Demobot

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My biggest pet peeve is the new sonic graphics. I have no problems with cast able shields but sonic dispersion isn't the greatest change. The sine waves are fine but the static effect when it pulses makes it where I can't see anything. If you all can remove that it would be great.

[/ QUOTE ]

/signed

I was thoroughly enjoying the wonderful new content until our team had a Sonics toon join. After a few minutes, the static effect was enough to make my eyes hurt quite badly. The static is too dense and you literally can not see what you are fighting. Combine that with the dreadful sounds of sonics, and it a headache and a half waiting to happen. But I guess I can avoid teaming with any sonics because of it.

Beyond that, the invasion event is truly spectacular. Well done!

[/ QUOTE ]

From what I understand the new Sonic graphics aren't complete. I think BAB said there were more changes on the way.

His comments about the mystical sea shell that tells him what to do are gonna end up in tons of signatures, I can tell you that right now. Great to hear about the new costumes though.

I... I think my brain just exploded. I don't care if there aren't new powersets, I10 sounds more awesome than any previous issue.

On Champion as part of Tanker Tuesday, an all-Tanker STF was attempted, but couldn't get past Ghost Widow.

I think of the ones I've heard so far, the Warehouse is my favorite.

"Does radiation go 'woo woo woo'?"

Another excellent guide. Keep up the good work!

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't this Positron's job?

It being a State of the Game address and all... It would be helpful if we got it from someone actually involved with the development of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the w00t Radio interviews are any indication, they're pretty busy getting I9 ready to go live.

*Frank Sinatra voice*

The best is yet to come, and babe won't it be fine...
You may have seen the sun but you ain't seen it shine...

Holy freaking crap. This is your best guide yet. Keep up the awesome work.

Amazing stuff. I can't wait to see more of your guides. When you've covered all power types, you GOTSTA compile them into some sort of uber-guide.

Excellent mythbusting there.

Favorite quote:

[ QUOTE ]
It is YOUR responsibility to manage YOUR aggro if YOU mess with a Tanker’s aggro.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very well put.

Any Tanker that can hold aggro is good as long as he's got buffs to back him up. A team without buffs is where you'll want a Stone tank. In an optimal team with multiple buffers I can't see why you'd need one.

Chances are there'll be an NPC in Wentworth's who will explain how the system works. That way stupidity won't have an excuse. Maybe someday there'll be a system for easy transfer of influence, like money orders.

You're giving VidiotMaps.com a run for their money as far as Best Fansite is concerned. You'll be getting my vote when the Heroes Choice Awards come around again.

I hope it's an art/animation change. At least the villain spines are black and sinister, but hero spines are well deserved of the moniker "banana tumors".

@Demobot

Demobot - 50 Nrg/Nrg Blaster
Cpt. Liberty - 48 Inv/SS Tanker
Phoenix Phyre - 24 Fire/Fire Blaster
American Lotus - 12 Kat/Regen Scrapper
Cpt. Tyranny - 22 Inv/SS Brute
Voryss Soulreaper - 9 Necro/Dark Mastermind

All on Champion.

[ QUOTE ]
Aren't tyhose just Tech Sleek, though?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, they look like an entirely different 3D model. The arms look new, too. And the wings! I want the wings!

The smile was my pure glee at getting my picture taken with a shirt-wearing bear. Those guys avoid fans like the plague. However, shirt-wearing bears (or quite simply, shwear bears) have one weakness: chocolate. Seeing the shwear bear enter the chocolate shop, I hid in the bushes near the exit. 5 hours later, the shwear bear finally left (they do love chocolate) and in its choc-nebriated state it was easily ambushed. It was so impressed by my tenacity, patience and ability to hide behind things that it granted me a photo opportunity. It then flew into the sky and has not been seen since...

Funny, I just now noticed that his paw is precariously close to my crotch. I'm a huge fan of shirt-wearing bears, so I didn't really notice at the time.

Ordinarily I would be somewhat hesitant to post a picture of myself on the internet, but you guys don't seem like the types who would photoshop someone's face into a compromising situation. So, this is me.

This is actually a really good suggestion. I can see some pretty cool powers I could come up with. Dunno how easy this would be to implement, but since they HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW MAKE INVULNERABILITY SOUNDS FADE (for Tankers) this should easy.

Excellent work. So, yeah, Defiance is working according to its design. That's fine. But that doesn't make me loathe it any less.

[ QUOTE ]
Grandeville reminds me of one big Arachnos base, which is fitting I suppose however unless you have a way to fix the horrible lag in the Arachnos base and apply it to Grandville I suspect it will be a zone that people will only go to if they have to. I am not running a low-end system; SLI with dual 7800 GTXs, and still experience lag to the point I usually solo any Arachnos base missions... and sadly in some parts of Grandville at peak times have experienced massive lag. Lag has been a problem with with CoV since I started playing this game and seems to be something that just never gets fixed. At this point I am sure I am not the only one who would take less in the way of graphics to get better performance. I am also aware test has not been optimized but how much optimization is going to help? Hope it is a lot but doubt it if the current game is an example of "optimization." Only can guess at how difficult it is to play with a lower end system or a laptop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I'm getting really tired of saying this, but if you plan on using the word "lag" in a post, know what it means. I have a helpful guide in my signature to let people know.

LAG IS NOT LOW FRAMERATE! LAG IS PACKET LOSS DUE TO POOR INTERNET CONNECTION PERFORMANCE! ARGHHHGGGHGHGHG!

Phew, glad I got that out of my system.

[ QUOTE ]
Yes. It's coming. Safeguard missions. Being worked on right now (outside my office, in fact).

[/ QUOTE ]

WHOOO! Statesman, you rock! It'll be a shame to have to take you down in the endgame villain TF.

I decided to write this guide as a result of seeing way too many people refer to poor framerate as "lag".

First, let us define "lag".

From the Wikipedia:

Lag often refers to delays experienced in computing communications, however it may also apply to written or other forms of communication.

Within computing, Lag refers to the time taken for a packet of data from the sending application to the receiving application. This includes both transit time over the network, and computer processing time at both the source and destination computers.

Whilst in the strictest sense every packet experiences lag, the term lag is implied to refer to noticeable delays to the user caused as a result of extended or unexpected delay. As the time taken for a packet to travel from a server in Italy to a client in Spain is likely to differ from a trip from Italy to Australia, it is possible that two users may experience different lags from the same source.


WHAT LAG IS Rubberbanding, temporary Mapserver Disconnects, "jumpy" game world (i.e., enemies or character moving around, appearing in one spot, then another spot 20ft ahead, then 20ft behind), all as a result of a poor connection between the server (the computer hosting the data) and the client (your PC and the game running on it).

WHAT LAG IS NOT choppy gameplay, low framerate, poor performance in areas with lots of players (though lag may be experienced in this scenario if the number of players becomes detrimental to server stability) or enemies.

HOW TO FIX LAG First things first: check the netgraph. This can be enabled by binding "Show Netgraph" to a key through the Keybind window in the options interface. It will show you your connection rate. The main thing is packet loss, and red on the graph. Consistently high packet loss is a sure indicator of lag.

Ok, you've got lag, now what?

You can ask other players if they are experiencing lag, but 9 times outta 10, the issue is client related and is not effecting other players. However, there are occasions where the server is experiencing stability issues, so always check with other players.

If it's the server, log out and check the forums. If you plan on posting, (Technical Issues forum is the place for this kinda thing) make sure that there are no other posts with the same topic (i.e., Lag on Champion). If you find a similar thread, post on that.

If it's just you, there are some things you can try, such as repairing your connecting (right click on your connection icon in the task bar and click repair), resetting your broadband modem, or resetting your router (if you have one). Sometimes you might have to try some port forwarding or some such stuff, the support site has more in-depth info.

If bad comes to worse, and no matter what you try, you can't fix your lag, send a message to Tech Support. There are some really helpful people here that will work with you to isolate problems and find solutions (they were AWESOME when I had problems connecting to CoH at college, turns out the network was blocking it, but I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint the source if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dumb dog- I mean wonderful, resourceful techies).

And hey, maybe your connection just sucks. Some ISPs are better than others. At home, when I play, I play offa Earthlink DSL (in the Clarksville, TN area, kinda near Nashville). Never had any problems whatsoever.

BUT SIR, WHAT ABOUT POOR FRAMERATE? Turn down some settings. World detail has a BIG impact. Texture size and anti-aliasing can also cause problems. You can also talk to the support people if you have a top of the line rig that has poor performance. If all else fails, upgrade.


There, I think we have gone over the basics of what lag is and isn't. If there is any technical information or links that should be here, just lemme know.