CDProjektRED website countdown leads to Witcher 3 cinematic trailer + Tywin Lannister as voice actor

[Saviordd1]

Seems very cool, but I must say, I'm unsure of the portrayal of Geralt here. Those soldiers are ultimately just following orders, I find it hard to believe he would attack them when he could walk away and lose nothing, especially after they just paid him for a contract.

They were implied to be about to rape someone, I doubt that was in their orders.

OT: Looks awesome, seriously cant wait for this game.

 

[exxxed]

Related question - since plants are monsters, presumably the silver sword is better?

Silver sword is for supernatural beings and steel for anything else (not just humans, but wolfs and other predators die easier using that one).

Here's a tip, check the bestiary section of the journal, every monster you investigated (or read upon) has a section in there which explains it's immunities, tactics and weaknesses.

The plant monsters are quite easy if you know what ye'r doing, they're weak to fire, use a torch and the igni sign to maul them back into the ground, though the Archespore (trophy-plant-thingy) is a bit tougher so I'd recommend a combination of Tawny Owl and Swallow potions, I'd also go for some blade coating.

On Topic:

Fantastic news about Charles Dance, I've been following the weekly ''gifting'' on the countdown site prior to the countdown itself, got my hands on some wonderful pieces of soundtrack, I'd recommend downloading them.

As for the trailer itself, masterfully done, I'd love an actual full feature film using the camera play as in the trailer, much respect for these guys they know their craft.

Cheers!

 

[SonicWaffle]

I actually like all that, you never know whats important and whats not. I like that alot more than have my journal spoon feed me every interesting thing.

Yes, but what I'm saying is that most of the time the journal does spoon-feed every detail of a quest. When there's something worth checking out, the game makes sure you know about it, and it updates the journal with information as you discover more.

Except for the times it doesn't.

I'm not arguing that one way is better than the other, my point is that it shouldn't be inconsistently applied. Either everything of interest goes in the journal or the journal is reserved only for major or story-related quests. The system in place chooses on an arbitrary basis what points of interest are worth recording, so when something isn't recorded the player assumption is that it's insignificant.

The Dog is a poor example, because he is important. The dog belonged to the brother of Odo(the guy who owns this little farm), and the dog howls there because the brother is buried there. The monster plants that appear on the grave only grow where violantly killed people are burried. These two informations prove that Odo murdered his brother for his money.

Again, poor implementation. There are two monster plants in the garden, and while one appears where the dog is barking the other appears at the other end. Is there another body buried there? The dog gives no clue either way, and immediately after interacting with it the Beast and his gang of demon dogs appear outside the garden. Should the player assume that the dog could sense them? Interacting with the dog gives no indication either way. As with many of the other quests and oddities in the game, it's fairly easy to work out in hindsight, but at the time it's pretty much meaningless.

Again something I like far more than always being able to see or know where hidden stuff is because the game hints strongely at it.

Incentive to explore is a good thing. What's not so good is requiring exhaustive inspection of everything in the game. Take the example I gave before, of the random nameless NPC in the first zone who will give Geralt 100 orens; there's no way to get that money (barring looking it up online) without talking to every NPC in the area, the vast majority of whom look identical, wander around seemingly at random, and will speak the same lines when approached. This is A) boring, which is not conducive to further exploration and B) poor design choice, because when the player speaks to ten NPCs and they all say the same thing, how logical is it to expect that the 11th NPC will be different? They do say the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Imagine I sent you to a webpage consisting of nothing but a big blue button. When you click the button, the text "Hello, my name is Bingle the Button and I enjoy cross-dressing and dog racing" floats up onto your screen. You click it again, same result. Again, same. Again. Again. Again. Are you going to keep clicking it in the hopes that eventually it will deposit a million bucks into your bank account, or are you going to assume that it only ever says that one line and just stop clicking it?

He is a city guard, they are very distinguishable, the flaming rose guys are in red, the guard guys in white.

Heh, maybe I need to turn up the gamma, it's so gloomy most of the time that they all look the same to me!

If you offended someone or they say "come back later" you just need a loading screen. That means leaving a house, entering a house and traveling to any new area resets them and you can talk to them again.

Handy, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Yeah, 12 is kinda low for dealing with the trophy monster. A good way I found for doing it around that level was use the silver talent you get from the hellhound's soul potion into getting Igni level 3 along with the improved chance to incinerate talents, while also having taken the strong silver talents that increase damage to incinerated targets.

Bugger, I think I already put that talent into sword skills. I haven't really been using magic much at all, partly because I enjoy the sword fighting and partly because the controls are a bit wonky; half the time right-clicking doesn't actually fire off the spell at all.

Alternatively, there are plenty of quests in town, enough to take you up around 15. And most of them require barely any fighting at all.

I've worked my way through most of the obvious ones, but now I'm at the point where the majority of my journal is pointing me at the swamp. I guess I could go back and try getting into the hospital, there are a couple of quests pointing me that way too. Or just grind on the Salamandra thugs who spawn every night, even.

Another usefull tipp, there is absolutly no reason to not have 1-3 potions active everytime you could encounter enemys, meaning whenever there is a claw slash in the little thingy that shows you the aproximate time of day/night in the upper right corner. Having a few bombs and swordoils/other sword enhancements ready at all times can make the game much much easier too.

What about toxicity? As yet I'm still waiting to find out what it actually does (is the answer buried somewhere in the journal entires?) and as such have been wary of raising it too high. I've barely made any potions, because I never seem to have the right ingredients. Without buying it, strong alcohol has been kinda rare so far.

 

[gunny1993]

CHARLES MOTHERFUCKING DANCE

I'm so happy, this is a fucking good day.

 

[Neuromancer]

Bugger, I think I already put that talent into sword skills. I haven't really been using magic much at all, partly because I enjoy the sword fighting and partly because the controls are a bit wonky; half the time right-clicking doesn't actually fire off the spell at all.

Igni was pretty much the only Sign I ever put talents into, mostly because it synergizes soooo well with Strong Silver. But anyway, Igni lvl 3 isn't obligatory for the strategy I described, but in order to be able to deal enough damage to the monster before it kills you at those levels the Patinudo + Incinerate talents are. (unless you can find a dragon's breath bomb, that is)

I've worked my way through most of the obvious ones, but now I'm at the point where the majority of my journal is pointing me at the swamp. I guess I could go back and try getting into the hospital, there are a couple of quests pointing me that way too. Or just grind on the Salamandra thugs who spawn every night, even.

A good deal of quests appear after you do the "Crown Witness" quest given by the private investigator. I also believe there is a certain guy near the sewer entrance that gives a quest concerning the spider cult in sewers and is easily missable because he appears around 9am and leaves at 10am or some time around that. Speaking of easily missable quests, there is a lady near the Gravedigger that appears for 1 hour at around 12pm.

What about toxicity? As yet I'm still waiting to find out what it actually does (is the answer buried somewhere in the journal entires?) and as such have been wary of raising it too high. I've barely made any potions, because I never seem to have the right ingredients. Without buying it, strong alcohol has been kinda rare so far.

Toxicity will only be a problem if you drink a potion when you're already up to 60-70. At around that you take a good deal of damage. Reaching 100 kills you ded.

 

[Amaror]

I think it's a case of having to get out of the 'completionist' mindset of typical RPGs and accepting that you aren't going to be able to get everything on the first playthrough. I do think you're underestimating the number of people you have played the games through multiple times, though. Especially in the second game, the fact that there is a wildly different second act depending on your choices during the first is a big indication that the game is meant to be played through more than once.

Ugh, i actually really wanted to play the second game another time, but i just can't. I chose Roche the first time and no matter how hard i try i just can't get myself to supporting the scoiatel. Bunch of stupid terrorists, who worsen things even more for their people with their stupid hatefull actions.

 

[Eduku]

I think it's a case of having to get out of the 'completionist' mindset of typical RPGs and accepting that you aren't going to be able to get everything on the first playthrough. I do think you're underestimating the number of people you have played the games through multiple times, though. Especially in the second game, the fact that there is a wildly different second act depending on your choices during the first is a big indication that the game is meant to be played through more than once.

Ugh, i actually really wanted to play the second game another time, but i just can't. I chose Roche the first time and no matter how hard i try i just can't get myself to supporting the scoiatel. Bunch of stupid terrorists, who worsen things even more for their people with their stupid hatefull actions.

Yeah I always sided with Roche because he is just such a bro, but I have heard that Iorveth's path is supposedly the more 'interesting' one, so I do want to run through it again with him at some point. Apparently he isn't all that bad.

 

[BLAHwhatever]

I admit I'm quite blown away by this trailer. Consider me 33% more hyped.

 

[Chris Tian]

Yes, but what I'm saying is that most of the time the journal does spoon-feed every detail of a quest. When there's something worth checking out, the game makes sure you know about it, and it updates the journal with information as you discover more.

Except for the times it doesn't.

For me that works very well, most things you will find with your journal, and some bonus stuff you find on your own. Its mostly very small stuff, like the merchant who gives 100 Orens you mentioned, that nothing, just a little suprise bonus.

Again, poor implementation. There are two monster plants in the garden, and while one appears where the dog is barking the other appears at the other end. Is there another body buried there? The dog gives no clue either way, and immediately after interacting with it the Beast and his gang of demon dogs appear outside the garden. Should the player assume that the dog could sense them? Interacting with the dog gives no indication either way. As with many of the other quests and oddities in the game, it's fairly easy to work out in hindsight, but at the time it's pretty much meaningless.

I wouldn't say poor implementation, since it worked very well for me. The beauty for me is that it can mean different things you dont have conclusive proof, the game doesn't say "this is the truth, if you act accordingly you act 100% correctly" you are just provided with clues and hints and have to act on what you make of them.

Incentive to explore is a good thing. What's not so good is requiring exhaustive inspection of everything in the game. Take the example I gave before, of the random nameless NPC in the first zone who will give Geralt 100 orens; there's no way to get that money (barring looking it up online) without talking to every NPC in the area, the vast majority of whom look identical, wander around seemingly at random, and will speak the same lines when approached. This is A) boring, which is not conducive to further exploration and B) poor design choice, because when the player speaks to ten NPCs and they all say the same thing, how logical is it to expect that the 11th NPC will be different? They do say the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Imagine I sent you to a webpage consisting of nothing but a big blue button. When you click the button, the text "Hello, my name is Bingle the Button and I enjoy cross-dressing and dog racing" floats up onto your screen. You click it again, same result. Again, same. Again. Again. Again. Are you going to keep clicking it in the hopes that eventually it will deposit a million bucks into your bank account, or are you going to assume that it only ever says that one line and just stop clicking it?

Different tastes I guess, like I said before, some small things are just well hidden and people who turn every stone get a little suprise every now and then. I like it that way.

What about toxicity? As yet I'm still waiting to find out what it actually does (is the answer buried somewhere in the journal entires?) and as such have been wary of raising it too high. I've barely made any potions, because I never seem to have the right ingredients. Without buying it, strong alcohol has been kinda rare so far.

Toxicity will gradually slow down you health regeneration if you go above half and these little red dots appear on the screen. But You can always have 1-3 potions on without hitting that, depending on the potions. If you have to few ingredients you probably lack the knowledge to extract them, buy books about herbs, plants and monsters to learn to extract more. The alcohol is often found on dead human enemies and all over the world in barrels, chests and waredrobes, just look in the items that are searchable. You should buy alcohol every now and then to keep a steady supply.

 

[Chris Tian]

Yeah I always sided with Roche because he is just such a bro, but I have heard that Iorveth's path is supposedly the more 'interesting' one, so I do want to run through it again with him at some point. Apparently he isn't all that bad.

Yeah thats true, Vergen is cooler than Henselts Camp, you meet more old Friends (if you read the books) and the characters are more interesting. But dont worry its all in all not much, even if I made it sound that way.
I think CDPR did this on purpose since I belive most people side with Roche for the first time. It just comes more natural, hes a cool guy, you befriend him during the Prologue and Act I and you kind of owe him.
Its a smart move to make the second path slightly more interesting.