hopfrog16

Eh...Diablo 2 is a game designed for min/maxers like me, heh. I have heard a lot of comparisons between this game and Diablo 2 also, and I would agree with you. That being said, however, you can't max EVERYTHING on one character as far as I know. Each skill has 2 branches, with 5 possible points for each branch... You can only place 5 points in for each skill, so you can specialize in one branch, or split your 5 points between the 2 branches... This is what I've gathered at least. I also understand that there are a lot of different combinations for equipment... Hopefully customization for characters can be seen in there as well.

Hmmm... All that could be true I suppose. Like I said, the lore in the game world is convoluted at best. =P The only hole I can see in your theory however is that on the Legends of Aranna map, Aranna (or at least part of it... The island of the Utraeans) is located northwest of the kingdom of Ehb. If a tsunami struck Ehb from there, it may destroy some of the coastal villages like Arhok, but if you combine the maps from both DS1 and it's expansion, you'll see that there is a giant wall of mountains it would have to get over (I guess it would still come up from the coast to the south of Ehb after going around what I can only assume is a peninsula... possibly the Utraean peninsula goes down there? If the tsunami had enough force, I think it would definitely be possible... I live in an area surrounded by peninsulas and islands and even then it's still a very high risk place for tsunamis), but it would be a lot less powerful than a direct hit on the shoreline to the south I would think. Here's all 3 maps to look over from the first game... http://www.fantasy-art-and-portraits.com/f...world_maps.html For some reason I remembered Ehb as being surrounded by water... I should have looked at the map before opening my fat mouth in my earlier posts, heh. =P If Aranna was east of Ehb, it would happen like you say... to be honest, though, it would seem odd to me that Aranna would have stakes to claim on both the east AND west side of Ehb (the island of the Utraeans which we know is counted as part of Aranna to the northwest, and where you suspect Aranna is to the east)... Especially since the Island of the Utraeans seems to be an unclaimed wilderness for the most part (aside from territories of the Hassat, the Utraeans, and other humanoids... but even then those are all very introverted and small societies). I would think the map of Aranna from DS2 would be anywhere between north to west of Ehb judging by the map from the expansion of DS1 (and the Island of the Utraeans would just be an island off the coast of Aranna... much like Japan is off the coast of the rest of asia). This would also make sense, since the eastern half of Aranna is destroyed by the cataclysm, pushing the tsunami primarily westward... These are all speculations though. I'm no tsunami expert. And, to be honest, the more I delve into it the more confused I get. =P On a different note, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the changes done to Stonebridge... I wonder if that catapult is still there. =) As for the religion thing I agree... I'm getting a bit bored of the "evil church" stereotype in video games. =P I prefer Age of Conan's approach to religions, hehe...

I believe the maximum level is 99... but I'm not 100% sure on that. As far as I know, there isn't a limit on how many points you can put into an ability score. Skills, however, can have a maximum of 20 points put into them. You cannot max everything out in that game... The game is all about specialization. With the newest patch, however, they allowed character rerolling if you aren't happy with the way your build has turned out. If you want a more advanced Diablo 2 with more options, then I suggest you get the Eastern Sun mod for it. =)

Heart of Fury mode or something? I don't know what that is. =( Think hardcore on steroids. Monsters hit harder, and get bonuses to health, resistances etc. Oh I think you did less damage too. As I recall you normally finished Icewind Dale II at about Level 20. You started Heart of Fury mode and it was like starting over again - monsters were tough!!! I never really played it myself just mucked around the first area. Something I should do again sometime. Anyhow there was an entire range of weapons\armour etc specific to the HoF mode to enable you to survive it. As it was you needed to min\max\borderline cheat to win e.g. maximum armour wasn't enough against most mosters so butt naked provided just as much protection. The only way to armour up was to focus on stackable armour\ability bonuses, play as a monk of a certain race etc. At most you could get 2 of your 6 characters armoured, the rest had to fight alternatively e.g. mirror images and invisibiilty so instead of being immune to attacks they never get hit. Armour's much easier! Magic resistance went up too I think. A spell to disable\slow monster in the standard campaign was ignore on HoF with monsters walking straight through it. Think of Titan Quest's unlockable harder levels or possibly DS2's harder levels. Ahh... I see. =) I never did play Icewind Dale, but I've heard a lot about it... I should give it a try, it looks awesome, heh.

Dungeon siege 2 took place in Aranna, and that is entirely different from the continent Ehb is on as far as I know. Look at the map for the expansion of Dungeon Siege 1, Legends of Aranna. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasy-art-a...its/4007164449/ The map says "The Island of the Utraeans" instead of Aranna, so I wonder if the island is an island that is PART of Aranna, but the game only ever refers to this area as being Aranna. That being said, look at the Dungeon Siege 2 map of Aranna... http://www.dungeonsiege2.net/ds2fun/image/...768-for-Dev.jpg On that map Aranna isn't an island (unless the map only shows one small area of the island of the Utraeans, but I doubt that since none of the things in Legends of Aranna is ever mentioned in DS2, aside from half giants)... So for the sake of continuity, I would think that the island of the Utraeans is counted as part of Aranna's continent. This would also make sense since you don't see any Utraeans in DS2, and since you don't see any elves on the island of the Utraeans (and also why you might see half giants in both places if they traveled to and from the island and the mainland). To be honest, however, I think that it might just have been continuity oversight... What adds to the confusion even more is that the storyline on the DS3 website says that a tsunami (created from the cataclysm on Aranna) hit the eastern side of Ehb, when on the Legends of Aranna map, the Island of the Utraeans is northwest of Ehb. Hmmm... Maybe I'm wrong though. To be honest it's hard to keep track of the lore in this game, heh. The more I look into the lore the more confusing it gets... /nerd on Hmmm... I wasn't aware witches and satanists were the same thing. After all, in the character reveal it DOES say her mom was a witch, which explains where she gets her powers from... You know, it might be interesting if she was part elven (though I highly doubt it, since they are on a different continent, and the only traveling races it seems in this world are the humans and the utraeans)... Especially since elves were going extinct (thank god), and much time has happened since the cataclysm, so she may only be 1 of a handful of elves left. In any case I'm hoping the remaining hidden character is a nature mage too (though I doubt he will be). Dungeon Siege actually had some very interesting magic (both 1 and 2), and it would be a shame to just brush everything resembling their magic structure under the rug. =P As far as there being no magic, it still exists since you can see spells being cast by the mobs (as well as both Anjali and Katarina using it). In the expansion of DS2 magic was still around too, so It wouldn't be very consistent if they were to say that the Cataclysm wiped it out... Especially since it seems that the "Kingdom of Ehb" section of the DS3 website gives the impression that the cataclysm was mostly felt on Aranna, and that the total damage Ehb only ever got was just peripheral. /nerd off

A trailer showcasing the combat, loot, and monsters of Dungeon Siege 3! =) A parody I guess? Has song foul language... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFqRSygSQ3E...feature=related

Heart of Fury mode or something? I don't know what that is. =(

/nerd on Hmmm... I wasn't aware witches and satanists were the same thing. After all, in the character reveal it DOES say her mom was a witch, which explains where she gets her powers from... You know, it might be interesting if she was part elven (though I highly doubt it, since they are on a different continent, and the only traveling races it seems in this world are the humans and the utraeans)... Especially since elves were going extinct (thank god), and much time has happened since the cataclysm, so she may only be 1 of a handful of elves left. In any case I'm hoping the remaining hidden character is a nature mage too (though I doubt he will be). Dungeon Siege actually had some very interesting magic (both 1 and 2), and it would be a shame to just brush everything resembling their magic structure under the rug. =P As far as there being no magic, it still exists since you can see spells being cast by the mobs (as well as both Anjali and Katarina using it). In the expansion of DS2 magic was still around too, so It wouldn't be very consistent if they were to say that the Cataclysm wiped it out... Especially since it seems that the "Kingdom of Ehb" section of the DS3 website gives the impression that the cataclysm was mostly felt on Aranna, and that the total damage Ehb only ever got was just peripheral. /nerd off

It seems they have been working on play with a controller first before working on keyboard and mouse from what I understand. That being said, I've also read that they aim to make the gameplay for keyboard and mouse as seamless and fluid as it will be for a controller (you can use your Xbox controller on your PC and run it fine that way instead if you like as far as I know... Also, that's how you will be able to get another player to play using the same computer). As far as the game being like Baldur's Gate, many of the people working on this game did work on Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath, or so I've read... To me, this is a really good thing. =)

Mmm hmmm.... Let's just hope theres some kind of loot rewards for playing hardcore or something of the sort (I've read there is, and there isn't in different interviews, so It's hard to say what they have in mind). I have a feeling hardcore online with 4 players would be a blast. =)

Hmmm... I must say she seems a bit more interesting than I first thought she would be. I really like the idea of a witch/gunslinger... Makes me even more curious how the last unrevealed character will pan out. =) The more I think about it, however, the more I think he might be an alchemist of sorts (or at least have some kind of grenade type weapons) after all as was suggested previously... Seems odd that they would have 3 different magic using classes out of 4 characters, so I doubt that he would be another mage. Edit: By the way, after reading comments for the character reveal, I think it's kind of odd how people are complaining how there shouldn't be muskets in a dungeon siege game. =P Maybe they just don't remember the mini guns, flamethrowers, tesla guns, and napalm launchers from the first game...

Agreed. =)

Awesome! I've been impressed how Obsidian has treated the lore in this game... The extra effort is very much appreciated. =)

I totally forgot about that... How could I forget about the disco krug? =( I know what you mean, though... Kind of sucked that the best helmet in the game was the pimp hat too... Never looked quite right on my skeleton. =P The chicken orb spell was very unnecessary, too. That being said, however, the expansion did a lot of things right too. For me, it was even more atmospheric than the original game... The torture chambers in the beginning creeped me out, the story behind the hassat and the lizard guys (forget their names) made me feel kind of bad about laying them all to waste, and every boss encounter, no matter how unimportant, felt epic to me... After all, when you were killing your way through the mountain of the dead, you didn't just fight some random skeleton boss at the end... No, you fought the lord of the dead himself (even if he was a bit on the easy side in earlier difficulties... Speaking of multiplayer of course). =P

Misread his question. Nevermind. Also, I'm pretty sure the first game started in the farmlands. I was just curious if the farmlands mentioned were those specific farmlands. =) If so, maybe that means it's a place we might be able to visit in the game? Would be interesting to see it for fans of the franchise, though I doubt it would look anything like it did originally (especially since so much time has gone by in the continent of Ehb). I'm just curious to see how all these different places I'm familiar with have changed according to Obsidian's artists. To be honest, the effort and detail put into the artistry of this game is my favorite aspect of DS3 so far, so that's perfectly fine with me. The atmosphere was my favorite aspect of the first game too, so I'm glad to see Obsidian continuing that tradition whether that was their intention or not, heh. =)

Hmmm... Interesting... I might be wrong, but weren't the farmlands south of Stonebridge where you started in the first game?

I was curious if anyone has heard or seen anything on a secret level for this game? The first game had a secret chicken level with the most powerful ranged item (the chicken gun) as the prize... The second game had a prairie dog level (or was it gopher? I forget). Would be kind of neat if they continued the tradition and added a different kind of secret level. =) If you folks can't find anything on it, what would some of your speculations be on the possibility of a secret level, or what theme would you like to see?

Nah... That's not a good idea I don't think. The class would obviously be overpowered and unbalanced. All you would have to do is press space bar to win. =P

I think this was a bad direction to take the game in my own personal opinion. You say it may disappoint those looking for a "Diablo style semi-persistant MP", but that's what Dungeon Siege (multiplayer) was about. =P Taking the characters you build and going on loot runs/exploring with friends/EXP runs... At least that's what I did. What's the point of playing a game you've beaten online with friends if the only reason to play is to rehash a story you already know the ending to? It didn't work for fable 2-3 and it wouldn't work for this game either (or at least those are my suspicions)... Developers could definitely make a different map for multiplayer that's less about story and more about the endgame multiplayer content... That's what the first game did (although they allowed you to play the singleplayer maps as well as the multiplayer maps online). When I was finished with the single player game, I would import my character to multiplayer and continue the game there. It just seems odd that a loot centric dungeon crawler wouldn't have much in the way of endgame material... In fact, I can't really think of another loot centric dungeon crawler that doesn't have endgame material off the top of my head. =P Don't get me wrong... I think this will be a great game, and I will pre-order it for sure. =) I'm just a bit disappointed with what I hear about the end-game...

Surely it'd pertain only to the Co-Op game? If not you could start an easy Co-Op game max out your inventory gold etc then cart the trash & treasure back to a hard-core campaign. Isn't that borderline cheating or something? Okay persistent characters would work if we could get high level characters, DS1's Level 150 or DS2's 60 (I think) but DS3 is only going up to 20 or 30 right? How much persistence is required? Worst case scenario you max out the character in 2 play throughs. In DS 1, the level cap was 200 for each skill I'm pretty sure (So technically, the highest you could get was level 200 melee, 200 ranged, 200 nature magic, and 200 combat magic... But this would be way too time consuming). As for dungeon siege 2, I think they halved the level cap to 100... But this time, you had a normal player level as well as a skill level. When the normal player level reached 100, you couldn't raise the other skill levels anymore as far as I know, but I may be wrong there... Was a long time ago. I can almost guarantee that the new game won't use either leveling system... Especially since the players are weapon locked. To be honest, though, I think that may be a good thing.

That's an interesting suggestion. I zoomed in and had a look, here's a copy. I see what you mean by swirling energy. By itself it'd be extremely interesting and suggestive but the problem is the bronze tube above it and leaning off at an angle. I don't think it's the sleeve of the 'Alchemist's' robe. Given how little we know of course there's very little fact to support an awful lot of speculation. A mad scientist would actually be pretty cool to play. In fact I'd have no problem with such a character being incorporated as long as Obsidian gave me my ##### mage! Maybe add the character\class as a free DLC\mod for the game? Science seems to be making inroads into Ehb but I don't think it should push magic aside. And if technology is pushing the old ways aside, why do we still have some guy swinging a sword and wearing medieval armour? Furthermore why not apply magic scientifcally e.g. Repeating Crossbows or magic flame throwers as mentioned in such places as David Weber's Hell's Gate series? Maybe this Alchemist speculation should spin off into it's own thread? We know the 3rd character is a female gunslinger but the fourth character is pretty much a total mystery. I'm guessing male for balance but it could be a Droog for all I know. Hmmm... I would have to disagree with you on the bronze tube. It looks disproportionately large in comparison to the swirling ball to be the neck of a bottle, and looks as though his arm is going through the middle of it. To me it does look like it could be some kind of special bracer that somehow helps him in using his magical ability. It really is hard to tell, though. In regards to flamethrowers and the like, that would actually be very traditional with Dungeon Siege to begin with. In the first game there were mini guns, flame throwers, tesla guns, repeating crossbows, and even chicken guns... To be honest, the fact that the ranged character uses guns, and that people in Ehb are trading openly with the goblins makes me think that players will be able to use their more steam punk-ish weaponry. Just.... For the love of god, I hope they don't put gun blades into the game. =P

I did see that actually... It looked like some kind of flaming wolf or something. Maybe the hinted nature mage/healer that hasn't been revealed yet will get a summon too hopefully... I love me my summons. =) I've nicknamed him the Alchemist because of glass tube\container in his hand. There's no guarantees he's a nature mage, and there has been talk it's actually um steam punk or something. Maybe it's another 'modern' unit like the gun girl. Some sort of mad inventor. Stink bombs and hand grenades? It'd be in line with the techno-transition that seems to have crept into the game. Maybe DS1's goblins have had a major impact on Ehb over the past centuries? Definitely no mules and no pets alas Summons might exist, they did in the other two but they were time based. Maybe there's permanent summons like TQ and others? Hmm... I don't see a glass tube/container in his hand... it looks like a swirling ball of energy in his palm to me, but I might be wrong. To be honest, I'd love being able to play a mad scientest sort of char. =) I always made mad scientist characters in Arcanum for those of you who know what that is, hehe. There's just something fun about blowing things up... with science!

I did see that actually... It looked like some kind of flaming wolf or something. Maybe the hinted nature mage/healer that hasn't been revealed yet will get a summon too hopefully... I love me my summons. =)

As far as I know, the only companions you will get will be the 3 other predetermined characters. I've read that they aren't going to bring in pack mules for sure... No mounts or pets either, I think. Too bad, too... The pets were one of my favorite aspects about the second game. =O

"We wanted to make it easy when a player started. If you have seven classes laid out in front of someone, there aren