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Beeez posted:Geez, it is overwhelming arriving in Velen after a few days in White Orchard. I tried to do some side stuff before moving over to Hendrik, but almost every point of interest in the immediate area seems to be infested with enemies that are too strong to fight or just on the cusp of being too strong for a newbie such as myself. I was hoping to clear the side stuff by pieces of the map in the general vicinity of the main quest as I move through the world so it'd be less overwhelming and require less backtracking, but now I'm wondering if that's totally infeasible. What swords are you using?
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Jul 23, 2015 22:54
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Beeez posted:Geez, it is overwhelming arriving in Velen after a few days in White Orchard. I tried to do some side stuff before moving over to Hendrik, but almost every point of interest in the immediate area seems to be infested with enemies that are too strong to fight or just on the cusp of being too strong for a newbie such as myself. I was hoping to clear the side stuff by pieces of the map in the general vicinity of the main quest as I move through the world so it'd be less overwhelming and require less backtracking, but now I'm wondering if that's totally infeasible. Luckily it has very strong fast travel system. There's signs everywhere.
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Jul 23, 2015 22:58
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Snak posted:What swords are you using? The Viper School ones. I'm just saying, so far I've found a "Person(s) in Distress" where some Nilfgaardians were attacking somebody and they had skulls next to their names and killed me in two hits, another one where Bandits/Deserters were level 9 and swarmed me, and a Bandit Camp in somewhere called "Devil's Pit" where the Bandits were also level 9 and I fell off the walkways. The latter two I can definitely hurt pretty badly when I hit them, but they seem pretty numerous.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:02
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also, you shouldn't do ANY points of interest because they give xp regardless of your level so you want to go back and do them once you've completed every quest in the game that way you can get to the maximum level possible for some reason
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Jul 23, 2015 23:03
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Don't do that. You'll have more ability points than you can spend by the end of the game anyway, and you need the rare materials, recipes, and equipment from exploration points way more early on.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:13
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Beeez posted:The Viper School ones. I'm just saying, so far I've found a "Person(s) in Distress" where some Nilfgaardians were attacking somebody and they had skulls next to their names and killed me in two hits, another one where Bandits/Deserters were level 9 and swarmed me, and a Bandit Camp in somewhere called "Devil's Pit" where the Bandits were also level 9 and I fell off the walkways. The latter two I can definitely hurt pretty badly when I hit them, but they seem pretty numerous. OH yeah person in distress were death traps when I first got to Velen too. Do sidequests, don't be afriad of their level. You can do things even if they're red, but train yourself up a bit first by doing things just outside your level. It is a bit of a ramp up from the WO PoIs though yeah. You'll be way too high a level for them soon enough.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:16
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Sindai posted:You will find level 30 quests in Velen, the game very much expects you to backtrack if you want to do side quests. Oh, my bad, I know there'll be some I have to come back to do later. What I meant was, my plan has been to break the world up into more bite-sized pieces by taking on the points of interest nearby where the main story takes me. So I arrived at the Hanged Man's Tree, and I thought I should try to do the POIs around that area before crossing the bridge to Hendrik's location, but most of them seemed like things I should avoid for now. I guess I'm just hoping I'll generally be able to break the big maps into more bite-sized pieces, like I mentioned. How did y'all generally hit the POIs?
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Jul 23, 2015 23:21
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Act 3 spoilers for Radovid's arc Am I the only one that actually felt sorry for him a bit when Philippa opened that door? I mean he was a horrible insane person and he deserved to die. Everyone's better off if he dies. But in that moment, his face just turned into a scared little kid's. I wonder what Philippa did to him? That said looking back over the last two pages I'm the only person that doesn't think Yennefer is fundamentally selfish, so maybe there's just something wrong with me. The Sharmat fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Jul 23, 2015 |
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Jul 23, 2015 23:24
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The Sharmat posted:Act 3 spoilers for Radovid's arc Am I the only one that actually felt sorry for him a bit when Philippa opened that door? she blinded him with that dust and stabbed him in the heart. He died on the spot.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:26
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JetsGuy posted:OH yeah person in distress were death traps when I first got to Velen too. Do sidequests, don't be afriad of their level. You can do things even if they're red, but train yourself up a bit first by doing things just outside your level. It is a bit of a ramp up from the WO PoIs though yeah. You'll be way too high a level for them soon enough. Yeah, I know I'll be able to do them eventually I guess I was just surprised that every POI in the immediate vicinity of Hanged Man's Tree has enemies that are way higher in level than Geralt is after WO.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:26
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JetsGuy posted:she blinded him with that dust and stabbed him in the heart. He died on the spot. No, I meant, what she did to him as a kid that hosed him up so bad and inspired that level of fear of her plus his obsessive hatred of mages. There's some veiled references to it here and there but no details are ever provided.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:27
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The Sharmat posted:No, I meant, what she did to him as a kid that hosed him up so bad and inspired that level of fear of her plus his obsessive hatred of mages. There's some veiled references to it here and there but no details are ever provided.  my bad. I figure one of the people who've read the books can say?
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Jul 23, 2015 23:32
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No they can't. His reign isn't covered much in the books besides some short interludes. It's left entirely up to the imagination what the "subtle cruelty" inherent in her lessons or what Carduin references her doing to him were.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:33
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The Sharmat posted:No, I meant, what she did to him as a kid that hosed him up so bad and inspired that level of fear of her plus his obsessive hatred of mages. There's some veiled references to it here and there but no details are ever provided. Basically, he saw her as usurping his father's rule, and grew paranoid (probably justifiably so) that she sought to undermine and do the same to him as well. Plus you see firsthand just how bitchy and catty she is; imagine having her as a tutor. She probably verbally tore him a new one so many times he needed stitches. He was a prince, and then a king, and was therefore naturally a massively entitled dick--but while she was around he'd never get to really do what wanted. After she left Redania he grabbed for every bit of power and control that he could, and every step also fed into his paranoia. And then it went into a downward spiral from there. And now he talks to chess pieces.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:59
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I got the impression it was something more than just being strict and mean and not letting him do whatever he wanted, given his psychosis and the fact that Radovid isn't the only one that says things about it. Plus look at the other two leaders she advised. One she had assassinated, the other she mind controlled.
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Jul 24, 2015 00:14
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Snak posted:As far as I know, the "mythological" Wild Hunt was more or less invented by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century, and the Witcher Wild hunt is basically alien orcs from space-mordor. Oh it's more than coincidence. But the Witcher series plays with myths and fairytales all the time. There are tons of references to things all over the books and games - I just took it as a convenient conflating of the two. The prevailing "end times" myth in the series is everything being frozen. The Hunt are actually attempting to stop that happen to their world and they bring the cold with them. But the Norse frost giants are usually kicked out of the world by the aesir, and that's not quite what's happening in the Witcher with the Hunt. On Triss: she's not dumb, but she's not nearly as shrewd as Philippa or Yen. In the books (and games) she's manipulated by Philippa and I'd bet most of her political successes are from Phiippa using her to do poo poo. And once she has a plan she doesn't think she'll be able to rope Triss into (killing a bunch of kings) she just cuts off all contact. I get that the sorceresses can't ignore her but I have no idea why any of them would trust her. She hasn't exactly ever been subtle about her desire for a state lead by mages (or with mages in very important positions), with her basically in charge. On Philippa: one the other hand, the people that say she did stuff to Radovid all hate her anyway. She was probably awful but she probably just tried to manipulate him his entire life.
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Jul 24, 2015 00:34
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Spite posted:Oh it's more than coincidence. But the Witcher series plays with myths and fairytales all the time. There are tons of references to things all over the books and games - I just took it as a convenient conflating of the two. The prevailing "end times" myth in the series is everything being frozen. The Hunt are actually attempting to stop that happen to their world and they bring the cold with them. But the Norse frost giants are usually kicked out of the world by the aesir, and that's not quite what's happening in the Witcher with the Hunt. While I'm not far enough in the game/books to say for sure, I would guess that this is because, while magic and ghosts and monsters are real in the world of the Witcher, Gods might not be. And in this setting, the Wild Hunt isn't actually wraiths/spectral. So there is no Aesir, but there are Witchers and Mages, who really are a match for the Wild Hunt, if unprepared. But again, that's pure speculation on my part. I'm gonna actually go play the game now. Also, there is a misprint in the Wolf School Upgrades Part 1: It mistakenly says "Find the Steel Sword Upgrade Diagram using your Witcher Senses" for both the Silver and Steel swords. I thought for a moment the quest was bugged and I had somehow gotten it again after already completing it. When I found the Silver Sword diagram, the second Find the Steel Sword Upgrade Diagram objective got checked off. Just a heads up to anyone who runs into that (ps4).
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Jul 24, 2015 00:41
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Philippa cut off all contact more because Triss was loving Geralt again and he provides competition to Philippa being her moral compass. Triss isn't dumb by any means. She's smart. But she's also naive, highly impressionable, shallow; and as a consequence susceptible to peer pressure. Snak posted:While I'm not far enough in the game/books to say for sure, I would guess that this is because, while magic and ghosts and monsters are real in the world of the Witcher, Gods might not be. This is correct. There's no evidence whatsoever in the books or games that their Gods actually exist. It's a matter of faith. Priests and Druids and stuff sometimes have powers but there's just as much evidence it's simply different magical tradition as them actually somehow deriving power from a God or Nature. Edit: Spite posted:On Philippa: one the other hand, the people that say she did stuff to Radovid all hate her anyway. She was probably awful but she probably just tried to manipulate him his entire life. The Sharmat fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 01:12
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:In this particular situation it's trivially easy to get around the badguys. But the point is, the gameplay doesn't offer you any incentive to NOT fight them. You get XP, loot, and the reward of choppin' up dudes. And it's not really "ludonarrative dissonance" either, because there's nothing in the game that says you shouldn't be doing it or that this is something Geralt wouldn't do. For the random bandits scattered around the map we did our best to humanize them with visual storytelling and notes, but they are there for the express purpose of giving the player something to fight, so it's not at all wrong that the guy is butchering them while simultaneously lamenting the horrors of war, it's just very *interesting* to me that he didn't make the connection between the two. All this deserter chat is interesting. For a long time I actually just felt that the "deserter" label was an overlooked detail, or perhaps even a bug or poor localisation since they just behave like bandits, especially the Nilfgaardian ones (who incidentally are camped right next door to some actual Nifgaard soldiers) who are guarding a Person In Distress. However, those Nilfgaardian deserters proudly yell "NILFGAAARD!" and "FOR THE EMPRAH!" at you as you're hitting them with a shiny stick. They also wear what I think is Nilfgaardian Officer armour - why would an Officer of the winning army desert? It'd be better if they weren't hostile by default. Instead the player can make a decision as to whether he cares about deserters enough to want to kill them. Or if the deserters serve some other kind of purpose, perhaps more quests involving them, getting the odd deserter safe passage to Novigrad where they can lie low until the war's over or something, or killing him because your Geralt is all "everyone fighting this loving war deserves to die!". Just something needs to properly differentiate them from regular rear end bandits to provide that context. On the other hand, most Scoia'tael camps are handled well in this regard. They're not as common as deserter camps, but you do get the option to interact with them and in some cases brutally murder them. If the player decides they're a Temerian-patriot Geralt (I kinda did, but only because Roche is a bro - and so was Foltest to an extent, except the whole sisterfucking thing) they might even want to kill any and all Scoia'tael they come across, as well as deserters. A lot of players want to sniff around the map like my dumbass dog sniffs at the bottom of my front door. That means the conscious decision to avoid deserter camps just because they're hostile by default but they ALSO want to RP a Geralt who is sympathetic to deserters isn't really welcome. A good model I guess might even be New Vegas's Powder Gangers. These guys are criminals in the eyes of the NCR, but they don't automatically want to shoot you. In fact they're quite happy to lament their lack of smokes as you dodge their badly placed explosives. However if you choose to sympathise with the NCR you'll want to kill these guys for daring to escape NCRCF. You don't have to though, and you get the opportunity to interact with them and work with them if you choose. Here there is a full contextualisation of who the Powder Gangers are, they are properly differentiated from generic bandits/thugs and there are ways to treat their existence positively if you so wish. So, yeah, for the Enhanced Edition (which you ARE going to make or I'll whine about muh entitlement!) try to fix deserters. Differentiate them somehow from bandits, perhaps make them less jumpy. Perhaps even reduce their numbers. I know if I was a deserting soldier camping out in the warzone I just deserted I would want to lay low lest Radovid sniff out and hang my butt. I likely wouldn't want to run out of my camp screaming at the one curious Witcher traipsing around in case it turns out to be my CO hunting for me. Or maybe I'm wrong, and that would be why CDPR are the guys who made Witcher and not me.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:15
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Deserters in a foreign country making a living as bandits isn't weird at all.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:17
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Nah it's not weird at all, but is in the context of this game where it's such a widespread phenomenon for no particular reason or means in which to explore that phenomenon other than having to hack them up because you got too close.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:25
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Nobody Interesting posted:All this deserter chat is interesting. For a long time I actually just felt that the "deserter" label was an overlooked detail, or perhaps even a bug or poor localisation since they just behave like bandits, especially the Nilfgaardian ones (who incidentally are camped right next door to some actual Nifgaard soldiers) who are guarding a Person In Distress. However, those Nilfgaardian deserters proudly yell "NILFGAAARD!" and "FOR THE EMPRAH!" at you as you're hitting them with a shiny stick. They also wear what I think is Nilfgaardian Officer armour - why would an Officer of the winning army desert? Well, I'm sure the "real" explanation is that changing the appearance and dialogue wasn't a priority, but... They might desert because they can enjoy a lot more freedom to do whatever they want. They don't want to die for their dumb emperor's war, and they outclass most local ruffians because they are professional soldiers. Also, it's not strange at all that they would keep up appearances, pretending to be legitimate Nilfgaardian soldiers because the locals would be more afraid of them and not want to risk retribution being taken against them for attacking imperial forces. edit: I'm missing Wolven Gear Upgrades part 3... does anyone know where to pick that quest up?
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Jul 24, 2015 01:32
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Nobody Interesting posted:Nah it's not weird at all, but is in the context of this game where it's such a widespread phenomenon for no particular reason or means in which to explore that phenomenon other than having to hack them up because you got too close. It's only really widespread in Velen.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:37
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This game really needs a screenshot mode like Shadow of Mordor and the new Infamous. I'd love to have some camera control and to be able to hide the HUD easily at least. The only downside would be that I would never finish the game due to pausing every 5 seconds.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:44
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Apparently they could never enable a free camera during cutscenes though. From what I've seen where people did that, Yennefer frequently levitates for framing purposes because she is tiny and Geralt is huge.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:46
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Baron posted:This game really needs a screenshot mode like Shadow of Mordor and the new Infamous. I'd love to have some camera control and to be able to hide the HUD easily at least. The only downside would be that I would never finish the game due to pausing every 5 seconds. Between stopping to save cool video clips to youtube and pausing the game to check the thread to talk about this loving sweet game I hardly get any playing done! Strolling back through Velen collecting gear upgrades makes me feel like a giant badass fighting these guys that are like 10 levels below me.I think it must be one of the new dlc finishers, because I just cut off BOTH OF SOMEONE'S LEGS!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WejR2MOoLDg Actually I think what happened is a Jedi Knight 2 style bug where I cut off one of his legs and two severed legs spawned... Which is basically just as cool.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:48
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The Sharmat posted:Apparently they could never enable a free camera during cutscenes though. From what I've seen where people did that, Yennefer frequently levitates for framing purposes because she is tiny and Geralt is huge. That's pretty funny actually. I could totally live with that, I just want to pause and get the perfect shot as some poor shmuck gets his various limbs lopped off. And to take pictures of pretty trees at sunset. 
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Jul 24, 2015 01:51
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The Sharmat posted:Apparently they could never enable a free camera during cutscenes though. From what I've seen where people did that, Yennefer frequently levitates for framing purposes because she is tiny and Geralt is huge. It's cool that they actually bothered to do that, though. That's something that's commonly done in film (with steps/blocks), and shows how much they cared about the composition of their cutscenes.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:54
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Yeah this game is actually quite well directed. They put a lot of thought into this stuff and it shows. A far cry from 2007's still shots of a person's doll like face while their jaw flaps up and down.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:55
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The Sharmat posted:Yeah this game is actually quite well directed. They put a lot of thought into this stuff and it shows. But... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6y_liK-Pds
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Jul 24, 2015 01:57
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I hosed a she-elf once.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:58
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Seriously, the scene where Geralt first finds Hjalmar... The could have just used one of the games many generic corpse models for his dead friend, but instead they posed this really stylized grim figure of death that they really focused on. It was eerie and sad. Looked almost like an empty suit of armor.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:58
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The atmosphere on Undvik for that entire quest chain is stellar. The music, the scenery, the bodies strewn everywhere...
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Jul 24, 2015 02:09
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The Sharmat posted:No, I meant, what she did to him as a kid that hosed him up so bad and inspired that level of fear of her plus his obsessive hatred of mages. There's some veiled references to it here and there but no details are ever provided. She and Dijkstra were the two most powerful advisors to Radovid's father. Phillipa was a tutor to Radovid and he is portrayed as a very meek child, who was visibly terrified by her. When Radovid's dad King Vizimir died Radovid was still 11 or 12 years old so a Regency council was established and led by Phillipa and she was basically in full control of Redania for a period of time. When Radovid finally started growing a backbone he grew increasingly resentful of her and thought she had killed his dad and would assassinate him. Also most likely this is around the time he started suffering from symptoms of severe psychosis. Also, people in here think Yen is a catty bitch, but Phillipa is straight up Tywin Lannister with tits and wizard mojo.
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Jul 24, 2015 02:13
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I know about all that. We don't really get to see them interact in the books or how she was involved in raising him, though. I'm curious how she handled it and suspect it was pretty abusive. Appropriately enough, Tywin Lannister cruelly psychologically abused his real heir, so...
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Jul 24, 2015 02:23
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The Sharmat posted:I know about all that. We don't really get to see them interact in the books or how she was involved in raising him, though. I'm curious how she handled it and suspect it was pretty abusive. If you missed out on Witcher 2 this is a great scene that develops their relationship a bit more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feU0zH6rwFk
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Jul 24, 2015 02:26
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I've played TW2 and seen that scene. I'm saying I would be interested in more details we're never made privy to.
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Jul 24, 2015 02:29
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Holy poo poo where do I find arachases?! I have not encountered a single arachas, and I need arachas venom!
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Jul 24, 2015 02:49
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Just east of Novigrad on the mainland there's one guarding a treasure. You can also find one northish of the abandoned house by the Peller. May need to visit/clear it, leave, and meditate a day or two.
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Jul 24, 2015 02:57
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Snak posted:Holy poo poo where do I find arachases?! I have not encountered a single arachas, and I need arachas venom! Have you been to the ladies in the swamp yet? If you have fast travel to the Orphans of the wood signpost then head directly South. Where the swamp ends and the land rises up a bit you'll find an area that has an arachas and some endregas.
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