I agree. I played HoS with a premade level 32 character and I had never tried a sign build before. I put lots of points into signs, unlocked all tiers and got 9 sign skills (focusing on Igni, Quen and Yrden).
Normal Igni did very very little damage and alternative Igni only made me vulnerable...
There is also the option to start a new game for HoS, it gives you a level 30 character, the recommended level for starting HoS. I'm going to do just that for my first playthrough of the expansion for the best experience level-wise. My other saves are either too high or too low level to play it.
New quests or map markers are available only if the notice board marker is yellow with an exclamation mark. After you've taken everything from it the first time and it is no longer yellow, notices will later appear again, but they are just trivia and don't do anything.
No. Item positioning in the inventory is not saved and is lost when you leave the game or load a save. For this reason, it's best to get used to the provided automatic sorting options.
I think the main quest was superb in the beginning - White Orchard, Vizima, until the end of Velen and the Bloody Baron. After that I think it's okay in Novigrad, but after a while gets too drawn out and feels artificial because it's like a laundry list of characters to meet. Skellige was also...
If you imported or didn't simulate, I think he doesn't ask you anything but still gives you a similar summary of the choices and story. I may be mistaken, haven't tried that myself, but I'm pretty sure.
Eh, would've been cool to have that.
At what point in the game are you? Is it the same as before?
On 1.08, I couldn't progress the quests (show statuette to Triss) after finishing the last Triss quest in Novigrad. And it was impossible to talk to her ("Well?") when she appeared after that point.
Sorry. To compensate for that I'll say that, of course, any kind of improvement to the world and story is welcome.
I'm sure this must have been said in the 169 pages, but at the very least, NPCs like Triss should stay in the world to allow us to complete things like the statuette quests and get...