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Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin |OT| Your weapons are weak, old man

Teeth

Member
They intensified the effect to create some truly dark rooms, so you're right, even Dark Souls 1 did it. Very noticable when entering Blighttown

Dark Souls 1 did colour tone mapping for every area, with some areas having multiple tone triggers. When you enter Blighttown from the top, everything is green; after getting past the first couple of enemies it tones much darker, with reduced draw distance and a slight tinge of orange to the green. At the bottom, it maps to brown/orange with a hint of green, though if you look up through the pillars, the tone mapping changes with the bloom filter.

There is much, much less (overt) colour tone mapping in DS2, likely due to the more complex lighting schema/engine. The global illumination in areas like Majula and Dragon Aerie kind of stand in the place of it, though it tends to create less of a "mood" because it isn't as harsh.
 
I'm a big fan of the changes so far. The enemy placement feels very logical and environments feel really well paced. I'm only a few hours in but I'm already having a ton of fun.

I feel like I had a really hard time on the Pursuer, more so than usual. Died about 4-5 times. I do think that's a really fun fight though. The thought of facing him a few more times actually is pretty exciting to me as I get better geared to deal with him.
I had the perfect Pursuer fight during my new play through. Parry first attack - 2 straight hits with the catapult thing - done. I was like wtf just happened?!

It still bugs me that the movement, iframes and parry/riposte in this game feels so much worse than Demons or Dark 1.
 

takriel

Member
The combat in DkS 2 is so, so bad compared to the other games in the series, especially including Bloodborne. I hate the whole idea of adaptability, the stupid hitboxes, insane lock-ons of the enemy, and the overall fucking clumsiness of the whole combat. So bad.

Rant over. Gonna play it some more now.
 

AndyBNV

Nvidia
Reposting for Europeans (a PC performance/tweaking/modding thread would be useful for this release):

Would anyone like to help test a DX11 DS2: SotFS SLI profile? We reckon mccompat10=0x880020F5 will work, but it'll take us a good long while to test a variety of game locations using different settings and different system configs.

With your help we can find a good profile far faster, and then get that out to every other player far quicker.

If you do test it, please post your findings along with your driver version and system config (a dxdiag posted to pastebin would be ideal).

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

Andy
NVIDIA
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
ah yes, I forgot the fire sword, I remember that was a great early weapon. Still worth putting 2 points into dex to use it early on right, even if Im going STR later?

I mean I goes from 7 to 9 dex, im sure I can live without those 2 points for a bit (even if I respec later)

lots of turtle guys around now huh?
 

Abylim

Member
There are two things this new version is supposed to have that it doesn't seem to be confirmed in the comments here.

One is that there should be new weapon types and armors scattered around. Not just the DLCs stuff, but entirely new. Is this true or not?

And the other is that with the enemy placements there should also be changes to the areas. They said new shortcuts and all that. So?

I'm also wondering about graphics. I remember at the original release there was lots of arguing about one of the enemies that was really shiny on the trailers, but lost the effect in the actual game and only showed it when walking on some broken pillar.

What happened since then? Are the armor shaders working now? Any changes on those shaders with the move to DX11?

There are new shortcuts, in
No Mans Wharf
at least.

I found a weapon I had not seen in my DS2 playthrough, but it could be dlc. I never played the dlc.

The game looks great. Coming directly off Bloodborne, it still looks good, to me. But then again I adore the look Demons/Dark go for, swords and sorcery.

I'm on PS4, for what its worth.
 
lots of turtle guys around now huh?

One cool thing I found is the first turtle guy you find on the ramparts where you first encounter Pursuer is by some explosive barrels. If you just back up to those barrels and get him to swing at you near them, he'll blow himself up.

Kinda neat to use the environment to tackle enemies once in a while.
 
ah yes, I forgot the fire sword, I remember that was a great early weapon. Still worth putting 2 points into dex to use it early on right, even if Im going STR later?

I mean I goes from 7 to 9 dex, im sure I can live without those 2 points for a bit (even if I respec later)

lots of turtle guys around now huh?

a lot of turtle guys who follow you further. This is fun. This is a fun thing to have in this video game.
 

def sim

Member
335300_2015-04-03_000qou25.png


335300_2015-04-02_0000ou0m.png


I can't tell if this looks different from vanilla. I think it still looks nice, at least.
 

Ramirez

Member
So, I loved Dark Souls and I'm about to finish BB, which I loved too. I'm kinda on the fence with this game though. I'm reading stuff about bad combat and the whole durability thing seems not fun...

Is it really that much worse than DS1??
 

Mogwai

Member
So, I loved Dark Souls and I'm about to finish BB, which I loved too. I'm kinda on the fence with this game though. I'm reading stuff about bad combat and the whole durability thing seems not fun...

Is it really that much worse than DS1??
It's not that much worse, only if you read the NeoGAF threads :)
 
So, I loved Dark Souls and I'm about to finish BB, which I loved too. I'm kinda on the fence with this game though. I'm reading stuff about bad combat and the whole durability thing seems not fun...

Is it really that much worse than DS1??

Dark Souls 2's combat is every bit as good as Dark Souls and is expanded in a lot of ways (a better dual wield system and a more fully realized magic system that is also not as overpowered as it was in past Souls games). It'll feel slow coming from Bloodborne but seriously if you loved Dark Souls then you'll at the very least like this.
 

gogosox82

Member
So, I loved Dark Souls and I'm about to finish BB, which I loved too. I'm kinda on the fence with this game though. I'm reading stuff about bad combat and the whole durability thing seems not fun...

Is it really that much worse than DS1??

Its still a great game and well worth playing. You should definitely play it.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
super quick thoughts of the hour or so I played:

- dont ask me how much better it looks, I only played vanilla and I can barely remember it. maxed out 4k 60fps, I can tell you that much

- actually thats a lie, when I roll around breaking crates my frames go to shit, not in combat tho. dat havok engine :/

- I dont remember much, but I do remembr when new guys are in new places. its neat. I bet its even neater for those that put hundreds of hours into the game (I only finished it once, and didnt touch the dlc)

- I have to admit, now that we've talked about it so much, I AM noticing weapons degrade quite fast. But because I know that going in, Im actually walking around with 3 weapons and changing up in between them for different enemies... which is kinda cool? Like in the sense that im making the best out of a bad situation, im not excusing the bug (if it is a bug) but it sure makes me play differently

- speaking of playing differently, Im both using 2handed stance and especially rolls a lot more than I did before, shades of BB (which I just finished). Ive actually barely blocked yet (got dat blue shield now tho!)

- I forgot how cool some of these shortcuts can be. blowing up the wall with a bomb, or wacking the door so the mobs inside open it (ok that one isnt a shortcut but its so cool)

- man, is it me or mobs wake up much faster now? I think you could not aggro sitting down mobs before but now they all get up to fuck you over.

- also, the Pursuer fucks off if you drop from the platform, I didnt know that. I went to kill the bomb guy first, dropped down and off he went. oh well ill see him later anyway

so yeah, fun. just...fun. I know its "cool" to shit on DS2 but I liked it the first time, and im liking it now. Its a souls game, so...yeah :)
 

Game4life

Banned
So, I loved Dark Souls and I'm about to finish BB, which I loved too. I'm kinda on the fence with this game though. I'm reading stuff about bad combat and the whole durability thing seems not fun...

Is it really that much worse than DS1??

DS2 is a fine game. You should try it.

The combat in DkS 2 is so, so bad compared to the other games in the series, especially including Bloodborne. I hate the whole idea of adaptability, the stupid hitboxes, insane lock-ons of the enemy, and the overall fucking clumsiness of the whole combat. So bad.

Rant over. Gonna play it some more now.

We melee characters have to wait for BB2. The combat in BB destroys DS2 but I still would not retrospectively call DS2 combat bad. It is most certainly fine. Calling it so so bad is stretching things.
 

takriel

Member
DS2 is a fine game. You should try it.



We melee characters have to wait for BB2. The combat in BB destroys DS2 but I still would not retrospectively call DS2 combat bad. It is most certainly fine. Calling it so so bad is stretching things.

It's certainly that bad compared to all other Souls games for me. It's still fine compared to other games, though.
 
I can confirm that the Drangleic Sword (and the rest of that equipment) is in the same place as always.

I can also confirm that Lost Bastille is changed a lot so far.
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
Testing on (rather tediously) a 32-bit patch for this game on a GTX 460 rig. Damn, this game downsampled@4K can still run on a toaster, rather interesting (or not) they still haven't unlocked the lighting/post processing/geometry shown in the alpha trailer...cause it's still there, just not in certain areas+DLC where it needs to be programmed in. Interesting to me and my roomate because we expected all that to be cut out, but not so... It also causes weird graphical artifacts that need to be fixed, but they could have at least just fully unlocked the alpha visuals and worked on the areas where it's not applied. I feel this is probably still a decision made to not kill the PS4/XB1 versions, because the full "alpha visual suite" it massively more CPU/GPU dependent. As in, for full game loading/streaming/etc on a SSD to be the same as "vanilla" you'd need at least a 760 SC/8GB DDR3/2500K at least or higher to run at a rock solid 60fps.

...and the 60fps bug is easily fixed through modding, From/Scamco didn't even try, they just wanted money, not to give a truly worthwhile "upgrade" that vivified $20.

Only thing I like so far "vanilla", is that you can farm the Heide Knight armor in NG, and certain enemy placements were a shock, although I wouldn't say better/worse. So yeah, rolling a SL1 char with a Heide Knight Helm in NG is I guess a plus. The Dragon in Heide was retarded, nothing gained except adding another dragon, which give mediocre Souls and no reward for chopping the tail... Was hoping for those improvements, like chopping off boss limbs for weapons...but no. Really lame, I'd have loved to see a much more aggresssive Ornstein and thusly his Dark Armor available somehow...but apparently the B-Team still aren't thinking. Sad to see a company like Fromsoft fall so far from grace, when they could have just waited for Miyazaki to finish Bloodborne and moneyhat DSII to him. But so goes the descent as did Capcom with Shinji Makami and RE and tons of other franchises killed by losing what they stand for....Ninja Gaiden anybody?
 

Mogwai

Member
Haha. Nice change in
Things Betwixt with the petrified dude.

I've only killed a few bosses so far but he changes really do make the game a lot more fresh.
 

creyas

Member
I had an hour to play Dark Souls 2 today, and having never played the game before, I spent 50 minutes on the character creation menu.

I was flipping out and remade my character like 5 times. Took hours. Kinda strange since it has never bothered me that much before starting this same game.

Got a nice face in the end albeit with a really edgy jaw area. Had massive problems with skin color evenness in the face, solved that by putting a circular tattoo covering the face as a sort of mask of makeup.. really nice result. Didn't notice the skin was that much more red elsewhere, if you have armor that shows a glimpse of his chest the guy looks like he was shoulders deep in a cauldron.
 

Grassy

Member
Reposting for Europeans (a PC performance/tweaking/modding thread would be useful for this release):

Would anyone like to help test a DX11 DS2: SotFS SLI profile? We reckon mccompat10=0x880020F5 will work, but it'll take us a good long while to test a variety of game locations using different settings and different system configs.

With your help we can find a good profile far faster, and then get that out to every other player far quicker.

If you do test it, please post your findings along with your driver version and system config (a dxdiag posted to pastebin would be ideal).

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

Andy
NVIDIA

Hi Andy. I tried those compatibility bits you posted, I also played a bit this morning up to and around Majula with the default NV Inspector Dark Souls 2 SLI bits 0x02410405. Performance was fine with both(even looking down the well), at 60fps with no drops @ 2560 x 1440 downsampled.
This is using the 347.25 drivers with 670 sli cards.

I'll try and put a bit more time into it over the weekend.

http://pastebin.com/jAJ5CpJg
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
Reposting for Europeans (a PC performance/tweaking/modding thread would be useful for this release):

Would anyone like to help test a DX11 DS2: SotFS SLI profile? We reckon mccompat10=0x880020F5 will work, but it'll take us a good long while to test a variety of game locations using different settings and different system configs.

With your help we can find a good profile far faster, and then get that out to every other player far quicker.

If you do test it, please post your findings along with your driver version and system config (a dxdiag posted to pastebin would be ideal).

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

Andy
NVIDIA

I'll be sure too hook you up with all "vanilla" info we have atm. Right down to the last wiggle of the tit, code-wise if you want. Still rolling base-SL chars and one leveling char and only so far as No Man's Warf due to testing. But forward and onward, we may even be able to supply you with a driver capable of running this on 32-bit OS's. Other than Namco/From know nothing about the applications of DX11 on 32-bit configs.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
ooooooooooh
the giant
is the first boss, not
pursuer
. man, this is fun shit coming back to you.

also, I was such a pussy when I played this man, I cooped every boss, most times without even trying solo first. I think I had come straight from 2 recent DS runs, where some bosses still gave me a huge hard time even on the second run (especially O&S), I just didnt want the hassle... but yeha, what a dumbass.

Giant
was easy as shit for example
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
Btw, can anybody give me a full breakdown of ALL the supposed "brand new" armor/weapons/etc exclusive to this version. I'm running on empty after 48 hours and have encountered none.

Would have also been nice of them to release ALL the weapons reskins in the Majula chest for this launch (Black Rapier/Gold Greataxe/Red Ceastus) and potentially give them unique properties/scaling. But I guess that's too much effort to ask changing a few #'s around...
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
I don't think there is new gear. At least it's not in the OP's hand chart of "what's in what version."

I guess that was a good ole' Namco April Fool's huh? Not that I'm surprised. But a few new weapons/armor sets would have been nice if it was on the same level of thought and quality as the Bone Fist. Otherwise, as was probably the case with this team, who cares what irrelevant shit they add... It say's enough that almost all weapons in a class have the exact same move sets.
 

Abylim

Member
In this months Gameinformer there is a screenshot of the player fighting against Pursuer and a hippo guy, the armor hes wearing though, I have never seen it!

Its Black, with pauldrons and a red cape with a gold eagle, or something.

Is that DLC?
 

Foffy

Banned
In this months Gameinformer there is a screenshot of the player fighting against Pursuer and a hippo guy, the armor hes wearing though, I have never seen it!

Its Black, with pauldrons and a red cape with a gold eagle, or something.

Is that DLC?

Yes, from the first Crown release, too.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
jesus christ
Pursuer
is so hard, wtf o_O

edit: man healing in Bloodborne is so easy compared to this lol. you take AGES to pop a heal, and then you get the health slowly back. Also, can mobs / bosses interrupt heals? like, I just used a estus, I lost a charge, but I barely got healed o_O
 

PauliusM

Neo Member
Beat the pursuer first time I met in this version in the game, not the boss location, but where he drops down, with the fire sword you can get, where the frog spits fire, its the only time I ever did it like that lol.
 

Mendax

Member
jesus christ
Pursuer
is so hard, wtf o_O

edit: man healing in Bloodborne is so easy compared to this lol. you take AGES to pop a heal, and then you get the health slowly back. Also, can mobs / bosses interrupt heals? like, I just used a estus, I lost a charge, but I barely got healed o_O

yes

Fuck yes, how soon can I get it? After I beat the game/end game, or before it?

chronologically it's supposed to be after the main story I think, but you should be able to go there after beating a certain boss guarding the portal. (down below in the depths)
 

Abylim

Member
jesus christ
Pursuer
is so hard, wtf o_O

edit: man healing in Bloodborne is so easy compared to this lol. you take AGES to pop a heal, and then you get the health slowly back. Also, can mobs / bosses interrupt heals? like, I just used a estus, I lost a charge, but I barely got healed o_O

I always dodge right into his dash attack, and back pedal nearly everything else, aside from the
curse spell
he does.

I have killed him
4 times now, he shows up a shit ton now.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
OH SHIT

I just got hit with that bullshit hitbox you guys keep showing in gifs haha. I dodged the blue sword curse thing, oh wait no I didnt, I teleport back to the stab animation... come on now From

welp this is embarassing, I cant kill him haha, and I just finished BB with every boss solo :p

edit: haha exactly this!

uUFGFm7.gif
 

Neoweee

Member
yes



chronologically it's supposed to be after the main story I think, but you should be able to go there after beating a certain boss guarding the portal. (down below in the depths)

You need to grab keys for the DLC hidden throughout the game. They're not all that much further through the game, from what I remember of the lists, but it isn't as simple as rushing down there.
 

Corpekata

Banned
jesus christ
Pursuer
is so hard, wtf o_O

edit: man healing in Bloodborne is so easy compared to this lol. you take AGES to pop a heal, and then you get the health slowly back. Also, can mobs / bosses interrupt heals? like, I just used a estus, I lost a charge, but I barely got healed o_O

If you use lifegems they pop fast and you can keep moving while using them. Estus is more for when you know you're safe.
 
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