[GENERAL]Monsters and XP

[grandempereor]

[GENERAL]Monsters and XP

Is it just me, or are there others that find the assignment of XP to certain monster types a bit strange?I've witnessed this in Acts II and III, where the XP aquired for monsters does not seem to fight thier potential danger to Geralt and the effort needed to bring them down.Let us start with Act II and take a closer look at fleders, graveirs and wyvern. Fleders, you meet unrelated to quests at night in the Temple Quarter, so they should be designed to be beatable unrelated to your current level. They are tough, as they can lift off and have a scream that will paralyze you when hit. And on top of that, if they can bite, you will not only loose health, but they also restore thier health. So, they do bring a nice amount of XP, depending on level around 375 points roughly between level 15 and 20. The key to be victorious is speed, they are fast enough to evade the signs thrown at them (especially Aard and Igni), so you're up to strong style silver, if you face them the same time with human enemies, you're in for a hard fight. But if you are fast enough, you can bring them down without taking to much damage. That's okay. Then we have graveirs. They are related to two quests (Finder's Keeper's and the "Wine"-quest). In the first quest, they most likely attack seperated. Since they are rather slow, in this situation, they are rather easy to beat, depending on your level, you might not even need potions or oils. Just let them come close, hit them with an enhaced dose of igni to throw them back a little and "weaken" them, then draw your sword (strong silver), and if your timing is right, you can finish them without taking damage from them. In the second quest, you face four them at the same time in a cellar. Without swallow and necrophage oil, you have to fight for live until all are dead. On a site note, they seem to be really dumb. Do a little grinding in the crypt in the sewers - you likely run into a situation where you meet two or three of them in a corridor, where you have to fight one and the others line up waiting for the first to fall before trying to move in a better combat position, so they can attack you. About at the same level as for the fleders, they will bring 235 XP. And then there are wyverns. Fast, and of course with some intelligence. They can fly and they seem to know of thier possibilities. They try to move you into a bad position, I even had some swooping to my back, trying to drive me to the others so they can surround me (Geralt died two times this way). They are fought best with fast silver, and it takes some time to bring them down. So, of the three named species, they are in my opinion the toughest, but they only bring 145 XP at the estimated level.Similar in Act III, take gorgos (german version, the censored word in english, ends with "trice"), kikimore warriors and royal wyverns. Gorgos will bring at level 31 still impressive 670 points, and they are rather easy to beat since they are rather small compared to the two others, and you won't have to fight more than three at a time. Kikimore warrior will bring at the same time 435 points, they are tough and slow, but easy to beat if you're lucky, as they get easily distracted and attack everything else around, mostly drowners and the like. Then there are royal wyverns, bigger than thier cousins, but on the same strategy. Again they are the toughest of the batch and seem to make plans on how to get you, and you will get 405 point for one. All three seem to be quest (or contract) related, as always I tried "Diplomacy and Hunting", there were two kikimore warriors in the fight with the salamandra, the other two are needed for contracts. So it is okay that all three are tough, as opposed to monsters you can run into when you are not on the right level. But why is it, that the most dangerous monster of each batch is also the one which will bring the least XP?I don't mind the points they bring, but I always thought XP should be measured by the efforts, you have to take to be victorious over them. So, if I'm not after XP, I would try to avoid contact with wyverns and royal wyverns and prefer to fight the others...So, in my view the order in terms of XP for these six species should be (from most to least): Royal wyverns, kikimore warriors, fleders, wyverns, gorgos and finally graveirs.Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it seems a bit illogical that the most dangerous monsters do not deliver the most XP. Although this may sound like a rant, I'm kind of glad of the facts as they are. While trying to look deeper into the XP monsters give you, I did some runs of the swamp in Act III, and after I hated the swamp in Act II (just going in there for one quest and then returning to the city for some rest), I got really fond of the swamp in Act III - once you've spent an afternoon and a night there, cleaning the region, it turns out to be a rather lovely place, especially at sunrise when it isn't raining. Would be a nice place for Geralt to settle down...On an other note: bloedzuigers seem to exist in two versions, one with full XP that roam around the swamp, and an other version with limited XP on the small island north of the shrine of Melitele. I founf this out only a few days ago while cleaning the swamp. I still got 20 XP for the normal type, but on that island, I got only one point per monster. That island may be thier "nursery school" for young and inexperienced specimens, but they fight as hard as the others.

 

[username_2078226]

In some cases I find the XP points appropriate, but others indeed seem to give too much XP on their demise.As for "Bloedzuiger Island" I believe the devs set their XP low so that gamers didn't gain levels too quickly by visiting a bloedzuiger nest too often.If you think a little more about it, even if the monsters are poorly matched difficulty vs XP wise, the game tends to level off as your character level reduces the XP gained from such monsters. In theory then, you won't go too far in strength an Act without serious grinding. However, I will go one further:This topic can be directly linked to the issue of the overall difficulty of TW. Many have noticed that once Geralt reaches level 30 or so, many monsters are no-longer a challenge, making Acts IV, V and VI a relative breeze. Hence the mod for "insane difficulty". The game is a little out of balance beyond level 30, but until then, it is pretty good. Too bad Bruxae, Devourers, Cemetaurs, Mutants etc aren't more terrifyingly powerful foes worthly of Geralt's time and skill. SO, if the monsters are easy beyond level 30, WHY do some of them still give decent XP?In my opinion, who cares if "Murky Waters" is a nice place where one might settle down. The villagers fear the fields, and it is a little dissapointing that Geralt has no problem hacking the monsters to pieces. The town is nice, but make the fields dangerous people! And I certainly didn't find the manor a challenge in Act V (the Koshchey being the only worthy opponent) even in "Hard" difficulty.Good point GrandEmperor, though the problem of XP is the tip of the unbalanced "iceburg" of The Witcher.

 

[Gamewidow]

i was very grateful for the basilisks on my first plays through as my XP was pretty low ... i *think* i didn't hit even mid 30s by the end of my first run .. but now i finish in the 40s and i like the comfort of not having the fear everytime i step outside ... but i'm a wuss gamer

 

[grandempereor]

Yes, it seems unbalanced, but I won't consider it a flaw of the game (still in Act III), as I don't mind if can can get rather easy thorugh a game if the the story is great. And that is one of the points that make me liking the game. That is: you almost can't make mistake that will you prevent to play through. You might have to reload some times because you weren't correctly prepared for a battle, but adversaries/riddles are really solvable. I also like adventures, and the opposite way that The witcher is done in let me dislike Myst IV - there you had two situations in which you had only about five seconds or so to solve a complicated riddle involving much clicking and high precission mouse movement, which rendered the game unplayable. With the Witcher, you loose a fight, try another combination of potions, oils and signs, and you will get through.Still, it might be nice if (maybe in Witcher 2) the monster will be generated on your current level, i.e. some your level minus 5, some the same level, some stronger. This way even the mass of drowners would not become an anoyance, but the game would still be a nice playthrough without frustations.