Monsters in The Witcher 3

[Kinley]

@Mohasz If the game is hard enough (and the fights are designed properly) there's going to be a lot of trial and error. So taking the example given to us in that interview, maybe you have to chuck that silver bomb at the right time in order to disable the werewolf's regeneration/wolf summoning skills, if not well then you're probably dead. This way you could see all the the "cool" abilities of said monster before having to load again and do it the "proper" way.

Then again, you could just opt out not to disable those abilities if the monster is not giving you any hassle and you really want to see all of the mechanics. I for one don't view as that big of an issue. As seen in the griffin fight, the griffin still takes off and flies, and we get to see that particular mechanic before disabling it with the crossbow quickshot, I'm guessing that's the approach they're taking to other monsters encounters as well.

The investigation stage shouldn't hinder any of that and should certainly not be discouraged because of this.

 

[Demut]

I'm afraid that the monster fights will be somewhat dull if you choose to investigate a lot about them.

Feel free to just not do that then.

 

[Shusuu]

Feel free to just not do that then.

I think that as long as enemies (well, bosses at least) have interesting/difficult movesets (like Ciulin's if you're an Evie in Vindictus, or perhaps even the evil, murderous Siglint's IIRC, or even - I guess - Ornstein & Smough) and abilities, even if a player investigates a lot about their weaknesses, they might still have a lot of difficulty facing them. A fight also doesn't need to be difficult to be interesting. Old Dragonslayer from DKS2 is pretty cool to fight against even though he's somewhat on the easy side, and the split-in-half boss in the Chasms of the Abyss also has a good gimmick. So yeah, as long as enemy movesets and concepts are executed wonderfully (not easy to do) unique fights/boss fights won't be boring. Hopefully we'll get some nice moveset/ability bosses like Smelter Demon and Artorias. A Kalameet would be nice, too, as well as most of the bigger monsters in Dragon's Dogma. We didn't really see any of these in TW1 or TW2, but we can still hope.

 

[Sharpy47]

Dbl post, sry.

 

[Sharpy47]

Just saw this interview and one thing struck my mind about monster hunting. Basically, if you are patient enough and take your time learning about the monsters, you can disable their special abilities. It sounds kinda wrong, I mean, you won't experience a lot of (supposedly) cool stuff this way. I'm afraid that the monster fights will be somewhat dull if you choose to investigate a lot about them.

Why? I think it's much more interesting to have a prep-time before going hunting, it's much more like in the books (remember the Stryga battle?)

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

You know what I miss, and think is cool? ~No Enemy Health Bars!
It was more fun back in the day, when video games didn't show the enemy health bar. You had to beat the shit out of it until it was dead, it was a total mystery.
Now we all just focus on a cheesy little red health bar floating above their heads. I still believe this needs to go, or be an ON/OFF Option.

 

[didymos1120]

No health bar only matters the first time you kill something with a given weapon. After that, you then know exactly how many hits before something dies vs. that setup.

 

[1337Smithy]

You know, sometimes I find not knowing an opponent's health beneficial to the fight. If they are difficult to down, knowing how much health they have can put me off. For example, if the bar is low, I may alter my attack to 'nuke', and get as many blows as possible, subsequently letting my guard down. When in fact it would have been advantageous to keep to a systematic and defensive routine or method.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

You know, sometimes I find not knowing an opponent's health beneficial to the fight. If they are difficult to down, knowing how much health they have can put me off. For example, if the bar is low, I may alter my attack to 'nuke', and get as many blows as possible, subsequently letting my guard down. When in fact it would have been advantageous to keep to a systematic and defensive routine or method.

Thats what I'm talking about, I think it's more immersive and keeps the player on his or her toes by not knowing how many hits it's going to take to defeat any given monster. It's more rewarding after you do finally kill that real hard monster, plus It just visually looks better and more realistic in general. But if we must know the damage we are dealing at all times, then we can always go to the in game pause menu options and turn the health bars back on. I praise the Dragon's Dogma game for giving us players these wonderful options. If we are lucky, devs will do the same in The Witcher Three Wild Hunt.

 

[1337Smithy]

I'm the kind of guy who likes as little bars and text on the screen as possible, but others prefer that. The more options the better. I can't see why there wouldn't be options to disable them.

 

[crimzonwarrior]

Monster Ecology

So any chance of seeing some monsters feeding on other monsters? Wouldn't mind to be out riding seeing a gryphon, or werewolf get them some tasty harpy snack.

 

[JackieEstacado]

There is already a post about monsters here:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/29149-Monsters-in-The-Witcher-3

You should post there.
Anyway, probably monsters will feed on other animals if we base our speculation on what developers said about NPC activities, that is their independent life in the game world.
So, if the human NPC will gather to speak, trade or play cards, work, eat and sleep, then it's plausible that also animals and monsters will have their routines and activities.

 

[crimzonwarrior]

There is already a post about monsters here:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/29149-Monsters-in-The-Witcher-3

You should post there.
Anyway, probably monsters will feed on other animals if we base our speculation on what developers said about NPC activities, that is their independent life in the game world.
So, if the human NPC will gather to speak, trade or play cards, work, eat and sleep, then it's plausible that also animals and monsters will have their routines and activities.

Topic has nothing to do with mine. I am talking about possible monster interference with other monster fights. I remember in the witcher 2 that this would happen a little bit with human opponents getting distracted by monsters while fighting you, but now that there are roaming beasts in the world I am wondering if they will have prey/hunter relationships.

 

[JackieEstacado]

Topic has nothing to do with mine. I am talking about possible monster interference with other monster fights. I remember in the witcher 2 that this would happen a little bit with human opponents getting distracted by monsters while fighting you, but now that there are roaming beasts in the world I am wondering if they will have prey/hunter relationships.

The topics are very similar, revolving around monsters. Anyway, if moderators don't have anything contrary, feel free to post here.
My statements weren't personal, so if I've offended I apologize.

 

[1337Smithy]

They've already stated, as an example, that killing a bandit will eventually attract larger beasts. How universal this mechanic is isn't concrete, though.

And in the E3 Microsoft demo, the griffin is seen dining on a deer(?).

 

[JackieEstacado]

Whoa! I have found this old Making Of concerning the Ice Giant:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yEzkjN-a6FY

This model is from the pre-alpha footage but nonetheless, it looks amazing.

I'm wondering how the final version will look like.
If they render well the ripped upper lip like in the character design illustration, it will really be frightening.

 

[moonknightgog]

So any chance of seeing some monsters feeding on other monsters? Wouldn't mind to be out riding seeing a gryphon, or werewolf get them some tasty harpy snack.

This is my screenshot taking from E3 demo (sorry for quality, but I can't find a 1080 direct feed video). In this screen, you should be able to see that a wolf is chasing its dinner.

Spoiler

 

[crimzonwarrior]

Whoa! I have found this old Making Of concerning the Ice Giant:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yEzkjN-a6FY

This model is from the pre-alpha footage but nonetheless, it looks amazing.

I'm wondering how the final version will look like.
If they render well the ripped upper lip like in the character design illustration, it will really be frightening.

No offense taken, and great find.

 

[JackieEstacado]

No offense taken, and great find.

Thanks.

 

[Fallout_Wanderer]

This is my screenshot taking from E3 demo (sorry for quality, but I can't find a 1080 direct feed video). In this screen, you should be able to see that a wolf is chasing its dinner.

Spoiler

Wow. great find there friend! I've looked over that video multiple times and thought I'd seen everything. That is really cool. Thank you for the image.

Speaking of wolves and monsters, I am hoping that there will be trophy hunts like there were in the first Witcher game. We know about monster hunting but what I am also hoping makes it into the game are trophy hunts like this one with Voref, a very large,black wolf roaming the swamps. http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Voref

I could see an abnormally large,man-eater wolf and big ole bear hunts. We've already seen that bear in the pre-order trailer.so It's very possible. I love animals and get no enjoyment out of killing them,just want that clarification out on the table. I do think having these kinds of trophy hunts would be cool though.

When I suddenly came upon Voref before receiving that particular quest,I was amazed at first since I had spent so much time in those damn swamps and had never seen a wolf that large and ferocious looking

***Edit***
I'm also very curious if the 80 or so unique monsters includes the different species and variations between a certain monster type and if there will actually be more than 80 total, when counting multiple types within a species?

i.e. - 50 'unique' monster types combined with 20-30 varying sub-species within a family of monster or are we talking truly 80 unique monsters not including sub-categories like 'Nekker Warrior,Endrega guard/warrior etc.' ?
I really hope that we can get a definitive answer to this question before release.

It's not the end of the world if we do not get the answer nor will it be a huge deal if it turns out that the 80 unique includes variant types. However, I'd love for there to be actually 70-80 unique types of monsters plus variations and multiple species within a monster family. In that case we'd have probably closer to 100 monsters to hunt and battle. Maybe I'm hoping for too much but hey, I can dream,right!
:cheers: