Dark Souls II

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I have not noticed any change in performance or options. If you're concerned about VAC, don't.
 
Guess I'll wait for an official position. They have been saying for a while that they're starting to ban people ,so maybe graphics mods will give out a false positive on steam?
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
They've said they are banning on PC? I know it's been (allegedly) happening on PS3 and 360, but considering the past DkS has had on PC I think it would be silly to hand out bans on that platform.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Delta Phi said:
They've said they are banning on PC? I know it's been (allegedly) happening on PS3 and 360, but considering the past DkS has had on PC I think it would be silly to hand out bans on that platform.

First off, here's what the maker of the mod (Durante) said about this exact issue: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=109851076&postcount=824

He's talking about Steam's VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat System) banning people for using a graphical mod that could be improperly detected as "cheating" in multiplayer. By definition, a mod alters the game, so it's certainly possible that they could act on it in this manner, but I think it's pretty farfetched. Steam usually enforces these kinds of things when they've isolated a particular means through which people are exploiting a multiplayer game (aimbots, wallhacks, etc.) and ruining the experience for others. There's a whole market for cheating tools, and as soon as they're identified, bans go out, and the cheaters register new accounts and change the act up to become undetectable again. Enhancing the graphics simply isn't that, at all. And I think Valve is perceptive enough to detect the difference before enforcing thousands of bans.

But if anyone is on the fence, I don't honestly think the mod enhances the graphics so much that it's worth it, if you're already sweating the potential consequences.
 
O

Obscure

Guest
Walter said:
Anyone playing PC having trouble connecting the past few days?
These are some recent tweets by Bandai Namco:

"We are aware of a login error with the Dark Souls II PC Game Servers. We are currently working with Steam towards a solution. Thanks!"

"The Dark Souls II PC Game servers are back up and running - Thanks for your patience. See you in-game!"
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
This happened to me a few days ago, so I took the opportunity to play through areas with annoying online enemy player summons. Mine is the way of strategy! :ganishka:
 
Hit soul level 150, having a blast playing as bell tower covenant. Played for a while as a sunbro,love helping others in co-op, but the bell tower is nice for gathering titanite chunks.

Did a little Guts cosplay just for fun (not my main build)
BLOcnyq.jpg
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Sankari said:
Hit soul level 150, having a blast playing as bell tower covenant. Played for a while as a sunbro,love helping others in co-op, but the bell tower is nice for gathering titanite chunks.

Nice Guts!

I've found the belltower online battles quite one-sided. "Congratulations, you double-teamed me while tiny fat men swarmed me." Probably more fun on the giving end than the receiving one.

I just made it through the Door of Winter. "Now the real Dark Souls begins." :magni:
 

SlimeBeherit

[FIGHT][SPELL] [SACRIFICE][ITEM]
Same with the Rat Covenant, you are really only doing them a favor by going in the designated areas. The worst part when your taunted by someone who only did 10% of the work, the other 90% going to enemies in your world.

One time i was doing some jolly cooperation to help some lady up the
Belfry Luna
, we got to the second floor when we were invaded by two grey phantoms. We each pick an opponent and begin to fight, when i roll into one of the holes, but I didn't fall to the second floor but to the secret room. A room I had never been in, so I was having trouble getting out of it. Meanwhile, the host has to deal with the phantoms. Right when I see the exit, I see the host kill one of the dudes and is dealing with the remaining one in a narrow corridor. Since I've been so useless through the entirety of the encounter I decide to throw a Sunlight Spear, killing the last Phantom. We head up and "WE DEFEATED" the
gargoyles
, and then I get a message from the last phantom: "Gank Fags..."
 
Haha, in reply to both of you - I understand that its a bit unfair, 2 x1 - but you could always go offline when heading into the Belfry. I did that to get the Mad Warrior Armor.

As a grey phantom, you basically can't heal, so the host has a bit of an advantage, he only has to deal cheese damage in small amounts, say - toxic mist or something like that. He doesn't really need to engage the defenders. Sunlight spear is pretty slow and easy to dodge vs humans. ( I'm only in the bell tower convenant to upgrade some of my gear).

I enjoy jolly co-operation more than bell defender. Having said that, whenever I see a red summon, or a dragon summon, I always hit it. Love the pvp breaks in the middle of the game ( as long as I'm not carrying a ridiculous amount of souls on me). Plus , its so easy to join/abandon convenants, it takes about a minute or two to switch between them.

I upgraded my internet connection to fiber, but every now and then , I think the host is lagging up, because we're very far away but the sword hits connect.
 
Another one of those amusing , dress up and confuse invaders, videos. http://kotaku.com/clever-gamer-dresses-up-as-an-enemy-in-dark-souls-ii-c-1579480525
The whole thing isn't too bad but the 2nd to last bit (starting at 8:13) is hilarious.
 
The Ratbro covenant in Doors of Pharros is cheap as balls. You basically teleport players into your supervillain lair and gank them with mobs and death-traps. I felt a *little* bit guilty about it, but having already maxed out the Sunbro covenant I'd earned the right to some bad karma.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Jaze1618 said:
Another one of those amusing , dress up and confuse invaders, vides. http://kotaku.com/clever-gamer-dresses-up-as-an-enemy-in-dark-souls-ii-c-1579480525
The whole thing isn't too bad but the 2nd to last bit (starting at 8:13) is hilarious.

That was pretty awesome, got several laughs out of me. I really enjoy these videos.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I haven't experienced a ton of PvP yet. Will do so once I complete the main story. I love co-op, but I still find the notion of having solo players hunted by players who are specifically geared for PvP combat (by equipping whatever is exploitable in the current build) a little unfair. I have some great equipment against standard enemies. But to duel well, I'd have to swap in my badass poison rapier and some heavier armor for survivability.

I'm near the end of the game, I'd guess. At the
Crypt.
I've been able to play about 1-2 hours each night, which is enough time to make it through about a zone every few days. Really enjoyed my time in
Drangleic Castle
, which is clearly this game's Anor Londo. The designers really sweat the details in the visuals of that area, making some of the early areas of the game lacking by comparison.

The lore revelations there are hilariously dense, too. They basically tell you everything you've been waiting to hear all at once, in one NPC conversation (the Chancellor). So now, I have an idea for who Vendrick is supposed to be, and if I'm right, it's fucking awesome. But I still don't know what happened to him. Assuming that's end game material.

That being said, I do think this game feels a little B-tier compared to Dark Souls 1, in a variety of ways. It still lacks the cohesion I noticed early on. But it's also very well thought out, and stands shoulders above pretty much everything else on the market right now. I actually think the game is probably underrated, since it loses points by default being compared to Dark Souls 1. The "worst" in the Souls series is still the third best RPG released in recent memory.
 
Walter I COMPLETELY agree with you about suddenly being forced to cope with someone using a PVP build when you get invaded. I think you will see that PVP gets a lot more frequent in NG+.

In addition to Soul Memory, every one who is in NG is silo'd from ever being able to play with someone who is doing a subsequent play through. The Silos however are just people in NG, and then everyone else. I started getting invaded by red phantoms A LOT more as soon as I got to Heide's tower of flame in NG+. I also got a lot more blue phantom defenders as part of the Way of the Blue covenant in NG+.

And then there is the Looking Glass Knight section. That place is a VERY active hub for coop and pvp on NG+
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Speaking of Looking Glass Knight, did it in one. I figured that would be a really rough battle. But it was simple. Quite disappointing. After that dramatic preamble, walking past those statues, and fighting in the rain, I was prepared for a major throw down.
 

SlimeBeherit

[FIGHT][SPELL] [SACRIFICE][ITEM]
Walter said:
I haven't experienced a ton of PvP yet. Will do so once I complete the main story. I love co-op, but I still find the notion of having solo players hunted by players who are specifically geared for PvP combat (by equipping whatever is exploitable in the current build) a little unfair. I have some great equipment against standard enemies. But to duel well, I'd have to swap in my badass poison rapier and some heavier armor for survivability.

It would have been remedied by the Blue Sentinels but that has been largely an unsuccessful venture for me. The whole idea of that covenant is to punish invaders, but the issue is that persistent invaders know they have a high sin level, so they frequently roll with 2 other phantom or summon more phantoms as they are getting invaded. I have been summoned to help ward off a blue phantom, and I felt it was unfair but all i could think was "well I'm here to aid the host" The blue phantoms are just being blown up! So there really doesn't seem to be much of draw back for red invaders, while players may lose a huge chunk of souls. I thought a way to even the odds would be to banish all of host phantoms if they are being hunted down by a arbiter phantom.

Walter said:
Speaking of Looking Glass Knight, did it in one. I figured that would be a really rough battle. But it was simple. Quite disappointing. After that dramatic preamble, walking past those statues, and fighting in the rain, I was prepared for a major throw down.

I got the sense that a few of the bosses were nerfed in the first run through, and the real versions were reserved for new game+
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Slime_Beherit said:
I got the sense that a few of the bosses were nerfed in the first run through, and the real versions were reserved for new game+
I've seen quite a few people online say they see NG as a tutorial and NG+ is the real Dark Souls 2 experience. It definitely is quite a different beast.
 
Some thing require you to actually be on a subsequent playthrough (NG+ and NG++ for sure have things that you can't get with bonfire ascetic). But I'm not sure if the Boss experiences fall into that category.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Jaze1618 said:
Some thing require you to actually be on a subsequent playthrough (NG+ and NG++ for sure have things that you can't get with bonfire ascetic). But I'm not sure if the Boss experiences fall into that category.

Some bosses have added difficulties that are only experienced during NG+ and not through Bonfire Ascetics.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Sankari said:
Are you sure about the bosses and bonfire ascetics? Because I got different rewards for killing them with bonfire ascetics.

I think I read that certain bosses will have different sub-enemies in them on NG+, but not with a NG using a bonfire ascetic.
 
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