I have still not finished The Witcher 3, though I am determined to do so before Hearts of Stone is released. Mostly, I have more ? than I care to count still to get through in Skellige. And it is of these ? that I wish to discuss.

I feel there was a kind of missed opportunity here - particularly around the Abandoned Sites. You come in, all saviour like, slay the Bandit-Harpy-Drowner-Ghoul-Nightkin-Skeleton threat, and then what? The place has more people suddenly, who all sing your praises, and a shop that sells nothing of value and carries no money, and... that's it.

I would really like to see the idea exanded upon with new quest lines opening up from clearing these sites. Something that would bring them a little more to life. Of all the little mini-quest things to do these are my favourite ones (while bobbing for floating chests ranks near the bottom) but I seriously think they could have done more with them.

What I hope is that in the expansions there is a potential to see something like this taken on board.

Probably not, but a Witcher can dream!

Hearts will be in Oxenfurt and will "expand" on that area. (oxenfurt is almost a dead town compared to novigrad so it makes sense now that it was meant for the expac)
Also they say level 30 will be a requirement so you can safely go and complete the game (there's a point in the game where it tells your to save before you go for the ending part).

The 2nd expac will be a new zone from what has come out so far, and again, safe to just finish the game and use your pre ending save in the same way.

You can also play all expansions with the post ending save.

Good info to know, but not really what I was on about here! I was always going to finish the game before starting on the Expansion!

i think i know what you mean...

even nowadays, whenever a new settlement is founded, the first things the community builds ia a church (or equivalent) and a tavern (or equivalent).
people move in and have their own problems... so they might as well put up a bulletin board.

but i think it would be a lot of work to code them in as feeling alive and growing... and put in even more quests for them.
if it was done like this from the beginning, we might be playing the game somewhere around 2020 ;)

That's why I thought it was a lost opportunity. If it had been part of the planning and design process, then it would have been easier. Also why I would love to see it in the final expansion because now would be when they might be able to add this mechanic in.

To be clear, I don't think it will be added, and obviously it will not be retrofitted. But it would have been nice. Nicer, certainly, than spending hours tracking down every last one of those Smuggler's Caches in Skellige. I want, for no really valid reason, to clear all points of interest, and those bloody caches bug the hell out of me!