Last updated January 13th, 2007
NOTE:This FAQ is for the expansion pack to Dungeon Siege 2.
If you don't have Broken World installed, or are running DS2 from the DS2 icon instead
of the Broken World icon, you might want to also look at the DS2 FAQ? instead.
General Info
Q: What is Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World?
A: Broken World is an expansion pack to Dungeon Siege II. The expansion pack was developed by Gas Powered Games (GPG) and published by 2K Games. The initial announcement is here.
Q: What are the mimimum system requirements ?
A: Here's the minimum system requirements from the Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World box:
OS: Windows XP SP1 or newer
CPU: 1.8GHz or greater
RAM: 512MB
Hard Drive: 1.4GB Free space
CDROM: 4x or higher
Other: Mouse, speakers/headphones
Video Card:
ATI Radeon 7500 or better ***
Nvidia Geforce 5750 or better
Intel Extreme Graphics 82845, 82865, 82915 **
** when running with Intel or ATI 7000 series, a 2GHz equivalent or higher processor is required
Broadband internet access or LAN (broadband/LAN not required for singleplayer gaming).
And, of course, Dungeon Siege 2 is required.
Q: How long does the expansion pack take to finish?
A: For an average player, probably around 10 – 15 hours.
Q: Who is the publisher? Who handles Tech Support in North America?
A: 2KGames/Take 2.
Q: Does 2KGames now own the Dungeon Siege IP ?
A: No, GPG still owns the IP.
Q: Is Broken World available?
A: Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World was released in early August 2006 in North America, and about a month or so later for localized versions.
Q: What languages is Broken World localized in?
A:
But only sub-titles are localized - all voices are in English.
Q: When does Broken World take place - before or after DS2?
A: Broken World has a new Part (Part 4), picking up a year after DS2 ended and completes the story from DS2.
Q: Does DS2 have to be installed to run Broken World?
A: Yes. The retail version of DS2 needs to be installed.
Q: Do I need to patch Dungeon Siege 2 to a specific version?
A: No. The expansion pack actually runs the DS2 files at v2.3, so no reason to update from the DS2 disks' v2.0 to v2.1 or v2.2. Note that Broken World does not actually _patch_ DS2 to v2.3; DS2 will use the Broken World versions of DS2 files instead of the DS2 versions. If you run DS2 outside of Broken World, it will still be at the DS2 version (v2.0, v2.1 or v2.2).
Q: Do DS2 characters work with Broken World?
A: Directly, no - but you can import them. Broken World is a new map - Part 4 - in the DS2 story. So you can import your parties that have finished DS2. Parties saved in Broken World cannot then be used by the original v2.0 - v2.2 DS2 game ( but they _can_ be used if you run DS2 from within Broken World. The party's items should come with them from Part3 to Part4, although the Journal entries will mostly be lost (learned chants will be retained).
Q: What are some of the new features in Broken World?
A: New monsters, 'sets' and unique items. Reagent recipes. New quests and side-quests. Also, two new classes: Blood Assassin and Fist of Stone, both with new skills and powers and are not race-specific. And new pets.
Q: I heard there's a new playable race in Broken World?
A: Yes, there is: Dwarves.
A newly-created dwarf character can be used for all 4 parts (including DS2), when run from the Broken World EXE. Male dwarves (no females available) have these characteristics:
+1 point in Critical Strike
+1 point in Survival
+1 point in Chant of Stone
+3 Str
+1 Int
Q: Are there any new character roles in Broken World?
A: Yes, there are two new multi-class roles:
- Fist of Stone, a melee fighter with magic akin to Nature magic
- Blood Assassin, an archer with magic akin to Combat magic
Any race and gender can assume these roles. Each of these new roles get 4 unique powers and have new spells. Broken World also allows you to take existing members of your party and remove and re-assign their skill points at the first camp - for a fee.
Q: Are there any new pets?
A: Two - a Pack Ram and the Kohl Beast.
Note:While the manual describes how the Morden-raised Kohl Beasts used as war beasts could wear armor, this applies only to Morden beasts. Pets cannot.
Q: What media format does the expansion pack come in?
A: The expansion pack fits on a single CD.
Q: Will there be another expansion pack?
A: All depends on sales.
Q: Where can I get more information about Broken World?
A: Visit the official forum for discussion and links to news about Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World.
General Gameplay
Q: Do DS2 characters work with Broken World?
A: Yes, if you can import them. Imported characters are _copies_, so the original DS2 versions still exist too.
Q: Do Broken World savegames work with original DS2?
A: No. But you can play the DS2 Parts 1-3 from within Broken World.
Q: Will my stuff be carried over into Broken World's Part 4 when I import?
A: Your "loot" (money, potions, weapons, armor, etc - i.e. inventory items) will carry over, as will items in the storage vault "locker" and spell book. Chants will also carry over. In fact, your whole party will also carry over, not just your created character.
However, most of your journal will not carry over.
Q: Does Broken World alter Parts 1-3 ?
A: You can play Parts 1-3 (the original DS2) from Broken World.
The main advantage is that some re-balancing has been done. There have been no art, terrain or sound changes.
Q: Are there any additional auto-cast slots
A: Yes. In DS2, there were
- 4 Active Spell slots
- 2 Autocast spell slots
- 4 Reserve spell slots
In Broken World - or in DS2 when run from Broken World, you get
- 4 Active Spell slots
- 4 Autocast spell slots
- 2 Reserve spell slots
Q: Are there any new chants in the expansion pack?
A: No, nor are there any old ones to find. If you play Broken World with any of the pre-made characters, you won't be able to chant at all.
If you Import characters from DS2 Parts 1-3 that already know chants, they can still be used and there are 7 shrines sprinkled around that can be used to trigger the chants.
NOTE: The expansion pack does not have any ghosts that you can talk to, so not having the ghost-speaking chant is not a handicap.
Q: Can existing characters change over to the new Fist of Stone or Blood Assassin roles?
A:Of course. You're always free in the DS universe to change how you want the character acts.
In Broken World, you also have the option of un-assigning all your existing skill points, so you can re-assign them. Of course, this costs gold to do, but not a very large amount of gold.
Q: How many "buffs" can be cast on a character?
A:There is still a limit of 2 Nature Magic buffs. However, since Fist of Stone and Blood Assassins are not Nature Mages, an additional 3rd buff can be cast by one of them on a character.
Q: How does "marking" work, with Blood Assassins?
A: You can find spells for them, which are "marking" spells. These are actually buffs.
While the buff is active, hitting any enemy with a ranged weapon will mark them with that spell.
The spell's effects are not active at that time.
If the Blood Assassin then uses the EXECUTE power, all marked enemies will have the spell's effects triggered at the same time.
Files and Multiplayer
Q: Are there any new types of multiplayer in the game?
A: No.
Q: Will Broken World read savegames from Dungeon Siege 2
A: Not directly, no. However, you have the ability to Import DS2 characters into Broken World. The DS2 files will still exist, but new versions will be created that are compatible with Broken World. These Broken World versions cannot then be used in DS2's Part 1-3 _unless_ you run DS2 from within Broken World.
NOTE: If you try to convert a character that has already been converted, you'll get a pop-up warning asking you if you're sure.
Q: Does Broken World use Gamespy ?
A: For Internet and Gamespy multiplayer, yes.
Q: Can people playing multiplayer Broken World play against those playing normal DS2 multiplayer?
A: No. Broken World is v2.3 of DS2, and the multiplayer system is designed to only allow you to
see and select games that have the same version as you have.
If you want to play people who don't have Broken World, you can still launch DS2 directly using the original shortcut.
Q: can the DS2TK be used to mod Broken World?
A: No. DS2TK does not recognize some of the additional, new files and formats added to Broken World.
There are no plans to release an updated DS2TK for Broken World.
Q: Where are savegames stored, in Broken World?
A: \My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World
Q: How come my keyboard settings don't work any more?
A: Keyboard settings for DS2 are stored in
\My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2\Keys
However, Broken World uses a different location for parts 1-4 - key settings
are stored at
\My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World\Keys
You can merely copy the files from the DS2 location to get all your settings accessible again.
Q: Can you change where savegames are saved
A: Yes, using the ds2save= command line parameter for DS2:BW. You would add this to the end of the Target field in the DS2:BW shortcut. For example, if the Target field normally looks like:
D:\ds2bw\DungeonSiege2.exe"
you would add on the command-line parameter and an alternative path
D:\ds2bw\DungeonSiege2.exe" ds2path=D:\DS2_Savegames
Note that this affects all things which normally go into the save folder
Keys\
Logs\
Mods\
Save\
Screenshots\
DungeonSiege2.ini
and the various saves (SinglePlayer, multiplayer, Gamespy) for Broken World.
Technical Issues
Q: When I try to start Broken World I get a Fatal Error about Unable to resolve a critical path
A:The most likely cause for this is that you've moved the DS2 folder since you installed it.
Like with DS2, you can install Broken World in any location. So, Broken World needs to know where the DS2 files are located. When DS2 was installed, it writes its Install path to a registry entry. Broken World looks at that entry as the location to find DS2. If you've moved the DS2 folder somewhere else, then the expansion pack can't find it and you get this error message - as far as the expansion pack can tell, you don't have DS2 installed.
Q: After starting Dungeon Siege II, the game sits on a black screen with quiet background fire sound effect and music instead of the main menu.
A: This normally happens because something external to the game is preventing it from working. These external influences might even be generating a pop-up display, but you can't see it because the game is drawing over the pop-up instead of behind it.
To see if this is the case, right-click on the Broken World shortcut, select Properties and add a space and then the following to the end of the "Target" field:
fullscreen=false
Now save and run the modified shortcut; DSII will run in a window on your desktop, allowing you to see any pop-up window warnings when the halt occurs (if you see nothing, be sure to move the window to look behind it).
For example, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus will pop up a warning that "DSII Application Wants to Access the Internet". Click on "I want to...Grant Access" - this is just establishing a connection to the GameSpy network, in anticipation of a GameSpy-based multiplayer session. Exit the game, delete the modified shortcut, and restart using the normal exe.
Microsoft Windows XP firewall will act in a similar fashion.
Another possibility, if the game was running before and isn't now, is that the \My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2\DungeonSiege2.ini file is corrupt or blank. If that's the case, rename the DungeonSiege2.ini file to Bob.ini (or whatever) and restart DS2 to create a new version. Note that, in this case, the information about your CURRENT character is lost (not the Savegame info, just the Continue button info). Just go into Single Player and your character savegame(s) should be selectable there, instead of the normal Create Character screen.
Q: Are there any built-in diagnostics ?
A: Yes, there is.
Adding the command line arguement
verifydata=true
to the right end of your Target field in your Broken World shortcut will test both the DS2 and BW data files to ensure they are not corrupt. When you start the game, it will (slowly) test each of the games' Resources and Map files. So, be sure to remove the command line arguement after your done!
Dungeon Siege II demo
Modding Your Game
