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[frontovik]

Well, I've replayed the Witcher 2 several times and had saved files ready to import for The Witcher 3. And then .. the hard drive on my PC crashed. As much as I enjoy The Witcher 2, I have no desire to replay it again. Fortunately there are save files available on Witcher Nexus.

That being said, CDPR did state that you can choose the state of the world in the prologue of Witcher 3. So I doubt that a save file is even necessary.

 

[Jay Shadow]

Yeah, even though I have 4 save files to chose from for Witcher 2 I was considering just doing the conversation to pick a world state in W3 anyways so I can pick and chose.

 

[Shy]

That being said, CDPR did state that you can choose the state of the world in the prologue of Witcher 3. So I doubt that a save file is even necessary.

Ohh. i hope we can use our save files.

 

[Dragon1893]

Someone posted a bunch of fantastic Gamespot interviews with CDPR on gaming side, here's the link in case anyone here missed them.

Blood of elves is pretty interesting so far. I'm about halfway through. Really different than the two before it, not just because of the difference in short story collections and an actual saga. Feels like Geralt is just some dude who happens to be in the same room as shit that's happening at least so far. I don't mind it, though. Ciri seems interesting. Triss seems so too in the books.

Good to hear you're enjoying it.

I played through Witcher 1. Was with Shani the whole time. Then afterwords I read Blood of Elves.

lol


Regarding save files, I'll definitely use mine, the conversation at the start of TW3 probably covers all the choices that matter but it doesn't feel like you're continuing your own adventure from the previous games, at least for me.
I'm hoping to find some small references to stuff I did in the previous games outside of the big decisions but that's probably asking for too much.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I played through Witcher 1. Was with Shani the whole time. Then afterwords I read Blood of Elves.

Hahaha, at least im pretty sure she will be back in the oxenfurt dlc in the witcher 3.

Regarding save files, I'll definitely use mine, the conversation at the start of TW3 probably covers all the choices that matter but it doesn't feel like you're continuing your own adventure from the previous games, at least for me.
I'm hoping to find some small references to stuff I did in the previous games outside of the big decisions but that's probably asking for too much.

Going to do the same, but its a pity we are going to lose the scene of Jaskier singing our adventures. Would be cool if they left if still using the save, so he sang what you did even if you cant change it.

 

[RDreamer]

Finally beat Iorveth's path now, too.

It was a good path, with a pretty cool story. I kind of understand what people were saying when they thought it's better than Roche's path.

At the same time, I feel like choosing the Scoia'Tael was a really fucking strange decision to make in Act 1. The only way it kind of got close to making any sense is if you threw Iorveth his sword and shit went crazy in town. Still didn't seem really that right.

Then at the end, the decision to save Triss or Saskia was damned strange. Who the fuck would ever choose to help Phillipa and trust her to save Saskia over getting Triss? That's just such a weird choice. I did that choice, mostly because i saved Triss last play through on Roche's side... and I knew Triss would make it in the end. Still....

Iorveth's side also seemed kind of strange in a very non-neutral Witcher way. Geralt is outright fighting soldiers in a war in a way that doesn't happen on Roche's side.


Also interesting is that I'm reading Blood of Elves and literally was at the part where Yarpen Zigrin was saying he hated the Scoia'Tael and was working for Henselt.. and in game I was at the part where Geralt tells someone that Yarpin would never trust Henselt. I think I found out why at the end of that chapter, but it was still kind of interesting.

 

[ShooterMcGavin]

So my second time around playing Witcher 2, I'm trying to pursue a relatively "neutral" path.

Do you guys think I should

Spoiler

kill Letho at the end or spare him? I'm leaning towards sparing him.

 

[RDreamer]

So my second time around playing Witcher 2, I'm trying to pursue a relatively "neutral" path.

Do you guys think I should

Spoiler

kill Letho at the end or spare him? I'm leaning towards sparing him.

Depends on what leads up to it, I think. There are a lot of instances where

Spoiler

killing him makes sense. At the same time, if you played another way sparing him makes sense too. If you don't go save Triss, for example, he saves her. I'm not entirely sure a neutral Geralt would kill the dude that just saved Triss.

 

[Dragon1893]

Depends on what leads up to it, I think. There are a lot of instances where

Spoiler

killing him makes sense. At the same time, if you played another way sparing him makes sense too. If you don't go save Triss, for example, he saves her. I'm not entirely sure a neutral Geralt would kill the dude that just saved Triss.

I agree, in that particular situation Geralt would definitely let him go. On the other hand, Geralt would definitely have saved her himself

In TW2 you can't really be neutral, but you can minimize the damage done by each faction by saving some key characters.

 

[RDreamer]

I agree, in that particular situation Geralt would definitely let him go. On the other hand, Geralt would definitely have saved her himself

In TW2 you can't really be neutral, but you can minimize the damage done by each faction by saving some key characters.

I also think the whole Iorveth path is way less neutral than Roche's path.

 

[ShooterMcGavin]

Depends on what leads up to it, I think. There are a lot of instances where

Spoiler

killing him makes sense. At the same time, if you played another way sparing him makes sense too. If you don't go save Triss, for example, he saves her. I'm not entirely sure a neutral Geralt would kill the dude that just saved Triss.

Yeah, it's a tough decision.

Spoiler

In this playthrough, I followed Roche and immediately saved Triss when the opportunity arrived.

 

[frontovik]

Interesting Q&A with one of CDPR's senior game designers, Damien Monnier.

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...tlight-2-Damien-Monnier?p=1625979#post1625979


Mohasz asked:
Can monsters attack cities/villages or they spawn and move around in the wilderness only? Can different monsters fight each other or fight bandits?

Monsters can get a bit too close but cities have guards to come and help out. We found out quickly that monsters could really mess things up around cities which are where you talk to people, get quests (mostly, you can of course do that in the wild) but the point is that it didn't work if you came back to hand in a quest and the village has been attacked by monsters - it feels cool but at the same time that means you cannot hand in that quest and you get no XP so that's super annoying. Guards will help keep things under a certain level of control. As for in the wild, everything goes.


xdevnull asked:
I like that the HUD tells me what time it is, but why does it tell me the weather? Isn't that pretty obvious?

Good question. Weather is important as it can also affect monsters, so if you get a tiny bit of rain you could think "mmm, that's light rain, it'll be fine" and then you get destroyed by drowners for example. So instead you look at it and you can see that the game specifically says "this is the weather currently, therefore beware". Quick glance and you know what you need to take into account.

 

[Dragon1893]

Can monsters attack cities/villages or they spawn and move around in the wilderness only? Can different monsters fight each other or fight bandits?

Monsters can get a bit too close but cities have guards to come and help out. We found out quickly that monsters could really mess things up around cities which are where you talk to people, get quests (mostly, you can of course do that in the wild) but the point is that it didn't work if you came back to hand in a quest and the village has been attacked by monsters - it feels cool but at the same time that means you cannot hand in that quest and you get no XP so that's super annoying. Guards will help keep things under a certain level of control. As for in the wild, everything goes.

This was how it worked in TW1 (you could constantly see patrols fighting monsters, especially at night) but in TW2 there was a clear separation between the populated areas and the wilderness, there were never any monsters inside the towns. Interesting to see they brought this back, since it's something you'd expect to see in this type of world.

Interesting that the most notable thing on this guy's resume is the Motorstorm series and he gets hired as gameplay designer for a rpg.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Still im pretty sure they programmed a safety circle where monsters can not pass for NPCs that have quests and are sitting on the middle of the forest, if not it would happen the same to them that the thing he talks about towns being attack and cancelling quests.

 

[Dragon1893]

Still im pretty sure they programmed a safety circle where monsters can not pass for NPCs that have quests and are sitting on the middle of the forest, if not it would happen the same to them that the thing he talks about towns being attack and cancelling quests.

Sure, but the interaction between the population and the wilderness definitely makes the world feel more organic.
They can also just make key characters invincible.

 

[RDreamer]

Really trying to speed through the books as quickly as I can. Got through Blood of Elves the other day, and now I'm about halfway through Time of Contempt. Not sure I'll be able to keep up the pace and finish all of them, though maybe I'll just be on the last one by the time Witcher 3 comes out.

 

[phaze]

Really trying to speed through the books as quickly as I can. Got through Blood of Elves the other day, and now I'm about halfway through Time of Contempt. Not sure I'll be able to keep up the pace and finish all of them, though maybe I'll just be on the last one by the time Witcher 3 comes out.

Times of Contempt has probably my most liked event of the saga. It's probably my favourite Witcher book too.

 

[Dragon1893]

Times of Contempt has probably my most liked event of the saga. It's probably my favourite Witcher book too.

Hm, tough choice but I'll go with Swallow's Tower as my favorite.

 

[Jay Shadow]

I think Baptism of Fire is my favorite of the novels from start to finish. I like the traditional party building RPG vibe to it. I generally gravitate to characters over events. Although the other books all have individual scenes I may like more than Baptism of Fire.

Spoiler

"Dandilion," the Witcher couldn't stand it anymore and turned in his saddle. "Regis just told you to fuck off. He's just put it politely."

 

[ColonialRaptor]

I just finished baptism of fire and I can't wait for the English releases of the final two books in the series.

I read some short plot summaries of the final two books and it seems that the last book is really where the relevant stuff for the witcher 3 happens, but I really don't know about that for sure.

Spoiler

That unicorn land is the land of the wild hunt riders right?

Also, I read

Spoiler

that the nilfgard emperor is ciri's fsther "Duny" which is a pretty big spoiler I suppose

and I wish I hadn't have spoiled myself for that with regards to the books but I think I'd much rather know that going into the third game than not, what do you think?

 

[RDreamer]

I just finished baptism of fire and I can't wait for the English releases of the final two books in the series.

I read some short plot summaries of the final two books and it seems that the last book is really where the relevant stuff for the witcher 3 happens, but I really don't know about that for sure.

Spoiler

That unicorn land is the land of the wild hunt riders right?

Also, I read

Spoiler

that the nilfgard emperor is ciri's fsther "Duny" which is a pretty big spoiler I suppose

and I wish I hadn't have spoiled myself for that with regards to the books but I think I'd much rather know that going into the third game than not, what do you think?

Read the fan translations. That's what I'm going to do. Definitely not waiting until freaking 2017 to read the last book. The fan translation of Sword of Destiny was pretty awesome.

If you do read the fan translations there's a guy on reddit that went through and edited the last two books really well. So search out those copies.

Also dammit why did I read that spoiler! Pretty rad, though.

 

[Jay Shadow]

Also, I read

Spoiler

that the nilfgard emperor is ciri's fsther "Duny" which is a pretty big spoiler I suppose

and I wish I hadn't have spoiled myself for that with regards to the books but I think I'd much rather know that going into the third game than not, what do you think?

It's hard to say if it's better to know that or not. It actually doesn't even show up on some of the wiki entries, and they haven't mentioned it in press, so I don't know if they'll handle it like a basic fact in the game or as a big reveal to non-book readers. Regardless, now that you have different context

Spoiler

go back and listen to the conversation again in the E3 Sword of Destiny trailer.

 

[RDreamer]

Just finished Time of Contempt. As of now it's probably my favorite of the books, followed perhaps by Sword of Destiny.

With this pace it looks like I'll probably be on the last book when Witcher 3 releases. Sad I couldn't finish them, but oh well. I'll finish not too long after starting W3, I guess.

 

[Dragon1893]

Just finished Time of Contempt. As of now it's probably my favorite of the books, followed perhaps by Sword of Destiny.

With this pace it looks like I'll probably be on the last book when Witcher 3 releases. Sad I couldn't finish them, but oh well. I'll finish not too long after starting W3, I guess.

14 days to go!
God, I can almost taste it, so close!

 

[Salaadin]

About done with Time of contempt. I love it. Ciri is so great.

If I can finish the 3rd novel before TW3, I'll be happy. Are there any translated past that?

 

[Dragon1893]

About done with Time of contempt. I love it. Ciri is so great.

If I can finish the 3rd novel before TW3, I'll be happy. Are there any translated past that?

English? Not yet, unfortunately.

 

[RDreamer]

About done with Time of contempt. I love it. Ciri is so great.

If I can finish the 3rd novel before TW3, I'll be happy. Are there any translated past that?

Fan translations.

Otherwise the wait is until 2016 for Tower of the Swallow and 2017 for Lady of the Lake.

I'm going to read fan translations.

You can find them here and here.

And if you haven't already, definitely read Sword of Destiny! The fan translation is good, but the official one comes out right when the game does, too.

 

[Salaadin]

Fan translations.

Otherwise the wait is until 2016 for Tower of the Swallow and 2017 for Lady of the Lake.

I'm going to read fan translations.

You can find them here and here.

And if you haven't already, definitely read Sword of Destiny! The fan translation is good, but the official one comes out right when the game does, too.

Thanks for the links.

I did read Sword of Destiny two years ago when the fan translation was posted on the witcher forums. Didn't realize that the official one was so close. I'll be sure to grab it anyways to show support. I liked that one more than The Last Wish.

 

[Jay Shadow]

I did read Sword of Destiny two years ago when the fan translation was posted on the witcher forums. Didn't realize that the official one was so close. I'll be sure to grab it anyways to show support.

Yeah, same here. I've read every book as a fan translation other than The Last Wish and Blood of Elves, but I buy them all when they come out officially.

 

[RedSwirl]

Just started this up again.

Last time I played through TW1 I remember having big problems with money. For instance, books are expensive as shit. They usually cost more than you get paid for killing the monster they're about. Do you just sell excess ingredients or something?

 

[SlickVic]

Finally restarted Witcher 2 last night now that I finished DA:I. I played through the prologue a little over a year ago around the time I finished the First Witcher, but stopped playing because I didn't like how it ran on my old GTX 260M. Now that the Witcher hype is building up and I have better hardware, decided to restart the game.

Have to say the graphics still hold up pretty well; at least to me. I'm on max settings minus ubersampling and the environments and facial details look pretty nice. Still early on in Chapter 1 but not quite sure if the combat's quite clicked for me though. The story has piqued my curiosity and I want to see it through, but not sure how much I'll bother with prepping the right potions and oils before fights. Guess there's always knocking the game down to Easy if it gets to be too much.

 

[Dragon1893]

Just started this up again.

Last time I played through TW1 I remember having big problems with money. For instance, books are expensive as shit. They usually cost more than you get paid for killing the monster they're about. Do you just sell excess ingredients or something?

Yeah, books can be expensive, you do find some of them though. Sell crap you don't need and give priority to the books you need, buying them all will make you go bankrupt lol.

Finally restarted Witcher 2 last night now that I finished DA:I. I played through the prologue a little over a year ago around the time I finished the First Witcher, but stopped playing because I didn't like how it ran on my old GTX 260M. Now that the Witcher hype is building up and I have better hardware, decided to restart the game.

Have to say the graphics still hold up pretty well; at least to me. I'm on max settings minus ubersampling and the environments and facial details look pretty nice. Still early on in Chapter 1 but not quite sure if the combat's quite clicked for me though. The story has piqued my curiosity and I want to see it through, but not sure how much I'll bother with prepping the right potions and oils before fights. Guess there's always knocking the game down to Easy if it gets to be too much.

Yeah, not many 4 year old games out there that hold up so well.
Focus on the sword skill tree, it unlocks skills that improve the combat significantly and it's by far the most useful skill tree anyway.
On normal you don't really need to bother with potions and oils which is actually rather unfortunate since it makes the game simpler than it should be.

 

[SlickVic]

Yeah, not many 4 year old games out there that hold up so well.
Focus on the sword skill tree, it unlocks skills that improve the combat significantly and it's by far the most useful skill tree anyway.
On normal you don't really need to bother with potions and oils which is actually rather unfortunate since it makes the game simpler than it should be.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. I did so badly on the tutorial the game recommended me to play easy, but I'm trying out normal so far and seeing if I can get by.

 

[Dragon1893]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. I did so badly on the tutorial the game recommended me to play easy, but I'm trying out normal so far and seeing if I can get by.

No prob, you'll unlock the ability to counter which really improves combat against human enemies.
There's also the multi-enemy finishing move, you need to stun enemies to trigger it, use Aard (maybe upgrade it at least once).
Reduction of backstab damage is very useful since Geralt takes a ton of damage from back attacks which can be frustrating.
You can also improve the roll to cover greater distances which is very useful. As you've probably realized by now it's a move you use a lot.

 

[Denton]

10 days left as of a minute ago.

Fuck I want it now

 

[Dragon1893]

Some stores are already selling it, anyone here got it yet?

 

[Denton]

On reddit one guy from UAE got it and is answering stuff

http://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/35ec4d/got_early_copy_what_do_you_want_to_know_early/

Lots of good stuff.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Some stores are already selling it, anyone here got it yet?

Nah, Im pretty sure they are going to send the collectors edition one week late like they did with TW2 one.

 

[RDreamer]

Just finished Baptism of Fire. What an amazing read.

Man, the official english version of the saga kind of sucks right now, lol. With no Sword of Destiny right now, and the saga ending right here, it's kind of weird. I'd be angry if I didn't have the fan translations. I want to see where this goes!

 

[Dragon1893]

Just finished Baptism of Fire. What an amazing read.

Man, the official english version of the saga kind of sucks right now, lol. With no Sword of Destiny right now, and the saga ending right here, it's kind of weird. I'd be angry if I didn't have the fan translations. I want to see where this goes!

Well, at least now we know they're coming, it's just going to take a while lol.
I'm really glad I had the option of reading the spanish versions.
If you liked BoF you're gonna love TST.

 

[Glass]

I played through Witcher 1. Was with Shani the whole time. Then afterwords I read Blood of Elves.

Uh oh, I've just sided with Shani in W1. Does the mistake relate to the book, or to choices further down the road in W2 or 3? I've got Blood of Elves, just need to get around to reading it. Found it harder to get into then The Last Wish.

 

[RDreamer]

Uh oh, I've just sided with Shani in W1. Does the mistake relate to the book, or to choices further down the road in W2 or 3? I've got Blood of Elves, just need to get around to reading it. Found it harder to get into then The Last Wish.

I think he's just saying that Triss and Geralt have a bit of a past together, and it would seem a bit weird going with Shani if you know that.

Also Shani disappears completely after Witcher 1.


As for Blood of Elves, honestly it's probably my least favorite of the books so far. It's good, and I think it needs to exist to set things up... but honestly the other books are better.

If you liked The Last Wish and haven't already, read Sword of Destiny before moving into Blood of Elves.

 

[Dragon1893]

Uh oh, I've just sided with Shani in W1. Does the mistake relate to the book, or to choices further down the road in W2 or 3? I've got Blood of Elves, just need to get around to reading it. Found it harder to get into then The Last Wish.

I think he's just saying that Triss and Geralt have a bit of a past together, and it would seem a bit weird going with Shani if you know that.

Also Shani disappears completely after Witcher 1.


As for Blood of Elves, honestly it's probably my least favorite of the books so far. It's good, and I think it needs to exist to set things up... but honestly the other books are better.

If you liked The Last Wish and haven't already, read Sword of Destiny before moving into Blood of Elves.

BoE Spoiler:

Spoiler

She's a minor.

 

[RDreamer]

BoE Spoiler:

Spoiler

She's a minor.

Ooooooooooooooooh.

Fuck I completely forgot she was in BoE for that post.

She's not a minor in the games, though, is she? I forget what age she was in the books now, but yeah I do remember them mentioning she was young.

Not that modern definitions of 'minor' really means anything when you're talking medieval setting like this.

 

[Dragon1893]

Ooooooooooooooooh.

Fuck I completely forgot she was in BoE for that post.

She's not a minor in the games, though, is she? I forget what age she was in the books now, but yeah I do remember them mentioning she was young.

Not that modern definitions of 'minor' really means anything when you're talking medieval setting like this.

She's older in the game of course, a lot of time passes between BoE and the first game.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

BoE Spoiler:

Spoiler

She's a minor.

Im pretty sure someone like Jaskier would still tap dat ass. In fact, im pretty sure thats why he loves so much going to oxenfurt as a "teacher" lol

 

[Dragon1893]

TW3 having over 1 million pre-orders really warms my heart. This game will be huge for CDPR.

 

[Nikodemos]

I've asked this on the GOG forums, but I'll ask here as well, since there's likely to be more people with an answer.

How do I tweak the .lua files in the Full Combat Rebalance mod in order to turn off critical effects animations? I've recently started the game, reached Vizima's outskirts, and am currently getting stun-locked by barghests who inflict Pain. According to the mod's docs, critical effects animations should be off by default, except they aren't, at least not in my version (which, oddly enough, appears to be the latest one).

Furthermore, how do I tweak Parry/Dodge penalties? FCR introduces a -50% P/D penalty for defending against enemies attacking from the sides/rear. Since Group Style has been somewhat nerfed in FCR, it's rather aggravating. I'd like to bring the penalty down to a more manageable 20-25%.

 

[codhand]

someone posted a good plot synopsis with pictures a few weeks ago, a friend was asking for one, is it here in this thread somewhere?

 

[aravuus]

someone posted a good plot synopsis with pictures a few weeks ago, a friend was asking for one, is it here in this thread somewhere?

This one?