Why does PvP even exist

[Snobby Hobo]

Not invasions - which is fine I suppose. Wish it was incorporated a little more than just being allowed to invade people with yellow phantoms; like locations in previous souls games. Of course this PvP is still trash, but at least it's flavorful trash.

But the Colosseum - or red sign spots... how can anyone enjoy this? The net-code is as written by a caveman that hit his head on keyboard until a vague semblance of proper connection rolled out. Half the games people are just teleporting about. You get hit despite being nowhere even near their attack. 9/10 of the items in the game are completely obsolete and everyone just gravitates towards the 1% that happens to be strong right now.

I've tried to play it in every souls games, most prominently in DS3 - and every time, after a while of giving it a fair try, I just have to admit to myself it's total garbage. It has none of the hallmarks for a great PvP game; it's just kind of... tacked on. And Fromsoft is really doubling down on making it an actual thing for some reason, with the balance splitting into PvE and PvP.

I just don't get it. Is the PvP community actually that large in this game? And why?

[GloriousZote]

It would certainly help if this game had proper servers so that the teleporting wouldn't happen.
At the very least that'd make more things viable just by knowing you'll hit if you hit...

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by GloriousZote:

It would certainly help if this game had proper servers so that the teleporting wouldn't happen.

Either that or just leave it as a nice gimmick. Let's be honest - even the yellow summoning is a complete disaster with the boss randomly teleporting about and switching aggro targets mid-attack.

But for PvP? It's not even close to functioning properly.

[cridus]

if you want to get rid of at least the latency problem at least in invasions or "classic" duels, you can use SteamP2PInfo to see the ping you have towards people, so you can decide to leave if it's too high. only works for invasions or for when you're summoned as a red since you can't leave in the arena once you're in a match.

[CazadorDeLobo]

Just as in most games, PvP is a way to extend play time and add to the replayability-factor of the game. It allows people to take techniques and skills learned through focused and deliberate self-teaching, practice, training, trial-and-error etc. and put them to a test.

The netcode is atrocious, and will likely continue to be this way, as Fromsoftware does not consider the PvP to be very important to the gameplay formula - despite separating PvE and PvP balance patches months after launch, adding a Colosseum/duel mechanic, and including a redundant and exhaustive arsenal of gear to be used for meta-gaming.

In short, they are internally confused about what they want to do with PvP, and the half-committal nature of the systems in Elden Ring, such as no meaningful netcode improvements in over a decade, is what keeps the PvP system from being great.

It's not what is being talked about in reviews of the game, unless they're negative ones.

[Quadsword]

Honestly, multiplayer in general is a big downgrade from past titles. There's no covenants, so no gameplay incentives to co-op, invade, or duel people.

Also, Souls PvP has been massively unbalanced and janky since Demon's Souls. People play it and put up with the jank because there's nothing else like it.

[Under there]

coop-ers adjust, this is a red phantom game
made for reds by reds
yes we will kill you and your friend over and over again
no the blue will not save you but thank you for the extra souls

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Just as in most games, PvP is a way to extend play time and add to the replayability-factor of the game. It allows people to take techniques and skills learned through focused and deliberate self-teaching, practice, training, trial-and-error etc. and put them to a test.

The netcode is atrocious, and will likely continue to be this way, as Fromsoftware does not consider the PvP to be very important to the gameplay formula - despite separating PvE and PvP balance patches months after launch, adding a Colosseum/duel mechanic, and including a redundant and exhaustive arsenal of gear to be used for meta-gaming.

In short, they are internally confused about what they want to do with PvP, and the half-committal nature of the systems in Elden Ring, such as no meaningful netcode improvements in over a decade, is what keeps the PvP system from being great.

It's not what is being talked about in reviews of the game, unless they're negative ones.

I most agree about the internal confusion. In previous souls titles invasions at least held some merit; they actually meant something in terms of gameplay. But ER seems to double down on an actual PvP experience as if there's anything here that even vaguely resembles being in an acceptable state for such a thing.

Like I said: I get invasions. It's scary and can lead to some funny interactions. But outright PvP? What absolute madman could enjoy it in this state?

Originally posted by 240p enjoyer:

coop-ers adjust, this is a red phantom game
made for reds by reds
yes we will kill you and your friend over and over again
no the blue will not save you but thank you for the extra souls

Literally never summoned a yellow phantom in ER, so I haven't been invaded once. Somewhat disappointingly, as it was quite funny at times in previous souls games.

[cheetah1546]

just gives you more to do

[Lenox]

Y'know, I still have not dueled or gotten picked to enter the colosseum.

You're not wrong. But I guess something is better than nothing.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Lenox:

Y'know, I still have not dueled or gotten picked to enter the colosseum.

But you're not wrong.

It repeatedly crashed for me while waiting in the lobby. It also crashed quite a few times during the actual match. And I'm talking hard crashes here; the game closing itself out.

Somewhat to me surprise there are a lot of people queuing up for it. Never had to wait long.

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Incredibly average:

Originally posted by Lenox:

Y'know, I still have not dueled or gotten picked to enter the colosseum.

But you're not wrong.

It repeatedly crashed for me while waiting in the lobby. It also crashed quite a few times during the actual match. And I'm talking hard crashes here; the game closing itself out.

Somewhat to me surprise there are a lot of people queuing up for it. Never had to wait long.

My performance has been great lately, but many CTDs with no Event Viewer message. Not sure what that's about. And I'm talking just regular PvE stuff. One difference is I've been running in Full Screen mode lately instead of my usual Borderless.

[Tetsuya_Kurogane]

PvP is what make me stay around and play regurlarly.

I have a huge sample of matches, like I can call out many samples of 100.

Among all of those, with world-wide matchmaking to boot, the bad connection is still irregular. Totally a thing. Seen plenty of stutter. But not the norm.

[Alby]

I mostly avoid PvP in souls games as well, not because I suck at it, but because I’m also tired of hitting someone and it not registering for another 40 seconds. I have pretty good internetz and I’m positive that not all 100+ folks I’ve fought had bad internetz. It does feel like a secondary option, which for the most part it is. But it’s a good inclusion nonetheless because there are obviously tons of folks who love it. I mean, the devs can only improve overtime ig

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Alby:

I mostly avoid PvP in souls games as well, not because I suck at it, but because I’m also tired of hitting someone and it not registering for another 40 seconds. I have pretty good internetz and I’m positive that not all 100+ folks I’ve fought had bad internetz. It does feel like a secondary option, which for the most part it is. But it’s a good inclusion nonetheless because there are obviously tons of folks who love it. I mean, the devs can only improve overtime ig

Well, at some point it becomes a trade-off. I'm not exaggerating if I say I genuinely don't understand why they would double down on it in its current state.

Imagine if the effort went into the DLC, or another challenge dungeon or something. Wouldn't there be way more people that would enjoy that instead of the janky PvP?

[Alby]

It’s pretty much just From trying to appease everyone’s interests. Doubling down on PvP is how they learn more about it (even though they’ve been doing it since for over a decade lol). But ofc they prioritize PvE over anything else in their games. I agree, as someone who doesn’t PvP often, more PvE content would be neat. But you can’t say that PvP hasn’t come a long way since DS1. Now, instead of getting a burger with cold, unsalted fries, you’re getting a burger with lightly salted, room temp fries