Been playing for a few days now and everything seems a bit too hollow, I'm starting to think that I'm soft banned for whatever reason.
Yesterday I did a fresh character, went to the Burg and...I was disappointed. No summon signs, few people to invade. I've been human the whole time and I got invaded only once by a Dark Bead spammer.
Previously I tried to create a Forest Hunter character but with the Cat Ring I was being summoned even less.
What's the deal with RtL? Maybe I'm really soft banned? The only thing I ever did in game (with other characters) is adding armor and stuff with DSR-gadget? Is that worth of a PVP ban?
You missed it. Everyone already beat the game.
We've gotta figure out ways to make these "Returns" keep people engaged for their duration.
The original Return to Events were promoted for a single day or weekend for this reason. You can't really surge the game with activity if you spread it out over a much longer window. You just really want to participate most heavily in the first couple days of a Return event, even if it's said to last a couple weeks the real event is the first two days.
Two events. 3 days "return to Lorraine", 2 weeks "fucking stay in lordran"
Heh. Lorraine
The problem is that returnees can probably finish the game in an afternoon or two, three at most, unless they really take their time. But it is already January 11 or 12, so the most passionate players have likely already finished it, and even those going at a slower pace probably have as well. If not, coordinating overlaps becomes much harder.
Return to Lordran is hardly a multi week event when you are revisiting an old game that most of us know by memory and that is relatively short once you know where to go and it secrets.
It's a problem with the structure of the game itself, too. Compare w Elden Ring and its summoning pools, designed specifically to keep coop activity working even with lower player pops. There's something very cool about every summoning sign being precisely where another player placed it, but once the player pop drops below a certain point the game is basically broken.
Yeah agreed, this experience is really a testimony to how whack the multiplayer experience was implemented for this game lol as much as I adore it
Week one: normal playthrough
Week two: PvP and co-op
Week two encourages organized pvp for that community. Regular invaders who now have a lategame character and sun bros helping out those that are still finishing the game.
I think it's incumbent upon streamers and community leaders to take that initiative. Don't make a lazy fuck like me do it
I’m still here but I’m a new player so I haven’t gotten too far yet. Just got the lord vessel. Planning to hit the catacombs next and try to play human
Wait frl? Bc I love this game but I quit fallout for this and still want to beat it lol if nobody is still on I'll go back
I feel like Gargoyles is always somewhat active for PvP and Co Op, it’s where I’ve had the most luck.
I’ve been playing everyday almost for RtL and it seems like activity varies heavily hour to hour. Since the event is nearing its finish though.. it may be less active sadly
Damn...I swear I'm so unlucky my controller broke and I got my new one just yesterday, so I could only join the event yesterday. It's a shame, I guess I'll have to wait for RtD then....
Fromsoft should just add fucking crossplay it would restore online for every souls game including elden ring. Sometimes even elden ring feels empty
I agree with this holy shit they destroyed the co op potential so much by splitting so much of the ds1 player base. Its a shame we will never get this. Didnt even get it for elden ring...
not even for fucking nightreign. If they maybe turn back and add it for all souls games (forget the cheaters activity is more important than cheaters), then it would be so much more active i m just imagining how beautiful it would be, pontiff ganks would be back.
Exactly. And the cheaters as an argument btw has never stopped other crossplay as well so that shouldn't be a reason because i agree if the price for CROSSPLAY and more activity is occasional cheating, i will accept! And if ppl dont like this, guess what, they can DISABLE crossplay in the options😱. I totally forgot about night reign to and that had even less excuse to not be crossplay....
Because they know people will still buy it, because people act like they worship these games, even justify having to pay 60 fucking dollars for a game.
This is unfortunately true to....
So, lately i’ve been doing my sunbro activities on Lords of the Fallen. Simply because of crossplay and seamless co-op built in.
FROM really needs to integrate some of their mechanics
You think you’ve got it bad? I have the PtDE. I don’t get any multiplayer anymore.
I was on DSR and Darksouls 3 getting invaded a bit, but not the most summons, I think the older games are dying a bit which is very unfortunate because they’re so good, I hope next year or later this year it will be more active
My experience on Darksouls 2 (sotfs) has been plenty busy for me, granted I'm on PC, but I'd image that the remaster and 3 must have even more players.
DS3 is a lot more active than DSR, just depends on the bosses and area, with the SUNBRO password there were a LOT of summons and invasions which is fun
I don’t believe passwords affect invasions just so you know
I thought they did, maybe it’s just coincidence
I've had the best luck in the Depths placing my sign close to the bonfire.
really?? cause i’ve been waiting here for a sign for two days 😭
1.) I can only speak for DS: Remastered on PC
2.) On that version, bear in mind that both soul level (SL) AND weapon level (WL) count. All the details are here, but the bare basics are this:
-Once your WL for a character goes up, it can NOT go back down.
-To match with people who have unupgraded weapons, the highest your WL can go is +5. You can ascend weapons to DIVINE, MAGIC, or FIRE, (not occult, lightning, enchanted, , crystal, or chaos), but you cannot upgrade a weapon further after ascending it.
-If you pick up a lightning/ crystal weapon from a mimic (the one in Sen's Fortress as an example), you just got kicked out of newbie matchmaking. Those count as WL10, even if they're unupgraded. Basically, as a rule, just avoid killing mimics as they've got nothing tonoffer you now.
you got one dead guy and his scribbling on the ground, what more could you want? /j
I've gotten around 60 or so sunlight medals from depths and O&S total.
That said, I've mucked around since before RoL even began, even got summoned to Capra! Was glad to help out on that one.
I think most of the semi casual player base have moved on now. I get some summons for Kalameet but that's about it.
Was fun being a Sunbro while it lasted!
I was around weapon levels +4 for gargoyles, +5 to +10 for depths, +10 from then on for most fights.
Slv 20 for gargs, Slv40 for depths.
Stayed at Slv 60 for the most part for O&S.
After hitting +15 weapons I got less and less cooperative play. +10 is the sweet spot really for the first half of the game until you get the lordvessel.
Anor Londo is still bumping
Your steam name isn't too long or have unusual characters that couldn't be typed into character's name by any chance?
https://old.reddit.com/r/darksouls/comments/1q8huop/cant_get_summoned_for_ltr_check_this/
Oolacile township bonfire still very active
What level on pc?
You gotta remember that this is a lot between Reddit people that played this game more than once before. A lot of return people beat the game in the first 3-4 days easily even with "meme" or challenge builds cause ds1 isnt that hard once you know your way around.
So with the event being close to the end you likely will only find activity in some "high activity hours" and even there it isnt as much. If you really want massive amounts of activity the first 1-4 days are usually the craziest where everyones playing.
Could the event just be shorter atp? No point in carrying it for two weeks if everyone is bored to play after the first few days, which makes sense.
The original "Return to" events were advertised for a single day or weekend. When these events grew people complained if they couldn't make it, so they started stretching the event out. This always had a tradeoff to it, the surge of activity was always going to be more successful with a much narrower time frame, at the cost of more people being able to participate overall.
Larger windows seemed to have won out in the end, but I always questioned if it was a good idea. Because there was an unspoken truth remaining -- you should still participate most on the first couple days of the event, even if it's supposed to be two weeks long, to actually get the most out of it. In my mind, you basically still missed it if you didn't.
Yep. It changes nothing. One week would already be plenty, since, if you play everyday after work/school, I estimate that 7 days, with help from players, DS1, DS2 and DS3 are all very doable. If you miss it, you miss it. The games don't turn off the online as soon as the event's over. There's still the other two, but I do wish they wouldn't be so damn far away. My characters are already set up and I'm itching to play more of them, but I won't.
Not neccessarily bored. But people end up at meta levels nearing the end and staying there for the remainder.
Insane activity At SL45 for some reason but not a single summon sign at low/high SL
its still busy on Steam. ive been playing since the start and still hear constant bells at firelink
Yeah, you'll get a bell guaranteed every 5ish minutes still in the parish.
I've seen a fair number of people both summoning me and summoning others and I'm on the Nintendo switch.
Maybe activity is lighter this year or maybe I did mostly undead burg shit last year. But it does seem quieter.
What platform are you on? PC and ps seem to be the most active
PC. I'm keeping on playing atm but everything really seems empty. Just a couple of summons and an invasion in the Depths, which are things you could get in a normal run.
Is your steam name longer than 15 characters? Someone Said there's a glitch that limits online if it's more
Nope
Mine hasn't worked at all, I tried everything I could think of. I can play every other multi-player game but DSR. Truly tragic, I love return to lordran. It's tradition :(
I think it's cause of how the branching off works in this game, and the Master Key.
I had loads of activity til O&S. After? Nothing at all except getting summoned once for Manus.
I also think it helps if you dont do magic. I did a Pyro build which sinks a lot of souls into weapon levels and I think i was lower level than most in other places.
We should probably try to prioritize playing the game Linearly. No Master Key. Play it with an intended progression route, and then after Anor Londo, we should probably say in the RTL Announcement, state that we should generally all go to a certain Lord Soul first and such. That would probably help
You’re weapon could be too high level for the gargoyles. I always have a very active gravelord here even when the event isn’t going on
For me it has been inconsistent (PC). It started great with taurus and gargoyles, but I strugled with capra, gaping and queelag.Got sumoned for all those, but had trouble summoning.
Then couldn't summon in izalith and ruins. But got summoned a couple of times for ceaseless and centipede. Nothing for bed of chaos.
Archives was also kind of alone, but I helped someone get the tail of the bald dragon.
No luck with 4k.
Nito was my luckiest place (and O&S). And, curiously enough, the sanctuary guardian.
But i also have been waiting a lot. With the event lasting 2 weeks, i have been helping with just onenor two bosses per day. This is the first time I have been able to play online, so even it it took 15min between summons, I have been waiting.
When I firts purchaded the PTDE i used dsfix and as fr as i knew, that ment i couldn't play online. Then, when I got a PC that could run the game without the mod, the server got fucking executed.
So, this december buyed remastered to be oart of RTL and play online for the first time.
My strategy has been putting my sign down and reading a book while i wait to be summoned. Today I'll finish the game. There are only Kalameet, Manus and Gwyn left.
I got summoned all the times I tried, made two characters because I thought of another build but didn't do much online stuff on it. I've set up my characters for Return to Drangleic and Return to Lothric already, as well. I'm kinda done with Return to Lordran. There isn't a single boss I find hard enough to summon for, so the most I do is help against bosses that are typically known to be hard. Gargoyles, Gaping Dragon, Ornstein and Smough, The Four Kings, all the DLC bosses. You can always try these ones, I usually get lucky.
I’ve always hd more success with Return to Drangleic on Xbox at least
Do you have a multiplayer password on?
I think everyone’s playing Nightreign right now.
You're in the first area of the game days later, you basically missed it; we essentially move through the game together as a wave
Nobody participated this year
Yeah man been feelin the same, RTL event itself lasts till the 17th, but people only stay till beating their first play through and maybe another play through. Today was good, I got summoned 7 times but the wait time is awful
Honestly i never think about throwing one down, but ill be tackling nito later tonight! Ill throw one down if anyone wants to help!
There's PvP always at the bonfire after Artorias fight, u gotta be around level 110-120 I believe
Back in the good old 2015-2019 when I did forest hunter, on OG Ds1 was super lively was getting summoned left and right, had a bunch of fun fights 😭, till damn ER shut off the servers, temporarily and when it came back on wasn't as lively no more
I haven't read the whole thread but I'll take a chance and throw in my 2c anyways... What's your weapon level? I've seen a lot of people going for the gravelord sword or similar "get OP early" weapons and if they don't do that they at least know to upgrade their stuff. If I'm invading lower levels (pre-lordvessel) I'll keep mine around lv10 (or base chaos/lightning) and for higher levels I'll just max em out. I have a lv12 gravelord build with gravelord sword and some +10's and he got a lot of activity for a while there, though it is finally slowing down unfortunately
Thx for the explanation dude but I've been playing the game for years and I know the PVP matchmaking rules well and that's not my issue
lol fair enough man, just telling you what's worked for me. Hope you figure it out
I feel you. I host as a SL12 in Burg and nobody invades ever. I invade and its instant noob kills. Where are the dickwraiths?!?!?!
Burg at sl11 Wl 5 is always good for me as gravelord. Everyday is RTL for me though lol I don’t like getting rusty
I don’t see dry finger active either .
I was getting summoned for the Gargoyles, Butterfly, Quelaag, and got some for O&S last night. The first 3 with a +7 or +8 weapon and the last with a +13. Around SL 20-30. Probably did 9 fights total.
Comparatively, there were no summon signs around when I did those bosses myself. I think I just caught people on their way to summon an NPC.
I've been playing since last week and the activity in the first week was much higher.
But I'm not looking for PvP and even so I managed about 4 encounters yesterday using the forest path and was invaded about 2 times.
I spent very little time as a human and still found summon marks, but much less frequently than in the first week lol
So I think it depends on the area you're in, it can increase the interaction lol