The small design flaws and oddities

[Ayyub]

The small design flaws and oddities

Though the attention to details in The Witcher 3 are higher than in games such as Dragon Age and Skyrim, there are some things that I'd like to comment on. Possibly, it will help CDPR to create more realistic and interesting worlds.

THE WITCHER 3

1. There are dozens of torches burning in the sewers under Novigrad. Why light them on if there are only drowners there? There were no lights in the sewers of Vizima.

2. Educated peasants.
One is struck by the huge number of books in the homes of the peasants. Apparently, reading benumbs the sensation of hunger.

3. Seashell.
We constantly find sea shells on river banks. The question is, where do sea shells in freshwater rivers come from, if water flows from the river to the sea, but not vice versa?

4.The villages look realistic with one little exception - there are no household buildings at all. Without them no real medieval East European village could survive (a barn (stodoła), a threshing floor (gumno), a granary (hambar) and a bath-house (banya)).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banya_(sauna)

You can not see the stables, cowsheds and sheep sheds. But they had to keep livestock somewhere before it was eaten, right?

5. Famine in Velen.
Velen is starving to death. In the peasants houses we keep finding dumplings, bread, wine and other food supplies. There is soup on the table, and some fried fish in the pan.
Shelves are full of different dishes, bottles and meals. In times of famine anything that has enough value is sold right away just to buy some food.
The villages themselves, with a few exceptions, look fairly decent. For comparison, when there was a famine in the Russian Empire, peasants took apart thatched roofs to feed the straw to their cattle. They also took apart log cabins, using the logs as firewood or to they exchange them for flour.

THE WITCHER 2

Huge niches with pools filled with red-hot lava were carved into the walls of Vergen, in the vicinity of Mahakam Gate. It is unclear why the lava doesn't cool down. Besides, the devs probably don't know that the lava's temperature is so high that it is difficult to approach it closer than 3-4 meters.

 

[KlimV]

The only thing I don't really like is that scoia'taels don't have squirrel tails anymore. That was their distinctive feature.

 

[Ayyub]

There are a few more observations:

1. There is a siege tower standing right in the middle of the field, on the northern side of Fyresdal. Who built it there and why is a mystery, since on Skellige there are no fortresses with high walls near it.

Spoiler

2. While Ciri was coming down to the cave, the Crones were cooking the human meat in a pot. Floating pieces of human flesh were seen in the pot. I noticed some of the victims were cooked with their clothes on.

 

[Sunsibar]

I noticed some of the victims were cooked with their clothes on.

But it's good to get fibers from your food?

 

[robwarrior]

the crossbow sux. That's a design flaw imo. You can argue its only meant for under water or air targets. But if that's so then y make a whole talent tree dedicated to it?

 

[SarahGabriella]

the crossbow sux. That's a design flaw imo. You can argue its only meant for under water or air targets. But if that's so then y make a whole talent tree dedicated to it?

Its only 1 line in the skill tree. Not a whole skill tree...

 

[SarahGabriella]

There are a few more observations:

1. There is a siege tower standing right in the middle of the field, on the northern side of Fyresdal. Who built it there and why is a mystery, since on Skellige there are no fortresses with high walls near it.


2. While Ciri was coming down to the cave, the Crones were cooking the human meat in a pot. Floating pieces of human flesh were seen in the pot. I noticed some of the victims were cooked with their clothes on.

I was wondering about that siege tower as well. If it was near any fortress it would make sense but not out there just near a small village.

 

[Mr_Carbine]

Siege towers are mobile attack platforms maybe the last invaders left it there when the Skelligens attack, anything is possible on Skellige. There are places likes barns and out houses but you are right there is not enough to fit the populaces but hey for their first open world game, the only gripe that I have is the horse/swimming controls the rest is just apart of CDPR showing off and evolving thier skills in amaking a game that rivals most if not all other game developers today and it is two nearly three years old. If Cyperpunk 2077 is half as good as TW3 then I will pay through the arse to get my hands on it. Passion goes into making games at CDPR you can not deny that, with our feedback they could be the front runners of the industry, no problem.

 

[Yeiiow]

Good nitpicks!

One thing that you missed on The Witcher 2, is how many times the same hanging armour with the Flaming Rose symbol is used to decorate houses, houses that dont even belong to Knights, nor even to Humans(specially visible on Vergen a dwarven city).

 

[sv3672]

1. There are dozens of torches burning in the sewers under Novigrad. Why light them on if there are only drowners there? There were no lights in the sewers of Vizima.

At least that one can be explained with gameplay reasons, players would probably complain if the sewers were just left completely dark.

You can argue its only meant for under water or air targets.

Which is an oddity itself, if the crossbow deals almost no damage to a drowner outside water, then why does a single bolt kill the same drowner underwater when water has orders of magnitude higher drag than air? Of course, this is another case where realism was sacrificed for gameplay reasons, but I have to admit it took some time until I realized the crossbow is actually useful under those specific circumstances.

 

[Ayyub]

At least that one can be explained with gameplay reasons, players would probably complain if the sewers were just left completely dark.

We've got a torch and Cat potion for this.

 

[sv3672]

We've got a torch and Cat potion for this.

Indeed, although it is probably also by design that those are never really needed. I mean, they can be useful, but a player without them is not left stranded.

 

[Ayyub]

And I wanted to write about the cannibal camp near a small, ransacked village in western Velen! There are human remains all over the camp. Some of them were hanged and some were in cages. It seemed they had been left to decay there, in the cages and hanging from their ropes.
I realize that the people in the camp were cannibals. But still, does that mean that they could bear the smell of rotting corpses? I'm sure they liked to eat people, but not smell their stinky corpses.

 

[NukeTheMoon]

There's a lot of little things you can nick and pick at.
Questionable things like, why does a level 24 quest have level 30 baddies and level 16 loot?
Thing is, it's not like they planned it like that. The initial delays of TW3 sort of tells you that there is a lot of stuff they wish they could have done extra passes on.
But then, just consider the improvements to various things, besides the graphics, in TW1, to TW2, to TW3. Puzzles, story, mini-games, etc. They get leaps and bounds better.
Most of the little things, like not-useful loot, I consider to simply have been thrown in without much attention, a missed opportunity, but really doesn't matter much.

 

[sv3672]

There's a lot of little things you can nick and pick at.
Questionable things like, why does a level 24 quest have level 30 baddies and level 16 loot?
Thing is, it's not like they planned it like that. The initial delays of TW3 sort of tells you that there is a lot of stuff they wish they could have done extra passes on.

It is true that the suggested order of playing some mid to late game side quests was shuffled around late in the development, and even a number of main quests were turned into side quests and probably had their levels changed. However, I do not recall encountering "red skull" enemies when playing a quest at the recommended level, except maybe if it was some random enemy not related to the quest itself. On the other hand, under-leveled loot dropped by high level monsters is indeed common and annoying.

 

[NukeTheMoon]

It is true that the suggested order of playing some mid to late game side quests was shuffled around late in the development, and even a number of main quests were turned into side quests and probably had their levels changed. However, I do not recall encountering "red skull" enemies when playing a quest at the recommended level, except maybe if it was some random enemy not related to the quest itself. On the other hand, under-leveled loot dropped by high level monsters is indeed common and annoying.

CDPR sortof had to prove that they could make a "it" game, which they did in TW3.

Now whomever is responsible for funding development, shareholders, publishers, etc, looking at the success of the previous title, can possibly allow their next title to have a "when it's ready" mentality.

It leads me to believe the extra passes they wish they could have done in TW3, they'll be able to do in CP77, or won't even be necessary, having improved development practices somewhat from experience with the previous title.

 

[jj284b]

Personally, i didnt liked armor choices in the W3.. way too many standard crafted armors, which are not suited for witchers, while many of them were placed out of place, like tons of Skellige Clan armors that could be found and made in Velen and Novigrad.. At the same time, there were no light leather jackets that are usually mentioned in books, which btw, both Lambert and Eskel wore and were quite common in W2 and W1..

And of course, i also didnt liked the random weapon effects that were sometimes assigned to some swords.. there are no flaming swords mentioned in books, yet many of ordinary swords (nonrelic) that could be found all around the world have those magic abilities..

Also, placement of witcher knowledge could be better, whole idea of finding Witcher recipes as random loot is quite strange, and i think these would be better linked with Witcher Treasure hunts, where player would find some random recipes every time he finds a witcher diagram...


Oh, and of course, the ragdoll effect - this bugs me in every single game.. why are bodies flying around when killed... its completely against base laws of physics and it look very strange to see

 

[NukeTheMoon]

Personally, i didnt liked armor choices in the W3.. way too many standard crafted armors, which are not suited for witchers, while many of them were placed out of place, like tons of Skellige Clan armors that could be found and made in Velen and Novigrad.. At the same time, there were no light leather jackets that are usually mentioned in books, which btw, both Lambert and Eskel wore and were quite common in W2 and W1..

And of course, i also didnt liked the random weapon effects that were sometimes assigned to some swords.. there are no flaming swords mentioned in books, yet many of ordinary swords (nonrelic) that could be found all around the world have those magic abilities..

Also, placement of witcher knowledge could be better, whole idea of finding Witcher recipes as random loot is quite strange, and i think these would be better linked with Witcher Treasure hunts, where player would find some random recipes every time he finds a witcher diagram...


Oh, and of course, the ragdoll effect - this bugs me in every single game.. why are bodies flying around when killed... its completely against base laws of physics and it look very strange to see

I agree with the armor stuff. They f*cked that up, pure and simple.
They made some cool armor, that you alternated which "set" according to your character level. It was cool. But then they hid the sh*t by stuffing the locations in maps and spreading the maps all over the goddamned islands with no ryhm or reason. They only ever partially fixed this by putting one of the Ursine maps with all the other in Skellige, but really all the damn maps should have been with the master armorer. Or really just one map with all the locations.

They did that to try to get players to use all the other armors they threw into the game, so they wouldn't just be schematics you picked up and ignored. The problem is, all the none-Witcher armor in the game either looks like it's been worn for 100 years when you just crafted it or it looks like something a Witcher wouldn't wear.

Pretty sure next game I do I'm going to just give myself all the schematics in the console at the beginning of the next game, so I don't have to run around on Google looking for the armor maps.

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As for the weapon effects, yeah they weren't in the books, or even other games I think, but who cares. It's a game thing that added depth.

I have no idea why the hell the ragdoll effects are still screwed up in 1.31, all they need to do is set the dolls to have more weight, like the human ragdolls do.

 

[sv3672]

I have no idea why the hell the ragdoll effects are still screwed up in 1.31, all they need to do is set the dolls to have more weight, like the human ragdolls do.

It probably was not considered a high priority issue (compared to the list of other bugs), or the ragdoll effects are intentionally exaggerated because it looks "cool" to the average player, it gives the impression of the hits having a greater impact.

 

[Zyvik]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this atrocity



Seriously, what the hell? It's not just OOC for Rita, it's OOC for pretty much the entire magical community. Just imagine all those days spend on that small boat (wich has only one bedroom by the way). How could they survive the stink!?