The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...bine-to-equal-roughly-the-witcher-2-in-length

Two Witcher 3 expansions combine to equal roughly The Witcher 2 in length
CD Projekt Red tells us more about them.

The two planned Witcher 3 expansions will, combined, "be like the length of The Witcher 2", game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told me when I visited the studio in May.

"Those expansions will be big," he said. "If you summarise these two expansions, probably the length of the two expansions will be like the length of The Witcher 2. Those are really big, with different locations, different characters, different stories, different items, cut-scenes, everything."

The first expansion, Heart of Stone, arrives October. It's around 10 hours in length. The second expansion, Blood & Wine, arrives first-quarter 2016, and is around 20 hours in length. "But from my experience," Tomaszkiewicz added, "it always grows. It's like in The Witcher 3: we plan the main story for 50 hours and the side activities for 50 hours. It should be 100 hours. And it's not. It's hard to plan actually because you're adding stuff - adding, adding, adding to fill the world."

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz will direct the expansions, and they are keeping the bulky Witcher 3 team busy post-release - as are patching and the free dollops of DLC. But work on the expansions originally began 200km away in Krakow, where CDPR opened a smaller studio in 2013.

"We hired the Krakow team and we gave them this - the story for the new locations - a long time ago," CD Projekt Red head of studio, Adam Badowski, told me. "Our guys will be helping. The Witcher Wild Hunt is super-huge but we didn't cut off anything," he added to be clear. "No, no, we just say to them 'create another story plot' and it's from scratch."

Both expansions will be standalone - exist separately to the main story of The Witcher 3 - and "probably" for high level characters. "We didn't decide on this yet," Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, lead quest designer - and Konrad's brother - told me. "But taking into consideration it's an expansion pack, we will probably go with this approach."

You can play on in The Witcher 3 after you finish the main quest. "After the credits roll you end up in Kaer Morhen and you can continue playing," he explained. "All the side-quests you didn't do you can finish playing, aside from those connected to the main storyline."

The first expansion, Heart of Stone, takes place in the wilds of No Man's Land, near Novigrad and Oxenfurt, and involves a contract with a mysterious chap called the Man of Glass. He sounds like a real pane! Ha! I'm laughing so much I'm shattered! Heart of Stone costs $9.99 (~£7) alone, or £20 as part of the two-pack £20 Expansion Pass.

The second expansion, Blood & Wine, will be set in a completely new place and be based on an old Polish tale. "The second one will add a totally new, separate location called Toussaint," said Mateusz Tomaskiewicz, "a place from the books - a place that is actually in the vicinity of Nilfgaard's empire. It's a vassal state and it didn't participate in the war at all, so it's untouched by war altogether.

"It will be this totally new zone with size of - it's hard to tell because it's being done at this moment. It's one of the zones that is totally open ... just like Novigrad or Skellige."

His brother Konrad Tomaszkiewicz added: "It will be new, really big hub with new monsters, new story, new challenges and also totally new environment, which will be cool for players."

Studio head Adam Badowski also suggested the expansions will lift the bar in terms of the game's looks. Blood & Wine will cost $19.99 on its own or, again, can be bought as part of the £20 two-pack Expansion Pass.

Expansions can be a time for studios to let their hair down and introduce not only more story content but also gameplay features to the game. I asked whether this will be the case for The Witcher 3. "Maybe we will add some new gameplay features," mulled Konrad Tomaszkiewicz.

"Most of the time it will be just new content," his brother Mateusz continued, "but of course we are trying to - in those quests - show some things we didn't do before in The Witcher 3, like totally different kind of gameplay or feeling. I don't know yet how much of systems will be influenced by... It's too early to speak about it."

But - and take this with a pinch of salt - we could see the reinstatement of cut feature ice-skating. "Maybe in some expansion or something we will add it because it's a cool idea," Konrad Tomaszkiewicz thought out loud.

All of your - and everyone else's - feedback will taken on board as the team creates the expansions. "We are trying to listen to fans and to the reviewers and we're trying to get what people liked and design this to expose those things," said lead writer Marcin Blacha. And in the mean time the dollops of free DLC - there are currently three to go - and game patches will continue.

"Just to make one thing clear," CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski concluded, "there's quite a long support planned for The Witcher [3] still, so we're not abandoning people. For The Witcher 1 and 2 we were supporting the game for roughly to two years each, and that's the same [here]. Of course it won't be the full team - at a certain point it will be much smaller."

 

[DashiDMV]

A quick heads up.

Witcher 3 has been on sale for 29.99 at Green Man Gaming for a little while now however it seems like they release 10 copies or something because they sell out nearly as fast as they are put up.

I have checked for the last hour or so and the 29.99 copies have still been there so if you know anyone that needs a copy or need a copy yourself for whatever reason, there you go.

 

[Malpercio]

Man, some there are some scenes in Skelleige in which a seriously questioned why they bothered giving me dialogue option. Even freacking ME had more meaningful role-play options.

Yeah, I know this is a "Geralt Role Playing Game", but geez.

 

[Brayko]

When it comes to branching dialogue, I think its .more about quality than quantity. The few choices and consequences present are more impactful on a moral complexity level than a Paragon or Renegade level. I'm hoping the expansions will offer more in the role playing context like Mask of the Betrayer rather than just adding new layers (wouldn't be a deal breaker if its just more raw content, but why not raise the bar even more?).

 

[Ivan]

SHANI?!

Witcher 2 is forgiven

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but why are there diagrams for level 40+ equipment when the game doesn't actually offer enough content for you to reach those kind of levels? Or, at least not enough to reach them in any reasonable amount of time that is. And even if you do manage to put in the retarded amount of time and work to attain said items, at that point the game contains nothing even remotely challenging. I have seen some incomprehensible shit in video games but man, Witcher 3 is somethin special.

 

[Carrion]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but why are there diagrams for level 40+ equipment when the game doesn't actually offer enough content for you to reach those kind of levels?

Simply an oversight, a reward for completely and utterly insane munchkins, or something that's made with the expansions and/or New Game+ mode in mind. I think the game has a few enemies that are above level 40 (aside from guards), so my bet would be on the first option. As level requirements play such a big role in the game, it's weird how they are just thrown around with so little thought put into them, like introducing some of the most high-level stuff in the game right at the start or having the player overlevel the main quest no matter what.

 

[Gerrard]

I imagine the Toussaint expansion will be high level stuff meant to be done after the main game since there's no way to tie it in.

 

[Carrion]

Supposedly both of the expansions will take place during the main story (or at least somewhere along that time frame), but since they're independent stories I think they'll both end up being high-level content that you'll only do after finishing the game. You simply can't give the player any more levels during the main quest, and introducing mid-game content would just screw up the balance even further. That is, unless the expansions also somehow bumped up the difficulty of late-game enemies, but I doubt that'll happen.

 

[Perkel]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but why are there diagrams for level 40+ equipment when the game doesn't actually offer enough content for you to reach those kind of levels? Or, at least not enough to reach them in any reasonable amount of time that is. And even if you do manage to put in the retarded amount of time and work to attain said items, at that point the game contains nothing even remotely challenging. I have seen some incomprehensible shit in video games but man, Witcher 3 is somethin special.

Is that rhetoric question ?

 

[Makabb]

First RPG for which I broke off the night since Arcanum. The best RPG I played since Plancape Torment, first since it which makes me to drop a tear from time to time, to make me thought about it before falling asleep. It's has a lot of problems, there are things that may be done better, just like in Planscape, but there are things of really low importance. What it's really important, the story, climate, immersion, filing and just pure pleasure, fact that you fill that you make a difference, choices which really matters and you take a while when balancing options, this all important things that made RPG a RPG, not a action game with rpg elements like Skyrim, this all important stuff is on Superior level to anything that I seen in last 13 years.

 

[Doktor Best]

I'd brofist this but im still a lower class codexian. People here need to start to appreciate the goddamn witcher.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah I like to stress the fact that while its not perfect, the sheer effort put into it is truly astonishing. Actually revived my hope in ARPG's quite significantly. And the fact that its actually selling and they're quitting the series after a few DLC expansions for a cyberpunk rpg instead of miliking it EA style says even more.

 

[Paul_cz]

First RPG for which I broke off the night since Arcanum. The best RPG I played since Plancape Torment, first since it which makes me to drop a tear from time to time, to make me thought about it before falling asleep. It's has a lot of problems, there are things that may be done better, just like in Planscape, but there are things of really low importance. What it's really important, the story, climate, immersion, filing and just pure pleasure, fact that you fill that you make a difference, choices which really matters and you take a while when balancing options, this all important things that made RPG a RPG, not a action game with rpg elements like Skyrim, this all important stuff is on Superior level to anything that I seen in last 13 years.

These are not the makabbs I am looking for

(no seriously, I remember you trolling pre-release how the game is total shit, what happened)

 

[Tytus]

(no seriously, I remember you trolling pre-release how the game is total shit, what happened)

He played it, obviously.

 

[odrzut]

I'm on mobile internet and this video won't load (who thought msn is still there BTW) - could someone watch it and confirm that they say W3 sold 12 000 000 copies?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/downtime/polish-video-game-the-witcher-enchants-world/vi-AAdcta0

EDIT: nevermind, it's on youtube too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUNQRHk-Cno

I think they mean the whole series.

 

[Gerrard]

Holy shit Iwiński looks like a crazy hobo.

E:

He's seen some shit, apparently.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Holy shit Iwiński looks like a crazy hobo.

Poles gonna pole.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

At least you know he's not a suit.

 

[Paul_cz]

That photo is hilarious, he really does look like crazy hobo

my favourite CEO (or whatever his role is, co-founder or something) in gaming tho'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUNQRHk-Cno

I think they mean the whole series.

Hah, rival US and japanese ?
The two best games I played this year were Witcher 3 and Dying Light, also great was Vanishing of Ethan Carter...all three from potatoland.

 

[Wulfstand]

After just now refinishing the second Witcher, this time alongside Roche (was not expecting to have this much fun for a 2nd playthrough, but the way the game's choices bifurcate really allows for at least one chapter with interesting new storylines) and pumping up the 3rd one, the first thing I'm noticing is the fact that the writing/dialogue, alongside the voiceacting is far better than either of the previous games. Far more witty and amusing. I only hope it stays that way.

 

[cvv]

pumping up the 3rd one, the first thing I'm noticing is the fact that the writing/dialogue, alongside the voiceacting is far better than either of the previous games. Far more witty and amusing. I only hope it stays that way.

It does. TW3 is the best written videogame evah.

 

[Lord Andre]

Jesus fucking Christ, the praises this game gets are mind-boggling. The story is nothing but a convoluted fanfic level date sim, the rpg mechanics are shit, combat is shit, UI is shit, the cutscenes make up most of the game but somehow it's the best thing since sliced bread.

It appears to me that most people really wanted to play Bioware waifu simulators without feeling the (rightfully deserved) shame of being a disgustingly pathetic worm.

Enter the Witcher series with its "most mature writting evuh" and suddenly it's okay. Now faggots can jack-off to Yeniffer/Triss/whatever screaming GOTY as they cum and still pretend they're human and not the closet dog rapist they truly are.

You tasteless faggots potatoes make me vomit.

 

[cvv]

!!1!!11!1!!1!1!

Name better written game or shut the fuck up.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Well, W3 is nice. Finished it yesterday, had fun with it, was engaged for the most of time.
Had my issues, but that's okay as long as the atmosphere and story are good enough. And they were.
But here comes the point I find sad that apparently nobody agrees with me on that: story-wise and especialle when it comes to meaningful c&c Witcher 2 was better than W3! Yes, the third had the greater world etc. pp., but in the end I value atmosphere, story and c&c above all else; and in these regards, W2 is just even better than W3!

(The voice acting in W3 [except Skellige] is actually superb, btw.!)