The big Witcher 3 Thread

[VaultDuke]

So, since it's out now, is anyone playing it already? What are your impressions? Did anyone manage to get it to work well below recommended specs?  My CPU and RAM are fine, but my GPU is a GTX 765m. Apparently it's half as potent as the minimum suggested GTX 660. 

[garthand]

I'm sorry to hear about your GPU Gruft, I got it working well on my rig but it meets the recommended specs. Maybe someone else will have more insight on that front.

 

I'm loving the game thus far. I'm still breaking my teeth on the combat, even on the relatively easy "Sword and Story" difficulty, though I'm going to force myself to take on "Death March" difficulty tonight when I try again. You really have to get good at rolling and dodging, which for me means a lot of time customizing my keybinds to get them just so.

 

I'm also really loving that I can just walk in and out of a house or inn without a loading screen, unlike the Witcher 2 and Skyrim. The alchemy system is also vastly improved over the previous games. It's a bit like the Witcher 1 where you need both ingredients and alcohol to make a potion, but you only need the ingredients the first time for each potion. Thereafter, you just refill your existing potion with more alcohol of the correct variety.

 

The story hasn't suffered at all, which is great to see. If you remember some of the intricate subplots surrounding Flotsam in the previous game with Loredo's mother, the asylum, the troll and how every storyline was interconnected, the town you start in (White Orchard) has a similar web that you can slowly uncover, and it's beautiful and tragic.

 

There's also a new minigame to replace dice poker called Gwent. It's a card game that plays like War over three rounds with a few twists, and is a lot of fun and pretty easy to pick up.

[Lorelai]

Noooooo! Dice poker is out? But I was addicted to Dice Poker! 

[Arthmoor]

Yes, but Geralt is supposed to be a world class poker player now and supposedly nobody will play against him anymore

 

Gwent is interesting but apparently I suck at it because I lose far too often. Bleeding money when money is in as short a supply as it is is a bad plan.

 

Definitely loving the seamless loading. Not only buildings, but with caves and stuff too.

 

Not sure I like the way abilities are handled in this one though. The system in TW2 was more logical.

[lmstearn]

My rig falls short as well. What a shame.

"20% bigger than Skyrim" Does that mean 20% more bugs?

[garthand]

Gave it another try last night on "death march" difficulty and I'm glad I did. A few hours of messing around and I finally got my keybinds set up correctly, and it's been smooth sailing thus far. Just gotta remember to explore all the question marks on the map for quests and XP or you're gonna have a bad time when you run into a powerful boss.

Yes, but Geralt is supposed to be a world class poker player now and supposedly nobody will play against him anymore

 

Gwent is interesting but apparently I suck at it because I lose far too often. Bleeding money when money is in as short a supply as it is is a bad plan.

 

Definitely loving the seamless loading. Not only buildings, but with caves and stuff too.

 

Not sure I like the way abilities are handled in this one though. The system in TW2 was more logical.

The abilities are pretty odd. I like that you can upgrade mutagens and aren't stuck with them after applying now. I think the ability system is meant to allow you to retool for certain fights but time will tell if I actually use it that way.

 

My rig falls short as well. What a shame.
"20% bigger than Skyrim" Does that mean 20% more bugs?

So far, no. Biggest bug I've encountered so far were some small pebbles that were floating about a foot off the ground they were supposed to be placed on, so nothing game breaking on my end.

[Hana]

I'm loving it so far. Especially the stories (as garth mentioned). I'm a little lost so far as to why Yennefer is suddenly there, but we'll see..

 

This time I'm taking my time to explore and do side quests, unlike TW2 that I kinda rushed through the main quest. Love the new fast travel and the horse riding. Not particularly keen on the card game, I miss the dice game too.

 

I've had the game freeze up on me once, and I get a bit of stuttering here and there but overall it's an amazing experience.

[Lorelai]

Here's hoping Quen is as OP as it was in TW2 *installing* 

[Arthmoor]

Quen is definitely cheaty. It let me take on a foe 9 levels over my head already that should have wiped the floor with me Although I think I'm not going to feel too bad since they appear to have totally nerfed Aard.

 

I really REALLY don't like the new abilities setup. I saw nothing wrong with the system from TW2 where if you got an ability, you have that ability period. No need to go switching things in and out which makes absolutely no sense from a realism standpoint. I mean come on. Is Geralt just not going to have the ability to use his weapons properly if you don't put those tags into the slots? Honestly I feel like I'm wasting points on things I just don't have the slots for and it feels wrong. I think this is going to end up being the game's biggest weakness for me.

 

Save importing is definitely far more noticeable btw. I've had one good sized chunk of questing thus far that would not have been possible had I decided something differently in TW2.

[garthand]

Here's hoping Quen is as OP as it was in TW2 *installing* 

If it wasn't for Quen I'd never make it through the highest difficulty, as OP as ever!

 

Quen is definitely cheaty. It let me take on a foe 9 levels over my head already that should have wiped the floor with me Although I think I'm not going to feel too bad since they appear to have totally nerfed Aard.

 

I really REALLY don't like the new abilities setup. I saw nothing wrong with the system from TW2 where if you got an ability, you have that ability period. No need to go switching things in and out which makes absolutely no sense from a realism standpoint. I mean come on. Is Geralt just not going to have the ability to use his weapons properly if you don't put those tags into the slots? Honestly I feel like I'm wasting points on things I just don't have the slots for and it feels wrong. I think this is going to end up being the game's biggest weakness for me.

 

Save importing is definitely far more noticeable btw. I've had one good sized chunk of questing thus far that would not have been possible had I decided something differently in TW2.

Hmm yeah that is really absurd the more I think about it. "Whoops, forgot how to hit as hard as I did before. Also undid some of my mutations!"

 

Right now I'm like level 4 but already have like 6 different abilities unlocked, and can only use two of them at a time. I too liked the Witcher 2 tree system but wasn't crazy about having to pick basically one branch to stick with (or two branches to kind of do).

 

This system seems to have the worst of the second game's setup, with the 20 points per tree being stuck, without the logic/ease of use. I'm sure it'll grow on me but it's odd.

[VaultDuke]

Apparently the patch after the next patch will bring ini tweaking. coupled with some performance improvements promised for the next patch, maybe I'm feeling experimental. I know I got a whole lot of performance improvments from skyrim tweaking over the years (like lowered resolution of magic effects and lowered LOD distances). someone surely will make a first performance guide, soon *fingers crossed*

edit: uh, no Witcher3 Nexus yet?

[NightStar]

I really wish I had the rig to run it, but since I don't, I'll just enviously read about other people's experiences with the game for now. It's surely going to be the first game I pick up when I get a new setup, which, unfortunately for me, is somewhere in the distant future. Maybe I'll take Witcher 2 for another spin in the meantime

 

And yeah, ini tweaking can work wonders, so I wish you luck Gruftlord!

[Arthmoor]

Kind of hard to have a Witcher 3 Nexus without a mod kit

[VaultDuke]

hasn't been an issue with Skyrim...

 

edit: and there we are:

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/?

including press coverage:

http://kotaku.com/mods-make-the-witcher-3-look-even-better-the-witcher-1706114056

[Jon]

I played for a little bit, and I must say it's almost too gorgeous to describe.
 
I will say that YouTube compression does nearly ruin the visual impact of the game.  But also I game at 1440p, so I'm seeing a bit more detail than in 1080p videos.  Anyway, after seeing quite a bit of YouTube footage of release builds, I was still blown away with just how good the game looks in person.
 
Performance is pretty good considering I have everything on Ultra + Hairworks and HBAO.  On a single GTX 980 @ 1440p I would say I probably average 45FPS.  There have been a few instances where the FPS inexplicably tanks to just under 30FPS during dialog/cutscenes.  I say inexplicably because they are just closeups of Geralt or whoever.  I'm guessing maybe it's Hairworks.  But it's too pretty to disable. 
 
--
 
Random sidenotes:  
 
1. I find the starting area to be distractingly windy.  My brain is sort of overwhelmed with the sensory overload.   I hope that it varies by location and maybe even time of day.
 
2. Fall damage is kind of ridiculously OP.  Yes, even if timing a roll. I will immediately install a mod which nerfs this.  I'd like to point out this joke GIF (from Witcher 1) modified to fit the mechanics in W3.
 
3. Awesome sidequests.  Though I'm really hoping they didn't frontload the game with all the good ones.

 

Apparently the patch after the next patch will bring ini tweaking. coupled with some performance improvements promised for the next patch, maybe I'm feeling experimental. I know I got a whole lot of performance improvments from skyrim tweaking over the years (like lowered resolution of magic effects and lowered LOD distances). someone surely will make a first performance guide, soon *fingers crossed*

 

Actually, this was a misquote.  The INI tweaking was the day one patch and you can already do it.   I don't have the links available offhand, but some dev on their official Twitter clarified this.

 

However, 1.03 just came out and it does have some performance improvements.  I do notice I generally have maybe 3-5 more FPS now. 

 

If you want to see a guide about INI tweaks, there already is one.

 

Here's the total summation of all the INI tweaks comparison.  You have to have a beast computer though.  (The missing clouds is a glitch with their debug EXE to make the comparison shots)

[VaultDuke]

try searching for witcher 3 performance tweaks. apparently one big reason for hairworks to tank fps is because the hair uses 8x MSAA by default (which is funny since as far as i read, the rest of the game only uses post-process AA). Apparently there is a tweak to lower that to 4x, 2x or 0. also congratulation on the GPU.

[Jon]

try searching for witcher 3 performance tweaks. apparently one big reason for hairworks to tank fps is because the hair uses 8x MSAA by default (which is funny since as far as i read, the rest of the game only uses post-process AA). Apparently there is a tweak to lower that to 4x, 2x or 0. also congratulation on the GPU.

 

Yeah, I saw.  I didn't notice any difference really between 2/4/8 when it came to performance.  I did notice that the hair looks awful at 2 though.  Extremely aliased.  At 4 it was acceptable but again I didn't really see any performance change.

 

The reason the hair can probably use MSAA is because it's rendered in a separate pass.  It's the main renderer that doesn't support MSAA or TXAA and it uses its own post-process AA with a temporal component.

 

The 1.03 patch is supposed to have addressed Hairworks performance issues however.

 

(Edit:  Also, check my last post... I edited in a response to an earlier post of yours.  You may have ninja'ed me.)

[VaultDuke]

oh well. i know, i might be able to get a gtx 780m for my laptop and stil be able to use 3d vision. but neither would that run the Withcer 3 well, nor would it run it well enough to also use 3d vision. On top of that, the price would be ridiculous. so i actually don't feel like investing in a new rig until oculus rift and laptops go well together, which is when i will go all in again. but then again: oculus and 3rd person don't go well together either. (did i mention i'm a sucker for 3d?)

oh dear, i should stop worrying about graphical fidelity immediately. so tweaking hairworks is nothing i personally worry about. the only tweak is setting it OFF . I think it does look amazing in the videos, but admittedly, i feel like every monster in the game was given some hair. i always dislike when the latest tech is used overproportionally just to show off. it feels a bit weird. it's what made people dislike bloom instantly back in the day.

[Hana]

OMG, last night I came upon the most horribly disgusting sick "monster". It was part of the main quest line, no avoiding it. The story was sad and just extremely gross at the same time.

 

I'm both shocked and kinda amazed CDPR did this. You'll all understand when you get to it, if you haven't already.

 

[Hana]

Heh, I thought Bethesda was bad for templated actors but at least they used them on minor bandits and guards. So far I've come across the same looking guy in at least two different quests and the same woman at least three times.

[VaultDuke]

One reviewer mentioned that the effect is made worse by increasing the npc numbers via slider on the PC, apparently it is less noticable on consoles with less npcs in general. So yes, randomly generated npcs but without randomly generated features. Didn't know it happens with (side)quest npcs, too.

[garthand]

Heh, I thought Bethesda was bad for templated actors but at least they used them on minor bandits and guards. So far I've come across the same looking guy in at least two different quests and the same woman at least three times.

LOL that's too funny. They put so much detail into the villages and landscape then template the actors.

 

I'm starting to notice the odd bug here or there (map marker not clearing, floating placed refs, etc) but the official bug reporting forum is a cesspit of "my PC is too weak to run the Witcher 3 and I can't run the Witcher 3" posts. I've been thinking about starting some kind of bug megathread where we could come up with some kind of template and compile a list of bugs at the top that have been verified.

 

Any ideas on how I could make something like that as organized as possible?

 

I'm thinking it would be like:

 

Type of problem: Placed reference, map marker, quest, etc

Map segment: (White Orchard, No man's land, Novigrad, etc)

Location: Either a screenshot or description of the spot (bandit camp on the southwest part of the map directly south from a place of power)

Description: What's wrong

Steps to reproduce: If necessary

[Hana]

That sounds pretty organized, but do you really think they're gonna fix floaters? Hmm..

 

I'm kinda starting to get annoyed with the game, lol. Every frickin contract I pick on on bulletin boards or random quest I pick up are way over my level, and practically everywhere I go while wandering the maps (all the question marks), it's some load of bandits or monsters over my head too.

 

Level 11 currently and really finding it hard to find things to do that isn't the MQ, cuz I don't want to rush through it.

[InsanePlumber]

Games from CDProjekt like Bethesda games are great after a year or two after the release when...

When errors will be removed, at least most and the mods creators will do the rest.

 

We live in a world where more money is spent on advertising promotions of the product rather than on its development, for me at least it is sick.

As for the game itself I will play next year not earlier, for the reasons mentioned above.

 

I wish you all a nice play, and a lot of chędożenia  not only in the game.

[Arthmoor]

Yeah, the over your head contracts are a bit of a pain, but there's lots of other things you can do in the meantime, even if it means jumping around regions for a bit. I'm level 22 now and still have stuff I can't touch for another 10 levels, but I've been finding plenty to do just by running around Novigrad. In fact I'd say Novigrad (the city) is where your possibilities break wide open. I must have farmed out about 7 levels just on all the shit you can do there and I doubt I've even found it all yet.

 

As far as bugs, I've noticed a couple of floaters, and one quest the wikis insist I should have found the solution for but can't because there's nothing around when I arrive at the target location. The quest that broke is only a minor one in Novigrad so I'm not TOO annoyed by it, but still. It's 11 levels below me now and I'd like to get rid of it

 

I do have one very serious issue though. Trying to go back to either the palace in Vizima or back to White Orchard results in a crash during the narration screen that goes with it. 100% reproducible every time. THAT is something I think they'd need to fix themselves and should get reported if they have some good way to go about it other than their shitty ass forum.

 

@Hana: I know the quest you're talking about and even as indifferent as I usually am to things in games, that one made me glad I wasn't eating dinner at the time. Though, I suppose, in a game with all these nasty monsters doing disgusting things... maybe this shouldn't have been too big a surprise?