Difficulty curve

[Prime Junta]

Question for those of you who have played through -- or are further in than I am (Act 3, just arrived at Lakeside): how does the difficulty of the game evolve from here on out?

The reason I'm asking is that most of Act 3 until now has felt a bit too easy -- I hardly ever have to use alchemy (other than the Swallow potion) anymore, and pretty handily dispatch mobs of toughest enemies the game's throwing at me (Bruxas, those dual-wielding assassins, Royal Wyverns). The balance felt "just right" all through Chapter 2, but upgrading my swords and armor seems to have made me a wee bit overpowered, and I miss the adrenalin rush.

IOW, is this a temporary lull, or should I do what I've been toying with -- start over at Hard difficulty? I'm currently playing at Medium.

[KazikluBey]

I found the game a little too easy on medium as well (I'm early in act three) and would love having to prepare before fights, but I don't think I could stand having to reload a bunch of times after dying with these horrible load and save times. 'course, it doesn't help that I'm playing on a laptop computer which means 5.4k rpm harddrive (I do have 2 GB RAM though).

[azarhal]

I think once you get settled in the game combat mechanics, whatever the level of difficulty you use, it's going to get easier.

I just started a new game (same difficulty as the one first try) and everything is easier.

[Melvil]

I've found the combat more intuitive on hard, but you die more often if you get surprised by multiple enemies. The combat feels more natural though, as you listen for the queue and react rather than reacting to a visual queue (though you can do it that way too on hard). Just my opinion, but my second play through is enjoyable, still finding things I missed, I didn't use drinking properly my first time through among other things.

Play on hard if you want a more satisfying game play experience, medium if you want to enjoy the story w/ combat as a rite of passage rather than a trial. IMO

[Jabberwocky]

What exactly are the differences from medium to hard difficulties?

Right now I'm playing on medium, and so far has felt a bit too easy. I'm only barely into Chapter 1 though... but still, I'm used to the punishing Gothic games. Would starting over on 'hard' be more enjoyable do you think?

[KazikluBey]

Your enemies are "significantly more powerful", your mouse cursor doesn't change into a flaming sword when it's time to click (the "click interval" is also shorter) and you gain experience more slowly.

[Prime Junta]

Walp, I'm a bit further in, and it did get more interesting again (challenge-wise). I still sorta wish I was playing at hard, but not so much I'll start over. But there will be another play-through at some point, with some rather different choices...

[Crolug]

I play it on Hard and am enjoying it a lot. On hard you get:
- no flaming sword - you have to hear the swing sound of the sword at the end of a move, the sword itself leaves an afterglow as well, but the time to click correctly is rather short, so even now, in the middle of Act III I often loose the pace
- enemies and monsters are tougher - lets get one thing straight, Geralt is still a witcher, when he gets surrounded by drowners, shouldn't have problems, but one have to be very careful during combat, over-the-shoulder often is not enough, without proper view of the situation you are as good as dead, pausing to plan next moves occurs a lot as well :)
- experience is gathered slower
- alchemist is your second profession - without it you won't live till next morning, and by alchemy I mean it all, potions, oils and, hell yes, explosives, later on it's almost impossible to win a fight against humans without some Zerrikhan's inventions :)

CDProjekt was advertising The Witcher as an action-RPG game, which, thankfully, is quite opposite. The story, dialogs (in their original-as-intended Polish-version-without-Atari-ideas ;) ), questing, characters' relations are so intense and enjoyable yet exhausting sometimes, that some hard difficulty fighting in between is a nice relaxing, tactical, fun, demanding relief :).

I strongly recommend Hard, it's not Aliens vs Predator Marine campaign Director's Cut type of Hard... :)

[JonNik]

I find hard thoroughly enjoyable and I agree with those saying it feels more
natural. Its challenging without ever becoming frustratingly difficult imo (you do
die a couple of times ofcourse if you are not careful).

You just have to keep your wits about you. You can't stroll through fights and
you do rely on alchemy for survival (the devs description on the difficulty choise
screen is spot on here). Thats also part of the attraction for me because it makes
alchemy an absolutely essential part of the game which feels more in character
for a witcher (not to mention that I love the way the alchemy/ingredient
research is implemented) .

[Crolug]

Ok, JonNik, your avatar looks just like Zigfrid :D

[JonNik]

Not too odd that ;) . This is a medieval knight too (Max von Sidow as Block from
Ingmar Bergman's the 7th seal)

[Jabberwocky]

Man, you guys are tempting me to re-start. I've noticed I'm so focused on the flaming sword cue to win battles that as a result I miss all the pretty sword-swinging action!
I like the idea that alchemy means something too..

[Maylander]

Try ditching silver/gold melee skills and go all out magic. That should make it challenging, since most magic is only useful as support. I find that the really powerful stuff is Strength and the forms I use the most (strong/group silver is what I personally use the most).

[Jabberwocky]

...More power to ya... I'm just not a mage type of character. Let us know how that turns out!

[Jabberwocky]

Okay, so I just started a new game set to 'hard' difficulty. Would you believe that I just got better at combat on that setting? Somehow I'm doing better without the mouse cursor cues than I did with them. And my health is actually down 1/4 after the first half of the prelude as opposed to nary a scratch the first time through. This is more like it!! :wry:

[magerette]

I'm definitely going back and replay at Hard, but I'm too hooked atm to restart. :) I can see how combat would actually be better by relying on the actual combat visuals than the cursor thing--not to mention have a better feel to it.

AFA the magic--it's a refreshing take for me as of course you can probably tell by my sig I am a magic user wherever possible. Alchemy is proving one of the most fun implementations of that skill I've encountered, and it's very intuitive once you get into it a bit--I imagine you'll find yourself using it at hard difficulty. Still, you can probably buy your potions if collecting herbs and brewing up batches of goodies isn't your thing.

Anyway, what I meant to say Jabberwocky, is I think using the signs will be a big change from traditional spellcasting and might be profitable for any play style. Even at a low level, they're effective, and all it takes is a rightclick, so you don't have to spend tedious hours squandering valuable combat time pondering which spell to cast. Plus the combat animations for the coups de grace moves after you've stunned an opponent with the Aard sign are quite bloodthirsty and satisfying, which you've probably already noticed. :)

[Prime Junta]

About alchemy: it pays to pay attention to the secondary component in ingredients.

(1) You get way better potions, and
(2) You don't clutter up your inventory.

In more detail:

(1) Decide what you're harvesting today (=after clearing your inventory at an inn): rubedo, nigredo, or albedo. Ignore everything that doesn't have what you need (or sell it quickly, to keep your inventory clear).
(2) Decide which potions you're brewing with which secondary ingredient. My favorites:
* Swallow + nigredo -> regenerates both health and endurance
* Blizzard + albedo -> much lower toxicity; you can use several in a role
* Tawny owl + rubedo -> regenerates both health and endurance
* Any extra buff + albedo -> (Wolf, Thunderbolt, Wolverine etc.:) less toxicity, meaning you can use that plus Blizzard with no ill effects

[magerette]

Yes, that's the only drawback to the diversity of the ingredients and their specialized usages--the inventory is too small and too cluttered to collect everything randomly.

[Prime Junta]

Ah, but is that supposed to be good or bad? People are always complaining about "dumbed-down" features in games. Isn't an unlimited, auto-sorted inventory the very essence of dumbed-down? ;)

[magerette]

Perhaps, in the same way that some consider a cross-referenced and self-updating journal "dumbing down," or an in-game mini- map instead of having to grab a pencil and graph paper. It's a hard term to define absolutely, because it's very subjective, but I think an auto-sort ability is just a handy feature and removes a bit of time from my anal micro-managing episodes. :) (Obviously, it hurts me when I have to pick between various plants--all plants are good, and I want them.)

Side note: as a horticulturist I derive great satisfaction from the use of botanical names--everything I've come across so far is an actual plant, though of course, the lore is not necassarily from the RW--though echinops is a thistle-like plant, and very unfriendly to the touch, and hellebore, or lentan rose and sweet myrtle have medicinal as well as ornamental usages.

[Prime Junta]

Side note: as a horticulturist I derive great satisfaction from the use of botanical names--everything I've come across so far is an actual plant, though of course, the lore is far from the RW--echinops is a native american flower used for medicinal purposes, but not afaik specifically known to grow on the graves of murdered folk--or if so, we have a lot of murdered folk buried along Interstate 35. ;)

Those would be the original inhabitants.

(;))

[magerette]

Those would be the original inhabitants.

(;))
Prime Junta how true that observation would be if I had been correct in my plant I.D.(My old teachers are no doubt rotating in their graves) as Oklahoma was the end destination of the infamous Trail of Tears.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears)
Echinacea, or purple coneflower was the plant I was actually thinking of...I've gone back and corrected it to echinops, which is an old world native (Europe and Africa). It's actually a big thistle, with a blue, globular flower, and those in the Old World will know best if there are any graveyard legends concerning it. :)

[Jabberwocky]

I want to get into the alchemy more - and will have to playing on hard. But I don't have enough dedication to memorize formulas for all this stuff. I know I want to make certain potions but don't know exactly what ingredients I need, and I can't view those formulas unless I'm meditating and in the alchemy panel. That to me is frustrating, so I just run around collecting stuff from every plant I come across. :/

[KazikluBey]

What? What's from the Formula part of your journal?

[magerette]

Jabberwocky you can view the formulas anytime when you're in your journal, also there's an ingredient list there that tells you some not vital but occasionally useful info on where the ingredient comes from(animal, vegatable or mineral). It's true you can only make them up while meditating, but you can see the formulas for the potions you know anytime. Make sure you rightclick on all the scrolls you get so that the entries get into your journal.

Hope this helps. :)

[Jabberwocky]

Yes I'm sure it will help. I can't believe I didn't notice that before. I did notice the ingredients page but never the formulas page. Oh well, in my defense I've only been able to play for one or two sleepy hours late at night when I should be in bed resting for my 12 hour work shifts...

[magerette]

Understand completely. This game is involving and complex, and not everybody is retired and can play for hours at a time. Sometimes it's good to be old ;)

[Corwin]

I'm old and retired, but I'm lucky to find a couple of free hours a day to play games!! Sometimes I'm busier now than when I was working full time!!!!

[magerette]

I'm busy as well, but it's not the kind of busy that leaves you exhausted after a twelve hour work day as Jabberwocky was saying :)..I rejoice each day that I'm no longer on a fifty hour a week Monday through Friday grind, and remember all too well how hard it was to fit in even the best games then.
Of course, I did anyway, playing bleary-eyed into the night and cursing myself in the morning. There were a few mysterious illnesses occasionally, also as I recall. :)

[Jabberwocky]

Yes, I haven't been at this company quite long enough to claim a random 'sick' day.. but believe me, if I was going to do so over a game, The Witcher would be the one!

[Shrapnel]

Auto sort is a dumb-down when all you use it for is to sort weapons from armors from potions.
But in this game, you're dealing with the same type of (alchemical) item with different properties, a really small inventory capacity and icons. In this case I think it would be an enhancement.
As it is I just empty my inventory everytime I hit the bank, and then brew the hell out of what I can with what I've collected, rest then redeposit all my alchemy items and repeat.
Not the most precise method, but that the same time I have all the potions I want/need and never in need of ...scratch that, I always need more inventory space.

[xSamhainx]

got tons of alchemy stuff in the bank....

More worried with my combat build at this point. I'm doing the first of everything in combat styles, and STR, but should I bother taking lower level of say Crushing Blow, when Crushing Blow II is available? Am I wasting talent points on lower talents? There's just tons of choices, through the 3 different styles of each weapon. Maybe I shouldnt be doing the first of everything, but specializing instead. Then the abilities, gah..

I'm kinda already thinking I should restart. I may have gimped him trying to kinda make Geralt a Witcher-of-all-trades when it comes to combat

[Corwin]

You can nearly max out the lower skill levels. It's the higher ones you'll need to be more careful with.

[Jabberwocky]

Sammy I don't claim to know what I'm doing by any means, but my philosophy is this: Put your talents first into what will get the desired results most quickly... iow, I am beefing up my combat skills associated with the first and second attack sequences, before moving onto third +. My reasoning being that I know that I will inact the first sequence anytime I fight, (probably several times in one fight) and most likely the second. But combat being quirky the way it is.. I may not reach that third tier, because of poor click-timing etc... so I want my additional affects packaged in with the combat moves that will be used most often.

[magerette]

That's good advice, I think Jabberwocky. I don't claim to be an expert either, since I played through at the lowest difficulty setting, but I think in the early game it also helps to raise main attributes like STR , DEX (and INT if you plan on using signs--and I think it would be hard to complete the game totally without them.) The main attributes give you across the board benefits and unlock higher skills, so they are seldom a waste. Alchemy helps fill the gaps in your skillset, and be sure to take the skill for making oils. I hear bombs are necessary at harder levels, but I didn't need em at Easy--didn't absolutely have to have potions, but the blade-enhancers even at easy I don't see doing without.

But I think it's pretty hard to really gimp Geralt--you get a lot of points over the game, and it's pretty forgiving playwise. You end up with more Bronze talents than you can use, though the Silver and Gold are in shorter supply.