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geralt is so awesome
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Mar 29, 2021 23:25
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| # ? May 17, 2024 22:46 |
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HoboTech posted:Just bought this on sale on Steam but haven't started yet. I suppose of everything I've heard, the only question I have is: just how depressing is this game? In the demo, Geralt was tasked with hunting down a Lesshen. The village it had been terrorizing formerly worshiped it, but had renounced the Old Ways. You could either side with the Younger citizens and kill the animal, or side with the elders and spare it/perform rites to appease it. The CDPR folks initially showed us what happened when you killed it-- you return and the Elders have been slain for being superstitious. You get a cutscene where it the town goes into disrepair as it's crops and hunting fail and eventually it's steamrolled by the Nilfs or something. To show how you can play differently to suit the story, they showed the appeasement path. Geralt collects his fee and a cutscene plays that tells you that the town returned to the Old Ways and became, essentially, a Texas Chainsaw Massacre hellhole, but the Lesshen ensured they were prosperous. The release makes the outcomes less crushing. The "peasant misery simulator" is very apt. The first area is totally medieval with muddy, gross towns and a bustling stony city, whereas a later area is more Nordic, boisterous, etc. It actually works into how amazing the DLC is because you get one being a complex story of redemption set amidst the gloom, and the other is a colorful Mediterranean coda with actual Happy Endings. Though, there is a quest early on that can surprise you. Just remember if you turn someone in for theft in occupied lands, the consequences might be more severe than some jail time.
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Mar 29, 2021 23:39
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FilthyImp posted:Though, there is a quest early on that can surprise you. Just remember if you turn someone in for theft in occupied lands, the consequences might be more severe than some jail time. "Harsh as far as punishments go." "Aye, but deserved."
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Mar 30, 2021 00:02
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FilthyImp posted:Though, there is a quest early on that can surprise you. Just remember if you turn someone in for theft in occupied lands, the consequences might be more severe than some jail time. Depends on your familiarity with crime and punishment in medieval societies. Horse theft and poaching were commonly punished with death sentences in many places.
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Mar 30, 2021 00:10
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I just want it on the record that there's a Also definitely don't read that spoiler, HoboTech. WhiskeyWhiskers fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 12:37
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:I just want it on the record that there's a I disagree but I also think that saving Olgierd from O'Dimm is the right thing to do. The hope for a happier ending, even if it is unlikely, is more appealing to me than resigning to grief and despair like the endings where Strenger hangs himself and Olgierd loses his soul to the Devil. Basically, whether something has a happy ending or not is irrelevant. Trying to do right, or choosing the lesser evil is what's important.
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Mar 30, 2021 15:56
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:I just want it on the record that there's a It's not like the alternative goes better, and one has a sliver of hope. The whole point of that story is even if the Baron repented, the consequences of his actions are already permanent. All he can do now is attempt to make amends for his transgressions. Also, getting the ending wherein Anna can make peace with her daughter and the baron involves letting the entire village of Downwarren get slaughtered by the tree spirit. The Barons abuse led to Anna making a pact that doomed the entire family. It's him to blame ultimately, but once the Crones were involved, there would be no happy ending whatsoever.
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Mar 30, 2021 16:25
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Olgierd is so relentlessly bad every time you meet him and apparently made his living beforehand doing even worse things that I'm not really sure the world is worse without him in it.FilthyImp posted:In the demo, Geralt was tasked with hunting down a Lesshen. The village it had been terrorizing formerly worshiped it, but had renounced the Old Ways. You could either side with the Younger citizens and kill the animal, or side with the elders and spare it/perform rites to appease it. I think that was moved to Skellige in the main game. With so much of that area I just kept coming back to the conclusion that vikings are scum and their society deserves to crumble. Unlike the misery of the peasants of Velen who are so often subject to greater powers stepping all over them, the Skelligers are made miserable more by their own pride in their ways. Although often things get a lot more complex, like the Velen peasants are miserable and get pushed around by other powers far beyond them, but even they got the chance to rise up one time and murder their old lord even if it didn't make anything better.
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Mar 30, 2021 16:36
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WoodrowSkillson posted:It's not like the alternative goes better, and one has a sliver of hope. The whole point of that story is even if the Baron repented, the consequences of his actions are already permanent. All he can do now is attempt to make amends for his transgressions. Also, getting the ending wherein Anna can make peace with her daughter and the baron involves letting the entire village of Downwarren get slaughtered by the tree spirit. The Barons abuse led to Anna making a pact that doomed the entire family. It's him to blame ultimately, but once the Crones were involved, there would be no happy ending whatsoever. Nope sequence breaking stops Downwarren being destroyed and if you don't follow the Baron into the bog, his party get slaughtered before they even reach the Crones' houses. You kill the crones later and Anna presumably continues looking after kids sent down the trail of treats.
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Mar 30, 2021 16:58
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think that was moved to Skellige in the main game. With so much of that area I just kept coming back to the conclusion that vikings are scum and their society deserves to crumble. Though it did set me up to think that *every * contact got one of those parchment paper animated summaries. For Skellige, there might be hope with regime change. For the second point, they're also downtrodden being subjugated or caught up in a land war. I did 't really click to it for a while and then everything made sense.
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Mar 30, 2021 16:59
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:Nope sequence breaking stops Downwarren being destroyed and if you don't follow the Baron into the bog, his party get slaughtered before they even reach the Crones' houses. You kill the crones later and Anna presumably continues looking after kids sent down the trail of treats. Ok yes but that is also sequence breaking and thus not really applicable to a lore discussion
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Mar 30, 2021 17:32
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:Nope sequence breaking stops Downwarren being destroyed and if you don't follow the Baron into the bog, his party get slaughtered before they even reach the Crones' houses. You kill the crones later and Anna presumably continues looking after kids sent down the trail of treats. All of the crones? So your ideal solution includes bad dadding it up? Also I thought the sequence break was patched somehow?
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Mar 30, 2021 17:53
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WoodrowSkillson posted:Ok yes but that is also sequence breaking and thus not really applicable to a lore discussion I don't see how. The reason it changes the outcome is specifically because you're not sent there by the crones, so your actions don't get taken out on Anna. It's more like poorly implemented quest reactivity really.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:07
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:Also definitely don't read that spoiler, HoboTech. No worries, I'm ducking out of the thread until I've put some time into the game. Probably going to start sometime tonight. Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol
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Mar 30, 2021 19:22
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HoboTech posted:Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol Other tips: decoction and oils only need to be crafted once. You don't have to gather ingredients every time you want to use one. Both replenish using alcohols after resting. Oils for your blade are good. Wish I had known about the decoctions in my first 20 hours 
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Mar 30, 2021 19:34
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bombs definitely replenish on meditate.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:36
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queeb posted:bombs definitely replenish on meditate. They do, yeah
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Mar 30, 2021 19:39
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HoboTech posted:No worries, I'm ducking out of the thread until I've put some time into the game. Probably going to start sometime tonight. Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol Enjoy it! W3 really is a special experience that mostly holds up years later
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Mar 30, 2021 19:39
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HoboTech posted:No worries, I'm ducking out of the thread until I've put some time into the game. Probably going to start sometime tonight. Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol Feel free to keep posting, we are still really good about spoilers in here, but otherwise we look forward to your thoughts later.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:42
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HoboTech posted:No worries, I'm ducking out of the thread until I've put some time into the game. Probably going to start sometime tonight. Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol I will give you the same advice I gave everyone else who needs some cash at the start of the game: Go to the starter village White Orchard and kill the cows in the pen next to the town entry near the bridge. Their hides pay top coin and they respawn super quickly (just meditate for 1 hour). They are literally cash cows. You'll be rich. RICH I tell ya! At least it will get you over the starting hump with minimal effort. MOOOOOOOO! mcbexx fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 23:31
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HoboTech posted:No worries, I'm ducking out of the thread until I've put some time into the game. Probably going to start sometime tonight. Thanks to everyone for preventing me from getting a refund lol also this is in the newbie guide in second post of the thread but go through all the dialogue. there's a lot of flavor there, it's all well voice-acted and animated, and there are a few quests you can gently caress up if you don't pay close attention or there are just some subtle story beats, for example (White Orchard minor backstory spoilers): the previous lord's son was gay and having a fling with the hunter you help out, it's referenced indirectly in several places mcbexx posted:I will give you the same advice I gave everyone else who needs some cash at the start of the game: lmao Fritz the Horse fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 23:34
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i dunno if it's that indirectly, doesn't he just come out and tell you if you're like "monsters aren't so bad, they call me that too"
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Mar 31, 2021 01:21
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Fur20 posted:i dunno if it's that indirectly, doesn't he just come out and tell you if you're like "monsters aren't so bad, they call me that too" it's been a while, but there are several hints about it and I think somewhere you find some notes that explicitly say the hunter and the lord's son had a relationship and the lord lost his poo poo
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Mar 31, 2021 02:11
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Fritz the Horse posted:it's been a while, but there are several hints about it and I think somewhere you find some notes that explicitly say the hunter and the lord's son had a relationship and the lord lost his poo poo Yeah, some are more explicit than others, they just do a really good job of showing how that story ripples out through multiple characters you bump into.
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Mar 31, 2021 04:00
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This is more of a book to game/tv show question. Does the ban on using fire magic apply only to Ciri or is it universal across all mages and sorceresses? In the books when Ciri uses fire magic she almost gets consumed by it and only survives because she cuts herself off from magic entirely. But in the games you have Triss throwing fireballs around and Sabrina Glevissig turns an entire battlefield into a burning hellscape. Then on the show you see Nilfgaard mages burning themselves out to make fireballs and Yennefer burns down a whole army without dying. Am I misremembering things or was it only Ciri who had to avoid fire?
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Mar 31, 2021 16:39
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So I've got to pretend to care about work in a few minutes but here's my initial impression based off of the time I played last night: Hey, you know that game that everyone loving loves and has been talking about for years after release? Yeah, turns out it's pretty good lol. The controls can be a little finnicky (mouse and keyboard) and I wish I could go into first person at least while riding the horse, but everything else is great. Combat isn't hard so long as you stay mobile, and even minor quests seem are engaging. Even the typical "kill a bunch of ghouls and then come back to me" quest had a nice twist at the end. I also appreciate how NPCs that aren't even involved in whatever you just did can have more information/story (like the herbalist and the wraith in the well). That kind of thing prevents it from feeling like you're just checking off a list and more like you're interacting with the world. The peasant misery is pretty stark at first, though. All of the women crying in front of burnt down houses definitely sets the mood. Also I came across one village that had a bunch of bandits roll up after the townspeople made a big show of hiding their daughters. Combine that with the dialogue from some of the bandits and yeah that was pretty bleak and exactly the kind of thing I was worried would be the mood for the entire game, but it doesn't seem that way so I'll keep going.
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Mar 31, 2021 21:06
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yeah basically every side quest is good to great. and the mood does pick up, but the first bit is definitely bleaker than the rest.
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Mar 31, 2021 21:10
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HoboTech posted:The peasant misery is pretty stark at first, though. All of the women crying in front of burnt down houses definitely sets the mood. Also I came across one village that had a bunch of bandits roll up after the townspeople made a big show of hiding their daughters. Combine that with the dialogue from some of the bandits and yeah that was pretty bleak and exactly the kind of thing I was worried would be the mood for the entire game, but it doesn't seem that way so I'll keep going. Out of curiosity did you do most of the sidequests in White Orchard before heading to Velen? There's a couple of quests in there that buck the trend of "poo poo sucks" and have nice outcomes. Specifically I'm thinking of a lady who lives on the riverbank needing to get back into her house and a quest where you help a farmer find his brother at the battle site. Oh, and another question: did you choose to simulate a Witcher 2 save? When you get interviewed by Voorhis while you're getting a shave you can pick and choose a couple of plot points from the previous game that will open certain bits of side content depending on your answers. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Mar 31, 2021 |
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Mar 31, 2021 23:39
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Arcsquad12 posted:This is more of a book to game/tv show question. Does the ban on using fire magic apply only to Ciri or is it universal across all mages and sorceresses? In the books when Ciri uses fire magic she almost gets consumed by it and only survives because she cuts herself off from magic entirely. But in the games you have Triss throwing fireballs around and Sabrina Glevissig turns an entire battlefield into a burning hellscape. Then on the show you see Nilfgaard mages burning themselves out to make fireballs and Yennefer burns down a whole army without dying. My understanding is that none of the elements are off limits (except necromancy?) but fire, above the other elements is like a waterfall of magic whereas the other elements are more a trickling stream. It’s very powerful but very very easy to lose control of it. As Ciri was a novice and having a hard time learning even basic magic due to being a source, Yen just preferred if she not gently caress with it. The show kinda implies the same give and take with the elements, only that magic is more or less controlled chaos and fire is the most chaotic of the chaos. Hence Yen “unleashing” at the end using her emotions. Neither the book/game or show really contradict each other that I’ve seen, but just seem to explore different aspects of it.
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Mar 31, 2021 23:51
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Arcsquad12 posted:Out of curiosity did you do most of the sidequests in White Orchard before heading to Velen? There's a couple of quests in there that buck the trend of "poo poo sucks" and have nice outcomes. Specifically I'm thinking of a lady who lives on the riverbank needing to get back into her house and a quest where you help a farmer find his brother at the battle site. I did a few but still felt like I was in the tutorial so I kind of just went with the main quest until the game opened up. If it's possible to go back I might, but I also realize I'll probably do another playthrough so maybe next time. Also side note, the game world is waaay bigger than I expected (which is good). I don't know if I simulated the save but I did answer the questions, if that's the same thing. I vaguely remembered some advice from the OP that says "just say they all lived because it gets you more quests", and that was fine with me because I know gently caress all about The Witcher and didn't know who any of the people he was asking me about were. Yeah sure, I totally let, uh, Dan live. Why not? Gameplay question: I know you can reset your skill points somehow, but are there any traps in the skill tree? So far the quick attack and a few signs have carried me pretty well in combat.
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Apr 1, 2021 00:40
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There are a few traps but they're usually late game skills at the bottom of skill trees. In particular I believe that the Bleed Effect skills you can pick at the bottom of the Fast Attacks tree is a trap because it only applies a flat bleed damage rather than a percentage based damage stack. Skills that only increase sign intensity tend to not be as good as skills that increase intensity and also give extra effects.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:14
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Yeah the last quick stack perk is a massive trap. It's a flat effect, and it prevents other bleeds (eg. runestones) from applying. FCR3 fixes it. Armor piercing in general is a trap option too, in that it seems good but the actual benefit is so low that anything else is better.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:23
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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HoboTech posted:So I've got to pretend to care about work in a few minutes but here's my initial impression based off of the time I played last night: Yep! There's so much content with a fair variety that still stays in well-defined lanes. Side quests are usually cool with some kind of twist or clever dialogue or funny moment. Monster hunts tend to go like an X-Files monster-of-the-week episode. Main quests get wild and heavy and weird. Get tired of one type? Do one of the other two for a bit.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:25
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HoboTech posted:I did a few but still felt like I was in the tutorial so I kind of just went with the main quest until the game opened up. If it's possible to go back I might, but I also realize I'll probably do another playthrough so maybe next time. Also side note, the game world is waaay bigger than I expected (which is good). it is by no means required, but white orchard is the ONLY area in the game that we normally recommend new players 100%. it gives you some extra skill points and essentially introduces most of the "types" of ? point of interest deals. You also get 2 cool swords. from Velen on, do NOT feel obligated to clear the map like an ubisoft game. The rewards from ?'s are leveled to geralt, so are perfect to do as you are riding somewhere else, or when you needs some cash to buy something you want.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:33
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I had no real problem with it in Velen, and had quite a bit of fun exploring the South parts of the game that are easily avoidable. But especially in Skellige skip basically everything not on a large island. That poo poo is not worth it
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Apr 1, 2021 01:46
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I can't stress this enough - turn off the ? marks on the map. Just travel towards places that seem interesting. Follow roads/rivers. Pick up some jobs from the job boards.HoboTech posted:I don't know if I simulated the save but I did answer the questions, if that's the same thing. I vaguely remembered some advice from the OP that says "just say they all lived because it gets you more quests", and that was fine with me because I know gently caress all about The Witcher and didn't know who any of the people he was asking me about were. Yeah sure, I totally let, uh, Dan live. Why not? Yeah, that was it. Having everyone involved still alive is way more interesting.
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Apr 1, 2021 11:02
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itry posted:I can't stress this enough - turn off the ? marks on the map. Just travel towards places that seem interesting. Follow roads/rivers. Pick up some jobs from the job boards. Yuuup. One of the mods I use (Friendly HUD?) cuts the discovery range to like 50m or something, and it's great. Friendly HUD is great. Let's you disable your minimap/quest marker directional thingy so you aren't tempted to just run in a straight line towards your objective, but still have markers when you get close to stuff.
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Apr 1, 2021 21:20
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i think you can make ? marks only appear in a radius around you in the default game too.. i think?
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Apr 1, 2021 21:35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKtOCYzCj_U A wild Sorenova appears to give Ciri some tips.
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Apr 13, 2021 06:00
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| # ? May 17, 2024 22:46 |
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The one thing about ?s is some of them are hiding important recipies / schematics, aren't they? Both times I've played I looked up where to get upgraded Swallow and some of the armor parts after getting to Skellige.
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Apr 13, 2021 06:42
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