55 réponses à ce sujet

[Allan Schumacher]

Yeah, that's the way I was figuring as well. Although so far, it's just been 1 book = 3 levels. But rather than any sort of "power" metric, it's just 3/3 bits of information.

It's an interesting design decision, because one could argue the player benefits a lot more by not buying the book, as long as the value of time spent isn't particularly high. I suppose buying the books could be construed as a sort of "speed mode" however.

[Allan Schumacher]

Fair enough. I guess I could restrict myself to replying and discussing just the things specifically you mention if that helps it wouldn't be problem for me to do so. Or I guess I don't mind being just observer status as I'm just interested pretty much in how you feel about things noticing or doing in the game.

To be fair, I get the impression that you really want to talk about it which just an implicit statement to what level of enjoyment you got out of it.

Regarding your latest post, I am not sure if they ever improved it (been over year since I played it) but is it still the case that it's a struggle to remember which books you already bought when buying new ones?

TW1 had "You have already read this" and in the purchase screen, there seems to be a marker beside recipes I already own. It seems pretty clear (though I fortunately have a pretty good memory for this sort of thing.

Allan have you been hanging out with the Blue Stripes recently? Nothing spoilery I assure you.

Just Roche I suppose. The only other reference I have seen of the Blue Stripes is the Scoia'Tael group that wears their masks.

[Allan Schumacher]

LOL. This was a bit silly.

So Loredo wants me to capture the Scoia'Tael leader (name escapes me at the moment.. Ionvutus or something <.<). But while wandering in town, I bump into two guys:

"A little present from Loredo!" and they attack me.

Presumably because I didn't throw the fight, but it just seems a bit silly for Loredo to do this as I've agreed to help him with his problem. And doubly stupid for the thugs to just blab their employer XD

[Allan Schumacher]

Iorveth! XD

Also, are you referring to the place with Roche? I just went in there now.


EDIT: FFS, I think I lost the game against Ves because I was reading the tutorial...

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 19 décembre 2012 - 06:38 .

[Allan Schumacher]

Roche is a bit of a hothead. Failed the intimidate, and just whooped his ass. To his credit, he did hit me once haha. HAHA

[Allan Schumacher]

Who the hell is Ionvutus? Are you playing Mass Effect 3?

I'm sure you can figure it out. Leader of the Scoia'Tael. I used his correct name a few posts later.

Indeed! It's one of the easily missed areas which happen to have a lot of fun minor content.

The way this is going, I think it's time to cut Geralt off....

[Allan Schumacher]

What's the worst that can happen?

I have a tattoo!!! /facepalm

How far in the game are you now?

Running around Flotsam. Looking for the hospital now, while kiting a bug queen (she kicked my ass once. I don't think I'll be able to melee her down...), and blowing up some nekker pits. Though looking for the hospital actually.

[Allan Schumacher]

yeah, I drank up some Swallow to help out, and once I was able to flank her I just spammed attack and she went down.

Saved the chaps in the hospital (but not the dog... ). Didn't feel it was right to condemn them to who knows what by the wraith, so I tried to fool the wraith. He didn't go for it, but as Geralt is quite the swordsmen (I LOVE RIPOSTE!) it was still trivial to take him out.

Returned to the to men, and turned them in to Loredo. They didn't deserve freedom just because I happened along and could kickass and take names.

Have taken out 3 pits, and 1 queen, so I'll continue that hunt. Will need to make up some more swallow and maybe some more bombs too (the grapeshot seems quite powerful - I might not become a knife thrower after all)

[Allan Schumacher]

The facepalm is more "Geralt you twit"

[Allan Schumacher]

We'll see... >.>

Night!

[Allan Schumacher]

I just use F5 (which seems to create a new save anyways, though I wouldn't care one way or another).

[Allan Schumacher]

That's probably good. By the end of TW1, it was taking about 30-60 seconds to display my save games in game.

[Allan Schumacher]

Ergh, the Nekker quest was annoying. The 4th nest wasn't even near the other ones! :S

Time to go troll hunting!

[Allan Schumacher]

Troll was nice enough (although it's not 100% clear that I need to fight him before helping him). Since I'm a dispenser of justice, and he yielded, I agreed to help him out.

In the process, found some chump named Dimitri. He wasn't very likeable, as evidenced by his attempt to murder me. I killed him and his lackeys, and found one of Thaler's agents. Seems there's more to Loredo than meets the eye. And my eye and Loredo already don't really get along!

[Allan Schumacher]

Splash 1 Kayran

[Allan Schumacher]

I really like how letho appears to have no cooldown on his vigor.... (and how he hits me before my game loads...)

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 21 décembre 2012 - 07:33 .

[Allan Schumacher]

Awesome. I beat Letho, and my sword lost its runes....


In other news, I gave Iorveth his sword (a sense of honor for helping me find Letho). Although this led to some of Loredo's men getting killed, and a lot of bad **** happening in Flotsam. Triss is now missing, and Cedric has given me the information that I need. I went and spoke with both Roche and Iorveth.

In the end, I choose... to help Iorveth. He seems more intent on quickly retrieving Triss and getting to Letho. And while I don't approve of their methods, maybe it's about freaking time they get their own independent state just so that this whole damned thing stops. And if a human, mutant or otherwise, helps them do it, well then maybe they won't be such pissants in the future. Plus Roche pissed me off for screwing things up at the Elven ruins. Kings are dying and disputes are inevitable, and if I can soften the Scoia'Tael's stance and act as mediator, maybe things will get better.

Although his decision to press on against Loredo WAS appealing, as that sack of turd needs justice as much as the next guy.

[Allan Schumacher]

Loredo decided to threaten some elven women to try to stop me from fleeing. Loredo is dead, doubly humiliating as I manipulated his ally with Axii to help me take him down.

The elven women died, which pissed Iorveth off, but Flotsam is free of Loredo's reign of terror.

Iorveth is still a giant tool, however. I hope Saskia is more reasonable. If I get a chance to run Iorveth through, I'll be hard pressed not to take it. At this point its a means to an end.

End up in a whole bunch of sequences, including some strange moments where I control other NPCs. A bit odd, but whatever. Gained 3 levels completing chapter 2, which has almost put me to the end of the swordmaster tree (though I am bee-lining to the end). Level 15 now.


The only real issue I had with the Kayran was failing to notice that the front two tentacles didn't have any weakspots. It did take me 3 or 4 attempts though. Letho was much more annoying, though I learned the combat system better during the fight. Particularly fatigue. Unfortunately riposte does nothing on him, so I mostly just rolled around until I had an opportunity, and would score 2-3 heavy hits on him.

[Allan Schumacher]

Didn't he take your sword and you get a crappy replacement? Can't remember but Letho is a fun fight. Probably the second toughest for me after the Operator (a side boss) who I know will get you mad!

There were two swords on the ground after he left. Both the same sword, which happened to be the sword I had going into the fight as well.

Either is a good choice but what I really like about Roche's side is more involved you are with politics not that you won't be on Iorveth's side.

I'd like to think either side is a good choice, given that it'd be a questionable decision to have one of the story arcs be significantly better than the others! Fans wouldn't be so happy with this if one choice was much less interesting.

Iorveth really isn't that bad! Since you chose him you'll learn alot about him in Act 2 which should give you a new perspective on his anti-human hate. It's not all just blind hatred.

Just half blind (yeah I went there!). At this point he's a dolt. Saskia seems reasonable, however, and will probably help knock some sense into him.


(Note, I don't find Iorveth uninteresting as a character. I think he's well written. My Geralt just doesn't like him)

[Allan Schumacher]

Odd mostly because I just didn't expect it. It's the type of moment where I'm definitely not against a cutscene either, however, since it's not the character I am controlling. It was a bit interesting with Triss (although at the same time a bit more jarring), because I can ask all but one of the questions based on... the choices that I want to make, not Triss. However, it does seem to lend itself to some replayability. It's of the scale of minor nitpick though.

I'm not the biggest fan of the combat system as it stands, so having me to a fairly "easy mode" fight against Roche came across as a bit anti-climactic to me.

[Allan Schumacher]

I went with Triss to the garden. I gave her the rose too.

[Allan Schumacher]

In Act 3 now.

The difficulty seems to have scaled quite extensively.  Rotfiends that were not much of a problem now appear to be killing me in 3-4 hits.

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 24 décembre 2012 - 04:45 .

[Allan Schumacher]

I really enjoyed Act 2. I'll definitely have to replay the game.

The only real issue I have with the choice is that the whole ambush scene kind of just comes across as "We need to create a situation that makes Roche seem like a bit more of a d-bag so that the idea of siding with the Scoia'Tael doesn't seem like a complete affront." On the plus side, at least it was some of Loredo's dumbasses so it's at least something I can make sense out of.


I had fun sliding into the mist (both to find Triss, as well as to wrap up the plot), and with some sweet mutagens and sword upgrades, the fight against Hemselt was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately I saw the Saskia bit after the defense coming.


Got into the main city of Loc Muinne, and did the quest investigating the sorcerer for Cynthia. Ended up using the apparatus to look in on Saskia.

My Geralt has pretty much softened to Saskia's perspective. He's tired of the civil war. He'll likely protect her identity. Although I suppose I should apologize for stabbing her in the mouth with my sword earlier!

[Allan Schumacher]

Obeded the 2nd wrote...

I don't get how you're always confused by the plot, do you read any of the lore in the game?

Where did I say I found the plot confusing?



In any case, just finished up the game.  Saved Saskia, killed Letho.  The Letho situation seemed like a strange place to have a rather large information dump, but I guess if Letho is okay with chatting it up for a bit.  Was nice of him to save Triss and protect her.

Would have liked to see the Saskia resolution explored a bit more, but I suppose it's hard to keep things going after a dragon fight.


Interesting that the Northern Kingdoms appear to have been invaded from the South.  Wasn't expecting that in the post-credit video.  (EDIT: Nevermind I'm dumb.  For some reason I was thinking Nilfgaard was to the north).

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 24 décembre 2012 - 12:11 .

[Allan Schumacher]

So Opinions? Give us your professional opinion on the game, also what did you end up doing with Stennis? As for the invasion by Nilfgaard in the post credit video I thought the whole point of Letho knocking off crowns was to create havok in the northern kingdoms softening them up for a Nilfgaard invasion?

Errr, I'm just dumb. For some reason my internal compass had Nilfgaard being north of the Northern Kingdoms haha. Disregard that part. It makes perfect sense for Nilfgaard to invade.

I let the mob kill Stennis, in large part because he was a blatant liar. The implication with the priest was pretty damning too. But when he came out and started talking as though he was interested in justice after attempting to bribe me, I pretty much immediately went from mediator to leader of the lynch mob.

As for the Letho information dump what did you find strange about it? Letho and Geralt were allies at one stage and dispite the fact that Geralt was trying to hunt him down I dont think Letho ever really saw Geralt as an enemy, besides part of the reason Geralt had for hunting him down was to find out what he knew about Geralt's past.

Hurt the pacing of the scene IMO. Info dumps are always risky IMO. Might just be "user perception" issue, but Geralt didn't just ask about his own past, but then started to go into Letho's motivations for why he did everything he did, which I'm not sure is really necessary for the scene. Like I said though, if Letho has no issues with sitting their chatting, and Geralt wants to as well, it's not like the scene is illogical or anything.


As for "professional" opinion, well after The Witcher I think The Witcher 2 is pretty much a home run knocked out of the park. The writing was soooooooooo much better IMO. I also loved the huge huge improvements to the cinematic nature, and actually enjoyed picking apart (since I do QA cinematics tech) the creative use of many of the commonly used animations in the conversations. The one that always came back to me was the "eyes down" look that felt really natural, and the cinematic designers used to very good effect.


I love the divergent narrative. I'd love to see BioWare employ it ourselves. I find mutually exclusive choice very interesting, and I find myself exploring thoughts as to whether or not it's as risky of a business case as some may think.

Polish is much improved, although you'll probably still find me disagreeing that the need to actually show the sex actually adds much to the game, since the sex isn't really used to contribute to the intrigue like it does in something like A Game of Thrones. But if CDProjekt feels it's worth the time to add it and feels it adds to the setting (and some fans agree), then it's within their right to do it. I do feel as though they greatly improved on the objectification of the women (in that I didn't really get that feeling at all), so the most important grievance I had from the first one was resolved.


I'm not sure what to say about combat. I think I preferred the concepts of this combat better than the first game, although I think the first game's looked much better (by the end of the game) and better conveyed Geralt's effectiveness with the sword. I think it would have been interesting to open up more move variations with the swordsman tree, with those sword styles opening up the player's capabilities during the combat. As it is, I found myself only having limited control over the type of attack that Gerlat would do, which sometimes had bad consequences for me.

I liked the customization of the weapons and armor. I just like stuff like that. I didn't really get a chance to do much crafting aside from essential potions. I didn't use many diagrams at all actually. I think I may have preferred to have been able to do the crafting myself, as experimenting still cost orens and I rarely found myself with an absurd amount of orens (I actually finished the game with about 200, since I bought some hefty upgrades). Only at the very end (when I was reasonably sure it'd be a good investment) did I start to craft some things.


Both games had interesting character level ups. I actually like that the second point seemed to be a significant improvement. Would be curious to see how things would go if you could invest more than two points. Although I found the bronze/silver/gold points of the first to be a really fascinating way of gating the player. It ensures that I am versatile in the basics (allowing me to experiment with different aspects of the game), while then later allowing me to specialize in the things that I want for ultimate power. I'd like to see more of that sort of stuff come.


ANyways, it's 5 AM. I played through the game quickly because that's usually a sign that I am hooked. I will post more after Christmas as I'll be away for the next couple of days. Certainly not disappointed at all by playing the game.

What civil war?

Civil war may not be the best term, but the constant conflict between the Scoia'Tael and humans.  Since Vergen actually broke free and asserted their independence, however, I think it's not an entirely inaccurate way to describe the situation.  Even if it's more "cold war," the constant bloodshed because of the racial differences needed to stop.

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 24 décembre 2012 - 12:13 .