Thanks @EmperorZorn! I hope tomorrow after you take some rest, you'll be able to go into less obvious things like art direction, atmosphere, how it all "feels"...you know, all the things a true fan will know and which we won't really get from them journalists. Some of your subjective, overall thoughts.
You're welcome, my friend.Thanks for the explanations Zorn
..well apart from all that there wasn't that much new.
They showed us no crafting, no alchemy.
But rest assured: I gave every dev a hug from the community and they were happy about that.
Then I briefly talked to the German quest designer who ran the presentation (forgot his name, sorry) and
he seemed amused by my reaction to Ciri in the last bit, so we talked about the integration of Ciri and Yennefer
into the game and from what he told me we have nothing to worry about.
He said they are taking those characters very cirious (which made me grin) and we'll have plenty
opportunity to talk and relate to them in the Witcher 3 aswell as to other characters.
Then t-shirts happened.
Well, I have to work tomorrow - so I'll share some of these impressions with you now.
A special service from me to you, Gregski~
To me personally the best atmosphere and art direction was created by the hut with the tapestry,
it had a lot of dark, shady corners and the flickering candles cast eerie shadows.
The tapestry itself looked pretty stunning, but you all have seen that part already.
I was a bit disappointed by the Ladies of the Woods when they revealed their true selves.
Sure, they had this bizaare, otherworldly look. But one witch being fat, one being thin and one
being of average stature, all with caskets on their heads, made them look like a circus troupe.
Not that their design was bad, no.
It was just that when I read about it from journalists I expected... something else.
Overall I think that indoor locations had twice as much atmosphere as the open world locations.
The fog in the swamp was a nice atmospheric detail, but it should be thicker.
I feel that the player can see too far in this rather flat location and that kills the thrill of exploration a bit.
The same goes for the night during the werewolf hunt. It could have been darker.
At least that would give the cat potion and torches a proper use.
I also got the impression that world design is a bit heavily focussed on points of interests.
You always see something interesting you can go to, but I feel that the only thing you find in between
these points are monsters to kill and loot. I hope I'm mistaken.
The music is really excellent and the sound design of the signs being casted is wonderful.
You really feel impact and feedback on hits due to these sound bits.
A roar of a monster can even tell you what awaits you if you enter that part of the forest.
And last but not least there was this huge monster stomping through the swamp.
They said we'd be able to hunt at some point too, but it seemed to be really big and have some sort of carapace.
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Oh, really ? Then I hugged the right person !That quest designer was Nikolas Kolm, aka GingerEffect
And you were right, the public booth was cool.
Which reminds me.... dear community, I have two codes for the Witcher comic issue#1 to give away.
I'll leave this little present for the community here, up for grabs.
Comic code #1 - REDEEMED
DVAZJBN5
P7SWMLW9
Go here to redeem them.
If you use a code, please be so kind and let us know - thanks ~
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Can I have one? I'll send you a friend request if you do!Oh, really ? Then I hugged the right person !
And you were right, the public booth was cool.
Which reminds me.... dear community, I have two codes for the Witcher comic issue#1 to give away.
Who wants them ?
Grab it above, while it's hot !Can I have one? I'll send you a friend request!
And you can still send me a friend request, all of you can.
I hope I was able to bring at least a little glimpse of Gamescom to all of you,
even if my access to information was very restricted. But Kinley will scratch that itch for you guys, so no worries.
If you have any more questions for me, don't hesitate to ask.
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Thanks Zorn.
Yes, nights should be pitch black. Then again, a full moon probably shone. A foggier swamp would also be a welcome addition.
You read that @MilezZ ? :lol:
That bit about PoIs makes me sceptical. The game which cannot be named suffered from that same problem and it ended up essentially killing the experience for me: PoIs, PoIs everywhere! Lets us breathe in a simple forest, to appreciate it for what it is once in a while. No need to cram it up with bells and whistles. I like me some negative space. Don't go that route please.
I think I get the second code, so thank you very muchGrab it above, while it's hot !
And you can still send me a friend request, all of you can.
I hope I was able to bring at least a little glimpse of Gamescom to all of you,
even if my access to information was very restricted. But Kinley will scratch that itch for you guys, so no worries.
If you have any more questions for me, don't hesitate to ask.
. I have a TWAG code, if you want . Actually I sent you a friend request a while ago.
@EmperorZorn - thanks again
I'm also worried about the "filler content" in between locations and PoIs. I mean, I understand that they serve a purpose, but even in this case it should be balanced. And monsters filling the world and wandering everywhere...I hope it's just No Man's Land thing because of the war. In the books, monsters weren't really THAT frequest to meet.
I'm also worried about the "filler content" in between locations and PoIs. I mean, I understand that they serve a purpose, but even in this case it should be balanced. And monsters filling the world and wandering everywhere...I hope it's just No Man's Land thing because of the war. In the books, monsters weren't really THAT frequest to meet.
I'll mark it as used then.I think I get the second code, so thank you very much
I think that it's difficult for every game developer not to fall into that trap, especially when the game world is so huge.@EmperorZorn - thanks again
I'm also worried about the "filler content" in between locations and PoIs. I mean, I understand that they serve a purpose, but even in this case it should be balanced. And monsters filling the world and wandering everywhere...I hope it's just No Man's Land thing because of the war. In the books, monsters weren't really THAT frequest to meet.
You just can't put interesting content every 10 meters. It's overkill for every design team.
I think the Pols were the best way to solve this issue, but the trick here is to leave little crumbs of content between the Pols.
And I hope that was taken into account here.
Haaaa... I either need to get a strong coffee now or sleep. Or both.
By the way, my favorite part of the line was when Shappi offered me her sword to cut a way through the people.
I was completely dehydrated and very close to taking up that offer.
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Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Zorn!
Valid observations, I barely ever see a game with properly dark nights, not sure why.
Interesting. Out of curiosity, what else there could be, what were you expecting?
You are always welcome, Mohasz !
Maybe something like the random encounters in Fallout. Like bandits ambushing a merchant cart.
A woman asking for help then luring you into a trap. Smaller things like that, crumbs to keep travelling interesting...
Or hidden stashes, a note upon a body which lets you do a scavenger hunt. Caves, hideouts.
I don't know.
It's easy to come up with something, that's for sure.
This sounds awesome. Consequence for abusing mutagens. Thanks for the info Zorn, hope you had fun.No, that really sucked.
But don't worry, the cosplayers at the Witcher booth and the community here have kept me entertained.
You can read about my martyrium here if you want.
Hm, ok... lets see.....
They also explained how mutagens work.
Mutagens basically give you passive abilities like Thick Skin which raises your armor value.
You can equip them, but each mutagen has a toxicity cost and with high toxicity come side-effects.
If you equip too many powerful mutagens at the same time you could go blind for example (high toxicity impairs your view).
Those things sound great indeed. And I think there will be some of that in the game, even if not to an extent we'd like. Animals/monsters hunting down other creatures is already a nice addition to the game world.
But I don't know how these random encounters could be done without them becoming repetitive over time. I mean, how many carts can be ambushed in one playthrough...
Maybe if they were truly random and happened very rarely, once or twice in a playthrough or not at all, and there would be like 8-10 kind of random events so each playthrough would have different ones (2 or 3 of them)...I'm just dreaming here, it'd probably be a waste of time from the developers' perspective.
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This is why I don't like open world games... *cough*
Anyway, based on the IGN video interview from Gamescom, it sounds a lot like we'll be getting something along those lines.