Ok. Just thought it would be easier with whetstone / endregas.

Sounds good. TBH I haven't finished TW1 yet, TW2 stole me away from that.

Well it depends on whether you are afraid of dying. I mean you can survive without potions but you have to be very very good at dodging and avoiding DoT effects esp. early in game.

I have seen some videos of people playing on Insane. Seems like the damage you receive and the enemies armor value are the same as on Hard. I suspect the difficulty is the same on both except that perma-death is enforced on Insane (as several forumers have claimed)

Really? That was Flashes idea? I hope he got credit for that.

This is really hard to tell. I think I need a sword that does around 40 base damage to see if it is a bug or just random numbers.

Here's why. My current silver sword Aerondight with no runes has 11 - 18 base damage. the whetstone adds 20% which should make it 13-22 in damage. I saw values above these numbers but I think they were crits or back hits. The log goes by so fast that it is really hard to capture to study in detail. So I'm not sure how much is due to random numbers, back side hits, crits etc.

BTW is there someplace that the combat log can be saved to?

With a sword like Addan Deith the combat range of 45 - 51 would be 54 - 61 which means the lower damage on the wetstone sword is greater than the upper damage of the base sword. This would allow a test where if much of the damage is below 54 that clearly points to it not working. And if you see constant damage at 54+ that means it does work.

Bottom line is you need a top sword to really be sure about this. The lower level swords are too small in base damage to know if it works or not, or if you had bad luck rolls.

If you haven't finished it once, don't switch in the middle, finish it vanilla and then do one of the other paths with FCR - can't know how it differs, if you haven't seen all of the original, right? And it's not that TW by itself was a bad game. :)

Gop claimed that in insane the enemies employed other tactics than in the regular difficulties. AND it should be harder. If all that is not the case, it's a more than a little disappointing. Because save some boss fights, obviously hard is too easy, when even I want more, although I am totally uncomfortable with the stop-and-go combat. ;)
Don't hold me to that, for I was only able to read the two English translated books, so it might've been in the books and ultimaltely Sapkowskis invention. But yes, Flash added the heliotrope sing to the witcher. Works a bit differently, though. I know the forums are down, but FCR is also at the ModDB, documentation and all.


I've posted a comment on the official witcher site, dunno if they ever sift through all those insult laden comments. Ah right, THAT'S what the official forum is for (since people keep saying there's no need for them)... ;)

To make things slower, use hit and dodge tactic so that your combat log don't get swarmed.

To test:
a) First you just attack a monster with your sword without applying whetstone. Keep an eye for the min-max damage on combat log. Chances are your damage will be the same as shown in your character screen.

b) Then apply whetstone on your silver sword.
- The way it is now, if I applied the whetstone on a steel sword, the change/increase in damage is immediately shown on character screen.
- But if I apply it on a silver sword, the icon/timer shows but the damage on character screen does not change.

c) Start attacking the same type of enemy again and observe the min-max range.

The mechanics: Whetstones +20% damage. So how it works is you take the value you see on your character screen prior to applying the whetstone * 1.2.. You don't use the sword's own damage.

I suggested this a while ago in another thread. it should be saved in the character menu so we can review the info after each fight. there's no way we have time to really read it during combat, and because of the lack of proper ratio support, its too small on the screen anyway.

I have done some testing, but the numbers are to small, so it's difficult to see if oils works or not on silver blades.

Certainly also Brown oil didn't display proper on silver sword, opposite to steel swords...

I would be nice if a modder could alter the value of a kind of oil, for example brown oil to give a 100% chance to bleed, incinerate or poison, so, using it on a steel/silver sword without that effect, early in the game (so you have no bonus on that critical effect) we could easily check if it works or not...

Heliotrope is in the books. But it was definitely Flash's idea to put it in the game with his FCR mod.

I've always played TW1 with just the original Flash mod, never FCR. I guess I really should give FCR a shot.


-Aside: Why is this whole post coming up as a quote? Grrr -

Because you have a closing quote tag after your text instead of mine. ;)

The original Flash mod was fine, but FCR is really a unique experience, you need to plan very good (like a good witcher). I cursed a lot, before I got the hang of it, but success was all the sweeter then. :)
Little details like, there is ONE vermillion ingredient to be had in chapter one, if you don't get this, you'll have a VERY hard time with the bloezuigers in the swamp... things like that.

Thanks for clearing up the question about the heliotrope sign.
In which book/story is it mentioned? Because I just read Blood of Elves and can't remember... not that that means anything.

Nope. What I did test today were specter oil and Falca's Blood and they are not DLC. Have yet to try the whetstone. I think you can only indirectly figure that out by inspecting character and inventory screen.

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Heliotrop_sign

It's from "A Grain of Truth" from The Last Wish.

Or so says the internets anyways. I haven't read the books.

Whetstones come from Witcher 1 saves, I believe.

Thanks. Have to re-read that story.
Reading the books did enrich and deepen the gameworld for me, makes for a more complete experience. :)

One feature I missed from TW1.

They are listed under silver sword in the inventory and there is an icon / timer, but comparing the before / after damage range shows no difference.
They are included in one of the DLCs. And the silver swords don't work with non-DLC enhancements like whirl or specter oil either.