summons not working?

[Stardust]

hi im trying to help my gf with playing the game i was summoning with passwords 9 months ago and the game was working fine and now when i come back to the game to finish it off with her i suddenly can't see my summon sign on any character even while in the same room with the same internet connection. is there currently something wrong with the game?
she can also see my blood stains but not my signs

[sekai]

I don't know if it's the case, but I'm just thinking one of the possibility is because of the name. I'm taking a stab in the dark (Souls.... heh) that she changed her Steam name since the last time you played together?

If one of your Steam ID and/or in-game character name is too long, has special characters or otherwise too complicated, the sign won't appear, or it would but summoning will automatically fail.

I am actually not sure of the exact mechanics in which summon will fail because of the name. But I know it could fail because of it.

So I always keep naming in Dark Soul 1 really simple. I even changed my Steam ID to all lower case and really short as you can see initially for the purpose of online Dark Souls. And all of my characters in-game has name no more than 5-6 letters with only the first letter capitalised like John or Lily or whatnot.

[sekai]

Also the sign do take time to turn up. It's more or less random and beholden to what the game and/or the server chooses to spawn. So you might simply need to wait a bit longer.

..........................

Lastly, your levels. You can only play online together if you're within the summon/invasion range of each other. It's dependant on your Soul Level of the character AND the weapon upgrade level (latter is added in Remaster). So it's also possible that the 2 of you are simply out of range from each other hence the sign won't show.

https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Online
https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Cooperative_Gameplay

The general idea is that summoning level range is +/- 10 levels +/- another 10% with respect to the host's soul level. So a soul level 20 person can see sign from soul level 8 - 32.

And for weapon level, just try to get it as close as possible. Range is rather generous and is mostly there to prevent the most extreme scenarios and it does compensate for magic weapons that can only go up to +5 I think.

..........................

But since you're saying password matching maybe these don't matter at all.

[Stardust]

Originally posted by sekai:

Also the sign do take time to turn up. It's more or less random and beholden to what the game and/or the server chooses to spawn. So you might simply need to wait a bit longer.

..........................

Lastly, your levels. You can only play online together if you're within the summon/invasion range of each other. It's dependant on your Soul Level of the character AND the weapon upgrade level (latter is added in Remaster). So it's also possible that the 2 of you are simply out of range from each other hence the sign won't show.

https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Online
https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Cooperative_Gameplay

The general idea is that summoning level range is +/- 10 levels +/- another 10% with respect to the host's soul level. So a soul level 20 person can see sign from soul level 8 - 32.

And for weapon level, just try to get it as close as possible. Range is rather generous and is mostly there to prevent the most extreme scenarios and it does compensate for magic weapons that can only go up to +5 I think.

..........................

But since you're saying password matching maybe these don't matter at all.

i've waited like 5 minutes and it hasn't shown up so i've given up trying to play for now but ill try again tomorrow

[analnyj charodey]

Originally posted by Stardust:

Originally posted by sekai:

Also the sign do take time to turn up. It's more or less random and beholden to what the game and/or the server chooses to spawn. So you might simply need to wait a bit longer.

..........................

Lastly, your levels. You can only play online together if you're within the summon/invasion range of each other. It's dependant on your Soul Level of the character AND the weapon upgrade level (latter is added in Remaster). So it's also possible that the 2 of you are simply out of range from each other hence the sign won't show.

https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Online
https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Cooperative_Gameplay

The general idea is that summoning level range is +/- 10 levels +/- another 10% with respect to the host's soul level. So a soul level 20 person can see sign from soul level 8 - 32.

And for weapon level, just try to get it as close as possible. Range is rather generous and is mostly there to prevent the most extreme scenarios and it does compensate for magic weapons that can only go up to +5 I think.

..........................

But since you're saying password matching maybe these don't matter at all.

i've waited like 5 minutes and it hasn't shown up so i've given up trying to play for now but ill try again tomorrow

Sometimes I don't see any summon signs till I use some kind of a summoning or invasion item. Quitting the save and reloading may also help. Try using Red Cracked Eye Orb and then using it again to cancel the invasion, maybe the summoning sign will appear then

[sekai]

Originally posted by Stardust:

Originally posted by sekai:

Also the sign do take time to turn up. It's more or less random and beholden to what the game and/or the server chooses to spawn. So you might simply need to wait a bit longer.

..........................

Lastly, your levels. You can only play online together if you're within the summon/invasion range of each other. It's dependant on your Soul Level of the character AND the weapon upgrade level (latter is added in Remaster). So it's also possible that the 2 of you are simply out of range from each other hence the sign won't show.

https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Online
https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Cooperative_Gameplay

The general idea is that summoning level range is +/- 10 levels +/- another 10% with respect to the host's soul level. So a soul level 20 person can see sign from soul level 8 - 32.

And for weapon level, just try to get it as close as possible. Range is rather generous and is mostly there to prevent the most extreme scenarios and it does compensate for magic weapons that can only go up to +5 I think.

..........................

But since you're saying password matching maybe these don't matter at all.

i've waited like 5 minutes and it hasn't shown up so i've given up trying to play for now but ill try again tomorrow

I've never used password matchmaking before since no friends, but I think password matching skips the process of finding others. Unless someone corrects me.

I don't know if the soul and weapon level will also get skipped with password matching.

So it might be some kind of obstruction that stops the connection from happening. Things like the name issue I mentioned and perhaps other factors I'm not aware of.

[Stardust]

Originally posted by sekai:

Originally posted by Stardust:

i've waited like 5 minutes and it hasn't shown up so i've given up trying to play for now but ill try again tomorrow

I've never used password matchmaking before since no friends, but I think password matching skips the process of finding others. Unless someone corrects me.

I don't know if the soul and weapon level will also get skipped with password matching.

So it might be some kind of obstruction that stops the connection from happening. Things like the name issue I mentioned and perhaps other factors I'm not aware of.

i know that passwords bypass SL but i don't know if it does for weapon level as i have a +10 chaos great club but i can always try some other stuff tomorrow

[sekai]

Also this is not to demean just wanna double check, whichever one of you being the host, the host is human right?

In Dark Souls 1, the host needs to be human to summon others, NOT the phantom.

The phantom player can be hollow and still use the soapstone as long as they don't leave the area they're at the sign will hold (if you move location and the sign disappears because of it, a massive screen will pop up and tell you). But the host needs to be human to see signs, even with password matching I believe.

.............

Also make sure the 2 of you entered the password correctly. Every character and capitalisation needs to match.

.............

Also, summoning will only work if the area boss is still alive in the host's world. If the boss for that area is dead in the host's world, then online play for that area is no longer possible for the host.

This is why pvp players will intentionally keep certain areas' boss alive otherwise they can only invade and be summoned into others' world but no longer in their own world.

[GANG]

Soul level and weapon level are skipped with password match making. They no longer matter. When you have a password, you still see random peoples signs but the other passwords signs will always show up if it’s available. Did you guys forget the host has to reverse their hollowing and be in human form? Also the passwords are case sensitive

[Stardust]

Originally posted by GANG:

Soul level and weapon level are skipped with password match making. They no longer matter. When you have a password, you still see random peoples signs but the other passwords signs will always show up if it’s available. Did you guys forget the host has to reverse their hollowing and be in human form? Also the passwords are case sensitive

yeah shes human form i also made sure i was too just in case something wasn't right and see if she could join me but i just can't see to get it to show on both of our games. i can still invade though and i was doing invasions in oolacile before she got on. so i find that very strange

[Stardust]

Originally posted by sekai:

I don't know if it's the case, but I'm just thinking one of the possibility is because of the name. I'm taking a stab in the dark (Souls.... heh) that she changed her Steam name since the last time you played together?

If one of your Steam ID and/or in-game character name is too long, has special characters or otherwise too complicated, the sign won't appear, or it would but summoning will automatically fail.

I am actually not sure of the exact mechanics in which summon will fail because of the name. But I know it could fail because of it.

So I always keep naming in Dark Soul 1 really simple. I even changed my Steam ID to all lower case and really short as you can see initially for the purpose of online Dark Souls. And all of my characters in-game has name no more than 5-6 letters with only the first letter capitalised like John or Lily or whatnot.

with the long steam name / ID thing does that also include nick names in the friends list? i have a heart emoji set as her nick name and im assuming that might be the issue

[sekai]

Originally posted by Stardust:

Originally posted by sekai:

I don't know if it's the case, but I'm just thinking one of the possibility is because of the name. I'm taking a stab in the dark (Souls.... heh) that she changed her Steam name since the last time you played together?

If one of your Steam ID and/or in-game character name is too long, has special characters or otherwise too complicated, the sign won't appear, or it would but summoning will automatically fail.

I am actually not sure of the exact mechanics in which summon will fail because of the name. But I know it could fail because of it.

So I always keep naming in Dark Soul 1 really simple. I even changed my Steam ID to all lower case and really short as you can see initially for the purpose of online Dark Souls. And all of my characters in-game has name no more than 5-6 letters with only the first letter capitalised like John or Lily or whatnot.

with the long steam name / ID thing does that also include nick names in the friends list? i have a heart emoji set as her nick name and im assuming that might be the issue

I don't think the nickname and friend list matters. Just that if you or your gf's Steam ID is very long, has too many capital letters, too many numbers, special characters, and whatnot the summoning will fail. Dunno if it also applies to in-game characters' names.

My Steam ID used to be "Take me home, Crunchyroll" (I miss this name) which ran into trouble with summoning, then I changed to "SEKAI" with all caps which still occasionally had issues, and now I now use all lower case. I don't fully know what the game thinks is okay to have, but I know if it has issue you don't get to play online.

But you don't have to be as extreme as me since your name looks ok. So it might be another factor.

A good way to know if your name is problem: If you turn human and run around in an area where the area boss is still alive and you every so often see you get invaded but the invader would always immediately "leave" then that means there's issue probably with the name either you or them. Happen enough times then it's probably you.

[dcy665]

A little late to the party, but the limit on summon names is ~15
> 16 will fail for certain
15, I've never seen confirmation of it. Aim for less than 15 would be my best guess

Good Luck

[Wolffe]

Yep <15 characters works.