Juason1

Howdy folks. I have an Alienware M15X w/ 64bit Win7 pro Geforce 260M w/ 4GB RAM, and was forever stuck at the loading bar. After selecting Win 2000 compatability mode, and disabling desktop themes, admin mode, etc. I can now get to the big blue loading screen - but there it sits.

I've seen this problem brought up several dozens times and there is always mention of "this is a problem with alienware system and you need to disable something". They just don't explain how to do that or why NCSoft hasn't patched the damn thing to work with alienware laptops.

This is a 5 day old Win7 install w/ all updates, latest drivers (I like Nvidia's new install tool) and no spyware. I truly believe it is related to my system being an Alienware, but can post a Hijack this and other information if requested. I just don't feel it is useful at this time.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

That...would probably explain it. I had a custom group for each set (one for minions, one for Lts, one for bosses) to organize them and help with our testing. I'll retest and let you know. Thanks for the help :P

I spent about the last hour reading/searching the forums for an answer to my problem, but came up empty. My friends and I have been playing again since I16 came out, and enjoying the changes. However, we've noticed a distinct issue with AE mission experience. Please read the whole post before passing judgement :P

In our missions, using custom enemy groups, we get half the experience we should be, and a paltry number of tickets. I read here, and discovered that STANDARD weapon difficulty will give a 25% penalty, so we tested and made sure to put everything to HARD or EXTREME.

It is true, we get a 25% penalty on STANDARD. This is about 149 experience for a white custom minion at level 39. We get 198 experience for a white custom minion with HARD/EXTREME. But a green Carnie or green Freakshow minion gives us 328 experience! We are soloing, so it isn't like some group mechanics is getting us.

Similarly, our minions give 1-2 tickets. The carnie and freakshow minions give 3+.

Any idea why this is so bad? I sample some published missions and it looks like about 10% use custom enemies with normal experience and ticket payout, and the rest suffer from this reduction. Any help is appreciated.

I have noticed some severe issues myself.

For example. We were hunting some Devoured Earth things in a door mission. Our leader was a tank, and we had another blaster helping out.

Every fight began with the tank running in and attacking + using invincibility + taunting. Us two blasters would stand back, and wait a few for the tanker to grab the aggro. Sometimes the other blaster would get a shot or two off, but since I was having odd aggro problems I'd decided to back off a bit and wait longer.

It didn't work. Every damn fight started with 1-2 enemies running past the tanker, ignoring his aura, gauntlet and taunt and coming for me. They even ignored the other blaster shooting at them repeatedly. Now, normally that isn't a problem. I whack them with a taser and run to the OTHER side of the tanker. They get unstunned, run past and they should get picked up be 1). Gauntlet, 2). Aura, or 3) his continual taunting, 4) the other blaster shooting him, right? Wrong....

So the moral of the story is - I cannot realistically avoid aggro, ever, period, END OF STORY!!!! Not if I don't attack. Not if I bring a tanker. Not if I have another blaster attacking the damn thing. Not anything. I'm not sure why it takes an act of God to fix the broken tanker powers... I cannot wait for the fix in I9 coming in August of 2007 or so.

I am dissapointed.

As someone who is a part of several small SGs, I find this "release" for small SGs to be horribly unbalanced and weak. I urge the Developers to reconsider - for all our sakes.

Alright folks - SHADOWBANE

Kickass game, similar problems. Costs too much, takes too long.

30 days after opening there was some small villages much like we're already seeing small bases. However, they could be invaded at any time - UNLIKE CoV. At the very least you could invade and kill people. Destroying buildings required a "bane circle" much like the current Raid Scheduling.

All in all it was a blast. I remember not even 60 days from launch having a level 50 fighterlock and flying around with 300 guildmates laying waste to city after city. Deathhead Legion on my server War, totally dominated and destroyed over a dozen cities during my stay there.

Destoryed cities were a total loss. Entirely gone. You die and you lose items even.

Overall the game did well until people realized the cost and the stakes. Hundreds of people participated in raids because of the stakes. Literally hundreds. I had some screen shots I still can't entirely believe :P Staying awake until 6AM because Da'boss wanted every last wall demolished. Fun times.

But I was on the winning side. In the end I had to leave because of bugs, lack of content, and well,,,, everyone else left when they lost their city to the overpowering guild. I sure hope CoV learns and doesn't fall into the same cycle of problems. Until then, we farm and farm and farm and farm and farm and...