THE TIMELINE ISSUE [Main Quest Spoilers]
As everybody knows, after the ending of the main quest and the epilogue a player is put in the world state before the events of the final battle with a Wild Hunt. That design solution was met in a negative way by the players (I reffer to "Immersion Destroyer" thread, a lot of similar threads here and @ /r/witcher subreddit threads), but now we get an official expansion with the continuation of Geralt's story. Not that long time ago we also got an official statement from the developers, that Blood & Wine expansion is designed to be played after the main quest and will be there on plot timeline, too.
So, what bothers me is the way how it will work on the actual timeline, since I am almost sure developers didn't change everything relative to that aspect of the game.
If the events of Blood & Wine expansion are designed to happen after the main story, then that mechanic of getting the player back in time will conflict with the logical events consequences. With that ending design it would mean that Blood & Wine events will take place before the battle and the finale, which is definetly not how it was meant to be. It was stated that the Blood & Wine is the conclusion of Geralt's story and will finally bring his adventure to an end.
Ignoring that aspect will lead to the total mess in game's plot timeline and will break the immersion. I think that the developers have painted themselves into a corner with the solution they came up relatively to the endgame, but it must be changed somehow since the design mistake is very obvious and ignoring it would be a shame.
So, after the epilogue we are getting back in time in the pre-finale stage of the world in completely lonely atmosphere. I think everybody has already reconciled with the fact that it would demand a lot of resources and efforts to satisfy the fans and reconsider that approch, which the developers can't allow spending on the current development stage. I totally understand the developers team and respect them, but if it is so, it still can be easy fixed using the method they chose themselves.
So, basically, it can be fixed in just three little tweaks that would demand absolutely minimum efforts:
- Regardless of the ending, we can meet Keira Metz standing in the Kaer Morhen, but in all the epilogues she dissappears. So delete her from the game after the end. Anyway, we can't even have a dialogue with her;
- Bring the model of Yennefer/Triss back in the game, depending on who Geralt stays with. Make them both disappear if Geralt stays alone in the epilogue;
- Delete that message window after the end telling us about the world state after the finale if Geralt stays alive in the epilogue. Let it stay if Geralt dies.
These little tweaks would make the consequences take logical order, almost eliminating the issue of broken and confused timeline. I am sure it would satisfy a lot of discontent players, since it was the most discussed problem (just after the Reason of State and incompleted post-game mode) out there. It is not such a problem that would demand the inadmissible amount of resources from you, but it is a problem, which (in case of eliminating it) would be a total gamechanger for a players who pays attention to the lore and who are in the real roleplaying (and the game is made in the roleplaying genre).
P.S. I am not a native English speaker, so I am sorry for all the grammatical mistakes I made.
As everybody knows, after the ending of the main quest and the epilogue a player is put in the world state before the events of the final battle with a Wild Hunt. That design solution was met in a negative way by the players (I reffer to "Immersion Destroyer" thread, a lot of similar threads here and @ /r/witcher subreddit threads), but now we get an official expansion with the continuation of Geralt's story. Not that long time ago we also got an official statement from the developers, that Blood & Wine expansion is designed to be played after the main quest and will be there on plot timeline, too.
So, what bothers me is the way how it will work on the actual timeline, since I am almost sure developers didn't change everything relative to that aspect of the game.
If the events of Blood & Wine expansion are designed to happen after the main story, then that mechanic of getting the player back in time will conflict with the logical events consequences. With that ending design it would mean that Blood & Wine events will take place before the battle and the finale, which is definetly not how it was meant to be. It was stated that the Blood & Wine is the conclusion of Geralt's story and will finally bring his adventure to an end.
Ignoring that aspect will lead to the total mess in game's plot timeline and will break the immersion. I think that the developers have painted themselves into a corner with the solution they came up relatively to the endgame, but it must be changed somehow since the design mistake is very obvious and ignoring it would be a shame.
So, after the epilogue we are getting back in time in the pre-finale stage of the world in completely lonely atmosphere. I think everybody has already reconciled with the fact that it would demand a lot of resources and efforts to satisfy the fans and reconsider that approch, which the developers can't allow spending on the current development stage. I totally understand the developers team and respect them, but if it is so, it still can be easy fixed using the method they chose themselves.
So, basically, it can be fixed in just three little tweaks that would demand absolutely minimum efforts:
- Regardless of the ending, we can meet Keira Metz standing in the Kaer Morhen, but in all the epilogues she dissappears. So delete her from the game after the end. Anyway, we can't even have a dialogue with her;
- Bring the model of Yennefer/Triss back in the game, depending on who Geralt stays with. Make them both disappear if Geralt stays alone in the epilogue;
- Delete that message window after the end telling us about the world state after the finale if Geralt stays alive in the epilogue. Let it stay if Geralt dies.
These little tweaks would make the consequences take logical order, almost eliminating the issue of broken and confused timeline. I am sure it would satisfy a lot of discontent players, since it was the most discussed problem (just after the Reason of State and incompleted post-game mode) out there. It is not such a problem that would demand the inadmissible amount of resources from you, but it is a problem, which (in case of eliminating it) would be a total gamechanger for a players who pays attention to the lore and who are in the real roleplaying (and the game is made in the roleplaying genre).
P.S. I am not a native English speaker, so I am sorry for all the grammatical mistakes I made.
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