Witcher 3 Why o Why CDProject can't you hire a combat gameplay desginer?

Enemy AI in general is still atrocious. I've said that it is the most important thing in single player games, but companies hardly spend any money on it, so it hasn't improved much. Makes game play rather stale over the years….

BoboTheMighty said:

Difficulty means different thing for different people… died x number of times can be simply irritating for some.

For instance, Dark Souls "difficulty" plummeted for me, when you:
Realize how easy it is to "leash" melee attackers from archers/ranged attackers
Use lock on and move in opposite direction of an enemy attack to easily get behind them
When you memorize their move sets( mostly for bosses) or encounter position( for regular enemies, usually on "choke", around the corner points and how to prevent being overwhelmed), which makes combat feel "on rails" and very predictable.

When it comes to, Holy shit, this AI is pretty damn good!, there are actually far more challenging games that don't require as much repetition or getting yourself killed as many times…for example, Far Cry I or Fear.

Though that could be said for a lot of games…good enemy AI is more rare today than it was ten years ago ( given the "quantity" of games).

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Totally agree AI and difficulty are 2 different things, unfortunately as difficulty is rarely if ever achieved by AI.

Fear was the pinnacle of al for me. The enemies actually would work together and change tactics based on my actions. Sadly nothings eclipsed it since and AI isn't even stagnant, it's regressed.

I wouldn't even say dark souls has AI, it's more patterns and rhythms. Doesn't stop it from being a blast to play though.

Yeah, F.E.A.R was great. I was disappointed that the sequels didn't capture the same atmosphere and gameplay as the original. At least that's how I feel about the second game. I never bothered with the third.

I was playing at medium difficulty for a long time. I went from level 10 to level 21 without spending a single skill point. I upped the difficulty by one and that seems just right to me. I even spent my skill points!

JDR13 said:

That's because there isn't anything wrong with it. I've seen GothicGothicness claim the same thing about many games in the past. I guess he/she simply has skills that far exceed those of us ordinary gamers.




Either your game is bugged or you're just flat out full of shit. Going against any boss "twice" your level in TW3 gets you killed in 1 or 2 hits. That's assuming they haven't made significant changes to the game since I played it, and I haven't heard of any.

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Well, I did not mention any boss did I ?, I also mentioned I am still in the beginning of the game. I would see if it gets harder later, but Bobo said it gets easier instead of harder... in the beginning it has been super easy. The gourmet skills, makes you regenerate health, so fast, so if you stay away, from the Griffin for a short while, your health bar will be full again, it is just a matter of clicking as fast as possible to kill it, no skill what-so-ever invovled on death march difficulty. Also there is a quest marked as level 6, to collect viper witcher gear, there was some lich like boss, on level 1 it was indeed a bit tough, but I went back on level 3 after getting the gourmet skill and it was so easy.

If those things are supposed to be hard, perhaps my game is indeed bugged? The AI is also abysmally bad, the bear and the griffin for example didn't even try to attack me, they were just messing around more or less letting me kill them. Group enemies will try to peruse me for a short while before giving up letting me take out there HP step by step and so on.

I've set the game to run at 60 FPS at all times. Perhaps it is optimized to be played at 30 FPS to optimize it for consoles ? or some such.

Well you said "quests", and most quests end with you fighting some type of unique monster/boss. You're still in White Orchard though, and the game will get harder before it gets easier.

JDR13 said:

Well you said "quests", and most quests end with you fighting some type of unique monster/boss. You're still in White Orchard though, and the game will get harder before it gets easier.

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Ok, I will give it some more time, and hope it'll improve. Than I'll revisit the thread again.

GothicGothicness said:

Ok, I will give it some more time, and hope it'll improve. Than I'll revisit the thread again.

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I am at level 47 right now on my second play through, coming to end of Blood and Wine.

It does and doesn't get harder.

Best would to do Witcher contracts that are 2 levels above your level.

Treasure quest there are so many, just slash through them and get the stuff and sell what you don't want or use for crafting.

As for the main quest and sub quest with the story. It depends on how you play them out on how hard the game will be. Though this part of the game I am find the story and the choices you make to be more interesting and the combat is just a means to progress deeper into the story.

Interesting thread for me - as I just finished Witcher 2 last night (Roche playthrough) having killed Letho this time around. I remember when I tried this fight under the 2.0 patch several years ago before the enhancements, that it was quite challenging. Not so much this time around with my sign-heavy build. Aard can keep him permanently on the back-foot.

I'm hoping there are significant improvements to the alchemy and combat system in the third game (which I'll hopefully get more fully into over the weekend) as I still found these facets a little underwhelming in the second game to be honest.

Pessimeister said:

I'm hoping there are significant improvements to the alchemy and combat system in the third game (which I'll hopefully get more fully into over the weekend) as I still found these facets a little underwhelming in the second game to be honest.

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Well, whether they improved alchemy is a matter of opinion. They certainly simplified it and made it a lot more convenient compared to the first two games. You only have to mix ingredients the first time you create a potion. After that, you simply have to add any kind of alcohol to refill it.

The combat is very similar to TW2, although it flows a bit smoother.

I liked the combat in W3. I just didn't care for the world design, main quest, alchemy, main character, lore, non-quest npcs, etc. I loved the Baron. Best non-companion NPC ever. I will give W3 another go though. I remember trying Gothic 3 several times before it grew on me.

JDR13 said:

He/she would probably complain that Dark Souls is too easy.

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I hope she releases that game of hers so that we can find an exploit in it's combat system.
Seriously, this is the first time I've heard anyone complain about game being too easy right at the beginning.

GG always claims to be great at combat games. I'm not sure why that matters, but okay. It only counts if you win in PVP matches

BoboTheMighty said:

I hope she releases that game of hers so that we can find an exploit in it's combat system.
Seriously, this is the first time I've heard anyone complain about game being too easy right at the beginning.

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It is probably because I got that extremely overpowered skill Gourmet right at the start, I guess most people don't choose this one early.

crpgnut said:

GG always claims to be great at combat games. I'm not sure why that matters, but okay. It only counts if you win in PVP matches

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I am not that great at all, but it is really so easy in TW games even on highest difficulty just click mainly, no skill needed. And no, I don't think Dark Souls is too easy, I do enjoy it a lot though.

GG's hardly alone in this. A quick google search of Witcher 3 too easy will give you page after page of complaints. Even people saying death march settings too easy.

The fights certainly were not hard, at least for me. I think the first real challenge I ran into was a level nineteen troll when I was level sixteen I believe, in a cave with tight corners. After that battle, I took things a bit more seriously.

Bears are pretty easy fights.

You will always be able to do quests that are a few levels above your own. So when you are level 12 you will be able to fight level 14 monsters, but that makes some sense to me. But you will not be able to fight level 24 monsters when you are level 12. "Twice your level" doesn't mean much when you are under 5.

Most monsters are easier to fight in the game than human enemies of a similar level IMO, at least in groups.

Just started Blood and Wine this week (beat the main game 6 months ago). I am finding the difficulty higher than the base games was.

I never used gourmet though.

sakichop said:

GG's hardly alone in this. A quick google search of Witcher 3 too easy will give you page after page of complaints. Even people saying death march settings too easy.

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Try Googling Witcher 3 too hard and you get the same thing.

It's definitely easier than TW2 though, which is no surprise because way more people complained about the difficulty of that game when it was released.

I am already forgetting if I found it too hard or too easy. Probably neither.

It's definitely fairly simple against some opponents, like non trained humans...but it makes sense since you're more skilled and only danger is in managing them together.

But mindless clicking gets you killed fast on higher difficulty and each type of enemy have their own individual or group move set, that you need to adapt...just look how different animals fight in comparison...bear. wolves, spiders, boars, etc...there is a huge difference in how you need to dodge, time and position in comparison.

Only thing what I do mind, is (not harsh enough) stamina penalties for inprecise blocking, too wide parry window..but these can be easily corrected.

CDPR said they want difficulty as something in between DS and vanilla ( for whatever is below Legendary) Skyrim, and that's similar how it feels on Death March.

Again, if you want, every fight to the death, you should mod the game...that was not their intent here.