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."
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!