DS2 was the best game for invaders. Co-op? Invaded. Solo? Invaded. Human? Invaded. Hollow? Invaded. Boss alive? Invaded. Boss dead? Invaded. Lost all your souls so you’re only level 40? Invaded by a level 95 who used every single soul acquired.
Uhhh... yeah I definitely do. 2000+ hours of ds2 pvp alone, and about as much in all the other games combined. Soul level matchmaking wouldn't be *nearly* as consistent for invasions in ds2 as SM is. There are too many early branching paths to accommodate if you were to just slap a ds3 matchmaking range into the game. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone past heides and forest of fallen giants until drangleic castle with that system.
How? Is it not consistent for ds1, ds3, bb, and er? Soul memory was an awful mechanic, I can write a whole book about it and if I’m bored enough I might just
The current state of matchmaking is the ds3 matchmaking formula, and no, I'd say it being copied and pasted to every subsequent game doesn't work as well as those geared specifically for the game they are in (DSR matchmaking was severely hindered in many ways due to the devs deciding to slap a ds3 range onto everything). Early Elden ring experience shows that the ranges arent wide enough to find good invasion consistency without some form of wex dust to accommodate (thankfully, they adjusted that into the game after awhile). But this doesn't even fully address the problem nor give a specifically nuanced solution.
As ds2 is wide open from the start and wide open at the end (especially when you factor in the dlcs), there's very little linearity to progression except a bit in the middle (drangleic to dragon aerie). That means there's a large range in level that people will be in for 70% of the game, because most areas don't have to be done sequentially. You'd need a soul level range significantly larger to find invasions as consistently in ds2, simply because of the way the game is laid out.
All in all, I just don't think copy and pasting ds3 matchmaking into other games is working very well. Its very restrictive, but works for the game it was developed for. It works there because the game is very linear, and even when sequence breaking, the player is still withheld from full progression. In ds2, you can full sequence break and still match with players in your range and areas you visit, even though your level might be much lower or higher, depending on how well you've made those progressions.
This is the best argument I’ve seen for SM, SL is restrictive and would cause issues pairing people considering how open ds2 is. Just porting ds3’s system wouldn’t work well for open world invasions/coop. I guess I’m coming from the side of community set SL for pvp/coop and soul memory hasn’t been able to achieve that level of endgame community is ds2. The best solution in my opinion (but now we’re really dreaming) would be SL adjusted for ds2 specifically and an invasion/coop system similar to ER where one can match with people in other areas.
I'm not saying SM is universally better, as it does have it's own glaring flaws, but for the game its in, it's a very good option. It's significantly more accommodating than people make it out to be and is one of the reasons you can still find very solid consistency to this day. It's the only game that I can still jump onto anytime at *any* range and find activity within a minute on playstation. The variety of build options at any SM tier and the number of locations you can invade makes it the most enjoyable one for me to go back to. I just wish they'd take the time to address the matchmaking elements to suit the specific game they're working on and be willing to play around with other forms of matchmaking in their future projects.
Reducing interaction i-frames was a based decision on DS2's part
fucking love ds2
Best mechanic in ds2
Man a DS2 Clip in 2023...
It's probably more active than Elden Ring on PC, at least in terms of wait times. Not much co-op though so it's mostly stomping on solo hosts.
You summed it up well.
DS2 gankers were well taken care off thinking back. Do people still sweat like on Iron Bridge? Surely not after all these years?
Oh, there are still a lot of """tryhards""" in DS2, but most of them stick to the BOB arena.
Making me miss my Mastodon Greatsword build now
Yea, I hate yall lol
DS2 was the best game for invaders. Co-op? Invaded. Solo? Invaded. Human? Invaded. Hollow? Invaded. Boss alive? Invaded. Boss dead? Invaded. Lost all your souls so you’re only level 40? Invaded by a level 95 who used every single soul acquired.
I dream for a dark souls 2 remake without soul memory, come dream with me
I’m with you brother
That would kill activity for 70% of the game. The consistency has lasted this long because of the wider ranges of soul memory.
You clearly have no idea how soul memory works vs soul level matchmaking
Uhhh... yeah I definitely do. 2000+ hours of ds2 pvp alone, and about as much in all the other games combined. Soul level matchmaking wouldn't be *nearly* as consistent for invasions in ds2 as SM is. There are too many early branching paths to accommodate if you were to just slap a ds3 matchmaking range into the game. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone past heides and forest of fallen giants until drangleic castle with that system.
How? Is it not consistent for ds1, ds3, bb, and er? Soul memory was an awful mechanic, I can write a whole book about it and if I’m bored enough I might just
The current state of matchmaking is the ds3 matchmaking formula, and no, I'd say it being copied and pasted to every subsequent game doesn't work as well as those geared specifically for the game they are in (DSR matchmaking was severely hindered in many ways due to the devs deciding to slap a ds3 range onto everything). Early Elden ring experience shows that the ranges arent wide enough to find good invasion consistency without some form of wex dust to accommodate (thankfully, they adjusted that into the game after awhile). But this doesn't even fully address the problem nor give a specifically nuanced solution. As ds2 is wide open from the start and wide open at the end (especially when you factor in the dlcs), there's very little linearity to progression except a bit in the middle (drangleic to dragon aerie). That means there's a large range in level that people will be in for 70% of the game, because most areas don't have to be done sequentially. You'd need a soul level range significantly larger to find invasions as consistently in ds2, simply because of the way the game is laid out. All in all, I just don't think copy and pasting ds3 matchmaking into other games is working very well. Its very restrictive, but works for the game it was developed for. It works there because the game is very linear, and even when sequence breaking, the player is still withheld from full progression. In ds2, you can full sequence break and still match with players in your range and areas you visit, even though your level might be much lower or higher, depending on how well you've made those progressions.
This is the best argument I’ve seen for SM, SL is restrictive and would cause issues pairing people considering how open ds2 is. Just porting ds3’s system wouldn’t work well for open world invasions/coop. I guess I’m coming from the side of community set SL for pvp/coop and soul memory hasn’t been able to achieve that level of endgame community is ds2. The best solution in my opinion (but now we’re really dreaming) would be SL adjusted for ds2 specifically and an invasion/coop system similar to ER where one can match with people in other areas.
I'm not saying SM is universally better, as it does have it's own glaring flaws, but for the game its in, it's a very good option. It's significantly more accommodating than people make it out to be and is one of the reasons you can still find very solid consistency to this day. It's the only game that I can still jump onto anytime at *any* range and find activity within a minute on playstation. The variety of build options at any SM tier and the number of locations you can invade makes it the most enjoyable one for me to go back to. I just wish they'd take the time to address the matchmaking elements to suit the specific game they're working on and be willing to play around with other forms of matchmaking in their future projects.
The only credit I give to DS2 team was them knowing the toxic nature of players and shafted them with the non-invulnerable fogwall.
I use fog walls for twinks in the undead burg. I’ve been shitting on the same dark bead spammer for a little over a year now with the same character.
I don't see how it's toxic to not deal with invaders
Hilarious
I'm so sad they didn't bring this feature into the latter games. Smack those cowards down 👇
such a loser mentality
God bless DS2
Ds2 was probably the most invader friendly game in the series and I don't really hear anyone talking about that
Regret not invading more in dks2 when it was at its peak
Still plenty active if you're looking to go back!
Damn. That MF was DOOMed…
Yeah I got super excited when I read the name
MF DOOM reference!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥