That you can always see your character, the engine uses two tricks: The first one,
mainly used in buildings and often seen in other games, is to simple remove a part
of a wall or the roof of a house when needed. The second, far more interesting one,
is to make some objects transparent when characters pass them. While some other games with
the same bird view concept can't use realistic landscapes to prevent that the
characters vanish, Gas Powered Games' concept solved this very elegant. Not
that the landscapes in Dungeon Siege would be really reallistic, but they are
a big part of the entertainment the game provides. From desert to snow and with
canyons, bridges and rivers it is simply impressive to see what the engine can do...
and it is definitely more then just a background for the game like in Diablo. Especially
the multiplayer map provides a lot of exploration entertainement this way.
Dungeon Sieges experience gaining system is rather simple: By using melee weapons, ranged
weapons, nature magic or combat magic you increase one of those four skills. The same
amount experience points given to those combat skills is then also given to some hidden
level and then distributed back to the basic
three character stats: strength, dexterity and intelligence acording used combat skill.
This sistem is part of the general very intuitive gaming experience and for some rollplaying
fans that love to invest time into creating and developing a character perhaps a bit too simple.
But the individualization the game lacks in the field of atributes is well compensated
through the fact that every piece of eqipment has own graphics. So you have for
20 different looking gloves really 20 different 3D objects, the same for weapons
that then have even added light and particle effects to represent magic attributes. This
fashion side goes to an extend that you see people in
online games who care less about the stats of a new helmet then how it
harmonizes with their armor.
That you can always see your character, the engine uses two tricks: The first one,
mainly used in buildings and often seen in other games, is to simple remove a part
of a wall or the roof of a house when needed. The second, far more interesting one,
is to make some objects transparent when characters pass them. While some other games with
the same bird view concept can't use realistic landscapes to prevent that the
characters vanish, Gas Powered Games' concept solved this very elegant. Not
that the landscapes in Dungeon Siege would be really reallistic, but they are
a big part of the entertainment the game provides. From desert to snow and with
canyons, bridges and rivers it is simply impressive to see what the engine can do...
and it is definitely more then just a background for the game like in Diablo. Especially
the multiplayer map provides a lot of exploration entertainement this way.
