The Witcher 2 - Patch 1.2 Released

Dhruin

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Joined
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Patched the game, loaded when exiting the dungeon... And I have some +7 armor in inventory.
Ok, that's probybly some bonus item from another release included in the patch, but it's too much.
Melitele's heart quest? No. I didn't get the amulet from Newboy - again. It maybe works only on a new game.
 
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The dlc and imported items are overpowered for the start of the game and they even make some quests pointless(why get a quest to reforge a silver sword when you only lost the basic witcher's silver sword to the dragon and got to keep your moonblade?)

Not to mention raven's armor, blue stripes jacket and the new pants look terrible compared to the basic starter gear.
 
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Dunno what to think of it, seriously. Ok, they decided to give away everything, but maybe there should have been an option to exclude those nonquest/item DLCs.
 
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In the mean time, they have also received quite a lot of feedback on how the prologue was too hard so...
 
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Definitely a mistake to include them, and I hope you can remove them from the folder meant for DLC. They ruin the "loot-flow" balance even more than it already is.
 
Just drop them on the ground? :p

I prefer them not being available in the game at all. Not just for my own sake, as I'm aware of the imbalance at this point.

I'm talking about people who're going to play the game for the first time, using these items.

I really hate this current trend of giving players powerful items from the beginning as a marketing gimmick, as it ruins the pleasure of discovery and progression.
 
I'm still making my way through the Witcher before playing Witcher 2, but hearing about this patch makes me less excited to play the game. Making the game easier? Throwing all these items at the players that ruin progression. WTH.

I mean it sounds like they've fixed some bugs, and improved other things, and nerfed some weapons which sounds good. So how am I suppose to experience a difficult game patched? Is someone going to mod the difficulty back into the game? I'd prefer to play it the way the devs originally intended, and not some nerfed version of the game or some extra super hard version of the game.
 
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I'm still making my way through the Witcher before playing Witcher 2, but hearing about this patch makes me less excited to play the game. Making the game easier? Throwing all these items at the players that ruin progression. WTH.

I mean it sounds like they've fixed some bugs, and improved other things, and nerfed some weapons which sounds good. So how am I suppose to experience a difficult game patched? Is someone going to mod the difficulty back into the game? I'd prefer to play it the way the devs originally intended, and not some nerfed version of the game or some extra super hard version of the game.

Well, it's not THAT bad - so maybe I'm not expressing myself correctly.

The items in question don't make the game all that easy, but it does mean you'll get less pleasure from upgrading as you play, as many of the items you'll find along the way won't measure up. Fortunately, we're mostly talking armor pieces - which aren't a major aspect of overall balance. Gloves and pants make a pretty neglible difference overall - but the alchemy/magic bonuses on the DLC ones are quite nice. They won't make or break anything, but they'll take away the joy of finding stuff along the way.

If they included the "Mysterious Merchant" as well, it also means you'll have access to weapons you'd otherwise have to work for, to be able to craft them.

It's just counterproductive to the obviously intended flow of the game - but it's not as bad as in Dragon Age (both of them) - where some of the DLC items were incredibly overpowered for most of the game.
 
I see. I was thinking it would be as bad as DA2. God that game is awful.

Still I wish they would stop including items like this in DLC. I think it ruins progression even if it's just a little bit. It would be better for games to just get rid of the whole preorder/DLC item concept. And if they want to add story/quest DLC, they can fit it in the middle of the game with balanced items for your character's progression at that point.

Another problem with this, is it gives devs incentive not to put as many items in the game (to create demand) and just release them later as item pack DLC you have to pay for. (Not the case with CDP since it's free)

I hope someone restores the difficulty though in a mod or something.
 
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Including these item DLCs and the mysterious merchant one in the patch was a stupid decision.
Mysterious merchant seems like a lost cause altogether, but if they had to include the item DLCs they should´ve absolutely made them available only later as quest rewards or something.

Prologue rebalance probably sucks as well, especially if it affects hard difficulty.
If anything, they need to make some post-chapter 1 parts of the game more difficult.

Also, what is "Ingredients required to complete the “Melitele's Heart” quest have been added to the game." supposed to mean?
This "A fix has been introduced in the “Troll Trouble” quest whereby the she–troll’s head can be won in a game of dice poker." was all that was needed to "fix" the Melitele´s Heart quest (though the quest can be finished without this anyway).

This patch sucks.

Just drop them on the ground? :p
If these work the same way as imported items, just dropping them on the ground doesn´t quite work during the prologue - you drop them on the ground in one phase and they´re all back in the next one. Eventually you can get rid of them for good, but still.
 
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Hmm not liking what I am hearing at all…

At least aren't the DLCs installed on a different folder ? (i.e you can go and erase them
before starting the game ?)

The least they could have done was to provide an installer with tickboxes for the DLC…

Pity, they seem to mess up instead of fixing the game, but probably they are just catering
to their eventual target audience…
 
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On these DLCs, from what I understand, the retailers are demanding them, which in turn makes the publishers demand them. It's like the DRM, they didn't want it in the first place but that's the way the business works these days if you are making a big release.

By doing what they did, just as removing the DRM, it was their attempt to level the playing field and make sure everyone has the same game. Bioware, by the way, has never done this. Even with Dragon Age Origins there are still some pre-order bonus DLCs they did not bother to include with the "Ultimate Edition" and have seen those selling for quite a bit on Ebay.

CD Projekt didn't want people to get caught up in the DLC craziness so they initially announced you would only be able to use one DLC and would have to choose, but many people complained and the Collector's Edition people felt cheated they would get the Roche suit but not the vendor DLC so they relented and removed that restriction prior to release.

I think they are just trying to make everyone happy as best they can given a situation where in some situations they are forced to release under circumstanced they would have preferred otherwise. They feel the best solution at this point is to just make it so that everyone's game is the same, a level playing field.

Personally, I wish the stores would stick to physical bonuses, like the exclusive Witcher comic book Gamestop shipped with for instance. The retailers feel otherwise though and want the exclusive DLCs. They are in many cases unbalancing. I played through DA:O my first time with the Ultimate version and I regretted using the Feast Day Gifts that instantly made everyone my BFF. On the other hand, I as the player need to exercise better self control and not use things I know are overpowered or will ruin aspects of the game for me.

A mod to yank these items back out should be easy enough to do, but I'm also afraid to mess with mods given that the game refused to patch this time for anyone who used them.
 
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If you think the items are overpowered just don't use them. Jeez.
First time players can hardly make an informed decision in this regard and it´s not really a kind of decision players should be making anyway.
The items themselves are not a problem, item DLCs are, because of the way they put the items into the game.
To an extent the items diminish influence of imported saves and, at least for some character builds, the gloves and the trousers are best items in their category.
Such items should not be available right at the start for free.

It may not be a big deal, but I don´t like the change of CDProjekt´s attitude these and some other changes hint at.

A mod to yank these items back out should be easy enough to do, but I'm also afraid to mess with mods given that the game refused to patch this time for anyone who used them.
I´m pretty sure just removing the respective dzips from CookedPC folder should suffice and not cause any harm, at least not until another patch gets released (which may count on these being installed).
 
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I do agree that just throwing the items in the character's inventory or on some readily accessible merchant is lazy and imbalancing. The obvious alternative is to build a quest around them, but then you are expending much more time and resources for something that only a small percentage of users who bought it at one particular store will ever get to experience. I've modded a bit in the past and I can tell you that even a simple quest mod is way more work than just making an item. Also, people will complain much more over missing out on a quest, real game content, vs not having access to an item.

Two Worlds II had sort of a compromise with DLC items that you get in your inventory but had level restrictions on them. You didn't get to use them right from the start and by the time you were able to there were usually fairly comparable items available.

I think there's a trend though in paying for shortcuts (or getting them as a reward for buying from a particular store) and I kind of feel like that trend started from the whole social/casual gaming craze where paying for cheats is completely out of control. I never noticed as much emphasis on DLCs until that whole Facebook game trend took off with micotransactions out the yin yang. Pay $2 for some potato seeds, $3 for a fancy house, $5 for a purple cat, etc etc. The big companies started noticing this (especially EA) and increasingly incorporated similar things into their computer and console games.

At very least CD Projekt isn't charging for these, which is more than you will see from EA or even Bethesda, though the latter at least provides modding tools for the community to make their own content.
 
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First time players can hardly make an informed decision in this regard and it´s not really a kind of decision players should be making anyway.

Oh my goodness. Can you possibly be any more arrogant?

Come on people, get a hold of yourself. You don't like the added items? Fine don't use them. Don't make such a big deal out of it and by all means please try to remember that you are not, I repeat, NOT friggin gaming gods whose sole purpose it is to deem what other players should or shouldn't get/use in their own singleplayer games. Sheesh.:rolleyes:
 
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So other than the dlc how is the patch do the items make the game easier or did the actually make the game easier? Any other changes that you can feel in the game?
 
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