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RE: Tower of Mice Is there any way to detect the SUPER-wraith before she kills her love? I mean, there was the obvious tell with the whole "oh I go out and look at the land-wait-did I say go outside? No I'm cursed to stay here!" line. Geralt just seemed to go along with it, and once the wraith was loose he was all..."whoops!". I was sure the Pellar's quest was going to tie in with the whole town being slaughtered by SUPER-wraith during the ceremony. Who knows...maybe it does? I haven't gone to the swamp to look for his father's body yet. Too busy looking for my remaining Gwent challengers.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:15
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Tower of Mice - There's a recent death in the tower that is clearly from some kind of monster (I think there's clawmarks or something) and also she gets really angry when you question her about little details in her tale of woe... Also nothing ever comes of that quest I think. You get a note in the character glossary about how a city gets destroyed starting with that escape. turtlecrunch fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 15:19
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turtlecrunch posted:Tower of Mice - And don't forget that loving Banshee scream every time you start the conversation with her.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:23
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What happens if you don't fall for her shenanigans like i did and just go "eeeh nope"?
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Jun 8, 2015 15:34
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Dongattack posted:What happens if you don't fall for her shenanigans like i did and just go "eeeh nope"? In that case you get the option to resolve it by bringing her beloved onto the island to explain to her that he did not abandon her willingly or intentionally. She forgives him, which is enough to dispel the curse on the island and allow her to pass on. However, she also demands a kiss, and since kissing the personification of pestilence rarely works out well, that kills him.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:40
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Dongattack posted:What happens if you don't fall for her shenanigans like i did and just go "eeeh nope"? You get into a a brief fight before she reminds you she can't be killed, then you go get her boyfriend to come to the tower and he breaks the curse by kissing her.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:42
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Finally beat the game Ciri owns and is my favorite char
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Jun 8, 2015 15:45
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This game is so well put together. I'm just getting to meeting Triss, and wow some of the quest lines are AMAZING.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:56
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The Novigrad arc is pretty much killing my desire to finish my second play through. I actually skipped it all together and went straight to Skellige after finishing up Velen at level 10. Now I'm level 20, done with Skellige, and I have no choice but to go back and start knocking out Novigrad if I want to continue with the game, but... ugh.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:56
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If all the running around is getting to you I found the werewolf decoction to be extremely useful for running around Novigrad.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:04
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DEO3 posted:The Novigrad arc is pretty much killing my desire to finish my second play through. I actually skipped it all together and went straight to Skellige after finishing up Velen at level 10. Now I'm level 20, done with Skellige, and I have no choice but to go back and start knocking out Novigrad if I want to continue with the game, but... ugh. I'm redoing a lot of the Novigrad stuff because I wanted to choose Yen instead of Triss, and yeah, it's not very much fun the second time around. Like Wiseblood says, though, the Werewolf Decoction is so helpful for all the running around in Novigrad.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:05
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DEO3 posted:The Novigrad arc is pretty much killing my desire to finish my second play through. I actually skipped it all together and went straight to Skellige after finishing up Velen at level 10. Now I'm level 20, done with Skellige, and I have no choice but to go back and start knocking out Novigrad if I want to continue with the game, but... ugh. What's your problem with it? Running around was kinda annoying (thank god for the GPS on the minimap though) and it's silly how often you have to go to the Vegelbud Estate but it's really not all that bad.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:06
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Just finished. Happy with my ending. I think I could quite comfortably lump this game in with my GOAT list, and near the top of it at that. To many things to praise what a great loving game.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:09
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I'm only level 12, but I just respecced into an alchemy build, and man is it nice. It feels weird after playing the first two games as sign builds. I still put some points into Quen, Axii, and the fast attack damage, but being able to always have a decoction going along with a couple of potions is pretty amazing. Every encounter I have some combination of enhanced defense, attack, and vitality. And I'm blowing everything up with bombs. I can't wait until I get another few levels so I can grab the bear armor and be a bomb-throwing junkie tank.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:15
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I've been in Skellige for a while now and fully transitioned from Fantasy Detective to Deep Sea Salvager. There is SO much money to be had boating around and raiding smuggler caches and spoils of war. There's something super relaxing about zipping around on a boat too. Skellige is loving gorgeous on top.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:18
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GrossMurpel posted:What's your problem with it? Running around was kinda annoying (thank god for the GPS on the minimap though) and it's silly how often you have to go to the Vegelbud Estate but it's really not all that bad. The dandelion quest seemed a little bit much - lets go talk to the....five women he's been with as of late. I thought that was like, a parody of typical rpg quests where you have to go talk to three people, and whichever one I went to first was just going to tell me exactly where he was, but nope, it really was just five. Now, some of them were cool, I liked fencing with the one, but nonetheless I could see not wanting to do it a second time. Wish I could buy a pass that allowed me to gallop in novigrad. Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 16:19
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Any thoughts on adrenaline? Even with the skill that lets me cast signs with adrenaline I can't help but feeling that more stamina regen would do the same more efficiently. And does it even do anything unless I slot some of the talents that use it? I'm liking the look of ursine armor but none of the bonuses it gives fell all that useful, cat just feels superior in all regards.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:20
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Avalerion posted:Any thoughts on adrenaline? Even with the skill that lets me cast signs with adrenaline I can't help but feeling that more stamina regen would do the same more efficiently. And does it even do anything unless I slot some of the talents that use it? If you're going straight Signs, Stamina regeneration is probably going to serve you better than casting Signs with adrenaline, especially with the crazy Stamina regen you get from the medium armor with the Griffin School Techniques skill. No matter what talents you use, Adrenaline increases your melee damage by 10% per point. So if you see two Adrenaline points, you're dealing 20% more melee damage. Other talents let it do other things, like increase your Sign intensity or be used to cast Signs, etc. It's really great for a melee heavy build to have a lot of Adrenaline. For a Signs build, I'd say you're still better off going Griffin armor (even though the Ursine looks so drat good) and maybe slotting the talent that lets Adrenaline increase your Sign intensity and relying on high Stamina regen to cast a lot.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:26
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Avalerion posted:Any thoughts on adrenaline? Even with the skill that lets me cast signs with adrenaline I can't help but feeling that more stamina regen would do the same more efficiently. And does it even do anything unless I slot some of the talents that use it? I bounce back and forth but for any sort of hybrid, adrenaline is awesome. I mostly focus on signs and only the beginning of a battle is rough. Once you wade into a group of guys and start dealing damage, you'll always have 2-3 points of adrenaline. Combine with the skill the increases damage with adrenaline and you're golden.The only fights it hasn't been amazing is against large flying enemies (Archgriffin, I'm looking at you), but the Bear Armor makes you so hardy it's hard to argue with.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:31
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Last Wish spoilers: Dandelion finds the Djinn, everyone thinks it's bound to him but it's actually on Geralt. So Djinn, being angry at his bottling, lashes out at the guy he can freely attack (Dandelion). Geralt attempts to dispel the Djinn with an incantation he knows the words of but not the meaning. The Djinn treats this as his first command, howls in rage and runs away. Geralt's He meets Yen to try and get her to heal Dandelion. She tries to magically throw him through a wall, but he blocks a bit with a Sign. Yen tries to subjugate the Djinn to her will. Does Not Go As Planned, mostly because everyone thinks it's bound to Dandelion. Djinn is now Royally Pissed and is tearing apart buildings to reach Yennifer due to her botched attempts to leash it. Geralt is with her and makes his final wish--which has never been explicitly enumerated--that effectively ties their fates together. The Djinn is therefore no longer able to attack her without affecting Geralt (its master) so she is saved. Cue tumultuous relationship/romance. OAquinas fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 16:33
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Ekhidna Decoction + Whirl is so good it's practically an exploit. An enemy pretty much has to stunlock you or one-hit you for you to ever not be at full health. It makes fights really easy. On the other hand, Kill All Drowners Forever 
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Jun 8, 2015 16:33
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Harrow posted:If you're going straight Signs, Stamina regeneration is probably going to serve you better than casting Signs with adrenaline, especially with the crazy Stamina regen you get from the medium armor with the Griffin School Techniques skill. I think on average you get more sign intensity if you just slot another blue skill instead of Focus, plus even more stamina regen. That is, if you're running a signs build where you'd probably even need Adrenaline Burst on top to properly increase adrenaline.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:34
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GrossMurpel posted:I think on average you get more sign intensity if you just slot another blue skill instead of Focus, plus even more stamina regen. Yeah, that's a good point. Mutagens are pretty great.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:37
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On the other hand this Whirl stuff is reminding me of a persistant problem with the series -- too much cool stuff is locked behind so many skill points that you need to be 3/4 of the way through the game to get it. The difficult curve is backwards and falls off a cliff halfway though as well, in all three games. There's so many cool combat synergies and RPG mechanics and but they're absent for most of the game and by the time you unlock them you don't need to bother with them because the game is so easy. The power curve really really needs to be rebalanced and that's been true for every game in the series.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:39
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So the cutoff for XP seems to be five levels above a quest turns it grey and grey quests give massively reduced XP regardless of whether they are main or sidequests right? About 200 from hitting 18 and still doing the two main Novigrad quests (feels pretty early in those as well) which are level 12. So I may as well bite the bullet, pick one to focus on and then just deal with the reduced xp for the other one?
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Jun 8, 2015 16:40
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Arglebargle III posted:On the other hand this Whirl stuff is reminding me of a persistant problem with the series -- too much cool stuff is locked behind so many skill points that you need to be 3/4 of the way through the game to get it. The difficult curve is backwards and falls off a cliff halfway though as well, in all three games. There's so many cool combat synergies and RPG mechanics and but they're absent for most of the game and by the time you unlock them you don't need to bother with them because the game is so easy. The power curve really really needs to be rebalanced and that's been true for every game in the series. I've seen a few people say that this game would be better without levels and skill trees at all, and I have to agree. Something closer to a Metroid style of progression (focused on finding new potions, bombs, decoctions, weapons, armor, and mutagens) would be really satisfying in an open world game like this. Add in a shallower equipment progression (maybe focused more on what benefits your swords and armor give you besides just increased attack power and defense) and it'd be pretty much ideal for me. If the designers really want players to have a "build," that can be accomplished through equipment and through what mutagens you slot. Give us a few more mutagen slots and then make mutagens do things like increase Toxicity, or unlock moves like Whirl, that kind of thing. A step away from leveling and standard skill tree stuff in an open world RPG would be so much fun.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:43
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More last wish spoilers: Left out the part where Yen brainwashes Geralt into going around town kicking the butt and humiliating (but not killing) people who were jerks to her. Also, there's an implication Geralt already felt for Yen before the wish, or it might have been leftovers from the spell, honestly that bit was kind of weird. He basically went back for Yen to try save her, risking his life, otherwise the djinn would have killed her, then just left to it's own plane. Other than saving Yen there wasn't really a reason for him to intervene and he had good reason to be angry with her at that point (see above). Also, not book canon, but in the game Yen says Geralt wished for them to "be together forever". Arglebargle III posted:On the other hand this Whirl stuff is reminding me of a persistant problem with the series -- too much cool stuff is locked behind so many skill points that you need to be 3/4 of the way through the game to get it. The difficult curve is backwards and falls off a cliff halfway though as well, in all three games. There's so many cool combat synergies and RPG mechanics and but they're absent for most of the game and by the time you unlock them you don't need to bother with them because the game is so easy. The power curve really really needs to be rebalanced and that's been true for every game in the series. I just cheated myself up with some extra skill points, since you can only use so many at the same time anyway I don't think it breaks balance too much. Avalerion fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 16:46
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I've got that Axii bug and getting on the horse didn't work. At least using a pockets-based item fixed it.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:48
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Harrow posted:I've seen a few people say that this game would be better without levels and skill trees at all, and I have to agree. Something closer to a Metroid style of progression (focused on finding new potions, bombs, decoctions, weapons, armor, and mutagens) would be really satisfying in an open world game like this. Add in a shallower equipment progression (maybe focused more on what benefits your swords and armor give you besides just increased attack power and defense) and it'd be pretty much ideal for me. If the designers really want players to have a "build," that can be accomplished through equipment and through what mutagens you slot. Give us a few more mutagen slots and then make mutagens do things like increase Toxicity, or unlock moves like Whirl, that kind of thing. That's very hard to do in an open world game though, especially in a setting like this. Sure, you can easily tell the player he won't be able to explore a cave until he gets a specific bomb, but how do you tell him he can't bring down a specific monster because he's missing some vital bomb? And if you make all progression dependant on mutagens, then you're gonna have the perfect build after a few hours and never have a feeling of progression afterwards. thebardyspoon posted:So the cutoff for XP seems to be five levels above a quest turns it grey and grey quests give massively reduced XP regardless of whether they are main or sidequests right? About 200 from hitting 18 and still doing the two main Novigrad quests (feels pretty early in those as well) which are level 12. So I may as well bite the bullet, pick one to focus on and then just deal with the reduced xp for the other one? Don't worry too much about it, you'll be be overleveled for pretty much everything from that point on anyway unless you specifically do higher-level stuff (which will mean more quests you're overleveled for later).
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Jun 8, 2015 16:49
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Arglebargle III posted:On the other hand this Whirl stuff is reminding me of a persistant problem with the series -- too much cool stuff is locked behind so many skill points that you need to be 3/4 of the way through the game to get it. The difficult curve is backwards and falls off a cliff halfway though as well, in all three games. There's so many cool combat synergies and RPG mechanics and but they're absent for most of the game and by the time you unlock them you don't need to bother with them because the game is so easy. The power curve really really needs to be rebalanced and that's been true for every game in the series. It's funny because the Signs tree is actually the opposite. The cool secondary modes are easily unlocked in the second tier and the upper tiers are just boring +sign intensity increases and such that I ignored. So I played most of the game with flamethrower Igni, active shield Quen, and puppet Axii whereas I would have needed a million points into the sword and alchemy trees to get Whirl or cluster bombs.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:50
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GrossMurpel posted:That's very hard to do in an open world game though, especially in a setting like this. Sure, you can easily tell the player he won't be able to explore a cave until he gets a specific bomb, but how do you tell him he can't bring down a specific monster because he's missing some vital bomb? I don't mean the full-on Metroid treatment (unlock X bomb to enter Y dungeon), just that I think it would be more fun if progression was based on exploration and finding equipment/recipes/mutagens than a standard experienced/level-based progression. It'd definitely result in more "open" exploration though, because you wouldn't be able to level-gate things, though certain monsters would be tougher without better equipment, new Sign modes (maybe you could unlock those by finding Witcher tomes hidden around), certain bombs like Moon Dust, that kind of thing. And yeah, you'd probably want to gate mutagen progression a bit, either by hiding some mutagens away more thoroughly, or by starting you with a limited number of mutagen slots and unlocking more as you progress, or as you find certain things (maybe special potions you can find and drink that unlock more mutagen slots).
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Jun 8, 2015 16:57
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Harrow posted:I don't mean the full-on Metroid treatment (unlock X bomb to enter Y dungeon), just that I think it would be more fun if progression was based on exploration and finding equipment/recipes/mutagens than a standard experienced/level-based progression. It'd definitely result in more "open" exploration though, because you wouldn't be able to level-gate things, though certain monsters would be tougher without better equipment, new Sign modes (maybe you could unlock those by finding Witcher tomes hidden around), certain bombs like Moon Dust, that kind of thing. Then you'd have the problem of rewarding people who explore while the ones who just do the quests get hosed. Though I do have to admit no games like that come to mind so I'm having a hard time picturing what the whole quest and exploration balance would look like. All games I can think of that have equipment progression like that are either completely linear or also have a regular leveling system.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:03
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I'd just do away with levels, balance the whole game around being "max level" from the start with everything unlocked. You'd still get to experiment with different builds and equipment loadouts because you can only equip that many skills or carry a certain amount of gear. Even from the story perspective it doesn't make sense for Geralt to be learning new skills at this point, and both games ended with him potentially having some legendary equipment, it makes no sense a random sword you loot of a bandit or have the village blacksmith craft for you should be better than freaking Excalibur. Not sure why these games even need progression other than because that's what RPG's do. Avalerion fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 17:09
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Really good game, I liked almost all of it and my only complaints sound like complete horseshit. hatesfreedoms complaints about the witcher 3 + too drat long + too many quests + can't be bothered with this card game nonsense I ended up not sleeping with any of Geralts romantic interests, I blew them all off. There was this one lass in Skellig who took a fancy to me but the game didn't approve of my goal to have Geralt date somebody who he doesn't work with. From watching the ending really all Geralt needs is a money manager so he isn't poor all the time from seemingly just misplacing his gold after each game. Good game overall though. I have nothing to add to the Triss vs Yen debate.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:49
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I think between games Geralt parties a little too hard, blows his gold on clearance potions, then ODs on them and forgets all his skills.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:52
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GrossMurpel posted:Then you'd have the problem of rewarding people who explore while the ones who just do the quests get hosed. Yeah, I guess it does have its own limitations as a system. It ties in a little bit to one of my complaints about The Witcher 3 as-is: I actually want it to have level scaling, but only for main quests. I like that side quests and the open world don't level scale. I like that a lot. But I wish that main quests did, because it's so easy to outlevel them. I can see why the main quests are distributed as they are, level-wise. CDPR wanted to give us some freedom in the order in which we tackle them. That's cool. In doing, though, they've made it so you're almost definitely going to outlevel some of your main quests, even if you don't do every available sidequest, which kind of sucks some of the fun out of leveling. If main quests scaled to your level, you could rely on them always being an appropriate challenge, even if you go out and gain three levels between quests by doing every available contract and side quest or something.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:57
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Big Bidness posted:I'm only level 12, but I just respecced into an alchemy build, and man is it nice. It feels weird after playing the first two games as sign builds. I still put some points into Quen, Axii, and the fast attack damage, but being able to always have a decoction going along with a couple of potions is pretty amazing. Every encounter I have some combination of enhanced defense, attack, and vitality. And I'm blowing everything up with bombs. Tell me about your build.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:02
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Fauxtool posted:i dont understand this. The multiples are coming out of his deck, not hand so he is still just playing 1 card at a time. I guess they can also come from his hand, but they dont really. If he has more than one card of the muster category on hand, he's forced to play it alongside. the other part is that he cannot play the muster-bomb mroe than once for each set. Play against Monster decks is all about luring out as many musters as possible in one round and then either passing and winning the other two rounds or ruining the whole thing via Biting Frost. Dr. Abysmal posted:The only bomb I never really found a use for was the Dimeritium ones. Like the bestiary says that golems and leshens are vulnerable to it, but it didn't really seem to hinder them at all. Was I missing something? It makes them slightly slower, reduces their damage resistance and makes them unable to use some of their attacks while they're in the cloud. Really fucks with the Ancient Leshens because I think it blocks their raven teleport bullshit. Magni fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 18:06
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Harrow posted:Yeah, I guess it does have its own limitations as a system. Now that I think about it, you're right that it's not possible to fix the leveling system without also fundamentally changing the skill system. The way it is now, there's not a lot of stuff that really changes your playstyle (Rend, Whirl, and the Sign alternate modes). That means every fight once you unlock those alternate abilities is gonna play out the exact same. You can scale main quests to the player's level but it's not gonna make a lot of difference. I mean, with Signs you kind of have to have a slightly different playstyle until you get up to 100%+ intensity, then it's all the same forever. With melee stuff, you just increase your damage without fundamentally changing what you do in each fight. Basically, there would need to be a complete overhaul of either the combat system or the skill system. That said, this scaling stuff is a problem all RPGs have, I don't think there really is a way to fix it without just completely removing leveling, like Avalerion said. Magni posted:If he has more than one card of the muster category on hand, he's forced to play it alongside. the other part is that he cannot play the muster-bomb mroe than once for each set. Play against Monster decks is all about luring out as many musters as possible in one round and then either passing and winning the other two rounds or ruining the whole thing via Biting Frost. It also stops foglets from doing their fog dance IIRC.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:15
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GrossMurpel posted:Now that I think about it, you're right that it's not possible to fix the leveling system without also fundamentally changing the skill system. The way it is now, there's not a lot of stuff that really changes your playstyle (Rend, Whirl, and the Sign alternate modes). That means every fight once you unlock those alternate abilities is gonna play out the exact same. You can scale main quests to the player's level but it's not gonna make a lot of difference. Part of what makes these games so odd is that their combat is maybe at its most compelling at the start, when you really do have to use all of your available tools to succeed. Eventually, you get to specialize in one of them, and then, like you say, every fight is basically the same. If CDPR makes another Witcher game, I hope they retool their progression system so that it's less "get a lot more powerful, but also more specialized" and more "get somewhat more powerful and a lot more versatile." Geralt (or whoever the next Witcher we play as) is a lot more fun when his main strength is his versatility. If I play through this again, I might do a "no abilities" playthrough, or only allow myself the first tier of abilities (so no alternate sign modes or alternate attack modes or anything like that). Doing that, maybe on Death March, would probably make me feel like I really do have to use everything at my disposal all the time.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:22
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