I absolutely adore this game, but why does it punish exploration ? :(

[pixartist]

I absolutely adore this game, but why does it punish exploration ?

I've been a huge fan of Gothic II and to some extend of Skyrim, and I love this game. The details remind me of Gothic, but on a much grander scale. It has robbed me of my real life for a few days now. But I have an issue with it that makes me kinda sad. I always loved exploring parts of the world that are not easily accessible. Now while Skyrim did not really encourage that, Gothic nearly always rewarded the player for reaching these areas. Unfortunately Witcher 3 follows the path of Skyrim, but worse, it even punishes me for it. I have seen tons of invisible walls, I had holes in the floor, and I NEVER EVER found any loot in areas that were not specifically and easily accessible. A few examples:
- I tried to enter the university district in Oxenfurt by climbing some roofs. When I finally did it, a few deaths later, I happily ran towards the other side of the roof, just to bump into an invisible wall surrounding the entire area.
- I tried getting up the mountain behind Kaer Trolde from the blacksmiths area. Invisible wall.
- I explored MULTIPLE areas on the pirate island in Skellige just to find empty hallways and holes in the ground.
- When I got the screecher quest I managed to climb the tower just to find out that the hole in the ground inside the tower was fake and that there was no way out of it.
- etc.

PLEASE, for your next expansion, which I will definitely buy, give some thought to the more adventurous players and hide some more or less epic loot in areas that you would NOT expect players to reach. This would make exploring much more fun and non-linear. Thanks

 

[panurgy]

I half agree with you.

I think Skyrim (with the possible exception of Morrowind) had the best exploration of any game, ever, and IMO it's the one thing that Bethesda really excels at. Why? Because there are rewards everywhere in secret nooks, and the rewards are varied and interesting in terms of the setting. Often it's an untold story, or a piece of hidden lore, and only occasionally is there any significant material reward. Epic loot everywhere is a theme park design that ruins the game, IMO, because it makes the setting feel artificial and makes the game too easy. (Bethesda has gotten a lot of flak for theme park design, but not in this particular context.)

So while I agree that W3 exploration could improve, I'd personally want it to be subtle lore payoffs that add to the setting.

 

[Degs29]

With regards to the Oxenfurt area, I imagine those invisible walls are there to prevent your from breaking the game. In other words, getting into Oxenfurt academy early wouldn't make sense, as I believe there are quest-related items for that area that depend on you not getting in until the appointed time. That is 100% a guess as I'm still early on in the game.

 

[pixartist]

I half agree with you.

I think Skyrim (with the possible exception of Morrowind) had the best exploration of any game, ever, and IMO it's the one thing that Bethesda really excels at. Why? Because there are rewards everywhere in secret nooks, and the rewards are varied and interesting in terms of the setting. Often it's an untold story, or a piece of hidden lore, and only occasionally is there any significant material reward. Epic loot everywhere is a theme park design that ruins the game, IMO, because it makes the setting feel artificial and makes the game too easy. (Bethesda has gotten a lot of flak for theme park design, but not in this particular context.)

So while I agree that W3 exploration could improve, I'd personally want it to be subtle lore payoffs that add to the setting.

I'm not saying there should be epic loot EVERYWHERE. I'm saying there should be loot, including some overpowered items, in areas, that are not accessible by simply walking or climbing the occasional (marked) ledge. I'm talking about areas where you will actually have to think and search to get there. Also this loot should obviously not be marked on the map.

I'm not saying there should be epic loot EVERYWHERE. I'm saying there should be loot, including some overpowered items, in areas, that are not accessible by simply walking or climbing the occasional (marked) ledge. I'm talking about areas where you will actually have to think and search to get there. Also this loot should obviously not be marked on the map.

Yeah but why an invisible wall ? Couldn't they just take out all the NPCs and put some nice loot in there as a reward for the efford ? Why does it have to be an invisible wall. Other areas have quest-relevant NPCs spawning in later, why not this ?

 

[cyberpunkforever]

i think the xploration in tw3 ist the mos rewarding ever, as ong as you "respect" the game, map, enemies you encounter, i've found awesome equipmnt only explorating, and killing monsters, destroying nests, etc, if you encounter invencible enemies, run away come back later, more powerful, it's like dark souls, and there can be some bugs, but tri to get over it, just go on, explore, you'll find always something new, besides, the landscapes are beautiful, the bugs will be solved with new patches,

 

[BiggusD1]

Velen area is very jarring in this aspect.

 

[Eruvadhor]

I can sympathize to an extent, after looting Moonblade several times:laughing:

 

[Rudlee]

Since we're on this topic, how do you get to that giant tree area, only one which actually has the tree visually drawn on the map, I've seen the marker there, so it should be accessible, but it's surrounded with invisible walls, for which the devs btw said, that there'll not be.

 

[ElBiggus]

Since we're on this topic, how do you get to that giant tree area.

Spoiler

It's a plot area; you'll get to it much later.

 

[Chronoworld]

Why won't you turn the markers off (the "?") and then explore away? You will feel much more rewarded

 

[BlahDog]

Not quite the same subject, but I'm really annoyed with a lot of the hidden treasures. One time I fought a group of level 10 bandits (I was level 6) to acquire some treasure. As it turns out, one of the generic "Novigrad Blades" I picked from the dead bandits did 10+ damage more than the treasure I retrieved at the end of the journey. Nearly half the "hidden treasure" quests I've done have been less than fruitful.

I'd prefer if these kinds of rewards scaled to your current level, so I don't feel like I've wasted my time. Otherwise, my experience with exploration has been quite good.

 

[Chronoworld]

Usually those hidden treasures were pretty fun for me, most of the time one of the bodies has a hidden letter/note that tells a bit about the dead one's story and a location of a chest, the rewards were usually relic-quality items, some better than my current weapons but mostly just something I would sell or some diagrams.

 

[jim_uk]

I found it better than Skyrim for exploring, yeah you can go anywhere in Skyrim but there's nothing worth finding, everything is scaled to hell and back, Morrowind got it right, there were all sorts of wonders hidden away, many OP but you had to work hard to get them if you were low level.

 

[marsnut]

Great idea! Loot and lore in odd places. Finding random oddities would be pretty fun and a reason for me to do more exploration. As long as it isn't part of a quest. What I hate are fetch quests with things in the middle of nowhere. For instance, DAI's shard quest was maddening as there were shards stuck on top of really hard-to-get places. Being a completionist, I HAVE to complete the inane quest. However, if there's lots of scattered loot or amusing journals that aren't tied to a quest, then it's just a nice bonus whenever one wants to go off the beaten path.

 

[octavian123]

Loot is too easy and plentiful and the problem is exactly like it was in Inquisition...actually it is quite eerie how similar the dungeon construction and level design is to Inquisition.

In neither games are you required to THINK how to get to a piece of loot or chest. You know that if there is a cave there is a chest.

I crave for Gothic style exploration in an RPG and neither TW3 or Inquisition offers this...

At least TW3's combat heavily reminds me of Gothic. The game lets you tackle foes that are much stronger than you and forces you to learn the attack patterns of the enemies, I really like that. I beat that Fiend from Skellige at level 23 after I discovered it didn;'t like fire. If you manage to set it ablaze with expliding bolts the damage ticks for 1200/ second. Shame I didn't bring more bolts cause it would have made it even simpler. Still, no fight in TW3 is as epic as the awesome dragon battles in Inquisition...but fighting lesser enemies is more fun overall.

 

[kmetek]

What i miss is the option to reset quests or maps....if you do something wrong and your save file gets corrupted or anything.

 

[Bibmo]

I always loved exploring parts of the world that are not easily accessible. Now while Skyrim did not really encourage that, Gothic nearly always rewarded the player for reaching these areas

Im a huge gothic1 fan and I descoverd that too, it feels sometimes that dev time was short on such stuff.

It is something i dont understand these days with games, same with the chests and loot. Im always extremly happy when i find hidden chest or loot thats on places you wont reach easy and then you just find some random stuff.

I hope and wish from cdpr that they take more time for such unique stuff that makes it worth to use some not easy approach.

Same with getting acess to towns and such, always leave the creative players another way, especially when you have an open world.

First thing i did when i reached oxenfurt yesterday, was running around the whole city to find a hidden pass over or under the walls, an got massive dissapointed despite of the most beautifull medieval setting i ever experienced in any game.

And why i can rob all the peoples houses when they see me, they dont even react.

If there will be any sequel or similiar open world game from you, cdpr. Dont forget to add more unique loot system, pets ( would love to discover the world with a dog, pig or cat by myside), housing, be able to present your stuff like skyrim did.

WIth the Witcher3 i dont expect that stuff as it is a linear non sanbox design.

 

[moonknightgog]

Oxenfurt university is closed. You are not supposed to go there.
I think that it is somehow related to the October expansion.

 

[Killgrow]

While exploring, I found a tower with a drawbridge that was open(could not cross), more exploration reveled a hidden passage under the water gaining entrance. I had to clear out a few drowners first. From inside the tower I lowered the drawbridge. I dispatched a wyvern, after a reload as it knocked me off the tower the first time, my fault for picking a bad spot to fight. I found loot in the tower. I felt like my exploration was rewarded. Just one example.

 

[Rai_Hikari]

Part of the issue with the loot in non-easily accessible areas though is a lot of a person's time is taken up scouring every inch of the dungeon for loot. This wouldn't be a problem if formulas for oils and stuff weren't appropriately scarce. I also don't see how not rewarding=punishing.