loadingreadyrun.com

Recommendation for Stark Souls. Buy the bottomless box to dump all your broken swords and hollow armour in. Stops you from having to scroll through all sorts of jank when you're changing equipment.

Keeeeeep watching...

Yep, just got there. That'll teach me to comment mid-way through the recording. I just started playing recently because of your stream and found it really useful. I went at the whole sewer area the wrong way round and filled the giant rat with arrows before anything else, was really confusing that way.

Hey Graham, Alex and everyone!
So I was messing around with the texture dump and override feature of DSfix and I made some modified quiver textures for lrr and the lrr community.

Files are available over on my web space at http://daneislazy.ca/darklrr.html
I might make more later, and I am open to suggestions and requests.
If you would like a specific Dark Souls texture I might be able to help you out because I made a program that makes it sooooo much easier to sort through everything. (still a fair bit of work though)
And of course if there are any issues please let me know immediately.

Update!
I've also created a shield texture to replace the Grass Crest Shield's (because, if memory serves, that is what Graham was using last).

Both the shield and quiver textures are available in this handy Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxM7kkwb-EVGVkVya2R1LXFwelE&usp=sharing

Well Blighttown is coming up next, so he'll probably be switching to the Spider Shield.

Hey Graham, now that the exclusive missions for Ground Zeroes have become free DLC for the other platforms, will you be streaming the Raiden Mission? It sounds entertaining. I know it's not made by the same people that did Revengence, but Raiden tends to get involved in loony scenarios no matter what.

Lysander wrote:Hey Graham, now that the exclusive missions for Ground Zeroes have become free DLC for the other platforms, will you be streaming the Raiden Mission? It sounds entertaining. I know it's not made by the same people that did Revengence, but Raiden tends to get involved in loony scenarios no matter what.

Can you wear the mariachi outfit? Please tell me you can wear the mariachi outfit.

Can't Wear Hats wrote:

Lysander wrote:Hey Graham, now that the exclusive missions for Ground Zeroes have become free DLC for the other platforms, will you be streaming the Raiden Mission? It sounds entertaining. I know it's not made by the same people that did Revengence, but Raiden tends to get involved in loony scenarios no matter what.

Can you wear the mariachi outfit? Please tell me you can wear the mariachi outfit.

If there is not at least a sombrero its not even worth it :p

Sooo I was kind of doing my first playthrough more or less in parallel with Graham, except I've had more time to play this week so I'm now quite significantly ahead. I've noticed what might be a small stumbling block coming up.

There are a couple of upcoming bossfights that are orders of magnitude easier if you are human - not because of player co-op, but just because the available NPC phantoms are extremely helpful (and there's an NPC black phantom in blighttown that gives you a fantastic weapon and then helps you out with the boss if you beat her). Buuuut because you're streaming, it seems like going human is, um, problematic.

Let's get down to brass tacks: do you think it's worth the risk of going human on stream to speed up otherwise very annoying and exceptionally difficult boss fights?

Time for some more LRR mod goodness.
With the help of the twitch chat, Alex put together a list of replaced location names for every location in Dark Souls, I've now made that list into a fancy extension to the LRRSouls mod.

So now it's time to present LRRSouls 2.0, aside from location names, some more messages have been changed.

http://bit.ly/LRRSoul

I'm still trying to catch up on my backlog of streams, and Graham, you mentioned not having read any Stephen King during the second part of Alan Wake. If I might be so bold, may I recommend "The Dark Half"? It's got a similar-ish sounding story as far as my understanding of the tone of Alan Wake goes, not having played it. If not the book, there's also the movie version, and even a (by all reports, utterly terrible) point-and-click PC game.

If it still doesn't seem like your speed, it's cool, different strokes and all, but hearing you say how much you liked Alan Wake's story reminded me of it.

jkefka wrote:Let's get down to brass tacks: do you think it's worth the risk of going human on stream to speed up otherwise very annoying and exceptionally difficult boss fights?

I think so. I did it for the gargoyles.

Great! Hopefully chat will behave itself.

My friends got the shits last weekend, when I told them how Graham defeated the Capra Demon. (Pun not intended)

You got the spider shield right Graham? Use it in Blight Town, it's high poison resist makes life so, so so much easier. Also if you can be arsed, going back to the asylum to get the Rusted Ring really helps as it allows you to move quickly through the swamps.

Can't Wear Hats wrote:

Lysander wrote:Hey Graham, now that the exclusive missions for Ground Zeroes have become free DLC for the other platforms, will you be streaming the Raiden Mission? It sounds entertaining. I know it's not made by the same people that did Revengence, but Raiden tends to get involved in loony scenarios no matter what.

Can you wear the mariachi outfit? Please tell me you can wear the mariachi outfit.

A Mariachi? Captain, tell the guards to stand down. Clearly this wandering minstrel just got lost from his native land. Obviously not the destructive intruder we're looking for

plummeting_sloth wrote:

Can't Wear Hats wrote:

Lysander wrote:Hey Graham, now that the exclusive missions for Ground Zeroes have become free DLC for the other platforms, will you be streaming the Raiden Mission? It sounds entertaining. I know it's not made by the same people that did Revengence, but Raiden tends to get involved in loony scenarios no matter what.

Can you wear the mariachi outfit? Please tell me you can wear the mariachi outfit.

A Mariachi? Captain, tell the guards to stand down. Clearly this wandering minstrel just got lost from his native land. Obviously not the destructive intruder we're looking for

*unsheathes sword*
"La cucaracha, A-holes"
*credits*
10/10 GOTY

OK, I'm WAAAAYYY behind the times on this, but I just started watching Graham's Dark Souls playthrough (the stream a few weeks ago). Re: those helmets turning your head into tuna, as a re-enactor I can tell y'all that we wear what are essentially milkmaid hats called arming caps underneath them- seven layers of linen separated by wool. Not very thick, but they mean those things offer great protection- I've been twatted round the head with a mace with my helmet on and my ears didn't even ring. And I've got one of the lighter ones.

It's too bad the stream went tits up, but for a more jolly note all my texture mods are now located here:
http://bit.ly/LRLSouls
And including that, there's now a Creepy Doll Loading Bar ripe for the download together with the Creepy Doll Spider Shield that got showcased on today's stream, the one that is in the download has been tweaked a bit for less specularity.

LambMower wrote:It's too bad the stream went tits up, but for a more jolly note all my texture mods are now located here:
http://bit.ly/LRLSouls
And including that, there's now a Creepy Doll Loading Bar ripe for the download together with the Creepy Doll Spider Shield that got showcased on today's stream, the one that is in the download has been tweaked a bit for less specularity.

I would like to be one of many people to thank you for enhancing the Stark Souls experience. Unfortunately my copy of dark souls is console or I'd be all over the mod too.

After watching the latest Loading Time, I'd like to see Graham try playing Pitfall 2 again as a one-off stream (or even a partial stream, if he can beat it in less than 3 hours).

Dark Souls PvP Explained

I figured here would be the best place if any to dispel some poorly formed notions on the Dark Souls PvP/Co-op situation.

Just a note, I use the term 'noob' to mean nothing more than new player. It is not intended with any sort of malice, we have all been noobs at all which we have tried.

There are many, many arguments to discuss, and so I shall.


1. I want to avoid PvP, but there is no way to do that! That sucks.
Actually, there are several ways to avoid PvP.
- Don't use humanity (see question 2)
- Don't play with internet (as I did on my first play-though, you can still summon NPCs)
- Use the mod that removes online play


2. But Humanity is really useful!
- Right, it is, however:
- Humanity is a risk-reward system. You get the reward of being able to summon players to help you at the cost of potentially being invaded.
- If you want to use humanity just to kindle, you can remove it immediately afterwards by (edit) killing yourself and picking your remaining souls/humanity back up.


3. But I want to see messages, and/or Co-op without PvP!
Understandable, especially for streamers. Allow me to explain a few things about that.
- If you want to use humanity just to Co-op, then there is a way to reduce the chance of being invaded, by joining the Sunlight Covenant. By joining you'll have a higher priority for being summoned, and that takes up a slot that would normally go towards people invading you.
- You can see messages without using humanity
- Otherwise, recall that Co-op is designed as a risk reward system.


4. I don't mind PvP in theory, but these people are all built for PvP and I'm not!
- Absolutely a fair statement, in the lower areas where people just invade noobs for fun. However there are a few things to keep in mind.
- This more often than not applies to the noob areas, where you won't be likely to need humanity anyway. By the time you generally need or really want to use humanity for Co-op or kindling you'll have already been past where you can join the Sunlight Covenant.
- I played a character not even remotely designed for PvP (a faith build) and I found the PvP to be actually quite fair past the noob areas. I probably died a few more times than I won, but it was still engaging. It was also especially cool to be summoned into someone's world because they were being invaded, and helping them out. (anecdotal, I know, but still relevant)
- Occasionally you'll run into a player that's just ridiculously swole because they do nothing but build characters for PvP, but that's surprisingly rare. It could be done better, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. (Unless you're streaming, in which case people may specifically hunt you)


5. But none of this is noob friendly!
Yeah, that's Dark Souls for you.


I hope if anything this guide has helped people understand the Dark Souls PvP/Co-op system with more clarity, and that I won't get the kind of rude, irrelevant, and blatant attack-like remarks I got when trying to explain this in the Twitch chat.

Have any questions or disagreements, feel free to ask, just please, try to be civil this time.

I just bought Dark Souls yesterday, but haven't installed it yet. I'm wondering if I should wait for information about what will happen when Games for Windows Live is shut down. So far, all I've found is that they're looking into options.

I started playing Dark Souls a couple of weeks ago after watching Graham's first stream on it. Thanks Graham for a great introduction to the game and to LambMower for the mod. The "Goat There" and "Everything Is Fine" messages make everything better.

Lysander: According to Bandai Namco, it will work for the foreseeable future. See here. (I had to double check that site was official. Companies using tumblr seems weird to me.)

Arakasi:

I love most of the online features of Dark Souls. Seeing the messages, bloodstains and ghostly figures in my world is really cool. Hearing other players ring the bells or getting bonus Estus from someone kindling a bonfire are also great ideas. Being ganked on my way to the gargoyles because I need help to take on the two at once is less fun. Especially since even if I beat the invader they don't go hollow, so if they grab their bloodstain they're down a max of 3,000 souls for a new Cracked Red Eye Orb. On the other hand, if I lose I've essentially wasted Humanity which is a lot harder to find. So that's annoying.

Calling it a risk reward system doesn't really work for me either. There might not be any Co-Op players online, but I can still be invaded. So now I've got the risk without any reward and I've expended resources for it. Even if there are people to summon or I summon an NPC, each phantom you bring into a boss fight increases the boss's health by 50%, so how much benefit am I getting for having to both expend a resource and open myself to invasions?

It seems a bit more slanted to the risk end of the scale, so the fact that you need to be human in order to kindle bonfires is also a pain. If that wasn't the case I'd have no problems with the online features, but as it is, it feels like it has been designed to encourage you to go human and put yourself at risk. So I need to expend a minimum of 2 Humanity to gain more Estus in one area and put myself at risk of losing more Humanity if I get invaded and killed. I'm already spending resources, why am I also forced to expose myself to this risk?

Basically what it comes down to is, I don't like getting invaded. I want the cool online features without the PVP.

A couple of other points about your points specifically:
Using the Darksign does not drop your souls and Humanity, they are just lost. If you need to kill yourself in a controlled manner and there are no convenient cliffs, cast Power Within, put on the Symbol of Avarice or use a couple of Dung Pies and let the toxin kill you.

The Warriors of Sunlight requires Faith 25 to join. This requirement is reduced by 5 for each boss you help defeat as a summoned phantom. This means that for non Faith builds, a character will have to participate in 3-4 successful boss fights as a phantom. It is entirely possible for a new player to miss the White Sign Soapstone depending on their interaction with Solaire. It is also possible to miss the Altar of Sunlight because the Hellkite is a jackass or to dismiss it because there is no interaction prompt if you don't meet the requirements. So if either of these happen, a non Faith build is never getting into the Warriors.

The Way of White supposedly has the same effect, but can be joined as soon as you get to Firelink Shrine by talking to Petrus the cleric a couple of times. However there does not seem to be any actual evidence for the idea that Co-Op covenants reduce the chances of you being invaded and I've seen as many people saying "this isn't helping" as "this is how it works". I personally got invaded more on my first play through in the Way of White than in a later one where I was not in the Covenant.

Also, as an aside, my experience has generally been that noob is used to deride people, while newb / newbie is used to just mean a new guy. Your mileage may vary.

xantheros wrote:I love most of the online features of Dark Souls. Seeing the messages, bloodstains and ghostly figures in my world is really cool. Hearing other players ring the bells or getting bonus Estus from someone kindling a bonfire are also great ideas. Being ganked on my way to the gargoyles because I need help to take on the two at once is less fun. Especially since even if I beat the invader they don't go hollow, so if they grab their bloodstain they're down a max of 3,000 souls for a new Cracked Red Eye Orb.

Which is significantly harder to get at low levels because you have to have beaten the Four Kings in order to access the NPC. In which case the section of my post about noob hunters applies here.

xantheros wrote:Calling it a risk reward system doesn't really work for me either. There might not be any Co-Op players online, but I can still be invaded.

I find that it is rarely the case that there isn't someone co-oping in most areas. If you get killed because you're waiting for someone to put up a sign, you'll probably be better off just trying to solo it.

xantheros wrote:So now I've got the risk without any reward and I've expended resources for it.

Yes, this sometimes happens in risk/reward situations. Sometimes there is reward without something bad happening, sometimes something bad happens without reward.

xantheros wrote:Even if there are people to summon or I summon an NPC, each phantom you bring into a boss fight increases the boss's health by 50%, so how much benefit am I getting for having to both expend a resource and open myself to invasions?

Fairly significant, I've found. Players distract bosses quite well, allowing easier hits, especially if you, or they, are a damage dealing class (like a sorcerer). There are only a few exceptions to this rule, like summoning Solaire in the Gaping Dragon fight, as Graham found out.

xantheros wrote:It seems a bit more slanted to the risk end of the scale, so the fact that you need to be human in order to kindle bonfires is also a pain. If that wasn't the case I'd have no problems with the online features, but as it is, it feels like it has been designed to encourage you to go human and put yourself at risk. So I need to expend a minimum of 2 Humanity to gain more Estus in one area and put myself at risk of losing more Humanity if I get invaded and killed. I'm already spending resources, why am I also forced to expose myself to this risk?

Because they wanted to encourage people somehow to get into the system and try it in the first place. Obviously they could've done a better job at it, but if you have such a large problem with it, you can just get yourself killed immediately afterwards and go back to pick up the remaining souls/humanity. Hell, even if you are killed by an invader you'll be able to pick up the remaining souls/humanity.

xantheros wrote:Basically what it comes down to is, I don't like getting invaded. I want the cool online features without the PVP.

Then Dark Souls probably isn't the game for you. I don't mean it in a harsh way or anything, but this game is built for people who enjoy both, or want to go it single-player. Think of it like an MMO with a single-player option (or vice vesa).

xantheros wrote:A couple of other points about your points specifically:
Using the Darksign does not drop your souls and Humanity, they are just lost. If you need to kill yourself in a controlled manner and there are no convenient cliffs, cast Power Within, put on the Symbol of Avarice or use a couple of Dung Pies and let the toxin kill you.

Yeah sorry about that, I fixed my post. Either way though, killing yourself in DS is one of the easiest things to do.

xantheros wrote:The Warriors of Sunlight requires Faith 25 to join. This requirement is reduced by 5 for each boss you help defeat as a summoned phantom. This means that for non Faith builds, a character will have to participate in 3-4 successful boss fights as a phantom.

Correct, and leaving your summon sign doesn't require humanity. So if you don't want to be invaded, helping others is your best route.

xantheros wrote:It is entirely possible for a new player to miss the White Sign Soapstone depending on their interaction with Solaire. It is also possible to miss the Altar of Sunlight because the Hellkite is a jackass or to dismiss it because there is no interaction prompt if you don't meet the requirements. So if either of these happen, a non Faith build is never getting into the Warriors.

See my former post about the noob friendliness of Dark Souls.

xantheros wrote:The Way of White supposedly has the same effect, but can be joined as soon as you get to Firelink Shrine by talking to Petrus the cleric a couple of times. However there does not seem to be any actual evidence for the idea that Co-Op covenants reduce the chances of you being invaded and I've seen as many people saying "this isn't helping" as "this is how it works". I personally got invaded more on my first play through in the Way of White than in a later one where I was not in the Covenant.

I don't think the two covenants work the same way, Warrior of Sunlight might have more or less chance. But either way, I didn't get invaded too often.

xantheros wrote:Also, as an aside, my experience has generally been that noob is used to deride people, while newb / newbie is used to just mean a new guy. Your mileage may vary.

Yes, yes it does, and that's why I put the disclaimer at the start of my post. If I were to call someone specifically a noob (not a likely happenstance), that would likely be in the pejorative, but when I refer to 'noobs' in general, that is not the same thing.