The Witcher 3

[Monkey D. Lars]

Anyone else missing the first innkeeper?

[JasonM]

Anyone else missing the first innkeeper?

I dunno, he wasn't THAT remarkeable...

[Monkey D. Lars]

I didn't but the Cards she had

[JasonM]

I didn't but the Cards she had

I'm pretty sure you can get better Gwent cards later on anyways. I personally can't wait to get rid off all those crappy +1 cards and just stack my Scoiatel deck with crazy +5/+6 cards that will crush any opponent.

Also, I'm too amateurish to know better tactics than just brute forcing Gwent games.

[JasonM]

So for the PC players and AMD users among us. AMD has released the newest beta of their drivers (15.5) which includes a 10% improvement in graphical performance with Witcher 3.

I have also dabbled with messing with the graphical settings to min-max my game to look very very nice and run at a high FPS rate.

Of course, my PC is an I7 with 8GB DDR3 and a Gigabyte GV-R928. But hopefully other PC people can think along and maximize our performances on PC.

NVIDIA Hairworks

Off = 10+ FPS gain, seriously it's a big FPS hog and it improved my game from 40 to 50 by disabling it. Only thing is that hair physics are less good looking on characters and monsters alike. I can look past it for the huge FPS gain... Geralt and full-on has no FPS effect, so if you're going with it go either on or off.

Foliage Distance

Also makes a huge deal in FPS depending on where you have it. The difference between Ultra and High is the biggest of the setting, and putting it on high gave me a boost of around 5-10 FPS depending on locale. It will give you minor foliage pop-in when moving, but the FPS gain is significant.

Ambient Occlusion

Around 5FPS between off and HBAO+, it determines how light works with objects. Giving depth to shadows and such. Example, window has a cross-shaped frame across the middle. With it on AO will give a shadow for that frame, with it off it's just one blob of light coming in. It's a taste thing, it doesn't have a huge FPS gain but every bit helps.

Anti Aliasing

What this does is reduce the amount of rough jagged lines on textures in everything. Difference between low-ultra seems to be around 5FPS, but it's a huge difference in quality of gaming for me. Without it you'll have rough lines around lots of objects including Geralt himself, with it on it gives more smoother textures overall. Personally not worth the 5FPS.

Those are the biggest FPS difference makers really. More stuff in this thread: http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/1952-complete-witcher-3-graphics-optimization-guide-and-performance

Personally another few things that I have turned off out of it being ugly or simply not making for a nice visual.

Sharpening: What it says on the tin, it sharpens textures like you do in say photoshop. It personally makes visuals very... rough, and almost is an anti-anti-aliasing. I hated it and turned it off.

Vignetting: It slightly darkens/blurs the edges of the screen to give you a film-like effect. Google for an example of what it is, I personally didn't like it.

Chromatic Aberration: Some more photography stuff, it changes the way the picture looks depending on angles and whatnot. It's a bit weird, didn't like it.

Motion Blur: It gives me motion sickness and tires my eyes trying to focus on the blurry picture. Picture won't blur when running or riding, some like it, I didn't.

Blur: Same as above but in a more general sense, same reason I didn't use it.

Vsync: I have it off, it limits frames. Some graphical cards have issues with it off, since I have frames limited at 60 it feels more smooth to me personally. Also apparently it causes some stutter for some people.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Jasonmufc

[ZJ Penn]

Man, fall damage in this game is ridiculous. Can slay a griffin, chase off bandits and put ghosts to rest - but a 4 foot fall takes half Geralt's life? Wouldn't be THAT annoying except I'm playing on the second hardest difficulty and health is harder to come by. Not to mention when there's a drop just before a boss fight with no other way around.

That said, completed the first true 'dungeon' today...

the one with Keira and the Wild Hunt

...and it was really cool. I also found two Level 6 swords which blow the Lv2 Serpentine Witcher gear I was currently using out of the water. Now I just need to sell everything in my inventory to repair them...

EDIT - Also, does anyone know if you get access to storage? I feel like I shouldn't sell my Witcher gear, but it's beginning to take up a sizable chunk of my inventory space.

[FLiam]

The damage to armour and weapons make this game just a little annoying. I keep making schoolboy errors and getting expensive armour crafted and then realising I can't use it for another few levels. D'oh!

I still have no idea which items I need to keep hold of for alchemy really, I suppose I'll sell anything that's not used for Swallow or Thunderbolt as they're the only ones I really use.

Money seems pretty hard to come by, so being careful with it. I need to unlock Novingrad in order to change up lots of the old currency at the bank.

I've also realised that turning the music off makes for a better experience, was finding it a bit repetitive and off putting. It has nothing on the Skyrim soundtrack.

[ZJ Penn]

I still have no idea which items I need to keep hold of for alchemy really, I suppose I'll sell anything that's not used for Swallow or Thunderbolt as they're the only ones I really use.

Don't you only need to alchemise them once? Then meditation restocks them using alcohol?

[FLiam]

I still have no idea which items I need to keep hold of for alchemy really, I suppose I'll sell anything that's not used for Swallow or Thunderbolt as they're the only ones I really use.

Don't you only need to alchemise them once? Then meditation restocks them using alcohol?

Oh. I would imagine you are right, so I don't need to keep the stock of ingredients then? This is handy!

[ZJ Penn]

I think so maybe test it by checking your inventory, meditating then seeing if they've decreased?

I really like only doing them once. Means I'll actually look at making everything rather than worry about having a ton of health potions.

[FLiam]

I think so maybe test it by checking your inventory, meditating then seeing if they've decreased?

I really like only doing them once. Means I'll actually look at making everything rather than worry about having a ton of health potions.

I meditate a lot and they're always full, so I guess you're right. Can't believe I never noticed this.

[apsham]

They announced that support of Witcher 3 with free DLC and paid content is going to last two years, which is amazing.

[FLiam]

They announced that support of Witcher 3 with free DLC and paid content is going to last two years, which is amazing.

I think I'll still be playing the regular content in two years time.

[Liam]

It just hasn't quite clicked for me yet. I know it is a good game, I just don't feel uber compelled to play it.

[JasonM]

It just hasn't quite clicked for me yet. I know it is a good game, I just don't feel uber compelled to play it.

That's probably how I felt about Bioshock: Infinite. It was a great game and I never got further than 2 hours of playing it.

[Bobfoc]

It just hasn't quite clicked for me yet. I know it is a good game, I just don't feel uber compelled to play it.

I think I'm in the same boat, but it probably has more to do with the mood I'm in at the moment. Most of the time, I'm struggling to pay attention to anything for more than an hour or so, meaning that I've been playing the game in fits and starts. There are lots of great things about it, but I've yet to have that "eureka!" moment in which I really fall in love with the game.

[Cactus Drags]

It just hasn't quite clicked for me yet. I know it is a good game, I just don't feel uber compelled to play it.

I've felt like that since leaving White Orchard for Velen. I think it's because I feel underlevelled. In WO I felt confident enough to wander around and take my time, because even if I get set upon, I could handle it (not that it's easy, just that I'm not going to die fighting off a deserter or two, or a couple of drowners). Here though, if I go off road for a second, I seem to get targeted by half a dozen bandits or ghouls that are three or four levels higher than ne, and I keep dying. It's sucked the fun out of exploring and sidequests.

[ZJ Penn]

I had that feeling for a moment, also after leaving White Orchard. I'd recommend just ploughing through the story till you're about level 7. Since then I've been picking up quests organically and have a lot of side stuff to do either at or below my level.

[Your Mom]

I'll have to try that. I left WO and had the same thing happen. Haven't touched the game for almost a week

[FLiam]

Anyone had issues with your weapon switching whilst fighting? I'm drawing my silver sword but he keeps changing to the steel one. Really annoying!