The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

[Gerrard]

That haunted tree quest was really ambiguous, Geralt in the dialogue later calls it an evil spirit himself.
"Yeah, I let that evil spirit go free, what about it?"

 

[Beowulf]

That haunted tree quest was really ambiguous, Geralt in the dialogue later calls it an evil spirit himself.
"Yeah, I let that evil spirit go free, what about it?"

You could get a book at the beginning (not The Ladies of the Woods, but can't recall the title now), which described some woman taking care of the land, then creating 3 sisters, and then slowly going mad so that the 3 sisters imprisoned her. Could be that the witches are those 3 sisters.

Spoiler

I think they ate the children

 

[Gerrard]

I know, I read the book. Thing is, you can't know for sure how true the contents of the book were. I'm just pointing out that Geralt completely removes any doubt to what the spirit was.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Man, combat is clunky and annoying as shit goddamn

 

[Great Deceiver]

How did you found Baron's wife? It's the last part that i must complete but i can't find evidences. I tried coming back to the dead horses, searching if i can find some spoor but it didnt work. I'll try to ask NPC or in secondary missions later.

Do the other part of the main quest (the one tells you to go to the swamp to look for Ciri), everything will make sense there.

 

[Ulminati]

How did you found Baron's wife? It's the last part that i must complete but i can't find evidences. I tried coming back to the dead horses, searching if i can find some spoor but it didnt work. I'll try to ask NPC or in secondary missions later.

What you gotta do

Go help the blond witch (I forget what her name is, the one Ciri quarreled with. Then do the follow-up quest about the ladies in Crookbag Bog. that'll set you on the trail.

C&C at the end

you can either kill or free the ghost the 3 crones want you to kill. If you kill it, the crones will eat all the orphans. But they'll also punish the barons wife for losing them. Which results in both her dying and th ebaron hanging herself. And the land being taken over by his bandit henchmen.

Lesson of the day: Let orphans die.

 

[J_C]

Sigh, another game that doesn't use animation cancelling as it should be. I know this is not Devil May Cry, but if I'm surrounded by several enemies I want to start attack in any direction anytime I want, and roll, dodge anytime I want. I'm fed up with seeing the incoming attack from behind my back, and not being able to do anything about it because Geralt is still doing the sword swing from his previous attack.

CDPR should have really made up their mind about what kind of combat system they were making. Either they make a slower, but more impactful system ala Dark Souls, where you are not being able to interrupt your attacks, or make a faster, more twitch based combat as it is now, but then allow me to interrupt animations. As it is now, it is the worst of both systems.

 

[Cromwell]

How did you found Baron's wife? It's the last part that i must complete but i can't find evidences. I tried coming back to the dead horses, searching if i can find some spoor but it didnt work. I'll try to ask NPC or in secondary missions later.

What you gotta do

Go help the blond witch (I forget what her name is, the one Ciri quarreled with. Then do the follow-up quest about the ladies in Crookbag Bog. that'll set you on the trail.

C&C at the end

you can either kill or free the ghost the 3 crones want you to kill. If you kill it, the crones will eat all the orphans. But they'll also punish the barons wife for losing them. Which results in both her dying and th ebaron hanging herself. And the land being taken over by his bandit henchmen.

Lesson of the day: Let orphans die.

Spoiler

His henchman also rule the lands after he takes his wife to the healer, they will tell you that if you visit the barons house again

 

[PhantasmaNL]

So sick of shit merchants cheating at gwent.

some of them have super decks, with plenty 10 strength hero or multiply cards

although the ai can suck bollocks sometimes, ive seen some amazing wtf just happened here shit, where the ai pulled some last minute combos to win the game against the odds

as a minigame, i like it alot

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Sigh, another game that doesn't use animation cancelling as it should be. I know this is not Devil May Cry, but if I'm surrounded by several enemies I want to start attack in any direction anytime I want, and roll, dodge anytime I want. I'm fed up with seeing the incoming attack from behind my back, and not being able to do anything about it because Geralt is still doing the sword swing from his previous attack.

CDPR should have really made up their mind about what kind of combat system they were making. Either they make a slower, but more impactful system ala Dark Souls, where you are not being able to interrupt your attacks, or make a faster, more twitch based combat as it is now, but then allow me to interrupt animations. As it is now, it is the worst of both systems.

but you can cancel your attack animations in DS2 and there is even backstep with i-frames

 

[Brayko]

Is it better than Witcher 2 though? I really found the combat in that one to be utter shit whilst thinking the rhythmic combat in Witcher 1 was tolerable.

 

[Gerrard]

Gwent AI is pretty dumb, I had one game where the opponent just kept adding cards to the point he was winning 100+ against my 10 something and wasting cards, then I passed and rolled over him next round.

 

[Immortal]

Oh yeah another thing. How are the sex scenes anyway? Are they mostly Biowarian intimacy romantic crap or do they raise the stakes and go raw sport fucking?

No Pussy Shots but they are pretty decent, especially compared to Bioware Sex Scenes.

They definitely feel less pandering and more in line with how a Witcher looking 4 some pu$$y would act.. but other then that its a similar kind of deal, short 15 - 30 second cutscene with some different camera angles / positions and sometimes some funny or quirky stuff thrown in, so far no homo butt humping or tranny on tranny action..

Not very inclusive.. :'(

 

[ManjuShri]

Do you have a weapon crafting option when talking to armourers? I have boots, trousers etc but no weapon tab, is it a bug or am I missing something?

 

[Brayko]

Some gay jokes would be funny but I sure as hell don't wanna see it in action. Bioware is thattaway.

 

[Cromwell]

Do you have a weapon crafting option when talking to armourers? I have boots, trousers etc but no weapon tab, is it a bug or am I missing something?

Armorers make armors, weaponsmiths make weapons.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

The enemy AI is titty fucking amazing!





Difficulty is set at Blood and Broken Bones. Managed to take the whole fort with my level 4 Geralt XD.

 

[Great Deceiver]

That haunted tree quest was really ambiguous, Geralt in the dialogue later calls it an evil spirit himself.
"Yeah, I let that evil spirit go free, what about it?"

The key to that lore is a book you find in the game, not as part of the quest, detailing the story of the crones and the Mother. I forget what it was called, but I thought it was an awesome bit of extra background that the game didn't handhold you towards.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Does importing a save really make all that much of a difference at all?

The world seems to be in a very crap sack state with the answers I gave the guy in the intro.

Does the game expect you to hunt down the Witcher gear for upgrades?

Right now I'm level 11 and all my gear is near worthless. All of my armour is 2-4 levels below me. While my swords are still level 8 or so. I went to Oxenfurt expecting better quality armour and swords to be lining the walls. But at best I found a slightly better silver sword. But even that is starting to feel weak right now.

All of my armour crafting plans are for a few levels higher than me as well. While almost all the loot I find is for levels 4-8 at most.

The first witcher gear after the Viper swords is level 15 (cat school stuff) and I think the other stuff is even higher. I am 12 right now and still use the viper stuff together with armour I found or bought.

I really don't get the level requirements for some of the Witcher treasure quests. They are all around 4 levels higher than the gear it has on offer. The griffin gear upgrade quest is level 18 yet offers level 15 upgrades. While the feline armour is a level 20? I think quest for level 14 gear.

 

[TedNugent]

Does the game expect you to hunt down the Witcher gear for upgrades?

Right now I'm level 11 and all my gear is near worthless. All of my armour is 2-4 levels below me. While my swords are still level 8 or so. I went to Oxenfurt expecting better quality armour and swords to be lining the walls. But at best I found a slightly better silver sword. But even that is starting to feel weak right now.

All of my armour crafting plans are for a few levels higher than me as well. While almost all the loot I find is for levels 4-8 at most.

I'm level 9, I have a level 24 pattern, a level 16 patter, and a level 14 pattern armor. I'm wearing level 8 chest armor. I also have a silver sword pattern that I can't use that requires level 24 that does 500 damage and another silver sword that I'm going to craft at level 12 that does around 240 damage.

I also had at one point around 4 relic silver swords. I had to dismantle 3 of them for mats because they were getting too heavy.

I have the opposite problem, really, I'm not high enough level to use most of the crafting patterns that I have. Side quests and caves give a lot of gear, but almost zero experience point.

 

[Azarkon]

Oh yeah another thing. How are the sex scenes anyway? Are they mostly Biowarian intimacy romantic crap or do they raise the stakes and go raw sport fucking?

It's all softcore, and closer to Bioware's than people want to admit. However, for those who are wondering why CDProjekt advertised lots of fucking and you aren't seeing it, go to the brothels.

 

[Azarkon]

Does importing a save really make all that much of a difference at all?

The world seems to be in a very crap sack state with the answers I gave the guy in the intro.

Does the game expect you to hunt down the Witcher gear for upgrades?

Right now I'm level 11 and all my gear is near worthless. All of my armour is 2-4 levels below me. While my swords are still level 8 or so. I went to Oxenfurt expecting better quality armour and swords to be lining the walls. But at best I found a slightly better silver sword. But even that is starting to feel weak right now.

All of my armour crafting plans are for a few levels higher than me as well. While almost all the loot I find is for levels 4-8 at most.

The first witcher gear after the Viper swords is level 15 (cat school stuff) and I think the other stuff is even higher. I am 12 right now and still use the viper stuff together with armour I found or bought.

I really don't get the level requirements for some of the Witcher treasure quests. They are all around 4 levels higher than the gear it has on offer. The griffin gear upgrade quest is level 18 yet offers level 15 upgrades. While the feline armour is a level 20? I think quest for level 14 gear.

The gear has a lower req. level but is higher quality than equivalent level gear.

Elite witcher gear is the best gear in the game minus a few relic rolls, eg % for insta-kill, that are of greater value. Think set/artifact gear vs. rare in Diablo.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

In my last quest, I reecountered Letho. Nice follow up, since we parted ways peacefully in witcher 2 after some talk and vodka.

 

[AetherVagrant]

Is it better than Witcher 2 though? I really found the combat in that one to be utter shit whilst thinking the rhythmic combat in Witcher 1 was tolerable.

depending on what you mean by that: far better than witcher2. at least on 360 the combat got so easy and boring on that game is was hard to finish. It's a little harder (at least on the medium and hard levels) and you can totally cancel your movements and Geralt is far more responsive than 2. Much more like W1, but without the timed attacks, and while roll is still easily spammed its not the catchall it was in the last. travelling isnt as hard or satisfying as the first as i dont believe enemies respawn (some will chase you farther than the witcher1 tho), so you only have to beat them once and move on, but you dont have to worry about having supplies for your return trip.

 

[Perkel]

Ok finished game.... holy fuck few thoughts (spoiler free) after finishing game minutes ago:
CDPR

• Best C&C in gaming. This is the new yardstick. Should be in fucking schools for game designers mandatory game. AoD should also rise to that level but it will be hella hard to beat it.
• Best book to game adaptation ever. Hell best any medium conversion to game ever.
• Best Witcher game (road story which is basically what people wanted from TW1 and TW2)
• Story is really good. Not PST level but just a little notch below (i am talking about whole saga) from Geralt position naturally.
• Journey is fucking amazing on other hand through mc.
  
• Some of the best quests in roleplaying games.
• They fucking nailed Yennefer.
• They made Ciri awesome character and imo from saga standpoint they made books early years very important to who she is in game thus redeeming worse parts of saga for me. Yeah fuck sapkowski and his "not a canon".
• Ending i got... soooooo good...
• Character design.. out of fucking scale. Ton of them were based on books but new characters were also superb.
• No fucking fetch quests. There are shitload of quests and none of them is pick xxx fruits or shit like that.
• World design... fuck. Didn't use minimap, fast travel or quest markers of any kind. This is level of Gothic 1/2.. which is crazy because game is huge as fuck.
• Novigrad is probably one of the best designed cities in gaming. After a while i didn't need to use map at all which is crazy considering how big it is. Also it has actual Day night cycle which is even more crazy.
• Best looking RPG ever. Sure it is a bit stylized in color palette but art design + awesome lighting model + no interior loads really makes it best looking rpg.
• Best sound design ever in any RPG. Bustling cities, woods everything sounds awesome. Usually i don't notice this things because usually this is "meh" level but here it really really really makes exploration superb
• Amazing OST. Percival,Skorupa and team learned their mistakes from TW2 soundtrack and they made something better than TW1 ost. TW games thanks to percival imput have really original sountrack hard to mistake with anything, Fields of Ard Skellig Comeback to Kaer Moren theme and many others will be on our playlists for years to come...
  
  
  
• Speaking of which. Best game song ever (history behind text song, who made it, who sings it, text itself and finally one of the best songs in therm of pure voice i ever heard. Which is again crazy because it is for game.
  Superior original potato version:
  
  Notch below but still amazing eng version:
  
  Fucking literally tears in eyes how good it is in potato version.

Downsides ? Sure few of them but none of them are important in overall grand scheme just like combat in PST never was.

If most of people would read books and play TW1 and TW2 this would be contender for place in top5 for next rpg codex top50 best rpgs ever. Problem is most of people probably will play it alone and they will never understand why this game is so good on so many levels. Game does good job of explaining things but soo much of stuff needs reading books and playing earlier games.

Like for example Emhyr character. In game he is presented only as king and SPOILER but game doesn't tell completely his story and what his intensions are considering what happened in books. So choices with him involved are completely different for people who read books for those who didn't.

holy fuck what a ride. Bioware and betsheda "AAA" rpgs feels like mobile indie shit games compared to CDPR game.
bravo cdpr...

STATS:
- DEATH MARCH whole game without reducing it at any time
- No minimap/markers/fast travel. Occasionally worldmap if stuck.
- 66h. Most of side-quest not done. Imo important ones were done but it is only "imo" because how game ties subquests to main story. Game is easily 200h+ if someone would do most quests.
- finished lvl 28
- Alchemy spec + bits of swordpath
- Didn't reach tier 3 skills nor i cared for equipment or crafting beside potions


Now i have ton of stuff in mind after finishing it and probably will start next playtrough next day because C&C in this game rocks and i didn't finish most of sidequests.

Probably will write full review after finishing second play-trough because frankly one play-trough is nothing considering C&C in this game.


Can't wait for official dex review.