Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Falconeer]

The "level restriction" mechanic in all the cRPGs before the introduction of "level restriction" was simply not letting you find anything too powerful until you were of the appropriate level. So the complain here is that they let you see the good stuff but not touch it, and it would be better if we simply didn't see it like in the old times?

Skyrim is one of the few games that can afford letting you break it because there is so much undirected stuff to do that going through it at any pace doesn't make that much of a difference. More story-driven games simply can't afford that, or you would be reading everywhere how trivial and boring Witcher 3 becomes as soon as you get the Sword of Winning +5.

With all that said, the "level restriction" feature has seriously been in cRPGs since forever, way before aRPG, sometimes hidden behind a skill level wall instead of a character level wall and sometimes making you bad at using a particular piece of gear until you had grown more, and this is pretty much the first time I heard anyone complain about it.

[Sophismata]

With all that said, the "level restriction" feature has seriously been in cRPGs since forever, way before aRPG, sometimes hidden behind a skill level wall instead of a character level wall and sometimes making you bad at using a particular piece of gear until you had grown more, and this is pretty much the first time I heard anyone complain about it.

Again, almost every cRPG I've played does not have hard level restrictions on equipment. It started for me with Diablo 2.

What examples do you have of games that do utilise it and aren't Diablo clones?

[Job601]

In Divinity: Original Sin, you can use higher level equipment but it requires more action points  and is generally a bad idea.  The Fallout games have guns which require a certain level of weapon skill to use, which is technically possible to have at low character level but unusual. It seems like most open world games have some version of this mechanic.

So it sounds like this game has the exact same strengths (relatively good writing, an evocative world with a consistent tone) and weaknesses (frustrating combat.)  Is that right?

[Tebonas]

The first CRPG I personally encountered gear limits was Dark Heart of Uukrul in 1989, where you needed a certain Strength to equip some weapons. Strength was a trait that was improved by Level-Up. But it might be there were such limits before that as well, it certainly happened many times after that.

[Cyrrex]

Requiring 13 strength is to me quite different than requiring level 13.  At least, if you have some influence over the rate at which your strength increases.

[Tebonas]

Well, that was the first that sprang to mind. I'm sure if I think about it there are games well before Diablo that even fit your quite narrow definition. So let me phrase the parameters, please.

Stats don't count as equipment barriers in your mind. Levels do. So how about Skill levels? Yes or No column? Do you have to be able to minmax from character creation on to wear every piece of equipment when you get it? Do shop items count or are we talking drops only?

You'll have to wait for next week, though. I'm off for the weekend and I have to play Witcher 3 when I'm at home. Defending the age old art of cRPGs to people that think everything started with Diablo is a workplace thing. 

[Cyrrex]

I can deal with the skill levels as a requirement.  But it is worth mentioning that with this and with stat requirements, I prefer to have the option of being able to still wield the equipment, with perhaps some kind of penalty.  I can remember quite a few scenarios where I have gotten an advantage from being allowed to wield an item I was not fully qualified for.

So why make this distinction, you might ask?  Because at least it has some basis in being logical.  Just putting up some random level number before being able to wield Greataxe +14 doesn't make sense if I am a giant ass Barbarian who should have little problem actually carrying the weapon, and who is otherwise proficient in Greataxes already.  When your game's rules do not make sense, you might as well not play.

[Tebonas]

These are just different abstraction layers, though. Str requirement means "Too weak to lift the weapon", Dex Requirement means "You'll hurt yourself when you try to use this". Witcher 3 is misses those stats, so the Level Requirement is a substitution for that. I don't try to say its ideal and I could live without that crutch as well, but its a rather well established crutch now.

I care more about a missing stash for items I can't yet use. That is more of a burden than having those items. I think the Pillars of Eternity stash function should be mandatory for all RPGs, realism be damned.

[jakonovski]

Developers love bad combat systems. They've become so simplistic that they make the world suck too, because a rigid level structure being the only way to create difficulty. I don't think anyone has done a simulationist approach to combat interaction since the 90s, and at this point I don't think there's anyone left in the games industry who can even remember the existence of such a thing. Souls games come closest and that makes them light years ahead of everyone else in playability.
 

[Gimfain]

The game grew on me. White orchard was a lackluster map but the second area has far better atmosphere and storytelling. There are still stuff I dont like about the game, but they have already been said, and it still beats the first two games by far.

Is there anyone that tried any mods that were good?

[rk47]

I agree. The setting is what draws me in and most of it does not disappoint.
Really loving the darker twist on things. There's no heroic knight slaying evil in this game.

[Falconeer]

Talking merely about size here:

Someone says it's HUGE and bigger than any other RPG, bigger than Dragon Age 3. Some say Dragon Age 3 is twice the size of Witcher 3.
It's not always reliable but http://howlongtobeat.com/ confirmes that Dragon Age 3 is way longer/bigger than Witcher 3.

Your opinions?

Please note that this has NOTHING to do with quality, it's just something I am trying to find out for my own dark purposes so thanks for your collaboration.

[jakonovski]

DA3 is mostly filler MMO quests that might as well be randomly generated. Dunno about Hexer 3.

 

[Kail]

Talking merely about size here:

Someone says it's HUGE and bigger than any other RPG, bigger than Dragon Age 3. Some say Dragon Age 3 is twice the size of Witcher 3.
It's not always reliable but http://howlongtobeat.com/ confirmes that Dragon Age 3 is way longer/bigger than Witcher 3.

Your opinions?

Please note that this has NOTHING to do with quality, it's just something I am trying to find out for my own dark purposes so thanks for your collaboration.

Define "size"?  The reachable square footage of the game is different than the time it takes to cross the game which is different from the time it takes to beat the game or the time it takes to 100% a game or the actual data size of the game. 

[Falconeer]

Time to beat the game.

[Bunk]

I'm now a heavily played weekend in and I've hit 5th level. I have recipes for level 33 armour. I think this is going to be a long game.

Shockingly, I'm actually enjoying the twitchy/dodgy combat in this. Yea, I spam a heavily upgraded quen, make judicious use of the crossbow, etc - but its kinda fun. I think the first time I went after a bear that was 4 level above me and won (barely) did it for me. The combat was just rather fun.

One minor difference in this from Witcher 2 that makes this far more enjoyable - crafting ingredients hardly weigh anything. In 2 I was constantly walking past corpses and chests, because everything weight too damn much. If I find loot I want to pick it up dammit.

Oh, finding feathers is a real bitch though.

[rk47]

UI is shit.
Only 2 slots for potions.
Going into inventory mid combat to apply oil.
What happened to my keyboard numberics? ffs.
Console controls on PC is a bitch

[Bunk]

Console UI is ok (little too much scrolling through grids)
Strategy!
Oils are meant to be applied pre combat. Not hard to know what you'll be fighting if you pay attention.
numberics? Dunno, playing on console
Console controls on console work great!


Honestly though, I think I'm liking this more than past Witchers because I got this one on console. Just fits better. No, it doesn't perform as nicely graphically as it would on my pc, but it just fits the console scheme better.

[rk47]

At last, remappable keys.
PC master race.
Got to lvl 10, enter town, pick up level 25 quest.
Met lvl 25 bandits. Did 1% dmg per slash. They kill me in two hits.
Man, these guys should just head out and do bounties instead.

[CaptainNapkin]

Decided to turn off all HUD elements except health bars , which only pop up during combat, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Removing that mini map is the best tweak I've done. Since I can run this pig on ultra settings I want to stare at it's beauty instead of a tiny corner the screen leading me to my next carrot. So it will take me a bit longer to get through the game, only downside I can see. I'm not too far in yet but already consider this the best of the 3. While the combat seems like it shouldn't, it works and feels good to me. Sticking with kb/mouse, I use a Logitech G13 with a Razer Naga so I never rebind keys in game anyway. I've experienced a little wonkiness trying to back out of certain menus with escape key, but otherwise the UI is fine, but then I'm also the jackass that never had any issue with the original Skyrim UI.

[Paelos]

then I'm also the jackass that never had any issue with the original Skyrim UI.

I'm also that jackass.

[Cyrrex]

Me too.  I mean, I didn't love it, but I also didn't find it totally necessary to mod it.

Meanwhile, I have now caved to invisible pressure and bought a GTX 970 that comes bundled with this game.  Gotta wait a week or so before it gets here.  Have been kinda looking forward to playing it, but not at retail price.  Free is much better.

[Lucas]

Enjoying the first 2-3 hours in White Orchard. Despite the fact I finished Witcher 2 a couple of days ago, I find myself whacking at monsters instead of using signs and all the tactics I carefully employed in the second chapter. Oh well, after all, Geralt is now a beginner all over again 

Pretty happy about performance: ranging between 45-47 to 52-55fps, with hairworks on (for PC and NPCs), medium shadows, high foliage, ultra textures. In the INI, I put back MipMap Bias to 0 (patch 1.03 value) and I also applied a small tweak to HairWorks: you can reduce the default MSAA on hair by adding "HairWorksAALevel= " to the [Rendering] section, and set it to 0,2,4,8 (8 is default, I lowered it to 4) and it's not as taxing as before on my system. Oh, and I raised the "TextureMemoryBudget" (again, in the rendering section) value from 800 (value for "ultra" texture settings) to 1024.

Movement and "general feel" of Geralt is definitely better with m+kb when I walk; running, especially when I have to turn, is quite off and feels delayed.

[disKret]

Enjoying the first 2-3 hours in White Orchard.

Wait till You see next map 

[Riggswolfe]

I'm amused to see some of the general bitching and whining here. Bioware and Bethesda could learn a lot from this game. If for no other reason than decisions have real consequences. The writing is awesome, the graphics are great, the game is huge, I could go on.

[Lucas]

One thing that took me off guard (in a bad way), is the presence of the Places of Power: yes, I know they have been included in the last two games, but, unless I'm forgetting something, they're not mentioned in the manual nor the in-game tutorial section .

If you decide to delay a certain secondary quest in the first Prologue area that brings you right in front of one (and maybe you're not into exploring every nook and cranny), you would assume you'll eventually start finding them later on. Plus, they're quite important this time because they give you a free ability point

[Druzil]

I haven't given this a fair shake yet but something about the movement in this game feels clunky.  Like in the beginning tutorial where you race the kid I wanted it to feel like assassins creed but it felt like I had iron boots equipped.  I'm not sure if you turn slow or if there is momentum in the turn or what, maybe I'll get used to it.   

The hold button to stick to the road thing is pretty great though, I'm sure some games will be stealing that.

Other than that, it does look great.

[Engels]

Ok, managed to kill the first three 'mini bosses', 2 levels below the recommended level, but FFS the game should not have let me get so far into a quest to only change the quest level requirement balls deep in a dungeon. Sure, I could load a saved game and wipe out an hour or two of game play, level up somewhere else, but its just ...gah. Also, don't throw so many danged encounters at me that my weapon is all but busted before the final encounter.

Other than that, I'm digging the game. The story, the visuals. Even the combat mechanics, although still blargh are not entirely disheartening.  A little too heavy on freakin' potions and herbs. Shoulda been called "The Herbalist" or "The Chugger" rather than "The Witcher".

[Tebonas]

To be fair, thats a big part of what the Witchers are by lore. They win fights not purely by being badass, but by researching the monsters and preparing accordingly, seen from the first cutscene in the first game. Personally I find it good that they made less of a hassle about it in Witcher 3, I actually use Potions more often because I only have to keep hard alcohol in stock instead of rebrewing and rebrewing all those potions.

[rk47]

Ok, managed to kill the first three 'mini bosses', 2 levels below the recommended level, but FFS the game should not have let me get so far into a quest to only change the quest level requirement balls deep in a dungeon. Sure, I could load a saved game and wipe out an hour or two of game play, level up somewhere else, but its just ...gah. Also, don't throw so many danged encounters at me that my weapon is all but busted before the final encounter.

Other than that, I'm digging the game. The story, the visuals. Even the combat mechanics, although still blargh are not entirely disheartening.  A little too heavy on freakin' potions and herbs. Shoulda been called "The Herbalist" or "The Chugger" rather than "The Witcher".

Whatever you do, don't take on crap beyond the recommended levels.
They hard-coded the whole encounter much like MMOs do. Anything that is higher than your level do a lot of damage and take less damage from you.
I honestly got tired of the whole pointlessly long hitpoint bar cause they're not challenging, just tedious to fight.

[CaptainNapkin]

Maybe it changes or scales as you get higher level, but at level 3 I had no problems taking out a group of 5 level 7 bandits. Barely got scratched. I am playing on normal/default difficulty though. This game seems to want you to use everything at your disposal... potions, sword buffs, spells in most fights. The change to how you automatically refresh of all that stuff by meditating makes it easy to replenish often. You still need to dodge and parry, can't just hack and slash your way through this one, or at least I can't. I'm still in the noob zone so maybe it gets tougher later, but I've only had to run once from level 10 drowners that were under water and I couldn't figure out how to attack them submerged.

[Tebonas]

With the Crossbow. One bolt and they are dead.

I can manage red monsters a few levels above me (At Level 14, Fast Attack Style specced), but it takes rolling around like a bitch because you definitely can't tank most of them. Mobs with a Red Skull are just to be ignored and kept for later.

[Mazakiel]

The only way to attack underwater drowners is with the crossbow.  You'll get it through the main questline.  

Most the stuff I've been fighting has been over my level a bit, but where it gets problematic is when it's more than I believe 5 levels over you.  When that's the case, it gets a big skull marker next to its name, and you might as well be hitting it with a nerf sword.  That's when it gets pretty annoying.  

[Lakov_Sanite]

At level 15 I killed a level 22 earth elemental with some patience and good dodging so, YMMV.

[Druzil]

Still in White Orchard, there's just too many distractions  .  I spent all my starting cash on Gwent cards not realizing money was going to be kinda scarce at the start.   So I had no money for food and no way to heal, so things were a bit rough in the beginning.

I'm getting the hang of it now though, I've started actually using the signs and that helps a bunch.  Also I put a point in the daytime regen so that made a huge difference, I can actually fill up health without using a bunch of food.  Also I killed a bunch of wolves/rabbits, not sure if I can cook the meat yet but the raw meat is at least free and seems to work ok.