Kioshi

Lol Lisa. Yeah I'm cranky because I was going to play a lot today - instead, tried to use all known third party (read user developed) Intel GPU boosters but as I said most are directed to DirectX games (I tried a modded driver on Perfect World International just for kicks once, and the game let me max it all out, much prettier than CoX except for the character models but only because I find the CoX toons very well done.. till i17 lol).

Anyway , Tex (redname) is aware of my troubles, I'm Q_Qing more than I 'should' since he knows about my issues, my gfx settings, my card, driver, etc, I showed it all to him.

But I'd love to play the game like it looked before... All this tweaking and rebooting after installing modded drivers and things like gmabooster, swiftshader, etc, and then turning it back to how it was before made me so cranky.

Well at least I helped some people with builds, one of the things I like to do in these forums. If I didn't have to pay to access here I'd help people anyway even during my 1 year break, I love messing with mids.

Oh and KillBot 5000 and Memphis Bill, thanks a lot for the answers, I really appreciate it.

Wow not only you post a lot of stupid stuff (like cloak of fear making people run) but you still manage to offend people who are just asking about something. I've yet to see a useful post by you excluding the one about video card issues where you basically just tell people to update, which is okay since a lot of people don't know how to do these things properly.

I'm not comparing my card to a PS3 or Xbox360. But friends who have those consoles found the game pretty on my card on i16. One guy who uses the same intel card AND owns a PS3 said the same thing, he liked how the game looked before i17.

And learn to read, if I were stating my game looked like a xbox360 game (basically, lying) I wouldn't have linked to screenies.

Oh.. Learn to read part 2 - I know i17 was released on April 28. I asked if I could get some compensation in case it lasts longer since my hope is fading.

Jesus, try to understand what I'm posting before offending. If you are not trying to help, gtfo, troll. I asked a question about refunds / free time (after a possible fix), I didn't come here to complain, I've tried everything to make my game look like before.

People like you should be banned from the forums. Good thing there's ignore.

I went to the Intel site, the driver version for her card and system, Vista/965 chipset (7.15.10.1666) is the most current.

Because sooo many people are having serious issues with i17 of all kinds (maybe 70% are 'solvable' via drivers update, defragmenting, etc), is there any precedent to NCSoft giving free time or refunds?

After i17 (yes including the patch today) my game has become crappy looking and it's always been pretty to me, I use an Intel card. Since I had a day off, which I'd normally spend playing and doing other stuff, I spent the entire day testing user modded Intel GMA 950 drivers, using 3rd party programs to try to increase performance, well, basically hacks. Nothing worked since the Intel GMA optimization tools made by users are mostly focused for directX games and not OpenGL. So I rolled back to the official Intel drivers (most recent) and my game looks like manure (totally playable, no crashes, but gfx took a HUGE hit). You can see it here if you want, the screenies are comparing test in April to i16, but nothing has changed with the supposed 'Intel fix' both on test and now on live.

I don't feel like playing when I can no longer differentiate between 'tights' and 'tights sleek' or 'leather' in my toons and the enemies. I've been in a terrible mood because of this, even being impolite to some people in the forums.

Is there a precedent to NCSoft compensating users who had their game become screwed up, be it by gfx or crashes or whatever, in case these bugs last for more than a month?

I already delayed preordering GR because of that, since the 'Intel fix' did nothing for me and I'm getting hopeless.

And I know many people with other cards (ATI, nvidia) are having all kinds of weird issues too, so it's not like I'm the only one complaining that my game is crappy after i17.

I know I've been Q_Qing too much about this, but that's the only game I play nowadays, I was anxious for GR, and I got PMs from Intel GPU users who also are pissed off by the graphics degradation. One even mentioned he loved to show the game to his Xbox360 and PS3 owning friends because they found it looked so good even on the Intel GMA 950 and that now he'd be embarrassed to show it to anyone.

I'd suggest a defensive powerset, Ninjitsu first because it's unique to Stalkers and having a def secondary with the second best self heal in the game (after healing flames, I'm excluding dark regen because I'm counting only the heals you don't depend on others) makes for a very survivable powerset.

I also like /EA a lot, but my EA Stalker is DM/EA so she has a self heal in siphon life. And I get to skip stamina

I wouldn't worry about going ninja blade, the lethal thing is that problematic.

Data chunk please, some people won't download builds, I find it annoying. And use the zetaboards formatting when exporting.

Des, I only have -4 points on my dm/da and only got knocked back occasionally when I used to run KHTFs. I kept the 4 points because lots of people told me there isn't a noticeable difference between 4 and 8, if I wanted to ivest in KB prot I'd better go for 12 or stay with 4.

Same thing on my Stalker, 4 points (/ninjitsu), never been kb'ed noticeably. On my SS/Fire Brute I'll go for 12 just because with 4 or 8 fake nems can kb you and I intend on farming them later.

Do you notice differences between 4 and 8?

My Intel GMA 950 still has the shader option greyed out.

And I'm using the latest drivers:

I like the suggestion, would me wanna try a /da stalker.

I don't like /da redside (although it's my fav armor) because of the detoggling needs for Stalkers and that the mez toggles hurt Brutes' fury.

Lol now it makes sense. Good stuff.

Bill that's a weird avatar lol.

OP, try to play a Brute till 22 (SO level and Stamina) to get their 'feel'. Because before stamina and SOs you'll run out of end pretty quick and won't see the benefits of fury so much.

Bill's thread shows numbers and all, but I find them quite different in playstyle. Ok not playstyle but how they 'feel'. They may suit you or not. I prefer one over another depending on the day, some days I don't like relying on Fury, some days I think it's the most awesome thing ever.