Dungeon Siege III and its expansion.

Lighter equipment = faster dodge or attack, heavier = slower. Therefore a Chainmail Bikini is (almost) as good as it gets - for speed.

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

I agree with you about the robes as well, which is why I've advocated the use of the concept of illusion so as to equalize things. After all, the chainmail bikini wouldn't be very desirable if it were made useless by the assumption that it could only offer as much defense as such a garment would offer in real life (even with a few magical modifiers).

~~~
Giovanna

~~~
Giovanna

I'd agree with you about the robes. One problem with the randomness of pcontent was that you'd get the same benefits on almost any kind of gear, so wearing something with low defense never made any sense. There were minimum requirements to wear things, which would stop the mages wearing heavy plate etc., but they'd still want the thin chain, light plate rather than the robe.

In DS2 and BW, they maybe went too far restricting equipment to one class, but I suppose you get better matching outfits that way. A suit of light plate with a pointed warlock hat always looked silly in DS1, but sometimes it was the best combo available!

I haven't checked to see if the pcontent system can be biased to provide "matching" enhancements, i.e. fighter-useful ones on a fighter item etc., or if it's always going to give you +melee on a flimsy bonnet and the like.

It's nice to get the big boosts on rings and amulets, instead of armor, so you can look good and still be effective, whatever outfit you choose.

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

On progressive items:
The biggest issue I have was in the inventory management needed for a party of 6-8... The way DS1 loot worked, I found myself stocking up on low level items with magical bonuses, even if they couldn't be equipped by most of my party yet. The idea was to have stuff available for when characters gained high enough stats to equip something better. I always made sure I had enough 0 requirement enchanted spell books before leaving the first town (the higher requirements for books bought later, with the same bonuses, never made sense to me...). My mages NEVER wore robes... ever. There was always better armor available. I didn't like the idea of making a pretty party vs. an effective one... and why should I have to choose?

If equipment could have a bonus when equipped, based on a character's crafting / equipment skill (or overall level), with some customizability (like choosing to add an attribute bonus, or elemental damage, or resistances... also scaled) then there would be a freedom not afforded by a rigid loot / equipment system.

Cheat prevention: hard-cap the possibilities (according to character levels), and link items to the character that crafted them (a taylored piece of armor would need to be retaylored for someone else...). This second idea would kill the possibility of a specialist party member though.

To make new loot worth something, introduce new base enchantments (ones not available for crafting enhancement) as you progress in the game, and don't recycle the same object models but introduce new ones as your journey moves forward... Also, make later items better to start with, in case some players don't want to do any crafting (but if crafted they'd have to be comparable to older items that have been manually upgraded).

An idea on how crafting could work considering the DS levelling system / engine: divide the potential crafting benefits by stats. Strength influences base weapon damage, armor thickness... Dexterity influences weapon speed, armor encumbrance (eg. give heavy armor an attack speed penalty, and dexterity crafting could reduce the penalty)... Intelligence influences the type of magical enhancements possible... Each item could be crafted by each of the three disciplines, encouraging a well rounded character. Have loot dropped "pre-crafted" in 1-2 of the disciplines, so specialists wouldn't be completely crippled by the system...

/rambling

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

Which accounts for your attempts to enchant the non-enchantable, I presume.

If you allow unlimited improvement to the same base item, then the cheat community will know no bounds, so you'd have to have a system that provides a limit to how many upgrades you can add, and maybe they would develop over time with your experience, so after you level up you'd be able to add enhancements to some of your gear. It's probably no harder than the sets system to keep track of how many enhancements you have on an item.

I suspect that the real answer for progressing your equipment is to make it relate directly to the owner's experience, the way a few mods have attempted for special items, but you'd need to use your craft skill to do the upgrade, instead of just re-equipping it. It would be interesting if the crafting process could affect which stat influences the enhancement, e.g. you could make a sword's damage depend on dexterity or intelligence more than on strength, or conversely upgrade a bomb spell so that more strength lets you throw bigger bombs! That would make everything more personal, and giving a crafted item away would not necessarily make it as good a bargain for the recipient, unless they had similar stats.

There may be a danger that it would no longer matter what you buy or find, if you can change everything about it by crafting. Mageworld takes that to its logical conclusion by letting you make everything from raw materials, but that spoils the fun by making you spend all your time foraging. I think DS needs to keep some focus on quest rewards and drops, so you don't just play the side-game of crafting. However in MP, playing the craftsman in the party rather than a combatant might make for an interesting variation.

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

On map design... take a page from TES4:O on that subject. Big world, freely explorable, dungeons everywhere, quests scattered around, multiple towns, scaled monsters to your level, respawning loot and regions repopulated with monsters after a while... I'm not too crazy about the interface / combat system / character development of that game, but just love the game world structure.

As for non-combat skills, I'd really like the idea of being able to improve equipment as you go, so if you like the look of a certain armor / weapon you can keep it for more than a couple of levels without nerfing your character...

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

I like that idea of adding crafting skills. The basic start character in DS1 is a farmer, but never uses any skill from that former life. He/she just starts becoming a fighter/ranger/mage by doing those things, but leaves farmer completely behind.

There's also a bias towards creating a single-skill character in the way the game rewards your development to the point where the tutorial in DS2 even tells you you need to do that. BW's dual-classed characters really aren't, they're two new single-class characters with dedicated skill trees, so that you still need to specialize to benefit most.

It seems to me that crafting skills that work with your combat skills would be a good addition. You could add smithing to melee and make yourself better weapons and armor with lower requirements, or just build up your skills and buy the higher-requirement ones. Either path should achieve the same balance of offense and defense, but the game gets more variety. Ditto for Fletcher/Ranger and Alchemist/Mage. Any class could add Enchanting skills for the equipment bonuses, again trading enchanting skills against main path skills.
I would imagine the vendors might sell only plain equipment without any magical properties, but all would be enchantable, and maybe upgradable in non-magical ways as well, sharpening a sword, restringing a bow, etc. Spells sold would be basic-level ones, but an Alchemist would be able to upgrade their effectiveness, make them faster to cast, etc.

Parties of characters, whether in SP or MP, would benefit from crafting skills upgrading armor for all members, adding the smith's higher defense value, the fletcher's reduction of strength requirements (they know all about lightness), the Alchemist's reflection of damage and the enchanter's resistances.

The ability to collect potion materials is a pair of skills in DS2, but those are tied to character classes, and it seems to me they'd be better as part of the common Enchanter skill that any class could add to.

The hardest job for anyone trying to add this to the game is that the skill trees would need to link together, too, so that some Ranger skills would need points in Fletching, for example, and it's a bit harder to come up with a good UI for that.

Personally, I'd like this change to replace Powers, which I don't feel add anything but complexity to the game, (and really get in the way of modding!)

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

Well, I see further interesting observations on this question from Hauo.
One thing he explicitly stated that I don't remember any of us touching on in the past is music, and I agree; the music in both DS1 and DS2 is very appropriate for the genre and the settings, and it's something I've come to associate with "Dungeon Siege" very strongly.

Speaking of music, I've recently been dabbling in Guild Wars and I've noticed the additional animations ("emotes") in that game. It would be nice if DS3 were to have something similar; I'm particularly taken with the belly dance done by the female Elementalist, and the Tai Chi style motions of one of the monkish types. Maybe DS3 could have some sort of sword dance akin to Scottish or Cossack sword dances, as well as appropriate dances for other sorts of "equipped weapon/spell." One of the things we may have mentioned here previously is the "Hand" skill found in SJR's "Dungeon Siege Abstraction." That's a nice additional skill that I would like to see as part of DS3, and a dance appropriate to having that skill equipped would be something like a Tai Chi workout, I would think. I don't know what sort of excuse to make for the belly dance, except that it is esthetically pleasing (although, as with the chainmail bikini, it probably wouldn't work for Lothar or Vix). Another skill that I would like to see is some sort of Musical Magic (usually associated with "Bards" in games of this genre), and the introduction of musical instruments accordingly. Edit: The "Bard" (if by that we mean a Mage whose medium is Music) could be a subclass of Nature Mage or Combat Mage (or a subclass of a dual-class of both types of Magic), rather than a separate class in its own right, although if there is going to be an increase in the number of main classes available (as is suggested in the case of the Hand skill), adding Bard as a separate class would not be extreme.

Edit: And is there ever going to be a Priestly class? If so, I want several options as to patron/matron and pantheon and so on. The worship of Azunai and Xeria and their fellow Azunite divinities is not universal, and it is difficult to say how the Elves view Istaura and Isteru or what divinities the Agallans might follow. Do the Elves have divinities apart from Istaura and Isteru? Are Istaura and Isteru even regarded as divinities, and if not, then Who are the divinities of the Elves? There is an obvious element of Ancestor-Worship (or at least very devout Honoring of Ancestors) involved in several of the societies of DS2; the Dryads, for example, seem to regard their Ancestresses as divine, or near-divine, and refer to Them as "the Mothers of Eirulan." Who were the divinities of the Utraeans before the coming of the Azunites? A vague elemental theory seems to be in operation in the use of both Nature Magic and Combat Magic, but that is slightly different in the western lands of DS1/Yesterhaven/LoA and the eastern lands of DS2/BW. Is that due to some difference in religion and/or philosophy, or could it have to do with which divinities exert control over what geographic territories? There will likely be "official" Priesthoods, but the possibility of competing rival sects and forbidden underground cults and so on would add yet more depth to the game and to the potentials for character development.

Speaking of skills, several of the mods, siegelets, and total conversions have involved crafting, similar to skills found in various other games. I think it would be interesting to have a selection of secondary skills in which one's character could train and earn levels, etc. That might be more advantageous in a multi-player context, but it could still be fun in single player. The world of Aranna we have seen thus far has had mills, mines, fields of crops, livestock, workshops, historical societies, smithies, temples, shrines, enchanters, alchemists, fletchers, etc. In the DS2 quest The Armorer's Apprentice, a bit of information useful for a smithing skill is presented (that is, the rudiments of such a thing are presented). The same thing happens in the DS2 quest Lumilla's Salve and the DS2BW quest Lumulla's Special Recipe, wherein the rudiments of an enchanter skill are presented. Skills available to players might include herbalism, alchemy (a combined herbalism/alchemy skill exists to some extent in DS2 with the ability to harvest health and mana potions), enchanting, mining, smithing, farming, carpentry, woodworking, woodcutting, masonry, cooking, brewing, and so on (some of these might be combined skills, like cooking/brewing or mining/smithing or woodcutting/carpentry/woodworking, etc). Gem cutting and jewelry making might also fall into these skills somewhere. In the multiplayer context, of course, players could use these various skills to create products for sale to other players (or the shops), though the question of Massively Multiplayer Online or limited Multiplayer Online may affect the appeal of this sort of production and marketing without at least some means of advertisement and distribution to other online players. If the trend towards specialization continues, a Beastmaster subclass of Nature Mage should probably be able to have the secondary skill of animal taming (and related skills), so as to be able to make pets of wild and potentially aggressive creatures encountered in the wild or summoned explicitly for the purpose (same as is done by Rokhar and Khartos), and a Beastmaster should not be limited to one or two summonses at a time (certainly not at the highest levels, anyway; the same would apply to a Summoner, which would be a type of Combat Mage, as a Beastmaster would be a type of Nature Mage).

Just think of it. You could go into the Crystwind Mines, kill some Darklings and Krug, mine your ores, take them back to the smithy in Crystwind or Fallraen, smelt them, hammer them into weapons and armor, gather your reagents according to the proper recipe, go to the Ancient Temple near Meren, cast your enchantment, and presto, you've got your very own player-crafted and player-enchanted item. At higher levels of Mining/Smithing, better ores could be gotten and worked, and more style (appearance) selections would be available for armor and weapons. At higher levels of Enchantment, players might be able to create their own unique reagent recipes, choosing from a set of variables that make sense in connection with the reagents and type of item used and a few bonuses. And of course, the player would get to choose any desired color or colors for the created item, having already chosen style when smithing it.

As for hack and slash vs. RP, I like a bit of both, more of a balance, but with a slight preference for RP (sorry, Sol). The puzzle-solving stuff in DS2 and BW was mostly excellent (if one or two of the puzzles were too complex for my patience, when I had resort to walkthroughs), and more character interaction and greater potential for character development is something I would like to see. The storyline in DS2 and BW was more well developed than in DS1, and the historical background information provided by such items as the various books found in the course of the game and by such characters as the historians in the various towns added a depth to the storyline that gave a stronger sense of purpose to the actions of the character in the quests. A lot of the dialogue between party members in DS2 and BW is amusing and/or enlightening, and may provide clues to things yet to be revealed (when you actually get to hear the dialogue, anyway).

I think we've said something like this before, but player-owned (and constructed, if the skills I've suggested are implemented) homes would also be nice, and provide additional storage space for reserve items as well as display cases for very special items (things that are cool-looking, have catchy names, pleasing special effects, etc, but may no longer be useful to the player because his/her level has surpassed their utility).

Edit: Additional Comments on Starting Locations. I found it peculiar to be playing a Dryad from Aman'Lu in DS2. Of course, due to the fact that there are no male Dryads and therefore all Dryads have fathers who are of some other race, some justification can be made for that situation (my character's mother may have married an Elven man and they settled in Aman'Lu). The story also seemed to call for the main character to be from Aman'Lu, but had the character been from Eirulan or Kalrathia or even somewhere in the Utraean Peninsula, the story could have still worked without the "return to hometown" thing in connection with Aman'Lu. I would like to see a variety of starting locations, with some basic information about each, when creating a character. I might want to be a Dryad from a Dryad town like Eirulan, for example, or an Elf from Kalrathia, or whatever. This is of course part of what I want to see in the way of "greater potential for character development."

Oh, yeah, and chainmail bikinis!

~~~
Giovanna

Well I loved DS 2 but there are somethings that could be better

1)Multiple endings,after I finished the game on elite I had hoped for a different ending. ex : My character wielding the sword and the shield and leading a vast army.Like Valdis was in the intro movie
It would be great this way exeample
Mercenary 1 - 3 endings the 3 should be more difficult to obtain
Veteran 2 more endings
Elite 3 more endings the most interesting ones and hard to obtain
*Masterfull or Lord * hiden difficulty only avaible after finishing Elite.Provides 1 - 2 extra party members,extra quests,new sets of armours,weapons,enemys,boses and places to explore makeing it possible to obtain 100 % game exploration and completion.
2)larger places to explore :
there should be areas that are only for side quests and have absolutley no connection to the main quest.
The maps in DS 2 were very small and player would often fell that they are following a pre set path.
3)Better sets after finishing on Mercenary dif I had the unpleasent surprise to find out that good weapons,armors,uniques and sets wore getting fewer and fewer(at least for melle and range clases I had no problem in finding stuff for mages).
At elite there wore almost no items for melle and range at the shops.
4)Better grafics,the grafics in DS 2 wore good but compared to other games that came out that year it looked out dated
5)The music in the game was great so continue with it.
6)More skills and clases,it would be great to have more clases and skills DS 2 had a good skill tree but it could use even more skills to add more diversity.
7)Keep the 4,5,6(maybe 7 - 8 in the new one) party sistem becouse it was great(in my point of view)
8)More towns and maybe some outposts(small places with a market(blacksmit,magicshop) a small inn,and a militia,note it would smaLler then a town/city ) found in certaine places(places you will be traveling ex : on the road(of the main quest),forest and other areas.
This would be usefull becouse in DS 2 the distances betwen town wore huge and after a while you would have to go back/teleport back to a town.This way you could get what you need and sell some items so you can continue to fight without teleporting back to a town.
Note : The items that could you could buy in an outpost will not be as good as the ones in a town but there would some that would be great and there would be quests.
9)Multiple quest endings
10)More diversty for enemys/when it comes to enemys I mean for there skills and efects.Some of the monsters in DS 2 wore great and had divers efects/powers others though look like they just copyed the abilities of others monsters. ex :
Riders the only difference betwen riders and soldiers that fight and fought was that some of them had more health.
I would be great if you could enhance each of the monsters uniques ability.So players dont feel like they have fought the same monsters before.ex :
Some could have crazy speed but less life,others could have more/less dexterity,strengh etc.
Also the mages in the game could have more spells the main spell used by mosnter mages was : health steal and a fire atack from time to time a spell that weakend and a lighting spell.
Some more spells for them would be great and efects ex :
the mages in Valdis Stronghold that used lighting spells and heal the selfs useing combat magic wore great.When I played on elite and had a combat mage in my party and I encountered one of these monsters I was thrilled about them.It made the game much more chalengeing becouse I had to continuesly switch spells so as not to heal them.
11)A greater diversity in the matter of bosess
Valdis was prety good as a boss but the Archmage(only head like 2 spells 10to lock the obelisks around him and and then start an atack useing them and 2 was a normal atacks spell.I was expecting something better,I mean the guy was ancient and should have known a huge amount of spells) the creature at the water works(it had no true atacks) sucked ass (pardone the expression).
This would make them more chalengeing and divers and thus more memoring.
The Dragon,Valdis,the Tree like creature(you fight it to get the first pat of the shield) and even the first mage(when you free Eva) wore great and I still remeber those fights.

Note for others that would want to mention other games :
From my point of view these games had a great story and it would be good to see more like them in other games.
Other games that are DS 2 type and could have been used as an example :
Spellforce 1,2 and expansions,Neverwinter Nighst 1,2 and expansions,Diablo 2 and Sacred 1.
Also I am aware that some FPS and RTS had great storys but I decided to only mention these ones becouse I have recently played Mass Efect and it reminded me of the old days when I was playing Kotor 1.

I gues that is all.

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

There are a lot of good things in NWN but that game is more RPG than hack and slash and that is just not DS. I am pretty happy about how DS2 turned out. It mostly just needs better graphics and a better world, less linear and bigger. Of course, more RPG elements wont ruin it for me if they keep the focus on the hack and slash.

If I had to make a suggestion, it would be to take hints and pointers from Neverwinter Nights, the first one. I liked all of the different accessories and items you could have (belts, bracers, cloaks, etc), as well as the massive variety of weapon styles and of cource, the cities.

A new age. A new mind. And good riddance to old problems.

I have to agree. GPG has a tendency to only mention things that they are 100% sure on doing. I'm not saying there WILL be a DS3, but they wouldn't have said they were seriously talking about it unless they seriously were.

Looks like it's more than enough cause to hope for sure... I doubt that he would have mentioned DS3 if the talks weren't serious.

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

I found this on one of the news feeds that this site aggregates:

Hmm...

-Return of all the old weapons from Dungeon Siege and Dungeon Siege II, plus some new ones.

-The removal of 'weapon tiers' that would reuse the same model. That's lazy. Also, archers should actually have quivers and draw their arrows/bolts from them. Also, a limited amount of arrows/bolts, so you have buy or harvest them from fallen foes.

-More character customization. I mean, Hell, DS1's was better than DS2. You should be able to change your clothes, face, body shape, all of that.

-Less combat orientation. You shouldn't be constantly fighting when you're not inside a city. There should be time to enjoy the beautiful landscapes around you. You should be able to talk with city-people, sit in taverns, tell your squadmates to go off on their own into cities. The ability to oversee affairs in an outpost or a fortress, and so on.

-More towns, larger towns, and more influential towns. Hell, why not make them cities? At these focal points of commerce you should be able to recruit temporary mercenaries, pack animals, and so on.

-Less extreme powers, but more powers in general. Or, at least, they should develop into their extremity. You shouldn't be shooting fusion blasts at level one.

-Bring back the spells from DS1 and DS2.

-Better animations. A dual-wielder shouldn't stay rapt at attention forever... I think you've noticed this oddity.

-More human enemies. Fighting disfigured monsters is kind of boring after a while.

-More difference in melee weapons. You should fight faster with dual daggers, slower with dual hammers.

All I've got for now...

I agree, and some control over the party formation would be useful

playing with a melee CHR at the fore means that you charge into
the middle of the fracas with camera attached - which is fun,
but you lose sight of the possible tactical advantages provided
by the layout of the battleground

- often I focus on a non-melee CHR, as this gives a
better overview of the whole scene during battle..

This is still one of the best graphic games around
the camera's versatility is just amazing..

..never mind the weather, just as long as we're together!

Yeah, it's a pain in the rump doing it the DS2 way. Plus if you want them to use a lever you have to make sure the rest of the party is out of range, otherwise they all come running.

Team Modding-Textures
Dawn of Aranna

But that "Wait" feature only lets one party member move, while all the others are left to wait. In BG, by dragging the mouse to make a tetragonal selection, you could have as many or as few of your party as you wanted moving, while the others stayed behind. Sure, a lone scout is useful, but there are also situations in which it might be advantageous to have two/three party members go into something by themselves.

~~~
Giovanna

I agree with everything that has been said, but as for the waiting, that feature is available, although you have to assign your own "hot-keys". I always have keys assigned to "stop current action" and "wait".
Partial quote:

Team Modding-Textures
Dawn of Aranna

There was an interesting suggestion about castles made by "Prince Nefarious" over on the Gas Powered Garage forum:

http://garage.gaspowered.com/?q=node/2061&highlight=DS3

He suggested that there should be a castle that the players can lay siege to, and then claim it as their own personal inn/storage vault. I think this would be excellent, particularly if the castle had more than one room for storage (i.e., three rooms each with its own storage vault, plus the ordinary storage vault in town, all of which should have more than one page). While this may be unnecessary if the player is soloing and is not inclined to store a lot of stuff, as KillerGremal pointed out, buying/finding and saving reagents "just in case" they are needed later would be significantly easier in such a situation. Even with the storage vault and an almost-full inn, plus 6 active party members, I have constantly had to drop stuff and transmute it to gold or feed it to my Dark Naiad (who is now "Mature" and can't eat anymore). It was bad enough without reagents and enchantable gear, but now that those are included (and I think they should remain in DS3), I want more storage space, obviously.

"Hassat Hunter" and "archaven" also had a good suggestion about being able to upgrade set items, to keep them useful at higher levels.

In addition, "archaven" had some other suggestions that sounded good, like allowing more than two buffs at a time, being able to select two characters to go do something while the rest of the party waits (as in Baldur's Gate, where you could drag the mouse to enclose as many party members as you wanted to be "active"), and the addition of cloaks.

Several people suggested alternate outcomes for quests, which gives the player more room for character development and, obviously, more choice. When I played BW in Merc, for example, I did Ressa's quest. When I played in Vet, I refused to bind Lorethal's soul, and the quest remained "incomplete." That was no big deal, because I already had Ressa in the inn from Merc, but it also, like most other quests in the game, had only one option for completion, leaving the player with no choice but to do it the way the developers intended. If there were something akin to the alignment system in D&D, as well as racial attitudes (Elves, for example, value freedom in D&D, and such a value system would be expected to impact on their decisions in adventuring), it would encourage more possibilities for the way the characters should react to various quests, and therefore would tend to produce different outcomes. Playing on a concept of "destiny" or "fate" is one thing, but even hard-line hyper-Calvinists do not deny the existence of "human responsibility."

In DS1/LoA, there were a few places where the characters could stand and wait for their hit points and mana to restore. In DS2/BW, when you finish one battle, there's already another one starting (or else your summoned creatures see opponents and go after them, dragging you into another battle whether you want it or not). I like being able to stand around and enjoy the scenery, and letting my health/mana restore. In some cases, these attacks may be intended to distract the player from things that they need to pay attention in order to see (just as in DS1, signs only pointed in two directions, leaving the third direction unmarked, so as to make it less noticeable; there were other examples of misdirection in DS1, such as when the guard in Quillrabe Canyon tried to discourage the player from going up onto the overlook area, which led to the secret area in the Forgotten Mesas), but there are other possible ways of doing this (such as the misdirection in DS1 just mentioned).

Several people also noted the huge amount of gold that characters accumulate, which becomes ridiculous long before the characters are in the 90th level range. There isn't a lot to spend that money on, but if there were the possibility of buying a house, hiring henchmen (like guards for your castle), becoming the ruler of a small principality (which would require some spending for improvements, social programs, etc), and so on, there might be more uses for gold. And just how is it possible that the characters can carry so much gold, but so little gear? Surely 10 million gold pieces weigh quite a lot. Alright, I'm not going to complain much about that aspect, because I'm not really an advocate of "realism" in fantasy games, but inconsistency annoys me.

The occasional wandering merchant in the wilderness (as in DS1/LoA) is also a necessary addition. The Summon Teleporter spell and the teleporters at certain points in the game are cool, but even so, occasional wandering merchants only enhance the gaming experience.

Time changes (and possibly season changes) would be a good addition. In DS1, in some areas, there was actual passage of time (what a concept!), such as in the Endless Dunes (where you could witness dusk, night, dawn, and day) and in Iliarth Canyon (where you had day and twilight, though it never actually turned to night).

Weather (not static, as in the areas where it always snowing -- though I like the fact that there areas where it is always snowing -- but periodic changes in the weather, at least in most areas of the wilderness, although I suppose rain in the desert would have to be very rare, unless there is a monsoon season).

Keep time limits out of the quests. Although the "Azunite Scholar" tried to rush the party into rescuing Eva, there was no need to rush, and that is as it should be. The almost-constant battling tends to encourage rushing already, far too much. Like I said, I would like to stop and smell the roses from time to time. The landscapes are, in spite of the general lack of sweeping vistas, beautiful, and should be appreciated, which is rather difficult if the entire game outside of towns is just one battle after another.

With regard to some of the "unique" items: the legends associated with Arinth's Staff and the Mace of Agarrus are extreme exaggerations. If these are actually artifacts/relics of legendary figures, and if the legends claim that Agarrus could level towns with his mace (for example), then there should be some special ability on each such artifact/relic that gives some basis for those aspects of the legends. The Mace of Agarrus is relatively weak, compared to the legends attached to it. Arinth's Staff is a bit more impressive (if only because of the plus to Combat Magic damage), but still does not live up to the legends about it. If any items should actually be literally "unique" (as in there being only one instance of the item), it should be relics/artifacts like these (though I'm not so keen on anything being literally "unique," as I think I've said already; still, perhaps a change in nomenclature would alleviate some people's anxiety over this).

I agree with "Crazy Zonie" that there were too few towns in DS2. The number (and frequency) of towns in the Utraean Peninsula map was about right.

"Hassat Hunter" also brought up the subject of "rumours," gathered from an innkeeper. To some extent, we have that already, from tavern patrons, but these are invariably starting points for secondary quests. A little additional rumour, which may or may not be true, and may or may not have any bearing on anything in the game, would give a more authentic feel to the tavern environment. Think of the old 1st edition basic D&D module, "Keep on the Borderlands" ("Bree yark!" does not mean "We surrender," though one rumour in that module was that it did).

I know that the ending of BW says that Lothar went off to study with the Agallans, etc, but it would have been nice to have Lothar's reconciliation with the Agallans as part of the game, a secondary quest (that would have necessitated more than one expansion, perhaps, but more than one expansion would have been a good thing). In the same way, the question of the origin of the Dryads has never been fully answered (hints and innuendos aside). Perhaps DS3 could include a quest or some lore books that provide the answers to that.

Keep the point-and-click feature. If you want to do a version for console gamers, make a different GUI for that. PC gamers have mouses (mice?)!

"Solipso" writes:

I agree with that much of what he said. There have to be some allowances for ordinary life, even for those of us who are "hard-core gamers."

And again, a chainmail bikini would be nice, as in Red Sonja of Marvel Comics back in the 70s. Some of us grew up reading things like that, and may still have such characters as potential models for our own RPG characters (which includes looking the part). In fact, a wider range of attire across the board would be nice, and as I've said before, being able to choose colors for that attire is a plus.

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Giovanna

This (dis)proportional work can be considered as conceptional bug if you like and actually many mods can help here.
I must admit i'm a bit impatient too to get my recipes cooked thus not surprising there are some corresponding improvments like an extra enchantable shop in the Hotfix and Aranna Legacy mod.
However, in particular having knowledge about the approximate levels of recipe items will help you a lot planing your efforts.

However, also the PvP part of a game has to be programmed, moreover PvP probably wants the delelopper/publisher to provide much more updates since bugs will be found quickly and surely abused too - i'm not sure if he is willed to spend more money (or willed to increase game price because of an evidentally holey PvP mode).

1) Should "unique" really mean "will not drop if already in game"?
Those who want it that way tend to be SP players, who get tired of seeing the same "unique" item dropping instead of the one they really want. MP players hold the opposite view, because they don't like the idea that if someone else has one, they can't ever get it.

2) Grades of otherwise identical items looks like a lazy way to get a few models to do the work of a lot more, and it wasn't done right. A "good" should always be better than a basic item, and so on all the way up. All too often the "legendary" items are no better than an exceptional with the right enchantments.

3) PvP was made impracticable by the introduction of Powers. Without equally unbalanced defence they make a one-hit kill too possible, so PvP just becomes a question of who can hit first. So a PvP game would have to turn them off. This would probably eliminate any dual-mode option, because without them, you can't take on a mob with over a million hit points. I.e. PvP with powers off, regular PvC (Player(s) versus Computer) has powers on.

4) GPG apparently think that online MP means no mods allowed, otherwise you get cheating. So that has to mean no mods for SP? Why can't CRC checks be applied only for multi-player games?

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

As for set items, I think it would be a good idea if there were some way to make sure that the entire set could be gotten before it is outclassed by "ordinary" or "rare" items.

And with regard to reagent recipes, I can't count how many times I've managed to gather all the necessary reagents for a recipe but been unable to get the item needed to be enchanted, or gathered the item and all of the reagents but one. Then when I finally get all the necessary stuff together and have the item enchanted, it turns out to be a disappointment in terms of how weak it is. That's another thing that should be fixed, ideally in terms of level-relation. For example, there was that one sword recipe that needed an enchantable legendary 2-handed sword, a demon jaw, an oak branch, a sapphire pommelstone, and a ruby pommelstone. By the time I had all the necessary ingredients and the item and got it enchanted, it was basically useless to my characters, as they had progressed beyond any advantage it would have provided.

With regard to an "ordinary" legendary item, I think it should have the full 4x4 enchantment, not just some single enchantment. What's the point of calling it "legendary" if it only has one enchantment?

I saw some people moaning over on the GPG forum about the frequency of "unique" and "rare" drops. Alright, I'll grant that the terms have been misused, maybe some alternative nomenclature is warranted, but I don't think they drop too frequently.

No to MMO. If I pay $20-$50 for a game, I don't want to have to pay a monthly/yearly fee to continue to play it. I've already paid for it once. If there's a way to get MMO without paying additional fees, it might be interesting, but I have a feeling it would rule out moddability. However, if there is a way to increase the number of individuals who can play together in one game session (say up to maybe 10 different people in one game session), that might be welcome (it's still going to be more limited for people with dial-up connections, naturally).

Capping advancement at level 100 was a bad idea (particularly if you play through DS2 Merc, then BW Merc, then DS2 Vet, then BW Vet, then DS2 Elite, and then BW Elite, including all secondary quests; there's little to no room for extraneous leveling outside the official questing). Give us back level 150 (or more).

Make PvP an option. By that I mean it should be an available mode of play. There should be three modes in this regard: No PvP, Only PvP, and PvP Allowed (but not exclusive). The latter might require designated areas where PvP can take place (such as a PvP Arena), leaving those who don't want to engage in such bloodsport free to wander the rest of the map without having to worry about PK. Teams should also be an option (and while there could be three modes there as well, in practical terms, I think it would have to be an either-or situation).

I'm sure there are still other ideas that will occur to me ...

(To Be Continued?)

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Giovanna

...and I don't see the DS franchise mentioned.

First an article (with a CT interview) from Feb.:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22806

And something new from today:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=24342

I guess that the original IP could be done on the DS engine, but we'll have to just wait and see.

"Freedom is not a sanction for wrongdoing."
"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
- Terry Goodkind

Heh. What I find kind of lame is that I forgot about this topic and was about to post my ideas, but you guys basically got them all. Bravo. Well... maybe a few.

Ohhh, okay, I gotcha. I was thinking bare-headed as in bald (yikes!). But that sounds like a good idea (the wigs, not baldness -- poor Britney).

Yes, it would be nice to be able to explore a little more of the environment than just the pathways from one quest objective to another. There are several places in Aranna I've wanted to climb on, or up to, just to have a look around.

In DS1, there were a lot of watery areas you could at least walk into (like all those water-filled holes in the Crystal Caverns), but in DS2, there are very few watery areas you can even walk in (let alone swim). I can thnk of only two off the top of my head -- one was the area on Greilyn that led to that cave behind the waterfall, and the other was in the first area outside of Aman'lu where you could either cross the bridge or go wading.

As for jumping, the first time I did the Agallan Trial, I thought it would have been so much easier if I could just jump across, instead of having to raise all four parts of the bridge. The flight thing I've suggested would allow some of that, though (but I guess that would have to be prohibited in the Agallan Trial, unless the Agallans think that something like Alexander's solution to the Gordian Knot is a valid solution to their challenge). But there are myths and legends from some cultures about certain heroes or seers who had great Leaping ability, so perhaps that could be worked into the game somehow in connection with a specific class.

Another thing that I think would be nice for DS3 is the option to open the game in a window, as well as in full-screen. There have been a number of times when I've used Ctrl-Esc in order to get back to the desktop (like when using a walkthrough and going back to consult it again in the midst of play), and then maximized the game again only to find that some interfaces were messed up. If it were opened in a window, I don't think that would happen.

And while we're brainstorming about ideas for DS3, I have a few more ideas (I don't think anyone is surprised to see me say that at this point).

I think that an item that requires a higher level than another item of the same type (as in armor or staff or sword or whatever) should naturally have a better base quality (for armor, that would be a better AR, and for a staff or sword, it would be better damage), but that isn't always the case (and with the additional modifiers, a case can be made that the item is really better, but in some cases, that's questionable). I'm thinking primarily of armor here -- there are several armors that have a much better AR than others which require a much higher level, and I'm talking about armors that are concerned with the same class, like Melée).

Also, if an item is "legendary," shouldn't it live up to the label? I've seen a lot of drops in BW that were called "legendary X," then picked them up and looked at them and found they left a lot to be desired. I understand that the second Cataclysm altered magic, so a little of this is understandable, but apparently it altered it really badly.

And on the subject of picking things up to look at them, it would be nice to be able to right-click on an item on the ground and get some idea of how big it is, in terms of how much inventory space it will take up, as in DS1 and LoA, without having to have your character's inventory auto-arranged to make room, just to look at something. I like to have party members in DS2 and BW, and so I usually have the room in another party member's inventory, but I really despise having to rearrange my inventory back to the way I want it (I keep my spellbooks in a certain order that makes sense to me) after picking up something that won't fit without auto-arranging.

And back to the topic of items, there are unique items and set items in DS2 and BW, as we all know. Those are often very cool (especially in terms of appearance and visual effects). But it would be nice if the base quality and modifiers got better in Veteran than what they were in Merc, and better in Elite than what they were in Veteran, sort of like how in LoA you had the Staff of Stars, the Super Staff of Stars, and the Supreme Staff of Stars, depending on whether you obtained it in Merc, Vet, or Elite.

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Giovanna

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Giovanna