Lallendos

I don't like your attitude in response to Plasma. You are correct, however, so I back you position.

The Debuff/Acc and Debuff/END are interchangeable with their counterparts in the buff part.

To clarify:
Debuffs in a buffing power buff.
Buffs in a debuffing power debuff.
I have not verified recharge reduction as actually enhancing slow effect along with recharge. It does, however, seem to be the case. When preparing to slot it frequently lists a slow enhance instead of recharge reduction. I am certain there is a solid answer somewhere on that part. I also cannot see developer alteration of this as it, interestingly, opens doors for players that normally required higher raid attendance to work around , if you aren't a social trader.

Perhaps It wasn't really clear what I was implying. I will go on and state that player generated guides are great, yet developer provided raw data would certainly help in building a guide of any sorts. For me, if given the raw data and applicable use for any given game component, I can make my own decisions. It is through testing of application of those decisions which will generate guides on using or inability of using certain enhancements, powers, sets, combinations, et al, towards an intended result. Player guides could include things like: "Building perma hasten in a post I9 world", or "Resistance building for /SR scrappers in post- I9", or even "Knockback: Inventions and body tossing for you!". It should not cost me money to get a Prima Guide, which will be fully outdated shortly after release. Also, I may be wrong, but isn't that guide created by an outside party? If so, then inaccuracies, and misinformation through error or ill intent are just as likely as player generated guides. It is not a theory, but a PRACTICE for veteran SGs to discover unintended effects, anomalies, and even exploits, but not mention them to anyone until they have satisfied some internal timetable. Misinformation, intentional or not is possible. Also possible is editorialization instead of objectivity. I honestly do not like guides that recommend certain powers using a "star" system. You allow personal opinion to influence new players seeking some semi official comment on their build or idea, at that point.

I will give an example of community built informational resource gone awry:
Wikipedia
If you haven't heard about slander, misrepresentation, misinformation, and disinformation in wikipedia of late, I recommend you do some searching. While guides are very simple, inane player tools in theory, there will always be someone out there wanting to gently push their methods onto others.
Lack of up front, official documentation about %to hit and damage vs +level enemies has caused me to nearly quit this game in frustration because everyone thinks they hit +5/6s "just fine". Granted the individual is likely overstating, and lying to get that same XP they got being PLed for 20+ levels, but what of honest people that don't know the difference. What is it? -85% NET damage, and like -85% to hit at +5? Without developer provided numbers, in easy to find places, all we get is a void filled by players taking best guesses or best reverse-analysis. There are some specialists (arcana, for example), who are very good at this. It is noteworthy, however, that she advocates for defense based sets, and I swear she has it in for /regen. I understand the devs hate regen too, and all (kidding here.... or am I?....), but I would rather get raw data, THEN have someone compile that data, should they choose to. I personally would just look at the numbers given, and make my own evaluation. While things like Luck Of The Gambler being 7.5% get confirmed -by- developers or reps, it'd be better if you just caved in and published the numbers highly visible, so we could make opinionated guides/How To's based off of referenceable numbers, and descriptions. What in great googly goodness' name does does "short" mean in power recharge description?? In some cases 2 seconds, in some cases 2.5.... Lets suppose I want the shorter of 2 short recharge powers at level 5, to fit a theme? I pick one. As luck would have it I pick a few such short powers for themed animation times, and get told by an -informed- person that 3 of my 4 powers in my standard attack chain are adding 2 seconds to the full chain. Similar has actually happened to me. Animation times aren't listed, and exactly how many seconds of recharge, either. Player guides can CLAIM to have the numbers, but i'd really prefer to know the programmed/designed times. Honestly, even if they are wrong. This is when the playerbase will be right there to question the validity of the timings and ask for confirmation or reasoning, along with remedy as needed.

Player guides are great opinion pieces. Allowing us to dictate which powers are worthless/uber to neophytes is a bad idea. My opinion, of course. MoG, Flash, Unstoppable, ALL the tanker passives, /SR passives, Spectral Terror in PVE, Group Invisibility, the list goes on and on for powers that are considered great or useless, depending upon who you are asking. If the only way to get animation and recharge timing on Flash, for example(a "droppable" power that I personally always take), is to read an opinionated player guide that also informs you that it is essentially worthless due to -20% acc inherent, long recharge, and short hold duration. The accuracy and hold duration are fixable at early levels. All issues are fixable with HOs/IOs. Also my opinion of Illusion's intent is that of a multi tool kit. You don't need ALL of your tools available all the time, because you have very potent tools aplenty.

Bias is a concern to me. Since player made guides have already presented bias (Stone armor, ILLUSION, Kinetics.....), it would be best, in my opin, to give a neutral and objective pure data source for ranges , type, Area affected, damage, Animation recharge, etc. A developer produced one. Strategy guides will, and should be, biased. They are based upon one person or group's playstyle.

I realize that what we have is what we have, and the guides are largely helpful. I am advocating for change and justifying, as best I can, that the resources are there.

I would really appreciate OFFICIAL guides. Player generated guides are from observation, and although they are frequently spot on, as far as we know, it would seem a better solution to have the software developers release formulae, and relevant numbers, rather than having people with no firsthand knowledge of how things were coded give us direction. The currently used, and requested approach seems flawed. Not only has the playerbase successfully performed quality control ( regen and fighting numerous + lvl foes, on the WRONG server, for example), but is now being pushed into reverse engineering data and techniques that should be presented by the people collecting the post $1000 I've paid since release for myself and my daughters' accounts. At a low average of 100K players, at 14$ per month, that's 1.4 million per month, at a LOW estimate. PLUS retail game costs($200 in my case, as an early adopter of both games, 2 accts), probably adding no more than $10 profit per player times about 300K estimated purchases. All these figures a LOW estimates to establish that, even on a worst case scenario, NCSoft/Cryptic can afford to salary someone to keep a revised online manual with real numbers available as "spoilers" option.

I would much rather have a direct line of information, that could then be evaluated/corrected by the playerbase. If I purchase a car, I can readily get manufacturer information on many things. Most owner's manuals will have more than enough information to get you going. Because automobiles are a one time purchase, and don't have monthly fees that go to the manufacturer, it seems reasonable to buy a Bentley guide for my A4, for example.
I realize the expansions are free. That's great. Except I liked the game just fine at release, and would definitely quit over useless nerf expansions or non- CoH related expansions that cost like other MMO expansions. Issues 4, 5, 6, would have lost a great many CoH players, in my estimation, were we expected to pay $25 to $50 for what tiny amount of "content" there was in there. Issue 7 was not much better. Issue 8 revamped some same old hazard zones at low levels. Inventions seems great and all, except now that I can get perma- hasten and then some on my Ill/Rad, what am I to do with him. Oh, let me guess, more Level 50 carnies/council/arachnos Radio missions. I was VERY outspoken about the journey being the game, but with 1500 ACTUAL in- game hours on my 50 Controller, and hundreds apiece on the other 4 L50s I legitimately levelled the slow roast method, I finally understand the complaints of lack of high end content.

I don't want to ever see the hollows again. Running around with 2 attacks, and defenses made of paper, pre 22 on my scrapper is as much fun as punching myself in the face. Someone else PLEASE punch me in the face, so I can make it to 38 on my claws/DA, without losing interest. I could immerse myself in the game and RolePlay, but every single street has some lady getting her purse snatched, or 6 guys intimidating X citizen. Hell, in order to be a true hero, i'd never leave Atlas Park or Galaxy City. Since the world is largely about as interactive as my wife when I forgot to take out the trash, RolePlay and effecting real change are out the window for me.

After all this, you want me to consider making it City of Reverse Engineering, for what reason? Please justify why the folks that create this environment cannot divulge how to use it? What is the hold up on telling us how things work, so that we can use it for powerful builds, OR for making quirky fun specialty builds?

I've said too much, the whitecoats are coming. Don your protective mayonaise, before it's too late!!

Let the scrapper or controller or similar take out t hat boss. Few bosses do the level of damage an 8 man spawn of Lts and minions will do. Actually, I can think of none.

-regen is not needed to take down an AV. Taunt is not needed. Tanks in general aren't needed. Want an easy time as a tanker on an AV team? Take taunt.

....And have a Coke and a smile, and shut the f--- up!!

I don't prefer using insps either. I typically prefer to do the following to mitigate damage:

Recon
Dull pain
recon
IH
recon
Dull pain.

And that would be a VERY long fight to go that many power hits in.

I don't need MoG to defeat a red conned EB. Maybe your offensive primary needs reworking.

Back on target about the bug:

MoG sucks, and the bug doesn't matter, if you don't take the power to begin with.....

Your apparent knowledge of MoG seems very parallel to your forum reg date. You are correct, though, in that if I am facing enemies 10+ levels below me, MoG is a lot of fun.

Also, if I haven't had debt in a while, I can thrust my arm skyward, knowing sweet defeat will enshroud my XP bar with the purple love that is debt.

I usually thrust the arm skywards, and scream "Kumbaya!!!!"

Until someone with psy attacks pops some reds and yellows, it may be good in PVP.

This is where you are wrong:
MoG -is- the bug.....

Yeah, I vividly recall this scene:

My 40 something stone tank Stares at the "biggest Clockwork" as the mission describes it. Granite goes away, and he layers on all armors save the fire/cold one. Thinking minerals 3 slotted defense alone won't cut it, he chews 5 purple pills. One taunt later, the awaken saved gets used.....

Yeah......

IIRC, It comes WITH the issue, or so close, I can't notice a difference. Of course I would want to PLAY my char under I7 changes for a while to feel for needed changes.

I soloed tyrant with only MoG and revive from my secondary!!

< <
> >

Uh, really!!!

Could we get some #s here? I was hoping for durations, +regen %, recovery %, +tohit% etc. I can read power descriptions fine, and, post ED, 3 slotting recharge is the starting point for most empathy powers anyway.

Seems ok, but thin on details. DETAILS!!!

I.... don't follow. The stated change doesn't sound like it does anything but help. Is there more change than that explained bycricket?

"You are very much confusing me. Here's why.
1: FSAA does NOT function on ATI cards if High Water, DoF or Bloom is enabled. This is not an opinion. This is a fact verified by the devs. Those HDR effects are pushed through a p-buffer, which ATI's drivers can not layer FSAA on to. So you might as well disable FSAA, as it isn't making any difference. "

While water effects may not be antialiased, the rest of things render noticeably better. Also, Water doesn't really seem to need FSAA. Now if it forces FSAA disable when using those effects, I may buy in. I am seeing something different, however.

Edit: One interesting thing of note:

I never ever had any issue with windows key or alt-tabbing. As soon as I made the sole change of enabling FSAA at 2x, I now have zero luck alt tabbing.
So I can validate the need to choose FSAA and windowed mode if you must have FSAA and need background apps.

Also: I've been told that CoH runs smoother in windowed. Dunno. I just dont like windowed mode. I may have to play with that some.

If Vsynch is on 8 crossfire video cards, and a 17 Gigahertz processor will not make frames pers second go up. It would allow for a LOT of effects, and really nice looking image quality that never dipped. But go ahead and leave crossfire disabled, you are only losing about 30% of your net performance under conditions that would require more than 1 cards' worth of acceleration.

Ok -
1024x768 2X temporal AA, 4X standard aniso, crisp textures, HQ water, triple buffering, Vsynch on, 30 to 45 FPS, while SJ ing over water intalos. Looks BEAUTIFUL, no glitches, crashes, etc. I'd forgotten how much Triple buffering smooths things. The difference is so big, I am now compelled to run this somewhat lower res.

Glad we had this bit o flak, B Z. Made me think, and lernt stooff!!!

New try at CoH.

I gained over 10 FPS by moving to 2X Temporal antialiasing and 4X standard aniso at 1024X768. I still am using HQ water- gonna test over water next. Gotta shrink my windows size in options down to 75%. Screen feels REAL cramped. I shouldn't have gained so many FPS.....

Hmm- nope. Wrong. I'm not 'upset'. The guide lacks much information I normally would expect of a guide. I would, however appear that you are a little upset, and maybe a lot.

Mayhap you need to go find an "R U H34L0R?" thread. While I was antagonisitic to a degree, this forum i rife with worse(look in the mirror) and I never resorted to comments about intelligence, ego, or name calling. Perhaps if you look long and hard into yourself, you'll realize, that the following is true:
There is no generosity in giving your opinion in a forum. B Z, although well meaning, saw an opportunity to make a 'guide' or 3, and took it. The guide is largely conjecture, and offers little info (ATI-wise, for sure) that one cannot garner in- game in the graphics settings window, or in Catalyst Control Center, by hovering over an option(gives a detail ballon).

While I was a little put off that someone else didn't put forth the massive effort that I would in creating a guide for video stuff, I realized in this all that B Z was at least giving it a go, and quit being negative (again look in the mirror, black), providing relevant links, article info etc.

What, exactly, have you contributed.
I refuse to apologize, as if you examine the above posts, B Z gets a bit harsher than I. I expect nor give no quarter. But I will, however contribute in positive.

Edit- Changed "any" to "much" The guide has some interesting opinions, which -do - help to a degree.

Id run 200%/200% if I -could-. Sadly, Even OCed, my card wasn't doing much more. And 3% is hardly worth the trouble.
As an aside, I notice that ATI Tray tools has become increasingly incompatible for me since 6.xx catalysts.... I just use 6.2s and keep on going so far, without ATT

Now, see I believe that you are inferring that I am lazy. Um, no. Actually, the job of a GUIDE is to educate. None of these guides teaches us how to understand the interoperation.

But you are right, a hotbot, err, dogpile, err oh yeah google search can show us a lot. Once we get past the page hit wonders.

So, B Z: here ya go:

ATI
http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

Nvidia
http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html

These are, eh pretty good driver setting guides, and really dig into how these things operate. I see a faster frame rate with FW on, but it's crazy crashtastic/glitchy at times. I dont use it for that reason now. I give up on trying to make it work.

Same issue with contacts. Oddly, reverting to a previous driver revision AND disabling FW is how I fixed it and also got none of the purported FW disable contac pause/crash issue.

As far as performance and triple buffering:
Im being unoriginal and lazy, but here:
Smooth Gaming with Triple Buffering
CrazyRhino 17 Mar 2006

Have you ever being in a situation where you enable v-sync to get rid of annoying image tearing, but only found out it killed your frame rate? We know v-sync caps your maximum frame rate at your screen refresh rate, which is 60 time per second for common LCD monitors. Actually playing games at 60 fps is not bad and it should provide a smooth gaming experience. However, you sometimes find the frame rate strangely capped at 30fps as soon as it drops below 60fps. At this point you probably start screaming "OMG! tearing sucks, and v-sync sucks no less!!!". It's not v-syncs fault all alone, usually it's the combination of the images being rendered using double buffering with v-sync enabled. So you asked why is double buffering evil? Basically there are two buffers in the graphics hardware, the image you seeing on the monitor is in the front buffer and the next rendered frame is in the back buffer. Since we have v-sync enabled, before the graphics hardware can swap the front and the back buffer, it needs to wait for the next vertical blank period (happens every 1/60th seconds on monitors with refresh rate 60Hz) to maintain synchronization with the monitor's refresh rate. This works fine when the graphics card can render frames faster than 60fps. If all of this makes sense to you, perhaps you can imagine what happens when the graphics card is unable to bump 60 frames per second. When that happens, the graphics card is unable to make the buffer swap because the next frame is not ready in the back buffer and it'll have to wait for the next vertical blank period to make the swap. The end result is that instead of swapping buffers 60 times per second, it's only swapping the buffer 30 times a second, and that's the reason why frame rate is capped at 30fps.

This is where triple buffering comes into play. With triple buffering enabled, now we have 3 buffers and the graphics hardware can start rendering into the 3rd buffer without having to wait for the front buffer gets swapped out. Let's just say it helps maintaining frame rate when v-sync is enabled. Both ATi and nVidia provide an option to enable triple buffering in their drivers. Unfortunately it's only half right, the triple buffering option in their drivers only have effect in OpenGL games. Considering the numbers of OpenGL games is largely inferior to D3D games, it's even less than half right.

CoH is Open GL.
TFA doesn't detail the downside - you just increased your framebuffer size by 50%.
So, to recap:
1920 x XXXX - BITE of mem and performance
FSAA, 4x CHOMP of mem
Triple buffering - CHOMP of mem

Used memory must be read and written to. This would be why we get similar framerates in game, despite your card having more pipes going faster, and MUCH higher memory bandwidth. The Tradeoffs you make in memory used (read: world texture quality is a biggie) will elicit more performance. In your vid card settings, highest texture quality SHOULD be non- compressed, high res images. The lower setting will add compression. Going lower still adds more compression, and /or reduced resolution to the texture. Being as you have potent processing, I bet compression would significantly speed you up. The Mipmap detail level Can boost performance, but youll get real ticked when you move slightly away from an object, and it's details blur into obscurity. While these parallell the game settings, they affect the card's rendering of the game's output.

I am still disputing the need to see enhanced detail level of PC/NPCs in game. World detail determines if they are seen, and how far. I suggest you revisit the settings. If I am prvoen wrong in your mind, then just call your version correct. I also will revisit my previous test.

Ok ok B Z- here's the root of why i'm such a meanie: I was looking for an ATI guide when I stumbled across yours. I needed to know why Fast writes was so troublesome for me, and maybe some insight into what variance there was between driver revisions.

None of that. What kind of 'settings guide' gets praised for being nothing more than you spewing what works for you? This is that whole "Give a man a fish" thing. I would learn nothing as an educated person, by seeing what works. I could make my own educated decision by learning HOW it works.

I never was satisfied with "Hook the ground leads the the body of both vehicles, then connect the hot sides to the battery posts". In leaning WHY this was advisable I came to understand effects of deep cycling newer non- marine batteries, as well as heat transfer, Hydrogen relase risks, etc.

You said any suggestions that improve the guide are great. Here's one:
Teach the reader the HOW.
www.guru3d.com
www.tweak3d.net
www.anandtech.com
www.Arstechnica.com
www.hardocp.com
www.3dchipset.com

Those are a few resources. Tomshardware is ok, but after is quit being sysdoc.pair.com, I think it went kinda commercial, as far as review quality.
Haven't been to thefiringsquad.com in a good while- it used to help.
Ars technica will have VERY detailed info- sickeningly so.

I'll quit poking you now!