The journal’s (J) tutorial section, in addition to containing all the tutorial tips, also has a sub-section with about a dozen mini-articles on different topics like combat, meditation, etc. One of them is about potions and IIRC it explains everything nicely.
Some people are too attached to the “Press ‘W’ to move forward” kind of tutorials.
Actually, the problem is that looting is inconsistent (like a few other things in the game). Sometimes it works great and you can stand in one place and loot all containers around you one by one. Other times you can’t loot some bag no matter how much you jump around it. Well, the later is an extreme case and I had it only a couple of times. :)
Too bad CD Projekt is not Blizzard, another couple of years and the game would have been flawless. :) Seriously though, they laid an amazingly good foundation and built an awesome game on it, the only thing left is to polish it up a bit, hopefully their patches are quick and good.
Mid game difficulty changing would be great - I’ll look again.
E blocks? For goodness’ sake - where do I learn that? Hang on - I’ve seen it now in the outside-of-game launcher, under video and language, under input settings. Damn. See my earlier comment - CDP don’t seem to know what a tutorial is. The first game did a similar thing - it was so keen on starting with a dramatic castle assault it neglected basics like ‘how to attack’.
How is stealth optional? Is there also a sneak key it hasn’t bothered mentioning? It also seemed bugged, as Geralt sometimes stays in his sliding-along-a-wall pose when away from the wall, which stops him moving in certain directions.
Quicksave is not save anywhere but combat - it’s save whenever the game feels ‘there are no enemies nearby’. And then I’m put in another room full of soldiers and the door locked behind me.
I basically feel it’s over-produced, to the extent it gets basic tutorial and design aspects wrong while individually modelling the links on Vernon Roche’s chain.
This is very different from ArmaII which has a painful UI but minimal linearity and a vast array of things to do - and you do not die once during it’s tutorials. Unless you crash your chopper I suppose :)
Edit - I’m not wedded to ‘Press W to move forward tutorials’ but if the journal has all the useful info then you should be pointed at the journal, not shown fleeting tooltips.
Razgon
1664
huh? I completed the game, and found no places were more polish was actually needed…
As for looting - during and right after combat, you cannot loot, which is actually a nice system, so that you don’t accidentally do so all the time during combat.
Why do you feel the game needs “a few more years”??
Jag
1665
The manual, Section 3.2.2.
Just finished the Prologue and the inventory system is bugging me. I wouldn’t worry so much about it if I had either storage or no weight limit. Money is definitely an issue and I regret not importing a save with some gold.
Question: My silver sword does more base damage than a regular sword, but they say it should be used on monsters. I’m still using it on humans too simply because the damage numbers are higher. Any thoughts on that?
Hunty
1666
Not even the voice acting! Boom boom.
Stealth is optional in that the stealth section I am in at the moment, near the start, allows me to stealth near enemies. I am terrible at this and have been detected many times, and it’s never triggered a fail state. Perhaps it will later.
As for quicksaving, you really can do it pretty much whenever. It’s told me I couldn’t twice, usually because Geralt was still closing a door. Both times I could save immediately after.
I think it’s brilliant so far. I’m still in the prologue that seems to be causing so much ire, so I can’t wait to see how it ends up. It is flawed in some respects, of course. The looting really is very fiddly, for example. And the doors are dreadful. But some of your complaints seem a little forced.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s extremely fiddly and I spend a lot of time running around the loot.
Wendelius
Yep, this could definitely be improved. The door opening system could also use some improvements.
Razgon
1669
Your silver sword will not do those numbers of damage on human opponents - steel is always better. The same is true the other way around.
I must be one of a dwindling number who read the manual. Also, no need to go to the key bindings as the Journal has all those entries, just like it did in the first game.
Agreed. Those who played the first game know to expect all the tutorial tips in there. There is little in game that indicates this to those who don’t already know.
Wendelius
Anyone else playing on a laptop with some settings tips? I’ve read the posts a couple of pages back but i’d like to hear some opinions from you guys. Like I said, game runs well but Geralt seems to stutter when turning/moving, not exactly an FPS hit but more like input lag.
Razgon
1672
I play on a laptop, and almost always kills shadows, or at least like in this case, set them to “low”.
I run on medium settings as well and its pretty good actually
I play on a desktop, so can’t be of much assistance. But check out this thread on settings: http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=64857
Wendelius
Current standards of basic usage are funny. So, nowadays reading the instructions in the manual or in the actual game is too much to ask of the player.
What is this I don’t even, etc, etc.
Welcome to the prologue of the Witcher. We don’t explain any of the gameplay mechanics here, so read up in your journal (J). Have a great time - CDProjekt.
This would be accurate and helpful.
Actually I think the problem is me, not the game… Probably cause I’ve set to run (Caps Lock) so I’m just stumbling blindly against objects and whatnot, time to take it nice and slow and just walk in enclosed spaces… :D
Nah, it was kind of a bad joke in regards to Blizzard taking like 7 years to produce a game.
By “polish” (hehe) I mean a few things they need to improve functionality or UI wise. Like looting (like I said it’s inconsistent and I am not talking about right after combat), like casting (can’t cast while moving), like switching the locked target, like Inventory screen (slowly scrolling “details” window or lack of the Junk category), like no way of telling how many potions you have while in the “Make potions” screen.
Pretty minor things really, mostly convenience stuff, hence “need for polish”. All the fundamental (combat, story, character development, details, immersion) stuff is rock solid.
Well, unless you are Alistair and don’t read anything on the screen. :)
On one hand, I grew up with huge PC game manuals and avidly read them cover to cover, so I sigh with fond memories of times gone by. On the other hand, now that most of my PC game purchases are digital, I really don’t care to read a manual sitting at my PC.
More importantly, I don’t think obfuscating basic operations in a game should be a goal of the designers.
Razgon
1679
I really don’t understand why you seem to agitated about the game, when you played games like Drakensang, where the mechanics are WAY more complex.
StriderGG - yeah, I know about the inventory - that could have been better.
My only gripe is that Geralt seems a bit…slow to react as others have noted.
Man, just when I think I’ve got the difficulty of this game under control, it throws me into an unavoidable story battle without any time to prepare, and I die repeatedly. At least it autosaves right at the start of the battle.
