I wonder if the game needed to be loaded on the 360 to move the patch to the correct spot. Just an idea. If you are still on 1.05, just take a quick look at your 360 hard drive again to see if it pops up.
Nope, still nothing there, and he's still selling Bottomless Box, which implies one of 3 possibilities:
1. Namco released multiple versions of the disc, some pre-patched 2. There exists some kind of hidden content system that From used for their first updates (but not anymore?) 3. The update descriptions are wrong, and he sells bottomless box on vanilla, and I, somewhere along the line, lost my update somehow. 4. I'm fucking stupid
Does anyone know of an easy way to test 3? I think the soul drop rates were changed at some point, anything else?
You seriously had to show up now? K, I'm going to check some stuff out, but in the meantime, do the numbers on the inside of the disc indicate anything? Mine has
11DACC57-LO 02 0111 and 11DACC57-L1 05 0111
I don't have a clue what any of those mean, but maybe others' are different?
indeed, okay, well, they're a little different (the copywright notices are the same on mine), but again, I don't know if that means anything. If anyone else could post theirs to see if there are any similarities/differences, that might help. Anyways, I'm at my wits end for now, I'll try looking a little more for evidence that I am/am not on 1.05, but otherwise, I'm stumped.
One last thing to take note of: The xbox update central site's faq mentions that older updates go into the 'cache' partition of a drive, while new ones go into the content partition. Its a hunch, but that might actually validate the 2nd guess, but I can't be sure without more knowledge about the system. In that case, it may not be possible to extract the cache data, at least not easily. If there's a way to get the actual HDD out of my system, it might be possible to force the data out with some ingenuity, but until then, I'll hold off trying to delete anything else from my system.
I think I got this now. SMK's reminder about the patch being in the catch gave me an idea. I am now playing and the undead merchant has the bottomless box. What ways can I test to be sure I am in 1.05 rather than 1.06?
Edit: Done. 360 can be patched back to 1.05. I am able to duplicate my items. I think i win.
How to patch Dark Souls for 360 to patch 1.05, 1.02, and 1.07 (If 1.07 is need after a later patch comes out).
All links are direct downloads from what I uploaded as attachments. No 3rd party links.
All will require a USB drive formatted by the 360 (1GB is minimum size). All steps will assume this is already done.
USB Drive Program - This is needed to properly move the patch files into the proper locations.
Select the patch you want to patch to. NTSC U/J 1.02 PAL 1.02 NTSC U/J 1.05 PAL 1.05 (if this link does not work, use the attached file at the bottom of this post named "TU_174Q21Q_000000K000000.00000000000G5" and it should work. h4ck_y0u noticed it was not working proper) Edit: (link should be working now)
PC Steps 1: With the USB drive attached to your PC (have not tested any of this with a MAC), open the USB Drive Program provided above. Go to File > Open Device Selector (a new window will pop up). Select the USB drive by double click or highlight it then press "Open Drive" (should be the only one unless you have other USB drives).
2: You will now have a file tree on the left of the program. Highlight the folder "Cache Partition > Cache" and the right side of the window should be blank. Drag and drop the patch file into this window or right click the right side of the window > Inject > then select the patch file. Once this is done you can close the program and take the USB drive out of your PC.
3: Go to 360 Steps -------------------------------------------
PC Steps 1: With the USB drive attached to your PC (have not tested any of this with a MAC), open the USB Drive Program provided above. Go to File > Open Device Selector (a new window will pop up). Select the USB drive by double click or highlight it then press "Open Drive" (should be the only one unless you have other USB drives).
2: You will now have a file tree on the left of the program. Highlight the folder "Data Partition" and the right side of the window should be blank. Right click in the blank area and click "New Folder", a new small window will open. Enter "0000000000000000" (16 zeros) and then click "ok". Select the newly made folder and make a new folder in that one. Name it "4E4D083A" then click "ok". Select that folder and create another folder and name it "000B0000", click "ok" then select it. Your file tree should look like this: "Data Partition/content/0000000000000000/4E4D083A/000B0000/" Drag and drop the patch file into the blank window or right click the right side of the window > Inject > then select the patch file. Once this is done you can close the program and take the USB drive out of your PC.
3: Go to 360 Steps ---------------------------------------
360 Steps: Please note that you will not lose any of your saved games (unless you delete them) 1: With the most current dashboard on the 360 (I dont think this will matter though), go to Settings > System > Storage > Hard Drive > Games and Apps > Dark Souls. You will see "Dark Souls - Installed 360 Game 4 GB" (If you installed the game), "Dark Souls - Saved Game (size depends on how many saves you have)", "Artorias Of The Abyss - Downloaded Items 351 MB" (if you have the DLC), and "Dark Souls Title Update - Update 16 MB" (if you are on patch 1.07, I assume the file size will get larger with later patchs). Now that you see where you need to be, delete "Dark Souls Title Update - Update 16 MB" only. The DLC and saved games do NOT need to be deleted. You can go back to the Dashboard Home.
2: Attach your USB Drive, then load up Dark Souls. The game will ask you to get an update. Cancel or just press "B". You will now need to select a divice to save to, select your USB Drive. All characters will be saved onto you USB drive and will have no effect on your other save files. Enjoy playing.
3: If you install the update and use your USB drive for saves, you will have to redo all steps. Be sure to not use your flash drive as the saving device when the game is fully patched on your hard drive. You can however have it in your 360, just dont use it when playing Dark Souls. Now you can just repeat the 360 steps when ever you want to play a prior patch.
Notes about this guide: Shout outs go to Sir VG for practically finding most of the stuff needed, I tested and troubleshooted everything but I was still stumped. Shout outs to SMK for giving me an idea to test and allowing me to get this all done successfully.
I could do some testing as long as I can hack in a copy of the game onto my PS3 HDD. The disc drive on the system doesn't work. Also, I'd probably suck at the game.
Yeah, my shotty PS3 is being a problem right now. I also am having issues finding what I need to make it work. If I can get it to work, maybe later.
Done. 360 can be patched back to 1.05. I am able to duplicate my items. I think i win.
lol, I seriously woke up this morning and got it working with exactly the same idea (confirmed by _removing_ my 360 hard drive) :P. Good stuff though, I'm glad this finally got sorted out.
From what I understand looking around for the PS3 version, it should just be a matter of:
1. Delete all game content if on a newer version. 2. Install the PKG files. I'm not 100% certain if you need to install 1.03 then 1.05 or if you can skip straight to 1.05 (like you can with Xbox 360 Title Updates), but I believe you can skip straight to 1.05.
I've still got to fully test it myself, but it appears to be pretty simple, at least.
--- Edit: While I can't fully test things (I've forgotten how to install PS3 games via MultiMan), it's easy to check which version you have, assuming things work fine for vanilla PS3s compared to my hacked one.
1. Go into the Game menu. 2. Scroll up to Game Data Utility. 3. Select Dark Souls and press Triangle. 4. Select Information. 5. It gives Version info right there. 6. If newer, go back and delete it, then install the PKG file for older versions.
Okay, so, i downloaded the pkg file (1.05 BLES01402).
I must: 1. Delete all game content (cause im on 1.07) 2. Be offline 3. put the pkg file on a USB 4. load up the game, see if it'll ask me to update (to 1.05 hopefully) 5. update 6. get record and fuck bitches
With my PS3 I can install PKG files from the games menu, but that's likely cause it's modded (3.55 CFW). I'm not sure how it'll work in-game or on a vanilla PS3.
Depends on what "installing PKG files" consists of, I think. Can it just be copied to the right location on the PS3 and work? Or the game picks it up and installs it automatically if it's in the right location, maybe.
For me it's a case of "put file at the root of USB drive, stick in PS3, go to Install_PKG, install." But I'm pretty sure that 3rd item is because of my CFW. You might be able to do it via the web browser and that website that has the old updates. The game shouldn't try to get 1.07 until you run the game, if it works like Xbox 360.
Looks like patches are stored with the rest of the game data at /dev_hdd0/game/<game name>. Not sure if just copying the patch there would make it "installed" and just work or not, though.