I don't like going offline, because that means I miss out on the important and often dirty messages left by others, that reveal secrets, ambushes, or their sick fantasies.

That is one of the main reasons I stayed offline, because I don't want to see that bollox.

I was offline 95% of the time, for a few stupid bosses, I went online, cooped them, and reloaded offline as soon as the bonfire was lit.

And after obliterating a boss with a bunch of coop partners a lazy host receives exactly the same rewards as an honest player who puts his/her time to learn how to defeat a boss on his own.

I'd have a lot more sympathy for this concept if the boss battles were a good bit of the game rather than often a detriment - something to get out of the fucking way to get on with the fun and awesome exploration. And also if they weren't so stupidly imbalanced for solo vs coop i.e. SOLO - 2 hours of attempts, COOP - 2 minutes of doing boss first time.

The harder bosses should have been made twice as easy for solo and 4 times harder for coop imo. 

Why are phantoms stupid glowing colours?? Doesn't fit with the aesthetic. 

It's a shame that you're playing offline, you can play the game with a friend by setting up a password. Granted that you still get invaded but it's far more involving playing that way. 

 

you can summon not 1, not 2 but 3 potentially super op friendly phantoms that can destroy everything in the game without your involvement, including any invaders.

Yes, I am aware that you can summon allies to help you fight off invaders, and being in a covenant will summon an ally to assist you. But I never see a co-op soap sign around when I am being invaded, or I see it too late and I'm halfway dead. Or, the covenant ally never makes it in time before I die. I just haven't been lucky in that regard.

what? Just what? That's not possible, hasn't been ever in any previous games as well.

Okay, I exaggerated that part :) But the majority of the time I am faced with powerful invaders who always make short work of me.

Such an issue. Duh... Well, that is what I've been doing. Emberring before I enter the boss battle, and summoning any allies to fight with me.

I've put in a lot of hours in the game so far, but there is still much for me to learn about all the mechanics. For example I just learned how trading with pickle piss rump pumper works. 

Orl (almost autocorrected to Oral...), you're cracking me up. 

I reinstalled. Copied my save game data over from a back up hard drive. Realised the last time I backed up was before the Brothers boss, and the game doesn't save your data on Steam apparently.

Bleh!! Still at least I get to replay Archdragon Peak :) 

So I've decided to give it a proper crack of the whip (this is Dark Souls 1 I'm talking about, I'm a bit behind)

Many years ago I started playing DS 1 on the PS3 but I gave up before I really even got started (I'd reached the Taurus Demon) because it all seemed like too much of a painful slog at the time.

In this new playthrough I've made it up to Capra Demon, but him and his dogs stun-lock instakill me within 5 seconds everytime I enter that tiny broom cupboard in which you fight him, so I think I need to read more wikis/guides/youtubes before I'm "gud" enough to beat him.

I actually don't think the game is unfairly hard. What I think the problem is, is the game does a very poor job of communicating essential mechanics to the player, relying on them being forced to go on to the internet and read wikis to actually realise things like "oh, so I need to raise my poise to a certain level before it's even possible for me to block the capra demon's initial attack...and oh right I can't roll away properly until I've lowered my equip load to under 25%, and and and..."

And then you have to wiki more to figure out how exactly you raise your poise to a decent level... 

The game does a very poor job of communicating ANYTHING to the player ;).

In terms of exploration and progression, that's kinda cool. In terms of mechanics it's kinda tedious. In terms of lore, I still don't have the faintest fucking idea what is going on...

When is the DS3 DLC coming out anyway?? 

Smabs - have you played 1 and 2 yet?

Also, for those who've played 1,2 and 3 - is the "level" design and connectivity of the world as trouser-tentingly transcendent in 2 and 3 as it is in 1? 

Capra Demon is a real fucker. The generally accepted tactic is to run up the stairs, kill the dogs and then use the stairs to drop attack his ass as best you can.

Or you could just square up to him and his dogs like a real man. 

In 3 yes, in 2 no. 

Level design is 2 is pretty mediocre save for a few locations, and most of all it doesn't make sense at all. Level design in 3 is not as open as 1 but it has the busiest areas of the series with tons of stuff to discover and lots of shortcuts. 

#3 looks pretty fucking amazing. My gothic fantasy spooge cannons ran dry part way through.

When I reinstalled I'd forgotten to sync saves or some BS and got booted back to Arch Dragon Peak. Not much of a chore to replay that now that I know to avoid boss fight fuckwittery by cooping all the cunts. 

I'm tempted to continue to keep bashing away at the Capra Demon with my current equipment, but really, him and those fucking dogs catch me instantly, every goddamn time before I can run past him, or otherwise strafe or roll. Blocking is a non-option because his initial attack cuts through my Black Knight Shield like it was made of tissue paper, and after wiki'ing, I'm sure the shield is fine but he rapes me because my overall "poise" is poor.

This is really my problem with the game, I don't mind games that are hard, but the mechanics need to be understandable from within the game, and it shouldn't be required to wiki everything in order to figure out what I'm doing wrong. If it wasn't for the wiki and watching videos, I wouldn't have much of a clue against any of the bosses so far, although the Taurus Demon was fairly straightforward because it uses a trick you were actually taught in the game (plunge attack).

Maybe this is the whole point with the "messages" that players can leave on the ground...

Sorry to hear that the map design in #2 isn't as good as 1. Oh well, I've reached the point where the incomparably exquisite structure of the world has caused me to dredge up so many loads, that my abused and aching nards have regressed entirely into my pelvic cavity... so maybe it's a good thing to give them a bit of a rest for that particular entry in the series? Build up a decent reservoir of the ol' wallpaper paste ready for #3 maybe?... 

And watch the DLC trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5JCsO6eblw 

WTF am I gonna do until October 25th? 

 

Play Quake

Playing DS (DS 1 at least) will actually make you a better quake mapper. HTH. (re: map design, not gameplay) 

http://i.imgur.com/rbU8k1m.jpg
Not gonna finish it tho 

 

Go Map! 

Finish that one. 

...

Though I haven't worked on it for a long time -

http://imgur.com/a/FxWfV 

Finish that one.