3803

I consider those items rather than loot. What draws you forward is the narrative (and to a certain extent the world itself), not getting a slightly better piece of armour.

But, yes, it would be nice if they were a little more interesting. Maybe tie the runes into the colour coded skill system, that sort of thing.

3804

I have those same 15% and while it adds a little variety it has insignificant influence on the outcome of a battle, imho.

I definitely hear you about the decoctions, I feel they’ve taken what could have been diverse effects on armor and weapon items and moved them to potions instead, leaving the former in a sorry state functionality wise (an example being life leech). Graphically they look great though, some of the swords are gorgeous, they just don’t do much.

3805

Is this XP problem that is going to be patched for the PC only? Does it affect console version of the game (for me, particularly, PS4)?

3806

I don’t disagree, I just don’t see the two as being mutually exclusive.

3807

I dunno man, like I said, the effects like stun, stagger, and burning have pretty significant impacts on fights…because they’re kind of like getting free Axii casts on a target just by hitting them. Basically, hit something 4 times and you’ll do something that will cause him to drop his guard and stumble around (or catch fire and start freaking out).

On an unrelated note, one complaint I’ve got, kind of…
Ok, so I have two settings for subtitles. On or Off.

But what I really need is “On for inaudible stuff or other languages”.

Cause there are times where they’ll say things in elvish, and Geralt apparently understands it (albeit often not perfectly)… but you’re left there kind of out of the loop, with no idea what was said. Likewise, I did a quest last night where you’re talking to some trolls, and it’s IMPORTANT what they are saying… but because they are freaking trolls, it’s hard as hell to understand them, not even counting the fact that their grammar is all messed up.

I don’t like running with subtitles on, because in most cases they detract heavily from the game. The voice acting is so good, I don’t want to be distracted by little words at the bottom, which I can’t help but read. But then I’m surprised by some conversation where folks start speaking elvish, and I’m left without knowing what was just said, with no real way to hear it short of loading prior to the conversation, changing my settings, and then entering the conversation again.

3808

Nice catch, Timex. One of those things where they give you an option to disable it but didn’t spend much time making it work well. One of those options very few people use I guess.

3809

I have subtitles on and even then I found it hard to tell whatever the hell those trolls were talking about. :) Luckily Geralt doesn’t have that problem.

3810

Personally, I really do think the game is better without the subtitles… one of the few games I’ve really cared, but the voice acting is so good that it matters.

It was just kind of annoying with certain sections, like the one where you’re with Kiera going through the ruins… and the elvish mage guy is saying stuff? Yeah… so I have no idea what he actually says during the quest. I kind of figured it out through context, but don’t REALLY know.

3811

I dunno man, like I said, the effects like stun, stagger, and burning have pretty significant impacts on fights…because they’re kind of like getting free Axii casts on a target just by hitting them. Basically, hit something 4 times and you’ll do something that will cause him to drop his guard and stumble around (or catch fire and start freaking out).

Maybe it’s because I’m still relatively early (just finished Sigi Reuven’s questline), but the fact that that you can’t recover runes from weapons makes the system a lot less interesting, because as soon as I replace a well gemmed weapon I have to start again with my crappy lesser runes and their 3% proc chance.

3812

If you disassemble the weapon, you recover the runestones.

3813

Well that changes things. I thought it was like removing the upgrades.

3814

You can remove the upgrades (destroying them) to put new runes in a weapon (or glyphs in an armor) or you can disassemble the weapon/armor to get the stones (and some materials) back. It’s a solid system.

On the subtitles comment, Timex makes a great point for sure. To combat the issue I just run with them all the time, but I only glance down when I miss something or want the spelling of something they just pronounced (especially in Skellige, where things like Crach is pronounced “Krok” for instance). Generally I watch the faces and the scene itself, but it’s nice to have them all the time for whenever. Like if a vacuum cleaner just starts up abruptly behind you, for instance, in the middle of a cut-scene. :)

3815

I’m close to finishing the game, more or less, and I think its biggest flaw it’s the balance. The game has been designed for a more… casual gamer, so if you go and do most of the content you will be both overleveled (and being 3 levels above of what you should be it’s pretty noticeable!) and over-rich (for around 20K gold). And I’m not talking of someone doing a 100% run, I have still 100 question marks to discover (and there are some places that are unmarked), so it’s more like it’s balanced for doing 50% of the optional content, not the… dunno, 75%? I’ve done.

Also, what they did to alchemy. Allowing to drink in combat was a good idea, it’s true not being able of doing it in W2 could mess you up and sometimes even you could drink a pair thinking combat was ahead and there was only dialog and cutscenes and the potions were wasted.
But I think they refresh the potions too cheaply. I have basically 300 more potential uses of all my set of potions, and I’m near the end. That’s basically infinite potions, so there is really no reason to not use potions in all the combat scenes. And if you are going to use potions in every combat, it would make more sense to make a toggleable potion system where you mark a number of potions to have always active in your body, up to the limit. That, or make more expensive to refresh from the start.
Same with oils, that are powerful (up to 50% more damage!) and even cheaper: they don’t cost anything to replenish. They are free.
Even the powerful decoctions aren’t limited, they are permanent and as cheap to replenish as a normal potion, which feels wrong. It somehow cheapens them.

3816

I’m close to finishing the game, more or less, and I think its biggest flaw it’s the balance. The game has been designed for a more… casual gamer, so if you go and do most of the content you will be both overleveled (and being 3 levels above of what you should be it’s pretty noticeable!) and over-rich (for around 20K gold). And I’m not talking of someone doing a 100% run, I have still 100 question marks to discover (and there are some places that are unmarked), so it’s more like it’s balanced for doing 50% of the optional content, not the… dunno, 75%? I’ve done.

What difficulty level are you playing on?

But I think they refresh the potions too cheaply. I have basically 300 more potential uses of all my set of potions, and I’m near the end. That’s basically infinite potions, so there is really no reason to not use potions in all the combat scenes.

Personally, I feel that this is one of the absolute best mechanics of Witcher 3.

In most games, I’m always afraid I might need to save my potions for some important fight, and as a result, I end up never using them.

Witcher totally eliminates that nonsense, so that as you say, there’s no reason to not use potions in every fight. But that’s exactly why it’s awesome. Because it encourages you to use them in every fight. Which is as it should be, since the potions are a fundamental game mechanic and facet of the witcher character.

I love the fact that potions are so cool, and that I can use them whenever I want, limited only by how many I can have going at the same time.

3817

I rarely feel the need to dig into the alchemy system, but I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I’ve probably used the same gear, tactics, and potions for the last 10 hours. The combat is still an amusing diversion. It’s too bad it’s not deeper, but I’ll take pleasant shallowness too.

3818

I started with Broken Bones, I switched to Death March 60 hours into the game.

About the potions, it’s a double issue. First it’s the difficulty, I’m complaining that the game is too easy. If the potions were less plentiful maybe it would be a little harder. In general terms I like games where the resources that are given to me (health kits! ammo!) has to be used somewhat efficiently to be successful. It isn’t like every game has to be a survival horror scrounging every bullet or every potions but I don’t like it when they give your three more resources than you need to finish the game.
Second, it’s an UI issue. Having to go to the inventory and use the potions for each combat, and then meditate to replenish it’s a bother. As I said, it could be done having permanent but selectable potion effects. Heh, now that I think about it, they did exactly that with the mutagens. So imagine something like that, a series of slots where you can drag and drop the potions in your character screen and have the effect given. Increasing your maximum toxicity would increase the number of slots.

3819

Yeah, at least on the 2nd hardest difficulty level it’s rare I actually need a potion other than maybe some healing. And like TurinTur said, the biggest hurdle is that I don’t feel like switching out the two ones I can use in combat. Plus I’d need to go into the bestiary to see what potions the monster is weak to. To many screens with the controller.

3820

You can drink potions from your inventory, so some things with very selective abilities, such as Black Blood or Golden anti-poison, I just drink from my inventory screen with the X button. I keep Swallow and Thunderbolt on my “belt”.

Decoctions are the greatest thing ever. And oils are a cool idea that is fun to use. Oils do take a little preparation - you get ambushed by Nekkers you don’t really have time to oil up your sword, but if you see them swarming a battle field up ahead the extra +25% damage is massive (enhanced oil).

3821

Finished FC4, and started up W3 last night. PS4, FWIW. Medium difficulty. Love open world games, Skyrim is one of my all time faves in my 30 years of gaming.

So, first impressions: I suck at melee. Maybe I’m just old, but I did the training tutorial, and that old guy just beat the crap out of me. Seems like half the time I tried to dodge I couldn’t, and I’m just not good at quickly pushing the right combination of buttons. Is there a way to lock the view? One thing that complicates it for me is he beats me back and my view is not where I need it to be, and I’m trying to move, move the view, hit the right buttons at the right time, all in a hurry. Like I said - I suck at melee.

The fonts are just about unusable on my PS4. I was playing on a 50" plasma maybe 5 feet away, and I have a VERY hard time reading anything on the screen, anything on the HUD.

When I was looking in the beastiary for tips on how to defeat a monster/animal, it shows “Susceptible to” and then symbols. But I don’t see any help screen that shows what the symbols are - do I just need to look in an online guide, etc?

And yeah, Geralt is indeed challenging in terms of normal movement, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

All sounds negative, but the “feel” from the beginning is very promising. I’m JUST starting, as in we’re in the first inn. Question - it feels like if I let it, the game will just push me down the main campaign. How soon can I safely start “open worlding” it and freely explore?

On side quests, etc. from the Gamasutra article, this line alarmed me a bit:

Instead it’s just muddy, with miscommunication running rife, and quests collapsing into failure if you do them out of some unexplained perfect order.

I will say this - I always turn off game music in open world games. I like to role play, try to “be” the character, and unless my character has an orchestra walking behind him, music playing during the game pulls me out of the world. I just want to hear the wildlife in the woods, the people chatting in the villages, etc. - I want to hear what my character would be hearing. But for some reason, this game already strikes me as something different, something “epic”, where the music, for some reason, feels appropriate. Hard to articulate.

Anyway - anxious to get some real game time with this!

3822

Right stick click is for lockon feature. It’s a bit akward in groups though, so if possible I suggest you learn to play without it and use right stick to adjust camera instead.

Regarding oils - you can actually move the highlight circle from the bestiary over those symbols to find out what they mean.