The Witcher 1 Thread

[Claw]

Such is the fate of non-English games. Gothic was also panned for bad voce acting and such shit.
Oblivion otoh recieved rave reviews in the English world while the localization was a bad, bad joke. Not that this was its only flaw, but it is painful to see such criticism when you know the Original is great in that respect.

 

[Kingston]

There's certainly a feel that you are missing something in the English version dialogue. I hate that feeling.

 

[Marsal]

Wow! :shock: Just finished the game and I must say I'm impressed(the feeling is about total opposite from when I played that shitty Hellgate London demo). We should open a spoiler thread as the ending was very good and left a couple of questions open(or susceptible to speculation). SPOILER Jaques = Alvin?! Badass animation at the end, too. SPOILER Who is the assassin? Didn't recognize the face. Must see it again. Those slideshow pictures should have showed the faith of the characters you met(the important ones, but not a big deal, is mostly known before the end).

For all the translation and dialogue problems, the game is really well done. The music is great and very fitting. Only glaring problem is the combat. Nice idea and solid execution, but it's to jerky, not precise enough. Pausing hinders action, while clickety-click mechanics and fast pace hinders tactics and strategy. I prefer isometric RPGs(and have played Witcher that way), but I think, in this case, they should switch to wasd movement exclusively and implement direct control of fighting moves and sword strikes in the possible sequel.

Also, the game was ridiculously easy towards the end(on HARD! difficulty), I didn't get to use my bombs at all). The final battle was not very epic(unless you consider me firing a couple of Igni signs and everything dying epic). Too many skill points(I was lvl 38 at the end). It should have been: 2 bronze talents(not 3) to lvl 15, and 1 bronze + 1 silver talent to lvl 30(not 2+2, with some variation), and 1 bronze + 1 silver + 1 gold at lvl 30+, or something like that.

While not a "pure" RPG, you could call it an adventure RPG(this is what VtM: Redemption should have been). An interactive story, well executed and memorable. Go play it! </professional_shill_mode_off>

List your most standout/best/favorite/most memorable:
-NPC: Ziggy FTW! (Vincent was good too and Prof is cool).
-naughty card: hmmm, Adda? (I got only 10ish, though).
-mix(potion/bomb/whatever): Dragon Dream bomb(why:1 hit killed a boss monster).
-weapon: dwarven rune sword(from a quest).
-boss(big) monster: werewolf.
-skill branch: stamina.
-location: castle.

 

[SuicideBunny]

you could call it an adventure RPG

the purest kind of rpg there is.

 

[RK47]

I think the comparison of Witcher with Redguard from Bethesda with choices and consequences and level up mechanics is not too far away actually.
http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-games/the-el ... 89371.html

Best game moment? Has to be the plot twist.
The realization Alvin is actually the Grandmaster of Flaming Rose.

And the cinematic is top notch. Blizzard-like.

 

[Marsal]

you could call it an adventure RPG

the purest kind of rpg there is.

My bad. Adventure as "more cut scenes and fixed dialog" (like in adventure games).

 

[Texas Red]

Did any of you NOT help Abigail? I thought it was pretty clear that the villagers are dirty bastards.

 

[RK47]

Oh, cmon TWD. fine fine. I'll do it for you. I'll replay it soon. I think the justification for not helping her is that 'I rather shed one blood than risk angering the rest, besides she brought this upon herself'

If you wanted to play a morally upright Geralt, you can. If you wanna ignore such decisions, you can. There are always consequences.

 

[Saxon1974]

IS there a way to open locked doors in the game? I keep finding locked doors with no clue how to open them.

 

[RK47]

they're locked forever. sometimes there's a key nearby, but otherwise don't expect a stealth approach to this game. It's basically sword and sorcery with bribes and intimidations in between.

 

[indigo]

they're locked forever. sometimes there's a key nearby, but otherwise don't expect a stealth approach to this game. It's basically sword and sorcery with bribes and intimidations in between.

yeah I miss all those stealing, lockpicking as in Gothic... but Im Gothic-addicted so don't listen to me..

ps. to authors (i know you're reading here ):
plz UNLIMITED/BIGGER INVENTOR+INVENTORY SORT OPTION and FASTER LOADING TIMES (investigate your pools and serialization scheme - Im acting wise guy, I know) in next patch. Also problem with Geralt locking during fight (happend to me very often in swamps). Strive to make it flawless performance

 

[Cronstadt]

Does it have skill/stat checks in dialogue?

 

[yarpen]

ps. to authors (i know you're reading here ):
plz UNLIMITED/BIGGER INVENTOR+INVENTORY SORT OPTION and FASTER LOADING TIMES (investigate your pools and serialization scheme - Im acting wise guy, I know) in next patch. Also problem with Geralt locking during fight (happend to me very often in swamps). Strive to make it flawless performance

Locking during fight will be fixed next patch. We're working on improving loading times, it should be better as well. About the inventory, it's more complicated because would have to be green lighted by design first, I'll pass the suggestion along.

 

[MasPingon]

And what about Geralt hiding his sword automaticly? Will it be fixed too?

 

[Mayday]

I just bought the game. Was lucky enough to find a special edition (with the bestiary artbook) for the same price.

Now to clear out some HDD space :/

 

[indigo]

Locking during fight will be fixed next patch. We're working on improving loading times, it should be better as well. About the inventory, it's more complicated because would have to be green lighted by design first, I'll pass the suggestion along.

:shock: wow...
I see you guys learned the best from PiranhaBytes - close contact with gamers, listening to the feedback of community!! Its great - you're on the path to success, and I wish you the best! (only dont make the same mistakes and dont get fucked by producer as it was with PB&Jo )
Pozdrowienia i trzymam za Was kciuki!

edit: the problem with limited inventory will be much less if loading times are decreased significantly - now returning to the inn to pick stuff from repository when you have to pass through portals takes definitely to much time and is frustrating.

(you probabely own "Introduction to game development" by Steve Rabin - theres nice chapter on serialization and memory pools there... I myself in my recent project used some of the memory pooling techniques depicted there + few advanced tricks with placement new operator and it decreased creation time for objects of certain size by factor of 30 which is niceee - wish you the same! (of course my project is like 1000 times smaller than the full blown computer game) Also I see you use Alexandrescu's Loki - yeah advanced templates are nice, I only hope you havent metaprogrammed too much cause profiling now can be pain in the ass . Last but not least - branching kills! Oh no I am acting wise guy again..eh... I know, sorry )

 

[Trash]

Did any of you NOT help Abigail? I thought it was pretty clear that the villagers are dirty bastards

.


SPOILERS


Personally I thought it was pretty clear the villagers were bloodthirsty scum. Selling of kids and such. Abigail has no clean hands either though. She sold them the potions and spells and possibly took active part in summoning the beast. Though that stays a bit vague. It also looks as if Odo might have been bewitched (harr) by her, with the voodoo doll and all. So perhaps not all of the important villagers might be as guilty as they look. I was not expecting the overall slaughter however when I decided to side with her. It was a bit nasty to make my way to town following a trail of dead. Something that kinda made me question my decision. That's exactly what I like about the game, shades of gray and all.

Anyway, anyone found out what Odo's dog was guarding? That bit still puzzles me.

 

[Jeff Graw]

We're working on improving loading times, it should be better as well.

Loading time is only part of the problem. The other problem is the number of transitions, which is mainly a design shortcoming, but I can think of a good way to fix it for anyone with enough memory: When you enter some small area like a house that's located in a bigger area don't unload the big area when you enter the house. Keep the big area in memory (provided there is enough available) so that the user doesn't need to go through that long loading screen again when he exits the house. Having to go into and out of houses and having that loading screen pop up over and over again is really a waste of time. The loading screens for the houses are short; the ones for the main areas aren't, and, unless someone is memory starved, most of them are highly unnecessary.

 

[Elwro]

Just bought extra 2 GBs of RAM to play this game. I hope the loading times will not be fatal to the enjoyment...

 

[indigo]

We're working on improving loading times, it should be better as well.

Loading time is only part of the problem. The other problem is the number of transitions, which is mainly a design shortcoming, but I can think of a good way to fix it for anyone with enough memory: When you enter some small area like a house that's located in a bigger area don't unload the big area when you enter the house. Keep the big area in memory (provided there is enough available) so that the user doesn't need to go through that long loading screen again when he exits the house. Having to go into and out of houses and having that loading screen pop up over and over again is really a waste of time. The loading screens for the houses are short; the ones for the main areas aren't, and, unless someone is memory starved, most of them are highly unnecessary.

You are absolutely right! But Im also afraid that this is more like design-time decision unfortunately. But if CDPR have coders talented enough (Im sure they have) and patient enough, willing to spend few weeks... who knows? Anyway the short path to increase performance is to improve lowlevel things and leave the architecture as it is now. But, again, you are perfectly right here.

 

[indigo]

About the inventory, it's more complicated because would have to be green lighted by design first, I'll pass the suggestion along.

I understand, so maybe just button for inventory sorting? It shouldnt take more than 1 day to implement imho.

 

[Bah]

We're working on improving loading times, it should be better as well.

Loading time is only part of the problem. The other problem is the number of transitions, which is mainly a design shortcoming, but I can think of a good way to fix it for anyone with enough memory: When you enter some small area like a house that's located in a bigger area don't unload the big area when you enter the house. Keep the big area in memory (provided there is enough available) so that the user doesn't need to go through that long loading screen again when he exits the house. Having to go into and out of houses and having that loading screen pop up over and over again is really a waste of time. The loading screens for the houses are short; the ones for the main areas aren't, and, unless someone is memory starved, most of them are highly unnecessary.

I think this is mostly an issue with the Aurora engine. I have the same gripe about every NWN game.

 

[indigo]

Did any of you NOT help Abigail? I thought it was pretty clear that the villagers are dirty bastards

.

SPOILERS

Personally I thought it was pretty clear the villagers were bloodthirsty scum. Selling of kids and such. Abigail has no clean hands either though[...]

Talking about morality and choices.. I ve found this http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21046 under General Discussion - nice one, though maybe choices in The Witcher arent as complicated. Nevertheless this test can serve as a good warmup.

 

[Kingston]

If there is one thing I could suggest (since devs are reading this forums, which is great). Its extremely minor, but bothers me in games a lot for some reason. When you die, you can't press esc and hit the load screen, instead you have to wait until the death animation is finished, which really does annoy.

 

[Marsal]

If there is one thing I could suggest (since devs are reading this forums, which is great). Its extremely minor, but bothers me in games a lot for some reason. When you die, you can't press esc and hit the load screen, instead you have to wait until the death animation is finished, which really does annoy.

Don't die so often, n00b