From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[deuxhero]

It's not just "after PC", the framerate dropped a noticible amount if I had armor with physics (most of them) and further with a torch.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Guess I'll just have to steel my nerves and wait for the PC release, then.

 

[Karellen]

I noticed something interesting in the beta that I'd missed before. Last time around, I'd killed the NPC that was behind the Chariot boss because he had nothing interesting to say to me. This time around, because invading actually worked, I accumulated some Tokens of Spite from invading people, which made me eligible to join that NPCs covenant. Well, as it turned out, the NPC was still dead as a rock, but the game had spawned a gravestone there, and with a sacrifice of 3000 souls, you could summon a ghost from the gravestone with all the same dialogue they had before death. In a way I suppose this is since you can no longer screw yourself over as profoundly by killing NPCs, but either way, as a result I got to join his covenant, which was worth it mainly for the truly awesome speech you get from the NPC when you do. From Software really understands their players! In practice, the covenant is apparently meant to let you use Tokens of Spite to place red dueling signs. I saw a few of them around, but I never managed to summon an invader (nor was I ever summoned), so I quickly ran out of Red Eye Orbs, curtailing my savage killing spree.

In the last half an hour or so, the devs enabled a "Hard Difficulty Mode", which sounds distasteful, but maybe they're just using it to calibrate the difficulty properly instead of having outright difficulty modes in the final release? Of course, it could also be something along the lines of NG+ in the first game, but I find it kind of doubtful, because it seemed to me that enemy HP was not affected, only their attack damage, which was boosted considerably. It also seemed to affect drop rate, because in my estimation, everything was dropping Lifegems a lot less than before. It was this last bit that made it feel more difficult than anything else, to be honest. It also made the Skeleton Lord boss fight major nightmare fodder. Alas, it was partly difficult because of framerate drops, which is not something you really, really do not want when you have skeleton wheels rolling at you from all directions, but there you go.

And now, we wait. Will they get their tech in order before the game ships? Either way, it's going to be better than any game you'll play in the next couple of years anyway.

 

[LivingOne]

Dark Souls 2's Faces Are Looking Really Good
The ugly faces of Dark Souls will not be making a return in the sequel.
by Ian Miles Cheong on 10th Nov, 2013



Dark Souls may have been a much loved game for its extraordinarily brutal gameplay and fantastic setting, but no one loved it for the faces of its characters, who looked every bit as bad as the ones in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion—which is to say they looked like potatoes with facial features.

Those much (and in our opinion deservedly) maligned faces will not be making a return in Dark Souls 2, which has an overhauled character creation tool that's capable of creating good looking characters, for once.



tl;dr Dark Souls 2's faces got good.

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/18629/article/dark-souls-2-s-faces-are-looking-really-good/
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/18629/article/dark-souls-2-s-faces-are-looking-really-good/
more like"tl;dr Rex was having a slow day with the news" amirite


Karellen said

Well, as it turned out, the NPC was still dead as a rock, but the game had spawned a gravestone there, and with a sacrifice of 3000 souls, you could summon a ghost from the gravestone with all the same dialogue they had before death.

Not really happy about this tbh.Luckily most changes aren't like that.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I've read somewhere that everyone now rolls at the same speed regardless of equip load, and that this was done for the sake of pvp balance. Can any of you Beta bros confirm or deny?

 

[praetor]

I've read somewhere that everyone now rolls at the same speed regardless of equip load, and that this was done for the sake of pvp balance. Can any of you Beta bros confirm or deny?

from what i read, roll speed is either tied to agility or weapon size, can't remember right now

 

[subotaiy]

Yes, there are some new stats wich may affect roll speed.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

there is a bunch of new screenshots on dark souls facebook page. finally some new areas and enemies

Spoiler

 

[Fat Dragon]

Those screens look like ass. Did From get their janitor to take those?

 

[Borelli]

I Love the 2nd and 4th pic. Sunset on a rocky area next to the sea. <3

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

i hope for some good marine theme locations. they are rather rare in crpgs

 

[Wulfstand]

The new screenshots look like they've been taken from Deadly Premonition. Maybe it'll run on my rig after all.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Who cares what the backgrounds look like...It's all about the PVP now. Right? RIGHT?

A lot of bad decisions being made for the sequel me thinks.

Zep--

 

[St. Toxic]

Just saw part of this:



"Felt more like Demon Souls overall."

Fuck yeah.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Which class is the new SL1 class?

Demon's Souls: Royal.

Dark Souls: Pyromancer.

Dark Souls 2: ?????

 

[Hobo Elf]

Those opponents can't PvP for shit.

 

[Xi]

The stat screen is looking amazing. I like that they expanded on it. ;P

 

[DragoFireheart]

The stat screen is looking amazing. I like that they expanded on it. ;P

What did they add? (too lazy to watch video/at work)

 

[Elwro]

It's too small for my TV, I can't read anything there.

 

[Xi]

The stat screen is looking amazing. I like that they expanded on it. ;P

What did they add? (too lazy to watch video/at work)

There are now stats that govern attack speed, evasion (roll) speed, and a new trap disabling speed. Also, it appears that there are more stats than in Dark Souls.

There are 8 stats in Dark Souls:

There are now 10 stats in Dark Souls 2:

 

[Elwro]

The main things for me are that now there are two separate stats for equip load and stamina and that there's a special stat for 'swiftness of movement'. Not sure if I like that, but maybe it'll enable even more versatile builds...

 

[Xi]

The main things for me are that now there are two separate stats for equip load and stamina and that there's a special stat for 'swiftness of movement'. Not sure if I like that, but maybe it'll enable even more versatile builds...

That's what I am thinking too. More versatility. I'm sure that it will also create some over powered builds too, but PvP isn't the only aspect of the game. Just glad that a sequel finally added some depth instead of scaling mechanics backward to appease a broader (more retarded) audience.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Lots of incline like scaling weapon effects based on stats (to prevent Chaos/Lightning weapon chickenhawking) and making cast speed scale with attunement.

But, fuck, I really hate the idea of Nu-Vitality and Agility. Every single build will want a significant investment in both of those statistics, reducing the meaningful choice at level-ups. They could have gone with so many ways of making Old-Endurance no longer the uber-stat that everyone wanted/needed...but instead we get this. Wonderful...

And I can't believe Resistance is still a stat. Get it together FROM.

 

[praetor]

yeah... hybrid builds in PvP will be a lot less common if not non-existent (save for experimenting and dicking around), unless the level "caps" are upped significantly

 

[DragoFireheart]

Wait, there's a trap stat now?

Sweet.