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So in Chapter 3 I get some great weapons like Addan Deith and get to use them for all of a couple of mob fights. i mean it really sucks that here I get a really cool weapon and can only use it for a few fights before the game is over with.

I think I used the aerondight silver sword for ALL of chapter 1 and the robust yellow metorite sword for all of chapter 2 and much of chapter 3. What gives with this?

Same can be said for steel swords. I sure wish the good swords would ahve been used more then just a couple of fights.

And the same can be said for the armor. I mean you can't make the Draug till you get to a merchant in chapter 3 and then that is used for just a short time till you get Ysgith and then Van Armor which is used for what 2 fights tops?
Second that. The worst annoyance being that you can't craft the Draug armor in the 2nd chapter. Someone really should mod a crafter there. I have such a gorgeous texture for that armor, I want to wear it longer than five minutes, please.
The most of the gameplay in the final chapter is to go from finding one piece of equipment to the next, not even one real side quest (the Gargoyle contract is about equipment as well).

The game feels terribly rushed and unfinshed in the end and this reflects in the heap of leather and steel you get buried under and have no use for anymore. I guess they just ran out of time, like so many devs, who loose themselves in the details. I do hope they plan a DLC with some more quests in Loc Muinne. Even in ruins, it is so magnificent, I want to spend more time there!
Yup i agree (especially about Draug armor!). I was overwhelmed with how many items there were in chapter 3 only for it to be overlooked by a very short chapter. Almost feel like TW2 should/could have been a chapter longer. xD

And i do find most gear in witcher 2 rather futile and pointless since one armor always superb the rest, so i never understood why all these crafting sets were in the game.

Like in chapter 1 when you gain the hunter armor, every other befor kayran sort of suck which is a shame since alot of the gear got nice details on em. But dosnt have good stats to match anything. =/

I think crafting gear should have had a method where the player add his own stats to em from scratch without it being to godlike.
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Zhijn: I think crafting gear should have had a method where the player add his own stats to em from scratch without it being to godlike.
Yeah, it kinda has, with the enhancement slots.
But you're right about the out-dating of stuff. And if you use the DLC stuff, it's even worse, because nothing comes even close to those items until the very end of the game, so all the other pieces are no more than sellable loot.
i'd have liked to at least use caerme on something other than the operator, lol
The loot in general in TW2 was somewhat less satisfying than in the first game, for a couple of reasons.

1. The interface. "picking up" a weapon on my mouse pointer and hearing that steely *shhhhinnnngg!* is so much more satisfying than just clicking on one of a billion items in a list and having the game do everything automatically.

2. Scarcity. There were a lot of weapons in the first game, but not that many types. Consequently, finding a different weapon was an event in itself. I still remember exactly where I found my first Holy Sword of the Order in TW1 (you got what you deserved, de Wayze!), but there are so many marginally or trivially different weapons in TW2 that I was constantly chucking one for another.

This contributed to my reluctance toward using runes or other permanent enhancements as well. Never wanted to use up the Ysgith rune because the rune was far more valuable than a weapon that I was just going to toss into the ditch five minutes down the road. Result: it was after the shenanigans with Sile in the tower in Chapter 3, as I was climbing up to the roof of the tower to face the dragon, that I FINALLY used up the slots on the weapons and armor I was wearing. Not because I really needed the enhancements, either, but because I knew that the game had to be almost done, so... now or never. Same deal with the mutagens. Never knew when something better would come along, so nothing ever got used.

3. Usefulness. Found a sword in Chapter 3 that dealt an utterly obscene amount of damage to necrophages... literally +1000% damage to the rotting, stinking heaps of ambulatory putrescence. But I NEVER FOUND A NECROPHAGE TO USE THE THING ON! Not one! And I was LOOKING, too!

Incredibly frustrating, that. And yet, strangely amusing as well.

Anyway, will agree with the general sentiment of the thread in its specifics, though I feel that looting in general is less satisfying overall. Getting the good stuff early enough in the game for it to be useful would be pretty nifty, IMO.
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MithterThibbs: Anyway, will agree with the general sentiment of the thread in its specifics, though I feel that looting in general is less satisfying overall. Getting the good stuff early enough in the game for it to be useful would be pretty nifty, IMO.
Tough balancing act. I do agree with your sentiment, just to be clear. But if we got, for example, that necrophage sword early on, you'd likely be overpowered. Then there'd be a lot of people screaming about how the equipment is too uber and even more people complaining the game is too easy.

I wouldn't mind finding some cool stuff earlier though, as long as it was tough to get. Greater risk, greater reward and all that.
The mutagen thing and runes bit are probably quite deliberately forcing you to make the not-uncommon decision whether to take a short-term bonus that might pay off if you can take advantage of it, or whether to hold out for a longer-term bonus.

This is fairly frequent in strategy games -- e.g. overtaxing your population initially to get more money to fund a rapid expansion, at the penalty of population loss and unrest that will hurt you eventually (but often much less than you gain through this expansion). In RTSes, there's usually at least one "rush" strategy that'll leave you with a poor economy, but has a plausible chance of crippling or eliminating an unprepared opponent (e.g. somebody who's taken the opposite approach of pure-econ and hasn't set up sufficient defenses).

Personally, I tend to slap a fire rune in almost any weapon I'll use ASAP, because I like setting opponents on fire. ;)
I reckon the main culprit here is how short chapter 3 is.
I mean, if you don't bother getting all that equipment, the meat of the chapter is shorter than the prologue.
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MithterThibbs: The loot in general in TW2 was somewhat less satisfying than in the first game, for a couple of reasons.

1. The interface. "picking up" a weapon on my mouse pointer and hearing that steely *shhhhinnnngg!* is so much more satisfying than just clicking on one of a billion items in a list and having the game do everything automatically.

2. Scarcity. There were a lot of weapons in the first game, but not that many types. Consequently, finding a different weapon was an event in itself. I still remember exactly where I found my first Holy Sword of the Order in TW1 (you got what you deserved, de Wayze!), but there are so many marginally or trivially different weapons in TW2 that I was constantly chucking one for another.

This contributed to my reluctance toward using runes or other permanent enhancements as well. Never wanted to use up the Ysgith rune because the rune was far more valuable than a weapon that I was just going to toss into the ditch five minutes down the road. Result: it was after the shenanigans with Sile in the tower in Chapter 3, as I was climbing up to the roof of the tower to face the dragon, that I FINALLY used up the slots on the weapons and armor I was wearing. Not because I really needed the enhancements, either, but because I knew that the game had to be almost done, so... now or never. Same deal with the mutagens. Never knew when something better would come along, so nothing ever got used.

3. Usefulness. Found a sword in Chapter 3 that dealt an utterly obscene amount of damage to necrophages... literally +1000% damage to the rotting, stinking heaps of ambulatory putrescence. But I NEVER FOUND A NECROPHAGE TO USE THE THING ON! Not one! And I was LOOKING, too!

Incredibly frustrating, that. And yet, strangely amusing as well.

Anyway, will agree with the general sentiment of the thread in its specifics, though I feel that looting in general is less satisfying overall. Getting the good stuff early enough in the game for it to be useful would be pretty nifty, IMO.
Well there is a crafting diagram for Ysgirth, in fact almost every crafting diagram can be found from Act 1 onwards. Only thing is it needs 8 nekker hearts per piece, but with the amount of nekkers in Acts 1 and 2, I have enough Ysgirth runes to go around.

As for mutagens, it is pretty hard to decide which to use since it is permanent but thankfully there is a guide here that lists all the possible mutagens and their effects after investing in the Impregnation skill under Alchemy tree.
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/the_nearly_complete_mutagen_guide

I do agree with the sentiment that you don't really get to use your arguably overpowered gear much. There is this massive equipment upgrade in Act 3 but you only get to use it for an hour or so.

I don't think Kayran armor is that much inferior to Hunter's armor though.

That being said, about 90% of the loot are just utter garbage. Imagine my displeasure when I found an obscure chest after defeating some boss-like monster only to find 3 orens and a paling in the said chest. But heck, it is not as bad as Diablo 2 where the loot is randomly generated and not hand-placed which leads to the occasional situation where your weak-sauce gear impedes your progress.
i really hope they add some post-chapter 3 DLC so we can use our new weapons more. i'd love to play "the continuing adventures of geralt after loc muinne" or something.
Ah, looting whiners and Diablo fans strike again!

After the first Witcher whiners were crying that there are very few swords to upgrade and that you cannot pick 10 swords in you back pack. Developers listened to them and made in TW2 worse inventory than in TW1. And here they are, whining again to make the next game a complete trash with objectifying the micromanagement and not a story as a whole point of the game.

When you have an itching feeling to play crappy loot management and stats watching games play Diablo or WoW, for fuck sake, and return to play TW games when you need to play a good game with an actual plot.

So, let me counter-whine... Bring back TW1 interface and looting system! It was so good that I don't need to pick all swords in the world to sift out a better one by 1 point. I actually, once went all the way by using only initial swords and substituted them only to gift swords (D'yabel and Aeondight). I liked that. I really hated to upgrade Aeondight in TW2 to any other swords but the game gets too tedious if you won't. I don't want to upgrade swords every 10 min of the gameplay and an armour every hour. That's pure Diablo-style bullshit. I want to see all items in the interface right away and very few of them.

If you want to insert different swords, please, make them different, not strictly better. Different mean different appearance and different properties, not . I.e. one is poisoned another gives bleeding bonus, another helps magic, but all be more or less the same damage +/- 10%. If you like crafting then make it on the same page with an ability to buy missing materials on the spot if the are available in the same shop. Or few real upgrades through nonparallel tricky quests.
Post edited June 17, 2011 by Maerd
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Maerd: Ah, looting whiners and Diablo fans strike again!

After the first Witcher whiners were crying that there are very few swords to upgrade and that you cannot pick 10 swords in you back pack. Developers listened to them and made in TW2 worse inventory than in TW1. And here they are, whining again to make the next game a complete trash with objectifying the micromanagement and not a story as a whole point of the game.

When you have an itching feeling to play crappy loot management and stats watching games play Diablo or WoW, for fuck sake, and return to play TW games when you need to play a good game with an actual plot.

So, let me counter-whine... Bring back TW1 interface and looting system! It was so good that I don't need to pick all swords in the world to sift out a better one by 1 point. I actually, once went all the way by using only initial swords and substituted them only to gift swords (D'yabel and Aeondight). I liked that. I really hated to upgrade Aeondight in TW2 to any other swords but the game gets too tedious if you won't. I don't want to upgrade swords every 10 min of the gameplay and an armour every hour. That's pure Diablo-style bullshit. I want to see all items in the interface right away and very few of them.

If you want to insert different swords, please, make them different, not strictly better. Different mean different appearance and different properties, not . I.e. one is poisoned another gives bleeding bonus, another helps magic, but all be more or less the same damage +/- 10%. If you like crafting then make it on the same page with an ability to buy missing materials on the spot if the are available in the same shop. Or few real upgrades through nonparallel tricky quests.
whoa dude, we're not asking for an upgrade every 10 minutes. we're just not especially thrilled about the inconsistency of the upgrades. we get pretty much zilch for the first 2 chapters, then sword overload at the end. spread it out a little is all we want.
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Coelocanth: I wouldn't mind finding some cool stuff earlier though, as long as it was tough to get. Greater risk, greater reward and all that.
That's the thing that I found a little odd regarding loot in TW2: none of the loot, even the best stuff at the end, felt in any way as much like a reward to me as finding a new weapon type did in TW1 (even if that new weapon type was utterly useless), never mind how satisfying being rewarded with Aerondight was. They gave me that weapon in TW1, and I KNEW I wasn't going to let that sword go no matter what, and the game bore out that feeling by knowing enough to NOT spam me with incremental upgrades.

I chalk it up to the disposable nature of weapons. Mass-produced anythings never holds as much weight with me as a singular or (hitherto) unique item. The same goes with loot systems afflicted with Incremental Upgrade Syndrome to the degree that a Diablo or TW2 system is. I find it a bit ironic, really, in that by placing so much of the game in loot with such upgrades, they essentially strip that aspect of the game of much of its satisfaction. You're never focused on what you've already got, but are always looking for the next upgrade instead, and are more than willing to toss that previously much-coveted item aside for the next worthless bit of trash. Is a self-defeating system with hollow rewards, IMO.

You are right, though: there's no way that any company is going to be able to please everyone. Those that like how a system works in, for example, TW1 will be having too much fun enjoying it to praise the devs for it, while those that don't will be complaining on message boards. Those that saw little reason why the system SHOULD be changed for the sequel might be greeted to an unpleasant surprise later on... at which, that group will pipe up with their "why'dju go an' break it all, mang?"

As far as game-breakingly powerful items go... am personally of the mind that the presence of such things in a game is symptomatic of a rule system that places far, FAR too much emphasis on loot in the first place. It's a useful thing to include from a gameplay standpoint, don't get me wrong -- if you can effectively respec any character at any time by carefully selecting which weapons and armor you're using, you're never going to run into the problem of a gamer creating a useless character build and having to reload a game from 20 hours ago to try it all again -- but my personal feeling is that it cheapens both the character development options AND trivializes loot too much for my liking. Like everything else, though, that's a matter of degrees.

But then, I'm more focused on the story- or lore-related aspects of an object and value those much more than I do massive amounts of damage or a nifty-looking icon. I suspect I'm in a very small minority in that regard, though, even among fans of story-driven RPGs.


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vAddicatedGamer: I don't think Kayran armor is that much inferior to Hunter's armor though.
Heh... I wouldn't actually know about that one. I've never actually crafted the Kayran armor. I'm well into my third playthrough of the game now (in Chapter 2), and it's the same old situation: by the time I get all the ingredients together, I've found something better. the only reason I'd personally have to create that armor would be that story-related aspect -- a trophy of my battle with the beast -- but the game already provided me with a Kayran trophy. Didn't feel as if I needed another one, and I was having a hard enough time surviving as it was without deliberately gimping myself with inferior armor (which I'll do, if I like the armor in question enough).

The Ysgith runes... between those you can buy from the Mysterious Merchant (which I didn't have in my first run) and the crafting, I agree... there ARE enough to get by. If you know what you need to save to make them and if you know that there's such a rune to be crafted in the first place. First run, though? I wasn't aware of that.

I'm not the sort to look at game guides until all is said and done and I want to see what I might have missed, so in that respect the mutagen guide isn't of any help either. IMO, the system should be able to stand on its own without meta-game knowledge like that coming into play. Personal feeling is that TW2 didn't stand up in this regard as well as its predecessor.

Anyhoo, to sum up: Thumbs up for TW1 for me, Thumbs down for TW2. Ultimately, though, is not a huge deal either way (not to mention the fact that I'm even bothering to post commentary at all is a testament to how much I like this game).

Now, if ya'll'll (hooray for contractions!) excuse me, I've got me a blood curse to deal with.
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AudreyWinter: Second that. The worst annoyance being that you can't craft the Draug armor in the 2nd chapter. Someone really should mod a crafter there. I have such a gorgeous texture for that armor, I want to wear it longer than five minutes, please.
The most of the gameplay in the final chapter is to go from finding one piece of equipment to the next, not even one real side quest (the Gargoyle contract is about equipment as well).

The game feels terribly rushed and unfinshed in the end and this reflects in the heap of leather and steel you get buried under and have no use for anymore. I guess they just ran out of time, like so many devs, who loose themselves in the details. I do hope they plan a DLC with some more quests in Loc Muinne. Even in ruins, it is so magnificent, I want to spend more time there!
I was going to craft that armor, but didn't have the essence. Whacked on a few of those things when going through the mist, but all they ever gave up was the armor fragment. Should have saved the 1642 Orens the diagram cost.