I never heard of this before! A few questions, mostly regarding summoning: Can you only be summoned into someone else's game while you are playing? If not, does an AI control your character? If you die in someone else's game, does it carry the same penalties as it does when you die in your own game? Lastly, can this be played on a computer without Internet access, obviously without the hints and PC summoning? It's not like the last question actually applies to me, but it would have last year, so I like to keep it in mind.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(October 22nd, 2012, 18:32)Merovech Wrote: I never heard of this before! A few questions, mostly regarding summoning: Can you only be summoned into someone else's game while you are playing? If not, does an AI control your character? If you die in someone else's game, does it carry the same penalties as it does when you die in your own game? Lastly, can this be played on a computer without Internet access, obviously without the hints and PC summoning?
You can only be summoned if you're currently playing, and have left a summoning sign on the ground wherever you'd like to be summoned. (To leave a sign, you just need to have an item that you get close to the beginning of the game. There's no cost.)
I don't think there are penalties for dying in someone else's game. I haven't done it though. I know there are rewards if you help your host kill the area boss, at which point you are returned to your own world.
You can play it without internet, and then you indeed don't get the hints and summons and invasions.
(October 22nd, 2012, 18:32)Merovech Wrote: I never heard of this before! A few questions, mostly regarding summoning: Can you only be summoned into someone else's game while you are playing? If not, does an AI control your character? If you die in someone else's game, does it carry the same penalties as it does when you die in your own game? Lastly, can this be played on a computer without Internet access, obviously without the hints and PC summoning?
You can only be summoned if you're currently playing, and have left a summoning sign on the ground wherever you'd like to be summoned. (To leave a sign, you just need to have an item that you get close to the beginning of the game. There's no cost.)
I don't think there are penalties for dying in someone else's game. I haven't done it though. I know there are rewards if you help your host kill the area boss, at which point you are returned to your own world.
You can play it without internet, and then you indeed don't get the hints and summons and invasions.
This is not fully correct. There are some AI's you can summon and their is one offline invasion you can do. The developers put hints in some key parts of the game to.
I think Dark Souls has two big problems.
1. Too easy once you know what you are doing. ie get all the best gear and not waste level-ups.
2. Poor balance. Many examples: Elemental weapons are far too strong. Pryo is still too strong. You don't need to put the stats to use them. This means you should dump stats into END and VIT as they are the only stats you use. This begins to change in ng++ but that is far too late for most players. There is not enough motivation to be in human form unless you are stuck on a boss. Before it got nerfed in this version the ninja flip ring was so good that every serious build used it.
FYI I beat the game on the unpatched version (of the consule release) where it was much harder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0t97aEhFWI
Beat this game under an hour--58:00 minutes game clock.
No Kilm skip but he did use a devolper oversite to skip the first seath boss fight.
There will be a "dark souls 2" for the PC, Ps3 and xbox360 but I don't know anything else about it.
Wow, I just got my ass handed to me by the tutorial boss. And I actually managed to finish Demon's Souls on the PS3 (though I still have nightmares about Old King Allant...).
The major difference is that in Demon's Souls you were supposed to die to the tutorial boss, but not this time it seems. Well, it's a good thing Dark Souls 2 is coming out no earlier than 2014, I hope I have finished this game until then.
(August 31st, 2013, 14:38)SevenSpirits Wrote: Just remember to read all the messages in the tutorial section.
It wasn't really about the messages but more about the fact that it is easier to beat the guy when you don't lock on to him.
Thankfully my experience with Demon's Souls starts to pay off (which basically means: RTF guide!)
Who in their right mind shoots a Dragon's tail and expects it to fall off and then use it as a sword?
I am also not really thrilled with the open world format: If you play without a guide and take a wrong turn (I am looking at you, Firelink shrine elevator!) you basically just die instantly. If on the other hand you choose the master key as a gift, you can access some nice stuff right at the beginning. Some youtube vids are rather crazy in that regard, people running all over the world and just grabbing gear...
And I actually managed to finish Demon's Souls on the PS3 (though I still have nightmares about Old King Allant...). 
