The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[cvv]

Doing my second run, after like 4 years, with the Ghost Mode mod. I have 100x more fun with the game now. The mod fixes most of the problems that fucking gnawed at me my entire 100 hour playthrough back in the day, although I think it's not going far enough in rehauling the loot and chardev. Still it's a huge help.

I'm still not sure whether to play Ghost Mode or EE on my next replay.

I've read up on EE but it apparently does away with levelling and I wasn't sure what the fuck that means. Apparently you can "go anywhere, do anything" from the get go which usually means level scaling. And that didn't exactly give me a hard-on.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I've read up on EE but it apparently does away with levelling and I wasn't sure what the fuck that means. Apparently you can "go anywhere, do anything" from the get go which usually means level scaling. And that didn't exactly give me a hard-on.

No, it kills all levels and replaces them with learning by doing.

By go anywhere do anything, it means that there are no areas of the game where level 30 drowners will rape you because you didn't do things in the specific order the devs wanted.

A drowner is always a drowner, a bandit is always a bandit, a gargoyle is always a gargoyle and you won't have to chip away at the healthbar of a freaking forktail like it's a dragon out of Dark Souls just because your level number is a few levels lower than it - which isn't to say that fighting is easier btw.

Also, item levels are no longer the be all end all of the game. There are no level 38 swords that do 1000 damage more than your starter sword. A sword is a sword, though obviously some swords are better and/or different than others.

So finally you can treat the main story as the nonlinear experience it was clearly designed to be.

Visit the islands first, go to Velen second, it's fine.

It's a massive improvement over the base game and extremely customizable. There's only one or two autistic things the dev decided to do (mainly making touching a puddle of water with Quen active lethal - because apparently he's too dumb to know that if quen worked like regular electricity, then touching the ground would also discharge it) and I detailed how to fix this earlier in the thread.

 

[Tacgnol]

EE Info

Sounds perfect. I hated the levelled mobs nonsense in the original, felt very mmo-ey.

I'll probably give EE a go first (whenever I actually get around to playing TW3 again that is).

 

[cvv]

snip

Ok that sounds amazing. Jesus, should've gone with EE. Now I'm 20 hours in my GM playthrough, not gonna restart but next time.

Btw if mobs are fixed from the start till the end how is difficulty curve handled? Some creatures still must be harder then others otherwise the first 20 hours will be challenge and the rest just boring facestomp no?

 

[Old Hans]

snip

Ok that sounds amazing. Jesus, should've gone with EE. Now I'm 20 hours in my GM playthrough, not gonna restart but next time.

Btw if mobs are fixed from the start till the end how is difficulty curve handled? Some creatures still must be harder then others otherwise the first 20 hours will be challenge and the rest just boring facestomp no?

the base ruleset of EE - Geralt will get his ass kicked horribly at any time if he messes up. you can also modify all the rules. I like to lower the health of the monsters and increase their damage. That way im not spending 30 minutes fighting a house cat

 

[Multidirectional]

Plus three other simple but amazing mods that make the game sooo much bearable - a reshade mod to tone down the insane colour oversaturation, an autoloot mod (thank fucking god for that one) and insta-Roach (you automatically mount the horse the moment you whistle; summoning Roach is such a pain in the ass otherwise). With all those QoL adjustments the game is truly great.

No "auto apply oils"? Or "quest objectives on map"? Or "Roach never stops"? Or "no zoom during witcher senses"? Fuck, I used way more mods than that to make the game bearable.

 

[Modron]

The first mod anyone considering playing Twitcha 3 should look into getting is a radius auto looting mod. I can't imagine how many hours that shaved off my playthrough.

 

[cvv]

Plus three other simple but amazing mods that make the game sooo much bearable - a reshade mod to tone down the insane colour oversaturation, an autoloot mod (thank fucking god for that one) and insta-Roach (you automatically mount the horse the moment you whistle; summoning Roach is such a pain in the ass otherwise). With all those QoL adjustments the game is truly great.

No "auto apply oils"? Or "quest objectives on map"? Or "Roach never stops"? Or "no zoom during witcher senses"? Fuck, I used way more mods than that to make the game bearable.

Forgot about auto oil, I'm using that too. Zoom during witcher sense can be switched off in the standard menu. Roach never stops is what, infinite horse stamina? That's kindda cheating no. And I don't need quest objectives.

 

[aeroaeko]

I used to really love this game and considered it one of my favourite games of all time. But thanks to the codex, now I know my opinion was wrong and the game is fucking horrible. I can't believe I spent over a hundred hours pretending to have fun!

 

[Zombra]

Roach never stops is what, infinite horse stamina?

I'd guess some kind of noclip for pebbles and shrubs. The kind of mod I would absolutely want but would also consider cheating. learn2horse

 

[cvv]

the base ruleset of EE - Geralt will get his ass kicked horribly at any time if he messes up.

Where's the progression coming from then? Do you learn new movesets? Do more damage? I'm just curious what's the catch. The reason we have levels is to experience a sense of progression - coming back and whooping some monster that pushed your shit 5 levels back. Which is the main point of playing an RPG.

 

[Old One]

I never found whistling for Roach to be too annoying. It was way more annoying to have her stop short because she approached a tiny garden fence or something.

Once I figured out how jumping worked, I had some fun jumping Roach off cliffs.

 

[Multidirectional]

Roach never stops is what, infinite horse stamina? That's kindda cheating no.

No it means it doesn't stop after bumping into something.

 

[Invictus]

God I miss playing this game so much... and all these posts are not helping either

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Where's the progression coming from then?

yes, you get points in a skill as you use them and can then spend them to upgrade it.

E.g., using fast attacks will progress your fast attack skills and eventually get you an upgrade point to learn new fast attack techniques.

Spoiler

Skills

On your Character screen, there are five tabs: Combat (red), Signs (blue), Alchemy
(green), General (brown), and Mutagens (gray). The Mutagens tab is just an alternate
way of viewing your inventory, so be sure when you check it that you’ve retrieved all
your mutagens from your saddlebags. The red, blue, green, and brown tab all feature a
grid of talents. Each talent belongs to one of sixteen skills.

In the red, blue, and green tabs, there are fifteen talents at the top of the grid that are
automatically unlocked. Each one of them is the “base talent” of its corresponding skill.
The other talents below it in the column also belong to the same skill. You can hover
over any of the fifteen base talents to see your skill progression in that skill. Every time
your skill progression reaches 100%, it resets to 0, and you receive a skill point.
Each skill point is associated with the skill that generated it, and cannot be used
interchangeably with the other fifteen types of skill point.

You gain progression in each of the sixteen skills by using that skill.

• Fast Attack: Use fast attacks. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
• Strong Attack: Use strong attacks. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
• Defense: Use blocks, dodges, and counters.
• Ranged Combat: Use a crossbow. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
• Battle Trance: Complete combat encounters. At least one enemy must die for a
combat to qualify. Progress 50% faster by taking no damage in that combat.
• Aard Sign: Use the Aard Sign.
• Igni Sign: Use the Igni Sign.
• Yrden Sign: Use the Yrden Sign.
• Quen Sign: Use the Quen Sign in its standard mode. Block damage with the Quen
Sign in its alternate mode.
• Axii Sign: Use the Axii Sign.
• Brewing: Craft any recipe in the “Potions” category.
• Oil Preparation: Craft any recipe in the “Oils” category. Apply oils to your
weapons.
• Bomb Creation: Craft any recipe in the “Bombs” category. Throw bombs. Plant
bombs in monster nests.
• Mutation: Craft any recipe with a mutagen in its ingredient list. Read any of the
twenty books that teaches a decoction recipe.
• Trial of the Grasses: Drink potions and decoctions.
• General: Complete quests and discover fast travel signposts.

Talents
While meditating, you may spend skill points to unlock and upgrade talents. General
talents cannot be upgraded once unlocked. All other talents have 5 ranks, which each
cost 1 skill point. Each skill has 4 talents in it except General, which has 20. Each skill is
therefore fully upgraded after you have spent 20 of the correct type of skill point.

Fully upgraded skills continue to earn skill points, and the extra skill points can be
used to unlock mutations after traveling to Toussaint.
All the talents where you have spent your points are always on, regardless of how
many different talents you have.

Do you learn new movesets?

yes

Do more damage?

yes, as you upgrade your skills or swap out weapons.


There's more info in the manual:
https://github.com/Lady-Glass/w3ee-docs/blob/master/W3EE 4.23 Manual.pdf

coming back and whooping some monster that pushed your shit 5 levels back. Which is the main point of playing an RPG.

more like what normies and boomer casuals think is the point of a "hardcore" RPG. But that's more a discussion for le "what is an RPG" thread.

you do get this, but it's never from running into an arbitrarily high level drowner (yes, there are level 30 drowners in the game and I've proven it with screenshots earlier in this thread) or just because the area is "high level".

It's more because a situation or monster is just terrifyingly hard unless you know the right skills, bombs potions and/or come prepared.

Or you could be a bitch and lower the difficulty on a particular monster type. It's all extremely adjustable.

 

[Paul_cz]

Dumb question, but why is it "inherently wrong" to have enemies of the same class (like drowner) vary in strength and ability? Why couldn't there be weakling drowners and bad ass level 30 drowners?

I mean yeah there should be some limits to strenght of each enemy class (encountering a rat that would kick Geralt's ass would be dumb, and maybe drowners should have been limited to level 15 or 20 instead of 30), but having all enemies of one class be exactly the same does not seem necessary.
What is worse to me is the Oblivionesque level scaling.

 

[J_C]

I used to really love this game and considered it one of my favourite games of all time. But thanks to the codex, now I know my opinion was wrong and the game is fucking horrible. I can't believe I spent over a hundred hours pretending to have fun!

Option A: You enjoy the game and doesn't care what anyone says about it. You have fun.
Option B: Let others tell you what you like, and pretend that the fun you had with the game was just an illusion. Be edgy about the game you liked for hundreds of hours.

 

[Storyfag]

Dumb question, but why is it "inherently wrong" to have enemies of the same class (like drowner) vary in strength and ability? Why couldn't there be weakling drowners and bad ass level 30 drowners?

I mean yeah there should be some limits to strenght of each enemy class (encountering a rat that would kick Geralt's ass would be dumb, and maybe drowners should have been limited to level 15 or 20 instead of 30), but having all enemies of one class be exactly the same does not seem necessary.
What is worse to me is the Oblivionesque level scaling.

Well, having an exceptional high-level drowner or one pack of drowners is fine. Having a huge area with 20 packs of high-level drowners is bollocks.

 

[cvv]

Well, having an exceptional high-level drowner or one pack of drowners is fine. Having a huge area with 20 packs of high-level drowners is bollocks.

There must be a much better and simpler fix for that than overhauling the entire progression system tho.

That said the idea of being able to go to Skellige right away AND without level scaling seems very appealing. I'll definitely replay with EE next time, if for no other reason than to see how they handled progression and difficulty with this system.

 

[whydoibother]

With the new radish modding tools, have there been good story mods added to the game?
I don't feel like replaying the exact same quests, I don't think I'll find many cool stuff I missed initially.

 

[Agame]

EE sounds preddy gud, kind of tempting to restart with it. But its taken me 4 years to get halfway through W3. If I restart now I will NEVER FINISH THIS FUCKING GAME.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

EE sounds preddy gud, kind of tempting to restart with it. But its taken me 4 years to get halfway through W3. If I restart now I will NEVER FINISH THIS FUCKING GAME.

if you're already going through the game and it's fun, there's no need for it. it's the replay that you want EE on.

TW3 is a fine game. It's flawed, but it's really quite decent compared to most others.

 

[Jinn]

EE sounds preddy gud, kind of tempting to restart with it. But its taken me 4 years to get halfway through W3. If I restart now I will NEVER FINISH THIS FUCKING GAME.

Since I just have the apparently excellent DLCs ahead of me after finishing the OC some time ago, I decided to just use the fresh start at level 32 option for Hearts of Stone after installing EE. Not going to start playing it just yet, but wanted to try it out to see if it's plausible. As far as I can tell, it totally is, so that might be an option for you after you get through the OC?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Since I just have the apparently excellent DLCs ahead of me after finishing the OC some time ago, I decided to just use the fresh start at level 32 option for Hearts of Stone after installing EE.

not sure what the point would be. there are no levels in EE.

I guess you'd skip the starting area, but then that'd mean skipping out on learning how to actually play EE - which given that ghouls can seem like an unbeatable enemy until you figure it out, is kind of an important part of the process.

 

[Jinn]

not sure what the point would be. there are no levels in EE.

I guess you'd skip the starting area, but then that'd mean skipping out on learning how to actually play EE - which given that ghouls can seem like an unbeatable enemy until you figure it out, is kind of an important part of the process.

Not sure about the intricacies out how this mode of starting would work with EE, but it seems the only thing that is really different about starting this way is the main questline is counted as finished, you get a set of higher level equipment, basic supplies and potions that you would have acquired through the course of the OC, etc. So basically you just end up with decent equipment you'd be going into the DLC with anyway? Besides that, you start with one skill point for each of the categories in the fighting style skill tree and the alchemy skill tree. Once I start playing this, I'm probably just going to go do a few sidequests/monster hunting contracts to get used to EE a bit before I dive into the DLC content. Basically, I can't see myself replaying the OC anytime in the next several years, but want to play the DLCs with EE's overhauls because I really don't much care for the base game's systems at all, especially after playing with them for 160 hours, so it seemed like the best approach.