Fan-interview with Tomasz Gop

We present you long awaited interview fully based on Russian community questions. All those questions were asked by fans on official fan-site "Chronicles of Kaer Morhen" and in blog of The Witcher 2 at portal GAMER.ru. Our questions were answered by Tomasz Gop seniour producer of The Witcher 2. We want to say big thanks to Snowball Studios and 1C-SoftClub for their help in organisation of this interview.

Представляем вам долгожданное эксклюзивное интервью, созданное полностью на основе вопросов русскоязычного коммьюнити. Эти вопросы были заданы фанатами на сайте "Хроники Каэр Морхена" и в блоге "Ведьмака 2" на сайте GAMER.ru. На наши вопросы отвечал Томаш Гоп, главный продюсер игры "Ведьмак 2". Выражаем особую благодарность компаниям Snowball Studios и 1С-СофтКлаб за неоценимую помощь в организации этого интервью.




What realms will we visit during our journey? What about Temeria, Redania, Nilfgaard, Valley of Flowers? Could we come back to the old locations from the first game, for example, Kaer Morhen?
If I don’t want to spoil anything, I'd rather not answer this question. But what I can tell you is, that it's not only Temeria. It’s also going to be Kaedwen and maybe some other kingdoms, but not Nilfgaard itself. Nilfgaardians will come to see us though so they will be present in the game. We don't have any locations from The Witcher 1, we have only new locations.

Will Geralt be able to horse ride?
It would be cool but it’s not going to happen in The Witcher 2. Maybe some time in the future, but I can't promise.

Will there be quests or decisions which would give us some exclusive abilities or skills which you can’t get by any other way?
Yes, there will be such skills. Some of them could be also obtainable with help of the secret merchant from DLC but not all of them.

Will TW2 have achievements?
We're planning on doing achievements. I can't confirm for sure but we plan to do them both for Steam and other versions of the game.

You once mentioned DLC. What type of DLC do you plan? Something similar to new weapons and armors or maybe some additional adventures?
I get what you are saying. We created those 6 packs of extra content to give the gamers who will preorder the new look and a new perspective of the game. They will just add some new interesting aspects, not make the game completely different. In the future if we release DLCs (actually it sounds like a good idea) we're not going to release a paid extra sword or extra armor. If we ever going to do that it would be a huge campaign.

Do you plan to make some elixirs with unusual effects? Not just health regeneration or night vision, but something really unique.
Well, we have redesigned a lot of old ones and added new ones. We have also added a new Sign. So all of them will get completely new special effects.



In Witcher 1 there were three endings, The Witcher 2 has three beginnings and sixteen endings. Does it mean that in TW3 there will be sixteen beginnings?
A lot of people ask us this question actually. And I think it's too early to answer it. It would be very difficult to script the game with sixteen beginnnings and godzillion endings :) But we really like to take the challenge. So if it's going to be doable we'll probably go through with this. But right now it's too early to talk about this and commit to anything.

Will we meet other witchers? Maybe someone from the other witcher schools?
Next please :)

Could you tell us if we will meet any new characters from the book series in TW2?
Oh, yes! Sure! Almost all characters we've shown already were at least mentioned in books. I mean baroness La Valett, emissary of Nilfgaard, Iorveth was also mentioned. The magician from our last dev diary was in the books as well. And all of them weren't mentioned in TW1. Vernon Roche for example is a guy whom we made ourselves from scratch. So yes, you definitely can expect such new characters.

What about Shany? Will she be in TW2? And will we be able to fall in love with her?
I don't think so.

Do you plan to make some locations with beautiful nature and mild music, something like Darkwater village, where we can rest a little after the hell of war?
Yes definitely. There will be locations where the action grows to its top level, but also there will be places where you could simply wish to lay down and rest for a few hours.

What is the approximate time to complete the game running only the main quest and the time with side-quests? People right now are talking about 50 hours.
I don't know where you got these 50 hours from. But what I can tell you is that we don't have a final estimate on how many hours you need to complete the game. I don't know whether it will be 20, 30 or 50 hours to run through the main quest. But side quests can make it two or three times longer. I can’t confirm 50 hours. But it will definitely depend on how you play.



Will we be able to switch night vision on and off without using elixirs?
Let me explain it this way. When you're playing The Witcher and it gets dark, normally it's too dark for you to see anything and yet you can see. This means Geralt has better sight, he can see better than other regular people. So if you want to enhance your vision with even better sight you use night vision elixir to see almost like at day light, but even without any elixirs it will be brighter.

How would you describe the combat system? Will it be easier than in TW1? More casual?
I think it's too general to say whether it will be easier or not. Because now we have combat system that is more advanced. I mean it took more time to design this system. Some features were taken from The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf. Some of them we took from previous projects. But it was only a small part, most features were created specifically for TW2. There was a lot of work and a lot of features. We have worked for few years, only on combat system alone. But on the other hand we want to be sure that on the easiest difficulty level the combat will be really easy, easy to learn. But if you are a hardcore player and if you want to learn all these advanced features, you have to play more then you did in The Witcher 1. So it's hard to become a master in combat.

Will it be possible to get drunk and go on a rampage, leaving only dead bodies behind?
I don't think it's a good idea to try to kill everybody when you're drunk. It might be too difficult. But actually, you will be able to kill more NPC's than in TW1. But still, you have to remember that there are unique characters that influence the story and you can't kill them.

What level cap do you plan?
Well I know we have a level cap but I don't know what number it is.

Will monsters spawn in location only once or from time to time to make leveling easier?
Depending on a quest. You probably know that I mentioned earlier that there will be something like an ecosystem. If you are just killing monsters in a location and don't want to know how they behave and where they live, they will re-appear from time to time. But whenever you want to go on an adventure of finding out what they are, you will be able to find the nest of these monsters and after killing them all they will disappear forever.

Do you plan to give Geralt some ranged weapon? I don’t mean bows, but maybe throwing knives?
Yes :)

Will you tell us something new about Yenifer and Ciri in the game?
Actually I already said too much and saying anything else will take away the fun you can get from the game. I just won’t do it, so when you play the game you can expect everything and it will be fun for you. The only thing I can say is that we didn't forget about Yennefer or Ciri and anyone who exists in this world. But how we show them, it's just another story.

What stealth and acrobatic moves will be available for Geralt?
I don't want to get deep into the details and tell you about every single move that we will have. Well, for example sneaking system is one of them. In the game you can find places where you can utilize the stealth system. In some places you can use torch lights or something else. But there is no predefined list of moves you can do. The main idea for these features is to make a special atmosphere as you see when you are sneaking in the dark from prison and then finally get into the daylight. So all of that, of course needed a lot of motion capture work and so on. But I don't think listing those moves makes sense.



Who is the author of TW2 plot? Did authors of the original game take part in creating it?
Definitely the same people wrote the plot for TW2. This is the same team. Even if some guys are not working with us right now they have been there when we were writing the main story.

Will there be many new monsters in the game? What about the old ones? What is the source of inspiration for you?
Well, obviously we'll have monsters that are totally new, not present in TW1. And we have some old monsters as well. For example a drawner will reappear. And the main source of inspiration for sure, is the world created by Andrzej Sapkowski. There is a short story where a peasant got into trouble near the bridge and Geralt saved him from small monsters. So this story was an inspiration for us while creating nekkers. They are not exactly how those monsters were described but they were our inspiration. For sure there are also other sources and monsters not mentioned in books like a cursed field where warriors fight forever. That flaming monster is totally of our creation. Tentadrake on the other hand is by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Did you hear that Andrzej Sapkowski announced that he is going to make a continuation of The Witcher books? Do you think there is a connection between your game success and his decision?
Yes, I've heard about this. And this is really great news. Well I can't say this because I simply don't know. We have never discussed this with him. I hope there is a connection because we have always wanted to extend The Witcher as he sees it and to write story as he wanted to.

What are the relationships between CDPR and A. Sapkowski right now? What is his attitude towards TW2?
Well, he is an author and he writes books, he is not gamer. All I know is that he likes what we've done. For example he likes the new look of Geralt. He said: "It's OK!" Which is kind of "Extra!" when you get it from Sapkowski :)

Do you plan to give players alternative ways of killing boss-monsters?
Yes. Let's remember a fight with Tentadrake. You can kill it in general way cutting his tentacles just one by one and after that finish the monster off. But if you want to kill him in another way you will have some QTE. And you will get a chance to finish the fight earlier. So all bosses will have such alternative ways of killing them.

Once you mentioned that Geralt’s memories will play important part in TW2 plot. Could you give us more details on that topic?
Without spoiling, it's really hard. But let me give you an example. In TW1 you had flashbacks that were connecting right here and right now with what you have done previously in the game. And in TW2 you will have them as well but additionally you will have more things like that but connecting not with things you did in TW2 but you have done in TW1 and also even before both games!

Will the appearance of Geralt change during the game? (Changing features of Geralt’s face because of new scars after fights, etc.)
His skin and body won't be changing with new scars and things like that. But there are smaller things he might get like blood from killed monsters. We did too much work designing his face and body and it would be too difficult to change it throughout the game.

Will there be animation between the character and the surroundings (opening doors, searching dead bodies, etc.)?
I don't know about searching dead bodies but there will be animation and interaction between a lot of parts of the environment. For example, you will be destructing walls and dismissing anything what you need on your way.

Will there be mode of active (tactical) pause?
Well it's not going to be like total pause but more of a way to slowdown the gameplay. It will give you advantage to choose a sign or a sword. But for example you will not be able to meditate during the fight or drink potions. This will be impossible, but choosing tactics will be allowed.

So no potions through the fight anymore?
Yes. The alchemy works slightly different. You can meditate anywhere and you can drink any potions that you like, but you can't do it in the fight. You have to prepare for combat beforehand. On the other hand you don't need to find a fireplace to meditate.



Will the conflict between the Order of the Flaming Rose and the Squirrels continue in TW2?
The things got so big in TW2 that Order of the Flaming Rose is not an issue anymore. I mean the rebellion of this order is done. There are bigger things happening. The plot and people and everything are so huge that order play really small part now.

How important will be role of Lodge of the sorceresses?
Well I'm going to do what I did before in this interview. Next, please :)

TW1 was full of humor. How are things in TW2 with that?
Oh, yeah! If not more! It's definitely going to sustain. There is enough humor, dark humor and references to real life and political situations around the world, we love to play with this and you can expect that.

Do you plan to put some easter eggs in TW2?
Sure. I don't know about faces of dev team and I don't know how many of easter eggs we can squeeze in this time. But we will have them as well, definitely!

Will we see highest vampires in TW2?
No highest vampires. Not this time.

Will we meet Children of Destiny in TW2? Can you say something about their part in TW2 plot?
Sorry, but I don’t want to spoil it by answering this question. It would be better for players not to know that.

What can you say for Russian and Ukrainian fans of The Witcher world for the end of our interview?
We are really proud with how big The Witcher is in Russia and Ukraine. I've been to Igromir twice myself. And everywhere I've seen The Witcher was point of interest to everyone. This what makes me say: "Wow! Russians really love our game!" And whenever we work on something really huge we definitely think about Russians being as excited as we are about this game. Not everyone in the world is so excited about The Witcher. Russians know Sapkowski really well, and I'm really happy with this. We really want to appreciate community we have in Russia.

Дата публикации: 31.01.2011
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