From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Multi-headed Cow]

check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku1ZBwB7Ghs

apparently sound is also fucked in the PC version but most people don't even notice. Easily fixed though here at least.

That's the exact same shit Skyrim pulls with Realtek onboard sound, which is what I use. Already doing the fake 5.1 solution for Skyrim, haven't noticed if it's fucked up in Dark Souls like it's shown in the video though.

 

[Malpercio]

So, anyone is up for some bro-op or whatever? Assuming we actually manage to connect this shit.

SL80 or so.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Have yet to get poisoned in Blighttown, though I probably would've if not for the ring. Most deaths have been caused by falling down. I've gotten to a bonfire and found a mist door but haven't gone through it yet. Most notable finds have been shadow armor and a pyromancy that sounds kinda iffy.

 

[praetor]

So, anyone is up for some bro-op or whatever? Assuming we actually manage to connect this shit.

SL80 or so.

i'm up for it. SL91, gfwl: Praetor137. do you by any chance have an extra Quelaag's soul lying around? i kinda want this char ready for PvP in the arena SL100 range, but already used her soul for the fury sword >.<

Have yet to get poisoned in Blighttown, though I probably would've if not for the ring. Most deaths have been caused by falling down. I've gotten to a bonfire and found a mist door but haven't gone through it yet. Most notable finds have been shadow armor and a pyromancy that sounds kinda iffy.

power within? that's a really powerful pyromancy if used properly (especially vs bosses), especially when you consider it's the only "self-buff" that boosts all damage (yes, even pyros, miracles, magic, unique (usually unbuffable) weapons) and it boosts your stamina regen to boot

 

[Average Manatee]

Power within is indeed pretty awesome. Stamina is a far more important resource than health (for the most part at least) and higher damage increases your ability to chain lock and quickly kill enemies.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Have yet to get poisoned in Blighttown, though I probably would've if not for the ring. Most deaths have been caused by falling down. I've gotten to a bonfire and found a mist door but haven't gone through it yet. Most notable finds have been shadow armor and a pyromancy that sounds kinda iffy.

You haven't gotten to the part which the ring is meant for. Blighttown is a very annoying area, the geometry screws with your camera a lot, it's easy to fall to your death in places you wouldn't expect it to be possible, random framerate drops, swamp is quite tedious. and the end boss is a total pushover. It looks cool, but is one of the low points of the game imo, where it becomes frustrating as opposed to difficult in a fair way.

On the upside, Sen's Fortress is fucking awesome.

 

[abija]

Trying to summon a friend for coop is an exercise in frustration. Did they even gave a reason for such a retarded design?

 

[SerratedBiz]

Strangely enough, Blighttown is one of my favorite areas of the game. After the initial "whatthefuckisthis" reaction and the grueling effort to reach the bottom bonfire, subsequent playthroughs made it very enjoyable to succeed at it. It's essentially a gauntlet, where enemies are not too tough and the trick is to master the map.

OTOH, I find Sen's Fortress to be dull. After the initial "omgthisisawesome" reaction, I now rush through it as quickly as possible. Maybe my dislike has something to do with the fact that it features very few shortcuts when compared to Blighttown, and the fact that I hate snakes.

 

[Tommers]

And you know you've got THAT ridiculous bridge at the end.

They make it difficult to play with friends for the same reason there's no voice chat. You're meant to be a random undead in the middle of a lonely, desolate and brutal world - not chatting with your mates. You're summoning phantoms, not friends. Random ghosts.

 

[Morgoth]

I was invaded today by some dumbfuck and I stomped him into the ground. What does actually happen if you lose the fight?

 

[Average Manatee]

OTOH, I find Sen's Fortress to be dull. After the initial "omgthisisawesome" reaction, I now rush through it as quickly as possible. Maybe my dislike has something to do with the fact that it features very few shortcuts when compared to Blighttown, and the fact that I hate snakes.

Sen's is a PITA when you have to start from the beginning if you decide to explore any side areas. Collecting all items basically means you have to go through it at least 3 times, and that's if you don't die. The traps also makes it feel like a cheesy madman's fortress thing rather than a logical area that would exist within the game world. Course, it is a madman's fortress, but that doesn't make playing it any better.

 

[praetor]

I was invaded today by some dumbfuck and I stomped him into the ground. What does actually happen if you lose the fight?

you die as if killed by a regular enemy. no extra penalties

 

[abija]

They make it difficult to play with friends for the same reason there's no voice chat. You're meant to be a random undead in the middle of a lonely, desolate and brutal world - not chatting with your mates. You're summoning phantoms, not friends. Random ghosts.

Yeah yeah you're an undead in a desolate world where every secret is preceded by 3-4 messages and a pool of blood near every hidden danger. There's nothing hard and almost nothing hidden when you turn on online play.
Oh and there was no issue summoning friends in previous incarnation, all you had to do was drop the summon in an uncommon place.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You die, and they take some of your humanity I think. And a portion of your souls? I know you gain souls and humanity by killing people.

 

[Average Manatee]

You die, and they take some of your humanity I think. And a portion of your souls? I know you gain souls and humanity by killing people.

The souls and humanity you gain simply come out of the ether. Well, the souls at least. Since you need to be in human form to get invaded and death makes you hollow you could say you extracted that humanity from them.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

OTOH, I find Sen's Fortress to be dull. After the initial "omgthisisawesome" reaction, I now rush through it as quickly as possible. Maybe my dislike has something to do with the fact that it features very few shortcuts when compared to Blighttown, and the fact that I hate snakes.

Sen's is a PITA when you have to start from the beginning if you decide to explore any side areas. Collecting all items basically means you have to go through it at least 3 times, and that's if you don't die. The traps also makes it feel like a cheesy madman's fortress thing rather than a logical area that would exist within the game world. Course, it is a madman's fortress, but that doesn't make playing it any better.

It's a bit hard to level that criticism against Sen in a game with so much environmental variety packed into such a small space (incidentally, is DS euclidean?). As different as Dark Souls' environmental design is compared to jrpgs, it's still easy to figure that the creators were Japanese - they have an obsession with making everything HUGE and with that ultra-gothic architectural style where every building begins two kilometers from ground level. It looks cool, but there's no reason for anyone to actually build cities this way. It's a testament to From's skill that the game has a consistent atmosphere despite all the ridiculous scene changes.

 

[Malpercio]

So, anyone is up for some bro-op or whatever? Assuming we actually manage to connect this shit.

SL80 or so.

i'm up for it. SL91, gfwl: Praetor137. do you by any chance have an extra Quelaag's soul lying around? i kinda want this char ready for PvP in the arena SL100 range, but already used her soul for the fury sword >.<

I checked but no, already used it for souls. :\ Otherwise i wouldn't mind giving it up, i have a bunch of melee stuffs i can't use just lying in the box (including Kalameet's tail-sword, if someone wants it, the tail is a bitch to cut)

 

[Average Manatee]

It's a bit hard to level that criticism against Sen in a game with so much environmental variety packed into such a small space (incidentally, is DS euclidean?). As different as Dark Souls' environmental design is compared to jrpgs, it's still easy to figure that the creators were Japanese - they have an obsession with making everything HUGE and with that ultra-gothic architectural style where every building begins two kilometers from ground level. It looks cool, but there's no reason for anyone to actually build cities this way. It's a testament to From's skill that the game has a consistent atmosphere despite all the ridiculous scene changes.

There's a large gulf between "this area shouldn't be so close to this other area" and "this area shouldn't be here at all". The whole game embraces having disparate environments linked up, but Indiana Jones-esque traps are only Sen's. It's not a huge problem but it is a bit jarring.

 

[felipepepe]

So, anyone is up for some bro-op or whatever? Assuming we actually manage to connect this shit.
SL80 or so.

i'm up for it. SL91, gfwl: Praetor137. do you by any chance have an extra Quelaag's soul lying around? i kinda want this char ready for PvP in the arena SL100 range, but already used her soul for the fury sword >.<

I checked but no, already used it for souls. :\ Otherwise i wouldn't mind giving it up, i have a bunch of melee stuffs i can't use just lying in the box (including Kalameet's tail-sword, if someone wants it, the tail is a bitch to cut)

I still have mine, I'm on SL 92, but just beated Gywn and started New Game+.... No ideia if we still can summon each other...

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Frankly, bosses in general are more jarring than anything in the environment. For instance, the Depths are perfectly reasonable up to Gaping Dragon, who is completely out of place. Even worse for Blighttown and Quelaag - dark. infested, slum-like area built over a swamp culminates in a wtf firebreathing spider with a naked woman on top. Capra and Taurus demons are completely arbitrary too, and have very little to do with the locations they're found in. Clearly they were designed first, and then placed at a location where it made sense given the game's progression, and that's fine. But that's also why I simply accept stuff like indiana jones traps in Sen's as something that's just there.

In general, the designers of DS clearly value gameplay over their game world's internal logic, and since they're very clever motherfuckers, they still managed to create a very atmospheric and artistically cohesive game.

 

[praetor]

So, anyone is up for some bro-op or whatever? Assuming we actually manage to connect this shit.
SL80 or so.

i'm up for it. SL91, gfwl: Praetor137. do you by any chance have an extra Quelaag's soul lying around? i kinda want this char ready for PvP in the arena SL100 range, but already used her soul for the fury sword >.<

I checked but no, already used it for souls. :\ Otherwise i wouldn't mind giving it up, i have a bunch of melee stuffs i can't use just lying in the box (including Kalameet's tail-sword, if someone wants it, the tail is a bitch to cut)

I still have mine, I'm on SL 92, but just beated Gywn and started New Game+.... No ideia if we still can summon each other...

we can. anything you want for trade (that i can offer )?

 

[Average Manatee]

Frankly, bosses in general are more jarring than anything in the environment. For instance, the Depths are perfectly reasonable up to Gaping Dragon, who is completely out of place. Even worse for Blighttown and Quelaag - dark. infested, slum-like area built over a swamp culminates in a wtf firebreathing spider with a naked woman on top. Capra and Taurus demons are completely arbitrary too, and have very little to do with the locations they're found in. Clearly they were designed first, and then placed at a location where it made sense given the game's progression, and that's fine. But that's also why I simply accept stuff like indiana jones traps in Sen's as something that's just there.

Gaping Dragon was a dragon that escaped the purging of dragons to hide in the sewers, and was deformed by the toxins there. Quelagg and her sister are basically the source of pyromancy, it was pyromancy that created the poison swamp of Blighttown. I don't really see how Taurus and Capra are out of place either.

If the bosses were placed based on game progression Capra should be a lot further in than the 2nd boss.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Frankly, bosses in general are more jarring than anything in the environment. For instance, the Depths are perfectly reasonable up to Gaping Dragon, who is completely out of place. Even worse for Blighttown and Quelaag - dark. infested, slum-like area built over a swamp culminates in a wtf firebreathing spider with a naked woman on top. Capra and Taurus demons are completely arbitrary too, and have very little to do with the locations they're found in. Clearly they were designed first, and then placed at a location where it made sense given the game's progression, and that's fine. But that's also why I simply accept stuff like indiana jones traps in Sen's as something that's just there.

Gaping Dragon was a dragon that escaped the purging of dragons to hide in the sewers, and was deformed by the toxins there. Quelagg and her sister are basically the source of pyromancy, it was pyromancy that created the poison swamp of Blighttown. I don't really see how Taurus and Capra are out of place either.

If the bosses were placed based on game progression Capra should be a lot further in than the 2nd boss.

Coming up with a relatively arbitrary lore reason for an out-of-place element doesn't make it any less out-of-place. That's just Mass Effect 2 logic, we're in the future so guns don't need ammo anymore, but in the last few years we've developed thermal clips to cool them so you can reload while you reload. Capra and Taurus don't even have that as far as I'm aware, they're just sort of there because they feel like it. And how are they not out of place? The entire area up to taurus is the top level of a medieval city full of undead; and then suddenly - huge bull demon on a battlement; then more undead, a dragon out of nowhere, more undead, and either Capra or Gargoyles - the latter fit decently well though.

Moonlight Butterfly and Sif, for instance, fit very well, despite having more elaborate lore reasons for being where they are. My point is, a lot of stuff in Dark Souls is very arbitrary and just there for the gameplay it provides. The game is quite arcadey at its core, so it fits, but complaining about traps in Sen's of all things is just weird to me.

 

[felipepepe]

we can. anything you want for trade (that i can offer )?

I'm pretty much done with that character, I'll give it to you.

I ever traded in DS, how we do this?

 

[praetor]

we can. anything you want for trade (that i can offer )?

I'm pretty much done with that character, I'll give it to you.

I ever traded in DS, how we do this?

add me on gfwl (or i can add you, if i ever figure out that pos): Praetor137, then we meet at a low-traffic place where either you or me haven't killed the boss yet (the butterfly part of the forest where you pick up the partizan is probably the best, but i already killed that bitch )