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Already played through on console so as soon as PC launches its loving invasion time  RBA Starblade posted:I've been keeping myself in the dark about DS2 except some mechanics, are whips worth using now? What did that other goon mean when he said you won't be blocking? Is rolling that much better now? I plan on going through the game with my usual rpg battlemage build (with the bonus of magic and pyromancy being one). Though, dark sorcery is in faith now isn't it? Whips do seem a little more viable than DS1, and there's a few more, although they're not amazing or anything AFAIK. Rolling isn't so much better as worse if anything. I don't know what that goon meant by you won't be blocking; its harder to cheese stuff with rolls in this game than DS1, so I ended up relying on my shield way more. I guess in PvP you won't be able to as much because there's a shield bash move which messes you up. Rolling isn't really bad but is sightly worse than DS1, or at least requires a stat investment to be as good as DS1, although the weight requirements are a little more tolerant. There's no more flippy ninja dark wood grain ring though, and rolls aren't about hitting specific numbers as much, the roll curve is more natural. You don't get the best roll unless you're naked, so its harder to take advantage of. Battlemage is super fun and there's even more spells in DS2 for battlemages and pure wizards both. Dark Sorcery: Is called Hexes. It uses BOTH faith and intelligence. Some spells use a bell to cast, others use a staff. The spell itself will tell you. There are some special staves which can work as both a bell and a staff for casting hexes. Hexes use the LOWER of your faith or intelligence, so you gain the most from keeping both high together. Pyromancy on the other hand uses faith and intelligence regardless of which is lower. All 4 schools of magic in DS2 Sorcery, Miracles, Hexes and Pyromancy are very viable and very powerful. Each requires a different build to optimize. Remember You can respec several times in a single run, so you don't have to worry about committing so bad. You can try out all magic and then respec to be good at the one you like best! Also something to know There's a really nice spell for spellswords in magic weapon, greater magic weapon, crystal magic weapon, as well as lightning blade and greater lightning blade, as well as dark blade (hex) and other greater dark blades. There's also a pyromancy for fire blade, but you can't get it until you go to new game+ or use a bonfire ascetic on a certain region to level it up, so if you're going spellsword you probably want to start out as sorcery and use magic weapon or hex weapon and then do fire weapon later. Oh yeah and one big change from DS1 when it comes to spellswords and enchantments!! You can stack Magic Weapon on a weapon that is encanted, like a Magic Claymore +5. Not only do the bonus magic damage stack, but the magic weapon or greater magic weapon or crystal magic weapon damage applies a bonus to the weapon's own magic damage stat as well! This also applies to lightning weapons and sunlight blade or lightning blade or whatever its called, or dark weapons and dark blade, or fire weapons and fire blade. This does not apply however to items! You cannot use pine resin on an enchanted blade, only spells! In this way, if you want to be a spellsword and you make your intelligence very high, then you can wield something like a Magic Longsword +10 which will have lots of magic damage from your int scaling, then cast crystal magic weapon on top, which adds more and gives you bonus, and you'll hit like a truck. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Apr 21, 2014 |
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Apr 21, 2014 16:23
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RBA Starblade posted:That's great, I think this time then I'll have to focus on strength/intelligence, then put secondary points in vitality/dexterity/faith, and respec depending on which I like more. I like that I can't just ignore faith/resistance (because it doesn't exist on its own) anymore. Yeah DS2 is much harder to min/max than DS1 was. There's no dump stat like resistance, and everything is good in multiple ways. Endurance is split between Vitality and Endurance (the old Vitality is now Vigor, confusingly enough, shoulda just made Vigor the new Endurance stat but no) and there's also Adaptability. Pretty much every character needs Vigor, Vitality, Endurance and Adaptability, and then your choice of Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, or all four on top. So good luck picking where to put your level points! Luckily the respecing means you don't have to feel horrible about it. Also you can upgrade a +5 Longsword into a +5 Lightning Longsword or whatever directly and it keeps the + levels. You don't have to get a specific level (you could go +3 longsword -> +3 fire longsword if you want) and you don't have to level it up from 0 again. Super nice!
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Apr 21, 2014 17:03
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RBA Starblade posted:Did they make it more transparent when you should use which catalysts, or is mostly trial and error until you load up a wiki again? Items have Lightning and Fire and Dark scaling now, instead of Int and Faith, so that's a little clearer. Determining which staff (not catalyst anymore!  ) works best can be a little tricky between scaling and base magic power as it always was. But you don't have to open up the wiki, you can just test a single spell out with each and see which does more damage  Vanderdeath posted:So does this mean the game will be playable on Thursday evening for us Americans? It looks like later on Thursday, yeah. My time zone I think its 5PM. Cool stuff! Grondoth posted:How are Clerics this time around? I've been Clericin' since Demon's, are miracles good? There are both a ton more miracles and I feel miracles are overall more powerful by far in this game! Good news! Also in DS1 you had to be IN covenants for the best miracles. In DS2 almost none of the miracles come from covenants at all, and those that do can be used after you leave the covenant! (You know what I'm talking about  )So where in DS1 almost nobody used the princess' powers to heal their party, in DS2 you can be a party-healing cleric right from the very beginning. The basic heal spell works on your allies if they're nearby, and you get other self buffs and group regen spells later. Also miracles have more offensive options as well. Both paladins and pure clerics should be far more viable and fun in DS2 than DS1 
Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 15:43
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RBA Starblade posted:I meant more about the Int range about which each catalyst was best in, but I guess you're right in that it's not that hard to figure out. Staves instead of wands is rad though. Also there's a Shield that counts as a miracle casting bell as well as a sword that counts as a staff for casting sorceries / hexes as well as staves which can cast miracles & sorceries & hexes . Also some of the staves look really pimp. Some cool poo poo One thing that seemed odd though was There's not a lot of great pure sorcery staves in the game; it seems most of the staves you find are targeted more at dark damage (hexes). Those work okay for sorceries too, but you kinda want something really good if you're going pure int. There are a few, but the really amazing staves for sorceries aren't available until the real end of the game. Also There are spells and weapons you can't get until NG+  If you want to go magic, start as sorcerer or cleric. Its not too hard to level up your strength a bit. Eventually everybody can get all magic, but you won't have access to spells of either type for quite a bit otherwise. Spells are a bit further in than Dark Souls 1.
Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 16:04
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To expand on that; there are multiple types of secret doors now: Most secret doors are now like Wolfenstein/Doom doors, they've got a tiny seam on the side that lets you notice they're a secret (normally you'll only notice because there'll be a "secret door ahead" message nearby) and if you merely press the use key, they slide up, just like in Doom. There are also doors which are secret and have to be broken, but these almost always require you to put a "pharos lockstone" into a nearby switch before you're allowed to break the wall, otherwise the wall is invincible. Entering the lockstone will make a weird ghosty face appear on the door, which makes it pretty obvious. Lockstones are very rare early game, but by halfway through the game you'll be tripping over them. Some of the lockstone secrets are extremely minor or pointless, while others make a world of difference. Also, If you or a mob attacks a chest twice, you will break the chest and the contents will turn to rubbish! (Really important chests are iron chests which can't be broken, but several good things are in wooden chests, like upgrade materials. You REALLY don't want to break those)There are several sneaky trap rooms From Software has created where there are enemies hiding somewhere out of view, you see some chests, you run for the chests, and get ambushed. You fight off the ambusher and feel pretty good, only to notice the fight cost you the chest! Always lure enemies away from treasure chests to fight! Also treasure chests have traps now; and the traps seem to change randomly! Keepin you on your toes! Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 17:19
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RBA Starblade posted:Except for the disjointed level design I have heard nothing about DS2 I'm not loving. Yeah, I really love DS2, but its different than DS1. Like Majora's Mask after Ocarina of Time. I was kinda dissapointed in the disjointed level design, but it also frees them up to make the areas more varied. So while the overall "world design" doesn't feel as good as DS1, if you compare a single level from DS2 to DS1 its not bad, or even compares favorably. There's some really pretty or spooky poo poo. Nope! It is definitely very much "open the chest and run the gently caress away". And the best strategy for how to "away" is different based on which trap it is, and they're random. So good luck! (Its not too bad, but it'll kill you a couple times)
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Apr 22, 2014 17:27
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Takes No Damage posted:DS3 will be a procedurally generated roguelike. Sometimes the first boss is the Asylum Demon, sometimes it's Bed of Chaos. The real RNG starts here 3D Procedurally generated levels almost always suck. Look at Diablo 3 and Hellgate London. Its REALLY hard to do, from a technical standpoint. Roguelike Dark Souls would mean completely abandoning level design, which is a huge part of DS. All those carefully placed items that only exist one place in the game which you have to stumble upon, all the secrets and areas, wouldn't exist in a roguelike. That said I'd still love a game with the Dark Souls combat engine that lets me play forever. It'd be way different though. The levels would look really boring.
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Apr 22, 2014 17:29
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RBA Starblade posted:Oh by the way are those stones that play voice clips still in? I loved messing around with those. Very Good! They are, even though Gough isn't  Although the game references DS1 in other ways too...Volt Catfish posted:Supposedly there's a "Help Me" In DaS1 but I'm not sure where it was or if it's in 2 as well Its in the chasm. There's another that drops too. Gough only sells some. Hello, Thank you, Help me, I'm sorry, Very Good
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Apr 22, 2014 17:39
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BlueDestiny posted:Some of my favorite weapons in DS1 were the odd things like whips and fists, but they were generally much weaker than pretty much every other conventional weapon (no whip crits There are darth maul twinblades and lances now, so that's two new categories. Also more of everything (except fist weapons) across the board, so there's a few new whips for you Indiana Joneses / Belmonts. QuarkJets posted:When I came into the thread I was hoping for Dark Souls II news, not spoilery information about trap rooms and the like without spoiler tags I've spoiler tagged anything explicit, but if you really don't want to know anything about the mechanics you should go dark and stop reading the thread. I had to stop reading the console thread for the whole first week of play. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 20:39
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). Has that changed for DS2? Will Indiana Jones-ing it up work now? Also are there more new types of weapons beyond sword/bigsword/hammer/polearm?
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Mondlicht posted:I'm all preloaded and ready to go for when I play this game.. Friday afternoon after work. Yes, 2 is very much an independent and different game than 1. The mechanics and the world both feel different. Its very similar, but Dark 1 -> Dark 2 is about the same as going from Demon -> Dark. In fact DS2 is more like DaS than DeS in many ways. If you expect too much to be like DS1, you'll even get yourself killed a few times. That said DS1 is in some ways even better, so you really should go back and play through it all  But you can do that after you play DS2, yeah that's fine.The best way to go is to try out everything and then build around what works best for you. Pre-conceived notions will only slow you down. Although roleplay builds can be fun.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:25
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xNarUtoRKOrton420x posted:Don't remember the exact thing behind but it's something to do with the fact that while the Caestus is techinally a fist weapon it differs in some gameplay way (maybe just the damage type since it's strike based) from the other fist type weapons which all happen to be claws. IIRC fist and claw are entirely different fighting styles.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:36
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actionjackson posted:I play the console version (don't have a PC), but is anyone here willing to provide screenshots of requested areas? There's one in particular that's downright gorgeous that I'd love to have as a wallpaper, though it's late in the game so I'll put it in spoilers The game isn't out yet. As soon as it is, sure. I took like literally 10,000 screenshots of Dark Souls 1. I have a loving huge album. Such an amazing game  And this time you won't have to hack it to hide the HUD!
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Apr 22, 2014 22:48
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Zedd posted:The base game had a disable hud option. Oh yeah. Well there wasn't an auto-hide option so there!
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Apr 22, 2014 22:57
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^^^^ I don't think anything's confirmed until Friday. But we're highly speculating that's the case.Mazed posted:It's Royal Sorcerer Navlaan. Would also accept Kirk, Knight of Thorns; Xanthous King, Jeremiah; Maneater Mildred; Marvellous Chester; Although I'm more the co-op sort so I'm probably gonna rolls as either Black Iron Tarkus or Solaire of Astora. I guess Knight Lautrec of Carim or Paladin Leeroy would work both ways
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Apr 23, 2014 17:04
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Ironsights posted:Turns out refunding your Steam preorder only puts money back in your Steam wallet. Oh well I'm sure I'll spend it on something else anyway. Thanks for the GMG discount. That kinda sucks, but I guess its to prevent people from just pre-ordering literally everything and then cancelling things on the last day if they don't actually want them or something. pmchem posted:I agree, this message below is worded terribly: Yeah I don't loving know anymore. I'm just gonna try to log on thursday and see what happens.
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Apr 23, 2014 21:38
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^^^^ I agree. Your first run should be Claymore + Shield = Come at me bro Dark Souls has better melee combat than like... everything. So why wouldn't you enjoy that? Silly poo poo like magic or crossbows are fun but that's for later runs. Orv posted:I'm gunna be a wizard, as it is the one standard start I haven't done on consoles. I'm gonna go cleric for the same reason. Started swordsman on my first run and had a pretty good go of it. Starting with +1 weapons is really nice, although that class has the lowest starting health (below deprived!!)
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Apr 23, 2014 22:39
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King of Solomon posted:I already played through the console version so it won't be a first run, per se, but I'm thinking of running as a spellsword. That is, using weapon enchants, infusions, and the minimum STR/DEX to wield weapons. Should be pretty fun! Did this my first run stacking Magic Mastodon Greatsword or whatever its called with Greater Magic Weapon and it hit pretty drat hard. Tried Dark Weapon but it didn't do as much, but that's because I didn't understand that hexes worked off the lower of int or faith, not both together like pyro does. I'm still not sure if I'll focus on faith or dark this time around. Seemed like there were some cool faith spells though that other people were using in jolly co-op, and I really enjoyed playing a Paladin in DS1 even with what few spells we had.
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Apr 23, 2014 22:54
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Hint to those who didn't play DS2, but did play DS1, avoiding explicit spoilers: Remember how you start off at the firelink shrine, and you're supposed to go up into the aqueduct to the undead parish? But you can also go through the graveyard into the crypt, or you can go down the elevator to new anor londo ruins? And how the ruins will totally kick your rear end, but if you're really good you could do crypt first, although you probably just want to go into the aqueduct first? And some players wander into the crypt thinking that's the only way you can go? Yeah, well... DS2 is similar.
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Apr 24, 2014 17:20
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Oh poo poo that framerate 
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Apr 24, 2014 19:04
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Renamed account name to Black Iron Tarkus, changed profile picture. I'm prepared to die
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Apr 24, 2014 21:29
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Stringbean posted:Longest hour ever... Holy balls. UGH I am staring at the work clock and its just going slower 
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Apr 24, 2014 22:13
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Did we pick a god for the ring? I'm in the game Al-Saqr posted:I just got into the game, this is my first time playing a souls game, I'm thinking of playing either as a swordsman or a warrior, how much harder is the game going to be without the shield for me? Shields are amazing for staying alive, but you can get some other shields pretty quick into the game. But if you want to start with one, go for it. Sword and board is how you should do your first playthrough.
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Apr 24, 2014 23:44
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White Phosphorus posted:Can you change the controller button mapping in game? Keyboard but not controller. Wow that's dumb. FROM SOFTWAAAAARE!
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Apr 24, 2014 23:46
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I am tearing this poo poo up! Its almost like I've done it before  Cowcaster posted:Well, even if I do that how do you do it normally? Is it just like kick/jump attacks in Dark Souls 1? Yeah exactly. Forward and attack at the same time.
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Apr 25, 2014 00:51
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RBA Starblade posted:What was up with that reptile thing at the end? I didn't see a way to it. You mean the cyclops? Its fairly difficult to fight. Its guarding a magic tombstone which lets you change genders. Yeah. There's another earlier on too, before you picked your class, which you missed. That one is guarding a pine resin and if you kill it, it drops a REALLY good ring. I made sure to kill him on my first way through booyah
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Apr 25, 2014 02:47
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awesmoe posted:Man, the menus/UI are some amateur-hour poo poo. Its way improved over Dark Souls 1. But you should have expected as much
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Apr 25, 2014 02:49
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Linux Nazi posted:How come on PC, when I have something targeted, backing away makes my jerk stop and turn completely around? Are you sure you're locked on? You should be able to strafe.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:52
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RBA Starblade posted:If I killed him does that mean I won't be seeing any more later on or is there going to be a second? He shows up three times throughout the game. If you kill him during the first, IIRC he doesn't show up during the second but still does during the third. Technically he's an optional boss all 3 times.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:52
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Hellburger99 posted:Is anyone else having trouble summoning? I've managed to get one person, but every other sign I touch says "Connection Error" or something like that. I'm not seeing the game being blocked by my firewall, is it just sever strain or am I missing something? Everybody is spamming summons right now. You have to fight other players to get somebody to summon them. Its a wonky system, but that's  that's just how its always been foreverJust keep at it till you get one, that's how it goes. Maybe try summoning people slightly further away from the obvious spots.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:53
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Cyberventurer posted:I died a few minutes after picking up the torch and now I can't light it from the bonfire anymore. You might be out of torch time. Each torch you pick up adds time, as you run around with a torch you burn time. Also make sure you press Y to toggle through the things you can do at a bonfire. You don't light torches using the bonfire menu.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:57
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Not Al-Qaeda posted:I went to an clear area and a dragon dropped off a knight, died to him and after respawn he doesn't show up anymore. He'll show up later keep going! Internet Kraken posted:Holy poo poo, I thought I was good at Dark Souls but this is destroying me. Of course it starts out way loving harder. Okay, here's one tutorial area with zombies. Done? Now fight these guys twice your size. You've wandered into this game's new londo ruins. Try going somewhere else dude.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:57
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Kimmalah posted:If you have trouble and use magic, they can't fit through the doorways in the tutorial area or the stone gate thing that leads up to the other one. He's also weak to lightning, hence the gold pine resin you find nearby. Heide knight sword works wonders too if you come back later.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:59
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BobTheJanitor posted:I love that when you're trying to quit you have to go back to the first screen, hit start game, wait for it to connect to the online server, and then and only then can you actually quit the game. That's the most consoley thing ever. Yeah lots of console PC ports do this, Dark Souls 1 did this, but it does loving SUUUUUCK. 
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Apr 25, 2014 02:59
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NuckmasterJ posted:gently caress man, I wasn't planning on buying a controller just for one game. Seriously what the gently caress, how hard would it of been to map out decent keyboard/mouse controls? 3rd person action games always blow chunks on mouse and keyboard. If you don't own a console already (you could just use those controllers) just go buy a wired 360 controller used from gamestop for like $20. Its the best PC controller because it'll work with everything perfectly and you won't need batteries or a dongle or anything. How hard? Pretty hard! Ever tried playing devil may cry on mouse and keyboard? It just doesn't work dude.
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Apr 25, 2014 15:50
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McGrady posted:I checked 3-4 pages back. Is summoning working pretty good in DS2 on PC? I assume it should be -- is it working as well as it was on the PS3? No horrible summoning failed over and over like DS1 on PC? Yes of course you get summoning failed over and over. You guys must not understand how the system worked. "Summoning Failed" doesn't mean the network is loving up. It means somebody else already summoned that person you were trying to. If you're having trouble summoning, buy the ring of etched names or whatever its called from Shalqouir in Majula. Then set it to blood god, and whala, problem solved. You may not see as many summon signs though, tell other goons to get the ring too and pick blood god.
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Apr 25, 2014 15:52
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This thread totally lied, its not steam name its character name that shows up in multiplayer. I've made a huge mistake  poptart_fairy posted:The framerate, oh god the framerate, I think I'm going tohnnnnnnghghgfhhhgghgh Oh yeah, its SUCH an improvement. PS3 runs at like 15-30fps, 360 runs at like 20-40fps but with horrible screen tearing. Solid 60fps 24/7 with no tearing at 1080p with AA  Doctor Albatross posted:I'm a level 36 Knight with a Shortsword and Large Leather Shield. Is it worth saving that Soul of the Last Giant, or is that axe not great? That's all you can use it for. Some souls do have multiple uses like in DS1, but some don't. That one's just for the axe. (or crack it for souls) Its not my favorite axe in the game, but its not bad. Dunno, you'll have to try it for yourself. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Apr 25, 2014 |
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Apr 25, 2014 15:53
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^ There's other places you could probably go right now if you want to put that fight off. But its honestly not so bad. The real boss of that area is the Bell Keepers. There probably aren't that many yet, but in a couple days here the bellfrys are going to turn into non-loving-stop invasion town
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Apr 25, 2014 15:57
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Cowcaster posted:So now I'm doing my Dark Souls II Researchtm and I have a question about the bonfire ascetics: So to get around the despawning enemies, you can respawn everything with a bonfire ascetic, but it respawns everything at a NG+ level higher. Does it still cap out at NG+7 like Dark Souls 1? Can you keep using bonfire ascetics to respawn things once you hit the cap, letting you farm indefinitely so long as you can handle NG+7 dudes? Yes. Note that Unlike Dark Souls 1, in Dark Souls 2 NG+ isn't just the same game but harder. There's several weapons and spells you can't get until NG+, and they also move around enemy placement and add several new enemy spawns that weren't there in NG Some boss fights are even changed up. Good luck!
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Apr 25, 2014 16:29
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evilskillit posted:Retaining the giant's soul in your inventory may have other uses. I think That just works for the other ones. But that might work, I don't know for sure! That's definitely a thing later on, I just don't know if his soul counts or not.
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Apr 25, 2014 16:32
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Internet Kraken posted:How come nobody is invading? I haven't been invaded a single time since I started playing. Seeing tons of summon signs but nobody is trying to kill me which is a surprise. I've been invaded 4 times already. Killed all of them This is so much better than DS1 on PC where everybody's a crazy SL1 pro who kills you instantly.Party Plane Jones posted:Nobody ever gets invaded by Blue Sentinels, at least not on the 360 version. It's pretty much rarer than poo poo. They do, actually. Its just very few people stay in the newbie way of blue covenant, and there needs to be newbies in the guildand wearing the ring who get invaded, so it takes a few days for the social environment to kick in. Everybody wants to go sunbro or brotherhood of blood or ratclan instead. Try invading with cracked blue orbs?
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Apr 25, 2014 17:31
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