Dark Souls II

The Agape Ring has turned Forest of the Fallen Giants into Undead Parish V2. At Soul Memory of about less than 50k I've been invaded by guys who are using Vanquishers Seal, Wearing hard to obtain armor (e.g Flying Feline Boots) and Powerful Weapons.

Not that I mind the idea behind the ring itself, but I think it should only nullify NPC Invader or Player Invaders souls and not regular enemy mobs/bosses. It's completely gone against the whole idea of Soul Memory in the first place (which was to stop low level players twinking with High Level gear).

Because of Soul Memory itself, Dark Souls 2 invasions are now worse than Dark Souls 1. At least in Dark Souls 1 if you were SL1 you could invade anyone in the Undead Burg/Parish from Level 1 to the Max level. Now in Dark Souls 2, as a highly geared/powerful twink build you can only invade low level players in that Soul Memory Tier Level, giving very unfair advantage to anyone in that area. Which is what Soul Memory (as broken as it is) was supposed to prevent in the first place.

I don't necessarily mind it myself, but any new players going forward or even when SOTFS is released, I imagine with the new influx of players wearing their starting armor and weapons are going to be frustrated.

In the grand scheme of Dark Souls, weapons/armor triumph over stats anyday. So in essence it doesn't matter if someone is 5 levels or even a hundred levels higher than you. Once someone has access to higher quality armor/weapons later in the game and being able to upgrade them while still staying in the boundaries of being able to invade new players is still very unfair.

I'm only mearly pointing out that From Software introduced Soul Memory to get rid of overly powered/experienced low level players preying on non powered/new low level players and now the Agape ring (in it's current state) basically bypasses that mechanic.

I think the ring is a great idea, but it should be tweaked to only work on NPC invaders and also Player PvP encounters such as Invasions, Dragonbro summoning, Bell Tower Summons etc. That means people can level naturally in the game but when it comes to PvP they don't have to worry about going increasing Soul Memory and falling into higher level tiers.

Quick question and apologies if already asked. I have the DS2 PC version and it is updated to 1.13 which I gather is the Scholar of the Last Sin update.
Now do I need to start a new game to access new content? Thx

Put about 300 hours into DS2 last year and then retired the game after I upgraded to XBoxOne, went back briefly to play some DLC which was Good (but not AMAZING) am actually looking forward to this SOTFS now, by all accounts the new enemy placements and enemy AI makes it alot harder, so will need to learn all new placements farming areas etc. I did enjoy DS2 so getting excited for this on the One.

Anybody else gonna get this ? Thoughts ?

So is this a new release, or is the current game being updated? I don't fancy buying the game again, seeing as i already own the DLC.

Everything you need to know found Here

Essentially its DS2 for next Gen with a revised AI and new Enemy placements + all the DLC and new lore etc.....ohh and the Forlorn !

"If that doesn't sound challenging enough, From Software has also come up with a new enemy named "The Forlorn." Like some other non-player characters in Dark Souls 2, the Forlorn is an "invasion NPC" — a computer-controlled opponent that pops into your game in the same terrifying way as a real-life PvP opponent. Unlike other invasion NPCs, though, the Forlorn can and will show up at multiple points throughout the game, hunting the player mercilessly."

Taken from Polygon article..

No talk of transferring character from 360 to XboxOne, as far as I know it will be a fresh game.

So the Forlorn is basically what the Pursuer's original concept was supposed to be? I haven't seen the Forlorn in any way but hopefully he looks just as imposing as the Pursuer.

One thing that kind of grinds my gears about the SoTFS is most of the features that are in it were supposed to be what we were meant to be getting in original release of Dark Souls 2.

I'm also starting to wonder if the reason why they started soft banning people for using graphical enhancement mods etc was because they wanted to capitalise on this expansion down the line. I mean promoting new graphical features as part of your expansion for cost where if a modder like GeDoSaTo doing the same (if not even better) graphical enhancements (since the original launch) for free doesn't look good for your business.

That being said above, I have tons of hours on Dark Souls 2 and I haven't fully completed the DLC so I might get it anyway if they offer a decent enough discount for those who already have it.

I'm afraid it's most likely a stand alone. It's being advertised more as a complete edition rather than a DLC so it's kind of following similarly to games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors Cut.

There's actually not that much difference between the Scholar of the First Sin edition coming out next month and the current Dark Souls one.

The only differences between SoTFS and current Dark Souls on PS3 or Xbox 360 will be:
- Improved online multiplayer (for up to six players)
- Enemy and game design adjustments, which I assume is enemy replacements, Forlorn and all that jazz.
- All DLC in one (if you don't have them already)

So unless you want increased Co-op/Invading capabilities and switched around enemies then I wouldn't really bother all that much. Only PC, PS4 and Xbox One get the graphical enhancements

Price plans for SoTFS released for PC players:

• Full DirectX 9 version: $39.99
• Full DirectX 11 version: $49.99
• Upgrade to DirectX 11 for Dark Souls 2 owners who didn't purchase the DLC: $29.99
• Upgrade to DirectX 11 for Dark Souls 2 owners who purchased all of the DLC: $19.99

Thanks. I guess I'll pass on this so, as I already have all the previous DLCs.

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Whats the overall consensus on this lads? I'm just after finishing Dark Souls 1, and the idea of more of the same with better graphics is appealing to me. A browse of the web kind gives me the impression that its a bit polarising. I know its not the same team as did dark souls but It looks pretty similar.

I'm also tempted to give a run through NG+ in dark souls......

Its still very good.

It just feels a bit more shallow compared to Dark Souls.



Do 360 and PS3 players get the new enemy placements free with the patch btw? Lost track of the cool chart someone had linked to that showed who was getting what.

Haven't touched the DLC yet and kind of regret buying it now with the remaster coming.