A new mod is introduced into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that gives its protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, access to a slew of firearms and replace his traditional crossbow.
Dubbed simply as “Firearms,” the mod gives players a new arsenal that grants enhanced reach and damage against enemies than a crossbow. This means that mod users will have a long-range weapon that can hit enemies from long distances. In addition, opponents also get significantly higher damage output, too.
Classic Guns
Literally a new weapon, rather than a reskin of the original crossbow, the mod introduces a fully functional gun. This includes an animation especially designed to imitate human movements when using a literal firearm of the kind.
Essentially an unofficial DLC, taking advantage of the mod takes certain steps to do and not just be handed on a silver platter. Specifically, players must first need to acquire a certain diagram to build a specific type of gun. Typically accessible from shops that players can purchase at any time.
Like other weapons that players can construct, the firearms, too, vary in strength according to class. As a rule of thumb, higher-class guns offer better damage output than those in lower classes.
In as much as the crossbow requires an arrow to use, the firearm that Geralt can use has to have bullets. Like the arrows, the bullets also come in a variety and differ substantially according to tiers.
A Balancing Act
Many will find the introduction of a powerful long-ranged weapon a novelty to the game. But it does raise a concern, primarily in the likely notion of it being too empowering. The mod can indeed be over empowering at times, such that human enemies can be killed in one shot.
Luckily, even the modder himself, Roenaxx, is well-aware of the issue. So aware, in fact, that he had a system placed that would significantly scale the balance.
One way the modder did it is by way of adjusting the weapon’s damage output commensurate to the difficulty setting. The major consideration is that the difficulty setting has an influence on the number of hit points opponents have in-game.
There is no specific restriction that will prevent players from using the firearm. However, players can instead choose to apply principle with regards to its usage: use it only when absolutely necessary.
If interested in checking out the mod, see it directly at the Nexus mods page.
Image used courtesy of Rosenaxx on Nexus/YouTube Screenshot