Problems with New Game plus

[Patrick]

I've played over 600 hrs and have done a few play- throughs to get different endings for the Bloody Barron and other quests. I've had a fantastic time wandering through all the different lands so I thought I'd give "new game plus" a try but it seems broken. With some monsters and all humans the difficulty is higher as you would expect but they are still beatable. But with other baddies for some reason they are way over powered to the point that I die within seconds of combat.
I'm at level 71 and cannot proceed with quests that are at level 62 or 63 simply because of this crazy stuff. I know how to play this game, as I said I've already done 600 hrs plus so I know how to use oils and potions and the best amour etc for each of the monsters or wraiths or whatever. I know when to fight and when to run.
Because of this ridiculous over powering of certain enemies the game is now unplayable for me. All of my current quests have ground to a halt either because of bugs that stop you from finishing that particular quest or because of this problem.
So for now I've uninstalled the game in frustration which is a pity cos this is one of the best games I've ever played hence all the play- throughs. I might come back to it later but I wont bother with new game plus again, it really spoils the game and seems pointless.
Anyone else who played new game plus have this problem?

[Patrick]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Well, it's a pity you resorted to uninstalling the game before creating your thread. I would have liked to have asked if you had turned on Enemy Level Upscaling as that is known to occasionally turn some enemies invincible and that simply turning it off returns them to a more manageable state. We won't know that for sure now since you did uninstall the game.

I get your frustration though. New Game Plus is a disaster. It really adds nothing substantial to the game and is a waste of time. I did six complete runs of the base game, trying out all sorts of different choices, got each of the endings I wanted, etc, did all of the achievements and 100%. Then I played each of the two expansions on their own as new games because I wanted to see what the default conditions would be rather than using a completed game. I did that once each, then some partials for their achievements.

Then I sat myself down to give NG+ a try. I failed. I just hated it. I tried three times and just game up back in 2016 and haven't touched the game since. The glitches that would occur out of nowhere, the bugs that were inherent in the base game -- all of it just made trudging through the game just one more time for the sake of NG+ such an ordeal, I just gave up.

I feel your frustration and while I didn't experience it personally, I had enough other things just feel so far out of kilter, it wasn't worth the effort. The Upscaling thing though, that has at least a couple of known glitches (the rats during Now or Never and the dijnn during The Last Wish) that generally occur during any run of the game with Upscaling turned on, but others have been known to occur as well, randomly and annoyingly.

At least you had your 600 hours. I have over 1400 hours so get it. At least you enjoyed it while you could. New Game Plus is pointless and has no place being a part of this game. It was demanded by a very vocal minority and the devs capitulated at the last minute making it the final free DLC content that was released but it honestly is a mess.

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Well, it's a pity you resorted to uninstalling the game before creating your thread. I would have liked to have asked if you had turned on Enemy Level Upscaling as that is known to occasionally turn some enemies invincible and that simply turning it off returns them to a more manageable state. We won't know that for sure now since you did uninstall the game.

I get your frustration though. New Game Plus is a disaster. It really adds nothing substantial to the game and is a waste of time. I did six complete runs of the base game, trying out all sorts of different choices, got each of the endings I wanted, etc, did all of the achievements and 100%. Then I played each of the two expansions on their own as new games because I wanted to see what the default conditions would be rather than using a completed game. I did that once each, then some partials for their achievements.

Then I sat myself down to give NG+ a try. I failed. I just hated it. I tried three times and just game up back in 2016 and haven't touched the game since. The glitches that would occur out of nowhere, the bugs that were inherent in the base game -- all of it just made trudging through the game just one more time for the sake of NG+ such an ordeal, I just gave up.

I feel your frustration and while I didn't experience it personally, I had enough other things just feel so far out of kilter, it wasn't worth the effort. The Upscaling thing though, that has at least a couple of known glitches (the rats during Now or Never and the dijnn during The Last Wish) that generally occur during any run of the game with Upscaling turned on, but others have been known to occur as well, randomly and annoyingly.

At least you had your 600 hours. I have over 1400 hours so get it. At least you enjoyed it while you could. New Game Plus is pointless and has no place being a part of this game. It was demanded by a very vocal minority and the devs capitulated at the last minute making it the final free DLC content that was released but it honestly is a mess.

Hello BuzzardBee,
Thanks for replying, I really didn't expect anyone to bother but I'm glad you did. I thought it might have been me just getting too old for pc games but its good to know that NG+ is at fault and not me ( and I'm sticking to that story ).
Its a fantastic game and I have every intention of going back soon once I've calmed down. Uninstalling it was just a symbolic gesture that always gives me a bit of pointless satisfaction when a game gets annoying.
I'm going to do what you did and play the whole game again including all the DLC's just to get different outcomes. The game is just too damned addictive and gorgeous to stop playing altogether but I wont bother with NG+ again.
Thanks,
Patrick.

[Furiey]

Enemy Upscaling can cause prolems in the normal game, not just NG+ . If you do use Enemy Upscaling you can turn it off and back on again as needed. There is little point to NG+ though, the only thing it does is allow you to do is use more of those skill points to fill out all those extra skill slots from the blood and wine mutagens.

[Jouchebag]

NG+ truly is a tacked on, half-baked feature and, like Buzz said, completely pointless. It doesn't make the game better in any way and it certainly isn't better than just starting a new NG1.

Balance aside, I've seen lots of people saying NG+ bugs out quests that worked fine in NG1.

[Krampus]

Well i'm playing NG+ rn on DM and i'm all done with velen/ novi, bout to head to skel. I gotta say so far nothing has even gotten close to killing me within seconds.
Even at lvl ~60, killing a lvl 70 fiend or somesuch is more a chore than a danger.
Exception being ofc guards. They still kill me in 2-3 hits. Without quen that is.
Edit: As for bugs, i really haven't found any yet. Atleast nothing major or gamebreaking.
Did get stuck in a ditch once but since i auto-save every 3 minutes, it's w/e.

[Krampus]

I'm neither delusional nor did i ever say the game is perfect just because i'm not having issues. I'm not daft enough to suggest that i'm not just a pea in a pot.
I merely said i don't have issues, implying that i can't relate in that matter.
What i can tell you though and with authority is that if you're having issues with quests 10 lvls below you, maybe your geralt simply has a bad build. Unless bugs keep you from completing quests (looks to me you're having problems with enemy strengh though) you not being able to fight enemies is a fail on your end.

[Noble Nobbler]

Yeah, the game was (is) outrageously ambitious, but that came with the side effect of the under-the-hood math being pretty broken. I couldn't even start this game out of difficulty for years and once I got past a certain level I found myself having to turn the difficulty up to match what I considered normal and then back up and down again to have a decent playthrough.

[Hachiman]

I've found the new game+ a total trash tbh. It is so unbalanced I could't enjoy the game, not a bit.