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Quest markers, stupid, popamole questmarkers

Do you use questmarkes in The Witchening 3?

  • Yes, all the time (popamole)

    Votes: 25 45.5%
  • Never (I'm old school dawg)

    Votes: 14 25.5%
  • Sometimes I switch them on, but I try to avoid it

    Votes: 16 29.1%

  • Total voters
    55

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
So, I'm playing this game for quite a few hours now, and I try to avoid quest markers as much as possible. Some people say that the game is written quite well regarding the descripton of quests, so you don't have to use these markers. Well I'm not so sure about this. In the dialogue, most of the quest are well discribed, but the journal is a total clusterfuck.

Here is the griffin quest for example where you have to find 2 people. While the Nilfgard commander describes their whereabouts during converstaions, but the journal only says this much: Find the herbalist and the hunter. That's it.

Great, by the time I go to do this quest, I willl forget what the Nilfgard commander said, and I can only resort to the journal, which worth jackshit. So I have to use quest markers in the end.

How do you guys play the game? With quest markers or not?
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Why don't you make/keep your own journal then?
Oh come on, don't come up with that! Do I really have to stop the game each time I talk to somebody to take notes about everything? Journals were invented for these, and there are hundreds of RPGs which have great, discriptive journals.
 

Volrath

Arcane
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4,297
Why don't you make/keep your own journal then?
Oh come on, don't come up with that! Do I really have to stop the game each time I talk to somebody to take notes about everything? Journals were invented for these, and there are hundreds of RPGs which have great, discriptive journals.
Seems you don't really have a choice.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Why don't you make/keep your own journal then?
Oh come on, don't come up with that! Do I really have to stop the game each time I talk to somebody to take notes about everything? Journals were invented for these, and there are hundreds of RPGs which have great, discriptive journals.
Seems you don't really have a choice.
Well, as much as I hate it, I'd rather turn on the questmarkers in that case. :)
 

made

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
5,130
Location
Germany
Yeah, the journal is fail if you want to read up directions. Some NPCs also give very imprecise locations like "east of here". Durr, ok dude, but how far?
What's also annoying that the main quest immediately puts markers on your map when a quest step is updated, no way to turn that off that I can see.
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
I turned it on exactly for the reasons above. Biggest offender is the quest, where a hunter is looking for his wife, who got lost in the woods. There is no description where she went missing, and quest marker highlights a circle to investigate far away. Bloody hell, how the player could have known that?!

Also, the journal entries are sometimes spoiling the event outcome (like - The brave witcher killed that monster in a cave; when you haven't reached the cave yet - legacy from W2)
 

DraQ

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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
So, let me recap:
  • TW1 had really good alchemy system, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had refreshing, and fitting lack of loot inflation, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had Geralt doing all sorts of diverse "dodge" moves, so they changed it to rolling all the time in the sequel.
  • TW1 had proper boss battles using actual, bullshit free mechanics so they fucked it up in the sequel with QTEs and shit
  • TW1 had awesome soundtrack so they fucked it up in the sequel
  • TW1 had nice looking and functional menus, so they fucked them up in the sequel.
Overall TW2 was good and an improvement in many key areas, but there was definitely a lesson to learn somewhere there, like "don't tear down the things you got right in the first place", especially by aping some half baked kwanzanian mainstream shit.
Now:
  • TW1 and TW2 had near-perfect journals, so they fucked that up in the sequel
  • ...
:hero:
Get your shit together, CDPR!

P.S.
What's the KKK on this one? Or is it too early?
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Messages
2,234
So, let me recap:


P.S.
What's the KKK on this one? Or is it too early?
good to great writing in side quests, great art design with some cool looking monsters, shit combat, Ubishit formula for open world with shitty collectibles, fuckton of bugs/stupid design decisions and roleplaying as deep as in mass effect ,also quests where you literally follow the compas mark and press E on everything waiting for cutscene to trigger or geralt to say some shit for you.

Overall best AAA open world game since Gothic 2/Morrowind:troll:

if you care :

lCo1uAP.jpg


crpgs in 2015 :

IMG_0058-1024x768.png

2 dialogue options for 3/4 of your time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Makabb

Arcane
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Sep 19, 2014
Messages
11,753
So, let me recap:
  • TW1 had really good alchemy system, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had refreshing, and fitting lack of loot inflation, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had Geralt doing all sorts of diverse "dodge" moves, so they changed it to rolling all the time in the sequel.
  • TW1 had proper boss battles using actual, bullshit free mechanics so they fucked it up in the sequel with QTEs and shit
  • TW1 had awesome soundtrack so they fucked it up in the sequel
  • TW1 had nice looking and functional menus, so they fucked them up in the sequel.
Overall TW2 was good and an improvement in many key areas, but there was definitely a lesson to learn somewhere there, like "don't tear down the things you got right in the first place", especially by aping some half baked kwanzanian mainstream shit.
Now:
  • TW1 and TW2 had near-perfect journals, so they fucked that up in the sequel
  • ...
:hero:
Get your shit together, CDPR!

P.S.
What's the KKK on this one? Or is it too early?

Enhanced edition and mods will fix it :M
 

DraQ

Arcane
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(...) quests where you literally follow the compas mark and press E on everything waiting for cutscene to trigger or geralt to say some shit for you.

(...) open world game
Doesn't sound like one.

Still it's ok, I've always classed TWs as "biowarean storyfag experiences done right" more than anything else, so if TW3 is a storyfag experience done right I'll probably buy it, misaimed attempts at open world or not.
 

DDZ

Red blood, white skin, blue collar
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Quest markers, shitty fucking MONSTER NESTS, STONES OF POWER I SHOULD TOUCH THIS

etc.

It was the same in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

All this fucking boring shit.

I don't know what I expected.
 

Carrion

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
3,648
Location
Lost in Necropolis
So, let me recap:
TW3 actually unfucks many of those things, though, like removing QTEs altogether and adding dodging instead of just rolling. Loot is more diverse, interesting and less inflated than in post-DLC TW2, as weapons and armors have more unique properties and can be upgraded even further, although it's still a bit too easy to simply run into a sword or armor that's much better than the one you just hunted for two hours. The alchemy system is questionable in some ways, especially with the effectively infinite potions and very short potion durations, but it does improve on TW2 in some regards, like allowing you to gulp potions in combat (it's unfortunately a completely free action, though) and brew stronger versions of your potions and bombs, bringing back alcohol and introducing some long-duration potions with high toxicity and strong effects, which makes alchemy something that you actually might want to spend some time with. There are also some enemies that may be difficult to beat without proper preparation, like certain types of wraiths that require either the use of Yrden or a specific bomb in order to make them vulnerable. I don't think TW3 outright breaks anything that was good in TW2, although TW1 is still mechanically the most solid of the bunch.

As for quest markers, they generally only show you stuff that you should already know about, like in the first two games, even though you'll be relying on the markers a lot more because of the larger world. The game's clearly not designed to be played without them, as you aren't given much directions and can't ask for them either, but at least the quest markers aren't omniscient like in, say, Oblivion.

so if TW3 is a storyfag experience done right
It is.
 
Last edited:

DraQ

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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
So, let me recap:
TW3 actually unfucks many of those things, though, like removing QTEs altogether and adding dodging instead of just rolling. Loot is more diverse, interesting and less inflated than in post-DLC TW2, as weapons and armors have more unique properties and can be upgraded even further
:D
The alchemy system is questionable in some ways, especially with the effectively infinite potions and very short potion durations, but it does improve on TW2 in some regards, like allowing you to gulp potions in combat (it's unfortunately a completely free action, though)
my-brain-is-full-of-fuck.jpg

CDPR, which fucking part of "iterative development" do you fucking not get?

You KEEP stuff that WORKS.
You THROW OUT stuff that DOES NOT.
 

abija

Prophet
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
2,891
That's exactly what they did.
You can read the escapist review of witcher 2 (by the honest gentleman who gave DA2 a 10/10). The guy didn't use the journal because it was too complex or too much to read or whatever. So he didn't have a clue how to use alchemy before a fight so the potion system didn't work for him either. The combat tutorials were detailed in the journal too, so he didn't read them. He kept spamming fast attack and kept dying early game.
In witcher 3 they fixed all of that for him.
 

DraQ

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That's exactly what they did.
You can read the escapist review of witcher 2 (by the honest gentleman who gave DA2 a 10/10). The guy didn't use the journal because it was too complex or too much to read or whatever. So he didn't have a clue how to use alchemy before a fight so the potion system didn't work for him either. The combat tutorials were detailed in the journal too, so he didn't read them. He kept spamming fast attack and kept dying early game.
In witcher 3 they fixed all of that for him.
They fixed the wrong thing.

I'm such a hopeless nerd.
 

norolim

Arcane
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Nov 21, 2012
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Pawland
This is one of my biggest complaints about the game, so far (I'm still in the White Orchard area). You can turn off the quest markers, but many times you'll be lost because directions are not good enough. They'll often tell you things like "Meet me at the <<SOME FANCY NAME>> ruins." and then you spent two hours checking all the ruins in the area, because there is no way to ask around and find out where <<SOME FANCY NAME>> ruins are and there are no place names on the main map. Lazy design.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Why don't you make/keep your own journal then?
Oh come on, don't come up with that! Do I really have to stop the game each time I talk to somebody to take notes about everything? Journals were invented for these, and there are hundreds of RPGs which have great, discriptive journals.
Screenshots, sonny boy. Screenshots.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
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Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
I call bullshit on people saying NPCs give specific directions to the objectives. It's probably mentioned sometimes, but you can play the game with no quest marks only if you randomly enter every house ingame.

For example, triss merigold's house... I recall someone saying she lives by the main plaza, but a lot of other characters just mention a city, a village, or some random "woods", which is 80% of the map.
 
Last edited:

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
I call bullshit on people saying NPCs give specific directions to the objectives. It's probably mentioned sometimes, but you can play the game with no quest marks only if you randomly enter every house ingame.

For example, triss merigold's house... I recall someone saying she lives by the main plaza, but a lot of other characters just mention a city, a village, or some random "woods", which is 80% of the map.

yes there were often times when i had to use map like in your Triss case. Still i didn't use minimap which has default quest pointer on.

This changes a lot how you play. Usually it is mostly problem with getting somewhere. Once you are there you more or less don't need to use map anymore.

Also talking with everybody is how we should play rpgs in first place. Novigrad ;-;..

Novigrad was where i had to use map more often because that city is filled with shiton of npcs. Thankfully quest givers often give some voice lines message that you can actually hear when you are near them something like MASTER GERALT HEY !!
 

ghostdog

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Joined
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Messages
11,079
crpgs in 2015 :

IMG_0058-1024x768.png
2 dialogue options for 3/4 of your time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You know what shows how deeply the decline has rooted into gaming ? The fact that when I saw that pic I was happy that at least your dialog options show the full sentences and not some half-assed abbreviated shit. :negative:
 

MoonlitKnight

Educated
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
60
So, let me recap:
  • TW1 had really good alchemy system, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had refreshing, and fitting lack of loot inflation, so they fucked it up in the sequel.
  • TW1 had Geralt doing all sorts of diverse "dodge" moves, so they changed it to rolling all the time in the sequel.
  • TW1 had proper boss battles using actual, bullshit free mechanics so they fucked it up in the sequel with QTEs and shit
  • TW1 had awesome soundtrack so they fucked it up in the sequel
  • TW1 had nice looking and functional menus, so they fucked them up in the sequel.
Overall TW2 was good and an improvement in many key areas, but there was definitely a lesson to learn somewhere there, like "don't tear down the things you got right in the first place", especially by aping some half baked kwanzanian mainstream shit.
Now:
  • TW1 and TW2 had near-perfect journals, so they fucked that up in the sequel
  • ...
:hero:
Get your shit together, CDPR!

P.S.
What's the KKK on this one? Or is it too early?
Dude the dodge moves in TW1 were fucking disgusting (and they didn't work too)
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Messages
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Perkel And how did you fare with the hidden areas, aka areas with question marks? I turned them off on the main map, and try to find as much as possible as my own, but when I decide to move on to the next area, I turn them back on and use the map to find the remaining few.
 

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