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glassfish777 and MerseyRockoff

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glassfish777

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About this mod

Adds back two cut ending choices from the game: Geralt's decision to steal the horses with Ciri and her friends as well what he says to her before she walks into the tower now impact the game's ending. Custom made flashbacks reflecting these choices included!

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Overview
Spoilers Ahead!

At some point in development CDPR intended for two additional choices to impact the game's ending: Geralt's choice whether to steal the horses with Ciri and Aegar during the quest Payback and what he chooses to say to her right before she enters the tower to destroy the white frost. These choices were likely intended to function similarly to the existing choices involving Ciri where a "Good" choice gives a point towards Ciri's survival and a "Bad" choice gives a point towards the bad ending. While these decisions still exist in the game they have no bearing towards the ending you get. This mod restores their impact on determining the ending the player receives.

Background

Unlike most other cut content restorations the Witcher 3 has received recently, this particular one was not actually discovered to be hidden within the final game's files. Instead, the existence of these cut choices were reported by a user who found them in leaked production documents(check out u/76118722 on reddit. He features quite a few interesting cut content posts!). Upon further investigation, it became pretty clear they were once intended to be choices that impacted the ending. Deciding to steal the horses clearly makes Ciri and her friends very happy while choosing not to(and subsequently beating up Aegar) really upsets her and ruins her friendship with the elves. The game even saves your decision here despite never using it later. At the tower, Geralt has four possible final words to Ciri before she leaves. The first two choices disappoint her and do not show her that Geralt understands her decision. The latter two choices give her confidence and faith that Geralt understands her choice.

Mechanics  

The mod changes how the game determines whether Ciri lives or dies at the end.

In the vanilla game it works as follows:

Quest: Blood on the Battlefield
Choose to drink with Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Choose to have a snowball fight with Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

Quest: Blood on the Battlefield(Only if you chose to visit Emhyr with Ciri otherwise you won't have this choice)
Accept payment for finding Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Refuse payment for finding Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

Quest: Final Preparations
Join Ciri in her meeting with the lodge(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Let Ciri meet with the lodge on her own(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

Quest: Child of the Elder Blood
Give Ciri the necklace(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Destroy Avallach's lab with Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

Quest: Skjall's Grave
Do not visit Skjall's grave with Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Visit Skjall's grave with Ciri(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

At the end of the game if you have more points in Ciri alive then she will live. If you have more points in Ciri dead, she will die. In the case of a tie Ciri will live. If Ciri lives, Nilfgaard wins the wars, and you chose to visit Emhyr with Ciri, then you will receive the bittersweet ending. If Ciri lives, Nilfgaard loses the war and/or you don't visit Emhyr with Ciri then you will receive the good ending. If Ciri dies then you will receive the bad ending.

This mods makes the game account for the following choices in the ending as follows IN ADDITION to all of the vanilla choices described above:


Quest: Payback
Refuse to steal the horses(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Steal the horses with Ciri and Aegar(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

Quest: Tedd Deireadh, The Final Age
Say nothing as Ciri enters the tower(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Say "Ciri...I forbid it." as Ciri enters the tower(+1 point toward Ciri dead)
Say "Don't do this to me. Please." as Ciri enters the tower(+1 point toward Ciri alive)
Say "Good luck." as Ciri enters the tower(+1 point toward Ciri alive)

The calculation in determining Ciri's fate works the same as vanilla. There is just a larger total number of points now.  At the end of the game if you have more points in Ciri alive then she will live. If you have more points in Ciri dead, she will die. In the case of a tie Ciri will live. If Ciri lives, Nilfgaard wins the wars, and you chose to visit Emhyr with Ciri, then you will receive the bittersweet ending. If Ciri lives, Nilfgaard loses the war and/or you don't visit Emhyr with Ciri then you will receive the good ending. If Ciri dies then you will receive the bad ending.


Flashbacks

Upon entering the tower and encountering the White Frost, Ciri has flashback of all of the choices you made that contributed to the fate she is going to experience(i.e If Ciri is going to die you will not see any flashback to good choices even if you did make some). These flashbacks feature clips of the cutscene that plays after Geralt makes a particular choice. They feature Geralt wearing the starting armor and swords with default hair and beard as well as Ciri in her default appearance. These flashbacks are prerecorded video files(.usm files) and are not rendered by the game in real time. CDPR did not include any flashback videos in the game files for the cut choices this mod restores. Fortunately, I was able to custom make new flashbacks for each of the choices this mod restores by recording the appropriate cutscenes and editing them together. I have limited video editing experience but I did my best to make the color grading and blur effect on the new flashbacks match the vanilla ones. If you are experienced with video editing and have any feedback on these please don't hesitate to reach out. Unique flashbacks are included for both choices in Payback and all four choices at the end of Tedd Deireadh, The Final Age.

In addition, the vanilla game plays the flashbacks out of order because CDPR was being lazy when sequencing the videos. MerseyRockoff was fortunately able to fix this when doing the file work and the flashbacks should now play in chronological order with this mod installed.

Installation

This mod contains both a 'modSwallow' folder and a 'dlcSwallow' folder. Unpack 'modSwallow' into your game's 'Mods' folder. If there isn't one, create it. Unpack 'dlcSwallow' to your game's 'dlc' folder. You can install this mod at any point in the game before you enter the tower to talk to Avallach in the quest Tedd Deireadh, The Final Age. This mod is fully compatible and recommended for use with the Brother's in Arms Ultimate Bugfix and Restored Content Collection(BiA). Just give this mod priority. Compatibility with other mods is unknown but the mod should be compatible with any mod that doesn't edit the quest files for q502_avallach(Tedd Deireadh, The Final Age).

Rationale

We made this mod as we really enjoy restoring cut content for the Witcher 3 wherever we find it can be done. We understand that some people may not like having these choices impact the ending and support CDPR's decision to cut them. If you do not like how it impacts the ending please do not install it.

Credits/Special Thanks

glassfish777 - Recording and editing the new flashbacks. Encoding the videos as .usm files and getting the game to play them(any additional or replacement .usm files need to be encoded at a bit rate of 36000 for the game to play them regardless of how the vanilla ones are set up)

MerseyRockoff - Editing the w2phase and w2scene files to get the game to account for the cut choices and sequencing the appropriate flashbacks to play correctly and in order.


Special thanks to u/76118722 on Reddit for discovering these cut choices and posting about them. Also thanks to konyme and Fabian for their help and advice on getting the game to play non vanilla .usm files. All video editing was done in DaVinci Resolve 18. Videos were encoded into .usm files using Scaleform Video encoder 4.6. Remaining works was done in WolvenKit.

My Other Mods

Old Witcher 3 (1.32):
Novigrad Crest in Journal Restored
Restored Content - Shrines of Verna
Restored Content - Ciri's Fate
Restored Content - Old Mutagen Icons
Restored Content - Additional Perks
Experimental Restored Content - Ice Skating
Smooth Camera Zoom for Base Game Signs and Posters
Restored Content - Yellow Mutagens

Next-Gen Witcher 3(4.0):
Smooth Camera Zoom for Base Game Signs and Posters
Restored Content - Old Mutagen Icons

Restored Content - Yellow Mutagens - Next-Gen
Restored Content - Additional Perks - Next-Gen
Experimental Restored Content - Ice Skating - Next-Gen

Restored Content - Ciri's Fate - Next-Gen
Restored Content - Woodland Spirit Aftermath
Restored Content - Shrines of Verna - Next-Gen
Restored Content - Usable Whetstones


Other mods I have contributed to or collaborated on:

Restored Content - Buffed Monster

Restored Content - Buffed Monster - Next-Gen
Restored Content - Food
Healthy Food
Brothers In Arms-TW3 Bug Fix and Restored Content Collection(includes all my location fixes mods as well as some other things I've contributed)
Brothers In Arms- TW3 Bug Fix and Restored Content Collection - Next-Gen
DLC - Events
DLC - Events - Next-Gen