Q (SotC):
Is the athmosphere of The Witcher 3 closer to the first installement in the series, or to the second one? (IMHO, the first one had a more "slavic" feeling)
What are the new changes in the combat system?
Is the openworld style of the game actually an advantage? (if this van be told from the demo)
Does Geralt have a beard?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
It's hard to say. What they showed was actually closer to Skyrim in athmosphere. But they showed only the northern region, and the game will have two more. One of them is the No Man's Land, which will, actually, have the slavic feeling to it, like what we've seen in the first Witcher. And the second region is the gigantic Novigrad, essentially the capital of the Witcher universe
(ED: he's obviously exaggerating). And there the athmosphere will be closer to the one in The Witcher 2: something like medieval Europe on the verge of the Renaissance Era.
Q (Wan-Li):
The Witcher 3 runs on the same engine as The Witcher 2, or it has a new engine?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
The engine is new, it's Red Engine 3. Visually it's closer to The Witcher 2 than to The Witcher 1, but there are many differences. For example, there won't be any invisible barriers, if you want to jump into a chasm, you can do it. Also the visibility range is extreme, colossal open spaces, and so on. And the visual quality in general is a little bit better.
Q (Woodcutter):
My main question: are the main virtues of the Witcher series in place, with some superfluus things like enhanced crafting, combat and open world added? In the Witcher 2 we still had the main advantages of the first Witcher game: the lack of a "truly good" choice and the possibility to see repercussions of your actions. I hope it'll still be the case with The Witcher 3.
And what about the music?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Yes, of course these virtues will be kept. And music is good as well, the main composer was not changed.
Q (Alexpsk60):
I so hoped to see some new information about Cyperpunk...
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
There will be such information. We will post a big interview with CD Project about Cyberpunk.
Q (limp-be):
Will there be nude women in The Witcher 3?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Of course. But, unfortunately, there won't be collectible cards.
Q (Wan-Li):
Igromania, please share your impressions about the new engine and the game in general!
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Brief impressions:
The combat is somwhere in between the one of The Witcher 2 and the one of The Witcher 1. It is slower than in The Witcher 2, and requires more thought. The number of different strikes and combos increased fivefold, and they heavily depend on timing. If you press the button a second earlier, Geralt will strike in one way. A second later, in a different way.
And the developers said that, citing them, "Geralt will no longer turn his back on foes".
The open world runs on the principle that "there is always something interesting on the horizon". Go anywhere, look around and you will see either a tower, or a lighthouse, or a village. In Skyrim, that's how the Radar worked, but here it's for real.
There will be a possibility to fight mounted! Not as the main part of the gameplay, on the contrary, Geralt is much more effective on his feet, did he study martial arts for nothing? But the very possibility to hit someone without dismounting will exist.
There is no sense looking at the screenshots for now, the version they showed ran DirectX 9, and in that sense the build they showed was very raw. At the time of the release (2014) they will already switch to DirectX 11 and won't even support DirectX 9.
Q (Gus333):
1. Where does the demo take place? If you can draw any conclusions, what can you say about the open world and the ecosystem?
2. Is the new combat system good? Is it better than in The Witcher 2?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
The demo takes place in the north, the setting resembles Skyrim and The Wall from A Song Of Ice and Fire. Jarls, horned helmets, cliffs with waves pounding on them: all as it should be.
About the ecosystem: there will be random encounters. If you ride through the forest, you can see bandits robbing a caravan, or wolfs hunting a deer. Some of these encounters will be one-time and scripted, while the others will be generated randomly. How often do you hav these encounters couldn't be seen yet.
The combat mechanics is definitely better. Less resembling a slasher.
Q (StarKiller66):
How did the characters change (appearance, personality)?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Geralt grew a beard. Apparently in order for his chin to not freeze in the north. But his personality is the same good old thorny one.
Q (@ndronn):
I'm very bothered by the following qestion. The evasinve rolls were replaced by pirouettes. This is good for fencing with a human opponent, but what to do against the monsters? You can't really fence with them.
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Well, it's hard to answer. Fighting the ice giant there was no real need in evasive rolls. You could jump away wrom the hits of the giant and jump closer back and poke him with the sword. That was the way the giant was killed.
The developers dropped the evasive roll since the players were constantly abusing it in all combat encounters (it was a kind of a panacea from all the troubles), which spoiled Geralt's image.
Q (Den17):
Well, judging from the comments, everybody cares about the following for questions:
1. Is it interesting to play the game?
2. What did they change?
3. What about the graphics?
4. What about Geralt's relations with women?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
1. Very very interesting.
2. The size of the world, the combat, the story. Well, everything
3. The graphics are in place.
4. There will be long branching love stories, and the one-night sex options as well. Brothels included. But what to choose is in the player's hands, Geralt is up to anything.
Q (@ndronn):
I will ask some questions. CD Project promised that Geralt will learn to jump, cling to ledges, and so on. How does it happen? Like in The Witcher 2, press LMB in a certain spot and he jumps, or like in GTA, there is a speciall button for jumping, you can jump anywhere?
How do you advance in alchemy? Is there an option to drink potions during the combat (it's hard to predict when the combat will start and against who, so I'd like to have such an option)?
Are the mounted movement controls good enough?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
There is a special button for jumping, and no restrictions.
I cannot tell you about how one advances in alchemy, but I can tell something about drinking of the potions. You can drink them only before the combat starts, as before, but now you can ACTIVATE them during the combat. This is logical, since witchers can control their methabolism and tell their body to start processing certain substances at will. So there will be planning involved (you'll have to decide which potions will you need against this particular opponent), and also an option to activate them precisely when needed.
The mounted movent controls are good enough. But I haven't heard complaints about similar things in Skyrim, Red Dear Redemption and Mount&Blade as well, so it's certainly doable.
Q (Pigius):
Will the game be as demanding to PC hardware as The Witcher 2 was?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Even more demanding. Let me repeat that they even plan to drop the DIrectX 9 support alltogether.
Q (DeGree)
What about the alchemy? Is it casual like in The Witcher 2, or more involved like in the first installement?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
They again merged the approaches of the first two games. There will be more options and more possibilites for experimentation, but there will still be a separate menu for this.
Q (Rimsky)
Will there be albedo/nigredo/rubedo or their analogs in TW3 alchemy?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
Yes, they promised it.
Q (DeGree)
Will there be an option to store your belongings in some storage "at home"? Or we'll have to deal with bartenders for this again?
A (Alexander Pushkar', Igromania):
I didn't ask if Geralt will have some "home", but it's not too late to ask, I'll try to do it.
But the horse will certainly have some storage attached to it, like in Fallout 2
These are all the answers available for now, enjoy
I take it, this guy is still at CDPR office, so there is still a possibility to ask him questions, which he can, in turn, ask the devs.
