skeletonbow: It depends on how you play the game really. Some of the rune stones are quite expensive. Not a big deal if you buy one or two, but if you're stocking up so you have spares for the next upgrade out in the wilderness or whatever it can add up fast. I more or less found the crafting system useless for runes because well... it was completely broken either from the game's release or from one of the patches that came out after that, and it only ever got partially fixed right up to 1.06 despite them claiming to have fixed it. I got the impression that perhaps they fixed it and if you start a new game you'd never encounter the problems, but that the problems were in the objects you were carrying and would not go away unless you got rid of them and got entirely new objects. I dunno, all I know is that I was never able to easily craft runestones and it felt like I'd have to force myself to go through a big rigamarole to do it, so I just said fuckit and bought up the best runestones from everyone anywhere that they were selling them. Cost a lot of coin but it saved me from having to deal with the crafting bugs or running around the entire continent just to find the proper craftsman or whatever. It was just easier to find people selling them and just buy them. We'll see if that's the case on my next playthrough though.
I agree that runes are expensive (which is absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned), but I think the broken rune crafting issue that you mentioned is far more important there (not that you were saying otherwise). I'm not sure if I've ever *bought* a rune. Although I pretty much loot everything, as I recall I bought the recipes for rune crafting (just Igni and Quen) and didn't need to buy any runes themselves. Difficult to say how much of a difference the fix will make, but at the moment I think I have 17 lesser Quen runes, that can't be combined, so I would say that with the fix there would be plenty lesser runes to upgrade. There are definitely thing to spend coin on, but I do think that far too many items and loot leads to far too much money.
I am playing on medium difficulty, so... maybe the higher difficulty will make a difference here and in other ways. I'm thinking that it could well do, so there's that.
skeletonbow: Yeah, it seems kind of silly why one would need to smuggle the types of things in those crates into Skellige anyway. It's not as if any of the crates contain illegal goods. Also, why do monsters essentially protect chests full of goods that are of no value or use to them? What does a Siren or Drowner use a broken rake handle of gold crowns for? Do they walk to major cities and buy stuff on vacation? I can't think of anything I ever found in a chest guarded by monsters that the monster would find any use for in order to risk their lives to protect. Unless they are forced by magic to protect something which may be the case in some areas of the game such as summoned elementals, but not for drowners and sirens/ekhidna etc. Why would they flock to some crates and hover around them all day every day flying in a circle? Because they know it's bait for food perhaps? There are fish in the water that are easier targets for them to eat, or one of those huge whales that look like a robot coming out of the water in stuttered freeze-frame slideshow. I wonder if Drowners like the taste of robotic whales?
I want to know these things!
'Drowners on vacation' Now I have an image of a tourist drowner, wearing an Hawaiian t-shirt :o)
It's a very sweeping statement, but I do think that the world building in The Witcher 3 stems from story, characters and the physical terrain/models, rather than from gameplay mechanics/GUI/controls. I think it's one of the weaknesses of The Witcher series, but for me, even more so in The Witcher 3. Obviously people are different and see each thing in a different way, but such things as the 'guarded treasure' system does seem weird to the point of... well... maybe something that CDPR just added. As in, it's functional and it gives a focal point and a place to 'clear', but it really doesn't seem to fit into the world in *any* way at all. Kinda bolted onto the side.
Maybe though, a problem there is in presentation? Maybe the problem is that The Witcher 3 tends to handhold in many areas, so it would have been better to have the chest with a monster around somewhere, with a large agro area, so as to not have the monster so pinned to the chest and not call it a 'guarded treasure'. But The Witcher 3 tends to do the 'points of interest' thing from Skyrim.
skeletonbow: Yeah, I totally want to permanently disable auto-sheath with prejudice. Whether by patch, by mod, or by binary editing the executable. I'd probably disable auto-draw too because I'd just prefer to do it all myself. Auto-draw burns me sometimes when I end up feeling like I need to draw my sword to fight or just to be safe - and at the same instant the game decides to draw it too and I end up sheathing it. Same problem as auto-draw but in reverse, although that one happens much less often so it isn't too annoying.
Why don't they have auto-strip-near-hookers or auto-mount-roach if you walk within a foot of Roach, or auto-pick-plants or auto-loot-everything? Because those things would be fucking annoying! Just as annoying as auto-sheathe!
Hey, we're back on topic again :o)
I do still remember going into battle with that bear, fists held high. I still find it odd (to say the least) that there are two keys to draw each sword type and each then sheathes the weapon, *but* then there's an automated system that on top of being necessary, doesn't even work. Maybe a time issue. But then, maybe it's also an issue with the conflict of making a deep RPG, but simultaneously hand holding.
Drawing one's sword is something that people and guards will react to, which is great, but then the game seems to get ansty about it, as if the playing can't work it out for themselves, so does it for them.
And not only are we back on topic, but I'm repeating myself :o)
