Interview FileFront Interviews Dungeon Siege 2

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Dungeon Siege 2; Gas Powered Games

An <a href=http://articles.filefront.com/Dungeon_Siege_2_Interview/;591;;;/article.html>interview with Dungeon Siege 2</a> lead designer Kevin Lambert is available at FileFront, with details about the hack & slash action RPG sequel and a closer look into the progress of the game's development.
<br>
<blockquote>Q: <b>What are the main differences in gameplay from Dungeon Siege to Dungeon Siege 2?</b>
<br>
<br>
A: The main difference in DS2 is that we wanted to give the players a lot more to do – specifically a lot more choices to make. To that end, we’ve added things like skill trees & powers, pets and more interesting party members, items that can be enchanted by players using special reagents, and branching dialogue choices, just to name a few. Another major difference is that we made what we feel is a really great decision to move the combat farther away from full automation and instead we put a lot more action in the hands of the player.
<br>
<br>
Q: <b>In the original Dungeon Siege, party AI was such that the game sometimes felt as though the player wasn’t really needed, and the game could just play itself. Will this change in Dungeon Siege 2?</b>
<br>
<br>
A: Absolutely. I feel like one of our best decisions with DS2 was to make the party more dependant on the player’s action. Players will have full control over a single character and that character will not act without receiving commands from the player. The rest of the party can be set to one of a few simple behavior settings so players can also maintain lateral control over the rest of the party at all times.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Hopefully, Gas Powered Games has learned from the mistakes they made during the development of Dungeon Siege. From the interview, all indications point towards a more interactive experience.

 

[Reklar]

I'm getting a strange sense of deja'vu, but it seems like they're turning the game into a BG clone as far as party control is concerned. Since I never played the original I'm guessing that's an improvement, which seems rather dismal.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[Saran]

While im happy to note that they intend to improve the games storyline and dialogue, i am a bit worried about the change to the party AI.

For the most part they did what was required in the original and the expansion, or at least i cant remember any problems with pathfinding and their reaction to attacks.

While the original was extremely sparse as far as story went, it did have what was probably one of the best control and menu systems ive seen in an CRPG,using the inventory and the various menus quickly became second nature, and the i thought the way you increased your skills was great, while morrowind used what was pretty much the same use a-melee/ranged/-weapon/magic-to-increase-melee/ranged/magic-skills system, it was implemented better in dungeon siege.

(That, and it didnt take an eon to get reasonably proficient at something.)

 

[Keldryn]

As with the original game, it's the toolkit that I'm most interested in.

Dungeon Siege was a boring game to play, but it has a great engine that is very flexible, if a bit of a pain in the ass to work with. I'm quite looking forward to playing around with DS2's toolkit. Here's hoping that the editor ships *with* an Undo function the first time around...

Oooh, and a way of building "random" terrain, complete with rocks, trees, and foliage would be fantastic too. Placing each one by hand is one hell of a lot of work. :shock:

 

[Ellester]

Branching dialog choices in DS2? There were only about 200 lines of text in DS for the whole game; I’ll believe it when I see it.

Anyways, they say they are fixing all the problems that were apparent in DS, like automated battles where you just sat back and watched. But I honestly believe there is no way DS2 will be that much different than DS, it’s the same engine and it still plans on being an action rpg. I would love to be proved wrong though.

 

[AlanC9]

Sounds like they're turing the control system into NWN.

 

[Keldryn]

Branching dialog choices in DS2? There were only about 200 lines of text in DS for the whole game; I’ll believe it when I see it.

Maybe they liked the custom dialogue engine that we're using for using for the Ultima V: Lazarus project. (If you haven't seen it in our Alpha demo, it's a pretty faithful recreation of the Ultima VII dialogue system, in the Dungeon Siege engine). It's not impossible.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Besides the fact that the OC was a horrible bore, NWN had 1 major problem for me: The game didn't feel immersive because of the way maps were (a small area with the rest blacked out) , with their tiles, and the crappy graphics.

I'll take BG/NWN's control scheme over Dungeon Siege's automation, though. There's nothing wrong with that per se.