Exploring the Witcher 3

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Quite beautiful cave system under the Temple Isle:



Interestingly, the location is given by Julia, the cat lady from Farconers, who is also apparently a secret D&D player.
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Hm, I found a mad witcher?
 
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Yeah, apparently he saw himself surpassing Alzul and Malaspina in creating some monstrous witchers. Quite a spooky questline there, but very well done.

Also found an obvious reference to the Maharal of Prague in one of the notes in the side tunnel.
 
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Yup. See? Almost 6 playthroughs, and I am 100% sure I've never been in that cave before.

I noticed, that if you use a torch or a cat potion, the perception of caves and dungeons is less distinct, and it would be easier to forget. So I prefer not to, if there are some natural sources of light.
 
I feel torches can actually make it harder to see, so I sometimes choose Cat or just dimness instead. Lighting all torches/candles/braziers along the way because why not.
 
I noticed, that if you use a torch or a cat potion, the perception of caves and dungeons is less distinct, and it would be easier to forget. So I prefer not to, if there are some natural sources of light.

Yup. I only use Cat if I'm expecting trouble or trying to make sure I didn't miss any dried fruit containers.


I feel torches can actually make it harder to see, so I sometimes choose Cat or just dimness instead. Lighting all torches/candles/braziers along the way because why not.

I wish more games would intentionally incorporate light blindness (for more than just fancy establishing shots and transitions). Especially games like The Elder Scrolls.
 

MilezZ

CD PROJEKT RED
Wow, haven't seen you around here for a while, Miles. (Any fun stories about designing Witcher III's explorable levels you'd care to share?) Cheers!

I have risen fueled by the E3 hype. Indeed I have. This comment sparked my interest for a reason!


Firstly, if you read her diary she says there:

She calls her adventurers group "a party".

Then, if you listen to her talking to herself, you can notice this:
So I concluded she must be a D&D player :D

Some fine observational skills there, my friend. I'm not sure if this was added by the writer behind it as an even deeper layer, but it seems to make sense to me.

This whole bit has a very special place in my heart. You see, Julia Kenyon is a reference to my fiancee of the same first name. She's crazy about cats, both in the game and in real life. Her story in the game implies that in her craze, she has started calling her cats by the names that her "party members" used to have. These names are actually references to cats she and I have had the pleasure of sharing (part) of our live with.

If you check the house, you will even find some plates prepared for them as feeding spots. They fit the personalities of each cat.
There's of course much more stuff like this, even within this small quest line. Like how the Temple Island Dungeon almost didn't happen and how through some trickery I managed to build the entire thing in a day or two, but I'm not sure if that is a) interesting with this being so personal and b) it would probably be too much to tell via text.

Thanks for the trip through memory lane. I do try to stop by every once in a while, but you know how it is. If it's between making a game or talking about it, the choice is haaard. :)
 
I have risen fueled by the E3 hype. Indeed I have. This comment sparked my interest for a reason!




Some fine observational skills there, my friend. I'm not sure if this was added by the writer behind it as an even deeper layer, but it seems to make sense to me.

This whole bit has a very special place in my heart. You see, Julia Kenyon is a reference to my fiancee of the same first name. She's crazy about cats, both in the game and in real life. Her story in the game implies that in her craze, she has started calling her cats by the names that her "party members" used to have. These names are actually references to cats she and I have had the pleasure of sharing (part) of our live with.

If you check the house, you will even find some plates prepared for them as feeding spots. They fit the personalities of each cat.
There's of course much more stuff like this, even within this small quest line. Like how the Temple Island Dungeon almost didn't happen and how through some trickery I managed to build the entire thing in a day or two, but I'm not sure if that is a) interesting with this being so personal and b) it would probably be too much to tell via text.

Thanks for the trip through memory lane. I do try to stop by every once in a while, but you know how it is. If it's between making a game or talking about it, the choice is haaard. :)

Does this mean we should keep our eyes open in CP? Are there going to be robokittens that give players insight into the societal norms of Night City populace?

Also, will they lure players in with their purrs then detonate with lethal force? (Militech kitties? MAX-CAT?)
 
Some fine observational skills there, my friend. I'm not sure if this was added by the writer behind it as an even deeper layer, but it seems to make sense to me.

This whole bit has a very special place in my heart. You see, Julia Kenyon is a reference to my fiancee of the same first name. She's crazy about cats, both in the game and in real life. Her story in the game implies that in her craze, she has started calling her cats by the names that her "party members" used to have. These names are actually references to cats she and I have had the pleasure of sharing (part) of our live with.

If you check the house, you will even find some plates prepared for them as feeding spots. They fit the personalities of each cat.
There's of course much more stuff like this, even within this small quest line. Like how the Temple Island Dungeon almost didn't happen and how through some trickery I managed to build the entire thing in a day or two, but I'm not sure if that is a) interesting with this being so personal and b) it would probably be too much to tell via text.

Thanks for the trip through memory lane. I do try to stop by every once in a while, but you know how it is. If it's between making a game or talking about it, the choice is haaard. :)

Thanks for sharing your personal story about creating the game! That's so rare and very nice to see :) Touches like that show that the game was made with much love. Please do share more if you want, it's always interesting to read about your work on the game.

Regarding Julia and her cats, if you wander around Farcorners, you can hear some funny related conversations, like one lady complaining that Julia's cats peed all over her drying laundry :)

The caves and dungeons under the Temple Isle are beautiful, and if you made that in a day or two - that's some feat! The story line with the golem and secret lab reminded me The Secrets of Loc Muinne a bit, though I get even stronger association with it from Wandering in the Dark and Magic Lamp, which so far are one of my most favorite quests in TW3 (I'm still in the middle of the first playthrough).
 
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I have risen fueled by the E3 hype. Indeed I have. This comment sparked my interest for a reason!
Delighted to see some hyper-activity! Heh.

And, thanks very much for sharing these details! I love the personal touches! I figured the Cat Lady was an inside reference, but wasn't sure who it could be. All the best to your fiancee, and her cats!
 
Just got to the part with Dijkstra and Bart. Quite funny dialogs there, especially Dijkstra explaining how he didn't have time to make a taxonomic analysis of what came out bubbling from the sewers :D
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Also, interestingly, Bart was placed under characters, while Salma under monsters.
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I noticed that suggested level for the starting Wolven gear is 14, but crafting diagrams are supposedly found in Kaer Morhen. Is it intended, that you can't really use them until much later (since I suppose you can't really get there until much later in the main story)?
 
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Just found a great mod - Sensible Map Borders. It turns off forced redirection mechanic when you reach invisible map border. That improves exploration quite a bit.

For some treasure hunts, I decided to travel normally, instead of using fast travel. So taking a boat from Novigrad to some far away southern Velen area should be fun, as long as it's reachable by sea, right? Well, not exactly. One annoying part wasn't letting me through due to the invisible wall (not really sensible in that area):



With that mod, you can sail through just fine. Geralt keeps his remarks about "edge of the world" and etc. Which are useful, since in some cases you indeed can fall of the map.
 
Try and sail all the way to the ships you can see far, far west of Novigrad. It's fun but takes ages.

Also, at least in White Orchard there are useful things to find that you can only reach with that mod (or a similar one).
 
Yeah, I've tried to reach those ships in the past, but they were always beyond the invisible border. Now it should be possible :)

Do you mean anything in particualr in White Orchard, or just in general? Some places like beyond the broken bridge weren't reachable.
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So, this map edge mod has an issue. If you save in the outer areas, it teleports on load. I found a way to fix it. You need to basically disable (comment out) everything in these functions in r4Player.ws (should be added to that mod and merged if necessary):

OnStartTeleportingPlayerToPlayableArea
OnTeleportPlayerToPlayableArea

Submitted the bug report to mod creator.
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Near the entrance to cave near Frischlow cemetery, there is a distinct periodic hammer or pickaxe noise. But I don't see anyone around. What's the story with that?

UPDATE: Ah, I found it. You can discover a ghost using the magic lamp.
 
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I found some giant dinosaur (or dragon?) fossils on a big misty island:




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Nilfgaardian ship docked at the Ferry Station:



I also found a small hidden Scoi'atel camp on the eastern side of Pontar:





Most guards were annoyed at Geralt's presence, but one on the second picture said to cheer up, and that Geralt is dandy. She also commented "one relic meets another".

That's the third camp I found so far, besides Vernossiel's one and one south-west-west of Farcorners where you can play Gwent.
 
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