Dark Souls 2 PC - April 25, 2014

[SPARTAN VI]

Just took out Mytha, the Baneful Queen (i.e. looks kinda like Madusa), but didn't know...

Spoiler: Mytha Boss Fight

...about draining the boss room of poison until I died the first time.

I would've been more upset about this deception had I remembered I was playing Dark Souls 2, but some helpful phantoms quickly showed me what I was missing.

 

[Domingo]

I would think the Baneful Queen fight would have to be one of the toughest without any help. That's one of those spots where having messages and shadows is really, really helpful. Ditto with a few hidden doorways.
When I was playing DS1, there weren't many people playing the game, so I didn't really get a whole lot of help from those. This time around they were invaluable. For every random BS one, there are like 20 that have been great.

 

[Ihavetheelderscrolls]

I have a noob question.

In DS1 I never really did any PVP. I was brand new to it and every time I got invaded I always got killed instantly.

Now that I'm not a total noob and have grown into just a noob I was curious as to why every time I get invaded the player has some weapon that just takes half of my health away whether my shield is up or not. there's pretty much no chance of me winning unless I perfectly dodge everything and that won't happen.

So...first question, can I do anything about that?

Next question, what effects are causing this to happen? I have 100% damage reduction shield also.

 

[Tzzird]

Your 100% damage reduction shield is probably only for physical attacks. Most melee players will use some sort of elemental attack either through an infusion, an item, or a spell. Try rolling instead of blocking attacks. If your AGI is at least upper 90's or higher (through raising of the ADP skill) you should be able to take no damage.

EDIT:

I've been seeing more and more complaints about the Monastery Scimitar. Maybe look into this godly parrying item as an alternative to blocking?

 

[Cvar]

Your 100% damage reduction shield is probably only for physical attacks. Most melee players will use some sort of elemental attack either through an infusion, an item, or a spell. Try rolling instead of blocking attacks. If your AGI is at least upper 90's or higher (through raising of the ADP skill) you should be able to take no damage.

EDIT:

I've been seeing more and more complaints about the Monastery Scimitar. Maybe look into this godly parrying item as an alternative to blocking?

Yeah I've see a few players parry me and knock me on my butt and just one shot kill me after that. However I will say it was a fairly predictable attack that I just didn't expect because I don't run into people who parry me very much in pvp. However I will also say I just got the smelter demons sword and that thing can pretty much one shot kill almost any human players with it's power attack that does over 2,000 damage to most people even against alone knights I'm doing 1900 damage with the power attack it's pretty insane. The only real downside to that weapon is it can't be buffed or infused but I'd say it's high attack ratings and highly effective power attack make up for it.

 

[ValeTudo]

Yeah I've see a few players parry me and knock me on my butt and just one shot kill me after that. However I will say it was a fairly predictable attack that I just didn't expect because I don't run into people who parry me very much in pvp. However I will also say I just got the smelter demons sword and that thing can pretty much one shot kill almost any human players with it's power attack that does over 2,000 damage to most people even against alone knights I'm doing 1900 damage with the power attack it's pretty insane. The only real downside to that weapon is it can't be buffed or infused but I'd say it's high attack ratings and highly effective power attack make up for it.

Interesting stuff. I'm slowly making my way through the game and having a blast. (I am following a play through by epicnamebro on youtube) I did not play DS1... but I finished up Smelter and the Iron Boss after him also finished off the Iron Boss using a bonfire ascetic, nice soul score! I'm now going over to Belfry Luna zone and sinner boss... going to pick up the Smelter sword I think, I've been using Claymore (+7 so far).

Great game.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

I have a noob question.

In DS1 I never really did any PVP. I was brand new to it and every time I got invaded I always got killed instantly.

Now that I'm not a total noob and have grown into just a noob I was curious as to why every time I get invaded the player has some weapon that just takes half of my health away whether my shield is up or not. there's pretty much no chance of me winning unless I perfectly dodge everything and that won't happen.

So...first question, can I do anything about that?

First, upgrade your gear.

I'd say, generally, if a player is able to 1 or 2-shot KO you in a heads-up slugfest, then it's probably a combination of your scrub gear versus their upgraded gear. That's your first problem. If you're running around with long enough with non-upgraded gear, you're asking for a whooping.

Second problem is the mechanics of PvP invasions.

In DS2, standard invasion matchmaking is handled entirely by your "soul memory," or in other words, the aggregate total of ALL souls you've collected thus far. So if you lose your souls a lot, your soul memory will be inflated in relation to the actual souls you've spent (i.e. to level, to purchase/upgrade gear, etc), which may roughly translate into you being forever behind the curve. For example, let's say you're still at the Forest of the Fallen Giants and haven't killed the area bosses yet, and have a soul memory of 150k, but due to dying like a nub, you've only used maybe 50k of them for actual leveling. This means, players who are further along in the game who've earned, retained, and wisely spent their 150k souls can come back with their decked out gear and roll your face. Basically, don't waste your souls by failing to retrieve your blood stain. However, once you reach a soul memory of 1 million, it doesn't matter anyway.

Failing this, it's always a good idea to roll with a buddy. If you don't have a buddy, or even if you do, then there's always the blue bros (way of blue) covenant who are essentially invader hunters. Join this covenant, then when you get invaded, go hide somewhere (preferably, use a Silver Pendant to camo), then wait for a blue bro to come to your aid before you take the invader on.

Next question, what effects are causing this to happen? I have 100% damage reduction shield also.

Elemental damage/effects will bypass physical defense.

Your elemental resistances will never be 100% across the board (e.g. fire, lightning, poison, dark, etc.). So you'll absorb 100% of their physical damage with your shield, but elemental damage/effects will sneak through. There are a number of consumables that buff elemental resistances, but the most obvious way of increasing this is via upgrading your gear (better to start with gear with higher elemental resistances).

You can do the same to your opponent, of course, by imbuing your weapons with elemental effects via upgrading or with the various pine resins.

 

[Cvar]

Interesting stuff. I'm slowly making my way through the game and having a blast. (I am following a play through by epicnamebro on youtube) I did not play DS1... but I finished up Smelter and the Iron Boss after him also finished off the Iron Boss using a bonfire ascetic, nice soul score! I'm now going over to Belfry Luna zone and sinner boss... going to pick up the Smelter sword I think, I've been using Claymore (+7 so far).

Great game.

Just remember that the bracing knuckle ring and the repair spell are very useful if your planning on using the sword very often as you can only do the special attack like 5-6 times before the weapon will break if you don't have anything to slow down degradation or repair the weapon with the bracing knuckle ring +2 you can get around 12 power attacks before it breaks and with the repair spell it goes a lot higher then that.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Poise seems nowhere near as useful as straight up iframes from AGI, at least in pvp. I made a quality (50/50 str/dex) build with high adaptability, seems to be better than a full on tank/poise machine.

 

[Cvar]

Poise seems nowhere near as useful as straight up iframes from AGI, at least in pvp. I made a quality (50/50 str/dex) build with high adaptability, seems to be better than a full on tank/poise machine.

Having some poise is useful though cause you definitely don't want to be stunlocked with the first blow they land on you. Alonne armor is very good medium armor as it has extremely high fire resistance, good poise and pretty high elemental resistance as well. Only real downside is that it's physical resistance is a little lacking in comparison to some other armors as well as offering no petrification or curse resistance (not important at all for pvp though) but when facing anything fire it's awesome.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Smelter legs +5, Smelter gloves +5, Agdayne's robe +5 and Penal mask +5 seems to be a good combo for me in pve and pvp. Third Dragon ring and Royal Soldier +2 keep my equip load down to about 39%, phys reductions around 800avg, elemental and status resists ~250-325, poise 60.

 

[polonyc2]

Yeah I've see a few players parry me and knock me on my butt and just one shot kill me after that. However I will say it was a fairly predictable attack that I just didn't expect because I don't run into people who parry me very much in pvp. However I will also say I just got the smelter demons sword and that thing can pretty much one shot kill almost any human players with it's power attack that does over 2,000 damage to most people even against alone knights I'm doing 1900 damage with the power attack it's pretty insane. The only real downside to that weapon is it can't be buffed or infused but I'd say it's high attack ratings and highly effective power attack make up for it.

Smelter Sword is decent but it's far from the best STR weapon...it drains a lot of durability with every power swing...even a Great Club +10 surpasses it...or my STR weapon of choice, the standard Greatsword...I bought myself a few shields using the boss souls as most of the boss weapons don't really seem worth it

 

[LeviathanZERO]

Smelter Sword is decent but it's far from the best STR weapon...it drains a lot of durability with every power swing...even a Great Club +10 surpasses it...or my STR weapon of choice, the standard Greatsword...I bought myself a few shields using the boss souls as most of the boss weapons don't really seem worth it

+5 Pursuer UGS rivals the +10 GS.
It doesn't have the fire bonus BKUGS has, but it has a unique moveset. R1 is a vertical attack instead of horizontal like those other 2. Also it's 18 weigh, which is 4 weight less than the GS. (BKUGS is also 18)

I like it, Ive kept it in my current weapon rotation.
2H is deadly

 

[Nytegard]

I have a noob question.

In DS1 I never really did any PVP. I was brand new to it and every time I got invaded I always got killed instantly.

Now that I'm not a total noob and have grown into just a noob I was curious as to why every time I get invaded the player has some weapon that just takes half of my health away whether my shield is up or not. there's pretty much no chance of me winning unless I perfectly dodge everything and that won't happen.

So...first question, can I do anything about that?

Next question, what effects are causing this to happen? I have 100% damage reduction shield also.

I've recently started a new character, and one little tip is that it's possible to get a Heide Knight Sword+10 before the Pursuer Boss Room. I basically rushed towards the Bell Towers, and have an insanely high winning percentage at the moment. Of course that will change later on, but Sub Soul Memory 250k, a +10 Heide Knight Sword & Chloranthy Ring & Stone Ring wreck just about everyone.

 

[polonyc2]

+5 Pursuer UGS rivals the +10 GS.
It doesn't have the fire bonus BKUGS has, but it has a unique moveset. R1 is a vertical attack instead of horizontal like those other 2. Also it's 18 weigh, which is 4 weight less than the GS. (BKUGS is also 18)

I like it, Ive kept it in my current weapon rotation.
2H is deadly

Pursuer GS might rival the standard Greatsword but it doesn't match it in terms of damage output...I prefer the R1 to be horizontal and the R2 to be vertical...horizontal is better for wide sweeps of multiple enemies

 

[LeviathanZERO]

Pursuer GS might rival the standard Greatsword but it doesn't match it in terms of damage output...I prefer the R1 to be horizontal and the R2 to be vertical...horizontal is better for wide sweeps of multiple enemies

2H is where it really counts, but yeah, GS will always have higher dmg output.
It's a nice alternative, if you get tired of the GS... It sure does look cool shining in the HDR/bloom from the newest Gedosato

 

[polonyc2]

2H is where it really counts, but yeah, GS will always have higher dmg output.
It's a nice alternative, if you get tired of the GS... It sure does look cool shining in the HDR/bloom from the newest Gedosato

how is GeDoSato working for you?...any issues?...I haven't tried it yet

 

[chameleoneel]

GeDoSaTo is great. I'm using it to inject better ambient occlusion and for the new HDR/bloom shader Durante added in the newest version. Heavily tweaked to my preference, of course. I'm also using a tweaked version of SweetFX with extra effects, to slightly adjust contrast (to counteract the slightly washed out look of the game) and to add more "light" to bright parts of the screen and add some hazey fog/bloom to very bright stuff. Combined with my HDR/bloom shader setttings from GeDoSaTo, the overall result is very nice, tasteful. I'll put up a new round of screenshot comparisons some time tonight. I'm also using SMAA, a slight sharpness boost, etc.

I'm also using it to add Playstation buttons to all of the button prompts and to get rid of most of the visuals for ring auras, because they annoy me. However, other players can still see them. It's just a visual mod on my end.

I'm not currently using GeDoSaTo for downsampling, because I don't have the horsepower to do that, add all of those effects, capture video, and maintain 60fps. I'm not constantly capping video, but I like to capture whenever I am invaded or whenever I do the invading.

 

[Cvar]

Smelter Sword is decent but it's far from the best STR weapon...it drains a lot of durability with every power swing...even a Great Club +10 surpasses it...or my STR weapon of choice, the standard Greatsword...I bought myself a few shields using the boss souls as most of the boss weapons don't really seem worth it

With the King's Ultra Greatsword and the Sacred Chime Hammer with resonant weapon, sacred oath, ring of blades +2 and Dark Infusion on a decent character will be between 950-1000 attack rating meaning you will be doing around 1,000-1,500 damage per hit in most cases. Smelters sword is the highest hitting single attack I've seen with it's power attack doing 2200 damage to one enemy in a single hit. Of course this is max upgraded boss weapons. If boss weapons aren't fully upgraded on a high level character they pretty much suck but I don't really think most boss weapons were really meant to be used on your first playthrough more meant for NG+ and beyond.

However a regular Greatsword still has around 865 A.R. if doing all of the above so it's not like the boss weapons are leaps and bounds better then normal weapons but some some have unique abilities that you won't get from any other weapon and that's the main reason to use them.

 

[polonyc2]

I'm also using it to add Playstation buttons to all of the button prompts and to get rid of most of the visuals for ring auras, because they annoy me. However, other players can still see them. It's just a visual mod on my end.

I'm also not a fan of the ring visuals...I like using Gower's Ring of Protection in pvp which prevents backstabs but I'm not a fan of that ghost visual on my back when I wear it

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Unmodified defense. I'll swap gloves and shield if lightning needs a boost, but so far it hasn't been a problem.

Quality Sun Sword setup right now for everyday PvE and mild PvP. It's my NG++ guy. I'll have to do a caster build when I get time.

 

[yourgrandma]

Love the shine you get from the cleaner amour sets with GeDoSaTo hdr.

Only have two complaints about the game which i've had for all the souls games. Homing arrows and not being able to tell what you can or cannot parry without dieing a lot.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

I had to modify the bloom.fx cause it was too much at default, but now its running and looking beautiful.
The default downsampling wasn't taxing over here, but I turned it down to 3K. The game never dropped below 60fps at 4K, only when you walk through a fog door. Never at 3K. Looks great.

BTW, I played a few minutes ago just to see something and there is a one point difference between the PUGS and GS. (Both maxed of course)
@
STR 50
DEX 45

GS+10= 596
PUGS+5=595

GS is 22 weight, compared to PUGS 18
If weight is an issue, PUGS has the clear advantage. Scaling wise, it should be the better sword(A/C vs A/D), but I doesn't go to 10, hence the 1 point diff. I love how deep the crafting is in the souls games. You can see how much thought goes into the balancing of weapons.

 

[Cvar]

I had to modify the bloom.fx cause it was too much at default, but now its running and looking beautiful.
The default downsampling wasn't taxing over here, but I turned it down to 3K. The game never dropped below 60fps at 4K, only when you walk through a fog door. Never at 3K. Looks great.

BTW, I played a few minutes ago just to see something and there is a one point difference between the PUGS and GS. (Both maxed of course)
@
STR 50
DEX 45

GS+10= 596
PUGS+5=595

GS is 22 weight, compared to PUGS 18
If weight is an issue, PUGS has the clear advantage. Scaling wise, it should be the better sword(A/C vs A/D), but I doesn't go to 10, hence the 1 point diff. I love how deep the crafting is in the souls games. You can see how much thought goes into the balancing of weapons.

If that's true it means your actually getting around 10 points less base damage from Pursuer's but about 10 points more in scaling. The difference between 50/50 in str/dex to 99/99 is only about 60 points difference though in A scaling str/dex so at 99 in both you would probably do like 10 more points with the Pursuers weapon, not much of a difference either way though so it's clear to just use whichever weapon you like better.

 

[polonyc2]

how many people here have beaten Darklurker with a pure melee build?...I already started NG+ and don't think I want to deal with him here...regular NG seems like a better choice

 

[Cvar]

how many people here have beaten Darklurker with a pure melee build?...I already started NG+ and don't think I want to deal with him here...regular NG seems like a better choice

I did on NG but he was a huge pain in the butt.

 

[chameleoneel]

Ok here are my updated settings and screenshot comparisons for visual mods. I made a post similar to this earlier in the thread. I went back and edited it and now I am double posting it as a new post:

Here are screenshot examples of my personal visual mod settings for Dark Souls 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2zh6fptb13ce7de/AADPOu5xcHbplQOnpr4LTfBUa

*click pics to make larger and also enter a slideshow mode. Even still, they do not display full size. download each picture, to view full size (1080p). On the main page of thumbnails, you can download them all at once, with a button in the top right.

You will see several sets of comparisons, each made of three shots. The first shot has all effects active. The second shot is minus the new shiny HDR/Bloom effect from GeDoSaTo. The third shot has all visual mods turned off.

I play the game at 1080p, so these shots were not shrunk down. They were compressed using a very good method, but it only VERY slightly affected the image quality. These shots closely represent my in-game quality, although everything of course looks even better in motion. The "bloom/HDR" effect which really makes shiny stuff shine, is actually much better in motion than in screenshots. It's not meant to be something you sit and stare at. It is meant to glint in your eye. Looks great when spell effects are being thrown around or when two shiny armored people are fighting in a patch of sun, etc.

Overall, my settings are meant to preserve the look of Dark Souls 2 and just enrich or slightly change certain aspects, for what I think is a pleasing improvement. Most of it affects light and brighter parts of the screen. Darker areas see much less effect, as I certainly did not want to brighten dark areas. Most dark areas are actually very slightly darker and/or tightened up, if they were washed out by default.

After the main sets of comparisons, you will see several images of the loading screen. I am using a mod which makes the loading screen bonfire flash in different colors. These images show that. After those images are two sets of older images I took, before Durante added the new shiny HDR/bloom effect to GeDoSaTo. I tacked them onto the end because I like them and think they are still good comparisons.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

List of visual effects mods used:

I am using Durante's "GeDoSaTo" (what I refer to as "Ds2fix) to inject better Ambient occlusion (see the very end of this post, for something about that) and the new shiny HDR/Bloom effect, tweaked so it only effects fire, bright spells, or truly bright/shiny objects. Those are the only things I am using from that mod. I am not using the downsampling capabilities or anything else. I have skipped down-sampling because the effects I am using, all combined, are fairly taxing. With the added weight of donsampling, my 7870 struggles to maintain conistant framerate, especially while capping video. Down-sampling in DS2 really only improves the grass, tree limbs, and very distant objects. So it's really not a big deal. Especially since Ds2 doesn't have huge issues with showing aliasing, to begin with. SMAA or FXAA are quite good enough.

Here is my settings file for the shiny HDR/bloom effect: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jqvbabbzcy48m7k/shinybloomsettings.zip
unzip that into the "assets" folder for GeDoSaTo. *note, these settings are based on GeDoSaTo alpha 5. If you upgrade to a newer version, you should manually compare this file to the newer version's file, and manually make the changes. Just in case there are newer settings in the newer version.

One thing to note about the injected Ambient Occlusion is that it makes stuff visible in "The Gutter" which probably shouldn't be. Thankfully, the AO effect can be turned on/off with the press of a button.


Along with the aforementioned effects from GeDoSaTo: I am using the work in progress version of 64 bit SweetFX (also supports 32 bit). I'm using it because A. it has some effects in it that regular SweetFX does not and B. it claims to perform better in DirectX 9 Vs. normal SweetFx. Ds2 is a DX9 game.

here is the WIP sweetfx: This particular variant is no longer being developed. But, it is stable and has some very good effects not found in standard SweetFX. You need this, to make your game look like mine. You still need GeDoSaTo for the better ambient occlusion and the shiny HDR/Bloom effect, if you want exact parity with my screenshots.

here is my settings file, for the WIP SweetFX. copy and paste it into your Dark Souls.exe directory, after you have pasted the WIP SweetFX files into there.

From SweetFX I am using the following effects:

SMAA with default settings. Ds2 doesn't have huge problems with showing aliasing anyway. But SMAA and FXAA are almost free in performance, so if you aren't walking the line of performance/framerate, it should be easy to use. SMAA is more demanding than FXAA. If you have older hardware or are walking a performance line, try FXAA and set it for zero "subpixel aliasing removal". This will effectively make FXAA work as "edge detect" only and will dramatically lessen the negative effects on sharpness. Compared to SMAA, it will still be very slightly softer, but you won't notice unless you are looking hard and you will get very similar aliasing removal, for less performance cost.

Also, if you are running the game at a resolution lower than 1080p, you may want to try FXAA anyway. In my experience, FXAA does a better overall job than SMAA, at resolutions under 1080p, seemingly as a rule. although it may still depend upon the game. So test it out!

Gaussian: This is a little more than that title lets on. In addition to straight blurring; if tweaked correctly, this is effectively a true "bloom" shader for what we are used to associating bloom for videogame graphics. It has two main settings for two different types of blurring/blooming. There's a heavier setting, which pretty much affects the entire screen/all colors, is pretty much a straight up bloom effect. The other setting seems to bias more to highlights and lighter colors and creates a bit of a hazey/smokey effect around such areas. This is the one which I use.

To be redundant, you'll notice in my screenshots that it adds a hazey effect to flames, bright light from the sun, brighter areas reflecting light from the sun, etc. It reminds me of the UV haze you get from sunlight or just some general light bleed. It's a bit more of a "custom" feeling effect from a more typical full screen bloom option. and it doesn't wash out dark areas, like some heavier/full screen blooming can do.

Both bloom types have a setting to tell it where the 'cutoff' is for the bloom effect to apply interms of bright areas/light sources.

This shader is fairly taxing. Older and/or less powerful GPUs may have trouble if they are already walking the acceptable framerate line.

Curves: This is a general section for easily changing contrast. The idea is that it works on a 'curve' so that you don't get a really harsh result. Instead, a more natural result, which doesn't crush blacks really hard and depending on the setting, won't blow out highlights really badly. (note: this is not what you use to generally fix black level issues. Fix that first, before messing with this. If you use this to fix your black level, you will end up with a very heavy contrast effect akin to a TV on display at Best Buy). There are like 10 different algorithms to try. All of them of course look a bit different. I'm using #9 'parabola' which is especially natural, perserving blacks and only very slightly blowing up highlights. I'm only using it to affect "luma". For this particular algorithm, that looked best for me. Even though they made some improvements in recent patches, Dark Souls 2 is still a little washed out. If your gamma is setup properly, this will fix the remainder of the issue, without drastically affecting the integrity of the overall image.

Most of the algorithms are pretty lightweight, so you may be able to use it, even on less powerful GPUs. There's one algorithm in particular, which has the least performance cost, but still gives a nice effect. #3 "smoothstep". Try that if you need to preserve every ounce of performance or if you want a little bit more dramatic of a contrast effect.

DPX Cineon: This is a shader meant to color grade as if the game was made with DPX/Cineon values. It is highly configurable and can range from very subtle, to very similar to actual DPX, to something incredibly drastic which takes the DPX qualities and cranks them up to extremes. By default, it seems to emphasize brighter red/pink and lighter blue/turquoise. I know that sounds like teal and orange, but it is very far from that. It also adds "light" to the image in usually a natural way. It's a pretty interesting shader. I use it for a subtle effect, to give a little more "light" to brightly lit parts of the screen. Not so much for the color emphasizing. Coupled with the bloom effect I use, it nets a really nice result.

It's a pretty expensive shader. Weak GPUs may have trouble.

Lumsharpen: this also can be set to affect Chroma, if you want. Anyway, it's a sharpness booster. I have it modestly set, to offset the softness added by the other effects.

a low cost shader. Weak GPUs may be able to use it.

Dithering: Adds dithering to the screen color, to simulate more colors and help get rid of visible gradients/color banding. VERY subtle. I only use it because I can and because the souls games often have some visible color banding. You can easily ignore this effect for your own use and save some performance, if needed.


*The ambient occlusion effect in GeDoSaTo is made by Asmodean of PCSX2_fx fame. He is constantly tweaking it. It is different in every version released of GeDoSaTo. I personally prefer the look of the first version, so I paste the original file for that effect into the latest version of GeDoSaTo. If you want that file you can get it from GeDoSaTo Alpha 0.1 or send me a PM. *this may no longer be necessary, as of GeDoSaTo alpha 5. Durante made his own tweaks to Asmodean's VSSAO. Basically it seems like a setting Asmodean may have accidentally changed at some point, without noticing. Anyway, the VSSAO in alpha 5 should look better than the past few versions. Although I have not yet done super close comparison between the alpha 1 (what I have typically preferred) and alpha 5 settings.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

If that's true it means your actually getting around 10 points less base damage from Pursuer's but about 10 points more in scaling. The difference between 50/50 in str/dex to 99/99 is only about 60 points difference though in A scaling str/dex so at 99 in both you would probably do like 10 more points with the Pursuers weapon, not much of a difference either way though so it's clear to just use whichever weapon you like better.

Ah, yes thats right! I forgot about the level scaling, so if I keep getting stronger, it will eventually be the most powerful due to the scaling stats. Just gotta get used to the movest now. R2 attack is slower, but does insane damage with that 360 swing. I wonder if I can get a badass sword after killing Vendrick, I think I'll try that out tonight

 

[LeviathanZERO]

*The ambient occlusion effect in GeDoSaTo is made by Asmodean of PCSX2_fx fame. He is constantly tweaking it. It is different in every version released of GeDoSaTo. I personally prefer the look of the first version, so I paste the original file for that effect into the latest version of GeDoSaTo. If you want that file you can get it from GeDoSaTo Alpha 0.1 or send me a PM. *this may no longer be necessary, as of GeDoSaTo alpha 5. Durante made his own tweaks to Asmodean's VSSAO. Basically it seems like a setting Asmodean may have accidentally changed at some point, without noticing. Anyway, the VSSAO in alpha 5 should look better than the past few versions. Although I have not yet done super close comparison between the alpha 1 (what I have typically preferred) and alpha 5 settings.

They are both included with alpha 5.
You set it under the postprocessing section, durante or asmodean postfx.
I like durantes version, personally. Asmodean strips a tons of the color from the world, it looks dead. I actually increased the vibrancy setting in the post.fx for more color.

 

[chameleoneel]

They are both included with alpha 5.
You set it under the postprocessing section, durante or asmodean postfx.
I like durantes version, personally. Asmodean strips a tons of the color from the world, it looks dead. I actually increased the vibrancy setting in the post.fx for more color.

No the VSSAO is an independant effect. It has its own file in the "assets" folder, it's own paramters, and it's own activation/deactivation button. Only one version is included with each release of GeDoSaTo so far. With 2 parameters for quality and 3 parameters for intensity of effect. The core code for the VSSAO was created/provided by Asmodean. In Alpha 5, Durante made a couple of tweaks to it.

what you are referring to is Asmodean's shader suite Vs. the SweetFX shaders borrowed by Durante (not the complete SweetFX suite) and by default, the settings he prefers. These are other effects, separate from the VSSAO.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

No the VSSAO is an independant effect. It has its own file in the "assets" folder, it's own paramters, and it's own activation/deactivation button. Only one version is included with each release of GeDoSaTo so far. With 2 parameters for quality and 3 parameters for intensity of effect. The core code for the VSSAO was created/provided by Asmodean. In Alpha 5, Durante made a couple of tweaks to it.

what you are referring to is Asmodean's shader suite Vs. the SweetFX shaders borrowed by Durante (not the complete SweetFX suite) and by default, the settings he prefers. These are other effects, separate from the VSSAO.

Thats right, he didnt touch SSAO. My confusion.
On that note, it works good from what I can tell. I haven't noticed anything odd with it, objects are shadowed correctly and the shadow isn't "swimming", like you see in some games after enabling SSAO. It's set to 3 (highest) in my config. How's it look for you?

 

[chameleoneel]

Thats right, he didnt touch SSAO. My confusion.
On that note, it works good from what I can tell. I haven't noticed anything odd with it, objects are shadowed correctly and the shadow isn't "swimming", like you see in some games after enabling SSAO. It's set to 3 (highest) in my config. How's it look for you?

Yeah and for clarity: I am not using Asmodean's shaders or Durante's built in SweetFX shaders/settings. I have those completely de-activated, opting to do my own tweaking, with the WIP version of 64 bit sweetfx.

In regards to ambient occlusion from GeDoSaTo:

Yeah, it looks good in most areas of the game. As you mentioned, there is almost no flickering or "swimming" (a big problem with the AO injection for Dark Souls 1) and the blending is generally quite good, also better than Dark Souls 1. In most areas, it does not look out of place or like an effect was blatantly applied.

There are, however, at least two areas in the game where GeDoSaTo's VSSAO does not compliment the visuals very well.

1. The Shaded Woods. It's a very bright, evenly lit area. The AO just doesn't visually make sense in most of it, because there aren't any majorly defined light sources that would otherwise maybe cast these shadows. The heavily fogged area in particularly, looks bad with the VSSAO injected.

2. similarly, The Gutter is not complimented by VSSAO, either. Another foggy/hazey area, the VSSAO actually boldly outlines stuff in the distance which you aren't intended to see, making it visible. it also looks weird.


But, you can just turn it off/on by pressing "3" on the number pad.

For people running an Nvidia card, you can inject HBAO+ using the correct Nvidia inspector code. That probably looks even better.

 

[Domingo]

I'm still running the game with the out of the box graphics. One of these days I'll tinker around with some of those additional options.
I think my plan is to finish up NG+ and shelve the game for a while. While it's great, I don't know if it's going to hold my attention like the first game did. I think the pacing is just a little bit off thanks to the smaller areas and proliferation of similar bosses.

 

[polonyc2]

I'm still running the game with the out of the box graphics. One of these days I'll tinker around with some of those additional options.
I think my plan is to finish up NG+ and shelve the game for a while. While it's great, I don't know if it's going to hold my attention like the first game did. I think the pacing is just a little bit off thanks to the smaller areas and proliferation of similar bosses.

I think I like DS2 better overall but after NG+ my interest in continuing pvp is not as great as it was with DS1...maybe being familiar with the Souls games has made me not appreciate this as much but the game is not as addicting for some reason...I actually bought Watch Dogs for cheap and will probably give that a whirl

 

[Cvar]

I think I like DS2 better overall but after NG+ my interest in continuing pvp is not as great as it was with DS1...maybe being familiar with the Souls games has made me not appreciate this as much but the game is not as addicting for some reason...I actually bought Watch Dogs for cheap and will probably give that a whirl

I'm the opposite I guess. I never cared for pvp in the first game but in the second game now that I'm on like NG+4 there isn't a whole lot to keep going for except for pvp. The bosses scale up to NG+7 before they stop scaling and I used a few bonfire ascetics to face some max level bosses and it was a lot of fun. I still feel like there is plenty left to discover but I honestly think Dark Souls II is a much better balanced and polished game then Dark Souls 1. The first game was great but there was too many ways to become insanely overpowered.

 

[polonyc2]

I'm the opposite I guess. I never cared for pvp in the first game but in the second game now that I'm on like NG+4 there isn't a whole lot to keep going for except for pvp. The bosses scale up to NG+7 before they stop scaling and I used a few bonfire ascetics to face some max level bosses and it was a lot of fun. I still feel like there is plenty left to discover but I honestly think Dark Souls II is a much better balanced and polished game then Dark Souls 1. The first game was great but there was too many ways to become insanely overpowered.

even with DS1 the single player game ends for me after NG+...I never bother with NG++ etc as all that equals is an exercise in grinding through enemies with massive damage resistance and output...pvp was addicting in DS1 and is the only reason to keep playing...with DS2 I don't like the way the game is giving the invadee the advantage (Blue Sentinels, Seed of the Giant etc)...not to mention that you have to grind to get more Red Eye or Blue orbs etc

I do love the dueling aspect of DS2 and I keep going back to the Blood covenant dueling area...lots of fun...I've been concentrating on pve during my first few playthroughs so maybe once I spec a good pvp character I'll enjoy it more

instead of NG++ etc I'm actually thinking about trying out the Covenant of Champions for a true challenge

 

[Cvar]

even with DS1 the single player game ends for me after NG+...I never bother with NG++ etc as all that equals is an exercise in grinding through enemies with massive damage resistance and output...pvp was addicting in DS1 and is the only reason to keep playing...with DS2 I don't like the way the game is giving the invadee the advantage (Blue Sentinels, Seed of the Giant etc)...not to mention that you have to grind to get more Red Eye or Blue orbs etc

I do love the dueling aspect of DS2 and I keep going back to the Blood covenant dueling area...lots of fun...I've been concentrating on pve during my first few playthroughs so maybe once I spec a good pvp character I'll enjoy it more

instead of NG++ etc I'm actually thinking about trying out the Covenant of Champions for a true challenge

Yeah good thing about the game is it doesn't really force you to play it any specific way. If you want to start over many times to keep your level down and experiment with different builds you can but if you want to level up past 15 million soul memory and keep going to play with the highest level players you can do that as well. I'm finding pvp is actually fun and rewarding if I am invaded and win I get often rewarded between 300-700K in souls so pretty much most of the time it's a level up if I die it's not really a big issue though due to the fact that I'm already in the highest tier so losing souls doesn't make any difference.

 

[Domingo]

Overall, I think it's a better game than Dark Souls 1. I think Dark Souls 1 was a different kind of difficulty. With it, the areas were more open and winding. I felt like I was desperate to reach the next bonfire, which there were far fewer of. There were more enemies, larger levels, and more tedium required.
With #2 they got rid of the tediousness and upgrade farming and such, but they also made the areas smaller. To compensate, you have fewer flasks and your shit breaks quickly. It’s a bit more artificial. The Iron Throne is the only area I ever felt truly desperate to reach the next bonfire. I don’t mind them simplifying the inventory upgrade process, but the small levels and tons of bosses get a little old. By the end, it starts to feel like most of the boss fights are the same. In the first game, it was always cool to see what they’d throw at you next. In DS2, you can usually bank on a large foe you’ll strafe, dodge twice, and then hit them while they’re recovering. In NG+ I can’t even remember which boss I’m fighting behind each door, but I’m not really struggling with any either. If all else fails, strafe, dodge, strike, repeat. Only heal after they miss…no matter how low in health you are.
With the success of both games (and the original team also interested in making another game), I'd like to see a return to the large areas, flask system, and "breakage" system from the first game, but keep the simplified upgrade process from the 2nd. Farming titanite and and dealing with embers and multiple blacksmiths in the first game was just plain torture.

 

[Ihavetheelderscrolls]

MORE NOOB QUESTIONS:

So...I came acorss this asshat that invaded me and he just walks up to me and jabs at me about 20 times in 1 second. I got poisoned and die instantly. I've seen the poison thing..no big deal but this guy literally hit me 20 times or so it appeared. Is that just the weapon's moveset? Do people hack in this game?

Next question: I'm kind of struggling with the dex build. I'm realizing that this maybe isn't the right build for me. Mainly because when you're fighting bosses/PvP you have ONE shot to attack sometimes and the dex weapons are just way underpowered compared to a baller STR build. I realize that the stamia consumption is far less and you're quicker with dex weapons but I still find myself able to only get one shot that delivers 300 damage instead of 600 or 900. Is this just the way of the build? I'm assuming I'm not doing something right...

 

[Cvar]

Overall, I think it's a better game than Dark Souls 1. I think Dark Souls 1 was a different kind of difficulty. With it, the areas were more open and winding. I felt like I was desperate to reach the next bonfire, which there were far fewer of. There were more enemies, larger levels, and more tedium required.
With #2 they got rid of the tediousness and upgrade farming and such, but they also made the areas smaller. To compensate, you have fewer flasks and your shit breaks quickly. It’s a bit more artificial. The Iron Throne is the only area I ever felt truly desperate to reach the next bonfire. I don’t mind them simplifying the inventory upgrade process, but the small levels and tons of bosses get a little old. By the end, it starts to feel like most of the boss fights are the same. In the first game, it was always cool to see what they’d throw at you next. In DS2, you can usually bank on a large foe you’ll strafe, dodge twice, and then hit them while they’re recovering. In NG+ I can’t even remember which boss I’m fighting behind each door, but I’m not really struggling with any either. If all else fails, strafe, dodge, strike, repeat. Only heal after they miss…no matter how low in health you are.
With the success of both games (and the original team also interested in making another game), I'd like to see a return to the large areas, flask system, and "breakage" system from the first game, but keep the simplified upgrade process from the 2nd. Farming titanite and and dealing with embers and multiple blacksmiths in the first game was just plain torture.

I think your just better at Dark Souls II then you were at the first game. The areas are pretty small in the first game and can be easily ran through most of the time. So far my quickest completion time in Dark Souls II was about 15 hours where my quickest time in Dark Souls 1 was a little over 5 hours. I'm sure if I really wanted to I could probably get less then 10 hours in Dark Souls II but I'm not so sure I'll ever have times as short as the first game unless I just cheese through it and skip to the castle.

MORE NOOB QUESTIONS:

So...I came acorss this asshat that invaded me and he just walks up to me and jabs at me about 20 times in 1 second. I got poisoned and die instantly. I've seen the poison thing..no big deal but this guy literally hit me 20 times or so it appeared. Is that just the weapon's moveset? Do people hack in this game?

Next question: I'm kind of struggling with the dex build. I'm realizing that this maybe isn't the right build for me. Mainly because when you're fighting bosses/PvP you have ONE shot to attack sometimes and the dex weapons are just way underpowered compared to a baller STR build. I realize that the stamia consumption is far less and you're quicker with dex weapons but I still find myself able to only get one shot that delivers 300 damage instead of 600 or 900. Is this just the way of the build? I'm assuming I'm not doing something right...

Sounds like you were hit with Richards rapier which completely legitimate. Dex weapons are not as powerful as Str weapons but usually infused weapons with buffs are the best way to go and you can actually cast any buff if you use skeptics spice and have at least 10 faith or int whichever is required for the spell even if you don't meet the casting requirements of the casting device.