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DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


:frogsiren: This is the fully uncensored version of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, so consider this an :nws: warning for the entire LP :frogsiren:



quote:

Witchers

Witchers came into being when the first settlers were colonizing the untamed lands of present-day Temeria. The elite caste of warrior-monks was to defend Humans from the monsters which inhabited the wild. Thanks to mutagenic mushrooms, herbs, and plant stimulants, the bodies of young apprentices developed superhuman speed and endurance. As a result of the painful and dangerous Trial of the Grasses, young witchers gained cat-like eyes, which allowed them to see in the dark. With the help of sorcerers they learned to utilize simple combat spells called Signs as well as magic potions that augmented their fighting skills. Nowadays, when monsters have become something of a rarity, the demand for the witchers' services has declined significantly. Only a few representatives of the caste still travel the world, and no more monster slayers are being made.

Due to their otherness, unusual abilities and magic skills, Witchers are treated as outcasts and sometimes even meet with hatred. This hatred was made manifest during the infamous attack on Kaer Morhen, which led to the destruction of the fortress and the death of most of the Witchers wintering there. Those who survived are doomed to extinction since they no longer train successors.

People need Witchers but are simultaneously afraid of them. The itinerant warriors inspire fear because they are mutants and have superhuman powers. A Witcher is rarely a welcome guest and contacts with members of this profession are almost always limited to business. Witchers are invariably attacked during pogroms and social upheavals directed against those who deal in magic.

Mutagens and magic render witchers' bodies resistant to all kinds of disease, even to the point of outright immunity.

- The Witcher 1's glossary entry on witchers

quote:

Verily, there is nothing so hideous as the monsters, so contrary to nature, known as witchers for they are the offspring of foul sorcery and devilry. They are rogues without virtue, conscience or scruple, true diabolic creations, fit only for killing. There is no place amidst honest men for such as they.

And Kaer Morhen, where these infamous beings nestle, where they perform their foul practices, must be wiped from the surface of this earth, and all trace of it strewn with salt and saltpetre.

- Monstrum, or Description of the Witcher

The Witcher is a CRPG developed by Polish studio CD Projekt Red, first released in 2007 with Atari as the publisher. The following year, the game was updated and re-released as The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, which fixed a lot of the bugs and other issues while also adding some bonus content, and that is the version I'll be playing (specifically, the Enhanced Edition Director's Cut, which is the latest release and the one available on GOG.com, Steam and other similar services).

The Witcher, or Wiedźmin as it is known in its country of origin, is based on a series of novels and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski. The main character of the saga is the legendary witcher Geralt of Rivia -- also known as the White Wolf -- and the very same mutated monster-slayer also features as the protagonist of the video game series. The Witcher games are perhaps best known for their shades of grey approach to choice and morality, where there often is no "right" option or "good" or "bad" choices; this is consistent with Sapkowski's books, where trying to stay neutral or choosing what appears to be the lesser evil rarely works out the way Geralt (or anyone else) hopes. I'll be letting the thread make the most important choices later in the game, although especially early on I'll just pick whatever I feel like because otherwise we'll be here for years. (We probably will regardless)

The first Witcher game runs on a version of BioWare's Aurora engine, which powered the original Neverwinter Nights. It has been heavily modified and CDPR added a new graphics renderer on top of it, so the game doesn't look or feel as ancient as it could, but the gameplay -- the combat in particular -- still suffers from a certain level of jankiness. The Witcher 1 feels a bit awkward in general and may run rather poorly even on modern systems (no matter what your settings), but it is very much a labor of love from the developers and that still shines through despite the game's flaws. I didn't play the first game past the tutorial until very recently, and I enjoyed it so much that I felt I had to LP it despite the fact the Witcher games are generally not very well suited for LPs. I believe there have been five previous attempts of a Witcher 1 LP, and none of those got very far at all. I hope I can break that particular curse and actually go the distance.

As everyone who followed my previous LPs (or the Persona 2 side project, which is on what I like to call indefinite hiatus) will know, I don't have a strict update schedule. Sometimes I update five times a week, other times the thread goes a couple of weeks or even a month between updates. That's just how it is sometimes, so don't be too worried if the updates seem slow.

SPOILER POLICY: Fairly lenient. Book spoilers are completely fine, spoilers for all three games go in tags.



UPDATES

Prologue

Part 01: The Walls of Kaer Morhen
Part 02: The Witchers' Secrets

Chapter 1

Part 03: The Outskirts
Part 04: Eternal Fire
Part 05: Buried Memories
Part 06: Geralt of Rivia, Legendary Gardener
Part 07: Of Monsters and Men

------

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Dec 31, 2017

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DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


If you want to learn more about the books that spawned the Witcher game series (or just feel like talking about the books, whatever), Xander77's doing excellent writeups about Andrzej Sapkowski's work right here in this thread!

Let's Read Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher, by Xander77



Book 1: The Last Wish

Story 1: The Witcher
Story 2: A Grain of Truth
Story 3: The Lesser Evil

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Dec 31, 2017

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Part 01: The Walls of Kaer Morhen

------

VIDEO: The Witcher



The Witcher opens with this gorgeous, seven-minute-long CG intro based on the very first Witcher short story by Andrzej Sapkowski. I'm not screenshotting the entire thing because it's not relevant to the game's actual plot, but I highly recommend watching the video I linked above.





Narration: An unusual contract: to lift the curse that held a monarch's daughter. It was enough to spend the night with the princess. Dusk till dawn. If only she were not a deadly beast, a striga... The traitor responsible for the curse became the bait.





This striga is Princess Adda, the daughter of King Foltest. She was cursed prior to her birth, born a striga and buried next to her mother, who also happened to be the king's sister. :gonk: A local magnate named Ostrit attempted to put a curse on the king when he learned of the relationship, and caused Adda's transformation. Ostrit is of course the "traitor" mentioned in the game's intro.



This intro does a pretty good job showing off what Geralt can do. Not only does it showcase his fighting skills, we also get to see him use signs and witcher potions.







If you haven't read the short story (which is included in the bonus materials of the Enhanced Edition), you may be wondering why Geralt decides to spend the night in the striga's sarcophagus of all places. He does that because in order to lift a striga's curse, you have to make sure the striga doesn't get to its resting place for an entire night.



Since Adda doesn't make it into the coffin by the time the rooster crows for the third time, the curse is lifted.





As Geralt goes to check up on Adda, he discovers that even though she no longer has her striga claws, her unkempt nails can still do plenty of damage on their own. Geralt sustains a serious throat wound and passes out.



Narration: The world changed with the coming of the Great War, the Time of the Sword and Axe, the Time of Disdain. Geralt of Rivia disappeared, all but forgotten... But that's another story.





MUSIC: Menu

Nothing particularly exciting about the main menu here, except for the lovely music. The soundtrack by Adam Skorupa and Pawel Blaszczak is pretty fantastic in general.



Three difficulty options to choose from, we'll just go with Medium. I considered playing on the easiest setting because the combat in The Witcher is... not great and turning the difficulty down would let us get to the story stuff faster, but then some of the mechanics such as alchemy would've been mostly useless.



We can also choose whether we'd prefer an old-school isometric style of gameplay intended for mouse control, or a more action-based over-the-shoulder style with KB+M controls. Neither of these is exactly perfect (I find the isometric camera doesn't zoom out far enough, and the OTS camera is too close to Geralt), but for the most part we'll be going with the OTS mode. Now that we've got everything set up, let's dive straight into the prologue!

VIDEO: Prologue (video runs to the end of the update)

I'm not going to upload videos for every single update, but I figured it might be nice to do so here because there's a lot of cutscene stuff.



Narration: Plague and famine raged, the death toll unknown. A few surviving elven and dwarven units sought refuge amidst forests, where they prepared for a final, desperate fight. Abominable beasts ruled backwoods, highways, and former battlefields alike.



Witchers are generally not held in high regard and people tend to consider them mutant freaks (witcher training involves using various mutagens and alchemical processes to heighten their senses and abilities), albeit fairly useful ones because they're pretty decent at the whole monster-slaying gig. Years ago, the witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen was attacked by a small army of anti-witcher fanatics, and most of the Wolf School witchers died that day.

As for the other witcher schools, Cat School witchers had basically become hired assassins by that point (and had long been considered pariahs among other witchers), and not much is known about the Griffin School. The later games would introduce three more Witcher schools, but in Witcher 1 we only have the three original schools Sapkowski created for the books.



The Nilfgaardian Wars ended in 1268, so that should be two years instead of five. The Witcher games take certain liberties with the lore, and everything that happens in them is non-canon as far as the books are concerned.



Our story begins with the legendary witcher Geralt of Rivia running through the woods outside Kaer Morhen in the middle of a stormy night. How did he end up like this?





Eventually, Geralt's strength runs out and he collapses.



We can just about see through the rain and the mist that Geralt is not alone, as two men seem to have been following him.





The two men pick Geralt up and place him on a horse-drawn cart.







Well, yes, he kind of does look that way. Which is understandable, because that is basically what has happened: at this point, Geralt is supposed to be dead, having been killed in Rivia in 1268. Trying to protect a group of non-humans from an angry mob, Geralt was stabbed in the chest with a pitchfork and died, although his body was never found.



Geralt may be back in the land of the living, but now he is suffering from amnesia. This was done because CD Projekt Red didn't want their game to require any prior knowledge of the books, which were not well known outside Poland at the time. The first English translation (UK edition of The Last Wish) was published only four months before the game came out, and most other translations were done after the game's release.



The two men who found Geralt are actually fellow witchers from the Wolf School. The one speaking here is named Eskel, and the other one is Vesemir. We'll get to proper introductions shortly. The only path leading to Kaer Morhen is called the Witchers Trail, and it is where young witchers would train their running speed and controlled breathing. Due to the many obstacles on the Trail, those young witchers tended to call it "The Killer".



According to CD Projekt Red, the valley outside Kaer Morhen was originally meant to be explorable. Due to timing constraints (and also because CDPR didn't want to have this big empty woodland area at the start of the game) that is not the case in the final game, so we only see the area during cutscenes.



The fortress of Kaer Morhen has seen better days and Vesemir is the only one living there these days, but other witchers still visit the keep to rest between assignments, especially during the winter.







The witcher guarding the gate is Lambert, another member of the Wolf School. We'll get to know him better soon enough, as well.



Leo, get Triss.



As Vesemir and Eskel take Geralt into the keep, Lambert thinks he saw something suspicious (or just feels something is wrong) but decides not to investigate it further.



Perhaps Lambert should have taken a closer look, because this gentleman lurking in the shadows clearly isn't up to anything good.



For the next couple of days, life in Kaer Morhen goes on as usual. The younger witcher sparring with Eskel is Leo, a former war orphan taken in by Vesemir six years ago. He has completed his training, but not undergone the mutations to make him a full witcher.



I keep repeating this! Pirouette, always followed by a back cross parry. Always!

Vesemir is the only surviving Wolf School witcher from the previous generation, having barely escaped death in the attack on Kaer Morhen. The full knowledge about the witchers' mutagens and alchemy was lost in the attack, which is why no more witchers are being created (the Witcher timeline is more than a little murky at spots, but my understanding, not to mention the only way anything makes sense, is that Geralt, Eskel and Lambert were trained before the attack and were not present because they were on the Path at the time). Vesemir was just a fencing instructor, so that stuff wasn't exactly his area of expertise and that's why Leo can't go through the mutations.





Mhm... I owe my recovery to you... Thank you, Triss.

Remember anything?

Not much... Look below... I know the moves: pirouette, parry, cut...

Despite his amnesia, Geralt still knows how to fight. Not to the extent he used to, but the basics are still there.



Triss Merigold is a sorceress from the Lodge, and Geralt's former lover. Her outfit here was something CD Projekt Red weren't too keen on, but "the decision makers" apparently told the team that gamers especially in the west are "young sweaty males, so the main female character must be sexually attractive and therefore the cleavage has to stay". :thumbsup:

In the books, Triss refuses to wear anything with a plunging neckline because despite extensive magical reconstruction, she still has a bit of scarring left on her chest from the Battle of Sodden Hill.







Clearly, something is not right.



Once more, Lambert gives the gate a suspicious glance.





And this time, he actually decides to go investigate.







Geralt doesn't have time to worry about Leo's training right now.





He's alone... The Professor promised 50 orens for every freak we kill...

Outside the gate, Lambert has come across some less than friendly individuals who are seemingly led by someone called "the Professor".







Lambert may not exactly enjoy being a witcher, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the skills for the job. A couple of lowlife bandits aren't going to cause him any trouble.





This bandit gets to join a few of the witchers who died in the assault, down in the moat. None of the remains were ever cleaned up or buried, and were instead left where they were as a reminder of that day. First-time visitors to Kaer Morhen tend to get somewhat unnerved by the presence of these remains.





Turns out there was more than just that one group of bandits.





At least the gate is now shut, so that should cut off the rest of the bandits.





Better do as Vesemir instructed. Grab that sword, and get rid of these ruffians.



Here we go. We just need to left-click on the sword here, you can just about see the hand-shaped cursor over it. The UI in this game is ridiculously small and there doesn't seem to be any way to rescale it, even with mods (and even when I dropped the resolution to 720p, the UI size remained the same). At least I was able to find a mod to increase the size of the dialog subtitles, so that's something.

I'd like to use larger screenshots, but since 900 pixels is the maximum width allowed by the LP Archive, that's not really an option. (I'm thinking ahead, okay?)



Now that we've got the sword, it's time to go slash up a couple of bandits with it. To start attacking, you just click on the desired target.



Clicking when the cursor turns into a flaming sword allows you to chain together combo attacks. If you click too early or too late, Geralt will simply whiff that attack, so proper timing is the key to getting through the combat in The Witcher.



This being the tutorial, the bandits are barely able to scratch us. The fact we have a powerful sorceress on our side helps as well.



The last bandit ended up having a really bad day, getting surrounded by five witchers.



Fine.

Anyone know who the intruders are?

Ordinary bandits would never attack Kaer Morhen.

That we know, Merigold. You could try some of your famous magic...

Lambert and Triss don't get along very well at all in the books, and that hasn't changed in the game. Frankly, I'm surprised he isn't staring at her chest at all times.



Vesemir isn't having any of their bickering right now, and reminds us that we still might have bandits attacking the place.



The stairs to the upper courtyard are blocked by rubble, but that's nothing a quick cast of the Aard sign doesn't fix. Aard is basically the witcher equivalent of a Force push.





Looks like we have more idiots trying to smash their way in.





That appears to be a rather oversized mantis.



Or, if we want to use the proper name, a frightener (or chimera, if you prefer that). Frighteners are very rare and only come into being via magical experiments. This particular monster was never described in detail in the books, so the praying mantis design is all CDPR.





Savolla is this charming fellow controlling the frightener, a feat that requires considerable magical power.



Now we've got bandits and a frightener coming our way, so some kind of a plan would be appreciated.





The one in glasses is the Professor. Murder for hire...

There was an assassin called the Professor in the books as well, but this is a different character. In the Polish version, he also has a different name; the Magister. What happened here was that the game was originally meant to take place during the events of the book series, and CDPR made a model for the Professor. When the story was rewritten to take place after Sapkowski's stories, they could no longer use the Professor because he died in the books. They wanted to use the model anyway, so they just came up with this new character who is basically the same guy.



There's the Professor, with a friend of his.



We already saw Savolla, but that's not who she's referring to.



Apparently, this friendly-looking gentleman hanging out with the Professor is also a sorcerer.







The sorcerer kicks the winch, shutting the gate behind him. There's no mechanism to open it from this side, so we'll have to find another route if we want to get to him and the Professor.



I don't recognize the sorcerer...

Merigold, I'm interested in whether you can disarm Savolla. The rest is witchers' work.

I'll try.

I get the feeling Triss would like to feed Lambert to the frightener before doing anything else, but sadly for her that's not an option right now.



The frightener is very dangerous, but it's vulnerable to loud noises...

The bells in the Upper Courtyard!

Exactly... Eskel, Lambert, you'll help me stop the frightener and the bandits. Leo, stay behind us. Geralt, you open the gate to the Upper Courtyard. When we're there, Triss can stop Savolla and his pet while we prepare to deal with the Professor and the unknown mage.



Triss doesn't sound very confident at the moment.



Alone?

They're just bandits, though one might be infamous. You must open the gate, we'll be waiting! Good luck, Wolf.



Well, time to cut down some more bandit thugs and talk about combat a bit more while we're doing it. The three bars next to the wolf medallion icon (which is animated, and vibrates when monsters are near or when it detects magic) are health, endurance (basically mana, used for casting signs) and toxicity (if it fills all the way up, Geralt dies).





I just missed an attack because closing this tutorial popup about attack timing counted as clicking too fast.





Sometimes, enemies can be stunned, leaving them open for a finisher. As the tutorial popup suggests, this kills the enemy instantly. It also looks pretty cool, and there are several different animations for finishers as well.





There's a couple of the different finishers.





To defeat more agile enemies, switching to the fast combat style is recommended. You can see we got a new icon next to the sword on the left side of the screen, that's the cat style (based on the Cat School, as you might assume). We can change between styles at any point, and doing so is basically mandatory in bigger fights.



Those guys aren't exactly armored, quite the opposite, but they're carrying heavy weapons so we can tell we're supposed to be using the wolf style.



Combat can be paused, making it easier to switch styles.



Those bandits to the right are shooting crossbow bolts at us, which is very rude.



We don't need to get down there and kick the poo poo out of them, though, because the game decides to go into a cutscene at this point.







Geralt decides to evade his pursuers by running up this ruined tower.



The tower itself decides to take care of the bandits by having the staircase crumble beneat them.





Geralt approves. The surviving bandits aren't quite as pleased.



In the Upper Courtyard, we run into some more idiot thugs trying to clobber us with axes and taunting us.



I thought this was a good time to demonstrate the isometric view, which is set way too close to the ground for my liking.



Here we run into another enemy type, the crossbow guys. They're pretty annoying, as they keep running backwards just out of Geralt's sword range. If only we could use Aard...





There's the winch, and our friends on the other side of the gate. Just need to do a bit of pest control before we can get the gate open.







Triss and the guys seem to have things under control for the most part.





Well, that might be a problem.







Our friends decide a tactical retreat might be a decent idea at this point, and Triss tries to drop the gate and the whole archway on the frightener. Unfortunately, the frightener avoids getting crushed, so we're still going to have to deal with the overgrown insect. At least we're fairly safe for the time being.



You could've told me about the stairs...



Um, Triss, could you maybe turn that off when we're talking? I can barely read the subtitles. (If you can't, it says "Lambert and Eskel were supposed to fix them yesterday.")



No matter. The Professor and the other mage must be hiding in the Keep...

Face the truth, witchers. They're here to rob you.

Triss, child, we have nothing of value. Some good steel, snow fox pelts...

I mean the laboratory and you know it. Someone wants your famed mutagens...

You're jumping to conclusions...

Triss may be right. We need to find out what they want.

Eskel hasn't said much, has he? I almost forgot he was even here until just now, because he's not really very interesting aside from that scar on his face. He's Geralt's friend from youth, and that's about it.



We shouldn't turn our backs on a strong mage leading a frightener...

And you can't let the bandits in the lab!

Right as usual, Triss. Geralt, you've dealt with mages. Find out what this one wants. Leo will guide you.



No one will be sorry if some of them lose your heads. You'll manage, Wolf. Just remember Leo's with you.

I can handle this.

We'll see what's happening inside and be back.

Simple enough.



We'll make sure no one else gets inside. Triss, stay with us in case Savolla has any new ideas...





Here's the inventory menu. Unfortunately, inventory space is limited, but at least they give you a decent amount of it and most of the usable items stack. The quest item menu (which thankfully has unlimited space) is currently covered by the Thunderbolt potion's description.



Drinking a witcher potion increases Geralt's toxicity meter, so you don't want to chug too many of them unless you have something to reduce toxicity. Most of the potions in The Witcher last a good, long time so chugging a whole bunch of them isn't exactly necessary anyway.



Leo's waiting for us by the citadel door already, so let's go talk to him.



Always.



No, but I've never killed a man.

Stay close.

We've got a rookie witcher who hasn't undergone the Trial and has never killed a man, and an amnesiac witcher who has forgotten everything except the very basics. I'm sure this will go well.



Next time, we'll enter the citadel and find out what the Professor and the unknown sorcerer are doing in the laboratory.

------

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jan 3, 2018

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Woot. Hope you'll manage to break the LP curse on this game.

I forgot - what's your native language? Is the entire book series available in it? I'm pretty sure the English translation didn't get to the final few just yet.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Xander77 posted:

I forgot - what's your native language? Is the entire book series available in it? I'm pretty sure the English translation didn't get to the final few just yet.
Finnish, and all the books aside from Season of Storms have been translated. I hear the Finnish translation is supposed to be pretty good, but I've been reading the English editions because those (at least the e-books) are much cheaper.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Doc Morbid posted:

Finnish, and all the books aside from Season of Storms have been translated. I hear the Finnish translation is supposed to be pretty good, but I've been reading the English editions because those (at least the e-books) are much cheaper.
I've read the books in Russian (though to be fair, Sapkowski speaks Russian, was friends with the Russian translator and endorses the translation quality).

What little I've seen of the English versions was... not good. I don't mean "the nuances of wordplay are lost in translation pfeh pfeh" levels of not good, but "would be laughed out of a creative writing workshop" not good.

I might do a read along of the short stories / books?

Doc Morbid posted:





As Geralt goes to check up on her, he fails to notice she still has her claws and gets seriously wounded.
Per the story, just nails. Filthy, broken, unkempt nails. Which is why Geralt managed to survive.

Xander77 fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Sep 23, 2017

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Xander77 posted:

I might do a read along of the short stories / books?
Sounds good!

Xander77 posted:

Per the story, just nails. Filthy, broken, unkempt nails. Which is why Geralt managed to survive.
Ah, that makes sense. For some reason I always just assumed that she hadn't quite finished transforming back to a human yet. :downs: (yeah, I just remembered the story mentioning talons, but of course the next paragraph says that her nails were completely normal)

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Sep 23, 2017

EggsAisle
Dec 17, 2013

I get it! You're, uh...
Nice! Looking forward to this one after your rather excellent Jade Empire LP. Here's hoping you're the one to lift the Witcher LP curse!

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
I've heard good things about this game but never played it. Definitely hoping to get in on the ground floor here and stay in.

Rosemont
Nov 4, 2009
I've never played this game, but always wanted to yet somehow never managed to get around to it. I've also followed every LP of the game so of course, I''m jumping in on this one. Hopefully you'll be able to break the LP curse on this game--and from what I've seen, the LPs of the first game always seem to die once they beat the swamp and start exploring the first town. Crossing my fingers for this one shooting past that point!


I'm disappointed to hear the the English translations of the books weren't very well written. I'd always been curious about the Witcher novels and I was thinking of picking them up.

Stroth
Mar 31, 2007

All Problems Solved
I wanted to like this game so drat bad, but I just couldn't do it. There are parts of it that are actually a good game, but many more parts (especially the combat) that are just terrible. The second game managed to improve on it some but not nearly enough to actually be a good game.

The third game is amazing though. If you haven't played it, you need to go do so right now. It may have taken them three tries, but when they finally managed to nail it they really loving nailed it.

Stephen9001
Oct 28, 2013
The only real question is, how many of the sex encounters and related cards are you going to get?

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

painedforever
Sep 12, 2017

Quem Deus Vult Perdere, Prius Dementat.
I think I started Witcher half a dozen times, but didn't get anywhere with it. I don't remember what my problem with it was. Might have been the combat. I've never been very good at combat, so it's possible that I got sick of dying all the time, and I was too proud to try to finish it on easy.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



You could try the combat rebalance mod:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/full-combat-rebalance1

Takezio
Nov 7, 2011
Yeah, the thing that really aggravates me about the English translation is that the translator did the first book and then the third one. And the first two don't have any numbers on the spine to tell you their order because they're short stories I guess? Long story short I bought the first and third one because the third one said it was the first one and I the inside list of Witcher books didn't mention the second one. Y'know, the one that introduces Ciri? Yeah, it took a while to find out, and I was not happy.

Palladium
May 8, 2012

Very Good
✔️✔️✔️✔️
I think I'm the only one who like the combat in 1 better than 2.

Valiantman
Jun 25, 2011

Ways to circumvent the Compact #6: Find a dreaming god and affect his dreams so that they become reality. Hey, it's not like it's you who's affecting the world. Blame the other guy for irresponsibly falling asleep.

Doc Morbid posted:

Finnish, and all the books aside from Season of Storms have been translated. I hear the Finnish translation is supposed to be pretty good, but I've been reading the English editions because those (at least the e-books) are much cheaper.

The Finnish translation is freaking fantastic, for the most part. It sort of breaks the consistency at times, when the translator seems to run out of good translations for some of the various monsters and resorts to direct anglisms but for much of the books I'd go as far as use the word localisation instead of translation.

You can switch the styles much easier with Z, X and C (I think, been a while) than by clicking the tiny ui with your mouse.

painedforever
Sep 12, 2017

Quem Deus Vult Perdere, Prius Dementat.
So, it's been a really long time, but does anyone remember what they fixed in the first big patch? I remember it being a really big deal back in the day, and established Projekt CD as a "studio that cares", or some such thing.

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
I liked this game also. Best of luck with the LP.

Stroth
Mar 31, 2007

All Problems Solved

painedforever posted:

So, it's been a really long time, but does anyone remember what they fixed in the first big patch? I remember it being a really big deal back in the day, and established Projekt CD as a "studio that cares", or some such thing.

You're probably thinking of the 1.4 patch, which was when they release the "Enhanced Edition" version of the game. You know, the part of the marketing cycle where they make you buy the game again to get what should have been included in the original game?

Except that CD Projekt RED doesn't give a gently caress about the usual marketing practices so they just released a patch that upgraded all versions of the game to it for free.

Stephen9001
Oct 28, 2013

Stroth posted:

You're probably thinking of the 1.4 patch, which was when they release the "Enhanced Edition" version of the game. You know, the part of the marketing cycle where they make you buy the game again to get what should have been included in the original game?

Except that CD Projekt RED doesn't give a gently caress about the usual marketing practices so they just released a patch that upgraded all versions of the game to it for free.

Reminds me of how Larian gave the Enhanced Edition of Divinity: Original Sin to everyone who had the original version for free.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

Asehujiko
Apr 6, 2011

painedforever posted:

So, it's been a really long time, but does anyone remember what they fixed in the first big patch? I remember it being a really big deal back in the day, and established Projekt CD as a "studio that cares", or some such thing.
Version 1.0 of the game was missing 20-25% of all dialogue for ??? reasons so conversations flowed real bad and often missed critical information. 1.4/EE added them all back.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Asehujiko posted:

Version 1.0 of the game was missing 20-25% of all dialogue for ??? reasons so conversations flowed real bad and often missed critical information. 1.4/EE added them all back.
JFC, that is amazing. 90% of conversations in this game already sound like two distinct monologues talking right past each other, so I can't even begin to imagine what the original game was like.

Rosemont
Nov 4, 2009

Takezio posted:

Yeah, the thing that really aggravates me about the English translation is that the translator did the first book and then the third one. And the first two don't have any numbers on the spine to tell you their order because they're short stories I guess? Long story short I bought the first and third one because the third one said it was the first one and I the inside list of Witcher books didn't mention the second one. Y'know, the one that introduces Ciri? Yeah, it took a while to find out, and I was not happy.

Goddamn, this is just incredibly lovely. Why the hell did the English translations come out like this?

mauman
Jul 30, 2014

Whoever's got the biggest whiskers does the talking.
Oh man, godspeed, you mad, mad man you :stare:

Good luck.

Valiantman
Jun 25, 2011

Ways to circumvent the Compact #6: Find a dreaming god and affect his dreams so that they become reality. Hey, it's not like it's you who's affecting the world. Blame the other guy for irresponsibly falling asleep.

Xander77 posted:

JFC, that is amazing. 90% of conversations in this game already sound like two distinct monologues talking right past each other, so I can't even begin to imagine what the original game was like.

I actually developed a habit during playing this game. Whenever characters were talking to each other, I'd stare slightly past my screen so that I'd only see them from the corner of my eye. The talking heads with their ill-fitting idle animations bothered me so much. Come Witcher 2 it was much better but I still sometimes found myself staring at some papers on my desk while a discussion was going on.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Looking forward to this LP. Please go into detail about the combat system, because 90% of the complaints I've heard about the first two Witcher games consist of "the combat system is an almighty mess, but why would you ever do it this way," so I'm curious whether that's justified critique or not.

GirlCalledBob
Jul 17, 2013
I need to go back and play more of this game, but on my old machine it had a bug where it would just freeze after about ten minutes, which I managed to fix but god, it was a hassle. So I'm not looking forward to wrestling with that on my new computer...

Old Grey Guy
Feb 12, 2014
Tech tip: One cause for hiccups and slowdowns is the game constantly unpacking textures. If you unpack the texture files and stick the bigger / more frequent ones into the override folder, it'll run more smoothly.


Palladium posted:

I think I'm the only one who like the combat in 1 better than 2.

Ditto.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Old Grey Guy posted:

Tech tip: One cause for hiccups and slowdowns is the game constantly unpacking textures. If you unpack the texture files and stick the bigger / more frequent ones into the override folder, it'll run more smoothly.

That sounds like a fix on level with sorting out the poor load times in Mass Effect 2(essentially, load times in ME2 were effectively instantaneous. BUT each load screen had an animated sequence that had to play out before it could finish. So if you replaced all the load animations with 1-second black screens, almost all loading happened in a split-second).

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Old Grey Guy posted:

Tech tip: One cause for hiccups and slowdowns is the game constantly unpacking textures. If you unpack the texture files and stick the bigger / more frequent ones into the override folder, it'll run more smoothly.
Huh, neat. I'll give that a shot. The hiccups got much less severe when I installed the game on my SSD, but they still happen from time to time and it's kind of annoying.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Part 02: The Witchers' Secrets

------



Zone transitions in The Witcher are accompanied by rather pretty loading screen art. The game's visuals aren't exactly its strongest point, but this art is really nice. I should probably mention at this point that this update is going to be gigantic because I want to get out of the prologue as soon as possible, and it's also a bit :nws:



The bard Dandelion, mentioned by Leo here, is one of Geralt's closest friends. Dandelion has composed many ballads about the White Wolf and his adventures, some of which he's been part of as well (often by getting himself in trouble and having to be rescued by Geralt).



We were fencing on the floor pegs when that strange storm came. Lambert looked away, I did a pirouette, hit him right in the gut... He didn't fall and then he beat me.

You'll make a good swordsman yet.

I know. Every time Lambert beats me, he says I have potential.

Ah, good old Lambert. Such a nice guy.



Let's just take a quick peek at the quest journal here. Our current task is to pass through the main hall and descend the stairs to get to the laboratory, while cutting down any bandit scum that gets in the way.





Double-tapping a direction in combat lets us dodge enemies, which can be useful for positioning Geralt. It feels a bit awkward, though, and since hit chance is based on dice rolls you can't really dodge attacks.



Just like the rest of Kaer Morhen, the main hall has seen better days. You'd think someone might want to at least clean up all that rubble.





We are now able to use our third and final combat style, the Group Style. As the name suggests, this style is meant for enemies that attack in groups, hitting everyone around Geralt. If you're fighting more than two enemies, the Group Style's attacks do extra damage as well.

I thought I mentioned this in the previous update but actually forgot to do so, and it was then pointed out in the thread: you can switch between styles using the Z, X and C keys (for Strong, Fast and Group respectively), so you don't need to click on the tiny icons.



Holding down the Alt key highlights all interactable objects nearby. There is also a setting that highlights all this stuff automatically, but then the screen gets a little too cluttered for my liking. That particular option is useful in certain areas of the game, though, so you'll eventually get to see how it looks.



These guys mainly have food items (for healing) and a few orens (Temerian currency) on them.



Can't get into the kitchen at this point, so let's keep moving forward. Those stairs are just around the corner.



Right here.



Follow me.





Looks like we found our attackers.





The aforementioned, considered dead, I might add, is a known killer. I'll gladly challenge him...



Come on, Professor...







The sorcerer creates a magic barrier, blocking us off and also cutting off the stairs. That means we're a bit stuck down here at the moment.



We're cut off! The stairs are blocked!

The magic barrier looks solid. We need Triss.

They're robbing us... Geralt, clear the passage upstairs! Use a Sign!

Uh, about that.



Geralt might still remember how to fight, but he's forgotten what a Sign even is.



Cast the Aard at the debris.

I don't remember the Signs.

Let's go to the Circle of Elements, a source of the Power. You need to try to learn the Aard.

All right.





Fortunately, the Circle of Elements is right around the corner from the lab.





That'll do it, now we'll be able to push stuff around.



We'll see in a minute.

I knew it would work!

Let's get back before Lambert kills the frightener himself...



To use a Sign, you just right click on the desired target. As the tutorial points out, Aard can be used to knock down enemies and make them vulnerable to instant kills, so as long as you've got the endurance it's often a good idea to start a fight by casting Aard.



Yeah, there we go. So much for that little obstruction, now we can get back upstairs so let's go and find Triss.





The bandits are in the lab, searching for something. The mage used the Circle of Elements to create a magic barrier...

The plague, you're all children! Why didn't you mention the Circle?!

Triss, child, it didn't seem important...

"We have this powerful magical thingamajig in the basement, but surely the enemy sorcerer isn't going to bother with it!" The witchers are of course wary of giving up the slightest hint of their secrets to outsiders, even friendly ones such as Triss, but maybe Vesemir could've mentioned that little detail earlier.



All right, we made a mistake, but you said the mage was harmless...

I said I didn't know him. I think we should protect the lab above all...

This game's dialog has more ellipses than your average 90s JRPG...



Vesemir, if that idiot doesn't shut it, I'll...

Enough! Lambert, stop baiting Triss, show her some respect. Triss, if we go to the lab, they'll have us surrounded. We know tactics.

Maybe we should split up.



Only I can break the barrier. I'm going inside.

Vesemir?

I'll stay and handle the frightener and Savolla. What about you, Geralt? We may both need your help...



Our first big choice of the game. Well... not really that big in the scheme of things, but the choice will have an effect down the line, not just in this scene.



Me, too.

We will prioritize the lab here. Vesemir can handle the frightener.



The frightener is supposedly a pretty tough fight that involves weakening the creature with loud noises, but I've never picked that option here.



The ground is shaking, feel it?

They're breaking through.







I wonder how Savolla ended up with his unfortunate skin condition. Maybe a stunt like that one didn't go so well for him at some point in the past.



Vesemir, Lambert and Eskel rush into combat.





The rest of us will head back down to the lab, and stop the Professor and the other sorcerer.



It restores endurance, very useful when fighting mages...

Thanks. Let's go.



Geralt's health and endurance regenerate automatically, but we can use potions or food items to speed them up.





Since we can assume a tough fight is coming up ahead, we'll take both the Tawny Owl and the Swallow for faster regen across the board.



Passing the 50% toxicity threshold causes these red particles to start popping up all over the screen, but as long as you don't fill the meter you'll be fine.



Savolla decided to join us in the main hall, probably figuring that the frightener can deal with Vesemir and the others on its own.



A bluff. He's exhausted from teleportation... Magic lights is about all he can muster.

Go! We'll deal with him and join you at the barrier!



Triss goes on ahead, and now it's just us against Savolla and his goons.





Leo was too far behind when Savolla put up the magic barrier around us, so he's not going to be any help either. In any event, Savolla is absorbing energy from the bandits to power up his little shield here.



So let's fix that by killing all of them.



Thanks for the support, Leo. That orange icon of a very grumpy-looking Geralt means we may have slightly been set on fire by Savolla.



As you'd expect, fire causes damage over time. We've got the health regen to deal with that, though, and all of Savolla's little buddies have been taken care of so now it's time to face the man himself. He keeps teleporting around, but that's nothing we can't handle.



Let's see what he thinks of Aard.



Sadly, knocking Savolla down doesn't set him up for a finisher immediately, but he is a boss so that's expected. We still get in some free hits when he falls down on his rear end, so Aard is a big help here.



I don't know what that lightning attack does, it didn't seem to hurt Geralt in any way.



After a while (and many casts of Aard), we manage to finish him off.



Nah. But if those were magic lights, I'd hate to face a truly powerful sorcerer.

I wanted to help, but I couldn't break through that strange circle.

Savolla's eating dirt. That's what matters.

We need to help Triss.

Let's go!



First off, let's just see what Savolla had on him. A couple of valuables, some orens, a pint of beer and a bunch of white stones that appear to be called Calcium Equum.



Well, poo poo. Looks like Triss didn't do so well.



Maybe we can still stop them?





Unfortunately, we seem to have arrived too late. Whatever is in that box is what these guys were looking for, and now the sorcerer has it.







The sorcerer goes through the portal, leaving the Professor to deal with us.





If they can, Geralt's probably forgotten that skill.





While the Professor has his sights on Geralt, Leo tries to flank him. Unfortunately, the Professor seems to have noticed the attempt as he briefly glances in Leo's direction.











I'm sure absolutely no one saw that coming.





As the Professor walks through the portal, Geralt tries to nail him by throwing his sword...





...but it's to no avail. The Professor is gone, so is the sorcerer, and so is whatever was in that box.





He needs White Raffard's Decoction! Hang on, Leo!



I can't find it...



Leo is dead.

We hardly knew ye. Seriously, did anyone expect Leo not to bite it by the end of the prologue? Also, the game doesn't do a great job communicating it at this point, but that box the sorcerer took is supposed to contain all the herbs and mutagens the witchers use for their potions and the mutations.



He attacked the Professor... I was late...

It's not your fault, Geralt. We're all to blame. Triss barely made it, fighting for us... These are bad times for witchers... And something tells me they'll only get worse.

Is it safe up top?

Relatively. Some stragglers up there, but we'll deal with them later. You look tired, I'd like you to rest. I'll keep watch and tend to Leo's body.





Here we're introduced to the meditation mechanic. Most obviously, meditation is used to pass time and get rid of any toxicity Geralt has built up, but it is also how we level up and perform alchemy.



"New Talents acquired" means that we should be able to level up our skills, but for some reason that particular tutorial doesn't show up at this point. The blue circle around the wolf medallion icon is Geralt's EXP, and we're a little bit from reaching level 2. We'll reach that soon enough, and I'll show off leveling up skills at that point.



For now, let's just meditate for one hour.



We can explore the lab before talking to Vesemir again. Not much of interest down here, aside from a few Swallow potions in this wardrobe and some flavor comments from Geralt.







I've made a decision, Wolf. We abandon Kaer Morhen. There's nothing holding us here.

I see.

We need to bid Leo farewell and wait for Triss to recover.

And the bandits...?

Yes, we need to finish things. But first we must make a healing potion for Triss. We'll need to search for ingredients, nothing useful left here...

I can do that. How do I make the potion?

Lambert will give you the formula. Look for him by the fireplace, he's with out brave sorceress.

Lambert? He doesn't hate Triss?

Feels guilty, I think. The first thing Triss'll hear when she wakes is "Finally awake, Merigold." That's Lambert.

Poor Triss, having to see Lambert as soon as she wakes up.



Later I'll teach you how to extract ingredients from monsters. I'll be in the main hall.

Fine.

Why not teach us now and be done with it? Oh well.





Tracking a quest will put a red marker on the minimap and highlight our destination on the actual map. We're supposed to be talking to Lambert, so let's get on with it.





You should find a vial of White Gull in the armory on the upper floor. Grab some Calcium Equum from the evening hall. Look for white stones in one of the chests. If you find any stragglers, finish them. We don't need prisoners. The stairs are through that door.

"That door" refers to the kitchen door that we passed by earlier and couldn't get through.



Lambert, I have to tell you something...

What is it?

Leo... The bandits killed him...

He wasn't ready... What a loss. We'll hunt them down, Wolf. We'll avenge Leo.





All right, we'll get on that.





We already found some Calcium Equum on Savolla's corpse, so we can skip that particular step of the quest.



We can meditate at campfires and fireplaces if we have flint to light them (yes, even if they're already lit). We found some flint in a chest earlier, but we'll just hold on to that for now.



This bandit rudely interrupts our exploration of the kitchen, so he'll get an Aard in the face for his trouble.





This might be my favorite finisher animation. Geralt grabs his sword by the blade, leaps and jams the crossguard into the downed enemy's face, then yanks the sword off.



Some more idiots jump us when we make our way upstairs, and they face a similar fate as that last guy. At least here, Geralt is using the sword in its intended manner and thrusts it into this bandit's ribs blade first.





The door up the stairs takes us to a large hallway. We can just barely see a bandit in the doorway at the opposite end, and there are a few more standing around as well.





We kill the half a dozen or so bandits up here, and that takes care of the stragglers. Now let's go find that booze so we can make the potion.





This chest is where the Calcium Equum should be, but since we already have some it doesn't appear anymore. Instead, we just get a couple more Swallows, a single blueberry, an unknown potion and a book about frighteners.



Reading books is very important, because they contain invaluable info on monsters and alchemical ingredients. Reading a book about monsters adds their descriptions in the bestiary, but more importantly lets us loot special items off them. These items are often needed for sidequests.





There we go, some White Gull for the potion.



The chest also contains a copy of Monstrum, an anti-witcher pamphlet. I've already transcribed it in the OP, although that particular transcript was from the UK edition of Blood of Elves rather than the game.





In the same room, we can pick up a couple of extra weapons. The dagger and axe are rather useless compared to Geralt's swords, doing pitiful damage (the axe at least has a 40% increased chance to cause bleeding) and not working with witcher combat styles. I'll probably sell these as soon as we find a merchant.



The other rooms along the hallway just have some food items and assorted junk not worth screencapping. The passage we see here leads to Triss' chambers at the top of the tower, but we don't have any business there right now because we need to prepare that potion first.



Back to the main hall we go, then. Looks like everyone's here, so let's give the ingredients to Lambert.



Good. You'll need two more things to make the potion. The claw of a mighty beast and some celandine. Vesemir will tell you where to find them.

Why in the blue hell couldn't you just have told me that in the first place? :argh:



Eh, whatever. At least we've got the formula for the potion now. Before we talk to Vesemir, let's see if Eskel has anything interesting for us.





Alcohol. The better it is, the purer and more powerful your potion.

You seem to feel at home here.

Well, I've always preferred an armory to a lab. Though Vesemir plays up the importance of potions, he's hardly an expert. After all, he's always taught swordplay. Still, he tries to teach us everything he learned when he was young, and that was a while back. But to be honest, I don't care for all these powders, mushrooms and other trash.

"A while back" is a slight understatement, because Vesemir is several centuries old and may even be older than Kaer Morhen itself. Witchers live abnormally long, although exactly how long is unknown because no witcher has ever died peacefully in his bed. Geralt is supposed to be in his 50s in the books and "nearly a century old" in the games, despite not looking old at all (aside from the white hair, but that was a result of the experimental mutations he was put through).



Maybe... It's a little more complicated than that. See, we've never shown her the lab, and the last mutation was completed years ago, before the battle. Vesemir can tell you more.

You really think Triss never used magic to peek inside?

She respects our secrets, and she's done a lot for us, for you... I trust her.

So why haven't you shown her the lab?

Triss would like to use our secrets to heal people and such. I've no doubt she'd try, but it's never that simple. Ever heard of the gnome Alfred Nabel?

Eskel, I have amnesia...

An incomparable inventor, like most of his race. Through years of research, he discovered an amazing substance. He intended it for use in mines and quarries. Though a genius, Alfred failed to foresee his invention's possible applications. Others quickly realized that a substance designed to rip granite from the ground could destroy castle walls. Some even considered using it in open battle.

I get it. So what happened to Alfred's discovery?

Also, that doesn't really seem like the same thing as using the witchers' herbs for healing people. Doing so would still require a bit of extra work because witcher remedies can kill a normal person, but it's not quite ripping granite from the ground or destroying castle walls. The witchers just want to be secretive about this kind of stuff and not get involved, and that is just how it is.



Sounds about right for The Witcher.



We haven't heard much about the Trial, so let's see if Eskel can fill us in.



I presume it's more than your basic lettuce and carrots.

Special mushrooms, mosses and herbs are grown in the lab. Combined with training, they accelerate muscle growth and digestion, improving the body's general condition.

Does everyone pass the first stage?

Unfortunately not. The liver and heart often fail, the mind sometimes too, resulting in excessive aggression...

What's the second stage?

The Trial of the Grasses. More idiotic tales have been conjured up about that than about princesses and dwarves... Before the raid, the lab contained vials, hearths, formulae, herbs, and the Grasses. A mage and his magic were all that was lacking.

This is the first time someone properly mentions what the sorcerer and the Professor stole, and it's in an optional side conversation.



Just one... our own. I thought I was going to lose it when your hair turned white. The Grasses affect the nervous system, so magic must control the process. The Trial results in lightning fast reflexes, reaction times normal people will never attain. Only four out of ten survive.

Quite a cut. And the last stage?

I don't know the specifics... It involves changes like the mutation of the eyes, the bone marrow, hormones... In exchange, we see in the dark, heal much faster than ordinary folk, and gain increased resistance to poison.

Interesting. What's the cost?

We're infertile.

The changes are irreversible?

Entirely.

Did you see the magic storm?



Usually less of them gather, and their cries rarely sound so desperate... When the storm came, I gave up the hunt and headed toward Kaer Morhen. Met the others on the way.



Now that we've sat through approximately 27 straight hours of exposition, we can go talk to Vesemir and see about making that potion.





I understand they won't be a problem. Lambert, however, let the frightener get to him. Nothing serious... Good you went after Triss and handled that mage...

She was able to salvage some equipment... But it looks like the main devices vanished...

Our beautiful sorceress was right, I know.



We can meditate here if we want to, but let's talk about the potion for now.





I do. What next?

You'll need celandine. Take what I have. Plus, the claw of a monster, like the frightener... To skin a creature, take a sharp knife and cut along the torso. You'll find the frightener's carcass in the Upper Courtyard. Once you've extracted the claw, rest by the fire while making the potion.

Got it. Before we go grab the frightener's claw, let's just ask Vesemir a few more questions. The conversation actually ends after that last bit of dialog (presumably because Geralt needs to equip his new Witcher's Steel Sword and studded leather jacket) and we need to talk to Vesemir again.



There were three witchers' schools in all, but it's been long since I've heard word of the other two. You've met all the witchers I know of, except for Berengar...

Did I know him?

I don't believe so. An introvert, he chose his own path. Actually, none here can say they know Berengar. He often ran away from Kaer Morhen, though he would always return in the end.



I don't know. We lost touch with him a while back.

Interesting, maybe we'll find out what happened to Berengar at some point. We can ask Vesemir what happens if we get the potion ingredients wrong, but all he says is that he'll have another claw and celandine and we can find more Calcium Equum upstairs. Also, it's not that hard so just get it right the first time, you moron. Let's ask Vesemir about Leo instead.



I'm sorry.

We'll recover our secrets and find Leo's murderers, even if they fled to the end of the world.

Any idea who attacked?

No, but the mage suggests no ordinary bandits. We found pins adorned with salamanders on the dead. The symbol of their organization, perhaps? I sense hard times ahead.

Savolla also mentioned "Salamandra" and all the thugs were identified as "Salamandra bandits", so that's a fairly safe assumption to make.



Yes. Fifteen witchers once lived here, training boys for their Trials. Only they knew the secrets of mutation. Witchers who set out on the Path and failed to assimilate among humans wintered here. Before the battle, 23 witchers and 40 students called Kaer Morhen home... Too damned few for the mob that attacked.

That would've been a small army, then, considering that even one witcher can take out a whole bunch of regular guys without breaking a sweat. Of course, they're still mortal, which is why Kaer Morhen fell and Geralt eventually ended up dying in Rivia with the business end of a pitchfork lodged in his chest. Although, unlike the witchers who fell at Kaer Morhen, Geralt got better.



But no, someone provoked the mob with fliers filled with lies. Special agents read them to the peasants. Truer still, the fanatics could never have taken the fort without the aid of sorcerers, though they outnumbered us by far. They didn't even spare the youngest. I alone survived, concealed among the corpses. Walk around, Wolf. The skeletons remain. You may find a flier, there used to be hundreds. Memorize it as a warning of the evil humans can perpetrate.



Vesemir gives us the formula for Frightener's Vision, which grants one bronze talent (one low tier skill point -- there are also silver and gold talents which unlock at levels 15 and 30 respectively, and special potions like this exist for them as well) when used.



No time to admire the mural, we've got work to do. Let's get out to the courtyard and skin that frightener.





All right, let's see here.



One frightener claw for Triss' potion, and one frightener eye for the Vision potion. That'll do nicely, so let's go tell Vesemir that we have everything we need.







Alchemy isn't too complicated. Any formulas we have show up on the list, and as long as we have the ingredients we can simply click on the formula we want and then hit the Mix button. The icons to the left of the list show what base and which colors of ingredients are needed for the formula, and if we hover over one of the greyed-out formulas the game will tell us what we're missing. We've got everything required for Triss' potion, so let's prepare it and take it to her.

Also, you may notice the text at the top right corner of the screen is a little wonky, that's just a side-effect of the font size mod and doesn't affect anything. I think I might install a mod for even larger text for the next recording session, because the subtitles during dialog are still kind of hard to read at times.





Triss' chambers certainly look a lot less crummy than the rest of the keep.



Let's just quickly steal her red wine while we're here. That might come in handy at some point.







Here we are introduced to the gift mechanic. We can give various items to NPCs and bribe them to give up information or whatever else we're after, that's pretty much the gist of it.





That was terrible. I dreamt Lambert was with me... He was staring at me, saying things like "Don't go dying on me, Merigold," calling me bigheaded.

That's our Lambert!







Sure, why not.



I'm so happy you're... back. When I saw you, all the feelings I tried to deny returned, stronger than ever.

Triss. I'm not ready to talk about the past...

Of course... I shouldn't pressure you. I just feel so... The powers! I'm behaving like a teenager! Let's focus on the present...





Oh...

Except maybe what I feel as I look at you.

I missed you so... Let's see if the "best bed in Kaer Morhen" can hold us...







Even though Geralt and Triss have been lovers in the past, the circumstances were a bit... well, suffice to say that Triss has never been the love of Geralt's life, as much as she might have wanted for that to be the case. She might have used just a tiny bit of magic to seduce Geralt back then... although now that Geralt has forgotten everything, that magical assistance is no longer necessary.



Oh yeah, then there's this. Whenever Geralt beds a woman in this game (there are plenty of opportunities to do so, as sleeping around is one of our hero's main hobbies), we earn what is officially called a "romance card", most of which are more :nws: than this first one here. I considered not showing off any of the cards after this first one because I think they're kinda dumb and skeevy, but I suppose I can at least link the cards so you can take a look at them if you want. I won't judge. In any case, the cards do not appear in Witcher 2 or 3, and I doubt many people missed them in those games (well, a Witcher 3 mod that replaces a bunch of the default gwent cards with these does appear to exist. I would've been more surprised if it didn't).

Also, that cat looks like it wants to murder Geralt.



As always?

You don't remember anything?

Unfortunately.

Well, you have something to look forward to, then. No matter. Tell me, how did the battle end?



Yeah, that went all kinds of well.



We delayed the funeral until you awoke.

Thank you. As for the mutagens... their loss could prove catastrophic. Let's not lose any more time... Unless there's something you'd like to ask me.

Know anything more about the sorcerer who ransacked the lab?

He's very powerful. He completely controlled the energy he drew from the Circle. We may soon be facing another Vilgefortz...

Who?

No matter... I have something I'd like to teach you.

Triss gives us the formula for the Cat potion, which helps Geralt see in the dark.



I'd have to examine you. There's a good chance your memory will return on its own.

How much chance?

That's difficult to say. It might help if I knew what caused you to lose your memory.

Well, no time for that now.

Geralt's memory may or may not return on its own, but we can't exactly count on that happening anytime soon.





Only a master of the arcane arts can use that knowledge. Not many of those left...

What about wealthy merchants, dukes, kings?

Perhaps... Anything's possible, but speculating wastes time. We just don't have enough information.

We can tell Triss that we're ready to go, and that'll take us to the end of the prologue, but we've got a couple more things we need to take care of here in Kaer Morhen.



First off, we'll find Eskel and have another chat.



No.

And we won't, because he'll talk our ear off about boring poo poo and this update is already long enough without Lambert yammering on and on. Anything he mentions here, I can bring up when it's more relevant.



But now, it's time for some good old-fashioned fisticuffs!



Pretty simple. Left click to attack, right click to block. Blocking eats up endurance.



I may have right-clicked a millisecond too soon and sent Eskel flying with Aard. Whoops.







Anyway, fistfights in this game are pretty simple and not too hard to win either. We can learn some special moves by putting skill points to them, but it's not necessary especially early on.



Sorry about that Aard, friend.



Fighting Eskel here in Kaer Morhen opens up the Fistfight side quest. We can also start it later so it's not a big deal if we miss Eskel, but we do get 1000 EXP for defeating him. That brings us to level 2. (EDIT: Actually we already were level 2 after finishing the "Potion for Triss" quest)



I didn't show the library the last time we were up here, so here it is. Let's return to Vesemir and finally level up.



Leveling up gives us three talent points to put towards our skills. Of course, since we didn't upgrade our stuff earlier, we've got six points we can use here.



A bit of extra damage and vitality is always helpful.



Intelligence boosts the intensity of our Signs, but we're putting points to it (Alchemy, below Intelligence level 1, is unlocked automatically) because we're going to need the Herbalism skill very soon. I also ended up taking Monster Lore next to Herbalism; it adds a number of bestiary entries and we can get those by reading books, so it's not really needed but I figured why the hell not. We're not going to be hurting for bronze talents, anyway.

These upgrades also aren't on a linear path, so for example, as long as we have Intelligence level 2 we technically don't need to take Herbalism to be able to take Monster Lore (although you still really, REALLY want Herbalism).



A little bit of stamina for that extra endurance and resistance to various things (pain and stun being the most important), and we're done here. Let's just talk to Vesemir so we can get the plot moving again.







I'll go west. I know a few people there and I prefer the coastal climate.

Then I'll head east, to Kaedwen. Unless someone objects.

That's fine. Which way should I go?

South, to Temeria. King Foltest owes you a debt of gratitude. Some time ago, you removed a curse from his daughter. You might happen on the bandits' trail there. And you, Triss?



It's settled, then.





Don't, Geralt. I detest goodbyes. I'm liable to cry and there's nothing more pathetic than a sorceress in tears.







Looks like we're heading to Vizima. Let's get moving.



Narration: Their leader, a Zerrikanian mage, proved too powerful even for Triss Merigold. The witchers set out in search of the stolen secrets -- classically, to the four corners of the world.



That's it for the prologue. Next time, we'll find ourselves at the outskirts of Vizima.

------

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Sep 26, 2017

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Ahahah, the loving SEX CARDS. I really wonder what made anyone think that was a good idea.

ModernMajorGeneral
Jun 25, 2010

PurpleXVI posted:

Ahahah, the loving SEX CARDS. I really wonder what made anyone think that was a good idea.

As weird as the sex cards are I don't think they're worse than uncomfortable animated sex scenes. :can:

Stroth
Mar 31, 2007

All Problems Solved

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

As weird as the sex cards are I don't think they're worse than uncomfortable animated sex scenes. :can:

If they'd skipped the animated scenes and just done the cards I'd have honestly called it better. Not a lot better, but some.

Xarn
Jun 26, 2015
Don't forget that there are two sets of the cards, the ones with less explicit nudity and more explicit nudity :v:


For real though, I'd rather have the sexcards than things like DA's sex scenes.

Groetgaffel
Oct 30, 2011

Groetgaffel smacked the living shit out of himself doing 297 points of damage.
I remember playing through this game shortly before witcher 2 came out. The entire first, and kinda the second, I had to force myself to push through, but after that the game really clicked for me and I loved it.
I'm one of those that like the combat. Once you get a feel for the timings it almost turns into a rhythm game, and that I feel suit the witcher really well - it feels like it flows in sync with Geralt's heartbeat.

The sex cards are just hilariously stupid.

Oh, and wonder who Alfred Nabel could be a reference to. :rolleyes:

painedforever
Sep 12, 2017

Quem Deus Vult Perdere, Prius Dementat.
Ah, this brings me back!

Looking at the prologue, I think this is why the entire Ostogar sequence in Dragon Age Origins felt so familiar to me. Hang around a ruined castle, drink a weird concoction that mutates you, and you join a dying breed of supermen.

I mean, it's not a perfect analogue, but I did get a feeling of déjà vu when I played DA:O.

How important are the potions? I remember thinking that I should use them, but I've never been big on using potions in RPGs.

resurgam40
Jul 22, 2007

Battler, the literal stupidest man on earth. Why are you even here, Battler, why did you come back to this place so you could fuck literally everything up?
From one RPG to another, significantly larger and more complicated one... you don't do things halfway, do you Doc? :stare:

I hope you're able to break the curse on this one, though, because even with all its faults (some of which have been outlined- complication of the fighting and item menus, long load times, and a few other factors that make this kinda not fun to play, and you really have to push yourself through some areas) it's an interesting game to look at, and while it's not quite at the highs it will reach later, it's easy to examine the foundation that would eventually lead to Wild Hunt, a genuine watershed moment for western RPGs. If you get this one into the archives we'll be two thirds to having the Witcher videogames in there... and while the earlier games are not necessary to enjoy Witcher 3, they accentuate and complement each other, like good sequels ought to.

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Stephen9001
Oct 28, 2013
There's a part of me that really wants you to go and get all the sex cards, must be the collector in me. I personally just find the sex card thing stupidly hilarious, rather than offensive for whatever reason.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

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