I'm still in the middle. So far my favorite episodes are 3 (focused on striga fight) and 4 (focused on the law of surprise).

Episode 2 felt underwhelming for those who read the books. The whole sub-story line with elves, Lille and Dana Méadbh is practically missing. But I guess for those who didn't read them it will go unnoticed, if may be slightly confusing due to lack of context.

On the other hand, you could say it's the result of adaptation to the series medium. I suppose they could do a better a job at that, but overall it was still good.

Last edited by Shmerl on 23 Dec 2019 at 12:47 am UTC

Pretty good song indeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHgowJ7d33k
Joey Batey plays Jasksier (aka Dandelion) very well too.

I'm looking for the name of the composition in episode 6

Spoiler, click me

where Geralt and Co. are going through the dwarven mountain path, and camera zoomes out and shows the bird view of the mountain. Really good Witcher style music there!

Last edited by Shmerl on 26 Dec 2019 at 11:54 pm UTC

Jaskier: “When a humble bard...”

Geralt: “THAT’S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED.”

:D

Don't touch Roach :D

this the official link to the song, The youtube recordings have inferior quality.

https://soundcloud.com/giona_ostinelli


(that's what the artist said on twitter https://twitter.com/SonyaBelousova )

Nice, but let's analyze them. I downloaded the sample from Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/giona_ostinelli/toss-a-coin-to-your-witcher
They are using 128 Kbit/s mp3. That's below transparency for mp3, so result is worse than lossless source.

Analyzing the Youtube stream on the other hand:

youtube-dl --list-formats 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHgowJ7d33k' | grep audio
249          webm       audio only tiny   57k , opus @ 50k (48000Hz), 1.12MiB
250          webm       audio only tiny   75k , opus @ 70k (48000Hz), 1.48MiB
140          m4a        audio only tiny  130k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (44100Hz), 2.89MiB
251          webm       audio only tiny  145k , opus @160k (48000Hz), 2.92MiB

The interesting one is format 251. Let's download it:

youtube-dl --format 251 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHgowJ7d33k' -o toss_a_coin_to_your_witcher.webm

Open it with mpv, and then press Shift+i to show statistics:

mpv toss_a_coin_to_your_witcher.webm 
 (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=eng (*) (opus 2ch 48000Hz)
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz stereo 2ch float
File: toss_a_coin_to_your_witcher.webm
        Size: 2.922 MiB Format/Protocol: mkv
        Total Cache: 41.55 KiB (1.0 sec) Speed: 17.19 KiB/s

Audio: opus (Opus)
        Channels: 2     Format: floatp
        Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
        Bitrate: 141 kbps
A: 00:00:20 / 00:03:06 (11%)

Bitrate fluctuates around 130 - 150 Kbit/s. That's around or above transparency for Opus:

https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Opus#Music_encoding_quality

So if Youtube one was recorded from the lossless source, it's actually better quality than Soundcloud. However if they used lossy source, it's likely worse, since transcoding from lossy to lossy is always reducing quality.

By listening, Youtube one sounds a bit worse, so likely they didn't have lossless source.

Basically, to get good quality audio, we should ask them to release the OST in lossless FLAC :)

Last edited by Shmerl on 29 Dec 2019 at 1:44 am UTC

yeah the soundcloud version sounds better but just a tiny improvement, it still has lots of distortion on my speakers.

flac is king, but I don't think they will upload a flac version? or yes? apple music does support flac right?

Incumbents like Apple, Amazon and Spotify don't sell FLAC. Alternative and innovate stores like Bandcamp do. I always prefer to buy music in FLAC and ask all composers and artists I'm interested in to release that way if they can.

Some other stores (besides Bandcamp which is the biggest one) you can get FLAC in:

https://us.7digital.com
https://uk.7digital.com
https://www.junodownload.com
https://store.tidal.com
https://www.prestomusic.com
https://www.prostudiomasters.com
https://www.hdtracks.com

Then there are of course FLAC releases for games OSTs on GOG (and Steam I suppose).

The workaround for those who don't release in FLAC is to get a physcial CD, and rip FLAC from it. Good thing physical media is still being released with lossless audio.

Some publishers also don't sell lossless, but if you contact them directly, they can sell it to you. I once bought lossless soundtrack for Grim Fandango that way from Sumthing Digital (otherwise you can only get mp3 one). That was a pleasant surprise (they actually responded quite quickly and said they are glad to provide lossless files for their audiophile customers even though they aren't selling them on the site).

I'll contact The Witcher series composers, may be they'll release it in FLAC (unless Netflix will block it, they are not exactly fond of DRM-free releases). I also have some questions about the names of the compositions.

Last edited by Shmerl on 29 Dec 2019 at 2:36 am UTC

Does Apple still sell DRM-free ALAC? If so, converting from ALAC to FLAC is very easy (happens in an instant basically; since there's no transcoding; and IIRC the metadata transfers over with no problem).

Last year I converted heaps of lossless m4a (ALAC)s that I had accrued while I was using a Mac, into FLAC, with a shell script -- though I forget what converter I used. In any case, ALAC is open source; so all the repositories have the required tools.

Does Apple still sell DRM-free ALAC?

I'm not using any Apple stores, but yes, I've heard they used to sell some lossless music too. However lately they are replacing it all with their new service where you can't buy anything, only rent. They are be pushing everyone (including music creators) there, so I suppose they are getting rid of ALAC as well? I'm not really following their developments, so I might be wrong.

Last edited by Shmerl on 29 Dec 2019 at 7:06 am UTC

I'm old and still just buy CDs :P On that note, I did buy a nice collector set for Appetite for Destruction, and it came with a bluray Audio disk that has AMAZING sound. Now if I can figure out how to rip it to a FLAC...

I'm old and still just buy CDs :P On that note, I did buy a nice collector set for Appetite for Destruction, and it came with a bluray Audio disk that has AMAZING sound. Now if I can figure out how to rip it to a FLAC...

I don't know about Blu Ray, but I rip all my normal CD Albums to FLAC using Audacity, then I use EasyTAG to add the metadata info and album art icons.

I did buy a nice collector set for Appetite for Destruction, and it came with a bluray Audio disk that has AMAZING sound. Now if I can figure out how to rip it to a FLAC...

You can probably rip it to WAV using ffmpeg (ffmpeg can read almost anything), and then encode to FLAC with regular flac encoder from Xiph flac package.

mpv also works as a nice frontend for ffmpeg.

Something like:

mpv --no-video --ao pcm --ao-pcm-file target.wav some_source

Though flac encoder is picky, you need to figure out how to generate a wav it can understand.

Last edited by Shmerl on 29 Dec 2019 at 11:43 pm UTC

I usually play all TW games on hard, but TW3 starts getting too easy, so I might bump it to hardest.

Last edited by Shmerl on 30 Dec 2019 at 7:03 pm UTC

What difficulty is everyone here playing?? I read that the normal difficulty is too easy and it should be played at Blood and Bones at least (whatever is called).

I started it on normal and it is too easy in my opinion, cruised thru the entire game with no difficulties whatsoever and I didn't play Witcher 1 or 2. Never died once in combat playing it Arkham Asylum style ( like a brute if you prefer ) only by falling from a cliff or drowning.

Spoiler, click me

By the way, I'm at the last mission (I think) just after the Kaer Morhen battle, Lvl 31, looking to upgrade to the last tier my feline armor set wearable at lvl 34, but I have no more side quests left to gain exp to gain 3 more lvl. Do I have to grind ? Do I have to begin the extension ? I would really like to be full mastercrafted for the last showdown.

As for expansions, it's recommended to play them after finishing the main storyline. Also, NG+ is a mode which bumps difficulty even further and gives access to even more advanced witcher gear. It's accessible after finishing the game once. I'm still in my first playtrhough so didn't get to that yet :)

Last edited by Shmerl on 30 Dec 2019 at 10:40 pm UTC

TW3 is one of those games where higher difficulty does make sense; because it doesn't amount to arbitrary handicaps on the player. You need to actually read the bestiary to learn what strategy works best against what monster, pay attention to the effects of the potions and the oils -- and as a result, you get to experience more of the game, which in turn (IMHO) makes it more enjoyable.

(One downside of all this, though, is that when you take a long break from playing, picking it back up becomes really hard -- which is what happened to me, as I went back to play the expansions. Now I have to relearn how everything works, incl. the crafting, and the runes, and whatnot; and it doesn't help that the user interface got updates in the meantime (the interface did get easier to use; but then again that's one more thing to relearn). I'm not terribly motivated to put in the 'work' again, so the Blood and Wine expansion sits gathering dust. Maybe I'll return to it after I sort out my stuff in the real world.)

Yeah, after a long break, re-learning things can be time consuming. Still, it's far from more complex examples like some cRPGs :)

Last edited by Shmerl on 31 Dec 2019 at 7:29 am UTC

thanks for the answers I started the game in Blood and Broken Bones.

You can also use a few good mods:

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/339 - more immersive UI (no annoying talk icon on top of NPCs).
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1458 - quite good exploration mod that allows reaching beyond map barriers, I fixed a few bugs in it related to teleportation.
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2067 - nice meditation mod
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1221 - handy equipment UI improvement
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3843 (NPC spoiler, but it fixes one otherwise incomplete optional quest, so it's up to you if you want to add it).

You'd need to merge some of them for it to work.

Last edited by Shmerl on 31 Dec 2019 at 8:36 am UTC

Nah, kayran is a lot harder, one of the hardest fights in TW games. Griffin in the prologue was quite easy for me, and I wasn't using a crossbow.

Last edited by Shmerl on 31 Dec 2019 at 5:13 pm UTC

someone uploaded the Witcher's song to spotify disguised as a podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/1dfiRzjtJ1x0jcKBolMaKX?si=0NlOQ1YrT7uSSFbA1521Lg

I don't have Spotify account, and youtube-dl doens't seem to recognize their URL. It's probably with authentication only. I wrote to composers, but so far no response.

@The_Aquabat: Also, fell free to visit the community Wiki if you have some questions about the lore: https://witcher.gamepedia.com/

I figured out a way to get to the peak above Kaer Trolde fortress. It's not that hard.

Start climbing from the place where you can see the boat on the map (south south west from the cursor), and climb up, until reaching the fortress edge:


You'll find the fortress area which can't be reached otherwise:



From there, you can find path up (there are some invisible walls near it):




Continue going up, and you'll get to the axe area from the race:




That's not all though. You can get to the top of the peak:


Birds flying above it in a circle:




View down to the fortress and the sea: