The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

In my opinion, if they wanted to make the “no markers” thing viable and still encourage exploration, they should also have fog of war on the in-game map. That way I could easily track where I’ve already been, plus I’m kind of obsessive about filling in the blank spaces on maps that do have fog.

Put me in the “leave them on” camp. I tried playing without the markers for a bit and I couldn’t stand it.

I want to know where stuff is on the map. I want to be able to avoid encounters to save for later if I want.

I think before I do anything else, I’m turning the difficulty down and getting used to combat first, because I tried do some and got killed SO easily. Forgot about the shield thingy and eevvveerything.

It was about 6 hours in before I really started to use Quen effectively, and I’m playing at the second highest difficulty. I had really been relying on Igni to that point, with Aard for flying foes.

Then I went into the area where you first fight one of the Wild Hunt people. I’m well over an hour in and run out of healing items. Then I have to fight a golem and gargoyle.

So my options were to revert to before I entered the portal, or really learn how to get good with the shield. Or drop difficulty down (ha, nope)

I got good with the shield.

As for combat though I almost never roll, instead dodging. And I only tend to try blocking or parrying against shielded foes. It actually works pretty well for me. Just took out a higher level drake on top of a light house platform, which was plenty exciting. Fortunately the only times I got knocked off were down the ladder well.

This I agree with, having fog of war would be great.[quote=“BrianRubin, post:6852, topic:71667, full:true”]
I think before I do anything else, I’m turning the difficulty down and getting used to combat first, because I tried do some and got killed SO easily. Forgot about the shield thingy and eevvveerything.
[/quote]

Yeah you gotta use all the tools at your disposal. Signs are great, potions are great, dodge is great, roll is great, bombs are great…

Exactly, and I keep forgetting to, I just run in, slicing and dicing and then dying. Combat is very different than what I’m used to.

The first moment for me was in White Orchard when I encountered that bear. I couldn’t stand the idea of being beaten by the bear repeatedly. I used the shield spell and got good at it when fighting that bear, and fought with that technique from then on.

One of my favorite skills, and one I maxed early, is in the potions tree. The Poisoned Blades skill is a great one to get, especially early. Combined with oils it can be very effective. A 15% chance to add poison is wonderful, especially combined with a sword or runestone that adds bleeding, burning, or poison as well. Early on using the Viper sword I had something like a 50% chance to add poison, and another 10% or so to add bleeding. This was especially handy on an early game mission with a werewolf, as they have regen. Applying poison was the only way I could kill it at that early stage, and until I went and adjusted my build to add poison I lost that fight over a dozen times. Once I came back with the new sword? First try and barely a scratch.

As the game has gone I’ve gone heavy into runes and status effects. I’ve also picked up a passive skill that increases my healing rate during daytime. Which means that I only rarely need potions these days. I haven’t bought a healing item since I was level 5.

And don’t forget you can alchemy mutagens into stronger form. I’ve got the upgraded Quen, Igni, and Axii placed besides an upgraded Blue Mutagen, and I’m basically a wizard now. Mixed with a very wide array of oils and I can take monsters well above my level. It’s pretty sweet.

Yea, I like the Fog of war Idea. They could even mod it such that, if you take a lot of heavy hits in combat, you start forgetting areas you had already been or not…

That’s interesting. I didn’t put a single point in the potions tree the whole game. On my second playthrough I should give that a try.

Ha, while I’ve invested but two points into a single attack skill. And I’ve not put much into the other potions skills either, but I maxed that one. The others? I may get to them later, but I’m building signs up.

I found turning off the POIs made the game much more enjoyable. Much more of an exploration RPG, which is what i like. I loved seeing something in the distance that looked interesting and sneaking up to see what it is. I loved being surprised. When I had the markers on it was just a matter of running from one to another, and there was no sense of discovery (for me.)

Same here. And unlike many people here, I don’t generally turn off things in the HUD, etc. My two major exceptions are turning off the music in Far Cry 2, which made the game better to the nth degree, despite me liking the music. And the second exception is Witcher 3, where I was surprised at how much I started enjoying myself once I turned the POIs off. Before that I was thinking, “this is an okay game, but I have no idea why Paul_Cze thought I should forsake getting games for the rest of the year for the sake of playing this game”.

The season pass finally went on sale on Steam a few weeks ago and I bought it. I started a new game recently. Playing very casually, maybe 10 hours a week. Man, what a fucking great game. I thought it was the best game ever, easily, when I completed the base game. I still feel the same way.

I suspect there are rather few things you and I would agree upon, but this is one.

I am glad anytime I can find common cause with anyone. Best game ever.

I am watching-listening to the recording of the live concert of Witcher music performed in Krakow last year and it is just amazing, have water in my eyes half the time :)

Not being there in person is going to be one of my few enduring lifelong regrets.

Man, they should go on tour with that stuff. I recall seeing a live Battlestar Galactica concert some years back and it was amazing. I’d pay to see this soundtrack performed live.

Is there a link to a recording of the performance?

Apparently it should be boughtable here:

But I cannot view it since it is not available in my country, so I got it from other sources. Rafal Jaki from CDP told me they are trying to get it on GOG, although he said “no promises” since there is probably some legal nonsense involved. I plan to buy it wherever I can the minute I can :)