Dark Souls II Beta Info

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Bleh, considering that invasions was probably the most annoying thing in Dark Souls it seems i'll be spending most my time in offline mode for this playthrough. Then again, if backstabs aren't so OP'd in this one and if they can't just lagstab your ass then i might be able to enjoy it. Lagstabs was pretty much the only thing i died from when i was invaded in DS1.

The other changes sound good though. Maybe i'll raise attunement over 20 this time!

 

[zarker]

snip

Except you did. For me, the only people I've played against on PC have been hackers or twinks. When you say that I get a lesser experience by playing the way I do, you are essentially saying they make the game better =D

And screw playing offline too. DkS isn't a MMO. It's a single player game with some multiplayer elements so I'll just pick and chose the ones I like. Much better for me that way.

 

[infinity_turtles]

Feels weird seeing people upset about not being able to turn off invasions without also turning off co-op. If you're going to summon a friend, it's 2v1 when you get invaded. Even without the specific covenant, you've got your counter-measure right there. Dark Souls was built and balanced with the online content in mind. Getting help came with the risk of getting invaded. If you could get invaded you could also outnumber the invader.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You can be invaded, but you can also opt into covenants that make sure you have a 2nd player with you so you can always be 2v1 invaders.

Also, you can play offline, just disable your wifi or unplug your cable, tada, no invasions.

No, I know. We've discussed that covenant. That's not a sufficient solution. I don't care about winning/losing the invasions. I care about invasions interrupting what I'm doing at any given time.

As for offline play, also discussed earlier. Online play comes with a great many advantages, most particularly on the atmosphere side of things. That is not a "solution" I would ever care to implement.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

snip

Except you did. For me, the only people I've played against on PC have been hackers or twinks. When you say that I get a lesser experience by playing the way I do, you are essentially saying they make the game better =D

And screw playing offline too. DkS isn't a MMO. It's a single player game with some multiplayer elements so I'll just pick and chose the ones I like. Much better for me that way.

Point out where I said "Twinks and hackers are part of the game and make it better" aside from this sample sentence. Nowhere did I say that. Just because you have only experienced twinks and hackers does not mean we all have. Your experience is not everyone's experience.

You do get a lesser experience when you play offline. You get limited access to a covenant's abilities, you get no messages, no helpful phantoms, no bloodstain hints and no hostile phantoms. As I explained earlier, my internet is not suited for online play. So I've beaten Dark Souls many, many times, offline. I have played it online, too, at a friend's house. There's quite a bit more to the game when you switch online. I'm not speaking about this subjectively, the game has many prevalent online features. Without these online features, you don't get the full Dark Souls experience. Hence, you get a hampered game experience. I'll repeat it once more, just for you:

The online components are a prominent part of the game, like it or not. With the good comes the bad. You can deal with that and play the game as it was intended to be played, or you can play the game offline and forgo the good to get rid of the bad. Just know that you won't get the full Dark Souls experience.

What you think I said and what I actually said are two very different things. It would behoove you to learn the difference.

 

[Riotguards]

biggest problem with having invasions happening regardless of status is the cookie cutter builds

they're the type of people who get satisfaction with being very low levels with powerful gear, same thing happened in the second game with people being able to go all the way to hell and back and still retain the ability to fight the "noobs"

not that i detest that, i myself did it but only to fight people who did the except same thing (except being a total jerk)

it'll be interesting to see how this plays out

 

[zarker]

Point out where I said "Twinks and hackers are part of the game and make it better" aside from this sample sentence. Nowhere did I say that. Just because you have only experienced twinks and hackers does not mean we all have. Your experience is not everyone's experience.

*Facepalm* Really? My experience is just my experience? Who would've thought? When you say that online is the greater experience, which happens to have the hackers and twinks, and that you have to "take the good with the bad" you're trying to tell people to suck it up and deal, otherwise they're having the "inferior" experience. I decided to have the best of both. Why should I have an inferior experience because From can't fix their own game?

The online components are a prominent part of the game, like it or not. With the good comes the bad. You can deal with that and play the game as it was intended to be played, or you can play the game offline and forgo the good to get rid of the bad. Just know that you won't get the full Dark Souls experience.

I do deal with it. I unplug my cable and plug back in =D Zero hassle, I get the most enjoyment, and I get to piss them off. All win, no downsides. I don't have to take the good with bad. You should try it sometime.

PS: I understand you point, I just do not care. It negatively effects my experience so nah.

 

[LetalisK]

The way I see it, that's what this "Way of Blue" is for. If you join, you automatically get help against the invader. Not a perfect solution, but it's something. If From Soft can create another viable method of stopping PvP from happening for players that don't want it 24/7, then by all means. What I'm trying to say is that I don't believe hollow form should be your reprieve from PvP. That incentivizes anyone that's tired of PvP to go into a form that is, narratively, very bad and was never meant to be something to consider as a good way to play, in the first place. It creates a rift in gameplay and narrative that just doesn't connect. The very thing people repeatedly slapped Tomb Raider in the nuts for.

I hear that, and it's a reasonable observation. I just want to hear about a way to mitigate invasions beyond Way of Blue, or I'm likely going to be giving Dark Souls II a very long pass. Not because I don't like PvP...I do. I play DOTA for heavens sake. I play SC2. I was a big DAOC fan. I just like it when I like it. And "when I like it" is very, very seldom in the middle of a Dark Souls game.

Well, there's always the technique I used for dealing with invasions in DS.

Stand out in the open, wait until they approach, wave, then pull your internet cable.

Most fun I ever had with with the DS PvP elements.

Did you ever get message flaming for that?

 

[Souplex]

If they made it so you can be invaded while hollow, they better have fixed the online so that you can't get backstabbed from any side.
Hopefully dedicated servers will address this.
I like the idea of a bodyguard covenant.
Slower combat sounds nice.
I was happy with Dexterity affecting casting time, but so long as there's a separate stat that affects cast speed.
Why would they bother tweaking parrying. Parrying is such an inconsequential part of the game. Greatshields can't parry. Why would anyone bother?
More aggressive enemies sounds nice.
Time limits on white phantoms makes me sad.
Edit: I read online that every death while hollow shaves a small chunk of max health until you become human again. This combined with constant invasions makes me disapprove.
I'd rather they just made a pvp arena that was accessible from early in the game than made invasions such a big thing.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Hooray. I better start practicing how to quit the game very quickly, since I don't have an ethernet cable to unplug. And limited timing on the white phantoms? Joy of joys, so you even playing co-op with a friend requires jumping through hoops.

I guess they thought they hadn't built up enough of a hostile environment the first times around, and after shitty camera angles, jump scares, and instakills, the only path left available was removing more control of the experience from the players.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I like the idea of being invaded while hollow. Farming humanity from rats is incredibly dull. I'd like less of a barrier to invading and more opportunities to be invaded so that people are able to invade when they're at low levels and think it would encourage more equal PvP.

 

[Weaver]

1) Biggest thing to take away from this is that it appears being hollow won't stop invasions. You can now be invaded at any time regardless if hollow or in human form. This makes sense since they are trying to play up the online mode due to now having dedicated servers.

Bleargh. That sounds dreadful. I didn't mind invasions, but I enjoyed them on a limited basis and as an accepted risk when I wasn't hollow. This will absolutely shred the atmosphere of the game for me.

Interest in Dark Souls 2...plummeting...

Yeah, I agree. I'm not very good at the game (I also, generally, play games while drinking). It's fine around release dates, but if you play it a year down the line the only people left doing invasions are people who decided to beat the game at level 5, acquire amazing gear, and just troll newbies for fun. Staying hollow was the one way to avoid this (besides just unplugging your internet).

 

[Mikejames]

I like the idea of getting a little more creative with covenants, but time limits on summons? Not sure on that one.

1) Biggest thing to take away from this is that it appears being hollow won't stop invasions. You can now be invaded at any time regardless if hollow or in human form. This makes sense since they are trying to play up the online mode due to now having dedicated servers.

Can't say I'm really a fan of this change. I liked staying hollow at low levels so that I didn't have to deal with twinkers with lightning weapons and pyromancy in the Burg.

Still, I'm really looking forward to Dark Souls II. I just hope something is done about this...

Without a bonfire going hollow was the closest thing I had to a pause button...

 

[Broderick]

Hooray. I better start practicing how to quit the game very quickly, since I don't have an ethernet cable to unplug. And limited timing on the white phantoms? Joy of joys, so you even playing co-op with a friend requires jumping through hoops.

I guess they thought they hadn't built up enough of a hostile environment the first times around, and after shitty camera angles, jump scares, and instakills, the only path left available was removing more control of the experience from the players.

I understand the sentiment, but I want to inquire a few things about your statement. Where were there jump scares or instakills in Dark Souls? The only place I could even think of having a "jump scare" type of environment would be The Tomb of the Giants but that is just me. There are only two things that can instakill you in the game, and that would be getting cursed, and falling into a bottomless pit(or falling too far). Everything else you can either avoid, or mitigate. Were there more you encountered? If there was, I figure you just were too low of a level for the area, but I am running off of little information here.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Hooray. I better start practicing how to quit the game very quickly, since I don't have an ethernet cable to unplug. And limited timing on the white phantoms? Joy of joys, so you even playing co-op with a friend requires jumping through hoops.

I guess they thought they hadn't built up enough of a hostile environment the first times around, and after shitty camera angles, jump scares, and instakills, the only path left available was removing more control of the experience from the players.

I understand the sentiment, but I want to inquire a few things about your statement. Where were there jump scares or instakills in Dark Souls? The only place I could even think of having a "jump scare" type of environment would be The Tomb of the Giants but that is just me. There are only two things that can instakill you in the game, and that would be getting cursed, and falling into a bottomless pit(or falling too far).

That was mostly intended to be a wry joke, but yes, those were plenty to build up a hostile environment where anything could kill you (along with moments like first encountering the silver knight dragon archers, the two places where the bridge wyvern can kill you immediately, and jump scares like getting jumped by thieves in the lower burg or those hanging worm monsters and demon statues in Izalith).

Not saying you can't mitigate those (I beat the game, I know better), just saying they were part of building up a hostile environment where you have to be on your toes...with the followup joke being that, having already tried that, the creators are doing the only thing left they can think of to make DS even more hostile.

 

[Broderick]

Hooray. I better start practicing how to quit the game very quickly, since I don't have an ethernet cable to unplug. And limited timing on the white phantoms? Joy of joys, so you even playing co-op with a friend requires jumping through hoops.

I guess they thought they hadn't built up enough of a hostile environment the first times around, and after shitty camera angles, jump scares, and instakills, the only path left available was removing more control of the experience from the players.

I understand the sentiment, but I want to inquire a few things about your statement. Where were there jump scares or instakills in Dark Souls? The only place I could even think of having a "jump scare" type of environment would be The Tomb of the Giants but that is just me. There are only two things that can instakill you in the game, and that would be getting cursed, and falling into a bottomless pit(or falling too far).

That was mostly intended to be a wry joke, but yes, those were plenty to build up a hostile environment where anything could kill you (along with moments like first encountering the silver knight dragon archers, the two places where the bridge wyvern can kill you immediately, and jump scares like getting jumped by thieves in the lower burg or those hanging worm monsters and demon statues in Izalith).

Not saying you can't mitigate those (I beat the game, I know better), just saying they were part of building up a hostile environment where you have to be on your toes...with the followup joke being that, having already tried that, the creators are doing the only thing left they can think of to make DS even more hostile.

Ah okay heh. It was just said so....straight; hard to tell it was supposed to be somewhat of a joke. You really never know on this site heh. At any rate, I never really thought of the thieves or the worms as jump scares, or at least designed that way. That it an interesting interpretation though.

While I am not exactly looking forward to tons more "forced" pvp, at least I know that they wont know the areas much better than I will(at first anyways), so that should be interesting. Also I assume that there will be an internal "invasion cooldown" much like in the first Dark Souls, so players shouldn't be invaded all the time anyways.

captcha: Which is a day? One of the selections was Bill Clinton. I was tempted to pick it.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Ah okay heh. It was just said so....straight; hard to tell it was supposed to be somewhat of a joke. You really never know on this site heh.

Eh...guess I was probably saying it a little too straight, by accident, since I genuinely did start to hate Dark Souls about halfway through.

Not for the difficulty or tense moments like those, though. In fact, I'm actually interested in seeing what DS2 will throw at me on that score.

While I am not exactly looking forward to tons more "forced" pvp, at least I know that they wont know the areas much better than I will(at first anyways), so that should be interesting. Also I assume that there will be an internal "invasion cooldown" much like in the first Dark Souls, so players shouldn't be invaded all the time anyways.

There was something like that? I only managed to keep my humanity a fraction of the time, I never knew. Got invaded by red phantoms a few times, but most of my negative PvP experience came from being a blue phantom, myself (still experienced enough to consider permanent invasion status a turnoff).

Also, I don't remember, did they say we'll be able to summon white phantoms while hollow?

captcha: Which is a day? One of the selections was Bill Clinton. I was tempted to pick it.

Sounds very Zen.

 

[Broderick]

Ah okay heh. It was just said so....straight; hard to tell it was supposed to be somewhat of a joke. You really never know on this site heh.

Eh...guess I was probably saying it a little too straight, by accident, since I genuinely did start to hate Dark Souls about halfway through.

Not for the difficulty or tense moments like those, though. In fact, I'm actually interested in seeing what DS2 will throw at me on that score.

While I am not exactly looking forward to tons more "forced" pvp, at least I know that they wont know the areas much better than I will(at first anyways), so that should be interesting. Also I assume that there will be an internal "invasion cooldown" much like in the first Dark Souls, so players shouldn't be invaded all the time anyways.

There was something like that? I only managed to keep my humanity a fraction of the time, I never knew. Got invaded by red phantoms a few times, but most of my negative PvP experience came from being a blue phantom, myself (still experienced enough to consider permanent invasion status a turnoff).

Also, I don't remember, did they say we'll be able to summon white phantoms while hollow?

captcha: Which is a day? One of the selections was Bill Clinton. I was tempted to pick it.

Sounds very Zen.

Yes there was, but I forgot exactly how long it lasted(wiki says around 10 minutes). I do know that there is an item that alters the time however. It was a finger, and using it removed the cooldown, so you could be invaded almost directly after killing an invader(this cooldown is why if you killed an invader, you never got invaded directly afterward). Here is the item, and more information about the cooldown

Spoiler

http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Dried_Finger

 

[Norithics]

This could be a really neat addition, provided two things:

1. They fix the awful network issues. The fact that I could be punished because despite my great internet service, my opponent was connected to me via dixie cup telegraph was pretty irritating. Hopefully the dedicated servers will mitigate this to some degree, because those twenty-foot backstabs aren't game-enhancing, no matter how charitable you try to be. And,

2. That they repair the problem with twinks. I get that there'll be hackers. I know who they are; they were my stupid friends in middle school with the shaved heads and buck teeth that thought that shoving cherry bombs in mailboxes was a political statement. I've seen the enemy and he is Drake. But there's no excuse for letting your game's own mechanics be exploited to ruin the experience of virtually every player past a certain timeframe. It's 2013, patch it in so I can't be invaded by a same-level invader whose Butt Lightning Hand Dagger one-shots me, or whose total defense would take me twenty full minutes to cut through. Or at least check if I've also got the Butt Lightning Hand Axe +9 or whatever. There are numbers there, make 'em work.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Just so long as they get rid of the hackers and balance out the invasions to avoid twinks, I'm absolutely down with everything including the always online they're implementing. Especially more depth for the covenants, a revamped emphasis on gravelording and coop based covenants would make for some fun and intense PVE.

Funny that too, before these announcement the complaints of "There should be an offline mode!" were increasing. The funny part: From's solution to this is to add a second invasion slot, a timer for phantoms, and forced online unless manually offline prior system. (Maybe they saw DSP's playthrough of Demon's Souls and thought "You know what, people like him should not play games like this, lets stop him"... just a theory.)

In other words From wants people to GIT GUD or go home. Ouch.