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The Witcher 3 - New preview details

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
That weapon scaling down thing is really terrible news for me to read. Especially since it's permanent. The first real blotch on the game for me so far.

I mean, with every game on the brink of launch nowadays, I expect to finally start hearing bad news, but that really is mind-boggling to me. I don't even see why this would seem like a good idea to anyone.

Why would I even touch anything other that what I have at that rate if I find something special just to make it worse? I don't care if I have to hang on to the weapon, or come back to it later if it's too strong for me to use. If I make the extra effort to earn something strong, I shouldn't be rewarded by making the weapon worse without the possibility to make it as good as it was. That's actually punishment for exploration/going for a challenge.

I better at least see the weapon stats and get a warning before I can pick up the weapon so I know that I can just leave it and come back to it later. Or at least see the stats before doing whatever needs to be done in advance so I wouldn't even bother.
 
Not too worried about item downscaling - have faith that the devs will have designed the weapon progression to work out fine while not leave me constantly feeling like I should be avoiding picking new things up.

Super close to release now, these extra little details are only going to make the wait harder :D
 

erawsd

Member
That weapon scaling down thing is really terrible news for me to read. Especially since it's permanent. The first real blotch on the game for me so far.

I mean, with every game on the brink of launch nowadays, I expect to finally start hearing bad news, but that really is mind-boggling to me. I don't even see why this would seem like a good idea to anyone.

Why would I even touch anything other that what I have at that rate if I find something special just to make it worse? I don't care if I have to hang on to the weapon, or come back to it later if it's too strong for me to use. If I make the extra effort to earn something strong, I shouldn't be rewarded by making the weapon worse without the possibility to make it as good as it was. That's actually punishment for exploration/going for a challenge.

I better at least see the weapon stats and get a warning before I can pick up the weapon so I know that I can just leave it and come back to it later. Or at least see the stats before doing whatever needs to be done in advance so I wouldn't even bother.

I doubt they'll surface any of that info. The whole point of the change is that they don't want you to stress over leaving the item laying there. The idea being you are rewarded with an epic item that you can immediately use vs something that will sit in your bags for hours. Non-scaled items are still in the game too, only some things will be autoscaled.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Why would I even touch anything other that what I have at that rate if I find something special just to make it worse? I don't care if I have to hang on to the weapon, or come back to it later if it's too strong for me to use. If I make the extra effort to earn something strong, I shouldn't be rewarded by making the weapon worse without the possibility to make it as good as it was. That's actually punishment for exploration/going for a challenge.

I better at least see the weapon stats and get a warning before I can pick up the weapon so I know that I can just leave it and come back to it later. Or at least see the stats before doing whatever needs to be done in advance so I wouldn't even bother.

Fun thing is, how you would even know that you have made some item "worse"? If game progress and flow was designed well you maybe would never even notice that game scales its gear for you and wouldn't know about scaling if devs didn't tell you about it.
 

patapuf

Member
So in other words, people shelling out money for this game on either console are unwise to do so.

No wonder CDPR keeping the console versions hidden.

This is obviously a google translation and unless you have to have the graphically best version i don't see why you would be unwise to buy it on console.
 

erawsd

Member
So in other words, people shelling out money for this game on either console are unwise to do so.

No wonder CDPR keeping the console versions hidden.

Either console? PS4 version sounds like it turned out well. Xbox One seems suspect, but it could be a matter of its deficiencies standing out more when its next to the superior versions. Which could explain why there are plenty other previews that say it looks fine.
 

Kosma

Banned
The item scaling down, to me, reeks of poor design. One possibility is that they did not want players to get their hands on a high powered weapon early on and subsequently steamroll over the rest of the game. Good design can best a scenario like this. The reality is you now take away a sense of accomplisment when finding that long sought after weapon.

I don't know; maybe we'll be surprised. I hope it does not take away the satisfaction of exploring a well realized world.

Have to agree, also odd that the monsters dont scale but loot does.

I think if you managed to kill a high level monster you should be able to reap the high rewards as well.

But lets see how this works out in practice first :)
 

ironcreed

Banned
I was checking out some wallpapers and came across this one:

The-Witcher-3-Wild-Hunt-wallpapers-3.jpg


Up on on a snowy ridge, looking down on Viking long ships at sea. Now that is atmosphere.
 
Have to agree, also odd that the monsters dont scale but loot does.

I think if you managed to kill a high level monster you should be able to reap the high rewards as well.

But lets see how this works out in practice first :)

Monsters don't drop loot. Only guts for crafting. They unless it's totally changed monsters also give almost no xp. A witcher doesn't grind.
 

erawsd

Member
Monsters don't drop loot. Only guts for crafting. They unless it's totally changed monsters also give almost no xp. A witcher doesn't grind.

They give exp but it caps out after they are fully researched (Which you do by killing them, talking to npcs, or reading books). But yeah, its not something you can grind.
 

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
I doubt they'll surface any of that info. The whole point of the change is that they don't want you to stress over leaving the item laying there. The idea being you are rewarded with an epic item that you can immediately use vs something that will sit in your bags for hours. Non-scaled items are still in the game too, only some things will be autoscaled.

Other games have had better solutions than this, plus I certainly wouldn't stress having a powerful weapon that I couldn't use until I leveled up. I get what they're trying to do, but a logical thinker would never pick up a weapon earlier when you can pick it up later at its full strength.

Fun thing is, how you would even know that you have made some item "worse"? If game progress and flow was designed well you maybe would never even notice that game scales its gear for you and wouldn't know about scaling if devs didn't tell you about it.

Well, I'd imagine there's something that would tell you that about the stats, or else the person that wrote about it wouldn't even know or know to bother ask about it.
 

ironcreed

Banned
The drama surrounding the Xbox One version is as ridiculous as always. I'm sure it'll look good. Don't worry, your precious PS4 version will look better and the PC version will look amazing. Not surprising considering the differences in hardware. People acting like the Xbox One version will look like a PS1 game are bonkers. 'Pandemonium horror', jesus.

Yeah, a few people on this very forum who have played the Xbox One version said it was amazing. Go figure.
 
That weapon scaling down thing is really terrible news for me to read. Especially since it's permanent. The first real blotch on the game for me so far.

I mean, with every game on the brink of launch nowadays, I expect to finally start hearing bad news, but that really is mind-boggling to me. I don't even see why this would seem like a good idea to anyone.

Why would I even touch anything other that what I have at that rate if I find something special just to make it worse? I don't care if I have to hang on to the weapon, or come back to it later if it's too strong for me to use. If I make the extra effort to earn something strong, I shouldn't be rewarded by making the weapon worse without the possibility to make it as good as it was. That's actually punishment for exploration/going for a challenge.

I better at least see the weapon stats and get a warning before I can pick up the weapon so I know that I can just leave it and come back to it later. Or at least see the stats before doing whatever needs to be done in advance so I wouldn't even bother.

That's the wrong way to think about it.

They didn't made the item "worse". Think of it in this way: The item stats don't even exist until you pick up. Once you pick up, the level of the item will be assigned, it will be your character level or a max item level, whatever is smaller. That rule may sound weird but given the game has been designed around that rule, it mean you still can have good rewards.

You are thinking how cool would be level 10 and get a kickass level 14 sword. But maybe with the way they designed the game around, a sword of your current level can be kickass too. We don't know what "level" means here. Maybe finding something of your current level is rare, with common items being generated automatically 3-4 levels lower than your level, so finding a level 10 sword is a great prize. Or maybe there are "average-ish" level 10 swords and "great" level 10 swords, the level doesn't tell everything.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Other games have had better solutions than this, plus I certainly wouldn't stress having a powerful weapon that I couldn't use until I leveled up. I get what they're trying to do, but a logical thinker would never pick up a weapon earlier when you can pick it up later at its full strength.

Well, I'd imagine there's something that would tell you that about the stats, or else the person that wrote about it wouldn't even know or know to bother ask about it.

How you know when to pick item X up without "ruining" it? Knowing Witcher you won't have some tooltips popping up from items that are e.g. on the ground, but you actually need pick it up and inspect it in your inventory. More likely you just end up in situation where you avoid touching anything before some artificial level barrier you have decided on and over level cool gear.

Personally I dislike it that I find some cool item that I can't use for next 10 levels so I need stash it away, then I forget about it because other cool shit I come across and then I have over leveled and geared that cool item from 10 levels ago. I don't find that particularly fun way of doing things either.

I think it was general question about scaling mechanics to which dev then answered, I don't remember phrasing of question and can't be bothered to rewatch that GameTrailer Q&A :D

when will the first reviews hit?

Smart bet is on 19th of May.

Edit: Maybe 18th considering global digital release on 0100 AM CEST, 19th.
 

erawsd

Member
Name me one game that enforces parity.

I dont know of any. However, that hasnt stopped some folks around from speculating that it would happen.

Other games have had better solutions than this, plus I certainly wouldn't stress having a powerful weapon that I couldn't use until I leveled up. I get what they're trying to do, but a logical thinker would never pick up a weapon earlier when you can pick it up later at its full strength.

I cant say if the system is better or worst than anything else since I havent seen it in action. Based on what weve been told, it seems to me that the logical thing is to pick up the item, theres no reason to leave it laying there when youlll find something as good or better by the time youve leveled up that far. Especially if Im right and the game never communicates the downscaling to the player, you just find an item you can equip.
 

aravuus

Member
Monsters don't drop loot. Only guts for crafting.

They don't have to actually drop it, they could be guarding it. Like, it would be pretty goddamn lame if you managed to kill a very powerful troll guarding a cave earlier in the game than people normally would, loot the cave and get a down-scaled Legendary Sword of the Legends that's barely better than the Rusty Broken Plebeian Sword of Shit you have equipped at the time because you were at such a low level.

Down-scaling the loot could make the equipment progression super stale, when (almost) every weapon you find is stronger than the old one, but only a little.

Of course, that's pretty much the worst case scenario. And even if the scaled loot does turn out to be a huge con, I'm sure modders will fix it. Hell, the only three things I've heard that I didn't like so far are all easily 'fixed' with mods. If they nail the combat, W3 is going to be fucking amaziiiiiiiinnggggg
 

Tovarisc

Member
They don't have to actually drop it, they could be guarding it. Like, it would be pretty goddamn lame if you managed to kill a very powerful troll guarding a cave earlier in the game than people normally would, loot the cave and get a down-scaled Legendary Sword of the Legends that's barely better than the Rusty Broken Plebeian Sword of Shit you have equipped at the time because you were at such a low level.

Down-scaling the loot could make the equipment progression super stale, when (almost) every weapon you find is stronger than the old one, but only a little.

Of course, that's pretty much the worst case scenario. And even if the scaled loot does turn out to be a huge con, I'm sure modders will fix it. Hell, the only three things I've heard that I didn't like so far are all easily 'fixed' with mods. If they nail the combat, W3 is going to be fucking amaziiiiiiiinnggggg

Well developer did emphasise that if you find e.g. legendary sword with killer stats and perks it will have killer stats and perks even if game scales it down to your level. It maybe isn't at its intended level of power that it could have at level 11, but relatively to other level 8 stuff it will be sick find.
 
As there been ANY PS4 / XBONE gameplay of this game ?

Only PC footage ? Should we be worried ?
Reviewers were allowed to test all versions directly one after another, but the only published non-PC game play is from the Microsoft E3 session.

I was checking out some wallpapers and came across this one:

The-Witcher-3-Wild-Hunt-wallpapers-3.jpg
Very early W3 screenshot from gameinformer March 2013 issue, using the W2 "old" renderer

compare and contrast, same scene a few meters further back (from GDC 2014, a lot has changed since then)
http://a.pomf.se/kdfkxa.webm
 

erawsd

Member
They don't have to actually drop it, they could be guarding it. Like, it would be pretty goddamn lame if you managed to kill a very powerful troll guarding a cave earlier in the game than people normally would, loot the cave and get a down-scaled Legendary Sword of the Legends that's barely better than the Rusty Broken Plebeian Sword of Shit you have equipped at the time because you were at such a low level.

Down-scaling the loot could make the equipment progression super stale, when (almost) every weapon you find is stronger than the old one, but only a little.

Of course, that's pretty much the worst case scenario. And even if the scaled loot does turn out to be a huge con, I'm sure modders will fix it. Hell, the only three things I've heard that I didn't like so far are all easily 'fixed' with mods. If they nail the combat, W3 is going to be fucking amaziiiiiiiinnggggg

If that happens, I would totally would agree that its a terrible system.

As you said though thats a worst case scenario. It could just as easily be a case where unique and legendary items don't scale. They've said before they the best items won't be found in chests, you'll have to collect the schematics and materials from very dangerous areas and then find someone in the world capable of crafting it for you.

Likewise, we also know that the game has many levels of item quality since we've seen the typical grey/green/blue/purple/yellow loot. So just because a Rusty Broken Plebeian Sword of Shit is level 10 just like that Legendary sword, you could still be looking at a huge difference in damage output. That legendary could end up being better than anything else you encounter for the next 5-10 levels unless you go out and find another epic or legendary item.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Reviewers were allowed to test all versions directly one after another, but the only published non-PC game play is from the Microsoft E3 session.


Very early W3 screenshot from gameinformer March 2013 issue, using the W2 "old" renderer

compare and contrast, same scene a few meters further back (from GDC 2014, a lot has changed since then)
http://a.pomf.se/kdfkxa.webm

Nice. I can't wait to come up on some Viking long boats in the distance as I am exploring in an environment like that.

97234-james-franco-so-good-gif-Imgur-jKyk.gif
 

DieH@rd

Banned
Here's an interesting snippet from a Russian preview of the game:

PC-version of the most beautiful and only on this platform should play "The Witcher". PS4 on all worthy, but noticeable drop in picture. On the Xbox One, unfortunately, pandemonium horror because of the low resolution, lack of anti-aliasing, cut vegetation and drawn parts (lod'ov) right near the player.

http://alogvinov.com/2015/03/witsher-3-vedmak-2-v-otkryitom-mire/

Finally a good OT subtitle :)
 

tuxfool

Banned
Well developer did emphasise that if you find e.g. legendary sword with killer stats and perks it will have killer stats and perks even if game scales it down to your level. It maybe isn't at its intended level of power that it could have at level 11, but relatively to other level 8 stuff it will be sick find.

Then there is the question that, unless stated, how would a person know that the item is level scaling? By the time somebody goes to a different location, the items there will be of a higher level, maybe stronger and still level appropriate thus accounting for the non-linear exploration structure.
 

Genio88

Member
The drama surrounding the Xbox One version is as ridiculous as always. I'm sure it'll look good. Don't worry, your precious PS4 version will look better and the PC version will look amazing. Not surprising considering the differences in hardware. People acting like the Xbox One version will look like a PS1 game are bonkers. 'Pandemonium horror', jesus.

Are you sure? i think that those 180p less will make the Xbone version look like garbage...joking aside can't wait to play it on my PC, still wondering what those ultra settings will look like
 

tuxfool

Banned
Are you sure? i think that those 180p less will make the Xbone version look like garbage...joking aside can't wait to play it on my PC, still wondering what those ultra settings will look like

Well, people have different tolerances and expectations. To somebody the loss may be fine, but to others it might be too noticeable.
 

aravuus

Member
Well, people have different tolerances and expectations. To somebody the loss may be fine, but to others it might be too noticeable.

Framerate is king. I'm willing to drop some of the visual settings to medium, even low to keep up a stable 60fps in the PC version. Of course, I'm sure a GTX970 can handle the game easily on high-very high.

I'll keep DOF on till the end of time, though. Been playing Witcher 2 all day, and the DOF in cutscenes looks really, really good. Love it.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Again, I'm not hugely concerned with the combat/loot in this game, but item scaling to me seems like a compromise of Witcher 3 being in an open world.

CDP may say it's to prevent the feeling of finding a weapon you can't use yet (I never had a problem with that -- it gives you something to work towards), it may also be to prevent players stumbling upon a "disc one nuke." As soon as you let players loose in the open world, there's always at least the small chance someone could wander way off somewhere, sidestep a really powerful monster, and find one of the top weapons in the game or something.

Don't know how it's gonna make sure you always later find a weapon that's better once you get to higher levels anyway.
 

Jingo

Member
Since i played bloodborne im all into things i never played, rpg elementa, leveling up carachters etc etc, you guys think i would like this game? Its in the same style as bloodborne, combat and bosses included?
 

Dynasty8

Member
Since i played bloodborne im all into things i never played, rpg elementa, leveling up carachters etc etc, you guys think i would like this game? Its in the same style as bloodborne, combat and bosses included?

A little similar... Combat is not as difficult or smooth IMO.

It's more about the story, characters, and open world exploration. The story is really damn good BUT only if you know about the lore of the series. You will be very confused if you dive straight into it knowing nothing.

My recommendation is to read up about the Witcher universe (watch Youtube recaps too)... It's the closest thing to a Game of Thrones story that I've seen in video games. I didn't like The Witcher 2 that much when I first played it...mainly cause I was very confused. 2 years later I played it again and loved it (mainly cause I read up about the Kingdoms and other stuff)...I ended up getting all the achievements for it too, which is something I rarely do.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Seems an odd choice for the loot levelling, one thing I loved about Skyrim was doing some of those daedric quests for the crazy weapons, would be a bummer to achieve something in W3 to get a nerfed weapon.

I guess we'll just have to see how it pans out as I guess it is the way it is.
 

erawsd

Member
Since i played bloodborne im all into things i never played, rpg elementa, leveling up carachters etc etc, you guys think i would like this game? Its in the same style as bloodborne, combat and bosses included?

Not really. People love to compare them but they are very different games. Its an action RPG but it has a much heavier emphasis on story telling/questing/exploration ect. If you have,t I'd suggest checking out the footage thats out there and see if it does anything for you.

Fun thing is, how you would even know that you have made some item "worse"? If game progress and flow was designed well you maybe would never even notice that game scales its gear for you and wouldn't know about scaling if devs didn't tell you about it.

Thats an itneresting point. I actually wonder how many people would ever have noticed it had CDPR not said that there was a hybrid scaling/nonscaling loot system.
 

Isendurl

Member
Since i played bloodborne im all into things i never played, rpg elementa, leveling up carachters etc etc, you guys think i would like this game? Its in the same style as bloodborne, combat and bosses included?

Just watch this.

If you liked what you saw, I say give it a shot.
 

Absinthe

Member
That's pretty great.
Of course on GOG you get infinite amount of copies ;)

GOG is DRM-Free, it gives you exe files that you install however many times you want on however many computers you want, no client necessary.

I got it with discount because I own TW1 and TW2 already:

iNrCLm1xveeHo.png


I did buy also steam copies because I actually prefer the convenience there, with auto updates and such. GOG will have their own optional Galaxy client but who knows when that will be released.

Thank you for posting this. I already own The Witcher 1 & 2 so I logged in to GOG to get the deal and apparently I already bought The Witcher 3 back in June of last year. :p

I was just about to purchase it on Steam.
 
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