simplen00b

I've finally started playing DE (GOTY version) for the first time ever. I'll try this mod sometime but gonna play it straight first. Be interested if they tweak the AI cuz I've had several instances when enemies have been utterly, incredibly, unbelievably dumb. Also several times when they've totally pwned me (I'm still adjusting to line-of-sight stealth) but I won't mention those. No.

At some point maybe I'll grow the cojones to buy and play this but man it looks grimdark intense.

Only four I can think of: - Homeworld Battlefield 1942 Riven (what I played of it. Loved loved loved the atmosphere, hate switching puzzles) Dark Souls Just started playing Deus Ex for the first time ever though, so that should make up the quota once I get into it. EDIT: Miasmata. Only one of the most amazing games I've ever played and I completely forgot about it.

Looks cool, especially as at first I thought she was holding a hammer. But on a second look, I don't think she is. Broken link?

Yeah, I don't think my host was interested in being polite (no waving from him). The invader took me on first, then my host joined in, the invader started whacking on him, and well. You've been summoned. You got a job to do. I know there's loads of PvP etiquette, but really, if I was invading, I'd expect the invadee to assume the worst and do whatever they needed to do to kill me. If I wanted an honourable duel, I'd get the red soapstone and get invited.

It happened again with another host with Seath, and a few times with the bell gargoyles. I think it is actually under the host's control as nothing I press makes any difference, so I'm wondering if the fight actually starts while the cutscene's taking place. (A quick google later: found this, which doesn't mention about when the fight starts, but it sounds like everyone on-line needs to press 'skip' to avoid the cutscene.) Oh I wish. Running past enemies hasn't been an option in any JC sessions so far. I always very carefully took out the clams one-by-one on my own runs, now I'm having to learn how to deal with being surrounded by 4-5 of them at once. (It does make it more exciting though.) Had some good sessions with my level 18 warrior helping with the bell gargoyles, although tbh the boss fight itself is fairly predictable; don't think I've lost one yet. Had one troll invasion, but my host just summoned me again two minutes later and we got the job done. There was one session where an invader was waiting for us up in the room with the Channeler and his hollows, and he was actually pretty cool - he waved before attacking, and I waved back, which he could have used as an opportunity to go for the host but didn't. We took him out fairly quickly, and it wasn't until afterwards I realised that he had held back from attacking until we had killed the channeler and all the hollows. Bless. Now that's just boasting.

That sounds great! Gotta say, putting a summons down has been fun on the whole. Just had another really good jolly co-op session in the Crystal Cave - in about 5 summons, I had 3 deaths in the Seath fight (in one, he was down about 5% health when I got killed; the host had another summons with him, so I hope they finished him off), one death from falling off the bridge fighting the golem, and one victory. No invasions either, which was a bonus. There was one host who hadn't got to Seath before, and when we got there it triggered the boss cut scene. Being the JC noob that I am, I assumed this was under the host's control so I let it play out, and when it finished I found myself trapped between Seath and a wall getting thrashed to bits. Managed to survive and get some hits in, but it didn't end well. Would I have been just standing there in the boss fight while the cut scene played out? Can't have looked good. I guess in similar circumstances in future I have to cancel the cut scene. Despite that, this is one of the only games I've played that I'm enjoying playing on-line. Part of it is that your communication options are so limited. I hear that in DS2 you can chat on-line during JC/PvP. Is that true? Can't say it appeals if it is.

Yay! Tomb of the Giants!!! No, really!!!!!! Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!etc Anyway, discovered I do have the shrug gesture (it was hidden away under the 'switch' command). 150± hours into the game and I'm still learning the basics. Oh oh and sir sir please sir - I've finally done some proper backstabs. Proper ones with the animation and kicking the bodies off the sword and everything. Only done em when creeping up on unaware peeps from behind, mind, and even then I'm on about 25% success rate. Didn't realise I needed to hit R1 (I've been R2'ing almost every time). 150± hours into the game and I'm still (etc). My original build is now past Seath, thanks to two great summons who kept him busy while I cut off his tale, then let me deliver the coup de grace. It's lovely to have his tale, but it looks like it's gonna cost me 900k souls to up my INT the 16 levels needed for me to use it, so after all that, it may go to Frampt to 1 soul. Or maybe I'll drop it for someone in a Jolly Co-op venture. (Can I do that?) However, mainly been focussing on a third build where instead of levelling up so much, I'm upgrading weapons and gitting (slightly more) gud for more jolly co-op. Now have a level 18 warrior with a claymore +9 (wanted 10+, but those leeches were really stingy with their large shard drops and after 5-6 farming sessions I got bored), Havel's Ring/Ring of F&P and a black knight shield. Bell gargoyles/Capra D, I will be helping people serve your bottoms to you on a plate. Maybe.

Aww...thanks. And thanks for the offer of help too (especially given your lack of fondness for online play). At the moment I'm not that bothered about beating Seath, but if that changes and I'm struggling, I may come begging for assistance. The main thing bothering me right now is that I don't seem to have the shrug gesture. No, really. If I keep hanging out at Duke's (which I wouldn't mind doing) and someone else calls on me who hasn't opened the shortcut or wants to go blue titanite slab hunting, I need that gesture. Went back to Petrus but he was too crippled with grief over his precious princess to worry about me and my problems. "Yeah yeah yeah, helpless young woman stuck in a pitch black hellhole with her two faithful companions turned into ravening undead maniacs, BOO HOO," I yelled at him. "Where's my shrug gesture?" And he just looked at me. Honestly, some people.

Er - is that an offer of jolly co-op?

When I was playing my sorceror build in Anor Londo last night I got invaded. Fortunately, as I was descending into my usual panic, I noticed he bowed to me. I just about had it together enough to remember to bow back, and a minute later he bowed again as my screen faded to black. Which was, genuinely, cool. (To be fair, some of my previous invaders may have offered civilities before attacking but I would have been so busy soiling myself I may not have noticed.) Just done another summons from the Duke's bonfire where the shortcut hadn't been opened. I had absolutely no idea where to go, and the two of us faffed around uselessly for ten minutes until another OP invader arrived and one-shotted the both of us within a few seconds of each other. Ho hum. If I carry on putting my summons sign down here, I'll need to change my GfWL name to ICanGetYouToSeathAndThenTankHimOtherwiseI'mPrettyUselessFrankly396.

And once more my Dark Souls world is turned on its head. After watching James from Gamefront's , I thought "Ah what the heck", went back to my original build and, blow me down, I fairly quickly got to the stage where it was taking me about two minutes to get from the bonfire to the clam's cave. (Getting past the first bridge golem was a pain, but after three deaths I lucked out on discovering how to cheese it)(I love it when you find out how to cheese a foe by running away from it). Had a spell of farming the clams and then getting killed by Seath, and I now have more twinkling titanite and purging stones than I know what to do with. But then I noticed my estus flask count kept clocking up extra flasks, so evidently quite a few players were around kindling the bonfire. So - I tried putting my summons sign down, and blow me down #2! Got summoned five times in about 40 minutes. First time ever! Breathless-gosh-wow-I've-played-online tales in the spoiler tags. Jaded jolly co-operators have probably seen/read it all before: - Overall, it was a good experience (hacker excepted), with the boss win obviously being the high point. So, an area I had no interest in exploring and anticipated being a real grind has provided me with a great session of gameplay. How'd that happen? Jolly well done, Dark Souls. (NB: haven't checked my GfWL account yet so it's possible I may have a torrent of 'wit wer you doin faggot' messages to savour.) Anyway - a couple of noob questions: 1. If I kill an enemy, does my host get their souls? The wikis are unclear on this. 2. If I'm wearing the covetous dragon's ring, will my kills be more likely to result in drops for my host? Not a deal breaker, just interested.

As I've got enough work pressure on in RL at the mo, I've given up on the joyless trudge of the Crystal Caves and gone back to a new sorceror build that I started in a moment of utter frustration earlier during the Duke's Archives. Killed the Asylum Demon first time (with a dagger!), but physically I'm much weaker than I was on the previous playthrough and it's fun learning how to do more ranged attacks/cheesing, e.g. went back to Undead Asylum for the Rusted Iron Ring, and only got past the first black knight by luring him up to the main hall and going out to the bonfire area; the poor guy just got stuck behind those doors and I eventually stabbed him to death through the wall, although he killed me a few times beforehand in the same way. (Couldn't see how to get past the second knight to get the peculiar doll though, so just ran away from that one.) I've even done my first ever death-free descent down to Blight Town, where I'm now farming large titanite shards and haven't been hit by a mosquito once (yay soul arrows!) I'll maybe go back to my original game when there's a bit less pressure at work, but for now it's nice to remember that DS can be fun. EDIT: Just realised that I must have done at least one other death-free descent into Blight Town or I'd never have got to the bottom, but this one was definitely the easiest. And yes, I am talking about the easy back route. Still never gone through the front door.

??????? **types dukeskip into google** **watches two videos** Ah. OK. Yeah, 'finicky' seems apt. The guy's commentary on one of the videos said it took him two hours to nail it, so it'd probably take me longer to do it right than it would to go through the whole area anyway. I really didn't mind the prison area, but once you're back in the library you need flies' eyes to see where the next attack's coming from. I could spend a minute - a whole minute - trying to check out where everyone was, then go three steps up a staircase and find myself getting hammered from three directions at once from enemies I just hadn't seen. I'm not sure it's that difficult if you've got the protection/estus flasks, but, I dunno - it just wasn't fun. I've opened the access to the Crystal Caves, but frankly they look even more of a pain, so yeah. Gonna give myself a break. Jusforrabit. @AB - yes, enjoying watching your vids as well as 'Dark Souls with James' (frequently hilarious, although he's an even slower learner at DS than I am. STOP RUNNING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME JAMES would be my now utterly useless advice to him). I'm not quick-thinking/quick-fingered enough to do speed runs, so your playing style's very different to mine, but it's fun to watch. How you lasted so long in Anor Londo Great Hall when you were fighting the giant knights and then got invaded as well - goodness. The excitement took five years off my life, so it did. (Btw - just out of interest: it looked like you eventually got killed by one of the GKs rather than the invader - was that the case? If so, did the invader get anything from invading? Just wondered.)

That narrows it down to pretty much any enemy in the game (lol), but in the context (and from checking the wiki), I did guess who it was. Didn't notice much in the way of tentacles when we met, but getting stabbed by rivers of stabby crystals does that to a man's memory I find. So, Duke's Archives - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways - ***GREAT GAPING VOID OF SILENCE***(Batman) Definitely fell more into the tiresome grind category rather than enjoyable. I think I'm getting a touch of Dark Souls fatigue - got so fed up at one point I started a new game as a sorceror (largely inspired by watching your INT build playthrough, AB, which I am enjoying), and while it was great to defeat the Asylum Demon first time round with a dagger, I think it's time for a bit of a break. Play something slightly less intense. Outlast, maybe. The Silent Hill series. Australian rules football. (Etc etc.) I will return.

This is confirming my suspicion that despite all the reading and watching I'm doing about this game, most of it's going in one lobe and out the other. I evidently have no idea who Duke is. (Suspect I'll find out soon enough though.)

A-ha! That's how you get the DLC. I knew it had something to do with killing the lake golem and freeing Dusk (which I had already done), but wasn't sure what to do after that. (I can - and do - watch any number of playthroughs of this game, and remember about 5% of them when it comes to actually playing.) Now in Duke's Archive after the boss 'fight' and questioning the layout of his book collection. It's impressive, certainly, but functional? I think not. Yeah - the thing is, though, I killed Super Smough with a light crossbow and wooden bolts. Super Smough. With a light crossbow. And wooden bolts. It therefore follows with inescapable logic that I am invincible and every single foe left in the game will be a doddle. Apart from tanked-up boars in narrow corridors. And octopus-headed librarians. But apart from them - invincible. Oh yes.

At my rate of play I'll be able to join in on the DS2 conversations in a couple of years' time, but main news from my time line is: scampered out of Painted World as quickly as I could (ended up cheesing the Undead Dragon first time round (again) but didn't feel sorry for him/her/it like I did for the one in Valley of the Drakes, as this one was spewing lakes of poison stuff at me that just failed to reach the position that I had panic-strickenly scampered to carefully chosen as a sniper's position). Then went back to Darkroot and Hydra down Sif down so I levelled up strength and endurance, went back to Anor Londo, aaaaaaaaaannnnndd Super Smough down. Using wooden crossbow bolts. (So much for levelling up str/end). Which has somewhat blown my tiny little mind. Just danced around the pillars with him for 10-15 minutes (? - maybe more; I lost track), keeping out of his range and chipping away after his attacks. Tense but fun. Now looking to create the Greatshield of Artorias with Sif's soul, after which...er....Duke's Library? Is that the next step? Now I'm Lordvesselled up I'm a bit spoilt for choice.

Oh how true. Flew back to Undead Asylum, picked up the peculiar doll then went back to Anor Londo so I could subject myself to the Painted World. "Hey," I thought (hopefully) when I got there, "I'm still human from kindling up Firelink Shrine bonfire. Why not see if I can summon a couple of people and maybe get O&S out of the way?" Cleared all the enemies out from the area leading up to the fog gate. Summoned Solaire. Went back to the fog gate, saw a white summons sign, but thought (hopefully) "Better write a message indicating I want to take Beanpole out first. Just to make sure everything goes as planned. Using the word 'planned' in the loosest possible sense." Wrote a message, during which time the white summons sign disappeared. Waited a few minutes and an orange summons sign appeared. (Wasn't sure why it was orange, but wevs.) Tried summoning. Summoning failed. Waited a couple more minutes. Orange summoning sign reappeared. Tried summoning, then in the next five seconds: 'BlahBlahPoohFace has invaded'/backstab/'YOU DIED'. Five seconds. The only consolation was that it looked like Solaire then killed him in the following five seconds while he was doing a victory strut, but it was a very very minor consolation. OK, all I ended up losing was twenty minutes progress, but still. On-line play can stuff itself. Every time I'm human from levelling up bonfires, that internet connection's going off. Live (die) and learn. *takes deep calming breath* *enters Painted World* *sees gimp foes impaled on spikes* oh great

After gearing up for some ranged battling, I ended up whacking MB three times with my BK greatsword when she came to rest on the bridge and that was that. All the green titanite I had farmed earlier then came into play and a short while later I was hacking my way through the catacombs with a Divine Greatsword (not the BK) +5 and now have the Rite of Kindling. I'm now wondering which bonfires would be strategically good to kindle up to 20-estus status. I'm guessing/hoping that once I get the Lordvessel (not that I'm getting ahead of myself or anything), I'll need only one or two as I can just zap around between them, but I have a feeling the game won't let it be that easy. I'm also hoping that going in against O&S with 20 estus flasks will trigger a previously undiscovered game mechanic where, after dancing round pillars with me for about 45 minutes, Super Smough keels over in existential despair and just lies there groaning at the hopelessness of it all. (OK I'm not hoping for that. Not really.) (Be great if it happened though.)

Haven't gone for the Hydra but done more exploring and found the Wolf Ring, some really cute frogs, and had my first encounter with Moonlight Butterfly - got her down to 15-20% health before I copped it, which I thought wasn't bad given I wasn't really geared up for range attacking, plus I haven't even seen any videos of her so had absolutely no idea how to fight her. (Not that seeing videos of boss fights ever helps when it comes to doing it for real. I find DS almost spoiler-proof in this regard. I watched about four different videos showing how to kill the Taurus Demon. Were any of them any use when it came to the actual fight? No. They were not.) The only thing I don't like about Darkroot are those ents. One at a time they're OK, but two or three ganging up on you are a pain. But yeah. Moonlight Butterfly. Trip E maaaaaan

Yeah, you're right. Did one level up of INT and realised it'd take ages to get very far with it. But I can now cast soul arrows!!! Which may come in useful. For something. Ooh, look, a squirrel. Good video - I'm just not very good at being nimble, and I still suck at combat without target lock being on, both of which contribute to me getting killed about 95% of the time Super Smough does his EBS. But yeah, I'll carry on building up strength and equipment and hope I'll eventually be able to bludgeon SS into submission. Mind you, I could easily spend ages just exploring Darkroot. I finally managed to do a complete circuit around the edge of the forest behind the Crest of Artorias (which I probably won't bother doing again - I don't mind fighting the humans but all those ents are a chore). That place is huge - I found the bridge overlooking the Hydra and the ladder which I guess leads down to it but chickened out for the night. Maybe tomorrow...

OK - giving up on O&S to go and level up so I can get some soul arrow action going. After a dozen goes with Solaire, it fell into a pattern of: 1. Zippy goes down. 2. Solaire follows fairly soon after. 3. I circle Super Smurf around a pillar chipping away at his health until 4. I misjudge his distance and/or he gets me with his Electric Butt Stomp.Tried a few different ranged attacks, but couldn't get any to work - not even dragonslayer arrows seemed to penetrate (unless I was using the bow wrong). Even went to get some dung pies cuz the wiki said they could work, but I just ended up poisoning myself more than anyone else. Soooo....gonna have a break and do some farming in Darkroot. Haven't put anything into Intelligence yet, so I just need one more level to be able to start wielding magic if I'm understanding the system correctly, which I'm probably not but hey, them's the breaks. After I finish this, I'll buy DS2 which by then will cost £0.79 on Steam and keep me going till mid-century.

And sold. Really got into Limbo a while back until the atmosphere of grinding hopeless horror overwhelmed the enjoyment of the gameplay. (I had a similar experience with Dishonored, and tbh it may yet happen with DS.) You should go into games marketing, AB. Heck, maybe you already are. Back in AL - did a Solaire summons for Zippy & Porkchop and got Zippy down in about a minute. Alas, Solaire got vanquished fairly soon after, and then I stupidly misjudged a hammer blow while having my HP only just over half-full and followed him into (temporary) oblivion. For the first time I went in in tank mode, i.e. full armour and Black Knight Greatsword, so I was right on the 50% limit but could still medium roll. Up till then I'd gone in on 25% fast-roll set-up (claymore +10, minimal armour), but rarely got very far in inflicting any damage. May try a few more solo runs in tank mode and see whether I get any further. Felt slightly guilty for a bit as I thought I had contributed to Solaire's demise by not drinking estus, but I've just read on the wiki that npc health isn't boosted by that, only friendly player summons. So, y'know, stuff him (until I need him again anyway). Still - Ormstein killed and Smough down to 30% health. That's progress. Never been there but I can confidently state, yes, whatever was in there was exactly what was needed. Understand this - Dark Souls knows what we need better than we know ourselves. Dark Souls takes our hand, cuts our hand off, turns it into a giant poisoned spiky ball-hand and uses it to smash us to a pulp, then kicks our broken body into the depths of a gaping abyss and hurls the giant poisoned spiky ball-hand onto what remains of our pulverised corpse. And it does it because it loves us and only wants to make us stronger. We love you Dark Souls. Stockholm Syndrome? No, never heard of it. No idea what you're talking about. La la la la laa la, la la la la laa la.

At the moment I'm at the stage where I'd prefer not to die within five seconds of landing a hit on Zippy-Snorlax-Oh-please-just-leave-me-alone-for-TWO-NANO-SECONDS-gordon-bennett, but haven't developed the skills to feel like I have much of a choice yet. In other news, I'm think of getting Trine/Trine 2 in the Steam sale to play as a break from Dark Souls. It looks a bit like DS, only nicer and kinder and gentler.