yeah after thinking about it and after playing this game to level 35, gotta say I actually prefer a level-scaling system. I think I actually prefer skyrim over this entirely other than skyrims combat which is pretty dull compared to this.

When I played the game on death march difficulty I didn't feel like I could just go anywhere because enemies literally 1-hit kill you most of the time.

There's also the other bigger problem, which is after you out-level an area there isn't much reason to keep exploring it. You should be around level 32-35 after the main mission ends. There really isn't any reason to finish the rest of the little sub-missions around the maps at that point, especially with the way the skill tree is designed you don't even have any extra skill-slots to use at that point either, so even if you did level beyond 35 its even more pointless.

After the ending, the game remains in a world-state that is set BEFORE the last chapter of the game takes place so it feels even more awkward running around doing stuff afterwards.

They really tried to emulate what skyrim did but I gotta say, it fails pretty badly at doing so.

I do agree with everyone that the XP rewarded for sidequest should be changed but for a game like this I feel like XP shouldn't be the reason for doing these quests. I have been doing all the sidequests I find (if I'm high level enough) and a lot of them give you more details about the world, the characters and are by themselves interesting stories to follow. It's an RPG, enjoy the setting :-)

Much as I'm enjoying W3 it has to be said that it's far from great for so many annoying reasons, and this XP glitch/bad design is just one of them. Also, regardless of the XP gained from a quest there should always be significant loot.
I entirely disagree with kristian777, and think that CDPR's forte is story telling. To this end, & linked to the main XP point, maybe they should have made it so that either you can't take on some side quests til you reach a certain Lvl or have certain side quests become available only after the main story is finished, and have those side quests afford Lvl dependant XP & loot. It's seeming more & more to me as if it's intended for you to hurry thru the main story quests, as they're the only one's (contracts excepted) that afford useful XP. They really seem to have got the whole quests progression balance wrong in W3. I'm not the only one who spent a heap of time in the opening area, doing all marked locations, earning zilch XP and making no forward progression! If, as I suspect, it was a training area, they should have made that plain in the story line. They could still have been more generous with XP regardless. To the poster's who assert that they know how the game was/is intended, unless you're part of the dev team, it's just an opinion. All games are a mix/balance of story, progression, reward and enhancement, before completion. In a great game you don't really notice it happening, it just flows seamlessly. Sadly, W3 falls short of being in that camp, as this entire thread is testament to. :)

The inventory ballooning into an unmanageable mess is my biggest problem with it. Most of the other nit picks aren't an issue at all for me.

It makes sense for the upcoming expansions to be geared toward higher-level characters who have completed the base game's main story, so 30+. Also, there is strong evidence that a New Game+ mode will be coming as a free DLC, which will no doubt boost the level requirement on all existing content to make it a challenge for playing through again with that same end-game character.

I'm not sure about the inventory 'ballooning' but it's badly arranged for sure. When I want to use key battle elements, potions, bombs etc. I want them in a separate section! Also, in my copy, things go missing from the inventory or the crafting section just won't recognise items I clearly have! Don't know if they count as nitpicking, but they're bloody annoying! Then there's the graphics bugs, combat mechanics (taking you over a cliff or out of the boat when you swing), the failure of my bomb mechanics to work when I need them, & I could go on, but that's a whole new thread. :)

I absolutely love this game but seriously I forgot to do the last stage of several quests till I was more than 5 levels higher than the quest and only get 5xp when handing them in. That's not right and it really annoys me because all the quest points were completed except returning to the quest giver or doing the very last step until later in my play through. I get 5xp for completing a whole quest line and yet in a quest discussion I can AXII a guy I am talking to and get 40xp!!!!!! Seriously CDR fix this mess.

Yes it is a great game but navigation and combat controls are terrible - full stop.

Give me AC navigation, movement and combat controls any day.

And lastly - THE GAME IS too big if you are going to do silly things like reduce XP for quests after a certain level limit. Every quest I go on I end up getting distracted doing local quests meaning I often put off the quest I am doing and then forget about completing the other as this is an ongoing issue.

While I agree with almost all you've said elldaz, I have to disagree with classifying it as 'great'. I think I know what you're saying, but for me, there are only a few great games, and they're all just playable in an easy intuitive way, without the frustrations of tweaking & having to resort to forums for help with controls, glitches & bugs etc. Much as I love the Witcher series, especially the story & characters, CDPR have bitten off more than they can chew with W3. Too many glitches & bugs & basic things wrong, to give it the 'great' mark. Someday, soon hopefully, after a series of patches, it will probably become a great game.
However, I'm still playing it, despite it's faults. :)

Totally agree. :-)

Well this has really cruelled me in my love for TW3.

I am now level 24 and I just looked at my quests and it is so disappointing to have to decide to just skip at least 8 quests as the loot will be the same old rubbish and I'll just get 5 exp and some coin (which I don't need). Or alternatively I keep going with main quests and wipe even more quests into the not worth the time and effort. And I have enough quests just below my level that will likely push more main quests below the 5 level threshold. Story is great but getting rewarded with a relevant amount of XP for the effort put in in an open world game is only fair.

So much for open world, now seems next time i will have to not complete all quests in White Orchard or Velen before progressing to Skellige however this will most likely mean many Novigrad quests will become redundant.

CDPR please figure out a better solution re leveling and quests if this is going to be open world or make it easier to track the proper quest progression so we can get maximum XP.

5xp for quests you outlevel is freaking hilarious. You can go to the dwarf banker in novigrad who you can take loans out from who will give you 13xp each time, you only lose 30 crowns every time you do it.

Made a macro, watched a couple of movies. 3 hours later went from 35 to 46 after spending about 50,000 crowns.

I don't really care about the xp as I am constantly over-levelled from doing every quest I can find. I want to experience everything the game has to offer and am happy to do all the quests for the story and character interactions alone, rather than for xp. The odd bit of useful gear would be nice, I suppose.

I thought it was rather strange that oils are always arranged at the top but all the other useful items — potions and bombs — are near the bottom, just above food but below all the completely useless books. They need to have all combat-related, aka, witcher-specific items sorted to the top.