What's the outdoor to indoors transition like?
Any word on how Witcher 2 save file importing (if it's there) or the possible end states play into the setup of this one?
How do the horses work for transpo, closer to Elder Scrolls or RDR?
and most importantly... Thaler? yes/no
There should have been outdoor to indoor transitions without load screens, in the beginning of the demo at the jarl's castle, but I can't recall actually seeing them. Strange. Maybe someone else can chime in. They may have skipped them for the demo. Obviously the transitions in Witcher 2 were a bit jank at times even if they didn't hit load screens.
Didn't get word on save file importing. I imagine that's a common question asked by journos though.
As far as horses, it looked like you could call your horse after fast traveling and it would show up in a few seconds. Used for traversal but they went ahead on foot in dangerous areas.
I don't think there is a single announced feature at this point that I'm not aware of, so I can't think of any specific questions about "things not covered so far"... But I would like to hear your general feedback about it.
How did it looked in terms of fluidity, popup, image quality, animations, etc?
Did you get the impression that combat was significantly improved in terms of responsiveness?
Did they shown any preview of the new dialogue system/better facial animations they hinted about?
It's very pre-alpha. In my session the CDP player had trouble against one of the large monsters, and was fighting it for almost ten minutes, because the hit detection wasn't working right and he kept slashing through it. There was the occasional stutter, but for the most part the game looked and ran brilliantly.
At one point they had Geralt meditate for two days in order to show off the dynamic weather system. Clouds shifted through the sky and changed shape over time, weather patterns changed, it stormed, all looking beautiful. The weather has gameplay implications as well: boats can crash in storms, and NPC behavior/scheduling is different depending on the weather (as with the previous games).
The combat does look improved in responsiveness across the board. Human enemies react more to being slashed, the signs look potent, and the whole thing feels more like Batman in general. Rather than a slow roll, Geralt does one of a few different animations to dodge and close gaps, like fast moving pirouettes (which if you've read the books you'll know Geralt does about every 3 seconds), and they all play out much more sharply. At one point in the demo he fights a group of human enemies, and it plays out completely differently than it would have in The Witcher 2.
Witcher 2: probably cast Quen, slash once, roll around repeatedly and try not to get stuck on the environment, slash once, roll around some more, cast Quen, get bored and try to fight, get stuck and chain staggered and die.
Witcher 3: attack one enemy and stagger him with slashes, turn around and knock flanking enemies down with Aard, spin over to a new enemy and land a flurry of blows and perform a coup de grace, block an incoming series of attacks and counter to finish off the next enemy, burn down the final one with a sustained spray from Igni.
That second scenario is what you may have *wanted* to happen in Witcher 2 combat, but it felt like it rarely quite worked out that way in reality. Here, combat is more dynamic and responsive. Again, pre-alpha so there was jank; not all the transitions were smooth, and the hit detection was off, but I didn't see anything problematic mechanically.
Did they say anything about interacting with the sea other than on boat? Like swimming, or would Geralt just drown if he falls in the sea?
Geralt can swim if his boat sinks, but can only last so long in the open sea before getting hypothermia and drowning depending on the circumstances. Probably to prevent scenarios where you're swimming for an hour to get back to shore.
Did you get a chance to see any vertical exploration? Jumping and climbing, can it be compared to Gothic 2?
Not particularly in what was shown. Geralt jumped off a lift early and landed heavily, that was about it. The scope of the environments contained a lot of verticality, in a looking into the distance in Dark Souls sort of way, but I don't know the level of interaction in terms of hiking.
Did you get to see crafting? If you did on a scale from 1 to Vagrant Story much depth would you say is there?
Crafting and the inventory management weren't shown. When I spoke with the director about it, he told me that there would be less emphasis on junk loot than in the Witcher 2. You wouldn't be picking up blocks of wood off the ground and hoarding them in your stash. Rather, they'll focus on key components, like the heart of a monster or some such.
Another question for EL, if you don't mind: Have they said anything about being able to conduct investigations without using the witcher senses thing?
It looks like you'll probably need to use the Witcher senses. When Geralt was investigating the village, looking at a certain individual in detective mode triggered the next step in the quest and an internal dialogue.
I asked the director about the prevalence of detective mode abuse that just happens naturally in the Batman games when there is little to no down side to remaining in it and tons to miss out on by not using it. He told me that you won't need to use it every five seconds to check for secrets; your Witcher amulet will shake when something is in the vicinity, and then you'll look around in detective mode and see what's up. Detective mode goes monochrome and slows your movement, too, so you won't want to walk around that way.