Dark Souls III!

[matterbeam]

I am surprised not to see a DSIII thread on the front page of Gaming.

Anyone wish to talk about this amazing game?

Maybe help share tips to players new to the game, effective soul farming techniques or what to do (or not to do) with your equipment...?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDZYrIUgKE[/youtube]

[TheFeniX]

Anyone wish to talk about this amazing game?

Care to start?

Ok then, there's two types of co-op I hate.
1.Hitch a ride co-op like in San Andreas and Fable 2. But San Andreas had an excuse given the time. Fable 2 was such a major letdown because the co-op wasn't any better than San Andreas except you could have your camera locked and play as a generic mook ONLINE.
2. Co-op that ignores the main story and merely lets you play a few scenarios. Like in Ghostbusters or every CoD game I played except WaW. It's bullshit and I hate you for trying to sucker me in with bullshit.

Dark Souls 2 and 3 have taught me about a new form of co-op I hate: Being a fucking tease about it. Jovial explaining to me how to actually GAME WITH HIM was something like "ok, so buy an ring from this cat outside the first town. But you said you're Hollow, so you have to find and burn an effigy to put down a summon. I'll then click on the whatever, and I can join your game." I've heard less complicated explanations from "that kid" on how to unlock nude Lara Croft or play as Luigi in Mario64.

Yea, I'm going to go ahead and play games that don't put random hurdles into shit for annoying reasons like some Japanese developers are big on. I want to play with my friends. You promised me the ability to do so, now deliver. From reading, Dark Souls 3 isn't delivering here.

Also, while I enjoyed what I played of Soul games, I get the feeling that considering their popularity and how little FROM spends to make them and their failure on Steel Battalion: we're never going to see another Chromehounds game and I died a little inside typing that.

[Vendetta]

I've finished my first run through now, so I'm ready to give some opinions.

It's great. The world is far better than Dark Souls 2, with a much better and more consistent design sensibility throughout. It doesn't have the interconnectedness of Dark Souls 1 which I would have liked, but it still has plenty of opportunity to look out over the world and figure out where all the places are.

The real highlight I think though are the bosses. They are far and away the best in any of the Souls games, with a wide range of straight fights, puzzle bosses, different levels of speed and aggression, and all having some twist in the phase changes, meaning you have to adapt to new patterns and attacks.

The final boss is a particular highlight, much more climactic and narratively integrated than Mergo's Wet Nurse and infinitely better than Nashandra/Aldia. I also loved the Deacons of the Deep boss, even though it was pretty easy it was a nice thing to have to figure out.

They've obviously carried on all the lessons of Bloodborne, the combat is visceral, animations and sounds are great, and it rewards aggression more than previous Souls game. The weapon arts add options to combat and more variety to the weapon set. Looks like build variety is back in style as well, with plenty of choices for spells and miracles and stat requirements for pyromancies meaning they're less of a free option. My first character was my fairly standard dex character using twinblades, and this time I'm going for a beef priest, really heavy armour and miracles.

[matterbeam]

I've finished my first run through now, so I'm ready to give some opinions.

It's great. The world is far better than Dark Souls 2, with a much better and more consistent design sensibility throughout. It doesn't have the interconnectedness of Dark Souls 1 which I would have liked, but it still has plenty of opportunity to look out over the world and figure out where all the places are.

The real highlight I think though are the bosses. They are far and away the best in any of the Souls games, with a wide range of straight fights, puzzle bosses, different levels of speed and aggression, and all having some twist in the phase changes, meaning you have to adapt to new patterns and attacks.

The final boss is a particular highlight, much more climactic and narratively integrated than Mergo's Wet Nurse and infinitely better than Nashandra/Aldia. I also loved the Deacons of the Deep boss, even though it was pretty easy it was a nice thing to have to figure out.

They've obviously carried on all the lessons of Bloodborne, the combat is visceral, animations and sounds are great, and it rewards aggression more than previous Souls game. The weapon arts add options to combat and more variety to the weapon set. Looks like build variety is back in style as well, with plenty of choices for spells and miracles and stat requirements for pyromancies meaning they're less of a free option. My first character was my fairly standard dex character using twinblades, and this time I'm going for a beef priest, really heavy armour and miracles.

I'm a third of the way through the game, and I'm nearly level 60.
I started with a Warrior and got to level 36 with a Quality build, but I didn't like how things were going, so I re-started with a Deprived and went for a Strength build. I started using a Machete, before getting enough strength for Vordt's hammer (with a very cool particle effect). I never managed to cause Frostbite, somehow, and after upgrading both, I found out that the Ultra-Greatsword had a better move-set.

This happened with the Giant Club too: all STR-dependent weapons have a very poor overhead smash move that only really hits a single enemy and is slow.

With the Ultra-Greatsword, your regular attack slashes horizontally, allowing your to clear out several weak enemies. It also has an incredible roll-attack move that sweeps a very wide arc immediately after ending the roll. I used these to great effect in the Deacon of the Deep boss fight. Roll in, sweep away, then run away. A smashing weapon would have had great difficulty.

My only complaint is that bosses and 'elite' enemies are not scaled well.

For example, I've got level 22 Vigor right now, and over 1000 hitpoints with the Life Ring. The Abyss Watcher boss could remove a third of my hitpoints after a getting a few hits, or half if I fall to his combo. A few levels later, I reach the Irithryll of the Boreal valley bridge into the frozen city.

The wolf there is the hardest opponent I have ever faced. He is incredibly quick, has a varied move set, and eats through half my hitpoints with a single swipe. Other elites are similar, managing to be quicker and doing more damage than the bosses!

Question: Is it possible to equip multiple rings for stacked effects (like two Life Rings)?

[Vendetta]

Yea, I'm going to go ahead and play games that don't put random hurdles into shit for annoying reasons like some Japanese developers are big on. I want to play with my friends. You promised me the ability to do so, now deliver. From reading, Dark Souls 3 isn't delivering here.

Dark Souls 3 is more convenient than Dark Souls 2 was, you don't need to faff about with the name engraved ring, you just both set the same password and you'll always see each other for summoning.

It also scales summons to the host if you do it that way, so even if you're way ahead of a friend you can play with them and not just mince everything.

It's still largely intended and balanced to be a solo experience with co-op (and invasions) as an occasional spice though, rather than to be a game played fully co-op.

Question: Is it possible to equip multiple rings for stacked effects (like two Life Rings)?

Don't think so. I think even when you get into NG+ cycles and get the +1/+2 versions of rings you only get the best version. You can have two different rings that do the same thing and get both though, like the Ring of Favour and Havel's Ring will give you both equip load bonuses.

I agree that a lot of the early to mid game bosses aren't mega challenging, some of the later and optional ones are very different though. Much faster, more aggressive, always ready to punish you for trying to heal.

[TheFeniX]

FROM handing out indiscriminate bans.

Cheating in Dark Souls 3 on PC has become such a huge problem that innocent players are being tossed into the same lot for “taking candy from strangers.”

dark_souls_3_nameless_king
Dark Souls 3: banned PC players warned of stranger danger over rampant cheating

Bandai Namco is cracking down on cheaters in Dark Souls 3, and while that’s a good thing, it’s punishing those who aren’t cheating.

Last week, the company said some of the more recent bans were made in error, but a new problem has since presented itself.

According to MCV, many users have reported receiving an Invalid Game Data message upon logging in. Modification of save data, an external file, an exploit or cheat cause the message to appear once the Dark Souls 3 server team has detected any alterations.

The user account is then flagged for investigation, and the warning message will continue to be displayed until the server team has determined whether or not a violation of the End User License Agreement (EULA) has occurred.

“At that point the account/profile will either have restrictions placed on it (to limit the online interactions during multiplayer sessions and a further penalty message of “You have been Penalized” issued) or the “Invalid Game Data” warning message removed,” reads the Knowledgebase.

“During the time that the warning message is displayed the end user will have a chance to completely remove any such external files, mods, cheats/hacks or delete their game save.”

As it stated above, players are given time to find the issue causing the message to pop up. This becomes massive headache though when players who have put in hours upon hours in the game. Where in the game did the team find the invalid data? Was it 20 hours ago or 100 hours ago. Better grab some Tylenol. You’ll need it.

Namco isn’t being clear on what it considered invaild data along with cheat software. But it is also punishing players who have picked up a “gift” left by another player. If it is a hacked item left by another player, the receiving player is flagged. Item swapping was also a feature in Dark Souls 2, and it can be hard to detect whether an item you pick up in Dark Souls 3 is hacked. Unless you know the player, it would be best to mentally revisit the whole stranger danger talk you were given as a child.

“Due to the apparent risk of ‘taking candy from strangers’, it is recommended that players should always back up their save data to an online service (such as cloud saves) or as a direct back-up of the save file to a separate folder/directory (for PC/Steam),” states the Knowledgebase.

“This would allow any players who; end up receiving a hacked item/equipment unknowingly from an online player, the ability to restore their original game data from the cloud or separate backed up game data.”

A Bandai Namco spokesperson further clarified to Kotaku how players could back their saves up.

“Back up a clean save to either USB or cloud storage. If you encounter a hacker that corrupts your character delete the local save and download the clean backup save data,” said the spokesperson.

“The next time you connect to the server it should clear your account of any flags that deemed you as cheating because your backed up save file from before does not have the item from the invader that caused the problem.”

Some who have received the Invalid Game Data message and deleted the save data, or reloaded the data from a different location, have claimed to have been soft banned or all out banned. It sounds like a huge mess, honestly.

Reddit user OutcastMunkee has posted various ways in which to save the game’s data as well.

Many players are scratching their heads over the situation. Those who haven’t used cheat software, or picked up “candy from strangers,” have speculated whether third party controller software one cause. Others think it may be a program which forces a borderless windows mode or the game itself could be causing the issue when it crashes.

There are plenty of discussion on the matter over on reddit and the Steam forums, but these two links should get you started.

Their anti-cheat system and method of handling corrupt data seems pretty archaic.

EDIT: Indiscriminate probably isn't a good word. I guess technically the players are cheating because they were "gifted" hacked items/souls with or without knowing.

[Purple]

What options are out there in DS3 for the player who wants to isolate him self from the whole online thing and just play it in offline mode?

[Jub]

What options are out there in DS3 for the player who wants to isolate him self from the whole online thing and just play it in offline mode?

The simplest one would be to just not be online while playing it...

[Purple]

What options are out there in DS3 for the player who wants to isolate him self from the whole online thing and just play it in offline mode?

The simplest one would be to just not be online while playing it...

Given the online component of the game I was sort of scared that they would have moved the series toward an always online format. That's why I asked.

[TheFeniX]

From what I know, the ability to play co-op also comes with the annoyance of dealing with invasions. Since the greater Dark Souls community seems to be (to put it nicely) "absolute shit" that isn't a huge sell for me. I can't find a single link talking about offline mode or co-op that isn't a bunch of babies shitposting that people actually want to have fun without running into moronic troll builds online.

Another FROM title this was an issue with was Chromehounds. You played against bots, because most of the time against players you were running into glitch-mechs, double-doubles (till they were finally patched out), or other cheese-builds. Yes, they were beatable. Yes, I beat them a lot. No, it was not fun.

[Vendetta]

Dark Souls isn't really a co-op game.

It's a solo game where you can get help with the difficult bits. It's a much stronger experience when played primarily solo, where the tension and atmosphere are much more present and relevant, and the world is more threatening.

If DS3 has troll builds, I don't think anyone's figured them out yet.

[Aether]

How is the PvP?

DSII was and still is atrocious with the lag stab, broken hit/hurt boxes. Never mind the attitude of most DS PvP players.

*You didn't bow.
*You are using X weapon, scrub.
*You are using X armor, scrub.
*You are using X spell, scrub.
*You are chugging estus like Sunny D, scrub.

And when they lose? More salt than the Dead Sea.

[Vendetta]

I've not had major lag problems, ds2 hitboxes are an abomination, and quality builds seem to rule all.

I don't really seek out PvP though because I suck at it.