Elden Ring (From Software RPG)

Might be the network or something, but I'm getting lots of those little blips where the game pauses for a sec and then fast forwards rapidly to catch up.
 
chameleoneel said:
People are claiming that the performance improvements are due to lower LoD and noticeably more pop-in. I won't be able to see it for myself, until tonight.
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Yea, I've noticed they definitely decreased draw distance of foliage and objects, I wish they would have made this an option so it's not forced on everyone.
 
chameleoneel said:
People are claiming that the performance improvements are due to lower LoD and noticeably more pop-in. I won't be able to see it for myself, until tonight.
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so a graphics downgrade?...1.04 seems to be mostly a rebalancing patch...hopefully ray-tracing is coming soon...although 1.04 seems like a great point to jump into the game...now that I'm done with Far Cry 6 I'm debating my next game
 
At least this seemed to fix a couple issues I was having. A few endgame characters that didn't leave items now had them in their correct spots. The mausoleum was fixed, too.

As I was prepping a "final" NG+ savegame to go back to later, I noticed something interesting. It's actually wise to kill every non-magical merchant in the game as soon as you meet them. They all drop bells so that their full line of wares are now for sale at the roundtable hold. Same quantities and costs, too. That way you never have to track them down ever again. There's zero penalty for doing so and it doesn't impact the story at all, either. The ones that sell spells typically have quests that make them gain more spells and such later. But random joe merchant on the side of the road with his mule? Take him out.
 
This game really needs a "cancel drinking" feature. I get that they want to make flask usage strategic, but it still can be. I'm imagining a feature where you essentially drop your flask mid-drink in exchange for a dodge. To make it fair, you wouldn't get the heal and you'd be down 1 flask.
 
Domingo said:
Might be the network or something, but I'm getting lots of those little blips where the game pauses for a sec and then fast forwards rapidly to catch up.
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where does Elden Ring rank for you among all the FromSoft games?
 
polonyc2 said:
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-psa-if-someone-drops-panties-in-your-game-dont-pick-them-up/
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(Let Me Solo Her, the first legendary Elden Ring player, is a perfect example of this.)
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They're definitely a legendary player but the first? Ongbal was solo'ing Malenia as a level 1 Wretch with just a club more than a month ago (and the video of it has 1.4M views so not exactly obscure). I suppose the writer just casually browses /r/EldenRing from time to time to see what's trending.
 
polonyc2 said:
so a graphics downgrade?...1.04 seems to be mostly a rebalancing patch...hopefully ray-tracing is coming soon...although 1.04 seems like a great point to jump into the game...now that I'm done with Far Cry 6 I'm debating my next game
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I will tell ya, I booted up Elden after the new 1.04 patch and the stutter issue is FINALLY GONE!! (y)

(Granted, I did encounter an in-game crash almost immediately for the time ever, BUT after utilizing the "Anti-cheat toggler" mod of Nexus and setting the game to Offline mode - that hasn't happened since....)

Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/90
 
polonyc2 said:
where does Elden Ring rank for you among all the FromSoft games?
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I'd say it's up there with the first Dark Souls for me. I enjoyed it more than 2, 3, Demon's or Bloodborne. The only thing that keeps me from thinking it's easily the best of the bunch is that it's more of the same formula. It's open world (a la the TES games), jumping is now a real thing, and you now have a horse, but it follows the tried and true Souls formula. Basically the only strike against it is that it lacks innovation, though. I appreciate the areas they streamlined and I like the new additions to the gameplay. As a game, it'll probably be tough to go back to the other Souls games after this one. Except maybe Sekiro, which deviated from the formula a bit.
 
Elden is my first Souls game so I don't know which I should go back and try. I'm wondering if Elden has spoiled me and I would be disappointed with the previous titles. I was thinking of trying either DS3 or Sekiro after I'm done with Elden.
 
cvinh said:
Elden is my first Souls game so I don't know which I should go back and try. I'm wondering if Elden has spoiled me and I would be disappointed with the previous titles. I was thinking of trying either DS3 or Sekiro after I'm done with Elden.
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They are all good. Demons, DS1, Elden, and Seikiro stand out as being the trend setters though.
 
cvinh said:
Elden is my first Souls game so I don't know which I should go back and try. I'm wondering if Elden has spoiled me and I would be disappointed with the previous titles. I was thinking of trying either DS3 or Sekiro after I'm done with Elden.
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They're all wonderful games. The main thing about Elden Ring is that it smooths out the rough edges and tedious stuff in the older games. It's also simply bigger/better/faster/more/etc.
You're basically playing the culmination of their formula, but you could very easily go back to all of the Souls games (hell, even play 'em in order) and enjoy yourself. There will be eye roll moments and tons of frustration, though. IMO, the toughest bosses in ER aren't as rough as the ones from the prior games. Especially the ones where summoning isn't an option sans other players.
After ER, I'd probably recommend Bloodborne and Sekiro. Those two deviate from the formula enough to not feel like a step back. For what it's worth, the PS5 version of Demon's might be, too. Graphically I think it's actually a bit better than ER, but the gameplay will probably feel a little more rudimentary.
 
Domingo said:
They're all wonderful games. The main thing about Elden Ring is that it smooths out the rough edges and tedious stuff in the older games. It's also simply bigger/better/faster/more/etc.
You're basically playing the culmination of their formula, but you could very easily go back to all of the Souls games (hell, even play 'em in order) and enjoy yourself. There will be eye roll moments and tons of frustration, though. IMO, the toughest bosses in ER aren't as rough as the ones from the prior games. Especially the ones where summoning isn't an option sans other players.
After ER, I'd probably recommend Bloodborne and Sekiro. Those two deviate from the formula enough to not feel like a step back. For what it's worth, the PS5 version of Demon's might be, too. Graphically I think it's actually a bit better than ER, but the gameplay will probably feel a little more rudimentary.
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I feel Demons was more streamlined in how it played, it was also the breakout game Dark Souls was not. I remember importing the Japanese version and roughing it for a bit, helps if you can actually read Japanese (I can read and write in five languages now thanks to a prior career path in the Navy and STATE/USAID). The PS5 version is pretty faithful and the best looking thing they've thrown out. But From Software is a Japanese Software Developer first and foremost, so it's always going to crank it out better there. And the PS5 is a solid purchase so no big deal there. A solid 4k blue ray player that beats it costs more anyways so just buy the PS5 and pick up a few games?
 
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I grinded a bunch of serpentmen and finally got a damn magma blade curved sword. I read that the ash of war customizable Serpent God curved sword heals after every kill. So using all the runes I got from grinding the damn serpent men, I now have +22 serpentgod and +8 magma sword power stance that attacks pretty damn fast, looks flashy as hell, has a really good stunlocking special and heals me after every kill - super useful when trying to explore.

I’m pretty happy with it. Much easier to use than my previous dual colossal weapons, but I can still bring those out as they do a bit more damage if I don’t need to be quite as nimble.

I’ve attempted the “win against 3 invaders” giant jar battle about a dozen times and I think that’s the most difficult thing in the game by far, thus far.

The patch supposedly buffed Colossal weapons. But the buff wasn't enough for me to go back to using em. The mobility and only slight lack of damage from using dual curved swords is too great, and the healing aspect of the Serpentgods sword made exploration much less stressful.

Anyway, spent a large portion of yesterday exploring the capital city, above and below. Tons of bosses and hidden areas and I'm sure I missed a few. Beat most of them - including
Mohg, Godfrey and Morgott
on my 1st or 2nd try. Combination of getting a bit OP as well as finally having the combat down along with a ton of tools available to me.

I made it to the Mountaintop of the Giants and stopped there for the time being.
 
With the various AI invaders, I typically go ham with jumping R2. If you can land 2 of those in quick succession, it'll crumple them for a gut stab. That's enough to outright kill or put most of 'em on death's door. They typically try to heal if they're still alive, so I just stay close enough to start swinging if they do. That worked even with a longsword (and on a couple real players), so I don't think it's weapon specific necessarily.
 
Domingo said:
With the various AI invaders, I typically go ham with jumping R2. If you can land 2 of those in quick succession, it'll crumple them for a gut stab. That's enough to outright kill or put most of 'em on death's door. They typically try to heal if they're still alive, so I just stay close enough to start swinging if they do. That worked even with a longsword (and on a couple real players), so I don't think it's weapon specific necessarily .
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The AI invaders suck. I've been using the guardian's swordspear and all I have to do is sprint straight at them, thrust attack, back off, repeat. They don't even have a chance to attack when I do that. Thrust attack is way OP.
 
cvinh said:
Elden is my first Souls game so I don't know which I should go back and try. I'm wondering if Elden has spoiled me and I would be disappointed with the previous titles. I was thinking of trying either DS3 or Sekiro after I'm done with Elden.
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If I'd only played Elden Ring, my next stop would be Demon's Souls on PS5 just because the level of polish is incredible. And it'll still have the most active PVP/MP of any of the other games. Sekiro is a more polarizing game that people either loved or hated, it's not really a souls game. I played Sekiro 4-5 hours, lost interest and never picked it up again.
 
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Domingo said:
the toughest bosses in ER aren't as rough as the ones from the prior games. Especially the ones where summoning isn't an option sans other players...
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so no boss in Elden Ring is as difficult as Sister Friede or Lud and Zallen?
 
polonyc2 said:
so no boss in Elden Ring is as difficult as Sister Friede or Lud and Zallen?
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Malenia is difficult only because of her cheap water fowl attack. But once you learn how to avoid it she isn’t that bad. Twin Gargoyles and Twin Crucible Knights were pretty challenging for me first go around. Final boss is annoying because half the fight is spent running towards them.

I found Orphan Kos, Ornstein & Smough, Guardian Ape, and Nameless King from previous Soulsborne games harder than Elden Ring bosses.
 
polonyc2 said:
so no boss in Elden Ring is as difficult as Sister Friede or Lud and Zallen?
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Definitely not either of those. At least not IMO. I've died literally hundreds of times to those bosses. Nothing in ER can touch them, BUT it should be mentioned that there are some caveats. If you ride into some endgame areas well before you're supposed to be there, you might run into some fights that border on unwinnable for normal players. Those fights are all 100% optional and you can always come back much later, though. I ran into this once and came back later only to clobber a pair of statue guardians.

Something else that should be mentioned is that you can summon AI spirits ashes to help you in most boss battles. They're treated essentially like casting a spell and (unlike summons on other games), the game pushes you to use them. They rarely do much damage, but they give you breathing room and keep bosses distracted. Even trivial boss fights with 2 enemies can be a pain in prior games. Spirit ashes change that dynamic. If you totally refuse to use them, that changes things. I'm still not sure anything is Lud/Zallen, Friede, Midir, Gael, etc. but it's possible. The hardest enemies for me were a giant in the middle of a lake (that gives you scarlet rot), bell knights, and a single crucible knight (a borderline "normal" enemy) that you face in the final area of the game.
 
I think it's bs to say that x game's boss is easier than y game's boss. Every boss's difficulty is going to be dependent on so many factors. Your specific build, level, summons, special items (e.g. margit's shackle), physick mixture, etc... Not to mention the skill of the actual player. Everyone's experience is going to be different.
 
TwistedMetalGear said:
I think it's bs to say that x game's boss is easier than y game's boss. Every boss's difficulty is going to be dependent on so many factors. Your specific build, level, summons, special items (e.g. margit's shackle), physick mixture, etc... Not to mention the skill of the actual player. Everyone's experience is going to be different.
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Well yeah. Bosses also become easier the more times you learn and defeat them. I base my difficulty based on my experience fighting them the first time with my build at the moment. It’s all subjective.
 
polonyc2 said:
so no boss in Elden Ring is as difficult as Sister Friede or Lud and Zallen?
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also just to clarify, I mean fighting them solo...no summons, no co-op etc...pre-release From Software said there would be some optional bosses that were of a much higher difficulty than the mandatory bosses
 
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polonyc2 said:
also just to clarify, I mean fighting them solo...no summons, no co-op etc...pre-release From Software said there would be some optional bosses that were of a much higher difficulty than the mandatory bosses
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There are entire (large) sections of the game that you can bypass if you don't do some specific things. Overall, the difficulty of the bosses in those areas is higher than most of the required portions of the game. At least a few are a total nightmare for certain builds. That said, the last 100% required area and the bosses you have to kill to win the game are probably just as rough. The final bosses are among the hardest in the game. They aren't Isshin (the toughest From final boss IMO), but they're definitely worthy foes. While I went into the game thinking I'd skip out on the ash summons, I changed my mind. The game pushes them pretty hard and they're a core mechanic of the game. Not using them feels like an artificial handicap, but they make some fights awfully easy at the same time. Especially depending on your level.
 
I've been helping out with Mohg in co-op. Observations:

1. Some players go straight to the mob of those plump alien things and subsequently get destroyed in 2 seconds.

2. There's a surprising amount of people who summon co-op partners without even trying the boss on their own first. I don't understand this. It's basically wasting everyone's time because the host always dies.

3. About 75% are unaware or don't have the item necessary to counteract the nihil curse. And thus they die.

4. It's very rare to get a win in this fight, even with 3 players.

Fun boss though! Like something straight out of Doom. Had to level my weapon and mimic tear to max to get past him. There's just way too much blood and fire spam in that second phase.
 
TwistedMetalGear said:
I've been helping out with Mohg in co-op. Observations:

2. There's a surprising amount of people who summon co-op partners without even trying the boss on their own first. I don't understand this. It's basically wasting everyone's time because the host always dies.
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yup you can tell in the Soulsborne games because if the cutscene plays then it's their first time...sad that people play games like this and don't even want to try playing solo...and then a portion of those people will just lie and say they beat the boss solo...I was going to say that FromSoft should disable summoning/co-op for the first 3 attempts (although that won't help as those same people will still just purposely die the first few times)
 
If the scene plays it doesn't mean you didn't see the boss before. Usually I put my sign down before the boss area and go in a few times as help, before summoning the help and going in for myself.

Domingo said:
https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-patch-1-04-malenia-self-heal-bug-let-me-solo-1848818180

I guess there's this. Maybe the bugged version of Malenia could be a contender for the toughest boss in the game? I didn't struggle with her as much as some others, but her health regen thing was annoying even in the normal version of that fight.
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I just beat her three days ago, after around 30 solo attempts and 15 co-op attempts (co-op killed her finally). I got killed almost every time at the start of phase two, when she goes into air and jumps on you.
 
TwistedMetalGear said:
3. About 75% are unaware or don't have the item necessary to counteract the nihil curse. And thus they die.
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Pretty sure I am/was part of that 75%. I just kept healing and rolled in with a high vitality. I found he was a little like the bell knights - you can land several vertical jump R2's to crumple him for a gut stab. It doesn't hurt all that much, but it gives you a freebie while he's getting up and a chance to heal again. Beyond that, I took a lot of damage and gave a lot of damage.
 
I just noticed that rivers of blood arcane requirement was upped and now I can't use it (I have arcane 17, and on the katana it say you need 20). That wasn't the case before the latest patch.
 
syd2o2 said:
I just noticed that rivers of blood arcane requirement was upped and now I can't use it (I have arcane 17, and on the katana it say you need 20). That wasn't the case before the latest patch.
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It was 20 for me on the last patch. It felt like a colossal waste of time upping that stat for one item. You sure you didn't have Godrick's Rune active? It boosts all your stats by 5.
 
Maybe? I remember being able to use it on Malenia a few days ago, and it didn't have the red x on the icon. I wanted to use it in Shaded Castle today, and I saw I didn't have the requirement. I grinded out those three levels with pests at Haligtree roots. One run gets you 125k (with golden scarab), so it was just three runs. I upped arcane a while back for the dragon powers, especially Ekzykes's Decay , I killed some bosses with it.
 
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The new LOD settings remind me of Dark Souls 3 on PS4 or PS5 via backward compatibility. Sometimes you look a direction and a bunch of stuff pops in like 2/3 of a second later. And fair amounts of seemingly random bushes and flowers now pop in and out very noticeably. Its actually not terrible, overall. And some areas, any changes are tough to notice. But it can be right in your face sometimes. Much like Dark Souls 3 and how sometimes you round a corner or turn a direction and half the stuff in front of you loads in late.

But! Performance is massively improved. I removed Special K and a few other things like the game .exe and then validated the game folder to re-download stuff. And then I played without Special K and it was pretty darned smooth. Only an occasional single frame stutter here or there. And Jumping no longer results in several frames of stutter, ever. Whereas before, without Special K, jumping would often result in lots of stutter.

I hope they learned something with this patch and are able to optimize the game to run this well----while bringing the LoD quality back up.
 
syd2o2 said:
Maybe? I remember being able to use it on Malenia a few days ago, and it didn't have the red x on the icon. I wanted to use it in Shaded Castle today, and I saw I didn't have the requirement. I grinded out those three levels with pests at Haligtree roots. One run gets you 125k (with golden scarab), so it was just three runs. I upped arcane a while back for the dragon powers, especially Ekzykes's Decay , I killed some bosses with it.
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There's also the silver tear helmet which raises Arcane, and various scar/soreseal talismans. Maybe one of those was equipped prior.
 
Maybe I had a talisman equipped. I have a few that raise attributes. Now I'm not sure, didn't think any of it before, it was just, use the red katana. And then last night, I see I can't use it. Whatever, I got the requirement back.
 
polonyc2 said:
so no boss in Elden Ring is as difficult as Sister Friede or Lud and Zallen?
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Melenia is on that level, it took me 2 days to beat solo, with over 100 attempts, maybe 150 attempts on patch 1.02, not sure if she was nerfed since. I think Friede took me around 70-100 attempts. Haven't played Bloodborne so I haven't experienced Lud and Zallen and know nothing about that encounter.

I expect some of the DLC bosses to be harder since Fromsoftware has been a history of that.
 
DFenz said:
Haven't played Bloodborne so I haven't experienced Lud and Zallen and know nothing about that encounter.
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Lud and Zallen are a pair of panther bosses from a DLC area in Dark Souls 2. They're bad enough by themselves, but you have to sprint through one of the roughest areas in the whole game to even get there. They'd be top 5-7 by themselves, but having to run through "horsefuck valley" to even get to them makes 'em top 2-3.

I don't think Bloodborne had any bosses that were among my top 10. It had some tough foes (and a couple roadblock bosses along the way), but nothing too crazy.
 
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