my current playthrough (I didn't finish Act 2 last time, and have been holding off giving the game another go until EE). I'm currently halfway through Act 1. Will I have missed any of the videos? At the end of the prologue you should have gotten a video narrated by Dandelion basically showing your journey from Lavelet Castle to Flotsom.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 18:04
|
|
|
Maelin posted:This talk of videos not playing properly on 16:10 displays (like mine) makes me worry I might have missed some during my current playthrough (I didn't finish Act 2 last time, and have been holding off giving the game another go until EE). I'm currently halfway through Act 1. Will I have missed any of the videos? There is one video transitioning from the prologue to Act 1. You probably saw a black screen and heard Dandelion give a voiceover. The bug/error was that the sound would play (the voiceover) but you wouldn't see the animation unless you were in 16:9. There was also a new opening cinematic for the game (the letho/demawend encounter), but I don't think that was similarly affected. e:fb like a flotsam elf.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 18:09
|
|
|
I think they mean the new videos narrated by Dandelion after the end of each act. Edit: beaten. Yeah that video also didn't show for me under 16:10.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 18:17
|
|
|
Well I've now gotten 49 out of 50 achievements on the 360 version and the only thing I have left is Dark mode. I just don't know if I can bring myself to go through the game a third time, although I know that last missing achievement is going to be bothering me if I don't do it. If I did go for Dark mode, what does anyone think the easier path would be to take? I thought overall Roche's path was slightly easier, although I did notice I reached the level cap much more quickly in Iorveth's path (Roche I didn't hit 35 until literally right before the final boss, having done every side quest).
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 19:37
|
|
|
qbert posted:Well I've now gotten 49 out of 50 achievements on the 360 version and the only thing I have left is Dark mode. I just don't know if I can bring myself to go through the game a third time, although I know that last missing achievement is going to be bothering me if I don't do it. I have the GOG version, so haven't really looked at any achievements, but is there nothing for Insane difficulty? That's a little bit surprising, although Insane really is that, I can't imagine trying to play through with permadeath. Not that it'd be impossible, you'd just have to be so careful, especially early on, and not let your guard down once.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 19:42
|
|
|
Which base difficulty does insane actually run on? Normal, Hard or Dark?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 19:44
|
|
|
FrickenMoron posted:Which base difficulty does insane actually run on? Normal, Hard or Dark? Hard? I've read in places that Dark is the hardest actual difficulty, Insane just adds the element of permadeath. Maybe it's somewhere between Hard and Dark though.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 19:46
|
|
|
Dark definitely felt harder than insane to me. There were times I got completely wrecked even with the dark armors.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 19:51
|
|
|
qbert posted:Well I've now gotten 49 out of 50 achievements on the 360 version and the only thing I have left is Dark mode. I just don't know if I can bring myself to go through the game a third time, although I know that last missing achievement is going to be bothering me if I don't do it. Have you done the "save Triss" story branch? If so, then I'd say you should just do the path that corresponds to whichever one of the other two you didn't do ("save Anais" for Roche, or "save Saskia" for Iorveth) If "save Triss" is then one you haven't done, then I have no advice.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 20:06
|
|
|
qbert posted:Well I've now gotten 49 out of 50 achievements on the 360 version and the only thing I have left is Dark mode. I just don't know if I can bring myself to go through the game a third time, although I know that last missing achievement is going to be bothering me if I don't do it.  Also, don't do the Nilfgaard mission in act 3. It has a "feature" where directly after a cutscene, you catch some unavoidable arrows to the back which more often then not instantly kills you. Go beat up everybody's least favourite sorcerer instead. Asehujiko fucked around with this message at 20:42 on May 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 20:36
|
|
|
Asehujiko posted:It doesn't matter a lot since the hardest part of the game is path neutral. Also, go Alchemy. I've had more trouble trying to effectively use Magic on normal then I had with simply firebombing everything on dark. Alchemy also gets the neat ability to completely bypass shields then hitting harder then what they block(50% damage and 120 extra armor after that) and can trivialize Operator by killing him in a single blow before he puts on his shield. Hmm, maybe I'll give this a shot. For my other run throughs I went mostly Swordsmanship and then Alchemy for the mutagen slots, but I would say I used bombs a total of maybe 2 times throughout both playthroughs, never threw daggers once except for a side quest, and never used any traps. I should probably get into using those more instead of just hacking away at 15 dudes coming at me.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2012 20:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 07:27 |
|
|
in the updated little epilogue thing, That area between Temeria and... Aedirn is Mahakam, right? The Nilfgaardians seemed to conquer Temeria and Aedirn but I noticed they didn't take Mahakam, nor did they get to Upper Aedirn yet.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2012 01:04
|
|