The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

[Ulminati]

3+ opponents just means you roll until you find a bottleneck where there's only room for 1 at a time Or roll around and igni +the occasional light slash while you whittle them down.

 

[cvv]

Btw the Triss storyline. I'm positively chuffed with the result. Really nice lovestory. Both Triss and Yennefer actresses are fantastic.

The only problem is

Spoiler

after I fuck and confess my love to Triss and say I wanna grow old with her I arrive to Skellige and the first thing Geralt says to Yennefer is she's sooo beautiful and smells awfuly nice :D Fucking Geralt man.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I definitly agree that Death March is hard for the wrong reasons.

I tried to go off the beaten paths and fight harder monsters underleveled but there's no point, you literally do 0 damage while they destroy you in 1 hit, even with the proper oils/sign.

 

[Idiott]

The most annoying part of fighting 3+ enemies is the fucking retarded targeting system that makes Geralt jump in the middle of the clusterfuck to hit some random dude instead of finishing that last bit of HP of the one in front of you. Even with target lock it's annoying as fuck as enemies in packs run around like headless chickens.

 

[Kem0sabe]

And you are an idiiot if this is such a big problem for you. At last there is a game where there is no level scaling, and you nitpick about this? Is it hard to believe that some monsters are more experienced than others in their species? You know, like with humans? I agree that they could have been given a different look, but having more experienced and less experienced monsters is not a blasphemy, and certainly not shitty design.

Let's have these mindless drowners over the next hill be the bestest mindless drowners there is, because they could make it over the hill to find new and exciting opportunities.

It's lazy design. Having slightly different colored drowners, or even ones that look exactly the same but with different levels would make sense if for example they were uniquely placed and few / far between, but no... you have an entire camp of level 15 drowners, all with the same "experience", all with the same "difficulty".

Thats the problem with big game worlds, developers use paintbrush mob placing to fill it up instead of handcrafting enemies and encounters to make actual sense.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Surrounded by dudes? Igni, need a shield out of the way? Stream of piss Igni, need a big fucker stunned for a min? Set him on fire with igni...

 

[MasPingon]

Let's face it, the consoletard school of game design made combat redundant. Combat is like bloom, it's just flavour and packaging. Nobody wants it to be either interesting, nor challenging, nor anything else but "visually pleasing" and "incl00sive"

The fact that combat is very easy, and that there's loads of filler combat, is proof to this. Not to mention all the "cinematic" mini-finishers, the gore, the xplosions, the cleaving people in half. Yes it's great when you see it the first time, it's still a nice touch after 15 times, and it's just fucking trite after 20. The same for the encounters themselves. I ended up skipping most filler encounters around the countryside: I'd just run past and ignore them, because there is no point really. Combat provides no xp, no entertainment, no relevant loot, nothing relevant at all to the game's or character's progression. The only combat worth engaging with is the one that's quest-related, and even then, it's not worth because of its own properties (eg: fighting is fun), but mostly because it's an obstacle on the path to the rest of the quest (trigger warning: storyfag here). I even preferred TW2's trash-mob farming in the forest, in order to craft those totally OP but good looking armour sets: that, at least, gave me some purpose.

So, to summarize, combat is:
1.piss easy
2.lots of it
3."flashy"
Therefore it's just there for the average angsty teen to vent some anger and feel "mature" because of the gore.

Add, on top of this, that combat still is all about dodge/roll and slashing: I got the feeling that signs are even less powerful and relevant than they were in TW2 or TW1. So far the only (kinda) mandatory one is Yrden, and only when fighting Wraiths.

"Big" bosses, the ones with the white healthbar (griffins, cockatrices, etc) are no exception: run around, kite, dodge, wait for opening, strike. Rinse and repeat.


On my first playthrough, I went for "normal" settings. Next, I might even save myself the pain and go for "easy", which should remove some of the pointless combat, a complete waste of time as it is now.

Filler combat on normal difficulty, news at eleven. That was rich dude. I'm sure it's even better on easy, have fun.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

>Finally have Witcher 3 on a rig that can handle it.
>Face the starting ghouls.
>Dodge and maneuver amidst them expertly.
>Get kicked to death by Horse.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

>Finally have Witcher 3 on a rig that can handle it.
>Face the starting ghouls.
>Dodge and maneuver amidst them expertly.
>Get kicked to death by Horse.

That one happened to many people, including myself.

 

[Jools]

Btw the Triss storyline. I'm positively chuffed with the result. Really nice lovestory. Both Triss and Yennefer actresses are fantastic.

The only problem is

Spoiler

after I fuck and confess my love to Triss and say I wanna grow old with her I arrive to Skellige and the first thing Geralt says to Yennefer is she's sooo beautiful and smells awfuly nice :D Fucking Geralt man.

I was worried last night, after the initial quests alongside Triss upon meeting her in Novigrad, she seems to "disappear" from the game. Good to know she'll be back, and romanceable/boinkable.

I really hope Geralt, at some point, is forced to choose between Citi/Yen/Triss, so I leave Yen and Ciri to rot in the dirt and grow old with my wonderful redhead.

 

[Cyberarmy]

>Finally have Witcher 3 on a rig that can handle it.
>Face the starting ghouls.
>Dodge and maneuver amidst them expertly.
>Get kicked to death by Horse.

You need to become a horse whisperer.

 

[Perkel]

Also you go with level scaling, people bitch. You go with non-level scaled system, they bitch again. I bet my left nut if CDPR went with Gothic-like system ppl ITT would say "trololo this is stoopid you can kill everything on level 1 trololo".

Truly, everything is shit.

? In gothic you can't kill anything with lvl1 because you will do 0 damage to higher level people.

As of above i think DS got it well. You can kill anything being lvl1 provided you will have either patience or proper upgraded gear. Difference between lvl100 and lvl1 is not that great.

Learing game, better AI, more movesets is what should count toward def not your level.

 

[Metro]

Also you go with level scaling, people bitch. You go with non-level scaled system, they bitch again. I bet my left nut if CDPR went with Gothic-like system ppl ITT would say "trololo this is stoopid you can kill everything on level 1 trololo".

Truly, everything is shit.

? In gothic you can't kill anything with lvl1 because you will do 0 damage to higher level people.

No.

 

[hivemind]

did they change the mechanics in the second game?

I remember that in gothic 1 I was literally doing 0 dmg to the minecrawler queen because I didn't have enough str+wpn dmg to get through her defenses when I did the mine quest

 

[Perkel]

Combat and difficulty were much better in Witcher 2

TW3 combat isn't DS but it is huge improvement over roll roll roll away TW2.

- Standardized time for animations alone makes it several times better due to predictability of strikes vs some random anims with random time.
- cancel for animation. You can dodge mid swing.
- dodge itself is improvement over roll
- dodge vs roll benefits is improvement
- fast vs strong attack depending of foe also is improvement
- fixed hitboxes
- fixed sword fighting problem of TW2 where when you lock on enemy usually other monsters are not hit.
- you don't need to use lock on system at all. It helps for 1vs1 battles like griphin or other harder enemies but you can go without it.
- monsters improved a lot. Each monster has way better moveset and when they are behind you they will attack relentlessly

As of def itself TW2 had inverse def. Prologue and Act1 were hardest and ACT3 was easiest.
TW3 on other hand manages to have the same def through whole game provided you don't over-level much with you gear.

I know TW combat system were usually shit but pointing that earlier versions of combat were "better" is idiotic.

 

[Perkel]

Also you go with level scaling, people bitch. You go with non-level scaled system, they bitch again. I bet my left nut if CDPR went with Gothic-like system ppl ITT would say "trololo this is stoopid you can kill everything on level 1 trololo".

Truly, everything is shit.

? In gothic you can't kill anything with lvl1 because you will do 0 damage to higher level people.

No.

They changed mechanics in G2. In G1 you literally did 0 damage to harder enemies.

 

[zeroprometheus]

I think a lot of people are missing the source. The biggest problem isn't enemy HP bloat and the weird artificial damage reduction you get for fighting something more than 5 levels above you. Its the lack of character and level progression that comes from garbage skill trees and and leveled loot that is very oddly placed. You can get level 30 loot in less than minutes of gameplay that won't be usable for a very long time, that makes little sense. There is no unique loot with unique lore that comes as a reward for exploration. You're instead forced to level a character through story rather than challenging fights so you can make use of easy to find diagrams for uber equipment. Simply put the reward incentive for exploration doesn't come from character progression. I run past a monster POI or treasure POI beacuse I know the loot will be crap I can't use until specific level and the monster will be tedious to fight. level 15 Geralt still fights like level 1 Geralt in terms of looks and abilities for the most part. Dark Souls can be said to be better because of the way it handled leveled loot even though I would caution calling DS an rpg. Some of this is to be blamed on the Witcher lore which limits the way Geralt can fight but I still feel it wasn't this bad in TW2. HP and armor artificiality would be fine if I new I had the means to progress character in such a way as to mitigate it by items/skills and that really isn't present until much later in the game. The steep progression curve is caused by boring itemization and skills.

Itemization also seems to be odd in the sense that there are missing levels of items; I see odd gaps from level to level.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I concur on skill trees being garbage. Lowest point of the game imho. Filler MMO shit with only very few new stlyes/skills.
They should've expended/upgraded first games styles but instead they went down the safe and lazy road.

 

[Ulminati]

- cancel for animation. You can dodge mid swing.

Lies. No matter how much I mash B, Garrett of Rivendell insists on twirling and pirouetting into certain death.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

- cancel for animation. You can dodge mid swing.

Lies. No matter how much I mash B, Garrett of Rivendell insists on twirling and pirouetting into certain death.

Lies double, can cancel swing by dodging.

Also lol gamepad.

 

[Gerrard]

Also one of the strongest fighters in the bookseries was a regular human thug (bonhart, who even killed 3 witchers by himself), so this bullshit argument about geralt having to kill off every enemy with his farts because he once faced a dragon has to stop.

Or so he claimed. But if instead of running into Cahir he ran into Regis in the castle, do you think he'd be able to do anything?

And you are an idiiot if this is such a big problem for you. At last there is a game where there is no level scaling, and you nitpick about this? Is it hard to believe that some monsters are more experienced than others in their species? You know, like with humans? I agree that they could have been given a different look, but having more experienced and less experienced monsters is not a blasphemy, and certainly not shitty design.

But there is a form of level scaling. Have you tried fighting enemies 10 levels above you? You deal no damage. Because of level difference, not because they have higher armor value or some shit. In case of human enemies this makes even less fucking sense.
This is nitpicking? This is a fundamental flaw in the game's design, not nitpicking. If you think this is not shit you are retarded.

But I also really don't know what they could have done to stay true to lore, have meaningful character progression,

That's the problem though, the game doesn't have meaningful character progression OR stay true to the lore either.

 

[norolim]

Not to mention all the "cinematic" mini-finishers, the gore, the xplosions, the cleaving people in half. Yes it's great when you see it the first time, it's still a nice touch after 15 times, and it's just fucking trite after 20.

Your life must be a a miserable dark hole of crippling sadness, if in 20 minutes you go form great to fucking trite with everything. My condolences. Btw. you can turn the finishers of.

The same for the encounters themselves. I ended up skipping most filler encounters around the countryside: I'd just run past and ignore them, because there is no point really. Combat provides no xp, no entertainment, no relevant loot, nothing relevant at all to the game's or character's progression.

Not true: you get some XP for combat, groups of monsters often guard a lair or chest that's often full of loot, including very good hand placed items, killing monsters gives you mutagens, which are essential elements of character development in W3.

On my first playthrough, I went for "normal".

Explains a lot. You complain about consoletardisation and then play on a difficulty level designed for consoletards... how am I supposed to treat you seriously? Everybody knows that Normal is the New Easy. Even in classical RPGs.

Also the combat is fucked up. I enjoy fights 1vs1 (somewhat resembling boss fights) but like I've said before: it's a circus when there are 3+ opponents.

How is that a flaw? Would you prefer a Diablo-style "kill millions of mobs with a single click" system? In my opinion it scales well.

An example: with level 1 Geralt (Hard diff. lvl) I can easily deal with one level 4 Drowner. 2 Drowners simultaneously will still be relatively easy. 3 will require some patience and skill. 4 will be very difficult and 5 practically impossible. This is exactly how it should work in a game like that, imo. You shouldn't be able to use the same tactics fighting one mob and 4 mobs. You should almost always die when trying to fight 5 or more enemies at the same time. Unless, of course, they are low level compared to you.

no animation cancelling

There is animation cancelling in W3.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

- cancel for animation. You can dodge mid swing.

Lies. No matter how much I mash B, Garrett of Rivendell insists on twirling and pirouetting into certain death.

Lies double, can cancel swing by dodging.

Which is funny because you can also cancel the stun-effect by dodging.

 

[Dookins]

But there is a form of level scaling. Have you tried fighting enemies 10 levels above you? You deal no damage. Because of level difference, not because they have higher armor value or some shit.

Actually, yeah, I have killed stuff over 10 levels higher than myself on death march.

 

[J_C]

Lies. No matter how much I mash B, Garrett of Rivendell insists on twirling and pirouetting into certain death.

True that. And this is mind numbingly annoying.

 

[Jools]

Not to mention all the "cinematic" mini-finishers, the gore, the xplosions, the cleaving people in half. Yes it's great when you see it the first time, it's still a nice touch after 15 times, and it's just fucking trite after 20.

Your life must be a a miserable dark hole of crippling sadness, if in 20 minutes you go form great to fucking trite with everything. My condolences. Btw. you can turn the finishers of.

And you must have the attention span and memory retention of a goldfish, if seeing yet the same finisher/gore again and again after 20 minutes doesn't bore you. MY condolences.

The same for the encounters themselves. I ended up skipping most filler encounters around the countryside: I'd just run past and ignore them, because there is no point really. Combat provides no xp, no entertainment, no relevant loot, nothing relevant at all to the game's or character's progression.

Not true: you get some XP for combat, groups of monsters often guard a lair or chest that's often full of loot, including very good hand placed items, killing monsters gives you mutagens, which are essential elements of character development in W3.

The tiny XP for combat are beside the point, in this discussion. XP or not, combat is mostly irrelevant. Mutagens are too, in fact. Especially if +150 vitality at level 14 is far from "essential", in my books.

On my first playthrough, I went for "normal".

Explains a lot. You complain about consoletardisation and then play on a difficulty level designed for consoletards... how am I supposed to treat you seriously? Everybody knows that Normal is the New Easy. Even in classical RPGs.

Finished TW2 on Dark: not much difference, just more irritation/patience. As I don't like combat that much, I'd rather keep it as "un-annoying" and low-profile as possible.

It's ok, we know you're Potato and I offended your new national treasure. The pride-induced rage and edginess, I can understand. The shameless defending of the mediocre combat, I can't.