The Witcher (I, II, III) - CD Projekt RED games

[Mhaedros]

I think the developers have said they won't be making any more Witcher related games, but I would be really sad if we didn't see a Witcher 4 at some point in the future (after Cyberpunk of course).

[DaVinci]

Btw., what are your guys' pc specs playing W2 and W3 and your fx settings?

I'm just thinking about upgrades (lets just not mix in the console basis).

For example one question that runs me, does a SSD make a real world difference in-game to HDD installation?
Clear positive answer for the OS (Win, Mac whatsoever) loading time, but for the game itself in-game is my question, just in a 1:1 comparison (cpu, gpu, mainboard, RAM same, but the HD different).
I guess, at least loading times between area-changes is better supported with SSD, but is it relevant else (as fps is certainly not the point, as gpu and cpu is mostly the thing there).
Or the theme stability?

[gastovski]

I bought my SSD because Fallout4, and also installed W3 on that too. A bit faster than normal HDD that's it.

[JaM]

Per developers - Witcher 3 is the last Witcher game with Geralt as main protagonist, they will return to Witcher world later..

[Jom]

Per developers - Witcher 3 is the last Witcher game with Geralt as main protagonist, they will return to Witcher world later..

I wonder who the protagonist would be for a Witcher game without Geralt. Maybe Yennefer?

[gastovski]

I wonder who the protagonist would be for a Witcher game without Geralt. Maybe Yennefer?

Not gonna happen, like never.

Geralt=Witcher.

[Mhaedros]

Not gonna happen, like never.

Geralt=Witcher.

No, Geralt isn't THE Witcher, he's A Witcher. There's hundreds of years of Witchers a new game could explore.

[JaM]

my guess, we will get a customizable character, created by player starting as a rookie witcher...

[Jom]

my guess, we will get a customizable character, created by player starting as a rookie witcher...

I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, really, but I don't think I'd like it. It also doesn't strike me as being CD Projekt's style, at least as far as The Witcher is concerned.

[JaM]

when they were starting development of Witcher 1, they planned to not use Geralt as main protagonist. They wanted young inexperienced witcher so they could have RPG style character development. Later they decided to go with memory loss, but even in W3, it kinda is weird that Geralt, as the best swordsmen of the North, starts at level 1 and is commonly killed by pack of wolves or drowners...

[gastovski]

The Witcher series had already established big lore for future projects. If CDPR didn't use Geralt but a rookie witcher we wouldn't be talking about their success. The best and only choice was that pick Geralt pratogonist which they did perfectly.

[DaVinci]

The Witcher series had already established big lore for future projects. If CDPR didn't use Geralt but a rookie witcher we wouldn't be talking about their success. The best and only choice was that pick Geralt pratogonist which they did perfectly.

Yes, they "did" it that way.

As has been mentioned, most important by CDPR themselves, Geralt goes in retirement ( into pension ) after Blood and Wine's release. And for now, there won't be any The Witcher follow-ups afterwards.
CDPR did say, that in future there could be further The Witcher game productions with other main protagonists (from lore or also artificial CDPR added characters).

when they were starting development of Witcher 1, they planned to not use Geralt as main protagonist. They wanted young inexperienced witcher so they could have RPG style character development. Later they decided to go with memory loss, but even in W3, it kinda is weird that Geralt, as the best swordsmen of the North, starts at level 1 and is commonly killed by pack of wolves or drowners...

I'm still in W2.

What you say is indeed comicable, the start balancing of a master-hero that Geralt is, but well, not feasable otherwise to drive the RPG sensefully. Including W1, the story is very plausible (anamnese), so no issue with the character balancing.

In W2 but the start-balancing-effect is not that big, in my experience.
After a little time to get used to the different combat mechanics to W1 (which i found easy in W1 after some time in-game), also what helped in W2 was the thing, that i imported the last chapter save from W1, brings the good Raven armour and most important, the silversword 'Moonblade', which can be used very effectfully vs. humanoids and monsters, ie. with 3 rune upgrades this blade is badass, as well as the Raven armour. As of yet, i even don't need to put magic drinks to slaughter 4-5 no-boss opponents in quite short time, that without getting harmed significantly.

I'm playing without combat mods, on normal difficulty (which is in W2 compared to other games merely "hard").
What i find odd is the W2 roll animation. The combo-defend-anims with W1 were far more plausible, just with the according skill - in W2 using here the space bar and rolling like crazy looks dumb and gets on nerfes, so i even try to not use it that much but fight back with fast attacks and sometimes a hard attack vs. heavier armoured or bigger enemies, and just getting as fast as possible according skills/properties. And well, dodging is not that helpful in many cases.

Question: Is a save import from W2 to W3 possible?

[JaM]

yes, you can import the save without problems to W3, but you wont get any additional items from it. It only imports your decisions in.

Regarding combat, W2 in my oppinion has the worst combat of the series, especially that roll/dodge.. that was the main reason why i installed Full Combat Rebalance mod (it adds pirouette dodge), which btw, was made by Piotr Kviatkowski - a modder who was later hired by CDPR to work on Witcher 3, so he actually finished the FCR for W2 as a employee of CDPR, while getting full support, therefore FCR for W2 is considered to be an unofficial enhancement for W2 and was shared on CDPR main site. (i really strongly recommend using it with W2)

Combat in W3 is closer to W2, but handles movement much better, all hits actually connect with enemy, all parries actually hit the enemy blade properly.. dodging is crucial in combat, while keeping area awareness is a must. Yet, Geralt can rip through some bandits like a heated knife through butter... as he should be. My only concerns are to the already mentioned - you start as level 1, and have to learn all recipes from the beginning.. i wouldnt mind if they actually gave you more recipes at the start, you wont be able to craft them instantly anyway, as most of them require relatively rare monster parts you wont get that soon... (i've made this change for my personal mod, with some other lore friendly changes.)

[DaVinci]

Yeah, fully agree on recipes and books etc.. There is no reason from up W2 to let him learn all anew, that's a real RPG story bummer, also some of its dialogs, ie. with Rittersporn (english version: Dandeleon) who fully observed Geralts development in W1 story (and writes overall Geralt's story).
The background is probably just, that W2 was a production by another team than W1, i guess with their own story decisions apart from W1, and that it is also marketed as its own game, rather an independent RPG from W1's gameplay/story ... although, importing the W1 save brings also some character properties into W2, iirc., and the last W1 cut-scene prepares W2's start.


I'll take a look at W2's official site for FCR, perhaps it's different to the Nexus FCR announcement aka its version?

Edit: Searched on CDPR's official sites without result for the FCR mod (page, forum).
JaM, do you have a direct link to that FCR/CDPR location, just in case you bookmarked it or know quickly were it is.

[JaM]

because its under RedKit section:

http://redkit.cdprojektred.com/en/mod/show/77

[DaVinci]

Well, then it is not the same version as the one on Nexus: FCR 1.6a, at RedKit it's 1.2 ?

And see Nexus comments "Posts" - not all make good sense, and some are good for FCR, but ... most quite bad especially as for boss fights which are known to be extreme hard with vanilla as well.
Also the author himself said he wouldn't play with his mod nowadays (see starting post update) and at least he recommends Easy difficulty to die a bit more seldomly

I think, if he would separately make a combat animation mod (ie. what you mentioned for dogding), that would be preferrable for me and a lot other.

[JaM]

I've finished the W2 with FCR, but not remember which version it was. Also remember one version had a bug that prevented me from completing one quest, so i think 1.6 would be probably better choice than 1.2.. Anyway, once i played W3, its very hard for me to come back playing W2.. W3 is superior in every possible way.. Personally i rate W3 as best with W1 running closely second.

[DaVinci]

Some more techy regarding W3, when one is still in front to install and play, and perhaps thinking about pc upgrade, like me.

A bit above i asked after SSD for W3 game installation. I decided for it.

Now gpu, still wondering slightly between GTX 970 and GTX 980 for 1080p, ultra or at least high/ultra (hairworks no must). Found an older fps test, which gives W3 benchmarks for top tier AMD and Nvidia:
http://wccftech.com/witcher-3-gtx-97...amerate-tests/
... that tells me, that the 980 is remarkable better, lowest value is circa at best value of the 970.

Other real world observations?

Btw., current game pc is a bit old but still pretty good, running W2 without any issues on highest settings: i5 3570k@4.0, GTX 660ti stock OC 2 GB, 16 GB 1866, mobo chip Z77, on 1080p monitor.

Guess, but not good enough for playing fluently in W3.

In the meantime also thinking about to replace the monitor, then with 4K option, so it needs quasi at least GTX 980, possibly even in sli?

[Mhaedros]

I'm fairly sure you'll need multiple 980s for 4k, and even then the framerate might not be what you want. I started playing W3 on a 660ti, then moved to a 970. Both worked, but it was nice to put the settings a bit higher with the 970. Still couldn't get ultra though iirc, not with a stable framerate anyway.

[Jom]

I played (and still do) with a 660ti and I've got medium-high detail in most settings and a stable frame rate of ~40. It may not do complete justice to the game--you'd need a more powerful card to do so--but it still looks more beautiful than any other game I've played and seemed quite well-optimised.