Suggestions for the Witcher 4 from a veteran player

[CaptnKenway]

Dear CD Projekt thank you for the amazing games but please...
Don't make the same mistakes from the Witcher 3

1 : If you plan on making an open world with freedom of choice in the main quests, don't use a leveling system like the Witcher 3.
The false sense of freedom from the main quests where a path is set from : Velen to Novigrad to Skellige removes any incentive of rpg freedom.
I would rather have a semi open world system like Jedi Survivor or the first Witcher rather than a timid open world.
I played once with a mod that removed the leveling system and opted on skill alone. Even though i already knew the story, my run was far more organic and I even ended up finishing my hunt with the Baron quest after finishing Skellige !

2 : Make a real economy system !
For the love of God, keep Ciri poor and struggling like all Witchers are..
In the witcher 3 there is no incentive to take on a job because you never need money...
With the fact that you're supposed to find your lost daughter prey to the wild hunt, helping some old druid or peasant along the way always felt odd. Am i not in a rush ?
I have gold, food, potions and decent gear.. Why am I helping randoms when I could save my daughter ?
With the help of a mod, the economy was much better, you stayed poor most of the times and you needed to find work to stay alive and continue on your quest ! This run was far more rewarding ! I remember having to work and save up to get a boat to Skellige !

You can definitely make an easy mode like any game for casuals but for everyone else, make a witcher life and rpg that make sense and feels rewarding.

3 : There is no point in making an open world without restrictions.. It's too easy to fast travel and access new zones in the Witcher 3.. You could at least pay your way to travel or have a system where roads are dangerous and you need to secure travel before fast travelling.. Maybe even taking out some bandits or monsters attacking your caravan.. Cities and new zones are too easily accessible, you should struggle a bit more to access areas !

In any case world restrictions, lack of information and no leveling make exploring more rewarding..

RDR2 is a great example of such open world

I also hope that potions will have a real system, not just a optional bonus, easily refilled with alcohol...

and a last idea : Create "flashback" tutorials on specific monsters where Ciri "reminds" herself how to tackle specific monsters, trained by Geralt and other Kaer Morhen witchers !

Thank you for reading and sharing !

 

[WhiteYoghurt]

1000% agreed!

There is no point in making an open world without restrictions

What a quote!

 

[Dmitriy_1981]

No one is stopping you from finishing the baron line after Skellige without any mods. The creators of some mods tried to remove the level system, but I didn't see any clear result - the character is still too strong in the second half of the game. So the first piece of advice is debatable.

The economy, research obstacles, alchemy really need to be reworked. The economy needs to be made more realistic, at least the prices for loot sold by the player should be significantly reduced - the player should receive about 15-20 times less money compared to the prices in "The Witcher 3".
Alchemy was good in the Enhanced Edition mod, where you need to brew each portion of the potion separately, the components are expensive and rare.

 

[CaptnKenway]

Yes the Enhanced Edition mod was the one I use and answered most issues I had.

Indeed no one is stopping me from playing quest in any order but that's not what i'm saying. I'm saying that there's a clear path in the main quest due to the leveling system.
If you want to skip a main quest in Velen say to go to Skellige, you're gonna have to level up a lot on secondary quests so you can play there. The game through its leveling system is basically holding your hand to where you should begin and finish.

I'm not suggesting having no form of upgrade/levels but it should be something closer to talent upgrades, not power linked to levels..

In the end i'm saying that they chose the wrong form of restriction (leveling) for an open world and should've used other form of restriction for exploration and the economy.
(+ a tutorial system to practice on new monsters would be a great asset. (through flashbacks or books you'd have to find on said monster)
as to base the combat system more on skill than on stats..)

Post automatically merged: May 19, 2025

As for exploration restrictions, i've mentionned ideas on fast travel on my post.

- It could be bandits or old soldiers blocking access to a village.. Or even villagers themselves.
- A broken bridge
- Could have climbable obstacles and hidden passages from maps
- People to pay to enter a town or a city. A job to do in exchange for safe passage or trust.. or maybe you don't and kill everyone or find an underground passage..

- As it's an rpg, good things you do to some could bring you troubles from others...

- Random characters and events on the road like in RDR2

Also the map could be less revealing and your own markings get added as you explore..

I felt like the choices in the Witcher were sometimes too scripted and obvious, i'd love something more organic and unpredictable with consequences felt later in the game

 

[WhiteYoghurt]

As for exploration restrictions

Companion characters or conflicts of multiple character groups at the time could greatly enhance this.
Imagine exchanges between Geralt, the baron's men, and villagers, etc...

 

[Dmitriy_1981]

Indeed no one is stopping me from playing quest in any order but that's not what i'm saying. I'm saying that there's a clear path in the main quest due to the leveling system.
If you want to skip a main quest in Velen say to go to Skellige, you're gonna have to level up a lot on secondary quests so you can play there. The game through its leveling system is basically holding your hand to where you should begin and finish.

But this is not true. The player can easily complete quests significantly higher than the level indicated in the description simply due to their own skills, because the game is very casual in terms of gameplay.

Levels do not affect the ability to complete quests, but the ability to get a full amount of experience from them. Quests that have become gray in the list of tasks, the level of which is significantly lower than the character's level, will never bring the amount of experience that they should have given, in theory. If you are talking about this, then yes, the levels seem to provoke the player to complete the game in a certain, sometimes very strange sequence.

Insufficient difficulty of the gameplay on high difficulty is a significant drawback of the game, but the problem is not limited to levels, it is more complex.

The problem is that the player must feel some advantages as the hero is leveled up - otherwise it is not clear why skills are needed at all. But, at the same time, then it turns out that the game is difficult at the beginning, while there are few skills, and easy and boring later, when there are enough skills. And this balance is very difficult to solve, even removing the level system. In the same Enhanced Edition, the witcher still becomes too strong over time, and the game becomes too easy at about the stage of those quests that in vanilla are designated as level 20 in the classic edition.

In the next-gen edition of the game, the last signs of difficulty are completely eliminated, the game is very easy from about level 10.

 

[SigilFey]

The player can easily complete quests significantly higher than the level indicated...

Highly subjective. For many, like myself, I don't consider a boss fight that requires me to break 2-3 weapons and grind away on a single encounter for 20+ minutes "easy". Granted, the combat may not be difficult, but the long-drawn repetition is very boring for some people, making it difficult to enjoy, even if it's technically easy to do.

Conversely, I don't have a problem doing quests in the intended order at the intended levels. Slogging away at skull-level enemies (or cheesing stronger enemies using exploits) is not my idea of fun.

It could technically be possible to create a scaling system (preferably optional) that allows players to simply do whatever in whatever order and make everything "at-level". I'd still not use it for myself. I like the idea of static game world difficulty. Level-scaling is getting better, but I find more role-playing in a static system, with areas more or less gated for combat. Doesn't mean you go there...it just means you can't fight there. Opens up opportunities for characters with stealth or diplomacy skills to gain certain advantages over combat-focused characters at earlier points in the game.

 

[WhiteYoghurt]

Perhaps it would help the game to balance difficulty based on the world as a whole, not solely on the player.

In the case of Witcher's Geralt, his abilities and skill level are already set. Getting hit could still hurt the same regardless of a virtual "level" value.
Fights could be more demanding depending on the situation, moves, equipment, etc.

The importance of equipment stats could be lowered in favor of utility, like attack speed and strength, etc.
Potions could make Geralt literally faster or stronger, not just increase damage output.

 

[CherryCherryIce]

I like these suggestions. I'd just like to add an idea that occurred to me while reading. In the books the density of real monsters that a witcher would be hired for has been steadily declining which is why Geralt drifts in and out of poverty. Perhaps Ciri could know the struggle and have to be a lot more active in seeking out contracts? Like some kind of proceedural system where she can hang out in taverns and markets to gain hints of mosters lurking in more rural areas rather than just job boards. This could even be tied to a difficulty setting in the menu and be designed to make players think tactically about travel and resources.

 

[Ford1709]

I agree to some extend:: The automatic leveling feature did put some things out of proportion, e. g. if some lone wolf can bite you to nearly death only because he is on the same level as you are ... The point is, that with time you improve your character and that should have consequences, like for example that under normal circumstances the average wolf, bandit, etc. isn't much of a thread any more, while your character isn't badly hurt or something like that.

Ford

 

[AvarageEnjoyer]

1 : If you plan on making an open world with freedom of choice in the main quests, don't use a leveling system like the Witcher 3.
The false sense of freedom from the main quests where a path is set from : Velen to Novigrad to Skellige removes any incentive of rpg freedom.

Absolutely not.
I love the way they made level difference less punishing in the next gen patch, but they should absolutely keep enemies of higher levels in the future games - what's the point of having different locations, if everything is the same homogenized and level-scaled place, functionally? It's been like this since Fallout and Morrowind. Keep it as is.

3 : There is no point in making an open world without restrictions.. It's too easy to fast travel and access new zones in the Witcher 3.. You could at least pay your way to travel or have a system where roads are dangerous and you need to secure travel before fast travelling.. Maybe even taking out some bandits or monsters attacking your caravan.. Cities and new zones are too easily accessible, you should struggle a bit more to access areas !

You already have to pay to access them by buying a map - or you can open them by traveling there yourself. The less pointless "immersive" tedium there is the better, it don't play to watch unskippable cutscenes of train rides or something similar. If I want to fast travel, I want to fast travel.

 

[SigilFey]

Absolutely not.
I love the way they made level difference less punishing in the next gen patch, but they should absolutely keep enemies of higher levels in the future games - what's the point of having different locations, if everything is the same homogenized and level-scaled place, functionally? It's been like this since Fallout and Morrowind. Keep it as is.

Personally, I like the way that the old Might and Magic games handled it, especially Might and Magic VI-VIII. (Note: I'm talking about the RPGs from the '80s and '90s -- not the "Heroes of Might and Magic" strategy games.) In those games, areas were simply populated by enemies that were of a certain strength. There were color codes to let you know that the version of monster you were facing would be different than the earlier ones you had encountered. Goblins would start off as green, then you would encounter a bunch of green ones and few red ones, then there would be blue ones, etc.

As you leveled up, gained new abilities, weapons, and gear, you would still encounter the "lesser" versions of those creatures in later stages of the game. There was little to no challenge in those encounters -- it was mostly included so the player felt how powerful their characters had become. A single monster that used to pose a challenge steep enough to take out multiple party members...well, now, a whole group of them could be casually dispatched with a flick of the wrist. That was a cool way to make the sense of growth and power clear. And it was extremely fun and satisfying.

Another, more modern version of that would be games like Ghost Recon Wildlands/Breakpoint. Areas a clearly marked as one-skull, two-skull, etc. You knew going in what sort of a challenge it would be to handle those regions.

I still think this would be the best way to balance an RPG. No "level scaling" -- just areas of something like Night City that are populated by more or less powerful enemies simultaneously. So, the player approaches an Arasaka building or something. The gangs on the street outside are fodder. Even a Level 1 character could more or less handle them. The guards at the gate are a bit stronger, with better gear, more powerful weapons. Inside the building, NPCs are middling, a low-level player would have a hard time with them. In important areas of the building are "red-skull" enemies: borged-out guards and military units.

Therefore, a lot of cool gameplay options open up. A solo, aiming to take the place head-on would likely need to wait until the endgame. A netrunner might only need to get into the middling areas to gain access to a system that would let them accomplish the mission that way. A stealthy character could get all the way into the red zones even at a low level, simply avoiding combat altogether.

I think that same approach could work for The Witcher games as well, giving sword fighters, sign users, alchemists, or stealthy builds different pathways at different times to stuff that's there from the very beginning of the game.

 

[AvarageEnjoyer]

I still think this would be the best way to balance an RPG. No "level scaling" -- just areas of something like Night City that are populated by more or less powerful enemies simultaneously. So, the player approaches an Arasaka building or something. The gangs on the street outside are fodder. Even a Level 1 character could more or less handle them. The guards at the gate are a bit stronger, with better gear, more powerful weapons. Inside the building, NPCs are middling, a low-level player would have a hard time with them. In important areas of the building are "red-skull" enemies: borged-out guards and military units.

Unless I misunderstood what you mean - isn't it more or less the same way the Witcher 3 functions right now?
In Velen, you can find very low level enemies, slightly more powerful and a bunch of endgame enemies. I even remember that being a point of complaint, about how the placement is seemingly random and you can go from fighting a normal mob to seeing an enemy that you have no way to defeat (Archgrifin, Water Had on the shore, Antient Leshen, etc.), all by making two steps to the side.

I personally don't mind, I just want there to be some really good reward if you actually manage to beat them on low level - although then it will open a different set of issues with exploits and what's not.

 

[SigilFey]

Unless I misunderstood what you mean - isn't it more or less the same way the Witcher 3 functions right now?
In Velen, you can find very low level enemies, slightly more powerful and a bunch of endgame enemies. I even remember that being a point of complaint, about how the placement is seemingly random and you can go from fighting a normal mob to seeing an enemy that you have no way to defeat (Archgrifin, Water Had on the shore, Antient Leshen, etc.), all by making two steps to the side.

I personally don't mind, I just want there to be some really good reward if you actually manage to beat them on low level - although then it will open a different set of issues with exploits and what's not.

Kinda, but not really. The Witcher 3 locks off areas of the game until you reach a certain level, complete certain quests, and have a certain power level.

What I'm talking about is a totally, 100%, wide-open game-world from the beginning.

It's not about "being a certain level" or "acquiring certain gear" to beat a certain quest. It's about playing to your character's strengths at all times. Hence, a lower-level "mage" may be able to do things that would require a high-level "warrior". A low-level "thief" may be able to bypass a big fight and simply nick a game-objective item that would require a middling "warrior" or high-level "mage" to actually fight through the enemies. A low-level "warrior" can kick in a door and waste a "boss" enemy that would require a middling "mage" or high-level "thief" to do the same.

In other words:

One, whole, instantly accessible world.

One world state.

Multiple pathways, based upon character ability -- not overall "power level".

(I suggest a very different mode of gameplay. It's not about your level -- it's about what skills you can bring to bear in the now. I'd say it's an iteration on games like Might and Magic or Ghost Recon. Your power will grow over time...but different specialities will offer different pathways toward that greater, overall power level.)

e.g.

Warrior:
"That fort is swarming with strong fighters. I won't stand a chance storming in. I need to come back later."

Mage:
"That fort is locked down, but I might know a spell that can get me inside the walls. Once there, though...I need to be really careful and diplomatic."

Thief:
"Look at these fools! They left a notch in the wall a foot wide. I can get in there an out again before any of the idiots even know I'm here!"

(And so this would be the whole game. Each character "class" would have a benefit or weakness with each individual encounter, changing the pathway through the game not based on some universal "power", but on what sort of options a given class has available at that time.)

 

[DonLuzolvaz]

my run was far more organic and I even ended up finishing my hunt with the Baron quest after finishing Skellige !

You do realize that you can do this in the vanilla game without any sort of problems? The leveling doesn't stop you from going to places early, you just have to be a bit more skilled.
I myself always do skellige first just so I can meet yen right after vizima and have no problem doing that on the vanilla game. Sometimes I start HoS the moment I arrive at velen just to fight the toad as a challenge and it's still easy.

You already have to pay to access them by buying a map - or you can open them by traveling there yourself. The less pointless "immersive" tedium there is the better, it don't play to watch unskippable cutscenes of train rides or something similar. If I want to fast travel, I want to fast travel.

THIS. You either have to discover the fast travel points or pay for the maps (in skellige) to unlock the signposts. It's already a great system. And tbh, I personally only use fast travel when going to a different region.

 

[Ford1709]

CaptnKenway wrote:​

3 : There is no point in making an open world without restrictions.. It's too easy to fast travel and access new zones in the Witcher

3.. You could at least pay your way to travel or have a system where roads are dangerous and you need to secure travel before fast travelling.. Maybe even taking out some bandits or monsters attacking your caravan.. Cities and new zones are too easily accessible, you should struggle a bit more to access areas !

Hmm, the idea to cleat a road before able to fast travel isn't bad. But you cannot fast travel before you have visited the place to detect the way points, isn't that already something like you proposed?
Ford