The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[lilrayray69]

I've noticed some stuttering/hitching on my 970, but usually it's because the games set to borderless window and going to fullscreen fixes it.

I've noticed a lot of glitches with some of the terrain - namely, cliffs and the like. Firstly, at least in the first area, there are lots of areas with cliff ranges you just can't seem to get around lol. My horse will glitch a lot around cliffs and may actually fall down them but not get hurt at all.

I too also notice that civilian npcs on roads will walk straight into me if im standing still and then will get mad at me. I also notice a lot of NPC pop-in if I ride into a town. They also freak out for seemingly no reason at times.

I'm having some trouble figuring out what to do. I'm level 5 but my lowest level quest recommends 6 - I have some quests for like lvl 14 and 26 somehow. I went back tothe first area and did all the sidequests but that didn't gain me a level. I wonder around in Valen sometimes and run across level 14s and 15s. Basically I don't know where to level up enough to keep progressing with the main quest line.

 

[Merad]

Has anyone else had a blacksmith bug and be unable to talk to them? Need to craft my griffin swords but the dude in Blackbough is not cooperating.

I'm having some trouble figuring out what to do. I'm level 5 but my lowest level quest recommends 6 - I have some quests for like lvl 14 and 26 somehow. I went back tothe first area and did all the sidequests but that didn't gain me a level. I wonder around in Valen sometimes and run across level 14s and 15s. Basically I don't know where to level up enough to keep progressing with the main quest line.

Did you do all of the "?" points of interest in the first area? You should be ok continuing the main quest at level 5. It's mostly just exploration for the first few parts after you drop in the main world. You can also go out and explore the world. You'll run into some higher level monsters, but you generally have a chance to run away.

Man...I'm beginning to think they expected people to check all the towns before they explore any. Like whoever play tested it did everything in order and didn't discover any places through random chance. Thus the programming for some quests is off. I guess I can chalk it up to it being CDPR's first open world game. Bound to have a few things that don't quite work out with so many variables in play style.

There are definitely some things they expected people to do in a certain order... For example you can't cross the bridge to Oxenfurt without a pass, but all the quests that can land you a pass are located at the river crossing just north of Hanged Man's Tree, and there's no hints that you should go there.

 

[sze5003]

Where are all the ? Areas in the first section? So when I'm on my way to ask the one traveler where he found the bodies from the Griffen, that's part of a side quest? Or should I have gone along that path and talked to people with a ! Next to them?

 

[Merad]

Where are all the ? Areas in the first section? So when I'm on my way to ask the one traveler where he found the bodies from the Griffen, that's part of a side quest? Or should I have gone along that path and talked to people with a ! Next to them?

A "!" on the map is a person who will start a side quest. A "?" is just some point of interest, usually a chest with monsters around it, bandit camp, etc. A few POIs do start a short side quest, though.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Has anyone else had a blacksmith bug and be unable to talk to them? Need to craft my griffin swords but the dude in Blackbough is not cooperating.







Did you do all of the "?" points of interest in the first area? You should be ok continuing the main quest at level 5. It's mostly just exploration for the first few parts after you drop in the main world. You can also go out and explore the world. You'll run into some higher level monsters, but you generally have a chance to run away.







There are definitely some things they expected people to do in a certain order... For example you can't cross the bridge to Oxenfurt without a pass, but all the quests that can land you a pass are located at the river crossing just north of Hanged Man's Tree, and there's no hints that you should go there.

If you swim across you can get right in and the guards don't care.

 

[Merad]

If you swim across you can get right in and the guards don't care.

I know, but that's not the point.

 

[JeffMD]

Yes, it did it when I patched, but then it did it again for no reason.

Now, why they elected to use borderless windowed mode for the default setting is another question...

Its what I use. Locking fps at 60 is also default so using windowed mode and working at 60hz refresh isn't an issue, and games handle alt tabbing tons better when windowed than full screen. There are few reasons to use full screen these days.

 

[Mem]

Finally after work tonite I may have some time to get past the beginning area lol.

I'm still in that area with almost 9 hours playing time according to Galaxy so not rushing it,upgraded via crafting all my Witcher weapons and armour,amazing what you find by just exploring.

I was about to leave that area and found a new quest in middle of nowhere.

I liked the

Spoiler

Witcher one from the Witcher Viper clan/school by just exploring in the beginning area

.

 

[Cerb]

Finally got around to it. I'm haven't killed the first little monster quest, the noonwraith (the quest said to prepare for battle, but I decided to prepare for work the next day ), so I can't say too much about the combat system, except to say that I'm already liking it more than TW2 (which isn't hard, since, while I loved TW2, once I trained myself to play it, and got it modded to be more playable, I still hated the UI). As a KB/M user, I find selecting and then casting signs to be much easier than having many key mappings. The fast/strong momentary toggling is very easy to get used to. I was really hoping they'd find a way to bring back group sword attacks...

So far, the worst I've taken on have been wolf packs, but I like that I can actually manage to attack multiple enemies quickly, without needing to dodge and roll excessively, like in TW2 (I'm one of those RPG players that scoffs at healers, and takes along more firepower, instead ). I figure boss fights will be exceptions, but that's why they're bosses, right?

The Witcher Senses for herbs is kind of silly, IMO, when they are on the minimap. Other than that, I think it is a good implementation of, "the character has superhuman senses, but regular human limits on attention to them," as opposed to the magic effect type thing they did in TW2 (subtle changes make a difference).

The distance and FOV are tolerable, but I eagerly await a way to change them both.

I'm not sure I like the floating markers on enemies. The less obtrusive TW1 ring on the ground was very nice, IMO, even if maybe not as console-/TV-friendly.

With a E3-1230V3 and GTX 970, having all at ultra, except for turning off blur, Hairworks, bloom, various blurs, light shafts*, and turning down shadows one step, I get very playable framerates, and it looks pretty good. The highest quality shadows, like in most games, hurts too much. The fiery light on the ground from the sun, and the way it plays with the shadows kind of makes up for some of the other graphical weaknesses of the world at large and NPCs, IMO (fuzzy rope textures, in 2015? *sigh*). Even while down in the 20s, the only stuttering I get is if I walk outside from inside on a cold save load, which is not related to graphics performance.

Borderless window doesn't alt-tab right, so I went full screen right away. I know, it's usually the other way around. Figures, that when a borderless window is included in the options, rather than done by a hack, or command-line parameter, it's not the right one to use .

The most annoying thing so far has been NPC pop-in, which can sometimes literally consist of seeing the NPCs show up out of thin air, and drop down on to the ground. I really hope they get rid of that.

* I wish they'd make it condition-dependent, instead of godrays everywhere. You should see them with dirty air, very humid air, in fog, etc., but they'll be different intensities and colors. As an afterthought, like in most games, I find it immersion-breaking.

 

[smackababy]

Ugh, so the patch broke one of my quests. It was a POI where I found a key and a note to find the valuables in some burnt down house. Well, I stopped playing the day before the patch at that point, and when I loaded back up, the Treasure Hunt quest was no longer complete. I still had the awesome sword I found, and couldn't find any other spots. =(

Also, protip: fight nightwraiths during the day. One of the Witcher contracts was super hard, so I left and when I came back during the day time (after doing a bunch of other stuff), it was super easy.

Also, concerning the bloody baron's wife,

Spoiler

is there any way to get that demon horse you can summon (druid spirit in the Hag quest)? I hate that I don't get squat from that shit. I hope I can kill those witches later too, because screw them!

 

[Merad]

I was really hoping they'd find a way to bring back group sword attacks...

It's basically physics based instead of a specific combat style. If you get face to face with a group of 2-3 enemies you can hit them all with one attack. But obviously much higher risk of being hit yourself.

 

[gothamhunter]

In case anyone was still on TW3's case about graphics, I'd say it looks pretty good:
https://imgur.com/gallery/MgEuL

 

[Cerb]

It's basically physics based instead of a specific combat style. If you get face to face with a group of 2-3 enemies you can hit them all with one attack. But obviously much higher risk of being hit yourself.

I'm still going blind (intentionally haven't read this thread until today, FI, since I got it downloaded), but I thought I had noticed that with strong attacks on wolves. But, with the styles, it's more fun factor. That was one of things that was just fun to do in TW1, and was just as often a great defensive tactic as it was a death sentence.

 

[smackababy]

I'm still going blind (intentionally haven't read this thread until today, FI, since I got it downloaded), but I thought I had noticed that with strong attacks on wolves. But, with the styles, it's more fun factor. That was one of things that was just fun to do in TW1, and was just as often a great defensive tactic as it was a death sentence.

Yeah, there aren't styles, but you can hit multiple people with a single blow. In my high level testing, I lopped off 3 bandit's heads with a single swing. Got a couple "multi" kills with finishers too. Like, slit a guy's throat as I am going in for the finishing stab type thing.

 

[Mem]

I'm still going blind (intentionally haven't read this thread until today, FI, since I got it downloaded), but I thought I had noticed that with strong attacks on wolves. But, with the styles, it's more fun factor. That was one of things that was just fun to do in TW1, and was just as often a great defensive tactic as it was a death sentence.

Igni spell is good on wolves,some died before I even attacked with my sword,I do have igni enhancement however on my gear.

 

[Mem]

Where are all the ? Areas in the first section? So when I'm on my way to ask the one traveler where he found the bodies from the Griffen, that's part of a side quest? Or should I have gone along that path and talked to people with a ! Next to them?

Open up your journal ("J" key),you can see all your quests there including main story one, click on one and hit space bar to make it your main interest and way marker for that quest location.


M key for map is good too to see all the main areas of interest.

I'm still at level 4 and have done virtually all the starting area.

 

[smackababy]

So, reading a PC review on metacritic has me like 'wat'. One of the reviews claimed Skyrim / Oblivion has better combat than W3. Wtf?

 

[Cerb]

Igni spell is good on wolves,some died before I even attacked with my sword,I do have igni enhancement however on my gear.

I've been doing that on them and deer for coin :twisted:. I've been playing slower games recently, for the most part, so I've been going after the wolves repeatedly to get used to combat move timing, and kiting. Back when I didn't have the patience for long RPGs, I could get used to something like this in 5-10 minutes. Now that I'm used to slow real-time, stealth, turn-based tactics, etc., and just plain spend less time playing video games than I used to, I have to really spend time to get back in the groove of a game with fast combat that isn't just shooting from a distance. I would probably embarrass myself, if I played a Street Fighter, today .

 

[Zenoth]

I'm skipping posts to avoid potential spoilers.

But I just wanted to comment on something, one aspect of the game that I really have to get off my chest. I LOVE the game so far, almost everything about it screams dedication and passion from the devs. You can definitely tell, see and feel their work. It truly is, overall, a masterpiece. I just wanted to make it absolutely crystal clear that I adore this game, and it even managed to be better than some of my highest expectations I had for it.

Now, with this said...

I really have to pause a moment and wonder why do developers bother doing that in RPGs to this day. And I'll finally say what this is all about. It's about merely being able to not only 1) enter stranger's homes to start with, but 2) essentially ransacking every villages and towns' worth of inhabitant's belongings and goods... only to walk away without a single hint of care and slight trace of reactions on their part. I know, guards will react, will even attack you on sight if they themselves spot you. I suppose that's fine (at least, there's that). But when I walk in the fragile old wooden "home" of a peasant and start looting every bags and book shelves I can interact with without a single word sent my way about it... I mean I do have my limits when it comes to suspension of disbelief. Am I supposed to imagine that it's simply not happening at all and just do it for the sake of accumulating resources "just because it's a game"? What if I feel like immersing myself in the game's world and setting? You know... I don't know... something along the lines of role-playing as Geralt?

So, I can't help myself but wonder why did CDPR actually bothered to even include interactive objects, interactive anything in homes? I guess that NOT allowing us to enter homes to start with would have resulted in people (maybe including myself) complaining about how NOT "open world" the game would have been then, because we'd have cried about not being able to enter homes as we'd see fit because every time we'd try to, the door would be locked, or the peasant would take the nearest shovel and welcome us with it, or would alert the nearest guards in doing so. The other solution might have been to allow us to enter homes... but that's it. We'd be able to enter, maybe to chat with a peasant or two, heck might have been able to play Gwent with some of them, but would simply have nothing to click on and no loot to find in there (in their homes). Then... even if that would have been done, I suppose that most people would have cried about how not "open world" the game would have been then, because even though we'd be able to enter most homes then there would have been no point in doing so since nothing could be looted from them, right?

Well then, we're back to square one. Let's allow us the players to enter homes just like that BUT... let's make sure that outside their 24 hours schedules all existing NPCs in a town or a village, excluding guards, essentially have no A.I. whatsoever. I mean, sure, let's give A.I. to the guards, but let's forget about the villagers, 'coz you know, it's THEIR homes we're getting into, not the guard's, right? The best part? It's when it's getting late and they go home to sleep. You enter, door is not even locked to start with and no one wakes up or stands up. Sometimes I see family's kids sitting next to their parents beds (as their parents sleep), and as they seem to whisper some things to themselves, fully awake, I just walk by "Oh, sorry, hey there, I'm Geralt of Rivia, mind if I steal everything you poor fellas managed to accumulate over the past 10 years in a matter of a few seconds? It's for a good cause, I kill monsters, so you guys can survive the next day, kthxbai".

Ok, sure I could just ignore it and refrain myself from doing it. But then I'd walk past all those homes, unattended, with that back-thought in mind about how I'm missing all that potential loot that I could later dismantle to craft more and better items without the need to go buy said mats at merchants. Not to mention that I'm a completionist. I HAVE to walk on, see, interact with every pixel, nooks and crannies that such games have to offer. So of course I'm gonna enter homes if you let me to. The only thing I would expect in return is SOME reaction from the owner, at LEAST let them SAY something. Not sure if some people realize it but as much as Witcher 3 is "current gen" (fully so), stealing stuff on sight of people in their homes back in games likes Morrowind and Oblivion resulted in actual reactions, 'ya know. How many times in Oblivion didn't I end up being chased by a store's clerk from inside as I stole something to outside as the clerk also chased me out along with the guards. And that was many years ago, from a much inferior engine, for a much inferior generation of hardware too.

Seriously, that gameplay "mechanic" of nonchalantly entering people's homes without a single NPC reaction (even as you steal goods on sight) needs to stop. It's very old and it has no place in a game like Witcher 3. And I want to be clear, what has "no place" isn't the fact that you can enter people's homes. What has no place is only how NPCs do NOT react to it at all... THAT has no place in Witcher 3. I don't care if the peasant if physically as weak as a dying leaf and I could one-shot him if he'd "dared" attacking me ('coz how dated I entered his home to start with, right?). I also don't care if some woman decides to order her pigs to charge at me if she has nothing else than her pickaxe to let me know she doesn't want me in her field stealing her onions. I just want SOME reaction on their part other than just standing there doing literally nothing.

I'm typing all this, but right now in my current game I'm in the process of essentially ransacking Novigrad (without the "doing a lot of infrastructure damage" part that a real ransacking would do, obviously). It's gonna take me a couple more hours but so far I've managed to steal enough mats that even once dismantled I'm about 60% full on my weight capacity. I mean sure, thanks CDPR but it really wasn't a challenge.

This is really the only real gripe I have with this game so far. I do have to remind myself that I'm talking 'bout The Witcher 3 here.

 

[zinfamous]

OK, my week duties are mostly done, and I have a long stretch of hours to geek out and go full troll mode into gross videogame nerd grossness.

can't wait!

 

[zinfamous]

I'm skipping posts to avoid potential spoilers.

But I just wanted to comment on something, one aspect of the game that I really have to get off my chest. I LOVE the game so far, almost everything about it screams dedication and passion from the devs. You can definitely tell, see and feel their work. It truly is, overall, a masterpiece. I just wanted to make it absolutely crystal clear that I adore this game, and it even managed to be better than some of my highest expectations I had for it.

Now, with this said...

WALL

Yeah, I feel the same way. You bargain with some poor shclup that can only offer a piece of cabbage in payment, you take it gracefully...then proceed to rob him blind of--hey, what's this?!--cabinets and chests full of coin, golden rings, food, weapons....it's strange.

Only some thefts will get you in trouble, but it's quite strange that in a world where nearly every ignorant peasant hates your guts for being all weird-looking, they don't seem to mind you barging into their homes, waking them up in their sleep, bedding their wenches, and stealing everything they own.

...at least TES gets that part right.

 

[Cerb]

This is really the only real gripe I have with this game so far. I do have to remind myself that I'm talking 'bout The Witcher 3 here.

And it's not like there haven't been games that keep track of ownership, and create problems for you if you steal...

 

[Grooveriding]

So, reading a PC review on metacritic has me like 'wat'. One of the reviews claimed Skyrim / Oblivion has better combat than W3. Wtf?

LOL Skyrim's combat is the most awful thing ever.

I have no idea where I am in the storyline currently of W3 and won't say to prevent spoilers, but I'm level 12 now and have been doing lots of side quests and mixing in some main storyline as well.

This is easily the best RPG to release since I can remember. It shits on Skyrim.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[sze5003]

I've got one more side quest in white orchard to do, the one where I need to craft a potion. Had to use a guide to find some of the other quest locations. Surprising I'm still level one looks like it will take time to get myself leveled up.