Here's a concrete example:

With the weapon sheated, press W to run and then press the Medallion key (tab for me). Geralt uses the medallion and stops, as he should.

Now try the exact same thing with the sword in Geralt's hand. He will use the medallion and then he will step forward twice. These 2 steps cannot be intentional or at least it has nothing to do with realism. For me it is just a bug that happens when swords are unsheated.

Another one: without any enemy around, try a fast-heavy-heavy attack combo. It works perfectly if you time it right.

Now, with enemies around, try the fast-heavy-heavy again. Sometimes it will work fine. Sometimes Geralt will have those 2 fraking steps forward after the first attack (fast) and break the combo, even if the timing is right.

It is annoying.

The realism argument shouldn't apply to this game:

1.) Geralt and all Witchers are mutated to have super-human reaction time, reflexes, and better physical strength and endurance. That right there should negate the whole realism argument as it doesn't fit in a game where you play a Witcher.

2.) It's a game about a ficticious place with creatures that have never existed with forces(i.e. magic) that don't exist. The picking and choosing of what aspects of reality they want to abide by and which ones they don't is quite annoying.

Wait, what? Do you have a video of this? Maybe I've just gotten used to it, but I use that exact combo against almost every enemy and I've never noticed two steps.

Aside from the resistance to sickness, most of what constitutes a Witcher could be reproduced in real life with anabolic steroids. Sure, it's fantasy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't follow a set of rules. Besides, being able to clean up 10-20 nekkers without anyone's assistance is pretty superhuman. If he also had an arcade-like quickness in addition to that, it would be pushing the abilities of Witchers a bit far. I mean, he bit it from a no-name with a pitchfork, so he's clearly not Superman.

That's not to say that the movement isn't a problem for some people, just that there's a basis for the "realistic movement" argument. I do wish they had some kind of toggle for those who have trouble adapting to it, though.

-I didn't say he was super-human in every respect. I just pointed out the reflexes which should at least make him faster than his human opponents, but he isn't. He is just as slow and has long pauses between his actions. There are other things out there faster than him and that is where the challenge comes from. In fact, I remember one story from The Last Wish where he had to face a half-demon, half-goat creature that was way too fast for him.

-Him being able to clean up 20 Nekkers without assistance comes from the aid of signs, bombs and potions, not purely on his physical attributes alone.

-Where did you see it stated that the effects of Witcher mutations are equivalent to anabolic steroids?

-I haven't been able to read the final book of the series for myself yet as it isn't in english yet, but from what I have seen around the web is that he was fending off a large number of villagers, and despite his improvements, he is only one man.

Ah, yes I agree with you completely...ability to feint and ability to cast signs without unsheathing the sword.

Huh? So witchers should be more limited and slower than regular humans? Who are able to do one action after the other, without "cooldowns".

Also, it's not witcherS, but only Geralt. Because Letho is able to move normally, one action after the other, no pauses. That's the reason why he is able to kick your ass, when you don't keep your distance. Go, initiate a fight with Letho and just watch him move - he doesn't wait for his "cooldown", because he's not ploughing mutilated!

I'm good with the responsiveness of slashes there's actually abit of timing with it and Geralt can't slash as many times as you can click unless you do the efficient combo moves it'll be faster.

What I don't like is the fistfights even a small child can win a fistfight in W2. They should adapt another system like Mafia 2's fist fight mechanics.

That wasn't meant as a direct comparison. Was just trying to show that many of the things in the game have real-world analogues and that realism shouldn't be immediately discarded just because it's fantasy. Maybe I read too much into your post--I actually completely agree with your first point in your last post.

Honestly, I like the way Geralt moves and think that the human opponents in the game should be made slower rather than making him faster, because it is possible at the moment to clear out an entire room of nekkers using no signs, potions, or bombs. If the enemies had recovery animations and were slower, CDPR could double their health and basically rebalance the entire game to be more in line with the realism they're supposedly aiming for (if you could ignore bandits with godlike amounts of health).

Really though, there are so many human opponents in the game that would be shred to pieces within seconds if they were in the books, and CDPR has so few monsters that they had to do something to give them an edge. Otherwise there would be little challenge at all.

Of course not. If Geralt has a recovery animation, everyone should. If only Geralt is subject to this, then it's bad design. I was more arguing against the notion that reality doesn't come into play because of the fantasy setting than making an actual statement about the combat responsiveness.

How can I make myself understood?
It is not about making him faster, it's about removing his fucking handicaps! Or give him a wheelchair, so everybody can see he's a disabled old man and admit defeat out of pity. The grey hair should've tipped me off about that, I guess. My fault that I gave him his white hair back and try to treat him as an able witcher. Yeah, as they should, duh. Humans should not be a challenge to Geralt, monsters are. Ever played FCR (which aims to be much closer to the books)? Humans go down in two slashes, because they just can't keep up with a friggin witcher. The guy with the pitchfork only got lucky, because the humans came in superior numbers. Why should I now suffer a crappyfied witcher, because someone thought it would be a good idea to have more human enemies than monsters? Which is a bad thing in inself. The witcher should have to deal with increased numbers of necrophages, that come with a war. But not playing soldierboy. Sigh... :(

I just hate that they made him feel like an impotent idiot, he didn't deserve that. >:(

Aw snap, Audrey's droppin' the f bomb. :(

I still think its an issue of recovery frames and not animation speed. He moves fast enough, he doesn't recover in between moves fast enough. I would be interested to hear their reasoning for this.

That was for link1264 as an indirect response to, "I just pointed out the reflexes which should at least make him faster than his human opponents, but he isn't." I was assuming that he was saying that Geralt needed to be sped up, hence my rant. You and I are actually in agreement for the most part, though I haven't ever personally felt like Geralt was the fragile octogenarian you're making him sound like :)

Incidentally, what is FCR? Unless you're referring to a credit reporting agency, Google has let me down.

Sorry. But this just isn't supposed to be a war game or a shooter or whatever games I don't play. This actually makes me apprechiate turn based combat - and I hate turn based combat. But it's fair and it follows rules, it uses your skills, your build and tactics, not some ominious coincidence rule why something gets executed or not. Based upon which kind of nose pick pause you need to do right now.


Full Combat Rebalance for The Witcher by Flash (Andrzej now of RED team - I wonder why *g*). The best and hardest way to play The Witcher, vanilla is really just a basis for that. ;)
http://www.moddb.com/mods/full-combat-rebalance1
If you play Witcher that way, maybe you see, what I mean. Maybe not, but it's worth a try...

Awesome, thanks. Was planning to play through W1 again soonish anyway, so that's perfect.

Double thanks for the link :)

I'm agreeing with you, Audrey. Recovery frames are essential to any type of fast twitch combat. I just think they need to be fine tuned a bit more.

One comparison I would make is Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2, both shooter rpg's. In Fallout, our stats govern our accuracy. In ME2, our skills govern our accuracy, and stats govern other character based things. I like both games, but I prefer ME2's approach as an action RPG. I think this should be their philosophy when designing the melee combat for TW2. Our skills should come first.

I've a strong feeling that this "delay" in commands is deliberate. For a turn-based or more strict RPG, this would make sense. But for this kind of action oriented RPG it doesn't.

I see the witcher as a very skilled, highly trained being in the art of war. This is similar to someone who practiced martial arts.

It so happens that for some years I did followed the training of an Okinawian style martial arts. Obviously, there is no comparison between a fairytale and real life, but there is an aspect that is clear and can translate in both directions: and that is speed. The speed of movement, hitting and fighting overall.

So, dear CDP, as there are so many attempts to create a believable world in The Witcher 2, please get rid of this "unnatural feature" called delay/or tweaked responsiveness, and make the game as it should be: with a character that doesn't count til 10 before doing something.