CuppaManga

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so are you assuring us that, after the initial launch, both versions of the game will be treated exactly the same regarding variety of stuff, date of release and cost of package in any future "Pay to wear/play" type promotions and expansion packs. In other words there will be no "Arms Race" or favouring of one game version over the other even for short time periods.
Simultaneous and equitable marketing strategies for whatever platforms is going to be the rule, yes or no?
Cheers

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When I write the next Guide to running CoH on a Mac, this will be one of the frequently asked questions. And I'll do my best to answer it from what I've read so far:

The Mac and PC clients for CoH/CoV will operate in an identical manner except for some slight user interface differences (my guess would be with the Updater, for instance, since all the other game controls are custom-drawn anyhow). The game servers expect to be "talked to" in a certain manner and don't really care what talks to it as long as it speaks the right language. The Mac client may identify itself differently for diagnostic purposes, but the gameplay will be the same.

Special items that come with the Mac Good vs Evil edition are differentiated not by the software, but by the activation key you use.

P.S. The real questions for Lighthouse would be: Whether the PC and Mac versions of the game would have simultaneous update/patch/issue releases, or if there would be a delay of a day or two; and whether Mac users will be issue patches for the CohTest client to use the Training Room for CoH betas.

[ QUOTE ]
Probably going to be a lot simpler.

But one thing that will have to come up a lot in Technical Issues and Bugs is, Are you running Mac or PC?

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Ironically the new guide is probably going to be the biggest yet, because it will have to cover things that for a Mac that, under Boot Camp, were covered by NC's support site, but work differently for Mac.

For instance, things like using the Mac single-button mouse with CoH, or recommended 3rd party mice, or how to switch applications (if you're listening to itunes in the background for instance), or optimizing gameplay speed.

[ QUOTE ]


1. Point your web browser to http://eu.cityofheroes.com/macbeta/us/
2. Enter your information

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Done. And when CoH for Mac goes out of closed beta, you can all expect an All-New All-New Guide to Running CoH on a Mac.

One quick addition:

I now use Windows XP in Boot Camp because I discovered that it runs at a lower temperature than Vista. Newer video drivers for XP were released because of Vista's unpopularity, and they are now mature enough to handle gaming.

That error is normal, you can dismiss it and the game will run anyway. It just means the emulated graphics system doesn't support some instruction CoH uses, it can work around it usually.

Make sure you're using Crossover GAMING, and not Crossover or Crossover Pro.

You don't need the PRO version, there's a seperate one called Crossover Gaming 7.1. There is a 30-day demo you can download.

The bugs I've seen are as follows: The full-screen mode isn't full screen (you can see the menu bar and the X-Window frame), FSAA doesn't work (it breaks alpha channel) and the game can freeze when you're quitting or in high-lag zones like Grandville.

Update: Codeweavers Crossover Gaming for Mac 7.1.0 will run City of Heroes with just a handful of annoying yet workable bugs. And it runs it faster than Parallels!

I was doing an Imperious TF in Cimerora on a mixed team when the one villain on the team accidentally hit the Pocket D Teleport power end ended up there. As you know, if that teammate would have left Pocket D to return to Cimerora, that would have caused that player to drop from the TF.

We fixed that issue by all logging off except for the one villain, long enough for that villain to make it back to Cimerora, and then waiting for everyone to log back in. The rest of the TF continued without incident.

Breaking news:

If you're using a Macbook or Mac Mini with the Intel GMA video chipset you're better off using Windows XP with this Intel GMA driver.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_r...mp;submit=Go%21

This just in: If you're using one of the new Macbooks (not Macbook Pro) with the Intel X3100 video, the driver for Windows XP doesn't support CoH. You'll have to install Vista instead.

Also, if you need to upgrade RAM in any Apple model, there's a very good guide at ifixit.com , telling you how step by step.

Solar, it sounds like the Windows install went wrong (it sometimes does that and then reboots pretending everything is fine). Try to install it again either by starting Boot Camp with the Windows Install CD in the drive, or by running Boot Camp Assistant and telling it to start the installer.

For those of you who would like to run CoH/CoV on Apple's new Intel Macs:

All-New Guide to running CoH/CoV on a Mac

A quick side note: I'm now using the Nvidia 169.21 drivers from laptopvideo2go.com on my Macbook Pro with nVidia video. It works about as well as the Apple drivers, but there also aren't any issues.

Be careful when installing laptopvideo2go.com drivers, and make sure you're not on the bleeding edge, to make sure you get a decent working set.

Also keep in mind that if Apple releases new Boot Camp drivers you may have to uninstall the laptopvideo2go.com driver first to make sure it doesn't screw up the install.

There should be no keyboard issues, other than that the Command key on the Apple keyboard becomes the Windows key, and of course that laptop keyboard lack the numpad, home, scroll lock, etc. There are freeware keymappers for Windows if you really need one of those.

The Windows hard drive format is irrelevant, except that Vista only supports NTFS and hard drives larger than 32 GB require it too. The Mac side can only *read* NTFS unless you install something like Paragon NTFS for Mac (the name is just a coincidence).

I upgraded to the latest video driver available from Apple (someone else in this thread has a link to it) but that's it, because I haven't had issues. If you really want the latest-and-greatest there's a site called laptopvideo2go.com (I think) that has custom-made nVidia laptop drivers, a lot like omegadrivers used to for ATI.

Adding a side-note:

Apple recommends not using Upgrade versions of Vista or XP to install in Boot Camp. The Upgrade version asks you to insert the CD for the old version you're upgrading from, only there's no way to manually eject the Upgrade CD from the drive. Stick with full versions of Vista or XP to avoid that problem.

Random crashing: Sounds like a bad driver. The new Leopard generation drivers are more stable than the beta ones ever were. Install the new ones from the Leopard DVD.

Vista is more compatible with Mac because a lot of the new-generation hardware Apple uses has outdated or non-existant Windows XP drivers. Companies like nVidia have stopped updating their XP drivers in favor of migrating their new products to Vista. CoH, however, hasn't been updated for Vista and requires a few tweaks to work properly (this may change come Issue 11).

I recommend at least 20 gigs for the Windows XP or Vista partition...*IF* you're not using the Training Room. Worst case scenario, if you use the Training Room and Vista, you should have at least 32 gigs in the partition. That's plenty of room for CoH/CoV, the Training Room client, Vista, and some sort of antivirus.

The question of whether City of Heroes and City of Villans can be run on an Apple Macintosh (Mac) has come up many times in the Technical forum. I've answered questions about it quite a few times, so I thought I should finally get around to writing a basic guide.

This new guide applies the changes introduced with MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard).

The first step is to make sure your Mac will be able to run CoH/CoV:

If you're thinking of purchasing a Mac, any newer Intel-based model can run CoH. But keep in mind that certain models will run CoH *better* than others. The Mac Mini and lower-end Macbooks, for instance, have integrated Intel GMA graphic processors that aren't really designed for gaming. If you're getting an iMac, a Mac Pro, or a Macbook Pro you're in business - they have either ATI or Nvidia dedicated video depending on the model (some of the Mac Pros are custom built with higher-end video).

If you already have a Mac, most of the time the name is a dead giveaway. If yours is a Macbook, Macbook Pro, or Mac Pro, you most certainly have an Intel processor (the PowerPC equivalents are called Powerbook and PowerMac). An iMac or Mac Mini takes a little more checking. Select the Apple Menu and About This Mac and it should tell you which processor you have.

Once you've verified your Mac can run CoH, the second step is to select the Apple Menu and About This Mac and make sure you're running at least version 10.5 (the first version to include Boot Camp). If not, it's time to upgrade.

Apple's Boot Camp software used to be downloadable as a beta, but now it's only included in MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard). If you wish to run CoH/CoV on your Intel Mac, you need to upgrade the operating system. If you've previously installed the Boot Camp Beta in Pre-10.5, it won't stop working - but you won't get driver updates from Apple, and the Boot Camp Assistant will expire.

A small warning as you run Boot Camp for the for the first time: If your hard drive is pretty full, Boot Camp won't be able to partition it for Windows XP and will fail with an error. Your data will be safe but you will have to back up everything, erase the hard drive, reinstall MacOS X, then run Boot Camp and partition, and then restore everything.

When you first run Boot Camp, it will ask you to repartition the drive, allocating part of its capacity for Windows. You'll need 15 to 20 gigs for Windows XP, or 20 to 32 for Windows Vista.

The next step is to reboot with the Windows XP or Windows Vista install CD and install. I used to recommend only Windows XP, but you can use either with the new Boot Camp. Keep in mind, though, that many hardware providers have stopped providing up-to-date drivers for Windows XP, and Microsoft's support of XP will be ending soon in favor of Vista.

Once the Windows install is done, insert the MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard) DVD and wait for the Boot Camp drivers to install - they're on a special partition on the DVD. You will have to restart after it's done. When Windows is restarted, eject the Leopard DVD and run Apple Software Update in Windows to make sure you have the latest drivers and software. You may have to restart after that too.

Next make sure to run Windows Update and get all the latest patches and fixes. There's no sense in finishing up your CoH/CoV install only to get slammed by spyware or viruses and have to start over again. Another restart is likely after that.

If you plan to go wireless make sure you select your wireless base station and enter the correct password, and verify it's working by opening a web site in your web browser. This is important because CoH and CoV will want to try and update when it's installed.

Install City of Heroes or City of Villains next. Install first from the CD or DVD, and if you have access to another computer with an up to date install, copy that on top of the CD/DVD install. That makes for a faster install, so you don't have to download a massive update from the CoH/CoV update servers.

Once CoH/CoV is installed and updated, take the time to download software that will protect your computer from viruses and spyware. If you're running Windows XP, download Spybot (Windows Vista has its own anti-spyware tool). Good antivirus software is helpful too.

If you're running Windows Vista you'll have to right-click the City of Heroes icon and select Properties. Find the name the shortcut links to, CohUpdater.exe, and add a space and -compatiblecursors 1 AFTER the quote mark. You might have to do this again after CoH or CoV updates, as it replaces the shortcut sometimes.

At this point you're ready to run City of Heroes or City of Villains. It takes a little effort to adjust the display settings just right. The first time you run CoH or CoV, the display settings will be at a very low resolution. Go to Options in the game, and then click Display and Sound. Right at the top you can set the display resolution. The best and cleanest resolution to choose is the one that says "(desktop)" next to it. You'll have to quit and restart CoH/CoV to see the changes take effect.

Now you're ready to play! If you want to tweak your display settings for better gaming, check out the advanced section below.

Advanced section:
<ul type="square">[*]If you have a Macbook Pro, iMac, or Mac Pro that comes with ATI video (check that in the Windows Device Manager: Right click My Computer, select Hardware, and Device Manager) follow BillZBubba's ATI Settings Guide, and it will help improve your gaming experience. To follow them you might need a special driver from Omegadrivers.net or Laptopvideo2go.com that isn't stripped of the ATI control panel like Apple's driver is (NOTE: Omegadrivers.net doesn't seem to be updating anymore).
[*]If you have ATI video and are running Windows XP, turn off the Water Effects, Bloom, FSAA, and Asiotropic Filtering in CoH. Turn Antialiasing and Asiotropic filtering on in the Catalyst control panel. To do that you might need a special driver from Omegadrivers.net (NOTE: Omegadrivers.net hasn't been updating) or Laptopvideo2go.com that isn't stripped of the ATI control panel like Apple's driver is.
[*]If you have ATI video and are running Windows Vista, the newer Vista driver somewhat fixes the FSAA problem in CoH/CoV. You still can't use Bloom, Water Effects, etc, but you CAN use FSAA and Asiotropic Filtering with only a small speed penalty.
[*]If you have Intel GMA integrated video you may have to turn your CoH/CoV display settings to Recommended to get decent performance. To to avoid using Minimum as it takes all of the graphics work off the video processor and onto the main CPU, slowing things down a bit.
[*]Nvidia video? No adjustment necessary. It's performance video and can easily handle CoH/CoV. If you get an error that says your video drivers are too old, it's not a driver problem, and that bug will be fixed in Issue 11.
[*]While Windows XP is more compatible with CoH/CoV, Windows Vista seems to be more stable on Intel Macs. It may also be difficult to locate a retail copy of Windows XP these days. Don't be afraid of installing Vista on an Intel Mac - in some cases, the Mac is *more* compatible with it than the average Windows PC.
[*]The Macbook Pro, Macbook, iMac, and Mac Pro are multi-processor. To take maximum advantage of it, you may want to right click the CoH/CoV shortcut, select Properties, and at the end of the command (beginning with CohUpdater.exe) add a space and -renderthread 1.
[*]While using a Macbook Pro or Macbook be careful to make sure it's well ventilated while playing. Do not play on a bed or carpet.[/list]

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There are a LOT of names being "camped" by inactive accounts on characters under level 5.

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I agree with expiring lower-level non-played character's names, simply because allowing level 1 character names to be permanent at some point will cause something like what happened with the domain name system - dozens of character name squatters who demand a ridiculous fee to give up the name.

Guide on how to install and run CoX on an Intel-based Apple Macintosh:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....&amp;PHPSESSID=

Most likely that was a result of "Bodyguard Mode" malfunctioning somehow, forcing you to share the damage to the bots.

If you look at the Statesman post above, Jack/States just promoted himself to "Creative Director". That means he can now tell his Lead Developer, "wouldn't it be cool if it could do this?" ...and the hard part is the development team's problem now.