Guys i feel the same as most of you. I finished main quest with happy ending and now im very lonely/depressed in this sandbox world. Not because story ends but we get unfinished business. We was not even able to talk to most of characters after ending.
We got world from Battle Preparations quest milestone.
Nilfgaard still in Vizima/Valen. and White Orchard
We have bugged Keira at Kaer Morhen, Zoltan and Dandelion at tavern, and new King/Queen at Skellige.
Other witchers are on path - thats ok at last we have say goodbye to them.
We are missing our romance partner Yen/Triss.
If sandbox would be in post- "Wild Hunt Fight" world we could speak about fate of every character.
So basically it's save game before Battle Preparation with Geralt gear and experience after main quest MINUS Characters.
Remember its RPG
I see 2 options
1 You can play side quest like this is prequel to main story - before you get letter form Yennefer. You have your two buddies Zoltan and Dandelion and your witcher path.
But why Kaer Morhen is empty and destroyed then?
2 You try to pretend this is world after main quest where Ciri did her job and you finished your romance. and there was doom at Skellige and everyone dies and now you Lonely Wolf killing rest of monster from Northern realms.
But why we must do it with our imagination? Why CDPR didn't make it easy for us?
Now let's talk why things are like this. Answer is always
MONEY?
Why after finishing main quest we get sandbox with pre-"Wild Hunt Fight world"? Because to change whole world to post- "Wild Hunt Fight" would cost effort time and money. Change all locations Novigrad / Valen / White Orchard. (Buildings, forts, banners, soldiers, all textures with coat of arms Temeria/Redania/Nilfgaard ect. ) They changed only White Orchard for epilog purposes - and even that is deleted from sandbox.
Why Zoltan and Dandelion are still around? Because one of future expansion will happen in Novigrad (other in completely new part of world) and they will be part of it. There is no decisions about them in game, so outcome with them is always the same (I'm pissed they didn't finish Priscilla story)
So
basically sandbox after main quest is base for future expansion. If they add expansion they don't need to care about your decision (romance/politics/NPCs stories.)
That way it's cheap. That's all.
Other reason that changing world would broke some of quest what was based on political/military background. That is only legit reason - but still we are missing NPCs what are not braking quest.
If you don't have plans to buy expansion, wait for mod who adds NPCs to sandbox (i really hope its possible) and play side quest knowing your friends and lovers are somewhere near you, and Ciri have fate that she chose. Just put Yen/Triss in Kaer Morhen so i can speak with here once per side quest.
Without character, emotions, bonds between Geralt and other NPCs The Witcher world is empty. It's different when characters die and different when they are just deleted because it will be easy to add expansions.
I'm now very disappointed with CDPR because they must know about this issue - i think they have "story beta test", like tv shows when they show pilot episode for closed test group and collect their responses. So they must know how we will feel about that ending (i don't mean main quest) but they still decided to do this.
Story was too good and i couldn't resist myself to not pushing main quest. I did it in 130h and 33 lvl.
I was hoping i could finish other quest later. Game warns you you cant back to side quest after some story milestones. But nobody ever warns that after story ends word is reset to default and most of your Friends are no more, even if they don't die. Its really hard to play side quest now. It really hurts.
They could leave characters in tavern for example even without new dialogue options.
I personally will load save before Battle Preparations quest and finish all side quest and then re-do ending. Save after ending and wait for expansion because my heart is too broken to play game without my Yen! There i said it
And i hope they bring back those characters in future expansions. In other case... whats the point. We played this game not for graphics but for story end emotions. Without that its empty and stupid like >insert hated game<
I will recommend to my friends to play side quest before main quest. Better finish game with feeling of accomplished job, story closed and wait for expansion.
Long story short CDPR WHY YOU DO DIS TO US? You make too good story and force us to play side quest later without important NPCs.
PS sorry for my spelling - english is not my native language.... yada yada yada