Cyn!c

Is it not acceptable when camping in a clearing of a forest/cave/dungeon filled with <insert monster type here> that some of them may regroup? Again this is a red herring. Why do you focus on the return journey being slightly tedious? It doesn't matter as long as the player can potentially get something enriching out of that return journey. Consider the following scenario Party finds a campsite just outside the entrance to a dark cave Party camps and decides to explore the cave They get a ways through but run out of spells, while also thinking that maybe they could use some different spells to what they have currently. So they make the decision to go back to the campsite, rest and memorize new spells On the return journey back to the point in the cave they encounter a rare monster because it's now night time and when they entered the cave previously, it was day. It drops a rare piece of loot. The player now feels thankful that they went back and rested, not only did they get new spells but they got a shiny treasure too. How in the world would that experience not be fun? I like the idea in general, but there are ways in which that experience could be unfun. Someone is not very good or is having a bad day combat-wise and needs to rest 2 or 3 times, or risk just not making headway; then it doesn't help that he uses half the spells he just regained fighting that newly spawned monster. The rare monsters would never be guaranteed. Most of the time it would just be a regular mob. Sometimes of course nothing would be there at all (monsters didn't regroup). You would of course, mix it up. You'd also be careful to try and conserve your spells to avoid going back again to the campsite. See, thought, conservation, tension. It just makes the game fun. If someone is not very good then they should reduce the difficulty level, which of course would directly affect these kinds of mechanics.

Is it not acceptable when camping in a clearing of a forest/cave/dungeon filled with <insert monster type here> that some of them may regroup? Again this is a red herring. Why do you focus on the return journey being slightly tedious? It doesn't matter as long as the player can potentially get something enriching out of that return journey. Consider the following scenario Party finds a campsite just outside the entrance to a dark cave Party camps and decides to explore the cave They get a ways through but run out of spells, while also thinking that maybe they could use some different spells to what they have currently. So they make the decision to go back to the campsite, rest and memorize new spells On the return journey back to the point in the cave they encounter a rare monster because it's now night time and when they entered the cave previously, it was day. It drops a rare piece of loot. The player now feels thankful that they went back and rested, not only did they get new spells but they got a shiny treasure too. How in the world would that experience not be fun? and then I spend the rest of the game checking every corner of every dungeon at different times of day because I'm a crazy person haha Yes if you want to do that, then of course. It's fun to have stuff like this in games that are rare and random.

Is it not acceptable when camping in a clearing of a forest/cave/dungeon filled with <insert monster type here> that some of them may regroup? Again this is a red herring. Why do you focus on the return journey being slightly tedious? It doesn't matter as long as the player can potentially get something enriching out of that return journey. Consider the following scenario Party finds a campsite just outside the entrance to a dark cave Party camps and decides to explore the cave They get a ways through but run out of spells, while also thinking that maybe they could use some different spells to what they have currently. So they make the decision to go back to the campsite, rest and memorize new spells On the return journey back to the point in the cave they encounter a rare monster because it's now night time and when they entered the cave previously, it was day. It drops a rare piece of loot. The player now feels thankful that they went back and rested, not only did they get new spells but they got a shiny treasure too. How in the world would that experience not be fun?

This is an interesting question but the basis of the "experience of walking back" being redundant assumes that the campsite and encounters are poorly placed via inept level design. The final point that everything is killed between you and the campsite lends me to believe you aren't thinking creatively about how to solve this at all, which is not encouraging. I'm going to use the example of quite simply the best old school feeling game that has been released in recent years, Dark Souls, as an example of how to do this right. Before you go on to say "this is an action game, not a cRPG" please be aware that the entire concept of the bonfires in DS is based upon PnP concepts of resting at only safe locations so it is entirely valid. The only thing that changes is the level and encounter design when going from aRPG to cRPG. DS also uses a memorization system of magic so that makes it even more relevant. Let me just say now right off the bat, Dark Souls handled resting perfectly in my opinion. Let's take a close look at how it works: Players can rest at bonfires, recharging their resources and memorizing new spells Bonfires are placed strategically throughout levels to avoid abuse Using bonfires comes at a cost - all the monsters in the area revive The third point here, is key. Turn resting into something that affects the game experience. For instance, time passes while resting and SOME monsters come back. Perhaps there are certain areas where super rare monsters only appear after resting at a campsite. You can mix this up with a day night cycle to really get some cool random stuff happening. DS also does something with magic that makes the player really think about when and how they are going to use spells. You get a certain number of uses of a particular magic. It's excellent as it encourages the player to really think about conserving certain spells for tough situations. Of course, you do not have to think about any kind of conservation when there are cool downs involved. You just wait and go onto the next encounter. The point is, that by focusing on the potentially boring experience of walking back to a campsite you are throwing a red herring into the discussion. Quite simply - you are focusing on the wrong thing. The innate gameplay benefits that having a system that encourages thought, strategic planning, and conservation while promoting real tension far outweigh the chance that walking back to a campsite is going to be slightly tedious. And, as I've already mentioned, if you think creatively you can even turn resting into a gameplay mechanic that provides new potential challenges/benefits to the player. edit: I accidentally a word

Use the Vancian system and restrict resting permissions via the difficulty levels - casuals can rest any time, any where. On any other difficulty resting is severely restricted. You should never be able to rest in a dungeon unless you find some kind of cave. Maybe even have a non combat ability, some kind of ranger like skill, that allows you to spot safe places to rest. There are so many ways to improve the way the Vancian system has been implemented in cRPGs. It's sad and lazy for Obsidian to just default to cool downs.

To me this sounds D&D related, but that could be just wishful thinking. Meanwhile there is this to ponder... http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/05/rumour-square-enix-publishing-project-x-with-external-studio/

Okay, so I've had this problem on and off with the game since I purchased it on release. I have actually finished the main campaign and am looking to pick up the expansion to tide me over until D3's release. Perfect timing right? But this is ruining my plans! It's a very odd problem which I have no explanation for. It seems now for some reason the problem has gotten worse. Let me explain what happens. So basically, when I run the game, everything runs beautifully. I'm maxing everything except for shadows which are on normal. Smooth, running at about 50-60 FPS the whole time all good. Resolution is 1920 x 1080 - full screen. Very happy indeed. But then suddenly, for NO apparent reason, my FPS drops, drastically. The game becomes unplayable. Sometimes, if I wait around for a while, the issue will resolve itself, but the problem will come back after a while. Previously, my gf and I would be able to play for a long time without this happening...SOME times. Now it seems impossible. I did a graphics card driver update recently and what is most frustrating is I feel the game does run smoother, when it runs well, but the problem seems to happen more frequently. Here are my system specs: Dell Studio XPS 1645 Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Intel core i7 Q740 8GB RAM AMD Radeon HD 5730 Graphics card Driver version / date: 8.951.0.0 / 8-03-2012 If I start the task manager during one of these drops, the CPU is running at only 29%. DungeonSiegeIII.exe is taking up about 330k K in memory. I want to also note, that while I am using the MotionInJoy DS3 tool to use PS3 controllers, the problem happens irrespective of this, even when using just mouse and keyboard. Could this be an overheating problem? Is the game able to run, but too taxing for my graphics card causing it to overheat? In comparison, I was running Dragon Age Origins at close to max and never had this issue. I also ran the D3 beta at all max except shadows and never had this issue. Any help would be really appreciated, I want to play the expansion!

Hmm Complete implies that this will be the only DLC for this title So enchanting is added to the main campaign as well?

Awesome! Very happy about this, item crafting is an excellent addition. Sounds like a pretty meaty DLC too!

Edit: no worries it's done now

Listened to the interview. I got a sad vibe from him, kind of like hearing some compliments was really refreshing. That's kind of sad, the game is good and they deserve more props for it honestly. Anyway, the most interesting thing he mentioned was that the key binding patch for the PC could be released as early as tomorrow. He sounded a bit hesitant when asked about DLC...which is a shame, really want some more stuff...would gladly pay for it. Let's hope it can happen.

It's not a glitch, Lucas' third defensive ability does this, can't remember the name, but it's super awesome as it let's him constantly regain focus. Combine it with lots of enemies and blade dash = teh lulz

No new characters please, instead more detailed abilities and synergies, a lot of abilities are completely useless now by themselves and in terms of upgrading them(shield pummel, vanguard strike, earthquake, etc.) Shield pummel useless? Are you kidding me? It's totally OP'd. Lucas has an infinite combo with this in a one-on-one fight with good momentum. Works well against the Drakkenweyrs (who can basically kill you in 1 hit on hardcore). Start off with a shield pummel, then regular strikes 3 times, then combo another shield pummel. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.

I have to say that while I like the game a lot and I think Onyx is a good engine, I also think it is not a great engine. Sure it looks great on the PC at max, but the camera limitations which were imposed would have been directly linked to maintaining performance. Even with the way the current engine is, frame rates on the consoles lag during big fights. For the engine to be useful outside of the DS3 context, I think they're going to have to give the camera way more freedom. This will definitely create further performance issues. I really think that Obsidian needs a way to do shadows in a less performance heavy way. Other devs seem to do it. For both this and NWN2, the shadows were the most performance killing aspect of the engine. Maybe that's just due to the nature of dynamic lighting/shadows though, I don't know.

Does anyone know if the Onyx engine was developed specifically for DS3 or whether this was already something they were creating when Square Enix came along?