Posts made by Jaded

@Miss-Demeanor
Oh well that's a plus! I haven't kept up with the last few patches since there were so many leading up to the new expansion.

I play GW2 on and off, I could meet up with people. Depends on the server though. I'm on Crystal Desert.

Coherence and I, Origins are some fairly decent off-beat sci-fi films. And Ex Machina - I found that movie exceptional and very compelling.

@Insomnia Watched it on Youtube. Was a great playthrough.

The new expansion is out. So far it's a pretty good time and my time with it will probably end somewhere between 10-15 hours. Given that I think the price point is pretty fair, I picked it up on Steam for $10.

For anyone who wants to play it but hasn't finished the main storyline yet, it does offer a New Game mode that you can create a new save with which will lock out the main storyline quests. It will give you a level 32 Geralt with some pretty nice starting gear.

@Ganymede
Helldivers is a step up above most other top down shooters, Gany. It's kind of like taking control of a single infantry piece in Star Craft, on the terran side and fighting horde rushes of Zerg or Protoss. It's got some decent customization to it - as far as loadouts and equipment you can take planetside. But like all mulitplayer games if you get a people who thinks victory and experience is measured more in kills instead of objectives the game won't be much fun.

I would recommend renting it on Gamefly before committing to a purchase.

@Insomnia I have not played this but one of the YTers I follow has been and I must say...oh man this game. This game is involved. It's a great audience experience at the least.

@Insomnia Yeah I looked that up after I made my post. I'm usually not a fan of the story interactive games but I had a lot of fun with my play through and I'm looking forward to the last episode.

Tales from the Borderlands, Episode 1 is free on consoles right now. Or you can buy all four episodes for less than $10 on Steam. Worth picking up if you're a Borderlands fan.

Already threw the $125 at this. So excited.

If anyone is still in search of a program that lets you build and design your own game maps I stumbled upon this website recently. I haven't had a chance to use it but it seems to be rather promising.

http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

@Misadventure

It's pretty hard to see what she's saying since she seems to have some weird obsessive problem that's not quite revealed itself regarding the game. When she played she was never treated bad or unfairly. If anyone has paid attention she has this established pattern that anytime RFK is even mentioned in a thread on this forum she has to come in spew an ignorant level of misinformation, lies, and angst.

Is she upset because Aoife was plot killed after she made it clear she was leaving and not returning? Or is she upset because she didn't take advantage of other opportunities that she saw others have, and thought were unfair for them to have? Her comment about another game might suggest that game closed because staff there was suuuuuper crazy and people realized it and left - and she might have lost her favorite place in the whole widdle world. Who knows.

I will say the game was thoroughly enjoyable for me. I had fun being the creepiest creepster that ever did creep. They played politics. I stole Humanity.

@Arkandel said:

Fair enough. Let me put ask this, then; one of the criticisms I've heard about RfK players coming into games is that they're intent on essentially recreating the same thing to the point of expecting those games to function the same way and pushing to 'convert' them.

Although hardcoded elements could be borrowed to improve specific aspects of such games, would you say if you guys are looking for essentially a re-enactment of RfK or if you'd be satisfied with certain elements you enjoyed being incorporated in MU* you end up playing as may be appropriate for how they are already set up and ran?

I honestly feel bad for those players who come into other games hoping to see a 'conversion' or 'recreation' of what they found on RFK. They simply won't and it will hurt them in the long run for their own aspirations to try it.

Incorporating some of the elements might work - but the thing that RfK did was create the mindset of political play at the outset with the source of conflict being resolvable in manners other than hardcore combat PKing. As it stands right now and from what I understand the current crop of games doesn't encourage this mind set - I mean hell you pretty much have same ol same ol from TR to Fallcoast - where vampire combat kings are dominant. I cannot say the same for Eldritch and Reno but from what I've heard so far that too is the case. Will incorporating some of the political play aspects change those mindsets? Probably not, but one could hope.

@Apollonius

Every creature has its own method to combat it. In my opinion it is absolutely necessary in the game to learn when to dodge, roll, parry, or counterattack - and on which creatures those kinds of defenses are most useful. The game gets a lot easier once you get this experience. If you have any other questions Apollonius just drop them here or message me. I don't mind getting more in-depth into creature combat strategies to help you out if you need it.

@Usekh said:

Whilst the science is far from settled on the effects of probiotic products, the fact that gut bacteria have a huge effect on your body is pretty clear.

My brother is a probiotic advocate. He was having digestive issues until he started taking a pill each day and they cleared up.

@Apollonius said:

I've heard of the PC controls for Witcher 1 and 2. They sound awful. Even with Witcher 3, I have it hooked up to an XBox 360 controller. It's still clunky and has weird UI design choices. The worst part of it is having to relearn how to play a different RPG because invariably all of them have different means of attack.

Does anyone actually use strong attack? Fast attack + roll + quen or axii is pretty much my mainstay. Igni and Aard are pretty damn useless or situational at best, and I've only seen a difference in yrden for wraiths. Am I missing something with these? Or are they as useless as half of the potions I can make?

From my experience with the game your questions on Strong Attack and Fast Attack are really based on a few variables:

1. Difficulty
2. Build
3. Gear
4. Playstyle

If you're playing on any setting other than Death March then yes you will have to use Strong Attack. It is the only attack that's worth using when you're fighting high armor enemies such as Giants, Cyclopes, Trolls, and some human enemies and definitely some bosses.

On Death March you're going to find yourself learning which attack style is actually best for which creatures and at which point in time. For instance, if you try to Fast Attack your way through an Alghoul you'll do more damage to yourself than it because of the spikes. The strategy for this creature is to hit it with Axii so the spikes retract, get in one or two Strong Attacks, and then bounce out of the way when it claws at you, then roll for the subsequent leap attack. On lower difficulty settings you can probably pop a Swallow and Fast Attack your way through the spike damage. Aard is good for staggering the large brute creatures like Giants when they start to charge letting you roll behind them and get in a couple of critical Strong Attacks.

If your build is based around Strong Attacking you'll find it more valuable to use it more and if you're not playing on Death March the Witcher Bear School Armor and maxed Strong Attack tree is the highest DPS you can get (The caveat on this is I have not tried the Wolf School Witcher Gear yet to find out if it does better). If your build is focused on purely Fast Attack then the Feline School is best and you want to focus on the benefits of light armor - in this build you probably want to take skills deep into the Battle Trance tree for increased damage based upon your Adrenalin, and put points into the Signs you use the most - which it sounds like in your case is Quen and Axii. Gear bonuses are a whole conversation on their own but what you focus on also matters and goes to your playstyle. If you go for Stun or Knockback effects you will find yourself performing finishers more which eats up Adrenalin and Stamina so those kinds of runes are best in Light Armor where your regen is the highest. Effects such as bleeding and poison are great runes for your silver sword and benefit a Strong Attack playstyle the most. And then the Armor, Frost, and Sign Intensity Runes are good for any combat playstyle.

Next how you play the game is a consideration. If you're level 15 and you look at that level 20 critter guarding the treasure at the unknown point you've just made it out to - do you challenge it or wait until you are close to its level or overlevel and return? Being skilled at the dodge and the roll means it is entirely possible with wise Sign use to challenge creatures above your level - if you have experience fighting them. Always save your game before trying.

Lastly all of the Signs are situational and are also based on playstyle. But you are right, they are not all created equal, and some of the skills in the Sign trees are pretty useless and can be ignored. In fact, with the exception of Igni, all of the third and fourth tier Sign abilities can be skipped in my opinion.

If you want a Sign to do DPS with Ignii is the way to go - and just about every creature except the Fire Elementals, can be set on fire for a length of time. Smaller creatures like Nekkers and Drowners will actually spend about 5-10 seconds out of combat as they burn, and you can use Ignii to DOT DPS creatures like Rotfiends down to explosion without having to risk a bad roll out of the way. I don't know about other difficulties but one Rotfiend exploding on you in Death March murders you. And can do so even through Quen.

Yrden is great when you're facing a fast attacking enemy and you want to slow them down, or deny a magic using enemy the use of magic like Leshenn - or make creatures like Wraiths and Foglets easier to hit for damage with your silver sword.

Axii unlocks dialogue options and lets you stun an opponent. I used this fairly often on two-handed weapon users and the humans using sword and shield - this would let me auto-finisher on them and cause the other humans to flee for a few seconds.

Aard is a knock down and can interrupt charges or be a good clench use to get out of being surrounded - the second tier lets you throw enemies off ledges. I would use this when engaging bandits to knock down the first line and then rush the archers. Archers are a pain in the ass.

Quen, is the most useful sign and the one I used most. It is entirely possible though to beat the game without using it and the more experienced you get with the dodge and the roll means you can find yourself relying upon it less. Although it is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary to use this when fighting Imlerith.

Finally as to potions. I think the time lengths on them need tweaked upwards to make them more valuable otherwise I did not use many of the combat potions but I did use the oils quite a bit since they often had a six minute timer on them. And the 15 minute armor and weapon buff from the blacksmith tools in the villages are always worthwhile.

And of course this is all based on my ridiculous amount of hours in the game and my own experience with playing with the trees. There's lots of build guides out there and some Youtube videos that have theorycrafting done on the Fast vs Strong Attack playstyles; if the min/maxing of your Geralt is important I would recommend searching some of these out.

Noticed there's no topic for this so I'll start one:

There's a great deal going on right now at Bundlestars if you're interested in Shadow of Mordor, the game and 18 DLC for $20.

http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-bundle/

I thought Witcher 3 was a good way to lead in more information on Yennefer and Ciri as you played through the storyline It was a nice drawn out reveal for me since I've never read the books and only played the games. I had considered mentioning them in but I didn't want to travel into what I thought might be spoiler territory for W3 for HR.

It's hard to say that the first two games aren't important to the plot of the third. Each game revolves around Ithlienne's Prophecy which is a doomsday end of the world kind of prophecy that fuels the plot events for the Witcher 1 and the Witcher 2 - and culminates in 3. The thing is, the Wild Hunt makes appearances in 1 and 2 without revealing how important these appearances are or how they actually impact your decision making in the game. There are also choice options that you make in the Witcher 1, that you can carry into the Witcher 2 via your saved game file, that you can carry into the Witcher 3 that does have an impact on how the Witcher 3 can be resolved. But in that case it mostly involves what kind of quests are available to you at key points. You can also do the floating choice option in Witcher 3 to simulate having done the 1 to 2 to 3 playthrough.

Needless to say some spoilers follow for those who might want to play 1 and 2:

So a general idea of the events of the Witcher 1 - in the prologue you learn that Geralt has amnesia and he does not remember some key events. He was found outside the Witcher castle of Kaer Morhen. You also learned that sometime recently he cured a Princess of a Striga curse. These two events impact the first game and carry through to the third. The rest of the plot of the Witcher 1 cycles around Geralt trying to hunt a criminal organization called the Salamandra and two key figures of the Salamandra, The Professor and an unknown mage, after they lead an assault on the Witcher castle and steal vital secrets regarding mutagens and Witcher potions. This hunt leads Geralt to the city of Vizima where he becomes embroiled in a war between the Scoia'tael and the Order of the Flaming Rose. Regardless of how the war turns out or Geralt's choices made during the war he is rewarded by King Foltest, for saving the Princess from the curse, and whom he then saves from a Witcher assassin in the Epilogue cutscene, which sets up the events for the Witcher 2.

The Witcher 2 opens up Skyrim style with Geralt in a dungeon talking to the leader of the elite soldier group the Temerian Blue Stripes. The prologue in this case is Geralt recounting the assault on a castle held by the La Valette's, nobles who have revolted against the King of Temeria, King Foltest. During this battle the game's first dragon is introduced and at the end of the prologue the King is murdered by another Witcher assassin and Geralt is the one found over the body with sword in hand.

The game proceeds from that point with Geralt out to discover the killer of the Witcher who killed the King and who is controlling these Witchers. In this game the Scoia'tael make their second appearance with an actual leader this time, named Iorveth (Your veth). In this game the choices you make in the first chapter have a direct impact on what happens in subsequent chapters and where you begin from. It's better to say that as Geralt moves from his investigation in the first act into the second he becomes involved in yet another war between the army of King Hanselt and the Dwarves locked in their city of Vergen. During these first two acts a lot of Geralt's memory is recovered thanks to the Sorceress Triss.

In the second act that the actions of sorcerers and sorceresses become more prominent and their minor presences earlier in the story begin to have a snowballing impact. The third act in the Witcher 2 had a lot of choices here with varying results so it's hard to summarize the events. So it's just better to say that Geralt may or may not rescue certain key people, may or may not kill a dragon, and may or may not kill Letho who is the assassin from the beginning of the game who killed Foltest. What he does learn though is that the Sorceress Council may or may not have been behind the assassination of key Kings in an attempt to seize power for themselves and this is what creates the world setting for the Witcher 3.

Also I wrote this at 6amish so some coherency may not apply. But there you go.

Oh edited for some corrections and it is also possible to find some story recap videos on Youtube.