i recognized the sarcasm myself but only because of my experience of being desensitized by twitch.tv chat lol.
My advice, place a (sarcasm) note next time
My advice, place a (sarcasm) note next time
It's not 1:1 (for obvious reasons) but the devs are trying to give a sense of scale (that's why we don't have access to the entirety of the Northern Kingdoms, it would make the game seem small and cheap).So is this recreation wrong?
You are forgetting that the world scale is not 1:1
As for the recreation of those maps, there's no telling if it's correct or not since it's assembled from different pieces gathered from different sources. But let's consider that it is.
Skellige is comparable in size to NML+Novigrad (game size that is), there's already that discrepancy in the image shown, the mainland is considerably larger than the Skellige archipelago. Secondly, there's that big body of water between the mainland and Skellige (looks like it can't be easily traversable) , do you honestly think devs would want players to travel that manually? It would be cumbersome and pointless.
Beyond being far apart, for Skellig to be connected to Novigrad-NML area, the areas in between(west of vizima> brokilon to the coast, cidaris etc) have to be there but they are not in the game. It's not about scaling.
No idea to be honest, didn't read or hear about it anywhere.
I know it's not an issue of scaling. The fact is the two maps are considerably disconnected, that is why that cinematic masked as a loading screen is in place. Is there another reason for it? I have no idea. As to why CDPR decided to go with this layout? Again, no clue. I'm only writing based on information CDPR has shared us.
Regardless, I don't think it subtracts from Witcher 3's world, and I still consider it open-world.
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Yep, thats exactly how they feel.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/life-in-the-open-world-of-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/1100-6418394/
An alternative solution would be to have a button you depress that speeds up game-time 10-fold. Accompanied by yakety-sax music (optional).
The devs refer to the game as "Multi-region, Open World". Which suggests open world within each region, but distinct and separated regions.
The confirmed maps so far are:
NoMansLand and Novigrad
Skellige
White Orchard (Vizima Outskirts)
Kaer Mohren
These places are days/weeks apart in the context of the Northern Kingdoms in the Lore, and are reproduced in roughly 1:1 scale in engine. This wouldn't be feasible if the maps were connected and true open-world, neither would it be practical to produce or use such a large map.
As noted by Vigilance below, the later stage regions at least can be visited in any order/combination of quests, and it may be advisable to move back and forth to gain experience and knowledge before attempting the harder tasks within any region.
The game is supposed to start in Kaer Morhen (in flash back), followed by a long prologue/extended tutorial near Vizima, and then "have at it" open world across all regions.
The confirmed maps so far are:
NoMansLand and Novigrad
Skellige
White Orchard (Vizima Outskirts)
Kaer Mohren
These places are days/weeks apart in the context of the Northern Kingdoms in the Lore, and are reproduced in roughly 1:1 scale in engine. This wouldn't be feasible if the maps were connected and true open-world, neither would it be practical to produce or use such a large map.
As noted by Vigilance below, the later stage regions at least can be visited in any order/combination of quests, and it may be advisable to move back and forth to gain experience and knowledge before attempting the harder tasks within any region.
The game is supposed to start in Kaer Morhen (in flash back), followed by a long prologue/extended tutorial near Vizima, and then "have at it" open world across all regions.
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Guess it's nice to hear exactly how the open world works... As I must admit I was a little curious since they have been coy as to whether or not the entire world would actually be open right from the start, but it seems like they're going for a more Red Dead Redemption style approach.
That said I don't think it'll be as restrictive as some people are thinking. If you watch the 15 minutes of Gameplay you'll notice that when Geralt is fighting those Wraiths, he's in Skellige and the Wraiths are only level 7. Doesn't make sense to me having level 7 Wraiths in a section of the game that the earliest point you can travel to it is level 10 or 15 (Unless something changed Skellige was meant to be the higher level area and level progression wise the last place you go to).
So I think chances are we'll be able to head to other areas fairly early in the game, it might be blocked by story progression, but it won't be like Blackwater in RDR where you have to get like 3/4 through the story before you're finally able to go there.
That said I don't think it'll be as restrictive as some people are thinking. If you watch the 15 minutes of Gameplay you'll notice that when Geralt is fighting those Wraiths, he's in Skellige and the Wraiths are only level 7. Doesn't make sense to me having level 7 Wraiths in a section of the game that the earliest point you can travel to it is level 10 or 15 (Unless something changed Skellige was meant to be the higher level area and level progression wise the last place you go to).
So I think chances are we'll be able to head to other areas fairly early in the game, it might be blocked by story progression, but it won't be like Blackwater in RDR where you have to get like 3/4 through the story before you're finally able to go there.
In my definition of the word an "Open World" is a game that consists of big sandbox freeroam-spaces which are accessible at almost any time throughout the whole game and contain content such as enemies and quests which are scattered around the map to invite exploration. An open world game typically has the player interact with environment and NPCs in the world on different levels and provides a variety of missions and activities to keep the player busy. An Open World CAN consist of multiple world-hubs, but is often identified by the fact that the hubs are very big and that there are only a few of them.
There is no "free-roam"-game category, there never was. No one ever said "this game is a free roam game".
The only thing that is similar to an open world game is a so called "Sandbox-Game", which normally also provides the player with big open maps and different levels of interaction but restricts the maps to the chronology of the game, making maps only accessible for certain times (1 mission most of the time, in rare cases a few missions) before moving on to the next "sandbox map". (Examples here would be Hitman Blood Money, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Dishonored, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Deus Ex 1, The Witcher 1, The Witcher 2, etc.)
The main point of separation between sandbox-game and open word game is the fact that an open world game has a variety of side activities and enables you (or even requires you) to re-visit previously visited areas at any time. Open World games are also often identified by the fact that they have a very non-linear quest or mission-design which will not lead you along a linear path going "from map to map" but sometimes require you to go into a previously visited area to fulfill a quest.
Often Open World games also unlock side content in previously visited areas further down the line, actively recycling those areas for new quests or even (like TW3 wants to do it) changing those areas based on what happened there before (in case of TW3 based on what decisions you made there).
There is no "free-roam"-game category, there never was. No one ever said "this game is a free roam game".
The only thing that is similar to an open world game is a so called "Sandbox-Game", which normally also provides the player with big open maps and different levels of interaction but restricts the maps to the chronology of the game, making maps only accessible for certain times (1 mission most of the time, in rare cases a few missions) before moving on to the next "sandbox map". (Examples here would be Hitman Blood Money, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Dishonored, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Deus Ex 1, The Witcher 1, The Witcher 2, etc.)
The main point of separation between sandbox-game and open word game is the fact that an open world game has a variety of side activities and enables you (or even requires you) to re-visit previously visited areas at any time. Open World games are also often identified by the fact that they have a very non-linear quest or mission-design which will not lead you along a linear path going "from map to map" but sometimes require you to go into a previously visited area to fulfill a quest.
Often Open World games also unlock side content in previously visited areas further down the line, actively recycling those areas for new quests or even (like TW3 wants to do it) changing those areas based on what happened there before (in case of TW3 based on what decisions you made there).
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The scale definitely isn't 1:1, not even roughly.
But yes, it would be unfeasable to make the player actually sail to Skellige for the sake of keeping it "truly" open world, whatever that means.
This list is 100% correct. And as far as we know White Orchard and Kaer Morhen are only visited during the tutorial and in flash backs. Although they did imply that you could fast-travel back to White Orchard at any time to see how your actions in the game affect the people there.
No-Man's-Land/Novigrad and the Skellige Archipelago maps are where most of the game takes place, and each one of those two maps is slightly larger than TES Skyrim.
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The scale of Novigrad for example is far closer to 1:1 than any other Medieval game. Whole worlds apart from TES type "cities".
It is certain that the local scale is far closer to realistic than the typical ultra-compressed versions, and this is at least in part possible by only attempting to depict small regions of each city state/kingdom.
It is certain that the local scale is far closer to realistic than the typical ultra-compressed versions, and this is at least in part possible by only attempting to depict small regions of each city state/kingdom.
Oh yes, I agree that the scale is closer to 1:1 than some other games, but it's still not even close to a 1:1 scale. 8x8 km isn't a lot irl.
Anyway, this is off-topic.
Just how big would the two maps have to be in order to be 1:1?
Considering that the town I'm currently in is bigger than the entirety of TW3, whereas Skellige is an entire Kingdom with multiple clans, I'd say they'd need to be quite a bit bigger.
But to get back to the topic, open world isn't defined by no loading screens or areas that are directly connected. It's more about the freedom of going wherever you want within the game world
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Yeah, those "cities" in TES are so small they are like villages, small villages.
And a hill becomes a mountain.
It always seemed way to "small world" to me.
Btw, speaking of White Orchard, does anybody know where on this map it could be?
Bigger and Sharper Version
PS:
I love that quote
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Ah... Mmmkay. In that case, maybe I'll wait to play The Witcher 3 until they make an HD Remastered Edition on next-gen.
...And by next-gen I mean PS5 and XboxTwo.
:hai:
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So far as the world/scale and all that goes. I dunno about you, but I'd personally much prefer them prioritising story/lore, gameplay related things to populate this world, with awesome and immersive places, people, activities, things, etc. Rather than having some ridiculously huge map filled with nothing but fetch-quest markers.
When all's said and done. It's quality over quantity.
When all's said and done. It's quality over quantity.
Agreed. Stiching the world together so the seams don't show is nice, but not a game-changer by itself.
At this point, with everything I've heard, I can't imagine disliking the game. I just feel like I've been picturing one thing in my head and am now getting another, because of the way in which they chose to word it.