Dark Souls II - I'll remember you forever, Lucille.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dark Souls II - I'll remember you forever, Lucille.

Small and Blue: Apr 24, 2008

Rhjamiz posted:

I'm waffling between either power stanced bleed or poison falchions and rapier stuff for PVP. Bleed falchions have served me well and while I like the idea of poison it doesn't proc fast enough on falchions for my taste. I really enjoy rapiers for that ability to punish and stunlock folks to death, but gently caress me they track really poorly.

Bleed is pretty much garbage. Poison is slightly less garbage but poison infused regular weapons are pretty bad at inflicting it as you said. IMHO go either with powerstanced uninfused falchions or a falchion on one hand and a rapier on the other.

# ? Jan 14, 2015 22:27

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 04:01

Zaphod42: Sep 13, 2012; If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Genocyber posted:

Was looking at VaatiVidya's recent videos to see if he made anything interesting when I found his demo of a game that's gonna come out sometime this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLkHA-W8KFA

Holy poo poo it looks so good.

Some of it looks mixed, but overall it looks very good, yeah. Wow, I'm pretty excited for this.

I actually started making my own 2D Dark Souls game, but it proved to be too much work so I slimmed it down into something more like Smash Bros :cheeky:

Hopefully Vaati is a better dev than I.

Yolomon Wayne posted:

Someone said that even if scaling went from A to Z it wouldnt be enough since there could be an increment between two of those.
And what i meant is, if you develop a scaling where 26 increments arent enough, then maybe the scaling system isnt as thought out as it could be.

Many many many games have scaling systems with way way less than 26 increments.
Theres no way to defend a scaling where base "S" and infused "S" are +140 and +82.
Labeling a C as "less than S" is like labeling quarters as "George Washington memoriam prints" and selling them for a dollar.
The game sells quarters for a dollar and some people defend that.

Labeling a C scaling as *less than* S is not being obtuse, thats fraud.

You don't seem to have understood me last time, so I'm not going to go on trying to explain it to you any further, would just be going around in circles.
But you're totally, completely bonkers.

Psst if you want to find out why you're wrong, read my last post again and this time read it more carefully.

Mighty Dicktron posted:

Why are you talking with Yolomon "Dark Souls 2 is a fraudulent money-sapping operation" Wayne

Hahaha, he said what?

Yolomon Wayne posted:

Im happy you enjoy buying quarters for a dollar.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jan 14, 2015

# ? Jan 14, 2015 22:47

SHISHKABOB: Nov 30, 2012; Fun Shoe

Vanderdeath posted:

So, my computer exploded and I found out that Dark Souls 2's saves aren't Steam Cloud compatible. Does anyone have a NG+ save they could share? Any class or build is okay by me.

Sure, if you tell me how to find them and what the file is. I think I found them though, is it called DARKSII0000.sl2? That's the only file in there.

# ? Jan 14, 2015 23:14

Meis: Sep 2, 2011

So I should make a havel-hex ninja? Got it!

Tbh I dont care about being good at pvp so id rather make gimmick builds or mimic popular ones. Or maybe trick people by pretending to be unarmed, dress up as npcs, etc...

# ? Jan 14, 2015 23:19

Meis: Sep 2, 2011

I got 2 channeller tridents so I gave one to a friend and we're going to go belfry and spam the 2 handed dance at people

# ? Jan 14, 2015 23:22

Kite Pride Worldwide: Apr 20, 2009

I don't understand people who say that the current game systems are still too obfuscated; if anything, I think they're too clear. Half the fun of the Souls series is the bizarre dreamlike atmosphere and obfuscating game mechanics really helps with the feel, gameplay be damned. I'm not saying we need to go back to Demon Souls with its completely random ascension levels and 15 types of upgrade materials, but I think Dark Souls 1 had the perfect mix of clarity and confusion and it made the entire experience a lot more fun.

# ? Jan 14, 2015 23:55

Chuch: Jun 28, 2003; A very good doggo

I'm playing through the Ivory King DLC again, this time as a INT/Sorcery focused character, and one thing that's really annoying me about this DLC in particular is that it seems to force you into one specific play style. My spells are nearly worthless, and even the melee weapons that I use with this build that absolutely wreck things in the main game (Magic mace, Black Knight GS, Watcher GS) do subpar damage in Ivory King. Pancaking stuff with the large club +8 that I found has been way more effective even though my character barely has enough strength to two-hand it.

I really like the layout and bosses of this DLC (Frigid Outskirts notwithstanding) but having to default to a pure-physical UGS/large strike weapon every time regardless of my build is starting to make it grow stale.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 00:20

Sapozhnik: Jan 2, 2005; Nap Ghost

It's more to do with the fact that UGSes trivialize everything by stunlocking everything (that isn't a boss). Being able to stunlock an enemy is as good as oneshotting that enemy.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 00:46

Neo_Crimson: Aug 15, 2011; "Is that your final dandy?"

So, I've been hearing people trading items to other players. How do you do this? I thought all the multiplayer in this game was random and uncontrollable?

# ? Jan 15, 2015 01:29

flowinprose: Sep 11, 2001; Where were you? .... when they built that ladder to heaven...

Neo_Crimson posted:

So, I've been hearing people trading items to other players. How do you do this? I thought all the multiplayer in this game was random and uncontrollable?

If you are within the acceptable soul memory ranges, using the name engraved ring makes it very easy to be summoned by only a specific person.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 01:32

Zaphod42: Sep 13, 2012; If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Neo_Crimson posted:

So, I've been hearing people trading items to other players. How do you do this? I thought all the multiplayer in this game was random and uncontrollable?

Put on name engraved ring and pick one of the obscure gods. If you get summoned, switch to a different god, like two spies changing frequencies until they find an open channel. If you get summoned by the wrong person, use black soapstone and then try again. Its not hard though, especially these days now that fewer people are active.

All you have to do is drop an item (not destroy) while in co-op and the other person can pick it up like normal loot. It works both ways too IIRC, not just phantom -> host. But there's no "trade" officially so its all on the honor system, only do it with people you trust.

You also have to have characters within soul memory range of each other, which scales the higher it goes.

In theory though you could kinda cheat items from late in the game to a new character by leapfrogging it through several middle leveled characters in trades, but it'd be a huge hassle so nobody really cares.

Dark Souls 2 is actually pretty easy to co-op with a specific friend, as opposed to Dark Souls 1. Its really handy.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 02:35

Kaiju Cage Match: Nov 5, 2012

Small and Blue posted:

Bleed is pretty much garbage. Poison is slightly less garbage but poison infused regular weapons are pretty bad at inflicting it as you said. IMHO go either with powerstanced uninfused falchions or a falchion on one hand and a rapier on the other.

A poison-infused Channeler's Trident can catch people off guard.

That R1, man.

(and I got killed by a dude powerstancing bleed-infused Bandit Knives once :smith:

)

# ? Jan 15, 2015 03:08

lobotomy molo: May 7, 2007; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Notes for next month's Scholar of the First Sin patch just went online.

quote:

-Added new character, The Scholar of the First Sin.
-Additional item description text.
-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now allow enemies to continue to respawn after being defeated.
-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now cause enemies to inflict more damage to the player.
-Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected.
-Increased effect of Rusted Coin.
-Awestones now dropped more often.
-The bonfire warp selection screen will now highlight the top three areas where players will have the best change to connect with other players online.
-White phantoms will remain in other players' worlds for longer periods of time.
-White phantoms will no longer return to their world if time runs out during a boss battle.
-Players on their first play through can now match with players on their 2nd or further play through.
-Made it easier for players to match online in general.
-Made it so that invading players cannot use items which invite more enemies.
-NPC conversation text is now displayed more prominently than online notices.
-Players may now choose to cancel out the effect of the Human Effigy at bonfires.
-When a player cannot take part in online play due to the effect of the Human Effigy, made it so that the player can still write signs. (They still cannot summon during this period.)
-The Imitation spell now affects normal enemies.
-The Hush spell is now more effective on normal enemies.
-Load times shortened (PS3 only).
-Calibrations no longer saved each time before the title screen.
-Fixed issue causing map name listed on save data and actual map name after loading to not match.
-Made it possible to skip the ending sequence the 2nd time through and beyond.
-Removed the blur effect used when looking through the binoculars.
-Rouge Water, etc.: Fixed issue causing the user not to recover spell usages for spells only able to be used once.
-Made Old Iron King's Crown's effect function consistently throughout the game.
-Adjusted price for Crown of the Ivory King, Ivory King Armor, Ivory King Gauntlets, Ivory King Leggings.
-Fixed Issue whereby the sign in the Iron Keep was not displayed as intended once the player spoke to Lucatiel of Mirrah in Harvest Valley.
-Corrected issue whereby users could not use Bonfire Ascetics at Undead Crypt Entrance Bonfire.
-Adjusted timing for Licia of Lindeldt to become the player's enemy.
-Adjusted conditions for lighting Majula map from "Defeat Nashandra" to "Defeat Throne Defender and Throne Watcher."
-To prevent invasion after defeating area bosses, made the Human Effigy effect function in this situation automatically.
-Made it possible to get the reward items after defeating area bosses even if your inventory is full at the time. (Items will drop in front of the player.)
-Made it possible to get the reward items after using Crushed Eye Orb and defeating Licia of Lindeldt even if your inventory is full at the time. (Items will drop in front of the player.)
-In Black Gulch, made it possible to receive Forgotten Key after defeating a Giant when the player has 99 Souls of a Giant.
-In Grand Cathedral, made it possible to still receive the item you are supposed to get when talking to Alsanna, Silent Oracle even if your inventory is full.
-At the Ending, if the player has fulfilled the conditions to receive Illusory Ring of a Conqueror and Illusory Ring of the Exalted but their inventory is full, made it possible to receive the rings properly. (Players will receive the rings as soon as space is opened in their inventory.)
-Adjusted rewards in online play:
(Normal Online Play)
-Host vanquishes invading dark phantom or arbiter spirit: Human Effigy
-Host vanquishes a dark phantom summoned through red sign: Human Effigy
-Host vanquishes invading grey spirit (Bell Keeper): (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.
-Vanquish host you invade at the covenant "Rat King" area: Added Smooth & Silky Stone in addition to Pharros' Lockstone
(Covenant "Blue Sentinels")
-Vanquish dark phantom when summoned as help by a Way of Blue host: Devotion to covenant up +1.
(Covenant "Rat King")
-Vanquish client summoned to Rat King area: Added Smooth & Silky Stone in addition to Pharros' Lockstone.
(Covenant "Bell Keeper")
-Vanquish host when invading as grey phantom: (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.
(Covenant "Pilgrims of Dark")
-Host vanquishes abyss spirit in Dark Chasm of Old: added Human Effigy to Bonfire Ascetic.
(Covenant "Brotherhood of Blood")
-When invading, vanquish Blue Sentinel summoned as help: Devotion to covenant up +2.
Scheduled maintenance for this update (Xbox 360, PS3, Steam):
2/4 6:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST
2/4 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
2/4 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM GMT
2/4 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM CET
2/4 11:00 PM - 2:00 AM 2/5 JST
Thank you everyone for your continued support of Dark Souls II!

Source

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:05

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

quote:

-Increased effect of Rusted Coin.

Thank god, it really could have used a buff from the flat 1% increase it normally gives and the fact that it does not stack with other buffs including other luck ups and multiples of itself. Seriously. The thing's a placebo.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:08

Tae: Oct 24, 2010; Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

quote:

-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now cause enemies to inflict more damage to the player.

As opposed to..what, exactly?

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:10

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Tae posted:

As opposed to..what, exactly?

Presumably they changed it from increasing the damage the player takes (independant of armor) to increasing the damage done by enemies, which is a small but distinct difference. Or the other way around. Whatever it is, I am assuming that bullet point means they flipped it to the opposite.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:12

Kite Pride Worldwide: Apr 20, 2009

I'm hyped about a way to lock your SM for PVP, but I wish you could just have it absorb all souls (or not have soul memory at all), but hey, anything's a start. I also dig a way to make enemies not despawn.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:14

Jerusalem: May 20, 2004; Would you be my new best friends?

You can fill up your inventory?

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:16

King of Solomon: Oct 23, 2008; S S

That soul absorbing ring is loving rad. I appreciate that it's there. Shame it'll take up a ring slot, but now you can stop yourself from running into max level Havels.

Patch Notes posted:

(Covenant "Bell Keeper")
-Host vanquishes invading grey spirit (Bell Keeper): (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.

This is a really cool change. The equivalent change to Bellbros is also pretty neat.

Patch Notes posted:

(Covenant "Blue Sentinels")
-Vanquish dark phantom when summoned as help by a Way of Blue host: Devotion to covenant up +1.
[...]
(Covenant "Brotherhood of Blood")
-When invading, vanquish Blue Sentinel summoned as help: Devotion to covenant up +2.

This isn't the change those covenants needed to be less broken, but at least they're trying?

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:16

see you tomorrow: Jun 27, 2009

So chunks are now going to be uhhh harder to get and you'll have a bunch of twinkling titanite and other stuff you don't necessarily want instead? :geno:

I mean cool you don't have to run all the way to the end of the game to get that stuff but like what if I just want chunks

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:19

Owl Inspector: Sep 14, 2011

quote:

To prevent invasion after defeating area bosses, made the Human Effigy effect function in this situation automatically.

Not what I expected but this is cool.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:23

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Meis posted:

so what is, according to popular opinion, the most annoying pvp build out there nowdays? I remember giantdads in dark souls 1, what is their spiritual successor in this game?

Smelter Helm*, Jester Chest, Havel boots and gloves.

Right hand holds Dark Chaos Blade, left hand holds Black Witch Staff.

Build is a Dex build with put into Int/Fth/Atn that you can cast dark weapon on your Dark Chaos Blade and maybe one more slot of Dark Orb just so you have a ranged option to spam. You can also cast Denial or some other bodybuff to be even more of a turd.

It's worse than The Legend because a lot of people were Giantdading organically and you could beat them pretty easily especially if you at all knew how to parry. This "build" is pure autistic selection of everything that is The Best and using it in The Best Way. For terribleness it's about on par with the whole "falchion + Dark Moon Blade, two hand and spam R1" build in DS1. It's absolutely brainless, requires no skill or that you adapt to different types of foes, you just run around while locked on and when they get reasonably close hit R1 three times. If they move far away you can spam dark orb and hope the lag makes them hard to dodge or do the running attack on your katana which hits like 120 degrees in front of you and has almost as much phantom range as it has regular range.

I sometimes see it being referred to as Havelclown, but the weapons aren't fixed for a Havelclown the way the Zwei was for The Legend.

*A really dedicated piece of poo poo will use the Mad Warrior Helm to show the world that he has the autism to farm it and the lack of taste to think it looks FUKKEN AMAZEN BRO

quote:

Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected.

They used my idea :3:

quote:

(Covenant "Bell Keeper")
-Vanquish host when invading as grey phantom: (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.
-Host vanquishes invading grey spirit (Bell Keeper): (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.

Bellbro for life, bellbro all day and all night, bellbro until the break of dawn.

raton fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Jan 15, 2015

# ? Jan 15, 2015 06:42

Meatsicle: Sep 11, 2001; by FactsAreUseless

Alabaster White posted:

I'm hyped about a way to lock your SM for PVP, but I wish you could just have it absorb all souls (or not have soul memory at all), but hey, anything's a start. I also dig a way to make enemies not despawn.

Seriously, why not just absorb all souls? So if you're farming for poo poo in your own world, you still gain souls. So many of From's decisions defy logic.

quote:

(Covenant "Blue Sentinels")
-Vanquish dark phantom when summoned as help by a Way of Blue host: Devotion to covenant up +1.
[...]
(Covenant "Brotherhood of Blood")
-When invading, vanquish Blue Sentinel summoned as help: Devotion to covenant up +2.

Still no real incentive to invade other than the fun of it (which is incentive enough, but tangible rewards are nice). At the very least, just let the loving invasion covenant rank up by killing hosts.

edit: And now I'm forced to grind out orbs in the arena if I want to "lock" my SM.

Meatsicle fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Jan 15, 2015

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:26

Genocyber: Jun 4, 2012

quote:

The Imitation spell now affects normal enemies.

I imagine this is referring to Chameleon, and that's pretty interesting.

quote:

To prevent invasion after defeating area bosses, made the Human Effigy effect function in this situation automatically.

This decision is loving stupid as hell. Not being able to be invaded after killing a boss, without any choice in the matter, is really really dumb.

quote:

Vanquish host when invading as grey phantom: (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.

That's pretty awesome. The fact that red invaders do not get a cracked orb for killing a host, or anything for that matter, is dumb as hell.

The Agape Ring thing is also pretty dumb. Only affecting souls gained from other players is really dumb, since it means you still have no control over your SM increasing if you're just progressing through further ng+'s. It should really affect all soul gains.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:35

Sapozhnik: Jan 2, 2005; Nap Ghost

quote:

-Made it so that invading players cannot use items which invite more enemies.

..... wha? what items is this referring to exactly

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:39

Feonir: Mar 30, 2011; Ask me about aquatic cocaine transportation and by-standard management.

Mr Dog posted:

..... wha? what items is this referring to exactly

The skulls that lure undead to them more than likely.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:42

Stick Figure Mafia: Dec 11, 2004

Genocyber posted:

This decision is loving stupid as hell. Not being able to be invaded after killing a boss, without any choice in the matter, is really really dumb.

For reals I thought this was already the case.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:44

Meatsicle: Sep 11, 2001; by FactsAreUseless

Genocyber posted:

That's pretty awesome. The fact that red invaders do not get a cracked orb for killing a host, or anything for that matter, is dumb as hell.

The Agape Ring thing is also pretty dumb. Only affecting souls gained from other players is really dumb, since it means you still have no control over your SM increasing if you're just progressing through further ng+'s. It should really affect all soul gains.

Didn't From admit that SM didn't work out the way they hoped? Just scrap the loving system and go back to SL matchmaking. It worked just fine for DeS and DkS and a "re-release" is the perfect time to make such a big change. Twinking is such a stupid non-issue to be concerned about anyway.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:46

Genocyber: Jun 4, 2012

Meatsicle posted:

Didn't From admit that SM didn't work out the way they hoped? Just scrap the loving system and go back to SL matchmaking. It worked just fine for DeS and DkS and a "re-release" is the perfect time to make such a big change. Twinking is such a stupid non-issue to be concerned about anyway.

If we're lucky the re-release will have it.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 07:49

Zaphod42: Sep 13, 2012; If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

quote:

Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now allow enemies to continue to respawn after being defeated.
-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now cause enemies to inflict more damage to the player.
-Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected.
-The bonfire warp selection screen will now highlight the top three areas where players will have the best change to connect with other players online.
-White phantoms will remain in other players' worlds for longer periods of time.
-White phantoms will no longer return to their world if time runs out during a boss battle.
-Players on their first play through can now match with players on their 2nd or further play through.
-Made it easier for players to match online in general.

Holy poo poo this is amazing.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 08:42

Bugblatter: Aug 4, 2003

Nice that we won't have to burn through ascetics to harvest stuff like the hiede knight set anymore.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 09:28

IGgy IGsen: Apr 11, 2013; "If I lose I will set myself on fire."

Overall, the changes coming up with the next patch are for the better rather than the worse in my opinion. There's a couple weird decisions though, like not being able to be invaded after defeating an area boss. I hope the human effigy effect they mean only lasts for 30 minutes after the boss is defeated to prevent people from being invaded when running to the next bonfire. Then again, when has that ever been an issue for anyone? It'll probably be forever like in Dark Souls. Which is dumb. I'm not even into PvP but I like to have the option to do it at any time without having to worry about having killed any given boss.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:07

Yolomon Wayne: Jun 10, 2014; You call it "The Big Bang", but what really happened is; Grimey Drawer

Should rename the patch "Scholar of the first Bell".
Also add some more belltowers.

Seriously, just copy/paste undead parish and make it bell-bro-land.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:20

v1ld: Apr 16, 2012

Genocyber posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLkHA-W8KFA

Holy poo poo it looks so good.

Yeah, it does. I didn't bother with Fallen Lords, but this has me very interested.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:23

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

From the wording, it sounds like you'll be able to turn off the uninvadability you get from kill a boss just like you'll (now) be able to turn off human effigy burning.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:28

Small and Blue: Apr 24, 2008

I don't understand why From thought it would be a good idea to make invading more difficult than it already is. I really hope that post-boss human effigy effect is only temporary and not permanent until you disable it because what the hell.

On a less whiny note I really like this one:

quote:

The bonfire warp selection screen will now highlight the top three areas where players will have the best change to connect with other players online.

I assume this means that the game will highlight the areas that have the most players online in your soul memory range which should make it much easier to choose a place to co-op or invade in.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:33

Yolomon Wayne: Jun 10, 2014; You call it "The Big Bang", but what really happened is; Grimey Drawer

I was really hoping for whole red/blue eye orbs.
But the bell-covenant changes make me glad. If you didnt buy DLC, you have a hard time getting twinkle once the shrine of amana is dead.

# ? Jan 15, 2015 10:42

AllisonByProxy: Feb 24, 2006; FUCK TERFS/BLM/ACAB

Genocyber posted:

The Agape Ring thing is also pretty dumb. Only affecting souls gained from other players is really dumb, since it means you still have no control over your SM increasing if you're just progressing through further ng+'s. It should really affect all soul gains.

The item descriptions makes it seem like it's all souls: