The Witcher series APPRECIATION thread

[Qarthadqart]

• I ended up starting off the battle with the Barghests automatically attacking and I have to run away just to draw my sword. Then they stun you. I tried about 12 times and then decided it wasnt worth it

I'm doing my first playthrough now on normal difficulty. Forget drawing your sword, chug swallow immediately, and then booze until drunk (which grants pain immunity with a perk, so you won't get stunned). You can now attack the beast or his goons until your health gets low, then safely run away. I would test this on hard but difficulty isn't adjustable. I think it should work though, unless they're strong enough to outright kill you before you finish the potions.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

See above.

It's summoned to the village and it's attacking it randomly because the whole village is guilty. Abigail had more pressing concerns at that moment and needed it right outside the cave to hopefully deal with the mob. She was hidden inside the cave so may well have escaped unscathed. (magic etc.) The question you'd need to ask is what other spell did she have at her disposal that could possibly stop the mob from tearing her apart? None that we know of, she's only a witch and her magic is ritual and alchemy. If the choice was certainly die to the mob or maybe not die to the beast, the choice was clear.

The Beast is certainly Alzur's demon. Another line speaking through Alvin was: "The Beast has met its end once, it doesn't fear death, it IS death." That's referring to Alzur conquering it. As for "dispelling" that was my mistake going from memory. Answering the question makes it vulnerable and allows it to be slain lore-wise. This is the reason it finally sticks around rather than disappearing and leaving the barghests to do its work like so many times throughout the chapter before. The question is answered when Geralt chooses.

 

[Arthandas]

Abigail had more pressing concerns at that moment and needed it right outside the cave to hopefully deal with the mob.

So not only she can summon it, but also decide where it appears? Sure Also, I repeat, the Beast is already summoned on the village before Geralt even gets here. You can't double summon it, the deed is already done.

The question you'd need to ask is what other spell did she have at her disposal that could possibly stop the mob from tearing her apart?

Irrelevant. Maybe she wanted to summon a cloud of poison or a thunderstorm? Maybe she knew a single spell or a thousand spells? She doesn't get to cast it so it doesn't matter at all. Also, there's no such thing as only a witch. If you're a witch, and know any type of magic you're already more powerful than 99% of people, not to mention she is or was a cultist of the Lionhead Spider so she probably knows some nasty stuff.
One more thing, if you side with the villagers, Lady of the Lake in act IV will tell Geralt he has the blood of an innocent on his hands, because he let Abigail die, which is a pretty strong proof she's not responsible for the Beast.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

So not only she can summon it, but also decide where it appears?

Obviously. The Beast is called to the village to punish it, yet waits until Abigail is in the hazard to wipe the entire village clean because... why exactly? Because Abigail is the straw that breaks the camels back? Ridiculous considering the other far more heinous things the village had done by that point. "I'm brewing up a spell that is mighty enough for the whole village" - Whole village is wiped out a few minutes later - "Gee, I wonder what happened? It is a mystery." She kicked the bee's nest.

A Witch is not a Sorceress in the Witcher lore. There's a big difference in their capabilities. Yes, she was a cultist of the lionhead spider, making her perfectly capable of doing dark shit. If she had the capability to perform on the level of a proper magician, she would be advising kings, not curing warts. There was no reason for her to stick around in that village that she openly admits hating unless she was there to see vengeance.

The Lady of the Lake is wrong, it's not the first time she was in error either. Whatever answer you choose, the Beast is defeated, meaning both are guilty. Ignore the npcs in the game trying to guilt-trip you over "innocent" wahmen. Abigail is not innocent. Selling poison to a suicidal girl is enough to tell you this even if nothing else were true. The villagers just happen to be worse.

 

[Beastro]

The game provides you with interesting narrative choices like do you help Abigail against the village and this was another example of an ostensible moral paradox but for me it wasnt really. The village was full of degenerates and hypocrites and it made my choice easy to take her side

A long time I read that, when you meet her again, she has various symbols in her house that imply that she really is a malicious witch. It's been a long time since I played it and I'm not that familiar with Witcher lore, so I don't know if it's true. If it is, the conflict is really two evils with you in the middle. And again, if it is true, it's a neat detail to include symbols that only those familiar with the series would realize the significance of. On the other hand, if Geralt does recognize them, it would have made sense for him to be able to point them out. I don't think he can, but again, it's been a long time.

I usually side with Abigail but I always say "I chose the lesser evil".

The game lacks the choice to kill both the villagers and the witch. They are not separate in my mind but part of one whole no different than you having to make the choice between one of the villagers or the rest of village and the witch.

I sided with the village simply because I'm sick of the Modern "good, innocent witch" mythological archetype that has almost nothing in common with actual Medieval witches, but there is no clean choice and siding with the village has a dirtier feeling.

 

[BruceVC]

So not only she can summon it, but also decide where it appears?

Obviously. The Beast is called to the village to punish it, yet waits until Abigail is in the hazard to wipe the entire village clean because... why exactly? Because Abigail is the straw that breaks the camels back? Ridiculous considering the other far more heinous things the village had done by that point. "I'm brewing up a spell that is mighty enough for the whole village" - Whole village is wiped out a few minutes later - "Gee, I wonder what happened? It is a mystery." She kicked the bee's nest.

A Witch is not a Sorceress in the Witcher lore. There's a big difference in their capabilities. Yes, she was a cultist of the lionhead spider, making her perfectly capable of doing dark shit. If she had the capability to perform on the level of a proper magician, she would be advising kings, not curing warts. There was no reason for her to stick around in that village that she openly admits hating unless she was there to see vengeance.

The Lady of the Lake is wrong, it's not the first time she was in error either. Whatever answer you choose, the Beast is defeated, meaning both are guilty. Ignore the npcs in the game trying to guilt-trip you over "innocent" wahmen. Abigail is not innocent. Selling poison to a suicidal girl is enough to tell you this even if nothing else were true. The villagers just happen to be worse.

But how do we know Abigail knew what the girl wanted the poison for, is there any evidence that Abigail knew she was going to commit suicide?

She provides a variety of Herds and poisons would be one of them. If you decide to buy poisons in this type of harsh world is it responsibility of the seller to question why you want it?

Out of all the criticism towards Abigail I find this the most unconvincing that she was evil

There are lots of ways to commit suicide and you cant stop someone if they really want to

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

But how do we know Abigail knew what the girl wanted the poison for, is there any evidence that Abigail knew she was going to commit suicide?

G: "Do you hate all humans?"
A: "Yes. You don't know what it's like to live here, to endure their evil looks, their whispers, while knowing all their dirty secrets!"

Abigail was not a hatchling Bruce, she knew what Mikul did to Ilsa. Young women are not rat catchers, so what does she want with it? You don't sell distraught rape victims poison.
She is not evil for failing to prevent a suicide, she is evil for facilitating it. At minimum, it shows a callous indifference to life. When confronted with this, Abigail not only doesn't deny that she sold her the poison, she shows zero shock at the revelation and zero remorse for her part in it.

 

[BruceVC]

But how do we know Abigail knew what the girl wanted the poison for, is there any evidence that Abigail knew she was going to commit suicide?

G: "Do you hate all humans?"
A: "Yes. You don't know what it's like to live here, to endure their evil looks, their whispers, while knowing all their dirty secrets!"

Abigail was not a hatchling Bruce, she knew what Mikul did to Ilsa. Young women are not rat catchers, so what does she want with it? You don't sell distraught rape victims poison.
She is not evil for failing to prevent a suicide, she is evil for facilitating it. At minimum, it shows a callous indifference to life. When confronted with this, Abigail not only doesn't deny that she sold her the poison, she shows zero shock at the revelation and zero remorse for her part in it.

What if Abigail thought Ilsa was going to use the poison to get vengeance?

I understand what you saying, I agree that she is not morally " good " but Im not convinced just because she sold poison to Ilsa thats irrefutable evidence of her being evil

Its a similar allegation where people say " she is evil because she offered sex to Geralt " , that was about her survival and there are lots of stories of women using sex as a means to survive. That doesnt make them evil

The black magic and curses is different

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

What if Abigail thought Ilsa was going to use the poison to get vengeance?

Then she would have said that to Geralt. Instead she tries to say that she's not her brother's keeper.

Moreover, Abigail is actually the one that spells it out that Mikul raped Ilsa for the benefit of players who didn't pick up on it from Mikul slipping up in the earlier dialog. The game never lets you speak to her about that ahead of time, yet she still knew it.

 

[ferratilis]

the Fpsc Engine (antialiasing, color settings, frame limiter and most importantly - working ambient occlusion rendering behind the interface, I posted some screens with it here).

How is this different compared to using nvidia profile inspector to force ambient occlusion, and just using RTSS to cap the fps to 60? Is it better?

 

[Arthandas]

the Fpsc Engine (antialiasing, color settings, frame limiter and most importantly - working ambient occlusion rendering behind the interface, I posted some screens with it here).

How is this different compared to using nvidia profile inspector to force ambient occlusion, and just using RTSS to cap the fps to 60? Is it better?

AO brute forced through drivers will probably bleed through GUI, Fpsc has Witcher specific tweaks. RTSS is generally better, but from what I remember it had some framepacing issues with this particular engine. Depending on what kind of vsync you use, it's probably better to cap it in Fpsc or your GPU panel.

 

[ferratilis]

but from what I remember it had some framepacing issues with this particular engine

I use DXVK, it helps a little bit with this game. There will still be some issues in the trade quarter especially, but it's better than default.

 

[Arthandas]

I use DXVK

It does wonders in W2. For some reason my RX 7800 has very low utilization (and low clocks) even with ubersampling on, with DXVK it runs as it should and it boosts performance by 30+ frames.

 

[BruceVC]

Im about 50 hours into W1 and Im in Chapter 5 and going to the Manor House in the swamp

I decided to remove FCR because of combat bugs and I was able to do that without corrupting my old save games and then my new saves dont include FCR

There are several main things I love about W1 and they include

• the entire Alchemy mechanics works for me, I like how you need to find out about monsters and herbs before you can get the ingredients and I like how the crafting works for potions, bombs and oils. It makes finding and buying recipes worthwhile
• There are 4 main types of quests. The ones with the obvious map locations and you can go there easily, quests where you have to explore to solve ( blue eyed girl quest ), the ones where you cant complete until you progress in the chapter and do certain things and then the quests that span chapters you can only progress and solve them as time goes on like the Berengar quest
• the narrative choices are completely thought provoking and you feel like you end up shaping and influencing the world and outcomes

We spoke about the whole Abigail vs Village moral conundrum but that was just one type of choice you need to make and W1 creates many other similar choices that include ( SPOILER ALERT )

• who to side with, the Order or the Scoia'tael : I decided the Order, I dont think terrorism works or is sustainable
• Vincent as the Werewolf : I didnt kill him because this is another example of a good monster that helps you
• Queen of the Night : A real paradox but I sided with the Vampiresses and again its because there are good Vampires in the Witcher world like Geralts friend Regis and the Queen wasnt an evil Vampire which I would have killed. Sadly the Vampiresses all died in the final battle
• Adda as a Striga : I saved her because this makes sense for a better relationship with Foltest and her second curse was triggered by De Wett so it didnt make sense to kill her

And then there are lots of smaller quest choices you need to make like the Blacksmith and the Succubus which are more light hearted and not as significant


I decided to support Triss around Alvin and I admitted my love for her, I like Triss

But in summary the narrative choices are some of the best and varied in any RPG I have played and Witcher 1 really delivers on this

 

[Arthandas]

Btw, to anyone playing it in English, do yourself a favor and switch to Polish dub with English subs. English VA makes Geralt sound like an emotionless machine with constipation, there's zero acting in his performance and he completely butchers the character. King Henselt sounds like an old man instead of a powerful bandit, Iorweth is a passionless brit (just compare this scene: EN vs PL)... And those are just the things I picked from some Witcher videos I watched on YouTube, if I actually played the game in English I could probably give 100 examples of the English VA turning the characters to shit. For some reason the English cast is also incapable of properly pronouncing Vernon Roche (and probably other names) - it's "Rosh" (like in all other language versions), not "Roach"...

 

[Ascetic]

I agree on Abigail being evil, and the thing that convinced me to side with the villagers is that, when you confront her in the cave, she just tries to seduce you (in front of a bunch of children) rather than explain herself. She's an evil, manipulative witch who exploits and harms people, including children, for her aims. I consider the witch's claims about "killing an innocent" just her covering for one of her own.

 

[Semiurge]

In Geralt's words - they're all guilty. But at least Abigail gives him pussy and a nice card.

 

[Arthandas]

In Geralt's words - they're all guilty. But at least Abigail gives him pussy and a nice card.

Fake, you actually get more pussy and cards from the villagers.

 

[BruceVC]

Completed Witcher 1, I have already mentioned what I loved about the game and in summary its a fantastic narrative influenced RPG set in the world of the Witcher where your choices really define the narrative

Great quests, lore and the combat mechanics really grow on you. Well worth playing and highly recommended. Its gets a 75/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system "

Now Im going to play Witcher 2

Arthandas ( or anyone else ) what mods do you recommend and please go into details if necessary

I have found some W2 Mod collections on Nexus and I will go through them tonight and get some advice around the various mods