IGNPC: On the subject of party members, what new tactical options (formations, rules of engagement, etc.) are open to the players? Will we have to adjust our strategies from the last game to take on the new challenges? Will we have new team commands?

Ian Davis: The focus was on additional AI & UI options that streamline the playing process. My favorites are the modifications to the control-groups, the attack cursor, and the Voice-Over acknowledgements. We've modified the control-groups so that they don't just store the currently active slot, but they also remember which spells were in the active slots of the spellbook; this really opens up the breadth of spells for instant use, and I've found myself using a much wider variety of the spells.

We also put in a hotkey which lets you click to attack the nearest enemy to your click, without fear that you'll miss on the click and send your party running into danger. It's a little thing, but it's sweet. The addition of voice-over acknowledgements for attacks and movement brings out the personality of your party members. On top of all that, there's tooltip improvements (showing damage per time period), the ability to redistribute needed potions amongst your party with a single click (mages getting the bulk of the mana potions, and warriors getting the bulk of the health potions), and lots more...​