Dark Souls II February 2015 Update! (Ver 1.10, Cal 1.13)

[j.gov]

Attention Dark Souls II fans!

A free patch will be available for all Dark Souls II players on February 5th, 2015 bringing gameplay enhancements and new story elements to prepare for the Scholar of the First Sin! (Ver 1.10, Calibrations 1.13)

Check out new screenshots on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/darksouls
And read on below for a full list of changes:

*Warning - Spoilers ahead if you have not finished the game*

-Added new character, The Scholar of the First Sin.
-Additional item description text.
-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now allow enemies to continue to respawn after being defeated.
-Choosing to enter the Covenant of Champions will now cause enemies to inflict more damage to the player.
-Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected.
-Increased effect of Rusted Coin.
-Awestones now dropped more often.
-The bonfire warp selection screen will now highlight the top three areas where players will have the best change to connect with other players online.
-White phantoms will remain in other players' worlds for longer periods of time.
-White phantoms will no longer return to their world if time runs out during a boss battle.
-Players on their first play through can now match with players on their 2nd or further play through.
-Made it easier for players to match online in general.
-Made it so that invading players cannot use items which invite more enemies.
-NPC conversation text is now displayed more prominently than online notices.
-Players may now choose to cancel out the effect of the Human Effigy at bonfires.
-When a player cannot take part in online play due to the effect of the Human Effigy, made it so that the player can still write signs. (They still cannot summon during this period.)
-The Imitation spell now affects normal enemies.
-The Hush spell is now more effective on normal enemies.
-Load times shortened (PS3 only).
-Calibrations no longer saved each time before the title screen.
-Fixed issue causing map name listed on save data and actual map name after loading to not match.
-Made it possible to skip the ending sequence the 2nd time through and beyond.
-Removed the blur effect used when looking through the binoculars.
-Rouge Water, etc.: Fixed issue causing the user not to recover spell usages for spells only able to be used once.
-Made Old Iron King's Crown's effect function consistently throughout the game.
-Adjusted price for Crown of the Ivory King, Ivory King Armor, Ivory King Gauntlets, Ivory King Leggings.
-Fixed Issue whereby the sign in the Iron Keep was not displayed as intended once the player spoke to Lucatiel of Mirrah in Harvest Valley.
-Corrected issue whereby users could not use Bonfire Ascetics at Undead Crypt Entrance Bonfire.
-Adjusted timing for Licia of Lindeldt to become the player's enemy.
-Adjusted conditions for lighting Majula map from "Defeat Nashandra" to "Defeat Throne Defender and Throne Watcher."
-To prevent invasion after defeating area bosses, made the Human Effigy effect function in this situation automatically.
-Made it possible to get the reward items after defeating area bosses even if your inventory is full at the time. (Items will drop in front of the player.)
-Made it possible to get the reward items after using Crushed Eye Orb and defeating Licia of Lindeldt even if your inventory is full at the time. (Items will drop in front of the player.)
-In Black Gulch, made it possible to receive Forgotten Key after defeating a Giant when the player has 99 Souls of a Giant.
-In Grand Cathedral, made it possible to still receive the item you are supposed to get when talking to Alsanna, Silent Oracle even if your inventory is full.
-At the Ending, if the player has fulfilled the conditions to receive Illusory Ring of a Conqueror and Illusory Ring of the Exalted but their inventory is full, made it possible to receive the rings properly. (Players will receive the rings as soon as space is opened in their inventory.)
-Adjusted rewards in online play:

(Normal Online Play)
-Host vanquishes invading dark phantom or arbiter spirit: Human Effigy
-Host vanquishes a dark phantom summoned through red sign: Human Effigy
-Host vanquishes invading grey spirit (Bell Keeper): (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.
-Vanquish host you invade at the covenant "Rat King" area: Added Smooth & Silky Stone in addition to Pharros' Lockstone

(Covenant "Blue Sentinels")
-Vanquish dark phantom when summoned as help by a Way of Blue host: Devotion to covenant up +1.

(Covenant "Rat King")
-Vanquish client summoned to Rat King area: Added Smooth & Silky Stone in addition to Pharros' Lockstone.

(Covenant "Bell Keeper")
-Vanquish host when invading as grey phantom: (1 of the following) Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragon Bone.

(Covenant "Pilgrims of Dark")
-Host vanquishes abyss spirit in Dark Chasm of Old: added Human Effigy to Bonfire Ascetic.

(Covenant "Brotherhood of Blood")
-When invading, vanquish Blue Sentinel summoned as help: Devotion to covenant up +2.


Scheduled maintenance for this update (Xbox 360, PS3, Steam):
2/4 6:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST
2/4 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
2/4 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM GMT
2/4 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM CET
2/4 11:00 PM - 2:00 AM 2/5 JST

Thank you everyone for your continued support of Dark Souls II!

-Bandai Namco Games Community Team

[MyPingIsHuge]

"-Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected."

So you need to handicap yourself with one less ring slot, just to be able to enjoy PvP freely? Good f*****g decision, b-team.

[roadapple]

lol @ pvp freely hahahah

I heard they consulted Miyazaki and he recommended the soul ring solution =D =D =D =D =D

[Tegiminis]

when will the regular red eye orb show up?

[m3ld0n]

I am still really annoyed we wont get a free upgrade to the "nex-gen" version. We PC gamers could have handled that from the start...

[SuSq]

Looking forward to the ring, will def allow it easier to stay within the meta, simply taking off the ring during pvp will help deal with the ring slot issue, then simply putting it on before collecting you're opponents souls will also further prevent going higher in SM.

My one gripe however, is the fact that as a BoB member I still have to kill Arbiters to rank up through invasions and not the host. Allowing people to rank up through invasions would help to not only encourage more pvp, but Arbiters in general. Simply giving us two points is NOT going to keep that bitter taste out of my mouth.

As for arenas, having a token be consumed after a win instead of all together, would also help encourage more activity there, and adding SM to it could also help prevent beginners from fighting people with endgame gear. Coupled with the ring, *which can still be taken off easily when entering the arena* will promote much better fights.

Heck, I'd even take needing more points to rank up if it meant getting them from invasions.

The area's glowing when warping at the bonfire is a freaking god send to Sunbros, no longer will I, or any other, have to figure out where the general SM is in certain areas, as well as when coupled with the ring will make helping people with boss fights MUCH easier. Now if only I could drop all my excess sunlight medals with others. :P

Looking forward to the patch, I'm pretty hyped right now.

[「Myoh?!」]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Jsauce:

Attention Dark Souls II fans!
-Made it so that invading players cannot use items which invite more enemies.

My only complaint is not being able to troll gankers in Aldia's Keep anymore

Ah well, Everything else looks good.

[Grimminski]

PC users still have to pay for a texture pack? Suck it, Bamco.

[SuSq]

If they worked like Tokens of Fidelity that'd be nice, even if it only healed the host for the amount of a lifegem.

[LiberTea Deliverer]

This patch is good. But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fix the animations...they greatly suck! And, we were promised more npcs...only 1?

[Bird of Few Birds]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Jsauce:

-Made it so that invading players cannot use items which invite more enemies.

http://youtu.be/3JWTaaS7LdU?t=2m9s

[Ctorj]

Thanks for all your hard work! Now if only reporting someone actually meant they would be banned. Nothing about that in the list...

:-(

[FrostyT]

Hey, Jsauce, do you mind unpinning the older announcements? There are at least 3 that haven't had any relevence for months.

[illu]

-Players will gain access to a new item: The Agape Ring. When players equip the new Agape Ring, souls collected from kills during online play will be absorbed by the ring rather than the player. This allows players to control their online matchmaking experience by limiting their total souls collected.

-Players on their first play through can now match with players on their 2nd or further play through.


r u ♥♥♥♥♥ kiddin me


also
-To prevent invasion after defeating area bosses, made the Human Effigy effect function in this situation automatically.

wtf does this mean you can't be invaded if you've killed the area boss?

[Lцсᶖаᶇ º¹]

Not all that impressive, but I guess we have to buy the new one to get the good stuff.

[Klkan]

Really? this is it?.........................................well ♥♥♥♥ you fromsoft.

Everything else is locked behind a full price rebuy? really? none of thease are noteworthy additions to the current version of the game, thease could have been in a regular balance/fix patch few months ago, with the exeption of the new npc.