Dungeon Siege III Interview
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GB: Why did you decide to go with four preset characters versus allowing custom characters? Obviously there are benefits in that they can all be voiced and the cinematics can reflect their personalities, but some people will likely want to customize their character's appearance or maybe spec which abilities they want them to have access to. Rich: Yeah, that's a good question. There is still customization in the sense that you level up, you identify which abilities you want to emphasize, and that sort of thing. On the talents page, you pick the ones that you like or that seem to be conducive to the style of play that you want to go with. So there is that type of customization, but there isn't, like you said, the ability to change appearance or grab abilities from another character and bring them over. A lot of that went back to - we just wanted the game to be very approachable and we didn't want there to be a whole lot of setup involved with getting into the game.
We really wanted to have you sit down, and then present you with a character that has a story. You're going to pick this character, you're going to get into the world, and people are going to react to your character. That all works a lot better where we're able to control the direction.
GB: I assume every character has a unique beginning and a unique ending, but how does your character selection change things between those two points in the storyline? Are there romances that can be pursued or anything in a similar vein?
Rich: There is reactivity to the character that you're playing. There isn't a romance in Dungeon Siege III, but there are certain quests that will be there or not be there, depending on the player character that you're using.
GB: So Anjali will have access to quests that aren't available to Lucas?
Rich: Hmm, how do I get around this it's in a section of the game that I'm not supposed to talk about yet. I'm trying to think of how best to phrase it. You'll basically find that if you start with a character, it'll actually become very clear as you play through because there are certain quests that wouldn't even make sense if you were not playing as one of the characters we haven't talked about yet. If you're not playing as him, you'd get this quest that has you dealing with his storyline and getting him up and going. But if you're playing as him, you wouldn't get that quest because it doesn't make sense to be given that quest as a secondary thing. That whole sequence goes a little differently because you're now playing as him.
There are other quests that have a similar situation as that. There are different NPCs that you work with in the first region that tie in with the characters we haven't talked about yet. There are different NPCs that will help you out because of the character that you've picked.
GB: How many cities are in the game? We saw Stonebridge and there was a mention of a village early on in the game, though I have yet to get there with my hands-on.
Rich: So there's Rukkenvahl, which is the village in region one and kind of the hub that it's built around. Stonebridge is the big city in the game. The other regions have I don't really want to call them cities there are hubs in the other areas, but they're in different states. For instance, one is more of a battlefield campsite where you're operating out of.
Another one is a refuge and people are holed up there, and you're going in and to help them out. So the actual town-specific areas are Raven's Rill in Rukkenvahl and Stonebridge City.
GB: How difficult is it to get back to one of these towns when you're down in a dungeon and your inventory is full? Is there some sort of teleportation spell?
Rich: There isn't, but the layouts of the regions actually tend to lend themselves to getting back pretty quickly. So there's not an instant "jump back to town" sort of ability, but we were always looking at it, "Is the player way too far out here?", "Does this loop back around?", or "Is there a shortcut that's going to help them get back?" And we made sure to put those types of quick returns in, so it's very easy to get back.
GB: How difficult is it to activate and reach the causeway?
Rich: Well, you gain access to it as part of the story progression, and then once you have access to it, it's not difficult to get to it. But it is at fixed locations; it's not something you can just open up at any time.
GB: I haven't seen it yet, but is it designed in such a way where each of the portals lead to a specific town or hub in the game?
Rich: It does connect to the hubs. When I talk about the shortcuts we've put in to make it possible to get back, the causeway factors into that.
GB: So if you need to get back to Stonebridge, for example, there's a specific portal to it in the causeway?
Rich: Yeah. And we also looked at making sure that there are merchants out in the world as well. So you're not thinking, "Oh, my inventory's overloaded... I have to go all the way to town."
We wanted to facilitate being able to go back to town; but we also want the player to stay out in the dungeons and other regions without feeling that they need to make return trips going back and forth. So we usually try to eyeball places and say, "Is there a merchant out in this region?" or "How far does a player have to go to get back here?"
And sometimes you unlock stores by completing quests. Now you have a new place where you can go and unload your loot because you helped this NPC out and now he's got a store set up for you.
