Overrated CD Projekt Red punishes you for exploring

I'm about to finish everything in White Orchard, I'm currently at Beast of the White Orchard quest and it turns out I'm totally locked out of some main story related content and missing out on 350 XP points on top of that.

I've previously explored every nook and cranny and I've accidentally stumbled upon Griffin's nest. It must have since excluded me from the option to interact with Mislav, and I cannot talk to him, therefore I will miss out on the lore and I won't get another quest. It seems an extremely shallow approach as it actually punished my exploration and wanted me to do things the way they wanted. Pretty stupid way of designing a sandbox game if you ask me. If they wanted players to act the way developers wanted, why bother creating the game as sandbox in the first place?

While they fixed failing buckthorn sub-quest when you collected it earlier, they don't even bother to fix what I've just encountered, and I'm not alone.

I'm very disappointed by CD Projekt Red.

@Salt_The_Fries: so are what you saying is even though you can kill the creature of a quest, it doesn't count since you never instigated the quest trigger? And you can't go back and trigger the quest anymore? If so, sounds more like just bad quality assurance... or not bad, just the game was supposed to have (what?) like 200 hours in quests, there's bound to be a few bugs. Are you a member of their forums? Bring it to their attention if possible.

You're right though, it should count, should be designed if you kill the beast then afterwards go speak to the person that instigates the quest, it should be like "oh, I already took care of that beast for you" and they should be like "okay, I'll suck your dick now, or would you prefer an elixir of 50% stamina boost for 20 seconds and a 500XP bonus".

Maybe it's a good thing I held out and not played this right off until they fix the bugs.

I've had a few quests that I've been rewarded for after the fact. Mostly where I've killed a beastie and then found a notice on a board. I really couldn't tell you if I've killed something and not received a quest reward but I've certainly always had a reward for anything I've taken a trophy from.

The reward cannot be negotiated and maybe you miss some dialogue. But you also don't have to backtrack. What would you prefer happen? Boss cannot be killed until you talk to the guy? Boss does not spawn until you talk to him? Or perhaps a quest warning?

It's the tutorial area of the game, not much lore there in the first place

I uninstalled it and played Resident Evil 2 instead.

Good game, aged well.

I think most open world RPGs would be a lot better if the side quests conflicted with each other. Doing a quest would open some and close others. It would really add to the replayability. Games where you can do everything make me feel like I should do so, and that always turns into a boring slog.

I would have taken a smaller game if they made an actual combat system. I can't get into the one it has. It's like 10 years behind, Jade Empire/KOTOR era on og xbox. It was fine for that time, I don't know how people accept it now. I guess they just look past it and enjoy the lore and interactivity.

It would be like if MGS5 had MGS2 gameplay though, they would be crucified. These guys get away with it somehow...

I don't see how that's "punishing" you for exploration. It would make the world a lot less believable if you couldn't stumble across these monsters on your own.

If this bothers you enough to make a thread about it, then you're probably not gonna like The Witcher 3. I missed out on quite a few characters and dialogue by exploring the world. While that sucks, I would prefer that instead of the game forcing me to backtrack to previous areas I've already explored. It's a completely fine design decision.

Also, the game is overloaded with quests and characters to interact with. I did almost everything and clocked in over 100+ hours. Missing one quest or a few isn't that big of a deal overall.

If that happened to me on my first playthrough my reaction would have been the opposite. I'd have been impressed that the game actually let you kill the Griffon without taking the "normal" route as this heightens immersion and makes the world feel more real and less like a static game. Skyrim wouldn't do that, Dragon Age wouldn't do that. And yeah, there are lots of contracts I've actually done by accidentally finding the monster in the world and then returning to whoever posted the notice instead of the other way around.

You are missing next to nothing by not killing the Griffon the "normal" way, and if it really bothers you that much just reload a save and do it that way. The quests in White Orchard are absolutely trivial compared to the rest of the game. In short: you're overreacting a lot.

Also noticed that you're calling CDPR "overrated" yet you've apparently only played through the tutorial area of the game. Hmm.

lmao Witcher 3 sucks claims person still in the newbie area.

I can tell you now the further you get into the game the more you will have this problem.

I think main quests and contracts give FAR too much exp which trivialises a lot of other content but I can live with it because the quests and general story content is SO superior to almost every RPG I've ever played that it's an absolute joy to play them so I don't care.

Stop thinking of it as a chore where you have to complete everything and treat it as an amazing experience where every side quest is an incredible new adventure and you'll get a lot more out of it.

What nonsense. The entire premise of your argument is absurd.

Moreover, this is something that has no place or business being in Systen Wars. Blog it.