Interface

Dungeon Siege features a non-intrusive, easy to use interface. Its GUI (Graphical User Interface) features several main areas – the character stats & weapon panel at the top-left corner of the screen, the control bar at the bottom of the screen, and the formation/attack stance control panel at the bottom-right of the screen. In addition, a collapsible compass is featured at the top-right corner of the screen. The mouse interface allows the player to issue various commands, supported by configurable hotkeys. While a player can play through the game with the mouse, use of hotkeys will allow the player to play more efficiently.

Character Stats & Weapon Panel

With this panel you can quickly get an overview of your player’s health and mana levels, as well as select which weapon or spell to use. The weapon slots are configurable via hotkeys 0-9; common weapon hotkeys are: 1 – Melee Weapon, 2 – Range Weapon, 3 – Spell #1, and 4 – Spell #2. When used with multiple party members, the hotkeys allow you to save & recall weapon configuration for your party. For example, you can have players wield different weapons with the pressing of one hotkey.

Each weapon slot feature a bar within it that shows how much experience you have gained in the current level. When the bar reaches the top, you have gained enough experience to advance to the next level in that skill (i.e. Melee for Melee Weapons, Ranged for Ranged Weapons, Nature Magic for nature magic spells, and Combat Magic for combat magic spells)

If you have more than two spells in your spell book, you can choose from the dropdown list that appears when you click-hold on one of the spell slot buttons.

Inventory

When only a single member of your party is selected, opening the inventory (hotkey: I) will also open the character stats panel, along with your magic book (hotkey: B, to show/hide the spells).

Detailed Character Stats

The character stats panel – the first one from the left – presents detailed stats on your character (See picture on the right.) The stats also shows what your damage & armor ratings are. The bottom half of the panel is your “equipment” panel – from here you can drag-and-drop items from your inventory into slots. One feature that could be very helpful is the ability to quickly equip items by right-clicking on it in the inventory.

Inventory

The middle panel is the inventory panel. From here you can arrange your inventory manually by dragging items around, or have the computer auto-arrange it for you by clicking on the button in the upper-left hand corner (the button with the six white boxes). You can see how much gold you have in this panel as well.

Spell Book

The rightmost panel is the active spell book. Each spell book can hold 12 spells, with the top two spells being the ones shown in Spell Slot #1 and Spell Slot #2 in the weapons panel. To put spells into the active spellbook, you can either drag the spell over to the list, or just right click on the spell in the inventory.

Manage Multiple Inventories

You can drag and drop items across different party members’ inventories. To activate this mode, shift-select the members whose inventory you wish to manage, and press “I” to reveal the inventory panel.

The drag-and-drop method also works with mules, as well as shopkeepers.

Stance / Formation Panel

The Stance/Formation panel gives you finer control over what your party members does, as well as formation and miscellaneous party controls.

Stances

The stances cover the areas of movement, attack, and targeting. Unless giving a specific command (to attack, to move, etc.), this is what the party member will do on his own when no commands are issued.

• Movement: Move Freely, Engage, Hold Ground
• Attack: Attack Freely, Defend, Hold Fire
• Targeting: Target Closest, Target Strongest, Target Weakest

Formations

Dungeon Siege comes with the following formations:

	Row Formation
	Double Row Formation
	Column Formation
	Double Column Formation
	Wedge Formation
	Circle Formation

Miscellaneous Controls

	Select all party members
	Disband selected party members. There must be at least one human/dwarf remaining in your party.
	Toggles follow mode for unselected party members
	Collect loot. Have selected party members collect loot. If there is a packmule in the party, loot will be loaded onto the packmule first.

The Bottom Panel

The panel at the bottom gives you the buttons to perform the following functions, listed from left to right. The hotkeys listed are the defaults for the game.

	Pause the game (SPACEBAR)
	Drink health potion (H)
	Drink mana potion (M)
	Show/hide item labels (ALT)
	Show/hide overhead map (TAB)
	Show/hide journal (J)
	Game Options (ESC)

In addition, the middle area of the panel provides additional information about the item/character your mouse pointer is currently over, or about the currently selected character.

The Mouse Interface

Attacks & Movement

• Left-Click on terrain – move
• Right-click-hold on terrain – align formation direction
• Scroll mouse wheel while holding right mouse button – resize formation & align formation direction
• Left-click on enemy – attack
• Right-click on enemy – attack but stand ground
• Left-click on party member – select
• Right-click on party member – cast spell (if a spell is selected)
• Left-click-hold & drag – characters within the rectangle drawn on the screen will be selected
• Left-click on party member portrait – follow & guard party member

Camera Control

• Move mouse to edges – change angle of view
• Scroll mouse wheel – Zoom
• Middle-click-hold – Quick angle view change

Inventory

• Hover over any items to see details about it
• Right click on weapon, armor, ring, or amulet – equip item. If there is already a weapon, amulet, or armor equipped, it’ll swap the items and put the formerly equipped item under your cursor. If all four ring slots are equipped, it will swap the ring with the first ring to the left.
• Right click on spell – Put the spell into your current spellbook if the spellbook isn’t full, or if you do not already have the same spell in the book.
• Right click on spellbook – open that spellbook, but does not put that spellbook into the equipment slot.
• Right click on Potion – drink potion if necessary.
• Left-click on item – pick up item
• CTRL-Left-Click on item – one of three things happen:
  1. If you only have one inventory panel open, that item will drop to the ground
  2. If you have two or more inventory panels open, that item will be moved to the inventory panel to the right, unless there are no more inventory panels to the right. In that case it’ll drop to the ground.
  3. If you are shopping, you will sell that item if the item was in your inventory. You will buy that item if the item was in the shopkeeper’s inventory.
• Left-click-hold – Drag & drop item to move the item around, or transfer to another party member or shopkeeper, or to equip, etc. – you get the idea. Drag and drop rules the day!