Sunday 19 April 2015

Scholar of the First Sin - Weapon Durability Patch...Again.

Well, isn't this a co-incidence?   I said in my previous post about this issue that nothing would be done about it unless console players raised their voices.   Guess what?  It's being partially fixed in an upcoming official patch and so very soon after release of Scholar of the First Sin.   Co-incidence?  I don't think so.
 http://kotaku.com/long-ignored-dark-souls-2-glitch-is-finally-getting-fix-1698512244

PC players have been complaining about this since the original game was released, but were summarily ignored, and what makes it almost as bad are the apologists who say this is a feature of the game.   It's NOT that weapon durabilty as a function or feature is bad, I think it's a good thing, but there are so many more enemies in many places in this version of the game, and then in the DLC's where enemies are so much stronger and require more hits...in most cases.  

However, don't get too excited as this isn't an actual fix for the 60fps problem.  The patch notes actually say that the fix will be for when a weapon is severely degraded by hitting dead bodies and presumably environment like walls etc. 

I don't understand why FromSoft can't or won't address this properly when there is already a mod fix for it.  If someone outside development can do it why can't the actual creators of the game.  Problem with this is any mod can potentially get you banned and I don't want to risk it so I haven't tried the mod, although I wanted to.   Supposedly, only save games are scanned for irregularities, eg soul memory etc, but I saw a couple of posts yesterday where the poster said that almost immediately after applying this fix they seem to be soft banned.   Whether this is true or not I don't know, but I am not taking the risk of having my online ability removed.

As an added example to my already mentioned previous post, my Great Club, which has 70 durabilty, almost broke when playing the lead up to the Sir Alonne fight.  I had repair powders and the repair spell, but that's not the point.  I should not have to repair my weapon partway into an important boss fight, especially this one where the timing is very precise and he barely lets you heal, let alone repair a weapon.

I switched weapons to the Black Knight Great Sword for the actual boss fight as a faster weapon is better for me against this boss.  It almost broke 2/3 of the way through the fight, which is pretty dismal since I also had NPC phantoms with me and I wasn't even doing all the damage.  I cannot have more than one weapon equipped, especially heavy ones for a strength character, and I'm not putting unnecessary points into Vitality to cope with that.

Interesting point...I was co-oping Sir Alonne last night, and several times the host had to use repair powder.  I saw and heard it.  It was lucky for them that I was able to take aggro so they could.

My character is not build around using INT spells, but it became a necessity since repair powers are a rare commodity until reaching Drangleic Castle.

The stupid thing about that, and I've said this before as well, is why can't McDuff, an actual blacksmith for goodness sake, sell it instead infinitely, after a certain point if necessary, instead of the castle butler.

This is extremely limiting where weapon choice is involved.  Who in their right mind would use weapons with such low durabilty as The Washing Pole (30) and other Dex weapons without multiple replacements.  Even Sir Alonne's sword, which is beautiful by the way, has such low durability build in that it's virtually useless in PvE without the 60fps problem.   No Man's Wharf is a prime example of weapon breakage potential since it has no bonfire before the boss.

I don't enjoy PvP and it might come as a surprise to some, but many other people don't either, so this is a problem that's getting a bandaid at best.  But, I suppose it's better than nothing all this time after original release.

And that's not the only thing that's being addressed....finally.    The timings for combination button presses when trying to guard break or jump attack are included.  Many have no issue with this, but I do know a lot of people using XBOX 360 gamepads do, including myself.  It's so unreliable that I don't even try in combat and only get it to work about 5 times out of 10 if just practicing in a safe area.   That will be a game changer for me, especially guard breaking turtle enemies.

Here's a brief translation of the early patch notes which aslo mentions other fixes for the XBOX One version.
http://forums.bandainamcogames.com/showthread.php?115012-dark-souls-2-dx11-version-upcoming-patch-notes

There's no known date as to when this patch will be released. 

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