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Orv
May 4, 2011
6/10/17: Pellisworth's excellent spoiler-free newbie guide in second post. :siren: Read It. :siren:

1/20/17: Mod recommendations now in second post.

ON CONSOLES, CHOOSE SIMULATE WITCHER 2 SAVE TO MAKE MINOR PLOT CHOICES. YOU WILL CHOOSE AFTER LEAVING WHITE ORCHARD.





The Witcher Wild Hunt is the third game in The Witcher trilogy, releasing for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on May 19th. It features expansive open world environments, deliberate combat mechanics and a large focus on preparedness when facing many different kinds of monsters. The story follows Geralt of Rivia, an eponymous witcher, mutants trained and bred for a single purpose; to rid the light of men of the perils that lurk in the dark places world. Geralt is the most famous (or perhaps infamous) of his brethren, a dying breed as The Continent (not a miscapitalization) becomes more an more civilized. He travels from place to place as the roads and rumors take him, living off contracts, the formal slaying of beasts and things too terrifying to contemplate sharing a habitat with. He makes for an excellent RPG character, living by a formal(ly bullshit) set of the Witchers Codes that let him skate out from almost any job if he finds it unnecessary, overly dangerous or morally repugnant. Unfortunately moral repugnancy is the name of the game on The Continent, and decisions are never as clear cut as they seem.

The Story So Far (Click for actual summary that isn't sleep deprivation word soup.)


Geralt of Rivia awakes at Kaer Morhen, bereft of even those bits of knowledge courtesy of some rather convenient amnesia. He travels a treacherous path of enemies and friends who have grudges and debts yet to repay, slaying monsters and saving folk along the way. He avoids dalliances with unintended rhyme and becomes aware of a prophecy to end the world. Not some no account, Mad Max motherfucker prophecy either, a real gently caress poo poo Up Forever prophecy. It is said that time of The Wolf's Blizzard approaches, and it's going to make a winter written by George R.R. Martin look like a weekend in Boca Raton. Between the insurgent non-humans and the feuding kings this is really all he needs, a prophecy to end the world, and on top of it a secret cult dedicated to who knows what. Problems and politics eventually fall to the wayside and Geralt faces a choice, posed by a figment of Death Itself; leave his past behind or embrace it in whole. Choices aside, Geralt comes to his reward to find his employer under assault. Engaging in a desperate struggle Geralt kills the assailant only to find the man kin.



Some days later, Geralt awakes yet again, remembering more but once again lacking purpose. He finds himself in a siege to recover the children of his employer and in the course of doing so his failure to protect his king is immense. Struggling under suspicion from all sides and the ever-nagging presence of his personal bard, Geralt wades once again into the intrigues of Temeria and Redania. Non-humans on one side and vicious kingsmen on the other, a common theme in the rousing life of our plucky witcher, he finds his way through the murk of politics to the killer of kings. Making a difficult choice is nothing new to our fair hero and life continues apace towards even more as he races to stop wars both civil and un. Sorceresses and dragons abound as our hero winds his way to the end of the tale, making decisions that will shape the north for years to come, and the troll population to boot. Having made his mark on the politics of more frigid climates he treks off into the sun to find new adventure, and hopefully a bit of coin.

The Story Now

Geralt finds himself on a quest to recover not only the last of his memories but his estranged lover and adopted child. Yennefer, the sorceress who loves and plagues him in equal measure was thought lost to him, and he must search the world around to embrace her again. Ciri, their erstwhile daughter, last of the royal line of Cintra, carries a terrible burden. Not only a sorceress of unique power, she may be the only answer to stopping the The Wolf's Blizzard. Geralt rides off into the sunset to find them both, with you at the helm...

:siren: Save files of every possible TW2 combination for importing to the PC version, in case you haven't taken those journeys on your own.



Enough Goddamn Fanfiction, What's The Game Look Like?

In a word? Picturesque. (PC screens.)


Alright But How Does It Look In Motion?

In a word? :dong: (Potential minor area and story spoilers in all videos, shouldn't be anything major. Also YouTube personalities)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XXOofl2cXEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94I4dY10cQI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUADJOjQTj4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2oefLasgdU

You Have My Attention... Dash My Hopes With Some Reviews

I'm sorry to disappoint you, all mighty voice of the internet. (All reviews as of this OP are for the PS4 version.)
Metascore 92

Big Boys Journos;
The Guardian - 100
Gamespot - 10/10 (the eighth game in their history to receive it)
IGN - 93
Destructoid - 8/10


Alright It Looks Good, Assholes Like It, Tell Me About The Fiddly Bits

Geralt has three major skill disciplines that he can specialize in. Receiving a total of 100 skill points by level 50, he can never max out all of them, or even most of them. Skills are permanent throughout a playthrough and must be carefully considered not only within their own tree, but within the other trees and the choices you make in equipping him.

(The Swordsman tree.)


Further, regardless of points spent, you can only have 12 skills equipped at any one time (inside slots in picture above). Combined with mutagens (diamond slots), talismans that cause the effects of any similarly colored skill to increase in effectiveness, you and Geralt must be very careful which skills you take into which fights. On the harder difficulties a lack of preparation or poor preparation will lead to a swift and messy end to your journey. Not only preparation of Geralt, but you as the player as well. Combat is frantic but very deliberate. Watching your foes for attack patterns and tells is a must on higher difficulties.

The world of The Witcher is a morass of dubious circumstances, intent and payoff. Geralt won't always be able to make the perfect decision, and often times there may be no "right" one at all. An entire world of grim misfortune and dark cynicism awaits you, and that's only in the brothels. Video games are, as a rule, never as meaningful or engaging as books, but The Witcher games have garnered an oft-earned reputation for realistic depictions of morality and the bleak path of attempted neutrality. Choices are always touted in RPGs, but for once the choices aren't just Bad or Good; they're Bad, Worse, and A Dragon Ate Our Whole Village And Now We're Lynching You. In your quest to find your destiny and still get paid, the world will unfold bleakly around you, and occasionally envelop you in its musty, unwashed folds of seething betrayal.



Also you will beat up clowns. Frequently.

So Where Does This "Expansive Landscape" Really Take Place Then?

Please to be forgiving the foreigners. (Also expand that main map, it's loving gorgeous.)



Witcher 3 takes place in three major locales, with several small story instances to visit along the way.


(White Orchard is around eight times the size of that zoomed area.)
White Orchard is the place where you'll be spending anywhere from the first hour, to the first half a dozen hours in a small, semi-locked off tutorial area. It'll teach you what to expect from The Wild Hunt as well as acclimate newcomers to the story and grave morality of The Witcher universe.


The Northern Realms will encompass the bulk of your play time in The Wild Hunt. Ranging from northern Novigrod to the burning, war-ravaged wastelands of No Man's Land (coming to PS4 in 2025). It is a vast play area, encompassing upwards of a hundred hours of quests, incidental hunts and vibrant NPC and monster lives.


Yes, I did just post a picture of some insane viking hellhole instead of a map. Welcome to the Skellige Isles motherfucker. poo poo happens here, it's pretty metal.

Of course you will visit other notable locales, like the venerable keep of The Wolf School, Kaer Morhen, the city of Vizim, and many other grand and exotic places.


Alright Alright, You've Convinced Me, Can My MacBook Pro Run It?


MINIMUM:
OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660 / AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
Hard Drive: 35 GB available space

RECOMMENDED:
OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Processor: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz / AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 / AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
Hard Drive: 35 GB available space


If you meet the requirements it'll run well on the settings you'd expect for whichever one you meet.

Orv fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Jun 10, 2017

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Orv
May 4, 2011


Fuzz posted:

My Mod List:

  • Auto Apply Oils (Mandatory)
  • Better Trophies (QoL because default ones are boring as poo poo)
  • Cheaper Respec Potions (just because... allows me to tool around and change things up pretty easily to keep things fresh on my now 120+ hour first playthrough)
  • Colored Map Markers (compatibility version)
  • Dyes Everywhere and Dyeable Starting Armor (because gently caress waiting for endgame DLC for that poo poo)
  • Friendly UI (because I like seeing the HUD I need when I need it, not all the time. More immersive)
  • HD Reworked Project (improved textures are mainly noticeable in Novigrad and Skellige)
  • Improved Sign Effects (because having a huge shockwave Aard that flattens dudes is :krad:)
  • Jump in Shallow Water (Mandatory)
  • Map Quest Objectives (Full version, works great with Colored markers to make the map less poo poo)
  • New Griffin Armor (Because I'm a fat shamer and don't like :btroll: Geralt)
  • No Dirty Lens Effect (purely a cosmetic choice)
  • No Fall Damage (Mandatory... pretend mutagens make them fall like cats along with the eyes)
  • Perks Always Active (Gameplay choice because Passives are totally a losing proposition otherwise, plus at a certain point you have too many skillpoints)
  • Refill Alcohol (because I actually ran out of Alcohest from resting when I had 300+ Dwarven Spirits, and then I needed to make White Gull :smithicide:)
  • Scabbards on NPCs (Because it makes NPCs look loving AWESOME and maintains my immersion)
  • Turbo Lighting Mod (Because I like flashy lighting)
  • Weathers Enhanced (Because holy poo poo looking out over Velen when it's foggy is BEAUTIFUL)
  • More Accurate Witcher Faces (Only used the eyes, because I like the specular shiny thing and in a lot of cutscenes it makes Geralt look even more badass)

So yeah, there's a handful of Gameplay tweaks but it's 90% QoL and cosmetic stuff. poo poo still breaks and I still have encumbrance, I don't mind those things because they're barely an annoyance. Abilities all work as normal, there's just a point to leveling over 35 since I literally maxed out all the main skills I use for all 12 slots and then some, so further skills were literally pointless... now I actually use the crossbow and bombs here and there even when I'm not running an Alchemy spec.

I'd include links, but looking back it's a ton of mods. You can use Script Merger to get all of these to play nicely, the only errors it will show are just some text type ones that don't actually cause issues ingame at all and the game still compiles just fine... they're all background errors from Enhanced Weather and Turbo Lighting, but they still play nice together and work just fine.


Pellisworth posted:

This is a spoiler-free newbie guide. The thread is generally good about spoilering major plot points and we’d appreciate if you did too. Even though it’s been out two years it really can ruin the experience for new players since the game is heavily character and story-driven. Feel free to ask questions though!

Game setup – importing saves, difficulty, mods, DLCs

There is very little carryover from the previous games, you can get the Blue Stripes tattoo from Witcher 2 and a few conversation references but nothing significant. If you don’t have a W2 save you want to import, it’s recommended that you choose to simulate a save. After you finish the tutorial zone you’ll have dialogue where you can dictate what happened at the end of W2. Letho has a cool side quest and the others make small cameos, so just tell Voorhees they all lived.

The early game can be a bit difficult until you get a feel for the combat and level up some. For veterans of action RPGs like the Souls franchise you might want to start on the second-highest difficulty and bump it up if it’s too easy. Don’t feel afraid to bump the difficulty down if you’re just not feeling the combat or whatever, it’s not the strongest part or focus of the game. Be aware that on the two highest difficulties you won’t heal by meditating, so healing options are a lot more important.

You don’t need any mods, the game is fine without and there aren’t any broken things needing fixed. Play through the tutorial zone and decide if you want to add some quality of life mods. Auto-apply oils is one of the most commonly recommended.

The DLCs are basically just additional chapters in Geralt’s saga and are end/postgame. Don’t worry about them until you get most of the way through the base game. The base game is about 100 hours of solid non-grindy content, the DLCS together are about another 50 hours.

Combat, alchemy, crafting, gear, and character builds

The key to combat is to use the right tactics and stay mobile. Consult your bestiary for how to deal with monsters. In fights, get in a couple attacks then roll/dodge away, cast a Sign or throw a bomb for CC. Rinse repeat. You can’t take more than a few hits so never getting hit is the best option.

Be very liberal with alchemy use. Alchemy items only need to be crafted once, they’re “containers” that are refilled when you meditate, one unit of alcohol for all your alchemy items. Alchemy is really cheap and refills infinitely, craft the basic healing potions and bombs as soon as they become available and go nuts. Don’t be stingy.

Crafting is kind of a mess and one of the few weaknesses of the game. Feel free to horde materials since they don’t weigh anything. It’s mostly the Witcher gear sets that are worth crafting.

Gear doesn’t really matter that much. Don’t bother trying to max/min your gear and ability spec. Wear what you have available and whatever looks cool, craft Witcher sets.

Ability spec also doesn’t matter too much, don’t bother trying to min/max it even on the highest difficulties. Pick what seems fun to you and feel free to mix it up, respec potions are infinite and pretty cheap. Only abilities that are equipped in open slots will be active.

Dialogue, questing, map points of interest, Gwent, missable quests

The dialogue system is one of the best parts of the game. Animations, voice acting, writing, and cinematography are all fantastic. Don’t skip dialogue, explore all the white “fluff” options before progressing with a yellow option.

There are a broad range of quest levels starting in Velen and you’ll probably have to come back later to finish the higher-level ones. Rewards from quests are usually underwhelming, the best gear is mostly Witcher crafted sets (until the expansions) and you don’t often get much money. There is way more XP available in the game than you need to hit max level. You absolutely will out-level quests and they’ll go gray and will only reward token XP. Do not let that discourage you from doing a quest, do it because it seems interesting and not for any XP / money / loot reward.

When you get to a notice board, read all the postings. They’re often funny or sad and many of them add map locations even if they don’t give a quest.

Explore all the ? points of interest in the tutorial zone (White Orchard), there are a lot of places of power to get additional ability points and it will teach you all the aspects of the game. After that, points of interest in the water are mostly smuggler’s caches or hidden treasure which can get tedious and grindy. Definitely don’t try and collect all the question marks in the Skellige waters, that’s about the most miserable thing you can do in W3.

Gwent is a pretty good minigame but it’s entirely skippable, you won’t miss much other than tournaments. If you do want to Gwent, start early and keep playing every random merchant you come across. It’s a grind if you decide to pick up Gwent midway through the game.

There are zero timed quests and few missable quests. There is a big point of no return in the base game which will lock out quests relating to many main characters, the game explicitly sends you to wrap things up with each character and warns you to finish things before you proceed. You can still do most quests after you beat the game, it spits you back out into the game world. That said, here are some of the major things you can miss:

Novigrad – you can fail Gangs of Novigrad but that’s more choosing between two options to advance the quest, don’t sweat it.
Novigrad – late in the main quest you will have an option to forcefully shove Dijkstra. It abruptly ends a major quest chain so probably don’t do that.
Skellige – If you advance the main Skellige quest too far you will fail Cave of Dreams. You can start it by going to the southwest tip of Ard Skellig.
Skellige – You can fail Yen’s romance if you don’t do it immediately, she tells you to come right away and you should.
HoS – These are mostly for fun, but when you play Gwent with Halflings at the wedding, LOSE. And then bring Shani booze.
B&W – Extreme Cosplay will fail if you leave before completing it, so finish it right away.

Orv fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Jun 10, 2017

hopterque
Mar 9, 2007

     sup
The wait is loving killing me.


Comte hook us, your special friends, up with an early release. None of us will tell anyone.

Dark_Swordmaster
Oct 31, 2011
Sadly no mention of the tattoo in the OP. :smith:

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill
irc.synirc.net #witcher3 for cool nerd chat.

Orv
May 4, 2011

Archimago posted:

irc.synirc.net #witcher3 for cool nerd chat.

Added to the top.


Dark_Swordmaster posted:

Sadly no mention of the tattoo in the OP. :smith:

My boy Geralt won't mess up his fine porcelain sheen with no ink poo poo. :colbert:

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill

Orv posted:

Added to the top.

:swoon:

Also:





Couldn't help myself. :smithicide:

When I get them I'll effortpost and let you guys know whether the writing is good.

Edit:

Orv: Maybe add the link to the save files that was in the old OP?

Archimago posted:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/30709-(SPOILERS)The-Witcher-2-Save-Game-Files

Take your pick, dude has like every possible variation available. Obviously, lots of spoilers for TW2 in there so anyone who cares about that shouldn't click.

Aphex-
Jan 29, 2006

Dinosaur Gum
I am so glad I've booked Tuesday to Friday off work. I don't care how nerdy it is, I'm going to poopsock this game so drat hard. Roll on Tuesday holy poo poo.

The hype is real.

Orv
May 4, 2011

Archimago posted:

Orv: Maybe add the link to the save files that was in the old OP?

You are tearing me apart Archimago!

Done under The Story Now.

Drifter
Oct 22, 2000

Belated Bear Witness
Soiled Meat
Hey, Orv, are those PC screenshots up there the older ones from a year ago, or are they the newer, downgraded shots?

alex314
Nov 22, 2007

Same here, I hope to get wednesday-friday off. I've got shitton of vacation days to reclaim. It's been a while since I was this excited about a game!

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill

Orv posted:

You are tearing me apart Archimago!

Done under The Story Now.

I keep thinking of good things. Like this Kotaku article that introduces the happenings in the previous two games is really good for people who haven't played the games want a refresher: http://kotaku.com/a-beginner-s-guide-to-the-world-of-the-witcher-1704506152

These things just keep coming to me one at a time.

It's a good OP though. You're a Goon Hero.


Drifter posted:

Hey, Orv, are those PC screenshots up there the older ones from a year ago, or are they the newer, downgraded shots?

The Gamecube version.

Orv
May 4, 2011

Archimago posted:

These things just keep coming to me one at a time.

I'll poo poo inside you one at a time!

It's in there somewhere. No more requests for now, but feel free to pile them up for the first couple pages while I actually sleep for once.

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!
I wonder what happens in the PC version if you import a save and then answer the opposite of what you did during the part that allows you to choose your past.

RatHat fucked around with this message at 21:56 on May 15, 2015

Crappy Jack
Nov 21, 2005

We got some serious shit to discuss.

RatHat posted:

I wonder what happens in the PC version if you import a save and then answer the opposite of what you did during the part that allows you to choose your past.

That part is optional, I believe. I would therefore assume that loading a save would just automatically skip that part.

g0del
Jan 9, 2001



Fun Shoe

Drifter posted:

Hey, Orv, are those PC screenshots up there the older ones from a year ago, or are they the newer, downgraded shots?
No crayon-pants, obviously pre-downgrade.

The Sharmat
Sep 5, 2011

by Lowtax
How many man hours would you say CDPR put into downgrading the original graphics engine, Comte?

turtlecrunch
May 14, 2013

Hesitation is defeat.

Orv posted:

Alright But How Does It Look In Motion?

In a word? :dong:

I have been reading the pre-launch thread for a while and can confirm this.

VDay
Jul 2, 2003

I'm Pacman Jones!
This is a super dumb minor nitpick, but can you put the gameplay videos on two separate lines? SALR auto-links/embeds youtube links so that long list of url's ends up breaking tables.

ZearothK
Aug 25, 2008

I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021


So... Turns out I won't have the time to replay 2 before next week and the guy who put up all those saves had the tattoo removed...Would any goon have a handy save with Adda's curse lifted, Aryan alive, Blue-Stripes Tattoo, Iorveth's path, Stennis alive, freed Saskia and spared Letho and Sile?

Orv
May 4, 2011

VDay posted:

This is a super dumb minor nitpick, but can you put the gameplay videos on two separate lines? SALR auto-links/embeds youtube links so that long list of url's ends up breaking tables.

Had no idea about that, sorry, done.

GrossMurpel
Apr 8, 2011

ZearothK posted:

So... Turns out I won't have the time to replay 2 before next week and the guy who put up all those saves had the tattoo removed...Would any goon have a handy save with Adda's curse lifted, Aryan alive, Blue-Stripes Tattoo, Iorveth's path, Stennis alive, freed Saskia and spared Letho and Sile?

None of the W1 choices matter, just saying the Adda thing doesn't get imported anyway.

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill

ZearothK posted:

So... Turns out I won't have the time to replay 2 before next week and the guy who put up all those saves had the tattoo removed...Would any goon have a handy save with Adda's curse lifted, Aryan alive, Blue-Stripes Tattoo, Iorveth's path, Stennis alive, freed Saskia and spared Letho and Sile?

I have this with completionist autism on sidequests. But I did not save Saskia (she's alive but still mind controlled or whatever), I saved Triss. But I did get the dagger with the Iroveth mini quest after the fact (which means potentially can be saved later and the city doesn't turn into a blood bath and you get to kill all the Nilfgaardians). I can upload it if that's close enough.

Archimago fucked around with this message at 23:00 on May 15, 2015

ZearothK
Aug 25, 2008

I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021


Archimago posted:

I have this with completionist autism on sidequests. But I did not save Saskia, I saved Triss. But I did get the dagger with the Iroveth mini quest after the fact (which means potentially can be saved later and the city doesn't turn into a blood bath and you get to kill all the Nilfgaardians). I can upload it if that's close enough.

Oh, it most certainly is close enough if I can't find the whole thing, bless your heart if you do.

AAAAA! Real Muenster
Jul 12, 2008

My QB is also named Bort

Archimago posted:

I have this with completionist autism on sidequests. But I did not save Saskia (she's alive but still mind controlled or whatever), I saved Triss. But I did get the dagger with the Iroveth mini quest after the fact (which means potentially can be saved later and the city doesn't turn into a blood bath and you get to kill all the Nilfgaardians). I can upload it if that's close enough.
I would take it too because I am in the same boat as ZearothK. I really just want the tattoo in W3 and I'm not sure why.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Archimago posted:

I have this with completionist autism on sidequests. But I did not save Saskia (she's alive but still mind controlled or whatever), I saved Triss. But I did get the dagger with the Iroveth mini quest after the fact (which means potentially can be saved later and the city doesn't turn into a blood bath and you get to kill all the Nilfgaardians). I can upload it if that's close enough.

Trying to decide if I want this or my own - better to kill Henselt and leave Roche to be a fugitive, or break the mind control on Saskia? Hard question and I feel like I (appropriately) have no clue how it will affect things in TW3.

Lareine
Jul 22, 2007

KIIIRRRYYYUUUUU CHAAAANNNNNN
Anybody have a totally complete, Roche-path tattoo Geralt who leaves everybody(Síle, Letho, Aryan, Henselt, Adam Pangratt just in case) alive?

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill

ZearothK posted:

Oh, it most certainly is close enough if I can't find the whole thing, bless your heart if you do.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzrCC9Udy84jZGNRSkpRUW9VdXM/view?usp=sharing

-TATTOO PRESENT :siren:
-Scoi'atel Path in TW1 (probably doesn't matter)
-Adda's Curse Lifted in TW1 (probably doesn't matter)
-Aryan Alive
-Iorveth's Path
-Saved girls, Loredo lives (but iirc it's heavily implied he dies later, or runs away into exile?)
-Stennis Alive
-Saskia Alive, but still mind-controlled. Have the quest item dagger (which also means helped keep Iorveth alive when he was on that cart or whatever)
-Saved Triss in Act 3 (all dem Nilfgaardians be dead)
-No Mage blood bath in city afterwards
-Sile Spared
-Letho Spared
-Operator defeated, have his staff
-Completed on Dark, have the dark items (probably doesn't matter)
-Birdman Harpy quest completed (hopefully matters)
-All sidequests completed (it's possible I missed the special armor you get from following the quest you get from the destroyed boat, I can't remember if that was this playthrough or the other one. Probably not important anyway)
-All Trolls spared (I am not a monster, dammit!)

That's all the highlights I can think of. If I failed to mention something important feel free to ask and I can probably remember or load the game up to figure out.

.zip includes two .sav files and their .bmp thumbnails, which I doubt you actually need but threw it in there anyway.

AutoSave_0313.sav is the one you want for import. ManualSave_0312.sav is right outside the door to talk to Letho, so you can load the game up and verify tattoo is there, go through that Letho infodump, or look at inventory/questlog/whatever.

Hope it is of some use to people without save files but who made all the Right Choices. :smug:

Archimago fucked around with this message at 23:21 on May 15, 2015

Drifter
Oct 22, 2000

Belated Bear Witness
Soiled Meat

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

Trying to decide if I want this or my own - better to kill Henselt and leave Roche to be a fugitive, or break the mind control on Saskia? Hard question and I feel like I (appropriately) have no clue how it will affect things in TW3.

Well, they've said Saskia and Iorveth aren't in this game.

ZearothK
Aug 25, 2008

I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021


Archimago posted:

Hope it is of some use to people without save files but who made all the Right Choices. :smug:

Thanks!

turtlecrunch
May 14, 2013

Hesitation is defeat.

Archimago posted:

Hope it is of some use to people without save files but who made all the Right Choices. :smug:

How is saving someone with plot armor the right choice? When the Saskia DLC comes, you'll be sorry! ...:smith:

cheesetriangles
Jan 5, 2011





Do we know when Witcher Dong mod will be released?

Archimago
Jun 18, 2014

I just want to nom on Merrill

turtlecrunch posted:

How is saving someone with plot armor the right choice? When the Saskia DLC comes, you'll be sorry! ...:smith:

Well, without ~metagaming~ you have no idea that Triss is going to be okay if you don't rescue her. Also, unless I have a terrible memory (I do), you do know without metagaming that you need to go to Triss to get the dirt on Nilfgaard or all hell is going to break loose. You may not know a full on mage murderfest is going to happen, but you know that you need to go there to get information. Going in blind, I don't really see how it makes any sense to not save Triss.

Also, even with metagaming, if you save Saskia, all you're doing is making it so one dragon/cutie pie isn't mindcontrolled (when you can still get the dagger to free her when you go to save Triss), and you're sacrificing the lives of all the mages + anyone else caught in the crossfire that happens in the bloodbath that results because you go to save Saskia.

Needs of the many bla bla.

Granted, all the sorceresses are self-serving twats, but think of all the innocent children and innkeepers and men with no pants.

e. Also, with very few minor exceptions to "clean things up" those choices match my first blind playthrough, so it's my "honest" playthrough too. MY IMMERSION.

Archimago fucked around with this message at 23:35 on May 15, 2015

Brackhar
Aug 26, 2006

I'll give you a definite maybe.
Any word on if this will be better to play on KB/Mouse or Gamepad as of yet? I'll be playing on PC either way, but it's an interesting distinction.

Drifter
Oct 22, 2000

Belated Bear Witness
Soiled Meat

Brackhar posted:

Any word on if this will be better to play on KB/Mouse or Gamepad as of yet? I'll be playing on PC either way, but it's an interesting distinction.

I mean, isn't it purely preference? For me, I'll always like it better on kb/m.

What a strange question.

Andrast
Apr 21, 2010


Brackhar posted:

Any word on if this will be better to play on KB/Mouse or Gamepad as of yet? I'll be playing on PC either way, but it's an interesting distinction.

Just try both and use the one you prefer.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Drifter posted:

I mean, isn't it purely preference? For me, I'll always like it better on kb/m.

What a strange question.

Some games have a clear winner. For this game that's an arcade stick and two racing wheels.

1stGear
Jan 16, 2010

Here's to the new us.

quote:

Geralt of Rivia awakes at Kaer Morhen, bereft of even those bits of knowledge courtesy of some rather convenient amnesia. He travels a treacherous path of enemies and friends who have grudges and debts yet to repay, slaying monsters and saving folk along the way. He avoids dalliances with unintended rhyme and becomes aware of a prophecy to end the world. Not some no account, Mad Max motherfucker prophecy either, a real gently caress poo poo Up Forever prophecy. It is said that time of The Wolf's Blizzard approaches, and it's going to make a winter written by George R.R. Martin look like a weekend in Boca Raton. Between the insurgent non-humans and the feuding kings this is really all he needs, a prophecy to end the world, and on top of it a secret cult dedicated to who knows what. Problems and politics eventually fall to the wayside and Geralt faces a choice, posed by a figment of Death Itself; leave his past behind or embrace it in whole. Choices aside, Geralt comes to his reward to find his employer under assault. Engaging in a desperate struggle Geralt kills the assailant only to find the man kin.

Some days later, Geralt awakes yet again, remembering more but once again lacking purpose. He finds himself in a siege to recover the children of his employer and in the course of doing so his failure to protect his king is immense. Struggling under suspicion from all sides and the ever-nagging presence of his personal bard, Geralt wades once again into the intrigues of Temeria and Redania. Non-humans on one side and vicious kingsmen on the other, a common theme in the rousing life of our plucky witcher, he finds his way through the murk of politics to the killer of kings. Making a difficult choice is nothing new to our fair hero and life continues apace towards even more as he races to stop wars both civil and un. Sorceresses and dragons abound as our hero winds his way to the end of the tale, making decisions that will shape the north for years to come, and the troll population to boot. Having made his mark on the politics of more frigid climates he treks off into the sun to find new adventure, and hopefully a bit of coin.

I realize you might want to avoid spoilers or something, but these are both confusing as gently caress and I've played the games.

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

Lareine posted:

Anybody have a totally complete, Roche-path tattoo Geralt who leaves everybody(Síle, Letho, Aryan, Henselt, Adam Pangratt just in case) alive?

I'm nearly done with my replay that was SUPPOSED to be everyone possible alive, but I got to Henselt, heard the squeaky hinge line, and couldn't help myself, because gently caress that guy. If that's fine, I could upload it later today when I get around to doing the last quest or two.

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Drifter
Oct 22, 2000

Belated Bear Witness
Soiled Meat

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

Some games have a clear winner. For this game that's an arcade stick and two racing wheels.

I've actually found great success using an elliptical trainer and a sip-and-puff control stick.

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