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There was an interesting suggestion about castles made by "Prince Nefarious" over on the Gas Powered Garage forum:

http://garage.gaspowered.com/?q=node/2061&highlight=DS3

He suggested that there should be a castle that the players can lay siege to, and then claim it as their own personal inn/storage vault. I think this would be excellent, particularly if the castle had more than one room for storage (i.e., three rooms each with its own storage vault, plus the ordinary storage vault in town, all of which should have more than one page). While this may be unnecessary if the player is soloing and is not inclined to store a lot of stuff, as KillerGremal pointed out, buying/finding and saving reagents "just in case" they are needed later would be significantly easier in such a situation. Even with the storage vault and an almost-full inn, plus 6 active party members, I have constantly had to drop stuff and transmute it to gold or feed it to my Dark Naiad (who is now "Mature" and can't eat anymore). It was bad enough without reagents and enchantable gear, but now that those are included (and I think they should remain in DS3), I want more storage space, obviously.

"Hassat Hunter" and "archaven" also had a good suggestion about being able to upgrade set items, to keep them useful at higher levels.

In addition, "archaven" had some other suggestions that sounded good, like allowing more than two buffs at a time, being able to select two characters to go do something while the rest of the party waits (as in Baldur's Gate, where you could drag the mouse to enclose as many party members as you wanted to be "active"), and the addition of cloaks.

Several people suggested alternate outcomes for quests, which gives the player more room for character development and, obviously, more choice. When I played BW in Merc, for example, I did Ressa's quest. When I played in Vet, I refused to bind Lorethal's soul, and the quest remained "incomplete." That was no big deal, because I already had Ressa in the inn from Merc, but it also, like most other quests in the game, had only one option for completion, leaving the player with no choice but to do it the way the developers intended. If there were something akin to the alignment system in D&D, as well as racial attitudes (Elves, for example, value freedom in D&D, and such a value system would be expected to impact on their decisions in adventuring), it would encourage more possibilities for the way the characters should react to various quests, and therefore would tend to produce different outcomes. Playing on a concept of "destiny" or "fate" is one thing, but even hard-line hyper-Calvinists do not deny the existence of "human responsibility."

In DS1/LoA, there were a few places where the characters could stand and wait for their hit points and mana to restore. In DS2/BW, when you finish one battle, there's already another one starting (or else your summoned creatures see opponents and go after them, dragging you into another battle whether you want it or not). I like being able to stand around and enjoy the scenery, and letting my health/mana restore. In some cases, these attacks may be intended to distract the player from things that they need to pay attention in order to see (just as in DS1, signs only pointed in two directions, leaving the third direction unmarked, so as to make it less noticeable; there were other examples of misdirection in DS1, such as when the guard in Quillrabe Canyon tried to discourage the player from going up onto the overlook area, which led to the secret area in the Forgotten Mesas), but there are other possible ways of doing this (such as the misdirection in DS1 just mentioned).

Several people also noted the huge amount of gold that characters accumulate, which becomes ridiculous long before the characters are in the 90th level range. There isn't a lot to spend that money on, but if there were the possibility of buying a house, hiring henchmen (like guards for your castle), becoming the ruler of a small principality (which would require some spending for improvements, social programs, etc), and so on, there might be more uses for gold. And just how is it possible that the characters can carry so much gold, but so little gear? Surely 10 million gold pieces weigh quite a lot. Alright, I'm not going to complain much about that aspect, because I'm not really an advocate of "realism" in fantasy games, but inconsistency annoys me.

The occasional wandering merchant in the wilderness (as in DS1/LoA) is also a necessary addition. The Summon Teleporter spell and the teleporters at certain points in the game are cool, but even so, occasional wandering merchants only enhance the gaming experience.

Time changes (and possibly season changes) would be a good addition. In DS1, in some areas, there was actual passage of time (what a concept!), such as in the Endless Dunes (where you could witness dusk, night, dawn, and day) and in Iliarth Canyon (where you had day and twilight, though it never actually turned to night).

Weather (not static, as in the areas where it always snowing -- though I like the fact that there areas where it is always snowing -- but periodic changes in the weather, at least in most areas of the wilderness, although I suppose rain in the desert would have to be very rare, unless there is a monsoon season).

Keep time limits out of the quests. Although the "Azunite Scholar" tried to rush the party into rescuing Eva, there was no need to rush, and that is as it should be. The almost-constant battling tends to encourage rushing already, far too much. Like I said, I would like to stop and smell the roses from time to time. The landscapes are, in spite of the general lack of sweeping vistas, beautiful, and should be appreciated, which is rather difficult if the entire game outside of towns is just one battle after another.

With regard to some of the "unique" items: the legends associated with Arinth's Staff and the Mace of Agarrus are extreme exaggerations. If these are actually artifacts/relics of legendary figures, and if the legends claim that Agarrus could level towns with his mace (for example), then there should be some special ability on each such artifact/relic that gives some basis for those aspects of the legends. The Mace of Agarrus is relatively weak, compared to the legends attached to it. Arinth's Staff is a bit more impressive (if only because of the plus to Combat Magic damage), but still does not live up to the legends about it. If any items should actually be literally "unique" (as in there being only one instance of the item), it should be relics/artifacts like these (though I'm not so keen on anything being literally "unique," as I think I've said already; still, perhaps a change in nomenclature would alleviate some people's anxiety over this).

I agree with "Crazy Zonie" that there were too few towns in DS2. The number (and frequency) of towns in the Utraean Peninsula map was about right.

"Hassat Hunter" also brought up the subject of "rumours," gathered from an innkeeper. To some extent, we have that already, from tavern patrons, but these are invariably starting points for secondary quests. A little additional rumour, which may or may not be true, and may or may not have any bearing on anything in the game, would give a more authentic feel to the tavern environment. Think of the old 1st edition basic D&D module, "Keep on the Borderlands" ("Bree yark!" does not mean "We surrender," though one rumour in that module was that it did).

I know that the ending of BW says that Lothar went off to study with the Agallans, etc, but it would have been nice to have Lothar's reconciliation with the Agallans as part of the game, a secondary quest (that would have necessitated more than one expansion, perhaps, but more than one expansion would have been a good thing). In the same way, the question of the origin of the Dryads has never been fully answered (hints and innuendos aside). Perhaps DS3 could include a quest or some lore books that provide the answers to that.

Keep the point-and-click feature. If you want to do a version for console gamers, make a different GUI for that. PC gamers have mouses (mice?)!

"Solipso" writes:

I agree with that much of what he said. There have to be some allowances for ordinary life, even for those of us who are "hard-core gamers."

And again, a chainmail bikini would be nice, as in Red Sonja of Marvel Comics back in the 70s. Some of us grew up reading things like that, and may still have such characters as potential models for our own RPG characters (which includes looking the part). In fact, a wider range of attire across the board would be nice, and as I've said before, being able to choose colors for that attire is a plus.