Dark Souls 2 PC - April 25, 2014

the issue is if you load a saved file that indicates you were in a MP session. that counts as a strike. after a certain number of strikes you can no longer coop or summon, but can still be invaded. You have an item that can "restore connection" but once you use it, if you get softbanned again you will have to do without for 8 hours, then it should respawn in the temple where the game starts. The problem is not with the saved file reloading, it is with the multiplayer disconnects.

I've had quite a few people pull the plug and disconnect during pvp battles when I was kicking their ass (Dragon covenant)...hopefully those guys fall into the soft ban category :D
 
if you are trying to PVE and someone invades to fuck up your game, then maybe it is justifiable. someone has a youtube video out on how to get the great club @ SM40k - for purposes of invasions vs low level. assholery 2.0

If however you are hitting dragon signs or red signs and then disconnect, that is a pretty dick move.
 
I hope they change nothing about it except make it easier to coop with family. Dark souls is tough. One of its charms is its online system. There is an offline mode for those that don't want the benefit/risk of online system
 
if you are trying to PVE and someone invades to fuck up your game, then maybe it is justifiable. someone has a youtube video out on how to get the great club @ SM40k - for purposes of invasions vs low level. assholery 2.0

If however you are hitting dragon signs or red signs and then disconnect, that is a pretty dick move.

invading to 'fuck up your game' is the whole point of player invasions...the potential to die at any moment is one of the hallmarks of the Souls franchise...
 
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if you are trying to PVE and someone invades to fuck up your game, then maybe it is justifiable. someone has a youtube video out on how to get the great club @ SM40k - for purposes of invasions vs low level. assholery 2.0

At least it's not DS1 where you could be trolled to death by stacked-out Darkwraiths as soon as you entered Undead Burg as a brand new player.
 
it was a bigger deal in DS1, where you would go long stretches between bonfires, and losing progress meant losing tons of souls. In DS2 there are no long stretches, except perhaps the shrine of amana. no real "hidden" bonfires. The levels are somewhat linear in terms of progress
 
it was a bigger deal in DS1, where you would go long stretches between bonfires, and losing progress meant losing tons of souls. In DS2 there are no long stretches, except perhaps the shrine of amana. no real "hidden" bonfires. The levels are somewhat linear in terms of progress

there are a few bonfires hidden by illusory walls (Drangleic Castle, Earthen Peak) and a few which are somewhat hidden but yeah not as many as DS1...the only place where distance between bonfires was an issue was in Frigid Outskirts...they should have placed another bonfire closer to the fog gate
 
My brother bought a new video card over winter break and wanted suggestions on games. I suggested DS2 as I had much fun with it. He said he'd buy it if I bought it (previously had ds2 on 360) on Steam. I had already gone to NG+++ with one character on the original ds2 and finished the game with a second character. Did not think I was going to be playing this game again once the multiplayer wore out for me.

So when I fired it up for two hours last night, I completely forgot that the scholar of the first sin updated the game to have new spawn locations for enemies and items as well. It was certainly refreshing and made the beginning of my 6th playthrough an enjoying one. Plus, it runs at 60 fps on high at 2560 x 1440 resolution on my humble pc, which is so nice after spending a few hours on Lords of the Fallen at 30 fps average at 1080p and medium.

My brother is going to pick up a gamepad today and hopefully I can hook up with him this weekend. I hope he doesn't get turned off by the learning curve. Did anyone else pick up this game recently or is still playing?
 
I'll likely give it a go prior to DS3 hitting. Just to get back in the swing of things. I lost my saved game with everything completed (it didn't cloud save), so I'll be forced to start all over. I ended up just getting the Scholar of the Last Sin version on sale for something like $5-10 after realizing my save was gone.
DS2 is one of the only games I can play at 4K with details cranked and never drop below 60fps. As a result, it looks phenomenal even if the game engine is a bit dated.
 
I lost my saved game with everything completed (it didn't cloud save), so I'll be forced to start all over.

And it wasn't a misconfig or missed option on your part, DS2 does not do steam cloud saves. Which is just stupid, as the first game does it to an annoying factor.
I also found out the hard way. 280 hours, deleted. I'm just clinging on to Bloodborne now, cause I cannot start DS2 again... especially after getting soooooo far, only the 3rd DLC wasnt done. Pffffft... Maybe in a few months...
 
And it wasn't a misconfig or missed option on your part, DS2 does not do steam cloud saves. Which is just stupid, as the first game does it to an annoying factor.
I also found out the hard way. 280 hours, deleted. I'm just clinging on to Bloodborne now, cause I cannot start DS2 again... especially after getting soooooo far, only the 3rd DLC wasnt done. Pffffft... Maybe in a few months...

I put in about that many hours into DS2 as well and never bought the third DLC.

The re-release of the game with the different placements does make the game feel new again if that's any encouragement for you to start up again. Losing that many hours is a bummer though.
 
I'll likely give it a go prior to DS3 hitting. Just to get back in the swing of things. I lost my saved game with everything completed (it didn't cloud save), so I'll be forced to start all over. I ended up just getting the Scholar of the Last Sin version on sale for something like $5-10 after realizing my save was gone.
DS2 is one of the only games I can play at 4K with details cranked and never drop below 60fps. As a result, it looks phenomenal even if the game engine is a bit dated.

$5-$10?? Did it ever go that low? I got it on the Winter Steam sale for $17.99 I believe.

I think they may have offered the game to PC players that already had vanilla DS2 for a discount. Is that what it was?
 
$5-$10?? Did it ever go that low? I got it on the Winter Steam sale for $17.99 I believe.

I think they may have offered the game to PC players that already had vanilla DS2 for a discount. Is that what it was?

Yeah, I definitely got the previous owner discount. I think I also got it via a Steam sale. Could be wrong about that, though. Either that or I had some leftover $ from a Steam gift card. I just remember that it was cheap and that I might as well just get the mack daddy edition if I planned on starting all the way over.
 
Firing up a new playthorugh to get ready for DS3. Anyone else?
 
Firing up a new playthorugh to get ready for DS3. Anyone else?
I am. Going to try and finish this game this weekend on a new toon, finally. I won't feel bad if I can't before next Tuesday, though.
 
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Firing up a new playthorugh to get ready for DS3. Anyone else?

I would like to just to get accustomed to the controls and feel of the game again but I'm busy with other stuff this week (plus I'm almost done with The Division and want to finish the PvE and level myself up to a certain point in the Dark Zone area)...I was going to replay Bloodborne a few weeks back but decided not to as I didn't want to get used to using a controller versus kb/m which is how I play all the Souls games on PC
 
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I made a run through DS1 a couple weeks ago and am now playing through Scholar of the First Sin.
It's a sonofabitch, too. While the changes don't seem huge on the surface, the tweaks do make a difference. Lots of areas are blocked off by statues and you get more branches (at different intervals) to grant access to those areas at different times. It feels like they actually wanted to make the game more deliberately paced by blocking things off. That's both good and bad, but it makes the game kind of linear.
The Heide Knight area is totally different and is much tougher as a result.
Not sure I'll bother completing this one prior to DS3, but I'm at least getting accustomed to it. I kinda forgot how long it is before you get or can use large weapons in this one. I've been using quicker weapons for a while now, and I'm not really a fan.
 
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one of the main changes is that you can get the crafting ember at a much earlier point. You used to have to get to iron keep for that, now it is at the beginning of lost bastille
 
At the very least, there is a pretty huge community of people playing Scholar of the First Sin right now. Probably people practicing up for #3.
In my recent run through Dark Souls 1, I was never once invaded. I don't think I saw a single (non-CPU) summons sign the whole time either.
Last night I made it to the Sentinels and there must have been a dozen summon signs on the ground. I don't think I've seen that much activity since DS2's launch day.
 
I'm playing through the original DS2 and there is a ton of online activity happening in there, too. I don't know what is going on with DS1 because I was constantly getting invaded last week. One of the issues I think I have with DS1 is the level parity seems to be really strict. It seems most people putting down their signs or invading Sen's, for example, are at SL30 while I'm usually around SL50 at that point.
 
I'm discovering that (like Bloodborne), the game gets a LOT easier as you move forward. The Scholar of the First Sin forces you to take a particular route early and and if you don't - there are sections that are borderline impossible. It's infuriating, too. The Fallen Giants area with dozens of normal enemies is pretty nuts when you have pitiful stats and gear.
However once you clear a few bosses (and improve your stats/gear), the game becomes pretty easy. I've been on a tear for the last couple of days and have rarely died. Bosses are dropping like flies on the first try. I have a maxed out large club and am only just now in Brightstone Cove. I plan to stick with that club (and a Greatrider Bow) for the rest of the way.
 
Well I've made it further into the game than I ever have at this point, just clearing out the Lost Bastille. I don't think this game is as bad as I originally thought now that I am used to it. I actually stopped thinking about it like a Souls game and I've been getting more enjoyment out of it. But I've moved onto Dark Souls 3 to get the experience of the initial few weeks, at least as much as that counts for after so many people played the game for weeks before release already... And already DS3 feels more familiar than DS2 does. I'll come back to DS2 to finish it, though. The story and the world is pretty interesting, to say the least.
 
At this point, I think I'm going to power through and win the game. Especially since there are reports of quirks with DS3 so far.
I'm all the way to the Black Gulch and toying around with just playing through the rest of the game as Vengarl. His two weapons, shield, and gear are all pretty nice and everything has a cool aesthetic.
Oddly, they changed where you fight him in Scholar of the First Sin. It's now an entirely optional fight in the area with all of the petrified lions.
 
Not sure how much longer until I smash my monitor.

Boss
This pursuer guy really fucking pisses me off. I've been so close to killing him 5 x now with an ally phantom and ALWAYS after some careless bull shit, I die. I keep using my stupid human potions so I can see the white signs to summon someone, but I'm only down to 2 now. Holy fucking hell.
 
^ So, that enemy shows up several different times. If you're on Scholar of the First Sin, make that dozens of times.
Where are you fighting him exactly? There are some tricks to make at least one of the fights easier. For all of the others - get as close as you can and circle him to the right. No matter what - never attack him more than twice at a time.
 
^ So, that enemy shows up several different times. If you're on Scholar of the First Sin, make that dozens of times.
Where are you fighting him exactly? There are some tricks to make at least one of the fights easier. For all of the others - get as close as you can and circle him to the right. No matter what - never attack him more than twice at a time.
the last door the soldier key unlocked, up the stairs and through the mist with the ballistas. I'll try circling him to the right and see if that will help. Thanks
 
Welp, they do drop one of the most useful rings. :) But the game can be completed without fighting any of them.
 
Think I'm going to fire this one up, and see if I want to invest in the 3rd one, I killed a controller playing DS2... Fucking game man.
 
In playing the Scholar of the First Sin edition, there are Pursuers hidden in like 1/2 the stages. They just come up out of the ground in a cloud of grey smoke. They don't seem to be quite as strong as the original ones, but they can be a pain early in the game. Now I can take 'em out in 3-4 hits, though.
The key is to keep circling right and stay close. They only have 4 attacks. They have a 3-hit combo (I block attack #1 and then roll to avoid the other two), a powerful stab (either roll or just circle out of the way), a dashing stab (circle or roll), and a magic attack (circle behind them and you get 3 free licks in).
I typically just keep circling to the right until you see him raise his shield and pull his sword back. That's the dashing stab. That's probably the most common attack, and he's wide open after it. You can usually get 2 hits on him after that attack, so I tend to just keep circling until he does it. The other attacks don't give you a ton of time to counter, except his magic attack. It's a pain to dodge if you're in front, but if you get behind him, it'll totally miss and you can unload.
 
the last door the soldier key unlocked, up the stairs and through the mist with the ballistas. I'll try circling him to the right and see if that will help. Thanks
For that encounter, use the barrel to the right of the carriage in front of the ballista to the left as a reference point. When you enter the fog gate, run immediately up to that barrel and be prepared to parry the Pursuer's attack. When stunned, immediately run around the ballista and mash the interact button like no tomorrow. He should be dead after two barrages. If you only get on barrage off, his HP should be down enough to kill him in one hit if all the shots made contact.
 
The basic strategies for the sword wielding bosses in DS2 are all the same. Wait until they commit to an attack. Roll past the (typically your left). Reorient and attack. It is just effective.
 
Thanks to a snowstorm, I've been continuing my march through Scholar of the First Sin over the weekend. Have completed all of the main areas and and now looking at the Giants missions. I finally killed the Darklurker after a zillion tries and can't help but notice that the older strategy of using Chaos Storm when he splits no longer works in this version. In fact, it full-on misses most of the time.
Not sure if I feel like doing the DLC missions or not (fuck Lud and Zallen), but I might since I'm this far.
 
Looks like it's DLC time. I managed to waste the Ancient Dragon ("between the back toes" still works) and Vendrick on the first try, so I've got nothing left but the 3 DLC missions.
Hopefully Lud and Zallen aren't quite so rough in your first pass. I've only ever fought them in NG+ and they were the single hardest boss in both games IMO.
Both my Faith and Intelligence are still at 5 (I'm level 160'ish) so I'll probably spend the rest of my souls from here on out raising them.
 
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