The Witcher 3: Two Areas Are Over 52 Square Miles by Themselves?

[StaGiors]

Right!

A more serious and hype free prediction is this one right here.
Take a look at this map.http://sendfile.pl/26869/view/mapa_orteliusa_new1.1.PNG
If you draw a mental box around Skellige Isles, and move it towards the Novigrad region, I would guess that Novigrad and NML map (assuming that each is about the same size as Skellige) expands, North to South, from Novigrad to Gors Velen and, West to East, from the mouth of the Pontar river to Wyzima. And I suppose you "auto-travel" to Skellige by a ship in Novigrad or Gors Velen.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

I do not care if the map is infinite, if you have a emply world with nothing new or 10000000 repetitive things, i just wanna what a truly Witcher game should deliver, a great story with a lot of things to do,if by travel in that big world you get a lot of surprises and interesting things to do, i'm done with that, you give me some powerfull monster and amazing quest lines like alway

But that is exactly what the one video I posted addressed. The developers clearly stated that for them personally Skyrim was about exploration, but it lacked a good story and often was a little bit too loose and there was less attention to detail (more the wide big explorer game than the detailed game, sometimes it's the little things that count)

What they want to do is to keep the same level of immersion and content they did in TW2 just this time on a larger scale of a semi-open world (multi region open world)

At the moment all we can do is take their word for it and have faith. As far as I know TW3 is the first game to try to actually combine all those elements (a strong story, and open world and an RPG) with each other. (And unlike other developers they have yet to disappoint us)

"There will be many other regions," Szamalek said. "The most important being the no-man’s land. It’s a territory that has been ravaged by war, through which armies have marched and they’ve burned everything they’ve come to on their way. It’s a dark, creepy environment covered by swamps primeval forests. There are sparsely populated areas, small villages full of very distrustful people who are not welcoming to new-comers."

Notice how they structured the article to emphasize that these regions are separate. I'm actually inclined to think the opposite of your theory. I think No-Man's Land, Novigrad, and the Skellige Islands are all separate regions hence the "Multi Region" phrase that CDPR uses. Also I think there might even be areas in between as well. "There will be many other regions," Szamalek said hinting that there are more regions we dont even know about. Then he says "The most important being the no-man’s land." which confirms that his definition of a region is an area like NML Novigrad, etc.

I may be wrong and just having wishful thoughts, but I like to pay attention to what the developer says in interviews and use their quotes to support my theories. I dunno, what do you guys think? Im curious if you guys think its too good to be true.

Update: Szamalek is clear that this is by no means the full range of environments in the game. "It’s not just a huge world," he says, "but it’s a very diverse world." Just read that.

I have to agree there.

do we really *know* that the paper was the entire region?

My best guess here is that the map we saw on the screen of that one developer referring to Skellige and showing a line with "Novigrad + NML" next to it just meant that Novigrad and NML would be in that direction approximately and that what we saw was just a map of the Skellige islands with references to the other 2 regions.

But that's only my assumption.

Yep, all I'm trying to say is, some people seem to expect a huge chunk of the world to be represented, but keep in mind that the Skellige archipelago is a third of the entire world we'll be able to explore in TW3. So the actual map can't be all that big. It's either Skellige + that map shot or Skellige + that map shot + an area that's comparable in size.

I think it will be a part of Western Temeria all up to the coast, then Novigrad and Skellige. Not more, maybe less.
But then again, 40 minutes is a hell of a time, especially on horseback. Even when counting in the sailing and loading time between the regions.

 

[MilezZ]

EDIT: I also noticed MilezZ (a level designer) is scouting this thread. You have all the answers! If only we knew them .

 

[StaGiors]

You can tell us MilezZ, we can definitely keep a secret!

 

[Kinley]

Haha. Best first post, ever. Welcome to the forums, Miles.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

Btw. I do not believe that NML will be the surroundings of Novigrad, for a very simple reason:

"Novigrad

While Szamalek claims the story will have less emphasis on politics than in The Witcher 2, there is still a place for shadowy manoeuvring. "Another large region is the city of Novigrad, which is based on medieval Amsterdam which has pre-musketeer feel to it, so there’s a political intrigue of cloak and dagger sort of feeling. They don’t worry about food or honour, they want power and gold. This is what motivates them and what makes this environment work.

"It’s not only a city, it’s the surrounding forests, fields and residences of the nobles, of the powerful emergent for Geralt to go to parties and learn about the liberal schemes and so on. Again people will be talking in a different way, they are shaped by a different culture and so on."

Source

 

[ReptilePZ]

I don't think so either. But what we saw on that map was Novigrad + surroundings + parts of Temeria that are south of the Pontar, i.e. not surroundings of Novigrad.

 

[StaGiors]

Well, I'm seeing another reason why NML couldn't be the surroundings of Novigrad.

Spoiler

The kings of the North that are dead are just Foltest and Demavend.

I'm not sure Emhyr would start a war with Redania and Kaedwen at the same time, he would violate alot of treaties and risk action from Kovir and Poviss. So in my mind NMlL is most definitely part of Temeria.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

I don't think so either. But what we saw on that map was Novigrad + surroundings + parts of Temeria that are south of the Pontar, i.e. not surroundings of Novigrad.

Yeah I think the "line" which serves as border will be somewhere around Vizima, everything West of it being potential ground for the No Mans Land.

I'm not sure Emhyr would start a war with Redania and Kaedwen at the same time, he would violate alot of treaties and risk action from Kovir and Poviss. So in my mind NMlL is most definitely part of Temeria.

I am almost 100% sure Emhyr already started a War with Redania and Kawdwen since

Spoiler

One possible ending of the Witcher 2 is that Redania and Kaedwen both get a piece of Temeria

and also since the only armies which can fight and actually contain Nilfgaards legions are the ones of Redania, Kaedwen and the (potentially) Free Pontar Valley.

 

[1337Smithy]

Yes! I'm honoured I coaxed a first post out of Miles .

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

Listen up @MilezZ,

We know where you work.

Start talking.

 

[TacticalAce42]

I don't think so either. But what we saw on that map was Novigrad + surroundings + parts of Temeria that are south of the Pontar, i.e. not surroundings of Novigrad.

Any way you can link that map? I would like to see what you speak of, thanks.

 

[ReptilePZ]

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/21022-The-Witcher-3-Screenshot-amp-Artwork-collection?p=1308506&viewfull=1#post1308506

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/21022-The-Witcher-3-Screenshot-amp-Artwork-collection?p=1308506&viewfull=1#post1308506

But as a good observer can clearly see in the upper part of the picture there is actually a second map lying underneath the first one and it seems to be exactly as big as the map of the Skellige Islands which is lying above it.

 

[ReptilePZ]

It's the exact same map, actually.

 

[TacticalAce42]

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/21022-The-Witcher-3-Screenshot-amp-Artwork-collection?p=1308506&viewfull=1#post1308506

Lol uh guys thats just the map of Skellige Islands, the top right portion of the map seems to be the main land which we barely can see. I think the developer was just working on event clusters in the Skellige Islands. Also If you noticed in the interviews all the game PC Gamer Interview the first line was "What we've seen of The Witcher 3 looks breathtaking, but it's also only a tiny part of the game. The trailers and screenshots coming out of CD Projekt RED have all been taken from the Skellige Islands," as of August last year with only glimpses of other areas in the VGX Trailer

Im pretty sure CDPR will only show us what they want us to see even in photo's like that. Those types of things are very controlled believe it or not. Since Skellige Islands was the first area that was shown to the world I know that they were comfortable with us seeing that area of the game. Last point, in an interview that I saw it was said that Skellige Islands were a chain of Islands, and thats exactly what that picture looks like.

Please Correct me if Im wrong.

 

[ReptilePZ]

Well, it's written on the very map that it's Novigrad & No Man's Land. And you're right, the map is placed there not without them knowing this. Either way, this is the Pontar river and the coast, to the North is Redenia (and Novigrad), to the South is No Man's Land.

 

[TacticalAce42]

Well, it's written on the very map that it's Novigrad & No Man's Land. And you're right, the map is placed there not without them knowing this. Either way, this is the Pontar river and the coast, to the North is Redenia (and Novigrad), to the South is No Man's Land.

Ok first thanks for the link to the map and explanation of the geography it helped me get a better picture (no pun intended) of what you guys were talking about.

Now, if you look at the actual map in the photo with the developer it does not have that text that says Novigrad/NML. It seems like whoever came up with that picture assumed that those areas were Novi/NML so they used paint or photoshop to put that in the pic.

Assuming that the area in that map was indeed only Skellige Islands, it seems a lot closer to my original conclusions of the game being utterly gigantic. Reptile I know you are not a fan of overly huge maps but just think of it this way. Fast Travel is in, once you go to your desired location just treat it as that "smaller map with rich quality" spend time with it. That's what I plan on doing, The massive size will only be overwhelming if the quest were tedious and lead you all over the damn world. But I think CDPR has cracked the code to open world games.

Most open world games tend to give you missions/quest that takes you all over the world and it gets rather chaotic quick. CDPR has seemed to understand the importance of the event clusters in a particular region needs to stay in that region. So most of the Skellige Islands(SI) quest will stay in SI. "What happens in SI stays in SI" ha couldn't help it. Point is each region will feel like its own game world. Of course this is still speculation but I'm just using information gathered so far.

 

[ReptilePZ]

Now, if you look at the actual map in the photo with the developer it does not have that text that says Novigrad/NML.

It... does.

 

[TacticalAce42]

It... does.

Yeah I just saw that, and the spoiler picture below. If that map is in fact that little spec on the the map in the spoiler map Im sorry to say it but that doesnt make the game any smaller, it makes it substantially bigger than my thoughts. I was giving that small area the credit of SI.

http://i.imgur.com/Mvecpqo.jpg

Ah ok I see it now, so you guys are saying that the area south of the river is NML and the area north of it is Novi? You guys think that the south area is all NML? Possibly NML plus unknown region? This is even more confusing ahhh lol