The idea was good, but the execution could be better. The portal maze was unsolvable based on the riddle and there were no markers, so I ended up watching the play trough. And then, when I found the sword, it didn't add to my inventory so I had to add it trough console. Then the ending was a bit unclear to me, yes, there was a horror element, but it came mostly trough the loading screen. Which is actually a cool idea, if it ended there. Maybe if the final scene was voiced, it would be better. Anyway, I'd probably had liked it more if I didn't wonder for so long to even figure out where the quest starts. But still, respect for the work you put into the mod.
Yeah sorry, I really tried. I have to say I am not someone who doesn't want to do riddles, but riddles need to have two things:
1) I have to be able to reread the riddle without having to reload a save and talk to the quest giver again. Why not add that to the journal?
2) They need to be descriptive enough to do something with it. Just mentioning "the sky", "the sea" and "the soul" isn't telling me much when I have to look over the whole isle of Spikeroog. Fun fact, I found the first Hym battle by accident before I found the first portal, just because there was really not much to go by.
But okay, I managed to find the first Hym battle after a good amount of just running around the island, I followed the portals and then landed in a village again. How am I supposed to know that after the portals have been near me the whole time, that I now need to completely leave that place and go to a lake that had no connection to the quest beforehand? But even if I manage to do that, I can't even loot the damn chest, so I am stuck again and I have no idea if I maybe missed another portal that I should have gone through or something else.
I am really usually not harsh on small bugs, but as mentioned, I tried, I played the whole thing for an hour now and all it does is frustrate me. The fights aren't even evolving in any interesting way since those are all singel Hym fights. I thought "at least now I get to fight a Djinn", but that one just roams around to the sea and then gets reset to its starting point at the lake. Maybe I would get to fight it after I manage to open the chest, but I really can't be bothered anymore.
I know this whole comment is really harsh, but believe me when I say that this is nothing against the mod creator personally. I admire people who can make new things for the game and I don't want them to stop, but I feel the problems with this quest would have been solved if someone else just tested it. The idea of having to follow clues is really great, but if there is nothing to really go by then it becomes really hard to get invested.
Thanks for the feedback man I really appreciate that you took the time to play it and leave such detailed feedback. I had to cut a lot of content because I couldn’t finish everything the way I originally planned. Still, I did my best to wrap things up in a way that felt coherent to me and that indirectly tells the story of the sword.
Because "the quest isn't important, the sword is":
Spoiler:
Show
The sword is cursed. The quest giver's instructions aren’t really there to guide you through the quest itself, but to help you grasp the true power behind the sword and its story and to give you a small hint of what you have to do to find it. You're meant to search the entire isle, that’s intentional. Not even a Cartographer can find it, only those attuned to its magic can sense it. The sword has lingering magical properties that reveal it only to those worthy of wielding it. Only Geralt can sense them.
The Djinn you encounter isn't a true Djinn, but the ghost of the sword, a manifestation of the Djinn’s power sealed within. Accessing the portals, the chest in the lake and the Hym boss fight is only possible through Draven, whose bloodline has been cursed since his father’s pact once Geralt talks to him the curse of the family activates. These aren’t real Hyms, but manifestations of the entities protecting/ seeking a new user for the sword. Once you retrieve the sword and follow the Ghostly Djinn, the sky turns into a violent storm, and tormented souls begin to attack. This is a trial. It’s meant to show just how powerful the sword is, though yes, the enemies are intentionally nerfed.
So again, in the end you end up asking yourself, what the f just happened, what is this sword? Is it truly imbued with the power of a Djinn, is Master Mirror somehow involved, or is it something else? Think of this as a small post-endgame search that hints at something much larger. You can feel that there is a chunk of the story missing but in the end, I think that works pretty well for the mod.
Something happens between the time Geralt passes out and finds Draven. (That was the chunk of the story that I removed and its left to interpretation)
If you're having trouble retrieving the sword from the chest, it may be due to a conflict with another mod. I haven’t encountered this issue on my end and I tested this a lot. I am also aware of the journal entries, I originally wanted to add a few notes along the portals and trails, but I couldn't get them to work, documentation for that is almost inexistant. REDkit has also a bug that for some reason prevents soundfx from sounding in the final DLC. The sword's trails should whisper while you are searching for it, it was originally pretty damn diabolical and that was the way you were supposed to find the sword once you arrived in that village)
If I get to update it in the future with those missing little details I may release a patch, but at the moment, I have moved from this mod as I am currently working in my other projects 👍
Ironically, when I removed the other content I couldn't finish, the name of the sword and the quest ended up being 100% intentional. It’s crooked in every sense of the word.
Oh yeah, the Black Coat is from my Witcher Wardrobe mod that I started a few months back. Unfortunately I don't have plans to release it but should be available in my patreon at some point in the future.
Nope. But if you play in any other language you should be able to turn the subtitles on. The English strings should have duplicated themselves so that you can see them in those other languages. I only had access to the English voices and every single line was cut from the files and edited, so I can't exactly reused the other dubs. I wish I could have added them, but I can't as I wouldn't be able to understand the lines and translate my text😶.
23 comments
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Enjoy the mod!
up watching the play trough. And then, when I found the sword, it didn't add to my inventory so I had to add it trough console. Then the
ending was a bit unclear to me, yes, there was a horror element, but it came mostly trough the loading screen. Which is actually a cool idea, if
it ended there. Maybe if the final scene was voiced, it would be better. Anyway, I'd probably had liked it more if I didn't wonder for so
long to even figure out where the quest starts. But still, respect for the work you put into the mod.
(Did you do them ??)
1) I have to be able to reread the riddle without having to reload a save and talk to the quest giver again. Why not add that to the journal?
2) They need to be descriptive enough to do something with it. Just mentioning "the sky", "the sea" and "the soul" isn't telling me much when I have to look over the whole isle of Spikeroog. Fun fact, I found the first Hym battle by accident before I found the first portal, just because there was really not much to go by.
But okay, I managed to find the first Hym battle after a good amount of just running around the island, I followed the portals and then landed in a village again. How am I supposed to know that after the portals have been near me the whole time, that I now need to completely leave that place and go to a lake that had no connection to the quest beforehand? But even if I manage to do that, I can't even loot the damn chest, so I am stuck again and I have no idea if I maybe missed another portal that I should have gone through or something else.
I am really usually not harsh on small bugs, but as mentioned, I tried, I played the whole thing for an hour now and all it does is frustrate me. The fights aren't even evolving in any interesting way since those are all singel Hym fights. I thought "at least now I get to fight a Djinn", but that one just roams around to the sea and then gets reset to its starting point at the lake. Maybe I would get to fight it after I manage to open the chest, but I really can't be bothered anymore.
I know this whole comment is really harsh, but believe me when I say that this is nothing against the mod creator personally. I admire people who can make new things for the game and I don't want them to stop, but I feel the problems with this quest would have been solved if someone else just tested it. The idea of having to follow clues is really great, but if there is nothing to really go by then it becomes really hard to get invested.
The sword is cursed. The quest giver's instructions aren’t really there to guide you through the quest itself, but to help you grasp the true power behind the sword and its story and to give you a small hint of what you have to do to find it. You're meant to search the entire isle, that’s intentional. Not even a Cartographer can find it, only those attuned to its magic can sense it. The sword has lingering magical properties that reveal it only to those worthy of wielding it. Only Geralt can sense them.
The Djinn you encounter isn't a true Djinn, but the ghost of the sword, a manifestation of the Djinn’s power sealed within. Accessing the portals, the chest in the lake and the Hym boss fight is only possible through Draven, whose bloodline has been cursed since his father’s pact once Geralt talks to him the curse of the family activates. These aren’t real Hyms, but manifestations of the entities protecting/ seeking a new user for the sword. Once you retrieve the sword and follow the Ghostly Djinn, the sky turns into a violent storm, and tormented souls begin to attack. This is a trial. It’s meant to show just how powerful the sword is, though yes, the enemies are intentionally nerfed.
So again, in the end you end up asking yourself, what the f just happened, what is this sword? Is it truly imbued with the power of a Djinn, is Master Mirror somehow involved, or is it something else? Think of this as a small post-endgame search that hints at something much larger. You can feel that there is a chunk of the story missing but in the end, I think that works pretty well for the mod.
Something happens between the time Geralt passes out and finds Draven. (That was the chunk of the story that I removed and its left to interpretation)
If you're having trouble retrieving the sword from the chest, it may be due to a conflict with another mod. I haven’t encountered this issue on my end and I tested this a lot. I am also aware of the journal entries, I originally wanted to add a few notes along the portals and trails, but I couldn't get them to work, documentation for that is almost inexistant. REDkit has also a bug that for some reason prevents soundfx from sounding in the final DLC. The sword's trails should whisper while you are searching for it, it was originally pretty damn diabolical and that was the way you were supposed to find the sword once you arrived in that village)
If I get to update it in the future with those missing little details I may release a patch, but at the moment, I have moved from this mod as I am currently working in my other projects 👍
PS. Reloaded into a different gameworld map, Skellige -> Toussaint.
Chest became active but the common sword is unable to be picked up with the Orens.
Oh yeah, the Black Coat is from my Witcher Wardrobe mod that I started a few months back. Unfortunately I don't have plans to release it but should be available in my patreon at some point in the future.