The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[escrow4]

Finally polishing off the DLC and honestly I prefer the DLC to the main game - Geralt witchering is vastly more entertaining than Geralt saving the world. The whole apocalypse world ending plot in III is meh to me now, its like zombies. Equine Phantoms is absolutely hilarious, you'll piss yourself laughing as you get high and talk to Roach (Geralt: Why do you always come when I whistle even across the sea but get stuck on ledges? Roach: I'm not perfect you know) and the whole Blood and Wine area is spectacular especially as the region is pitch perfect from the wine to knight errants (and D.L.C. being a plot point HA). I don't particularly like vampire lore but the way the story is done is excellent. Fully upgraded Corvo Bianco too. All up I suspect I've sunk hmmmm 120 hours at least all up. Haven't played an RPG this rich since the previous Witchers.

I strongly recommend any player spend days going through the question marks (except the Skellige sea ones) because if not you will miss the richness CD Projekt added in. Even basic contracts and stuff you run into is well written. Also make sure you read the notes and journals you come across (they ain't that long). I'd also recommend Ursine armor or Tesham Mutna armor as lower armor tends Geralt into tissue paper. Tried light and medium armor towards the end of Blood and Wine and meh really. I also played on maximum easy for the story, not the combat.

 

[Dahak]

hmm... I just remembered I have to go through the DLC's as I was waiting for both to come out.

Now the question is do I want to start over or just continue from my end game....

 

[mikeymikec]

zin - more than one walkthrough shows the objects one needs to examine, I've found all of them, it's just that the game won't let me examine them.

Like you, I was in the middle of another quest when this one was triggered, and I've tried finding another body that the walkthroughs describe, but because they don't show the location, nor do they show the location of the reavers, I haven't had any luck trying to trigger the quest, nor has any scent shown up despite me doing many circles of the surrounding area.

Unfortunately I don't think I can go back to a previous save because I'm in the habit of using quick-saves which steadily get overwritten.

 

[mikeymikec]

Walking approximately WNW of the trading posts's fast travel post for some time gets one to a gentle hill with the Reavers waiting. I managed to complete the quest from there.

 

[futurefields]

I own The Witcher 3 on Steam with no DLC and have not played the game yet.

Can I upgrade to the GOTY version when it comes out? I'd rather play that version than buying all the DLC seperately and installing all the free DLC's seperately. The clean, single installed GOTY version with all that stuff preloaded is the much preferable version to play.

 

[escrow4]

I own The Witcher 3 on Steam with no DLC and have not played the game yet.

Can I upgrade to the GOTY version when it comes out? I'd rather play that version than buying all the DLC seperately and installing all the free DLC's seperately. The clean, single installed GOTY version with all that stuff preloaded is the much preferable version to play.

No, DLC is around $30 USD on top of the base game.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

If you have all the DLC I think I read it'll convert you to GOTY edition. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an upgrade option.

 

[smackababy]

Finally going to do the DLC. I purchased the season pass on release and just haven't do anything. Going to start fresh.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I've just completed the game a second time around (ie. main plot and both expansions), but I'm having a problem with a quest in the blood and wine expansion, titled "Mutual of Beauclair's Wild Kingdom". I completed the question the previous time I completed the game without any problems, but this time I can't get past the quest step of "find out more about the second victim". The mini-map specifies the area to search, and every walkthrough says that I have to examine the body in the camp, some scales , maybe a mark on a wooden pole, and some burnt/melted barrels, however none of these objects are 'examinable', so I can't get the plot to move forward. Any ideas? I guess it doesn't really matter as I've done the quest before, but it is just bugging me

I have encountered similar quest errors. One with a witch that lives on a hill top you are supposed to be able to examine everything in the hut and then get a dialog choice that would be a peaceful outcome where you can complete the quest without a negative consequences. This option never came up for me so I had to kind of cheat and look up online how to find the specific item you need in order to get the "good" outcome. The dialog options were supposed to give you hints on where and what to find.

I imagine you have encountered a similar bug with this play through.

 

[Stg-Flame]

My game just updated to the GoTY edition on Steam (or just downloaded a 4GB patch) and the changelog says the loot has seen some tweaks. Anyone have any idea what that entails?

 

[zinfamous]

I strongly recommend any player spend days going through the question marks (except the Skellige sea ones) because if not you will miss the richness CD Projekt added in. Even basic contracts and stuff you run into is well written. Also make sure you read the notes and journals you come across (they ain't that long). I'd also recommend Ursine armor or Tesham Mutna armor as lower armor tends Geralt into tissue paper. Tried light and medium armor towards the end of Blood and Wine and meh really. I also played on maximum easy for the story, not the combat.

You do realize that armor ratings on top tier sets are the same for light-medium-heavy, right? Neither set will rend Geralt to tissue paper faster than the other, because that is dependent on you being able to dodge and avoid damage, as the game expects you to do. Death March with light armor is incredibly easy, especially because the light armor trait is infinitely better than the others. This actually allows you to rend everything else into paper faster than other armor sets that you are wearing.

I actually found myself switching from medium and heavy sets at one point to try and make the game harder.

The only tankiness to be gained above other sets is only with a full grandmaster set, and when Ursine gives you a bonus to Quen. It's OK but not great, and it also requires you to spend a lot of points in Quen to make it effective (which isn't bad, because it is a useful sign. You will probably spend some points here anyway). But the cost of those points to benefit that trait is higher than the single point to toss on the light armor trait with your light set, and just kill everything much faster. I do like the look of the Ursine Armor, but it isn't as useful as the others. What you can do, though, is go full Ursine, then get that dude in the HoS content to enchant the Ursine chest piece to treat that set like light armor, so you can take advantage of the light armor trait. You get the looks of the Ursine set, and the actual usefulness of using light armor.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I liked the hood on the Grandmaster Feline armor after I dyed it red.

 

[balloonshark]

Greenman gaming has the GOTY for $29.99 if you're logged into their site. I ended up pre-ordering it from cdkeys for $28 and change with 5% off facebook coupon. Had I known Greenman was going to carry it at a similar price I would have grabbed it from them instead as they are totally legit. Both have GOG drm.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Anyone give that Witcher Enhanced mod a go? Seems like it does some pretty gnarly perk and combat system rebalances.

 

[BxgJ]

Well, for anyone wondering if cd projekt red would be picking an ending for further content, it appears they have. There is a new digital comic out, and no I won't spoil it, but here's the link.

Spoilers in link! For the ending at least.

http://en.cdprojektred.com/news/new-digital-comic-the-witcher-curse-of-crows-1-now-available/

 

[mikeymikec]

I liked the hood on the Grandmaster Feline armor after I dyed it red.

If you equip the ass ears then the hood isn't up.

 

[smackababy]

Finally beat heart of stone and put like 15 hours into blood and wine so far. This is what DLC should be about. Tons of content.

 

[norseamd]

Anyone give that Witcher Enhanced mod a go? Seems like it does some pretty gnarly perk and combat system rebalances.

Which one?

 

[mikeymikec]

You do realize that armor ratings on top tier sets are the same for light-medium-heavy, right? Neither set will rend Geralt to tissue paper faster than the other, because that is dependent on you being able to dodge and avoid damage, as the game expects you to do.

Admittedly I hadn't checked it at Grandmaster level, but I thought that basically the heavier the armour, the higher resistance towards slashing/other types of damage?

One odd thing I did notice though is that feline stuff was heavier (as in weight) than other "heavier" witcher armours. The swords as well, IIRC. I've uninstalled the game for the time being so I can't just dive in and check right now.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Which one?

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Enhanced Edition by reaperrz

 

[Fire&Blood]

I'm probably picking up another 980TI, I'll start again for mods and 4K.

Witcher 3 has spoiled me, it set the bar where most other studios just can't reach.
Eidos and CDPR had comparable budget and development time frames, yet the progression from Witcher 2 to Witcher 3 is impressive, less so than Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. W2 was more PC focused and didn't accommodate for casuals to the degree W3 does but there is significant progress that extends beyond technical aspects such as visuals assets, the studio has evolved with each Witcher release.

I realize I'll have spent more than 200 hours in the game once I start over.
What this studio could do if they had IP's that EA sits on...

 

[smackababy]

I'm probably picking up another 980TI, I'll start again for mods and 4K.

Witcher 3 has spoiled me, it set the bar where most other studios just can't reach.
Eidos and CDPR had comparable budget and development time frames, yet the progression from Witcher 2 to Witcher 3 is impressive, less so than Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. W2 was more PC focused and didn't accommodate for casuals to the degree W3 does but there is significant progress that extends beyond technical aspects such as visuals assets, the studio has evolved with each Witcher release.

I realize I'll have spent more than 200 hours in the game once I start over.
What this studio could do if they had IP's that EA sits on...

I think the story telling in Witcher 2 was superior, but I love being "forced" into choices, both of which are possibly bad and not knowing if I totally agree with mine until it's too late. Because, that is life. I do really enjoy the world in Witcher 3 not feeling so incredibly shallow, similar to what I always feel in an Elder Scrolls game.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm thinking of playing the game again on a harder difficulty level (I don't remember what or how many levels there are, but I imagine I played it on the default/normal difficulty). I'm aware that one aspect of the next difficulty level up is that meditation doesn't result in healing, but is there anything else I ought to be aware of?

 

[BxgJ]

I'm thinking of playing the game again on a harder difficulty level (I don't remember what or how many levels there are, but I imagine I played it on the default/normal difficulty). I'm aware that one aspect of the next difficulty level up is that meditation doesn't result in healing, but is there anything else I ought to be aware of?

Well the meditation is one thing, and also there's the standard larger enemy hp and attack values I believe. At least I know they hit quite a bit harder, my second playthrough was on the second highest level, blood and broken bones or something. Just started a deathmarch playthrough recently so I don't have enough direct experience with it to say much.

The main result of the second hard (blood and broken bones) difficulty is a harder starting curve, mostly through White Orchard. Once you get going in the next area, and accumulate more potions, oils, etc. things get a bit easier. However the enemies do hit harder than normal, and you can die quick if you don't pay attention. It was a much more satisfying experience than normal for me.

 

[bystander36]

I found that once you can get your Shield levels up, that the game gets a lot more manageable with the ability to heal as enemies hit it. Until then, things are quire dicey.