Master-Blade

As mentioned, I think you were looking at the wrong item.

I quoted the text in my original response:
That does not imply anything but a single Shard.

I never meant to imply that I thought getting a single shard was fair. I just wanted to stress why the OP shouldn't have expected an "even exchange", and be grateful there is any kind of exchange available at all.

I agree with everybody else here saying 50% would have been more reasonable, but I was only responding to the OP's question of why it wasn't equal.

Thanks for that link. It's a pretty neat program. I think I'm going to use it for my Task Manager also.

It took me a minute to find the option, but it does display the priority on a table (and has an "always on top" option). I just tested and re-verified that cityofheroes.exe does indeed change from 6 to 8 depending on whether or not it has Focus. It only runs on 8 (Normal) while it has focus. Even as much as opening the taskbar makes CoH's priority change to 6 (BelowNormal).

Even if it could, the "always on top" option would allow you to see it while using only a single monitor. The second screen is still unnecessary.

As for a program that would show it in realtime.. I am not aware of, then again I have not looked either.
I guess if such a program does not have a "always on top" option, then your second monitor would become useful in that regard.

That's not true. Even at level 50, you still have only 95% chance of hitting a level 1.

Regardless that the numbers can scale to give you an advantage against lower foes (and disadvantage against higher), the actual caps are still the same.
It doesn't matter what you are fighting. The clamp of 5-95% is applied AFTER all the level modifier calculations are already done.

ParagonWiki: Attack Mechanics

Having focus doesn't just mean it's the application "on top" of the screen. It means that it's the application currently accepting input from the keyboard. Even if you have 2 monitors, only one program will have focus, so you'd still run into the same problem anyway. Once you check the Task Manager, CoH will switch priority, even if it's on another screen.

One way you CAN check this though (even if you use one screen).. is to set your Task Manager Options to "Always on Top", and make sure the cityofheroes.exe process is visible on the list. Click on the game window to give it focus again, and then right click directly on cityofheroes.exe to check the priority. At the moment you click, the priority status hasn't changed yet, so you will see it's set to "Normal". If you check it after Task Manager already has focus, you'd see "BelowNormal".

You'll have to do it "just right" to notice how it works and see the correct results, but that's just the nature of it.

Fixed.

Since the AI was changed some time last year(?), those Rikti bosses now use 2 attacks and kill you, so that's no good anymore. (Unless it changed again)

I have not done any damage farming since the change, but I do have a character that still needs it, so maybe I'll give that Brute a try when I finally get around to it.

Actually, I've been paying attention to it more, and I did notice those power lines visible on a different map. Why they would be made invisible on the map I was on earlier is anybody's guess. Same goes for the Rikti computers. They are visible on some maps, and invisible on others, but you can stand on top of them in both cases. I don't think they have anything to do with lighting.

Maybe you have another program running that's trying to take focus away from the game... or it's lagging due to something else unrelated to specific priority.

If you crafted a bunch of Components that you didn't need, you made a bad decision.
If you got the Hero 1 DNA Sample from running LGTF, then you didn't pay 4 Shards for it anyway.

Getting 1 Shard that you can use for anything is still better than having a Component that you don't have any use for.

I've seen quite a few people with the 4th Tier on Freedom already. One of the teams I was on this evening even had 4 people with 4th tier.

In the end, it shouldn't really be a big deal. Everybody else will just have it next week anyway. lol

As far as I am aware, the Vanguard Merits are drops, and we would not receive partial credit for them. A Boss is worth 3 Merits, so you'd either get 3, or not get any at all. If it looks like you only got 1 Merit for a Boss, it's likely it was actually awarded as a mission completion bonus when the Boss was defeated.

Either that or the Vanguard drops broke when the Shard drops were added to the tables. I don't know how it would really affect it, but you never know. I haven't really paid enough attention to it lately to know the difference though.

No problem at all. That's an issue that has shown up randomly since Issue 12. Some players experience it frequently, while others never have a problem at all.

As for what the files are:
playerslot.txt is the character positions after the server select screen.
That's probably why you were crashing at that point. As it tries to load a corrupted file, it doesn't know where to place your characters and just throws a fit. To correct this, I usually suggest people arrange the characters the way you want them to stay, then right click on that file (Properties) and make it "Read Only". That will prevent the client from corrupting the file and your characters will always be in that position each time you log in.

playernotes.txt is where our judgment on other players is notated. When you rate another character or make a note about them, it's saved in this file for your own uses. Nobody else has access to that information. If you had some notes in there before and want to save this information, simply copy it back into the new directory.

I don't remember if there is anything else that gets saved in the account folder. If there is, I don't use them, because I don't have anything besides the playerslot. Costumes, power customization, and AE missions are saved in their own directories and unaffected by the rename you did earlier.

You are not dropped from the roster unless you are kicked or quit. As long as no other characters in the supergroup log in, your leadership status should be reinstated when you switch back.

Not many people seemed to notice though. lol