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Doc Morbid posted:The reason I want to take care of the ghoul (who seems very happy to see us, judging from the way he's hopping around) is that sometimes he might wander up to Vesna and the bandits, and I don't want him messing things up there. We'll be having enough problems as it is. During my run through this part the Ghoul just waited patiently for the conversation to end  What a polite fellow
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Oct 15, 2017 20:28
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Frogfingers posted:Thank you for enduring this jankiness so I don't have to. I've been meaning to play Witcher 2 and 3 but the original looks beyond my patience and goodwill. In my opinion, the Outskirts and another outdoorsy part that comes later are the worst in said jankiness. That said, Outskirts is really good in keeping the plot off railroad tracks and it gives the impression that the NPCs live their own lives right off the bat. Alvin, though, is really even worse in video than in images. (Don't go looking if you care about spoilers, there are huge ones among the names of the top searches in Youtube).
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Oct 15, 2017 22:07
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I live and breathe Witcher 1 jankiness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-egGn5WYrk
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Oct 16, 2017 01:48
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In case anyone still doesn't have The Witcher, it's $1.49 at GOG right now. Along with the rest of the series (at various discounts). Number 3 is still $20, even at a 60% discount.
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Oct 16, 2017 11:59
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painedforever posted:Number 3 is still $20, even at a 60% discount. And worth every penny. Note that it's goty version with both expansions so it's easily around 100 hours of content.
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Oct 16, 2017 17:12
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Laughing Zealot posted:And worth every penny. Note that it's goty version with both expansions so it's easily around 100 hours of content. Steam's also started their sale for the franchise, in case that's the platform you like. Same discounts, too.
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Oct 16, 2017 18:42
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So after watching that video, I can see Geralt aged so hard from this game to 3.
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Oct 17, 2017 12:18
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If you're tired of Vesna getting herself killed over and over again, open rita_q1_1.utc, add Role_IgnoreMe to her profiles, and move the file to the override folder.
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Oct 17, 2017 16:56
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HR12345 posted:So after watching that video, I can see Geralt aged so hard from this game to 3. Old Bioware engines are a hell of a drug, man
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Oct 26, 2017 19:21
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Sorry for not updating in a while, I've been busy with important real life poo poo these last couple of weeks and haven't really been able to find the time or energy to sit down and record a few hours of The Witcher. I'll try to get some stuff recorded over the weekend.
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Nov 1, 2017 19:46
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Thx for letting us know. Hoping for an update soon. Good luck.
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Nov 1, 2017 20:04
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Everyone's sad because they missed the last date of the Witcher sale...
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Nov 2, 2017 04:02
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Gah, sorry about the further delay. I was supposed to record last weekend, but on Friday I came down with the worst case of the flu I've had in a decade, and have spent this past week feeling like I'm about to die. Could really use some of that witchers' immunity to disease right now. I'll get to recording as soon as I can. Once again, sorry about this. The LP most definitely isn't going to die, although I'm not so sure about myself at this point. 
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Nov 10, 2017 14:28
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Don't die. Come back when you can. Witcher fans will be waiting. I want to see you finish this game.
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Nov 10, 2017 15:08
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Take care of yourself and pace yourself. Goons can wait forever.
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Nov 10, 2017 15:50
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Doc Morbid posted:Gah, sorry about the further delay. I was supposed to record last weekend, but on Friday I came down with the worst case of the flu I've had in a decade, and have spent this past week feeling like I'm about to die. Could really use some of that witchers' immunity to disease right now. Clearly you need to mix yourself the right sort of potion. Let me think now, got any Barghest livers?
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Nov 10, 2017 16:42
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painedforever posted:Clearly you need to mix yourself the right sort of potion. Let me think now, got any Barghest livers? Something with extra rubedo.
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Nov 10, 2017 18:34
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One Swallow, coming up. Don't let it fry your brain  Also, get better. We can wait.
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Nov 11, 2017 00:17
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkwtMjUBBcI
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Nov 12, 2017 20:27
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Nov 12, 2017 20:58
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 Uh....wow? Though seeing the Witcher 1 actors coming from Lambert and Triss is more than a little disconcerting. mauman fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Nov 13, 2017 |
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Nov 13, 2017 01:10
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That's pretty nice. The sound's from the original, is it? But Triss looks a lot better in these clothes than in the weird ones from the original game.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:16
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Part 05: Buried Memories ------  Now that we have discovered where the Beast came from, we need to pay our good friend the Reverend another visit and tell him our findings. I'm sure he'll appreciate our work.  Actually, before we do that, let's drop by his house.  While there, we'll help ourselves to the contents of the wine cellar because why not. He also has a copy of Ithlinne's prophecy, the very same one Alvin recited back when we first arrived. The one with the end of the world and all that fun stuff.  Okay then. We've finished ransacking the Reverend's house, so let's go have a chat with the old goat.    Was it summoned by the witch? The Beast appeared because of human wickedness. To slay it, I'll need to identify the guilty. There may be wisdom in your words. When sheep run astray, the good shepherd must bring them back onto the righteous path. Otherwise they fall prey to wolves. I'll learn all I can to defeat the Beast. I must gather all the villagers... Here is your prize, witcher, 200 orens. I'm looking for men who wear salamander shaped pins.We've sort of gained the Reverend's trust now, so maybe he'll tell us something about Salamandra.   Vexing them may shorten your life. Do I look scared? Another witcher came here before you. He, too, swaggeded with audacity. And yet, do you see him? Not likely -- he fled! He's not me.Didn't we have this exact same conversation about Berengar a while ago?   For me - destroy the Beast. As for the others - visit Odo, Mikul and Haren. Can you solve their problems, too? Are they elders of some sort? Everyone knows and respects them. Odo is rich; Haren a merchant; and Mikul a city guard. Gain their trust and you'll win the trust of the village. We'll see. Wait. They need to believe I sent you. Show them this ring of the Eternal Fire.  All right then, let's put the Reverend's signet ring on. We could already have talked to all three guys he mentioned, but they'll be much more forthcoming now that we can prove the Reverend sent us.  Might as well start with Mikul. Haren's house is actually on the way (it's the black dot on the southern riverbank, next to the two campfires) so we'd save some time if we talked to him first, but whatever.  There's Mikul doing his guard duty, let's see what sort of problem he's got.    There's a... what they call that... a quarternine. Will it last long, this quarantine? Commander's job to know, not mine. And I guess the commander's inside... Does this quarantine apply to everyone?You know, I'm getting the feeling Mikul here isn't very bright. Just a hunch.   People with passes - they're allowed in. I see. Let's talk...  I'll have you know we are the best of friends.  As you can see, the bribe option is there so we could get Mikul to talk without the Reverend's ring.  But since we have the ring, paying him won't be necessary.   The Order of the Burning Rose has got passes. The Eternal Fire fights the plague. I've seen no knights here. Would the Reverend know anything? He knows a lot, wouldn't hurt to ask. The Reverend said you could use my help...   How is it even possible not to fight any monsters around here? Does he just not guard the gates at night or something? Because if he did, he'd definitely have encountered at least a couple of barghests by this point.   Sure, we'll go kill some ghouls for Mikul, provided that we get paid and he tells the Reverend what a nice and helpful chap Geralt is.    Right then, there's one job that needs taking care of. You may remember we tried to enter the crypt earlier, but it was locked. Mikul, however, gave us the key.   We could've headed straight for the crypt, but Haren's house is right here so we'll pay him a visit first.    What do you have to offer? The R-R-Reverend sent you, I presume?   Flash the ring, and he'll talk. Just like with Mikul, the bribe option is there if you want to do that instead.  Haren sells some weapons and items, and I buy some bear fat (for making oils) off-camera. Now, let's get down to the important business.   Ah, a drowner problem. We should be able to help with that. For a price, of course.   These d-d-damned undead are my concern. They scare customers off and d-d-destroy my crates. And this is a valuable shipment for a special client...So why keep the crates out there? Can't he just store them inside the house or something? There's plenty of space in here.  We'll grab Haren's torch and his book about elves, dwarves and gnomes.  Drowners aren't going to show up until nightfall and Vesna's meeting us in front of the mill at dusk, so we have some time to kill. We could go visit Odo, of course, but that can wait until tomorrow. We also have a sidequest we can take care of, so let's do that. The cave on the opposite riverbank is where we're going.  As Geralt's comment and the piles of bones at the mouth of the cave suggest, entering this place at a low level isn't the best idea. We've got some experience under our belt, though, so we should be able to handle whatever's in there.   The floor of the cave is littered with bones. If this is where Declan Leuvaarden's friend went, I don't exactly have high hopes of finding him in one piece.  Especially when the cave turns out to be infested by giant carnivorous plants.   This fairly unpleasant fellow here is an echinops. In the Witcher books, echinopsae are animals covered in sharp spines they can shoot at you from up to ten feet. They resemble clumps of grass when immobile. I'm not sure why we went from "grassy hedgehog monster" to "man-eating plant", but here we are.  Err... I think something may have gone ever so slightly wrong with the echinops model when we killed this one. Good old Witcher 1 jank.  Echinopsae can be rather annoying to fight. One of them is not a big deal, but they rarely appear alone. Battling two or three of these guys may get rather hazardous to Geralt's health, especially as they have a ranged attack where they shoot their thorns at you, interrupting your attacks. Fire tends to be effective, as you might expect, so the torch can be a good weapon against echinopsae.  There's quite a few echinopsae in this cave, which is why this can be a deadly trap for a first-time player. Even though Geralt says this place looks rough, you probably won't expect to get attacked by half a dozen plant monsters. As long as you move slowly and carefully, you'll generally manage to avoid alerting more than one or two at a time.  It's also really dark in here. The torch really would've come in handy, but cutting these guys up with Geralt's sword works well enough and we can still just about see what we're doing.  This one is a "sated" echinops. It'll still attack us, though, which is a problem because there's another echinops right next to us.  You can see how much damage we already took when fighting two of these things. Not very pleasant, but now that we've got this guy down we can engage the sated echinops.   We manage to loot a human skull from the remains. Declan's buddy, I presume?  Apparently so. I don't know how Geralt can tell this particular skull belonged to the guy we were looking for, but he seems to be convinced so we'll go tell Declan the bad news when we have time.   We still need to kill a couple more echinopsae before we get out of here, of course.  Now that we've made it out of the echinops cave alive, we'll hit the crypt and kill those ghouls for Mikul. All in a day's work for a witcher.   Vesna?  No, it's not. Just someone with the same character model. Our date with Vesna is still on for tonight, don't worry.  Hm, not a bad idea because it is even darker in here than it was in the cave.  There we go, that ought to help.  Bottle? What bottle? I don't see any...  ...oh, that tiny blob of pixels. This is a quest item, by the way, so hopefully you don't miss it. Why was this woman down here in the crypt with a vial of poison, anyway? Seems more than a little suspicious.  We'll worry about that later, because we've got ghouls to slay. Ghouls remain extremely weak to Aard, so we can just stun them and cut them down in a single strike.   There's quite a few of them lurking around, though.  The next chamber has a Place of Power, but we already used the one outside the crypt so we'll ignore this one. The path ahead is blocked by rubble, and so is the one to the right, so I suppose we'll be heading left then.   What a surprise, more ghouls. They're still not very tough, although a pack does present a slightly bigger problem than a lone ghoul would.    Mind you, that's still not saying very much. Aard works as well as ever, and that should take care of Mikul's little ghoul problem.  We'll go inform him in a minute, but first there's something else we need to have a look at.   Along with Aard, Igni is probably the most useful Sign in The Witcher. It can get very powerful with some upgrades, and will also cause various effects on enemies.  Well, that's that for the crypt. Let's head back to Mikul.  Looks like there's some sort of commotion happening on the bridge.     Not likely.  Oh, great, Salamandra brought a mage as well. Still, we should be able to dispatch these losers fairly easily...  ...if the game didn't start us in the middle of combat with our sword sheathed, that is.  These guys are already slashing away at us before we even fade back from the cutscene. Also, for some reason, the game decided to de-select Aard, so right-clicking does absolutely nothing until I go back to select it. I thought this might've happened after we learned Igni, but we still had Aard selected when we were leaving the crypt so it seems the game just automatically hosed us over at some point. Or I may have pressed 1 by accident. Who knows.    Anyway, once we finally get our poo poo together, the Salamandra lackeys aren't a problem. Mikul joins the fight as well, and promptly gets set on fire. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to mind too much.  Any time.       If I had stayed and fought the frightener with Vesemir, I might've faced a different threat today.Sometimes, we get these cutscenes that show the consequences of our decisions, in this case the decision to go after Salamandra at Kaer Morhen instead of fighting the frightener. Had we chosen differently, we would indeed have faced a different threat on this bridge. A bunch of mutant dogs alongside the Salamandra guys, apparently.   Of course not. The lab was more important.    Visit my shop in Vizima for any ingredients you need for your potions. At a discount! Farewell.  The old man comes here and talks and talks. Gives me a headache. I'll stone him next time... I wouldn't if I were you. He's a powerful alchemist... Uhhh... Captain said, "Only admit those with passes." I know, I know. All right, we'll see him there later. We're not quite done with Kalkstein yet, though.  I maybe wouldn't bother. I'm not entirely sure any of these guards can read.  Kalkstein was the person who posted the ghoul contract, and it just so happens that we're carrying a generous amount of ghoul blood with us right now.   Relax, pay first. I need that blood for my research!Settle down Kalkstein, you're getting your blood.  Okay then. We're now done with Mikul's quest and have gained his trust, so now we just need to help out the other two important folks around here. Well, actually, we're not done with Mikul's quest, because in all the excitement I may have kind of forgotten to turn it in. I'll figure it out eventually, no worries. We gained a level during that last fight, so let's see what upgrades we should get this time around. Buzz seems kind of fun and useful in case we ever need to fight something while we're drunk, so we'll take that one.  Then, we'll get our strong steel up to level 2.  And finally, get Aard to level 2 as well to increase its strength and our sign intensity in general. Igni's damage is based on sign intensity, so we'll want to boost that. While we're meditating, we'll also make some Cat and Swallow potions.  That'll do it for now. Next time, we'll go on a nice and pleasant date, and afterwards we'll find out what Haren's special shipment is all about. Maybe we'll also go see what's happening with Odo. ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Nov 16, 2017 |
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Nov 16, 2017 17:04
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Welcome back!
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Nov 16, 2017 17:33
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Oh hey, an update. And these quest givers. Weird disabilities in lieu of personality traits. Not that I can remember what the third one was like...
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Nov 16, 2017 20:36
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I'm repeatedly impressed by how ugly all these NPC's are.
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Nov 16, 2017 22:10
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Can't tell a story like this with pretty characters... ugly, dark persons to tell an ugly dark story. You saw this in the art style of Dishonored too, although this game goes places that one never does (and is much better written, despite clunkiness). In this update, we had our first instance of the consequence system, a replacement of the standard Bioware-style morality path. Instead of a light and some points toward one alignment or another, which may or may not translate to tangible gameplay benefits, we have instead a cut scene of Geralt reminiscing about the choice and defending it, as well as wondering what might have happened if he had made a different choice. I must say, it piques my interest in seeing the other choice a lot more than "+X Lightside/Renegade points, ______ dis/approves" does, and is more interesting in implication, as there is no tacit indication by the game about any "right" answer- because while Geralt is pretty good at justifying his decisions in hindsight, it will quickly become apparent that there is no right answer. Just what you do vs. what you don't, and whether you personally can live with that. In this instance, I'm with Doc here: the lab was more important, and it wasn't like there is any shortage of other witchers to fight the frightener. Besides, the enemy type that Doc alludes to here is at this point really tough, and can be a nasty surprise if you're unprepared (which you will be, unless you are truly insane with grinding).
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Nov 16, 2017 23:21
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I too agree with Doc about the Frightener vs. the Lab, and with Resurgan that this game's "consequences" system is better than that of Bioware or Choice of Games' usual Morality systems. Like one of my favorite sea captains says, right or wrong doesn't really matter as much as what a man can do and what a man can't do. Or what he does/doesn't in this case. As for the ugliness of NPCs, I'm just glad it doesn't spread to our possible love interests- at least in my opinion. Some might think otherwise, which is of course fine.
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Nov 16, 2017 23:44
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Yeah, direct consequences are usually better than some abstract good/evil system. I suppose the explicit connections it spells out are this generation's "Kenny will remember that".
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Nov 18, 2017 07:32
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achtungnight posted:I too agree with Doc about the Frightener vs. the Lab, and with Resurgan that this game's "consequences" system is better than that of Bioware or Choice of Games' usual Morality systems. Like one of my favorite sea captains says, right or wrong doesn't really matter as much as what a man can do and what a man can't do. Or what he does/doesn't in this case. I think I played the Frightener fight, on the first time around. But then, I was playing on easy, which is why I'd gotten out of the fight.
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Nov 19, 2017 05:39
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I think when I started this years ago I went for the Frightener and that may be why I never got past the prologue. Oh well, I can watch this LP now and see what I missed out on.
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Nov 28, 2017 06:30
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I much prefer having actual consequences to some morality system, but the way that the game pauses everything to have everyone comment on how they made a choice is hilarious to me.
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Nov 28, 2017 06:40
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Found this from the Jade Empire LP. It was a wonderful blast from the past and I learned some things about the game I never knew back in the day. Looking forward to this one.
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Nov 28, 2017 09:35
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the striking difference between JE and Bioware's morality system and Witcher's Consequence is striking
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Nov 28, 2017 20:26
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Glad you're back!
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Nov 28, 2017 21:21
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Let's Read Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher Book 1: The Last Wish Story 1 - The Witcher These reviews are generally going to be divided into two parts. The Last Wish has a framing story ("The Voice of Reason") about Geralt recovering from the injuries he sustains in "The Witcher". We get a bit of framing story before and after each short story proper. The Voice of Reason - part 1 posted:
Let's move on to The Witcher. Pan Sapkowski had no previous experience as a writer when he wrote this short story, though he did do some work as a translator of sci-fi and fantasy works (which is encouraging for all us translators who hope to become world famous writers some day). He intended to win a short story contest held by a Polish fantasy magazine, and then never write again, so the story doesn't necessarily mesh (nor was intended to) with the larger Witcher universe. The Witcher posted:Geralt of Rivia rides into Vizima, wisely avoiding spending any time in the outskirts. He chooses the worst tavern around, and picks a fight with some thugs, who really hate Rivians. He The DDR crack was more meaningful than you might have thought. Witcher combat, as described in the stories, is all about rhythm, pirouettes, movement. Whoever goes out of step and hesitates gets cut open. In some ways, the combat in Witcher 1 is actually more true to the stories than the other two games. There are a lot of bits and pieces that don't really fit into the expanded Witcher universe - obviously enough, as the story was written with no expanded universe in mind. For instance, Velerad claims that Witchers have only come to prominence recently, thanks to the growth in the number of monsters - which is the exact opposite of how things are described everywhere else in the Witcher-verse. Foltest is described as scrawny, and "too handsome". In one of the later stories Geralt claims he actually adopted the cognomen "of Rivia" as well as a Rivian accent on purpose, to belong somewhere, despite (like all Witchers) coming to Kaer Morhen at a very early age, which.... um. Geralt probably wouldn't intentionally provoke a bar fight just to show off his murder-skills, nor intentionally sacrifice a bound human who hasn't actually harmed him to a monster in any later media. Something that the intro cinematic (and most later Witcher media, including the stories) ignores is Geralt reaching an empathic / telepathic union with the striga, intimidating it not only with martial prowess, but also by overwhelming it with a wave of negative emotions. The Witchers don't really display a lot of telepathic talent later in the series. I have to give kudos to the noir dialog. It's sharp, funny, to the point, and doesn't really outstay its welcome. Geralt is (playing) the stoical monster hunter, professional and to the point, but his essential humanity shines through. Even within this first, unformed story, it's fairly obvious his witcher's code is an excuse to keep his distance and a mask of impartiality. The comparisons to Philip Marlowe are well warranted. I've been told that Sapkowski's Polish is really quite brilliant, with a lot of worldpay, allusions, and references that would do Pratchett proud. Conversely, the English translation is apparently quite dull. That being said I'm reading the Russian translation - Pan Sapkowski speaks Russian, was friends with the Russian translator, and recommends its quality. So I have to assume that ending particularly poignant moments with "X knew the answer to this question. X knew." is one of Sapkowski's own quirks, and it annoys me to no end. It shows up over and over, and it's really bad. Less subjectively, the little "this isn't your grandpa's fairy tale, Geralt isn't going to be given half the kingdom and princess' hand in marriage" touches do get a bit much, here and in general. This is going to be more relevant later on, but all the "Man, peasants are dumb, smelly and superstitious. OF COURSE a peasant lad isn't going to break the curse with guile and pluck" notes also get more overbearing as we go on, as they feature in pretty much every story. Traditional fairy tales emphasized the possibility of the lowest-born members of society, such as swineherds and village fools, being heroes because they were subverting a social status that valued nobles and professional murderers (forgive me the tautology) above all. One might claim that the Witcher universe is an equal offender, insofar as everyone are equally poo poo, but all that poo poo-talking about peasants and craftsmen from a writer who (seriously-jokingly) refers to himself as a Polish nobleman in the 21st century starts to rankle a bit. Witcher abilities: * The Aard sign, doing pretty much what it does in the game. * Two unknown potions, one greatly increasing reaction speed, the other probably Cat, helping Geralt see in the dark? The stories make a big deal out of Geralt's ability to widen or narrow his pupils to extremes, to deal with blinding sunlight or near darkness, but apparently potions help as well. * Feeling the rhythm. * Telepathy (doesn't get featured again) Xander77 fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Apr 22, 2018 |
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Nov 29, 2017 13:28
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Not to mention Geralt is a lot more ruthless in this story, later one he wouldn't he wouldn't have chosen to sacrifice a dude to a monster as his first option. Or kill random thugs in a bar just to show off.
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Nov 29, 2017 15:47
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Frionnel posted:Not to mention Geralt is a lot more ruthless in this story, later one he wouldn't he wouldn't have chosen to sacrifice a dude to a monster as his first option. Or kill random thugs in a bar just to show off. gently caress it. It's now a canon part of the original post, and you can't prove otherwise.
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Nov 29, 2017 15:59
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Really enjoyed the writeup, Xander. Looking forward to more of those. If it's okay with you, I'll update the second post of the thread to include links to your Let's Reads.
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Nov 29, 2017 16:26
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Doc Morbid posted:If it's okay with you, I'll update the second post of the thread to include links to your Let's Reads.
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Nov 29, 2017 16:32
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