List of changes and cut content from the May 2014 leaks (copied from Reddit)

[Mehtih_]

Do you know something more about sq312, guys? It's called "Ves & Vincent" or "hate fruit" (that title better matches existing Skellige mission tho). All I know is that it takes place in Velen, Ves is mutilated (lost one eye) and at least 3 succubi appear. Sounds interesting.
Is it related to Martin Kraft Ebbing and whole Devil's Pit plot, @Shavod ? If you had some time, maybe you would explain to us how exactly the Martin's story worked?

 

[sv3672]

While reading the w3phase.txt I found this:

So, Iorweth was supposed to be cursed somehow. Interesting.

Not necessarily, if I recall correctly, that comment is in a file that contains fixes that have been made in patches to various quest bugs (often applied retroactively to old saves), and since that bit of patch is called the "uber-Roche fixer", the Iorveth's curse comment might be a developer joke about those quests related to Roche - A Deadly Plot and Reason of State - having been cursed by Iorveth, that is why they were so buggy.

Do you know something more about sq312, guys? It's called "Ves & Vincent" or "hate fruit" (that title better matches existing Skellige mission tho). All I know is that it takes place in Velen, Ves is mutilated (lost one eye) and at least 3 succubi appear. Sounds interesting.
Is it related to Martin Kraft Ebbing and whole Devil's Pit plot, @Shavod ? If you had some time, maybe you would explain to us how exactly the Martin's story worked?

sq312 is "An Eye for an Eye" in the final version, although it might have been planned to be something else. "Hate fruit" could be just a placeholder name.

 

[Mehtih_]

@sv3672 Yeah, I realized it might be a joke after I posted that :>

And I also came to conclusion that sq312 was early version of the "Eye for an eye", but thought you have some additional info. It sounds better than the existing version for me. And was curious about connection of this quest to Martin Kraft Ebbing, because AFAIR six quests in a row (except one) were related to that NPC. I assume someone mistook Roche by Vincent? Or it was a next cut person?

According to Devil's Pit - has someone tried to explore nearby buildings with free camera mod? Was something interesting there?

 

[Shavod]

Do you know something more about sq312, guys? It's called "Ves & Vincent" or "hate fruit" (that title better matches existing Skellige mission tho). All I know is that it takes place in Velen, Ves is mutilated (lost one eye) and at least 3 succubi appear. Sounds interesting.
Is it related to Martin Kraft Ebbing and whole Devil's Pit plot, @Shavod ? If you had some time, maybe you would explain to us how exactly the Martin's story worked?

Quests are not always listed in chronological order (like for example Zoltan Gwent quest), so I don't think Ves quest was in any shape or form related to Ebbing plotline. The only other thing I noticed is that Vincent was going to have one more sidequest related to him. It looks like Ebbing's story is composed of four sidequests listed as Wojna (War) and since even Emhyr himself would get involved, it's quite possible this is how originally we had an option to affect final outcome of the war between North and Empire, but of course that's just my speculation, so it doesn't mean it's true.

From the pieces of asssets I gathered the plotline would look like that:

Part 1 (Roche's Gang) Judging by the name, Roche would ask us to find his agent, who actually is Thaler. It's similar to how A Deadly Plot quest plays out in the final game (Thaler is a shoemaker, we find him with the trolls), but there is a large section missing. Geralt follows the trail to the Stone Cutters village, where some kind of massacre happens, there are bodies of dead peasants and Nilfgaardians killed by the plague. Masked man, Martin Krafft Ebbing, seems to have something to do with it, since he serves as the main villain of this plotline. He's accompanied by mutated soldiers and would forcefully inject Geralt with some kind of poison (possibly with virus in order to create antibodies). The whole village would be covered by a mist with the wraiths implying some kind of supernatural powers on Ebbing's part. He definitely seem like a mad scientist type who possibly tested Catriona on the northern peasants, as well as conduct some genetic experiments.

Part 2 (Investigation) Here's where Devil's Pit comes into play. This is also where the misconception of player meeting Iorveth in abandoned house in nonhumans district while playing his flute came out. There is a sound of Iorveth playing the flute from TW2 in SFX section, but it looks like it's just reused SFX asset, similar to how some peasants in the game play the same melody on their flutes, since outside of that there is no mention of him in this whole document, which is one of the most recent ones, that implying he was removed from the game by that point. Now when we finally explained that, let's get back to describing the quest proper. It looks like the first idea for this quest was to start it in nonhuman district where Geralt would find alchemical lab and portal leading probably straight to DP, but they changed it into Geralt following the leads he find in the forest, which is covered in blood and guts. It would turned out it was the way, which Nilfgaardians delivered the bodies of plague victims from field hospital to Devil's Pit, eventually turning it into a mass grave. It looks like it was a part of the Ebbing experiments. The rotting corpses lure the horde of beasts, which start bothering Nilfgaardians. They would try to get rid of them by capturing arachas and using it's venom to keep the monsters away (this is where the flute would come into play I think).

Part 3 (Assassination): Geralt gets taken inside Nilfgaardian camp (though he would be limited to just one tent) where he gets to chat with Nilfgaardian spy and Emhyr himself via Megascope, which means that would be some serious business. In White Orchard, if you give temerian agent into the hands of Nilfgaardians, you can find out about some kind of plague bothering their army. So my guess is that Ebbing was working for them, testing the Catriona virus on northern peasants, with his crimes being covered by war, in order to find the cure for the plague. As you remember, Nilfgaard was the place where the Catriona started (via Ciri), so that would make sense they would be hit with it pretty badly, on top of that with bacteria of unknown origin. Geralt was also going to visit Martin's residence, probably to off him.

Part 4 (Lazaret) This is where everything is being confusing, so I can't tell much about it. The quest takes place in field hospital, full of bodies and plague victims. Ebbing would be dead by that point with his finger missing due to making a pact with some demonic being that is also summoned. Geralt uses Martin's body to make a ritual, possibly to drive demon off. There is some battle going on outside, hard to say between who. Geralt obtains the antidote developed by Ebbing, so I think (again, just my speculations) player would get the choice to give it to Nilfgaardians or not, which would possibly affect the final outcome of the war. That's all I gathered.

 

[Mehtih_]

@Shavod Thank you so much! It seems so interesting and it composes so well to the main theme of war - such a shame they cut that :/

I will share few additional facts:
- Ebbing's mask is a wearable item in Blood and Wine - (of course it's not called like that). I mean that one pig-looking which we use to grab some mandragore. It figures in one of Fernando Forero screens as a quest item called "Martin's mask".
- Some of MKE dialogues were probably voice acted, and the actor was David Annen (W2 Dethmold)

 

[Cohonez]

I was directed here, because of my great interest in Devils Pit location. Thank you @F4ITH for linking this. I was reading this thread 2 days in a row, because apart from some arguments between users, it actually has some interesting content

Thank you @Shavod for detective-a-like work with this matter.

What I want to write is that, I really appreciated the basic version of Wild Hunt as well as Hearts of Stone and recently finished Blood and Wine. And without the leaked material therads / information I would not have guessed easily, that there were some severe cuts before the original releases. I recognised however, that some locations and plotpoints feel empty/cut or left out, so it gave me a clue on what is going on.

I know, that deleted content is something, that movie/game/music industry cannot really exist without. However it is also good for developers/makers/composers if they try to use the deleted material later on.

From what I read here I would state:
1. Cerys as Fake Ciri/Becca and Geralt going undercover as Wild Hunt Rider - too far-fetched. As much as I think Fake Ciri should be included in the game (as she plays important role in books - namely the whole world thinks that Emhyr married the real Ciri thanks to her), placing her as Crachs daughter does not sound very credible. And as much as I think Eredin and his Red Riders need additional exposition as characters (plus the Undvik events also would profit from some explanation on what is going on), I think Geralt trying to infiltrate them seems also unrealistic (as for game conditions).
2. I do think, that Iorveth should be present in the final game. I am aware, that Saskas fate was described in comic released alongside Hearts of Stone, but our elf is too important, to just drop him. Not to mention Foltest orphan (Anais?) and Natalis, whose fate is unknown as well.
3. I don't know, what it looks like from developers perspective, but if there were some ready to use elements, that were erased, then maybe it is worth to re-insert them again? I would love to see the Plague quests, Iorveth and maybe some unused monsters (Nidhogg, Manticore, Osniak, Korred) officially reintroduced?

To sum up - the world needs Extended / GOTY Edition of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, that include partially erased elements.

 

[Shavod]

I was directed here, because of my great interest in Devils Pit location. Thank you @F4ITH for linking this. I was reading this thread 2 days in a row, because apart from some arguments between users, it actually has some interesting content

Thank you @Shavod for detective-a-like work with this matter.

What I want to write is that, I really appreciated the basic version of Wild Hunt as well as Hearts of Stone and recently finished Blood and Wine. And without the leaked material therads / information I would not have guessed easily, that there were some severe cuts before the original releases. I recognised however, that some locations and plotpoints feel empty/cut or left out, so it gave me a clue on what is going on.

I know, that deleted content is something, that movie/game/music industry cannot really exist without. However it is also good for developers/makers/composers if they try to use the deleted material later on.

From what I read here I would state:
1. Cerys as Fake Ciri/Becca and Geralt going undercover as Wild Hunt Rider - too far-fetched. As much as I think Fake Ciri should be included in the game (as she plays important role in books - namely the whole world thinks that Emhyr married the real Ciri thanks to her), placing her as Crachs daughter does not sound very credible. And as much as I think Eredin and his Red Riders need additional exposition as characters (plus the Undvik events also would profit from some explanation on what is going on), I think Geralt trying to infiltrate them seems also unrealistic (as for game conditions).
2. I do think, that Iorveth should be present in the final game. I am aware, that Saskas fate was described in comic released alongside Hearts of Stone, but our elf is too important, to just drop him. Not to mention Foltest orphan (Anais?) and Natalis, whose fate is unknown as well.
3. I don't know, what it looks like from developers perspective, but if there were some ready to use elements, that were erased, then maybe it is worth to re-insert them again? I would love to see the Plague quests, Iorveth and maybe some unused monsters (Nidhogg, Manticore, Osniak, Korred) officially reintroduced?

To sum up - the world needs Extended / GOTY Edition of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, that include partially erased elements.

The problem with Iorveth inclusion is that, none of the main quests, where he was going to appear, no longer need him. For example, he was going to appear in Novigrad to tell Geralt about the ways he can find King of Beggars, but now we learn about this from another source, so the entire quest plays out the exact same way without him. The only part where he could still play some major role would be that deleted Scoia'tael sidequest, but even then he would had to share the spotlight with Isengrim (it looks like he was going to appear in this quest only) plus three other Scoia'tael leaders in single quest (on top of that, judging from what I saw, not even that much interesting one). So if they not going to add him to one of the new restored quests they would introduce in a potential EE, there really is no point in bringing him back in this game, they can always do that in the next one. I would rather see stuff that actually expands on the game core story and it doesn't seem like Iorveth would be one of those things. So in other words, I'm much more interested in bringing back Ebbing storyline.

 

[Cohonez]

The problem with Iorveth inclusion is that, none of the main quests, where he was going to appear, no longer need him. For example, he was going to appear in Novigrad to tell Geralt about the ways he can find King of Beggars, but now we learn about this from another source, so the entire quest plays out the exact same way without him. The only part where he could still play some major role would be that deleted Scoia'tael sidequest, but even then he would had to share the spotlight with Isengrim (it looks like he was going to appear in this quest only) plus three other Scoia'tael leaders in single quest (on top of that, judging from what I saw, not even that much interesting one). So if they not going to add him to one of the new restored quests they would introduce in a potential EE, there really is no point in bringing him back in this game, they can always do that in the next one. I would rather see stuff that actually expands on the game core story and it doesn't seem like Iorveth would be one of those things. So in other words, I'm much more interested in bringing back Ebbing storyline.

I agree on that. I generally like the shape of Novigrad plot that appears in the game over "what-was-supposed-to-be". However including Iorveth, Isengrim and maybe rest of Scoia'tel as some (minor) part of Novigrads crime world or carefully placing them in other side-quest (Ebbing?) could be an interesting asset. The Plague/Ebbing part is for me the most visible missing link, as south of Velen, Nilfgaardian camp and Devils Pit are standing out in terms of "empty location".

To be truly honest - for a long time I was missing some water monsters that are not Echidna/Siren/Drowner and more locations for Skellige. Isle of Trials seemed OK, but I am afraid it is too close to erased plot part (Yennefer imprisioning Geralt) to have re-implementation chances.

Who we have to persuade to do some investments? :>

 

[Shavod]

I agree on that. I generally like the shape of Novigrad plot that appears in the game over "what-was-supposed-to-be". However including Iorveth, Isengrim and maybe rest of Scoia'tel as some (minor) part of Novigrads crime world or carefully placing them in other side-quest (Ebbing?) could be an interesting asset. The Plague/Ebbing part is for me the most visible missing link, as south of Velen, Nilfgaardian camp and Devils Pit are standing out in terms of "empty location".

To be truly honest - for a long time I was missing some water monsters that are not Echidna/Siren/Drowner and more locations for Skellige. Isle of Trials seemed OK, but I am afraid it is too close to erased plot part (Yennefer imprisioning Geralt) to have re-implementation chances.

Who we have to persuade to do some investments? :>

In Devil's Pit quest Iorveth and Scoia'tael (I would remove Isengrim, I think introducing him like that in the games would be a waste) can easily replace Nilfgaardians and Geralt just come across the lead that takes him to the nearby Nilfgaardians camp, where the next part of the storyline takes place. After that you can find him in nearby Scoia'tael camp and ask for help in Kaer Morhen. They could also tie him in with Radovid assassination plot. Of course, we have yet to see what the Gwent story mode will have to offer in regards to him, since I'm sure he will appear in it.

I agree that Ebbing plot is definitely the most crucial piece of cut content they can restore. You could even expand it influence even further, thus fixing Reason of State issues. Basically you decide on the outcome of the war via this plotline and that could affect the world state after Radovid assassination. Radovid doesn't die? He takes over Novigrad via Church of Eternal Fire influence, thus still gaining upper hand no matter what and winning the war. Radovid dies with Nilfgaard with advantage? Dijkstra decides it's smarter to accept the offer and doesn't betray his allies. But then he ends up backstabbed by them, when Temerians help Nilfgaardians kill all the crime bosses in order to take over Novigrad (part of the secret dealings) in Godfather like scene, including Dudu, if he ends up impersonating Whoreson Junior. Radovid dies with Nilfgaard with disadvatage? Dijkstra decides to go with his plan, offs his allies when Geralt is not present, then continues the war against weakened Nilfgaard, ensuring North victory.

As for the Isle of Trials, one of the problems is mechanical in nature, since early in design swimming required stamina, but now you can just swim without boat whenever you want, so it would be hard to trap player on the island, unless they would make it a separate location. But it stilll would be hard to implement, due to the story changes. During this quest you would learn that Ciri was in the village that was attacked by Wild Hunt, but in the final game you simply get this lead from Mousesack right away, so there is no need for that. Though there are some interesting scenes in this quest, like another gathering of jarls and contenders for the crown, as well as ritual of the smoke, during which Mousesack would lie that Cerys was chosen by the gods in order to get her bigger support (which would make him and other druids a suspects after the massacre).

 

[Cohonez]

In Devil's Pit quest Iorveth and Scoia'tael (I would remove Isengrim, I think introducing him like that in the games would be a waste) can easily replace Nilfgaardians and Geralt just come across the lead that takes him to the nearby Nilfgaardians camp, where the next part of the storyline takes place. After that you can find him in nearby Scoia'tael camp and ask for help in Kaer Morhen. They could also tie him in with Radovid assassination plot. Of course, we have yet to see what the Gwent story mode will have to offer in regards to him, since I'm sure he will appear in it.

I agree that Ebbing plot is definitely the most crucial piece of cut content they can restore. You could even expand it influence even further, thus fixing Reason of State issues. Basically you decide on the outcome of the war via this plotline and that could affect the world state after Radovid assassination. Radovid doesn't die? He takes over Novigrad via Church of Eternal Fire influence, thus still gaining upper hand no matter what and winning the war. Radovid dies with Nilfgaard with advantage? Dijkstra decides it's smarter to accept the offer and doesn't betray his allies. But then he ends up backstabbed by them, when Temerians help Nilfgaardians kill all the crime bosses in order to take over Novigrad (part of the secret dealings) in Godfather like scene, including Dudu, if he ends up impersonating Whoreson Junior. Radovid dies with Nilfgaard with disadvatage? Dijkstra decides to go with his plan, offs his allies when Geralt is not present, then continues the war against weakened Nilfgaard, ensuring North victory.

As for the Isle of Trials, one of the problems is mechanical in nature, since early in design swimming required stamina, but now you can just swim without boat whenever you want, so it would be hard to trap player on the island, unless they would make it a separate location. But it stilll would be hard to implement, due to the story changes. During this quest you would learn that Ciri was in the village that was attacked by Wild Hunt, but in the final game you simply get this lead from Mousesack right away, so there is no need for that. Though there are some interesting scenes in this quest, like another gathering of jarls and contenders for the crown, as well as ritual of the smoke, during which Mousesack would lie that Cerys was chosen by the gods in order to get her bigger support (which would make him and other druids a suspects after the massacre).

I absolutely agree on the Ebbing/Scoiatel/Plague vision.

Regarding Isle of Trials - it was mainly monster Nidhogg I wanted to see there, as I had general impression, that some of monsters from original game are appearing too often. I wonder actually which erased monsters were far into development. For sure Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine took some of those monsters and placed them in Toussaint, but there have to be more on that (Manticore?)

I think we can also agree, that Eredin as character and events from Undvik need some more exposition. Eredin was pretty easy as villain and unfortunately very pale and two-dimensional as character. In my opinion some more Hunt sequences (not neceserily Geralt undercover) could be re-introduced as well.

So, who we gonna call?

 

[TudorAdrian]

So, who we gonna call?

...RedKit???

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

...Eredin???

F.T.F.Y..

#TeamEredin

 

[sv3672]

To sum up - the world needs Extended / GOTY Edition of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, that include partially erased elements.

I doubt any of the cut content would be restored now that the development of the game has been mostly stopped (other than patches until the end of this year). It would even be great if the unused stuff was just released as is so that modders have access to the cut models and other assets, and one could (if the old .w2scene, .w3strings, .journal, etc. files were released) at least read the dialogues, journal entries, and other textual information related to the quests that did not make it into the final version. However, it was made clear a while ago that there are no plans to release any unused or cut assets.

 

[Antonsky07]

There were many requests for unused game files (especially Iorweth's 3d model) but they said that they won't release anything to public.

 

[sv3672]

There were many requests for unused game files (especially Iorweth's 3d model) but they said that they won't release anything to public.

Yes, I have seen that in this thread, for example. It is disappointing, though.

 

[Sam2305]

At some point I don't understand CDPR's position. If they aren't going to do nothing with some characters that were originally planned for the games, why don't give us the models? or a proper mod tool?

It's nonsense

 

[sv3672]

At some point I don't understand CDPR's position. If they aren't going to do nothing with some characters that were originally planned for the games, why don't give us the models? or a proper mod tool?

It's nonsense

It might be some kind of company policy that they do not release any of the cut content, but we will probably not get a real explanation, nor why the REDkit for Witcher 3 was apparently cancelled.

 

[Sam2305]

why the REDkit for Witcher 3 was cancelled.

It has been cancelled? I thought it was just delayed. When was announced?

And instead of all this we are getting a card game...

 

[sv3672]

It has been cancelled? I thought it was just delayed. When was announced?

Well, it was not officially cancelled, but so far every question about when/if it is going to be released has received a "no plans" answer like this post from a couple weeks ago:

What we have released so far (the modkit), is the only set of tools for W3 that will be available. We have no plans to release anything else. Hope this clears things up.

So, my previous post was admittedly not accurate since the plans may still change in the future, even if it does not look likely now.

 

[Sam2305]

Well, it was not officially cancelled, but so far every question about when/if it is going to be released has received a "no plans" answer like this post from a couple weeks ago:

So, my previous post was admittedly not accurate since the plans may still change in the future, even if it does not look likely now.

But, have they ever announced anything such as RedKit for TW3? Officially I mean