[TW1][mod] Full Combat Rebalance v1.3 RC

[Mothra]

I'm liking the mod. But I have a few problems so far:When I first entered Vesma, I had to exploit the game by running away from the Green dogs consistantly. I lighted the shrines, but never actually tried fighting any green dogs. Just dodging and glitching the spawn system...I can't do group style because it does nil damage since I don't have a silver sword or nessecarily oil for it. I had to reload over 10 times if I recall. The problem is: I haven't got access to the 'nessecary' counters. I tried a heavy club, tried group style, etc. Boss fights with multiple enemies might be unbalanced. For example, maybe the part with the bald mage in the prologue where you needed to kill the bandits providing energy to him.Will more parts of the game like this with FCR?

you are doing something fundamentaly wrong if you can't even kill the few dogs in the "light fires" quest in the prologue. - are you playing on insane ? - did you play TW before ? - did you use whet/grindstone ? - do you have specter oil ? - did you eat/drink and take potions ? - how many strikes with strong style does it take to kill 1 dog ?- do you know that the whole damage is applied at start of attack in FCR ? so you don't have to finish the animation, just start and interrupt/evade:e.g. a drowner on low level takes me 2 sequences on strongwhat I do when more than 1 drowner comes is to start sequence on drowner1, interrupt, start seq on drowner2, interrupt and then use group style (which is my lowest skill) and they are either dead or under fear. You should also learn bombs if you struggle or wanna own in the game since it makes a few encounters very, very easy. With a samum bomb you can kill every necrophage there is without getting damage or having to use necrophage oil. I finished a few fights in the game without any oils. Just bombs and insta-kills.I never invested a talent in group style and finished FCR on hard without much problems. There will be fights were you will insta-die no matter what you do since it is still founded in possibilities and grouping of enemies, how cutscenes play out change that. Many times I died in Vivaldi's Bank because I got attacked during an un-interruptable cutscene.

 

[mungo13]

I tryed that fight with Beast: It is no-go. I loaded older save, even slept at cave for 24 hours - after part with villagers game shows animation with the Beast is a brief flash of gameplay screen snad then camera switch to a view from far distance and flyes toward fire ring - just after that the combat starts. 6 barghests plus beast. Trying to win by sword is simply suicide - I die usually because od HP depletion, or some attack cause (quite often) pain = death. Group styles increases time of the survival, but doesn't win the fight. After 1 1/2 hour of trying I twice won the fight, few times was able to get rid of barghests but lost the fight to the Beast (I can count it as a chance to win). All the rest I was dead - sooner or later.Evasive maneuvers are useless - Geralt many times simply stucks, does nothing and is attacked, especially jump over enemy is almost suicide - I was too many times attacked in air and I was dead when I touched the ground. Running is far safer.So only really valid tactics is trying to immediately close to the Beast and try to stun her and get an instant kill - no fighting.Maybe I am really burried in some bug in game, but 6 barghests - Oh, and I had a chance to watch group of bandits beating fledder (well, beating is for sure not the right word) - very amusing ))))P.S. Flash - I noticed that you mentioned some mods for Fallout3 - where I can find them? I looked at Nexus server, but under Flash name, there are only few reskins. I am asking, because it was your FCR which made me to leave Fa3 (1st gameplay) for some time and start to play Witcher again

 

[Flash]

Remember you can cancel attack animation in the middle of attack and run. In Beast fight I keep running around the battlefield and slashing with group style. Just run around and perform one attack, then run and one attack, run, one attack. After 30 seconds with specter oil all barghests are dead. Then I'm one on one with the Beast and usually I don't want to risk being hit so I just keep aarding till its stunned.1.5 year ago I was making a mod for Fallout 3. It's 90% done but patch and DLC came out with another DLCs planned. I decided to wait for other DLCs and I left the project. Will return to it someday. It was about rebalance of course All guns, armors, enemies and more or less S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system were rebalanced to mimic Fallout 2 system as close as it was possible at that time.

 

[mungo13]

Yes, of course I can also use tactic like run-turn&burn-run-repeat, but I was trying, whether it can be done by the way of the sword. P.S. I killed that fledder by this way, but instead of the IGNI I used AARD and finally stunned him - as the pure sword makes no damage to him - nor did any bandit nor order knights (I should also lured in wraith and two ghouls, who were already made some fistfighting to see the results ). A dozen attempts ended by one succesful. When it comes to damage - when you apply runes on a silver sword, does it improves characteristics of any sword, or it renders any sword (like ard'aeyne) to be ordinary silver sword with runes? Just to know, whether I should save some runes for later use, or it is useless and I can use them to improve my sword before better swords appear.P.S. Looking forward to that Fa3 Mod - hopefully

 

[youtuber]

How exactly do I kill gouls?FFS.I put necrophage oil on. I use quick style. It takes 4 attack animations to kill one, then I have only 25% health. Then 3 more gouls spawn.Group style sucks. Even if you attack, the animations are bugged and the enemy is able to hit you. It also does minimal damage with necrophage oil.Tips? I can't block/prevent enemy attack animations. Running around in a cave is silly. Real combat doesn't consist of running around and exploiting the dumb AI. . . . . . . . . . . . . Difficulty is fun, yes. But this game has a bugged combat system where I haven't figured out how to block and avoid attacks. The damage done, even with oils, is so small. Especially when enemies can damage you without appearing to do so. All it has to do is comence the attack animation....Hopefully once I've been helped with combat tips, I can practise and rely on myself.

 

[Flash]

Ghouls? First read bestiary entry in journal.You have plenty of means to kill enemies, plenty of buffs. Use Place of Power and Aard focus stone. Strong style is a dedicated style for leather armor/monster skin, not fast style. Learning strong style level 2 helps a ton. Use standard set of potions: Blizzard, Swallow and Tawny Owl.Lure ghouls one by one instead of rushing into the room. Hit him with strong style untill he's dead or add Aard to it. Wounded enemies are more vulnerable to knockdown and stun.If you find defeating some enemy impossible it's not because of mod difficulty but because of wrong tactic. You need to read the journal, read bestiary entry, learn about your enemy, prepare with everything you have and then, only then start hunting. That's what witchers do. Place of Power, focus stone, potions, oils, bombs plus knowledge of enemy strengths and weaknesses.

Yes, of course I can also use tactic like run-turn&burn-run-repeat, but I was trying, whether it can be done by the way of the sword.

You can talk about the way of the sword in duels. When facing 7 enemies same time you can't just stand there and hope that swinging your sword will be enough. Enemies will surround you and tear you apart. Even witchers don't have eyes around their head. You have to be mobile, find a good spot and attack, then reposition.Check these fight to see what I mean when I say about positioning and being mobile:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HIThnstj7Yhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bDFSKv99wThis is not FCR but it perfectly shows how important it is to move. When I have a chance I never more than 1 enemy to reach me. Plus proper utilisation of Yrden and Quen.

 

[mungo13]

Look at group style in the Dev. Tree - basic level meann -6 damage byt +5 parry (or dodge?). Means, that group style deliver much smaller damage, but increases your deffence.It doesn't suck, wit specter oil, you can stand and fightagainst 3 barghests wit very good chances. But at this level its not fit for strong opponentsLook back in topics and also to the Excel table - ghoul at the beginning is not only strong, his skin reduces damage by 15 pts., but also regenerte by 2.5 HP/s. Switch to strong style, drink blizzard hit-jump away and repeat it couple of times. But keep attacking him, otherwise he regenerates. Also you can hit him with Igni and partly reduce regeneration, if you can set him on fire (and you have this improvement), or even better - hit him couple of times, then use AARD - you can stun him and then kill him by single blow.Depends on your character - I had Intelligence on Lev3, and that increase power of Signs. And don't expect, that you can go out from every fight against ghoul unscratched.When I was cleaning crypt, I had to wait some time and regenerate, or even reload, because after 1-2 fights I had so few HP, that regeneration would be too long. Again - strong, regenerates and hits hard = strong style, oil, signs, be carefull, but also keep attacking and just small retreats.And if your Aard is too weak - use circle of power, stone ring of Aard or even basic Aard - it at least shrow him to ground and while he is standing up, you have time for 1 free attack sequence without retaliation.Flash: Way of sword meant, that I will kill them mainly by sword and whether I can really win this part by fighting. Just whether it is possible to win this part by fighting (with moving, running, jumping, casting Igni - whatever else) not just STUN-Kill-go home. Or simply - I was trying to fight it, as if the Beast had immunity to Stun effect.Of course, I was also moving, trying to get some space and attack from other side and don't let them to go arround me or block me from moving. I wasn't just standing and clicking.

 

[Mothra]

2nd video you can see that he spams igni without getting the other Devourers so that could be optimized. BlackBlood is also not necessary since those are necrophages, not vampires. but like Flash said: you should get the picture, read those entries, use meditation to lower toxicity after using high tox potions and move, just like a real witcher would do. interrupting sequences is paramount if you are fighting more than one monster, especially in later chapters where you need to change swordoil inmidst fights (spectre/necrophages/vampires all in the same room). you can only do this in a corner with e.g. Quen activated or after using a bombs. I never played TW with bombs in vanilla, I just found them boring, especially fear since you are so buff in the vanilla version it makes more sense to kill everybody at once. But in FCR you need breathing room and BOMBS make 20minute fight go down in 2minutes. e.g. necrophages: cemetaur/graveir - if they swarm you you are insta-dead on hard. use the right bomb (samum) and you can insta-kill 3 necros during its effect, rinse-repeat: I killed a whole crypt by running through it, funneling all necros in a bottleneck and spamming samum. 20 monsters in a few minutes as opposed to : bait, kill, repeat.That's not lame, that is using all means to your disposal. I'm doing a sword-fighter build now and never use any signs, only bombs and sword, it's much easier (I think) then my mage-build that had almost no swordskill and didnt even scratch the surface of a devouerer or bruxa.

 

[youtuber]

MungoYou lost a lot of health during 1-2 fights in the Crypt?I nearly died after 1-2 ghoul.I attack, then jump away. I try to be quick and precise with my timing.But the glitched combat shows that Im hit, even if I prevent the Ghoul from doing an animation or the chance to do one. While im attacking, it still manages to pull some damage on me.Am I missing something? Because No matter how decicive I am during combat, the Ghoul gets to hit me. There goes 1/2 of my health insantly. Regen takes time, but the ghouls regen too. It takes 4-5 attack animations with nechorphage oil to kill a ghoul. I don't have access to high level potions, level 2 strong or spells.When 3 Ghouls instantly spawn.... no chance to pick them off 1 by 1.... I die pretty quickly.I use aard. I have the oil. I can't make/afford bombs yet. I don't have high levelled potions and signs. I don't have silver.Sorry for the hassle. I'm obviously missing out on a concept of combat. I do not want to restart the game without FCR uninstalled.

 

[Flash]

If you are struggling then finish some other quest and return with higher level. Strong style level 2 makes the fight much easier.Clearing the crypt with level 4 witcher on insane difficulty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLFb53e5n3UCheck other movies of this user on youtube. He has recorded almost every difficult fight in the game.

 

[youtuber]

Thanks, Ghouls are much easier now.Is it possible to prevent the enemy from hitting me, minimum damage?Some tricky techniques?

 

[Mothra]

combat in TW is NOT twitchbased. so even when you evade or run away if the monster started his attack before that (which you can't usually see) you will get damage. e.g.me and the monster start the attack at the same time, he does 5 dmg + 1dmg over 5 seconds from some effectI WILL do 25dmg with my sword sequence. so I can start the sequence, stop after the 1st one and 1sec later the monsters dies like from a miracle without me touching it AND I get 1dmg from the monster although it is already DEAD. this is how this works. you can turn/evade/run away and still get damage.

 

[Flash]

The game is based on Neverwinter Nights engine. This means that combat is calculated by game and animations are just an eye-candy addition. You don't have to actually see monster hitting you. He is still attacking and it's not a glitch.

 

[mungo13]

Youtuber:loosing lot of health means nearly die in FCR. HP bar in this version is just a few points - maybe 40 HP altogether and ghoul hits pretty hard - 3-4 hits and you may be dead. So I was very close to death and I didn't want to spawn and fight another ghoul, as e.g. the power-up from circle of AARD is short lasting and could diminish before I regenerate (because there was fight with Ozzrel in ahead).So do not run to the crypt too fast. Make some levels, you can take Living anatomy talent, that increase damage by 1, bronze talent to strong style gives you another 2 points of damage, also higher dextrity increases your defence and reduce chances in favour of you.And move slowly in crypt, so you don't spawn two ghouls and also those already spawned attract just on by one. You have some time, so have patience. And when fight starts, retreat back towards entrance/exit, not inside the crypt - this way you will spawn onother.And for training - do you remember where Vesna was standing with group of bandits? She was facing towards the 2 houses: just behind the left one is a corpse and every night (i think that between 24:00 - ~3:00 (or even 5), there is a ghoul feeding on it. Maybe you will have to kill 2-3 barghests, but just go there, save and you can test, whether geralt can kill him. Load and try again. So you may train retreat, stuns and also see damage, you can inflict. If he is hitting you too often, then you have to wait a little bit.If I'm right, I was at Lev. 8 when I made first run in crypt. And as I played vanilla, I knew, what is waiting there.Oh, and little warning: If you want to clean the crypt or later even to kill Ozzrel, you have to do that more or less in a single run. If you meditate (if there is a fireplace - there are some, where yes) or if you leave the crypt and return, you reset it - that menas, all ghouls will be back. So if you have a bad fight with ghoul and cannot afford to wait - reload.

 

[youtuber]

Hi Flash.You were right, I picked the right skills and counters, and combat isn't that bad.Anyway, I've met a few possible bugs. They are probably not related with the mod.I can't purchase level 4 intelligence or dexterity, even though I have a spare silver talent to invest in. Im level 12.Monster Lore under Intelligence doesn't add Drowners into the bestiary entry.The Order Merchant in Vizima sometimes allow trade, sometimes doesnt. Even though I chose to fight with Siegfried in the sewers.

 

[Mothra]

lvl4 intelligence is a gold talent. it should say so in the description (at least mine does so)order merchant doesn't trade if you helped Zoltan/Vivaldi, he only trades with you permanently if you helped Siegfried in the swamps in Act2. don't know, monster lore did add a few monsters but I can't remember if its drowners as well, it's ghoul for sure.

 

[Flash]

Glad you're back on track.As for problems:1. Talents descriptions state that level 4 main branch of trees require gold talent.2. The mod doesn't touch this. No changes done.3. The mod doesn't touch this. No changes done.

 

[youtuber]

Does flash mod make Level 4 eveyrthing 'appear' to have silver talent required?Strange bug...

 

[Flash]

?Flash Mod has nothing to do with it. There's no Flash Mod in FCR. Just read talent descriptions.

 

[mungo13]

Does flash mod make Level 4 eveyrthing 'appear' to have silver talent required?Strange bug...

It's just unchanged graphic (I didn't note it, untill I tryed to get 4th level of the Dextrity).So forgett about copper / grey-silver / yellow-gold look of the pictures and look at the descriptions. Simply core-improvements 1-3 level are silver, 4-5 gold; side improvements all-bronze. About drowners - except books, you should talked to old womens in village in Act I - repeatedly. From time to time, dialogue window appears and you can give them some foon and as a reward you get random info about herbs or basic monsters.Oh, but as You are already in Act. II - did you finished quest e.g. Drowner contract for Reverend? If you already had note about drowners in your diary - then you cold't get it once more from Monster lore.