I always figured Flotsamers spent a lot of time wading around in the river, and so sometimes didn't wear pants. IMO pantsless villagers add to the dark, gritty realism the series is famed for.
So I'm playing the hell out of this game. Like, holy shit, Game of the Year so far.
Question:
Right now I'm kind of dumping all my points into sword play. Unlike the first game, where I basically ran for my life and cast Igni whenever, I pretty much have to dump those points into swordplay so I wont die horribly. Am I missing out not dumping points into the other branches? Also, what's the average level a player can achieve at end game? Cause....that skill tree demands a lot of points.
I think the general idea is pick a tree and go all the way to the end. Afterwards you can decide between filling in some of the gaps / doubling up on important skills, or dipping into another tree. I went Magic for my first playthrough and Swordsmanship for my second. I didn't take many cross-tree skills because the early ones tend to be meh and the later ones will probably make you miss out on some nice talents in your main tree. But, not all of them are worth taking. Either way should work out. Small spoiler on your Sword tree:
The critical effect bonuses multiply what's on your weapon - if your sword gives you 10% Incinerate and you have +20% from talents, you end up with 12%, not 30.
I think the biggest point is that the Witcher tends to follow the usual RPG difficulty parabola. Once you get up to the better skills, it matters less what you choose because you're getting options faster than your enemies.
Lastly, I'm not sure what the average level is but the cap is 35. I got there close to the end of my second game and can't remember the first.
exp gain in witcher 2 is strongly tied to story progression. you can get 4000 experience from back to back quests in the space of an hour during some parts of chapter 2.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
exp gain in witcher 2 is strongly tied to story progression. you can get 4000 experience from back to back quests in the space of an hour during some parts of chapter 2.
Won't you need something like 10000 exp to level at that point?
On chapter one lvl 7 I needed 1000 exp for a level 8. I got 75 from nekker contract, which is next to nothing.
My point was that even if you do all the contracts, you won't be better off compared to just skipping them. They're just busywork without a real reward.
Nope, it's 1000 xp for every level throughout the game. I rather like it.
Though yes, the Contracts could have better rewards. A lot about being a Witcher doesn't entirely line up with the gameplay of The Witcher, even though the way that the quests are presented and carry out feels right from a story perspective. True of most games, really.
I'm still on Chapter 3 of the original Witcher. This game is sloooowww.
Also, Triss. DAT DRESS
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
so GameTrailers have a couple of TW2 stuff from GamesCom
Version 2.0 stuff (I like how they have little friggin' sub-trailers for the two big new game features)
and Xbawks Tree-Siddy trailer (which, as far as I can tell, doesn't actually contain any actual Xbox 360 footage, but does contain some prerendered cutscenes I haven't seen before).
I can't wait over a month to replay it again, but starting a new game now means I will be burned out by the time the update comes out
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
I'm actually interested in playing Dark Mode just for new equipment. Although my last game ended with Vran Armor, Caerme, and Addan Deith (which was slightly more powerful/useful to me than Zerrikanterment due to the increased adrenaline and insta-kill... I was doing Heliotrope + Group Finisher combos). Not sure how they can top that. Also not a fan of hooded gear.
I'm curious what other improvements they've made. I'm sure there's a few interface changes/bug fixes in there. Also, for the X360 version it's interesting that they've only shown actual 360 images once (which basically looked like running the game on Low with a few of the lighting effects turned back on iirc). Who knows though, maybe they did actually improve things that much that there's not much difference anymore? Otherwise... wink wink.
And that pre-rendered scene of Letho going over Demavend was awesome. Hope we get to see that in the PC version somewhere. Interesting that it's pre-rendered since nothing else in TW2 is.
They are probably going to prerender a bunch of shit and then put it on the xbox as cutscenes.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
Damn, and I just paid 39.99 last weekend on amazon. Oh well, at least it wasn't 50.
Anyway, finally was able to get a machine that can play this, and it's so ridiculously pretty. I apparently did not keep my witcher save, which was somewhat disappointing. I also need to figure out the combat, as I was quickly overwhelmed in the very first fight in the prologue (unfortunately that was all I had time for last night), but as I recall early death was a common experience for many when the game came out.
Really looking forward to getting into this game and finally being able to read this thread in detail.
Combat = Attack(fast or slow) and then roll roll roll... repeat
Naw, Quen, Fast Fast Slow Fast Fast Slow, Quen goes down, Roll out, (optional: wait for vigor to go back up) Quen, repeat.
This works for 90% of the beginning. And the rest of the game too although you learn to do things like add Quen to a combo, or switch up your attack combos based on the enemies and what they do.
So I've just picked up this game on GOG. I never played the first, is it necessary to understand the plot or is it ok to just jump in here?
You'll miss quite a few things, actually. The first game pretty much sets up the entire setting, a lot of the characters, and the ending sequence of the first game is pretty much the prologue of the second game.
I actually recommend that you pick up the first one (should be cheap nowadays), and play that through. Though, don't get too attached to the gameplay.
A few minor things, and what's being an actual Witcher, as opposed to fucking about with politics, is actually about. I'd say that you can safely skip the first game. It has a lot of good parts, and I loved it for them, but it also has a lot of flaws.
For one, I once fucked an entire conven of vampires by mistake. The second game (mostly) grew out of that while improving on the first in most-every way.
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
Bioware:
1) Build an orphanage for the puppy.
2) Build an orphanage for the puppy but charge the puppy for it.
3) Sell the puppy to the dickwolves.
While The Witcher 1 had a lot of good things going for it, with a morally grey story line with actual consequences, it also occasionally went for:
1) Fuck the sexy monster girl and save the world.
2) Kill the sexy monster girl. Call for an exterminatus.
with no middle ground. The Witcher 2 sticks to what made the game good rather than have you collect forced booby cards.
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
Dude, I'm 90% sure you could of saved the witch without collecting her booby card.
I am not refering to her. There are a few occasions where this feels pretty forced and serves no real purpose.
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
If you haven't played the first game and/or don't know the lore remember that a Witcher's job is to:
1) Help weak humans
2) Protect humans from monsters (ie: kill monsters)
3) Do this while:
3a) Not interfering in human matters
3b) Curing or removing any monster possible rather than killing (e.g. Otherwise kind creatures who's mischief can be redirected)
4) Do not kill humans unless provoked/engaged first
5) Witchers don't kill dragons (see the short story "The Bounds of Reason").
The Witcher code wrt killing doesn't generally apply to other races than humans though so technically you can slaughter them at will. It's just (esp in the case of Geralt) bad form.
So playing a Witcher is like playing a Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) character. Though Lawful Neutral isn't necessarily right since Witchers supersede the law. I'll stick with Neutral Good.
The games allow you not to play a Neutral character (you can ignore personal matters and engage in politics/globally important matters, save people that otherwise would/should be killed, etc), but it allows you to take a mostly Neutral (Witcher) path. The Witcher 2 makes these choices grayer than the first game. Note that in Witcher lore the path described is in fact referred to as "The Path".
Mind, a lot of Geralt's inner conflict comes from him debating with himself his duty as a witcher versus his duty as a human (?) being. Although he generally just wants to be left alone, saying he just wishes to do his job, time and again he goes with the later and helps those that need help whether they are human or not.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
Sure. But at the same time he doesn't hesitate to kill lots of people for a personal matter, even if it causes negative affects for everyone else. The whole thing is crazy philosophical (and part of the fun is the philosophy that gets thrown around in dialog between characters).
Ugh, chapter 2 in Witcher 1, I have something like 20 quests going on at the same time. Jesus. Really doesn't help how quest NPCs are only whereever the quest log points too at certain times during the day.
Is there a safe file out there for the original Witcher for a much later chapter? Because I'm still in Chapter 3 and it just keeps going and going....:(
you could always save in insane, it's just if you died that was it
anyway witcher 2 has too many bullshit ways to die really damn fast for me to ever do that
yeah thats what i meant, although as of patch 1.3 i've noticed you can change the mode ingame back to hard for some reason, never let me do that before.
but that arena looks sweet from the video, pretty sure theres new monsters in there too.
Ugh, chapter 2 in Witcher 1, I have something like 20 quests going on at the same time. Jesus. Really doesn't help how quest NPCs are only whereever the quest log points too at certain times during the day.
dont sweat it, most of hte quests are all interlocked together, once you've finished the chapter you'll be like "ohh shit how they did that was awesome!"
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I think the general idea is pick a tree and go all the way to the end. Afterwards you can decide between filling in some of the gaps / doubling up on important skills, or dipping into another tree. I went Magic for my first playthrough and Swordsmanship for my second. I didn't take many cross-tree skills because the early ones tend to be meh and the later ones will probably make you miss out on some nice talents in your main tree. But, not all of them are worth taking. Either way should work out. Small spoiler on your Sword tree:
I think the biggest point is that the Witcher tends to follow the usual RPG difficulty parabola. Once you get up to the better skills, it matters less what you choose because you're getting options faster than your enemies.
Lastly, I'm not sure what the average level is but the cap is 35. I got there close to the end of my second game and can't remember the first.
Do contracts get better later on? I'm on ch1 in second playthrough and got 70 exp from nekker contract! For comparison the Kayran netted me 1750exp.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Won't you need something like 10000 exp to level at that point?
On chapter one lvl 7 I needed 1000 exp for a level 8. I got 75 from nekker contract, which is next to nothing.
My point was that even if you do all the contracts, you won't be better off compared to just skipping them. They're just busywork without a real reward.
You have to stop and fight the chaff mobs. I just run past them and do some rolling on the mud, Witcher Style!
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Though yes, the Contracts could have better rewards. A lot about being a Witcher doesn't entirely line up with the gameplay of The Witcher, even though the way that the quests are presented and carry out feels right from a story perspective. True of most games, really.
Also, Triss. DAT DRESS
Version 2.0 stuff (I like how they have little friggin' sub-trailers for the two big new game features)
and
Xbawks Tree-Siddy trailer (which, as far as I can tell, doesn't actually contain any actual Xbox 360 footage, but does contain some prerendered cutscenes I haven't seen before).
weeeeeee
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I'm curious what other improvements they've made. I'm sure there's a few interface changes/bug fixes in there. Also, for the X360 version it's interesting that they've only shown actual 360 images once (which basically looked like running the game on Low with a few of the lighting effects turned back on iirc). Who knows though, maybe they did actually improve things that much that there's not much difference anymore? Otherwise... wink wink.
And that pre-rendered scene of Letho going over Demavend was awesome. Hope we get to see that in the PC version somewhere. Interesting that it's pre-rendered since nothing else in TW2 is.
also, did witcher 2 just get some Mad Moxxie? HELL YEAH.
although those huge fucking dog enemies looks scary as hell
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/
Damn, and I just paid 39.99 last weekend on amazon. Oh well, at least it wasn't 50.
Anyway, finally was able to get a machine that can play this, and it's so ridiculously pretty. I apparently did not keep my witcher save, which was somewhat disappointing. I also need to figure out the combat, as I was quickly overwhelmed in the very first fight in the prologue (unfortunately that was all I had time for last night), but as I recall early death was a common experience for many when the game came out.
Really looking forward to getting into this game and finally being able to read this thread in detail.
Convienient! I was trying to decide between getting this or Deus Ex for a friend's birthday, but I guess GoG's just sorted that for me.
Looking forward to getting 2.0, too. Should be a good time to get my second playthrough underway.
Naw, Quen, Fast Fast Slow Fast Fast Slow, Quen goes down, Roll out, (optional: wait for vigor to go back up) Quen, repeat.
This works for 90% of the beginning. And the rest of the game too although you learn to do things like add Quen to a combo, or switch up your attack combos based on the enemies and what they do.
You'll miss quite a few things, actually. The first game pretty much sets up the entire setting, a lot of the characters, and the ending sequence of the first game is pretty much the prologue of the second game.
I actually recommend that you pick up the first one (should be cheap nowadays), and play that through. Though, don't get too attached to the gameplay.
For one, I once fucked an entire conven of vampires by mistake. The second game (mostly) grew out of that while improving on the first in most-every way.
that wasn't a mistake.
that shit was intentional.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
1) Build an orphanage for the puppy.
2) Build an orphanage for the puppy but charge the puppy for it.
3) Sell the puppy to the dickwolves.
While The Witcher 1 had a lot of good things going for it, with a morally grey story line with actual consequences, it also occasionally went for:
1) Fuck the sexy monster girl and save the world.
2) Kill the sexy monster girl. Call for an exterminatus.
with no middle ground. The Witcher 2 sticks to what made the game good rather than have you collect forced booby cards.
because sideboob is awesome.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
1) Help weak humans
2) Protect humans from monsters (ie: kill monsters)
3) Do this while:
3a) Not interfering in human matters
3b) Curing or removing any monster possible rather than killing (e.g. Otherwise kind creatures who's mischief can be redirected)
4) Do not kill humans unless provoked/engaged first
5) Witchers don't kill dragons (see the short story "The Bounds of Reason").
The Witcher code wrt killing doesn't generally apply to other races than humans though so technically you can slaughter them at will. It's just (esp in the case of Geralt) bad form.
So playing a Witcher is like playing a Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) character. Though Lawful Neutral isn't necessarily right since Witchers supersede the law. I'll stick with Neutral Good.
The games allow you not to play a Neutral character (you can ignore personal matters and engage in politics/globally important matters, save people that otherwise would/should be killed, etc), but it allows you to take a mostly Neutral (Witcher) path. The Witcher 2 makes these choices grayer than the first game. Note that in Witcher lore the path described is in fact referred to as "The Path".
dark mode sounds weird, i was sure insane was just hard mode with saves disabled.
anyway witcher 2 has too many bullshit ways to die really damn fast for me to ever do that
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Mage Witcher all the way. QUENNNN
yeah thats what i meant, although as of patch 1.3 i've noticed you can change the mode ingame back to hard for some reason, never let me do that before.
but that arena looks sweet from the video, pretty sure theres new monsters in there too.
dont sweat it, most of hte quests are all interlocked together, once you've finished the chapter you'll be like "ohh shit how they did that was awesome!"