The Witcher

[Mem]

Originally posted by: adlep

Originally posted by: Mem
Update on my crashing problem,I installed the latest 169.04 beta Nvidia driver and so far no crashes which is always a good sign,anyway I'll keep testing further to be 100% sure.

Excellent news mem.
You may also drop a note on the official forums

I have,btw I'm using international version of 169.04s,I'm still testing but still no crash so this is the longest I have gone without any crash and I have been clicking on everything like barrels,looting,inventory etc so looking good so far.

 

[adlep]

So the problems seems to be related to Nvidia drivers...
Good for you Mem, enjoy the game.
I got mine today, but I will not be installing it any time soon (lack of time)....

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: adlep
So the problems seems to be related to Nvidia drivers...
Good for you Mem, enjoy the game.
I got mine today, but I will not be installing it any time soon (lack of time)....

There are people experiencing crashing problems even with ATI cards ,but seems more common with Nvidia,weird to figure out the cause since even using 169.04 drivers still does not fix it for some people with Nvidia cards .

Anyway I'm going back to more testing now,at least I'm on ACT 2 now .



Update: I still had 2 more crashes but at least stability is bit better then before.

 

[Mem]

This fix looks promising so I'm trying that at the moment(windowed mode ) anyway 169.04s have improved stability,while not perfect and I still get the odd crash like when I click on a NPC trade icon ,its better then before.
I hoping windowed mode fixes the problem,we shall see .

 

[apoppin]

windowed mode?


you must be where i was with Gothic3 ... putting up with absolute crap - crashing/loading bugs, broken quests - because of the excellent story
-i *wish* i had just set it aside till it was [more-or-less] fixed.

i AM looking forward to a polished Witcher

Fsck Atari! ... it is their M.O. to release beta and let us test them :|
- they save huge bucks this way ... unlike HGL who took their time and used many thousands of beta testers to polish their game.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: apoppin
windowed mode?


you must be where i was with Gothic3 ... putting up with absolute crap - crashing/loading bugs, broken quests - because of the excellent story
-i *wish* i had just set it aside till it was [more-or-less] fixed.

Yep like it says,

No guarantee this will work for everyone, but I've seen other people say this worked for them as well. Go to Options-Video Options and uncheck Fullscreen. Now adjust the window so it's least annoying, I was able to make both side edges disappear and just have a thin blue line running across the top.

Not ideal, but it works. I played for hours with no crash for the first time, and I tried everything I could to make it crash too with the inventory and journal opening multiple times in fast succession.. Before I did that I couldn't play more than 20 minutes without a crash to desktop. So I think the bug, or one of them anyway, that needs to be patched has to do with fullscreen setting while playing on Vista.

 

[Modelworks]

I do not like the combat system at all.
I know it can be hard to put melee fighting in a game, but I find the current way of doing it in the witcher annoying.

 

[apoppin]

i'd just set it aside

Never again Atari for me ... i am looking for a USED European copy ... they need to make ZERO money from me
:|

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I do not like the combat system at all.
I know it can be hard to put melee fighting in a game, but I find the current way of doing it in the witcher annoying.

It takes awhile to get use too,just remember if you have a group attack you use c key which is group attack, armoured individual use z for strong attack ,don't forget to put points in your sword skills too like fast,group,strong attack when you level up etc...I always look at the situation first before I strike,steel sword great against people,silver sword great against monsters etc...remember your witcher powers too.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

At least the combat system doesn't get hideously boring like the Diablo clones - Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege, Sacred, etc. There's enough variety to keep it interesting. Gothic's combat system is crap compared to The Witcher... well, it's crap anyway, but that still didn't make it (Gothic) a bad game.

If you use magic, the fights should go more smoothly.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: apoppin
i'd just set it aside

Never again Atari for me ... i am looking for a USED European copy ... they need to make ZERO money from me
:|

But EA is ok?

 

[Patt]

5. Patch 1.1 Major Fixes
======================================================
Gameplay & text bugs fixed:
.
.
.
Fixes for sex scene with nurses in Act 5

SOLD

 

[Crafty35a]

For the record, I'm really enjoying the game and have had no real stability issues (just one or two random crashes).

However, the loading time is a huge annoyance. More so than any game I've ever played. It's too bad, because the game is a lot of fun otherwise.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo

Originally posted by: apoppin
i'd just set it aside

Never again Atari for me ... i am looking for a USED European copy ... they need to make ZERO money from me
:|

But EA is ok?

compared to Atari ... for me ... yes
- what EA games do i have problems with that are SO buggy they cannot be played for weeks after official release?


you need to remember that i have a HISTORY with Atari ... i had their accursed 5200 console in 1983 ... evil garbage!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_5200

The design of the analog joystick, which used a weak rubber boot rather than springs to provide centering, proved to be ungainly and unreliable. They ultimately alienated many consumers and quickly became the Achilles' heel of the system due to their combination of an overly complex mechanical design with a very low-cost internal flex circuit system. The controllers did, however, include a pause button, a novelty at the time that would become standard on almost all future game systems. Various third party replacement joysticks were also released.

Waay too late
Their games were good but their controllers destroyed the experience .. may they go to Hell ... again
:thumbsdown:

EDITED: i never got the 7800 ... some of my poor friends did


==============================

and *how long* are the load times? Gothic3 took me well over a minute :|

 

[Mem]

Update part (I forgot lol) anyway running in Windowed mode so far has been 100% solid on stability,I have the screen so you can only see a very thin blue line at top in Windowed mode so virtually looks like full screen ,I hope they release a patch soon for this common problem.

I must say no game has caused me so many headaches as The Witcher,however now that its sort of fixed I can say it has a great story/nice graphics etc and anybody that likes Gothic/Oblivion type games to really try this game out, its very good.

 

[Crunch77]

Really liking this game, but it loads way too often. Kind of spoils it a bit.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Yup, the map loading is a bitch. This should be the #1 item on their 'to do' list.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Yup, the map loading is a bitch. This should be the #1 item on their 'to do' list.

How *bad* is it?

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Yup, the map loading is a bitch. This should be the #1 item on their 'to do' list.

How *bad* is it?

Basically, every time you enter a house, there's at least a 5 second load. Every time you exit a house, there's a 15-20 second wait as it reloads the big outside map. Every time a quest is given/updated/completed the game autosaves, which occurs during the next map transition, adding an additional 5-10 seconds to the overall load time (depending on how far into the game you are - in Act 4 now, savegames are 30+ megs). And there is no option to turn off autosaving... I checked the config file too.

 

[Ultralight]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Yup, the map loading is a bitch. This should be the #1 item on their 'to do' list.

How *bad* is it?

Basically, every time you enter a house, there's at least a 5 second load. Every time you exit a house, there's a 15-20 second wait as it reloads the big outside map. Every time a quest is given/updated/completed the game autosaves, which occurs during the next map transition, adding an additional 5-10 seconds to the overall load time (depending on how far into the game you are - in Act 4 now, savegames are 30+ megs). And there is no option to turn off autosaving... I checked the config file too.

Do you think a patch might resolve this or are we talking about coding that is so embedded to the game design a patch (or two) is out of the question?

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

I don't know, but it should be possible to keep the big map in memory at all times. Most people have at least 2GB of memory, and I've never seen this game use more than 1GB (usually less than 800MB).

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Ultralight

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
Yup, the map loading is a bitch. This should be the #1 item on their 'to do' list.

How *bad* is it?

Basically, every time you enter a house, there's at least a 5 second load. Every time you exit a house, there's a 15-20 second wait as it reloads the big outside map. Every time a quest is given/updated/completed the game autosaves, which occurs during the next map transition, adding an additional 5-10 seconds to the overall load time (depending on how far into the game you are - in Act 4 now, savegames are 30+ megs). And there is no option to turn off autosaving... I checked the config file too.

Do you think a patch might resolve this or are we talking about coding that is so embedded to the game design a patch (or two) is out of the question?

I doubt that loading /savings time will improve,I have 4GB of ram and 4GB Readyboost device and still find the times it takes are too long,they could bring out a patch to have the option to disable autosave,personally I feel they will need a few patches,one to fix the full screen problem people have been having like me etc....

 

[MarcVenice]

I love the game, but yeah, loading is a *****. The combat system might take a little to get used to, but becomes fun pretty fasy if you ask me. One 'slight' annoyance is that it's not completely free roam. You'll be traveling roads most of the time, at least in chapter one, and no way to cut any corners. I think the story is pretty good, with really well done cutscenes, like the one with abigail for example. Leveling up works for me, with novice > experienced > master or whatever the latter two are, which result in silver/gold skillpoints. One thing I'm unsure about though, if you add a skill in tier 1, like add 30+ bleeding, and you add the same skill, but then in tier 3, +50 bleeding, do those 2 add up, or not?

I haven't played very far btw, but it allready took quite some hours, so this game should be worth it's money. I hope it stays complex and enjoyable though, without becoming a mindless run here run there game.

 

[Mem]

Regardless of crashes and clunky combat, I still highly recommend The Witcher, especially if you are a fan of deeply layered RPGs--and you know who you are. Give Geralt a spin for a few hours, and you might be surprised, as I was, to find yourself saying, "This is the first PC RPG I've really enjoyed since...

Agrees with me ,Shacknews Review of The Witcher.

 

[imported_Flimflam]

Very poorly optimized runs badly just like nwn2 did. I think crysis runs better than this game does for me. aside from that seems fairly decent story wise. Combat desperatly needs some sort of tutorial ingame took me forever to figure out how to combo.