Horse fight - more about mounted combat if there is any. And can Roach kick bad guys with her legs?
All horses in our game can kick when they freak out a bit, that can hurt anyone who is standing behind them. Horse combat is great, you get a damage bonus (since you're going faster) and so you're more likely to see heads roll or bodies sliced in half.
It's been stated that there will be different types crossbows and bolts, could you give a small example of how this could affect combat besides just doing damage?
Different types of crossbows and bolts that will focus on a type of damage you want to do, knockdown and exploding for example are two that come to mind.
How does environmental interaction work in a fight? Can we push someone over the edge of an abyss with the Aard sign, kicking them or with a sword slash?
Can we send the enemy flying out of a window or balcony? Can we crack his head or spine against a wall or impale them on a wall spike? Can we parry simultaneously the coordinated attack of two enemies?
Counter attack/Parry, Aard and if you kill on the edge of a cliff for example the body can roll off.
Does the type of armor Geralt wears affect his speed and stamina (heavy coat armor as opposed to wearing just normal clothes).
Yes. Light, Medium and Heavy trade between speed and armor.
How many types of additional weapons are there?
Are there perhaps dual short swords like those of Assassins from W2 available? And does Geralt have his own animations for additional weapons or does he share them with other NPC's? Do additional weapons still have a dynamic stance like swords do?
Two handed, one handed, range with variations within those groups as well as damage type. There's really a lot of weapons for you to play with.
One big issue i had with DA was that i felt more like a cobbler than a hero. I spent too much time on the crafting that it became tedious after a while, so ive had a bit of a burned out with crafting lately...
So what did you guys do to not make the crafting too tedious?
Good question. Crafting is not something I am a big fan of usually in games I must admit. In our game the best armors you can have are the ones that you craft, those are linked to quests so you go on an adventure to find the pieces that you need. As far as pure crafting goes you can really play a lot with it. You find blueprints that tell you the stuff that you need to craft. Now you can also dismantle things in your inventory that could produce some of those materials. If you don't have what you want you can probably buy it from a shop keeper. We don't send you on a mad dash across the world for materials.
Since it i known the most powerful items will be craftables, how difficult will it be to craft those - AND will there be a random component involved with gathering the materials for those items? As otherwise it seems pretty counterintuitive to make the most powerful items "certainly given" with the right knowledge.
These armors are Quest Related so in order to create one you have a whole adventure to follow, it's really nicely done, it's sort for a journey where you collect parts of the armor until you have the whole set. Note that we also have powerful items that are guarded by monsters, it's not just about crafting.
I wanted to ask about crafting and how it works, what elements of armor and weapon can we upgrade and how many levels did that get? How it affects the combat too as it was told? And can we detach previous weak parts of armor upgrades to change it in more powerful?
With Runes, there are some fire and frozen runes that have some nice side effects. When you separate a rune from a piece of gear you must choose to either keep the rune and destroy the gear to have it then salvaged, or destroying the rune.
Was the reason the "VATS" system (ability to target individual vitals) was cut because of financial resources, or because it wasn't really "fun" with play test groups?
are there any remnants of this system in finishing moves? (Stabbing a monster/human in the heart(s)/throat, etc)
I totally forgot about that system. That's old. I have no idea why it was dropped, I think somebody mentioned that it may have been too expensive because all creatures had to have multiple shaders (the system used Witcher sense to see the innards and weak points of the beasts). Totally forgot about that actually.
Were there any features that were cut-off from the game?
Well I guess that VATS system.
What was going on with ice skating combat? Was that a serious idea? If so, please go into specifics on how it worked.
Also please make a game with ice skating combat. I demand it!
Haha Ice Skating was serious indeed, it's in the books by the way. It only got to early prototype, one of our coders Eduar worked on this system and made it so that you could press LT and RT to skate left foot and right foot, once you pick up speed you could slide around and slice people in half. Looked cool, it had potential. Some thought it was silly, which is fair enough, but the main issue is that if we drop in on a frozen lake for you to fight enemies using a new mechanic, it's frustrating if we expect you to master it right away. So we would have had to introduce ice skating earlier on and that didn't work for anyone so we dropped it.
Is brawling in the street with multiple opponents considered a separate minigame from the tavern brawls, or is it just a random encounter?
When you see some guys punching each other you can basically walk up to them and ask them to join and that's the mini game part. In some cases people will come up to you to fight you but that's from quest side. Alternatively you can just start punching guards and see where that gets you.
Or punch a cow in the face, guards are less likely to care.
Could you elaborate on fist fighting? We know that it is now incorporated into the combat system itself rather than a QTE sequence but we have no details on how it works as compared to the rest of the combat system. Are there combos? Light and strong attacks? Is there a lot of moves/animations that Geralt has in his fist fighting arsenal? And can we use our fists at will, or are they only available during specific events?
It's much more natural now, it's not a QTE, you have light and heavy punch as well as block which all use the same buttons as if you were to fight a monster for example. In fact you could also unequip both swords and just try to punch a werewolf in the face (don't try it) and that uses the same system as the one we would use in our mini game.
Fist fight - do we have winning animation after fist fight like in Witcher 1 (posing, celebrating)?
No.
Will Geralt be able to fend off against armed enemies with just his fists, using roll, evade maybe even unarmed counter?
Or will we be forced to draw our sword when facing armed enemies?
You cannot block a blade with your forearms, well you can but it won't work and instead you get hurt. You can take on enemies with just your fists if you're good.
How does fighting with your fists work exactly? can you kill people, knock them out maybe like a finishing move?
Is it possible to get into tavern fights, it is possible to go up to some civilians and kill them, or guards in the city.
They will die. Having them just knocked out would mean that they would never give up fighting and become annoying.
Now I know something about game design so... How many pages of game design document did you manage to create till today?(I am really curious when it comes to such a big game)
You mean just for Witcher Wild Hunt alone? It's impossible to count to be honest. The thing is we use google doc so anything that has stats will be in an excel sheet, it looks neat and it's technically only one page… just a really, really long one. Put everything in a word document and you end up with a 1000+ pages bible.
What was a feature/mechanics that didn't make it into the game - apart from squirrels and ice skating to make it more difficult.
That VATS system that I totally forgot about.
What is your take as a gameplay designer on the inevitable realism vs. fun vs. functionality dilemma when you design game's mechanics? What is your thought/design process when you face a challenge like this? Any specific examples of such challenges during TW3's development?
Realism is good sometimes, with simulator games… That's their strength really but for us it makes no sense to have a boat that is affected by wind changes. We are not a boat simulator, and it would be annoying if you need to go somewhere quickly but cannot because the wind hasn't changed for a few days. That was a no brainer and it's often the case with our discussions with realism vs gameplay, if you put yourself in the shoes of the player and something is annoying, frustrating or doesn't make sense, then it needs some rethinking.
What were three features/mechanics with which it was the hardest to convince producers to implement into the game - tell us why it was so hard, and what they do.
I wish I could think of something but everybody was on board most of the time - maybe Gwent? I had to play a few games with various people to show that it would work but it was not hard to persuade them, I’m happy to say.
How do you balance the game? How do you prevent that someone who focused on the sidequests won't heavily outlevel the enemies when he continues with the main story?
We have a system so that if you out level a quest, it will be greyed out - pretty standard right? The twist though is that it will compensate for that and maybe give you more loot or money. Having said that, you can out level some main quests if you're really doing everything. You know, there is nothing wrong with it, you have trained hard you have fought a lot of monsters, you have some great gear and your reward is that you are hard as nails for a little bit.
What were the criteria by which you determined what was a satisfactory gameplay design choice for The Wild Hunt? In-house testing? Successful implication in other games? Suggestions from fans, and positive response? Could you give an example?
Either it's something from W2 that was kept and we see if players (that's us too) liked it as it was or if there was room for improvement - or it's brand new and it start with the prototype, if that feels right we go ahead and down the line when people play more and more, especially with hands on sessions we have had recently, you see when you made the right call. The way you can replenish your potions is one for example.
Are you going to be a part of Cyberpunk team?
I have already done some work on CyberPunk but right now all my focus is on Witcher.
What have been the most difficult gameplay mechanics you've come across when making The Witcher 3?
Combat, potions, leveling or perhaps some other thing that I didn't mention? (or something mentioned in this thread.)
The horse (and I didn't work on it) I know was not an easy one, we went through different techniques to make it feel right.
What references did you take for designing the gameplay mechanics in the witcher 3?
Witcher 2 mostly, our goal was not to totally copy another game but address the problems with Witcher 2's combat.
As a developer working under a budget, timetable and what is practically possible I should think it would be impossible to get everything you work on to feel absolutely 100% the way you imagined it to begin with. But are there a idea or concept game-play wise in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt where you feel OMG we absolutely nailed this 100% as we wanted it.
When we pushed the date it was because something wasn't 100%. It hurt more when you see other features like combat when you think "yeah this is good combat, it feels good". So we took some extra time to make everything 100%. I know it sounds like a silly answer, but I can tell you without a doubt that we nailed this game, it is one of the best RPGs I have ever played and the team is so pleased. I am very proud of what we have achieved as a team.
One of the amazing features in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is its living breathing ecosystem. How did that feature affect you game-play wise positively or negatively or did it affect it at all?
It was tough because you need to have features that players will see. By that I mean there is no point having this complex system if players don't see it in action. Things like monsters being attracted to smells for example. The world is big and the probability that a monster will be very near a dead body that you have just killed for example is not really high (depending on which area you are), on top of that the probability that you’ll stick around for the amount of time it would take a monster to come to that body is probably even lower - that doesn't even take into account the chance that the monster would come across another one and they would fight. So we had issues where people didn't see this mechanic at all or rarely. The fix for that was to spawn monsters in areas with other animals so they do their own hunting, then the rest kicks in. So you can see monsters killing things, then other monsters being attracted to the smell or maybe you arrive later and they’re already done with the dead body.
Have you ever been inspired by a fan or a individual not attached to the project (maybe at a convention, post on a forum, etc) and thought that idea or concept simply sounds amazing for The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt and then implemented it into the game-play or parts of it?
I can't say I have, the fans that we meet on the road are often full of positive feedback and maybe some will mention that something or another from W2 could be better, it's often something that we have already addressed in Wild Hunt so it's reassuring.
How is it to work a such at such a gigantic project and be responsible for creating something that so many many many people have such high expectations for and opinions about? In your case in relation to game-play?
It's tough because you want to improve on what the previous title was, but you also cannot lose the essence of what made Witcher 2, so you need to constantly remind yourself "is this Witcher-like?".
What were some difficulties you encountered during balancing the gameplay?
Not having level scaling… And the scale of the game.
I would like to know more about Gwent.
Do we start with a predefined deck or do we collect cards and build our deck through the game? How do we obtain new cards? Through loot? Purchase? Can even win new cards from the enemy in a Gwent match? Will there be a long quest, which sends us through the whole world? (like fist fighting or dice in Witcher 1/2)
You start with a Northern Realms faction base deck. Which includes the minimum amount of cards required to play Gwent. Then after that you can find more cards in loot, you can win some at Gwent, in fact most Merchants will play you for one card that he/she has. All cards are unique. There is also a competition that you can enter, it's a one of a kind competition so you must make sure that you enter when you are ready. That competition includes all of the top players in the Northern Realms.
What was your favorite part about designing Gwent?
Prototyping it. I printed 4 base decks of our factions. Played them over and over again with the boys and girls at work and tweaking things.
What approach did you take with the in-game design of Gwent cards? Is it similar to the physical edition (which could break immersion to some), or are the cards especially designed in-game to fit the world and period?
Will there be a big Gwent tournament for Geralt to participate in?
Basically the limitations I was given were as follows: 1) Gwent needs to be fast, no more than 10 minutes per game; 2) it needs to be a game about two armies clashing (as mentioned in the books); 3) and it needs to fit with the lore. The immersion sides of it was actually ok despite having cards of characters from the game (including a badass Geralt card) because once you're in there it's more you playing against the AI than Geralt playing. It doesn't break anything to see those guys in card form. Originally we were not going to have that but as people in the office played more and more it became clear that we needed geralt to have his own, as well as other characters.
Can we expect minigames that have not been mentioned yet?
I think we've already announced all of them.
What were the reasons for removing dice poker from The Wild Hunt, and is there any hope of seeing it return?
The goal was to maybe add a new mini game, we designed Gwent and that naturally took over so to speak as the "quick game" that you play against random people to earn cards, or gold.
A few questions about leveling: Could you please describe the leveling system? How do developers balance leveling in an open world environment without level scaling enemies? Does leveling increase any of Geralt's stats automatically? Or does it just increase the type of equipment and skills Geralt has available to use? Or does it affect him in other ways? Is the main quest line non-linear? If yes, how are the levels designed to allow for balanced gameplay in each of the quests?
Geralt stats increased on normal and easy but on hard and dark it's more focused on the gear.
Did Geralt react on environmental conditions, for example he can die when it's too cold (for example in cold water or snowstorm)? If yes, how to protect against that (potions, warm clothes)?
No, under some conditions maybe but we're talking Quest related events.
Do animals have their own ecosystems and habits? For example, are they evenly 'planted' in the game or are they encountered during certain habitats and times of day?
The Eco System takes a lot of things into account, animals are placed where it makes sense to have them, then around them things will happen and shift them about. It's super organic as a system and it's there to complement the other mechanics we have. Animals ultimately are there to add life.
Will the banks in Novigrad be functional buildings(that you can enter and deposit/stash some gold or find some odd quest), or are the buildings there just for show?
You can use the bank to maybe change some of the money that you have (we have multiple currencies in play) or even borrow some money.
Can Geralt get drunk in game (I am now)? What the hell is blink?
Yes. Good. One of Ciri's abilities.
Is there a gift system, for instance when you're out of gold, can you bribe Grandma with some White Gull or a nice emerald to tell you some nice stories or rumours?
You can bribe guards if you want to go places for example, places you're not supposed to be in - or sometimes you can use Axii during a dialogue scene to get a number of information from people who were not as cooperative as they should be.
Regarding Roach and when you call her. Will she be the same horse Geralt rode last time, and of the same colour, or does a completely random horse show up every time Geralt whistles?
It's always her but you can ride others. You can spend a lot of time customising her with new items (some of which we’re going to be starting making soon for our free DLC).
I like that the HUD tells me what time it is, but why does it tell me the weather? Isn't that pretty obvious?
Good question. Weather is important as it can also affect monsters, so if you get a tiny bit of rain you could think "mmm, that's light rain, it'll be fine" and then you get destroyed by drowners for example. So instead you look at it and you can see that the game specifically says "this is the weather currently, therefore beware". Quick glance and you know what you need to take into account.
How do Ciri sections trigger? Do they automatically interrupt when the player reaches a certain point in the story, or do the player has to unlock and trigger them?
Can we skip Ciri sections on the second playthrough?
Are Ciri sections more focused on combat or dialogues and decision making?
Ciri sections are triggered at certain moments in the game. Her moments have combat and dialogue too, they really are so… different, especially the combat. I really am a big fan of whoever decided to do that. It's like a typical "princess in distress" sort of setup, only you play as the princess and she's totally kicking ass.
Can monsters attack cities/villages or they spawn and move around in the wilderness only? Can different monsters fight each other or fight bandits?
Monsters can get a bit too close but cities have guards to come and help out. We found out quickly that monsters could really mess things up around cities which are where you talk to people, get quests (mostly, you can of course do that in the wild) but the point is that it didn't work if you came back to hand in a quest and the village has been attacked by monsters - it feels cool but at the same time that means you cannot hand in that quest and you get no XP so that's super annoying. Guards will help keep things under a certain level of control. As for in the wild, everything goes.
Is there element of stealth in combat ? and if so can we do some special attacks to unsuspecting enemies like a stealth finisher?
No. But if you Axii an enemy then you have a higher chance of finishing him in one hit.
Does the game have collectibles? And if so, do they have a purpose or are they just there for the sake of busywork? And how do they integrate with the gameplay?
Besides Gwent cards, no. Lots of weapons…
What is your favorite thing to do in the game?
First thing I do every time I see a village is go find the notice board and read the stories on there. Not only can I pick up a quest from there but those stories or short notes really help me understand the type of people that live in that village. I love the immersion in our game, I've said it before but I think our writing team did such a brilliant job on writing all those little things. Second thing I do after I've read the notice board is chase geese around and pretend that I am a giant witcher.
Can you explain how the "level requirements" for weapons work in The Witcher 3 and which impact the individual weapons of Geralt have on his damage output? (How is the difference between a weapon for level 5 and one for level 30 in terms of damage and other boni for example. How does that work with balancing in terms of not giving the players the ability to get too OP too early in the game or to be too underpowered without the right weapon). Also, could you explain the durability system of weapons?
The damage dealt is smaller when broken , you can repair on the fly with some items or go to blacksmiths.
Will there be a possibility to restart your skills at some point in a game like in TW2?
Yes but you lose the things you have acquired from places of power.
Does the game have any statistics you can see, like how long you played, how many quests you did?
You can check out the quests you did and read a little conclusion text that wraps up what you have learned from the experience. I like reading that stuff, it's not always fluff either.
How will world respond on Geralt appearance, for showing up with a monster trophy, will they comment it or something like that?
People are constantly commenting on Geralt, he is a freak after all, having trophies on you doesn't change how people insult you.
What are the functions of the witchers medallion?
It vibrates when there is something magic around you, something that requires your attention. Very useful especially during quests or even when exploring. It'll vibrate and you know that you must use your Witcher senses to have a closer look.
Compared to TW2, more puzzles this time around?
Well we have more quests so technically you have more puzzles but we haven't gone out of our way to make it a puzzle game if you know what I mean.
How do you maintain level of fun gameplay wise during such a huge game as Witcher 3, we will play it for hours, how do you keep it fresh after 70-80 hours of gameplay? I am a huge fan of Witcher series and lore, so I will play the game more than once to experience story, but would I want to do it just because of gameplay, the feeling playing it?
Honestly when I play, I still catch myself listening to NPCs talk about something that I had never heard before, a lot of care was put into their look too so you don't have 4 models used for 200 of them for example. The quests are always really fresh too, even the minor ones. It's also the POI (Points of Interest) that we have in our world, the things that you see around you, there is always a tower somewhere, a rock formation, something in the distance that you want to check out and on your way there you will meet new people, and monsters. I get massively sidetracked in our game. So much to do, but it doesn't feel heavy, you just naturally end up exploring. This is thanks to basically each person in the team ensuring that their piece of the puzzle is solid enough to stand on its own, and so when you put all the pieces of the puzzle together you end up with a really solid experience, and ultimately a game that is fun even if you don't play quests…
From what I have seen from gameplay videos there is an extremely fast HP regen - is that because some cheats are enabled or is the game like this? If I play on second difficulty will I have to worry about using potions for better health regeneration and etc.? As far as I read, potions will be necessary for higher difficulties,but what about medium?
Haha nicely spotted. Actually it depends on which video you mean but we have two guys who record videos most of the time, Pixel (not his real name) and Wnek (his real name) they’re both excellent players, Wnek actually is a top CS player - despite that they will often have some great potions on them to make sure that they don't have to record again in case they die. As far as the bar (without potion use) regenerating, maybe we had an early video where it wasn't final, or maybe they were playing on easy.
There are rumors that theres around 70 unique types of monsters in the game. How hard was it to make every monster unique gameplay wise? Will we encounter many creatures with crazy abilities like Fiends hypnotic eye and Foglings well.... fog?
They all have their own little thing, even if we have some that are in the same family (drowners for example come to mind). My favourite one at the moment is the foglet, well fogletS, because they usually come in groups unfortunately. You see a fog rising and suddenly some pale figures circling you. Then they will come in and materialise next to you. Freaky stuff. Now when I see natural fog I take my sword out and look around just in case.
Will ALL NPC react to stealing in the future? Like the guards do right now?
It depends if they care or not. Some will, some won't - it depends on who they are, where, if they are shop keepers, etc.
I heard in one hand-on event Geralt jumped from the tower into hay and he died. Geralt worse in jumping than Ezio?
Haha really? I don't remember that one, mmm basically you can roll to absorb the fall so maybe the person forgot to roll upon landing.
What types of "birds' flights" was implemented?
Each group has its own AI, and they will fly following patterns of their real life counterparts. Sparrows fly low and in groups, spread, then get closer again and will fly around certain areas where you could expect to see them. Some crows are used by Leshen so those are a little less natural and a lot more… deadly.
Evo ljudovi ovo je gotovo sve što znamo o Witcher 3 prije izlaska igre! :)
