The Witcher 3 Catch-All

PC Gamer is correct. Question is, do you have the time? I mean, you should definitely try and make the time, but to get the best out of the game you probably need to budget for a 100 hours.

Brownypoints wrote:

I am thinking of starting again but maybe I might dip my toe into witcher 3 mods, any advice out there?

Never played with mods but I've been thinking about it myself. The game has a page on nexusmods but it's nowhere near as pliable as the likes of Skyrim.

Yeah, definitely a minimum of 100 hours to get a good amount of the game. On the plus side it is quite easy to drop in and out for short periods, you don't need to have long play sessions.

I wouldn't even consider modding the game. Don't see the need.

The game is perfect. It should be experienced.

I'm close to the end of my 2nd play through on New Game Plus, and for this time I installed a handful of mods. I haven't found anything really earth-shattering, most of these are small tweaks or corrections for minor annoyances. Some of what I'm using:

- Graphics/audio improvements for weather, water, and some textures
- More interesting and thematically appropriate trophy bonuses
- Equipment degradation is removed entirely
- Automatically apply the appropriate oil to your sword before a fight
- No more level requirements for weapons/armor
- More money (5000) for merchants and traders, so selling valuable swords/armor is actually viable
- No point restrictions for skills. Allows you to specialize in certain areas more quickly and easily.

I don't know if I would call the game "perfect". Too many little things that weren't ideal.

But when it comes to melding the complexity of RPG narratives and mechanics with open-world action-adventure gameplay, it managed to do so with so much of the benefits and so little of the drawbacks of previous attempts.

kuddles wrote:

I don't know if I would call the game "perfect". Too many little things that weren't ideal.

Agree that it's not strictly perfect. Nothing this ambitious is, but what I've loved about The Witcher series is the quirks. The games are not focus grouped and polished to death.

Boudreaux wrote:

I'm close to the end of my 2nd play through on New Game Plus, and for this time I installed a handful of mods. I haven't found anything really earth-shattering, most of these are small tweaks or corrections for minor annoyances. Some of what I'm using:

- Graphics/audio improvements for weather, water, and some textures
- More interesting and thematically appropriate trophy bonuses
- Equipment degradation is removed entirely
- Automatically apply the appropriate oil to your sword before a fight
- No more level requirements for weapons/armor
- More money (5000) for merchants and traders, so selling valuable swords/armor is actually viable
- No point restrictions for skills. Allows you to specialize in certain areas more quickly and easily.

You do you, but for me except for the first two that sounds horrible.

I could stand to have weapon degradation tuned down a bit. Nothing worse than being in the middle of nowhere with no repair kits in your bag. I know I know, I'm a Witcher, I should be prepared but it got a bit annoying at times, especially in the early game. I've not really thought about playing with mods to be honest, but I haven't really looked too closely at what's available.

I turned off durability entirely. That is possibly my most hated mechanic in any game I've ever played.

maverickz wrote:

I turned off durability entirely. That is possibly my most hated mechanic in any game I've ever played.

Agreed. I don't even understand what it's trying to accomplish other than the creation of pointless busywork.

kergguz wrote:

Nothing worse than being in the middle of nowhere with no repair kits in your bag.

Serves you right! You should be carrying a spare weapon and/or repair kits. You wouldn't wander around without your potions would you?

MrDeVil909 wrote:
Boudreaux wrote:

I'm close to the end of my 2nd play through on New Game Plus, and for this time I installed a handful of mods. I haven't found anything really earth-shattering, most of these are small tweaks or corrections for minor annoyances. Some of what I'm using:

- Graphics/audio improvements for weather, water, and some textures
- More interesting and thematically appropriate trophy bonuses
- Equipment degradation is removed entirely
- Automatically apply the appropriate oil to your sword before a fight
- No more level requirements for weapons/armor
- More money (5000) for merchants and traders, so selling valuable swords/armor is actually viable
- No point restrictions for skills. Allows you to specialize in certain areas more quickly and easily.

You do you, but for me except for the first two that sounds horrible.

Sure, to each their own. I agree with some of the above posters that mostly I wanted to get rid of either a) pointless busywork or b) stuff that follows normal video game conventions, but realistically don't make a lot of sense to me. Equipment degradation I always felt was way overblown. The auto-oil mod just eliminates the time it takes me to open my inventory, find the appropriate oil, apply it, close, resume. The level requirements for equipment/skills always seemed arbitrary to me. I can't use this sword until I'm 10 levels higher...why? And I had a stash chest full of about 150 swords because there weren't any merchants rich enough to buy them off me.

Boudreaux wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
Boudreaux wrote:

I'm close to the end of my 2nd play through on New Game Plus, and for this time I installed a handful of mods. I haven't found anything really earth-shattering, most of these are small tweaks or corrections for minor annoyances. Some of what I'm using:

- Graphics/audio improvements for weather, water, and some textures
- More interesting and thematically appropriate trophy bonuses
- Equipment degradation is removed entirely
- Automatically apply the appropriate oil to your sword before a fight
- No more level requirements for weapons/armor
- More money (5000) for merchants and traders, so selling valuable swords/armor is actually viable
- No point restrictions for skills. Allows you to specialize in certain areas more quickly and easily.

You do you, but for me except for the first two that sounds horrible.

Sure, to each their own. I agree with some of the above posters that mostly I wanted to get rid of either a) pointless busywork or b) stuff that follows normal video game conventions, but realistically don't make a lot of sense to me. Equipment degradation I always felt was way overblown. The auto-oil mod just eliminates the time it takes me to open my inventory, find the appropriate oil, apply it, close, resume. The level requirements for equipment/skills always seemed arbitrary to me. I can't use this sword until I'm 10 levels higher...why? And I had a stash chest full of about 150 swords because there weren't any merchants rich enough to buy them off me.

So I had a multipart solution to this. First, I would sell non greater runes. I would then dismantle swords and skins and various other stuff, I only ever equipped witcher gear, that would fill the money reserves back up to sell other stuff. Dio that back and forth between dismantling and selling worked out ok.

Yeah very similar myself. After the first maybe 20 hours I had more money than I knew what to do with. And I wouldn't even pick up most loot anymore.

jrralls wrote:

I came across Witcher 3 in PC Gamers new top 100 list (#1) and am feeling a strong desire to play the game although I know next to nothing about the game or the series.

Speaking from experience, you do not need to have played the first 2 to really enjoy this game.

There's even a bit in it where a guy interviews you to fill in some backstory & choices from previous games.

maverickz wrote:

I turned off durability entirely. That is possibly my most hated mechanic in any game I've ever played.

And I'm the madman that restored item weights for food & alchemy items.

imbiginjapan wrote:
maverickz wrote:

I turned off durability entirely. That is possibly my most hated mechanic in any game I've ever played.

And I'm the madman that restored item weights for food & alchemy items.

Which mod does that, if you have it handy? Anyone who has taken groceries in knows food and alchemy items have weight.

tboon wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:
maverickz wrote:

I turned off durability entirely. That is possibly my most hated mechanic in any game I've ever played.

And I'm the madman that restored item weights for food & alchemy items.

Which mod does that, if you have it handy? Anyone who has taken groceries in knows food and alchemy items have weight.

Not sure if this is the latest version.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mo...?

It's fairly easy to tweak the file inventorycomponent.ws yourself though. You just need to change the multipliers in the function below to tweak the relative weights of item categories. Like you can set quests/keys to 0 weight (return 0) because after hundreds of quests you tend to collect a bunch of leftover stuff.

Spoiler:

public function GetItemEncumbrance(item : SItemUniqueId) : float
{
var itemCategory : name;
if ( IsItemEncumbranceItem( item ) )
{
itemCategory = GetItemCategory( item );
if ( itemCategory == 'quest' || itemCategory == 'key' )
{
return 0.01 * GetItemQuantity( item );
}
else if ( itemCategory == 'usable' || itemCategory == 'upgrade' || itemCategory == 'junk' )
{
return 0.01 + GetItemWeight( item ) * GetItemQuantity( item ) * 0.2;
}
else if ( IsItemAlchemyItem( item ) || IsItemIngredient( item ) || IsItemFood( item ) || IsItemReadable( item ) )
{
return 0.01 + GetItemWeight( item ) * GetItemQuantity( item ) * 0.2;
}
else
{
return 0.01 + GetItemWeight( item ) * GetItemQuantity( item ) * 0.5;
}
}
return 0;
}

And.... of course now Witcher 3 is at half off on a mid-week steam sale. Urge to buy even though I have a ton of other games I could easily play rising....

If you buy Witcher 3, you won't need to buy another game for at least 12 months. You won't even feel the urge to buy a game.

Vector wrote:

If you buy Witcher 3, you won't need to buy another game for at least 12 months. You won't even feel the urge to buy a game.

In fact, you will never enjoy another game again as they will appear puny and inferior

Special care should be taken if you play a Bethesda or a Bioware game afterwards. You may need to deliberately knock yourself on the head to cause memory loss so you can enjoy those games.

Brownypoints wrote:

Special care should be taken if you play a Bethesda or a Bioware game afterwards. You may need to deliberately knock yourself on the head to cause memory loss so you can enjoy those games.

Nah, they're doing different things. I played nothing but The Witcher (first 2, then 3) from the beginning of May until just recently, when I finished up Hearts of Stone and started wading into Blood and Wine. At the same time, I picked up a Mass Effect trilogy play-through that I had started late last year, and even though I'm in the middle of my least favorite game in the series (ME2), I'm able to enjoy it just fine.

Bethesda... might be a bit trickier as it does the open world thing, but even then I feel that the focus is different enough that their games will still be completely enjoyable. That said, after playing DA: I and The Witcher, I'm not sure I have the patience for Bethesda jank anymore.

Mouse and Keyboard or controller?

jrralls wrote:

Mouse and Keyboard or controller?

Both. The game will switch seamlessly on the fly just by hitting the mouse or a button on the controller, so I used a controller for everything except navigating the inventory/map/character screen/etc

jrralls wrote:

Mouse and Keyboard or controller?

I found controller works perfectly for this game. Have heard from others who found keyboard fine though.

I went for controller. Usually do with 3rd person action games.

jrralls wrote:

And.... of course now Witcher 3 is at half off on a mid-week steam sale. Urge to buy even though I have a ton of other games I could easily play rising....

It is truly an experience that should not be missed. Do yourself a favor and get the GoTY version.

jrralls wrote:

Mouse and Keyboard or controller?

Both work quite well. I put over 100 hours into the PS4 version back when it first came out, and now years later I'm close to having 100 hours on the PC version.

I caved. Got GotY edition. Playing with the controller now.

I know absolutely nothing about this world, and was just given a choice about whether I wanted to turn over a guerrilla fighter to the Nilfgaardians or not. Decided to do so, because the only Nilfgaardian comander I had interacted with seemed a decent enough sort. Is being pro-Nilfgaardian a fun play choice? Does it matter?

Are the novels any good?

jrralls wrote:

Are the novels any good?

They were originally written in Polish, and the translation is, imo, a bit wooden at times. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed them, and they do enhance the experience of playing the games. It all comes down to how much time you have... ideally you'd immerse yourself fully - play the game, read the books, download the Triss Playboy shoot etc etc.

Have fun!