Undead players can be invaded in Dark Souls 2

Being undead will no longer protect you from invasion in Dark Souls II. Fortunately, producer Takeshi Miyazoe outlines some potential deterrents against griefers.

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Reaching human form is one of the more rewarding aspects of Dark Souls, but there's always been a trade-off. Achieving humanity could leave players susceptible to invasion from other players, leading to PvP combat. Dark Souls II looks to cut out that middle man entirely and allow undead players to be invaded, as well.

Regardless of whether you're alive or undead, human players will be able to invade and potentially slay you in PvP combat. So what's to stop Dark Souls II from becoming a giant grief fest? According to producer Takeshi Miyazoe, there will be deterrents for players aiming to cause trouble, especially if they're foolish enough to grief and still lose.

"Before, the matchmaking was based upon player level," Miyazoe told OPM (via Eurogamer). "That will remain, but we also want to focus on how much time you've played the game. Also, there will be penalties for players who invade, but still lose. There are risks. And there will be 'policemen' against invaders and a ransom system where if you constantly invade or kill NPCs there will be motivation for summoned players to go after you."

Of course, undead players won't exactly be sitting ducks, either. Miyazoe also points out to OPM that the overhauled Covenant system will allow players to call upon protection, so that they won't be at the mercy of rampaging PvP'ers.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
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    January 28, 2014 2:30 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Undead players can be invaded in Dark Souls 2.

    Being undead will no longer protect you from invasion in Dark Souls II. Fortunately, producer Takeshi Miyazoe outlines some potential deterrents against griefers.

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      January 28, 2014 2:34 PM

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        January 28, 2014 3:05 PM

        [deleted]

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          January 28, 2014 3:25 PM

          [deleted]

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          January 28, 2014 3:25 PM

          Even if there's not a covenant like that, you can always pull the plug if you just want to play without being invaded at all. I went through a few chunks of Demon's Souls like that.

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          January 28, 2014 3:42 PM

          They better make it a little more clear how to find that covenant than they did in Dark Souls, then. A lot of the covenants in DS were basically impossible to find/join without reading a walkthrough or something, and I'd rather not do that the first time through the game.

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            January 28, 2014 5:58 PM

            Ha seriously. I thought I had a pretty good handle on everything in the game, but every time I watch Chickan play he's messing with some crazy co-op/covenant voodoo that I had no clue was going on.

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        January 28, 2014 3:09 PM

        you'll probably use this line frequently while playing

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      January 28, 2014 3:09 PM

      Not exactly liking this as this is going to still be highly griefable even with the changes listed. A purpose built PvP character could destroy a PvE character due to some really broken builds and most players not knowing all of the little "quirks" of the game mechanics. Unless they plan on overhauling some game mechanics and putting a lot of effort in balancing all of the spells/abilities/items this could go very badly.

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        January 28, 2014 3:28 PM

        My take is, if they create a covenent that say, doesnt allow you to be invaded while hollow, thats a fine sacrifice compared to DS1.

        In DS1, its a bit unbalanced that you can be in great covenants, but still opt out by being hollow.

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      January 28, 2014 3:39 PM

      oh shi

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      January 28, 2014 3:42 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 28, 2014 4:27 PM

        Per the OPM article there will be an offline mode available.

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      January 28, 2014 4:15 PM

      Other Important Changes for Dark Souls II

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=934keHnuy3s

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      January 28, 2014 9:14 PM

      True life confession: I played 30-plus hours into DS 1, and still don't have a firm understanding of the covenant system. I love the experience I get from that game, but I have never felt completely comfortable with the narrative structure of the game.

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      January 29, 2014 3:33 AM

      Have the graphics been discussed much yet?

      As in, will they support downsampling higher resolutions like DSFix does?

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      January 29, 2014 5:53 AM

      Think they'll be a super, mega, juiced up edition for the PS4 and Xbone? Like Both Dark Souls together or something?

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      January 29, 2014 5:55 AM

      So... it sounds to me like they heard people being worried about Dark Souls 2 being easy and they said "oh yeah, OH YEAH... well I'll show you fucking EASY!!! You are gonna BEG for EASY next time!!!"

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      January 29, 2014 5:59 AM

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      January 29, 2014 6:01 AM

      Dang, that's hardcore as hell. I never beat anyone who invaded me in Dark Souls (which happened quite often). Offline mode it is for me then.

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        January 29, 2014 6:17 AM

        i just hope the netcode doesn't blow ass like it did in Dark Souls and Demon Souls (for me at least) it was always so laggy I couldn't do anything but get back stabbed by guys 10 feet in FRONT of me.

        Other games were fine, but Dark Souls on my PC is just ridiculous.

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          January 29, 2014 6:26 AM

          I usually got killed before I knew what was happening. One dude ran at me with a swarm of stuff around him and instantly killed me. I'm not really that good at Dark Souls, so it was just frustrating to know that I would be killed at any second if I went into human form.

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            January 29, 2014 6:34 AM

            Yeah, I never seemed to have a chance, usually I was dead before I even realized what was happening. Eventually I had a couple battles in those woods where I actually put up a fight, but I never got close to actually killing anybody.

            My only wish is that if it happens so easily now, maybe the amount of people doing it will be diluted throughout the whole population of people playing the game. Before I think a lot of people were just not human, so they could avoid it. Now, if you can't hide, there is a larger pool of people to attack, so maybe each person gets invaded less?

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          January 29, 2014 6:30 AM

          Strange, it runs fine for me. PVP is intense.

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        January 29, 2014 7:44 AM

        they have gone through changes to avoid twinks/ganking by having level/stat requirements for armor and weapons.
        that prevents a level 30 dude wielding the best pyromancy/sword and armor against you. this said you will probably still lose against a dark souls psycho that does play the game 16 hours a day.

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      January 29, 2014 6:36 AM

      Can this be played offline so one can enjoy the game without all this PVP and invading nonsense? Or is this an MMO masked as a SP game? Cause all I hear about is what a great game the SP is, but then there is this invading stuff. What If It's not wanted, what can be done?

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        January 29, 2014 7:19 AM

        In the previous games there has been an offline mode.

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        January 29, 2014 7:30 AM

        You can man the fuck up.

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        January 29, 2014 8:06 AM

        play it offline if you must but invasions are part of singleplayer as well. then its usually npcs that do it. its a part of design that enhances the gameplay. its not an mmo and the multiplayer has different layers that interact with your sp experience in a beautiful way. other players can communicate with you through their own gameworld, leaving hints and messages by a limited set of words. those can be cryptic, helpful (jump here) or misleading (jump here). you can see bloodstains of other people and by touching them you will see the last seconds before their demise. you won't know what killed them but its often enough to give you an idea that something is around the corner that hits like a truck. sometimes ist phantoms of other players just doing their sp game ynd you realize that there are indeed other folks struggling through the same are as you, fighting the same enemies and resting at the same camp fires.

        then there are covenants and invasions. that another layer you can participate in or just ignore with the occasional invasion. its great fun but by playing offline you can avoid it if you must, at the expense of the other cool shit i named.

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      January 29, 2014 7:17 AM

      PVP is the one thing I never got the hang of in DS. I really hope there is an opt out.

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      January 29, 2014 7:20 AM

      Well here's hoping that the servers for DS2 make the pvp a bit more tolerable. My internet is pretty terrible though, so I imagine it won't change the experience too drastically.

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      January 29, 2014 7:40 AM

      Was reading about this in Edge's detailed preview this morning, and was imagining the delicious tears that were to come.

      I will probably also buy this and ragequit it like the extravagant masochist that I am

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      January 29, 2014 7:41 AM

      Bullshit. These jackasses don't realize that their game is good despite the terrible online stuff, not because of it.

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      January 29, 2014 7:50 AM

      Demon's Souls did it right by putting invaders at a health disadvantage. Dark Souls disallowed use of the Estus Flask as a phantom but meant nothing if you had a ton of spare Humanity lying around (which is easy).

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        January 29, 2014 7:56 AM

        there was talk that dark souls 2 allows for a covenant that will automatically summon help in case of an invasion. this would then be nerfed by having the summon be on a timer and/or having a damage output limit. so that summons don't solo the game for you. dunno how much of that remained.

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      January 29, 2014 6:25 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 2, 2014 9:57 PM

      Controller's will be selling like mad once this game comes out and everyone get's so pissed they break theirs.

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