The Witcher 2 Catch-All

emyln wrote:
Cobble wrote:

I have only been playing for about an hour but man the combat controls are like wrestling 2 wet pigs. Wet pigs with large swords you make you dead easily while you try to bend your fingers in strange shapes to parry and roll or shoot some magic, god forbid actually swing.

I am hoping something in the interface clicks for me at some point because its been nothing but frustrating so far.

Its better than it was in The Witcher. I never really liked the whole timing and swinging. But I agree combat controls are really sluggish. Best advice is Quen (Magic Shield) & Spacebar to tumble are your best friends.

I think the combat is better than the Witcher 1, but at the same time, in the Witcher 1 I felt in control of the situation in a way that I do not in the Witcher 2.

Also having some weird texture issues. It looks like they're popping in high-res textures when the camera swivels to a certain scene; but the textures are lagging, so you'll see things pop in and out: bricks in a wall, clothing, people's faces.

Also, the edits in the cut scenes can be really strange. Somebody will be talking, and all of a sudden there's a cut to a slightly different angle and distance and a long pause in the conversation. It's like they didn't learn any of the lessons they used in making the Director's Cut of Witcher 1.

Also, the woman doing Triss Marigold's voice acting is REALLY uneven.

Gotta say, at this point I'm enjoying the game, but I'm having issues with little things tripping me up.

Certis wrote:

As expected, the story so far feels a lot more grounded and ... well, true, than most games. It's kind of like reading a George RR Marting novel after finishing The Elf Stones of Shannara. It's not perfect by any stretch, but there are writing and plot moments in this game that run right against common tropes I've come to expect.

Totally agree.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I would go back and do it. You miss out on some experience (Edit) and lots of loot.

Spoiler:

Just make sure you sneak up behind all the guards and disable them with a right click. It's actually not all that hard if you take them on one by one and clear out the map.

Heh, I failed it and just kept going. I didn't manage to stealth kill a single guard the first time you're supposed to either.

If playing with a controller, to invert the camera's Y axis, open the User file (Documents/Witcher 2/Config).

Put a negative sign before the 1 on the line

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1)

Becomes

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)

All Y-axis's should be inverted! It could save your life someday. If you find that you need to fly a plane that is.

I've noticed some of the weirdness with dialog volume as well, to the point where I jacked up the center speaker volume to compensate. For people that are still not sold on the combat, once you get the swordfighting tactics tree unlocked, there's all sorts of cool stuff like counter-attacks and an ability to hit multiple targets at once.

Until you reach that point, make sure you use everything the game gives you. There's traps and bombs and cheaply crafted throwing daggers for a reason. You can often roll away from a fight, tap R to throw out a dagger, then attack another enemy while the first is recovering from hitstun. If there's a bunch of enemies grouped up, try flash/firebombing them, you can often kill a whole group of drowners in one go like that.

Oils don't need meditation like potions do, so make a bunch and use liberally before encounters.

This game has its claws in me deep

kyrieee wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I would go back and do it. You miss out on some experience (Edit) and lots of loot.

Spoiler:

Just make sure you sneak up behind all the guards and disable them with a right click. It's actually not all that hard if you take them on one by one and clear out the map.

Heh, I failed it and just kept going. I didn't manage to stealth kill a single guard the first time you're supposed to either.

I plowed through that first time too with the billy club. The stealth mechanics are just meh after playing games like MGS4.

Reading through the pdf manual, so Troy Goodfellow helped out with the translation of the manual. There can't be many guys with that name.

On a side note. Please try using a Xbox controller. The combat is more fluid with a controller.

Some Witcher 2 benchmarking:

With the graphics options maxed (without ubersampling) I'm running Vsync limited at 60fps with a Nvidia GTX580 @ 980mhz at 1080p. GPU usage goes from 50% to 100% while in game. "Very Large texture memory size" seams to use ~970MB of video card memory @ 1080p.

Ubersampling brought my FPS down to 25-30.

Ecarus wrote:

Some Witcher 2 benchmarking:

With the graphics options maxed (without ubersampling) I'm running Vsync limited at 60fps with a Nvidia GTX580 @ 980mhz at 1080p. GPU usage goes from 50% to 100% while in game. "Very Large texture memory size" seams to use ~970MB of video card memory @ 1080p.

Ubersampling brought my FPS down to 25-30.

Is this in the prologue sections? Did you get any drops from 60fps while playing through heavy sections? Have you tried it with vsync off?

Yeah, Ubersampling isn't really meant for much current gen hardware. I don't even know if 2 GTX 580s would handle it very well. From what I've read, it doesn't make a huge difference in image quality anyways.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Ecarus wrote:

Some Witcher 2 benchmarking:

With the graphics options maxed (without ubersampling) I'm running Vsync limited at 60fps with a Nvidia GTX580 @ 980mhz at 1080p. GPU usage goes from 50% to 100% while in game. "Very Large texture memory size" seams to use ~970MB of video card memory @ 1080p.

Ubersampling brought my FPS down to 25-30.

Is this in the prologue sections? Did you get any drops from 60fps while playing through heavy sections? Have you tried it with vsync off?

Yeah, Ubersampling isn't really meant for much current gen hardware. I don't even know if 2 GTX 580s would handle it very well. From what I've read, it doesn't make a huge difference in image quality anyways.

Yes I sampled from the start to the point where you are going through the village looking for the enterence. No no drops unless you call 58FPS a drop.

I'll turn off Vsync during my next session. But looking at the GPU usage I don't think it's going to add many (unused) frames.

Ecarus wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Ecarus wrote:

Some Witcher 2 benchmarking:

With the graphics options maxed (without ubersampling) I'm running Vsync limited at 60fps with a Nvidia GTX580 @ 980mhz at 1080p. GPU usage goes from 50% to 100% while in game. "Very Large texture memory size" seams to use ~970MB of video card memory @ 1080p.

Ubersampling brought my FPS down to 25-30.

Is this in the prologue sections? Did you get any drops from 60fps while playing through heavy sections? Have you tried it with vsync off?

Yeah, Ubersampling isn't really meant for much current gen hardware. I don't even know if 2 GTX 580s would handle it very well. From what I've read, it doesn't make a huge difference in image quality anyways.

Yes I sampled from the start to the point where you are going through the village looking for the enterence. No no drops unless you call 58FPS a drop.

I'll turn off Vsync during my next session. But looking at the GPU usage I don't think it's going to add many (unused) frames.

Sweet! My 2 5870s are usually on par with a GTX580, so I hope that I will be getting performance like that once they release a proper crossfire profile.

looks like the polish audio is now available to download via the DLC menu on the game loader. I'll probably stick with the english for now (SO much better than the first game), but that's for playthrough number 2 I think.

On a side note. Please try using a Xbox controller. The combat is more fluid with a controller.

I agree. Only thing that's missing is an option to have the camera stay behind you if you're locked on to a target. You have to manually move the camera back around you which is annoying. It's probably much easier to do that with a mouse.

If playing with a controller, to invert the camera's Y axis, open the User file (Documents/Witcher 2/Config).

Put a negative sign before the 1 on the line

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1)

Becomes

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)

All Y-axis's should be inverted! It could save your life someday. If you find that you need to fly a plane that is.

Thanks for posting the controller invert y-axis info. I was playing yesterday and decided to try and get used to non inverted y-axis. It was difficult. I guess that's what happens when you get F-15 Strike Eagle as a young kid.

Gdawg27 wrote:

Thanks for posting the controller invert y-axis info. I was playing yesterday and decided to try and get used to non inverted y-axis. It was difficult. I guess that's what happens when you get F-15 Strike Eagle as a young kid.

There is a line for mouse Y axis also but I didn't play with that.

Edit: Duh! This is already talked about.

Latrine wrote:

For those of us who've lost their original Witcher save, here's a thread at Gamefaqs of people exchanging saves: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/97539...

This is the best resource of Witcher 1 endgame saves that I could find.

Not that it is uber or anything. But if their is interest I'll upload my Witcher 1 (finished) save on my server.

Speaking of carrying over saves from Witcher 1, does anyone know what the default decisions from W1 are for Witcher 2 is if you don't import a save?

Barab wrote:

Speaking of carrying over saves from Witcher 1, does anyone know what the default decisions from W1 are for Witcher 2 is if you don't import a save?

I believe it's neutral faction alignment with Triss as your partner.

Hah!

I don't know if this appears in the non gog versions of the game or not, but there is a monk in the basement of the Flotsam Inn who, if you beat, is supposed to give you a 'special prize' under the extras menu. I beat him but unfortunately it seems to be borked and the 'reward' never unlocks.

Turns out it's supposed to be a link to some discounted Atari games which one of the devs posted in the GOG forum since the in-game link doesn't appear right now.

Just in case anyone else is pulling their hair out wondering what it unlocked

I obviously had lots to do at work today.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/pmbvAl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/52o83l.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/klJtbl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/bKJcEl.jpg)

On the notice board in A1 there's a notice called "Cedric's notice" but when you take it you don't get anything in your Journal. Does anyone know if it's something that shows up later of if it's bugged?

I found something neat in the Steam achievements. I'll spoiler tag it just in case, but it shouldn't be spoilery at all (I'm still installing the game):

Spoiler:

The achievement for completing the game is named "To Be Continued..."
Witcher 3, anyone?

Gdawg27 wrote:
On a side note. Please try using a Xbox controller. The combat is more fluid with a controller.

I agree. Only thing that's missing is an option to have the camera stay behind you if you're locked on to a target. You have to manually move the camera back around you which is annoying. It's probably much easier to do that with a mouse.

If playing with a controller, to invert the camera's Y axis, open the User file (Documents/Witcher 2/Config).

Put a negative sign before the 1 on the line

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1)

Becomes

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)

All Y-axis's should be inverted! It could save your life someday. If you find that you need to fly a plane that is.

Thanks for posting the controller invert y-axis info. I was playing yesterday and decided to try and get used to non inverted y-axis. It was difficult. I guess that's what happens when you get F-15 Strike Eagle as a young kid.

Hmm, I dont have that line in my user file anywhere.

kyrieee wrote:

On the notice board in A1 there's a notice called "Cedric's notice" but when you take it you don't get anything in your Journal. Does anyone know if it's something that shows up later of if it's bugged?

I think it refers to a quest you can get when you meet Cedric anyway when you ask him for witcher work.

Spoiler:

the one about the ruined asylum

On a similar note, anyone know how you know if the DLC quest is active? I would have expected it to appear on the notice board in Flotsam but I didn't see anything. It is marked with a green tick in the DLC menu outside the game though so I assume it's in there somewhere.

Hooray for the Polish dialogue recording being up! I was really mad at the actor who plays Dandilion.

Forte wrote:
Spoiler:

The achievement for completing the game is named "To Be Continued..."
Witcher 3, anyone?

TW1 ended on a cliffhanger. So long as the story arc is finished then I'm fine with that. I don't really mind some threads being left loose, as it signifies the world is larger than what Geralt deals with, plus they have mentioned expansions (as distinct to DLC).

stevenmack wrote:

On a similar note, anyone know how you know if the DLC quest is active? I would have expected it to appear on the notice board in Flotsam but I didn't see anything. It is marked with a green tick in the DLC menu outside the game though so I assume it's in there somewhere.

On the notice board outside the inn/brothel I picked up a notice mentioning a troll, that starts a quest titled Troll trouble. One thing you might check is whether you have a \The Witcher 2\CookedPC\troll.dlc file

Cobble wrote:
Gdawg27 wrote:
On a side note. Please try using a Xbox controller. The combat is more fluid with a controller.

I agree. Only thing that's missing is an option to have the camera stay behind you if you're locked on to a target. You have to manually move the camera back around you which is annoying. It's probably much easier to do that with a mouse.

If playing with a controller, to invert the camera's Y axis, open the User file (Documents/Witcher 2/Config).

Put a negative sign before the 1 on the line

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1)

Becomes

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)

All Y-axis's should be inverted! It could save your life someday. If you find that you need to fly a plane that is.

Thanks for posting the controller invert y-axis info. I was playing yesterday and decided to try and get used to non inverted y-axis. It was difficult. I guess that's what happens when you get F-15 Strike Eagle as a young kid.

Hmm, I dont have that line in my user file anywhere.

I don't know what to tell you that is what I have

Is the DLC out for the Steam version?

So is there a place to keep your stuff like the innkeepers from the first game?

I looked Nuean, doesn't appear that is the case this time around. I've been crafting stuff as much as I can then selling the excess. Ore is heavy!