+1, very annoying feature.

I've never had that cause me a problem yet but in general I too would like to make these decisions entirely myself to maximize immersion. They decided that you needed 2 keys on the keyboard to draw your sword, and one to sheathe it, but they don't give much opportunity for you to actually use those keys and I'd certainly like that opportunity. To be honest I've played tonnes of RPGs and other games and don't remember any game ever forcibly sheathing my weapon for me or it ever being something that was necessary to have in the game engine.

I for one would much rather be eaten alive or murdered in a game for failing to draw my own weapon than have a game hand hold and do everything for me, making assumptions about what to do and when to do it. I mean, why doesn't the game auto-cast random signs for you as well? Why doesn't it auto-mount Roach and auto-dismount when it thinks it is appropriate? Why doesn't it auto walk forward for you? It could do all those things, but it doesn't. Because it'd be extra annoying if it did. :) Annoying like auto-sheathe weapon is.

If they don't patch this in an update to be an option, I hope someone makes it an option via a mod or I might very well download the SDK when it comes out and make the mod myself.

An auto-win-the-game feature would be cool =)
I mean, why playing by ourselves when everything could be automated.

But seriously, you're absolutely right. This is casualisation and it breaks my immersion a lot.
No mentioning when I press the key in the same time than the computer. Dammit.

I would turn the expansion pack in if they gave the option + the option to manually enter combat mode.

Because sometimes I just want to traverse the environment, but the game changes your animation set to the combat type and it's so annoying D:

Also +1 victim of fist fighting against monsters and enemies.

Maybe not exactly that but...it would be nice if Geralt didn't slow down when you order him to sprint away from the battle. That would solve the problem perfectly.

ARGH!!! I am on a level 34 quest for treasure hunt gear at Kaer Gelen. I just headed over there on horseback after talking to the druids not far away. I've been to Kaer Gelen earlier while at level 22 or so and it was too intense so I had to back off, but now I'm level 28 and feeling confident so heading back there. On the way I encountered a wyvern and turned him into wyvern burgers in a flick of my wrist.

Ok, so far everything is good right?

So, I approach the fortress and remember the main gate has the portcullis down, and that on the right side of that around the corner was an entrance that was open. I remember going through it before and there were very high level enemies waiting inside, I believe they were level 31 ghosts that don't appear until you are inside the room. However, now not only is Geralt higher level and more experienced with more cool shit, better armor and weapons etc. but my skill at playing has advanced a fair bit too, not only with combat, but with assessing a situation and thinking outside of the box.

Ok, so far everything is good right?

So I head to the left of the main entrance instead and decide to circle the building to see what I can see, assess my options, possibly find hidden chests or whatnot. I find another entrance that goes to the second floor/roof of the building so I go up there and find a few chests and a bunch of dead bodies. I find a glowing door and leave it temporarly and I find a stair case leading down inside the fortress. I'm thinking "ok, that staircase might be my alternate way in, kind of sneaking in the back way so to speak" so I ear mark it for later and decide to investigate the door instead. I head over to the door and with caution in mind I cast quen and draw my silver sword. I coat it in specter oil because I know there are ghosts near by and I want to be prepared. I prep moon dust and dimiterium bombs also.

Ok, so far everything is good right?

I cautiously open the door and don't see anything so I proceed into the room carefully and suddenly I see an etherially cloaked figure coming towards me. It looks like how an invisible creature would distort the light passing through it like Predator in the movies, so I know there is some kind of invisible creature in the room but the door closes and I'm trapped in this small room with some unknown creature. But, I have quen already activated and my sword drawn so I don't waste time swinging furiously. After a bit of swinging around the creature materializes and it is an Ekimara of level 28 or 29 or so. That's not good, they're pretty powerful and it's nice to be a higher level than they are when fighting them, but it's a level higher than me or so. No problem I kick ass pretty good so it's on! The room is too small to be tossing bombs around so that's out of the equation. I think quick and go into inventory and drink black blood. I could have took a few other potions but I haven't been over-potioning unless I need it so I coat my sword with vampire oil instead. I figure this should do the trick, plus I have some essence or some shit that heals you instantly in my consumables if things get tight and it has 3 potions to fall back on.

Ok, so far everything is good right?

Intense battle ensues, I throw Yrden down not sure if it will help against an ekimmera or not but it's free and might help so we battle it out within the Yrden trap. I have to hit up one of my insta-heals as he nailed me good but I'm back to normal now and pounding the crap out of him. Long story short: Geralt: 1 Ekimmara: 0

Ok, so far everything is good right?

I scour the room to find 2 chests with the usual deplorable useless loot in them, I swipe it all, heal up, meditate for an hour to recover potions then head over to the staircase I found. I fire up quen, re-coat my sword with specter oil for those ghosts again, pre-configure moon dust active, save my game.

Ok, so far everything is good right?

On the way down the stairs there's a room to the right with a chest in it, I clear it out. Either that chest or some other chest I find next has the quest loot in it and my quest completes with all the usual fanfare. At this point I could just hike the crap out of there and stick my tongue out mockingly at the ghosts that I avoided with brains over brawn, but my sword is dripping with specter oil so I need to wipe it clean with some ghost blood!

Ok, so far everything is good right?

As I get to the bottom of the stairs, I hear noises and wraiths materialize. They're not too powerful, mid 20s or so, I can carve them up right good with minimal effort. One makes it to the stairs and I slice and dice him on the spot with some help from Yrden. Another wraith is about 3 feet away. So guess what happens next?

No seriously, just take a guess.

Yes, that's right, Geralt - IN COMBAT, with an ATTACKING WRAITH THREE FEET AWAY, and I believe a second wraith not far behind that one - decides to sheath his FUCKING SWORD. No fucking shit! I'm like WHAT THE FUCK??? I'm getting attacked by a wraith and he sheathes his sword. This is not in any way "combat is over", this is as close in combat as you can be. The wraith is literally passing through Geralt's body in attack mode in ethereal form! So I draw the sword back out, take one swing and guess what? Yep, you guessed it - Geralt re-sheathes the fucking sword. It does this once more and I just about lose it.

I saved the game and paused it to have a breather. It sits there like that right now. Not sure whether it will do it again when I go back to it, but if need be I am going to punch the fucking crap out of that damned wraith bare chested in my underwear if I have to.

I'm surprised the game doesn't auto-remove your armor for you too. :)

Anyhow I thought some additional ranting would be therapeutic and hopefully humourous. Might as well make someone else get a chuckle from my frustration over this nonsense right? :) I really should install FRAPS or something and make a video of this crap. :) It'd be therapeutic and good for some laughs I'm sure. I am Steam broadcasting though if anyone is bored and hasn't encountered this wonderful "feature" yet. :) No guarantees it'll reproduce when I get back to my game at about 8:20pm (10 minutes) but this is the most notable auto-sheath incident I've seen to date. There's no question that battle is very much on because I'm in a 10x10 room with 1 to 2 wraiths attacking me at arms length. Hell, Geralt auto-DRAWS his sword when enemies are 5 times further away than that.

Incidentally... I looked on the Nexus to see if anyone made a mod to disable this crap yet but no such luck I'm afraid. Either way it looks like we have to wait until either:

1) CDPR adds an option to disable the auto-sheath feature (and hopefully a separate one to disable auto-draw also)

or

2) CDPR releases Redkit 2 SDK and someone can write a mod

I'd be happy to hear if anyone ventures to Kaer Gelen and attempts to recreate the scenario I describe above, doing the same actions as I did and whether they experience auto-sheath on the stairs also. I was about 1-2 stairs from the bottom when it occurred, not sure where I was the 2nd time I think I was into the room by then. Anyhow, if anyone does it, let me know how you fare. :)

Ok, back to my 5 min break before returning to fist fight ghosts and shit. :)

It does for fist fights. :P

In all seriousness auto-sheath is the most annoying idea ever (especially with enemies that like to briefly retreat). It is funny though, I'll be slaying bandits or harpies or whatever and Geralt will frequently sheath his sword mid-fight, yet if I'm riding Roach and a group of wolves or whatever prompts Geralt to auto-draw his sword no matter how far away from the mob I get he frequently will not resheath his sword. Funnier still, places where it would make sense to auto-sheath (such as when fast traveling) do not auto-sheath.

For all the care put into the game it astounds me that such a half-baked feature didn't get scrapped or fixed sooner.

Yeah, auto-sheath isn't just annoying, it is extremely inconsistent as you suggest. Depends not only on the enemy type, but how many of them there are and how far away they are. But the distance isn't consistent in all situations, it also depends on terrain, elevation and other factors that seem rather random.

Another thing I love is once in a very very rare circumstance when firing the crossbow or throwing a bomb, the game will throw or fire it 90 degrees to the left of where you're aiming for no apparent reason. Right out in the wide open on a field or something, no obstructions or odd terrain and... throw bomb or fire crossbow at enemy and it shoots over his left shoulder 90 degrees off screen to your left. When it happens, additional shots will go the same direction. I found switching weapons and back and running around a bit works the glitch out and then it works normally again. I'd say it happens maybe 1 in 50 times or so, not too often but real annoying when it happens.

Today's episode of auto-sheath gone wild at the most inopportune moment possible:

I just finished all of the scavenger hunt "?" locations in the waters north of Ard Skellige while on my way from Spikeroog area towards An Skellig, which is the final major island in Skellige which I have not yet set foot on. I just finished meditating on a small island not far away so it was 4:00am and nice and bright and sunny to start off the day's journey to An Skellig.

On this bright sunny day, I made bacon and eggs by campfire and gathered my shit together and boarded my magic boat that has no oars and can sail in the wind just by sitting down and holding a rudder. I think to myself "If there's one good thing the conjunction of the sphere's brought us, it's these auto powered boats.", as I proceed to debark on my journey to destination An Skellig. There's one final smuggler's cache in between here and there which I planned to take care of along the way.

The open sea is beautiful this morning with not a cloud in the sky, the sun is beating down and all is good. It's a fine day in Skellige and I'm making good time in the waves. Time passes and I'm nearing the smuggler's cache, no sirens in sight so that means this one has to be drowners. I hop in, take care of 4 drowners, grab the loot and back in the boat before you can say "Hjalmar's your uncle", I drip dry my armor for a minute while I adjust myself, then set off for the final destination, the north western shore of An Skellig, where it appears there is a beach with a path leading up toward a small town. Seems as good a spot as any.

I don't get 10 seconds into my journey though until the crystal clear windless sky changes almost like flicking a lightswitch to dark sky with grey clouds and a storm breaks out. Such immersion, it's just like real life! </sarcasm> At this point I bow my head for a moment to meditate to Freya and she gives me a minor vision that suggests to me that today started out good but it is going to turn sour rather soon. I heed Freya's omen and take great caution.

I arrive at my destination beach on An Skellig and oddly, no monsters on the beach or in the waters, and nothing to loot. Looks like I picked a good place to land but almost too good. Freya's vision passes before my mind's eye once more and I approach the path leading to the inner island but draw my steel sword and cast quen instinctually. I don't get more than 10-15 steps up the path when bandits spot me who have camped out at the top of the path. They shout curses at me telling me that my mom shat me out. Did they know her personally? Were they actually there at my birth? I'm close to 100 years old and they can't be more than 40 or so. How do they know of the conditions present at my birth? I'm hoping that we can resolve the situation peacefully and engage in friendly banter where hopefully I'll be able to share stories of my travels throughout the Skellige archipelago and hopefully get to hear more of what they know about my mom birthing me while we kick back some Temerian Rye.

Sadly, the storm seems to have gotten everyone all grumpy today. Yeah, they're definitely having a big case of "the Mondays" it seems, and one of them charges at me with a pike while another is not far behind sword in hand. I can hear another 1-2 of them but my focus is on the ones coming at me. Fortunately I had had the prescience to draw my sword and cast quen only seconds ago so I am totally ready for this little skirmish.

So far so good right? What could possibly go wrong right?

Ok, so I cast igni and hit two of them who burn and scream and by then at least one other guy is now only feet away, so there are at least 2 of them left and one of them is like 3 feet away and another about 5 feet away. My sword is drawn, I am in active battle. They are attacking me and know I am there and are not happy about my presence, I know they are there and I know they are attacking me. They have decided to initiate conflict with me and I am defending myself. We are both mutually aware of the conflict taking place and we've both made a conscious decision to resolve the conflict through armed means as is evident from the fact that we all have arms drawn and are looking at each other in offensive and/or defensive stances left to the individual. There is no question between ourselves that we are engaged in active combat. That much is crystal clear.

The bandit lunges forward while I parry and block him. I relax my parry and wait for his next attack. He starts running toward me to attack again and at that point in time the game decides the battle must be over now and sheathes my sword. Now I know what at least some of you might be thinking. You're thinking I accidentally hit the key to sheathe my sword. Well, that's where you'd be wrong should you be thinking that.

No, no I didn't sheathe my sword. I do know what happened though. Freya is displeased with me for killing the level 32 cockatrice on another island about an hour or so ago that she probably put there for a reason and she's enacting her revenge by mucking about playing pranks almost like a godling would.

This is not funny Freya. Seriously, not funny. Stop it.

Ok, so you're probably all biting your nails in suspense now wondering:

- What happened next?
- Did Geralt survive?
- Did the bandits get taught a lesson?
- Is everyone on An Skellig so inhospitable to unknown visitors?

Well, the game is on pause now in order for me to tell you all my little tale so the ultimate fate of Geralt and the bandits as well as the rest of An Skellig is not yet decided. But something far more important has now come to my/Geralt's mind.

Why can't you take human heads as trophies to hang from your horse in the game? I want to take all of these bandits and have them dangling from all sides of Roach for the rest of the game. That's all I care about now.

You know, I think I might just fuck these guys up with my bare fists now just to say "up yours" to Freya. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

<to be continued>

Ok, I fist whipped the bandits with a bit of Igni to help out. All things considered, I got a grilled chicken sandwich out of the ordeal and I peed out the bandit's campfire as a great symbolic gesture so all is not lost afterall.

I decided I don't trust this place and I'm going to keep drawing and sheathing my sword randomly the entire time I'm here, just to keep everyone guessing what I might do next. Ok, that's not _really_ what I'll be doing. No, I'll be drawing my sword randomly and the game itself will be auto-sheathing my sword randomly in or out of battle as if rolling a dice to decide.

I'd bow my head to Freya if and only if she'd be willing to compromise and give me an alternative solution in patch 1.07 though. Hell, I'd be happy enough I'd even place my newly acquired grilled chicken sandwich on her altar!

I've had harpies circling above, but lower level than me, so they don't attack. But then... they do. Or they kind of do. It really does end up as one of those cat/bird videos, where the cat is being pestered by a bird(s) that really can't hurt the cat and the cat just sits there with a kinda fed up 'do I really have to put up with this nonsense' sort of look on its face, until it just gets fed up with the whole debacle and launches itself at the bird mid air. But Geralt gets locked in and out of combat. Taking out and sheathing his sword. With enemies that could actually hurt me in the distance, I had to spend 10 minutes trying to get *all* of the harpies, to stop the switching. For some reason they just flew higher and higher, so the only way I could get them was to back up and just keep tying to hit them from range. Even then, it sometimes took a few hits before they would come after me. Annoyingly, if they are high enough (which they were), then they will recover mid air and would often just keep flying.

Aside from that, I've gone hand to hand with a bear on more than one occasion. Kinda amusing in a Grizzly Adams sort of way, but also rather annoying, when I don't know what the game is going to do. It was as if Geralt was looking at it as a test of strength and decided to *wrestle* the bear.

I think the really frustrating thing about it all is that the game has the functions and keys to draw and sheathe either the steel or silver sword, but then seems to say, "But you can't be trusted to work that out yourself, so I'll do it for you. Now off you go into battle and deflect those crossbow bolts with your hands." *squelch*

Yeah, it is a bit of a disappointment. The game is absolutely 10/10 amazing IMHO overall when you take in the whole scope of what they've done and I still feel that way even after experiencing the various flaws/weaknesses in it, and still consider it one of the best games ever made... BUT... The enemy AI for many enemies is very limited and "duh". You can walk away from a battle until you find the line in the sand where their dog chain ends and they wont pursue beyond that point, then you can chuck crossbow bolts, bombs and spells at them without fear of repurcussion for example. That's a flaw in any game IMHO, and I have to consciously force myself to NOT exploit it at times because I _want_ as much immersion as I can, so even though I know I can do things like that to save my hide, I often get into close battle and take damage rather than exploit a game engine weakness.

Likewise the AI for all creatures, flying, swimming or on foot is very predictable and appears to follow a tightly knit premade script sequence. All flying creatures basically are pegged to the map at a fixed point and will either hover in the air at that point forever (why would creatures do that in real life?) or they will fly in a fairly tight circle over and over and over again endlessly until you breach their trigger radius around that fixed point. You could practically trianglulate the center point where they've been placed and use a compass to draw a perfect circle around that. Step one pixel outside the circle and they retreat to their scripted center point and circle around over and over again. Very unnatural compared to say... dragons in Skyrim which always seemed to have a mind of their own and a purpose.

Bandits will pursue you if you're close to their central camp fire, but as you get further away they will just have weapons drawn and make menacing movements with their arms and call you names.

Drowners/sirens/ekhidna under water will swim in a compass drawn circle around you at a fixed distance forever with no variance, until you shoot a bolt. Once you shoot they will kick into "attack" mode and launch a high speed swipe attack (usually successfully).

Basically when I'm in battle, I can almost picture the game's inner state machine variables updating in my mind's eye from "STATE_SWARM" to "STATE_CIRCLE" to "STATE_HOVER" to "STATE_OPPORTUNISTIC_ATTACK" to "STATE_EVADE" with each state having a highly patternic robotoc-like static path to it without much variance. I find that very immserion breaking quite often especially with sea and air combat the most, but also with some land combat also.

Despite these poor AI combat weaknesses though I still enjoy a lot of the fighting and can't give the game less than 10/10 for what it gets right. I only wish they had more time to polish it off and make better AI and combat overall. It's possible they could improve things in patches in the future, but I doubt they'll make any major changes that alter it too far from where it's at now.

It's a case that all things including awesome things like this game - have their inherent flaws too and we gotta take the good and the bad together I guess. :)

It's interesting, a number of things that you say. Starting with your conclusion :o) I really do rate The Witcher 1 & 2 as a couple of my favourite games and I don't say that lightly. I think they are flawed (even more than just flawed), but they both create a final all-in-all game that I find utterly compelling. I'm hoping that The Witcher 3 will become the same. I'm not sure that will happen without the equivalent of the Enhanced Editions for TW1 and TW2. I have no idea, but I do very much hope that CDPR release an Enhanced Edition one day. My concern is that on release, The Wicher 3 seems to have garnered higher praise than the first two, so I don't know if CDPR will create an Enhanced Edition, or even what it might look to fix.

But I agree with what you've said about such things as AI. It took me a little bit of time to realise the dog chain system and even after realising, I was still surprised at how often some bandits (for example) are just inside the main gate, but can't go *through* the gate. It means it's very easy to back up a little while still fighting, but then find that they will go no further. So I'm using Igni, only to notice that they're not actually attacking me anymore. And the battle has only really gone back a matter of a few metres.

I've also found that the differences in level are not good. When enemies are too high or too low, then they don't seem to attack, which I don't like in general, but worse than that is that they can often not seem to make their mind up. Also, as we've been saying, they can still be in combat and yet I find not attacking, but then they do attack or they hover or...? I'm not really sure how it's all supposed to work in theory, or if it is just glitchy. In a weird way, it's a lot easier to find an enemy whose number is green, as they attack me and I just kill them. Much easier. That may reflect poorly on me though :o) But I've found that I can kill a supposedly Red Skull Death enemy and that doesn't seem right. It take a bit of time, but I figure it's quicker than having to come all the way back when I'm a higher level and that doesn't seem right to me.

Lastly, the first thing you said [I do like to do things in a nonconformist order :o) ] is the scope of The Witcher 3, but it really is something to behold. For me, it's similar to another of my favourites, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but there's graphics, which I'm not so worried about and then there's the *detail* in the world, which in TW3 is just a wonder. As one example, I've been awed by the boats being built. Just... the ribs and beginnings of the planking and that they didn't need to be added. They don't form part of a quest or anything, but there are quite a few in the various lands and they are just one thing out of many, many things that create details beyond just graphics. And they have people hammering and sawing :o) Somewhere along the line, I'm not sure how many of the issue though will get sorted, but I doubt it will be all. Hopefully it will be enough for me. For example, I wish that it were possible to loot something by just looking at it, rather than have to be facing it. But on the issue of scope, I find the sheer number of Quests tempered by the frustrations at trying to find a Quest nearby to actually do. It's sometimes easy to miss the details of the animations and facial expressions during cut scenes, but I do find myself thinking that even a small Quest has had a lot put into it.

I fear for future games, as more and more such details may well require a team of 20... per quest :o(

An Enhanced Edition is plausible some day as much as it is for any particular game really I imagine. I suspect such a release for The Witcher 3 would basically be the most recent update of the game (when released) along with the inclusion of all expansion packs released at that point, the free DLC and any other extra goodies they may have produced at the time, plus perhaps some additional goodies/content.

It never really dawned on me but you could be right there. Lately I've been fast travelling around No Man's Land and various sign post locations have bandits waiting for you on horseback when you arrive via fast travel. Sometimes one or two of them might issue a weak attack on you but for the most part they sit there on their horses not moving at all, or one or two bandits on horses will move along at a snail's pace slower than a human walking, and they will pay almost no attention to you unless you get right up in their faces. Even if they've went into battle mode at that point, they pretty much just sit there and do nothing. They don't rush at me at all, and if and when they do approach, I press my igni button causing their horse to freak out and knock them off, followed by a single left click that finishes them off on the ground. The next guy comes along and does the same thing, oblivious to the fact that I am immensely higher powered compared to them and will totally kick their asses. Sometimes they bark a comment or slur about me practicing witchcraft or something but I can cut several of their bodies in half with a single thrust and some guy with a bare chest and a billy club will still think he can beat me. But he might not actually attack me either, rather just stand there like he's protecting his ground.

Either way - they die. They all die. They all die fast, faster than their brain cells can compute that they've even been attacked, much like the first Apache helicopter strike in Operation Desert Storm.

The AI could be improved to have them actually doing something or giving the illusion they're doing something other than sitting on a horse staring at a tree silently waiting for me to come so they can protect the ground around their special tree.

Yep, the attention to detail is very high in many many areas of the game, in particular all of the background dialogue you hear when passing by random people who are conversing. You hear the same things repeated over time but the sheer volume of unique conversations is astounding, and some of them give hints as to the quests you are on too if you listen carefully enough. Some are just entertaining or amusing, or even just people bickering at each other like in real life. It's awesome.

I also agree that even the secondary quests and other optional quests are quite detailed and mostly well thought out. Many of them have a rather unique story to them be it short or long and the feeling of repetitiveness is almost nowhere to be found. There is some repetition but it's extremely minor compared to say - Skyrim. Don't get me wrong though, Skyrim was an amazing game, but it had a lot of repetitiveness to the Thieves Guild, Companions, various Jarl based questlines. The Mage's Guild questline also had some serious repetitiveness too it. "Fetch me some soul stones" followed by "Go fetch this item someone wants enchanted" and right back to "fetch me more soul stones" on an infinite repeat loop. Got bored of it a bit when I reached endlessly looped respawning quests that didn't seem to serve any useful purpose.

Yeah, Witcher 3 is a fantastic game and overall entertainment experience. It has its weakness like any game does, but the sheer volume of "they got that right" and overall quality makes the flaws pale in comparison. Still, when I experience some of these flaws from time to time I can't help but scream in my mind "WHYYYY?" as it seems like such a huge effort went into the whole game, but then small little things look like they either had very little effort or perhaps the clock ran out too soon and they had to fix the most broken things and ship it before they would have preferred to or something. It's far more complete and stable than most other huge games are that I've played mind you, but it does have its flaws. I do hope that they continue to patch and support the game for quite some time to come though to fix all game breaking and major flaws, and to fix as many other bugs/glitches in the game as possible, and enhance the UI and other aspects based on feedback etc. They appear to be doing so so far, so I'll have to trust them on that personally. Even as-is though, it still gets 10/10 in my book, this game is just too awesome for words regardless of any bugs/problems it might have here and there. :)