Topic: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt thread

@Th3solution The Witcher 3’s strength has never been its open world. It’s been the narrative and quest formed within that world. Looking at it as a world to explore and just be in, it’s not very good. It does a good job of making stuff like enemies feel in place, but it felt to me like it was never than a backdrop to a level on game. Compared to Skyrim even it’s not very good.
The quests and story are amazing though. The side-quests are better than RDR2 I’d wager. Heck I’d say a lot are indistinguishable from main story quests in production and quality, with many tying into the main story, and as I understand, having consequences related to the main story. It also has excellent choice and moral greyness in trying to do the right thing. Because you have a strong main character with a set character you always feel like you have enough choice because you make decisions as Geralt, not a custom character. Choice is something RDR2 doesn’t have much of either. It also make you feel like a Witcher in world interaction and combat and such, even better than RDR2 does I’d say because it doesn’t let you go on murder sprees. It’s all grounded around Geralt. I started playing it this year and felt the facial animations are just fine, but I also play it on a PC with maxed out settings, so I don’t know what that changes in graphical comparisons between our experiences. So I’d you remember it’s not about being open-world and never was super strong there, I think you’ll be fine.

@Th3solution There are a couple of quests later on which are Gwent based. I seem to remember entering a Gwent tournament (think of it like a poker tournament), but you had an ulterior motive in finding out who the main suspect was in a murder investigation you had taken on. Or something along those lines. I really enjoyed Gwent, found it a nice diversion to the other stuff. It can be tricky at first, but once you got some decent cards and you know how to use each type of card you be itching for another game.

Nicely said @Jaz007

@Jaz007 @JohnnyShoulder That’s good to hear, regarding the choice and consequence. I really like those ethical dilemma situations in games that make you really have to think about your value system (or in this case I guess - Geralt’s value system) and especially when the choices have ramifications to outcomes.
Yeah on PS4 the facial animations are not any worse than say, Horizon Zero Dawn (although the latter’s traversal and movement animations are much more fluid) but among the last few games I played are RDR2 and Detroit Become Human, which I think are next level as far as crossing the uncanny valley. I guess I’m getting picky when I see the whole dolls-eye thing, and the lack of muscles moving around the eyes and cheeks to portray that extra little emotional impact of the virtual character’s acting. It’s by no means on the level of Life is Strange or The Council or, heaven-forbid Mass Effect Andromeda - which are significantly worse, yet not quite a good as even Uncharted 4 or what I’ve seen from AC Odyssey, God of War (haven’t played them yet) or certainly Death Stranding and TLoU2 footage. But I wouldn’t expect an ‘open world’ game to carry the same graphical prowess of a linear game, since it’s asking the CPU to do so many other things.

And as far as Gwent, I might wait a little before investing in buying cards since coin is pretty rare right now. Especially since I like to play the virtuous role and I keep helping people and then telling them to keep their money after seeing their hardships. 😅
But I have noticed you can just loot stuff from people’s houses right in front of them and they don’t seem to mind - as opposed to RDR2 where you can’t even loot a dead body and suddenly some NPC is running off and telling the law about you and now you’ve got a bounty on your head 😂

@Th3solution Bear in mind that all those games you said had better facial animations etc had a bigger budget to work from and came later on this gen. As @Octane said, it was considered best in class at the time.

More coin will come, as usual with these type of games it takes a few hours of being skint and being frugal before that happens. Some of the better cards you can only get by winning em of other players.

How are you finding the combat? I know some struggled with it. And what difficulty you got it on?

@JohnnyShoulder I think the combat is going to be really good, but it’s a little different from other games I’m accustomed to. I’m trying to get in the groove of mixing the signs in and using potions. I haven’t used any oils as I don’t have the supplies to make any yet.
I’m playing on the easiest difficulty and it’s just right for me at this point. It’s not too easy actually since I’m still learning how to control Geralt. Even low level enemies take two to three hits and they can swarm you pretty quick. Like I said, I haven’t died yet in combat though, which is fine by me. I’d rather it be too easy than too hard because it’s such a long game and I want to enjoy the story and the get more invested into the world without the fear of death and reloads. I think the difficulty can be ramped up if I want later, right?

As far as the approach, it sounds like hitting all the side quests and contracts is recommended to get the full experience, so I’ll try for that. That’s my usual inclination anyways. So do you recommend hitting all the question marks as I pass through and area? It seems like many of those are just a group of monsters guarding a treasure or a random loot box or something minor. But I imagine there are some good quests hidden in all those question marks too. What I’m doing so far is hitting some if they are nearby, but not going far and wide yet to clear them before moving forward in the mainline story. I happened upon a group of specters guarding a stash and I was scared I wasn’t strong enough, so I left them alone. Is this the right approach? Are there strong enemies dispersed in an area or does the area scale to where you are experience-wise?

@Th3solution Unless it’s a power thing you meditate at, you can ignore most of the question marks. The last you need to do is extend the game beyond by fighting a monster guarding pointless loot in what’s frankly, an unessary part of the game, the RPG elements. You’ll be upping the difficulty once you get a few more levels. I really wish the developers had retained control of the difficulty instead of giving it to numbers. My main criticism of it really, is how much of an RPG it is. But yeah, the game is long enough with the quests without that stuff. There are so many, I’d say don’t do it. You’ll never finish it if you do.
And enemies don’t scale, so that’s the right approach for now.
Also, make extra saves for choices. Even if you want to just live with the consequences, there will be the odd moment where when it’s usually well comminuted what the choices are, you’ll choose something and geralt will blindside you with what he does. Rare, but there.

@Th3solution You can do that earlier in the game, but bear in mind the amount of xp you get from quests will be lower if your level is over the recommended level. I found it a bit underwhelming when doing the late game quests only to get a low xp reward.

And as @Jaz007 mentions once you get used to the game, you may wish to bump up the difficulty as the combat will probably get boring.

I could be wrong but I thought they patched in enemy scaling?

There certainly is enemy scaling now. I completed the main game without it and they patched it in when I came back for the DLC so previously low level wolves were then utterly destroying me.

This is the greatest game of all time

@Thrillho That would explain why I've got destroyed everytime I've gone back to the game lol.

@JohnnyShoulder There’s an option to have enemies scale up to your level, but not down.

I spent quite a bit more time with Geralt and Co. this weekend. The game is growing on me and I’m getting a better feel for the world and its history and lore. This is my first Witcher game so all these names and places are foreign to me. I didn’t even know what a Witcher was until last week. 😛
The narrative certainly is going to be the highlight, I can tell. The combat is rounding out to be a decent amount of fun, but I’m still struggling with the mechanics. I’m at level 6 and I don’t even really understand all the crafting that’s available and I’m not sure what Adrenaline points do. I’m a little vague with the mutagen system too. Also, the RPG and leveling options are pretty complex, with all the armor and weapon upgrades on top of things. I mean, it’s typical fantasy RPG stuff, of which I’m a veteran, but it takes time to absorb the nuance. The game is just so deep in the gameplay department. It is quite an achievement there. After some 10-12 hours or so, I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of how to take advantage of all the games systems and maximize everything.
It’s a little tedious, actually and it’s part of what burned me out in Dragon Age Inquisition — the constant upgrading of equipment. Every time I turn around I’ve procured a better piece of equipment that I need to swap out. Maybe this will slow down and I’ll have a good set of armor and weapons that will last me a while.
Also, I’m not sure I’m utilizing the Crossbow correctly. Strangely, the game gives rather specific tutorials on most of its mechanics, but when you get the crossbow, it’s just like “Here you go. Here’s a crossbow. Now kill that griffin.” Apparently I can use it underwater, but it seems near impossible to aim. Is there a lock on mechanic? I know I can hold R1 to aim, but it’s still pretty poorly accurate at a moving enemy, especially when you’re underwater and can’t move very well either.

I think my biggest frustration I’m having lately is a relatively minor thing though — precision of movement for Geralt and his item / hit detection. I mentioned this in an earlier post, and I think I’ve grown accustomed to Geralt’s more floaty feeling and quicker movement when running around, but I just get so annoyed when I’m trying to pick something up or light a torch in a cave or something and I have to spend two minutes running around the object for the game to detect the item so I can press “X” and accomplish the task. If there is a way to make Geralt walk or move slowly, I don’t know, other than to become encumbered. Otherwise he has two speeds - run and sprint. I did become encumbered once and it felt nice to be able to walk slowly around an area and survey it all easier. 😆
I’m certain this all works out over time and maybe I was in a wonky area last night (That first dungeon with Keira to track the Elf Mage’s messages). During that quest there was also some kind of glitch where any time I swam in a body of water, the camera started spinning uncontrollably in circles and I couldn’t control it. Made me quite motion sick, but I was able to fight my way to the shore. 😅

I looked at each of the major cities on the map, now that the game is opening up more, and I am so overwhelmed by all the quest markers. I know each of those represents a high quality experience and a fun adventure, but still - I can’t help but see it all as a huge task. I hope it doesn’t ever become a chore. So far each quest has been fun though.

@Th3solution There should be an option for an alternative movement for Geralt.

And yeah the the armour and weapons soon calms down. Once you get your first Witcher piece of equipment most of the stuff you find out and about won't be as good.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I came across a document that initiated a quest for some
Witcher gear. So you would say that might be a good use of time to do those quests? I just don’t want to run around doing a quest that is clearly for seeking out some special armor for 3 or 4 hours, only to find out at the end that it’s not even as good as the armor I have, or that it’s not even armor but rather a recipe for the blacksmith to make armor that requires super exotic and rare materials that I’ll have to spend another 3-4 hours tracking down. Then by the time I’ve done all that I’m so overleveled to even take advantage of the armor anymore. Lol, am I making sense?

@Th3solution Gear rewards will be pointless soon enough, I’m ended up making the difficulty hard. I would advise you to use money and narrative as reasons for quest, not soon to be outdated gear.

@Th3solution I found the Witcher Gear really good, especially when upgraded. Some of the quests don't taken that long to do, iirc it is only the higher levelled stuff which was time consuming. Late game that is all I was wearing, and different sets are suited for different enemies.

@JohnnyShoulder Ok, I’ll take that into consideration.
@Jaz007 How far along are you into the game? Do you think you’re nearing the end?

@Th3solution I feel I’m maybe halfway through. I’m doing a lot of side-stuff since it’s all so well written and last I remember was 70 hours in.

@Th3solution I think I clocked well over 100 hours into the game... and I haven't even started any of the expansion packs areas lol

@Th3solution After a quick google to remind myself, the adrenaline points build up when you're in combat and give you better damage as they fill. Certain perks (or whatever they're called in this game) you get specifically use them up too.

And when underwater, I seem to remember tapping the shoot button auto-aims the crossbow.