Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Broker]

3 hours ago, Rayn said:

 

While I don't think Elden Ring (nor any other From game) is perfect when it comes to UI, I find it a breath of fresh air compared to the 'norm'. If I wanted a quest journal, gps markers, dynamic minimap, qte events I'd play an Ubi game (or even Dying Light 2) but at the moment I find the From approach rather interesting as I've actually started to make my own adventures while playing Elden Ring and not let a journal and a gps marker decide for me what to do and where to do it. 

I feel like it’s kind of like a conversation I had about managers at work years ago. The argument I made was that if jobs were more fulfilling and enjoyable we wouldn’t need managers, whereas the people at work felt managers were some kind of integral part of succeeding in doing anything.

 

Game design is the same for me. A great game makes me want to do things, but if the game requires 30 prompts about what to do I kinda feel like it’s failed, because I should want to do that stuff and remember what it is without being told constantly where to go and what to do next.

 

2 hours ago, Popo said:

Really?

 

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Did I somehow miss the minor Erdtree boss in the Mistwoods?

Edit - Christ, I’ve just noticed I’m 40 pages behind on this thread. 

 

The Mistwood Erdtree doesn’t have one, but all the others do. Mostly they’re the same tree guy but I’ve found two with different bosses under them.
 

1 hour ago, Anne Summers said:

What is the magic like in this? Is it effective? I've found in Souls games in the past (except 3 for some reason) that although it's great fun, at the end of the day it just isn't as effective as twatting things over the head with a big sword or hammer. Although 3, in my experience, was very much easy mode you went sorcerer build. 

 

I've been sword and shield all the way in this so far, as is traditional for me with all RPGs on my first play through. Just wondered what the general consensus is regarding magic and is it worth re-speccing now I have the option? Or even not respeccing but just throwing a few points into mind/int, to give me some variety of gameplay?

 

Adding points to mind is a solid choice as if you decide you don’t like magic you can use the points for ashes of war.

[therearerules]

1 hour ago, Cyhwuhx said:

I have two gripes with the UI:

• Map button doesn't CLOSE THE MAP.
• Finding out which row/column in the equipment screen is supposed to be your left/right hand is just annoying.

The rest is... fine? It's certainly not as bad as Horizon's multilayered-menus with differing functionality per layer.

 

In terms of UX: well, discovery/obtuseness is the series core, so to me having minimal hand-holding is utterly delightful and 'classic'. But If you've grown up on 20 odd years of tutorializing/hand-holding in videogames this is a rude awakening. (Still! DeS already had the same 'issues' 10 years ago!) Learning by doing and/or needing multiple attempts to get something done is seen as a problem rather than a challenge and that's the thing that bothers me in these discussions, because it has little to do with faulty UI/UX.

Worse than both of those, one of the Ashes of War menus doesn't tell you what they actually do (X just toggles weapon stats). And I think it's the 'Apply Ashes of War' menu.

[Vulgar Monkey]

Yes! I just got around to actually looking through my 3 or 4 current ashes yesterday, and was like 'ok.....sooooo, is this costing me precious resources to apply? In which case I want to know what I'm fucking spending them on!

[HarryBizzle]

Met Margit (going to be hard not referring to him as Magrat Garlick) and handily had my arse handed to me, in a “go somewhere else and explore” kind of way. 
 

Just found Liturnia of the Lakes. Do I need to worry about certain areas being above my level or does the world scale? I think I might go back and potter around Limgrave a bit more. 

[Ste Pickford]

11 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

Met Margit (going to be hard not referring to him as Magrat Garlick) and handily had my arse handed to me, in a “go somewhere else and explore” kind of way. 
 

Just found Liturnia of the Lakes. Do I need to worry about certain areas being above my level or does the world scale? I think I might go back and potter around Limgrave a bit more. 

 

The world doesn't scale, and you'll find harder and harder enemies the further you travel from the start. However, you can travel around where there are hard monsters relatively safely on your horse, so you can be a tourist without too much danger.  There's plenty to do around the start.

[Popo]

On 02/03/2022 at 14:28, Number 28 said:

I was just looking at the IMDB entry to see if Sean Bean is in it (he's not) and I found...

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CORRRRRRRBYYYYYYNNNN!!!! *shakes fist*

Gemma Whelan is also in this (Game of Thrones, Upstart Crow)

I don’t believe this for one second! That guy in the Roundtable Hold must be Sean Bean. Even Samuel & Matthew on the Backpage Pod said the same thing last week. 
 

It has to be an uncredited performance. I haven’t heard him say “Bastid” yet, but it’s the safest bet going that he will. 

[Rayn]

Is it possible to start another character on the same profile without fucking up the autosave?  I'm kinda curious about a glass cannon type just to see if it actually is as easy as I'm led to believe but I don't want to risk erasing my main progress. 

[Uzi]

I can consistently get ze general (vague enough for not being a spoiler) down to about 30 percent but his gravity orbs seem to always go for me (and one shot me) even at a distance even though other videos I've seen online of people right at his feet and they the orbs are just like "you chill bro i'll stay here"

[Number 28]

15 minutes ago, Popo said:

I don’t believe this for one second! That guy in the Roundtable Hold must be Sean Bean. Even Samuel & Matthew on the Backpage Pod said the same thing last week. 
 

It has to be an uncredited performance. I haven’t heard him say “Bastid” yet, but it’s the safest bet going that he will. 

Nah, they have a credit on imdb...

 

Holy shit, it's Charlie from the Upper Hand?? He's actually a scouser.

[Uzi]

14 minutes ago, Rayn said:

Is it possible to start another character on the same profile without fucking up the autosave?  I'm kinda curious about a glass cannon type just to see if it actually is as easy as I'm led to believe but I don't want to risk erasing my main progress. 

Yes its fine and been that way since the first souls game. Autosave should have nothing to do with it as autosave only kicks in while on a specific character profile.

[disperse and recoagulate]

4 hours ago, Hexx said:

Edit- And the ability to compare shop items with what I'm wearing.

My limited gaming experience has led to a “if you can buy it, it’s not worth having” so weapons and armor from merchants isn’t even worth looking at, for me.

[The Fox]

23 hours ago, Doctor Shark said:

It’s a shame no one has followed in my footsteps and modelled their character after 80s and 90s British TV comedians. I was hoping to see Russ Abbott and Les Dennis, but I guess they’ll be future play throughs for me. 

 

Not a comedian as such, but my level 40 Vagabond 'Furious Brucie' bears more than a passing resemblance to Bruce Forsyth.

[Broker]

42 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

Met Margit (going to be hard not referring to him as Magrat Garlick) and handily had my arse handed to me, in a “go somewhere else and explore” kind of way. 
 

Just found Liturnia of the Lakes. Do I need to worry about certain areas being above my level or does the world scale? I think I might go back and potter around Limgrave a bit more. 

You’ll know if you go too far from safety  Just make sure you don’t have any souls to lose and you can explore wherever. The lakes are easier than the area to the East of Limgrave.

 

24 minutes ago, Rayn said:

Is it possible to start another character on the same profile without fucking up the autosave?  I'm kinda curious about a glass cannon type just to see if it actually is as easy as I'm led to believe but I don't want to risk erasing my main progress. 

 

Autosave just applies to the character you’re currently on so make as many as you want, they’ll all be right where you left them when you select them from the loading screen.
 

2 minutes ago, disperse and recoagulate said:

My limited gaming experience has led to a “if you can buy it, it’s not worth having” so weapons and armor from merchants isn’t even worth looking at, for me.

 

The merchants in this often have the stuff you would have got if you picked other classes, so it should be at least as good as what you’ve got. Stuff dropped from mobs is either slightly better or slightly worse than starter sets. Armour you get that is unique from quests, bosses or unique enemies is usually the best stuff. I buy anything I like the loo of though, then I try to keep three of each type of armour, one very light, one medium weight and one heavy, and I mix and match those a lot. I’ve found a couple of lovely sets I want to wear all of recently though. 

[Jamie John]

46 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

Met Margit (going to be hard not referring to him as Magrat Garlick) and handily had my arse handed to me, in a “go somewhere else and explore” kind of way. 
 

Just found Liturnia of the Lakes. Do I need to worry about certain areas being above my level or does the world scale? I think I might go back and potter around Limgrave a bit more. 

 

I would stick to Limgrave for now and see what there is to find there. You can go south and still be in Limgrave as well. There's a big location to the south which is actually more of a beginner dungeon than the castle you're driven towards (Stormveil, the one Margit is guarding).

[Cosmic_Guru]

Had a good evening rinsing the academy.  I liked the change of pace- my mage is barefoot and stealthed her way around, using backsyab where feasible.  Owing to hints in this thread I knew where to go for the final boss who was annoying - in the first phase it was tricky to lock onto the correct students, and in the second phase any hesitation at the start led to being one shorted by comet magic attack - but completed after a few goes.  

I've now raised intelligence to 35 and invested in said comet spell, hopefully it's an upgrade on stone.

 

Still more to do at Stormveil though, with some more exploration down but rrmaining 2 doors which cannot yet be opened as well as the big lift.

 

The good news is Jellyfish get.  For some reason I didn't meet the lass earlier but she's shown up in the Roind table anyway.

[Number 28]

I just had to murder (post-Godrick spoiler)

Spoiler

the NPC stamping on Godrick's corpse. I wanted to buy the buckler from him but he was too busy stomping. I hope there's no unforeseen consequences. If you take the bell to the merchant in the roundtable hold, his inventory can be purchased there (in case anyone didn't know how it worked).

 

Anyway, the buckler makes very short work of the Crucible Knight.

 

[John0]

@Alan Stock enjoyed your CK boss battle! That's a cool nimble thief type build you have but I think you had around half the HP I had when I took him on! Nice dodging. That even looked like a fast roll to me but can see that it isn't on your stats screen (assuming Med. Load always means a mid-roll?). Got very tense at the end there

 

What does the item in your left hand do?

[Harrisown]

fuck those things

[scottcr]

All these folks dumping on the UI have obviously never played Monster Hunter.

 

I must admit, I find the unusual UI and the need to go to the community to find out how to do things part of the appeal of both MH and DS. 
 

 

[HarryBizzle]

 

For God’s sake. 

[Girth Certificate]

he's a lot less friendly than the big shelled dogs you see wandering around

[Qazimod]

I found a weapon that's pretty much from Bloodborne's DLC...  

 

Spoiler

"Ghiza's Wheel" - nabbed off an AI invader in

Spoiler

Volcano Manor

- and similar to the whirligig saw. I don't have the Dex for it though...  

 

[Flub]

2 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

Oh yeah! And it doesn’t just use the other arrows when one set runs out - it looks like you can equip 2 but only use 1? I don’t use the bow much (only for a couple of ranged encounters when I haven’t wanted to jump in incase I got overwhelmed) so I might be missing something obvious.

 

r1/rb for arrow slot 1, r2, rt for arrow slot two

 

Also for people who have gotten far enough

 

[Kryptonian]

1 minute ago, Flub said:

r1/rb for arrow slot 1, r2, rt for arrow slot two

aha! Thanks

[Kryptonian]

1 minute ago, Flub said:

Also for people who have gotten far enough

That better be 100% accurate 😂

[Flub]

Just now, Kryptonian said:

That better be 100% accurate 😂

 

It actually is

[Kryptonian]

Looking forward to finding him then  

[Dark Soldier]

I had probably my favourite fight in the entire Souls series yesterday. I will put the name as an acronym as the boss is entirely optional(!) and missable, you'll know if you face it. Its A,NotV. Just astonishing imagination. If you've already fought it, you'll know too. I'm pretty sure @Curtishas.

[Alan Stock]

2 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

Oh yeah! And it doesn’t just use the other arrows when one set runs out - it looks like you can equip 2 but only use 1? I don’t use the bow much (only for a couple of ranged encounters when I haven’t wanted to jump in incase I got overwhelmed) so I might be missing something obvious.

 

It's actually R1 or R2 on controller to fire each arrow slot, so you can interchange. But you don't know what button applies to what slot!

 

1 hour ago, John0 said:

@Alan Stock enjoyed your CK boss battle! That's a cool nimble thief type build you have but I think you had around half the HP I had when I took him on! Nice dodging. That even looked like a fast roll to me but can see that it isn't on your stats screen (assuming Med. Load always means a mid-roll?). Got very tense at the end there

 

What does the item in your left hand do?

 

Thanks, yeah as you can tell I was crapping it at the end! The left hand item is the staff equivalent that lets you cast incantations, that's how I'm able to cast the heal spell. The roll looks fast but as its a medium roll you have to anticipate the timing a bit more. I used fast rolling in Dark Souls 3 and that was easier. But I've never really done medium armour with rolling before, Dark Souls 1 I did with medium armour and shield, and Demon Souls I did with heavy armour and shield, so this makes for a nice change of gameplay.

 

I got a darkness incantation and I thought, oh cool, now I can really be a ninja. But the area of effect is tiny, I guess maybe you can use it to backstab people but surely the spell will alert enemies anyway. Anyone tried it yet?

[scottcr]

26 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

 

For God’s sake. 

Actual lol