My game starts with minus 15 talent points

[DonBrick]

Heya guys, playing and enjoying the Witcher 2 big time, however for some reason Geralt starts with -15 talent points. I do get them for leveling up, meaning I'm at -9 now, but is this suppose to happen?

I play on Hard mode, if that has anything to do with it.
I've had a whole bunch of glitches so far. Including frame rates dropping to 2-5 in and around Flotsam, NPCs stuck in walls, Saves that don't work, random loading screens in the middle of an open field. The list goes on.

I also had a lot of issues with holes in the map, but I managed to fix that by turning 'up' my graphic settings, strangely enough. Still enjoying the game, it's appealing enough to keep me coming back, but I'd love to see some fixes for this.

[DeadParrot]

No, it's not supposed to happen. Did you install the Full Combat Rebalance Mod? If so, then you can't play the tutorial or you'll experience this issue. Choose your difficulty setting, and skip the tutorial. Unfortunately, you'll have to abandon this save.

[DonBrick]

Aw man, that's a kick in the pants! Yeah I installed it after hearing Rock, Paper, Shotgun give it so much praise. Ah well, might be for the best. (Unless the game has a "Give Level" console command?)

[DeadParrot]

Originally posted by Brick | Alt:

Aw man, that's a kick in the pants! Yeah I installed it after hearing Rock, Paper, Shotgun give it so much praise. Ah well, might be for the best. (Unless the game has a "Give Level" console command?)

No, there's no console commands without using a cheat engine. Have you played the game without the mod first? The mod changes the game dramatically, not just the combat. Skills, weapons, armor, diagrams, and more are completely changed; a lot of items are completely removed also. You won't see nearly as many different swords and armor pieces as would without the mod, and the special bonuses are gone as well.

[DonBrick]

Originally posted by DeadParrot:

Originally posted by Brick | Alt:

Aw man, that's a kick in the pants! Yeah I installed it after hearing Rock, Paper, Shotgun give it so much praise. Ah well, might be for the best. (Unless the game has a "Give Level" console command?)

No, there's no console commands without using a cheat engine. Have you played the game without the mod first? The mod changes the game dramatically, not just the combat. Skills, weapons, armor, diagrams, and more are completely changed; a lot of items are completely removed also. You won't see nearly as many different swords and armor pieces as would without the mod, and the special bonuses are gone as well.

Oh wow, really? I thought it just made the combat smoother! Oh man, no wonder my game looked so diffrent from the LPer I'm watching at the same time!

So er.... does the mod also make the game harder or am I just a noob? ;)

[DeadParrot]

It actually makes the combat easier once you get used to the changes. Without the mod, every fight is a test of strategy: selecting potions, traps, bombs, and position to maximize effectiveness.

With the mod installed there's two things to remember:

1) You can parry all attacks from most humans, and wraiths (even from behind you) automatically, so dodging isn't as important because bonus damage for hitting from behind has been removed. Basically anything that uses a sword or crossbow against you can be automatically parried, but if you see a guy with one of those long tree branch looking things, you have to dodge it.

2) Monster attacks have to be either dodged, or blocked using the new focused Quen. (each time Quen is used to block it uses on Vigor) Again, wraiths with swords are the exception here, as they can be automatically parried.

Talents play a much bigger role with the combat rebalance, and equipment a lesser one. That's why the swords and armor were changed/removed. Oh, and one more thing, riposte becomes a useless talent. Don't even bother getting it because the mod screws it up.

[DonBrick]

Damn, wow thanks for the info. I think I'll uninstall the game and give it a try without the mod. I might also lower the difficulty a bit, seeing as I get 2 shotted most of the time :P

Thanks again!

[DeadParrot]

You're welcome. Yeah, I'm doing a second playthrough without the combat rebalance, and instead I'm using some other mods.

Increased potion/oil duration is a good one, and I also like the one that doesn't use Vigor when blocking; some people don't agree with using that last one, but I think it fixes a sloppy game mechanic.

Nexusmods has some really good ones, and so far they've all worked for me. Check them out.
http://witcher2.nexusmods.com/mods/categories/?

The potion one is under Miscellaneous, and the blocking one is under Abilities. Enjoy!

[Penguintin]

The first tip for harder difficulty is using more quen. It will save you alot. Do not to get greedy with your hits otherwise the monster will just hit you. Take a few swings and dodge back and in some cases only one swing and back attacks are very good.

There are skills in the alchemy tree which makes the potion duration longer and the potency higher in the original game. (highly recommend getting catalysis skill) Also I do not think that using vigor while blocking is a sloppy game mechanic since vigor acts as energy, but I hardly ever block anyways.

[DeadParrot]

Originally posted by Penguintin:

The first tip for harder difficulty is using more quen. It will save you alot. Do not to get greedy with your hits otherwise the monster will just hit you. Take a few swings and dodge back and in some cases only one swing and back attacks are very good.

There are skills in the alchemy tree which makes the potion duration longer and the potency higher in the original game. (highly recommend getting catalysis skill) Also I do not think that using vigor while blocking is a sloppy game mechanic since vigor acts as energy, but I hardly ever block anyways.

One of my favorite features of the FCR was no vigor expenditure on parries, although I didn't care for not having direct control. Prior to using the FCR I'd agree with you about blocking and vigor, but now it's just a personal preference. In retrospect, the game mechanic isn't sloppy, I just have a different opinion.

[Etherion]

Damn, I have the same exact problem, and I'm already in the middle of Act 1. Can I reset my skillpoints using cheats? I wouldn't want to play this all over..

[Penguintin]

You cant reset points until the end of the game. It is recommended that you start over if you want to unistall the mod and play.

[Etherion]

Crap, thanks... I don't want to uninstall the mod, I did start a new game with the mod, my mistake was that I played also the tutorial not knowing this will screw it up. I guess I should have researched the problem online earlier and not waiting for it to solve itself ;)