The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [2015]

[Gorgon]

I dunno about that. Take Darksouls for instance, there's hundreds (well lots) of unique bosses. I do think Witcher started to suffer from repetition in that area after a while. I liked the boss fight with the crones a lot. More of that kind of structured encounter would have been nice. Yes, finding a way to keep the low level rabble viabile as well would be good. Every enemy or group should present a challenge. 

[Orogun01]

I dunno about that. Take Darksouls for instance, there's hundreds (well lots) of unique bosses. I do think Witcher started to suffer from repetition in that area after a while. I liked the boss fight with the crones a lot. More of that kind of structured encounter would have been nice. Yes, finding a way to keep the low level rabble viabile as well would be good. Every enemy or group should present a challenge. 

I think I get what you mean, Dark Souls however saved a lot in development cost by not being as graphically impressive as other games. Plus the boss behaviors aren't all that complex and can be iterated between bosses but they are effective however. BTW I assume that we are talking about Dark Souls and not Dark Souls 2 (that cesspool).

[GhostofAnakin]

The problems all stem from the more or less broken level implementation. Level restrictions for gear is silly. RPGs have evolved beyond that. Instead use skills to improve the effectivness of gear.

 

Monsters shouldn't scale so litterally. A vl 1 drowner is the same as a lv 50 drowner except for stats ?. No, a drowner should more or less be a drowner.

 

Make the challenge look like it's level. No lv 50 mudcrabs and no lv 5 warewolfs. Scale all the quests of lower level than you so the difficulty remains constant for all the content you missed out on.

 

Make the challenge less about the stats on your sword and armor and more gameplay oriented. Progression should be a gradual sense that you are able to take on harder enemies. 

 

This is one of the issues I've always had about level scaling enemies.  It just seems silly from a logical point of view that you can dispatch a high dragon because it's only level 10, but then get your ass kicked by a level 30 wolf.

 

I guess the problem then comes from level and game play design.  How does one design it so that all the "high level" enemies are actually high level, but at the same time making them accessible to the player earlier in the game without having to keep all the best enemies until the last hour.

 

I mean, a dragon should be higher level than a toad.  But then how do you design the game so that that is the case, while at the same time not making the player face toad after toad until 90 hours into the game when they're high enough level to face a dragon?

[Nordicus]

Human encounters are honestly more repetitive than the monster ones, and you always fight them in groups, which is still one of Witcher 3's weaknesses despite your tools for it being improved from Witcher 2

 

They're generally kinda tanky, random auto-block is annoying, also the added stagger from 2-handed fighters, ranged characters' only good side is that they MAY kill their own friends if you position yourself just right, and shield guys are unfun incarnate.

 

When I can, I just Quen up and throw Grapeshots, Devil's Puffball's and Dancing Stars until 1-2 are left. I am not going to participate in their BS

Edited November 18, 2015 by Nordicus

[Humanoid]

 

The problems all stem from the more or less broken level implementation. Level restrictions for gear is silly. RPGs have evolved beyond that. Instead use skills to improve the effectivness of gear.

 

Monsters shouldn't scale so litterally. A vl 1 drowner is the same as a lv 50 drowner except for stats ?. No, a drowner should more or less be a drowner.

 

Make the challenge look like it's level. No lv 50 mudcrabs and no lv 5 warewolfs. Scale all the quests of lower level than you so the difficulty remains constant for all the content you missed out on.

 

Make the challenge less about the stats on your sword and armor and more gameplay oriented. Progression should be a gradual sense that you are able to take on harder enemies. 

 

This is one of the issues I've always had about level scaling enemies.  It just seems silly from a logical point of view that you can dispatch a high dragon because it's only level 10, but then get your ass kicked by a level 30 wolf.

 

I guess the problem then comes from level and game play design.  How does one design it so that all the "high level" enemies are actually high level, but at the same time making them accessible to the player earlier in the game without having to keep all the best enemies until the last hour.

 

I mean, a dragon should be higher level than a toad.  But then how do you design the game so that that is the case, while at the same time not making the player face toad after toad until 90 hours into the game when they're high enough level to face a dragon?

 

 

Especially when Skyrim already sort of did that by slowly replacing garden variety Draugr with "Restless Draugr", "Draugr Overlord", "Draugr God Lich Monster", etcetera, as you levelled up. Just slight tweaking of the model, with or without a name change, is plenty enough to communicate that this ain't your father's drowner.

[HoonDing]

Drowner Deathlord.

[Malcador]

Drowner Shields

[mkreku]

Sorry, The Witcher 3, I promise I will get back to you after my obligatory 200-300 hours of Fallout 4. I'm sorry I didn't finish you before November 11.

[WDeranged]

I'm about 20 hours in and having a pretty good time.  The only thing that confuses me is the lack of quests in new areas, for example I went to Oxenfurt looking for a missing person (who I found) and didn't see a single quest mark on the map.  Sure there's a couple of missions on the notice board but this is a freaking city!

 

Are notice boards where I'm going to be finding most of my quests?

[Humanoid]

Oxenfurt was conspicuously devoid of things to do in the base game, but the recently released first expansion is pretty much the Oxenfurt expansion. It's balanced around the lategame though, so yeah, just proceed with the game in other areas in the meantime, there aren't any real content-free areas that stick out even nearly as much.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Humanoid

[WDeranged]

Oxenfurt was conspicuously devoid of things to do in the base game, but the recently released first expansion is pretty much the Oxenfurt expansion. It's balanced around the lategame though, so yeah, just proceed with the game in other areas in the meantime, there aren't any real content-free areas that stick out even nearly as much.

 

It's a shame, when I got to Oxenfurt I was treated to an impressive view and I thought I'd finally get a good amount of quests in one location.  I'm guessing Novigrad is where it's at but I'm no where near ready to go there yet.

[the_dog_days]

I also wanted more quests in Oxenfurt, if only so I could run into some witch hunters. It would've been fun to be able to wipe out their base of operations.

[WDeranged]

I think the way you pick up quests is a bit slapdash.  I took a monster contract from the board and it directed me to a dude who was standing about three feet away, he had a name and I'd tried to talk to him earlier but apparently he's mute until I pull a piece of paper from a piece of wood 

 

Another time I stumbled into a cabin and immediately triggered a quest halfway through, the game told me I'd done several previous steps and promptly told me where to go next...all I did was step through a door!

 

To be fair, I'm really enjoying the game, for their first stab at open world they got so much right.  Also the PC port is really well done 

[WDeranged]

Met the witches of the bog and couldn't help but grin, I love characters like this, they remind me of old anime horrors from my childhood 

[Fenixp]

The game is so bloody long. And most of the content is, frankly, kind of boring. Even exploration isn't particularly fun. Which is a shame as really loved all the previous Witcher games. Oh well.

 

To be fair, I'm really enjoying the game, for their first stab at open world they got so much right.  Also the PC port is really well done 

Not a PC port, the game has been simultaneously developed for PC and consoles.

[WDeranged]

The game is so bloody long. And most of the content is, frankly, kind of boring. Even exploration isn't particularly fun. Which is a shame as really loved all the previous Witcher games. Oh well.

 

To be fair, I'm really enjoying the game, for their first stab at open world they got so much right.  Also the PC port is really well done 

Not a PC port, the game has been simultaneously developed for PC and consoles.

 

 

Either way, it runs very well and they didn't skimp on the options.

[Nordicus]

First screens of Blood and Wine

 

[Lexx]

This reminds me of the one short story... I forgot where it was, but wine and stuff was mentioned as well. Geralt and Dandelion were together in it as well. Damn, have to re-read all the stuff again. I forgot too much.

 

/Edit: Not the short stories, but "Die Dame vom See" / Pani jeziora, no idea what the english title is. The screenshot names are giving it away: Toussaint and the castle Beauclair.

 

Cool.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Lexx

[Malcador]

Guess Dandelion will be strung up again

[Keyrock]

This reminds me of the one short story... I forgot where it was, but wine and stuff was mentioned as well. Geralt and Dandelion were together in it as well. Damn, have to re-read all the stuff again. I forgot too much.

 

/Edit: Not the short stories, but "Die Dame vom See" / Pani jeziora, no idea what the english title is. The screenshot names are giving it away: Toussaint and the castle Beauclair.

 

Cool.

For what it's worth, Pani jeziora translates to Lady of the Lake.

[FlintlockJazz]

First screens of Blood and Wine

 

Wow, those buildings are bright!  Really bright!  I like it. :D  It's like someone scrolled over on their colour palette and realised they had a whole lot more colours they hadn't been using.  

Edited December 10, 2015 by FlintlockJazz

[Nonek]

Reminds me of a few places in Poland. The titles wine part obviously hinted at Toussaint, but the blood part interests me, i'm honestly wondering if Regis might make a comeback in some form. The gentleman probably still needs a few decades of recovery and regeneration, but i'm thinking that an Avallach like mask might be used, and fit with the flamboyant styles of the Nilfgaardian protectorate.

[Keyrock]

Wow, those buildings are bright!  Really bright!  I like it. :D  It's like someone scrolled over on their colour palette and realised they had a whole lot more colours they hadn't been using.  

 

 

Well, Toussaint is supposed to feel really out of place with the rest of the world.  It's this duchy where everything is bright and cheerful and they have no standing army to speak of, yet everyone leaves them alone and leaves them to their own devices, including Nilfgaard, even though they are technically part of Nilfgaard.  Makes you wonder what's really going on beneath the surface.  Given the title "Blood & Wine", I wonder if it's vampires?

Edited December 10, 2015 by Keyrock

[SadExchange]

I just started a Death March run and am going to try and search all areas knowing I'll need the fear and loot, and after about an hour am quite enjoying the challenge associated with this difficulty and am curious how it'll go for the next few hours.

[HoonDing]

B00bs and Whine.