The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Foxtrot94]

I've always had a soft spot for elven women...

But Geralt has always struck me as a man with an open mind...

LOLOLOLOLOL

 

[Gikoku]

So, since no one has posted it, here's the teaser for the Hearts of Stone expansion:

And here's some screens too:

That's right folks, Shani is back from TW1!

Remember the Man of Glass, from TW3's beginning in the White Orchard tavern? Looks like the expansion will have him play an important role in the story, as seen in the teaser too.

Also, looks like Geralt will receive something in his body that's gonna change him permanently and cannot be removed. That mark there on his face?

Visible in the cover art too as a blue scar:

Can't wait for it and not much longer to go, getting some Commander Shepard vibes from those glowing scars though. Maybe some paragon blue and renegade orange? Also, is it just me or do those visuals look slightly better? Maybe I'm just going a little senile here.

Still got a lot more to finish, but I'm definitely going to run through the expansion before finishing the main quest.

I've always had a soft spot for elven women...

But Geralt has always struck me as a man with an open mind...

LOLOLOLOLOL

Shame Geralt can't swing the other way, would make for some interesting playthroughs. That crossdresser you bump into was easily one of my favorite moments in the game.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Also, is it just me or do those visuals look slightly better?

Could be the lighting. The devs made each major area so that it's got a different lighting from the other ones. If you wanna see what I'm talking about, compare Kaer Morhen to Velen, or Velen to Novigrad.

It can very well be that the new areas have a better lighting system that makes them look better.

 

[Gikoku]

Yes! Finally found my favorite track in the whole game, love this song and area. Any of you guys got any favorite tunes/areas from the game?

Also, I only just now remembered I can use the Aard Sign (telekinetic push) to knock enemies down and follow up with an insta-kill attack. Definitely coming in handy for swarm fights.

Could be the lighting. The devs made each major area so that it's got a different lighting from the other ones. If you wanna see what I'm talking about, compare Kaer Morhen to Velen, or Velen to Novigrad.

It can very well be that the new areas have a better lighting system that makes them look better.

That's a good point and one that didn't really cross my mind, I see it now more after playing today. It looks damn nice though and clever use of lighting to give a whole new feel to a scene.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Yes! Finally found my favorite track in the whole game, love this song and area. Any of you guys got any favorite tunes/areas from the game?

Oh man. TW3 has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, don't force me to choose. I'm gonna say though, Hunt or be Hunted and Silver for Monsters I like A LOT.

And, dunno if anyone noticed, but the composer is an absolute genius. In the books, the witchers' fighting style is described as resembling a dance, and in fact they gave the combat music a kind of danceable folkloristic vibe to it.

 

[Foxtrot94]

New screen from Hearts of Stone:

Also new info from German magazine "Gamestar" about the expansion:

• No new regions but the map will extend at North/North-East of Novigrad.
  
• The Oxenfurt Academy will be opened and can be visited.
  
• Shani's romance will have no effect on Yen/Triss.
  
• The choices made in TW1 regarding the Triss/Shani romance will have no effect.
  
• New "runeword" system: a specific merchant will create runewords from 3 runes and will embed it into our sword or armor. We can raise the runeword level with (a lot of) gold. Runewords will have unique effects, for example igniting an enemy will make him explode when he dies.
  
• 5 new talents.
  
• New items, including a new set that enhances Signs.
  
• Instead of 2, we'll now have 4 slots for potions.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Dunno if you guys play it on PC, but if you do, you HAVE to at least try this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/657/?

Changes the lighting in the game, and damn, especially digging the change in the swamps. They're so damn creepy at night...

 

[Gikoku]

I finished romancing Triss and the whole questline was rather impressive (long too), had some moments where I felt tempted to go back and redo things, but eh. Feels more impactful when I just live with my mistakes instead. I still suck at Gwent of course and every tavern I go to keeps having really average cards, so it'll be awhile until I get much better with it all. Also just about done with all the sidequests within my current level so I can focus on the main quests again, still got a ways to go.

New screen from Hearts of Stone:

Also new info from German magazine "Gamestar" about the expansion:

• No new regions but the map will extend at North/North-East of Novigrad.
  
• The Oxenfurt Academy will be opened and can be visited.
  
• Shani's romance will have no effect on Yen/Triss.
  
• The choices made in TW1 regarding the Triss/Shani romance will have no effect.
  
• New "runeword" system: a specific merchant will create runewords from 3 runes and will embed it into our sword or armor. We can raise the runeword level with (a lot of) gold. Runewords will have unique effects, for example igniting an enemy will make him explode when he dies.
  
• 5 new talents.
  
• New items, including a new set that enhances Signs.
  
• Instead of 2, we'll now have 4 slots for potions.

Hearts of Stone is sounding quite nice, those two extra potion slots will definitely come in handy. Wonder why Shani's romance choices from TW1 won't matter though, seems kinda odd. Really interested in learning more about those runewords though, maybe we can mix and match how we want for own unique combinations?

Dunno if you guys play it on PC, but if you do, you HAVE to at least try this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/657/?

Changes the lighting in the game, and damn, especially digging the change in the swamps. They're so damn creepy at night...

Yeah I play it on PC and that surprisingly looks pretty nice, I'll give it a test drive when I get a chance. I've yet to mess with any of the mods so far, but that's mainly due to not knowing how to install any of them at the moment. Do you use any other mods?

 

[Foxtrot94]

I've yet to mess with any of the mods so far, but that's mainly due to not knowing how to install any of them at the moment. Do you use any other mods?

LOL TW3 is probably the easiest-to-mod game ever. You just create a folder named "Mods" in the root folder and just copy paste the mod folder in there and that's it. Easy to install, easy to uninstall: you just delete the mod folder.

Only script mods get a bit more complicated.

Beside that mod, I've only got another one that replaces the Wolf Gear swords with Vesemir's swords, and the Debug Console Enabler.

 

[Precipice]

LOL TW3 is probably the easiest-to-mod game ever. You just create a folder named "Mods" in the root folder and just copy paste the mod folder in there and that's it. Easy to install, easy to uninstall: you just delete the mod folder.

Only script mods get a bit more complicated.

Beside that mod, I've only got another one that replaces the Wolf Gear swords with Vesemir's swords, and the Debug Console Enabler.

It has mod support that makes use of an override system, and it also has a console. I am salivating, and I am sold. This might literally be the only thing I know about The Witcher 3 but that and the picture of a guy on a horse with two swords is enough to warrant a purchase from me.

Almost. I'll have to wait until next pay period or the one after. I'm already on a ramen diet as it is.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I still suck at Gwent of course and every tavern I go to keeps having really average cards, so it'll be awhile until I get much better with it all.

Couple of quests out there that get you some good hero cards, managed to get a couple myself. I love Gwent but some of the players have some insane decks that you have to be VERY tactical as well as lucky to beat.

 

[Foxtrot94]

The kind of vistas you can get through Super Turbo Lighting Mod.

Notice how far away objects and details, like trees, islands, mountains, or even that big tree in the first pic, are no more partially covered by that "blue fog" layer that's present in vanilla.

I'll try to reach the highest spot on the map to get the best vista possible.

 

[Foxtrot94]

More screens from Hearts of Stone.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Aaaand more screens from Hearts of Stone!

 

[Foxtrot94]

Beware. Awesomeness ahead.

 

[Gikoku]

Funny, they went through the trouble of censoring the subtitles for the screenshots, but slapped their balls all over the walls with the story details in the trailer. Maybe it's just me, but I think I would've preferred to have seen the decapitation bit on my own, still, really good trailer and I'm definitely... pumped for release.

LOL TW3 is probably the easiest-to-mod game ever. You just create a folder named "Mods" in the root folder and just copy paste the mod folder in there and that's it. Easy to install, easy to uninstall: you just delete the mod folder.

Only script mods get a bit more complicated.

Beside that mod, I've only got another one that replaces the Wolf Gear swords with Vesemir's swords, and the Debug Console Enabler.

Damn, and I do modding for both Elder Scrolls & Fallout which can get pretty complicated. So this just made me feel like a right dumbass lol. Kudos, I'll jump into some mods then and check everything out. One of the mods that did catch my eye was the camera one that brings it in closer over Geralt's shoulder for exploration, CDPR's detailed world needs to be loved. Also, beautiful shots with that Turbo Lighting mod.

Couple of quests out there that get you some good hero cards, managed to get a couple myself. I love Gwent but some of the players have some insane decks that you have to be VERY tactical as well as lucky to beat.

Yeah, I bumped into a guy with a maxed out deck which took me by surprise as he was built up as being some bafoon that's easy to beat... gimme a break here. It's like bumping into some kid with Pokemon cards and every single card in his deck is a rare holographic, whether he sucks at the game or not those cards are still pretty overpowered. I'll keep an eye out for any quests that'll reward such because I really really want to get engrossed in this part of the game, but it's not fun when I lose all the time.

 

[Gikoku]

So did anyone get a hold of that new 1.10 patch? My god... I'm not sure whether I should be a little concerned or utterly impressed by the sheer magnitude of it all.

The changelog spans a 13-page PDF document with over 600 bullet points, and weighs in at a whopping 15GBs on console (9.9GBs on PC). Absolutely ridiculous but rather incredible at the same time. They managed to also finally fix the performance issue on PS4 for the swamp areas.

I personally hope these patches aren't going to get any bigger going forward. My wifi adapter keeps crashing/disconnecting when it's at top speed for too long (still trying to figure out why) so downloading a patch that's the same size as a whole game has been... quite the struggle.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Yeah, I bumped into a guy with a maxed out deck which took me by surprise as he was built up as being some bafoon that's easy to beat... gimme a break here. It's like bumping into some kid with Pokemon cards and every single card in his deck is a rare holographic, whether he sucks at the game or not those cards are still pretty overpowered. I'll keep an eye out for any quests that'll reward such because I really really want to get engrossed in this part of the game, but it's not fun when I lose all the time.

Yeah I have won more than I have lost but I have came across a couple of people with some awesome decks. I dont have many monster cards but it seems most with the really powerful decks have them and that ability that draws cards of the same type straight from the deck. I mean one players hand had an attack point of around 110 and I got up to about 75 but couldnt come close to it. Sometimes you have to play tactically and play some effect cards here and there and let them keep using up their cards and take a tactical loss on one round.

So did anyone get a hold of that new 1.10 patch? My god... I'm not sure whether I should be a little concerned or utterly impressed by the sheer magnitude of it all.

The changelog spans a 13-page PDF document with over 600 bullet points, and weighs in at a whopping 15GBs on console (9.3GBs on PC). Absolutely ridiculous but rather incredible at the same time. They managed to also finally fix the performance issue on PS4 for the swamp areas.

I personally hope these patches aren't going to get any bigger going forward. My wifi adapter keeps crashing/disconnecting when it's at top speed for too long (still trying to figure out why) so downloading a patch that's the same size as a whole game has been... quite the struggle.

Havent downloaded it yet as wasnt aware it was available yet but im going to download it later so I dont have to wait for it to download before playing the game next time I have some spare time.

 

[queenofdisco]

I'm playing Heart of Stone right now bitches. Anyone else started it?

 

[Gikoku]

I'm playing Heart of Stone right now bitches. Anyone else started it?

Not yet, but I have it. I'm only level 20 right now and it said I had to be 30+ to have a good time. So it'll be awhile until I can jump into it.

Finished all the contracts and side quests for my current level and now doing the treasure hunts, after that I'm off to Skellige.

Yeah I have won more than I have lost but I have came across a couple of people with some awesome decks. I dont have many monster cards but it seems most with the really powerful decks have them and that ability that draws cards of the same type straight from the deck. I mean one players hand had an attack point of around 110 and I got up to about 75 but couldnt come close to it. Sometimes you have to play tactically and play some effect cards here and there and let them keep using up their cards and take a tactical loss on one round.

Sheesh, highest attack point I've gotten to was 36 I think, my decks are pathetic right now. So right when I think I'm about to have a chance of victory, they troll me and whip out their monster cards in the 2nd round and then I'm dead. I dug around through my quest journal and found out I missed my chance to win a card from the Red Baron, along with Priscilla. But those are the only 2 so far I think, there's a chunk more in my journal that are still available so I'm going to stock up more on decks.

I have over 4,000 gold last I checked, so money will be no object for it.