Witcher or not?

I tried Witcher 3 awhile back but got it refunded because I hated the combat and required tutorials so I could not get into the story. Now GOG has game of the year edition with all dlc on sale for 50 bucks I might want to try it again.

For those that have it can the combat be simplified or is there a mod to make it more like the combat in Skyrim? I am also thinking of getting it and then downloading a 100 percent save game so I can eliminate all that complex combat.

I love the graphics and the idea of this game but way to old for complex keyboard combat moves.

IMHO, the story is more than half of the enjoyment of the Witcher saga. If the story didn't connect with you I would say to not bother getting the GOTY edition.

Agreed... if you didn't like it, don't bother...

that said, I almost didn't play it through, the beginning was too slow and scripted... but now that I've played through it all, leaving no stone unturned, no mission incomplete, all the side missions, all the DLC... it took over, (replacing Longbow 2) as the greatest video game I ever played. And to think I almost didn't like it, and almost stopped before opening the next town.

I had the same experience as Magnum. I found the first Witcher game to be a very slow burn as far as story progression and I was a bit bored but about 10-15 hours into it I started to get immersed into the Witcher world and I've been hooked ever since.

I used mouse and keyboard for moving around, and a controller for combat. No problem whatsoever. Switching in game is absolutely no problem as all, as the game recognized the device on the stroke of a key/ controller input. So both can be used simultaneously.

I am hard pressed to think of a game since the very first Deus Ex that gave me as much fun and entertainment as Witcher 3 with both story-DLCs.

That was money well spent.

The game is awesome, "but complex combat moves"? Spam medium attack and dodging...rinse-repeat. Or upgrade your Igni until you kinda go "Flame on!" and barbecue everything. If it does not burn, go back to attack/dodge.

I do use a controller, so that may be part of my spamming technique preference.

There are mods that make this waaayyy harder and complex, but I do not use mods (only texture mods though).


I am tempted to use this one on a future playthrough:

I used a keyboard and mouse only for the Witcher games and I never had a problem.

Combat is the weak part of the game. But with difficulty at easy, combat is really quite easy and the storytelling of the witcher is really brilliant. For me it is more an interactive movie then a game but it really good at that.

Crank the difficulty to hard (one above whatever normal was), I did for something of a challenge.

Does W3 take advantage of SLI? Skyrim doesn't and Fallout 4 doesn't but GTA 5 sure does and I hope the W3 series also will.

I never found the combat to be all that complex. It is pretty simple compared to other games. The combat in W3 is a lot better than W1 and W2 but still basic.

I dont know of any mods that change the basic combat?

The Game of the Year Edition is on sale at GOG for 50 bucks and says it contains all 16 dlc's and both expansion packs. It also on Steam for the same price and has both expansion packs but not sure if it has all the dlc.

I really enjoyed the Witcher games, but complex combat isn't something they do IMO.

I'm looking forward to the complete version of the combat system in Warhorse's Kingdom Come: Deliverance - the recent addition of poleweapons, open hand fighting, mounted combat and other items look really good, the base combat seen in the playable Beta code was closer to HEMA combat than anything else I've seen to date, and I still have hope that the final version might include some Harnessfechten as well as the Blossfechten styles.

I like the combat in Witcher 3. Once you get used to it, it really isn't that complicated at all compared to other games. Regular attack, strong attack, use signs, dodge, use bombs and potions. Enhance armor and weapons with runes and glyphs. The upgrade talent trees adds some nice meat to the combat as you can only use so many at once you can reconfigure to whatever elements is most agreeable to your play style or the way you like to approach combat. I play on Story and Sword and turn on the option for enemies leveling with you to make the human combat more challenging.

Its great, great series and definitely worth it in my opinion especially if you like story heavy games. To be honest you don't really need any mods. I try to shy away from them for this game because its near perfect but there are a few I like. The one's I use are simple too. I don't use these overhaul kind of mods people come up with as it cheapens a game that by and large can't get any better. If you want me to list what few mods I use just let me know.

These 16 DLC were free from the beginning. Every edition of the game contains these 16 DLC.

Scaled very well for me with 780s. Ran it at 2560x1440 which certainly wouldn't have been possible on a single card.

While the Kingdom Come's beta had damn fun combat, it's still not even close to the same thing. That's a walkie-around RPG, the Witcher series is basically playing through some good fantasy novels.

Giving this a little bump because, unusual for myself, I'm currently a little pissed at GOG.

Early supporters who bought W3 and Expansion Pass (without even knowing what the Expansions would be like) still have base game 1.10 and a myriad patches for DLC and base to get a working install. The sensible and total logical thing would be to make the GOTY All-In-One installer available to those who own all DLC, because it is the same content in a neater package.

But no... we don't even have unified installers for the separate components yet and patch 1.30 for the game even gives an error.

So, suddenly I find myself resorting to the "usual sites" to find a better way to install the latest version. Come on GOG...

GOY version now 30 bucks. Would I be better off just buying the main game for 20 and later getting the add on's or is is crucial to get all content at once?

I would get all of the content at once since IMHO the two add-ons are really fantastic.

GOTY is a nice all-inclusive installer, with a nice feature where the main menu changes randomly. I would get that one.

If you can't get into the combat there is low enough difficulty that you can just enjoy the story.

Thanks, if I buy from GOG does it go into my Steam library?

Oddly those of us who have the main game already but no DLCs still have to fork out $25 for them.



The Jedi Master

Ok, found out GOG does not provide a key for Steam.

Yea, GoG has their own launcher/installer now. They stopped giving out steam keys a while back.

So basically unless the GOG version is a lot cheaper than the Steam version there's no reason for me to deal with the hassle of having yet another online distribution software client.

Depends. For example, I remember with the second game the GOG version allowed you to mod it a bit (I fixed a minor bug IIRC). The Steam version was build differently and didn't have that INI file available. Depends on what I'm buying but I get my Witcher stuff through GOG.

GOG doesn't require you to deal with any client type software. Download the installer package, run the setup.exe and you're good to go.

Ok so GOG is sorta like Steam but DRM free and all that stuff - but do all the mods work the same with the GOG version? In other words are there any drawbacks to using GOG?

You don't have access to the Steam workshop or anything like that. GOG basically gives you DRM free executable installers and links to the manuals, soundtracks, and such. Depends on if you want something Steam integrated or something "clean"

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

I've got it through GOG and though I have hundreds of Steam games over an 11 year period I'm glad I have Withcer 3 on GOG. You do not have to use GOG Galaxy and I don't. They provide all downloads in your library and also update those downloads when patches come out. For large downloads they also have a very nice, non-intrusive download manager which I use for the big files. Plus like with the Witcher series, every single extra is listed and easy to download like soundtracks, art, wallpapers and so on. And yes, the big plus is that its free of ALL DRM nonsense. I've got a back up copy of Withcer3 and Expansions downloads saved for if and when the internet is no more. GOG does a lot of things right.

Anyone else is in the Gwent closed Beta?




Very fun to play online, and also has single player AI.

Found a couple of things I would change, like the size oof the card's animations, and sent a report, but so far very well polished game.

Hey Bib I forget what this is exactly. Is it a standalone card game coming out? I like playing gwent in the game though I'm not great at it. I need to start working on making my deck better. Weren't they also going to make a physical gwent card game to purchase? Also, had anyone played the Witcher digital board game? It seems like it would be fun if you are a fan and want to get some extra lore and immersion.

Yes, it is a standalone Gwent game by CDPR - On the same league as Hearthstone and The Elder Scrolls : Legends

https://www.playgwent.com/en

Speaking from experience, first impressions are likely not to change.

I got the Witcher 1 Enhanced edition. It didn't suck me in, on top of that my interest in games was at an all time low. When the Witcher 2 came out, I got the collector's edition. Same story. I didn't bother anymore with the Witcher 3.

Both boxes are on my shelf untouched, part of my game collection that are almost in mint condition (not even a scratch on the DVD IIRC).

I did buy this from GOG and would like to know if the story every lets you do anything? It seems that it is 70 percent cut scenes and very little of you just exploring and finding things. In Skyrim I can wander for hours and not have a premade segment pop up every two minutes.

This is great if you just want to watch a movie but I would like more freedom and much less canned segments.

How far are you?

Yes.

I think I played a different Witcher 3 from the one you are playing because I'd say that story driven cut scenes are more like 10-20% of the total playing time. I spent countless hours just exploring the land and different locations in the game.

I am just starting the game so maybe that is why the abundance of cut scenes.

Ah that explains it! Yes you do get cutscene overload until you part ways with Yennefer after the horse chase ends.

The start in the Castle and then the initial part of the first map are your tutorial. All trough that first map (White Orchard) you will be more guided, more cut-scenes...

Free-running really starts when you get to the second map. However, there is no denying that Witcher likes to tell it's stories in detail. I personally liked the quality voice acting, animations and character details.

I think if you cut all W3 cutscenes together you end up with 3 or 4 hours of animated movie. For a game that's about 200h long per playtrough that's still very little.

In addition you get one world that allows you to enter and leave buildings/caves to wander through cities with populations of thousands (though most just "colour") all without any enforced loading screens - the infrequent cutscenes are far less intrusive even at their most in your face than the loading screen at every door of W1/W2/Skyrim/Fallout. In my opinion anyway. YMMV, but I like the consistency of the spaces and the freedom to just move through the world at will.

There are a few times when the way cutscenes bookend a 'difficult' fight/activity that can be failed and thus can repeat annoyingly. They can be skipped over, but it is still annoying that the save point precedes the movie than immediately after it, and there is no option to perform inventory actions with either timing so the player needs to know in advance that such a point is coming and do necessary preparations/collect gear from storage/upgrade weapons. I can't recall all of these moments, but it is something on the order of 4-5 times in 200+ hours, so not a major overall problem.

I'd prefer a little more control over whether to procede the same way over and over again, to prepare differently... or to skip the prolonged lead-in on a death/reload. Fallout and Skyrim do this too though, so nothing terribly notable.

To me that is still a tech miracle of this engine. Okay, Dying Light also has a quite large world where you enter a lot of indoor spaces seamless and with view of the outside world, but specific "levels" are then still loaded separately. I can't think of any other game besides W3 where you can explore a cave complex, then walk outside into a huge forest, ride to a sprawling city, go into a merchant's house and watch the sun set outside trough his lead-glass windows...

Witcher 3 really has set a new standard for the entire RPG genre.

BTW I have a copy of The Witcher (the first one) on GoG which I cannot use as it is a duplicate 'freebie'. If anyone wants it let me know and I'll gift it.

Liking it so far, wish it had first person view but it is a beautiful game.

There is a first person mod, but from what I've seen so far (on YouTube) it's a little wonky.

Many games that were not designed to be played both ways will look strange if you choose to switch via mod.
Number one is the arms will look bizarre, either size or animations, because the in-game FOVs for 1st and 3rd person require that. It's not as easy as moving a GoPro from your head to floating behind you in Real Life.



The Jedi Master

I can't really see how it would work in combat... an automatic camera switch between first person when exploring, and third person when a sword is drawn, that would be neat.

That was the Jedi Knight series. Dark Forces 2, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy.

In those games, though, it was designed for it from the outset and there were two sets of animations. Plus, while you could fight with the saber in 1st and fire guns in 3rd, it really didn't work well at all.




The Jedi Master

IIRC, the main problem with the mod was that Gerald can't walk backwards in normal (non-combat) mode, but instead turns around.

Which makes first-person steering extremely awkward.

I just realized that I could add this GOG game to my Steam library. Why would I do that? To use the Steam controller with it. Does anyone use the Steam controller with this game and if so, do you have a configuration for it?

How do you guys run your mods in witcher 3? I would like to try a use some I have downloaded from Nexus but whenever I try to run witcher 3 with the mods I get compilation errors?
How did you get arolund this?

Cheers
SD

Hey soupdragon I'll help you if you want. I've been using and figuring out mods for Witcher 3 since mods started coming out. After a lot of searching and trial and error I've got a pretty good handle on it now. Let me know and maybe list the mods you're trying to use.(I use a lot of little mods, not combat conversions) Its actually a bit easier now with the game being mostly patched up and complete now with all expansions.

I use:

Immersive Camera (wonderful, wonderful mod! Includes other immersive mods with it. One of my must haves.)
Immersive Horse Controls (Part of the immersive series. Makes horse controls like Red Dead Redemption! Awesome mod)
Immersive Meditations (also an immersive mod and equally awesome)
Block When You Want
Immersive Motion
Immersive AI
No Dirty Lens Effect
No Rolling Down Stairs
Sword FX
Thoughtful Roach
Wind mod (Alters how and when wind works. More realistic. Does not blow 40 24/7 now.)
More Blood
Enhanced Herbalism (more herbs when looting plants)
Increased Creature Loot (more stuff when looting creatures and containers I believe)
Selectable Main Menu

Thanks coot.

I'll definately give some of those a try.

Cheers
SD

tried those but when I install them using NMM I get script compilation errors
Any ideas?

Yep I know, that's why I'll have to give you a hand. W3 mods can't be installed like normal using nexus. It doesn't work like that. It must be done a bit more manually.

-First off, do you have the full game with expansions and the latest patch version, 1.31 I think?

-Next download from Nexus Witcher Script Merger. http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/484/?

-Go to where Witcher is installed and create a "mods" folder without quotes at this location:

C:\GOG\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\mods This is my location. There's a bin, content, DLC folder there among other things.

-Make sure you read the mod maker's instructions in case there is something extra you have to do. Most of the mods however are already packaged the way they need to be by the author. For example when you download and unzip Immersive cam, you will get a folder called "modImmersiveCam". Drag and drop that into your new mods folder.

-Its important to install only one mod at a time to avoid unnecessary issues.

-Now open Witcher Script Merger. Tell the program where your Witcher 3 install is. It will then look for and detect any script conflicts. When or if it does, just follow the prompts and it should automatically fix everthing. Mods have gotten a lot easier now than at the beginning. Script Merger should fix all conflicts automatically. After its done, the right column will now show every in blue with nothing left in the left column.

-Now run Witcher 3 once and make sure it compiles. If you get an error message after the RedEngine tries to compile, you will need the following files: http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/689/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fwitcher3%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D689&pUp=1

**The file you need is down under the Misc. downloads and is called "Patch 1.3 script sources for players having problems compiling any script mods". Unpack the scripts folder and copy it to ...\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\content\content0. Backup and remove your existing scripts folder from this path first.**

-Once you copy those files in the RedEngine should compile now with no errors.

-For ImmersiveCam mod as well as a few of the other Immersive mods there's one more step. These mods actually add a menu option to the game's settings menu to allow you to customize your Immersive mod settings. Depending on the file, there may be a "gui_setup" folder within the mod folder. Copy the .xml file within the gui_setup folder and past it into this path: <path to your game>\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc

I did all that but not sure how to find the GUI in game?

Hey Warbirds, are talking about for ImmersiveCam? If so and you copied the xml file it will add a Mods heading when you click on options.

Yes the cam thing. I did the installation as described but not sure how to get the gui to show up.

Okay, look inside the file you download for immersive cam and look for the folder named "gui_setup." Inside that is a .xml file that is to be copy and pasted into the location

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc

While at the game's main menu select options and you should now have a "Mods" heading in your settings screen.

Ah actually now you mention it I only have the base game and that is only patched up to 1.12.
But I have just seen the GOTY edition on steam and bought it for £20 (40% off awsome).

I'll try again once this 43Gb monster downloads.

Thanks for the instructions regarding the script merger thingy though coot.

BTW i couldn't find some of teh mods in your list.

Namely :
Immersive Meditations
Immersive Horse Controls
Immersive AI

Any chance you could post up some links to these?

Cheers mate

SD

Hey soupdragon, the other immersive mods you listed are on the same page as Immersive Cam. Its done by the same person. Info about them is listed lower in the description area on the mod page and all of the files are in the file section just a little further down. If you do get your game updated to the last version, make sure you are downloading the latest mod files too.