WHEN are you going to fix POTIONS?

[scyld]

WHEN are you going to fix POTIONS?

FIRST: Yes, my tone is EXTREMELY exasperated in this post. That's because I LOVE The Witcher 2, feel passionate about it, and credit the development team at CDPROJEKTRED for making such a wonderful game. And because CDPROJEKTRED otherwise did such a great job with this game, it makes this one flaw all the more bewildering...


The Witcher 2 is SUCH a good game, and I'm loving the new difficulty mode, which really requires you to use all the tools available to the Geralt.

That said: WHY DO I NOT HAVE OPPORTUNITIES TO TAKE POTIONS BEFORE MAJOR BATTLES?

Out of EVERYTHING, out of all the elements done right, this is the most amateurish and silly design flaw of them all!

I'm currently at a fight with a lot of powerful enemies. There was ABSOLUTELY NO TIME I COULD MEDITATE before the fight (I will not say where or which fight so as not to spoil the storyline).

And as for other boss fights, I was unknowingly "sucked" into them by an unexpected cutscene. I was only luckly that I save so often, that I could load a save close to the boss but where I could still meditate.

This is seriously absurd. I just don't understand how anyone at CDPROJEKTRED could allow this, considering how well-designed EVERYTHING else in the game is.


We are on the SECOND major patch, with an increased difficulty level that really calls for the enhancements given by potions, and yet I STILL AM GETTING LOCKED OUT OF DRINKING POTIONS, BECAUSE I CANNOT MEDITATE!!!


Why??? Is this just seriously going to be ignored and included as a part of the console ports???

PLEASE, PLEASE--BEFORE you release the game onto consoles, PLEASE do SOMETHING about this!!!!

AT LEAST explain WHY you designed the game this way, and WHY you are NOT going to fix this...

 

[GuyNwah]

It was a game design decision to prohibit drinking potions except as you can meditate to do so. This was done for the good reason of requiring the player to plan ahead rather than merely wade into major battles and use artificial saving devices to cheapen the danger of combat.

Developers should never apologize for making a game that works in the manner they intended.

 

[scyld]

It was a game design decision to prohibit drinking potions except as you can meditate to do so. This was done for the good reason of requiring the player to plan ahead rather than merely wade into major battles and use artificial saving devices to cheapen the danger of combat.

Developers should never apologize for making a game that works in the manner they intended.

I'm sorry, but... did you read the situations to which I was specifically referring?


If you didn't, I'm NOT talking about taking potions in the middle of battle, like The Witcher 1.

I'm talking about major encounters where you cannot meditate BEFORE them at all.

If you cannot meditate BEFORE a major encounter, if you're given no opportunity to do so at all, then how can you prepare for it??

 

[dragonbird]

There's only one battle sequence in the game where you can't take potions in advance, and that's clearly deliberate.

And yes, it's challenging, but as long as you have two-three skills in Swordsman, and are at the correct skill and difficulty levels, it should still be possible to defeat the enemy.

(Sorry, but I really don't know what the problem is here. If you're having problems with one battle, and yes, we probably all know which it is, there's threads giving hints and tips, or we would happily give advice if you need it).

 

[scyld]

There's only one battle sequence in the game where you can't take potions in advance, and that's clearly deliberate.

And yes, it's challenging, but as long as you have two-three skills in Swordsman, and are at the correct skill and difficulty levels, it should still be possible to defeat the enemy.

(Sorry, but I really don't know what the problem is here. If you're having problems with one battle, and yes, we probably all know which it is, there's threads giving hints and tips, or we would happily give advice if you need it).

Ok, if you say that potions are intentionally disabled for that one battle, fine. (Also, there weren't indications that I needed skills in Swordsman for this... I'm hoping that they aren't as necessary as you suggest. I got pretty far partly out of luck, so I think I'll eventually get through this.)

However, there are plenty of battles in the game where the player may not expect to be forced into them and may not have a save close to the beginning of the battle.

All the autosaves for major battles are right at the beginning of the battle, not at any place where Geralt can meditate.


Is there a reason for this?

 

[GuyNwah]

There aren't actually any situations where you are sent into what will turn out to be a major battle without knowing that you are in for a major battle, except the one. Thus you can always, with the one intentional exception, meditate and drink potions before arriving at the battle site.

It is not a flaw to require the player to prepare before reaching the location of an expected major fight.

 

[nightwishnz]

Geralt gets possessed by the solders in the battle,he relives there experiences so potions would not work anyway would they?that is how i see it anyway.

 

[jidvei]

The witcher 1 was perfect and they should've gone the same route with this one.
Add 3 more slots (4 slots after that specific skill in alchemy) for potions alongside the weapon/bomb slots and make them key bindable. This way you can drink them whenever you want in and out of combat, cleary see how many you have left without pausing to go through the inventory and for 'immersion' sake make the effects active after 1 minute or 2 to let the 'poison' go through your whole body.

Having to go through so many actions just to drink potions and watch the same animation over and over again how he drinks them expecially now that they last ridiculously less than in the first game makes this entire process annoying really fast.
WHY the neeeed to meditate? He doesn't even meditate. Just goes on his knees and drinks them!:|

This also frustrated me on my first playthrough when i went full alchemy build thinking that why wouldn't this work? You CAN finish game with swords/magic only, why would this build be any special? I did eventually finish the game because it was on normal difficulty but i barely used any potions. I just said 'F*** it'.

 

[dragonbird]

There are only a few occasions I can think of when there's a battle that you might not have expected - when you get ambushed by bounty hunters, and the two battles immediately before the last battle in the game. The ambush ones could be an issue, but you do usually see them in advance, and most of them aren't that difficult anyway, even without potions. On the two battles near the end of the game, you still have opportunity to take potions between finding out you're going to have to fight and the fight starting.

For everything else, you know you're going to a dangerous location, so take the potions first. If you don't know what the enemy is going to be, just go for the standards such as Swallow.

That leaves the one fight where you absolutely cannot use potions.

If I'm playing on Alchemy or Mage build, I usually put three points into swordsmam - one each on position, riposte and violence. He is a swordsman, and I don't think it's realistic to give him zero skills in that tree, unless you've played through several times already and want to try to something different.

And since we all know which battle it is, if you're stuck on it and don't have swordsman skills, look at this thread, because the advice will work for you too.
http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/24753-the-eternal-battle-dark-mode/

The "potion in advance" method does work when you're used to it and plan ahead. If it wasn't for the annoying animation every time he takes a potion, it's actually more immersive, as he wouldn't realistically have the time to grab a drink while fighting. Think back to the opening Striga scene in TW1 - he drinks before and after, but not during.

(Jidvei posted while I was looking for the link. And I do agree with him about the animation. It's annoying. But I also found "having to find a fireplace in order to meditate" annoying in TW1, so there's always something.)

 

[gregski]

Personally I never had a problem with potions in TW2, I just treated every new location as a possibly dangerous area, so before entering it I would meditate and take some standard potions to keep myself alive. If I knew what to expect - like with the monster contracts for example - then I could use more specialized potions.

I agree that there are parts of the game when you don't have time to medidate or you're being ambushed, but I think this is rather good design choice showing that even the Witcher might be surprised once or twice and he has to deal with that without his potions.

 

[Randomdrowner2015]

Personally, I would welcome being able to pop a potion as long as there is time for a quick animation, but with lower effects (half).

 

[saesenthesis]

It was a game design decision to prohibit drinking potions except as you can meditate to do so. This was done for the good reason of requiring the player to plan ahead rather than merely wade into major battles and use artificial saving devices to cheapen the danger of combat.

Developers should never apologize for making a game that works in the manner they intended.

This.

 

[secondchildren]

I never felt that I need to drink\meditate anything before a boss battle. I mean:

Spoiler

-kayran fight: you need a few potions and your tolerance is not high enough to drink more than two. The rest is all QTEs. I didn't know that QTEs needed any preparation

-draug fight: It's too easy at that point of the game. And I don't think a potion can help much against a fire rain. Correct me if I am wrong.

-letho fight 1 and 2: you need strategy and patience, not potions. And you need bombs. Lots of bombs.

-dragon fight: you still need potions? seriously?

Basically I think you really need alchemy in non-boss fight. Some of them are even too painful

Spoiler

Yes, I'm talking to you, Harpy Queen!

 

[Randomdrowner2015]

I never felt that I need to drink\meditate anything before a boss battle. I mean:

Spoiler

-kayran fight: you need a few potions and your tolerance is not high enough to drink more than two. The rest is all QTEs. I didn't know that QTEs needed any preparation

-draug fight: It's too easy at that point of the game. And I don't think a potion can help much against a fire rain. Correct me if I am wrong.

-letho fight 1 and 2: you need strategy and patience, not potions. And you need bombs. Lots of bombs.

-dragon fight: you still need potions? seriously?

Basically I think you really need alchemy in non-boss fight. Some of them are even too painful

Spoiler

Yes, I'm talking to you, Harpy Queen!

Against a fellow witcher or any other "honourable" opponent, my Geralt would never use anything that the other didn't use.

 

[not_slimgrin]

I'm critical as well of being sucked into major battles without the ability to use alchemy, or worse yet, having cut scenes drain my potions - I doubt they did this on purpose. It makes Zero sense. When I first went to see Letho, I had dutifully prepared, and then after the lengthy conversation between him, Iorvethn and Geralt...my potions were nearly drained. WTF?

And anyone saying potions aren't necessary, play on darkmode. Also, they are part of the gameplay and should be implemented correctly.


Edit: the meditation cut scene has been removed for The EE.

 

[dragonbird]

Against a fellow witcher or any other "honourable" opponent, my Geralt would never use anything that the other didn't use.

??

Spoiler

Letho uses bombs

 

[username_2093396]

I'm critical as well of being sucked into major battles without the ability to use alchemy, or worse yet, having cut scenes drain my potions - I doubt they did this on purpose. It makes Zero sense. When I first went to see Letho, I had dutifully prepared, and then after the lengthy conversation between him, Iorvethn and Geralt...my potions were nearly drained. WTF?

And anyone saying potions aren't necessary, play on darkmode. Also, they are part of the gameplay and should be implemented correctly.

I was thinking of that example as well. It seems silly for the potion duration to be so short to begin with and then to expire during cutscenes. In TW1 when I took a potion it lasted for the whole "night" as far as the game was concerned. It's a considerable handicap to alchemy in TW2 that the potions now only last for a few minutes in real time.

Edit: the meditation cut scene has been removed for The EE.

Interesting. When did that happen?

 

[not_slimgrin]

I read in an article that when we get the enhanced Edition for TW2, Geralt will no longer take the meditation stance to drink potions. We just drink and go.

 

[jidvei]

I read in an article that when we get the enhanced Edition for TW2, Geralt will no longer take the meditation stance to drink potions. We just drink and go.

Please let this be true!

 

[username_2093396]

I read in an article that when we get the enhanced Edition for TW2, Geralt will no longer take the meditation stance to drink potions. We just drink and go.

Cool Did the article explain in more detail? I mean, can we drink whenever we want to or is drinking still limited to situations in which we would be allowed to meditate?