The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Paul_cz]

Im still unsure how to spec my premade dlc characyer having been away from the game soo long. 39 points to spend is very overwelming when i cant really remember how it all flows

Personally I never care about minmaxing and "optimising" and stuff like that in games. I always just pick what sounds interesting and appealing to me. So in TW3 I always play mix of sign/sword with no points in alchemy.

 

[Paul_cz]

I'm having great difficulty absorbing myself in TW3. I've had it since launch, but just can't bring myself to play it. The furthest I've got is leaving White Orchard after about ten hours or so.

Here's a short video of me playing. I'm pretty incompetent, right?

Read the advice I posted above. Disable unnecessary HUD elements and get Immersive Cam and Immersive HUD mods. Stop thinking of it like Skyrim. This is a storydriven game first and foremost, more similar in style to Red Dead Redemption than Skyrim, although unlike RDR, it is much bigger, better and with lot more choices and consequences thrown in.

 

[Paul_cz]

Yeah, there are a few Gwent based objectives.

Hmm, the in game tutorial didn't make understanding it very easy.

I will have a browse of some YouTube videos and have another go I think.

Thanks.

Simplest way to learn Gwent is to simply play a few rounds. It is very intuitive, I didn't watch any tutorials, just winged it and learnt it quickly. Then became addicted

 

[Paul_cz]

I'm not so sure, it may be a good idea for them to stop now, rather than let the game go downhill with forced sequels/cash grabs etc, how many other games of this genre have actually managed to improve the longer they went on? I certainly cant think of a single one.

That said I certainly wouldnt say no to another expansion or 3 for this one

This applies to Activisions and Ubisofts of this world. Companies that copy/paste and annualize.

Not to CD Projekt, which takes 4 years for each game and improves exponentially. Assuming they would keep doing it their way, there is no reason why potential Witcher 4 couldn't be even better than third. And god knows there are still so many places to explore in Witcher universe, so much potential.

 

[Paul_cz]

That's the sad thing I loved TW3 one of the best games I've played in a long time but I have 0 interest in SteamPunk stuff.

Cyberpunk is something else than Steampunk though. Cyberpunk is Blade Runner. It is, for me, extremely interesting setting for a game. CDP making one...dream come true, again

 

[Paul_cz]

I still havnt really played this yet as my bro put me off lol he played for over 30hrs and said it was nearly all fetch and find quests all the way through! he reckons if your not fetching something your speaking to one person who tells you to go speak to another,then you speak to that person and they tell you the person you are looking for was there but 2 days earlier and to go speak to someone else as they might of seen them and so on and so forth.

it sounded boring as hell to me lol so I havnt really played it,from what he said I don't think I will like it half as much as skyrim,now that had amazing side missions

Literally every single thing in this post is wrong, it is almost a work of art.

 

[Paul_cz]

This song. This god damn song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt5Mxm7BPhM

Perfection

 

[Paul_cz]

 

[Paul_cz]

That's not modded, but there are some grass distance tweaks and stuff like that. Some reshade stuff.

 

[Paul_cz]

Which armour set is that?

Ursine, third level, dyed.

 

[Paul_cz]

how do you level up at the start. i'm on level 4. the noticeboards and main missions are for level 6/7/8 ... nothing really coming up for 4/5
do i just have to ride to other towns...?

Good news: You do not have to be the exact level for the quests. If you are level 4, you can easily try to do some higher level quests and if you play decently enough, pull them off without much problem. For example, I did quest level 17 when I was level 9 and it was fine. Difficult, but doable. Generally recommended though is to keep within 6 levels of quest you want to do.

I think some of you are being unduly harsh on skyrim of course tw3 is better than it from a gameplay and gfx perspective but skyrim was released 4 years earlier. When skyrim released it was an excellent game.

I still need to get around to playing blood and wine but haven't had the chance as yet!

To be fair, the main things Witcher 3 has over Skyrim have nothing to do with time of release or technology. Quality of writing and quest design is time/tech agnostic. Bethesda is somewhat bad at it (and is getting worse, with Fallout 4 being their weakest effort yet), while CDP are best in business alongside Obsidian.

 

[Paul_cz]

I preferred w2 to sky rim too for exactly the same reasons, writing and gameplay and even visuals imo

Where do I go to get my gear grandmastered? or will it come up as a quest? Have master crafter feline set at the moment and just got my vineyard sat on a hill last night just mediatating to look at the world in different lights! Stunning imo!

Is there a photo mode to get angles like those above shots? Also I took some last night but they aren't showing in the screen shot folder

You will meet grandmaster in Beauclair, he has a shop there and he will give you info where to find the grandmaster instructions.

Photomode exists as a mod on nexus, or you can use nVidia Ansel.

 

[Paul_cz]

Great price on the steam sale, I not played the first two is it still worth picking up?

Nah it's worthless you don't wanna be exploring this world

 

[Paul_cz]

Sold thanks guys now I own GOTY edition
Although I expect my i7 3770k and AMD 290 to struggle at 1440p.

290 is pretty long in the tooth, if you want 60fps I think you will have to go for 1080p and lower foliage distance and shadow quality a bit.

I'm really tempted as well now. Great reviews everywhere.

GOG or Steam? Seems GOG is DRM free, so must be the better option or are there Steam options like the workshop that should mean I think of the Steam license?

GOG is owned by CD Projekt, so if you buy there you can support the developer directly, and it is DRM-free, although they have a client you can use for more comfort (GOG Galaxy).

Mods are done by witchernexus, not workshop.

 

[Paul_cz]

Thanks will take a look. Does the game get more demanding the more I get into the world? At the start doing the tutorial etc I lowered shadow to High and switched off Hair effets and am sitting between 50-60fps and it feels so smooth. this at 1440p also Jaw dropping how good this game looks.

If by tutorial you mean white orchard, then I would say that the forest in White Orchard where the bandit camp is, is pretty much as demanding as it gets.

 

[Paul_cz]

It was the castle area training with I think it was your daughter

Kaer Morhen, ok this is very short tutorial. The first main playable area is where you can test the performance for real.

As I said above, hardest on performance are foliage distance, shadow quality and hairworks. Lower those and you should be fine.

 

[Paul_cz]

*disclaimer* Please don't read the spoiler unless you've finished Blood & Wine.

Just finished Blood & Wine.

Dunno whether to replay it

Spoiler

Anna was killed by her sister

& I've read there's a happier ending but I went with what I thought was the best way to handle things, when I play RPG's I normally go with the forgive & forget type of decisions, but what Detlaff did I thought he dissevered to be brought to justice.

I'm not at all convinced this is the last we'll see of Geralt, so not sure I should re-do it for a better/happier ending.

What did you all do?

I had the most positive ending

Spoiler

both sisters survived and reconciled

but I still only saw the

Spoiler

fairy tale

part so when I inevitably replay the entire saga in a couple years, I will definitely go the other way.

 

[Paul_cz]

I have had a brief play and lost every game lol it would be a lie if I said I understand what I doing.

Learn it and play it. Not only is it fun, but there are quests that involve it that are pretty great, and there will be standalone gwent game which will have singleplayer story campaigns as well.

 

[Paul_cz]

Thanks, yeah it is the most sensible thing to do. But I seem to have manages by turning a few other things down like shadows and so on. The game still looks stunning and I'm managing over 40fps which for me is the borderline limit of being playable.

On a separate note I too am finding combat to be really weird. Maybe I haven't got used to the system properly yet but targeting is a bit wonky and Geralt's movement can be difficult to manage.

Also interacting with things in the environment (such as harvesting ingredients) can be difficult due to the camera placement and lack of crosshair. Sometimes despite seeing something you have to move around and position Geralt in the right way so he can interact with it.

Aside from that it is a great game - I'm taking my time playing a little but here and there. Might take many weeks to finish but I don't want to rush it.

If you haven't already, make sure to enable "alternative movement response" in the menu, gives movement less momentum, making it perfectly responsive. As for targeting, the manual targeting should be mostly used for 1 on 1, for group fights the auto targetting works pretty well.

 

[Paul_cz]

I've grown to love the Witcher 3. But I definitely think they need to improve their interface in their next game. If it had a simple intuitive looting and skilling tree like my Diablo 3 or Wow I would give this game so much more love.

When reading stuff like this I am left scratching my head about what is so bad about the interface in TW3. Both the inventory and skill screens seem very straightforward and easy to read to me