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DS2 Expansion: The Broken World

Sharkull's picture

...has a new forum at the GPGarage (no more information posted yet...).
http://garage.gaspowered.com/?q=node/3396

Snooker wrote:
This forum is the new proper home for discussions regarding Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, the expansion pack to Dungeon Siege II.

PS. I posted this here because I didn't really think it worthy of front page news... nothing's really been announced yet. There's just a named new forum... (but GPG must be close to letting us know something Smile ).

firebat's picture

I asked for info but nothing yet...

And i think it can take a while before we get any info, and if they give us info it will be in the newsletter...

LoneKnight's picture

Okay, I assume this means a new map.

Sharkull's picture

More DS2x news from 2 links posted over at the GPGarage:

http://www.fragland.net/news.php?id=13047

Quote:
New Dungeon Siege titles coming from 2K Games

2K Games sent out word that they've managed to get hold of the rights on Gas Powered Games' Dungeon Siege games with two new titles coming up still this year.

First up is Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World which is an expansion to the original DS2 which brings along an all-new campaign mode, a new playable race, more items to discover and a brand new multi-class character development system.

...

http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3948

Quote:
Dungeon Siege Moves To 2K Games; PC Expansion And PSP Announced

2K Games has announced that it has picked up the publishing rights to Gas Powered Games' fantasy action-RPG series Dungeon Siege from Microsoft. The publisher will also release an expansion pack to last summer's sequel Dungeon Siege II. The expansion, titled Broken World, will be released this summer. Here is a snip:

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World picks up right where Dungeon Siege II left off with an all-new campaign mode, a new playable race, more items to discover and a brand new multi-class character development system. Dungeon Siege II: Broken World will require the full version of Dungeon Siege II.

...

I wonder what "all-new campaign mode" means...?

shadow smile's picture

Hey as long as it comese out when planned i'll be happy! Smile Unless they delay it like DS2 for months but, I see the community reawaking so I think DS will return to its former glory days :sun:

Loup_Ombrage's picture

shadow smile wrote:
Hey as long as it comese out when planned i'll be happy! Smile Unless they delay it like DS2 for months but, I see the community reawaking so I think DS will return to its former glory days :sun:

If DS2 wasn't delayed we would be up to patching it to 2.499999 by now. Actually, there needs to be another patch anyway :roll:

Sharkull's picture

From a link spotted over at PDS:

Games Radar wrote:

Of course it's broken, what with psychos like you hacking and slashing about all the bloody time
Words: Joshua LaTendresse

We have some good news and some bad news for Dungeon Siege fans. First, the good news: the action role-player will be even hackier and slashier, thanks to the Broken World expansion pack due out this summer. But fans may want to get their fill before much-maligned director Uwe Boll gets hold of the franchise and releases two movies based on DS this year. That part was most definitely the bad news.

This expansion will offer players about 10 more hours of dungeon-crawling in a search to set things right (it's all your fault, by the way). In our preview of the expansion we saw action just as frenetic as the original offered, but also tougher. You'll need to be at least level 35 to ride this sequel, which means that you'll likely need to finish Dungeon Siege II. Players can import and export their characters to the expansion and back again after they are done. You'll likely have some extremely potent characters on your hands when ported back for multiplayer festivities.

What else will the expansion offer? Fancy fresh loot and smoking hot new enemies - how does a dragon so massive it fills the entire screen sound? Luckily, your skills will increase as well, with two new sub-classes that can be bolted right on to many existing character classes. The "Fists of Stone" is a monk-like class who specializes in close-quarters combat. For the courageous, kill-them-from-a-distance players, the "Blood Assassin" joins the party; he's a ranger that uses death magic to crush his foes (or, you know, her foes; ours is an equal opportunity dungeon).

For fans of the series, this expansion looks like a treat, and the game makers have already hinted at a reunion of nearly all of the characters from the original two games. Can we just cast evil hell-spawn Uwe Boll as the final boss, so we can off him once and for all? That's probably not in the cards, but we've already RSVP'd for this adventure party, anyhow.

LoneKnight's picture

Bah. I'll get the reviews on it before I think of buying it. Don't want to make the same mistake I made with DSII.

cool a monk class ^^ .

Sharkull's picture

From: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dungeonsiegeiibrokenworld/news.html?sid=6147011

Quote:

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World First Impressions
We get a first look at the upcoming expansion pack for the action role-playing game Dungeon Siege II.

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World is the expansion to last year's Dungeon Siege II, and while it will continue the epic story begun in that game, much has changed behind the scenes. Basically, the Dungeon Siege franchise has switched from Microsoft to publisher 2K Games. Not to worry, though, because Gas Powered Games remains the developer of the series. We got a first look recently at what 2K Games and Gas Powered have in mind with the expansion.

Broken World pretty much picks up where Dungeon Siege II left off. The world is a broken, shattered wasteland following the cataclysmic events of Dungeon Siege II, and it's up to you to carry on the fight. This means that you'll once again pick up your sword or staff and battle countless enemies in this hack-and-slash role-playing game. Unfortunately, the race of familiars, long the enemy of the elves, have returned, and they have an incredibly nasty habit of tearing their enemies apart and reassembling the pieces in different ways to create a twisted army.

The entire expansion could almost be thought of as a graduate course for Dungeon Siege II players, as you'll encounter a range of difficult opponents to battle. Since you'll start the expansion with a high-level character, you can expect some equally high-level enemies. Some opponents take a page from Halo's Flood and will explode at death, which means they'll try to use that against you. The behaviors and artificial intelligence have also been tweaked, so you'll see enemies that spawn other enemies, and the spawners will stand off and try and let their minions take care of you. The only way to deal with them is to take out the spawners first. Meanwhile, other enemies may lay dead and wait for you to come close or pass them before raising themselves up to strike.

There are some improvements to the class system in the expansion, designed to make multiclassing more effective. Before, you had to split your experience up among your character's various classes, which meant that they couldn't max out their potential. That's been changed, and now you can combine classes to create new class types. There's also a new player race that hasn't been revealed, but which should give you a whole new side to explore.

We saw various intimidating environments, such as a huge underground city to run around in. This was the ancient city of the overmages, which was slowly unearthed by the dwarves, and now you'll have to stomp out the evil growing there. The graphics engine will feature a few enhancements and improvements. For example, now there are lip-synching animations on all the characters. It's a cosmetic change, but it should allow for better cutscenes. Broken World should pack about 10 hours of gameplay in it, but given the nature of Dungeon Siege II, there should be plenty of replayability as well. The expansion is on track to ship sometime this summer.


Visit the link for a couple of BW screenshots.

firebat's picture

I think i saw someone else link to that interview at Herenaforge.org earlier today :roll:

(also a link to another preview there)

Sharkull's picture

firebat wrote:
I think i saw someone else link to that interview at Herenaforge.org earlier today :roll:

That doesn't mean I can't post it at SiegeTheDay... :? I don't know what you're trying to say here.

(...and BTW, I spotted the link in the DSH forums before I saw it at HF). :P

Switching back on topic, I'm intrigued by the comments on lip synching, exploding enemy bodies plus the promise of more difficult battles... but I'm certainly not impressed by the way the "enemies that spawn other enemies" are described... it sounds too much like monsters with summons to me (already in the game).

Well it sounds good but what will they add that might pull the community back together? :?: New race cool but with the lack of modders the game wont be fufilled to its full potential. Hope it contributes something worthwile

firebat's picture

1up also has a preview:

1up wrote:
While Dungeon Siege II: Broken World is an expansion pack in name, its decently lengthy all-new storyline, new enemies and races, and refined enemy AI appear to push Broken World into the realm of the pseudo-sequel. This is a good thing and should provide more than enough fun this summer for those looking to resolve the plight which they had wrought upon the world at the end of Dungeon Siege II.

read it all here

lip sinking?! woo hoo!!

Will that add much though?

Edit: I take that back. If done right it will make a lot of difference.
It really looks silly during a NIS when the characters have stonefaces and don't even look at eachother when they talk.

Wonder if this means the characters will be revamped. I cannot imagine the low-poly models talking =/ .

Strider978's picture

They would have had to revamp the heads to add the correct loops and whatnot. Heads are fairly easy to make and replace in DS2 and it would mean not having to redo all the original animations, so I wouldn't be surprised if that is the extent of the model rehashing.

Quote:
Heads are fairly easy to make and replace in DS2 and it would mean not having to redo all the original animations,

Not true at all. Heads/helmets are just skin geometry on the same skeleton. Lip syncing requires at least the addition of a jaw bone. Changing the skeleton means that all animations, armor etc. are now invalid for the model.

It is concievable that they could add a "talking head" as a separate figure with its own skeleton just like a rider on a beast, but I don't think they did that for the riders in DS2. The Vai'kesh prophet had a moving jaw, and I'm failrly certain that was in his base model.

I'm assuming this means new models for anything that talks, but that could be relatively few.

maybe they add skin animations and skip any modelling

Quote:
maybe they add skin animations and skip any modelling

I.e morphs rather than skeletal rotations? That would be nice!

Sharkull's picture

You mean having something like an animated gif as a facial texture (and flick / skrit commands to play / pause the animations)? That would be cool.

Quote:
You mean having something like an animated gif as a facial texture (and flick / skrit commands to play / pause the animations)?

Xaa did blinking eyes for LoH and Monsoon has blink/ouch expessions in Abstraction using multiple skins and skrit to switch them, so we know that will work. Abstraction also has moving textures on armor and a few similar effects. Those use the same techniques as the flowing water textures.

But the skin switching didn't move the chin, so it didn't look right for talking. For that you either need a jaw bone to move it, or morph targets (which are separate positions of the skinmesh vertices that you can move them toward with moving a bone). The latter method allows for the vertices to move in independent directions, so your character can smile, frown, etc. as well as just wagging a chin up and down.

you make it sound like they said "we're giving you moving lips and we're going to do a good job too"
i never head that bit about the "good job too"
for all we know it will look like garbage Smile

Strider978's picture

If they had access to the original GPG animation max files, which I believe they would if they have a liscense for the engine and are basing there game on existing GPG content, adding new bones is fairly straightforward. All they would need a 'talking head' for would be for conversations, so creatures such as bandits and NPC with no dialogue would not need it.

The animations such as fighting and walking would not need to be redone.

shadow smile's picture

Has anybody heard a date when Broken World will be relased?

Sharkull's picture

I haven't seen any actual dates yet, but the GPGarage BW FAQ said Fall '06 the last I checked, and the recent interviews / previews have been saying Summer '06. My guess (pure 100% speculation) is that BW will probably make it into stores by XMas shopping season, but not much earlier. Stare

What I wonder is if they're going to have any type of public (or "by invitation only") Beta testing? Smile (Yeah, I know... it will never happen, but it would be nice wouldn't it?)

LoneKnight's picture

This looks primarily like DSII origonal. Let's hope this expansion has a better story than DSI's expansion story.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the bad guy in the beginning of the game use his lips when talking? The guy who says the mercenaries are late and to get to the front lines?

Adding new bones for each mouth 'position' would be time consuming, no doubts there. A program that could quickly animate heads for conversations would be a real hit.

Gah, looks like they won't make a new map. They mentioned for the xpack just 1 extra act.

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