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The Witcher 3
I'll be the downer here and say there goals are to ambitious. Hope it works out for them. Really.:biggrin:
 
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I'll be the downer here and say there goals are to ambitious.
Whether they´re too ambitious for their own good remains to be seen obviously, what I think is more important at this moment is that, at least from my perspective, they seem to be ambitious in the right directions, so to say :).

For me so far the only thing I´m tentatively not much fond of is the instant fast travel.
 
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For me so far the only thing I´m tentatively not much fond of is the instant fast travel.

Well, in a world that is 30% larger than Skyrim I think that fast travel will come in very handy at times :) .
 
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Page 4 - No Enemy Level Scaling
  • The system is supposed to be like in Gothic with fixed enemy levels
  • The game is focused around advancement through quests/story and not grinding XP killing monsters
  • If you do choose to grind, then your XP output will decrease the more often you kill the same enemy
Wasn't that something that Witcher 2 also did? My memory is kinda weak now but I'm sure I've seen this before.

  • The criticism directed at The Witcher 2 has resulted in a complete overhaul of the PC controls
I had the impression the criticism was focused on the responsiveness (or lack of) rather than anything else. Since they dealt with than in one of the patches I'm interested to see what will they change now.

I don't really get with what they mean with a completely open world? game is separated into 3 main areas? :S
Sounds to me like what Gothic 3 did. Completely open game world but with Myrtana,Nordmar and the desert being 3 distinct areas.
 
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Dear Green Place
Well, in a world that is 30% larger than Skyrim I think that fast travel will come in very handy at times :) .
Yeah.
Fast travel á la Morrowind or Gothic is perfectly fine in my book.
The one-click-travel from wherever you are isn´t since its existence usually carries negative implications for other design aspects.
 
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You'll be happy to know that there's supposed to be 30 to 40 times more boobies than The Witcher 2.

Unfortunately all of those boobies are on the same woman :D

I'm curious as to how a game 30% larger than Skyrim can only have 100 hours of content! Skyrim had nearly unlimited content, some of it much better than others, but still. It sounds like the landmass will be pretty empty. I want to hear their bragging about number of dungeons/locations compared to Skyrim. I'm not sure of the total number of areas in Skyrim but it's probably over 500.
 
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Wasn't that something that Witcher 2 also did? My memory is kinda weak now but I'm sure I've seen this before.

Yes, I think so, too.

I had the impression the criticism was focused on the responsiveness (or lack of) rather than anything else. Since they dealt with than in one of the patches I'm interested to see what will they change now.

I played the fully patched game but I would still say that the engine had some kind of built-in input lag or laggy controls or generally a feeling like you were wading through jelly.
Also, the camera controls were pretty terrible, especially in the more hectic bossfights where you were rolling around on the floor a lot.
I'm very glad that they are addressing these concerns.

I'm curious as to how a game 30% larger than Skyrim can only have 100 hours of content! Skyrim had nearly unlimited content, some of it much better than others, but still. It sounds like the landmass will be pretty empty. I want to hear their bragging about number of dungeons/locations compared to Skyrim. I'm not sure of the total number of areas in Skyrim but it's probably over 500.

They mentioned the POIs which will all have dungeons/quests/treasure associated with them. The question is how many POIs are there going to be and if there is a quest at a POI did they already factor that into the 50 hours for side quests or is it a separate thing?
Other than that I'm not overly worried. I personally don't mind some "empty" landscapes since it is actually more realistic than a world packed with dungeons and ruins all over.
 
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I'm curious as to how a game 30% larger than Skyrim can only have 100 hours of content! Skyrim had nearly unlimited content, some of it much better than others, but still. It sounds like the landmass will be pretty empty. I want to hear their bragging about number of dungeons/locations compared to Skyrim. I'm not sure of the total number of areas in Skyrim but it's probably over 500.
I'll take quality over quantity any time … I'd get really worried if CDPR would start bragging about the number of locations.
 
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Whether they´re too ambitious for their own good remains to be seen obviously, what I think is more important at this moment is that, at least from my perspective, they seem to be ambitious in the right directions, so to say :).

For me so far the only thing I´m tentatively not much fond of is the instant fast travel.

Sorry all I'm hearing is pr marketing and hype. I'll need the final product to believe everything they say. I'll never be burned again on Pre game promises.
 
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I played the fully patched game but I would still say that the engine had some kind of built-in input lag or laggy controls or generally a feeling like you were wading through jelly.
Also, the camera controls were pretty terrible, especially in the more hectic bossfights where you were rolling around on the floor a lot.
I'm very glad that they are addressing these concerns.
Apart from the targeting, input bugs and input lag that were more or less dealt with in the EE and the couple patches that came after it I can only think of the animation-combo based design being perceived as an issue with responsiveness. Blocking was possible in some cases only after a longish animation which had been toggled by a combo was completed as Geralt couldn't in fragments of a second go from jumping in the air delivering blows to standing firm on the ground and having his sword in a position to block/parry.
  • No more combos executed from a single click, instead every click is one hit/stroke
  • More combat animations, e.g. The Witcher 2 had 20 combat animations for Geralt and now there are 96

Can anyone think of any games that would fit such a description?
These bullet points are somewhat specific but I can't see how it'd work without feeling too actiony and/or random thus detracting from either the RPG side of combat (limiting char progression to +1s and special attacks?) or the tactical.

I can't say I remember the camera being a problem. It may have been annoying in the boss fight at the end of Chapter 1 but the whole fight was, more or less. Afaik targeting was what everyone had a problem with initially.
 
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Dear Green Place
I'm curious as to how a game 30% larger than Skyrim can only have 100 hours of content! Skyrim had nearly unlimited content...
Yup, unlimited bugs.
 
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Sounds to me like what Gothic 3 did. Completely open game world but with Myrtana,Nordmar and the desert being 3 distinct areas.

I hope it doesn't mean that the rest of the world will be filler....
 
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And we have more info from the forums:
Q (SotC):
Is the athmosphere of The Witcher 3 closer to the first installement in the series, or to the second one? (IMHO, the first one had a more "slavic" feeling)
What are the new changes in the combat system?
Is the openworld style of the game actually an advantage? (if this van be told from the demo)
Does Geralt have a beard?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
It's hard to say. What they showed was actually closer to Skyrim in athmosphere. But they showed only the northern region, and the game will have two more. One of them is the No Man's Land, which will, actually, have the slavic feeling to it, like what we've seen in the first Witcher. And the second region is the gigantic Novigrad, essentially the capital of the Witcher universe (ED: he's obviously exaggerating). And there the athmosphere will be closer to the one in The Witcher 2: something like medieval Europe on the verge of the Renaissance Era.


Q (Wan-Li):
The Witcher 3 runs on the same engine as The Witcher 2, or it has a new engine?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
The engine is new, it's Red Engine 3. Visually it's closer to The Witcher 2 than to The Witcher 1, but there are many differences. For example, there won't be any invisible barriers, if you want to jump into a chasm, you can do it. Also the visibility range is extreme, colossal open spaces, and so on. And the visual quality in general is a little bit better.


Q (Woodcutter):
My main question: are the main virtues of the Witcher series in place, with some superfluus things like enhanced crafting, combat and open world added? In the Witcher 2 we still had the main advantages of the first Witcher game: the lack of a "truly good" choice and the possibility to see repercussions of your actions. I hope it'll still be the case with The Witcher 3.
And what about the music?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Yes, of course these virtues will be kept. And music is good as well, the main composer was not changed.


Q (Alexpsk60):
I so hoped to see some new information about Cyperpunk…

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
There will be such information. We will post a big interview with CD Project about Cyberpunk.


Q (limp-be):
Will there be nude women in The Witcher 3?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Of course. But, unfortunately, there won't be collectible cards.


Q (Wan-Li):
Igromania, please share your impressions about the new engine and the game in general!

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Brief impressions:
The combat is somwhere in between the one of The Witcher 2 and the one of The Witcher 1. It is slower than in The Witcher 2, and requires more thought. The number of different strikes and combos increased fivefold, and they heavily depend on timing. If you press the button a second earlier, Geralt will strike in one way. A second later, in a different way.
And the developers said that, citing them, "Geralt will no longer turn his back on foes".
The open world runs on the principle that "there is always something interesting on the horizon". Go anywhere, look around and you will see either a tower, or a lighthouse, or a village. In Skyrim, that's how the Radar worked, but here it's for real.
There will be a possibility to fight mounted! Not as the main part of the gameplay, on the contrary, Geralt is much more effective on his feet, did he study martial arts for nothing? But the very possibility to hit someone without dismounting will exist.
There is no sense looking at the screenshots for now, the version they showed ran DirectX 9, and in that sense the build they showed was very raw. At the time of the release (2014) they will already switch to DirectX 11 and won't even support DirectX 9.


Q (Gus333):
1. Where does the demo take place? If you can draw any conclusions, what can you say about the open world and the ecosystem?
2. Is the new combat system good? Is it better than in The Witcher 2?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
The demo takes place in the north, the setting resembles Skyrim and The Wall from A Song Of Ice and Fire. Jarls, horned helmets, cliffs with waves pounding on them: all as it should be.
About the ecosystem: there will be random encounters. If you ride through the forest, you can see bandits robbing a caravan, or wolfs hunting a deer. Some of these encounters will be one-time and scripted, while the others will be generated randomly. How often do you hav these encounters couldn't be seen yet.
The combat mechanics is definitely better. Less resembling a slasher.


Q (StarKiller66):
How did the characters change (appearance, personality)?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Geralt grew a beard. Apparently in order for his chin to not freeze in the north. But his personality is the same good old thorny one.


Q (@ndronn):
I'm very bothered by the following qestion. The evasinve rolls were replaced by pirouettes. This is good for fencing with a human opponent, but what to do against the monsters? You can't really fence with them.

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Well, it's hard to answer. Fighting the ice giant there was no real need in evasive rolls. You could jump away wrom the hits of the giant and jump closer back and poke him with the sword. That was the way the giant was killed.
The developers dropped the evasive roll since the players were constantly abusing it in all combat encounters (it was a kind of a panacea from all the troubles), which spoiled Geralt's image.


Q (Den17):
Well, judging from the comments, everybody cares about the following for questions:
1. Is it interesting to play the game?
2. What did they change?
3. What about the graphics?
4. What about Geralt's relations with women?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1. Very very interesting.
2. The size of the world, the combat, the story. Well, everything
3. The graphics are in place.
4. There will be long branching love stories, and the one-night sex options as well. Brothels included. But what to choose is in the player's hands, Geralt is up to anything.


Q (@ndronn):
I will ask some questions. CD Project promised that Geralt will learn to jump, cling to ledges, and so on. How does it happen? Like in The Witcher 2, press LMB in a certain spot and he jumps, or like in GTA, there is a speciall button for jumping, you can jump anywhere?
How do you advance in alchemy? Is there an option to drink potions during the combat (it's hard to predict when the combat will start and against who, so I'd like to have such an option)?
Are the mounted movement controls good enough?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
There is a special button for jumping, and no restrictions.
I cannot tell you about how one advances in alchemy, but I can tell something about drinking of the potions. You can drink them only before the combat starts, as before, but now you can ACTIVATE them during the combat. This is logical, since witchers can control their methabolism and tell their body to start processing certain substances at will. So there will be planning involved (you'll have to decide which potions will you need against this particular opponent), and also an option to activate them precisely when needed.
The mounted movent controls are good enough. But I haven't heard complaints about similar things in Skyrim, Red Dear Redemption and Mount&Blade as well, so it's certainly doable.


Q (Pigius):
Will the game be as demanding to PC hardware as The Witcher 2 was?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Even more demanding. Let me repeat that they even plan to drop the DIrectX 9 support alltogether.


Q (DeGree)
What about the alchemy? Is it casual like in The Witcher 2, or more involved like in the first installement?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
They again merged the approaches of the first two games. There will be more options and more possibilites for experimentation, but there will still be a separate menu for this.


Q (Rimsky)
Will there be albedo/nigredo/rubedo or their analogs in TW3 alchemy?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Yes, they promised it.


Q (DeGree)
Will there be an option to store your belongings in some storage "at home"? Or we'll have to deal with bartenders for this again?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
I didn't ask if Geralt will have some "home", but it's not too late to ask, I'll try to do it.
But the horse will certainly have some storage attached to it, like in Fallout 2

Source: Witcher 3 Demo for site "Igromania" - The Witcher board
 
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And MORE!
Q (Rimsky):
What monsters there were except giant?
What about old characters?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Sorry not much was showed. Wild animals and bandits, all story related characters was carefully hidden.

Q (geralt_novgorod):
How much time it takes to complete TW3 demo?
Will Geralt be able to swim on his own or only on boat?
How decisions that were made in TW1,TW2 influence the game?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Quest it self was possible to pass in half an hour, but we were able to walk around location. That was small northern island, size of whole TW2 game. But we haven't seen whole island, be course not every thing is ready yet. It was an alpha, rather than beta.

Geralt will be able to swim, and how well! But he will have stamina, so not every island may be visited with out boat. And in cold water stamina will drain much more rapid, so at north boat is necessary. By the way one of the quests related to that. You arrive to the island, but boat get sunk.

Decisions will be important, so dev recommend to keep safes. Will they make a mass effect like presetup (were you can choose decisions) - they are still thinking. But how decisions will manifest , obviously nobody will tell :)/>/>


Q (geralt_novgorod):
Please tell about targeting system and weak points of the enemies. What about stealth and melee? Does auto targeting uses energy?
How fast Geralt dismount?
Is there any difference between steel sword animations and silver one?
Are button bindings the same : lmb - light strike, rmb - strong?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Sadly but most above is a precise details, which will be balanced and rebalance. There a still two strikes. And he dismount the horse say speed as skyrim did.

Q (Bibizinskiy):
//in general about how bad optimization was at release//

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Optimisation were promised to be better. At least devs stated that TW2 was to demanding for its generation in their opinion.


Q (Yurtex):
1) Are we going to meet the other witchers? Will be there anything related to Kaer Morhen.
2) Will we be able to navigate the sea as we like (go everywhere, explore small islands, fight sea monsters) or is it going to be like in TW:1?
3) Can we import save games from TW1?
4) Is Geralt going to use the chain from the first game intro?
5) how many towns/vilages will the game have?
6) will we get the strong/fast/group stiles back?
7) How levelling system going to look? More like in TW1 or TW2?
8) What about weak points and detective mode?
9) can we keep on playing after the main story ends?
12) Will we have time to expore and do side quests to our hearts content without fear of missing a main story quest / save a vilage from x enemy? (are we going to fail a quest only if we start it and ignore it, or can we fail a quest if we don't accept it at a specific time in the game?)
11) What about drinking and food? Like in TW1 were quests to over-drunk your opponent?


A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1. Story related - secret.
2. Boat is controlled manually, where never you like you can sail. There a no invisible walls, but it will be kind of stupid to land to the giants at level 1. Basically quests only give you mark were to go, but you decide how to go there swim or ride, knowing nothing about it. And Yes IFT will be, if you want to use it. Works like usually only with visited locations.
3. Already answered, Keep your saves!
5. Quote: "lots". One capital, few town and a lot of small villages. Flotsam from TW2 falls under "small village" category.
6. Seems no, will ask about it.
7. Still in devleopment
8. That a good question, hard to answer in short. Its like new wticher sense, witch makes Geralt a bit more batman. When entering this mode, every thing becomes grey and all related item are highlighted. This way you can see animals tracks, see enemy weak points , see last seconds of the victims live and much more.
9. Another secret.
10. About failing - doubtful, but forget and then come back - as much as you want.
11. Such quests will be definitely, but will you be able to drunk on your own - need to investigate.

Q (Alce):
Сyberpunk 2077? Вживую не показывали, но на вопросы отвечали. Скоро будет и превью, и запись видеоинтервью.

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
They answered some questions, soon going to show preview, and recording of the video interview.

Q (Tempele):
Changing hair style/ shaving beard?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Seems like no.

Q (Im Vlad!):
//Game play time , Horse name//

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
On presentations numbers 40 and 40 were mentioned (40 hours) 3 endings and a lot of combinations what happend to the world thanks to our action.(like in fallout)

About Roach, main horse will be called so. But the other question that it wont be always available(on the island for example). But no buddy stops you from calling your newly obtained horse - Roach.

Q (Diixtra):
Will be colour gamma the same as in TW2?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Three regions - three different colour gamma. Cold blue on the norht, dark green on No man land and gold + pearl - in Novigrad and neighbourhood.

Q (chaos_204):
1)What about stupid amnesia, like in TW2 were you lost most of your skills (compared to TW1)
2)Secondary characters from TW1?
3)Does mob hunting give any xp?
4)Is there any effect from previous game decisions?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1 and 3 still in dev. 2 is plot related. 4 haven't seen, but was promised to have fully.


==================================================================

Q (zyzz):
How inventory looks like, more like in TW1 or TW2?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Neither, was an wip inventory. More like tw2, but dev said that inventory and map will look completely different.

Q (geralt_novgorod):
1)Companions?
2)New media?
5)New inventory for traders
8)Will be game world developed after TW3?

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1. Seems like part time only.
2. SOON.
5. Inventory still in development.
8. TW3 is a last game of trilogy about Geralt. And look at the writer was a cunning. So new games are possible.

Q (P1a9v8e9l):
2)//Fauna//
3)//New combat//

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
2. While travelling animals do appear and from time to time interact with each other. Wolf running after rabbit, pride attacking sheep.
3. If I got it right, its returning to rhythmic combat. Button pressed in right time will give better result, then chaotic, random pressed one. So not only combination is important but timing as well.

Q (simple_intelligence):
1)//Mini games//
2)//Monster count//
4)//female dwarves//

A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1. There will be more mini games, but that all info. There were phrase stated: "Quests related to mini-games"
2. More defiantly, will ask how much exact.
4. Plot related.

Source: Witcher 3 Demo for site "Igromania" - The Witcher board
 
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Thanks a lot Dr. A! This is almost too informative for a game still a year away from release and certainly more informative than everything revealed by the early hype machine.

This bit answered my main question/concern:
For example, there won't be any invisible barriers, if you want to jump into a chasm, you can do it.
Converting the engine used in Witcher 2 to a truly open world engine must have been a monumental task. If it was as hard (costly) as I imagine CDP are taking a big gamble with investing so much in 2 games, if it pays off though and they expand their fanbase and become a bigger name they will likely stick to that engine for the lifetime of the next console generation.
 
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Dear Green Place
I know what you mean. Admittedly I do feel a little anxious but I do have great faith in CDProjekt!

Well they can promise the stars yet reality is going to happen sooner or later for both buyers and developers.:fingerscrossed:
 
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