The Witcher catch-all

Ok, I'm in the sewers under Vizima trying to kill the cockatrice with the guard and apparently I've forgotten how to run. I accidentally toggled it off maybe. Can someone help? I know my heart is pounding right now (accompanied by a red outline on the screen when it does so), so I think I'm hopped up on something as well.. does that matter into the equation?

If you're drunk you swagger and walk slowly. It'll wear off in a bit. Alternatively you can rest for an hour or so to heal up, lose poison effects and wear off some of the hangover. There should be plenty of fireplaces in the sewers.

Potions are poisons and too many at once can be toxic. I'd wait a bit and the effect should wear off.

Does poison wear off? I've always had to rest to get toxicity out of my body.

Drunkeness and the debuff poison wear off with time, but toxicity levels only decrease with meditation.

*mild spoiler*

Hey, did anyone else let [color=white]the cannibal[/color] live?

Grenn wrote:

Drunkeness and the debuff poison wear off with time, but toxicity levels only decrease with meditation.

You can also use the White Honey potion, which reduces toxicity to zero. It won't get rid of poisons or venoms, though.

Grenn wrote:

*mild spoiler*

Hey, did anyone else let [color=white]the cannibal[/color] live? :twisted:

Yeah, I did.

spoiler wrote:

[color=white]I thought I would be able to double-cross him by taking his bribe and then killing him. No less than he deserved, right? Of course, the game won't let you attack him in his home, so that move kind of blew up on me. Still, got a good potion recipe out of it. (If I remember correctly.)[/color]

So I finally slogged through chapter 4. Holy molly was that unnecessary? Chapter 3 gets me all hopped up on the main story... I'm totally into it... I'm getting there... got the bad guy by the knickers... BAM! How would you like a serving of Deus Ex Machina? It actually took effort to motivate myself to keep playing after the chapter 3 ending. But I slogged through it. Actually forced myself to play it at times. I'm on chapter 5 now and it gets better, but I can't shake the feeling that the story was/is forced.

I almost wish they would've made the game end at chapter 3, but invest extra work into the game up to that point. So that replaying it would actually be an option, which it's not at this point. This game is starting to become way too long with way too sporadic relevant content.

Is anybody else suffering the same problems?

Too long, with poor pacing.

I'm attempting to kill a kikimore queen right now (and dying. Over and over.) and really have no idea where in the story I am. I think it's still chapter 2 but if that's case, I've been playing chapter 2 for close to a MONTH now!

Regardless, the finale with the two human baddies before the queen was cheap. Note: Developers, don't do that to gamers.

Still enjoying the game (alot), but ack, whaf*ck's going on?

Spoiler:

[color=white]
The werewolf was fun. Hey ugly, you might have just helped me, but witchers kill monsters, no compromise. **Curbstomp**
[/color]

I haven't gotten nearly as far and only have three issues with the game so far:

1. The game immediately preceding "The Beast" boss encounter was somewhat confusing to me. It began as a Salamandra quest and jumped right into the Beast story arc without any transition material. I was left wondering if I'd missed some important sub-quest that would have let me know what was coming.

2. The boss encounter with the Beast could have been polished a bit. The lead-in for the encounter is a dialog sequence followed by a cinematic, and saving is disabled within the encounter itself. Pre-buffing doesn't work, because buffs seem to be stripped when the encounter loads. To me, this creates an artificial level of difficulty, because I would certainly prepare if I knew I was heading into a big battle. Also, it was unclear that the NPCs in the encounter didn't die just because they were knocked to the ground, so I replayed quite a few times simply trying to keep them alive before I noticed one twitching and stopped worrying about it. Simply having the injured NPC shout for help periodically would have helped me realize what was going on.

3. Dealing with the old woman in Shani's home is incredibly annoying. So far as I can tell, she seems to randomly decide to kick you out of the house with a 5/6 probability of doing so. And being kicked out forces an area transition, which, given the incredibly slow load times in the game may mean re-entering the area ten times before lucking out and being allowed to continue. I think I killed 30 minutes the other day just passing in and out of the area and talking to the woman.

You'll find that stuff to be standard. I didn't have clue what was going on during the investigation, and instead just talked to people until I was told to go kill someone, somewhere. In fact, I think I killed the wrong people, but really didn't care. And I found myself hoping that Shani's landlord would be a suspect, so I could kill her.

Immensely deep and enjoyable game, but the developers were sooo high on speed. It gave them time to cram all this content in, but damned if there aren't too many logic jumps along the way.

It started well, but I set it aside for Crysis and Aquaria, and I'm not at all sure I'm going to pick it back up. It's quite buggy and unpolished, and has a very poor difficulty ramp.

It also is quite offensive in how it treats women; I thought American games were bad, but in this game, all women appear to be available to the main character, and all friendly lines are pickups. Any woman under 30 who wants you do something for her will include sex in the bargain. It's just... appalling, really.

Malor wrote:

It started well, but I set it aside for Crysis and Aquaria, and I'm not at all sure I'm going to pick it back up. It's quite buggy and unpolished, and has a very poor difficulty ramp.

It also is quite offensive in how it treats women; I thought American games were bad, but in this game, all women appear to be available to the main character, and all friendly lines are pickups. Any woman under 30 who wants you do something for her will include sex in the bargain. It's just... appalling, really.

Or you seem the escape from their seemingly boring worlds....

By the way, some Witcher news:

One of the developers has said that the date for the patch release was only a rumor, and nothing posted by CD Projekt. Though they also say the next patch release is close. On the hopeful front, it has also been stated that CD Projekt has focused on reducing the load times with this patch, as well as ironing out bugs.

Also, you may know that Atari cut down on the English dialogues in the game, very probably to save money with voice acting. Someone has figured out how to replace the script with the uncut English version. Obviously this doesn't affect the voice-overs, just the subtitles; and has at least the unfortunate side effect of changing some of the journal into Polish. Hopefully someone will make a nice mod out of it, smooth over the rough spots. Also, there has been a response by Michal Kicinski, founder and Joint CEO of CD Projekt:

Michal wrote:

We know, we know. We noted it when first comments appeared. Yet, it is huge task and in comparison to other stuff, priority is not that high. But, we WON'T forget about it. Some day you'll see (surprised;)

Which sounds really good to me.

More generally, on Witcher development costs and sales, Michal has this interesting bit to share:

Michal wrote:

Thank you guys for supporting us!!! In fact, each box sold count for us and it's greatest support we can get from You!

Regarding money/budget stuff. Game so far cost us 8+ mln usd. And it wasn't a bank loan or whatever. Just money we earn on games distribution (we are not so small company: offices in 3 countries, 200+ people, 40+ mln usd yearly turnover).

Actually, this was risky, but also good and very independent way:) Our money, our vision, our game:)
That is why we could make whatever we liked, and that's why the game is so different from the standard big corporation fare (targeted to anybody between 10-99 years old and always 110% political correct etc).

BTW: it is not obvious if we earn money on the project. Actually I believe that sooner or later Witcher will bring us profit. It seems that gamers (you!) like it:) and thanks to that the game as a product will have a long lifecycle. The most important for us is that we've learnt how to make games, good games:) And now we have short but good track of records.
That gives us very very good position for future (for example for negotiations with publishers).

Good position means also greater ease of defending our vision of the future projects. That's important as we want to keep the same direction, meaning making games out of passion not marketing analysis;)

..Speaking about marketing. I know that in some countries it wasn't as strong as it should be (US for example). We're in touch with Atari and try our best to find a ways how we can improve it. But this will come with more experience and time. As it is here in Poland.

Here The Witcher since release is no1 on all charts and since last Sunday sold through 81k units!!! Which beats all the best selling records in the market. It is more than twice as much as previous biggest seller (homm5). Similar situation is in Czech, Hungary and Russia (Novyi Disk company was a publisher there but we were involved in the process pretty much).

We know how to market games. We just need to learn how to organize it on the western markets. But this will some day come...

Malor wrote:

It also is quite offensive in how it treats women; I thought American games were bad, but in this game, all women appear to be available to the main character, and all friendly lines are pickups. Any woman under 30 who wants you do something for her will include sex in the bargain. It's just... appalling, really.

You know... I thought about this the other day and decided the opposite. The game is definitely not for children, but so far I have not had the feeling that Geralt was a misogynist. Indeed, he treats women with more respect than any male NPC in the game so far. Also, the choice so far has seemed entirely up to the woman--I've not felt that Geralt has tried to coerce his companions or anything like that, or that the game is designed such that its NPCs are forced to make unrealistic choices. Rather, I am left with the feeling I sometimes get when books are adapted to film, where I can infer a lot more interaction than is shown. I think the same is true of The Witcher. I can't claim to have read the books, but I don't yet feel that Geralt is just an oversexed jerk with magical powers.

Well, sure he's better than anyone else in that world -- but that's a pretty darn low bar to clear. It's just the whole underlying idea that all women are sexually available to the protagonist that I find rather offensive. Well, that and the inane attempts at banter.

In the Witcher, you don't have conversations with female characters. Rather, you help them or don't help them, and then have sex if you wish to, and maybe even if you don't.

This process takes, at most, ten sentences.

Hmm....reminded me of a James Bond film in that regard.

Except Geralt doesn't have any of Bond's charm. Also, there's a silly card collecting thing to go along with the shagging. It's pretty impossible to construe The Witcher's portrayal of women as anything other than sexist. It's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it is rather ridiculous and immersion breaking.

No more ridiculous than Geralt taking on a dozen enemies at once, stunning one and pausing for a few seconds to pull off a horribly over-the-top, grab his sword by the blade and decapitate with the handle, finishing move.

This game is gratuitous and makes no attempt to hide it, and I don't mind at all.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Except Geralt doesn't have any of Bond's charm. Also, there's a silly card collecting thing to go along with the shagging. It's pretty impossible to construe The Witcher's portrayal of women as anything other than sexist. It's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it is rather ridiculous and immersion breaking.

Well, the portrayal of women in the Bond books and films is also unapologetically sexist, and I have a hunch that if you poorly translated "From Russia With Love" into polish that some of Bond's dubious charm would be lost . Not having read the Witcher novels, I can't judge whether the game is faithful to the source material or not, but I have a feeling that the game is pretty close despite the rough translation.

Gameraotaku wrote:

Well, the portrayal of women in the Bond books and films is also unapologetically sexist, and I have a hunch that if you poorly translated "From Russia With Love" into polish that some of Bond's dubious charm would be lost . Not having read the Witcher novels, I can't judge whether the game is faithful to the source material or not, but I have a feeling that the game is pretty close despite the rough translation.

From what I've heard Geralt is a bit of a slut in the novels as well, so I've no doubt they're staying true to the source material. It's not that I mind sex and slutting around in games, quite the opposite, but when random women you meet in the street fall over in about two lines, it gets ridiculous. Maybe the random peasant encounters are a lot better handled in the polish version. I'm a bit skeptical, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But really, it's the gotta catch 'em all cards that pushes it into the borderline offensive, and there aren't any translation issues with those.

I have a bit of an issue with the cards as well. As for the relative ease Geralt has in wooing women... I'm still in Ch. 1 so I really can't comment on that. The few situations I've encountered so far were fairly reasonable within the context of the game.

Don't know about you guys, but I've had plenty of women tell me to bugger off. Granted, there were a few that ended up in my arms in completely unexpected ways, but like any glitch in the game, you shrug it off and keep on trucking. Besides, most of them are an option. You don't have to persue any of the sex scenes (for the most part). When a girl tells you she'll go to bed with you if you give her flowers, or fancy gloves, or a diamond ring, you really don't have to give it to her. Besides, that part may be more realistic than most of the game. Also, Geralt has a reputation as a lover. It stands to reason women would be attracted to a desease immune infertile badass with a third leg, if you know what I mean.

So, I finally finished the game last night. It was a neat ending, and I get the whole thing up to the final movie. That thing just confused me as hell. I guess I'll wait for a few more people to finish it before discussing any details.

I found an American printed 18+ version of the game today. I am gathering that this is pretty new? I skimmed this post but didn't notice anything about it. So if you haven't played the game yet and you like oogaba, here's your chance, I suppose.

Spoiler wrote:

[color=#FFFFFF]Did anyone else hear the Grail story about "Bronze Dan" when talking to the Hermit in the Fields in Ch. 5? Too damned funny. [/color]

I laughed out loud. I'd rather not spoil it any further than what's in the tag above, but the game makes a pretty funny pop-culture reference.

Sephirotic wrote:

I found an American printed 18+ version of the game today. I am gathering that this is pretty new? I skimmed this post but didn't notice anything about it. So if you haven't played the game yet and you like oogaba, here's your chance, I suppose.

I picked up the international version on principle, so it's nice to hear that Atari got the message. Frankly, I don't really care what was cut, just that we were being offered a modified version.

As I play through the game I am starting to wonder if the reason I'd been a bit confused or surprised by the flow of events at times is conditioning. Most CRPGs spell things out for the player (much like American movies) and as a result I have developed a nasty habit of rushing through content simply to see the next bit. I think one aspect of the "morally ambiguous decision" feature of the game is that the player is expected to think more carefully about what's going on--what isn't being said in the quest summaries and such. I'm going to slow down give this game a bit more attention and see if that changes my feelings about its plot structure.

A demo is now out.

complexmath wrote:

As I play through the game I am starting to wonder if the reason I'd been a bit confused or surprised by the flow of events at times is conditioning. Most CRPGs spell things out for the player (much like American movies) and as a result I have developed a nasty habit of rushing through content simply to see the next bit. I think one aspect of the "morally ambiguous decision" feature of the game is that the player is expected to think more carefully about what's going on--what isn't being said in the quest summaries and such. I'm going to slow down give this game a bit more attention and see if that changes my feelings about its plot structure.

There are two aspects to this. One is that the game events are time sensitive. You really have to pay attention to any clues about time. The second aspect is the almost complete free-form structure of quests. A story is usally told in at least two concurrent qeust lines, but they are not synchronized. This can cause a lot of confusion if you get them out of whack too much. I think I suffered a great deal of confusion from being given too much free will. I always ran off to explore other parts and got confused because I didn't do quests in a natural progression.

Another thing that caused me a lot of annoyance is lack of conversation log. Some conversations cannot be repeated, are very relevant for quest completion, and are not appropriately documented anywhere. So yes, paying extra attention during conversations may add a great deal of understanding overall.

MoonDragon wrote:

Another thing that caused me a lot of annoyance is lack of conversation log. Some conversations cannot be repeated, are very relevant for quest completion, and are not appropriately documented anywhere. So yes, paying extra attention during conversations may add a great deal of understanding overall.

Yeah, this is driving me crazy. Is there a way to pause during conversations? Some of the dialog moves a bit too fast to follow at times. I guess I'll check the INI files for a way to slow it down.

From the Witcher Newsletter:

In the next few days we will announce the release date for the long-awaited update of The Witcher, which will include fixes for several issues. We have been working hard on this patch since the game's release and the day-one 1.1 patch. The most important changes include the reduction of loading and saving times, many improvements in saving/loading mechanics, as well as further improvement of game stability and removal of various bugs. Patch will be available for download from The Witcher registration page!