[chickenwitcher]

Hi there,
I just got the witcher 2 during the steam sale but I start to regret it.
I really like the characters with their speech, the atmosphere, the graphics, the sound and many other things in this game but the combat system totally drives me nuts. I completed chapter I now and had zero fun while fighting so far.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but so far I only faced two different kinds of fights - either totally destroying my enemy by wild mouseclicking(stunlock) or being totally defeated by my enemies. Some fights I did like 20 times until a lucky fluke finally let me move on.
My biggest issues are the following:

1. no strafe and backpedal. I stopped counting how often I just wanted to take some steps back but then accidently exposed my back to the enemy and instantly died because of the 200% damage penalty. In my opinion it's not only a weird gameplay decision it also kills the illusion for me. The illusion of Geralt being a mighty witcher and excellent swordfighter. I have to watch him turn around, lose track of his enemy then run away like a chicken or doing weird roll marathons all the time. Seriously, no one in real life or even a movie would fight this way (successfully).

2. lack of control over Geralt (1). When an enemy is far away and I hit Left Mouse, Geralt teleports to the enemy and hits it (you know, this batman:ac style). But sometimes he teleports, but not far enough so I don't hit and instead get hit by the enemy - Can I actually control how far geralt teleports? Then, sometimes when I hit Left Mouse, Geralt does a quick efficient swing - I don't get hit, start stunlock -> win. But then, I don't know why, I seem to do the exact same thing but geralt does this crazy whirlwind style overhead strike that exposes him to the enemy, so I get hit. It's totally annoying. I want to decide when he does a certain move. I didn't find out so far what's the condition for these "special moves" though.

3. lack of control over geralt (2). Sometimes, geralt just doesn't do anything. Enemy shows up, I hit the button for draw sword but it doesn't happen. Sometimes it takes two or three clicks to make geralt finally do what I want to. Especially annyoing when I do one of those chicken runs - I stop for a quick turn and hit the key for the knockback magic and nothing happens -> "you died". It doesn't happen all the time but too often to ignore it. I do not talk about "recovery times", I know that I can not swing my sword again until the first swing is over and such. It seems like a bug to me where the game just doesn't recognize my input for whatever reason.

4. the lock-on mechanic. Besides that it seems to change nothing gameplay wise the range is much too low. And why can't I quickly cycle through the enemies via the mouse wheel? The mouse wheel is a great control and it is completely unused outside of menus. I even can't bind other actions to it because the config tool doesn't recognize it.

This seems like bashing on the game I guess though this is not my intention.
I really want to like this game, but currently I can't because of these issues.
If someone could help me with any of these I would be thankful.

[legendarchitect]

Have you updated the game to enchanted edition (3.2). it is a massive sized update but it really fixes
many bugs.

About the combat, by default left mouse button is for a quick strike and right for slower, much more powerful strike.
That whirlwind you mentioned is probably a move that you get when you perform a combo, you can try it while enemies are not around just draw your sword and start slashing air. You will see that Geralt does different moves during the combo.

And what do you mean by teleporting? If Geralt really just teleports to the enemy without doing any rolls or anything, your game might be broken.

[gregski]

The issues you mention are already well known and were discussed many times.

Ad 1. Yes, the in-combat movement could use a little more variety and ability to strafe around enemies without turning your back to them. Without it the game requires a lot of spatial awareness from the player, as well as encourages use of all the tools at your disposal for crowd control - traps, bombs and signs. Yes, the witcher is a master swordsman but when attacked by many enemies or monsters with quick attack abilities he requires more than just his sword to succeed.

Ad 2. This is hit and miss - sometimes Geralt makes a preferable move, sometimes he exposes himself while kiting towards the enemy. I think I am starting to find some sort of a pattern for the kind of moves he makes, but I have to test it in the arena before I share any thoughts on that.

Ad 3. If you experience some sort of "input lag" - try to lower your settings, it's supposed to help sometimes.

I understand the issues you're having and that they can be frustrating, but IMO combat is well worth some patient practice so you can enjoy the game's awesome story, choices & consequences, characters and visuals to the fullest. Many people on this forum had similar issues but after giving the game a chance (and some patience) they usually come back and say it was worth it.

[gaurdian]

Alright

for 1:
do not try to roll back, instead roll to sides. you should be able to evade most of the incoming attacks with this technique and one point in dodge skill. you could also do well by combining deflect and roll together in some circumstances.

for 2:
the distance from enemy and Geralt's running direction determine whether he jumps toward an enemy or not.

if left or right side of Geralt faces an enemy while he is moving and then you press the left click(quick slash) then the whirlwind attack is executed.

about that efficient slash you mentioned :
aard, some weapons and bombs has the ability to stun a target, which has a percentage of success chance. each time you hit an opponent with the aard or a weapon that has this ability there's chance that you may stun the enemy.
stunned enemies can be killed instantly just by hitting them, which is called the finisher move. remember that some enemies cannot be stunned.

for 3:
I think you need to change you keyboard. it seems that your keyboard could not respond well when multiple keys are pressed at the same time.

good luck

[FoggyFishburne]

Man. What a contrast. I absolutely love the gameplay. I think the combat is superb. However, if you haven't played The Witcher 1, then I totally understand you. I tried playing this game before I played the first game and everything ended up being frustrating as hell. The whole experience was just ugh. Just so annoying. The game is not kind to the uninitiated. Now I'm not talking so much about the mechanics themselves here, the combat systems between the two games are completely different, but the mood, mentality and tempo are the same. Knowing what the magical "sign" things are, is a plus too. It feels like the whole first game is just a tutorial for TW2!

I know I'm not addressing your complaints exactly, I'm just recounting my frustrating experience. But once I knew all the little things, the combat just clicked for me. It takes a while but stick with it. I promise you, you'll get into it.

[slimgrin]

-Most people are in agreement on point 1. We want strafe from TW1 back.


-Remember that Geralt won't lunge at the enemy (fast attack) until the target icon appears. Even then it occasionally lies about the distance, appearing too soon. Just keep running toward your foe and pressing light attack. Geralt will close the gap when you're close enough. After a while you get a feel for just how close you need to be before you can use what you're calling his teleport ability.

-I recommend fiddling with setting and various key setups, but it is true Geralt will sometimes not respond when you hit the key to unsheathe. It's been a glitch since day one and the only sure work around is to draw your sword well before you sense a conflict. And if you know a fight is coming right after a cutscene, cast Quen beforehand. Hopefully they get this ironed out in TW3.

-Targeting is basically camera based. You swivel the mouse and as the camera rotates your enemy selection follows it. Some people don't like this targeting method but I'm fine with it. It just might take some getting used to in your case.

-I think all beginners should fire up Arena on easy mode and play around with things, for at least an hour or two. It'll get you used to controls and combat concepts, as well as the occasional quirks you'll run into.

[Wut the Melon]

I am 95% sure all of the issues you raise are valid, and I have experienced almost all of them myself. However, I still really enjoy the combat so I hope you will too. The lack of control over Geralt's animations (I know EXACTLY what you mean by the quick lunging attack and the 'do some ballet' whirlwind... if only I could count how often that's gotten me killed). The unresponsive hotkeys (3) have been an issue for ages as well, in my experience casting signs using only the 'sign' key (q? by default) is slightly more reliable.

And yeah, locking on is a mechanic I still don't understand and is a nuisance more often than that it's helpful.

I'm afraid you're going to be stuck with these issues as they probably won't get fixed in TW2. I hope you'll manage to enjoy the combat when it actually works, though, and let's all hope they improve on these aspects in the next game.

[chickenwitcher]

thanks for all of your replies. So summarized, I have to deal with it :/
I've played a good portion of chapter II now and died much less, though I guess that's because of gear, build and the lack of scruples about using consumables - not because I "understood" combat. In my (current) opinion, the consumables are too good in this game. I can kill 10 guys within seconds with bombs, without any effort - they even get stunned on every hit. I wonder why I even buy new swords when bombs are much better (?)
(with "stun" I don't mean the aard stun, but that "enemy looses balance" animation. Most enemies that don't block can be hacked to death without the chance to do anything by simply smashing left mouse. If there's another word for it in the witcher community please point it out )

As for the other stuff - I don't have input lag "in-game"(I had, but could fix it by turning vsync off). I still have to use a very low dpi on my mouse (~1800, I usually play with 5000) to not totally fuck up the menu navigation and mini-games. It's strange because in the startup screen the mouse cursor moves perfect(while it sucked with vsync) but as soon as I load a game, the cursor becomes sluggish and it's quite of a pain, though manageable.
I also don't think it's a "too many keys pressed" issue, because sometimes I only hit 1 key and it doesn't work.
It also shouldn't be a fps problem since my computer can handle most games (crysis 2 at ultra) and I deactivated everything that takes too much fps (I used the nvidia guide for the witcher2 to make the settings)
Oh and with teleporting I meant that geralt jumps over the battlefield, but it's way too fast and unnatural. More like flying or... teleporting

I really hope the devs clear some things up for witcher 3. Could be worth to take a look at dark souls/demons souls. A game with their combat system combined with the awesome atmosphere, characters and story of the witcher would be a total win in my opinion

[Eldanon]

Eh? Most people want strafe? Where the heck is that poll? You've got to be kidding me... no strafe, no backpedal. The dodging mechanic works GREAT.

Geralt is SUPER responsive in TW2. The type of strike you do depends on the angle at which you're looking at your enemy. After getting some experience with the game you should be able to tell exactly what kind of strike you'll do based on your position relative to the enemy and the camera angle you're using. Give it some time and try to notice that you DO have great control over the character, keep paying attention to what Geralt does based on the camera angle/distance to the enemy.

[Guy N'wah]

This game appears to have been built for "vanilla" mice and reacts badly to special "gaming" pointer devices. That's behind a lot of the negative acceleration, lag, and missed key problems. I got used to playing with a common Logitech keyboard and Logitech Marble trackball and now won't use anything else, but that's just me.

I agree about the bombs and traps being too powerful (and too cheap) in their unimproved state. But I found the targeting system (especially as modified in patch 2.0) very fluid and intuitive, to where I have to do little more than think of the target I want Geralt to hit next. The blocking system is also very well handled, though I think it should be more effective and less costly.

Just because your computer can handle other games does not say much about how it will handle this one. This game is more demanding of your GPU than just about any other and loads the GPU output processors heavily. Its performance can't be compared to games that were optimized for consoles or games that rely on the unified shaders or texture processors.

[chickenwitcher]

Like I said, I think I have no fps issues, the game runs fluid. I just get stutters when the game is loading.
Okay, the tearing sucks, but when I enable vsync, everything gets worse. Is there a way to show fps in-game?

@eldanon: Maybe it's depending on the system, though on my computer geralt is definitely NOT super responsive. I actually never experienced a worse responsiveness in any other game. Sometimes I literally scream "COME ON DO IT" at my screen frequently because I (for example) hit the key for "aard" like 5 times and geralt just doesn't respond. No animation going on, no other keys pressed but still no response. And then I got thrown into fights with enemies that stand just 1meter away from me after the cutscene and draw their weapons like 10 times faster than geralt. no fun :/

[Guy N'wah]

Some of the spells are gated, and what looks like non-responsiveness is the game not casting the spell by design. You can't cast Aard when you're too close to an enemy.

To show FPS, you can use MSI Afterburner, which also does lots of useful statistics like GPU usage and temperature. http://event.msi.com...er/download.htm Configure it to show the values you want to see in the OSD (on-screen display).

[chickenwitcher]

what exactly means "gated" ?
Besides that, I have this issue with almost every action except for both sword swings and dodge.

I will try that afterburner tool, thanks.
edit: afterburner tells me my fps is between 55 and 65 while playing - should be fine. cool tool by the way.

[Guy N'wah]

Gated means there's a condition that has to be met in order to cast the sign. You can't cast Aard while you're at close quarters with an enemy. You can't cast signs in general while you're being hit.

Glad you got MSI Afterburner set up. It is an excellent tool.