Welcome to Project Crimson - The Witcher Trilogy and Cyberpunk Mod Guides
Project Crimson is a compilation of five mod guides for each main entry from CD Projekt Red, including:
The Witcher
The Witcher 2
The Witcher 3
Cyberpunk 2077
The general focus is to provide a more consistent and smooth experience while retaining the core of the games. The guides also try to respect the games as individual works and play to their strengths
Disclaimers
The guides are all manually installed, I generally do not support mod managers unless a game greatly benefits from its usage. Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 could benefit from it but they combined have significantly less mods than Witcher 3 so I deem it not truly necessary. I will be providing instructions when required however so do not worry if you are a newcomer to modding
The quality of the modding experience is not consistent. Witcher 3 has a sizable communtiy to back it so it has a large number of mods for use and much more flexability with how I made the guide. Witcher 1 is reasonable but still small and Witcher 2 is even smaller
What to Expect
The Witcher 1 (Terra)
No whole game overhaul mods are used e.g. FCR/Flash
Large number of bugfixes and a few QoLs
Small UI tweaks
General texture overhaul that retains the original designs while also diversifying some lacking areas
Character redesigns to make them more distinctive while retaining the vanilla designs to a degree
The Witcher 2 (Azure)
No whole gameplay overhauls used
Bugfixes and QoLs to improve the flow of gameplay
UI revisions
General texture improvements with some reworks
The Witcher 3 (Caerme)
Gameplay
No whole game overhaul mods are used e.g. FCR3, GM or EE
Major removal of the influence of levels on the gameplay
Improvements to some underutilised game elements
Difficulty increases without using artifical methods
Reworking of the alchemy system with Alchemy/Primer
Randomised contract generation from Random Encounters Reworked
Gwent revisions from Gwent Redux
An ability to track your progress from Progress on the Path
Visuals
Benis Lighting Mod is used
No reshades are used
Only a few small visual mods are used as vanilla NG is quite strong for the most part
Characters
Most side characters remain true to their vanilla style but improved using Characters Reworked Project
All main characters have been overhauled to have a more distinctive appearance. The book series was used as inspiration
Armour and Weapons
Some cosmetic items have been added
All armour sets have been retextured to possess a more rugged and realistic appearance
Small Changes
A good few QoLs that improve the game flow
Small mods here that add to the experience
The Witcher 3 (Lune)
Gameplay
No whole game overhaul mods are used e.g. FCR3, GM or EE
Reduction of the influence of levels on the gameplay
Improvements to some underutilised game elements
Difficulty increases without using artifical methods
An ability to track your progress from Progress on the Path
Lighting
Vanilla Enhanced Lighting is used
No reshades are used
Characters
Most side characters remain true to their vanilla style but improved using Characters Reworked Project
Armour and Weapons
No new weapons or armour dlcs
All armour sets have been retextured to possess a more rugged and realistic appearance
Small Changes
A large number of QoLs that improve the game flow
Implementation of small gameplay changes to make the game more engaging
Cyberpunk 2077 (Kinshu)
Gameplay
No whole game overhaul mods used
Enhancements made to some of the enemies in the game e.g. Netrunners
Reduction in the amount of loot across the game
Consequences for using too many cybernetics
Reworking to the gangs and lifepaths to give them some diversity and consequence in choice
Visuals
No lighting mods were used
No reshades were used
Environmental textures improved using HDRP and some other small mods
Small Changes
Fixing a number of bugs present in the base game
Number of QoLs to streamline the experience