crpgnut, I'm telling you so much fun with exploration I didn't have for years.
Okay in Dishonored I did, but definetly not this much.

Took me 72 hours to finish the game where I tried to explore just about every possible spot and NPC - after that when I returned to check things (for suspected bug threads, item questions and etc) found even more stuff I've missed, believe it or not.
And that's the reason I'm replaying it instantly (paralelly with KB4 though).

I'm not saying the game is a masterpiece, but on the point of exploration it delivered!

Exploration is indeed fun - but the number of 'intricate lock' chests is not. If I kill a powerful monster, I expect to get loot - and good loot. I shouldn't have to learn uber lock picking to get my reward. Surely if you explore, finding chests etc should reward that? And the fact that you can't bash them makes it more frustrting. I have basic lock-picking, but I reckon 90% of chest require more.

Of yourse you shouldn't!

As I've said in one of previous posts, improve dexterity as fast as possible to 60 and stop there.
Train two levels of lockpicking, it's not utterly expensive and will up it on 80. Don't bother with mastery, it adds 10 more, but you need to have base attribute of 90 for it. Besides when you up dexteritiy to 105 with permapots, what use would you have from lockpicking 135 when most difficult locks are 120?

In the meantime you'll find jewelry that improves lockpicking +10 just about anywhere, which means you'll have 110 lockpicking in no time. Those things you'll just sell after maxing dexterity.
Yes you'll have to return for some chests, so what.

EDIT:
Uggh, this now looks totally… Crappy. I'll try to make it better.

Each point in dexterity means also a point in your lockpicking.
So you start with 10 dexterity which also means 10 lockpicking.
When you boost your dexterity with glory on 60, that means you'll also have 60 in lockpicking.

In the meantime you can train lockpicking skill three times. Each time you get +10 on lockpicking skill. The third time you need to have dexterity on 90. Which means to be able to open all locks all you need is dexterity 90 and all three levels of lockpicking trained (90+30=120).
But there is no reason to go past 60 in dexterity nor to train lockpicking more than two times because you can equip three items with different skill bonuses on you. Which means from just jewelry you can get +30 lockpicking bonus. And later you'll have potions that improve dexterity +5.
Hopefully it is now more understandable.

I haven't found the lockpicking items yet, but I've not really looked hard. You're going to/already have write down where all the important 90+ chests are so I haven't really worried about it. I use rust instead of dexterity anyway and I can probably get Crystal Magic over 100 if I try. I know I have 60,000-ish in unused glory so that should bump it up a little. I think my rust is 95 atm and that includes jewelry and the cadet hat.

You mean chests worth returning for (recipes, schematics, best weapons)?
Sure, I'm writing them down even if the difficulty is just 10.
Chests with just cash or random to-sell loot I'm skipping. There are even 120 difficulty chests with jewelry, ore or mediocre weapons.

How do you make potions? Is there a lab or bench? Or can you make them anywhere? How does it work?

You can cook them in a cauldron or mix on a laboratory table.
But first you need to train "brew potions" skill.
Of course, for anything you want to make, you need to have a recipe in your inventory.

Once you get the big ship, you'll have apparatus needed for any crafting in the deck below. Till then you may use any cauldron or laboratory elsewhere (in Kila natives' village for example, or in mages' camp basement).

There are several workbenches for crafting, alchemy, voodoo, etc.

Thanks. I just got the brew training. Don't have any recipes though.

Steal, loot or buy some. ;)
Till then, make sure you pick every useful herb you see. You'll need them.

I got crystal magic at 145, so I'll be opening all the chests from now on. I've only fully explored Taranis, but I'm pretty much done with Calador and Crab Coast, but I haven't done the side islands and those generally have some good loot. I haven't found the recipe for Magic yet and I just used the ranged and melee potions even though my skill was only 10. Didn't see the need to bump those up as I don't use them. I might eventually raise melee enough to take Battle Mage.

For someone not getting the excitement , you're playing a lot of it….

Yep, found my 2nd wind thanks to a couple of tips from Joxer and Maylander. I've been on all the islands now except Kila. Might finish the game this weekend, then I'll move to either the PoE beta or perhaps the early access build of Heretic Kingdoms. I see you login into the game most nights as well, or is that Daijer….

You see me login to other games…
:)

I was playing X-Com a few weeks ago for a while. Then I did some Total War and then some Age of Decadence and Europa Universalis 4.

Probably my favorite PB game. It's so… weird. Bones is a complete freak. The voice over work is… weird. Weird is the word that keeps popping into my head about this game.

Almost every NPC is a middle-aged balding guy. You are invincible when rolling, and you can roll/dodge infinitely.

"Tem-PULL"
"I'm going to make a hat out of your skin"

Weird. But fun.

And you're of course fighting skeletons. :D

I have played just about every night. And about to resume in about half an hour. I just beat the Iron Gollum Boss monster in Tarania. And Now I am preparing for what appears to be the final battle.

I kinda like this game but the Boss Monster fights are not enduring me to this game. It's not as bad as Risen 1, but all this arcardy stuff is annoying. In particular because the game engine is not good at handling those type of sequences.

When the game is acting like a regular RPG, the game ranks in the High 8 range in particular since each faction has magic, which is cool and you have flying. But when the game tries to go into all its mini games and arcardy boss fight sequences . . . well, I can see why folks are not getting the excitement.

You still have longer to go than you're probably expecting. :)

The one thing weirdness I remember was the non-lethal fights that the game would push you into now and again - ie duels. I could live with whacking someone with a sword in a non-lethal fight… but then the finishing moves where you run them through and slash their throats? That seems a bit off :)

Angy Joe posted a video that is completely merciless on Risen 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oXXA3WRNX4