Necrotron
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Posts
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Joined
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So could I respec to use this then?
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Why not? The badge unlocks the powers at a lower level, just as a patron badge unlocks patron powers for use. You can still respec into and out of powers and pools. It would be more effort to deny existing characters access.
So yes, your main will benefit from this.
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http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....v=#Post12960333
That settles it. Travel powers at level 6. Fly without Hover. Teleport without recall friend. This will open up a valuable power choice in many builds. Jesus. -
Like the sound of that. I would like some way of keeping parts of the base private.
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Come to think of it, the only buff Regen really needs is some animation tweaks so it doesn't cause redraw. The exact same animations would suffice but with the weapon arm remaining by the side. I refuse to believe we live in a world of 3D animation so utterly cumbersome an existing one can't be modified.
That's about the only reason I don't play Regen (though the ruinous Integration aura helps), because I can't be bothered with the redraw, even worse considering the Scrapper primaries are laden with weapons.
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Afraid not. You need to create animations for every power individually. Doing so means changing every keyframe so that it not only works, but looks right. This is why Shields took so long. -
I can guarantee that there will be a lot of Imperious runs on the weekend. Bring your scrapper.
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I am facepalming at you in real life right now.
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The subscribers are increasing! DOOOOOOOOM!
I wasn't on onion or the forums back then, but welcome back. You probably don't need it, but here's a refresher on what's changed since you got back.
Well... all of City of Villains for starters. You may not want an evil character, but all accounts have been granted access to Heroes and Villains. Doesn't matter how, when, where, or what you bought in the first place. It's well worth a look.
Get someone to lend you their Ouroborous portal and have a butchers there. The exploration badge on top of the spire gets you your own portal.
See Montague Castenella in the Steel Canyon university to get into the midnighters arc, more midnighters arcs, Cimerora contacts and arcs, and the Imperious TF.
Do the inventions tutorial in the Steel university.
Uhh lemme think... ah, the Rikti War Zone has a slew of contacts and good arcs. Mothership raids too.
That's what comes to mind as far as high priority stuff goes. -
These errors sound like they're down to ATi and nVidia not having proper drivers out for the thing. This is understandable, as a widespread beta has only just begun, and driver bug testing works much better on a big range of systems.
Win 7 appears to be faster than Vista, faster than XP even in many regards. They're really put the work into taking what Vista had, which is already quite good right now, and polishing it 'til their arms gave out.
Here's a handy tip. The CoX updater may need administrator access, but assuming you don't install it to C:\Program Files, the game itself doesn't want them. If you install it to somewhere where you can modify files without admin access, like your home directory (wouldn't do that myself) or a second hard drive (excellent for performance), you can make a shortcut to CityofHeroes.exe with the switch -project EUCoh. Just make a shortcut to the EXE, and add that to the end, so it looks like...
...CityOfHeroes.exe" -project EUCoh
Make sure the " is included. This will run CoX without admin rights, which should technically make your system more stable. The idea is that if a program does fudge things up, restricting what it can do will minimise the damage. That line of thinking is what got us UAC in the first place.
Using the -project switch isn't officially supported, and you would need to manually run the updater to get the latest patch, but it works very well for me. It will work equally well on Win 7. -
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Yeah - most tv shows and movies look like they're using the same engine
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They probably are. You can count on one hand the number of production quality renderers that are out there. RenderMan, V-Ray, mental ray, and Brazil are a few examples.
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I was meaning that real life does tend to look alike
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... Oh.
Durr. Me no thinky. >_< -
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Yeah - most tv shows and movies look like they're using the same engine
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They probably are. You can count on one hand the number of production quality renderers that are out there. RenderMan, V-Ray, mental ray, and Brazil are a few examples. -
Aie. I'm not getting into a debate about engines. I can talk about graphical features 'til I'm blue in the face, but if you ask me about changing engines while keeping the systems intact... I'm useless.
'Ey, Gangrel, last I saw you, you were drunk. I was the dude who got you a coffee at the Omega Sektor deal.
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Random thought here, but have you taken the time to look at the background of the new main site? Thinking of the bit under the main logo you have a view of the paragon skyline complete with building rooftops etc.
What with there being rumours of either an engine upgrade graphically or a sequel being announced, could this be a normal rendered picture to make the game look good, or could this be the dev's showing us subtly what the new graphics/game environment could look like?
Just a thought...
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Yep. It was the very first thing I noticed about the new website, and I've mentioned it a few times. Here is the full sized version.
I feel a rant coming on. Incoming wall of text. ...Again. Stop me if I'm embarrassing myself.
Let's assume that this is an ingame shot of CoX 2. I don't personally think it's likely, but it's awesome enough for me to hope for. If it's real, they have added a great deal of graphical upgrades.
Firstly, as pointed out in my (admittedly angrily written) wall of text shadow/fog rant, they have lifted the fog from CoH. You can clearly see buildings from a distance. I know that the horizon has been photoshopped in, but even the rest of it shows a much longer field of view. That makes it all the more breathtaking. Realistically they will have used another method to keep the framerates high, but as discussed in that big thread, the fog doesn't do that anyway.
Secondly, the shadows. Being as we have a night and day cycle, the shadows have to be dynamic. That would be Awesome with a capital A to behold, but is a complete mother to do. The new WoW expansion adds them in and I understand that the performance hit wasn't as large as expected, so it may not be inconceivable for them to add it to CoH. This gets rid of many bugbears I've had with the engine. I never liked how the faux-shadows we have right now worked.
A small point is that they seem to have used a form of ambient occlusion. For a good example of what AO looks like, go here. Notice the shadows in all the nooks and crannies, on corners, and in secluded areas. There are two ways this can be implemented in a game: pre-baked AO and screen space AO. Pre-baked AO puts the massive computers NCNC has to some hard work, calculating ambient occlusion and 'baking' it to a texture. All our PCs need to do is call up the texture; very little work is involved. This is a RAM issue more than anything. Screen space AO is used in Crysis, and as you'd expect for something out of that... thing, is quite an intensive process. It has the advantage of putting AO on the entire screen, even characters, but it isn't always correct and simply hammers the GPU. Personally, I feel it's pre-baked AO that they're using. With the average amount of RAM in computers going up, it may make sense to employ it. Characters won't get the benefit of it, but really, they're already lightyears ahead of the city they're in.
Hmm. A small point, but a big paragraph.
One other change I can see is the colour of everything. I don't know what's done, but everything looks richer. Shadows are deeper, shadowed walls darker, lit walls brighter and more colourful. It's a nice finishing touch.
What makes me think it could be an in-game shot is the aliasing in the photo. We all know antialiasing, I assume. If this was a production-quality render, as seen in the CG CoX trailers, then relatively high amounts of supersampling would be used. You just can't do that in a game, but for a movie, it's standard practice. But the photo is distinctly... aliased. It looks like the in-game 4xAA is being used. Look especially at the large building to the lower left, you can clearly see some 'jaggies' there. That isn't right. That looks like a game. Compare it to the CG renders of His Statesness and Recluse in the same image, who are simply immaculate.
Of course, maybe the images were thrown together quickly and supersampling was never applied. Who knows? But it does make you wonder.
I say again that I don't think it's likely that it's in-game. But it could be. -
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sure, excellent price for MAC users only.
Why Valkyrie Pack separate 8.99 not is aviable?
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Let me put everything in clear terms, without ambiguity. You can buy the Mac Edition of the game and upgrade your existing account with it. This will grant your current account and characters the Valkyrie costume set, which is extremely well made, and the mission teleporter. You will also have one month of game time along with this.
If you pay monthly with a credit card (or however often) your charge will be deferred by a month, as you have an extra month of time from the Mac Edition. You will not be charged for a month of time until your current month is finished, and the month given from the Mac Edition is finished. NCSoft won't take any more money until your paid-for time from the Mac Edition is up. I know this to be true because I have done just that.
You do not need a Mac to play the Mac Edition. What you pay for with City of Heroes is the account. You pay for the right to play the game on their servers. Platform is irrelevant. It is perfectly legal to download and install CoH on as many PCs as you like. NCSoft offer the game for download, Mac or PC, even if you don't own an account. If you are a PC user you can buy the Mac Edition if you like, and if you are a Mac user you don't need to buy the Mac Edition if you just want the game by itself.
Think of the Mac Edition as a time card, granting you one month of play, bundled with the Valkyrie bits. It suddenly looks like very good value.
The real reason that the pack is called the Mac Edition at all is so that it can be put in boxes and sold in shops. The software that comes in the Mac Edition box is indeed designed for a Mac, but NCSoft allow everyone - subscribers and non-subscribers - to download both PC and Mac versions free of charge. Both Mac and PC versions of the software connect to the same servers and give you the same game.
Someone mentioned Cedega earlier on, and I can assure you that this is indeed a full port to the Mac. Transgaming are rather good at that. -
strewth. So much praise on little ol' me.
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That's not to diss AMD or intel in anyway, but Intel have done just that same thing, released a new CPU line that needs a new board and memory. Technology moves on, it happens. new CPU slot types will continue as well because Intel and AMD are in cahoots with the motherboard manufacturers! Who's buy a new board if every new CPU was compatible?
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The difference is that Intel's hubris is well warranted. They have no competitor in that price range, and by the time there is, this new platform itself will be cemented in, with backwards compatibility as a feature.
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Matt Miller, senior lead designer:
- To prove to the MMO world that we are the #1 superhero MMO, not because we are the ONLY one, but because we are the BEST one.
- To allow our players to customize their character in ways that have not been possible before.
- To allow our players to make their own missions and story arcs, and have the world play and rate them (Mission Architect).
- To continue upon the improvements weve made to the game as a whole in 2008, adding more cool stuff for our players to do.
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Mmm. Tasty, juicy morsels to feast on. Nom nom nom. Power customisation is indeed the likely candidate. Either way, more options are incoming that we don't have already, which is good.
One thing I've been tossing around in my head is the possibility of completely new faces. NCNC could take all of the old faces, and create higher-resolution versions of them, to fit around a higher-poly face mesh. Think of this as the gap between old boots and Valkyrie boots. It's entirely possible that a graphics revamp may include this, as the faces are the one part of CoH characters that still look very 2004. This is very similar to what the devs did for Issue 7. Look at the second picture; it's barely the same wall. Or better yet, compare Valkyrie head detail wings with the existing head wings.
I say that existing faces should be used as a base because people can be... rather attached to their existing options.
And while you're at it, you could add an extension to the CoH skeleton consisting of facial bones (or you could use blend shapes) and get the faces animated. That's wild speculation, mind you, but not entirely impossible. Call it a wish.
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I think thats the most reasoned, up together post of the year so far.
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...aw, shucks.
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... Of course, there's always the deep, dark fear I've nurtured ever since the mission architect was announced. With the ability to create your own content, and with possible attractive PvP features and minigames coming, it's possible that NCNC wish to make CoH a self-sustaining MMO, with the users providing all the new content. They can then focus on CoX 2. Of course, such thoughts really do fill me with dread.
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Not afraid of that. Lineage I still got updates and events despite li2 being its sequel.
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Yeah, I know. It's an irrational fear, but still a fear. -
Well, he's on the money about something brewing, but a completely separate and different MMO ain't it. The main thing about CoH that keeps it running is the high amount of subscriber retention. People play CoH a lot longer than any other MMO before moving on, and the subscriber base has floated between 100,000 and 150,000 since launch.
If NCNC offered up a brand new MMO and told you that was the future, then they would be forcing people to give up their existing CoH characters. If you do that, you may as well look at every MMO coming out equally, and if CO or DCO happens to be better, you go there. On the other hand, if this big update accommodates CoH veterans, either by revamping what's already there or transferring characters to the new game somehow, NC get to leverage the biggest strength of CoH - the community. Keep that intact and you start off with a really large boot in the door. Force the community to start over and you make the competition look like a valid choice.
A similar situation occurred in the world of PC hardware, almost three years ago now. AMD was in a position of dominance, and in its hubris, released a new socket that needed a new CPU and RAM, making all old systems obsolete. At the same time, Intel pushed out the AwesomeMcPants Core 2 Duo, which everyone still wants to own to this day. If AMD supported their old platform a bit more, they could have held on to more users, but instead they presented them with the need to completely switch platforms. And if you were going to switch, you wanted the best value, which was the Core 2. This... ritual suicide committed by AMD is a bleeding wound that they still haven't recovered from.
The lesson to learn is this: if a competitor comes swinging at you, don't alienate your fans. While that may be a REALLY horrible way to put the moral, you see my point. The community is the strongest thing about the game, I'd say more than any other MMO even, and NC need to keep it.
... Of course, there's always the deep, dark fear I've nurtured ever since the mission architect was announced. With the ability to create your own content, and with possible attractive PvP features and minigames coming, it's possible that NCNC wish to make CoH a self-sustaining MMO, with the users providing all the new content. They can then focus on CoX 2. Of course, such thoughts really do fill me with dread. -
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HELP!!!!!
I liked the idea of getting all those goodies right away (PC user) rather than having to wait, so I purchased the Mac Edition.
Now, when I try and launch the game I get an error message stating:
"Error opening C:Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.EU.tmp
You may be out of disk space or you may be trying to install to a location where you have insufficient permissions."
Can someone please confirm if this is a result of applying the Mac edition to my PC account and if so, how the heck to I fix it so I can play?
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The game client couldn't care less what account you have.
CohUpdater.EU.tmp is very wrong. Browse to the directory manually and look for an EXE with that name. -
Schwanky.
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There was one time where the developers answered questions posed on an IRC channel. This was back when Emmert was on the team. Because of the number of people there, they had one channel where they could talk, and another muted channel where they could listen to the question and answer session. They've since abandoned that in favour of podcasts and such.
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Damn it, I almost managed to last a full 10 seconds before hitting buy now and applying the pack...I don't even own a Mac!
I blame FFM for this blatant abuse of my lack of willpower!
Next is to see if I can shoehorn it into working on Windows7...
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Win 7 will (should) work with anything that did on Vista. This isn't some wibbly wobbly backwards compatibility like running XP programs on Vista, as Vista and 7 present a nearly identical environment to programs. Same security, same APIs, same everything. If you were a program, you wouldn't be able to tell which OS you were on without asking it nicely. 'Should' is in parenthesis because it's a beta, and because it's Windows.
One question from me. I know that I can buy the mac edition and apply it to my account, then get the goodies and the game time. I pay by credit card right now, monthly. Would I need to suspend that in order to take advantage of the time given by the Mac code? Or would it somehow say "ahh, I have some extra time, I don't need to dip my hands into his bank balance" and save me some hassle? -
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I'm thinking that 'trailer' is more of an advert to existing players who would like to run on native Mac, but haven't been able to. It's a pretty obvious play on the PC vs Mac trailers and doesn't really tell you much about the game aside from that you can play a hero or a villain.
I very much suspect it will only ever be used as part of an online campaign.
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Mac adverts tell you nothing about Macs, but people buy them.
