I wholeheartedly agree that Act 3 and the Wild Hunt are inferior, but I still prefer the new expansion. Why? Because I think it is easier to make new perfect expansion like HoS (and hopefully BaW) than to significantly improve the Wild Hunt ending. Even in the books the Aen Elle part is probably the weakest one, therefore I think that even though the Wild Hunt ending may be improved, they will remain nothing more than the average villains.
By improving the main game,i am not talking about altering it.I'm just saying that they could invest to additional quests in Act 3 regarding the Wild Hunt or cutscenes that actually develop them a bit further,in a way try to supplement the good but not great Act 3.And that post-ending state of the game is inexcusable,it just felt so empty.
Nothing of the above would strip them from a GoTY award they already have taken,in fact it could possibly have given them even more if you consider it
By improving the main game,i am not talking about altering it.I'm just saying that they could invest to additional quests in Act 3 regarding the Wild Hunt or cutscenes that actually develop them a bit further,in a way try to supplement the good but not great Act 3.And that post-ending state of the game is inexcusable,it just felt so empty.
I understand you - improving the main game (mainly Act III) would be great. But the devs have only limited resources and you said that you would rather improve the main game than make the 3rd expansion.
I would prefer the 3rd expansion - under the condition that it would be at least as good as the Hearts of Stone. I would not sacrifice the HoS-like experience for better and more fleshed out Wild Hunt as the Wild Hunt will never be as good antagonist as O'Dimm or Olgierd. They do not have the potential. In the case of expansions CDP has more creative freedom and we can see the difference.
I wholeheartedly agree that Act 3 and the Wild Hunt are inferior, but I still prefer the new expansion. Why? Because I think it is easier to make new perfect expansion like HoS (and hopefully BaW) than to significantly improve the Wild Hunt ending. Even in the books the Aen Elle part is probably the weakest one, therefore I think that even though the Wild Hunt ending may be improved, they will remain nothing more than the average villains.
In case of Wild Hunt development and third expansion I think it would be possible to combine it in satisfying manner, if the expansion would be set in world of Aen Elle before The Witcher 1, right after Geralt's capture. This idea came to my mind when Avallac'h has been recalling how Ciri saved Geralt and I thought to myself: "It would be really cool to see that in some kind of flashback". We could have amnesiac Geralt working for Aen Elle, participating in some raid with Wild Hunt, learning more about the damage caused by the White Frost and phenomena itself, interact with Eredin, Imlerith, Caranthir and Ge'els to show more "human" side of them. They could even include the scrapped quest in which Geralt was infiltrating The Wild Hunt, but by making him a willing participant instead. It could serve as a great link to the first game. The only downside is something like that would require a lot of resources, so Enhanced Edition would be out of question.
I understand you - improving the main game (mainly Act III) would be great. But the devs have only limited resources and you said that you would rather improve the main game than make the 3rd expansion.
I would prefer the 3rd expansion - under the condition that it would be at least as good as the Hearts of Stone. I would not sacrifice the HoS-like experience for better and more fleshed out Wild Hunt as the Wild Hunt will never be as good antagonist as O'Dimm or Olgierd. They do not have the potential. In the case of expansions CDP has more creative freedom and we can see the difference.
Just to be clear,I said they HAD limited resources before the successful launch of the game.After W3's commercial success,i'm sure the resource restrictions are out of the question and what remains to be seen is if they have the will to improve the main game or just move on to Cyberpunk for good
Anyhow,if an enhanced version of the main game is out of the question for CD Project,then a 3rd expansion is surely welcome of course.And i'm sure if it ever comes out,it will be as good as HoS,cause these guys seem to learn from their mistakes which is quite promising for the gaming industry as a whole
Yeah, they are not going to touch the main story much if at all.
Post game content connected to the main quest is highly unlikely. We aren't going to see Nilfgaardians in Novigrad or Redanians around Crow's Perch. A bunch of people aren't going to be settled into Kaer Morhen.
Even the other Witchers annouced their intentions to abandon the castle with Vesemir dead.
Yennefer and Triss are unlikely to placed into the game (either in their old locations or in new ones) to visit whenever we like. There likely isn't going to be a flash back Ciri mission in Tir na Lia like I wanted (sad to say). It's best to accept it at this point.
I'm very confident that it will be just like Hearts of Stone in that it will be playable during or after the main quest.
However, having said that, there are a few things that I am willing to speculate about regarding how I think it will play out.
1. I think that Fringilla will be the main *new* romance option in the quest. She will also be central to at least part of the main expansion quest (whatever that "business" was that was mentioned in Phillippa's crystal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk9IqpMSOqA), much like Shani was.
2. I think Dandelion will optionally join in IF you have completed the Novigrad main quest. However, his involvement will not be mandatory.
3. I think that after you complete the main quest of the expansion, there will be a quest to have a gathering with your surviving friends from the entire game.
4. A new antagonist - not Vilgefortz.
5. Higher Vampires (either as part of main quest or side quest content).
6. A wine festival.
7. Knights Errant saying "On My Honor!" Constantly.
As I've said before, I have other ideas that I can hope for even if I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other, namely:
a. Building memorial in honor of Geralt's Hansa.
b. Family Matters conclusion.
c. A succubus quest.
d. Some political intrique regarding internal politcs of nilfgaard.
After B&W they are moving on to Cyberpunk. They have said that explicitly. I would advise that we not get our hopes up so much for something that's unlikely to happen (rewrite of Act III) that we can't enjoy the expansion that we do get. If it's gonna be as large (both in time and space) as they are saying it will be, it should be a great escape if nothing else. And a "more refined" and "complex" story with an antagonist on par with he Man of Glass sounds like they are on the right track for the narrative. I trust CDPR to do it justice.
From this list, I think it's abundantly clear that people are enthusiastically supportive of further witchering; however, I'm sure one of these threads will better serve the conversation, should anybody wish to continue with specific comments regarding any of the above.
A very rare occasion where Balázs Török (lead REDengine programmer) will be talking about development of TW3 and REDengine.
If anyone is going to GDC 2016, please ask Balázs if he is involved in development of the Linux version of TW3 and Linux version of REDengine in general. I tried reaching out to him on-line, but nothing came out of it.
Yeah, they are not going to touch the main story much if at all.
Post game content connected to the main quest is highly unlikely. We aren't going to see Nilfgaardians in Novigrad or Redanians around Crow's Perch. A bunch of people aren't going to be settled into Kaer Morhen.
Even the other Witchers annouced their intentions to abandon the castle with Vesemir dead.
Yennefer and Triss are unlikely to placed into the game (either in their old locations or in new ones) to visit whenever we like. There likely isn't going to be a flash back Ciri mission in Tir na Lia like I wanted (sad to say). It's best to accept it at this point.
I'm very confident that it will be just like Hearts of Stone in that it will be playable during or after the main quest.
However, having said that, there are a few things that I am willing to speculate about regarding how I think it will play out.
1. I think that Fringilla will be the main *new* romance option in the quest. She will also be central to at least part of the main expansion quest (whatever that "business" was that was mentioned in Phillippa's crystal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk9IqpMSOqA), much like Shani was.
2. I think Dandelion will optionally join in IF you have completed the Novigrad main quest. However, his involvement will not be mandatory.
3. I think that after you complete the main quest of the expansion, there will be a quest to have a gathering with your surviving friends from the entire game.
4. A new antagonist - not Vilgefortz.
5. Higher Vampires (either as part of main quest or side quest content).
6. A wine festival.
7. Knights Errant saying "On My Honor!" Constantly.
As I've said before, I have other ideas that I can hope for even if I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other, namely:
a. Building memorial in honor of Geralt's Hansa.
b. Family Matters conclusion.
c. A succubus quest.
d. Some political intrique regarding internal politcs of nilfgaard.
After B&W they are moving on to Cyberpunk. They have said that explicitly. I would advise that we not get our hopes up so much for something that's unlikely to happen (rewrite of Act III) that we can't enjoy the expansion that we do get. If it's gonna be as large (both in time and space) as they are saying it will be, it should be a great escape if nothing else. And a "more refined" and "complex" story with an antagonist on par with he Man of Glass sounds like they are on the right track for the narrative. I trust CDPR to do it justice.
Where does it say that everyone is abandoning KM? In my game I talked Eskel into staying at KM to take care of it and I think Letho stayed too. I do know that he CAN be convinced to stay at least.
I also think that if you romance Yennifer then they live fairly close to KM. At least it seems that they live in a nice cabin in the woods so it wouln't be unlikely that they would be fairly close to KM and then Geralt can go pop in and hang out with Eskel and Letho for a bit.
Either way, I find it hard to believe that KM is gonna be completely abandoned forever.
I'm very confident that it will be just like Hearts of Stone in that it will be playable during or after the main quest.
...
1. I think that Fringilla will be the main *new* romance option in the quest. She will also be central to at least part of the main expansion quest (whatever that "business" was that was mentioned in Phillippa's crystal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk9IqpMSOqA), much like Shani was.
2. I think Dandelion will optionally join in IF you have completed the Novigrad main quest. However, his involvement will not be mandatory.
...
b. Family Matters conclusion.
With the expansion being playable during the main quest, these would be somewhat problematic. Fringilla cannot be in Toussaint as soon as the quest Battle Preparations is started, and there are dialogues in the game that suggest she is already arrested by the beginning of Final Preparations. Since the player is locked into the main quest between The Isle of Mists and Final Preparations, any Fringilla quests in BaW would then need to fail when The Isle of Mists is started. Dandelion is in Novigrad for most of the time during the main quest, and is also unavailable until rescued. Depending on the player's choices, the baron either dies, or leaves to the Blue Mountains, I am not sure why he would be encountered in Toussaint.
I think a third expansion would require more resources than an enhanced edition, unless it is a smaller DLC (like Hearthfire was for Skyrim). So, if Cyberpunk development is a priority, then the EE makes more sense than a full 10-20 hours long third expansion. Of course, the advantage of the latter (from CDPR's point of view) is that it would not be free.
Where is that conversation in the game ? I only know of this after the battle:
Geralt: What's on your mind?
(q403_lambert_dead == false) Eskel: Kaer Morhen. Can't imagine this place without Vesemir.
(q403_lambert_dead == true) Eskel: This place. No point ever comin' back.
Eskel: I'll head down the valley soon. Then find somewhere else to winter next year.
Geralt choice: Stay.
Geralt: Come on. It's the only home we've ever had. Stay.
Eskel: No, Geralt. Place has been dying a while. Last nail in the coffin today. Time we accepted that.
Geralt choice: I understand.
Geralt: I get you.
Eskel: Try my luck in Lormark. There's always work where there's war. After that, we'll see.
Geralt: Till next time.
Eskel: See you, Wolf.
Eskel: No reason to come back here. It's like Kaer Morhen died today.
I also think that if you romance Yennifer then they live fairly close to KM. At least it seems that they live in a nice cabin in the woods so it wouln't be unlikely that they would be fairly close to KM
A nice cabin in the woods can be at many places, there is nothing in that ending that specifically suggests it is close to Kaer Morhen. And how about those who do not romance Yennefer ?
With the expansion being playable during the main quest, these would be somewhat problematic. Fringilla cannot be in Toussaint as soon as the quest Battle Preparations is started, and there are dialogues in the game that suggest she is already arrested by the beginning of Final Preparations. Since the player is locked into the main quest between The Isle of Mists and Final Preparations, any Fringilla quests in BaW would then need to fail when The Isle of Mists is started. Dandelion is in Novigrad for most of the time during the main quest, and is also unavailable until rescued. Depending on the player's choices, the baron either dies, or leaves to the Blue Mountains, I am not sure why he would be encountered in Toussaint.
Your logic is correct. I think you will be able to play B&W at any time but it can play differently depending on when you decide to go through the quest line. Everything that follows is mere speculation based on what we know about the game and how Toussaint could fit into B&W.
RE: Dandelion - he is either there or he his not depending on how far you have advanced. I believe most players will have advanced far enough to have him there.
RE: Fringilla - (1) I think if you do B&W before Isle of the Mists, you help her out in B&W, she leaves Toussaint to either go to Kaer Morhen or meet up with Phillippa before being captured and Veni Vidi Vigo is already complete when you get to battle preparations. (2) If you complete B&W between Isle of Mists and going to Skellige in 3rd Act, then you have to help Fringilla escape as part of B&W. (3) If you do B&W after Veni Vidi Vigo, then you help her take care of her business after releasing her.
RE: Baron - the Southern Blue Mountains are not that far from Toussaint (comparable to the distance between Vizma and Novigrad). It's not inconceivable that the Baron would go there after seeing his guy. I know it's a shot in the dark, but having some additional payoff for that quest would be great.
Please, stick to discussing Witcher news in this thread, story/character specifics should be taken to one of the threads @RivenII linked to few posts up.
That might be more about Cyberpunk news than Witcher 3 news, though. Unless something major is still planned for the latter after Blood and Wine, which I doubt.
That might be more about Cyberpunk news than Witcher 3 news, though. Unless something major is still planned for the latter after Blood and Wine, which I doubt.
And even if it does, companies promoting a product at conventions that has just been released isn't anything new either. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'm keeping my expectations about anything major low for the time being.
