The Witcher 2 Catch-All

Luggage wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Pretty impressive packaging for a standard ($60) title.

- 30 page instruction manual and a 85 page "Quest Handbook"
- Reversible map
- Game soundtrack disc
- Slipcover & dvd case

I had no idea it shipped with all this stuff.

Just came home with my copy. I can't remember the last time a console game had this quality: heft.

Very awesome package. Can't wait to start.

That's just the XBOX exclusive Dark Edition though, right?

It's whatever you get for 60 bones.

Luggage wrote:

That's just the XBOX exclusive Dark Edition though, right?

Nope, the base version is the 'premium' version, the limited dark edition comes with even more swag.

Scratched wrote:
Luggage wrote:

That's just the XBOX exclusive Dark Edition though, right?

Nope, the base version is the 'premium' version, the limited dark edition comes with even more swag.

The question was more along the lines of XBOX360 only.

I seem to be having the worst luck with some of the systemic issues with the game. Ran into this one just now and freaked out for a minute.

Although storage is free, there is a possible bug which prevents items from being collected from storage if Geralt has no money.

Edit: I have about exhausted my patience for the Witcher 2 today.

I talked to my pals at the inn, watched a cutscene where a new major character was introduced, had a new silver sword forged, bought a bunch of books to research monsters, destroyed a couple nekker nests, dealt with the troll menace. Is it not reasonable to expect a single autosave in there somewhere? I guess not, I am back to the start of the entire sequence.

I suppose it's my fault, I need to treat this game as though it had a quick save button. I just wish I had known so sooner.

Luggage wrote:
Scratched wrote:
Luggage wrote:

That's just the XBOX exclusive Dark Edition though, right?

Nope, the base version is the 'premium' version, the limited dark edition comes with even more swag.

The question was more along the lines of XBOX360 only. ;)

No really, as far as I'm aware both PC and 360 base versions come with a small hill of goodies, and the dark 360 version (or whatever the PC limited edition was called) comes with a small mountain range of stuff.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I seem to be having the worst luck with some of the systemic issues with the game. Ran into this one just now and freaked out for a minute.

Although storage is free, there is a possible bug which prevents items from being collected from storage if Geralt has no money.

Edit: I have about exhausted my patience for the Witcher 2 today.

I talked to my pals at the inn, watched a cutscene where a new major character was introduced, had a new silver sword forged, bought a bunch of books to research monsters, destroyed a couple nekker nests, dealt with the troll menace. Is it not reasonable to expect a single autosave in there somewhere? I guess not, I am back to the start of the entire sequence.

I suppose it's my fault, I need to treat this game as though it had a quick save button. I just wish I had known so sooner.

That's unfortunate. Over the years, I've developed a habit of saving religiously even when there is an autosave. I'm so paranoid. I hope you don't have any more bad luck when you decide to go back to it. I'm the same way, where I'll quit if I do manage to lose an hour or so of playtime. It makes me so angry.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I seem to be having the worst luck with some of the systemic issues with the game. Ran into this one just now and freaked out for a minute.

Although storage is free, there is a possible bug which prevents items from being collected from storage if Geralt has no money.

Edit: I have about exhausted my patience for the Witcher 2 today.

I talked to my pals at the inn, watched a cutscene where a new major character was introduced, had a new silver sword forged, bought a bunch of books to research monsters, destroyed a couple nekker nests, dealt with the troll menace. Is it not reasonable to expect a single autosave in there somewhere? I guess not, I am back to the start of the entire sequence.

I suppose it's my fault, I need to treat this game as though it had a quick save button. I just wish I had known so sooner.

I wasn't as far as you, but died doing the nekker quest. Given that it auto saved frequently in the prologue, I didn't save either. I feel your pain.

Should I have quest markers for the side quests? I've just been wandering around randomly. The nekker quest is active, but I can't see a quest marker.

There are a few quests like that.
The Nekker quest won't give you a marker, you have to search for the nests yourself (it's not that hard, you'll come across them naturally). You also need something special for the nests and it doesn't tell you explicitly what it is, you need to find out. Sometimes it might also not say more than "talk to some people".

spider_j wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I seem to be having the worst luck with some of the systemic issues with the game. Ran into this one just now and freaked out for a minute.

Although storage is free, there is a possible bug which prevents items from being collected from storage if Geralt has no money.

Edit: I have about exhausted my patience for the Witcher 2 today.

I talked to my pals at the inn, watched a cutscene where a new major character was introduced, had a new silver sword forged, bought a bunch of books to research monsters, destroyed a couple nekker nests, dealt with the troll menace. Is it not reasonable to expect a single autosave in there somewhere? I guess not, I am back to the start of the entire sequence.

I suppose it's my fault, I need to treat this game as though it had a quick save button. I just wish I had known so sooner.

I wasn't as far as you, but died doing the nekker quest. Given that it auto saved frequently in the prologue, I didn't save either. I feel your pain.

Should I have quest markers for the side quests? I've just been wandering around randomly. The nekker quest is active, but I can't see a quest marker.

The nekker quest has no marker as it's just something you come across during your travels.

I've been really enjoying my Dark mode playthrough, you really have to prepare yourself for combat. I can't shake the feeling this would be really awesome on 360 though, as the mouse/keyboard combat may be hindering my abilities. The mouse "lock" on a target is really hard to change quickly, which I imagine isn't the case with a controller.

I've been trying to find out more about the combat system but haven't had much luck. During a fight you will start getting a "combat fatigue" multiplier, first 25%, then 50%. I'm wondering what the basis is on how the multiplier increases. Too many attacks? Light attacks cause more than heavy? I can't find anything about it!

I began a new game and everything was normal for the first part of the Prologue. But I began storming the castle and suddenly Geralt is wearing some weird gear which looks like it's from much later in the game. My inventory suddenly had stuff which I'm assuming is from my old play-through. Has anyone else encountered this as a glitch, or did I accidentally start a New Game+?

IMAGE(http://i43.tinypic.com/2s0g7f7.jpg)

The game is still awesome, though.

Forte wrote:

I began a new game and everything was normal for the first part of the Prologue. But I began storming the castle and suddenly Geralt is wearing some weird gear which looks like it's from much later in the game. My inventory suddenly had stuff which I'm assuming is from my old play-through. Has anyone else encountered this as a glitch, or did I accidentally start a New Game+?

IMAGE(http://i43.tinypic.com/2s0g7f7.jpg)

The game is still awesome, though.

Apparently you start the game with a blue stripe outfit now. I had the same thing.

Figured out fatigue. Looks like it's tied to your magic use. No magic means your attacks do half damage. I'm not very far in yet so I'm not sure how having 3 or 4 vigor chunks will make a difference with the fatigue thing. I don't remember that from my last playthrough.

Stylez wrote:

I've been trying to find out more about the combat system but haven't had much luck. During a fight you will start getting a "combat fatigue" multiplier, first 25%, then 50%. I'm wondering what the basis is on how the multiplier increases. Too many attacks? Light attacks cause more than heavy? I can't find anything about it!

You sure about this fatigue thing? I haven't seen my damage output go down at all during combat, no matter how long it lasts.

How are people tweaking their settings in the advanced options? I have never been able to get it to run as smooth as it should considering I have a beefy rig*.

*ASUS gaming laptop

Are there any gameplay changes in the EE? I thought I read something about dodging and blocking being reworked but I don't remember the details.

Vector wrote:

How are people tweaking their settings in the advanced options? I have never been able to get it to run as smooth as it should considering I have a beefy rig*.

*ASUS gaming laptop

Are there any gameplay changes in the EE? I thought I read something about dodging and blocking being reworked but I don't remember the details.

Try this handy guide, Vector. It has graphs showing how much each option costs you in terms of framerate, and an explanation of exactly what each option does, with screenshots.

Stylez wrote:
Forte wrote:

I began a new game and everything was normal for the first part of the Prologue. But I began storming the castle and suddenly Geralt is wearing some weird gear which looks like it's from much later in the game. My inventory suddenly had stuff which I'm assuming is from my old play-through. Has anyone else encountered this as a glitch, or did I accidentally start a New Game+?

IMAGE(http://i43.tinypic.com/2s0g7f7.jpg)

The game is still awesome, though.

Apparently you start the game with a blue stripe outfit now. I had the same thing.

If you're on PC, did you import a save from Witcher 1? A bunch of your gear carries forward which might be the stuff in your inventory.

Annoyingly it seems every time you transition between opening areas it keeps swapping out my Raven's armour for that horrible hooded thing. I don't think it did that first time around in 'vanilla' W2.

Raven's armour is the one from TW1 import, assuming you got it in TW1. The rest are the DLC additions.

Hyetal wrote:
Stylez wrote:

I've been trying to find out more about the combat system but haven't had much luck. During a fight you will start getting a "combat fatigue" multiplier, first 25%, then 50%. I'm wondering what the basis is on how the multiplier increases. Too many attacks? Light attacks cause more than heavy? I can't find anything about it!

You sure about this fatigue thing? I haven't seen my damage output go down at all during combat, no matter how long it lasts.

Hmm is it maybe a dark mode feature? It is definitely tied to vigorous as now I have 4 chunks and the multiplier has adjusted accordingly. I am definitely playing differently now that not using magic yields higher damage output.

Peeking under the hood of that combat system is nutty, and not something I can handle during my weekday night game before bed sessions. I'll have to figure it out in order to...

Spoiler:

optimize enough to defeat that crazy golem defending the life reset machine hidden in the basement during the final act.

Stylez wrote:
Hyetal wrote:
Stylez wrote:

I've been trying to find out more about the combat system but haven't had much luck. During a fight you will start getting a "combat fatigue" multiplier, first 25%, then 50%. I'm wondering what the basis is on how the multiplier increases. Too many attacks? Light attacks cause more than heavy? I can't find anything about it!

You sure about this fatigue thing? I haven't seen my damage output go down at all during combat, no matter how long it lasts.

Hmm is it maybe a dark mode feature? It is definitely tied to vigorous as now I have 4 chunks and the multiplier has adjusted accordingly. I am definitely playing differently now that not using magic yields higher damage output.

I'm on Dark, too, and I think you're smoking some crazy juju.

Edit: I see what you're talking about now. The fatigue modifier in the combat log. I was playing with the log disabled. So you're saying when you don't use magic, you never see any fatigue?

Edit 2: Okay, yeah, I can confirm that. Using magic will add fatigue which will reduce melee damage. An interesting mechanic, though I hasten to damn CDPR for not mentioning it, ever.

Forte wrote:

I began a new game and everything was normal for the first part of the Prologue. But I began storming the castle and suddenly Geralt is wearing some weird gear which looks like it's from much later in the game. My inventory suddenly had stuff which I'm assuming is from my old play-through. Has anyone else encountered this as a glitch, or did I accidentally start a New Game+?

IMAGE(http://i43.tinypic.com/2s0g7f7.jpg)

The game is still awesome, though.

This happened to me on my first playthrough ever. I thought it had something to do with my imported armor from Witcher 1 and an inconsistency in the programming. I'm jealous of you guys playing through the EE... I just got this for Christmas and I've already played it through almost two times. I love it enough to maybe do another run though, after ME3.

Just got the 360 version the other day -- looks like this is the active thread!

Kind of cool so far, although after the prologue they combine your inventories from previous sequences. So I had to throw away like 100 pounds of sh*t before I could jump down off the boat, which was fairly anti-climactic.

Clemenstation wrote:

So I had to throw away like 100 pounds of sh*t before I could jump down off the boat, which was fairly anti-climactic.

So Elder Scrolls players will be right at home.

Gravey wrote:
Clemenstation wrote:

So I had to throw away like 100 pounds of sh*t before I could jump down off the boat, which was fairly anti-climactic.

So Elder Scrolls players will be right at home.

Had a much more pleasant time with the game today, unfortunately bookended with two loading freezes (both on the same kind of door, oddly).

Finished up the dice, fistfighting, nekker, entrega, asylum, and troll quests. Finised up by making myself a Superb Witcher's Silver Sword to go along with the Robust Cutlass, Hunter Armor and some other goodies to make combat less maddening (wish I'd had them against the Queen Entregas and wraiths, but alas).

I'm enjoying myself now, at least, and I don't feel like the game is actively antagonizing me anymore. It's certainly not the end-all be-all I expected, but maybe it'll become that in time.

I wish the character building would ramp up, though. I've probably played 12 hours and only gotten two levels.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Had a much more pleasant time with the game today, unfortunately bookended with two loading freezes (both on the same kind of door, oddly).

Finished up the dice, fistfighting, nekker, entrega, asylum, and troll quests. Finised up by making myself a Superb Witcher's Silver Sword to go along with the Robust Cutlass, Hunter Armor and some other goodies to make combat less maddening (wish I'd had them against the Queen Entregas and wraiths, but alas).

I'm enjoying myself now, at least, and I don't feel like the game is actively antagonizing me anymore. It's certainly not the end-all be-all I expected, but maybe it'll become that in time.

I wish the character building would ramp up, though. I've probably played 12 hours and only gotten two levels.

Yeah, leveling up is slow. You sort of have to focus on one branch when you level (swordplay, alchemy, or magic). IIRC, when you do that you can max out one plus a little bit in the other areas.

I remember why I stopped playing my second playthrough. I'm sorta scared to go back to it because it's a very frustrating part, and I really don't want to bump the difficulty down a few notches since I made it so far. Maybe I'll try getting past it tonight.

Any 360 players playing on Dark? I am going to try and start on Dark and see how it goes either tonight or tomorrow.

SallyNasty wrote:

Any 360 players playing on Dark? I am going to try and start on Dark and see how it goes either tonight or tomorrow.

Hellllll no. This game is a bastard often enough on normal. A couple of the first-area quest enemies killed me in two hits. You have fun with that one pal

Blind_Evil wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

Any 360 players playing on Dark? I am going to try and start on Dark and see how it goes either tonight or tomorrow.

Hellllll no. This game is a bastard often enough on normal. A couple of the first-area quest enemies killed me in two hits. You have fun with that one pal :P

They balanced the beginning differently and threw in a tutorial, but the opening used to be one of the hardest sections in the game, especially when you hadn't played it before.

The easiest combat style is to always use Quen. That beginning is brutal if you don't use it because you haven't leveled up hardly anything. That can get you through just about anything.

Quen or not, Queen Endregas would two shot me. Wraiths too, if one hit got me in the back. It wears off if you're hit hard enough once, right?

I started using the paralysis trap sign and getting behind them, that did the trick.

By the way, no respec option I assume?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Quen or not, Queen Endregas would two shot me. It wears off if you're hit hard enough once, right?

I started using the paralysis trap sign and getting behind them, that did the trick.

By the way, no respec option I assume?

It's hidden in Chapter 3. Which is a long, long time from where you are now.