I'd like to point out that this is my personal opinion and I realize that others may not agree, but I want to offer this proposition and see what kind of discussion unravels. I am a big fan of RPG games, especially fantasy style games such as Elder Scrolls, Monster Hunter, and The Witcher. However, I am also a big fan of simulation games such as the sims and harvest moon. The blood and wine DLC for TW3 got me thinking that I'd like to see CDPR do a future witcher game that is geared towards the RPG/life simulation genre.
The proposition entails adding a few features (inspired by Elder Scrolls and BaW DLC) to the main game : witcher homestead and witcher companion.
The homestead (similar to the vineyard in BaW) would be a customizable house the witcher can live in and turn into his dream abode. The homestead will provide the witcher with several benefits such as: storing and displaying his gear and trinkets, a base of operations in which to recuperate and earn buffs, and a trade shop that allows the witcher to earn extra income from home. The homestead providing a steady flow of income - independent of witch contracts - would be so nice. Obviously, you'd have to invest a lot in the homestead on upgrades and expansions before you could see the returns on your investment. I personally, spent so much money crafting witcher gear, Geralt was almost in the poor house. I couldn't decide between all the sets, so I continuously crafted all the upgrades for each school my entire playthrough. Now, obviously everyone doesn't hoard gear like me, but I'm sure some players can see the benefit in this.
These are the details of the homestead questline. For some reason (haven't figured that out) the witcher has the opportunity to acquire a disheveled homestead. This needs to occur early on in the game, as it will be an arduous endeavor. The witcher would then invest in a variety of upgrades to tailor the homestead to their liking. Lastly, the witcher can choose from a variety of expansions to create the trade shop section of the homestead. Here are my suggestions for trade shops: apothecary, animal trapper, and distillery. I chose these trades, because I thought they'd best suite the witcher. The witcher is knowledgeable about botany and well versed in crafting potions and decoctions. Growing herbs and crafting medicines as an apothecary is a suitable trade. Since the witcher is an excellent tracker and hunter, being an animal trapper would also be suitable. The distillery just seems to fit, because alcohol is tasty. Each tradesman questline has a set of objectives to undertake.
1. The apothecary questline will require the witcher to locate a particular book (via rumors) describing the location of a rare herb garden. Then the witcher must travel to the garden, harvest seeds, and plant them at his homestead. Once the plants are harvested, the witcher can then use a new feature called batch synthesis to craft large batches of medicine. The witcher will also have to find medicine recipes through various methods to learn additional crafting recipes.
2. The animal trapper questline will require the witcher to locate animal dens, craft traps and set them near the dens, loots the traps once the animals are caught, and take the animal carcasses to the homestead in order to skin and tan the hides to make leather and various products. This is probably the simplest questline as all it really requires is learning the recipe to craft the traps and then having a tanning station at the homestead.
3. The distillery questline will be the most unique of all as the objectives are less specific. The witcher will simply have to purchase ingredients such as grains and fruits from a local merchant, then plant and grow them at the homestead. There will be an optional high-level objective to locate and higher a renown dwarven beekeeper to make honey mead (a special alcohol brew). The hard part about this questline is that there will be no set recipes. The witcher will have to create his own recipes by combining various ingredients and then test their quality and popularity. In order to do this, the witcher will acquire a contact - a local nobleman - who enjoys throwing parties. The witcher will supply the alcohol for the party (with the option to attend of course) and wait to see how the guests respond to his brew. The recipe will become an official recipe if the alcohol is well received. There will be no penalty if the guests don't like to alcohol; the witcher simply has to try a new recipe.
In order to introduce the tradesman questline into the game, the player would first have to complete the homestead questline. Once the homestead questline is complete, going into the nearby town will trigger the questline for purchase orders. The questline is triggered by the witcher passing by someone crying on a bench and shaking their head. The witcher can choose to talk to the individual, who then informs the witcher that they recently lost an important supplier and don't know if they can keep their business afloat. The witcher mentions that he has a trade shop at his homestead and offers to become the new supplier. The two parties form an agreement for the witcher to deliver a certain amount of goods at set intervals (to be paid upon delivery of goods). This questline will be a continuous questline for the duration of the game unless of one the following scenario occurs.
1. The witcher says he can no longer fulfill the purchase orders and offers to find another supplier for his contact. The quest is completed and discontinued upon selecting this scenario.
2. The witcher fails to fulfill a purchase order and the contact nullifies their agreement. The quest is failed and discontinued if this scenario occurs.
3. The contact is murdered, goes bankrupt, or their business is sabotaged. This results in the purchase order agreement being nullified. The current questline will be discontinued and the player has the option to pursue one of the remaining tradesman questlines with a new contact.
The contact can be a number of parties. For the apothecary questline, it could be a hospital or military outpost (someplace that requires a lot of medicine). For the animal trapper questline, it could be a craftman (someplace that requires leather and such). For the distillery questline, it could be a tavern or brothel (someplace that requires a lot of alcohol).
The witcher companion would essentially be the romantic partner of the witcher, who, after their questline is completed, can be invited to live with the witcher at his homestead and act as a consultant. Since the witcher tends to date witches (this is true at least for Geralt), when the witcher takes on certain contracts (such as lifting curses and defeating certain higher level monsters) he can talk to his partner and ask for advice on curse dispelling rituals or recipes for making certain lures or decoctions. They may also ask to accompany the witcher to see how the contract plays out and provide minimal combat support. This aspect would be similar to the relationship Geralt and Triss had when they completed several contracts together in Novigrad or Geralt and Yen when they completed several contracts together in Skellige.
The proposition entails adding a few features (inspired by Elder Scrolls and BaW DLC) to the main game : witcher homestead and witcher companion.
The homestead (similar to the vineyard in BaW) would be a customizable house the witcher can live in and turn into his dream abode. The homestead will provide the witcher with several benefits such as: storing and displaying his gear and trinkets, a base of operations in which to recuperate and earn buffs, and a trade shop that allows the witcher to earn extra income from home. The homestead providing a steady flow of income - independent of witch contracts - would be so nice. Obviously, you'd have to invest a lot in the homestead on upgrades and expansions before you could see the returns on your investment. I personally, spent so much money crafting witcher gear, Geralt was almost in the poor house. I couldn't decide between all the sets, so I continuously crafted all the upgrades for each school my entire playthrough. Now, obviously everyone doesn't hoard gear like me, but I'm sure some players can see the benefit in this.
These are the details of the homestead questline. For some reason (haven't figured that out) the witcher has the opportunity to acquire a disheveled homestead. This needs to occur early on in the game, as it will be an arduous endeavor. The witcher would then invest in a variety of upgrades to tailor the homestead to their liking. Lastly, the witcher can choose from a variety of expansions to create the trade shop section of the homestead. Here are my suggestions for trade shops: apothecary, animal trapper, and distillery. I chose these trades, because I thought they'd best suite the witcher. The witcher is knowledgeable about botany and well versed in crafting potions and decoctions. Growing herbs and crafting medicines as an apothecary is a suitable trade. Since the witcher is an excellent tracker and hunter, being an animal trapper would also be suitable. The distillery just seems to fit, because alcohol is tasty. Each tradesman questline has a set of objectives to undertake.
1. The apothecary questline will require the witcher to locate a particular book (via rumors) describing the location of a rare herb garden. Then the witcher must travel to the garden, harvest seeds, and plant them at his homestead. Once the plants are harvested, the witcher can then use a new feature called batch synthesis to craft large batches of medicine. The witcher will also have to find medicine recipes through various methods to learn additional crafting recipes.
2. The animal trapper questline will require the witcher to locate animal dens, craft traps and set them near the dens, loots the traps once the animals are caught, and take the animal carcasses to the homestead in order to skin and tan the hides to make leather and various products. This is probably the simplest questline as all it really requires is learning the recipe to craft the traps and then having a tanning station at the homestead.
3. The distillery questline will be the most unique of all as the objectives are less specific. The witcher will simply have to purchase ingredients such as grains and fruits from a local merchant, then plant and grow them at the homestead. There will be an optional high-level objective to locate and higher a renown dwarven beekeeper to make honey mead (a special alcohol brew). The hard part about this questline is that there will be no set recipes. The witcher will have to create his own recipes by combining various ingredients and then test their quality and popularity. In order to do this, the witcher will acquire a contact - a local nobleman - who enjoys throwing parties. The witcher will supply the alcohol for the party (with the option to attend of course) and wait to see how the guests respond to his brew. The recipe will become an official recipe if the alcohol is well received. There will be no penalty if the guests don't like to alcohol; the witcher simply has to try a new recipe.
In order to introduce the tradesman questline into the game, the player would first have to complete the homestead questline. Once the homestead questline is complete, going into the nearby town will trigger the questline for purchase orders. The questline is triggered by the witcher passing by someone crying on a bench and shaking their head. The witcher can choose to talk to the individual, who then informs the witcher that they recently lost an important supplier and don't know if they can keep their business afloat. The witcher mentions that he has a trade shop at his homestead and offers to become the new supplier. The two parties form an agreement for the witcher to deliver a certain amount of goods at set intervals (to be paid upon delivery of goods). This questline will be a continuous questline for the duration of the game unless of one the following scenario occurs.
1. The witcher says he can no longer fulfill the purchase orders and offers to find another supplier for his contact. The quest is completed and discontinued upon selecting this scenario.
2. The witcher fails to fulfill a purchase order and the contact nullifies their agreement. The quest is failed and discontinued if this scenario occurs.
3. The contact is murdered, goes bankrupt, or their business is sabotaged. This results in the purchase order agreement being nullified. The current questline will be discontinued and the player has the option to pursue one of the remaining tradesman questlines with a new contact.
The contact can be a number of parties. For the apothecary questline, it could be a hospital or military outpost (someplace that requires a lot of medicine). For the animal trapper questline, it could be a craftman (someplace that requires leather and such). For the distillery questline, it could be a tavern or brothel (someplace that requires a lot of alcohol).
The witcher companion would essentially be the romantic partner of the witcher, who, after their questline is completed, can be invited to live with the witcher at his homestead and act as a consultant. Since the witcher tends to date witches (this is true at least for Geralt), when the witcher takes on certain contracts (such as lifting curses and defeating certain higher level monsters) he can talk to his partner and ask for advice on curse dispelling rituals or recipes for making certain lures or decoctions. They may also ask to accompany the witcher to see how the contract plays out and provide minimal combat support. This aspect would be similar to the relationship Geralt and Triss had when they completed several contracts together in Novigrad or Geralt and Yen when they completed several contracts together in Skellige.
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