I didn't get to extensions yet, and I'm in my first playthrough. Are extensions recommended for NG+ only, or in general they are OK to play after the main storyline?

Quoting: Pangaean previous games I've done them because it was quick and easy (although I disliked the QTE in Witcher 2, at least it was easy), but in this game it's a pain, so I've used mods to make it tolerable. First playthrough I ignored them after a few attempts, but now on NG+ I've used mods instead. Gwent takes WAY too much time! But I'm also a completionist, so there is that

With a good deck now I sometimes play it properly, but against vendors and such I just hit "N" and win. I want to play the game, not some card kertuffle.

I spent to much time with Dice in Witcher 1. So when Witcher 3 Gwent and Fights came around, I was determinded to go "NOPE!".

Quoting: PangaeaYes, the cursor issue is when I go back into the game. I don't use Alt-Tab, but switch workspaces with Ctrl+Alt+Left (or Right) arrow. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes it's like the square where I can move the mouse is much smaller than the actual game window.

I recall my cursor being locked to a position, I think upper left corner. When i tried to move the cursor severely limited to that small are. Then I pressed ESC to get game menu up and down and I think that did the trick.

Quoting: PangaeaWould be fantastic if they redid Witcher 1 in the TW3 engine. That game was so bloody marvellous. It was a proper PC game too, not all this consolitis stuff from TW2 and TW3 (it was probably worst in TW2 actually). Had so much fun with that game, and I have to admit I quite enjoy the nods in TW3 to it

That would be fantastic. They could use that opportunity to get their feet wet with Vulkan or soak it even more (assuming they are using Vulkan for Stadia and Switch port).

Quoting: ShmerlI didn't get to extensions yet, and I'm in my first playthrough. Are extensions recommended for NG+ only, or in general they are OK to play after the main storyline?

I continued on to Blood and Wine according to recommended level from the initial quest. I found it to be a little easy so I think it would be a better experience if you did the expansions with NG+. My Witcher skills weren't impressive and still I managed to pull through without to many deaths.

I'm playing on hard, so if it will get too easy, I'll bump the difficulty to death march :)

Oh then you should be fine. I played with Story and Sword difficulty, which is normal.

In first two Witcher games, I find "hard" the most enjoyable and balanced, while all others below it are too easy, especially towards the end of the game. That's why I chose "hard" for TW3 as well, and so far it looks similar in result to previous games.

I should have done the same :S:

EDIT:
With help from mod creator, this is how I got mods working without conflicts. I used linux native kdiff3 (didn't it realize there was for Linux). Found all the script files that both mods. For example both Friendly HUD & Meditation used r4player.ws. I compared the vanilla r4player.ws with HUDs and MEDs, merged and output the merge file to Path to Witcher 3/Mods/mod0000_MergedFiles/content/scripts/..insert_further directories according to structure of where file was.

I did that for all the files the two mods modified (like five or so), and then the game ran fine. But I did experience heavy stuttering, similar to when you first play a Proton game. I think it's because the game began using script files in mod0000_MergedFiles directory, instead of vanilla files, that it's the source of stuttering and it will go away after some playing? Was this the case for you guys as well when you loaded the game after resolving mod conflicts with merging?

And on subject of mods, I changed my mind about Friendly Meditation. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great mod but I found the flickering that occurs, when you meditate, caused by shadows is not easy on my eyes. Am I alone in thinking that? (assuming you've tried Meditation mod)

Thanks for the edited details about mod conflicts. Don't have any conflicts on my end since I've gone with a small footprint (but actually quite a few mods, around 10), but it will surely be useful if I go with something more severe later.

Has the stuttering disappeared, now when you have played some more with it?

Have any of you tried the 1.2.2 build of DXVK, or don't drivers support it properly yet? I had issues when I tried 1.2.1 earlier, but maybe Nvidia is worse in this regard (don't know).

I didn't experience stuttering related to mods, so can't say. In friendly meditation, I don't set time flow too fast, so I didn't notice any flickering as well.

I'm updating my dxvk fairly often, simply building latest master branch. And Mesa a bit less frequently, only if there are some notable radv changes. I didn't notice any regressions, except one a while ago, that was caused by llvm bugs, but that was resolved by recent llvm updates (I build Mesa with recent llvm master snapshot, so regressions could creep in).

Your most welcome:) I removed the Meditation mod shortly after so I don't have the chance to figure it out. I'm pretty sure it wasn't caused by something serious as a bug or regression. In hindsight I think I know what caused it, or at least contributed to it, kernel upgrade/downgrade. Of course having the game use merged files probably did not help. For example one file that I merged pertained to Witcher senses, and so when I used senses it stuttered and froze. But this was for brief moment.

I upgraded kernel but in doing so I experienced issues. The one that led me to downgrade, temporarily as I had little plans to play, was slower boot time and in general just didn't feel as seamless as with kernel that came with the distribution (Kde Neon). I tried at least three of recent kernels but I ended up sticking to 4.20 for upgrade. Perhaps I need to do a more thorough testing to find the right one.
In any case, I noticed when kernel was changed that it was had a initial impact on the game. As if a cache of game files relating to game world had been expunged and was now being cached again. That brings up a question I want to ask: have any of you experienced that?

To your question about DXVK Pang, no I stick with the version Proton use.

Shot I took in Skellige. If there was ever a time for 4k monitor with great panel...it would be to experience places like this.

Spoiler, click me

Every time you change your kernel, your shader cache is invalidated, since it's based on the driver you are using. Cache are SPIR-V shaders complied into GPU machine code. And that's being reset, when your GPU kernel driver changes, to avoid some incompatibility issues. In case of Mesa, that also is reset when you have a different Mesa build. Shaders compilations can cause temporary stutters. Once they are chached - things should improve, considering you also have dxvk Vulkan pipeline cache built up.