From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[RRRrrr]

So, how do I make the game playable on the PC? What mods do I need to make the interface bearable and are the controls manageable on the PC?

 

[Murk]

I just plugged a controller in and played; no mods installed. DSFix allows for greater control but it caused the game to crash for me so I just ditched it. Works fine and I don't care to graphics whore it up so whatev.

 

[pakoito]

So, how do I make the game playable on the PC? What mods do I need to make the interface bearable and are the controls manageable on the PC?

DSFix is the only mod you need. Disable the horrible official antialising and tweak your internal resolution and AA from the mod config file. You can also unlock the framerate but it may cause glitches, mostly dropping through the floor.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I mentioned Moebius because I was talking pedigree, and Moebius is one of the first fighter/RPG hybrids, instead of being a game that's too new or being a standard arpg clickfest. Moebius may not be best in breed, but it is a trailblazer for the sub-genre of RPG hybrid where the combat is about jockying for position and nailing your timing windows, not clickfesting, and not having good stats and better tactics.

On a related note, the one game with obvious similarities to Dark Souls (although afaik there's no connection) is Blade of Darkness. Which nobody really votes for in "Best RPG" polls, even though people generally agree that it's very good.

What's Blade of Darkness?

 

[Kanedias]

If you plan to use a mouse and keyboard you also need DSMFix. Check the latest version, which was a bit hard to find (I don't think it was on the author's page) It will take a while to get used to the controls if you don't have a controller.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Yeah I can't imagine playing this without a controller.

So much for PC master race. Look at all the moding and patching bullshit you have to do.

 

[Bubbles]

I beat this twice with kb+m, made me even more hardcore.

 

[pakoito]

I mentioned Moebius because I was talking pedigree, and Moebius is one of the first fighter/RPG hybrids, instead of being a game that's too new or being a standard arpg clickfest. Moebius may not be best in breed, but it is a trailblazer for the sub-genre of RPG hybrid where the combat is about jockying for position and nailing your timing windows, not clickfesting, and not having good stats and better tactics.

On a related note, the one game with obvious similarities to Dark Souls (although afaik there's no connection) is Blade of Darkness. Which nobody really votes for in "Best RPG" polls, even though people generally agree that it's very good.

What's Blade of Darkness?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severance:_Blade_of_Darkness

What happened between King's Field and Dark Souls. One of the best spanish-made games ever. It's highly playable and has aged well, but glitches like a mofo in modern systems tho.

 

[Humppaleka]

Meh. A woman beat this on stream with a steering wheel controller, top that.

Just beat this piece of shit myself. Best game in, like, 10 years or what. If not best then damn close. I can't even remember a game that rivals this in the last decade. It may be my dementia and overall "I really don't know about the timeline of games made after 2000", but are there any. New Vegas might be close.
Kalameet was the only boss I skipped (didn't kill Priscilla though for example), had the wrong kind of weapon and was kind of fed up at that point. I remember punching my controller (I think it broke, but it could have also been batteries running out, it was some old Logitech piece of ass which I replaced with 360 pad), but can't even remember when or where. Overall popped a few veins but nothing serious, Bed of Chaos made me curse aloud though. Excessively.

Btw I never had problems with physics going batshit insane with DSFix (of course they are kind of shit anyway in the game but that is just the engine), unlocked FPS and set it to 50.

That's my 2 cents of incoherent ramblings. I give a full

 

[pakoito]

In the field of singleplayer gamer games, Portal is up there for me too. Not many more.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Yeah I can't imagine playing this without a controller.

So much for PC master race. Look at all the moding and patching bullshit you have to do.

If you're not used to controllers, it plays significantly better with KBM.

Actually, I think Dark souls would play perfectly well with "normal" KBM controls - mouse to control camera/facing and A/D defaulting to strafing relative to camera facing. Unlike typical action games, there isn't really much in DkS that would necessitate precise directional input for movement. And having precise control over the unpredictable camera would be a godsend. Having a ton of buttons on the keyboard helps with doing a lot of stuff at the same time. On a controller, for instance, you need to move your thumb from the left stick in order to use the d-pad, and use an awkward grip on the left side if you want to move the camera while pressing face buttons - like when running, which is very annoying - and this is why From moved run from B to pressing the left stick in DkS 2. None of these problems exist on KBM, where you can hold multiple buttons while moving both the character and the camera.

I beat this twice with kb+m, made me even more hardcore.

My first playthrough was with keyboard only.

 

[Grim Monk]

So, how do I make the game playable on the PC? What mods do I need to make the interface bearable and are the controls manageable on the PC?

What I'm using:

DSFix: blog.metaclassofnil.com/?tag=dsfix
Fixes resolution and other stuff.

DSMFix: http://steamcommunity.com/app/211420/discussions/0/864979455329386779/
Fixes Mouse control problems.

Regarding the PC Controls.

I switched "Use" and "Item" keys bindings, but am otherwise using the default control scheme.
With the above patches installed it all seems to play fine.

Nothing deserving the proclamations of "unplayability" that are constantly being thrown around...

 

[Kanedias]

I have 1.355 hours with keyboard and mouse, and I PvP

--

Anyways are you ready for a grand, epic tale?

Yesterday I was PvPing in Oolacile Township, and I invade a gentleman of fine breeding and manners who attempted to kill me with Dark Bead spam and also tried to use Estus on a duel. The Township isn't really known for the honor of its denizens so I shrugged it off, but the second time I invade the same person he uses a Pursuers plus Wrath of the Gods combo that sadly hits me and leaves me with very low HP. Luckily I managed to switch to Red Tearstone in battle (which was hard because he was back to spamming Dark Bead) and I managed to stunlock him with my Greatsword, killing him. At this point I was really fed up with his playstyle, and I intended to send him a message.

I saw he was from the glorious land of Japan, but I figured maybe he spoke English so I sent the message anyways "Very nice, but perhaps you need to try a bit harder, what about Tranquil Walk of Peace?". A couple minutes later I get the answer and I'm linking it here because it's hilarious.

Spoiler

 

[The Vanished One]

So much for PC master race. Look at all the moding and patching bullshit you have to do.

Frankly, 1) it's the publisher's fault if not enough money went into a decent PC port, and it's still better on PC than on consoles with dsfix, 2) installing and configuring dsfix & dsmfix is straightforward, with just a bit of experience with mods, and 3) while I cannot make the comparison with controllers, as my experience with those is limited, dsmfix makes K&M controls perfectly fine.

However, I'll admit that I'm unsure whether DS would have been better, had it been developed for PC. It's possible that, without the hardware limitations, FROM might have sunk more of their budget in prettier graphics, and less in content and depth, which would have been a tragedy.

 

[Kanedias]

With a controller it's much easier to play unlocked and it's easier to do some PvP tricks like dead angling, roll backstabs, reverse rolls, etc. In PvE keyboard and mouse with Mouse Fix is perfectly fine and you wouldn't notice that much of a difference unless you're really used to a controller or something.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What's Blade of Darkness?

Severance: Blade of Darkness, dammit. One of the coolest fightan games evah.

So, guise, I managed to beat down the Belfry Gargoyles in like 30 seconds on attempt 4. No idea if good or lucky.

How much minimum magic stats would I need? I'm assuming not everything can be solved by a claymore+5?

 

[Murk]

Not sure what you mean; are you asking for how much Int you should have to use sorcery as a back-up? If you want magic as a back up then stick to pyromancy, that way you don't have to invest into Int or Faith -- if you want either one of those then each spell has its own requirement and each casting catalyst/talisman scales with the appropriate stat.

You can up that claymore to +15 if you want to go the STR/DEX route. The ember that allows you to go up to +10 is not too far away if you play 'as intended'.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

My question is whether a significant number of enemies REQUIRE a considerable investment in int/fth at all. I don't think so, but best check. Rolling with a Bandit now.

 

[Murk]

Oh, no, not at all. You can melee everything just fine; you'll also have xbows as backup if you don't use any dex (and xbows do FUCKING LIES WORTH of damage when turned into fire xbows; so go for light or standard instead). If you do a quality (str + dex) build then you can fall back on the (composite) bow for ranged ability.

Some bosses/enemies are much easier with sorcery and miracles but you'll do just fine without it. Plus, there's always pyromancy -- it scales only with the glove that upgrades like a weapon (souls, no shards) so you can still fireball shit which is not a perfect projectile but its viable.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Cool. Thanks.

 

[Murk]

BTW, heads up just in case you don't know, if you turn a weapon into fire or lightning then it loses all stat scaling. So if you plan to make a fire-more or light-more as your main weapon then your stat points in str or dex won't help (other than for minimum requirements to use).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

BTW, heads up just in case you don't know, if you turn a weapon into fire or lightning then it loses all stat scaling. So if you plan to make a fire-more or light-more as your main weapon then your stat points in str or dex won't help (other than for minimum requirements to use).

Good thing I wasn't intending it. Other than maybe Divine on some minor weapon so I can clear undead if I wanna.

 

[Murk]

That's not a bad plan, I made a divine weapon for Nito but I never used it. I usually suicide run in and kill the necros (at which point the skellies stop respawning, and necros are non-respawn) so it never bothered me but yeah, can't hurt to be prepared.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

That's not a bad plan, I made a divine weapon for Nito but I never used it. I usually suicide run in and kill the necros (at which point the skellies stop respawning, and necros are non-respawn) so it never bothered me but yeah, can't hurt to be prepared.

Spent way too long at the Parish, Burg etc., to leave undead in peace.

 

[Murk]

Enjoy your vengeance mein freund o>