Interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz for Polter.pl

[darcler]

Here is the missing part of the article.

___________________

Since considerable amount of time has passed from when this interview was conducted, some things about The Witcher 3 had changed. The text has been updated, but some of the information that didn't make it to the final version is interesting enough that we decided to pass it to you regardless. Some of it concerns ideas that were in the meantime modified. Other concerns things that most likely are still up to date, but which the developers are unwilling to officially confirm.

Just a couple of months ago the devs spoke extensively about the witcher senses, and that they were useful not only when tracking monsters, but in the combat itself. A regenerating wyvern, for example, would be easier to kill if we'd first damage its organ responsible for the regeneration. A charging horned creature would be neutralized by cutting the tendons in its legs. Many people compared the system to V.A.T.S. from Fallout 3, but we've learned that the idea was completely different. When in combat we'd be entering the mode that would highlight active points on the enemy. With large enough stamina we'd simply click such a point to automatically disable the enemy's corresponding special ability. The system would also serve to disarm people or strip them of their shields. Although a mechanic of neutralizing enemy's special attacks will still be implemented in The Witcher 3, it will not be about attacking highlighted points.

Fans of the first and the second Witcher were captivated by the music composed by Adam 'Scorpik' Skorupa. The devs contacted him once more and it seemed we'd also hear Slavic tones of this artist in the third game. Unfortunately they were unable to work out an aggreement and The Wild Hunt will most likely not feature Scorpik's music.

The war with Nilfgaard is an important background story in The Witcher 3 and it had a large impact on the world's situation. It also provides a way to acommodate vastly different geopolitical endings of the second game - the war causes seemingly different situations to come to a single conclusion. Unofficialy we've also learned that due to certain events we will not be seeing Novigrad's neighbor, Oxenfurt - the town with the largest university on the Continent.

 

[Senteria]

Here is the missing part of the article.

___________________

Since considerable amount of time has passed from when this interview was conducted, some things about The Witcher 3 had changed. The text has been updated, but some of the information that didn't make it to the final version is interesting enough that we decided to pass it to you regardless. Some of it concerns ideas that were in the meantime modified. Other concerns things that most likely are still up to date, but which the developers are unwilling to officially confirm.

Just a couple of months ago the devs spoke extensively about the witcher senses, and that they were useful not only when tracking monsters, but in the combat itself. A regenerating wyvern, for example, would be easier to kill if we'd first damage its organ responsible for the regeneration. A charging horned creature would be neutralized by cutting the tendons in its legs. Many people compared the system to V.A.T.S. from Fallout 3, but we've learned that the idea was completely different. When in combat we'd be entering the mode that would highlight active points on the enemy. With large enough stamina we'd simply click such a point to automatically disable the enemy's corresponding special ability. The system would also serve to disarm people or strip them of their shields. Although a mechanic of neutralizing enemy's special attacks will still be implemented in The Witcher 3, it will not be about attacking highlighted points.

Fans of the first and the second Witcher were captivated by the music composed by Adam 'Scorpik' Skorupa. The devs contacted him once more and it seemed we'd also hear Slavic tones of this artist in the third game. Unfortunately they were unable to work out an aggreement and The Wild Hunt will most likely not feature Scorpik's music.

The war with Nilfgaard is an important background story in The Witcher 3 and it had a large impact on the world's situation. It also provides a way to acommodate vastly different geopolitical endings of the second game - the war causes seemingly different situations to come to a single conclusion. Unofficialy we've also learned that due to certain events we will not be seeing Novigrad's neighbor, Oxenfurt - the town with the largest university on the Continent.

Attacking specific parts of the monster not being implemented: I can live with that. It will make the combat more challenging and not: Find weakspot = win.

ABout Adam Skorupa not joining in, that's a damn shame. So all the composers of The Witcher 1 are gone. That makes me fear the music will not be so great. How can they try to make the music go back to TW1 style if there's no composer that worked on it.

Also Oxenfurt not in the game is very disappointing. Maybe they don't have the time to make it. A darn shame.

 

[Agent_Blue]

Attacking specific parts of the monster not being implemented: I can live with that. It will make the combat more challenging and not: Find weakspot = win.

ABout Adam Skorupa not joining in, that's a damn shame. So all the composers of The Witcher 1 are gone. That makes me fear the music will not be so great. How can they try to make the music go back to TW1 style if there's no composer that worked on it.

Also Oxenfurt not in the game is very disappointing. Maybe they don't have the time to make it. A darn shame.

The VATS-like system is dead. Good riddance.
It was a bad idea to begin with, or shall I say, a great idea with no foreseeable good enough implementation.


The Oxenfurtlessness has me worried as to how big Novigrad will turn out to be.

 

[CostinRaz]

The Oxenfurtlessness has me worried as to how big Novigrad will turn out to be.

Personally I disagree with that, I think it's better that Novigrad will be the only city in the game. It means to me that they are focusing on making it as good as it gets.

It also provides a way to acommodate vastly different geopolitical endings of the second game - the war causes seemingly different situations to come to a single conclusion.

How the hell would that happen> You either have a civil war in Temeria, or it's ruled by Radovid, or independent under Natalis or it's ruled jointly by Radovid and Henselt.

Then look at the Pontar Valley and Aedirn: You either have Henselt controlling the entire region: Pontar directly and Aedirn indirectly, all of it in chaos if Henselt is dead on Roche's path since then Stennis is also dead, or Aedirn is in chaos if Saskia and Stennis died on Iorveth's path, or Stennis controls it.

You can't have the same bloody political situation given the variables. There must be differences determined by how well the resistance was, and that resistance would be directly determined by who is ruling what.

Now I do appreciate CDPR introducing past characters in certain quest which will vary based on our choices, but it should be more then that.

 

[Garrison72]

Bad news about Skorupa, and in the few tracks released music has been different. No more of the original Witcher composers remain. I just hope the new guy follow the musical path laid out.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

I liked the VATS like system idea, but with some changes, i wanted it to be in slow motion so you still could fail targeting, like some sort of Red Dead duels style and that you could not interrupt it to dodge or parry, so its powerful but also a gamble, too bad its gone.

I wanted to see Oxenfurt too unfortunately, but if they arent doing it its probably for a good reason.

And the music thing has me worried honestly.

 

[gregski]

Sooo, when you've targeted an enemy you are circling around him...finally!

 

[Sephira]

Interesting interview! Shame that Oxenfurt would not be in the game but... after all it's not a "witchery" place. University, students...no place for monsters I guess

Just a couple of months ago the devs spoke extensively about the witcher senses, and that they were useful not only when tracking monsters, but in the combat itself. A regenerating wyvern, for example, would be easier to kill if we'd first damage its organ responsible for the regeneration. A charging horned creature would be neutralized by cutting the tendons in its legs. Many people compared the system to V.A.T.S. from Fallout 3, but we've learned that the idea was completely different. When in combat we'd be entering the mode that would highlight active points on the enemy. With large enough stamina we'd simply click such a point to automatically disable the enemy's corresponding special ability. The system would also serve to disarm people or strip them of their shields. Although a mechanic of neutralizing enemy's special attacks will still be implemented in The Witcher 3, it will not be about attacking highlighted points.

So damn good news!

 

[Agent_Blue]

I liked the VATS like system idea, but with some changes, i wanted it to be in slow motion so you still could fail targeting, like some sort of Red Dead duels style and that you could not interrupt it to dodge or parry, so its powerful but also a gamble, too bad its gone.

I wanted to see Oxenfurt too unfortunately, but if they arent doing it its probably for a good reason.

And the music thing has me worried honestly.

It's not so much that I want to see Oxenfurt per se, but that its absence pretty much bestows CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison. Thus, they can get away with just a medium sized metropolis - as was indicated in the pre-alpha footage - since it will still be far bigger than any town around.

For contrast's sake, Oxenfurt would have imposed a grandiose Novigrad.
Well, let's wait and see.

 

[gregski]

It's not so much that I want to see Oxenfurt per se, but that its absence pretty much bestows CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison. Thus, they can get away with just a medium sized metropolis - as was indicated in the pre-alpha footage - since it will still be far bigger than any town around.

For contrast's sake, Oxenfurt would have imposed a grandiose Novigrad.
Well, let's wait and see.

Konrad mentioned in the interview that Novigrad is bigger than anything we saw in Witcher 1 & 2 and he keeps getting lost in it, so there's hope!

 

[darcler]

Konrad mentioned in the interview that Novigrad is bigger than anything we saw in Witcher 1 & 2 and he keeps getting lost in it, so there's hope!

To be honest, in TW 1 & 2 there weren't really any locations I would call truly big. And I get lost in Fallout 3's Megaton all the time as well

 

[wichat]

It's not so much that I want to see Oxenfurt per se, but that its absence pretty much bestows CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison. Thus, they can get away with just a medium sized metropolis - as was indicated in the pre-alpha footage - since it will still be far bigger than any town around.

For contrast's sake, Oxenfurt would have imposed a grandiose Novigrad.
Well, let's wait and see.

Want some chocolate? You seem a little pessimistic here

But... really?

CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison.

Can you think that CDPR would be able to cheat us about this point? />

JP: There will be Novigrad in the game, a city much larger than Vyzima, with about 30 000 inhabitants. How are you planning to fit such huge scale in the game?

KT: Like the rest of the world. We have the new streaming technology that allows us to have a given number of objects while
loading seamlessly and working fluently. Without the technology it wouldn't be possible. In The Witcher 2 we had a world partitioning system and we defined the partitions manually. When we were making the console port, we had to adapt those
partitions to fit in Xbox 360's memory. Now the technology takes care of this for us. It automatically partitions the map and loads the parts as necessary. It's a huge achievement on the programmers' part, and a really great thing. Of course Novigrad is way larger from anything we had in earlier games. I get lost in there all the time.

 

[AsTheDeath]

Hype + Quite A Lot

Thanks a lot for the translation, darcler! Good questions and many very satisfying answers from Konrad. And I'm not about to be discouraged by Oxenfurt's absence, though I am now very curious as to what the soundtrack will be like without Adam Skorupa.

 

[Agent_Blue]

(...)

Your unconditional support to and relentless faith in CDProjekt are heart-warming.
But it's not a matter of cheating. It's a matter of direction, of deciding what's important and what should be forfeited for the sake of a greater good. Konrad might deem Novigrad's expansiveness unworthy of the kind of resources required to craft it.

Let's not forget that what little they've chosen to show us of Novigrad wasn't exactly thrilling.

And Wichat, you're a guy straight from the Blaxploitation era?!
Who knew.

 

[Agent_Blue]

Double.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

It's not so much that I want to see Oxenfurt per se, but that its absence pretty much bestows CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison. Thus, they can get away with just a medium sized metropolis - as was indicated in the pre-alpha footage - since it will still be far bigger than any town around.

For contrast's sake, Oxenfurt would have imposed a grandiose Novigrad.
Well, let's wait and see.

That is true, but unlike you, the first things that comes to my mind isnt that then CDPRED will be able to just "get away" with anyhing.

As Wichat said, they want to have the most awesome game they could play too, and so far i truly believe they try, and if they do try, then they dont need any kind of "lets not make Oxenfurt cause Novigrad will be small enough already" or "now that Oxenfurt is out of the way, lets take advantage of it and make Novigrad small, they wont care cause there is no other city to compare it too anyway"

I like the games these people do, and the way they seem to think, so before believing they are trying to cheat on me with passing a small city as a big one, im first more inclined to believe they have their reasons and plans, and that they want the best for us and themselves, and not just to get away.

We'll find out later, what ends up happening.

 

[Agent_Blue]

That is true, but unlike you, the first things that comes to my mind isnt that then CDPRED will be able to just "get away" with anyhing.

As Wichat said, they want to have the most awesome game they could play too, and so far i truly believe they try, and if they do try, then they dont need any kind of "lets not make Oxenfurt cause Novigrad will be small enough already" or "now that Oxenfurt is out of the way, lets take advantage of it and make Novigrad small, they wont care cause there is no other city to compare it too anyway"

I like the games these people do, and the way they seem to think, so before believing they are trying to cheat on me with passing a small city as a big one, im first more inclined to believe they have their reasons and plans, and that they want the best for us and themselves, and not just to get away.

We'll find out later, what ends up happening.

Sorry If I came across as implying they're trying to «cheat». That's not what I think. Perhaps «get away with» was a poor choice of words from my part.

Designing a game is a balancing act. Again, Konrad might deem other aspects more important, which he has every right to. He has a bird's eye view of the entire game, what needs to get done, by whom and by when.

Yet, personally, while I'm quite confident TW3 will be a landmark in the genre, there are a few specifics which leave me uneasy, Novigrad's size being one of them, especially since they've chosen not to leave us in the dark about it, at least not completely.

So it is not like I assume CDProjekt is out to con us. They simply might feel differently about Novigrad's size. They might believe it's not that important, that it won't be that big of a deal now that Oxenfurt is no more, and thus the resources are better spent elsewhere.

All in all, I'm simply borrowing emperorzorn's tactics, replacing CIri with decent-sized-Novigard

 

[Krisk7]

It's not so much that I want to see Oxenfurt per se, but that its absence pretty much bestows CDProjekt carte blanche to build a relatively small Novigrad, for there will be no measure of comparison. Thus, they can get away with just a medium sized metropolis - as was indicated in the pre-alpha footage - since it will still be far bigger than any town around.

For contrast's sake, Oxenfurt would have imposed a grandiose Novigrad.
Well, let's wait and see.

Yeah, I catch the drift bro ... they could also make crappy graphics to get away with lack of customization. Users will be so mad at horrible frame rates that they will not even notice you are stuck with your starting weapons and skills

 

[vivaxardas2015]

How the hell would that happen> You either have a civil war in Temeria, or it's ruled by Radovid, or independent under Natalis or it's ruled jointly by Radovid and Henselt.

Then look at the Pontar Valley and Aedirn: You either have Henselt controlling the entire region: Pontar directly and Aedirn indirectly, all of it in chaos if Henselt is dead on Roche's path since then Stennis is also dead, or Aedirn is in chaos if Saskia and Stennis died on Iorveth's path, or Stennis controls it.

You can't have the same bloody political situation given the variables. There must be differences determined by how well the resistance was, and that resistance would be directly determined by who is ruling what.

Now I do appreciate CDPR introducing past characters in certain quest which will vary based on our choices, but it should be more then that.

As I understand it, all these territories between Yaruga and Pontar now are under control of Nilfgaard. Whoever had them before may be reflected in dialogues, and quests only (survived characters will make an appearance, after all). Also NML is in Temeria, so we won't even see Aedirn and Kaedwen. So, political situation we actually see on three regions is this: NML - disputed territory presently controlled by Nilfgaard, Novigrad - free city in Redania, and independent Skellige presently neutral, which we will change in some way.

I hope to see Radovid and Natalis, for example, and our choices should be reflected in dialogues, and such, but as of the world itself - too little too late, the Emperor took it all.
I wonder if Henselt, if he is alive, will be in the game.

 

[fchopin]

Thank you op.

Love the new combat response moves and new targeting.
If the combat is as i think i will just go around fighting everything in the game.