Glad to hear they’re doing the smart thing and listening to what people want. Invasions sound cool on paper, but they end up just being annoying, and you design how you play around avoiding them. It’s cool to summon people from their summon signs, but it would just inherently work better if you could choose people from a damn menu, including your friends.
Yeah I just want that and shared progression. I don’t like having to help a friend through a section and then we need to go and do it again for me, or vice versa. If we kill a boss, we both should kill the boss. If we pick up tap macguffin, we both got the macguffin. Many games figured this out years ago, I’d appreciate it if From could move on from their current system. It was cool and all when I was like 15 years younger, I got more shit to do now than having to play the same game multiple times I order to keep me and my friends at the same level of progression.
I would love for them to bring back places like the Bell Towers in DS2. Does elden ring even have a mirror knight type boss that can summon people?
I would love for the invasion system to just work like DS2 period, but with a normal level range thing like 3 and ER instead of that god awful Soul Memory bullshit.
But I also hella hope there’s some unique PvP boss area in the new DLC that is like the Bell Tower in 2 or Half-Light in 3. Elden Ring has no special multiplayer bosses at all currently. Unless you count Malenia just because she’s super hard and LetMeSoloHer exists 🤷🏻♂️
If you go level range you get tryhards that modify everything in their inventory, have 300 more hours at the game PvPing than you, etc. That’s why 3’s wall of Lothric was unplayable in coop - you got invaded by people in havels and meta PvP weapons, with just enough stats to be able to kill new guys.
That’s why soul memory existed, it was just a flawed system. If it only decided on invasions, going by the highest memory in your party, it’d be fine. Sadly it also messed around with summoning your friends, which is a huge no-no.
Invasions work well for a game like Dark Souls. Especially when it creates unique 1v1 scenarios. Dark Souls is open world to a point, and in a larger sense is linear in its progression, while allowing the player to choose the order of some of the steps.
For a game like Elden Ring, it doesn’t work out so well.
and you design how you play around avoiding them
I wanted to see the blood stains but didn’t want invasions so hollowed playthrough it was…
This is how more studios need to treat their modders. Sure, not every mod needs to be folded in to the next release(Though come on, Bethesda. Helmets of Hammerfell is right there. Don’t let modders take the glory like they did with Shlongs of Skyrim!), but as a source of inspiration for what players may want.
I thoroughly enjoyed Elden Ring, single player. I tried co-op and it was so jank we stopped pretty quickly.
We have considered trying the mod but have not committed.
Save for the odd disconnect, the mod was pretty good when I used it with two friends.
That mod is the reason I played Elden Ring in the first place. The Souls games’ reputation and gimped co-op had kept me from them. Seamless co-op turned Elden Ring into one of the best shared multiplayer adventures I have ever had.
Doing full co-op with a randomizer is a blast.
Wish Capcom had learned from this, too. Monster Hunter World’s multiplayer restrictions were so backwards, and now they are bringing them back for Wilds, ugh.
