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[s0]

BLOODPATCH IS OUT!

and being the nerd i am, i did some simple testing on the load times. here are my results:

Without Patch

Central Yharnam from title screen: 40sec
Hunter's Dream from Central Yharnam: 12sec
Central Yharnam from Hunter's Dream: 35sec

With Patch

Central Yharnam from title screen: 30sec
Hunter's Dream from Central Yharnam: 10sec
Central Yharnam from Hunter's Dream: 30sec
Respawning in C Yharnam: 15sec

unfortunately i forgot to compare respawn times but it does feel faster 

oh also loading screens have item descriptions on them now, dks-style. it's cool that from addressed the most common player complaint already.

[s0]

ANYWAY: one thing i don't understand: dying in the souls games mostly just resets enemies. why does it take a longass loading time every single time in every single one of these games? resting at a bonfire in the dark souls games, it takes less than 1 second to reset everything. wat a hell? of course i understand that when you die, sometimes unloaded areas need to be reloaded, but it always takes roughly the same amount of time, even if you died right next to the respawn point. one of the nice things about playing dks1 and 2 on pc is that the loading times become a non-issue if you have a SSD (and even with a regular HDD theyre much better than they are on consoles).

btw, did u know "reiterpallasch" is probably an armored core 4 reference? it's the name of a mech in that game. AC4 is miyazaki's first game as a director.

also what's it with weapons with german names in this series? ok it's just 2 but still.

[DJFloppyFish]

here's some more load testing

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-bloodborne-loading-times-improved

looks like respawn times are a huge improvement. central yharnam is down from 44 secs to 18 

also apparently we get some item descriptions now???

game is perfect

shut everything down

[Dragonmaw]

also what's it with weapons with german names in this series? ok it's just 2 but still.

Japanese cultural thing, I think? A lot of Japanese games include German names and etymology.

[s0]

BTW i wanna talk about what i consider to be bloodborne's biggest flaw

i think the talk about lack of "build diversity" in this game is extremely overblown, BUT: there is imo a problem with how the game hands out gear. first, there's the new way starting gear works. gear isn't tied to starting class anymore and the choices are extremely limited. the "each piece of gear is unique" system is basically a good thing but also means that you don't "unlock" certain types of weapons and items (and therefore certain builds) until late game.

as a result of these things, several builds are very hard to use early game (arcane for instance is almost unplayable because there's just no gear for it until relatively late) and things are always going to play out very similarly until mid-game. in the other souls games different builds also have different difficulty curves (for instance dex builds don't have many good early options in dks1) but it's not this extreme.

tbh i think it's mainly a problem of starting gear. if starting gear worked like in the older souls gams the other stuff wouldnt matter as much because you could always get at least some gear to suit your build. maybe there could still be a choice but the weapons the messengers offer you could be different based on class?

[FrankieSmileShow]

One fix says something about a boss glitch being removed where the boss stops moving. Ive seen that in a video. I wonder if that also fixes the boss glitch where they just dont have all their attacks? Maybe the boss stopping moving was an "extreme" version of that same glitch, where it lost ALL of its moves or something??

About arcane builds, you're wrong there buster, you get arcane weapons for free very early in the game! Firebombs! Not only do they do a shitload of damage on their own, they got an A scaling with arcane!

You can also get the flamesprayer early, as soon as you kill daddy G if you talk to that guy in the window next to the central yarnham lantern. (should that be in some sorta spoiler tag, how do i spoilr tag)

I think its pretty clear that the developers want everyone to learn the basics of using melee weapons regardless of their build, and that's why other options are limited early on, but you very quickly get other options. Even throwing knives remain fairly strong halfway through the game, starting out fairly decent and with pretty high damage scaling on skill, and fair on strength.

[battlerager]

Don't torches scale with arcane, too? lmao

[FrankieSmileShow]

I think the first one you get doesnt? or it scales very little. The hunters' torch definitely does though.

They clearly designed this game to remove some of the "passive" (as they say in the shield description) approaches people had with previous Souls games. Its clearly part of their intent with how the game starts, everything is meant to support the melee, which is meant to be your main thing. Its all about the weapons now clearly. I guess it always was a little bit, tho. I tended to see Souls builds as weapon-based...  Gonna try that whip build...

[s0]

yeah but the thing is, the first melee weapon that scales with arcane that you can find is the tonitrus (arcane scaling doesn't apply unless the weapon does arcane dmg in the first place). so until then you basically have to rely on molotovs (which have a carry limit of 10) and the flamesprayer (which is super expensive to use) for any serious dmg output.

i actually love the combat and weapon changes. i also think many weapons are more fun to use (to me) now than they used to be. i pretty much never used whips or rapiers in any of the souls games for instance. my last BB playthrough was a cane/pallasch skl build.

 

Ive seen that in a video. I wonder if that also fixes the boss glitch where they just dont have all their attacks? Maybe the boss stopping moving was an "extreme" version of that same glitch, where it lost ALL of its moves or something??

that's the rest mode glitch. yeah they fixed that.

[s0]

oh and one more thing

I think its pretty clear that the developers want everyone to learn the basics of using melee weapons regardless of their build

but wasn't it the same in the souls games? i mean outside of weird challenge builds pretty much every decent build in every souls game uses melee. i mean ok, it was possible to play through demon's souls NG as a pure caster without any special difficulties but then you'd get your ass kicked in ng+. but outside of that i can't think of anything.

[FrankieSmileShow]

Well I mean that there were always ways to coast on other things for more difficult encounters. Having big shields, ranged weapons or mage spells were definitely ways to make the game much easier on yourself, make it that you dont really have to learn enemy move sets as much, or get too close to things you dont like, could have a lot more safety than otherwise. You always had to rely on weapons for most of the fighting, but your alternatives were more accessible and reliable than in bloodborne.

[s0]

yeah i guess BB does put melee into sharper focus. which is actually really nice. its good streamlining: cut the fat, expand on the deepest aspect of your design.

its also really nice what they did with usable items actually. i can count the number of times i used items in combat other than healing items in on 1 hand in the older souls gams..

[s0]

in other news i just beat the club wielding undead giant after 1849239494 tries. PRAISE THE MOON

also apparently chalice dungeon generation is affected by insight.

[Dragonmaw]

undead giant is v easy

[s0]

not the one with the club and the blades on his back that can kill you in 2 hits at 35vit

[gimymblert]

also apparently chalice dungeon generation is affected by insight.

How exactly, the idea in itself is very interesting, i'm curious of the execution

[s0]

i think insight just affects the chance of tougher bosses spawning. but this is just a rumor i read on the fextralife wiki, so no idea if its actually true.

they really went all out with the hidden mechanics in this game haha. i think now that the souls community is so big, miyazaki figures he can just cram his games full of obscure secrets because someone WILL puzzle them out eventually.

[DJFloppyFish]

my guide arrives tomorrow. I AM HYPED.

[s0]

btw do u guys really think BBorne has a lore connection to demons souls? and if so what evidence is there other than daddy G saying umbasa in an early build?

[Rat Casket]

btw do u guys really think BBorne has a lore connection to demons souls? and if so what evidence is there other than daddy G saying umbasa in an early build?

old/ones, stones to travel between areas, wax over eyes, to name some.