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Polygon: How Dark Souls II will make life even harder

DJ_Lae

Member
  • Possible to be invaded while hollow.
  • Repeated deaths while hollow decrease max HP up to 50%.

Guess I'll be playing offline, the combination above sounds the opposite of fun.

Worse than getting fucked over repeatedly in Dark Souls just trying to get summons for Stein and Smough.
 

Meia

Member
Hollow invasion isn't going to make the game hard... It's just going to be annoying. Imagine I buy the game a week after launch, and every one is maxed out . now I get invaded, that's an auto butt hurt.


This. Little Mr Power Gamer who figured out how to get an end game weapon on his level 1 character ruins things for everyone now, as well as those that just use immortality cheats.


This is not good news.
 

web01

Member
Sounds awesome and if you do not want to get invaded simply play offline and do not complain.
Clearly they are giving tools to help like automatically summon a player to help if invaded in specific covenant.
 
I'll echo the sentiments that being invaded while hollow sounds more annoying than anything, but I'm glad they're adding penalties to being hollow this time around.

Any word on hilarious weightless ragdoll coming back?
 

Meia

Member
Sounds awesome and if you do not want to get invaded simply play offline and do not complain.


This is never a good option since you lose access to player messages and bloodstains, removing a lot of immersion from the game itself. Again, in no way, shape, or form is this a positive thing for the game's health.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
Invaded while hollow..... So a grief factory then?

not sure I want the game anymore tbh, just because of that one 'feature'.

If you can't avoid invasions without playing offline mode--and that's a big if--then they've likely introduced new mechanics that make it impossible, or at least really, really hard, for superpowered characters to invade low level people who are just playing through the game normally.

If it is exactly like Dark Souls currently is, where you can't go through the beginning of the game without running a relatively high risk of being invaded by a twink with end-game gear, then it would be pretty dumb, yeah.
 

bhlaab

Member
Invasions while hollow sounds like such a pain, especially considering the huge amount of cheaters in the PC version.
 

Zaventem

Member
This. Little Mr Power Gamer who figured out how to get an end game weapon on his level 1 character ruins things for everyone now, as well as those that just use immortality cheats.


This is not good news.

Offline for those folks.
 

survivor

Banned
Fuck the invasion thing. I never bothered with PvP in Dark Souls and I was hoping to never bother with it in the sequel. Will either play offline or maybe hope for an item to prevent invasions.
 
In case you guys don't know, online games on console are being ruined by a huge amount of save hackers. Dragon's Crown for instance, I know some of you have seen stuff about that. I fear that people will be level 1 with max stats and just destroy anyone they invade for fun. And nothing will be done about it.
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
If they're going to have hollow invasions, at least balance it so that being in human form results in more invasions than hollow form.

If they are indeed bringing back the Cling Ring, I'd imagine everyone's second ring slot will now be occupied by one that dissuades invasion while hollow.
 

Hollow

Member
Not sure how I feel about being invaded while hollow.
I guess the time limit on white phantoms is their solution for ganking.

The rest I like.
 

bhlaab

Member
I think it would be better to add more incentives to being human than over-punishing being hollow like that.
 

njean777

Member
Sounds interesting so far, I was already going to buy it anyways, but I like what I am reading. Though if they do not fix invading and hacking then I will just play offline and not deal with that aspect until I am ready for PVP.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Hollow invasion is a shit idea. I still remember one of the first times it happened to me in Dark Souls, the guy WOULD NOT DIE. He was hacked with insane amounts of health even as I kept backstabbing him.
 
Yeah I'll just be playing offline, hated the Pvp in dark souls.At least then I could deecide to go human if I wanted that.

Shame I liked the way it worked in demon souls. This seemed closer to do it but ruined it with forced Pvp
 

Kientin

Member
Pretty pumped, I never get invaded because I never want to use up my humanity/items. That will now change. Come at me bros.
 

emb

Member
Sounds good to have stats retooled. And it's nice to have the HP loss after dying again actually. Puts more pressure on not dying, which kinda wasn't a bid deal in Dark.

I've never understood the appeal of being online in these games though. Other players interrupting what I'm doing doesn't sound fun, nor does letting someone else carry me through a boss fight. That one Demon's Souls boss fight was a cool idea though, at least there was that.
 

Victrix

*beard*
Invaded while hollow is a terrible, online destroying decision

Not because being invaded while hollow will suck (it will), but because of the absurd number of hackers that will ruin your life
 

SoulUnison

Banned
Are the notes you can leave for other players still only selectable from a relatively small list of predetermined lines?

Because I was basically sold on Dark SOuls for the note leaving and player-to-community interactivity and was *really* disappointed when I realized it wasn't even a text input with a harsh word filter, but a small list of things I was allowed to say.
 

squidyj

Member
Are the notes you can leave for other players still only selectable from a relatively small list of predetermined lines?

Because I was basically sold on Dark SOuls for the note leaving and player-to-community interactivity and was *really* disappointed when I realized it wasn't even a text input with a harsh word filter, but a small list of things I was allowed to say.

dickbutts, dickbutts everywhere.
 

Zaventem

Member
Sounds good to have stats retooled. And it's nice to have the HP loss after dying again actually. Puts more pressure on not dying, which kinda wasn't a bid deal in Dark.

I've never understood the appeal of being online in these games though. Other players interrupting what I'm doing doesn't sound fun, nor does letting someone else carry me through a boss fight. That one Demon's Souls boss fight was a cool idea though, at least there was that.

I like the tension. It's crazy how fast my hear started beating the first time i got invaded by a player. I lost but wow that feeling can't be replicated.
 

Vire

Member
Incoming crow buffet for everyone who predicted a casual game and the death of the series when the sequel was announced!

It's a pretty hefty, detailed article, so here's the rundown:
  • Possible to be invaded while hollow.
  • Humanity scrapped, replaced with a single item like Stone of Ephemeral Eyes.
    [*]Repeated deaths while hollow decrease max HP up to 50%.
  • White phantoms now have a limited duration, may have to leave sooner if they do too much work for the host player.
  • More visible blood stains and messages thanks to being server-based instead of P2P, messages no longer require an item to write.
  • Way of Blue covenant summons a player phantom to help defend if you get invaded.
  • 3 item slots per hand, 10 consumable item slots. UI is much denser and more detailed, less scrolling necessary.
  • Agility stat that increases movement and dodge speed. Existing stats being retooled, such as Dexterity making bleeding/poison more effective.
You'd better get ready to die.

That sounds awful.
 

Orayn

Member
I think this thread is the perfect place to reminisce about how people were reacting to Dark Souls II 8-9 months ago.

Nope. I'm out. I'll just pretend it never happened. The writing is on the wall, they're after Skyrims crowd.

Namco is going to fuck this up for everyone

The fuck is this? FFXIII?

Sounds like corporate decided who will helm this game.

Now that Dark Souls is a brand, marketing is going to dicate game design. They will have their charts, focus groups, sales projections, blah blah. And it usually works. Far Cry 2 took risks and didn't pander, and many hated it. Far Cry 3 does all the things players seem to want (giant hud for dummies, no confusion, make player feel powerful, challenge free combat, in your face dumbass story, etc), and the reception to fc3 was way better.

New director also says he wants to make the intro to the game more 'welcoming' then introduce the players to the 'real dark souls' as they go on. So I guess we can say good bye to hard-as-fuck bosses within the first 5 mins..

SinkingOilShip-8.jpg

Fuck Scamco.

This only confirms their status as one of the worst companies in video games.

From what I'm reading, for me this will boil down to:

Streamlining in the way from Demons -> Dark = day one purchase

Going after "dat Skyrim money" = rental

Indeed, maybe even a good metaphor for gaming in general.

Fives years later, the ambiguity destroyed, their freedom of design gone, the last remaining members of FROM submitted to mainstream and commercial authority in Tokyo, Japan. The great dark fantasy RPG maker of exploration, depth and difficulty was gone, and the great gaming frontier as a whole was soon to pass into history.

on-screen markers and compass.
detailed on screen minimap with red dots to signal enemies.
qte prompts to free yourself from enemy grappling you and avoid traps.

And there goes one of the best series this generation if not the best.

There goes the series.

Incoming mini-map / radar? Sure sounds like it.


I smell an incoming disaster

Hype has gone down like 10.000%

Different creator and a random easy "accesible" game, this is not Dark SOuls 2, this is something totally different

Like FF13 compared to FF7-8-9 probably

O ye of little faith.
 
I think this thread is the perfect place to reminisce about how people were reacting to Dark Souls II 8-9 months ago.

O ye of little faith.

Rofl. So happy that From doesn't make the game easier, but in fact harder.

Wait is going to be a pain!
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Oh hell no. Are they bringing the Cling Ring from Demon's back?

lol my thoughts exactly. Decreasing health past 25% is bad enough.

A realm penalty would be interesting later on. Accessing certain areas under human or hollow restrictions, but like adding a map to the UI it slowly kills the Dark Souls formula.
 

Mupod

Member
Sounds pretty awesome to me. I love games that increase the tension at all times.

I had a lot of awesome invasions in the first week of Dark Souls' release, always intense and good fights. You generally both knew what you were getting into when it happened (except the few who didn't realize what being human form meant) and it seemed like everyone had a wildly different character build. You never knew what would come around that corner when you got invaded, every invasion was super memorable to me.

On PC I ran into a bunch of low levels using endgame gear and cheaters, maybe ONE good fight and that was with a dragon guy who just wanted a duel. The game looked so much nicer but you better believe I stayed out of human form as much as possible.

So I'm hoping there's a solution other than simply playing offline. With this news and the PC version not being day 1 I think I might just stick to the console version.
 
Are the notes you can leave for other players still only selectable from a relatively small list of predetermined lines?

Because I was basically sold on Dark SOuls for the note leaving and player-to-community interactivity and was *really* disappointed when I realized it wasn't even a text input with a harsh word filter, but a small list of things I was allowed to say.
I vastly prefer the predetermined sentence piecing that the games have, as it keeps everything within the same language and even then only provides hints and things to piece for yourself.

I'd rather not have the floors littered with twitter-like messages and memes.
 
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