The Witcher

[Maniacal]

You medallion also wiggles around magical artifacts and sources, if it does press Z and if there is a cloud of red 'energy' in a spot walk into it, its a place of power and gives you a 5 minute buff to health/attack/defense.

 

[Disgustipated]

Okay on the last mission of the tuturial (I think)

I did figure out arm wrestling. I watched a youtube video to get the general idea. Although I'm sure that opponent is easy as its a tutorial.

I bumped it up from easy to normal. Easy is too easy. I wasn't taking any damage. Although after I bumped it up to normal it got a little tough. I figured King Foltest is probably invincible, so if I was low on health, I backed off and tried not to take too many on at one time (certain death). Rolling is awesome for this. Although sometimes you can't roll after taking a hit. As long as I didn't try to take them all on at once, I was okay. The main dude (at the top required to take the city) wasn't too bad, I didn't have to fight all his buddies (I think dialogue options may change this) at the same time.

I'm in the sewers trying to get to the temple/monastery. It's taking a while since I searched every single house/door that I could find in the city above.

bugs so far: hitting z highlights bookcases, but I can find no way to search and loot them.

Is there any way to meditate to drink potions when it says you can't? How else can I take potions? And I can't drink potions in combat can I?

edit: bug #2, enter on the number pad part of the keyboard doesn't count as enter. You can only use the enter by the letters. Lame.

 

[Maniacal]

Yeah you don't unlock skills to deal with groups until you put some points into swordsman ship. Although bombs and magic probably have stuff too, I didn't really check those trees out.

Arm wrestling is very easy until you get up to the higher up guys in the quest (or at least the last guy). And yeha depending on your dialogue choices you can kill or save Aryan.

There are a few (like, maybe a half-dozen) objects I found in the game that were highlighted but I couldn't interact with them ever. Not too worried about it, I was swimming in orens and supplies for much of the game (Playing back and forth between easy and normal, I'll do my next playthrough only on Normal though).

 

[Polycrates]

Is there any way to meditate to drink potions when it says you can't? How else can I take potions? And I can't drink potions in combat can I?

It seems temperamental to me, but part of it seems to be the exact spot where you're standing - i.e. if you're too close to a wall or something where the meditation animation would stuff up. I'd try moving around a bit and see if that helps.

I must say, a "double-click in inventory to chug potions" mod would be extremely welcome.

Not too worried about it, I was swimming in orens and supplies for much of the game

I may be off-base here, but it's kind of feeling to me like money/trade is a bit off in this game. Loot is barely worth the bother of selling, and the basic ingredients and crafting supplies are so expensive to buy, yet so ubiquitous, that it seems to massively reward doing the whole "go through everyone's houses and loot all their leather/cloth/iron ore etc" routine instead. If you haven't been suitably thorough about looting the homes of the impoverished peasantry, then being short by a couple of basic supplies (like oil or leather) will cost hundreds and hundreds of orens, when you could have bought the thing you're crafting for a fifth of that.
I've seen a mod to alter trading prices, but I don't want to be swimming in money.

 

[Maniacal]

Yeah it follows that typical RPG route :/ And yb swimming in money I had about 8000 orens at most, which I spent a few thousand on stuff (turned out thoguh the Draug armour is a compelte waste because you can't get the materials until later in Act II and don't get a chacne to craft it until Act III, right before you find TWO better suits of armour.

 

[Akka]

I am aware it is friendly to a controller (something I hadn't really thought about while playing the game because it works fine with my mouse and I didn't know or care it could be played with a gamepad until I was almost finished. Also the game is too much fun ) and that the devs are porting it to the consoles later. However, it works perfectly fine with a keyboard/mouse, I don't know what your problem is.

No it's not "gamepad-friendly", it's "gamepad-designed", which is very different.
No it's not "perfectly fine" at all, on the contrary the UI is the main major complaint everywhere about the game, and it sucks donkey balls. It's annoying as hell, unresponsive, clunky, awkward and, to sum it up, downright atrocious.

If you don't see the problem... Well, after all, some people are <snip>, maybe other are <snip>.

<snip>

Moderator Action: Flaming/grammar police comments removed.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Disgustipated]

I don't see how it is gamepad designed. It has drag and drop when related to your equipment, I wasn't aware controllers could drag items. How are they supposed to drag a piece of armor onto the character paper doll?

I admit the drinking potions thing is kinda bad. I don't know what they were thinking with that. The rest of the interface really isn't any worse than the witcher 1. The inventory isn't great (I'm not a big fan of scrolling lists), but the inventory wasn't that great in the first game either. I haven't sold anything yet, so we'll see how that goes.

The mouse is also slow during interface screens, but I'm sure they can fix that with a patch.

I haven't been able to take screenshots in this game, I'm not sure how it was done earlier.

 

[Akka]

I don't see how it is gamepad designed. It has drag and drop when related to your equipment, I wasn't aware controllers could drag items. How are they supposed to drag a piece of armor onto the character paper doll?

It's the typical console interface, with every system being designed for gamepad, so if you don't see it, I really can't do anything for you. I can't see in your place.
And you can equip with double-click, just so you know.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

New patch coming if y'all are interested.

http://en.thewitcher.com/patch1-2/

This DLC seems really stupid but they aren't charging for the DLC so whatever.

 

[Maniacal]

No it's not "gamepad-friendly", it's "gamepad-designed", which is very different.

And yeah, its designed for BOTH the keyboard and mouse and controllers, and again I haven't had any real problems using my keyboard and mouse nor has it taken away any of the fun in the game for me (its not like its any worse than the combat in the first game).

EDIT: They also are fixing a lot of stuff in the next patch and I will not be surprised if they fix a lot more in future patches too (not that I found many bugs besides a few random CTDs).

No it's not "perfectly fine" at all,

It is for me, but (and after searching through over 1000 posts) a few people are having trouble with them, though most seem to be fine.

on the contrary the UI is the main major complaint everywhere about the game,

The only person I have seen complain about it is you.

It's annoying as hell, unresponsive, clunky, awkward and, to sum it up, downright atrocious.

Maybe you're doing it wrong?

If you don't see the problem... Well, after all, some people are colourblind, maybe other are interfaceblind.

No need to resort to insults if you can't prove your point.

And please, trouncing a message into twenty segments is just annoying.

I only counted 8 quotes, one of us is doing the math wrong.


Anyway in good news posting patch notes here for the lazy people (Thanks for the link Wolf!)

New DLC!
"Barbers and Coiffeuses"

Some traders also provide barbershop services. For a small fee, Geralt can get them to change his hairstyle. Search notice boards for information about barbers and coiffeuses offering services of this nature in a given location. In Flotsam, in Chapter 1 of the game, these services are available from the antique book dealer Einar Gausel. In Chapter 2, look either for Sambor in Henselt&#8217;s Camp or for Felicia Cori in Vergen. This apprentice sorceress also provides hairstyling services in Loc Muinne, in Chapter 3 of the game.
Patch 1.2 Corrections/Amendments (June 3, 2011)

1. All previously released DLC packages are installed with Patch 1.2:
   "Blue Stripes Combat Jacket"
   Ultimate Alchemist's Outfit"
   Ultimate Mage's Outfit"
   "Ultimate Swordsman's Outfit"
   "Finisher Pack"
   "Mysterious Merchant"
   "Troll Trouble"
   
2. Patch 1.2 adds a new free DLC package titled &#8220;Barbers and Coiffeuses.&#8221; To take advantage of barbershop and hairstyling services, look for Einar Gausel in Chapter 1 of the game, Sambor in Henselt&#8217;s Camp in Chapter 2, Felicia Cori in Chapter 2 if you travel to Vergen, and Felicia Cori once again in Chapter 3.
3. Game saves are now compressed automatically, lowering the amount of disk space they utilize.
4. An option has been added to the game menu allowing game saves to be deleted. To delete a game save, highlight the relevant item and press the &#8216;Delete&#8217; key.
5. The game menu now loads at a markedly accelerated pace.
6. The game now supports Logitech G35 headphones and other USB headsets with on-board sound cards.
7. A number of fixes have been added to the key binding functionality (actions can now be mapped to number pad and cursor/arrow keys).
8. Analog sticks on gamepads now work correctly in the GUI panels.
9. A number of game balance fixes have been introduced in the Prologue.
10. Lock on targets is not lost when the distance to targets increases.
11. A number of fixes have been made in blocking functionality during combat. Also, player character responsiveness in combat has been improved, and Geralt can attack more than one target during normal combat.
12. A number of corrections have been made in the statistics displayed in item diagrams in the Crafting panel.
13. The Witcher 1 saves are now imported correctly.
14. An auto&#8211;save has been added before the fight against the draug.
15. Flare bomb duration is now 2 (two) minutes.
16. Issue involving the equipping of bombs (or other items) even if they were not present in the character Inventory has been fixed.
17. Islamic&#8211;themed and similar textures have been deleted and/or replaced. <--- lolwut?
18. A number of fixes have been made in game dialogues.
19. Issue that blocked advancement to the next level at the start of Chapter 3 has been fixed.
20. Issue involving the occurrence of T-poses upon the destruction of nekker nests has been corrected.
21. Guards can no longer block Geralt when he is on a ladder.
22. Knives no longer affect friendly NPCs.
23. Bug related to using some containers has been fixed.
24. Ostmurk (an ingredient required to complete a quest) can no longer be sold.
25. Ingredients required to complete the &#8220;Melitele's Heart&#8221; quest have been added to the game.
26. A fix has been introduced in the &#8220;Troll Trouble&#8221; quest whereby the she&#8211;troll&#8217;s head can be won in a game of dice poker. <--- Wait that wasn't how you were supposed to do it? Huh.
27. The Ghost of the Banner can no longer be killed by wraiths.
28. Issue involving the Operator being neutral and thus susceptible to being killed before any conversation occurs has been fixed.
29. A number of fixes have been introduced to prevent selected NPCs from being blocked (king in siege tower, knights when destroying a gate in the Prologue, etc.).
30. The &#8220;Three Sisters&#8221; quest has been fixed so that the door does not remain locked forever once the quest has been completed.
31. A number of progression breaks have been fixed, including instances of blocked meditation, inability to save game, and blocked combat after use of static cameras (e.g. game could not be saved after completion of the &#8220;Indecent Proposal&#8221; quest).
32. The progression break during the fight against the dragon in Chapter 3 (exploration not working properly) has been fixed.
33. The progression break during the fight against Dethmold (whereby he sometimes remained behind his barrier, doing nothing) has been fixed.
34. The progression break (black screen) in the "Little Shop of Dreams" quest has been fixed.
35. The progression break following failure to complete the ritual with Anezka has been fixed.
36. The progression break during the dialogue on the beach in the &#8220;Hung Over&#8221; quest has been fixed.

EDIT2: The Witcher 2 is $10 off for $39.99 on http://www.amazon.com/Witcher-2-Assassins-Kings-Pc/dp/B003VJNPPE/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1307052286&sr=1-1

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm still in the prologue, women occupy too much of my time. Yes I almost turned down sex to play this game. It is that good.

I'm having problems carrying too much weight. I'm going to have to drop stuff. So I'm looking through my items, and I come across a rake. It looks like a good weapon. The description says "don't step on it" Funny stuff. I really like the humor in the witcher games for the most part.

I did have a little trouble on that one big courtyard battle (the one to get the key to raise the gates to get into the monastery). But I wasn't going to lower it to easy. I had to go back to the graveyard to take a potion. But interestingly, after I took the swallow potion I seemed to do worse on the battle. I'm still not that great on combat. So I had to do some hit and run tactics to win that battle.

 

[Maniacal]

You can drop extra stuff like the (very few and pointless) junk items, odd weapons like rakes and wood and iron (you will get PLENTY of that soon enough).

 

[Polycrates]

You can drop extra stuff like the (very few and pointless) junk items, odd weapons like rakes and wood and iron (you will get PLENTY of that soon enough).

I'd be a bit careful about dropping ingredient-type stuff, including semi-junk (oil, leather, cloth, twine etc etc). There are some (very good) crafting recipes that require massive amounts of these, and if you're one or two short you'll be paying through the nose to actually buy them from a shop. I found myself really regretting dropping a bunch of "useless" stuff. But definitely drop anything labeled "junk" and any weapons and armour that aren't better than your current gear, because they don't sell for very much at all and they take up heaps of weight.

Anyway the patchnotes for 1.2 look fantastic, it's great when a developer is so responsive to people's complaints with a game. The changes to blocking and lock-on are the most exciting for me. Pity there weren't more UI fixes but no matter, it's early days and there's mods popping up for that anyway.

But yeah I have to go with Akka on the UI - I'm not so convinced by the "console designed" argument, I think it just wasn't given the care and thought that the rest of the game received - but the interface has a lot of pretty serious problems that could have easily been ironed out with a bit of playtesting.

EDIT: Islamic-themed textures????? I'm confused.......

 

[Maniacal]

Yeah but when you are in the prologue you do NOT need to worry about them yet as you will find more than enough in each act.

I think it just wasn't given the care and thought that the rest of the game received - but the interface has a lot of pretty serious problems that could have easily been ironed out with a bit of playtesting.
.

Like what?

EDIT: The Witcher 2 sold 400,000 units in the first week, which is pretty good. And indications for further support and additional content for the game
http://www.gog.com/en/news/cdp_summer_conference_watch_it_live

 

[Polycrates]

Like what?

The tiny info boxes and slow scrolling for items in inventory/shops (fixed by mod)
The large text in inventory that cuts off half the item description
The lack of a minimap north marker or a way to lock the minimap to north=up (fixed by mod)
The frustratingly slow meditation thing for drinking potions (and that the obvious way for drinking potions - doubleclicking in inventory - just gives a "this action cannot be performed" message rather than a "hey go to meditation" message).
The talents screen not showing what the second level of a talent does until you've taken the first level - also no indication of why you can't take the advanced trees at the start, and no indication of which talents are mutable until you take them.
No obvious list of key bindings in-game unless you already know to press "j", and having to exit the game to change the bindings - also no way of using mouse-wheel scroll
No in-game graphics options
Really awful savegame system (especially for a game that's so hard that you need to be saving all the time)
The journal's tutorial entries are very lacking, including no description whatsoever of what two of the signs do (at least well into act 1)
The alchemy screen is a complete mess - it often defaults to using your most precious ingredients (and resets to them after each potion you make), it won't tell you how many of an actively-chosen ingredient you have, it doesn't show you how many of any given potion you already have, it rotates the ingredient symbols in the middle bit so you can't tell the upright-line symbol from the diagonal-line symbol etc
You have to exit every sub-screen to go to another, rather than going eg straight from character to inventory
Tutorial messages pop up way too briefly and at really inopportune times
The zoomed-out map has no translation for the runes and has no current-location marker; the map gives very little "visited places of interest" information
Picking ingredients requires more clicks than necessary, and doesn't show its active component (hydragenum or whatever)
The delay for looting corpses is way too long, and very difficult to see the loot drop in long grass/swamp etc unless you use the medallion (which itself has an excessively-long delay)
Skipping cutscenes is very temperamental

There's probably more but that's what I can think of at the moment. Some of them are minor, others - like the alchemy/potions thing and not showing second-level talent info - are pretty damn annoying.

 

[Maniacal]

Heh I thought you were still referring to using them with your keyboard/mouse, not just the other issues with some of them like the alchemy screen's lack of info.

The tiny info boxes and slow scrolling for items in inventory/shops (fixed by mod)

The talents screen not showing what the second level of a talent does until you've taken the first level - also no indication of why you can't take the advanced trees at the start, and no indication of which talents are mutable until you take them.

The alchemy screen is a complete mess - it often defaults to using your most precious ingredients (and resets to them after each potion you make), it won't tell you how many of an actively-chosen ingredient you have, it doesn't show you how many of any given potion you already have,

You have to exit every sub-screen to go to another, rather than going eg straight from character to inventory

Agreed, hopefully they will get fixed. CDPorjekt RED has shown before they are willing to put a lot of effort into fixing stuff in TW1 and they seem to be doing that again.

No obvious list of key bindings in-game unless you already know to press "j", and having to exit the game to change the bindings - also no way of using mouse-wheel scroll. No in-game graphics options

Agreed although there is an excellent manual Scrolling works fine for the inventory, dunno what else it would be used for in the game except zooming in or out. And maybe the quick select wheel for bombs/traps.

As for the graphics options yes that is an annoying game design, although not what I think of as a UI issue when its on the main menu (or should be).

The lack of a minimap north marker or a way to lock the minimap to north=up (fixed by mod)

Huh, didn't have an issue there, the maps aren't THAT big and confusing. However, hopefully they will fix that.

The large text in inventory that cuts off half the item description

You might want to check your resolution, because I don't have that problem. However, it would be nice if it didn't have to scroll for the longer descriptions or a better scroll.

The frustratingly slow meditation thing for drinking potions (and that the obvious way for drinking potions - doubleclicking in inventory - just gives a "this action cannot be performed" message rather than a "hey go to meditation" message).

I think it has something to do with the lore of the gameworld although I'm not sure. I don't mind not being able to dose up on too many potions but easier access would be nice. He did have to drink the potion in the first game too but less menus.

Really awful savegame system (especially for a game that's so hard that you need to be saving all the time)

Saving the game works fine for me, and they are thankfully improving it in the 1.2 patch.

The journal's tutorial entries are very lacking, including no description whatsoever of what two of the signs do (at least well into act 1)
Tutorial messages pop up way too briefly and at really inopportune times

Yeah I know the tutorial is bad, we've said that several already

it rotates the ingredient symbols in the middle bit so you can't tell the upright-line symbol from the diagonal-line symbol etc

That is odd but they are all colour coded too.

The zoomed-out map has no translation for the runes and has no current-location marker; the map gives very little "visited places of interest" information

Not a gameplay issue since where you are on the world map is rather irrelevant to the gameplay but yes it is a very strange map and not very informative.

Picking ingredients requires more clicks than necessary, and doesn't show its active component (hydragenum or whatever)

Click to select and then press spacebar to take all. Iirc, it may be less than the first game.

The delay for looting corpses is way too long, and very difficult to see the loot drop in long grass/swamp etc unless you use the medallion (which itself has an excessively-long delay)

The medallion delay is fine, but yeah the first game had the same issue with waiting around for the corpse drops.

Skipping cutscenes is very temperamental

Wouldn't, never wanted to.

 

[Disgustipated]

you sometimes have to skip cutscenes if you die, and have to reload. I died in the fistfight with the jailor, but the game annoyingly didn't autosave before that fight. So I had to go through the long conversation with Vernon again, including the cutscenes. That said, I haven't had much problem skipping cutscenes. It even tells you to use the right mouse button. It would work after 1 or 2 clicks.

I suck at fistfights LOL. I can beat them the second go around. Even though I know how to type, I find myself getting keyes mixed up occasionally. But I'm getting used to it. Funny thing is if you die in the fistfight with the hangman and his guard, they put your head in a noose. I've had so many reloads in this game. But it's been fun. The load times aren't bad on my computer, so I can't complain much.

The interface doesn't really bother me that much, maybe because I played TW1 and that had weird interface too. But at least you could double click in your inventory. I guess I'm just not seeing a lot of these issues because I'm having so much fun. The interface in TW1 actually turned me off a bit at first, but once I learned it I really enjoyed that game.

 

[Akka]

And yeah, its designed for BOTH the keyboard and mouse and controllers, and again I haven't had any real problems using my keyboard and mouse nor has it taken away any of the fun in the game for me (its not like its any worse than the combat in the first game).

No it's not designed "both" for a KB+M and gamepad. It's designed for a gamepad, period, which is precisely the problem.
There is about nothing using the specificity of KB+M, it's just that whatever you can make with a gamepad, you can make with a KB+M, but the design is very obviously not made for the latter.

And you're still annoyingly trouncing anything you answer in little bits.

But yeah I have to go with Akka on the UI - I'm not so convinced by the "console designed" argument

That's the very first thing that just jumped in my face while playing. It's not like if I actually tried to find something to complain. Seriously, just the fact of having to face in the general direction of something to select it (rather than pointing at it, which is much faster, more precise and more intuitive when you have a mouse) is a sure sign of "designed for pad".

By the way, the developpers themselves have said it was designed "with console in mind".

 

[Maniacal]

No it's not designed "both" for a KB+M and gamepad. It's designed for a gamepad, period, which is precisely the problem.

Seeing how it works fine with a keyboard and mouse then I'm pretty sure it was designed for both, and thats fine.

There is about nothing using the specificity of KB+M

Like?

, it's just that whatever you can make with a gamepad, you can make with a KB+M, but the design is very obviously not made for the latter.

Yes, because using a keyboard and mouse is soo difficult and unintuitive and makes the game soo much harder.

Moderator Action: No need to reply to flames with a spammy link.
EDIT: I'd like to point out that it was a meme and a joke, not spam.

Seriously, just the fact of having to face in the general direction of something to select it (rather than pointing at it, which is much faster, more precise and more intuitive when you have a mouse) is a sure sign of "designed for pad".

You don't really need precision in this, its very quick (possibly faster but that could be a different experience depending on the user and their sensitivty settings) since you don't have to point directly at it and its not a surprising decision given that its 3rd person and can use a gamepad. The only unituitive part is that if you stand on it or too close it doesn't seem to pick it up which is odd.

By the way, the developpers themselves have said it was designed "with console in mind".

Which I've mentioned multiple times and for a game that is designed to use both I think they did a fairly decent job with the controls (other issues aside). Something I wouldn't expect of almost any other developer.

 

[Disgustipated]

I hope the chapters open up from the linear gameplay of the prologue. I enjoy the game very much, but it has been linear so far, and a few more cutscenes than I like. The Witcher 1 was amazing in the number of sidequests, and the complexity of them, and the complexity of the main quest (esp. in chapter 2). So I hope to see more of that in this game.

edit: the main map doesn't seem to have any popup tool tips. I don't like that. Is there any fix to it? I see icons, but not a popup telling me what the location is, or where it goes.