From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[DragoFireheart]

Apparently "Dark Souls 2 was unplayable and broken on consoles before the graphics downgrade":

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...broken-on-consoles-before-graphics-downgrade/

I’ve spoken with a source close to the development of the game who was willing to go into greater depth on what they believe happened between the preview builds and the final product—a product which would have apparently played like the notoriously mangled Blighttown without a graphics downgrade.

According to my source:

“This is what it comes down to: a playable framerate. The early builds that the screenshots came from were playable but only just so. The game was not in a state where it could be sold at that point. I strongly suspect that they were focusing heavily on delivering a top-notch experience on PC and underestimated the challenges the new systems would pose on PS3 / Xbox360. That’s my analysis, anyway. But, factually, the early builds played like Blighttown the entire game.

“I sincerely don’t think they intended to deceive, but in the end they sacrificed a huge amount of graphical fidelity at the very end of development because they couldn’t resolve the framerate in any other way. They had to promote the game with screens and trailers, but at that time even they had no idea they were going to have to drop the settings so much, I suspect.

I want people to know the truth. I know a lot of people just feel lied to, but I think the reality is a bit different. It doesn’t mean they handled it properly, but I think they made the only decision they COULD make in the end. The game would have been much worse without the change (as in, many would call it unplayable and broken.)”

The graphical downgrade was not as horrible as one thinks. And honestly, the game still looks nice. They did keep many of the shadowing effects. Ironically there are actually more noticeable issues than the graphical downgrade.

 

[Hobo Elf]

So I finally leveled and geared enough of my new guy to be able to use the Chariot Lance and the Dragonrider Greatshield. What do I think of Lances? It's ok. Does quite nice damage; has good scaling (B with str and upgrades into quite a beast). Mechanically it works like a heavier version of the Spear which I guess is something that was needed. The Royal Soldier Ring is kinda poop though. Not even close to being as useful as Havel's. Need to put a lot of Vitality if you want to use heavy weapons and heavy armor.

 

[praetor]

this is such a marvel of bad coding... in the wrong way. from the "we never really tested stuff on consoles up until 1 month (or whatever) before release" to the netcode that upholds the tradition of the Souls games. "unable to join multiplayer session." (or something like that) and suddenly you're offline with the only solution being a restart. fuck you, From. i definitely regret buying the CE. never again (yes, i'm really frustrated right now)

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

It's the total amount of souls your character has gained. It's used for match making to prevent twinking.

It's a piss-poor method of doing so, though. Total souls accumulated doesn't correlate well at all with game progress. Newbies, who die a lot, might have a lot higher soul memory than expert players who are blazing through the game with nary a death. Also people who like to co-op and help others will quickly find themselves greatly jumping up the Soul Memory brackets, losing out on a lot of opportunity for jolly cooperation that they enjoy while swimming with sharks in the PvP scene.

It also makes for a tension between the PvE and PvP modes. If you aren't putting all of your souls into leveling or main weaponry, and instead exploring the systems and trying new stuff, you're liable to be matched up against people with similar Soul Memory who have extremely focused (and potent) builds. At SL75 and SM of 1.6 million I often run into people 30-40 soul levels higher wielding attacks and magic that basically one-shot me (woo-hoo, WoG is back!). All of this because I've staggered my leveling so as to not spoil PvE content and make it into a face-roll. Like I said, tension.

Thank goodness it goes away on New Game +, but it's still incredibly irritating for no real reason at all. The entire playerbase is punished in a futile attempt to stop some low-level griefers...a task much better handled by the Way of Blue covenant and more stringent weapon/armor/spell requirements.

this is such a marvel of bad coding... in the wrong way. from the "we never really tested stuff on consoles up until 1 month (or whatever) before release" to the netcode that upholds the tradition of the Souls games. "unable to join multiplayer session." (or something like that) and suddenly you're offline with the only solution being a restart. fuck you, From. i definitely regret buying the CE. never again (yes, i'm really frustrated right now)

Yeah, the launch has been pretty bad so far in terms of multiplayer stability. When trying to co-op with people I get kicked offline regularly when someone else fails to summon me. Uh...thanks. I certainly hope that doesn't count towards the allowed number of disconnects before the automatic perma-ban on a character kicks in (yeah, I know the Bone of Order is supposed to give people a second chance, but my heart bleeds for those in the potatozone or HUEHUEland that don't have the relative stability of firstworldia internet).

And apparently Patch 1.02 has broken a lot of summoning on the PS3. For once, M$'s stinginess regarding patches has been a boon.

Still a great game, but they really should have put more thought and polish into the online aspect if it was designed to be a central pillar of the game (moreso than Demon's Souls or Dark Souls 1). As it stands, it's fun, but really rough with a lot of poor balancing decisions.

 

[praetor]

yup... with 1.02 i had stable multi for like 1 hour than connection woes for about 2h. and half the time someone summons me i get kicked out when they enter the boss room as if i was an invader or something ("host has left the area" or something like that). it was pretty funny to be summoned as a blue/red through a white sign in DaS1 on that rare occasion it happened (to me maybe once), but this shit is retarded

 

[Tribal Sarah]

i've only been invaded once since i first started playing. That was in that stupid belfry. I've never been summoned to fight invaders in the blue clan or that one in the church. Summoning people has been a frustrating pain in the ass most of the time. Today, it was completely broken.

 

[Kanedias]

Today I was invaded more than 10 times during normal play, just going through areas in NG+. It seems this patch fixed invading but broke summoning.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

smelter demon has rendered me a broken shell of a man

 

[Admiral jimbob]

also gwyn's theme was awesome and I rarely notice video gaem musics. haven't really noticed any of dks2's tracks at all yet tbh

 

[Invictus]

I think the latest bews on the downgrades is something we all suspected so it is no big deal; they sacrificed pretty lightning for framerate on a game that relies on response times.
What is really interesting is what is going to happen to the PC version, are we going to get the Director's Cut per se in the plataform which can fully realize the vision of the game with the original lighting and the extra detail we saw like fallen m$asonry, crumbling rocks and cobwebs or are they just going to add pretty textures and call oit a day? Oh and K&M support for the masochist out there?
Either way From seems heading for trouble; if they release a superior PC version which is closer to the original reveal use of textures, cluter and dynamic lighting the console boyz will cry out to dear heaven over beign cheated (never mind the 8 year old hardware) andif they release a PC version with updated textures only then everybody will cry foul and say that they didn't want to compromise the state of the console version and you are getting pretty much the same experience
Fuck the consoles...I hope they go all balls om out on the PC
Hell hire Durante ffs

 

[felipepepe]

They'll probably announce a PS4/XBONE version along the PC release, with full graphics for the console peasants.

 

[Mortmal]

i've only been invaded once since i first started playing. That was in that stupid belfry. I've never been summoned to fight invaders in the blue clan or that one in the church. Summoning people has been a frustrating pain in the ass most of the time. Today, it was completely broken.

Same problem here, and no ETA nor anything on solving it . I am not even sure they are aware of it .

 

[Jick Magger]

Summoning hasn't been much of an issue for me. Occasional pop-ups of "the sign has disappeared/someone has already used the sign", but I'd say I've been successful in summoning a companion roughly 80% of the time.

 

[Kanedias]

The Namco community manager has informed them, apparently.

But yeah, they improved the invasion netcode but the summoning one is borked, I was trying to co-op Lost Sinner NG+ with a friend and he couldn't lay down the sign at all because it would time him out from the server. On the other hand, I got an incredible number of invasions today, most of them arbiter spirits. I must have had more invasions today than on the first days combined. Arena netcode seems to be vastly improved as well, duels were instant or near instant while they used to take a while.

 

[Jick Magger]

if they release a superior PC version which is closer to the original reveal use of textures, cluter and dynamic lighting the console boyz will cry out to dear heaven over beign cheated (never mind the 8 year old hardware)

What are they going to do? Demand they release the 'director's cut' version be released on consoles at a jaw-dropping 10 FPS?

If they are planning on releasing a director's cut-esque version for PC, then I'd understand why they delayed the PC release for a full-month; so that it's well-past the point where the controversy behind it would effect the console sales in any significant way.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Summoning hasn't been much of an issue for me. Occasional pop-ups of "the sign has disappeared/someone has already used the sign", but I'd say I've been successful in summoning a companion roughly 80% of the time.

this. the only bosses i soloed so far were gargoyles,rat vanguard and rat authority

fuck shrine of amana and those bitches with their fucking homing farts. i cleared 90% stage till third bonfire and got soul arrow in the back and my mage slipped from the edge sniping with poioson arrows works like a charm but it`s so slow.

 

[Machocruz]

if they release a superior PC version which is closer to the original reveal use of textures, cluter and dynamic lighting the console boyz will cry out to dear heaven over beign cheated (never mind the 8 year old hardware)

What are they going to do? Demand they release the 'director's cut' version be released on consoles at a jaw-dropping 10 FPS?

If they are planning on releasing a director's cut-esque version for PC, then I'd understand why they delayed the PC release for a full-month; so that it's well-past the point where the controversy behind it would effect the console sales in any significant way.

Also, they kind of covered their ass with the Cursed trailer. It shows the console versions as they are, and it came out in January. Game hasn't been presented as looking like the reveal or TGS trailer for a while.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

New char - just managed to beat sentinels with NPC (might as well be solo - dies right after first one), and lost sinner. Lost Sinner is a piece of cake when you turn the lights on. Tower Shield and patience makes any boss fight (minus retarded shit like Iron King of course) trivial if you just keep strafing to get behind while studying their moves. DS1 didn't have this many block-able bosses or the equivalent of a Tower Shield so early in the game.

 

[praetor]

this. the only bosses i soloed so far were gargoyles,rat vanguard and rat authority

what r u? casul?

New char - just managed to beat sentinels with NPC (might as well be solo - dies right after first one), and lost sinner. Lost Sinner is a piece of cake when you turn the lights on. Tower Shield and patience makes any boss fight (minus retarded shit like Iron King of course) trivial if you just keep strafing to get behind while studying their moves. DS1 didn't have this many block-able bosses or the equivalent of a Tower Shield so early in the game.

Eagle shield (particularly preDLC)? lucky black knight shield drop?

dunno about blockable bosses... everything but grab attacks and butt stomps were blockable in DaS1, and the same thing seems to be true in DaS2. almost every boss so far (i'm not even half-way through ) seems to have "that 1 unblockable attack" and now shields don't upgrade stability (i think? or maybe it's further down the path?)

btw, is it a bug that you revive to human if you were summoned through a small white soapstone?

 

[Invictus]

I am taking my time doing a lot of co op (no connectiom problems at all here) and limited time for gaming.
Just beat gargoyles and sinner and boy is that battle cheap without the bastille key, I guess he is beatable if you know his paterns but he felt relatively cheap not beign able to lock on or how he would adjust his attack upon your roll
I am itching to try NG+ or do a Deprived run afterwards for a pure pyro build but seems I will hold off to the PC release.
Who am I kidding I already have my Collectors Edition ordered for PC (from UK) as a birthday present from my sister so for all my doubts about the PC version I already have that in the bag.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I beat the lost Sinner on my first try with my Sorc. Was a bitch to get real close for lockon to work, but I heard thar she parrys melee so hey at least I didn't have to worry about that. Would not attempt it in NG+ without lighting the place first though.

 

[DragoFireheart]

What's that? Summoning is broken but invasions have been enhanced? It's a good day to be a Rat Bastard, Black Phantom (Red Spirit), or a Bell Guard.

i definitely regret buying the CE. never again (yes, i'm really frustrated right now)

u bught teh CE addition? wut r u, casul?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Yep seems like 90% of the summon signs I try to use to summon peeps are borked. I keep getting the Error that the Sign doesn't exist anymore. Shit is gay. And I was just gonna make a Sunbro for jolly co-op too.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Yep seems like 90% of the summon signs I try to use to summon peeps are borked. I keep getting the Error that the Sign doesn't exist anymore. Shit is gay. And I was just gonna make a Sunbro for jolly co-op too.

Make a Rat Bastard with magic buffs for weapons and using the Halberd.

 

[DragoFireheart]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/20ynma/psa_do_not_dashboard_quitturn_off_console_during/

PSA!!!!! DO NOT DASHBOARD QUIT/TURN OFF CONSOLE DURING INVASIONS! (self.DarkSouls2)

submitted 12 hours ago by gannonbarf

When you do this, the system adds a tag on your charater. If you do this enough times, you will no longer be able to do co-op but you'll still be able ivaded. If this happens to you, you can use the Bone of Order to reconnect to the network for co-op, but only once. Keep that up and you will (most likely (Don't know if you can get another bone of order) never be able to play online with that character again. Invasions happen, suck it up. It's just part of the cruel and amazing game! This concludes my PSA. Have a nice day.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!