[Megathread] Dark Souls

[Fallen Angel]

This annoys me. There are some people who like to play single player, and not be forced to play online because of a mechanic in the game (kindling bonfires). I was playing and someone invaded me and killed me with a single hit. If I don't go invading other people, what's wrong with protecting yourself from griefers?

I'd like to play as human form all the time but I don't want my game to be ruined by someone playing with a hacked character. If there was some game mod that replaced the Hallowed texture with my equivalent human form then that'd do me, but I don't want to have to choose between playing the game looking horrible, and risking having griefers invading me.

I can atleast understand why someone would use a trainer, it doesn't mean they are awful at the game.

There's a solution to being afraid of griefers and playing as a human for whatever reason, and that is playing in offline mode. In all my invasions and getting invaded, I haven't encountered a blatant cheater, and I did a lot of PvP.

If you can't see what is wrong with cheating to "protect" yourself then I don't know what to say. Why not use some tried and true methods of: offline play, boss fog walls, not reverse hallowing, or alt-f4ing from the game?

The reason people are awful at the game for using trainers is you are not taking the time to further your skill at an aspect of the game, or the whole game in general. Playing online carries a risk vs reward. If you think the risk is way too high for the reward, play offline. Or you can use the ZERO SKILL method of cheating your way to victory, degrading legitimate online players' experience.

Yeah, getting invaded is a harrowing experience the first couple times. However, if you die, so freaking what? Dying is what the game is about. Lose humanity? so what? Lose souls? SO WHAT? If you really cared about either of those things you would sit at an easy spot to be summoned (you don't need to reverse to be summoned) and just farm farm farm.

Whether you see it or not, trainers ruin the game. Period. End of story.

[Jinna]

You are what's wrong with Dark Souls online play. PvP is most certainly not mandatory. It's easy. Don't reverse hollowing.

The majority of invaders aren't griefers. The majority are people just looking to PvP. And it's stupid when you are legitimately trying to PvP and you invade some cheater that you can't win against.

I know, I really wish steamguard or gfwl would detect cheater and ban them from online play automatically. I have no problem with someone who doesn't want to play online to cheat and (possibly) ruin their game experience. But if I'm trying to play the game as human as much as possible, I don't like it when a someone invades and lose time/progress because they were cheating.

[Totori]

Wish they could put a

if TotalStats > SoulLevel + 84
delete character.

[Pacer]

The majority of invaders aren't griefers.

On PC they sure as hell are I have the game both on PC and PS3 and when I want to pvp I have to turn on my PS3 because the PC crow is a bunch of cheaters.

[wynnyelle]

On PC they sure as hell are I have the game both on PC and PS3 and when I want to pvp I have to turn on my PS3 because the PC crow is a bunch of cheaters.

Sounds like you have had some bad luck. There is a great PvP community on PC. There are still more cheaters than there are on PS3, but I still wouldn't call it a majority.

[Voidgazer]

There are some people who like to play single player, and not be forced to play online because of a mechanic in the game (kindling bonfires). I was playing and someone invaded me and killed me with a single hit. If I don't go invading other people, what's wrong with protecting yourself from griefers?

But if I'm trying to play the game as human as much as possible, I don't like it when a someone invades and lose time/progress because they were cheating.

Really? Fucking really? "Griefing"? That's how people call PvP these days? It's the same as people complaining about getting killed by other players in WoW, when they rolled their character on a PVP SERVER.

Hollowing reversal is in the game solely for ONE reason - MULTIPLAYER. It is there not for you to "play the game as human as much as possible" and look at your waifu's pretty model. It's in the game's rules - if you go human, you want to engage in multiplayer, be it co-op or pvp, REGARDLESS if YOU like it or not. If you do not understand this simple thing it is your problem and yours alone. Other people shouldn't suffer because of your ignorance and cheating, even if the only thing they want is to kill you to take your humanity. They are playing by the rules and so should you.

Obviously, by this I do not advocate cheaters invaders, those are even worse (if it's possible) than cheating hosts. But well geared twinks ganking low level players in starting areas are 100% legit. Yes, they are much, much more powerful than you, and would destroy you in combat. But they are there to TEACH you - hollowing reversal is a tool you should only use in appropriate moments, like when you desperately need help in defeating a boss. Yes this, includes bonfires kindling - if you need more Estus flask charges to get through the area, you must pay for it. But before that you should weight both options carefuly: "do I really need more Estus, since it will expose me to invasions, am I confident enough in my ability to fight back?" If you still want to kindle bonfires, but fear invasions, then go throw yourself off a cliff or something, and retrieve your bloodstain afterwads.

If there was no cons to staying in human form the game would become laughably easy because of player summons.

And finally, as Fallen Angel mentioned, there is a very simple solution if you're too afraid of playing the game the intended way. You can just switch GFWL to offline mode. That's it, just one button click.

There's no excuse for cheating online. Not in Dark Souls, or ANY other game, really.

[Jinna]

While you make great arguments, which I agree with, I do think you need to relax a little. I should just clear up right away that I, myself, don't use cheats in Dark Souls but I can fully understand why other people would use them. I don't like being invaded. The reason being that I've only played 8 hours of the game so far and am not yet good at the game. I haven't read anything on the wiki only the more recent posts on this thread. So it is VERY likely that ANYONE who potentially invades me knows bucket-loads more about the game than I do and I really won't stand a chance.

It would be good if GFWL was able to detect the use of trainers and force offline mode for characters using them (they shouldn't get a GFWL ban) something like what is done in Torchlight 2 where if you use the console command you character is flagged as a 'cheater' but can still be used to play alone or with friends.

You have to realise that what some people get out of a game and what you get out of it can often be completely different. If someone buys a game and gets enjoyment out of using a cheat to make them invincible and clear the content etc then while you may have an opinion on this, you overstep by throwing insults at that person.

The problem is that you have no idea when invading if the host is cheating or not, and that's GFWL's fault, not the host player. Yes there are people who take advantage of this to 'lay traps' for legit invaders, but mostly it will be people who just want to play the game carebear mode and don't even know they can go into offline mode. I didn't even know I could play it offline (a popup come up when the game loads faster than I can connect to GFWL that highly discourages playing w/o a connection) so I was reluctant to do it, thinking it was some form of DRM.

Can't really blame GFWL though in the case of Dark Souls, because it was never intended to be a PC game (though I hear people are hacking the XBOX version too) but really it can't be hard to detect altered characters and force offline mode for them.

[Sothoth]

First when I started playing Dark Souls, I got annoyed and frustrated because of invading, since I usually lost. Now, after a little bit over 200 hours spend on Dark Souls, I might be able to win against invaders. Practice does make you better Also if someone is interested of co-opping or dueling, you can add my Psn, which is: Great-Sothoth. I am usually up for helping people if I have a character on the summon range :3

[KunkkaTheAdmiral]

Hello there, I could use some help or advice.

I want to play Darksouls 2 badly but its often told you should use a controller instead of the keyboard. Is this true, do you really need a controller or can you play with an keyboard to the same efficiency ?

Sorry if this question was already answered here elsewhere, couldnt find anything.

[Jinna]

Hello there, I could use some help or advice.

I want to play Darksouls 2 badly but its often told you should use a controller instead of the keyboard. Is this true, do you really need a controller or can you play with an keyboard to the same efficiency ?

I didn't realise how many games are much better with controller on the PC until recently. I bought an XBOX receiver last month and used it playing Darksouls, Darksiders, Bastion, Castle Crashers & Sonic. I'm going to get into racing games which I never bought on the PC before, mostly because the keyboard is pretty poor for that too.

So to answer your question, Yes you can play through Dark Souls with keyboard + mouse (and there have been good fixes to the controls post release of the game to accommodate keyboard use) but you really should play it with a controller. The wireless receiver is not too expensive but it really enhances game-play for not just Dark Souls, but many other games too.

[Matheren]

Hollowing reversal is in the game solely for ONE reason - MULTIPLAYER. It is there not for you to "play the game as human as much as possible" and look at your waifu's pretty model. It's in the game's rules - if you go human, you want to engage in multiplayer, be it co-op or pvp, REGARDLESS if YOU like it or not. If you do not understand this simple thing it is your problem and yours alone. Other people shouldn't suffer because of your ignorance and cheating, even if the only thing they want is to kill you to take your humanity. They are playing by the rules and so should you.

Aren't there certain things in the game you can only get/do if you're human and not hollowed? I thought it had more in-game purpose than to just participate in PVP.

[Voidgazer]

Aren't there certain things in the game you can only get/do if you're human and not hollowed? I thought it had more in-game purpose than to just participate in PVP.

Kindling aside there's only one thing in the game affected by human form - NPC invasions. And they are the primarily to give a taste of multiplayer to people who play offline.

[Totori]

Kindling aside there's only one thing in the game affected by human form - NPC invasions. And they are the primarily to give a taste of multiplayer to people who play offline.

Ehh there's more than experience.
Set of Thorns
Set of Favor
Paladin set.
Funny Xanthem set.
And the weapons and shields that come along with the murdering of their phantoms.

[Kaosbringer]

There something I want to ask the community here about Darksouls. Did anybody else find that the overall difficulty is easier then they expected?

Not to say that the games is easy, but I find myself tearing through the game only hitting stumbling points on certain bosses (like the Goat Demon on the tiny walkway, I kept getting stuck between the boss and a corner >.<). I not quite done but so far (about 60% through i am guessing) and I hear that the last boss is a teeth grinder, but the average enemy is easy one you learn its pattern.

So I was just wondering if anyone had this thought.

Also as a side note I play offline, mostly because I want figure the traps/bosses out by myself and I have very little interest in PVP.

[Voidgazer]

I'd say the game is satisfyingly difficult on the first run, but yes, it does become easy pretty fast when you learn all the attack patterns and boss attacks etc.
But that's why there are NG+ and PvP. Often people do challenge runs, like low level or no shield runs. If you're not into "serious" PvP, some online communities hold RP PvP events for fun.

[The Fiend]

People complaining about Invasions are pretty hilarious.


They should probably not play Dark Souls then.

[Totori]

Yeah, after the first run through, it's pretty easy.

Now I just do stupid builds or weird builds for giggles.

Ornstein Smough, at first was hard, now it's one shot for almost any spec.

I also now realized I have only summoned once, and got summoned like 100x more... Summoned to get Kalameet's stupid tail.

[Vomlix]

I have picked the game up, but I just can't get over how terrible the PC controls are. I guess I have to go buy a controller, as my other ones broke.

[Kaosbringer]

I have picked the game up, but I just can't get over how terrible the PC controls are. I guess I have to go buy a controller, as my other ones broke.

Ya I found that with the Dsfix mod (basically unlocks the games resoulution, and some other things) the game looks decent, but the mouse and keyboard controls are ass. Unless some puts there time into fixing them I would heed the "Controller Highly recommended" warning that Steam and other sites have.

[Lancer]

Also, a word to the wise. At least as far as invading other people's worlds, Cheats such as trainers TO FUNCTION FOR THEM. I'm not sure if it works for them when invading someone, as I've never invaded at all. And I'm one of those cheating assholes, so beware :-) I get invaded all the time by people in seemingly better gear than I have, they take swipe after swipe on me and I don't lose any health...then I hit them once and they die >:-) I'm an evil bastard. I don't like PvP, and hate that it's basically mandatory to put up with in what is otherwise an absolutely amazing game.

Granted, I HAVE been nice before and let people 'farm' souls from me. With max souls, if I die, you get a buttload of souls. So someone invades, I jump off a cliff, grats to you. I just press a simple button and back to full souls I go :-P

If you hate PvP, why are you playing this game? It's intertwined with the game from the first 5 minutes. You're cheating because you dislike a mechanic for the game and creating a problem for the people that actually play the game legit. That's pretty low. If you don't want to PvP, don't reverse hollow.

This reminds me exactly like when people in WoW (or any MMO) complain when they get killed in PvP on a PvP server.