The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[Quillon]

Nope want to clear velen first.

But why?

Cos that's the usual completionist play style: do everything in an area before going to the next...

My first playthrough was like that then I tried different approaches; wen't straight to Novigrad then Skellige then Velen and even started the main story from Skellige once just to see how different combinations would play out, suffice it to say the story just worked; not effecting anything which was disappointing but just working, in however order you wanna play the main story. New Vegas is still the king of open world narrative design y'all.

So it turns out i missed a secondary quest where a lynch mob wants to hang a Nilfgardian deserter, since he's already hanging if you complete Keira storyline. IS IT WORTH A RESTART, GAYIZ?

Well, that deserter was an accomplished scientist and was going to find a cure for cancer...

 

[Gepeu]

So it turns out i missed a secondary quest where a lynch mob wants to hang a Nilfgardian deserter, since he's already hanging if you complete Keira storyline. IS IT WORTH A RESTART, GAYIZ?

Do it, only this way you will see all the content, and you want to see all the content, because it's the fucking Witcher 3.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Just do it differently on NG+

 

[Falksi]

Started Heart of Stone, but the main game has just worn me down so much that I'm gunna leave it a month or two before returning to it. The initial setup of "kill sewer monster" hasn't grabbed me one bit.
Bizarrely I started playing Saints Row 4 as a dumb, brain-off blast to freshen me up, and it's scary how many gameplay similarities it has with TW3. Follow path to dot, watch cutscene, fight, get reward. Throw some Witcher senses in there and bobs your uncle.

 

[Gepeu]

I'm currently trying to slog through Novigrad and I have to admit. Doing it more than once (I've finished the base game in 2015) is just spirit rending.

 

[ilitarist]

Started Heart of Stone, but the main game has just worn me down so much that I'm gunna leave it a month or two before returning to it. The initial setup of "kill sewer monster" hasn't grabbed me one bit.
Bizarrely I started playing Saints Row 4 as a dumb, brain-off blast to freshen me up, and it's scary how many gameplay similarities it has with TW3. Follow path to dot, watch cutscene, fight, get reward. Throw some Witcher senses in there and bobs your uncle.

Same with cities. They can talk about big cities all they want but Novigrad wouldn't look out of place in Assassin's Creed. There are less real NPCs there than in average Skyrim city. Still haven't seen anything close to Tarant from Arcanum in terms of content and feel of real city.

 

[duchU]

Started Heart of Stone, but the main game has just worn me down so much that I'm gunna leave it a month or two before returning to it. The initial setup of "kill sewer monster" hasn't grabbed me one bit.
Bizarrely I started playing Saints Row 4 as a dumb, brain-off blast to freshen me up, and it's scary how many gameplay similarities it has with TW3. Follow path to dot, watch cutscene, fight, get reward. Throw some Witcher senses in there and bobs your uncle.

HoS is the best thing that happened to TW3.

 

[Falksi]

Indeed Ilitarist. Dandelion, Zoltan, Dudu, Dikstra, Triss and the usual merchants/smiths.......I'm struggling to think of any more NPCs off the top of my head in there.
Another thing which annoyed me was how the dialogue tree was used. It rarely provided choice in terms of where the conversation was headed. All it mostly did was basically give you a choice of whether you wanted more detail about the conversation.
Hope Heart of Stone impresses me in a month or two. Having played Saints Row 4 for a few hours it's massively highlighting howAssasins Creed/sandboxy TW3 is. Apart from Merchants scattered around the world, there's little difference between TW3 & SR4 when it comes to what your able to interact with.

 

[ilitarist]

Indeed Ilitarist. Dandelion, Zoltan, Dudu, Dikstra, Triss and the usual merchants/smiths.......I'm struggling to think of any more NPCs off the top of my head in there.
Another thing which annoyed me was how the dialogue tree was used. It rarely provided choice in terms of where the conversation was headed. All it mostly did was basically give you a choice of whether you wanted more detail about the conversation.
Hope Heart of Stone impresses me in a month or two. Having played Saints Row 4 for a few hours it's massively highlighting howAssasins Creed/sandboxy TW3 is.

If you don't count main story quests then Novigrad has a bunch of quest givers but those are mostly one-dimensional traders. There's also a dwarf bank owner and several events that happen to you when you walk around like anti-witcher preacher or brigands in action and so on.

Heart of Stone is not as much impressive as it's fine. It's a little annoying gameplay-wise - added a few very spongy bosses - but the story is better than the main quest. It thinks it's much more clever and dramatic than it is, but what you're gonna do. Also has glasses for Geralt to wear.

 

[thesoup]

Why would anyone say Fool's Gold is a great quest? You just walk, find piglets, walk, fight nekkars, walk, end.

 

[v1rus]

Why would anyone say Fool's Gold is a great quest? You just walk, find piglets, walk, fight nekkars, walk, end.

That's kinda true, and as such, great is a bit of an overstatement. Still, it was kinda fun.

I mean, those guys were turned to pigs hehehe. Gitit? Dem was not pigz really, dem was people11!

 

[Falksi]

Fools Gold is about as good as it gets. Better than the plethora of boring X monster of the woods quests/contracts. No matter how well done the quests are, predictability and repetition just make for dullness. At least Fools Fold was one of the rare quests which gave us something different.

 

[DemonKing]

I was wondering around in Skellige last night and found a horn in some chests guarded by bandits, which activated a quest giving me the option to return it to an NPC. As it was on my way I dropped it off. I was Level 19 and the quest was rated level 12 and I was awarded 1 whole XP.

Didn't realise quests scaled like this. Makes it important to do any side quests you want to do at an appropriate level.

Do you get bonus XP for doing a quest above your level?

 

[Haplo]

Making it not free would be coming back to TW2 system where you meet a monster, load back to when you could have meditated and drink specific potions against said monster.

You've got witcher senses for locating your enemies before having to face them. Witcher contracts all involve figuring out what kind of a monster you're up against before fighting it. Monsters are tied to specific environments (drowners are near water, ghouls are in places with fresh corpses, forests have wolves and bears, draconids are usually in open or mountainous areas, mages often use golems or elementals to guard their laboratories etc.), allowing you to make an educated guess on what you'll be fighting next. Having to go in completely blind is extremely rare.

This is exactly what I meant when I said "preparation". Why couldn't they just make a game based on being a Witcher and properly preparing for tough fights (having to read books to figure out the lore behind the creatures, their habitats, etc. - same for alchemy, plants would only spawn once you figured out where to look and in very limited quantities (potions would be much stronger to compensate) instead of having a fucking Ubishit theme park with WoW quests dotting the landscape?

You basically described The Witcher 1... was it irony?

 

[Falksi]

I was wondering around in Skellige last night and found a horn in some chests guarded by bandits, which activated a quest giving me the option to return it to an NPC. As it was on my way I dropped it off. I was Level 19 and the quest was rated level 12 and I was awarded 1 whole XP.

Didn't realise quests scaled like this. Makes it important to do any side quests you want to do at an appropriate level.

Do you get bonus XP for doing a quest above your level?

I'm not sure, but I don't think so. I did a few above my level and always recall the being around the 240 mark.
It's another example of how the open world element trips over itself. Missing lower level quests, only to return to them later and breeze through them for little reward adds to the general unsatisfying feeling which this game already has (through chasing shadows via dull errands over dull, barren landscapes, & being drowned in meaningless loot as you just use Witcher gear instead).

 

[Carrion]

Do you get bonus XP for doing a quest above your level?

Not that I remember, although the game does give a little XP bonus for defeating high-level enemies. There's no real reason for trying to maximize your side quest XP, though, because it'll only make you more overleveled for the main quest — and that's where the really big XP rewards are found, as long as you're somewhere near the appropriate level. Whether you only finish the main quest or obsessively do every side quest and point of interest in the game, you'll probably finish the game at around level 35. It's either a pretty clever or really stupid system depending on how you look at it.

 

[veskoandroid]

Found a solution for my miserable swords choice. Before every quality poi loot i quick save, check sword stats, attributes, if they're great keep, if crap quickload. Finaly can get some meaningful stats for. All those super macho named swords, instead of measly ones.

On the other note finishing velen, checking east side, holly fucking jesus, only red skull enemies here! Its a see and run tactics, ooops run into another killer pack turn left! and fml they even put warthogs in this game and they are red skull level! I mean they are like wild dogs! One charged me, kicked my but 15m,like it was an elephant! This has been funniest battle moment of the game!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

they even put warthogs in this game and they are red skull level!

Guess they imported these guys from Gothic 3.

 

[veskoandroid]

Dunno, didnt play g3, but its really funny! Here i am fighting wyverns, cockatrices, higher vampires, and a pig comes along and chases me through the woods! Dog sized pig!

 

[ilitarist]

Dunno, didnt play g3, but its really funny! Here i am fighting wyverns, cockatrices, higher vampires, and a pig comes along and chases me through the woods! Dog sized pig!

This reminds us that most people play RPG as a Telltale visual novel with minigames and are only offended by gameplay if it's atrocious or the main story doesn't have enough shiny things to capture their attention.

You may also notice that those high level monsters aren't really that stronger than you; when you'll have the right level your stats will not grow as much as your real attack and defense against them. It's cause monsters get huge additional defense from the difference in levels.

Also there's an ancient land of Toussant with average bandit being as strong as ancient evil horrors feared by whole nations back north.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Making it not free would be coming back to TW2 system where you meet a monster, load back to when you could have meditated and drink specific potions against said monster.

You've got witcher senses for locating your enemies before having to face them. Witcher contracts all involve figuring out what kind of a monster you're up against before fighting it. Monsters are tied to specific environments (drowners are near water, ghouls are in places with fresh corpses, forests have wolves and bears, draconids are usually in open or mountainous areas, mages often use golems or elementals to guard their laboratories etc.), allowing you to make an educated guess on what you'll be fighting next. Having to go in completely blind is extremely rare.

This is exactly what I meant when I said "preparation". Why couldn't they just make a game based on being a Witcher and properly preparing for tough fights (having to read books to figure out the lore behind the creatures, their habitats, etc. - same for alchemy, plants would only spawn once you figured out where to look and in very limited quantities (potions would be much stronger to compensate) instead of having a fucking Ubishit theme park with WoW quests dotting the landscape?

You basically described The Witcher 1... was it irony?

Not ironic at all, and the reference was completely intentional. The first Witcher is my favourite game in the series and the one that comes closest to what I imagine a Witcher game should be. Subsequent games have improved the narrative aspect but have regressed terribly in terms of gameplay systems.

 

[Falksi]

Found a solution for my miserable swords choice. Before every quality poi loot i quick save, check sword stats, attributes, if they're great keep, if crap quickload. Finaly can get some meaningful stats for. All those super macho named swords, instead of measly ones.

]

Sad that this is what passes for roleplaying/exploration nowadays. The sooner random loot is eliminated from all games the better.

 

[veskoandroid]

Agree

 

[Quillon]

Found a solution for my miserable swords choice. Before every quality poi loot i quick save, check sword stats, attributes, if they're great keep, if crap quickload. Finaly can get some meaningful stats for. All those super macho named swords, instead of measly ones.

Fuck random loot. I always use witcher sets, on principle, they look much better & coherent.

On the other note finishing velen, checking east side, holly fucking jesus, only red skull enemies here! Its a see and run tactics, ooops run into another killer pack turn left!

and fml they even put warthogs in this game and they are red skull level! I mean they are like wild dogs! One charged me, kicked my but 15m,like it was an elephant! This has been funniest battle moment of the game!

Those parts came with the Hearts of Stone expansion, you shouldn't count those areas as part of Velen/Novigrad.

 

[veskoandroid]

Using w sets on principle is nice but it wont keep me alive. To each his own anyways.