Author Topic: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater  (Read 236841 times)

Offline Kethrian

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #100 on: February 02, 2016, 10:15:17 AM »
Today is a good day to be a backer for Darkest Dungeon!  The player created trinkets are now in game, and they released a list of every custom trinket name!  Don't worry, each and every one is only worth 1gp, so you can't make any real money getting and selling the trinkets, but some are a bit OP, fair warning.

Also, if anyone has the game, my custom character and trinket are Gryphon and Gryphon's Ring.  They are not OP, so feel free to use them in your games if you'd like!
What do I win?
An awesome-five for mentioning Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.

Offline trappedslider

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #101 on: February 04, 2016, 07:27:53 PM »

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #102 on: February 13, 2016, 06:34:35 PM »
I've updated my Factorio mod to have larger graphics for the cargo wagon.  Can't even tell it's not part of the base game now.

Here's hoping similar changes get made to the base game because having the locomotive and wagon lengths not be full tiles is a pain in the butt for making train stations.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #103 on: February 21, 2016, 09:12:30 PM »
Okay, I don't get it.

Why is Blighttown so bad? It didn't bother me more than any other area has.

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #104 on: February 21, 2016, 10:34:38 PM »
People get annoyed because it's dark and has AWFUL frame rate when playing online.

I play offline most of the time, so...

EDIT: Incidentally, I most of the time bypass it with the Master Key.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2016, 10:55:22 PM by Kuroimaken »
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #105 on: February 21, 2016, 11:39:55 PM »
Ah, console problems. The upper part's just a pain to navigate, to me. :T

Offline ketaro

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #106 on: February 22, 2016, 02:51:14 AM »
Okay, I don't get it.

Why is Blighttown so bad? It didn't bother me more than any other area has.

This. All of this.

Literally all of my friends that are DS fans have no idea how I can just breeze through Blighttown on my first try without the slightest difficulty.

Infact am breezing through most of this game with insane ease and it's pissing them off considering my inexperience with this series :rolleyes

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #107 on: February 22, 2016, 03:16:14 AM »
Okay, I don't get it.

Why is Blighttown so bad? It didn't bother me more than any other area has.

This. All of this.

Literally all of my friends that are DS fans have no idea how I can just breeze through Blighttown on my first try without the slightest difficulty.

Infact am breezing through most of this game with insane ease and it's pissing them off considering my inexperience with this series :rolleyes

I believe the fact is that DS isn't actually that hard, you just need to keep calm and always observe your surroundings.

However most modern players have grown soft, expecting linear gameplay, invisible walls, PRESS X NOT TO DIE quick-time events against enemies, radars, glowing pointers and whatnot. DS doesn't have any of that. You're expected to find out when the enemy is vulnerable on your own, to dodge/block when that giant weapon is approaching and not when there's a neon sign telling you to do so, and, again, to always watch the enviroment around you for lurking enemies and alternate passages.

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #108 on: February 22, 2016, 09:15:58 AM »
There is something to be said about a descending learning curve based on resources as well.

DS is much harder at the beginning than it is, necessarily, at the end. This is because your resources are ridiculously limited, you don't have access to enemy vulnerabilities half the time, and death tends to deprive you of resources even further. However, as you gain access to areas that allow you to farm for resources (not only souls, but also upgrade materials, humanity, etc.) the game becomes considerably easier as far as the mainstream combat is concerned. By then, you have already learned to properly navigate the environment and not underestimate your enemy, so the harder part is already done; the game shifts from slow but powerful to much more aggressive enemies by that point (one might notice that every DS series DLC has a boss that drains your stamina like it's a marathon and barely gives you any room to breathe).
« Last Edit: February 22, 2016, 09:20:22 AM by Kuroimaken »
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #109 on: February 22, 2016, 09:32:18 AM »
But even at the begginning you can find a fair amount of resources if you're willing to explore.

The skeleton path after leaving the Asylum is particularly infamous. You're gonna have a pretty bad time if you try to go straight there, but just behind there's much weaker zombies to farm, and around the corner there's a mace for bludgeoning damage and other goodies.

Some of the initial  bosses are vulnerable to the weapon dropped by the elite mooks, you can also look for the summons to help against other initial bosses.

One thing that I consider somewhat unfair is that the game doesn't really tell you what the hell are your stats or what they do and you're left kinda blind on how to level up and buy stuff.

Also armor is freaking useless if not a trap when it slows down your barrel rolling. There's a reason why people often play "fashion souls" and just wear the most fabulous outfit they can find. Meanwhile Shields are godlike barriers that will turn the mightiest enemy blows that should break right through that circle of wood into a minor stamina drain. When you realize those things the game becomes much easier, but I guess some people expect armor to actually protect them, and when that fails, they never bother to try blocking either. If that full suit of plate can't protect you, why would that flimsy buckler do anything after all?


Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #110 on: February 22, 2016, 09:55:21 AM »
One of the reasons I never really bought into the "build" craze: I use whatever works. In  DS I always end up with a Faith build because I find that Homeward and Healing are two absolute priorities. (I use Healing spells mostly out of combat, to top me off, and save Estus for more heated battles since cast time is longer on miracles.)
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #111 on: February 22, 2016, 10:01:27 AM »
Isn't half the point that more or less everything works, so just pick a playstyle and go with it?

The camera's malevolence is my biggest gripe.

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #112 on: February 22, 2016, 10:06:35 AM »
Isn't half the point that more or less everything works, so just pick a playstyle and go with it?

The camera's malevolence is my biggest gripe.

Go run a Sorc-only build, I dare ya.  :P
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #113 on: February 22, 2016, 10:10:53 AM »
Isn't half the point that more or less everything works, so just pick a playstyle and go with it?

The camera's malevolence is my biggest gripe.

Go run a Sorc-only build, I dare ya.  :P

Sorry, resource conservation isn't my thing. :P

Offline brujon

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #114 on: February 22, 2016, 07:16:13 PM »
Isn't half the point that more or less everything works, so just pick a playstyle and go with it?

The camera's malevolence is my biggest gripe.

Go run a Sorc-only build, I dare ya.  :P

It's not actually that difficult, if you know what you're doing. Get more Attunement and then go get a second copy of Soul Arrow from the dude in a cage right below Firelink Shrine. You now have 60 soul arrows to spam. Plus Heavy Soul Arrow,  If you played the game before, you'll also know that the only useful trinket to start with is the Master Key. Which you can use to get early access to Darkroot Garden and the Enchanted Ember, to get an early Enchanted Staff for more damage. Now, you go grab the binoculars by running naked to where you get them in the graveyard and... Congratulations, you have just made 90% of the content trivial. Use binoculars to aim, spam Soul Arrow until target is dead. The only challenge now are bosses.

But you can farm enemies for souls and get strong enough that you'll not really get into too much trouble. You can play the game as normal from here onwards, or use the ledge-jump trick for early access to Lower Undead Burg and Griggs of Vinheim, for more offensive spells, to make everything even more trivial.

Make no mistake, the pure sorc route is one of the most powerful in PvE, and the only reason people think that it's hard is either because they don't know where all the spells are, they don't know the best route to get there, and they don't upgrade stats properly. Capra Demon fight is even made trivial by use of Hush and Hidden Body, as you won't aggro the dogs instantly by entering the fight area, and can therefore kill them before Capra Demon insta gibs you due to the rapid stacking of poise damage.

But then again, everyone just gets Havel's early and use the Zweihander and wreck everything, and Sorc only takes a bit more planning than that.
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #115 on: February 22, 2016, 07:19:14 PM »
You know what area I've found that I do hate?

Sen's Fortress.

Who the bloody hell designs an area that to pass through risks instakilling constantly, and has content all over the fucking place? O_o

Offline brujon

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #116 on: February 22, 2016, 11:07:52 PM »
You know what area I've found that I do hate?

Sen's Fortress.

Who the bloody hell designs an area that to pass through risks instakilling constantly, and has content all over the fucking place? O_o

With bigger risks, come bigger rewards. Dark Souls is full of stuff like this. For instance, the Red Tearstone Ring, arguably one of your most powerful tools in your arsenal, is found in the Valley of Drakes, an area a low-level player will have a hard time getting through without getting killed. Plus, normally, you'd have to wait a LONG time to get there, unless you got the Master Key, in which case, you can get it minutes into the game.

The ring itself, too, is a very risk-reward kind of ring, because you gain a LOT of power, but you're one hit away from getting killed, so you have to play perfectly around that limitation.

Sen's Fortress is also a bit like that. To get the Coveteous Gold Serpent ring, you need to navigate through many unnecessary areas of the Fortress, filled with many dangers, but for your troubles, you're rewarded with a ring that makes farming what gear you want easier. Many of the other treasures hidden in the fortress are that way as well.

You can go more or less straight to Iron Golem with little deviation, or you can explore the fortress and get some goodies for your troubles. 4x Demon Titanite is pretty good if you need them to upgrade, the Gold Ring is amazing for farming as well, but you can skip all that.

You're rewarded for your troubles. For me, that's good design. It's a challenging, interesting area, with a lot of rewards, but it's not UNFAIR. It's hard, but fair. All the traps have ways of being completely avoided, and even of being exploited to help you kill the Man Serpents and Serpent Mages faster.

Sen's Fortress actually reminds me a LOT of some of the earlier Tomb Raider levels, where you'd have secret areas that were pretty hard to access, with a lot of instakills, but some nice loot at the end. You felt pretty good about getting to those secret areas, and getting the loot you so rightly deserved.

I thought Dark Souls 2 by comparison lacked areas like Sen's Fortress. Only in the DLC's did we get something resembling it, although i really liked Pharro's Lockstones, which did add some depth which Dark Souls lacked with it's frustrating invisible walls. I mean, fuck hitting every wall in the game trying to find which are really there and which aren't. Fucking Ocarina of Time did it better with the Lens of Truth FFS.
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #117 on: February 22, 2016, 11:14:53 PM »
The ring's easy to get. You just run down and sidestep. Not hard at all. Though if you do the timing wrong you get stunlocked by the boulder knocking you down into its own path, which is just odd.

I was referring to the pendulums, where no matter what level you are, misjudging your spot is an instant KO. They also happen to be a necessary part of travelling between the area's only bonfire and the interior. Or passing through. It's like the Anor Londo archers: why is this being included? It's weird.

Offline brujon

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #118 on: February 23, 2016, 01:08:01 AM »
Agreed on the Anor Londo guards, they're just plain annoying and add artificial rather than real difficulty. If you get a bad pattern or the AI decides it hates you, you will be shot down and die. The pendulums, though, they're in a very set and specific pattern. It's even somewhat of a trope in games by this point, many games do the swinging pendulum blade things. Though, usually there's a lever somewhere on the level where you can shut them down permanently or semi-permanently (until you leave the area).
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Videogame Discussion III - Snake Eater
« Reply #119 on: February 23, 2016, 01:27:54 AM »
Agreed on the Anor Londo guards, they're just plain annoying and add artificial rather than real difficulty. If you get a bad pattern or the AI decides it hates you, you will be shot down and die. The pendulums, though, they're in a very set and specific pattern. It's even somewhat of a trope in games by this point, many games do the swinging pendulum blade things. Though, usually there's a lever somewhere on the level where you can shut them down permanently or semi-permanently (until you leave the area).

It's the lack of said lever that's a pain. It's not that the pendulums are actually hard, it's that you have to do it right every time and there are at minimum TWO to get from the rooftops to the internal parts. Four if you want to actually leave the damn fortress.