Abraxus2

How about this as another "out there" possibility: I have my desktop fonts set to display at 125%. With such high resolution monitors these days, and my eyes no longer able to deal with the tiny type, I always bump this up when I install an OS. This tends to cause issues with iTunes, since it apparently cannot deal with that setting, it truncates text on some screens. Is it possible that this is also a problem for CoH?

Anybody experiencing these problems have a card with 768mb of memory? Mine does. I cannot help but wonder if that odd memory size might not be at least a contributing factor. I have run this past support, but got no definitive answer. In a world where 512mb or 1gb seem to be more the norm, perhaps there is some variable in the game code that just cannot reconcile the halfway point between those two numbers?

I am just reaching here, because I am tired of this problem, and if there is no solution, I would just love to actually understand the cause of the issue.

The memory issue I am VERY familiar with. I had not heard about the mouse look issue. What is that about?

I had another thought after that last post.

It seems to me that the launch sequence for the game now consists of two pieces. The launcher, and the game executable itself. I already had the launcher running as Administrator, but right after the launcher disappears, it turns control over to the cityofheroes.exe file, and THAT was not running as administrator. I have now set it to do so.

I played for a couple of hours in Talos, Bricks, and Skyway (classic areas). As always, the REAL test is Atlas, First Ward, Praetoria, and later on, the trials. If I can survive for long in those areas, I might be on to something.

I saw this in another thread. Might, or might not be the solution everyone posting in this thread is looking for:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=273543

My experiments resulted in no change. Stripping the drivers, and totally reloading the game did nothing. I attempted to play in First Ward last night (the first REAL test, since it was one of the new zones), and I crashed often. So much so, that I finally just stopped playing.

The errors were mainly the "application is no longer responding", with one "Game has run out of memory". I really need to figure this out.

Any more ideas out there?

I had a thought last night, after my previous post. There was a time, in the Windows 98/early Windows XP era, when the video card makers would recommend that you completely uninstall drivers, and do a fresh install every time you upgrade. They also recommended this whenever you would run into any problems that possibly involved drivers.

So, I have attempted that very procedure in my Windows 7 environment. Not only did I uninstall, when I reinstalled, I chose the "Driver only" option, and there was a check box for "Fresh Install", which I clicked.

So, now I am running with the latest drivers, but they are as "fresh" as they can be. I will report back on in-game behavior as soon as possible.

Perhaps my problem is that I have kept up on drivers, making sure that everything is up to date. Perhaps, in this case, the older ones would work better. Only problem there would be older drivers are harder to find than new ones, and even if you can, downgrading is more difficult that upgrading.

I just want to be able to play relatively free of crashes again. I can even forgive a crash here an there. Just not every few minutes.

I took the advice of some of the posts above. I tried playing with Shadows turned off. No luck. Also attempted to play with Ultra mode turned off. No good there either.

I had created a new character, and was attempting to play him through the new story arcs in Atlas Park (as opposed to just running him up to L15 doing the Sewer Trial). However, with all of the extra zoning needed for that approach, combined with the need to train (zoning, and clicking on a trainer are a couple of the other things that seems to push it over the line between functional, and crashing), I was crashing roughly every few minutes.

I gotta say, that in all the time I have been playing (since a week after go-live), this is the worst my game play experience has ever been. I am not sure if we are approaching some kind of solution for this issue, but with the intended revamp of more zones as they did to Atlas, this problem will become more prevalent for all of us who currently suffer with it. I have to admit, that I have played less of late, because of it. I am not leaving, but I do find myself not playing as much as I ordinarily would.

Just sayin'.

32-bit here as well. I played for a couple of hours again last night, but it was in Peregrine Island again, so not a great test. I am planning on running some Incarnate Trials this weekend. If I can make it through a few of those without crashing, then I am on to something.

Ultimus' assertion that he does not run AV makes me think I could be chasing the wrong ghost. But, I gotta give it a shot, just to be sure.

I run Windows 7, but Vista and Win7 are pretty closely related. That being said, I have been doing some experimenting while awaiting some official solution. I started pondering the other things that might be running, or monitoring files as I play. The two things that popped into my mind were my back-up utility (which monitors files that change, so they can be backed-up later), and the Anti-Virus software (in this case McAfee VirusScan Enterprise).

So, I tried playing with the back-up utility turned-off. It did no good. I then found an updated version of the AV software, and installed it. I played for a couple of hours last night in Peregrine Island, with no crashes. That might not have been long enough to really put it to the test though, as I could typically play that long in the "classic" areas before crashing. A better test would be to attempt the Incarnate Trials. If I could do THAT for a couple of hours, with no crashes, then I would be satisfied that I have made a difference.

If that still does not provide satisfactory results, the next step is to just disable the AV scanner while playing, and attempt the Trials with that scenario as well.

I will throw my hat in the ring here. Been playing since a week after go-live. Never experienced chronic crashing like this in all that time. Mainly memory leak, but occasionally, application fault. Happens frequently, but more so in Praetoria, than in the classic areas.

I will PM the devs with the requested info. I have to say I miss the days of being able to play for hours on end, with no issues. I am hoping that Freedom brings some "nuts and bolts" level fixes to the game, to restore stability. The new stuff is great, but stability is the foundation that all else rests upon. Without that, all the cool stuff in the world won't increase membership, at least not for long.

Love the guide. Great work!

I do have to disagree with your assessment of Hand Clap though. I took it as early as I could, and I ended up slotting it with three accuracy and one disorient duration. I know it does no damage, but with that much accuracy and the disorient ability, I could walk into any group and immediatly stun everybody, with the exception of the Boss. Things are much easier to deal with, and do much less damage when stunned too.

Basically, I took this power as a tool to make it easier to use all my other weapons. When I got Foot Stomp at 32, I began to use FS as my opening salvo (take some HP right off the top), then Hand Clap to stun them. Anyone not stunned, immediately gets my undivided attention. When that is done, I go to work on the LTs who are stunned. By that time, some are starting to wake up. But how ever many awake from the stun, it is less than it would have been had I not had that tool available.

I never saw it as a situationation power. I saw it as something that could make each mob a little more do-able, and also be my exit move if things turned against me.

Granted, the knockback is a bit of a pain (I would obviously prefer it to be knockdown), but all things considered, I have found it to be invaluable in my build.