6504

Stare intently at the herbalist in White Orchard.

6505

I had this experience as well–
spoiler-type info follows

but the key is nearby along with additional letters explaining the situation. I forget exactly where-- but I as I recall there is an area to liberate, and one of the former casualties of the monsters was an heir to the ruined house.

6506

I had the same feeling. You don’t really need to mess with it much at all from what I can tell, almost 40 hours in now. If you craft a potion or bomb, you have it forever, just need to refresh it when you meditate which costs some alcohol. So I’d advise you to not worry about it and have fun! I still haven’t crafted a single item, other than bombs/potions.

6507

Kinda what rowe33 just said, and I’ll echo his advice.

Here’s the important stuff to know and collect:

  1. Ingredients are now weightless in the game for Geralt, so don’t worry about being bogged down with weights on picking anything up. If you’re a completist, the game won’t punish you.

  2. As Tom referred in one of his game diaries, be aware of how the potions/decoctions/oils are handled in the game. Basically it works like this: you only need the ingredients to make a new potion the first time you make it. After that, the game “autobrews” your potions and oils to top them off every time you meditate as long as you have the base (for potions and decoctions, that’s some form of strong alcohol; for oils, it’s some sort of oil or tallow or fat).

As an example: let’s say there’s a potion you want to make that requires 3 white myrtle petals, 2 balisse fruit, and 4 beggartick blossoms, obviously along with some strong alcohol for a base. The first time you brew that potion from the alchemy menu, it costs you those flower petals and the alcohol from your inventory. After that, however, as long as you have alcohol, any time you meditate you’ll re-brew that potion to replenish any you’ve used, and don’t need the flower ingredients.

  1. So what does that mean? It means you don’t need to pick every flower in existence on the map as you play. You can, if you want to sell off the surplus for paltry amounts, but as long as you have 5-10 of each different flower type in your inventory, you’re fine.

  2. And what do you pick up for potions and oils? Pick up all the dwarven spirit, alcohest and other strong liquor you can find so you can constantly re-brew potions as needed. Beers and wines don’t count. Also pick up oils. Every wolf and wild dog you kill has a chance to get you dog tallow as a component. That’s useful for your sword oils.

  3. Mostly focus on collecting recipes, either from vendors as you can afford, or in the wild as you find them. Brewing better and better potions makes your life easier as the game goes on.

  4. Scoop up all the gooey monster bits from the creatures you kill. These can often be “broken down” at smiths and armorers into ingredients that are necessary in potions, oils, and crafting.

  5. I didn’t even give two thoughts to equipment crafting in the game until you can start tracking down Witcher School Gear. Which should start faairly early on (like maybe before level 6 even). That’s the only gear I really crafted, and that’s the stuff that worth crafting. Otherwise the game keeps you well stocked with much better new drops in swords and armors as you play.

6508

This is a pretty good game. (ok I’m trying the new forum :P)

6509

I’m so happy my advice to Clay post survived the switchover!

6510

Oh, the aforementioned quest was indeed top notch. Thanks!

6511

huh, I don’t have to use any image tags, just paste the image link and it already previews in the post…damn cool.

6512

Yes, it is glorious!

6513

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition. Presumably, it’s just a bundle of the game with all the DLC and season pass expansion content.

[quote]
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a gigantic effort for the entire studio, and both the team and me were amazed by the good reception of Geralt’s adventures. Since launch, we’ve released two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, which added a lot of new adventures to the already potent mix.

“With all the free DLC and updates the game received so far, including significant changes to the game’s interface and mechanics, many gamers have asked us if we’re working on some sort of a Game of the Year Edition. I’m happy to confirm - yes, plans are in motion to release such an edition. We’ll release more details, including the release date, in the future. In the meantime, I’d like to thank every fan of the game for their support - you’re really amazing!”[/quote]

6514

I’m also glad about that! There were some followup emails that had good info that didn’t survive, though.

6515

[quote=“Telefrog, post:6513, topic:71667, full:true”]
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition. Presumably, it’s just a bundle of the game with all the DLC and season pass expansion content.

I have every faith–based on how CDPR handled TW1 and TW2–that if further enhancements are added, they’ll be offered to owners of the original game and expansions gratis.

6516

Honestly I don’t think there will be special enhancements, more like they will just release an extra patch or two to stamp some remaining issues.

6517

I’m coming close to finishing Blood and Wine and I’m so sad to know that’s the end of my Witcher experience. I’d be fine if CDPR threw Cyberpunk in the freezer and just created more Witcher stories for the next few years.

6518

I mean witcher is great and all but DO NOT come between me and my CD proiect Red Cyberpunk dealy. That is gonna be So Fucking Sweet. Also cybernetic implants > magic imo.

6519

Sigh, I just finished Blood and Wine, so I’m done-done with Witcher III. :(

Blood and Wine was fantastic. Both expansions are excellent, but wow, did I enjoy the main storyline in B&W.

6520

I came here to post what could well have been this post verbatim. Just an amazing game over all (I bet I broke the 150 hour mark easy since launch) and both the expansions were tremendous stories in their own right, with Blood and Wine being just about the best send off for the series I could have imagined. Glorious. Talk about getting your money’s worth, too. I ended the game at level 54 and my map is more ?'s than anything else, and I have probably two dozen unfinished quests in my log, let alone the quests I never picked up, yet the completed quests has more than triple that number, quadruple even, it’s crazy how many quests, contracts, and side stories I went on. And this is my second character!

6521

I’m approaching level 16, still noodling around Novigrad.

https://s31.postimg.org/3oxibtp57/20160627005027_1.jpg

Went to a fancy party and things got weird…

https://s31.postimg.org/9hrktdgnv/20160701010002_1.jpg

And then very weird.

https://s32.postimg.org/wi2q8fzhh/20160701011048_1.jpg

I even took the plunge and installed some mods! I went with a couple texture mods, Absolute Camera, and Friendly Hud. After a fair bit of experimentation and tweaking, I’m really pleased with the results.

I’m playing with the whole HUD and minimap turned off, so when I need guidance, I have to use my Witcher sense to check where I’m going. At first I didn’t like the ugly yellow brackets it uses for the 3D quest tracker but the more I played, the better I liked it. It’s nice to have a sense of the elevation of my destination and to see its position in plain view rather than on the small, flat minimap. Feels more like I’m exploring the world and heading somewhere and less like I’m chasing waypoints.

I even turned off the setting for auto-unsheathing of my swords so now I’ll have to pull out the right one when combat starts. GULP.

6522

Sometimes, you’ll want the left one…
(heyo?)

6523

Absolutely, heyo.

Dumb as this sounds, I made the switch when I realized that the D-pad controls corresponded to the sword positions on Geralt’s back. Want the sword on the Left? Hit D-Pad Left. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!

Last night I performed admirably in a play entitled The Doppler’s Salvation. Come out, come out, Dudu, wherever you are! I snapped a pic of the script with my cellphone and used it during the play… yes, kinda cheating, but I figured Geralt wouldn’t be above writing his lines on the back of his hand or something like that.

Tonight, we’re off to Temple Isle to attempt the rescue of Dandelion.