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There's definitely a big difference between an open world city where you can parkour over any and everything and an open world city where you cannot. I thought that Novigrad was about the right size though. You get familiar with it without it getting too boring running back and forth.
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Jan 29, 2018 17:29
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Alchenar posted:There's definitely a big difference between an open world city where you can parkour over any and everything and an open world city where you cannot. I'm not asking for full 3d verticality, I mean the more populated streets and such that make the city feel more lived in. The problem is most of the streets are mostly empty, when this is supposed to be the most populated city for miles and miles. I'm sure there are very good reasons the witcher 3 engine could not handle that, I'm just saying that's a portion of why Novigrad can get a bit samey.
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Jan 29, 2018 17:51
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WoodrowSkillson posted:I'm not asking for full 3d verticality, I mean the more populated streets and such that make the city feel more lived in. The problem is most of the streets are mostly empty, when this is supposed to be the most populated city for miles and miles. It had plenty of NPCs wandering around during the day? It was pretty accurate for a renaissance town, the population was probably several hundred thousand.
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Jan 29, 2018 17:55
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Fuzz posted:It had plenty of NPCs wandering around during the day? It was pretty accurate for a renaissance town, the population was probably several hundred thousand. yeah, its better than lots and lots of games, but when you leave more populated portions, this bustling city of hundreds of thousands quickly gets empty in the middle of the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0evKgbbRLQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSVEQSnAbcU
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Jan 29, 2018 18:02
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Fuzz posted:It had plenty of NPCs wandering around during the day? It was pretty accurate for a renaissance town, the population was probably several hundred thousand. In Sword of Destiny (set about a decade before W3) Dandelion mentions that Novigrad's population is "almost thirty thousand dwellers, not counting the travelers", fwiw.
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Jan 29, 2018 18:24
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Trogdos! posted:In Sword of Destiny (set about a decade before W3) Dandelion mentions that Novigrad's population is "almost thirty thousand dwellers, not counting the travelers", fwiw. I think it feels like the right population density for that (not that there's 30k NPCs around, but that at any point there's the number of characters on the street that you'd expect in a large town/small city of 30k people.
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Jan 29, 2018 18:39
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I can't recall if Novigrad was meant to be the largest city in the Northern Kingdoms, or the largest FREE city in the North. Either way, I like how they set the city up to make it feel large and cramped at the same time. Narrow streets with lots of people, alleys everywhere and nooks and crannies full of thugs. It was also a really smart way to help out with the engine limitations by preventing many long distance sight lines. I think there's only one street in the whole city, Glory Lane, that you can see all the way down. rear end Creed might do bigger cities, but they are so boring and samey most of the time.
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Jan 29, 2018 19:40
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Arcsquad12 posted:rear end Creed might do bigger cities, but they are so boring and samey most of the time. the design is fantastic, Novigrad is probably the best city in a game i can think of, i am Pie in the Skying here.
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Jan 29, 2018 19:41
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Arcsquad12 posted:I can't recall if Novigrad was meant to be the largest city in the Northern Kingdoms, or the largest FREE city in the North. Largest Free City. Vizima is waaaaaay bigger. WoodrowSkillson posted:yeah, its better than lots and lots of games, but when you leave more populated portions, this bustling city of hundreds of thousands quickly gets empty in the middle of the day. I liked that there were obvious "bad" parts of town and certain areas would be bustling based on the time of day (docks in the morning, Temple Isle at noon). It really did feel like the city was going about things all around you at any given time. Fuzz fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 19:54
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I think Novigrad was really impressive as far as layout, visuals and "feels" go. But it feels a bit uneven in terms of content. As does Oxenfurt. Also, cities are usually my favorite parts of RPGs so I was really looking forward to playing through it but I'm in the camp of feeling that the Novigrad quests are some of the least good stuff the game has to offer. It just drags to me, and coming at it after dealing with the whole Crones/Bloody Baron questline (which I think most people will do) makes it look even weaker. One of my absolute favorite RPG cities is still Vizima in Witcher 1. The atmosphere of that is just outstanding, both the slums as well as the Trade quarter. Totally up my alley.
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Jan 29, 2018 21:18
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I've said it before but you need to mix Novigrad in with Velen and/or Skellige so you're not just running back and forth across the city over and over for a few hours. If you play them like discrete chapters of the game then it's a little too much Novigrad all at once.
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Jan 29, 2018 21:28
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The CD Projekt design of creating an 'authentic' city definitely works way better than the Bethesda 'every NPC has a home, oops now it's really obvious this major city has at most 30 people living in it and doesn't make any sense'.
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Jan 29, 2018 21:57
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Alchenar posted:The CD Projekt design of creating an 'authentic' city definitely works way better than the Bethesda 'every NPC has a home, oops now it's really obvious this major city has at most 30 people living in it and doesn't make any sense'. Bethesda makes bad games, they have 30 people at most living anywhere.
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Jan 29, 2018 22:03
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Beauclair seems a lot more populated than Novigrad, I think partly that's the narrower streets but there also seem to be many more no-name NPCs around. It's not that Novigrad is bad, it's just paced differently than the rest of the game and you're probably coming from Bloody Baron which is an A+ and parts of Novigrad are a B. Novigrad and Skellige are also more generic fantasy settings than the rest of the game.
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Jan 29, 2018 22:33
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Skellige is Skyrim done right and with Irish rather than Austrian
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Jan 29, 2018 22:34
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Pellisworth posted:Beauclair seems a lot more populated than Novigrad, I think partly that's the narrower streets but there also seem to be many more no-name NPCs around. Makes sense since Beauclair is actually a bigger city in the lore.
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Jan 30, 2018 07:28
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Just want to point out that sound is just as important as the setting, and in any other game of this medium, you have a ghost town. While I got a little tired of some of it's citizens saying the same thing if you trigger an event, hearing the hustle and bustle of the crowd moving around town and the soundtrack was so goddamn good, I sometimes just turned off the always run button and just walked.
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Jan 30, 2018 07:37
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Fuzz posted:Makes sense since Beauclair is actually a bigger city in the lore. I don't know where you're getting that from. It's pretty heavily implied that Novigrad is the biggest city in the north, if not the known world (I guess we don't know how big Nilfgaard is). 30k would make Novigrad on par with Constantinople in the time period being approximated. Vengerberg, the capital of Aedirn, is around 7,000 or so depending on how many people you think got out before it was sacked, which sounds about right, and is probably in the neighborhood of Vizima's population. I don't think we're ever given a real sense of Beauclair's size, but considering it is a somewhat isolated duchy, it would be really weird if its population was as high as Novigrad's. Now as to why game Beauclair feels larger in game, I think that has to do with how they designed it. They were having major troubles with the engine with long lines of sight in the city, so they broke everything up with building, arches and alleys to make sure you can really only see out of the city on its edges. I think it makes the city feel more dense, and since your movement is impeded when trying to exit, it just feels bigger. Compare to Novigrad which is a half circle, doesn't seem to have as many alleys and paths outside the main roads, and an entire section you don't have much reason to visit often, and it starts to feel a little less populated.
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Jan 30, 2018 13:28
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I think one of the more beautiful sights I've ever had in a video game was returning to Novigrad by boat at sunset, after doing some scavenging on the isles next to the harbor. I usually play with relatively medium settings, but I decided to crank it up to max just for this trip and god drat did it look good.
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Jan 30, 2018 13:38
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I started reading the books when I started playing this again, just started Baptism of Fire. It's really cool to get all the little things and back story in the game through the novels.
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Feb 1, 2018 18:31
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What are some pro-strats for increasing difficulty on the PS4? I want to use a lot of potions because that seems coolest and I was planning on going for a crit build. E: I'm already playing on death march obviously The Kingfish fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 19:20
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Turn enemy upscaling on?
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Feb 1, 2018 19:38
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get really drunk before playing
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Feb 1, 2018 19:51
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Trogdos! posted:Turn enemy upscaling on? Didn't realize that existed. That will probably help a bit. Another question: Where is a good place to buy those Ability Point reset potions?
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Feb 1, 2018 20:13
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Constantly LARPing posted:30k would make Novigrad on par with Constantinople in the time period being approximated.
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Feb 1, 2018 20:18
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The Kingfish posted:Didn't realize that existed. That will probably help a bit. I think they're the same price everywhere. The guy in north-central Novigrad that sells odds and ends (looted from burnt mages) sells them. So does Gremist in Skellige.
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Feb 1, 2018 20:21
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Pellisworth posted:I think they're the same price everywhere. The guy in north-central Novigrad that sells odds and ends (looted from burnt mages) sells them. So does Gremist in Skellige. IIRC the guy in Novigrad also sells quest items you missed and is a fun Gwent opponent.
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Feb 1, 2018 22:06
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Just finished B&W, talked to a friend about his playthrough, he didn’t even get to see the land of a thousand fables because of his choices, he wasnt even aware of its existence 
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Feb 1, 2018 22:40
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Just finished B&W, talked to a friend about his playthrough, he didn’t even get to see the land of a thousand fables because of his choices, he wasnt even aware of its existence I played through the ending of B&W twice - first with the branch where you don’t talk to Syanna and meet the vampire lord and later with the talk to Syanna and go to the land of a thousand fables branch. It’s crazy how much better the latter is.
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Feb 1, 2018 22:48
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Bold Robot posted:I played through the ending of B&W twice - first with the branch where you don’t talk to Syanna and meet the vampire lord and later with the talk to Syanna and go to the land of a thousand fables branch. It’s crazy how much better the latter is. ZERO G CLOUD SEX
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Feb 1, 2018 22:53
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Just finished B&W, talked to a friend about his playthrough, he didn’t even get to see the land of a thousand fables because of his choices, he wasnt even aware of its existence Time to replay it on NG+! It's really good for replays, the game is so huge and there are so many little details you definitely missed stuff the first time around. I'm on my third full playthrough and I've noticed new stuff replays. They really stuck the landing in B&W, it's a great ending to the series.
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Feb 1, 2018 22:57
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Xander77 posted:I'm not sure there was ever a period when the city was known as Constantinople and had less than 100,000 people. This sounded really off to me too and I checked wikipedia, but apparently being sacked in the Fourth Crusade screwed the city over way more than I realized and didn't recover to more than a hundred thousand people until after the Ottomans conquered it. But that doesn't mean that 30k people is impressive for a renaissance city, Paris apparently had a bit less than 300k in 1400ish, and at least a few cities in Italy had more than 100k people too. The Northern Realms probably just don't have many big cities or a lot of people in general - it's only been a few generations since there really used to be a lot of monsters around in the north, right? At least I've always thought monsters were (mostly) wiped out significantly earlier in the south.
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Feb 2, 2018 02:16
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Staltran posted:This sounded really off to me too and I checked wikipedia, but apparently being sacked in the Fourth Crusade screwed the city over way more than I realized and didn't recover to more than a hundred thousand people until after the Ottomans conquered it. But that doesn't mean that 30k people is impressive for a renaissance city, Paris apparently had a bit less than 300k in 1400ish, and at least a few cities in Italy had more than 100k people too. The Northern Realms probably just don't have many big cities or a lot of people in general - it's only been a few generations since there really used to be a lot of monsters around in the north, right? At least I've always thought monsters were (mostly) wiped out significantly earlier in the south. The city population numbers offer an interesting perspective; I grew up in a small town in the midwest that had a population of 32,000 when I left in 2000. When I think about how desolate it felt in comparison to Novigrad it says a great deal about how actual population density impacts your perception of "busy-ness".
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Feb 2, 2018 03:51
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Staltran posted:At least I've always thought monsters were (mostly) wiped out significantly earlier in the south. Yeah that's definitely what Regis suggests. No one in the south even believes in vampires.
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Feb 2, 2018 04:03
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E: wrong topic
In It For The Tank fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 18:17
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Sometimes your just like "Ey I'mma catch this crab n eat him." Then this woman plunks in the sea and before you know you done fooled around and fell in love and try and get a first kiss from her. Flash forward two weeks and everyone you knew is dead and you're name is struck from history then you're murdered by a werewolf pirate and raised from the dead by a Sorceress and her boyfriend then get tossed back into the void.
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Feb 3, 2018 06:41
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Omnicarus posted:Sometimes your just like "Ey I'mma catch this crab n eat him." Then this woman plunks in the sea and before you know you done fooled around and fell in love and try and get a first kiss from her. Flash forward two weeks and everyone you knew is dead and you're name is struck from history then you're murdered by a werewolf pirate and raised from the dead by a Sorceress and her boyfriend then get tossed back into the void. You forgot the part where the sorceress and her bf have a pun battle next to your tortured-through-necromancy corpse
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Feb 3, 2018 07:07
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Has anyone used any of the combat rebalance mods? I'm using Ghost Mode right now and I like the main aspect, which is that it makes armor way better, and introduces armor penetration as a stat, thereby giving you a reason to ever use strong attacks at all. On the other hand, the way it handles stamina is loving miserable, and makes using Signs painful (signs use 100% of your stamina, which is also used for your roll/dodge, but doing anything at all in combat pauses your stamina regen). I've been looking at the Enhanced Edition, which purports to remake combat in the Dark Souls model, but I'm not sure if it's any good. Any input?
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Feb 4, 2018 02:14
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When he says 'uses dark souls model' the short version is that you manually direct your attacks via camera, they don't automatically target enemies. You hold a button to do a long distance attack instead of a short one. Default difficulty setting is getting killed in literally two hits by wolves and drowners. You get 3 vigor points to cast signs with (separate from stamina), but each vigor point is weaker than the previous, and they take 30 seconds+ to come back. As you take damage, you get continually slower, your stamina comes back slower, you attack and roll slower, and you can take critical injuries that stagger / blind / bleed you. Not to mention enhanced edition also makes gain skillpoints in each category by doing that thing, so enjoy casting and failing at axii 20 times for a single axii skillpoint to reduce the chance it fails. You also have to re-craft each potion and bomb, it doesn't use alcohol based refills (though I believe there is an option for this). I know this sounds negative for enhanced edition, but for me it hit a midpoint between ultimate difficulty tryhard and crafting and potions and bombs requiring constant micromanagement for the sake of 'realism'. It would take a ton of adjusting to get that to a playable level, for me. Personally, I'd recommend ghost mode, and bring stamina regen potions. I didn't find it that bad to pause for a second or two before casting a sign, but that might just be personal taste. Stamina regen is also armor based in ghost mode, so if you want to roll and use signs a lot, definitely use light armor. Heavy armor has huge stamina costs, intentionally supposed to be a very different style of play in which you use adrenaline skills + cast signs with adrenaline skill, and dodge with sidestepping and taking hits, not rolling. Medium armor is somewhere in the middle, much more normal. Captainicus fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 02:41
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Okay, yeah, that does in fact sound incredibly miserable. I'll stick with Ghost Mode, then. My next question is: is there at least a separate mod that does, in fact, change combat to controlled/fixed distance, instead of leaping around the battlefield like a maniac?
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Feb 4, 2018 02:58
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