Centralized summoning locations

One thing that annoys me about Dark Souls is that a summon sign could be anywhere, and the level difference makes summoning really slow if you decide to not be in the right summoning bracket for an area.

I would really like the level design to be more like the township; that there's a centralized area for summoning for multiple paths (you can assist with Manus, Royalwood, Dragon, Artorias can all from the same spot with a summon sign).

I get it; some people like this game to be single player, the game is meant to be lonely, dark, oppressive. Meant to be. I never felt this, and with the internet resources, feeling like this is already optional. You can juts look everything up if you want to, that's not much different than summoning help in my opinion

I also felt that the game's meta forced levels artificially if you do wish to participate in coop or PvP. If you want to summon someone for Manus, you'll have a hard time finding someone if you're level 20.

I know there's a lot of solo players out there that will disagree, and a lot of people with 4000 hours of free time on their hands to mess around and wait, but some people do not have this time (they do however, make time to try and get their suggestions to be considered). I don't know if anyone from FROM software visits these forums or digests any of what we write, but I can hope.

I can't really say I want centralised locations for summoning, or summoning of any level no matter what level you are.. Anyways, my insight on this:

Firstly, I think central designs for summoning would be a bad thing, primarily in one area- it hurts level design. I'd much rather not have them because it means every level then has to be connected directly to several others.. Everything would branch from eachother and I feel the world as a result won't be as real as it is in dark souls. The world to me is very important, and having everything centred up and buddied up for the sake of easier coop (which isn't really that important to the game) isn't really something that's worth it.

The level thing I disagree on because if you're level 80, you're struggling on a boss and want some help- do you want to have a SL20 who gets one shotted helping you? of course not! In the same way if i'm on an early level and i summon a guy with gear that one shots a boss and all the mobs for me, it will ruin my fun! I'd rather keep it how it is really..

Also you cant go to artorias and kalameet from the township- artorias will already be dead if you're in township and there's a fog wall stopping you from going to kala once online is activated (if you get what i mean)

I'm not saying the level difference, I'm saying the method of summoning. There are other ways to implement something like this.

The current way is:
Put your sign down.
That sign propagates to everyone in your server room (32 people max).
--It's unclear to me if the server room is just people in that area or something else. I would assume it would be area dependent.
Eventually, that sign shows up depending on what level other people are.

So it's dependent on the server room implementation, which is area dependent (I think). This is not an absolute method; you could do summoning via covenants, or the summoner/summonee do not have to be in the same area at all, or at a specific point. COuld just summon to the spot of the summoner. You could make it that when you summon a specific person, an invader also comes along... there's tons of options on how to implement a method of getting help.

i'd appreciate not getting fogged in by my summons... if I want to someone someone in the parish, and drag them down to the butterfly or sif... LET ME...

Rynn, they segregate it for a number of reasons- it regulates traffic into smaller zones, stops you from running away when a vader comes in, stops you from summoning in low invader traffic area in safety etc.

what i hope they do is at the beggining of each area (or at the bonfire like object) just have a summoning list that when a player sets his sign in the area it puts him on there and you can pick from ppl withing your range, buutttt dont let you see what theyre wearing so you cant be picky

Yeah, just grouping people that want to be summoned with summoners would be a nice mechanic. I know it detracts from the feel of the game, which is great, but I'd rather have good mechanics over a good feel for this part of the game.

You're basically asking for the multiplayer function to be linear and boring with this. Think back to when you were new to the game. You see a random summon sign, in a time that you don't know where to go or how to pass a certain area. Are you happy with this? Yes, the point of Dark Souls is to feel rewarded when some random kindness appears or when you finally achieve something you once struggled greatly with.

What's the difference between me just googling the area and watching a video or asking a friend? If you want to bypass this, you can. I talked with someone on my Xbox account that watched the entire game of videos, hours worth, before buying the game. Knew all the areas.

If you want to know all the areas, or take all the unknowns out of the game, you can already.

I think there's a difference between looking up how to do something and getting some summoning help for something you're stuck on.

True, they both make completion of the task easier, but their methods are totally different. One ruins the game for you and takes the surprise and learning away- the other is a helping hand to let you do the same process as on your own, but with the support of another player

Yeah, I think this is a poor idea and would dumb down the game personally.

Serious_Much wrote:Rynn, they segregate it for a number of reasons- it regulates traffic into smaller zones, stops you from running away when a vader comes in, stops you from summoning in low invader traffic area in safety etc.

This is the only one that is really a bad thing. If I want to drag someone from the parish all the way down into the capra demon, i'd lose a lot of flasks and a lot of time.

Dedicated servers mean summoning and invading will be much more frequent and consistent. The number of people on your server will go from 32 in Dark Souls to thousands in Dark Souls 2. Seriously, check Demon's Souls if you don't believe me. The game is nearly dead but I can't walk 30 feet without seeing a message.

No need to screw with the level differences.