Nimzabaat said:
I know right. It's 3 times bigger than Skyrim but with barely 1/10 of the content. As for the "really interesting sidequests" they are certainly there, and quite memorable, but not nearly as frequent as i'd like. Maybe 1 per play session (2-4 hours at my current schedule). So better in the quests area than Skyrim, but not quite as good as Oblivion
I think you're right about the no-xp glitch. I hadn't heard about that but I did everything I could find in White Orchard and ended up at level 4. If it is a glitch that could explain a bit of my current frustration with the game.
I was a huge Skyrim fan, and it was my GOTY for 2011. Witcher 3 has *significantly* more of what I would consider genuine crafted content. The main story absolutely blows Skyrim's out of the water, and the side quests are many orders of magnitude better.
Skyrim is more of a sandbox, and will appeal more from a "mod it to hell and back and do whatever you want" point of view, but as a structured gaming experience Witcher 3 towers over it.
~level 4 after White Orchard is not too bad (I was somewhere between level 4-6, cannot recall offhand). I never struggled to find content in the game, and never went more than a few minutes without doing something level appropriate. Velen, due to sheer size, makes it pretty easy to blunder into over-leveled encounters early, but certainly not to the point where that's all I could find.
If you've found yourself stalled out and literally cannot find new quests that are level-appropriate, you've most definitely run afoul of the experience bug. Either use the console to gift yourself some xp to make up the shortfall, or wait for a patch and restart the game from an older save.
Laughing Man said:
17% complete so far and my god if the remaining 83% is even half as good as these two quest lines.
Those two quest lines are definitely high points, but far from the only ones so far. You definitely have stuff to look forward to.
Have you done the quest "A Towerful of Mice" yet? I thought it was excellent, and it crops up around your level.