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Witcher 3

FreeKnight

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As for story I don't think we really have anything official yet. I still wish they would make the Ciri becoming a witcher the canon ending and then us her as the MC. We could easily have her go somewhere we haven't been yet and it would help tie into the first trilogy well. Imagine being able to visit Geralt and Yen at Corvo Bianco Vineyard in Toussaint. Plus we know that both Geralt, Yen, and Ciri can live a very long time so it is not like it has to take place right after the third game.

Plus I just can't help but think of the Mass Effect Trilogy. They brought in Andromeda and while the same universe I think too many people thought it was too far removed. Although I still think it would have worked if they had continued with it and made a second and third MEA game. I really think the key to starting a new trilogy in such a establised world in which you had the same character all the way through, you need to closely tie them together. Like the new MC should be family or thought of as family. While I know it can restrict a bit but it is enough to tie us to the existing games without it feeling like a brand new story that just happens to be in that universe.
I'd actually really prefer a Mass Effect style 'create your own witcher' a la Sheppard / DA:O backstories and traits. Depending on if they set it in the Northern Realms or other areas could really affect the options. Rather than force you to be 'one' character, give us a few options to flavor your witcher with, even if they only affect one or two quests and don't really matter (cough CP2077 backgrounds, ME backgrounds)

If they stick with the Northern realms, maybe you're a grizzled old veteran witcher, the last from a dying school who wandered north, or a lost Wolf that was assumed dead and you've finally come back to Kaer Morhen. The promo picture from the first visuals had an image of a Griffin school medallion if I remember right, so they might distance themselves from Geralt et al but include some cameos I would suspect.

I think the route I'd personally want to go with is something like; You're the first new Witcher in who knows how long. You were cursed/poisoned in a 'plot critical event' related to your chosen background, and while dying your 'regularly interacted NPC pal/family/whatever' dragged you to the griffin school and begged them to do something, anything, no matter how reckless. This also means you're not starting as a master witcher, so Nekkers, Drowners and such actually pose a threat at the start.

So the 'Vesemir-substitute' there tries to mirror the trial of the grasses as best they can knowing they've lost most of the knowledge. You survive it and mutate, but only through luck and the chance interaction of the trial with your curse (excuse for potential new game mechanic). This also prevents there from being a wealth of new Witchers (as well as a potential conflict quest where Vesemir-sub considers using the curse to make new Witchers). Now with golden eyes, you can't go back to your old life due to the prejudice against Witchers and are forced to learn their ways.

At some point you of course cross path with who/what is responsible for the original curse, plot happens, you have to hunt them down to stop 'awful world changing plan', etc, but that would be the rough start I think I'd be hoping for.
 

LaughingCrow

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I'd actually really prefer a Mass Effect style 'create your own witcher' a la Sheppard / DA:O backstories and traits. Depending on if they set it in the Northern Realms or other areas could really affect the options. Rather than force you to be 'one' character, give us a few options to flavor your witcher with, even if they only affect one or two quests and don't really matter (cough CP2077 backgrounds, ME backgrounds)
That would certainly add a lot of replay value aka ME style. Plus from what I've gathered, they're creating their own story line. Plus as mentioned by ipaine, if they offer a choice between Geralt or Ciri it would have wider appeal than with just a male protagonist. I did enjoy switching between Geralt and Ciri but playing a full game with one, then the other again makes for a lot of game replay.
 

ipaine

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That is actually better than I thought it would be.

Plus just the fact that they put out this list is a class act if you ask me. Plus the fast travel anywhere still works so everything after that is just icing on the cake.
 

FreeKnight

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That is actually better than I thought it would be.

Plus just the fact that they put out this list is a class act if you ask me. Plus the fast travel anywhere still works so everything after that is just icing on the cake.
Yeah this is a genuinely good move from CDPR. Their rep took a lot of damage over CP2077 after they built massive goodwill from W2/W3. I obviously can't say whether this is done out of genuine goodwill or just smart public relations, but either way it feels like CDPR is trying to recapture their largely 'good guy developer' reputation among consumers.

Hopefully the CP2077 DLC includes some decent freebies as well as a good campaign. I'll wait for reviews on the DLC but hope this, the W3 graphics upgrade and things like the modlist are a sign of positive change at CDPR and they keep it up.

It feels like we're definitely short on good AAA RPG developers nowadays. Bioware seems like a shell of its former self. Square is, at best, a mixed bag now, and Bethesda releases are still generally 'good to great' but spaced out so far in between installments they could almost be a niche publisher of RPGs (ignoring their non-RPG games of course).
 

LaughingCrow

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Given their attention to this with updating Witcher 3, I wonder how that will factor into the new versions coming out when they switch from their own proprietary game code to Unreal Engine 5. Since they are well aware of the modding community and how games like to use mods.
 

ipaine

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Ok so I have updated W3 and this is what it looks like at 3440x1440. This is without DLSS on and everything cranked to the max on those new Ultra+ settings.

screenshot_195127.png
screenshot_195156.png

Now performance with it set like this is only about 35fps on my 3090/5900x setup. And yes that is without moving around just standing looking pretty. Looks like I will need to enable DLSS on this one.
 

Lysrin

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Happy Next Gen Day!

I was afraid of that @ipaine . I've been playing it more lately, getting back into it for the update, and it has been running well. I figured the new eye candy was going to prove pretty punishing for my setup. Hope I can tweak and see some improvements without having to turn off all the new stuff! lol

Did you have any issues downloading the update? I figured it'd be pretty busy.

EDIT: Mine has been sitting on 0% for a while on GOG...

EDIT 2: Took a while but it got there. Done now. ~49 GB update.

EDIT 3: I have more mods installed for W3 than I remembered. When I started it up if barfed in the script compile. I have some work to do there before I see the new version!
 
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Lysrin

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Didn't play much, just did a little in the open world. You likely would anyway, but make sure you check the graphics settings you're using. Mine had FSR enabled by default and frankly on my setup it just made everything look sort of fuzzy. Smoothed out the FPS, but didn't look good enough to be worth it in my case.

Honestly playing around with the settings, my modded W3 looked pretty darn good, and I'll likely be going through the mods I had to see what I can get working again. I'm not taking advantage of any of the 3000 series GPU features added though, so of course I'm not seeing all that eye candy that @ipaine showed.

Also, I don't think I'll be using the new camera modes. I will try them a bit more but it's too close to the character for me. Feels claustrophobic. I believe I had a mod that changed the old cameras too to get me a bit farther away from Geralt when playing.

So in my case, it is a little visually disappointing but I expected that on a four gens old GPU. And like I said, modded it already looked quite good.
 

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