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The main twists to the Witcher as a setting (besides some of the multiverse stuff, anyway, which is a lot more common now than when the first stories were written) is that lot of the concepts flaoting around technologically and culturally are...well, I don't want to say "anachronistic", because this is a fantasy world that is implied to be inhabited by distant future humans from our own world...but usually you don't hear mages in high middle ages/early modern type fantasy settings talking about Darwinian evolution and genetics. The mages in general have an extremely modern conception of scientific method and fairly secular ideologies seem to oddly coexist with a diverse pan-European pagan culture.There's also a lot of nationalist politics and economics in the spotlight that feel almost more Cold War than anything. The world itself isn't very imaginative but the writer(s) put an interesting spin on it because of stuff like that.
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Oct 30, 2015 06:43
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The similarity of Geralt and Ciri's appearance can be chalked down to fate. The two were intimately tied together before Ciri was even born, presumably so they could fulfill their end of Ithlinne's Prophecy and stop the White Frost.
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Oct 30, 2015 06:47
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I think if you read the books closely you'll find that destiny isn't enough and that it requires something more 
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Oct 30, 2015 06:51
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The Sharmat posted:I think if you read the books closely you'll find that destiny isn't enough and that it requires something more Well yeah, Geralt is Father of the Year as well, but that's the initial tie that binds them. Full disclosure: I haven't actually read all of the books and read some of them out of order.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:02
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The Sharmat posted:The main twists to the Witcher as a setting (besides some of the multiverse stuff, anyway, which is a lot more common now than when the first stories were written) is that lot of the concepts flaoting around technologically and culturally are...well, I don't want to say "anachronistic", because this is a fantasy world that is implied to be inhabited by distant future humans from our own world...but usually you don't hear mages in high middle ages/early modern type fantasy settings talking about Darwinian evolution and genetics. The mages in general have an extremely modern conception of scientific method and fairly secular ideologies seem to oddly coexist with a diverse pan-European pagan culture.There's also a lot of nationalist politics and economics in the spotlight that feel almost more Cold War than anything. The world itself isn't very imaginative but the writer(s) put an interesting spin on it because of stuff like that. That's, pretty cool. It's not unlike an idea I had of far future humans going back in time to found a civilization that by the time humans encounter them they're insanely technologically advanced and have completely forgotten their origins. Is it something like the world ended and slowly human civilization is rebuilding itself and they're at a medieval level of technology at this point and anything that seems more advanced than it should be is because some knowledge survived? Oh yea and the political stuff I got right away. There's certain a very modern concept of the nation state rather than simply who your local lord is. I liked the touch of when you meet the Emperor, he's in a fallen kingdoms capital and you can run around and see them dissembling the throne room. I'll have to check if the books are available for Kindle.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:04
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I went back to finish some of the side quests and minor exploration of the expansion, and I gotta say it feels overtuned in terms of difficulty and the enchanting guy costs way too much. It's really the only point in the game where I've felt a need to grind out cash or min/max my spec and gear, and it's not fun. The story, world-building, and dialogue were all top-notch as usual but the major fights didn't have much depth to them and were really punishing if you made a small mistake. Making the big boss fights more about execution rather than strategy or depth mostly just made them obnoxious and frustrating. I also don't understand why the enchanter costs so goddamn much. By the time you're doing the expansion content and can afford the tens of thousands to unlock his poo poo it's mostly irrelevant. There are a a lot of cool enchants but realistically they're only going to be used for the very end of a normal playthrough or beginning of a NG+. It just seems totally not worth it. Edit: I feel like CDPR has produced a fantastic "open world RPG" that is consistently high quality with an impressive amount of content. The combat system is not really good or well-balanced enough to make it a focus like it seemed at times during the expansion boss fights. More often it felt like a battle against the combat system rather than the opponents themselves which really takes me out of the otherwise best-in-class storytelling and characterization. That seems like a recurring theme with Witcher games. They're great and sort of cult classics in spite of the combat systems. Mind you, combat is absolutely leaps and bounds improved from Witcher 1 to 2 to 3, it's just still not really well-balanced enough to try and make a focus. Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Oct 30, 2015 |
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Oct 30, 2015 07:04
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The only RPG I've played in the last 10 years that I'd say actually had "good" satisfying, well thought out combat by these standards is Pillars of Eternity, and it's not even in the same sub-genre as the Witcher games. I guess I really need to see what all this Dark Souls stuff is about.twistedmentat posted:Is it something like the world ended and slowly human civilization is rebuilding itself and they're at a medieval level of technology at this point and anything that seems more advanced than it should be is because some knowledge survived? twistedmentat posted:I'll have to check if the books are available for Kindle. All the officially translated ones are. Just remember the publising order is not actually the order they should be read in. It goes The Last Wish>Sword of Destiny>Blood of Elves>Time of Contempt>Baptism of Fire (End of official translations)>Tower of the Swallow>Lady of the Lake. The Witcher 1 takes place a couple of years after the ending of Lady of the Lake. There's also a prequel that was written relatively recently by the original author but it's never been translated into English. I can't really recommend the fan translations of the last two books anyway, either.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:12
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I didn't mind the new fights actually. They each had an element of '  ....  .....  ....  ' to them that was satisfying. In fact, the only combat I thought was really crap was that cave fight against a whole bunch of regular armored dudes who took a thousand hits each and practically made you fight on a wooden bridge you couldn't climb back onto if you fell off. That wasn't so good.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:23
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I took the non-combat way of solving Djisktra's quest, which results in not knowing the location of his stupid vault but giving him the key, so of course he doesn't want to help out in Kaer Morhen at all. rear end.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:34
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The most he ever does is give you money. He never comes himself or sends men. Which is probably just as well, I wouldn't trust Dijkstra around Ciri. Bad enough Roche is there despite being part of the same apparatus that was trying to find and kill her in the third book.Tirranek posted:I didn't mind the new fights actually. They each had an element of ' Yeah so far I'm actually liking the boss fights in the expansion. I can see people being annoyed and jarred by the sudden switch to puzzle fight though. Took me a bit to figure out the Frog Prince's gimmick.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:38
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I was pretty fortunate in figuring out the frog's weakness because I got annoyed early on and tried to use the alt form of Yrden to do some damage early on when it kept jumping away. Wasn't a fan of that boss on the whole but I am glad that it was more complex than the base game bosses. Hopefully the devs learn a lot from the feedback and tweak the next expansion to be better about that stuff.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:52
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The Sharmat posted:Yeah so far I'm actually liking the boss fights in the expansion. I can see people being annoyed and jarred by the sudden switch to puzzle fight though. Took me a bit to figure out the Frog Prince's gimmick. Really it was mostly the fights in the von Everec manor and painted world that were obnoxious for me. I had finished almost everything in the base game on BBB and later DM difficulty, tackled the expansion on BBB but later turned it down to easiest because I spent a week coming back to those fights a few times a night before quitting in frustration. boss fight spoilers - Basically they all felt like really simple patterns that if you messed up even slightly gently caress YOU which made for really frustrating gameplay. Caretaker - killing the specters helps but more importantly don't let him hit you with basic attacks or his shovel shockwave attack. If he hits you he heals a ton so this fight basically comes down to repeating the same dodge and attack pattern a dozen times without error. He felt like a huge sack of HP you had to wittle down while not getting hit or you'd lost most your progress. Iris - I could never figure out a reliable way to hit the paintings and stop her from healing to full. No issue dodging her flurry attack which does a lot of damage, but I had to respec to Whirl to be able to consistently kill the paintings and finish her off. Again a fight with a simple gimmick and no room for error. arachnomorphs in general are dodgy and swarm you to death in 2-3 hits, not necessarily hard just require a few reloads every time I met them because I'd die instantly with any mistake In general I felt like the story and characters in the expansion were great but the combat was "busllshit, gently caress this" a lot of the time and the enchanter expenses were so high I would need to do a lot of grinding for only a late-game benefit. Those were the only times I've felt that frustrated or needing to grind in the game, which were low points for me.
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Oct 30, 2015 07:54
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Why does my loving horse decide to have different equipment when in the Isles, compared to Velen? I can never equip anything properly on the fuckin thing, and the chest in the isles simply never works. Ugh. Also it's pretty annoying that almost every time I go into the alchemy section, it reminds me about pinning forms. I really don't give a poo poo anymore.
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Oct 30, 2015 08:14
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Do I need to have the enhanced sign slotted to be able to use delusion level 1? I've come across a couple conversations where I needed it upgraded in order to use.
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Oct 30, 2015 08:16
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The Sharmat posted:Yeah so far I'm actually liking the boss fights in the expansion. I can see people being annoyed and jarred by the sudden switch to puzzle fight though. Took me a bit to figure out the Frog Prince's gimmick. The first Olgierd fight, the Caretaker and finally Iris just aren't well designed and they treat the problems the game has with its systems as if they don't exist. Good luck hitting those paintings in a way that doesn't look completely accidental and janky. Palpek fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Oct 30, 2015 |
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Oct 30, 2015 08:47
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One of my favourite moments in the expansion was going into a cave, seeing a whole load of spiders bunched up doing their  thing, then Northern Winding them all and mopping up.
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Oct 30, 2015 09:11
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Tirranek posted:
That's my fault and I'm deeply sorry.
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Oct 30, 2015 09:19
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Tirranek posted:In fact, the only combat I thought was really crap was that cave fight against a whole bunch of regular armored dudes who took a thousand hits each and practically made you fight on a wooden bridge you couldn't climb back onto if you fell off. That wasn't so good. After failing that particular fight like a dozen times, I went "gently caress it" and murdered the first heavy guard on the bridge without engaging in the dialogue with Ulrich first. Made the encounter soo much easier...
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Oct 30, 2015 09:49
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:That's my fault and I'm deeply sorry. Oh no  I dug everything else though, so it's all good! On another note, do you know if Olgierd was intentionally made to look like David Beckham?
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Oct 30, 2015 10:08
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I'm finally going to be buying my PS4 tomorrow, mostly for Fallout 4 to be honest, but I definitely wanted to go ahead and grab something to play until then(and pick back up afterwards of course) and I think Witcher 3 is my best bet. I've actually been craving something fantasy rpg based anyway, since I accidentally deleted my Skyrim save and just stopped playing. Anyway, are there any tips or things I should know about this game? The card game in it looks like it might be really fun, should I invest some time into it as I go along?
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Oct 30, 2015 10:27
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The Viper armour being a lazy reskin of the Kaer Morhen armour's not ideal, but it will do pig, it will do.
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Oct 30, 2015 13:21
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what trouble are people having with the first olgierd fight?
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Oct 30, 2015 14:05
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Started playing through the expansion with the same Geralt I ended the game with and is there a difficulty spike or have I really just forgotten how to play? I'm trying to do the Rose on a Red Field quest and these guys are handing me my rear end. I haven't played since probably August, though, so maybe my game reflexes are mapped to Mad Max? Geralt is level 36, full Wolf equipment, and I had a weird spec that I don't remember creating (combat focused, mixed light and heavy, setup with high tox resistance). Re-specced to be a light attack Whirl monster, which got me through the main campaign, but still died a lot.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:08
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twistedmentat posted:Do I need to have the enhanced sign slotted to be able to use delusion level 1? I've come across a couple conversations where I needed it upgraded in order to use. Every skill needs to be slotted to be usable. If you simply put points into that skill it's not enough. Not my favorite choice they could have made, I'd prefer it if you could just use any skill you put points in, but it is what it is.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:09
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:That's my fault and I'm deeply sorry. This was definitely another fight that would have benefited from a post-cutscene, pre-fight checkpoint save.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:11
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Twobirds posted:This was definitely another fight that would have benefited from a post-cutscene, pre-fight checkpoint save. There is one, actually. EDIT: Nope, just checked. There *used* to be one, but it had to get moved to before the conversation for technical reasons.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:18
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I saw early game money talk. Novigrads money conversion is nice and all, but the fastest way to get money is doing question marks and selling the swords and armors to blacksmiths and armorers in town. Sell them in cities, in particular, oxenfort, the smith and the armorer are fairly loaded, and pay more for their respective stuff (swords to black smith, etc) Also oxenfurt isn't very far in game and has some of the best music in game imo.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:27
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I really liked all the fisstech side-quests in the expansion. The drug theme was present in the main game but expanding on it with actual stories definitely enriched the worldbuilding.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:38
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the scripting broke in the bear school scavenger hunt and I'm loving stuck cool
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Oct 30, 2015 15:41
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Palpek posted:I really liked all the fisstech side-quests in the expansion. The drug theme was present in the main game but expanding on it with actual stories definitely enriched the worldbuilding. I want to get hosed up on Fisstech and hunt monsters. I better be able to do this in the last expansion 
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Oct 30, 2015 15:45
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Ruggington posted:the scripting broke in the bear school scavenger hunt and I'm loving stuck while angrily mashing buttons I managed to jump my way outside of the world and it dropped me into the ocean outside the open world jank gods smile on me
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Oct 30, 2015 15:52
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Wait, there was a gimmick for the Frog Prince fight? I just pretty much fought it like every other boss, and I didn't even have all my potions and bombs because like an idiot I thought I'd have a chance to meditate. EDIT: Golden Oriole is my pro tip for that fight. JetsGuy fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Oct 30, 2015 |
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Oct 30, 2015 18:05
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:I want to get hosed up on Fisstech and hunt monsters. I better be able to do this in the last expansion Maybe in the inevitable Ciri sequel. JetsGuy posted:Wait, there was a gimmick for the Frog Prince fight? I just pretty much fought it like every other boss, and I didn't even have all my potions and bombs because like an idiot I thought I'd have a chance to meditate. Igni him when he opens his mouth and he takes a shitload of damage. I can't imagine doing that fight the normal way, it would be hugely tedious. But then I played on death march so maybe he's less of a tank on lower difficulties.
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Oct 30, 2015 18:30
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The Sharmat posted:Maybe in the inevitable Ciri sequel. You mean Cyberpunk 2077?
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Oct 30, 2015 18:38
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The cameo should be amusing at least.
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Oct 30, 2015 18:45
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JetsGuy posted:Wait, there was a gimmick for the Frog Prince fight? I just pretty much fought it like every other boss, and I didn't even have all my potions and bombs because like an idiot I thought I'd have a chance to meditate. expansion boss fight mega spoilers: did all these on Death March except for Iris and second fight with Olgierd (in the painting as her deepest fear) I said gently caress it after a few attempts and turned it down Frog Prince you can Igni in the mouth yeah, I thought that was a fun and chaotic fight. You just gotta keep moving and dodging. I felt the same about the Ofieri mage and crew. Both fights were messy fun and didn't feel like bullshit where I'd get killed in a couple hits if I made an error. Was not a fan of the von Everec manor and painted world fights at all, as I already posted. I think they'd be fine if the Caretaker was less of a huuuuuuge sack of HP and Iris' paintings were targetable as enemies. I was never really close to dying against the Caretaker, it was just a really long and tedious fight because of his healing from shades and if he hits you. Iris heals to full if you don't roll and attack/Igni her painting, but there's no way to directly target them so you flail and pray you can kill the paintings a few times in a row. I ended up respeccing to take Whirl since that reliably lets me kill the paintings (and is good in general). Olgierd in both fights and arachnomorphs in general just seem to hit really loving hard. That wasn't so bad.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:00
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Palpek posted:The game is on sale as a part of Steam's Halloween sale. Anyone who does not own it should buy it immediately and enjoy the best PC gaming experience of the past 3 years. I held out until a few weeks ago and, it lives up to the hype.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:29
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Additionally: mad props to CDPR for continued quality of life and bugfix patches to the game. Quality of long term support affects my purchase decisions.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:30
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pmchem posted:Anyone who does not own it should buy it immediately and enjoy the best PC gaming experience of the past 3 years. My endorsement means nothing since I'm probably the biggest Witcher fanboy on the site but it's seriously my top RPG of the last 10 years.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:33
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The Sharmat posted:My endorsement means nothing since I'm probably the biggest Witcher fanboy on the site but it's seriously my top RPG of the last 10 years. Yeah, it was already my RPG of the decade when it came out, and that's not even counting the 16 free pieces of DLC, the multiple patches based on customer feedback, the complete lack of DRM, an excellent paid expansion, and yet another expansion in the works that's supposed to be as long as Witcher 2 in itself. Like, they've done pretty much everything right, not buying this game would be a travesty, in my opinion.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:37
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