The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[Repulsive]

Giving this another shot, while I'm having more fun than my first attempt by lowering my standards and trying to enjoy it for what it is, I'm still debating whether it's going to be worth the payoff in the end.

 

[ilitarist]

The wolf picture is an example of cut functionality. They could make a replacement for non-Nvidia GPUs or old ones. It's not like there weren't any nice furries before Nvidia Hairworks: . Or maybe part of cooperation with NVidia means you don't make a fallback solution.

 

[Haplo]

I must be weird, because I'm quite fine with 30+ fps. If I like the game/its graphics, I can even tolerate 15+ fps dips.
Of course, I tend to prefer turn-based games and don't play many action games. And my current config rarely calls for such efficiency sacrifices.

That said... yeah, I'd turn the hairworks off. Sometimes cool, but sometimes also weird. Generally not worth the effort IMO. For me it was an easy sacrifice to make.

While it also seemed like an easy sacrifice to me, this pic is scary -

Not sure if its 100% correct tho

Could be. But in practice the enemies do not stand still like frozen, rather tend to circle, run and pounce. The difference is far less pronounced during rapid movement I think.

And like The Sentinel wrote, hairworks actually looks bad on Geralt, whom you see up close all the time. A mod could be a solution, as described , but I didn't have that mod...

 

[Repulsive]

This used pretty cool tech for hair at the time.

 

[duchU]

Hairworks is shit. It's only good for Geralt's beard and Roach but you cannot set it this way. Monsters look too fluffy and the game is not supposed to be a Disney movie for children. Also Geralt's hairs with HW ON are bad - when everything around you moves a lot because of strong wind hairs for some reason are way too steady in comparison to default physics.

 

[MicoSelva]

Gotta nitpick a bit - Even when everything is on ultra, the fps doesnt really fluctuate - its pretty much constantly at 42 or 43, increasing to say 50 when I leave heavy grass areas. Does this make it any better? :D

Use whatever works best for you. I always lock FPS at a constant rate that is a divider or multiplier of my monitor's refresh rate (60 Hz). I prefer locked 30 FPS to fluctuating 42-50, but your mileage may vary.

 

[Falksi]

Agree with a lot if that TC jr. I don't find it bad per say, there's just lots if modern filler elements in there which kill the pacing and fun for me. I'm someone who thrived on LOTR The Two Towers, but thought Fellowship & ROTK could have easily been halved in size, and that overall the experience of the trilogy just became dull. TW3 falls in that bracket for me. Some good stuff, but far to much modern game padding which slows it all down too often. There are just so many pointless npcs floating round it's jarring. Oh look a hospital, what's in there? Nothing of interest. What about talking to the group playing on the bandstand? Nope, nothing of interest. What's in this village? Same as every other village - shop, board quest & junk. To say the game is so huge the surprises are few & far between, and there's rarely much different to do.
If you play it with quest markers & minimap off you have to click on a zillion npcs before finding one who offers a quest, and if you play with them on 80% of your time is spent staring at the corner of the screen.

 

[ilitarist]

Agree with a lot if that TC jr. I don't find it bad per say, there's just lots if modern filler elements in there which kill the pacing and fun for me. I'm someone who thrived on LOTR The Two Towers, but thought Fellowship & ROTK could have easily been halved in size, and that overall the experience of the trilogy just became dull. TW3 falls in that bracket for me. Some good stuff, but far to much modern game padding which slows it all down too often. There are just so many pointless npcs floating round it's jarring. Oh look a hospital, what's in there? Nothing of interest. What about talking to the group playing on the bandstand? Nope, nothing of interest. What's in this village? Same as every other village - shop, board quest & junk. To say the game is so huge the surprises are few & far between, and there's rarely much different to do.
If you play it with quest markers & minimap off you have to click on a zillion npcs before finding one who offers a quest, and if you play with them on 80% of your time is spent staring at the corner of the screen.

I'd say that for many people this "padding" is, well, a way to experience RPG in its understandable form. You're probably an experienced RPG player and W3 systems are too simple for you. You've probably noticed that using rolls, signs and whatever sword the game throws at you is enough to get through most challenges in the game. As I understand for many people those sidequests and monster lairs are a way to get a new loot that is exciting to them. Kinda what you feel in a game with a high difficulty and scarce resources. They don't see the matrix behind the screen.

 

[vortex]

The wolf picture is an example of cut functionality. They could make a replacement for non-Nvidia GPUs or old ones. It's not like there weren't any nice furries before Nvidia Hairworks:

Spoiler

. Or maybe part of cooperation with NVidia means you don't make a fallback solution.

For Dark Souls they used Havok engine for hair and particles. But that was 2011 tech. It was on par to Nvidia Physx back then.

 

[Falksi]

I'd say that for many people this "padding" is, well, a way to experience RPG in its understandable form. You're probably an experienced RPG player and W3 systems are too simple for you. You've probably noticed that using rolls, signs and whatever sword the game throws at you is enough to get through most challenges in the game. As I understand for many people those sidequests and monster lairs are a way to get a new loot that is exciting to them. Kinda what you feel in a game with a high difficulty and scarce resources. They don't see the matrix behind the screen.

Great summary chap. There's nothing interesting or anything which makes any real difference to anything between the primary & secondary quests. It's just filler. And repetitive filler at that. "mmm should i search the area for tracks? Or just run towards the monsters my witcher senses can detect, as that's obviously the way tracks will take me?" When I'm engaged and actually interacting with various people, quests or objectives like in TW2 it's great. But whereas in TW2 that was say 70% of the tine, with side distractions being a welcome breather, this game is bogged down with them. Which wouldn't be so bad if the main quest had any real drama to it, but it's fairly mundane stuff.
It just feels like a luke warm sandbox game with great writing, great characters and loads of nothing between it all. Like a really watered down Belvinie whisky.

 

[veskoandroid]

Hmmmmmmm, so next we wait for some modder's good story expansion or main game add-on quests?

Sent from my Xperia ZR using Tapatalk

 

[Falksi]

Carnal Sins, now THERE'S a proper side quest. If this game concentrated on quests like those, instead of the repetitive monster hunts & 5 second "I'm being threatened, help me!" filler everywhere it'd be far more enjoyable.

 

[Atomkilla]

The game does recognize the difference between a secondary quest (such as Carnal Sins), monster contracts (which are more or less intended to show what witchers actually do and as a basic money source - hence, isn't an actual quest) and treasure hunts (a mixed back of location backstory and grind/lootfest). You don't need to do any of those. Contracts can be tedious, sure, but that's a witcher's job for you.
Besides, there's a shitton of secondary quests. They may or may not be connected to the main quest/storyline, and vary in quality and content, but there's a lot of them.

 

[Falksi]

The game does recognize the difference between a secondary quest (such as Carnal Sins), monster contracts (which are more or less intended to show what witchers actually do and as a basic money source - hence, isn't an actual quest) and treasure hunts (a mixed back of location backstory and grind/lootfest). You don't need to do any of those. Contracts can be tedious, sure, but that's a witcher's job for you.
Besides, there's a shitton of secondary quests. They may or may not be connected to the main quest/storyline, and vary in quality and content, but there's a lot of them.

There's plenty of tiresome, dull side quests too though. I just can't help feeling that and extra 6 months or so trimming some fat would have made for a much better overall game.
I think the way Cabaret evolves into Carnal Sins is spot on, and what TW3 should be about. The hours I've spent getting there are ridiculous though, and there's no way of telling if a quests is worth playing until afterwards.

 

[Storyfag]

The game does recognize the difference between a secondary quest (such as Carnal Sins), monster contracts (which are more or less intended to show what witchers actually do and as a basic money source - hence, isn't an actual quest) and treasure hunts (a mixed back of location backstory and grind/lootfest). You don't need to do any of those. Contracts can be tedious, sure, but that's a witcher's job for you.
Besides, there's a shitton of secondary quests. They may or may not be connected to the main quest/storyline, and vary in quality and content, but there's a lot of them.

There's plenty of tiresome, dull side quests too though. I just can't help feeling that and extra 6 months or so trimming some fat would have made for a much better overall game.
I think the way Cabaret evolves into Carnal Sins is spot on, and what TW3 should be about. The hours I've spent getting there are ridiculous though, and there's no way of telling if a quests is worth playing until afterwards.

Ok, I'll bite. Provide some examples of those godsawful quests.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

1. everything on max makes fps vary from around 50, dropping in low 40s sometimes.
2. Everything on high - constant 60 fps
3. everything on ultra, with all hair shit turned off - 60 fps, with occasional drops to 55+

I would go with 2 or 3 - constant frame rate is the most important thing when it comes to the game feeling smooth, you do not want your frame rate to fluctuate. Occasional dips are usually fine, depending on how sensitive you are to such stuff.

Gotta nitpick a bit - Even when everything is on ultra, the fps doesnt really fluctuate - its pretty much constantly at 42 or 43, increasing to say 50 when I leave heavy grass areas. Does this make it any better? :D

I must be weird, because I'm quite fine with 30+ fps. If I like the game/its graphics, I can even tolerate 15+ fps dips.
Of course, I tend to prefer turn-based games and don't play many action games. And my current config rarely calls for such efficiency sacrifices.

That said... yeah, I'd turn the hairworks off. Sometimes cool, but sometimes also weird. Generally not worth the effort IMO. For me it was an easy sacrifice to make.

While it also seemed like an easy sacrifice to me, this pic is scary -

Not sure if its 100% correct tho

It looks terrible with it off on the wolves. Even skyrims huskies had nicer fur than that.

 

[Atomkilla]

The game does recognize the difference between a secondary quest (such as Carnal Sins), monster contracts (which are more or less intended to show what witchers actually do and as a basic money source - hence, isn't an actual quest) and treasure hunts (a mixed back of location backstory and grind/lootfest). You don't need to do any of those. Contracts can be tedious, sure, but that's a witcher's job for you.
Besides, there's a shitton of secondary quests. They may or may not be connected to the main quest/storyline, and vary in quality and content, but there's a lot of them.

There's plenty of tiresome, dull side quests too though. I just can't help feeling that and extra 6 months or so trimming some fat would have made for a much better overall game.
I think the way Cabaret evolves into Carnal Sins is spot on, and what TW3 should be about. The hours I've spent getting there are ridiculous though, and there's no way of telling if a quests is worth playing until afterwards.

Ok, I'll bite. Provide some examples of those godsawful quests.

Pretty much this. I'd really like to know what are the side quests you have such a big problem with.

 

[duchU]

1. everything on max makes fps vary from around 50, dropping in low 40s sometimes.
2. Everything on high - constant 60 fps
3. everything on ultra, with all hair shit turned off - 60 fps, with occasional drops to 55+

I would go with 2 or 3 - constant frame rate is the most important thing when it comes to the game feeling smooth, you do not want your frame rate to fluctuate. Occasional dips are usually fine, depending on how sensitive you are to such stuff.

Gotta nitpick a bit - Even when everything is on ultra, the fps doesnt really fluctuate - its pretty much constantly at 42 or 43, increasing to say 50 when I leave heavy grass areas. Does this make it any better? :D

I must be weird, because I'm quite fine with 30+ fps. If I like the game/its graphics, I can even tolerate 15+ fps dips.
Of course, I tend to prefer turn-based games and don't play many action games. And my current config rarely calls for such efficiency sacrifices.

That said... yeah, I'd turn the hairworks off. Sometimes cool, but sometimes also weird. Generally not worth the effort IMO. For me it was an easy sacrifice to make.

While it also seemed like an easy sacrifice to me, this pic is scary -

Not sure if its 100% correct tho

It looks terrible with it off on the wolves. Even skyrims huskies had nicer fur than that.

It looks terrible cuz the whole pic looks terrible. Someone made that comparison when using shitty graphics settings.

 

[Falksi]

Ok, I'll bite. Provide some examples of those godsawful quests.

So far, The Volunteer, the Beast of White Orchid, The Incident at White Orchid, The Dwarven Document Dilema, Novigrad Closed City 2, Spooked Mare, A Feast for Crows, Out on your arse, Precious Cargo, Death by Fire, The Truth is in the Stars, Of Dairy and Darkness, Deadly Delights, An Elusive Theif. I'm level 19 at the mo, not long arrived at Skellige.
Between those and running for ages over barren landscapes, to find barren villages full of exactly the same things every other village is, it's often a real slog.
The game would Imo be so much better had it been halved in size.

 

[vonAchdorf]

So far, The Volunteer, the Beast of White Orchid, The Incident at White Orchid,

The whole White Orchard prologue isn't really something to write home about.

 

[Sentinel]

The Volunteer

Nigga what, don't tell me you killed the troll? That's one of the most fun and endearing quests in the game imo.

 

[Paul_cz]

Someone who dislikes Of Dairy and Darkness, let alone Elusive Thief, can fuck right off.

 

[RepHope]

Yeah holy fuck you have absolutely shit taste mate.

Anyone who doesn't love spending time with trolls has no place on the Codex.

 

[Atomkilla]

Ok, I'll bite. Provide some examples of those godsawful quests.

So far, The Volunteer, the Beast of White Orchid, The Incident at White Orchid, The Dwarven Document Dilema, Novigrad Closed City 2, Spooked Mare, A Feast for Crows, Out on your arse, Precious Cargo, Death by Fire, The Truth is in the Stars, Of Dairy and Darkness, Deadly Delights, An Elusive Theif. I'm level 19 at the mo, not long arrived at Skellige.
Between those and running for ages over barren landscapes, to find barren villages full of exactly the same things every other village is, it's often a real slog.
The game would Imo be so much better had it been halved in size.

White Orchard quests are mostly main quests, not side quests, but are in the context of the whole game much more akin to side quests and contracts. The whole thing is a prologue so main quests there serve basically just to showcase game mechanics and jumpstart the storyline. That being said, The Incident at White Orchard is hardly a quest, it's literally 5 seconds long not counting the short cutscene. Rest of the White Orchard stuff isn't anything special, I concur, but again, it's a prologue. Real game starts with Velen.

Some of the other stuff you've mentioned are contracts. Contracts work on a very basic principle that is more-or-less faithful to how contracts work in the books, or rather how witcher's job actually looks like. They are entirely optional and, as I've said before, aren't even "quests" in regular sense, but more like "go to Y location, kill X". Sorry, that's witcher's work for ya. I can understand dislike for those, but they're essential to the lore of the books/games and despite being mechanically simple, often serve as a good fluff to flesh out the game world and add uniqueness to locations/characters.
I'm not sure what to say about your dislike of The Volunteer and Of Dairy and Darkness. They are simple quests for purposes of humor, but there's solid gameplay to them. Not your type of humor, obviously, but I hardly see any actual issue with them since they have unique content to them. I can't recall any other RPG where you can help troll join a human army or enter a dungeon filled with cheese, and yet have some dose of "reality" to them.
Similar can be said of Deadly Delights and A Elusive Thief. Simple and short quests, but unique.

As for barren landscape, I am honestly not sure what to say about that. The villages are look-alike, but that's hardly unexpected. Walk through any rural region in 21st century and villages will look alike. Besides, they usually have an unique NPC, or contract, or are somehow tied to a main/secondary quest. It's been 8 months since I've last played through Velen and I remember several distinct villages - not by name, but by characters and/or events.

Sounds to me like you haven't explored nearly enough and are really nitpicking. Most of the quests you've mentioned are short and minor stuff. Unique, but still minor. If these Velen quests (which total together hardly an hour and half of gameplay) are such a big sin for you, you've either missed out on a lot of content or this game simply isn't for you.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Falksi just sounds like one of those people who hate gaming and game just to pass the time. So in an RPG, they must be led around by the nose, god forbid they are not doing something relevant to the main story, they just hate every moment of it.

Others actually love gaming and getting lost in large, immersive worlds and don't need to be doing something "epic" every second.