Shake Appeal
Member
I'm just about to meet her after 40+ hours of play, so we'll see.
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The Witcher 3 has a huge flaw - Loot
- Thread starter Dr_Boris_Goltz
- Start date
But there isn't a less emphasis on loot. There's a lot of loot. Just very little of it is worthwhile.
I actually preferred the monster drops and heavy focus on crafting in The Witcher 3 compared to other games of its type.
Monster drops and flora are used for crafting. Human enemy drops are used for breaking down into crafting components and selling for the coin needed to repair gear. Crafting is used for all primary loot progression.
It's a good system. The main character advancing loot that you pick up are the recipes that you find.
Monster drops and flora are used for crafting. Human enemy drops are used for breaking down into crafting components and selling for the coin needed to repair gear. Crafting is used for all primary loot progression.
It's a good system. The main character advancing loot that you pick up are the recipes that you find.
Ordinaryundone
Member
That, or fix the level scaling on quest rewards so you aren't constantly getting paid a pittance or handed junk 10 levels behind you because you've been dilligent in your questing. The only reward that really scales well into the late game is XP, and even the lion's share of that is from main quests and not side quests.
Sanctuary
Member
Yep, that was one of the first glaring flaws that occured to me. More often than not, you either a) pick up gear that is garbage compared to what you already have or b) pick up something much higher level that you can't use yet, but by the time you can use it, you could have crafted something vastly superior.
I guess like everything else with the game, they decided more = "better" since that seems to be the MO with virtually every open world type game. The gear in the game is trash aside from the Witcher sets.
So in other words; the actual gameplay of the game. I had the same issues with this game, and quit 2/3rds of the way through. It looks nice enough, but the gear is awful and the combat sucks. Upping the difficulty to Death March doesn't make it "more interesting", it just makes what's already broken even more tedious. I also happened to enjoy The Withcer 2 much more than this game.
I guess like everything else with the game, they decided more = "better" since that seems to be the MO with virtually every open world type game. The gear in the game is trash aside from the Witcher sets.
So in other words; the actual gameplay of the game. I had the same issues with this game, and quit 2/3rds of the way through. It looks nice enough, but the gear is awful and the combat sucks. Upping the difficulty to Death March doesn't make it "more interesting", it just makes what's already broken even more tedious. I also happened to enjoy The Withcer 2 much more than this game.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
Yeah, the loot system in the game is shit. There's next to nothing worthwhile to find out there. Level scaling the loot certainly didn't help. Fight a monster over 10 levels above you that's guarding a treasure, kill the monster in one of the few challenging fights in the game, get to treasure, find it's a sword a few levels below that's barely worth disassembling and some miscellaneous junk.
Yeah, it's horrible. Should have of had something akin to gear with unique effects like the Daedra artifacts and a more structured mission order so that the rewards could feel meaningful. This "crafting" thing that many open-world games seem to have is more of a symptom of filling the game with pointless busywork.
DAI was just as terrible in this regard.
Tw3 is one of my all time favorites, but I totally agree with OP here. The drops are a bummer.
It doesn't help that the crafting system is such a pain in the ass to work with.
ReplacementPelican
Member
The armour I have found and bought has always been far superior to what I've been able to craft (at my level, that is). Am I in the minority here?
Commanche Raisin Toast
Member
My inventory is full of items that I don't know if I need to save for crafting or if I should break them down.
It's hard to tell the difference between an item that can be used in a recipe and an item that must be broken down first into raw materials. It's maddening.
IE:
Red Gem Ring - "crafting material"
If you break it down you get...
Red Gem Shards - "crafting material"
Metal - "crafting material"
I don't know if future recipes I come across will require a red green ring or if they'll need me to break down the ring into materials first. But one thing is for sure, is the red gem ring takes up weight in my inventory but the broken down raw materials don't. I just don't want to break it down only to find out later that I needed to keep the ring whole.
It's hard to tell the difference between an item that can be used in a recipe and an item that must be broken down first into raw materials. It's maddening.
IE:
Red Gem Ring - "crafting material"
If you break it down you get...
Red Gem Shards - "crafting material"
Metal - "crafting material"
I don't know if future recipes I come across will require a red green ring or if they'll need me to break down the ring into materials first. But one thing is for sure, is the red gem ring takes up weight in my inventory but the broken down raw materials don't. I just don't want to break it down only to find out later that I needed to keep the ring whole.
Fbh
Member
Yep. It's a problem with a lot of open world games really. It's even worse in Skyrim or Dragon Age.
There was a ridiculous scene where, without getting too much into spoilers, Gerald gets a sword which was supposed to have a lot of history, and lines like "I thought it was a legend" are present in the cutscene....... then you check it out and it has really shitty stats that might have been comparable with the sword I was using 20 hours ago.
Another factor is that in a lot of games the best gear comes from crafting and that sucks because it ends up making quest rewards borderline useless.
I'd preffer getting good gear from exploration and sidequests and then use crafting to upgrade that gear
There was a ridiculous scene where, without getting too much into spoilers, Gerald gets a sword which was supposed to have a lot of history, and lines like "I thought it was a legend" are present in the cutscene....... then you check it out and it has really shitty stats that might have been comparable with the sword I was using 20 hours ago.
Another factor is that in a lot of games the best gear comes from crafting and that sucks because it ends up making quest rewards borderline useless.
I'd preffer getting good gear from exploration and sidequests and then use crafting to upgrade that gear
I agree, but this is an issue with many similar games. If a game gives you loot there should be a chance that the gear you find is going to be awesome, but that is not the case with Witcher as so much emphasis is put on the Witcher gear.
My main complaint with the Witcher is leveling system. It is boring and uneventful. I should never be sitting on 6 skill points wonderin what the waste them on.
My main complaint with the Witcher is leveling system. It is boring and uneventful. I should never be sitting on 6 skill points wonderin what the waste them on.
Is it really? It is better than a loot game? That's pretty damning.
Fbh
Member
Yep.
It think the Souls games and Bloodborne make it mostly right.
There is allways cool loot to find from quests, exploration and drops. But then you can use crafting to make your loot better.
So crafting feels meaningful but it doesn't take away the reward from exploration and questing.
Yeh, I think all of these games need to rethink loot. It's the one weakness in modern RPGs that seems common to all of them.
I would start by stripping out crafting to be honest - It's an unneeded timesink that litters your map with ingredients and chests full of garbage materials, and always devalues the loot you find because you can craft something specifically better.
Secondly, they need to rethink specific dropped items - having random loot roll for long hard quests, or completing some out of the way challenge, is dumb. The Blade of Winter is a great example from witcher - why did no-one look at that and make it something useful? Same with the out of the way hidden treasures etc.
Thirdly, loot should be more than numbers. Dragon Age did this better than others, but basically the really cool gear should *be* really cool. Not just bigger numbers but unique effects and graphics. Modify skills, give you new skills, or even just out of the ordinary graphics - make it more than just a stat stick. Witcher crafted gear was great for the stats but was still soooo dull.
I would start by stripping out crafting to be honest - It's an unneeded timesink that litters your map with ingredients and chests full of garbage materials, and always devalues the loot you find because you can craft something specifically better.
Secondly, they need to rethink specific dropped items - having random loot roll for long hard quests, or completing some out of the way challenge, is dumb. The Blade of Winter is a great example from witcher - why did no-one look at that and make it something useful? Same with the out of the way hidden treasures etc.
Thirdly, loot should be more than numbers. Dragon Age did this better than others, but basically the really cool gear should *be* really cool. Not just bigger numbers but unique effects and graphics. Modify skills, give you new skills, or even just out of the ordinary graphics - make it more than just a stat stick. Witcher crafted gear was great for the stats but was still soooo dull.
HanzSnubSnub
Member
For me, loot was never the focal point. However, I still enjoyed the Treasure Quests and finding loot for other reasons. If the loot was better than what I was using, I'd swap it out. If not, then I could sell it for coin.
Either way, it's a win-win situation since loot improved stats and helped earn me more money.
Either way, it's a win-win situation since loot improved stats and helped earn me more money.
crazygambit
Member
I think Dragon's Dogma handled that pretty well.
You could find stuff that was too high level to properly use by the time you found it. You could still equip it, but it'd be useless given the huge penalties you'd incur by using it.
Then when you level up you can gain all the benefits from the equipment.
I have no clue if you level up in TW3 or not though. I bought the game at a PSN sale a while back and have yet to play it.
Ultimadrago
Member
Yep. Triss is the only performance that occassionally took me out of the game. Most everyone else was great though!
I tend to agree...I don't need every weapon/ piece of gear I get to be an upgrade, but when Crach an Craite gives you his legendary family sword and it is a downgrade to a tier 2 wticher sword...that is as problem to me. Easy to live with though with how everything else was handled, but I understand the complaint.
For me, just crafting and upgrading witcher armor was better.
The ones I could wear were usually too low leveled in stat comparison and the high level ones were inferior to witcher armor in some way once I got to a level where I could wear them.
Same thing with weapons.
joecanada
Member
the loot is only a small part of a bigger problem. The world itself is a beauty but there's nothing to do in it. There is no good loot just out there (well of course the witcher gear but you are likely following a map to each location and once you have a few witcher sets nothing will top it).
And the random bland encounters (with bad combat and bad enemy AI) don't offer either loot OR experience of any value.
So the biggest flaw in the game is everything that isn't tied to the story unfortunately. I found myself just running by enemies and hurrying to finish the story... I believe once you finish the game you can continue playing too which is even more laughable as you really notice there is nothing to do by then. there are no quests even close to challenging if you have finished the story.
And the random bland encounters (with bad combat and bad enemy AI) don't offer either loot OR experience of any value.
So the biggest flaw in the game is everything that isn't tied to the story unfortunately. I found myself just running by enemies and hurrying to finish the story... I believe once you finish the game you can continue playing too which is even more laughable as you really notice there is nothing to do by then. there are no quests even close to challenging if you have finished the story.
Kaffeemann
Banned
There's a mod that tries to fix some of the loot issues among other things and tons of bugs: http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...r3/ajax/moddescription/?id=992&preview=&pUp=1
xenorevlis
Member
I'm okay with this. The loot I've gotten so far based on chance and sneaking into places or discovering caves and such, as well as from witcher gear side quests is substantial enough that paired with the experience of getting to it and some of the situations that occur on the way (or that prompt it) are more than enough fun for me.
So besides the main story the many many side quests, monster contracts, street fighting, restoration of populace, discovering things not on the map, gwent, horse racing, etc. are all "nothing to do"?
cramoss
Member
As much as I loved it, it has other huge flaws imho like the RPG metagame systems being really shallow, the weird and almost broken experience-leveling system and the loot as OP said. The combat is okay at best, serviceable I'd say, but it could be much better in its own way.
Other than that, fantastic experience.
Other than that, fantastic experience.
I've just started, maybe about two hours in
but I have already noticed that crafting will be far more important than findable or buyable loot. It seems like I break down a lot of things into their components, as the vendors don't pay near what the items are worth. The first two were similar, but they were more linear too.
working on the griffin
You should clarify that the load times are "unacceptable" on console because they were definitely not an issue on PC. I'm also not sure I get the complaint about combat lock-ons, I have never used combat lock-ons in any Witcher game and I think it's better off that way.
joecanada
Member
well story and side quests I kind of lumped together. so I mean story type missions, including side quests are pretty good. I also liked Gwent but that is highly personal some people wouldn't like an in game card game.
Discovering things and horse racing I don't really care because what are you discovering? not good gear. some landmarks? I mean if I was about that game I would just play GTAV forever. Horse racing I'm not sure why you brought up, the horse is one of the weakest animations they have in the game, it's terrible. and the horse races are easy as hell and boring. would have been cool if you had to say fight during or anything.
so anything with a quest is pretty good, but open world "free play" is pretty bad actually.
oh and another main problem with side quests as I mentioned, is you overlevel them too fast. So I should specify that the side quests are good until you overlevel most, then they are pointless. and you wouldn't want to do every one anyway as they get repetitive.
Love the witcher but have to agree. Once I upgraded my witcher gear and weapons there was no reason to use any of the swords or other gear that I found. That being said, that loot that was more interesting to me are the diagrams and the items that allow you to create stronger potions. I'm not sure how you would balance the loot while keeping the witcher gear in the game as it is now.
The loot system is not the best. Again like other people said, the witcher gear is probably the best way to go. I didn't really like how they set up the character customization, but then again, you are just a witcher and not a wizard or warrior etc. I wish the loot you get from quests had more unique properties, so I'm able to switch out weapons when necessary (not just the typical silver and steel sword switcheroo). I just feel like once I got the most powerful weapon, that's it. There's no other weapon that is better in some aspect.
Aside from that, I love the story and the side quests. Character development and gwent was awesome too
Aside from that, I love the story and the side quests. Character development and gwent was awesome too
Heeeey, I like Assassin's Creed.
I legit didn't care for Death March difficulty, though. The incoming damage was all over the place. Geralt is supposed to be a trained fighter since a child with mutations to compliment it, why do random drunk soldiers hit harder and take more damage than I can? Why, when I'm forced in to fist fights, do I go down in 2 punches while it takes me 20 to knock them out?
I'm never one to really care TOO much about immersion but DM difficulty on Witcher 3 felt so weird to me.
The thing with the Witcher sets is that they have these well designed treasure quests built around this gear so naturally it is going to be better than most everything else you find. With that said, it's not all that important to use the best gear possible in this game because you're not dependent on that gear to beat any of the enemies at that point so really you can wear whatever you think looks the best.
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
The game should have had more rare resources instead of garbage swords you are gonna break down anyways.
It was a huge bummer when I realized only sets mattered.
It was a huge bummer when I realized only sets mattered.
Bolivar687
Banned
I agree, you get some nice quest rewards but all the other worthwhile gear is craftable. Problem is, you still need to collect evening anyway because of how time consuming and expensive it is to get requisite components from vendors. The crafting overall impacted my enjoyment a bit and even if the loot is essential, it's not exciting like it is in other RPGs.
All of us saw and searched the same hut!
All of us saw and searched the same hut!
DealWithIt
Member
This is a major problem with the game that definitely hurts it's overall quality. Often times with loot, as with so many other things, less is more. That's why the Dark Souls Model of loot works so well, You are always eager to pick something up because, who know what it will be? This worked less well in Bloodborne where there weren't enough unique items to make the looting exciting.
It would be hard to do perfectly in a game like W3 because of it's extreme non-linearity and the sheer number quests that there are. I can imagine fewer, similar items with different fashion results helping to clean this issue up a bit though.
It would be hard to do perfectly in a game like W3 because of it's extreme non-linearity and the sheer number quests that there are. I can imagine fewer, similar items with different fashion results helping to clean this issue up a bit though.