shoop

Well, I did say that "that does not obligate CDPR to hang on to content that they themselves consider to be in bad taste". That was intended to convey the idea that it might be an artistic decision.

yeah those links were quite relevant, although unfortunately everyone there is just shouting opinions at each other :-) I did get the sense that my interpretation of percentage based damage reduction is accurate: I believe that it multiplies your armor value. Example: - armor A - damage reduction R% - effective armor E = A + A*R/100 - you are hit for D damage - actual vitality lost is D-E I will test whether this is correct in a few hours. How much percentage-based damage reduction can you reasonably get in the game? I know there is the "cover" ability that you get if you always stay inside Triss' butterfly sphere, which grants 10% damage reduction. But how much can you get from items? My guess is that it is hard to get it higher than something like 50%.

Yeah... I would have been more critical if it had been that consoley. I think as a whole the Kayran fight is pretty good, actually :-)

You seem to believe that you get it from the operator, but you don't. Instead it's simply lying around in a very easily accessible chest in the sewers; you do need a key though which you should have acquired through the mystic river quest. The chest contains the Ysgith armor (great for mages) and a diagram to upgrade it to Vran (only do it if you can stand the idea of losing the extra vigor point from ysgith).

[some minor spoilers]: I love TW2, I don't mind the minigames, but they're not what they could/should have been. As an example of what I consider to be excellent minigames: do you remember the banjo contest in Monkey Island 3? That is quite excellent. Also, the duels that you have to win by insulting the opponent in rhyme are hilarous. Compared to that, minigames in TW2 just are not very well designed. Dice Poker: although it's a relief that you don't have to win two out of three rounds anymore, it looks worse and plays worse than in TW1, and they simply reused the music as well. Also encourages you to reload when you lose. I never play unless I have to to advance the poker quest. Fist fighting: beautiful cinematics, but it is crazy easy. I don't think I've lost a single fist fight ever. I only ever get hit when the phone rings at the wrong time. Would've been much more fun if you actually had to respond appropriately to what the opponent does. Fist fighting also does not play better than it did in TW1, although it does look better. Arm wrestling: also looks nice but is not that much fun. Boring when you win, frustrating on the rare occasion you lose. Timed events (other than in boxing): these have a very scripted feel to them, but I can understand there's a price to be paid for stunning cinematics. I find timed events make intuitive sense in situations where the outcome depends on Geralt's sense of timing. A good example is the Kayran fight, where you have to jump at exactly the right times and so on. Similarly, the parts where you have to click the left mouse button repeatedly make sense if Geralt has to quickly do a trivial task that does take some time, such as freeing yourself from the Kayran slime, or untying Loredo's Elven whores in the burning tower. So I guess I'm mostly OK with these, although it would be nice if somehow the players would be given more freedom.

You're right, I overreacted, sorry.

I am wondering how I should balance Armor (damage reduction) vs Vitality bonuses in my equipment choices. I notice that Armor bonuses tend to be valued higher than Vitality bonuses. I don't see why. My reasoning is as follows: armor / vitality bonuses only matter if they make the difference between life and death. Typically, on hard difficulty and somewhat later in the game, my estimate is that tough enemies tend to kill you in five or fewer hits (often less). Suppose you have an armor bonus of X, that will save you at most 5X vitality. Thus, an armor bonus of X is worse than a vitality bonus of 5X. This would mean that an item or talent that grants Vitality +50 is better than an item or skill that grants Armor +10. Suddenly those +Vit items do not look so bad anymore?! I can think of two reasons why the above reasoning may not be altogether valid: at a given vitality regeneration, you will recover a larger percentage of your total vitality if you focus on armor rather than vitality. Thus, in long fights the balance may swing more in the favour of higher armor. The other reason would be if you get a damage reduction percentage boost, which would multiply the flat armor rating of all your items. Still, I don't think these two objections are strong enough to kill my overall argument. Is what I say above accurate? If not, how should I balance armor vs vitality?

Hey, will you self-righteous Americans get it into your heads that you aren't the only ones with free speech? I had exactly the same sentiment as your when I read the patch notes, but as becomes clear in this thread, it is not in fact political correctness to any excessive degree, nor does it seem to be "motivated by fear" or anything of the sort.

I sort of agreed with you up to this point - but now you're no longer making sense. Of course freedom of expression exists always. And although I do find that people from many religions tend to be overly sensitive when their symbols are used the slightest bit disrespectfully, that does not obligate CDPR to hang on to content that they themselves consider to be in bad taste. Associating islam to prostitution does not serve either the story or the art style of this game, and there is no evidence of any censorship.