The Witcher

[Stark]

Thanks for the lecture on how to make the game easy. It's not like it's *already* easy, and you *don't* need to use alchemy in medium until halfway through the game. Saying 'later things will be immune to it because being immune to directed force makes sense' does not answer 'early game = TK cheese' in the slightest. Frankly I see no reason to NOT be constantly using endurance regen effects, since you'll have dozens of potions. Running in circles allows you to get all the magic blasts you need off: walls and bushes are more dangerous that demons.

All kinds of games that aren't D&D have had proper flexible skilling. Given that badguys spawn, luck *is* a factor. I doubt using exclusively melee or magic would be effective - certainly not without the somersault escape. Amusingly, the dodge-roll isn't enough to get you away from acid splashes... making it kinda useless. It's very common in RPGs for condition effect spells to be largely useless (after fire being the most common resistance) and since Witcher bleeds you spells over time, it wouldn't surprise me if some of the signs were almost useless by the time you got it.

I like the game, but saying you hardly do any hacking is utterly fucking absurd. I hacked my way through the swamp with the only threat being those bastard plants with shooting, poison and a bajillion hitpoints: even the wyverns weren't really that hard. Ooooh, cerebral.

[Zixinus]

Under "no hacking", I meant the boss battles only. Some of them at least.

[Stark]

It's already better than 95% of RPGs: avoiding the really core problems like power curves and such would have been really unlikely. I'm only level 17 or something, can you describe how the talents you get per level change? Ie, I know you start getting silvers at 15, but do you ever stop getting bronzes or does the number of silvers you get go up?

[Zixinus]

The higher you go the more the talent points lean towards gold or silver. When you reach level 30 you will get 1 bronze, 2 silver, and 1 gold point.

Frankly I see no reason to NOT be constantly using endurance regen effects, since you'll have dozens of potions. Running in circles allows you to get all the magic blasts you need off: walls and bushes are more dangerous that demons. Smile

So you run around, using endurance regen potions to always stun opponents? That is a rather boring but valid tactic. It's just that somehow, I don't think that that will always work.

Given that badguys spawn, luck *is* a factor.

I'm not talking about the game, I'm talking about the Witcher universe.

[Stark]

Yah well for us poor English-only speaking people, the game is all there is.

Is there a level cap? The manual says you never get the chance to buy everything (something I wholeheartedly support), so they'd have to stop levels eventually. How many golds total can you get? Since you'd need 4ish to max out a single skill, I'd expect a bit more than that...

I killed the swamp wyverns with tk and running about, yeah. In small groups you don't need levels or cageyness as much as you need room to run around. Those bastard plants with the shooting and the poison are the most dangerous thing in the game where I am, which is pretty embarrassing.

[Zixinus]

Don't bother with the plants at first, those are mean sons of bitches. If you have to, take a Swallow and possibly a Blizzard.

Get a book about cursed creatures, and you can learn about them from there.

Use the Fire sign on them btw, they don't like fire. Well, being on fire that is.

[PeZook]

Yah well for us poor English-only speaking people, the game is all there is.

The books are actually on sale in the UK, IIRC.

They've been translated to English already

[Stark]

PeZook
Are you shitting me? Amazon says there's just that short-story collection available? I better not be missing out!

Zixinus
Yah, I just run past the little bastards. The echinops are okay, but the other ones are the single most dangerous enemy I've fought so far. Good thing you don't actually HAVE to kill them.

[Zixinus]

There is one, a Coco something that if you kill, you can get a tropy from it for which you can collect a nice reward.

[Zixinus]

I've just finished the game. Can't wait to get the books.

[PeZook]

PeZook
Are you shitting me? Amazon says there's just that short-story collection available? I better not be missing out!

Aw, damn. You're right, I just checked and only "The Sword of Destiny" was translated into English.

You should get it, though - Geralt was first introduced in these short stories, so they're a good place to start.

[Zixinus]

Am I the only one that hopes for a sequel?

[Stark]

Dude, I'll probably never finish it, and I've been hoping for a sequel since Act I. More non-shit RPGs, thanks Poland.

What interests me is since I played Witcher first, I'm not impressed with Mass Effect's efforts to avoid western RPG structure, since they don't go as far.

[Jaevric]

My apologies for the thread necromancy, but I just hit Chapter III in the game and I had a couple of questions.

I can't seem to skillup my gambling. I beat Carmen, I beat the Gardener, and I beat Zoltan (sp?) the dwarf repeatedly and thoroughly (to the point I bought the 5000 gold leather armor in Chapter II).

I screwed up and used a single red meteorite shard in my sword (the only one I found, back in Chapter I--guess I missed one somewhere). Will I get a chance to acquire 3 more of these at some point (soon) or am I out of luck?

*edit* Make that three questions. Quite often when I'm meditating and trying to brew potions, 4-slot potions (well, 5 counting the base) are grayed out and unavailable. Is this an effect of where I'm resting or how long it's been since the last time I mixed anything? Very frustrating, since I like to have a lot of potions stockpiled and available.

[Vympel]

I can't seem to skillup my gambling. I beat Carmen, I beat the Gardener, and I beat Zoltan (sp?) the dwarf repeatedly and thoroughly (to the point I bought the 5000 gold leather armor in Chapter II).

You need to take on professionals in Chapter III. The Count and the fat dude who you meet at the party spring to mind. Seek them out after. There's also a gambling den with a guy at a higher skill level. Thaler is available to take on in Chapter II.

I screwed up and used a single red meteorite shard in my sword (the only one I found, back in Chapter I--guess I missed one somewhere). Will I get a chance to acquire 3 more of these at some point (soon) or am I out of luck?

I don't care about meteorites. Harvall is better- you can find that in either Chapter II or Chapter III, in the swamp on a corpse near the Wyvern area. You can also get it in Chapter IV, but you can miss it if you leave the Fields before picking it up (since it's in the open, not on a corpse).

Runes for your silver sword are much more important, since you won't get an equivalent to Harvall for your silver sword until Chapter IV (provided you make the right choice) and Chapter V (provided you do the teeth collector quest to completion and/or get all the named monster trophies throughout the game - I played through again to do this - teeth was easy, but I missed out on one trophy).

Chapter V will net you the kick ass weaponry if you do things right.

*edit* Make that three questions. Quite often when I'm meditating and trying to brew potions, 4-slot potions (well, 5 counting the base) are grayed out and unavailable. Is this an effect of where I'm resting or how long it's been since the last time I mixed anything? Very frustrating, since I like to have a lot of potions stockpiled and available.

What's your base? Not all potion bases are equal - the best potions need high quality bases, the real good stuff. Get from alchemists, or make some white gull, depending on what you want to make.

[Jaevric]

You need to take on professionals in Chapter III. The Count and the fat dude who you meet at the party spring to mind. Seek them out after. There's also a gambling den with a guy at a higher skill level. Thaler is available to take on in Chapter II.

Thaler still says I'm not up to playing against professionals. I'll have to check out the gambling den and see if there's someone there I can skillup playing against.

I don't care about meteorites. Harvall is better- you can find that in either Chapter II or Chapter III, in the swamp on a corpse near the Wyvern area. You can also get it in Chapter IV, but you can miss it if you leave the Fields before picking it up (since it's in the open, not on a corpse).

Gotcha. I'm heading out to the swamp for wyvern meat anyway so I can grab the sword while I'm there.

Runes for your silver sword are much more important, since you won't get an equivalent to Harvall for your silver sword until Chapter IV (provided you make the right choice) and Chapter V (provided you do the teeth collector quest to completion and/or get all the named monster trophies throughout the game - I played through again to do this - teeth was easy, but I missed out on one trophy).

I have 2 runes, just debating between buying or finding a third.

What's your base? Not all potion bases are equal - the best potions need high quality bases, the real good stuff. Get from alchemists, or make some white gull, depending on what you want to make.

Ah. I am enlightened. I'll go buy some better-quality booze.

[Zixinus]

Gotcha. I'm heading out to the swamp for wyvern meat anyway so I can grab the sword while I'm there.

Beware. Those wyverns are mean sons of bitches. Try taking them one on one and never let them surround you. That's instant death.

I have 2 runes, just debating between buying or finding a third.

Buy. But really, its not that terribly useful.