Let's talk about The Witcher.

[Topher]

I just started playing The Witcher this week... I know I'm a little late to the party so let's get straight to the point. I'm somewhere in the middle of what I guess you'd call act 1, dealing with the hell hound and finding a lead on Salamandra. So far it's been all Fedex quests and tiny dungeons but the game has some got decent polish and a nice attention to detail so I can look past those problems but what I can't look past is the awful combat. Quite frankly it's shit. If a game is going to burden the player with atrocious combat it should at least have the decency to make it as laid back and as hands off as possible, like the infinity engine games. Anyway, The Witcher has got a lot of features to like but the combat really brings it down for me.

Should I set it to easy and restart from the begging? Just keep trucking because it get's better somehow? or just say fuck it and play something else? Is the game worth trucking through the bad combat for? I've heard that the first town makes a pretty bad first impression.

 

[DraQ]

I just started playing The Witcher this week... I know I'm a little late to the party so let's get straight to the point. I'm somewhere in the middle of what I guess you'd call act 1, dealing with the hell hound and finding a lead on Salamandra. So far it's been all Fedex quests and tiny dungeons but the game has some got decent polish

If a game is going to burden the player with atrocious combat it should at least have the decency to make it as laid back and as hands off as possible, like the infinity engine games.

Well, laid-back attitude to combat helps in Witcher, mostly because you will then spend less time interrupting your combos through spurious clicks.
For the reference I use TPP and consider it superior to the pseudo-iso modes, it also allows you to override pathfinding AI with direct input, which is better than inevitably futile attempts at herding your party in IE games.

Should I set it to easy and restart from the begging?

No, you should set it to hard, if you haven't already. Hard makes pre-combat preparations vital, and emphasis on preparations, toxicity, and buying yourself some time for potions in mid-combat with a sign do make the combat experience better.

Is the game worth trucking through the bad combat for? I've heard that the first town makes a pretty bad first impression.

Yes and yes.

 

[poocolator]

I just started playing The Witcher this week... I know I'm a little late to the party so let's get straight to the point. I'm somewhere in the middle of what I guess you'd call act 1, dealing with the hell hound and finding a lead on Salamandra. So far it's been all Fedex quests and tiny dungeons but the game has some got decent polish

You beat me to it, damnit.

 

[Metro]

It's worth playing through once for the story/setting. But, yes, the majority of quests are going to be of the FedEx/MMO variety. There are a few really well done vignettes you will run into in the next chapter or so but for the most part don't expect any significant changes in game play as you progress. However, I do agree the first act/village is the game's low point. But... just don't expect it to improve dramatically.

 

[Varn]

To be honest I wouldn't bother slogging through. I did, and got through that first main city up to the point where you go to the Swamp. At that point it was still just never-ending respawning enemies that result in identical fights over and over again. The game had basically no loot, no exploration, and few unique enemies . Sure it had a story but to me it was bland and uninteresting, so I had no incentive to continue unfortunately. I did like some of the atmosphere but that alone wasn't enough to make up for the other flaws in the combat and other RPG elements.

 

[Lesifoere]

To be honest I wouldn't bother slogging through. I did, and got through that first main city up to the point where you go to the Swamp. At that point it was still just never-ending respawning enemies that result in identical fights over and over again. The game had basically no loot, no exploration, and few unique enemies . Sure it had a story but to me it was bland and uninteresting, so I had no incentive to continue unfortunately. I did like some of the atmosphere but that alone wasn't enough to make up for the other flaws in the combat and other RPG elements.

Tell us what you think of Bioware "RPGs," newfag.

 

[Topher]

Well, I started to slog through and I've gotten to the fight with the hound. Fight starts, I get bit once, now I'm stunned-locked, I die. I mean for fucks sake the game won't even let me draw my weapon and start taking action until my standing animation is finished so I just stand there trying to pause and by the time I can start to take my first swing I'm already surrounded by hounds. Oh well, I'll just have to give the fight a few more goes. It would be nice if I could save in between the long as confrontation with the villagers and the fight but as is every time I fail I have to reload in the cave and go through the whole thing again.

 

[laclongquan]

Drink a willow potion, yo!

Right beside the witch is a fireplace, use that. I think even if you clean your inventory you still have some material to make a willow potion (antistun). After drinking it and start talking with villagers skip to the battle very fast because the potion run out in real time.

For easier battle, I think spector oil on your witcher sword will help.

 

[Topher]

Drink a willow potion, yo!

Right beside the witch is a fireplace, use that. I think even if you clean your inventory you still have some material to make a willow potion (antistun). After drinking it and start talking with villagers skip to the battle very fast because the potion run out in real time.

For easier battle, I think spector oil on your witcher sword will help.

I've never even heard of Willow potions or Spector Oil, I all the books that I've come across that seem to discuss potions or anything like that, maybe I missed one.

*Yep, I just checked and I don't have access to either Willow Potions or Spector Oil. I tried drinking a swallow and a blizzard pre-fight but I don't think the effects carry over into the actual fight and I can't even tell how much damage I'm doing to the hound because all the particle and fire effects are blocking his heath bar.

 

[made]

Wrong forum, obvious troll.

Witcher > all

 

[laclongquan]

Open the journal, formulae section. You should know at least two, three other formula, if you play normally.

Willow: 1 Quebrith, 2 Aether. You possibly dont have high quality ingredients, maybe only some basic, so make a basic Willow.

If you cant, then eat a meaty food before hand and drink a Rubedo-type potion (White Honey is easiest) before hand, then a basic Swallow that you should still have one or two left. That take care of your HP regen.

 

[laclongquan]

ANd for fuck sake, lower all the graphic setting and advanced setting to lower the strain on your hardware. The fucking fire particles make for this battle the most complaint-inducing of all in Witcher. Lower end PC cant even run it.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

what's so bad about witcher combat anyway? as say, compared to any other ARPG to have come out recently

The amount of it, and the lack of options.

It's a pretty atmospheric game though, I like that.

 

[Topher]

what's so bad about witcher combat anyway? as say, compared to any other ARPG to have come out recently

The Witcher decided to go with a very active combat system but then took all the action out of it, so you're just left with a repetitive clicking mini-game. You don't even seem to benefit from trying to time your attacks based on enemy actions, you just click away at pre-set intervals and hope that your passive parry and block skills kick in enough that you won't need to waste a heath potion after the fight. Ultimately it's boring and forces me to lavish it with constant attention. As for why it sucks compared to other recent ARPG's, I have no idea, all the recent ARPG's have looked like shit so I never bothered to play them. I liked the combat in Dark Messiah though and The Witcher would have been a much better game had it used a similar system. When in comes to ARPG's either give me full control over my swings or make the individual swings more passive like BG or KotOR. As is the combat is a freaky and unlovable bastard child lost somewhere between Action games and RPG's.

Anyway, I don't have the recipe for Willow but I made some anyway only to find out that the hounds are putting me into pain so the potion doesn't help me in the least bit. I'm also drinking a swallow and eating a chicken sandwich in the cave before the fight starts but the HP-regen doesn't help much in a 10 second long fight especially when I spend 8 second of it in stun-lock. I pretty much go into "pain" the moment a get surrounded by hounds. I'm going to try raising my Endurance to see if that helps but I'll be kinda disappointed if that what I'll have to do because that would mean that you pretty much need to raise every single stat to play the game and that kind of defeats the purpose of RPG-elements in the first place.

*The game is atmospheric and I really like that about it but it remains to be seen if that will be enough for me, though if I don't get through this fight soon it won't matter anyway. Also, the fight runs smooth on my hardware but I might turn down the effects anyway just so I can see the bosses health bar.

 

[laclongquan]

Filler combat you could just running through them with silver sword at fast. That make your speed pretty damn quick and you outrun those slowpoke.

 

[laclongquan]

The dwarf smith do sell Crinfrid Oil recipe at 35gp. IT apply Pain to your sword, try using it?

And use your combat maneouves. double click one of the either set: wasd or four directional key to move out of that spot. or jump over them to a more open space. Dont let them surround, yo! Your fast/group style allow move around a lot make for good position.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

If you're good with that push sign you can just use that and stun everything for free kills. Boss dog included if you've levelled it enough.

But I guess you're not, then?

 

[Topher]

Well, I've tried the fight about 35 times not and so far I've been pain stunned and killed every single time. My magic isn't leveled but I guess I could reload and level that too.

*Umm... well the hounds dead, I don't know how or why but it is so whatever. I never even hit him but about 10 seconds into the fight he just sorta fell over dead for no apparent reason, pity I suppose.

 

[laclongquan]

I remember a few talent in stamina and strength tree you could choose to increase Pain resistance. Have you level up your Geralt yet? Or are you like me running around half the chapter 1 without spending a single bronze?

 

[Excommunicator]

I was basically in the same position as you Topher, and with the very same impressions from the game.

I believe I got up to a point where some guy on the bridge asked me to go into a cave in order to get permission into the city.
I started playing on hard, and after experiencing the combat and various other disappointments (invisible walls around a straight path are a particular dislike of mine, and it seems this game is composed entirely of that) I basically just gave up on it. There was nothing to enjoy in what I was doing. I was getting frustrated and hoping the stupid combat would end so I could get on with the story and character advancement and quests and what-not, but then the quests were all repetitive and boring, the "skills" are just numerical bonuses on basic combat activities with no real "flavour", and the characters just haven't been interesting enough to follow.

I just can't enjoy this game.

 

[turn_based_fanboy]

Drink a willow potion, yo!

Right beside the witch is a fireplace, use that. I think even if you clean your inventory you still have some material to make a willow potion (antistun). After drinking it and start talking with villagers skip to the battle very fast because the potion run out in real time.

For easier battle, I think spector oil on your witcher sword will help.

I've never even heard of Willow potions or Spector Oil, I all the books that I've come across that seem to discuss potions or anything like that, maybe I missed one.

*Yep, I just checked and I don't have access to either Willow Potions or Spector Oil. I tried drinking a swallow and a blizzard pre-fight but I don't think the effects carry over into the actual fight and I can't even tell how much damage I'm doing to the hound because all the particle and fire effects are blocking his heath bar.

If i rememeber you have to talk a bit with the dwarf blacksmith near tavern to get that oil.

 

[el Supremo]

Make yourself a White Gull potion, and drink it right after the cutscene. It will make Geralt drunk, but also very resistant to a pain. Also, the potion giving you more chances for a critical hit, what-its-name, with it you can sometimes kill a Beast with one hit.
On my first playthrough the Beast have given me a run for my money, but during the replay, when I knew what I was doing, the fight was over before it really started. Kind of disapoint

For me, the fighting system just have been there. I neither liked, nor disliked it. It was doing it's work - disposing of the enemies. Sure, it was not a state of the art fighting system like a Gothic 1 and 2 have had, where the fighting was fun in itself. But infinitely better then in, say, Planetscape: Torment, where fighting was.. well.. a torment.

Witcher fighting system do have some high points, though. I managed to kill a Kikimore Queen with my sword, in face to face combat, like real witcher, as opposed to a way the developers intended.

 

[laclongquan]

Does kill her in the way developers intended give more xp/stuffs than close combat?

 

[Mrowak]

Well, I've tried the fight about 35 times not and so far I've been pain stunned and killed every single time. My magic isn't leveled but I guess I could reload and level that too.

*Umm... well the hounds dead, I don't know how or why but it is so whatever. I never even hit him but about 10 seconds into the fight he just sorta fell over dead for no apparent reason, pity I suppose.

If a game is going to burden the player with atrocious combat it should at least have the decency to make it as laid back and as hands off as possible, like the infinity engine games. Anyway, The Witcher has got a lot of features to like but the combat really brings it down for me.

This is, bloody hell, why we can't have nice things again!

First combat being all kinds of bad. Frankly, I don't remember RPG since gothic 2 (or ToEE... which came first?) till risen that had better implemented combat and better encounter design. Yes, the trash mobs were annoying, but alt least, unlike in DA:O you could just run past through them most of the time and never look back. Even MotB, I like very much, had simply SHIT combat.

The only thing that combat did wrong was that it was too easy, even on hard, which is still fine for the first playthrough! That's why I've been telling everyone: Use Full Combat Rebalance Mod. I can't replay Twitcher without it on board. Amazing experience.

Also, complaining about the Beast being too tough?! The beast fight is the best Biowhore indicator for me. I mean, I've been told time and time again you will confront the monster. It is fated encounter - that's obvious from scene one. So instead of actually doing some research on it, to find its weakness and to make preparations and compatible character build - mix some spectre oil, stock up with swallow potions, make a blizzard potion, do NOT invest your Ability Token in FIRE spell because the beast is creature of FIRE, and so on - they simply scream CHARGE!!! and die horribly... And they go complain on Dev forums how the game is broken because they are morons. FFS

 

[Topher]

Drink a willow potion, yo!

Right beside the witch is a fireplace, use that. I think even if you clean your inventory you still have some material to make a willow potion (antistun). After drinking it and start talking with villagers skip to the battle very fast because the potion run out in real time.

For easier battle, I think spector oil on your witcher sword will help.

I've never even heard of Willow potions or Spector Oil, I all the books that I've come across that seem to discuss potions or anything like that, maybe I missed one.

*Yep, I just checked and I don't have access to either Willow Potions or Spector Oil. I tried drinking a swallow and a blizzard pre-fight but I don't think the effects carry over into the actual fight and I can't even tell how much damage I'm doing to the hound because all the particle and fire effects are blocking his heath bar.

If i rememeber you have to talk a bit with the dwarf blacksmith near tavern to get that oil.

The blacksmith gives you a Crinfrid Oil.

Also, White Gull potions make you resistant to pain? I've had one in my inventory since the tutorial, I though it was just a potion base. Would have been helpful had the hound not chosen to suicide. I still don't know how he died but I know for sure that I didn't do it. No matter I've moved on to Chapter 2 and into prison.