Witcher Is the placement of certain "helpful" NPCs random?

The Witcher

elkston

Sentinel
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
389
Location
North Carolina, USA
Something strange happened in my last session of the The Witcher.

I had arrived in the Swamp (Chapter 2) for the first time, and went into the first hut on the left as you enter the Brickmason's camp. Inside were two men and a lady. I spoke to the lady and she offered to teach me about the Swamp herbs for 50 orens or an equivalent gift. We made a deal and I learned about some new herbs.

Unfortunately, I was killed in combat about 15 minutes later by one of those hulking vines and had neglected to save since I first came into the swamp.

So reloaded and went back into that same hut to relearn the plants, but this time the lady would not enter dialog. Instead she was like a generic villager who responded with quick comments bubbles rather than conversation. I tried leaving and entering the hut again and the same result. It couldn't have been a time of day thing because in my last game I was talking to her at about the same time. I checked around outside and in all the other huts but could not find her again. Well ... maybe I didn't check every hut -- but most of them.

So I am beginning to think that certain non-essential but potentially "Helpful" NPCs have a chance to be spawned when an area is loaded initially and are then locked that way for the duration of the current game session. Reloading or restarting the game could reset their appearance but if they don't show up when you first load the game, they won't be there for *that* game session.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
389
Location
North Carolina, USA
I think the NPC:s have certain dialogs that appear at random. I had spoken with the waitress in the Trade quarter maybe a dozen times, and suddenly she started speaking of her grandma the witch and taught me two of her grandma's recipes during the conversation. I've had other once-only conversations like that, but don't remember any specifics.
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
525
Location
Sweden
Correct. Some NPC's have random lines, and you can learn some funky stuff by talking to them a lot. If you can enter into dialog with someone, they're usually worth talking to a couple of times just to see what happens.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
as for that waitress in the trade quarter, I spoke to her once after I won a drink-off, she told me all sorts of stuff, then I passed out (died) and I had to reload.
No drink off this time and now she acts like she doesnt know me.
After a couple of shots of vodka, I was her old long lost friend again, and she recanted everything, from the reg gloves to the recipes
 
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
Messages
19
Interesting. This reminds of an NPC I always thought ought to tie into something--I'm talking about the shoeshine guy near the sewer entrance in Act 2. He seems to have some dialogue options that could go somewhere --like"You don't talk like a shoeshine." and there's the option to give him something in the interface, but he would never accept anything from me, or talk any further.
Any one had any different experience?
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
It's odd how it works but I think they are random when they are generic, so the lady your looking for now is either outside or in another hut. I have had similar issues and the worst part is trying to locate them again especially till they get the loading times tweaked, going in an out looking can be painfully long now.

The waitress in the Trade Quarter she has a quest and you get the line quicker if your drunk , if not it takes about 10 times. The Trade Quarter is much more tweaked as the NPCs like Inn keeper and waitress have multiple dialogs, unlike the Outskirts and Temple which are less refined state.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,772
Back
Top Bottom