Dark souls 2: Wishlist

Thank you, Garl Vinland. I'm looking forward to learning from and discussing the games with Dks veterans.

I would love more populated cities/places, which act as hubs, not that people have to actually do anything but it would be nice to find sanctuary from the rest of the world. for example there could be a group of hunters camping out in the woods with a fire and tents and you could talk to them.

i would also like really sad moments in the game which are really moving, sort of like with solaire going mad. for example you could have an npc who is relatively weak and inexperienced but wants you to help him learn about being a warrior or something, and you meet him at various point during the game, and he/she always feels extremely happy when you help them, but near the end of the game they die because they were a little too overconfident and they have some extremely sad dialogue.

While I agree with most of what you said, emraluces, making the game more 'personalized' will require the creators to preplan and judge a lot of specific stories and responses that, ultimately, will just be like Fable or such. Certain actions will have to be viewed as right or wrong, or npcs will just have a larger selection of responses dependent on the player's actions; ultimately, it will be more of the same, just a few more options that will eventually be mastered, understood, categorized and memorized just like any other game statistics.

The only way to make the game itself more dynamic and changing is to make the elements in it more dynamic and changing. While I haven't played it myself to see it, I know that Guild Wars 2 has been described as having what it calls 'dynamic events,' which are events that, depending on the actions and inactions of the players, permanently changes the world. For example, if a town is attacked by a horde of monsters, then that town will actually be removed, affecting the monsters that appear there, economics in that and nearby areas, and so on. Regarding NPCs, doing the same wild either require the creators to edit the characters themselves (and given the number of players, they will have to edit it for EVERYONE, not individually, which obviously isn't player-specific) or just program in just a few, specific paths the npc can take, which is ultimately as limited as hairstyles. Neither of those achieve the result of a player-specific or truly in-depth case-specific npcs, let alone events.

Dragon's Dogma's pawns, mercenary npcs, while not in-depth, tapped into something altogether different that I think actually does have the potential to create that kind of depth and player-specific characters and events; self-changing AI. The pawns in Dragon's Dogma actually alters some of his or her basic behavior based on in-game events, such as the most commonly used tactics by his or her owner. Yes, they still only have eight or so strategies for combat (defining certain team positions, such as healer, buffer, attacking the strong enemies first, attacking the weak enemies first) and speech patterns; imagine, though, if there are several (such as three) different parts to each npc's combat strategy, which speech pattern it uses, and similar changing functions for weapon choice, the items they sell, or if they even sell items at all? Add in ncp-specific dialogue and so on that has several different options where the specific one used depends on certain performed or not performed by the player and the wealth of options, rather than a handful to a few dozen, increases exponentially by each added option for the npc to choose from because of the widely varying number of combinations.

Depending on how many different options there are, the combinations can be either very just two or three different lines of dialogue or have an entirely different set of dialogue for each different 'personality' or even a slightly different line based on primary and secondary personality and so on. The problems with this include actually voicing over all those options, writing wildly different combat AIs, and actually programming such self-editing programs. I think programmers just aren't to that point yet, and I really don't think this will be present to the level I'm talking about for years.


Wow, I was expecting that to be a little shorter. I completely agree with you that adding depth to the game through a system that changes the characters and world in response to the player's decisions; I just think that only adding a few more options will, as it always has in other video games, eventually just be another statistic, leaving the world just as stagnant and unresponsive, albeit another option or two. I also think making the individual elements of the game self-editing (within limits) will create such a wealth of options that activate directly in response to the player's actions that it will create a dynamic world.

No more invasions. They add nothing to the game and make it unplayable if you want to coop.

You're quite right, Acarnatia, creating a truly dynamic world does have enormous challenges, even this late in the video game timeline. I suppose that's one of the reasons I'm so excited for the next generation of consoles.

To narrow in on the initial idea, I have read in a few developer interviews that a new 'morality' system will be in place in Dark Souls 2. One can't help but wonder how something like that might be implemented. Now this might be entirely wrong, but when I think about it, I imagine that the online aspect of the game will contribute heavily to the morality system. I imagine that Darkwraiths will fall on the margins of the evil end, and likewise sunbros will occupy the margins of the other end.

Remember how specifically you had to approach your encounters with Onion bro in order to prompt the final encounter at ash lake? The nuance was incredible. I can't count how many times I screwed up getting my second slab, even when I was trying for it. Now, any system like this might ultimately be exploited, however, based on how From seems to approach the way you will receive items or interact with NPC's later in the game, based on how you played the earlier hours, I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that their planning on employing the same style of causality with regards to the morality system; and more importantly and interestingly, how your morality might effect the atmosphere of the game world, or even the ways in which you're allowed to operate within it. Now THAT, would be amazingly dynamic. At least that's really what I'm hoping for, in any case.

I should note, all of the above is purely speculation.

aprilmanha wrote:No more invasions. They add nothing to the game and make it unplayable if you want to coop.

Can you explain how not only they add nothing but how it makes it impossible to co-op?

Invasions really give the game excitement, and if you're co-oping how can you not handle a single invader?

Vendors, requirement to sell you have to complete the game at least once with that character, and to buy you have to do something like, complete the painted world and give whoever the boss soul.

aprilmanha wrote:No more invasions. They add nothing to the game and make it unplayable if you want to coop.

I don't get it. Play offline and summon NPCs? I feel horrible for you. You're Dark Souls experience has obviously been unfun, and well...well....

Poor aprilmanha.....I give you a bazillion webhugs.

Still had to give you a -1 though, sorry.

I'm pretty sure he's trolling. No invasions? He couldn't be serious. He just couldn't..... could he?

You should have seen some of the older threads on this "no invasions" thing. We don't like that talk around here apparently.

Seignar wrote:

aprilmanha wrote:No more invasions. They add nothing to the game and make it unplayable if you want to coop.

Best post in this entire Thread

Maybe this should be a trend

emraluces wrote:I'm pretty sure she's trolling. No invasions? SHe couldn't be serious. SHe just couldn't..... could she?

Nope not trolling, not had one invasion that was any fun, just lag stab to death by someone from another timezone. I'm really hoping that they are serious when they said in the interview that they will region lock it for DS2. Then I might be able to enjoy it!

Don't know what you are talking about. I had fun with my invasions. First guy, I brutalized him. Second guy was unlucky to get summoned when I had another phantom, we brutalized him. Third guy, murdered me, but I retrieved my bloodstain and decided to avoid his wrath by remaining hollow.

Seriously, if you hate invaders that mess your questing, by all means summon, run, TWoP if you must. An invasion is a struggle for survival. I love them even when I hate them...

aprilmanha wrote:Nope not trolling, not had one invasion that was any fun, just lag stab to death by someone from another timezone. I'm really hoping that they are serious when they said in the interview that they will region lock it for DS2. Then I might be able to enjoy it!

Well that is a shame april. I feel for you I really do. And for the record, unless I'm mistaken, I don't think they ever said there will be region locking. Only that there will be dedicated servers, which implies region locking without the manual ability to actually pick regions (which is available in some games).

And btw, servers wont erase lag. That is a myth. Will it cut down lag?, sure. But it will not erase it. And without the backstab mechanic being reworked in some way, there will still be telestabs. If released for the ps3.

I actually hope that if Dark Souls 2 is released for the ps4, that they will forget about dedicated servers and stick with p2p (Depending on the hardware parameters of the ps4). Unless of course they have made the combat so tight that actually having dedicated servers is necessary to feel the full effect of said "tight" combat.

Ya know what you should do? Go to the forest. Get invaded, don't summon phantoms and get anal probed by invaders...for hours. Dont stop. Go until you brake a controller. After that...go back again...and after that....go back without armor and a weapon.

When all is said and done, you will be as numb as us and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, start to enjoy one of the most ground breaking games since Super Mario 64.

Remember, just keep...

Animaaal wrote:
When all is said and done, you will be as numb as us and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, start to enjoy one of the most ground breaking games since Super Mario 64.
remember, just keep...

Oh I don't care that I can't pvp, its just a shame that the best bit of the game, is currently the least fun part of it as well.

I love playing with my friends, it makes the game really good, but then it opens it up to invasions which spoils it all.

Heck I feel bad invading as a spirit of vengence and killing people... because I know that I was lagging all over and there was nothing they could do about it. I know they would not enjoy being killed either so I try to be as fair as possible, if I get a lag stab I try to let them heal up to make it fairer.

aprilmanha wrote:Oh I don't care that I can't pvp, its just a shame that the best bit of the game, is currently the least fun part of it as well.

I love playing with my friends, it makes the game really good, but then it opens it up to invasions which spoils it all.

Heck I feel bad invading as a spirit of vengence and killing people... because I know that I was lagging all over and there was nothing they could do about it. I know they would not enjoy being killed either so I try to be as fair as possible, if I get a lag stab I try to let them heal up to make it fairer.

Thats seems like the right attitude to have 8) I didn't really say all that so that you'd get better at pvp per say, but so you'd stop feeling the way I DID back in Feb/Mar of 2011 when I started playing Demon's Souls lol. God that game stole my innocence...

...lets just say by the time Dark Souls came out, I was ready to bend over and put the disc in.

Hopefully things will tighten up in Dark Souls 2. I'm just not sure it is FROM's intention to balance things out. Creating the arenas is a sign that they might.

Animaaal wrote:
Thats seems like the right attitude to have 8) I didn't really say all that so that you'd get better at pvp per say, but so you'd stop feeling the way I DID back in Feb/Mar of 2011 when I started playing Demon's Souls lol. God that game stole my innocence...

...lets just say by the time Dark Souls came out, I was ready to bend over and put the disc in.

Hopefully things will tighten up in Dark Souls 2. I'm just not sure it is FROM's intention to balance things out. Creating the arenas is a sign that they might.

Lol from they way you talk about it you really hate this game!

Yeah its a shame the arena is deserted though

Cross platform, simple as it seems

What about lifesteal in Dark souls?

If you lag that bad then fix your connection. I never lag as bad as you describe so either you connect with people on the other side of the world, or you just over react.

aprilmanha wrote:

emraluces wrote:I'm pretty sure she's trolling. No invasions? SHe couldn't be serious. SHe just couldn't..... could she?

Nope not trolling, not had one invasion that was any fun, just lag stab to death by someone from another timezone. I'm really hoping that they are serious when they said in the interview that they will region lock it for DS2. Then I might be able to enjoy it!

co-op would be horribly broken without invasions. Even solaire being with me makes a mokery of most bosses, without invasions to balance thatthe entire game would be kinda sad.

Besides that, region locking won't actually fix anything if your connection (or theirs) is bad or your modem/router is old or you're bandwidth is low at the time. There's a lot more to "lag stabs" than region.

I am not sure if someone has mention this in previous post but I am not reading over 50+ threads on this topic. Hahaha.

What I want to see, allowing players have a better communication while boss fighting(Party Chat!?!!) . Maybe a central hub like the Nexus in DemonSouls but leave the world open like in Dark Souls. I mean having a default area for Neutral ground, but allowing players to venture out without needing to transport to the area(Firelink to all the major areas, but you can go anywhere like Firelink with this idea). Have the beginning of the area/middle/(Ending area if it has a Area Boss) have a transport system like Blizzard has in WoW with the Zepp and Boats to transport you to the hub but if you do that it will reset the enemies like the bonfires do. But keep the bonfires as resting points. I don't know; I may of counter dict myself.

Instead of soapstones, maybe at the hub, you can see who needs help on a board with their level/class/gamertag with a certain area. And an Arena.