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Topic: Witcher 3 announced, open world, exploration, mounts, etc.
Game Informer video (no in game video really, just them talking about it and some screens)
Some info from the Game Informer Issue that some people have gotten, taken from Neogaf user INDIGO_CYCLOPS.
"World supposedly 20% bigger than Skyrim's 30-40 minutes to cross world on Horseback New streaming technology (CDRED Engine 3) Geralt's Memory is restored No chapters/acts Dude is fucking DONE fighting for everyone else Everything from solving MYSTERIES to slaying monsters Coming out on "all top-of-the-line" consoles - I'd say that confirms next-gen is in.
Enemy AI completely rebuilt, scripted bosses out Environmental combat 'contributions' (a dozen types of interactive objects) ---> Wasp hive irritated using Aard
Magical signs retooled Igni = new flamethrower effect The magic tree advancement allows secondary sign forms = ie. Igni and a 360-degree blast Yrden = small trap can be modified into a larger field that slows any enemy
Other trees, Swordsmanship and Alchemy New strikes under Swordsmanship, boosts like improved stamina and parrying Mutation mechanic under a different development path Not much information given about Alchemy path, other than it being based on potions
Horse could be used to access long term stash, as well as Inns Team aware of frustrations of inventory management in The Witcher Committed to a less tedious process
Crafting critical to maximize Geralts potential, but weapons and armor can be found in many ways Players can customize their crafted weapons with some components, ie, monster scales for leather in armor
Each armor piece has unique appearance, new cloth simulation tech. Barber is in from the get go. Dyeing hair is OUT OF QUESTION, White Wolf."
and more:
"So it's saying that they had to change up their design philosophy when developing TW3, due to the open world structure. So NARRATIVE comes in three forms:
Lowest level = free form activities like crafting, monster slaying (seems to be much more extensive this time around) and questing.
Next level = Political situation of Nilfgaardian invastion is resolved through a core plotline for each area. These areas? -> Skellige, Novigrad and No Mans Land!
Final level = Geralt's main plot line, his search for his loved ones, and the chase of the Wild Hunt.
Sounds like a lot of interwoven plotlines, decision making. You can skip things if you really want, but there will be consequences to your actions if you do so. Quote: So more about the monster hunting:
Clues build up information (like a Bestiary perhaps?) Books garner information about monsters Townsfolk provide information Potions and such are important Time of day and other conditions affect where monsters appear, and their abilities
[Some combat info]
Critical strikes in areas that matter depending on how much you learn about said monster You can disable a vampires poisoning attack by hitting its venom gland (Vampires are poisonous?) or skewer BOTH ITS HEARTS with a thrust attack (instant kill) Monsters drop loot like unobtainable alchemical and crafting ingredients for unique potion, mutagen and item crafting. Provides income as well"
edit lot more info taken from http://gamingeverything.com/39177/witcher-3-confirmed-is-next-gen-featured-in-game-informer/ :
Spoiler Alert- The team felt it missed the huge freedom of open-world games like Skyrim - Proper mounted combat still being tested - Currently not a definite part of the game - Horses will be in, though, since they’re important for navigation - Ships float on the water in true physics interactions - Team has doubled in size - No chapters, acts, or any artificial break-points - Geralt can seamlessly cross from one end of the world to the other thanks to REDengine 3 - No loading screens while traveling in the open world - Can explore on foot, by horseback, and via boat - Pursue yor long-lost love, play the game of empires on behalf of the northern kingdoms that still claim independence, and thwart the nefarious Wild Hunt - Fast travel: instantly revisit any discovered location - Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: “A huge goal is to keep the high quality o four quests, with all the cinematics and impressive events and moments.” - Point of interest will always be in sight - Players will be beckoned to explore dank caves, embattled villages, decaying ruins, etc. - Over 100 hours of hand-scripted quests - Quests: help villagers, engineer the succession of the Skellige kings, etc. - Use monster hunting for adventure, incoming, and unique rewards - There are mini-games based on the area of the world - Ex: Skellige has knife-throwing - Gain exclusive rewards from mini-games - Don’t have to complete mini-games to proceed in the story - Monsters, bandits, traders, animals, and more will attack anyone they deem hostile - Enemies don’t scale to the player’s level - Slaying monsters, fighting hostile humans in the different forms they come in, collecting items, leveling up are in the game - World 40 times larger than the last game - Three different aspects to narration - Lowest level: free-form activities like monster hunting, crafting, individual standalone quests - Second step: political situation and Nilfgaardian invasion is resolved through the core plotline of the major areas (Skellige, Novigrad, No Man’s Land) - Each land has its own storyline - Can abandon the storyline, but will have repercussions later - Not doing a plotline is a choice the player has - Main narrative: search for Geralt’s loved ones and conflict with the Wild Hunt - Multiple branches of narratives that feed into each other - Don’t have to do anything outside the main storyline to beat the game - Could have help in a main-line encounter from an ally you gained in the Skellige archipelago if you’ve completed certain quests in certain ways - Major events in the main storyline are “gates” for the state of the world - Ex: village threatened by bandits might be abandoned after certain events if the player doesn’t help - Weather effects are dynamically generated and fully modeled as real volumetric clouds rather than being simply painted on the skybox - In contrast to the last game, Geralt encounters communities and individuals with monster-related problems that need solving - There aren’t contract-like assignments this time - Press the left trigger to turn on Geralt’s witcher senses - Can glean information from a crime scene upon discovering it - Within range of a scene of interest, the mechanic conveys clues to the player through the witcher muttering to himself and/or visual depictions of past events that represent Geralt’s reasoning - Time of day and other conditions determine where monsters appear and their abilities - Can strike critical areas in combat based on how much you learn about monster anatomy and tactics - The team is deciding between using a handful of in-combat special moves for particular attacks and a slow-motion quick-time event style - Monsters you defeat leave otherwise unobtainable alchemical and crafting ingredients needed for making of unique items, potions, mutagens - These allow Geralt to gain special powers and upgrades in the new mutation development tree - These kills serve as the witcher’s primary method of income - Moving more toward romance and away from shallow sexual encounters - “We want to treat it maturely like we did in The Witcher 2. We are not bringing sex cards back.” - Witcher 3 doesn’t have completely different environments based on singular choices due to the open world, but there are similarly impactful decisions - You’ll be involved with mutually exclusive storylines and situations based on certain momentous choices - Won’t be on the same level as Witcher 2, however - Game mechanics based on previous games, but the team is revisiting many details - Backward difficulty curve being addressed - Reworking the flow of combat - 96 animations for Geralt’s combat moves (last game had 20) - Game has a “weighting” system for the camera to help keep the biggest threats in frame at all times - Combat system: three big changes to solve the problem of being locked into long animations - Every button press mapped to a single strike - Each move takes a roughly equivalent time to perform - Can always interrupt your current action to immediately dodge or block - Can block/dodge when out of stamina, but you’ll be staggered - Team wants to make the combat “more intimate” - “You don’t run – in the Witcher 2 you were running constantly. You walk, but your attacks are very fast. Your opponents also walk but they have charges and things like that.” - Geralt’s dodge roll replaced by a pivot move - It retains its defensive utility without game-breaking mobility - Attacks faster than in The Witcher 2 - Enemy AI completely rebuilt - No scripted boss encounters - One boss: ice giant - Roughly a dozen types of interactive objects - Ex: Can irritate a wasp with the telekinetic Aard sign to make a damaging distraction for his foes and disperse the swarm with the fiery Igni sign once the wasp swarm becomes a problem - Magical signs are retooled - Each of the five signs has a basic form such as Igni’s new flamethrower effect - If the player advances down the magic tree as Geralt levels up, can unlock a second form of the sign - For Igni, would unlock a 360-degree blast that immolates anything close - Yrdren’s small trap can be changed into a bigger field that slows enemies - Player retains the use of the basic form - Other two trees are based on swordsmanship and alchemy - Swordfighting: can unlock new strikes and boosts such as improved stamina and parrying - Alchemy: mutation mechanic moved off to a separate development path, independent of the level-up process - Alchemy specialization is based more on potions - Improvements available for the horse and boat - These aspects are still in development - One idea: players could access their long-term storage stash from their horse as well as from inns - Team knows about frustrating inventory management in Witcher 2 - Crafting still important for enhancing Geralt’s capabilities - Can customize crafted items - Some components are can be substituted for similar things - Ex: monster scales instead of leather in a piece of armor - This affects the properties of the final item - Can find unique components as part of monster hunts or questlines - Combine these with special recipes to make artifacts of immense power - Each armor piece has a unique appearance - Armor has improved presentation and new cloth simulation - Can visit a barber to change Geralt’s hairstyle
I feel a bit ambivalent..- one of the things i liked most about Witcher 1 was the storyline... but i guess it's not to say they threw it completely away, tho, i find Skyrim boring in comparison, so i hope we're not going to see an Elder Scrolls style Witcher here in the sense that it's its going to be short on story goodness and filled with fetch and carry quests....
..but a lot of it looks pretty cool.
I just knew they wouldn't be holding off Wicher 3 too long, despite what they were still saying a few months ago.
..and there have been rumors lately, so i'm not all that surprised. I just don't like the idea that they want to make this the conclusion of the series...
..but who knows-- this model seems to lend itself particularly well to being modded, so you never know what the modding community might get up to...
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
Yeah, the previews of the CPDR mech-punk thing game with that mech-girl looks absolutely awesome--not to mention probably something that will require yet another GPU upgrade...
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
Well this is probably the end of the "Geralt" storyline, however later on in the books they actually shift focus away from Geralt.
I doubt that CD Projekt will ditch the "Witcher" series completely, rather I'd expect them to either follow the books and character shift, or make a new fantasy rpg. (I really really wisht hey'd have made the GAme of Thrones rpg).
But.. but.. I LUUUURRVVE Geralt! Boo-hoo... *cry* I want my Geralt...
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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Geralt! 
