Sidequests quality

[Perkel]

I did dozen of sidequests now. And i can honestly say sidequests quality is stellar.
Even when there is something rather fetchy it is packaged in a way that doesn't feel like fetch quest.

I am yet to finish game but so far i am surprised with quality.

 

[Havoc]

The package quest is still shitty. At least the Polish VA sounds better with the animations. In the English one, Geralt had too many "live" animations to his monotone voice.

The worst part of many quest is this - Geralt talks too much. He narrates everything. They broke the rule of "Show, don't tell" so many times, it hurts.

 

[Perkel]

The package quest is still shitty. At least the Polish VA sounds better with the animations. In the English one, Geralt had too many "live" animations to his monotone voice.

The worst part of many quest is this - Geralt talks too much. He narrates everything. They broke the rule of "Show, don't tell" so many times, it hurts.

Honestly this is one of the few instances where Polish VA and text seems better. I play with polish VA and english subs and english text is sometimes completely different or should i say more "rich". I plan to do second run with full english VA and text to see how it fares. Imo this time english text is much better than polish one. You can see it for example in Kaer Moren at start where geralt speaks some line and ends it halfway where in english version he speaks it fully

"it is Kaer Moren not Elvish bathhouse"
where in polish VA version it is:
" it is Kaer Moren... " and it ends.

Charles dance probably cost their whole budget so they had to do somewhere cuts...

 

[cw8]

I'm still at the end of White Orchard so I can't really tell. But what I've read so far is that sidequests and the sidequests' plots and twists are involving and engaging.

 

[Raghar]

The worst part of many quest is this - Geralt talks too much. He narrates everything. They broke the rule of "Show, don't tell" so many times, it hurts.

It's a game not a movie. That text in quotes applies to movies only.

 

[odrzut]

Not really. For games it's "show, don't tell, and even better let the player do it".

 

[Havoc]

Correct. If you just tell, then player has nothing to think about. Nothing really to do. If you just show, then he must invest more brainpower into the game. The famous IMMERSHUN! isn't achieved by pretty graphics, but by making the player think about the game.

 

[Doktor Best]

Geralts mumbling is just the cinematic equivalent to flavour text in more textbased games. How do you want to "show not tell" that the cadaver has a severed artery or is missing a kidney? Most players dont even know how a kidney looks like.

Its not a perfect solution i know but its a suitable one. It adds fluff as its supposed to do.

 

[Scroo]

I agree that the mumbling is weird but I also don't know how else they should describe the condition of a cadaver for example.

In general most side quests are quite good but the XP gain is non existent, so basically they are railroading you there quite a bit, telling you when it's time to continue the main quest.

 

[Nyast]

It would have been better if they had found a way to suggest that Geralt is "thinking" something, and not actually saying it out loud. Geralt speaking to himself is just awkward.

 

[Cromwell]

I struggled to find Sidequests I could actually do when landing in velen after meeting the baron. Then I gave up and did the quest with keira in the cave, got awarded two levels, which is frustrating. I also dont see the point of higher difficulties, ai is still shit and instead ofbeeing actually required to prepare for fights the only difference to lower difficulties seems the amount of time you have to invest dodging shit. I am really disappointed that all the oils and potions dont do shit apart from giving you a slight edge, ten percent more damage against monster type x or in case of blackblood a small debuff on the enemy.

Instead of giving you the feeling that a witcher and all his experience is actually needed and that you have to investigate with what you are messing you just hack away at the monster of the contract the same way you wuld at a peasant bandit.

 

[randir14]

Instead of giving you the feeling that a witcher and all his experience is actually needed and that you have to investigate with what you are messing you just hack away at the monster of the contract the same way you wuld at a peasant bandit.

This disappointed me too. Early in the game you're led to believe monster hunting will be more involved (having to read the Noonwraith bestiary entry to discover Yrden is required to hurt her). But after that it's just swing at enemies until they're dead. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and the only potions I feel the need to use are Cat and the healing ones.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Btw, there are randomly generated sidequests á la Skyrim, right?
How good are they compared to the Bethesda ones? Is it obvious that they use placeholder functions and stuff like there and how much variety is there?

 

[Raghar]

In tales of Xilia, there is a situation where Maxwell is saying to herself, "they tried to make another key, I don't have much time". It's made in different tone of voice, and there is a text above her in different box than when she speaks normally.

In the beginning she talks (seemingly to herself) to undine, and while actually you can hear undine, but not understand it, she speaks too quickly. This also gives some hints of what's happening.

Another example of importance of narrator/narration (not just showing stuff) is Disgaea4. When you look at what Fenrich and his interactions with his master, you can guess a lot from actual story, but then there are also Fenrich narration which is immensely important. (and don't forget all that text from narrator).

Considering this is a game, what prevents Gerard to ask bard about current situation, in the middle of combat? Wouldn't this bring some interactivity? Force player to use brain? Be truthful to novels when bard would talk to Gerald when organs fly around and other party members are fighting. And other party member are despising them for that. And don't forget often contradicting Sapkowski narration. Well it was always supposed to be readable book without too much philosophic context. BTW the hidden theme of books was

Spoiler

ICE AGE IS COMING. While they squabbled about minor stupidities and short term personal gain.

Was this theme even touched in third game?

 

[BelisariuS.F]

Btw, there are randomly generated sidequests á la Skyrim, right?
How good are they compared to the Bethesda ones? Is it obvious that they use placeholder functions and stuff like there and how much variety is there?

CDP said that there will be none and as far as I know there are none.

Instead of giving you the feeling that a witcher and all his experience is actually needed and that you have to investigate with what you are messing you just hack away at the monster of the contract the same way you wuld at a peasant bandit.

I think that the witcher profession fits best for an action-adventure game where:
- Main story is more about talking and less about fighting.
- Fights connected to the main story are only against humans. You don't fight monsters here.
- You need money to progress (paying for information, bribes, gear, etc).
- The only way to get money is by monster contracts.
- Every contract is unique, against a different type of monsters and requires a lot of research and preparation.
- Monster fights are difficult and in practice only winnable if you apply everything you've learned about the monster.
- Well crafted and challenging monster contracts + interesting main story = awesome game.

 

[Cromwell]

Btw, there are randomly generated sidequests á la Skyrim, right?
How good are they compared to the Bethesda ones? Is it obvious that they use placeholder functions and stuff like there and how much variety is there?

CDP said that there will be none and as far as I know there are none.

Instead of giving you the feeling that a witcher and all his experience is actually needed and that you have to investigate with what you are messing you just hack away at the monster of the contract the same way you wuld at a peasant bandit.

I think that the witcher profession fits best for an action-adventure game where:
- Main story is more about talking and less about fighting.
- Fights connected to the main story are only against humans. You don't fight monsters here.
- You need money to progress (paying for information, bribes, gear, etc).
- The only way to get money is by monster contracts.
- Every contract is unique, against a different type of monsters and requires a lot of research and preparation.
- Monster fights are difficult and in practice only winnable if you apply everything you've learned about the monster.
- Well crafted and challenging monster contracts + interesting main story = awesome game.

Which would also be more in line with the lines they give you about witchers beeing a dying breed since also the monster population gets lower and lower, while in the games now the world is full of drowners and ghouls and stuff.

 

[Night Goat]

go to a place > use witcher vision > walk up to glowy things, fiddle with the controls until it lets you press E on them > plot twist! > moral choice

 

[Cromwell]

go to a place > use witcher vision > walk up to glowy things, fiddle with the controls until it lets you press E on them > plot twist! > moral choice

Seems like they stole badly from age of decadence.

 

[Perkel]

I struggled to find Sidequests I could actually do when landing in velen after meeting the baron. Then I gave up and did the quest with keira in the cave, got awarded two levels, which is frustrating. I also dont see the point of higher difficulties, ai is still shit and instead ofbeeing actually required to prepare for fights the only difference to lower difficulties seems the amount of time you have to invest dodging shit. I am really disappointed that all the oils and potions dont do shit apart from giving you a slight edge, ten percent more damage against monster type x or in case of blackblood a small debuff on the enemy..

It gets better when you invest in alchemy tree.

Each point gives you +5% to potion time. get poison and you will have like 10% chance to poison foes if you use right oil. Then there is this % damage reduction vs monster type. So if you will use oil for corpseeathers then you will have % damage reduction from them it has like 5 levels so 25% max.

Imo it looks more like DS incremental increases. Each skill gives you somethigng but to be worthwile you need to stack several points in them.

 

[norolim]

"it is Kaer Moren not Elvish bathhouse"
where in polish VA version it is:
" it is Kaer Moren... " and it ends.

WTF are you talking about? The Polish line is different, but it's a full line.

Pewnie, że przez mury. Jesteś w wiedźmińskiej szkole czy na wczasch?

which translates into:

We shell run the walls, of course. Are you in a witcher school, or on vacation?

and in my opinion, the direct translation doesn't work that well in English. What they did is better.

Of course. This is a witcher school or an elven bathhouse?

This is quite common, I noticed. Lines differ to a varying degree in PL and EN (and I hear it's the same in all languages). The game is localised, not just translated. They did a good job there.

 

[Perkel]

"it is Kaer Moren not Elvish bathhouse"
where in polish VA version it is:
" it is Kaer Moren... " and it ends.

WTF are you talking about? The Polish line is different, but it's a full line.

Pewnie, że przez mury. Jesteś w wiedźmińskiej szkole czy na wczasch?

which translates into:

We shell run the walls, of course. Are you in a witcher school, or on vacation?

and in my opinion, the direct translation doesn't work that well in English. What they did is better.

Of course. This is a witcher school or an elven bathhouse?

This is quite common, I noticed. Lines differ to a varying degree in PL and EN (and I hear it's the same in all languages). The game is localised, not just translated. They did a good job there.

That is the thing. I think there was no direct translation here.
Imo they wrote game in english and then they "polished" it. I saw many times where engish lines where more fitting what was happening on screen.

 

[norolim]

I saw many times where engish lines where more fitting what was happening on screen.

I'm not getting that impression.

 

[Ptosio]

"it is Kaer Moren not Elvish bathhouse"
where in polish VA version it is:
" it is Kaer Moren... " and it ends.

WTF are you talking about? The Polish line is different, but it's a full line.

Pewnie, że przez mury. Jesteś w wiedźmińskiej szkole czy na wczasch?

which translates into:

We shell run the walls, of course. Are you in a witcher school, or on vacation?

and in my opinion, the direct translation doesn't work that well in English. What they did is better.

Of course. This is a witcher school or an elven bathhouse?

This is quite common, I noticed. Lines differ to a varying degree in PL and EN (and I hear it's the same in all languages). The game is localised, not just translated. They did a good job there.

That is the thing. I think there was no direct translation here.
Imo they wrote game in english and then they "polished" it. I saw many times where engish lines where more fitting what was happening on screen.

FFS this just SCREAMS "translated from Polish":

 

[norolim]

FFS this just SCREAMS "translated from Polish

How so?

 

[Jools]

I'm enjoying most side-quests. Even really short ones, maybe POI-related, deliver decent writing, usually a choice or two (in solution and outcome), and often try to convey some kind of "grimdark" moral (eg, "whatever you do, someone is gonna get the shit end of the stick", or "nothing is what it seems" etc...). Some are fun, some are sad, some are a bit emotional, some are just vanilla. The writing constant on all of them, and it is good. These side-quests often make the game world feel more alive, lively, and realistic, and often feel "connected" to it. Yay for sidequests.