Klatteja

As much a fan as I am of the whole Wild Cards series/universe, I can't see this being pulled off with any sense of coherence. In comparison, Watchmen was fairly faithful to its comic roots, yet it failed to do well commercially, and it had a single story to wend its way through. The first Wild Cards book (of, what, 21, 22 now?) spanned nearly 40 years (1946 to the early '80s), hitting very selective points along the way.

The only way I can see this working at all, as far as an engaging story, is to focus entirely on the arrival of the virus, and the subsequent events immediately following. If that's done well and received well, then more stories/movies may follow. It occurs to me, too, that the "origin story" will likely be brought to near-present day, compacting the original timeline for the sake of including/introducing "main" characters in the same movie. Like I said, coherence.

That all said, I'm rooting for this to succeed. I just have my doubts this will ever emerge from Development Hell.

This is a well-written guide, TopDoc, easy to understand and very detailed, heading off the large majority of questions before they are even asked. If one can't succeed following this advice, well, perhaps other hobbies are best pursued.

As for me, I think it's proven to me once and for all that I don't have the patience or the persistence or whatever else it may be that makes a farmer a successful farmer. I am not new to farming, but I've never been a very good one. I tried following this advice to the letter, and died several times with no progress. I tried taking down the difficulty level, the multiplication of foes, and slogged ahead a bit without ever finding a functional rhythm. After maybe 6 or 7 accumulated hours of playing, I've gotten to level 9, and my bank account is lower (for that character) than when I started.

All of this is my own ineptitude, and is not the fault of your described process. I also fall down when trying to play any kind of First Person Shooter, or any other type of "twitch" gaming. I didn't grow up playing console games -- that may have nothing to do with anything, but I offer it in the interest of full disclosure.

Summing up, I just don't seem to have the "right stuff." And I know that such situations actually exist in real life. I was an air traffic controller for over 12 years. During that time, I worked with and trained some of the smartest people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Unfortunately, a small handful of them, despite their obvious intelligence, never made it out of training, and thus never entered that career field. They just "didn't get it," and that was an obstacle that couldn't be overcome, not with time, not with trying.

The last thing I want to say, even if I'm repeating myself, is that I've never seen a guide, of ANY type, written so well, assuming that the reader knows NOTHING yet avoiding condescension, and delivering a very comprehensive missive. My hat and the hats of all my heroes and villains that wear them are off to you, TopDoc!

There are two player sides to the debate over the Paragon Market prices.

1) Those who think the prices, for the most part, are set too high for the perceived value of the object(s) in question. I myself fall into this camp.*

2) Those with disposable income such that buying anything at the PM that might strike their fancy (or their WANT IT NAO!!! button) is a mere trifle. These folks are likely also accustomed to these types of transactions from other games and accept them as they are.

Voices on the forum, or folks lined up at the store? Which do you think Marketing is paying attention to?

Gloomily, I foresee no real change in the pricing structure already in place.

*And, in the interest of full disclosure, this morning I paid for Paragon Points in order to purchase the Street Justice powerset NAO. I am part of the problem. *sigh*

And where, in this perhaps our darkest hour, are the reknowned Taxibots?*

Quick, to the Belle-Phone!

*No, really, do the Taxibots have a chapter on each server? If so, then TaxiRobo Jeeves may re-activate and answer the call!

Very happy to see Dark/Dark proliferated over to Blasters. Haven't really gotten out of the gate on playing mine yet, however; I'm looking at YOU, Real Life Concerns! Reading here and elsewhere, it seems that there's little or no synergy between the primary and secondary. Maybe even a little working at cross-purposes going on, to boot.

Okay, fine, so long as I can use the Dark primary for a Blaster. Some folks are saying Energy Manipulation as a secondary (have used many times, and like), and some folks are saying Mental Manipulation (have used once, on my current main, actually). One or two folks have even mentioned Fire.

Intended uses for my blaster: mostly soloing and duoing, since I've gotten into the habit the past couple of years. I think teams are fun, but I'll have to fight my own tendencies to join them more often than I do now (which is, as stated, almost never these days).

What would you recommend as a secondary? Energy? Mental? Fire? Something else? I'm especially interested in why you'd use your suggested secondary with Dark Blast as a primary.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and advice!

So...this Doorbuster badge, given out during the Head Start. Is this a global/account-wide badge, or do I have to go through the slog of logging in every character I have (if I want those characters to have this badge)?

Wait, aside from the channels the game automatically puts us on, how many (player-created) channels are we allowed to join? I dimly remember the number being 5, maybe 10. Is it one of those, or something else?

Oh, and a reread of my earlier thread about my most coveted name makes it seem like I was being coy. Nothing like that! The names I acquired, and will happily use, are as follows:

Beauty
Chickadee
Dimensioneer
Donneybrook
Professor Perfidious (steampunk-themed)
Silverblue
Thumper
WarPixie

As well, captured the names of the main characters for me and my wife, as we plan to transfer them over to Exalted. As for the long-sought-after name (my precious!), while it was a very big deal for me, it will likely be very anti-climactic and "So?" for the rest of you:

Spooky

For you old fogeys like me, yes, that name was taken from the 1967 song of the same name, by The Classics IV. I've always thought it a perfect fight for darkness powers.

I am willing to talk, via PM, to anyone who wants a name from the first list o' names above. While I do want them and have plans for them, I can see how someone else might have a long-burning need for them.

Hi, my name is Klatteja, and I'm an alt-oholic.

Even with 2 people and multiple accounts, _Force_ would, IMO, have to have more than 2 computers capable of laughing at lag to get all those names so quickly. Granted, a good chunk of those names likely had no one else going for them. Still, an impressive achievement.

And unless I'm mistaken, _Force_ did manage to negotiate with the person who'd taken Force and thus acquire it. Good on ya, cobber!

I got several names that I specifically wanted and for which I have characters actively planned and soon to be played. Yay new powersets and powerset proliferation!

When the European servers merged with the North American servers, there was a name which I wanted very much to acquire. Alas, those servers not being brand-new entities, my sought-after name was already taken. The funny thing is (funny being a relative term) the name was taken on all the different servers by different players, save one who had the name on 2 servers, and none of them ever responded to my attempts at contact.

So I pined after my little name year upon year (in the process making dozens of characters with names much more original and dynamic), and finally captured it last evening. Ahhh...

tl;dr version:

I got the name I'd really wanted for a very long time.

The graphics card in my wife's computer died. It was a GeForce 6600, possibly GT, and to the best of my recollection, 256MB. She of course has integrated graphics, but she's becoming more and more frustrated with its (lack of) performance. New computers are on the horizon for both of us, but that will likely be most of a year from now.

What I'd like to do is purchase an inexpensive card to put in her system until that time. We haven't been running Ultra Mode at anything but the lowest settings, if at all, so that's not a consideration. I've tried to research this myself, with the aid of the Graphics Card Hierarchy chart found at Tom's Hardware, but the more I look at it, the more it confuses me. Why can't the numbers progress in a linear fashion instead of jumping around?

And thus I turn to this community for help. Here are the relevant details:

Dell Dimension 4700
PCI Express slot (probably v1.0)
Power Supply is 350 watts, maybe 400
I'd like a card that betters or at least equals the 6600 GT, but the 256MB is not a must
I don't want to spend more than $50.00, if at all possible, since the whole rig will be replaced in less than a year
I've been using nVidia, but I'm not opposed to Radeon

If more details are needed, please ask. Thank you for any and all suggestions or advice.

Oh, and I vaguely recall some redname stating, in the past, something to the effect of "It's not intended that everyone should be able to get every badge." To this, despite having heard reasons to support it, I still ask "Why should that be so?"

I understand the concept of "I did X to earn it, so seeing it just given away (or worse yet, sold) demeans my accomplishment." I think I agree with this, but would I think differently if I myself was on "the wrong side" of such an argument, in any given particular situation?

<looks in the mirror> Shallow much?

Forgive me if this has been discussed at length already; lack of caffeine is my search-fu's Kryptonite. Mods, if this thread is inappropriate, please move as desired to taste.

I have long wanted to re-roll certain characters, but have held off for years, for a number of reasons. I'm a casual player, so these characters (mostly stalled in their 30s and which haven't really been played for several months or even years) represent to me a significant time investment, even if they're toys sitting on the shelf, waiting for the "someday" that I might get the desire to pick them back up again.

Further, these characters have attributes (read: badges) which a new character wouldn't have and wouldn't be able to get. Here I'm referring specifically to anniversary badges. Now, I have a badge character in my main, but certain badges have their own level of importance because of the rare opportunities to obtain them. Anniversary badges are of course on this list. Thus, as a "just in case" (I ever decide to make another of my characters badge-collecter), I log all my characters in for the anniversary badges. Thus, each character will have the badges I couldn't normally get.

There is some precedent for my slowly-upcoming query. During the Winter Event, and for a couple of years or so now, one has been able to purchase previous years' "exclusive" badges, in the same category as the annual anniversary badges, says I.

So. To the point. Do you think that Paragon Points will be able to purchase, as Paragon Rewards, the anniversary badges from previous years? As I said, there is precedent for a similar situation. Do you think it shouldn't be allowed? How about a compromise as a third option: yes, you can purchase anniversary badges from previous years, but only dating from that particular account's creation, and not before?

I expect well-constructed points supporting both sides, and I look forward to hearing (reading) the community's thoughts on this admittedly trivial matter. Therefore:

Discuss.

Subscribing to this thread so that I'll know when certain issues are fixed or even addressed with the Steampunk Booster. I want it, but there were enough "undesirables" at launch (baked-in colors not matching up, untintable hat hair, almost-untintable weapons, serious clipping issues, no coats for females, etc.) that I have yet to purchase it. And this from the guy who bought every booster within 2 or 3 days of release (never the first day, to avoid the stampede).

Except for the emotes pack. Very rarely use emotes, and will not spend even Paragon Points to unlock them.

I want the Steampunk pack, and am happy to support the game, but I'm not going to be willfully blind on either. These types of problems, to the best of my knowledge, and the Beast pack notwithstanding, didn't exist in previous packs. When they're fixed/changed/corrected, then I spend my money.

Hopefully that will be soon.

Very much conga rats on your accomplishment!

After 2 1/2 years of playing, I finally convinced my wife (who was getting bored with Guild Wars) to try out City of Heroes/Villains. After another year of playing, I still had only 4 level 50s (it's a journey, not a destination! ). My wife caught up and passed me with a vengeance; she now has at least 15 level 50 characters, and maybe the total is up in the 20s somewhere. I created a monster!

And lastly, whew! I came into this thread expecting the OP to say that he had finally reached a goal of having 50 level 50s of each AT.

Despite the controversy over their very existence, I like the Booster Packs. While I'm not really up on the Steampunk genre, I read Girl Genius faithfully, and I like what I've seen in this latest Booster Pack offering.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I agree with many of the repeated points: coloring/customization options, clipping, lack of certain options, lack of options for all body models. I don't have anything further to add on that front.

Which leads me to the decision that I will delay purchasing this Booster Pack. Hopefully at least some changes will be made. If they are, all well and good, nothing's perfect, and I'll likely purchase it down the road for the small percentage of functionality I may be able to get out of it.

If no changes are made to the Booster Pack as it stands now, either before or sometime after release, then I will sadly decline to purchase it. For me, the "negatives" currently outweigh the positives.

Now, to study up on the Steampunk genre. Maybe I'll find a whole new world to explore and enjoy!

"Fookin' And And And."

Bonus points for recognizing the reference.

EDIT: Imagine my embarrassment to find that there really is an entity already named And And And.

Thanks to everyone who replied; these are all great suggestions for potential cards, not to mention the information and advice. I expected nothing less from this community, of course.

I'll be eyeballing all of your suggestions, and keep you posted on what I decide to do and how well the upgrade works. Feedback is the least I can do.

An aside to Father Xmas: I believe I'm going to put my amateur computer knowledge to the test for my next systems and finally have a go at building them myself. Your advice, seen here and elsewhere, has given me the wild impression that I can actually succeed!

I have two (fairly identical) computers, refurbished Dell Dimension 4700s, upon which I have made a number of upgrades. Recently, the video card in one of them gave up the ghost, and I'm looking for a replacement/upgrade. What I replace in the one I will likely replace in the other, as I try to keep them about equal in performance. Here's a few details:

Dell Dimension 4700, with this motherboard
Windows XP SP3
4GB DDR2 RAM (3.00 recognized)
GeForce 6600 video card in PCI Express x16 slot (256MB, IIRC)
305W power supply

Please ask if you think further information would help you give better advice.

Obviously, these are aging computers. I'm not looking to run Ultra-Mode at all of the highest settings, but since I'm upgrading the video cards, I'm hoping to get improved performance in that area while I'm at it. I realize that the power supply and the motherboard itself may limit my choices as far as upgrading the cards go.

I've looked at this chart, so I have a vague notion of the "level" I should start at, but looking at hundreds of reviews for dozens of cards has me cross-eyed and no further along than where I started in trying to find a card.

Lastly, and not to put too fine a point on it, I'm not wanting to spend a great deal of money. Again, old computers, and this will likely be the last upgrade I do before breaking down and saving for new ones. Ideally, I'd like to get video cards better than the ones I have for $50 (or less) each, but I can be a bit flexible. $100 per card is my limit, however. Beyond that is not worth it for these dinosaurs.

Thanks in advance for any and all help, guidance and advice.