CaffeineAddict

I'm in Australia.
I rang EB Games, to be advised that they do NOT stock the time cards anymore, ie, they have discontinued them.

I also rang QV software, who advised me to ring EB Games...
QV software also suggested some other suppliers (who I contacted & found out also do NOT stock the game time cards), and then suggested I try another supplier (that is a 9 hour return drive away from my town).

Note that every supplier I contacted in my own town happily advised me that they had World of Warcraft time cards

I've already posted this issue in another thread, so I will halt my rant right here.

Hi Lighthouse.

Sorry, but I don't like the new webpage. I liked the old one better.
Why?
Well, the "City of Heroes" header takes up a third of my screen. And, the sub header (eg - info - about the game), takes up ANOTHER third of my screen. And then I have to spend a lot of time scrolling down/up to view the info waaaay further below. I remember the last website, I could view the majority of each screen without having to scroll at all. For me, this new website is a pain.

My suggestions as follows:

- Keep the City of Heroes header nice and large on the home/greeting page.

- Reduce the size of the city of heroes header on ALL other pages (I don't need to be reminded where I am, really.)

- Reduce the size of all the subheaders, they are too freaking HUGE.

- The news archive - make each news item shorter in terms of height -- the page is incredibly long now in comparison to the old news archive view (maybe reduce line spacing a little, and, move the "read more" link to the end of the text rather than below it). (same goes for patch notes).

- Game updates - I preferred being able to select those in the drop-down box on the old site & read the info, that was MUCH easier to navigate through. The banners for each are really nice, but I would much prefer a drop down box, and the feature images appear on the side of the site (margins).

- Server status - horrible, so horrible, i liked the old one, was so nice and easy to view it on screen without having to scrollllllllllllllll. Yes, I HATE scrolling.

Positive feedback -- the graphics/images look very nice, and the site overall is very professional image wise, and other than the few areas that I criticised, the rest of the site I think is good.

I'm about to send a PM to Lighthouse to tell him of my dilemma.

Also -- I rang QV Software International, who could not find anyone but EB Games to stock the software (which is silly as EB Games have discontinued the time cards). QV also suggested I contact Harvey Norman, I did, and they also do NOT stock the game time cards. I also tried DickSmiths' Electronics, & another local computer shop and none of them stock these and will not order them in for me either.

Somene said Toys-R-us stock them, however, we don't have that store in my town, and I would have to make a 9 hour return trip, plus fuel and accommodation to buy 1 card (which is out of the question).

All I want is a shop in my town where I can buy this game time card. Why is it so incredibly difficult?

EVERY single store that I contacted asked if I wanted a World of Warcraft time card. How come WoW has their cards stocked EVERYWHERE that I try, yet I cannot find a single PlayNC card? Is NCSoft trying to put themselves out of business, or just not interested in the Australian market? This game is rated T for teen, I was advised at the start that I could buy time cards with cash at a store and didnt have to use a credit card. Now I am stuck with a game that in January I will not be able to play as I can't buy the time cards. And my partners' account has already expired and he can't play either. I'm not sure how things work in the US, but in Australia, the "teen" market don't have access to credit cards, they tend to get an "allowance" and have to buy things with their own cash. This is pretty much cutting off that chunk of the market and I am completely puzzled as to the logic.

Yes I know I am venting, but I am beyond frustration & am almost ready to give up.

I live in Australia.
I normally pay by game time cards.
My account is paid up until January 09.
My boyfriends account has expired, and I went to try to buy him a game time card, thinking I could find one. I was hoping he could join in the halloween event this week with me.

However, I cannot find game time cards for sale in my town anymore.
I rang EB Games (the place I always buy the game cards from), to be advised "we do not stock these anymore, they have been discontinued".

So then I looked up the PlayNC store to try to find another shop. I got excited when I saw Target on the list. I rang my local Target store, only to be advised "we do not stock them".

I checked for other shops, including Best Buy, Wall Mart, Rite Aid, Fry's, Wal Mart, Amazon and Future Shop -- however, NONE of those operate in Australia. Some do ship overseas, but (a) I want to pay with cash and NOT a credit card, and (b) even if I could pay by credit card, I would be waiting up to 12 weeks for the game card to arrive.

Also, the new paypal option that PlayNC is using does NOT include Australia. But thats irrelevant anyway, as I already said, I wish to pay by cash & walk away with the card in my hand.

This is really frustrating for me and I feel as though Australia isn't important enough to be a part of the COH community.

In the meantime... if stores can't stock the cards here, then I guess in January, my account will expire... (And no, I wont be giving my stuff away :P)

What is really sad, I can't play with my partner and it's making me feel really awful.

I'm hoping a red name actually notices my issue and might follow up with marketing as to helping the non-credit card Australians to be able to play the game.

While I am loving the addition of power set proliferation, I am disappointed and concerned about the balance between villains & heroes, especially for PVP.

Blasters - I rate this 10/10! Psy/Mental FTW! I will be rolling one for sure

Corruptors - Elec/Storm - 5/10.
I really was hoping corruptors would get the psy blast set like the blasters did.
Storm is OK (I have both a stormy controller & defender).
However I was really hoping corruptors would get either Poison, or Empathy for their secondary! >_<

Controllers - 9/10.
Plant control is a fun & excellent set, with a diverse range of mezzes.
Thermal - oh my - now heroes get thermal buffs? It's an awesome set full of buffs & debuffs & heals.
There are 2 things I hate about thermal - the eye-watering shields that make my eyes bleed from the graphic affect on screen when I am buffed with fire, and, a player spamming that headache inducing thermal heal (yes, I like playing with the sound ON).
I can see super-buffinator-teams hero side with one of each buffer in it (storm, emp, therm, sonic, bubble, kin, cold, rad).

Dominators - 5/10
Earth Control - heh. This is a nice set, with defense debuff (although it won't let you slot IO sets for that). However, I have noticed many players tend to dislike earth controllers, mostly due to the group immobilize (Stone cages?) which causes a huge amount of noise & the appearance of lag, and the scrappers & tanks get pissed off as they can't see anything through the mountain range in their face (makes it very hard to see foes). I really wish they would make this smaller or crystalline in appearance.
Also, I was really hoping for illusion dominators!
Electricity Manipulation - undecided until I see what this set includes (depending what comes across from the different electrical sets).

Defenders - 10/10
Cold Domination - wow. This set is awesome. I love my cold corrupter. And with this power as a PRIMARY for defenders - it will be WAY more powerful... the debuffs are awesome. And yet another shield to buff up the heroes.
Ice Blast - I foresee a lot of Cold/Ice and Storm/Ice defenders in the near future! It is such a fun set with TWO holds and TWO DoT rains love it.

Masterminds - 5/10
Storm Summoning - LOL.
OK for those MM's who KNOW how to use storm, maybe 8/10. Will rock in both PVP and PVE.
For those who don't know how to use storm, will be a team nightmare.
Also, regardless of ability, it gives me another reason to avoid mastermind teams. Why? Well first of all you are cramped in with a zillion pets (cave missions anyone?) put storm on top of this *ugh* use of gale, hurricane, and Lightning Storm will be an absolute nightmare for stalkers & brutes. My dominators & corruptors with AoEs, TAoEs & PBAoEs are going to be frustrated at all the KB stuffing up my little AoE plans (unless the stormy MM knows how to work together with AoE's).
Another problem with storm, is the end cost - the O2 boost is end hungry (almost as bad as poison), along with trying to run steamy mist, hurricane, and leadership... I foresee issues & forced choices for some, careful slotting will be required with set bonuses in mind. For PVP, I think storm MM's will do quite well.

Brutes - 6/10
Battle Axe & War Mace - this will be fun, especially for themed toons.
Super Reflexes - geez. SR is the reason I deleted my scrapper. It is really good, until, you face any sort of foe with accuracy debuffs or bonuses, where you tend to die real fast.

Stalkers - undecided.
Electric Melee & Electric Armor? I'll wait & see what they put & port in these sets.

Tanks - 10/10
Dark Armor - wow. I love my DA scrapper. And to see a tank with DA is going to be awesome. I love this set! Once the end issues are slotted for, this set rocks.
Dark Melee - another fun set for tanks, the acc debuffs will compliment a tank so nicely. I can just see tanks dancing to 'Can't touch this'.

Scrappers - undecided.
Fire/fire is the one thing I have not tried, however, I think it looks like a good set (especially the fire armor).
I was really hoping scrappers might get either the electric or ninjutsu secondary.

Out of all of this, I will be rolling a psy/psy blaster, a earth/fire dominator (heh), and a claws/fire scrapper. And I look forward to the new cold/ice defenders joining me on team.

Can't wait to find out when they next port more powers over down the track!

I used to report this RMT spam.
And now I am sick to death of it.

I have reported over 20 RMT spams so far, and each time it takes me a good 15 minutes, to /ignore, /gignore, /ignore_spammer & send harassment petition to support. The petition requires me to put detail in from the RMT message, so I have to /copychat chat, paste into notepad, copy out the RMT message, paste into my petition, etc. Not fun. I wanted to have fun & play -- NOT petition RMTs. Then I get an email back from support, usually followed by a survey...

I don't particularly enjoy having to use my "relaxation time" to petition these parasitic vermin. They piss me off, I get stressed out & angry at the game appearing to be full of jerks. (Until I settle back down).

Lately, it seems RMT methods are evolving. Things I'd like to point out from my experience include:
- Original RMT message was received by /tells, from level 1 players in breakout.
- Last 2 months, I have received an increase in RMT spam, via ingame emails. The /tells have reduced, but I'm getting twice as much in emails, mainly on the Virtue server, villain side, whilst my characters were OFFLINE. (I log in & tend to have up to 6 messages on my alts...)
- If I receive an ingame RMT spam email whilst online, the offender is also in breakout.
- I had not received any of this nonsense until the i9 Market & "lewt" was introduced. I don't mind the market, but it brought some vermin with it.
- I was invited to a team (PUG) and met some new players. One of them bragged how he'd just bought millions of influence, and commented to us how it worked without any issues and that he would do it again. I had no idea whether to petition him or not. I was mad as hell.
- Last 2 weeks I have had players walk right up to me (usually in WentWorths), and send me tells, asking me to pay them to get myself power levelled. Maybe the gold farmers are losing paying customers over Xmas or to the winter event.
The most recent example -- a stranger standing right next to me inside the Atlas Park Wentworths, sent me this tell: "If you give me 10million I will PL your alt to 50".... I replied with "no thanks". Then he sent me the EXACT same tell again, which I responded with "I don't need to PL my alt, I'm in no hurry to get to 50 & can get there myself. Go bother someone else." He then moved on to the next player at Wentworths. I'm pretty sure he had a keybind, and was the type of 'gold farmer' that runs the PL farms in Peregrine Island. Go visit PI on freedom server any time, and the global chat is full of messages about paying farms, 1million per run etc... which is where the RMTs are making all their gold to be bought online.

This RMT nonsense is unhealthy to the community environment & forcing players to become anti-social in order to avoid RMTs.
So far the only solution I can find is to go into /hide, and sadly I miss out on a lot of good teams, and rely on my friends being online.

I've seen some good solutions in this thread, agreeing on many of them, I agree with the following, which I'm sure of course will upset some, but I'm at the point that I just don't care any more, please just stop the spammers.

SERIOUS suggestions:
- Stop trial accounts from being able to send /tells and email.
- implement code so as soon as you receive spam, instead of having to know how to /copychat chat, paste notepad, edit, etc, too complicated especially for those new to computers. Put a new button in the petition screen for RMT, allow a function for it to snag the text/SPAM in your message box AND/OR email. Trust me, some of those spammer names are bloody hard to type correctly.

HUMOUR:
- Nerf the fire kins. Turn fire imps into 1 pet instead of 3. And put shackles around its feet. (Hahaha.) Yes I have a firekin. But I KNOW all the gold farmers use them, take a look at WHO is running the paying farms in Peregrine Island, and odds are they are also a RMT agent. However I know this won't solve it, they'd find the next best farm build. I just had to say it.
- Someone make some "Gagora VooDoo Dolls" and put them up for sale. Every time you get a SPAM, you can stab the doll & it screams with Thai Profanity.
- If playNC can catch a spammer in action online, they get caught on video (eg FRAPS) showing their level 1 character in breakout being beaten to a pulp by a GM logged in-game (eg Positron) and this gets played ingame at various projector screens (eg outside wentworths/theatres/train stations) so we get to laugh as they get their account blocked (for voluntary viewing if you so desire).

Please, make the spammers stop.
That's my 2 bobs worth.

Devs - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me - will the flash-back system allow me to go back into breakout, and FINALLY get the Jail Bird Badge on my main badge hunter? I missed out on it as I never knew about badges when I first started playing & its a thorn in my side not being able to get it.

*explodes with joy* *reads OP again* *faints* repeat x 10.

Devs, THANKYOU!!!! I love you! *offers her soul to Posi*

- Ouroboros System
This is what made me so happy. I'm not into PL nor farms, my focus is loving the content, earning the temp power rewards, doing ALL the mission arcs possible, seeing ALL the content where possible. To do this I've inflicted the debt cap on my alts just to make it possible. With this new system, no longer do I need to hug Deathsurgex5 to cap my debt on a daily basis. And now I can do those badge mishes on my higher alts!

Devs - a question - with contact missions, there is usually 1 arc (sometimes 2), and various non-arc content - will the Ouroborous system allow us to complete ALL of that content? (I'm worried you might miss out on the couple of missions AFTER the arc completion).

- Weapon Customisation:
Wheee! Being a costume addict, this adds more fun! Even tho I don't have many alts with weapons, this still is cool.

Devs - I'm hoping one day down the track, we can also customise non-weapon powers, such as ice control, force bubbles, fire blast, psionic assault. I know there is a lot of powers in that area, and a lot of work. But it would be so COOL. Someone mentioned champagne pink bubbles in this thread, and I'd love that so much! To be able at least to color my powers, that would be so AWESOME!

- New Power Sets
Pales in comparison to my excitement over the other features.
OK dual blades will look cool, but I've always disliked weapons for the time/delay in pulling them out every, every, every, every, every time after using a non-weapon power (yes I can time them better in the order I use them, but it still irritates the crud outta me). Will Power will be interesting, I'll hold my comments on the powers until I see them live.
However I must say ANY new power sets is a plus & adds more diversity into player/team groups, makes life more interesting.

Dev's I still want water control & faery-type assault powers! I already added them to an existing suggestion forum. I can't wait for more new power sets in the future! It's so exciting!

-New Inventions
* Very Rare? Wow. The tiny chance to make billions. This is so random & going to be so much fun when it does happen! I can't wait to see the range of what is included in these very-rares & their bonuses. This will have an interesting affect on the market - I will be watching it with interest.
* New invention sets for buff/debuffs etc? Yay! A very nice addition. Now my many defenders/trollers might find something useful to slot into their lackluster powers.

*hugs all the devs*

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ex, today is the 10th, not the 9th

- Protea

[/ QUOTE ]

AH shucks... I guess since I was changing a flat tire last night around midnight I must have missed that memo...

I'd like to know who stuck my tire!

Ex

[/ QUOTE ]

I saw one of the Lost lieutenants drooling at it & he must have been trying to make it a new shoulder pad for himself.

[ QUOTE ]
vaxin don't know if you know this but a lgtf can trigger the event..and seeing as you only neeed one event...it shouldn't be too hard

[/ QUOTE ]

Problem is, the Lady Grey TF will spawn the invasion on a random side - so if you are a villain & go to the trouble to do the taskforce JUST to make a zone invasion and it spawns on hero side... I see some very unhappy players. And if you are lucky enough for the ritki to invade your own side, you still have to zone 2 or 3 times to get to where they are headed, and for anyone with a slow load, by the time they get there, the UXB bombs will already be gone, and then if they are after the heavy suit elite bosses, they only tend to spawn if you have a huge mob of players together... so the odds for any badge hunter or accolade hunter is looking mighty difficult.

Luckily I already go the zone invasions done on both of my badge hunters. But I sympathize for those who still need to do it.

At least there will be some random days where the ritki are going to invade in the next month, but some forewarning would be nice, so those of us who still need this badly are able to plan it in with our Real Lives.

Look what I just found:

Go to ebay, and search for: City Of Heroes/Villains Account
Found 2 accounts for sale. One for $202.50, and the other for $535.

This is the URL for the page i got (I'd put a link in but I don't know how):
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll...illains+Account

Details showed there are several level 50s on each account.

I got 2 of these annoying messages & used /ignore & /gignore & reported the lowlife of a parasite via petition. It was very annoying to have this tell smack me in the face in the midst of fighting a Ritki zone invasion with heavies surrounding me & having to not lose my temper over such sickening behaviour in game.

Anything PlayNC can do to reduce such exploitation is a step forward in my opinion. Good riddance!

As for suggestions? Here are mine:

(1) I like the brilliant idea that Luerim12 gave, to better moderate exploitation on the auction house. Show the prices max, min & average for the last month!

(2) <EDITED> Deleted after reading the Red Name's post stating that such going's on in the auction house is allowed.

(3) Track any banned accounts back to their credit card number - and ban their credit card on trying to open any PlayNC account. This means they have to go to the trouble of getting a new credit card - that in itself will help to discourage the spammers.

(4) Increase the drop rate for the rare precious shiny things.
For example - Numina's convalescance, or any other recipe, or rare salvage that sells for over 1million. Increasing the drop rate means the sales price will lower. This is a good thing for all players, and is only bad for someone who expects to profit on the auction house.

(5) Alter TF completion offering of the rare recipe!
Modify it so you can pick from a certain area - heals, Targeted AoE damage, defense, etc. To give you a higher chance to get what you really need. The screen could be modified to click "rare recipe" which opens up another screen, and you click "Heals", and a random rare heal recipe is given to you.

(6) Alter TF completion to offer you rare salvage!
The screen pops up at the end of the TF. You can pick from SO, recipe, salvage. So you click Salvage, and you can then click "Arcane" or "Tech" to get whichever side of the rare pool you are after, which offers you a random rare from that type.
(When I say arcane, I'm referring to stuff such as Mu Vestment, Pangean Soil, etc, I'm not sure on their real classification).

(7) Level restrict Peregrine Island.
OK I will upset some people here. But this is how I feel. Please, change Peregrine Island to have a level restriction - make it level 40+ for example (just a suggestion). Yes, people will farm in other zones, but eventually those farms will level up & have to move on as it affects xp. <EDIT> (added) It just makes it that little bit more difficult for the RMT's who run farms in PI which is why I suggested it.

(8) <EDITED> some text deleted due to the overly hot topic of farming.

I don’t mind farming when the people grinding away are experienced players & helping their friends level up without any catch, and everyone is *learning* how to play their hero.
When people PAY to have their level 2 levelled up in PI and go from 2 to 50 in a week & have no clue how to play, that bothers me. And surprisingly there are accounts sold with alts PL'd up to 50, and I get stuck teaming with some idiot who has no idea who to play his level 50 fire/kin, and I check out his info to see he is a 2 year veteran yet has no idea how to send tells... and then realise he bought the account from some leech that PL'd it... and that upsets me. The game to me is about playing & *learning*, which unlocks your potential to be worthy of level 50, the pinnacle of your success, a super hero.

Zloth summed it up nicely for me:
"Paying $500 to have somebody PL your hero up to 50 is like paying somebody $50 to tell you the end of the latest Harry Potter book.

So long as farms have people willing to pay to join them, it encourages RMTs to exploit this for their own gain. This is why I think the zone restriction & fixing the “mapping” can help a bit to reduce this problem.

These are just my suggestions, please don’t crucify me. I was asked for my opinion, so this is my feedback & in no way a criticism on anyone.

Thanks for your time.

*** Opens with shameless adoration attempt to seek attention ***
JAY is SEXY, but STATESMAN is even SEXIER! RAWR!

Thankyou for giving me the opportunity to have a chance to say what I want! (After my major temper-tantrum in Eden the other day, over not getting fairy wings; this is a positive moment for me).

For the record - I voted for:
Vibration, Shield defense, Ball and Chain, Shield Fighting.

And here is my future wish-list - for future new powers!
(note this is not limited to scraps/tanks - it could be for any AT.)
- Elementalist (various powers including ice/cold/elec/fire/dark/etc).
- Water Powers (how I'd love to cast a tidal wave or water spout or whirlpool on a mob!)
- Energy Blade Arms (you dont have hands. You have sharp blades of energy poking out - like Starcraft Protoss Zealots).
- Pestilence (you are able to cast various plagues & infections on foes)
- Beast Mastery (you can summon critters to do your bidding - not perma pets, just short durations).
- Psychonaut! (you can confuse, taunt, reverse-taunt, placate, make foe run into walls/objects/off cliffs, even make a foe attack himself!) (would have to script something to allow xp flow).
- Sunshine! (solar flare, sunshine healing, ray-of-light buff, red dwarf explosion)
- Moonlight (um... moon beam, gravitational flux, full-moon-turn into a wolf! Awooo!).
- Pumicite! (I hate fighting them. Let us make one ourselves!)
- Faery (pixie dust foe bewilder/disorient, glitter-heal, pixie-wand-zap!, sparkling-aura-team-buff, pixie-wrath reduces defense, etc.)

Thats all I can think of.

And devs - you know - a lot of us girls will want FAERY POWERS!!!! Rawr!

Once again, JAY is sexy but STATESMAN is even SEXIER!
</e roar>

I was lucky to be invited in the 2nd round of i9 closed-Beta testing. It was fun, and can be addictive if you 'like' the auction houses.

I'm going to be very cranky in the first few weeks of release with all the extra lag/crashes, and broadcasts for help on inventions.... but that's inevitable with any new content.

States Taskforce is a nice addition, and lots of players on test were ecstatic about it - so thanks for adding that devs

Hooray for adding the greenline to Skyway and to Founders Falls!

Hooray for adding a shop to Kings Row! (next to the train!)

As for inventions.... the temp powers? They are a fun addition, I like them.

Costume parts? This I am very upset about. Any player who is focused on costumes (like me) could go from level 1 to 50 and NEVER see a costume recipe drop. Ever. So for my alts wanting the butterfly wings, expect /e grief a LOT. I anticipate lots of venting from the public. I don't mind having to earn it, but I hope the chance for it to drop the recipe is increased! (or give us some other way to work on earning it - not just luck of the draw!).

Invention enhancements? HOT topic. Some of my alts (eg brutes/tanks/scraps) will be loving their IOs with the extra buffs (+10% regen bonus? yes please!). Others such as my defenders will get sweet stuff all out of IOs, "if" they can use them at all.... eg - the aoe IOs are useless if you aoe does no damage! And controller/dominator IO sets are craptacular in comparison to SOs, so I can see some of my alts will not even bother wasting time on IOs until that changes.

Auction Houses - this will be a blessing AND a major pain in the rump.
Thumbs up for giving me a place to sell my loot, thats nice.
Buying stuff is incredibly time consuming however, especially as there is NO OFFICIAL GUIDE (hint hint devs!) for players. So far there is only some guides posted by players buried deep in the forums, and I would prefer to rely on a "official" guide. We need a "idiots guide to using the auction house", and also a "idiots guide to what the different IO sets do".
I would prefer to be able to read this info seperately, rather than ingame with all the screens, windows, team chat, global chat, tells, invites, crashes.... a guide would save me many headaches and allow me to use the auction house FASTER.

The biggest nuisance is going to be time spent on game play vs the auctionhouse vortex. I'm already dreading it.
Pre-i9, players would only stop to bio/grab drink/train/sell ens at regular shops.
Post i9, players will be sucked into the auction house after every mish or 2, trying to make room in their IO salvage/recipe trays, trying to craft, buying stuff,..... and this can take a long time, especially if you are new to inventions, which can be half of every team you play with.
I feel this will create a rift in players and team styles as to how it is managed (not everyone wants to wait half an hour while the new guy struggles at auction for 30 minutes). So we will spend less time in missions and time lost at auction.

My point? Devs - if you can make the auction house any more efficient, user friendly, please do so - and PLEASE add some user guides for it, and on the invention types for various builds (eg - detail each different IO set. Please.)

My last concern - "i9 Lagfest Zones". That is, any zone with the auction house (eg Talos & Steel Canyon) is going to be a pain to be in. Players will try to farm in those zones, as they will be close for fast selling then back to farming with least time lost and no zoning needed. So there will be an increase of players in those zones (and more lag). Steel Canyon in particular as it also has the university crafting tables. I'm not sure how to fix this - other than add the auction houses to all the city zones, or kill that lag dragon once and for all.

I do look forward to the i9 content - I just hope all the bugs from test were sorted out & that it runs smoothly (fingers crossed).

Hello. First I’ll give you my system specs, some lag tests, then the problems I’m encountering.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SYSTEM SPECS:
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64, 3200+.
Ram: 1GB (2x 512mb chips, PC-3200, DDR400)
Graphics Card: RADEON 9800XT GeXcube 256mb
Motherboard: GIGABYTE K8VNXP VIA K8T800 Chipset Gigabit LAN ATA RAID Audio
Hard Disk Drive: Western Digital 120 gig 7200rpm SATA JD (x2 drives) (only 25% used)
Monitor: BenQ FP937s, 19" LCD (running at 75hz refresh rate & 1024x768 resolution with 32bit quality)

ATI control: Anti-Aliasing & Anisotropic filtering is set to "let the application decide".
OS: Windows XP Professional
Firewall: Windows firewall, currently turned off.
Internet: ADSL, average speed = 100ms.
--------------------------------------------------------------

LAGGY COMPARISONS: (framerate & netgraph)
COV – on level 44 plant dominator, brand new fresh start of game. Sparkle aura on.

Outside in Cap Au Diable Map, looking with face planted against ship wall: 73.00 (14m/Fm).
Turning on toggles stealth, combat jumping & acrobatics makes no difference. Turning on toggle Sharkskin drops it to 37.50 (27m/Fm). Turning off sharkskin toggle reverts it to 73. Fly trap pet does not affect the results.

Outside in Cap Au Diable Map, looking at ocean/water: 37.50 (27m/Fm)
All toggles (stealth, combat jumping, acrobatics, AND sharkskin) all make no difference, it stays at 37.50 (27m/Fm). No difference when I pull my fly trap pet out.

Outside in Cap Au Diable Map, using superjump to get to the hospital, with toggles stealth, acrobatics, sharkskin & superjump on, plus fly trap pet out.
Results ranged from 2 (50m/Fm) to 15 (94m/Fm)
Netgraph had medium to large spikes, all green. When it dropped down to 2, it was painfully slow & hard to travel accurately.

Outside in Cap Au Diable Map, standing next to hospital, looking at npcs & gold brickers: 27.30 (34m/Fm)
This is with toggles stealth, combat jumping & acrobatics turned on, & pet flytrap out. Turning on sharkskin drops it to 24.9 (40m/Fm)

Outside in Grandville, standing at the ferry, facing towards centre of map: 34.50 (29m/Fm)
Turning on toggles stealth, combat jumping & acrobatics lowers it to 33.80 (30m/Fm)
Turning on toggle sharkskin drops it to 25.00 (40m/Fm)
Pulling out fly trap drops it to 24.8 (40m/Fm)

Outside in Grandville, using superjump to travel to Arbiter Apolis, with toggles stealth, acrobatics, sharkskin & superjump on, plus fly trap pet out.
Results ranged from 1.9 (**?m/Fm) to 15 (69m/Fm) **note – I could have sworn it was a number like 500. (It was lagging so bad it was hard for me to see the exact number). Netgraph has some large spikes.
Extra note – moving around the zone some more & doing ‘laps’ seems to reduce the lag a little bit.

Outside in Grandville, standing next to Arbiter Apolis, with toggles stealth, acrobatics, sharkskin & superjump on, plus fly trap pet out, and with 2 other players nearby.
21.20 (46m/Fm).

Inside a door mission (linked to Grandville) inside a standard warehouse map: 37.50 (27m/Fm)
This is with toggles stealth, acrobatics, sharkskin & combat jumping on, plus fly trap pet out.
Attacking 1 “Steel strongman” in this mission: 35.0-38.8 (27m/Fm).
This was with only myself solo on the mission.

I couldn’t test this in team as none of my friends are on right now, and I don’t want to subject strangers to me stuffing about with test results. I do know that on teams it is much slower, especially with masterminds.

I do know when there is really bad lag, sometimes the netgraph spikes are not just green, but they come up red. Usually when this happens, the whole team is suffering lag & all complaining about it.
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PROBLEMS:

* Crash to desktop happening more often. ie - "City of Heroes has encountered a problem, and needs to close" This was a rare occurrence for me prior to i7. Post i7, it happens at least twice a week.
* Rubberbanding more often – occurring in every zone I go into on hero side.
* Rubberbanding always occurring on entering a zone via train or hazard zone entrance (you can run forward 20 feet & then the next thing you know, you are back at the entrance again!). This is very annoying.
* Lag. Outdoor zones lag badly. Indoor missions are a bit laggy but playable. Team missions on an outdoor map lag like hell.
* Lag is bad when teaming with 1 or more Masterminds. This was never a problem for me prior to i7. Post i7, I have avoided teaming with masterminds as it makes playing the game unbearable.
* Lag in Grandville is terrible, especially between the ferry and the arbiter. It is even worse when lots of players are in the zone. It was like this after i7. i8 has made no change, it is still laggy.
* Lag in Arachnos bases is terrible.
* Lag in Atlas Park near Miss Liberty, especially when costume contests are on. I avoid this zone often due to lag.
* Lag in teams when playing together for an hour or longer, especially if a TF/SF. Restarting game tends to fix this. This only became a problem for me after i7.
* Lag when fighting a giant monster (2 or more teams), this became much worse after i7.
* Lag from corrupters with "Thermal Radiation" power pool. The heal 'warmth' and one of their fiery shields that they put on you makes the player lag badly. I have heard team members ask to please not be buffed thanks to the lag. I had problems with this after i7.
* Lag at the steel canyon train (green line) is terribly bad, is this due to the large amount of npc’s roaming past the train?

Note, I have noticed a lot of the above lag related issues after i7 went live, and others already existed.

However, I have noticed some further lag issues post i8. This in particular includes random “lag spikes”, where the netgraph has a huge spike that will be either green or sometimes red, and when this happens, 99% of the time everyone on my team suffers from the same lag issue. These lag spikes happen frequently yet sporadically, at least 1-5 of them per hour of game play (both on hero & villain sides of game).

Thanks for your time. I hope you can fix the lag issues.

Hi. Bugs I’ve experienced post-i8 as follows.

MM Pet Glitch - pets not following very far in a cave mission & bizarro npc’s.
The pets made it past the 1st tunnel & got stuck at the next junction. They wouldn’t follow any further, they just ran back & forth down the previous hallway. I tried resummoning them further in the map, but as soon as they took one step, they vanished instantly & ended up back at the hallway that they last got stuck in. Exiting & re-entering the mission made no difference, neither did restarting the game.
I completed the mission due to another bug, as soon as I attacked any of the council critters, they took a step, and they also vanished way back to the point where my pets were. I noticed this when I saw my pets health dropping and dieing. So I would attack a council critter, watch it move then vanish, then I would run back to my dieing pets, heal them, and defeat the council. I did this until I finally got to kidnap Archon Winter, he took a step, then he vanished way back at the beginning of the map. So did all the ambushes that turned up. Multiple deaths of my pets, followed by lots of resummoning/healing etc, I finally defeated all the council, and managed to lead the kidnap victim to the exit. I guess I am lucky that they were all able to move along the first tunnel, there was no problem for any of the critters along that tunnel. It was only further into the map that everything (other than me) would vanish (like a mysterious teleport) back to near the mission entrance. This took me nearly 2 hours. Yes I petitioned support.

Unusual death animation on Wailers & Hordelings.
Instead of falling down dead & staying dead, they stand up, flop forwards & fall down again, over & over & over until they vanish. This was amusing the first 5 times, but once we got a wailer mission with large mobs, it was very hard to target properly - eg - with AOE's you would look for a big mob & hit it, only to find out that there was only 1 live critter in it & that you wasted the power. Yes I petitioned support.

Glowie missing but can hear it (sounded like it was behind a wall/staircase & we could not get to it). I’m not sure if it was just invisible, or whether it actually was in the wall. We tried clicking everywhere to no avail.

Enemy critters stuck in the roof (already in the ceiling when you turn up). Old bug, still present. Eg, hollows mission, defeat all outcasts in base (contact Wincott).

Please fix knockback, it is still broken.
When someone uses knockback during a cave mission, enemy ends up in the wall. OR when attacking enemy critter with knockback next to a door, you push it through the door!

Power button activation - showing the power is ready, but can't click on it, as it still is not recharged.

Snowstorm duration bugged?
Snow storm was cast on a council minion. We were outmatched on the mission & died many times. Eventually the defender with snowstorm left team/quit. We continued on trying to complete the mission. We found the minion still with snowstorm in affect on him, even though nobody left on our team had that power. All the players left on the team could see the snowstorm animation.

Power animations missing. This is annoying, as I can't tell if I cast the power or not.

Inspirations & mastermind pets
Dragging an inspiration & dropping it on my MM pets - if I do it with the pet too far away, the inspiration goes missing. At first I thought Id somehow deleted it, as it's original place in the inspiration tray was left empty. But then when I dragged another inspiration across into the vacant ones place, the tray was full again, showing the original one that I had tried placing on my pet. It seems that this only happens when the pet is too far away to receive the inspiration buff so it fails & stays in my tray, but the bug is that the inspiration becomes invisible until you move another one to the same place (like swapping places).

When in base editor, going in & out of that mode sometimes puts you inside the base portal. (Yes I know /stuck fixes that, but it is still annoying).

Players getting kicked out of the SG base.
This doesn't just happen to me. When I am booted, I turn around to go back in, only to see 2 or 3 other dazed players who were also booted out of their own sgs. (Usually a conversation follows of "you were booted out of yours too? Geez I wish they would fix that bug"). Having to wait to zone back in/out of the base is very annoying.

Crash to desktop happening more often. ie - "City of Heroes has encountered a problem, and needs to close"

I am rubberbanding & lagging more often, but I’ll post the details of that in the “performance issues” thread instead.

But I will say this, ever since i7 my lag got worse. Prior to i7 I had very little problems. Note that the lag is much worse in the following situations:
* large teams (especially teams of 8)
* fighting giant monsters (where 2 or more teams are present)
* towards the end of a task force (rebooting can fix this)
* if on a team with 1 or more masterminds
* if in Atlas Park, especially when a costume contest is on
* if a flame corrupter (with healing flames) is on the team, or buffs you with fire shields
* Going into Grandville has been painful for me since it went live in i7. Between the ferry & the arbiter it lags like hell. I avoid playing my level 44 dominator because of this (I’ve been playing my low levels instead).

JAY is SeXXy Rawr!
Hello. Bugs I hope you can fix as follows:

- Female, Glam Hair, and capes - clipping badly. I have a toon with the glam hair style, I love it. Add a cape, and most of her hair pokes through the cape, so her hair looks cropped & it just looks terrible. This also happens with other long hair such as layers (not as badly, but still pokes on through). I agonised & my glam haired toon kept her hairstyle but had to miss out on her cape (until it is fixed).

- Capes. I've noticed just recently (in rear/back view) that the capes don't seem to sit across the shoulders properly, that is, they don't flow like they used to. I can see a clear visible line across the shoulders, so the cape looks like it's been tacked together in two pieces, and sometimes there is a gap between them.

- Female, bottoms, skin, with metal (the metallic strips). The boots option is missing for this? (There are no metal skin boots). It looks silly to give her bare feet. I also tried organic in the same colour as the metal, but it makes her look like she has a very nasty case of varicose veins. I notice that most other bottom types (in the skin set) have matching boot textures - I thought maybe I could not find the metal boots or it has gone missing?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

(2) What exactly is the "Exclusive Hero and Villain Costumes"? Does it include the special costume parts, such as fortunata & spider helmets that I've seen on some players? Or toga? Arachnos / hero special capes? Witches hat? Xmas stocking cap? Or other NEW items we haven't seen yet?
Tell me more! I want exact details please
(I'd happily fork out money to get the fortunata / spider helms. And geez I'd love it if you made the longbow warden helmet available!)

[/ QUOTE ]

The items you've listed were either part of the CoV preorders, event pieces, or collector's edition stuff. You would have had to be around for the event, bought a CoV preorder, or bought a collector's edition to get them. These are the new GvE costume pieces.

Caveat: The CoH collector's edition extras are available through the NCSoft store.

Also, you can buy the GvE extras seperately starting the 29th.

[/ QUOTE ]

Too bad if you can't buy the COH collectors edition or preorder pack (the one with spider/fortunata helms), especially for those of us willing to pay good money for it (I can't find these items for sale here, I only find them listed for sale in the US). I only became aware of the MMO fun & COV/COH 12 months ago, if I'd known all this earlier, I would have been rushing to buy the preorder pack, that is if I could buy it here.... as PlayNC dont ship to Australia Someone said something about an '800' number for another shop, but I can't find anything more than that.

I know the costume parts I spoke of were in special events etc, but for those of us who werent around for all of those, I know I'd like the opportunity to gain these items too. Which is why I'd happily pay for them, or, would love it if the events & related costume parts were made available again.

OK so I've read the entire forum... & still need info, as to what is in the Good vs Evil edition etc.

(1) What is this "prestige power"? Does it affect SG prestige? Or is it just a travel power? Or both?

(2) What exactly is the "Exclusive Hero and Villain Costumes"? Does it include the special costume parts, such as fortunata & spider helmets that I've seen on some players? Or toga? Arachnos / hero special capes? Witches hat? Xmas stocking cap? Or other NEW items we haven't seen yet?
Tell me more! I want exact details please
(I'd happily fork out money to get the fortunata / spider helms. And geez I'd love it if you made the longbow warden helmet available!)

(3) Can the costumes be bought as a seperate pack? (rather than buying the Good vs Evil). I tried finding the COV costume pack to no avail, I don't think it's for sale anymore. I mainly just want the extra costume parts, and would happily pay for the code for these. What I'm after is one pack with ALL the COV & COH costume parts.

(4) Will this (good vs evil edition, and/or costume packs) be made available for sale in Australia? (Note - I could NOT buy the COH dvd edition anywhere in Oz. I tried to buy if from the PlayNC store, but they DON'T ship to Australia!!!

That's all. Thanks for your help