From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[UndetectedButthurt]

The durability bug is starting to get too much. I've had my syan's break before I even started dealing any damage - the dude was dodging all my attacks. I could whack this thing on shields/walls all day and it wouldn't break.

 

[DragoFireheart]

The durability bug is starting to get too much. I've had my syan's break before I even started dealing any damage - the dude was dodging all my attacks. I could whack this thing on shields/walls all day and it wouldn't break.

Does it bug you?

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

The durability bug is starting to get too much. I've had my syan's break before I even started dealing any damage - the dude was dodging all my attacks. I could whack this thing on shields/walls all day and it wouldn't break.

Does it bug you?

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I see havels and turtles all the goddamn time. Can't even tell what their build is unless you a see a weapon because casters, dex weapon users, str weapon users, and everything else all use havels. So damn ugly.

I can't deal with that damn jester robe so I use the gower's ring. I feel dirty doing it, but if I see a guy spawn in with a dagger I swap to it. If they are going to be asshats, then they can hack at my back while I toss repair powders for an hour.

It's definitely lazy game balancing - take popular armor from DaS1 and make it the best phys. defense set. Forget about making any alternatives with different damage type distribution. Oh wait... Strike/Slash/Thrust doesn't seem to work the way the numbers are showing anyways. Fashion Souls.

 

[Kanedias]

The issue is not Havel's Armor, it's overlevelling and defense calculations with minimal diminishing returns (if at all). There's not that much difference between Havel's, Smelter, Mirror Knight and whatever. If they nerfed Havel's, they would just go use other similar stuff.

Also, in the other games your stamina regeneration was tied to the armor you were wearing, in this game it's tied to your equipment load, which means vitality gouges can have the same benefits of light armor with their heavy armor.

It all comes back to the same idiotic Soul Memory system. A SL 135/150 Havel's user has to make sacrifices for it and has nowhere near the defense of the overlevelled Havel's.

 

[DragoFireheart]

How about a simple level cap?

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

The issue is not Havel's Armor, it's overlevelling and defense calculations with minimal diminishing returns (if at all). There's not that much difference between Havel's, Smelter, Mirror Knight and whatever. If they nerfed Havel's, they would just go use other similar stuff.

Also, in the other games your stamina regeneration was tied to the armor you were wearing, in this game it's tied to your equipment load, which means vitality gouges can have the same benefits of light armor with their heavy armor.

It all comes back to the same idiotic Soul Memory system. A SL 135/150 Havel's user has to make sacrifices for it and has nowhere near the defense of the overlevelled Havel's.

I was just talking about armor variety in general.

 

[StaticSpine]

So...I came home after job today.

Somehow I decided to check how much does the steam key cost on www.plati.ru. It was 200RUR cheaper than on steam.

I bought the game, though I didn't plan to do it.

 

[DragoFireheart]

So...I came home after job today.

Somehow I decided to check how much does the steam key cost on www.plati.ru. It was 200RUR cheaper than on steam.

I bought the game, though I didn't plan to do it.

 

[StaticSpine]

So...I came home after job today.

Somehow I decided to check how much does the steam key cost on www.plati.ru. It was 200RUR cheaper than on steam.

I bought the game, though I didn't plan to do it.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Well maybe point to some mature coding in this industry that doesn't involve carmack 10 years ago.
Not to mention you can't really discuss their skill level without having access to some inside info. Usually stuff programmers are blamed for is just the result of moronic and stubborn designers or cost saving choices that come from far above.
Case in point, the netcode isn't terrible because of the coding. The main issue is the peer to peer choice to save server costs. Sure you could spend 3x the amount of time you spent on the whole engine and make it 20-30% better, be proud and tell the world you have the best p2p netcode. But at the end of the day it will still be shit because it's p2p.

I think it's more complicated than just saving money on server costs. The multiplayer is supposed to seamlessly integrate into the single player - that is, the person summoning help or getting invaded doesn't see any change in the game state aside from the other player joining. So, even if you wanted to host multiplayer interactions on a dedicated server, all the state information is still on the host computer. So you'd need to get a copy of that, spawn an instance of that particular area, load the state, and then put both players in it, all without the host noticing anything has changed. Sounds pretty complicated, likely computationally expensive, and slow.

Honestly, I have no idea if there's a good solution to this.

 

[Murk]

The issue is not Havel's Armor, it's overlevelling and defense calculations with minimal diminishing returns (if at all). There's not that much difference between Havel's, Smelter, Mirror Knight and whatever. If they nerfed Havel's, they would just go use other similar stuff.

Also, in the other games your stamina regeneration was tied to the armor you were wearing, in this game it's tied to your equipment load, which means vitality gouges can have the same benefits of light armor with their heavy armor.

It all comes back to the same idiotic Soul Memory system. A SL 135/150 Havel's user has to make sacrifices for it and has nowhere near the defense of the overlevelled Havel's.

I mention Havel's because it is particularly representative of the issues. It's especially butt-rage inducing because the exact same thing happened in the first game, with havel moms and dads. The problem is SM, as you point out, as no matter what happens with sufficient levels you do not need to make ANY compromises, effectively nullifying any 'build' and making a character as strong as any other character depending purely on weapons/spells (and player skill, lololol).

This is especially infuriating by not addressing any balance issues.

Ironclad armor is ridiculous; it offers secondary benefits of being immune to backstab while still giving huge defense and poise. Ridiculous; the jester's robe is at least a compromise of armor/poise for the secondary ability (and is rather heavy for light armor). A dichotomy like that makes sense -- get abilities, but trade defense and poise, but with something like ironclad (which nullifies the single biggest issue in a game full of shield turtling backstab fishers) you're left thinking that the game encourages this kind of dull and cheap gameplay.

 

[Kanedias]

I just backstabbed an overlevelled scrub with my 50 faith SLB Heide Greatlance and I did 320 damage.

I'm loving the new calibration, my PvP experience has improved so much.

 

[Raghar]

Case in point, the netcode isn't terrible because of the coding. The main issue is the peer to peer choice to save server costs

What's wrong with p2p?

 

[DragoFireheart]

I just backstabbed an overlevelled scrub with my 50 faith SLB Heide Greatlance and I did 320 damage.

I'm loving the new calibration, my PvP experience has improved so much.

You're doing it wrong: you need to Havel up with a Gyrm's Helm and be numb. Out heal their attempts to kill you and watch them black crystal out.

 

[Shadenuat]

I wonder if Defender Greatsword will get nerfed. Even without its self-buff it can hit quite hard

That's an understatement, in a hands of Faith build with high stats it hits like fucking ultra-greatsword with it's Lightning scaling even without buff.

Honestly, I have no idea if there's a good solution to this.

Make multiplayer good? Allow hosting passworded games so only bros could join so you can finish game jolly-cooperating with your friend. Allow hosting games per-location with dueling/free for all systems, and add mutators on top of it like "only longswords", "no healing items". Allow creating games where anyone can join freely too and kill anybody, like Hardcore in Diablo, and give achivements for it.

This sort of stuff was p. standard in shooters back in the day and even in single-player 3d person action games. Let people pvp in controlled environment to their heart's content ffs.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

By the way, do we know for sure that arenas are P2P as well? They'd be an obvious and easy candidate for server-side hosting.

I wonder if Defender Greatsword will get nerfed. Even without its self-buff it can hit quite hard

That's an understatement, in a hands of Faith build with high stats it hits like fucking ultra-greatsword with it's Lightning scaling even without buff.

Honestly, I have no idea if there's a good solution to this.

Make multiplayer good? Allow hosting passworded games so only bros could join so you can finish game jolly-cooperating with your friend. Allow hosting games per-location with dueling/free for all systems, and add mutators on top of it like "only longswords", "no healing items". Allow creating games where anyone can join freely too and kill anybody, like Hardcore in Diablo, and give achivements for it.

This sort of stuff was p. standard in shooters back in the day and even in single-player 3d person action games. Let people pvp in controlled environment to their heart's content ffs.

The solution to P2P induced lag in seamless multiplayer is to make the multiplayer good. Great, thanks for your input.

 

[Murk]

Well, in all fairness, if it was good then it would probably be p good. Just sayin'.

Also, chest event in Majula:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/27exg6/promotional_event_majula_mansion_treasure_box/

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I'm gonna git mah Lingering Dragoncrest +2 soon then it's GMB/Sacred Oath/Resonant Flesh/Numbness BoB arena trolling time.

 

[Murk]

Can you stack those 4 buffs on each other? Why did I think you can only have one buff at a time? God I hate everything.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

GMB/Sacred have been the standard buff routine everywhere forever.

I've been running a pure physical syan's with no buffing and it's pretty sweet when you outplay overbuffed havelyns that deal 3x your damage.

 

[Murk]

Meanwhile you can't stack immolation and flash sweats cuz that would make too much sense.

Aren't you still like level 900? ALSO WHAT IS YOUR CHAR NAME YOU BUTT

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

My over-leveled asshole dude:

Spoiler

My 150 faith build i don't give a shit about dudette:

Spoiler

 

[Murk]

o> i approve of your hideous faces

also

 

[abija]

Honestly, I have no idea if there's a good solution to this.

Clients already do a form of lock when you start getting invaded probably to send the invader your game state. Send that to the server, spawn the instance, load the state, start summoning the phantom then sync the "host" in with the active npcs and w/e state update needs to be done.

Nintendo. Say what you want about their games, but they have professional coders.

You should google their titles for bugs/glitches...