Mandu

Legend
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  1. The good names aren't suddenly going to be taken. Remember, you have a lot of time spent here practicing how to come up with a good name that hasn't been taken before. The great majority of those freepers are going to stick to the following formula.

    Bat Man (unavailable)
    Batt Man (unavailable)
    BatMan (unavailable)
    BattMann (unavailable)
    -BatMan- (unavailable)
    "Stupid game won't let me pick a name"
    Hwhegemk Man (enter city)
  2. Once again Durakken, you don't discuss anything. I countered the arguments you had and you completely ignored it and said "But what about the other 90 minutes?!?!?" Incidentally "Come on man." isn't a discussion or disagreement. What it basically translates to is "How can you not see that I'm right!?!?!?!"

    Tenzhi was right. Those scenes all put together were probably close to half an hour of movie time or more. The other 40 minutes were fine (I'm excluding Hammonds 20 minutes). There was character development. There was explanation of the rings power. There was introduction of the whole concept of the corps and the main villain. Just like the original Spiderman movie. Just like the original Iron Man. Just like Batman Begins. If you have an introduction movie then you spend time introducing the hero, the villain, and the world.

    Why don't you tell us what your problems with those in between parts was? But warning, if you do then I'll counter them. And then I fully expect you to complain "But what about the font they used in the credits?!?!? You guys are ignoring how much the credits font sucked!!"
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Durakken View Post
    I'm sorry, I expect people to discuss things in a discussion.
    Ok. You want a full discussion of why I disagree with you then here you go. I did not find the rest of the movie boring and trite. I found it engaging and interesting. The only parts I didn't like were Hammond who was in my opinion played very poorly by Sarsgaard. I just plain didn't like the character. If others did then I'm not going to say that they are wrong. It's their opinion. It just doesn't match mine.

    However also in my opinion you are beyond wrong when you say the Tomar-Re "Now we're going to fly" scene was stupid. Hal has to be introduced to the abilities of the ring somehow. You don't just assume that he will now be able to do anything he wants. You start with something that is simple for the ring but impossible without it. It serves the exact same purpose as the building jump scene in The Matrix. It introduces a character to what is possible. In fact it's likely that most recruits who try the flight wind up hesitating and also wind up pulling a Neo and falling. The difference is that for Hal flying was everything so he took to it naturally and instantly.

    Sinestro and Kilowog randomly attacking Hal? There was a good strong reason behind each of their attacks.

    Sinestro in the movie was just like he was in the comics. Maybe not the exact same history but the exact same attitude. Might makes right and those who are competent should lead while those who are not should get out of the way. No human has ever been chosen by the ring. And the race hasn't even achieved interplanetary travel let alone inter system travel. He considers them primitive and not ready for the ring. On top of that there is a powerful force attacking the corps and they just plain don't have time to be training noobs when their very existence is threatened. His whole idea in attacking Hal was to show the Guardians and Hal himself just how unworthy humans are. Especially considering that Hal had the ring of the greatest Lantern ever who was also Sinestro's trainer. He considered it an insult to the memory of Abin Sur that a mere human had his ring.

    Kilowog attacking Hal had the exact same purpose as Tomar-Re's flight lesson. To show him what the ring could do. And it did point out exactly that. He got Hal to instinctively create a couple constructs. Showed him that his attention could not be focused just on creating the construction but that he rather had to be aware of the many possible dangers of space while simultaneously using his ring. And it showed him something that they have stated many times in the comic without the need to actually state it. That the ring will protect the wearer from harm even if he isn't prepared. Kilowogs surprise punch slammed Hal back into the ground but didn't even stun him. Lesson learned and emphasized. Be aware but don't be worried. Kilowog is a drill sergeant, not some welcome wagon carrying a fruit basket and pie for the new poozer.

    The ring alerting Hal to danger? Try to pay attention to what is actually going on in the movie. Hal was told "Your ring will alert you to danger". I can't actually remember what scene it was right now but Hal was specifically told, just after his ring dinged twice that the ring alerts you to danger.

    And how could you possibly think the ring wouldn't know Parallax was a danger? Let's see. The rings are all connected to the central power battery which feeds information to all of them. Thus they know when there is some event in a different sector or on Oa that they are expected to respond to. But even ignoring that there is another reason. This ring belonged to Abin Sur. You've heard of Abin Sur haven't you? He was in the movie? He's the guy who originally imprisoned Parallax. He's the guy who was attacked and fatally injured by Parallax? Saying that the ring wouldn't know that Parallax is a danger is like saying that Obi Wan wouldn't know Darth Vader was dangerous and would have no way of communicating that to Luke.

    How did Hal find Hammond? How was Hal warned of Parallax? The same way as before. The ring alerts Hal to danger and probably does something to indicate the direction of the danger leading him in that direction. No there is no direct statement that the ring will point you in the direction of the danger but you can probably safely make that assumption. It's a sophisticated device. Not a smoke alarm with low batteries. Why did it alert to Hammond when he was an unknown? Because Hammond's power came from Parallax. Did you miss that part? Just in case you did Hammond was infected by Parallax when he pricked his finger on a bit of Parallax that was left in Abin Sur's wound. Multiple times we saw his blood being checked by himself or others and saw that the red blood cells were being coated by yellow crystals or perhaps yellow energy. This was part of Parallax and was where he was getting his power. So the ring detected him as having power coming from Parallax and so being a danger.

    Hal would call the Guardians rather than attack Parallax alone? We saw Hal shown how to fly with the ring. We saw Hal shown how to fight with the ring. Did you see Hal shown how to communicate with the ring? even if he was shown how to use it why do you think he would call them? He had basically just told them "Screw you guys, I'm going home." He probably wouldn't expect any help from them. And even if he did call the Guardians do you think he would just wait around watching Parallax kill people until the other Lanterns showed up? If you do then you have no concept of what a hero is. Most especially a hero whose prime attribute is the ability to overcome fear.

    So why didn't the ring place a distress call? Gee I don't know. Perhaps you missed the end of the movie. The part where the other Lanterns showed up too late to fight Parallax. Or possibly showed up in time to help fight but chose to watch and see how Hal was handling things. What did you think happened if not an alert from the ring? Did you really picture Kilowog saying "Yo dawgs. Let's go randomly hang out around Earth and see what Hal is doing."? Obviously something alerted them that Parallax was on Earth and that's why they showed up so soon after Hal started fighting. It was a matter of only a few minutes after the beginning of the Parallax fight that the other Lanterns showed up. They had to have been alerted in some way.

    See what I mean when I say you don't pay attention? This is why I tell people to not bother arguing with you.

    you

    do

    not

    pay

    attention

    I saw it multiple times in the SGU threads where you would start jumping in and arguing about things that completely contradicted everything that actually happened in the episode. Heck, I even watched you arguing with people about how something was completely absurd and made no sense. And you hadn't even watched the episode but were just making assumptions based off of the previews you had seen the week before.

    Plus, you assume that your particular like or dislike of a character must apply to everybody. If you don't like the way Sinestro's history was changed then nobody could possibly like it. But you are very very wrong Durakken. And there was actually very little changed about Sinestro let alone twisted as you seem to think. He was still an arrogant egotist who believed that leadership must be through power. The two things that changed were that he wasn't kicked out of the Corps before getting the yellow ring. And that he got the ring from a different source. Which I personally consider a vast improvement over the original comic book version. It eliminates the whole antimatter universe and the Weaponers of Quard which were not a very good concept to begin with.

    It's actually a great relief to me that they eliminated the whole Qward subplot because when I see the sequel to the movie I don't want to watch the first 60 minutes be taken up with Sinestro floating around the antimatter universe and getting the ring from the Weaponers. I want to see Sinestro abusing his power, attacking the Guardians, and getting his butt kicked.

    So here is what I am saying. You are capable of intelligent discussions. But there is no point in even attempting those kind of discussions with you in cases like this where you once again obviously only watched about half of what was going on and filled in the rest with your assumptions.

    Now you have my counter points to your arguments. Feel free to counterpoint my counterpoints once you have actually watched the movie.
  4. Folks need to learn "Never argue with Durakken."

    First of all, he is always right and knows exactly what you personally like and dislike. If you disagree with him you are merely mistaken about what you enjoy and need to be educated. In other words like Jack Emmert.

    Plus he loves to nitpick. He will say things like "I'm sorry to have to inform you of this but Captain Kirk actually said that Corbomite was both an element and a device so you are completely and utterly wrong". In other words like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.

    And he only pays attention to about half the stuff he sees so he will often miss major incidents or plot points and thus argue that something that is reasonable (if you saw the lead in to it) is completely ridiculous and came out of nowhere.
  5. I like the look of the animation except for the Guardians.

    I fully expect one of them to say "Hal Jordan. Take this smurf of smurfer and go smurf Paralax"
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Forbin_Project View Post
    So your complaint is that it was too realistic? That the show nailed the fact that people in general are sheep?
    Also it doesn't really look like they are being hunted as such. It's more like culled. Think of Yellowstone. If you get an aggressive animal that keeps on wandering into public areas then it is moved or killed.

    If herds of animals start getting too big then they are thinned out.

    So as long as the people are sticking to the restrictions (stay out of this area, don't form too large of a group, don't use weapons) they basically get ignored.
  7. You know, come to think of it they probably could put in a dance gun power. Not one that works vs npcs perhaps but WoW has a trinket that is basically the dance gun power.
  8. Hadn't seen that chart. Well it's certainly good to see that GMs will only be available to VIP accounts.
  9. There was only one post credit scene. Then at the very end of the credits there was an advertisement saying buy Green Lantern comics.
  10. Back from seeing it and just as I predicted I enjoyed the heck out of it. I'll agree that the entire Hammond subplot should have been dropped. That would have made for more time on Oa. And yes they messed around with the continuity but name me even one comic book movie that didn't take huge liberties with the characters. For that matter name me one comic book writer who didn't take huge liberties with everything that happened in the comic before they took over.

    I still liked it tons more than First Class though. Was it better written? No. Was it better acted? Not a chance (except for January Jones who was out acted by the cardboard boxes in GL).

    So if it's not better written and the acting isn't as good why did I enjoy it more? Because it was more fun. It's the same reason I enjoy Blade more than I enjoy Schindler's List. The same reason I enjoy Scott Pilgrim more than Henry V. Because although they are not superior artwork they are more entertaining.

    And because Hal Jordan was a "super hero". He doubted himself but he pulled his act together and went out to be a hero. The First Class crew on the other hand was a hodgepodge of people who hated themselves, considered themselves freaks, and were depressed because they had abilities. They didn't doubt themselves, they just felt sorry for themselves.

    So Green Lantern was entertaining to me because it was about a super hero. Not about some emo guy who just happened to have powers.
  11. Durakken hates it. Foamy is overwhelmingly underwhelmed.

    I'm probably going to love it.
  12. Honestly if you feel confident building your own system then your best bet is to watch Fry's for sales and buy your parts a piece at a time. That's what I did and I have a very good system and it cost me around around $500. That doesn't include the monitor, power supply or case which came from my old system.

    The reason for this is Fry's will have incredible sales and sell parts at their cost or lower. For instance they will put a really high speed processor on sale because they know that people who come in and buy that processor will 90% of the time wind up buying a new motherboard and ram and case and etc... to go with it. It may take you a couple months to get all the parts this way but by the time you are done you will have paid wholesale cost for your system. They won't lower the price of the video cards this way but they almost always have returned (which are almost always unused) video cards for a significant discount. Even more so if they are even a single generation old.
  13. If you haven't changed the size of your icons yourself then they are likely just fine. But just in case it's

    control panel>appearance>display

    From there there are three check boxes 100% 125% and 150%.

    By standard vga port I'm guessing you mean the standard connector on your video card and monitor, not some sort of adapter.

    I'm running out of ideas here. Try switching from full screen mode to windowed mode.
  14. What resolution is your desktop set to in comparison to the resolution in game? In game go into settings for screen resolution. You will see two possible settings that match your desktop. One will say something like 1680 by 1050 and the other will say 1680 by 1050 (desktop). Choose the one that has (desktop) after it and try setting your resolution to that. For some reason with some systems coh can only match that resolution or safe and trying something higher or lower causes it to default to safe mode resolution. I haven't seen anybody with that problem for a couple years so I didn't think of it till now.

    If this is the situation and you have your desktop set to a lower resolution for text and icon size then you will have to play at the lower desktop resolution or else raise your desktop resolution to where you want it in the game.

    And that reminds me of yet one other possibility. Do you have your desktop icon and text set to be a larger size? If you have it set to 100% or 125% then it's fine but at 150% coh doesn't like it.
  15. Mandu

    Zoning times

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by newchemicals View Post
    4GB of ram won't change the fact the P4 is an awful CPU. The MB is capable of handling a much better CPU which would be a far greater benefit than extra ram.

    The ram would require tossing out the existing RAM and buying more DDR2 ram. $180 is a awful lot for an old E8400/E8500 cpu since you can buy a top notch 2500K chip at Microcenter for $180.
    But I know from personal experience (back when I was dirt poor. Now I'm only gravel poor) that increasing the ram makes a dramatic decrease in loading time while improving the processor makes an insignificant decrease. A better processor can make for improvement in framerate but does next to nothing for loading zones.
  16. Mandu

    Zoning times

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hyperstrike View Post
    Fourth: Are your drives IDE or SATA? If they're IDE you're not going to get a drive much larger than 500MB (which is a "why bother" for your situation). If your drives are SATA, I recommend getting 1GB 7200 rpm drives with 64MB caches. The drives will be a little overkill for a SATA1 system, but keeping the SATA1 "pipes" full of data isn't a Bad Thing. You COULD go to 2GB drives too, they're still relatively expensive (doubling disk space from 1GB to 2GB MORE THAN doubles the price of the drive).
    Wow Hyperstrike. You somehow managed to travel forward in time from a distant past. Either that or you are cutting and pasting suggestions from some message board that is years old. 500 MB drive? 1GB or 2GB drive?

    But as I said before Wanted. The one thing that influences loading times more than anything else is ram. Increasing your ram to 4GB will greatly decrease your loading times. It is true that XP will only be using about 3.25GB of that but that is still half again as much as you have now.

    There is also a general rule of thumb that will show you how much of the loading times is due to your computer and how much is network related. When you start to zone watch the blue loading bar. Anything before the bar starts to move is network or server related delay. Once the blue bar starts moving that is all your system.
  17. Hopefully he hired a professional editor. Too many people think that just because self publishing is so easy now that they don't need any help at all. Or that their mother will make a good editor because she reads a lot. Professional authors use professional editors for a reason.

    His Kindle edition is priced a bit high too. That's the kind of price professional established authors charge. For $3 and up Amazon gives the author 70% of the cost of the book. That means he would actually make more off the Kindle edition at $3 than he would off the POD version. And while most Kindle owners will buy a $3 book by an unknown on a whim they aren't likely to pay more for a self published first book by an unknown author than they would pay for "Fairy Godmother" by Mercedes Lackey or "In hero years I'm dead" by Mike Stackpole. (both incidentally good books.) Besides, it is actually much easier to sell 2 or even more copies at $3 than it is to sell 1 copy at $6. How many times have you grabbed books from bargain bins that you wouldn't have taken a chance on just because they were only a couple bucks?

    And some advice for you Lisar. If you decide to do a review of his book on Amazon then don't give it 5 stars unless you actually do think it's an absolutely amazing book. Plus don't review it if it's the only review you have done on there. There is an amazing amount of trash in the self published market on Amazon and buyers have developed tactics to try and weed out the worst.

    One as I mentioned before is price. If the book isn't cheap then they aren't going to buy it unless they hear from someone they trust that it's good.

    But another is to check the reviews. If the book only has 5 star reviews then it's almost guaranteed that the reviews have only come from friends and family. Then check to see what else has been reviewed by that particular person. It's again almost guaranteed that when it is friend and family then books by that author will be the only thing they have reviewed and they will have given them each 5 stars.

    So when the friends and family of the author jump in and rave about the book and give it 5 stars they are actually hurting that author more than helping. It's like the Mother who raves about how her daughter is the best singer ever and all those recording companies that turn her down are tone deaf. It generates more aversion than interest.
  18. I tend to agree. I don't mind when the reviewers have regularly recurring guest characters and bits but when they try to create an entire story arc it just doesn't work for me. Nostalgia Chick bored me half to death with her Dark Nella story thingy.
  19. Have you got chat logging enabled by any chance? If you do then turn it off.
  20. Try starting in safe mode and see if that will at least let it run.
  21. First a question. Do you have a graphics tablet connected to your computer? In the past there have been circumstances where graphics tablets interfered with CoH and kept it from loading in anything but safe mode. The only solution was to uninstall the tablet and all it's software.

    Second, a suggestion. Disable Vidalia. From what I've been able to find it's a program that is supposed to hide your identity and ip while you surf the web. Of course with all those spyware toolbars you have installed that's sort of like a fire truck with lights and siren running turning off it's headlights so it won't be noticed. At any rate there is a possibility that the software is preventing the server from seeing the game client in anything except it's base state.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Defenestrator View Post
    Yes, it was actually from Amazon and not an authorized dealer. They've just switched to a more "environmentally conscious" method of packaging, which means using a single cardboard wrap and a shipping label. The cardboard wrap gets tightened, which is causing softcover books to get mangled. The last several books I ordered from Amazon all came in this new wrapping, but they were hardcovers so they arrived safely (the Thor Omnibus by Walt Simonson and the last volume of Y: The Last Man).

    Amazon used to shrinkwrap books to an oversized piece of cardboard and then put them into a bigger box. I never had a problem with any damaged books when they were packed like this.
    I got a new paperback from them just a two weeks ago. Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall which incidentally is a great book that I couldn't put down. It was wrapped exactly as I described and in perfect condition. You must have a really shoddy local fulfillment center because Amazon overall certainly hasn't switched to this method.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang View Post
    Yes. Let's not demonstrate the whole "protects a world that hates and fears them" aspect because it's not what distinguishes them from other superheroes.
    Wow, you really are missing the point aren't you? Either that or you just like responding in nonsequiturs. I said absolutely nothing about the protecting a world that hates and fears them. That has always been an integral part of the x-men mythology. But just because you are doing something for somebody who doesn't appreciate it you don't have to spend all your time being mopey and emo and wishing you were normal. Just as the world that hates them has always been a central part of the x-men mythology so has the I enjoy having powers and having fun with them aspect.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tyger42 View Post
    Well, mainly just to express that I'm not taking his claim of "serious abuse" at face value. I tend to find it more likely that such claims of GM "abuse" are either blown out of proportion or an outright fabrication... ( The former more often being the case, and not generally intentionally, but still... )




    I've never dealt with a GM that wasn't fluent in English, and I've dealt with quite a few over the past 7 years.
    I didn't say not fluent in English. I said not a native speaker. I suppose I should have said not a native North American speaker. Just try using colloquial slang with them sometimes and see what happens. I've said things like "Thanks for the heads up" and had responses like "If you are having problem with your heads up display try resetting all windows"
  25. Mandu

    Zoning times

    honestly the best bet would be to increase your ram. It looks like your board only has two dimm slots and a maximum memory of 4gb. If you shop around you could probably upgrade to that 4gb for $40 or less.

    As to what you can do without increasing your ram. Just before you zone type /unloadgfx

    This will unload all the graphics from memory and then reload only the stuff that is within perception range. Anything extra that was stored from places where you were previously will be cleared out.