NanoPixie

I seem to have no problems opening them in Safari, or Preview ... If you want to download them rather than viewing them in a browser, you can right-click (or Control-click) the issue's cover, then select "Download Linked File As", and pick a name and location to save. Then just open it with Preview (or Adobe, if you prefer).

Now that I'm using the Mac client, the number one thing I miss is HeroStats (there's no Mac version, and no immediate prospect of one), so a big /signed from me! It would be very sensible to incorporate HeroStats functionality like the power timers and the XP/min display (it will even estimate how much time to the next level, at your current rate). These seem like things that the game itself ought to offer (though optionally, so that the pure-minded who don't want to sully themselves with XP information can switch that off).

I honestly am not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there (and I'm sure it won't take long for someone to inform me which they think it is!) Here's the thing: whenever I'm playing a fire blaster (say), I look over at an ice-based villain like a Chiller and think, "Oho, icicle-boy, I'm going to melt you into a puddle!" But then my fire powers don't particularly work any better against him than they do against anyone else (or not that I can tell). Similarly, I feel like I ought to be extra-wary of ice-based villains, and a bit less concerned about being burned by fire-based ones.

So, might it make sense for characters with elemental powers to get a slight bonus (damage resistance rather the defence, probably) vs those same elements, and a slight penalty vs the opposite? (Where "opposite" might need some defining: maybe fire/ice and earth/electricity would be reasonable pairs.)

You'd have to limit it to main powersets, otherwise you'd have fire/ice blasters who would be ambiguously defined in terms of what element they favoured. And none of these should be so large that they would either make the character immune to fire or instant-killed by ice . . .

It doesn't seem like it would be terribly hard to implement, but at the same time maybe it would create other problems. I do like the idea of Ice Guy rushing forward to confront the Chiller, while Fire Girl keeps her distance . . .

/signed, great idea!

If I understand correctly, the suggestion is to allow EU players to choose to connect to the US servers instead (I think)? I play on the EU servers from Canada, so it's certainly not impossible in principle - in fact, I think you can do that right now if you want, just hunt down a US copy of the game and install it, then sign up for a US account and cancel your EU one. You'd be starting from scratch in terms of characters, though, since the days of being able to transfer from US to EU are long gone.

I can now confirm that more memory is at least potentially helpful: it was for me. I upgraded my MacBook Pro from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM, and the slow-downs in frame rate are nearly gone, now, and the ones left are likely network glitches rather than problems with the local client. Emulating software (or partially emulating it) can really soak up memory, and it looks like the Mac version of COH requires a pretty big memory footprint.

I would have thought that 2 GB of RAM was LOTS, but I did get a big performance boost (or lack of performance drain, really) when I went to 4 GB.

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As for the random slowdowns, not a clue, sorry. Maybe the American forums have a clue if they have a mac section?

US Post on Mac Frame Rate issues, just skimmed it but maybe there's something there?

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Yes, there's some helpful stuff in there! The most useful was someone pointing out that they were running low on memory (confirmed through the Activity Monitor), because they had "only" 2 GB of RAM on their Mac Pro. That's the same situation for me, so I'm guessing it may be part of my problem, as well. There's also some discussion of differences in the way OS X uses the dual cores, vs. Windows - I don't really understand it, but I do notice that the computer runs much cooler under OS X, suggesting that maybe it's not driving both cores full blast constantly. (One poster in that thread suggested that the benefit of forcing both cores to be fully on was relatively minor compared to all the extra heat, though.)

So in summary: thanks a lot for the link!

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What you need to do is select the resolution, then click apply and OK the dialog. You'll note the resolution changes in the menu. Change it back AGAIN, then log out without clicking apply, and it should work correctly.

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Hmm, this may be what I accidentally did, in fact. I guess it's been a long time since I changed the resolution under Windows -- thanks, I didn't realize this was a problem in the client itself!

Hi, I'd like to open a thread for people to report on their experiences using the Mac client. How's it working for you?

I've found that the graphics are working well, and overall the performance is quite good. The only downside seems to be that the Mac client is subject to occasional extreme slowdowns that I've never experienced in Boot Camp: every five or ten minutes, I'll see frame-rates drop to slide-show like levels, then recover, for no apparent reason (i.e. not because I went into a high-traffic area).

I've got some minor problems with the user interface, especially the Options menus. The screen resolution snaps back to 1024x768 every time you try to change it, with the message "You must log out before these changes will be applied" -- but if you do log out at that point, the changes won't be made! The only way I could get the screen resolution to change was to select a new resolution then immediately log out *without* applying the changes; when I restarted the client, I found it using the resolution I had selected-but-not-applied. This has been a problem since the beta, for me, but it apparently hasn't gone anywhere.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delirious to have a Mac client! But there are things that could still be buffed up a bit.

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If I understand this correctly, I think there's a difference between the OPs original "secret identity" idea of having an "off line NPC presence", and the oft suggested "on line plain clothes" addition to the game that this discussion seems to have veered towards.

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Actually, I have to admit that I was thinking of the "on line plain clothes" idea, though people have argued convincingly against its practicality. But I do also like the notion of the "off line NPC presence" -- by which I assume you mean an NPC with your chosen name and appearance that wanders around your Day Job location when you're not online? That seems simpler to implement, though again probably not a high priority for the devs. Definitely a "frill" rather than a vital feature.

I think perhaps the reason this keeps coming up is that the general idea (however implemented) seems to offer a whole new mode of play, which is exciting to think about. However, that also suggests that people are right when they point out that it wouldn't be a minor thing to implement -- whole new mode of play = lots of development effort! So I'm sure this will not be happening any time soon, given that the devs must have many things that are higher priority.

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eg:[EDIT]:Shirtyness withdrawn

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All right, that's it, I'm shirty again!

EDIT: . . . But how can I stay mad at someone called Mother's Love?

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Now, now. No need for anyone to get shirty about this.

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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, after I posted, but it was too late, and I don't know how to withdraw a post. Anyway, consider the shirtiness (EDIT: shirtyness? dictionary.com disagrees, but all right) withdrawn.

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Actually, it's a "suggested so often that it's boring" wish, combined with a "the developers have specifically said they will not do it" wish. Really, we get this once a month. And, really, the developers have specifically stated that they will not implement such a system.

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Well, that's put me in my place, then. I must admit to lacking an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the Suggestions thread, but my search for "secret identity" didn't show me constant discussions of this. At any rate, I'm sorry if it's come up so often before. I will refund the electrons it cost for you to read it.

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... not enough gain to actually justify it (yet) while there are still some rather nasty things that need fixing.

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Well, there's no rush. They should certainly fix the other stuff first, this is more a "someday" sort of wish-list item.

I went back to the University the other day to change from the valiant Firebrande back into plain old student Brande Richards, before logging out . . . And it occurred to me how nifty it would be if we could *really* turn into an ordinary citizen! That is, if you could make a change that would cause you to just show up as an NPC in the world (just "Brande" over your head, in white text), so you'd look no different from the other citizens wandering around. Right now, you can slot yourself a civilian "costume", but it's still obvious who is a player and who isn't, so you're never really in disguise.

Perhaps there could even be "secret identity" missions or badges you could get while in that mode ("Take the train to Steel Canyon and pick up X", "Visit the bank in Skyway City", ...)

And then you duck behind a bush or into a phone booth, and: TA-DA! This looks like a job for . . .

I'm just thinking that it would be neat to be able to move around Paragon in disguise, and it would add a lot of depth to the whole Day Jobs concept, especially if the secret identity missions (if any) were Day Job-specific. It would also be neat for fellow players not to be sure if a citizen on the street might secretly be a hero.

So, what do people think?

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I'm afraid that Extremus is right - it's not possible to use North American Game Time Cards on European game accounts, or vice versa.

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Thanks for the confirmation. Also: Curses, foiled again!

In a related question, is six months the longest time block that can be purchased? Last time I signed up, the six-month block was the longest one, with the lowest cost per month. Over in North America, I think there's a full year option, but I take it that's not available on the EU servers?

Hi folks, I'm sorry if I've missed a previous discussion of this (though a search didn't show me anything that looked relevant):

I play on the EU servers from Canada (a short but strangely uninteresting story involving eBay and my subsequent liking of Europeans), and the Canadian Amazon store has finally started selling game time cards again. There's an item on sale over here at Amazon.ca called a "PlayNC Game Time Card" that says it works for all the NCSoft games, including COX.

Back a couple years ago, before they stopped selling such cards, they did work to add time to the EU servers. Does anyone know if this is still the case? These would be a handy way for me to buy additional game time, and they wouldn't be subject to the fluctuations between the Euro and the Canadian dollar, which would be a nice change.

I'd appreciate any information anyone might have!

Cheers,
NanoPixie

[On Union: Thermodyne (fire/kin), Bezier Curves (invuln tank), and Gritter (WP tank) are my mains]

Hi, I'm wondering if this is a known issue: two of my characters, now, have arrived at the "Craft the Lost cure" mission, near the end of the Montague Castanella Midnight Squad story arc, only to find that they can't do the crafting because one of the special salvage items is missing. For the first character, I submitted a request, and within a day someone from NCSoft got back to me to say they had placed the item in my inventory. My second character in this situation, seems doomed never to be able to finish the arc (and thus never get to Cimerora, etc). I've submitted bug reports three times, now, and each time they just get closed without any action being taken, and without any response from the company -- are they denying the request, and if so, why?

Anyway, it seems like I'm not going about this properly, and I'd really like to unlock the Midnight Squad membership. Is there a work-around for this? Can I get the salvage piece I need (I think it's the "Circle of Thorns Incantation") some other way? It can't be sold through Wentworth's, so that's not an option . . . Is there a way to do it through Ouroboros, maybe?

Any suggestions from wiser heads would be greatly appreciated!