Difficulty curve

Originally Posted by magerette
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.

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Originally Posted by Prime Junta
Those would be the original inhabitants.

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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.

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.

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. :/

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

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.

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…

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

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!!!!

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.