Phoenix_Wrath

I really wasn't too sure about all the bureaucracy involved with Freedom and the strangeness of having to buy bits and pieces of a game one step at a time instead of getting a whole, complete, enjoyable game for the comfortable price of $15 a month.

I popped in, happy to see all of my characters intact and playable, and spent some time goofing around in the city like I always used to. Been a big fan of City of Heroes since i2, only really dropped out around Going Rogue.

Then I realized that my characters seemed a bit weaker than usual.

Then I realized I need to spend a few bucks to even utilize all the invention enhancements I had equipped.

Poking through the store I found more and more to dislike about it.

I respect the decision to go free to pay if subscription numbers weren't keeping the development house afloat, because I REALLY respect the developers of this incredible game.

I kinda miss the old model though. All this store nonsense seems a bit overdone. Like, perhaps there could be more items that are just available to free accounts, so it doesn't feel so restricted.

Successful free to play games make you feel like you're having a LOT of fun for free, so much so that you'd love to pay for even more fun.

I just feel restricted and shortchanged.

Oh well. I wish the CoH team all the luck in the world, wish I could return to the CoH before freedom, and am leaving a small note here that maybe imo the store could use some work.

Goodbye all! I hope you're still having fun out there taxibotting and xostume contesting and task forcing and all the rest. Tell Rulaaru, Hamidon, and Recluse I said hi.

Hmm, you think that'll work? We'll have to give it a try then. ^_^

It's late tonight and we've got a long trip ahead of us next week, so we'll try it out when we return and be sure to post back to this thread for this results. Till then we'll stop being a burden on all you wonderful peoples' consciousses lol.

And hey, thank you all again for all of the help and tech support. It means a lot to us .

man I hope I didn't buy a dud computer for her ><.

At least it runs everything except CoH very smoothly....

And yeah, we most definitely have been download/installing the Mobility drivers.

On this note... for those of us who are not computer wise >< what IS a good site for buying custom computers? Or just a good site for buying a gaming computer in general.

Eesh. We still got the gigantic icons "Ugly No Drivers" screen.

Guess we might be WoW stranded for a while lol. We'll try it a few more times, but we've tried it all to little success. We uninstalled ATI and got the ugly screen, jumped to Safe Mode to run Driver Sweeper, rebooted to normal mode, installed the 10.5 drivers, and rebooted again.

Screen still ugly.

System Restore awaaaay lol.

I just cannot tell what the problem is. We uninstall through the Uninstaller. We driver sweep it with Driver Sweeper. And everything is clean and good. But the new driver install just will not go.

Okay. We'll try this out in an hour or two and post back tomorrow or later tonight on the results. Thanks again for all of the help ^_^ it is much appreciated.

Hold up, CoH Helper decided to play along after a reinstall. Will edit this post momentarily with the report.

Hmm. It says under Monitor: "Driver Version: 8.682.1.0". Shouldn't it be 10.5 or so? Or is the Catalyst version different from the Monitor Driver Version

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at May 29, 2010 15:51 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
System Manufacturer: Compal
System Model: NBLB2
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 520 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 4096MB
.Net Memory Report: 2809MB out of 4021MB available
Page File: 6448MB (1593MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST9320423AS) 250849MB out of 305141MB (82%) free
D Drive: (TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x68C1)
Video Memory: 2769 MB
Driver Version: 8.682.1.0
Driver Date: 12/9/2009 10:48:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.6028
Driver Date: 1/18/2010 2:14:56 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Compal
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: NBLB2
Motherboard Version: Base Board Version
BIOS Manufacturer: INSYDE
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: INTEL - 1
BIOS Release: 20100128000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1024x768
3D Resolution: 1024x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Unknown (0)
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Shadow maps
Shadow Map Shader: Low quality
Environmental Reflections: Low quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High performance
Occlusion Strength: Slight
Blur: Fast
Ambient Resolution: High performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201003300904.25T5r
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

64 bit, and thanks for all of the advice @_@ this is such an odd error.

Yeah, Catalyst 10.5 didn't help we just downloaded it and started up the game and no change lol.

Interesting note: If she has City of Heroes up, and selects another program as her active window (IE, she brings up an IM window to reply to someone) CoH will run crystal clear in the background. She can see her character and the interface and everything with no glitches. As long as CoH isn't the active program, it doesn't flash.

So... should we install the 2.0 framework seperately and try CoH helper again?

So, I suppose there isn't much that can be done except for wait for ATI to fix the problem? Lol

Hey, my girlfriend just got a new laptop I ordered her... and after spending two days installing and downloading CoX, she cannot play. The screen just constantly flashes at her the entire time she is in the game. So she technically can log in and run around. The screen, from loading to server to character to game, flashes brightly and annoyingly at all times.

OS:
Windows 7

She possesses this graphics card:
Mobility GDDR3 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5650 PCI-Express 3D Video

With the most current drivers (Version 10.4):
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...b_win7-64.aspx

And CoX is the only affected game so far.

Now, I heard in my desperate googling for aid that this issue cropped up with Catalyst 9.12 (later fixed in a hotfix), but did not realize till later that that hotfix does not even apply to the current version.

Is there any way to clear up this flashing? Or are we just waiting for a miracle hotfix from ATI or the CoX development team?

Note: Me and my girlfriend are both not very computer savy so if any of you have any tips you might have to hold our noob hands through the process :X.

Hey, some random thoughts from the New Faultline article.
It's been speculated constantly over the forums that a space zone is soon to arrive. Rocket launch pads being constructed in CoH and CoV, possibly for i9 or maybe i10-11. The devs said they began the massive storyline in i8 and will end it with i11. Well, not many people see how this storyline is starting.
[ QUOTE ]
Experts believe that strange seismic activity on the moon created catastrophic tidal surges on Earth, causing the Overbrook Dam to burst.

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These lends wind to those who believe the moon will be a new zone.
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The Lost (for very specific story reasons) will be added to Faultline.

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This lends wind to the fact that many people believe the Rikti will be "the enemy the heroes and villains have to band together to fight". The Rikti are definitely involveed with the moon, and since they are what has created the Lost...

This is the only thing I can possibly think of to start on the i8-11 storyline, and it all fits fairly well.

Not about EAT's, but worth mentioning, for the sake of future speculation.

Looks like they are getting i8 relatively close to i7, compared to how long i7 took due to bug fixes. Hopefully i9 and a new EAT will be around in the next three to four months.

Vet rewards are sweet ^_^.

Lol ^_^

BTW, welcome back Ocean. &gt;_&gt;

Nice force of will on the quitting CoV, ;-)

Almost lasted an entire month &gt;_&gt;

hehe. I'm personally looking forward to Coralax. I like water. =p

[ QUOTE ]
gone for how long?

[/ QUOTE ]

he cancelled his account until things start happening here.

...I know the dev's work hard, but I can't refrain from commenting on their work speed. "So we won't see him for the next few years." There. Outta my system.

Remember a lot of big content is planned for i8-i11. So, whatever this huge storyline stuff is, we wont be seeing it anytime soon. Regardless of dev's hopes for a new issue every 3 months like some other MMOs, its safe to assume we won't see i11 until 2026. &gt;_&gt;

[ QUOTE ]
how will the nictus fit into the game though. nictus are council cronies so why would arachnos try to recruit council soldiers? i want to see BotBS now, because i'm excited about a tech EAT.

[/ QUOTE ]

...No, Nictus are NOT Council cronies. Although the Council does use them, they are a completely independant race of beings from another planet, that exist in who-knows-how-many places around the galaxy, have their own culture and such, and not every single one of them works for the Council. I'd say the Nictus work more "with" the Council than "for". But, those Nictus involved with the Council ARE a minority of the Nictus population.

[ QUOTE ]
Another thing to remember is that I8-I11 is one big story, so the EAT has to be involved with the I8-I11 story somehow, and I doubt the devs can remove something that big that quick.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh really? New storyline starting in i8? Nice, ws thinking that i8 was gonna be a "meh nothing to see here" patch from a look at it, but hey, if they're starting a new issues-long storyline, at least it won't ALL be like "...another patch with not much new in it. &gt;_&gt;"

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Well… to put it simply… as soon as you create your Elec/Elec brute, you just hit the ( I own) button for PvE.

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Look closely at your keyboard - I think that's actually the "Nerf Me" button.

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You haven't done well with Elec/Elec in PvE so far? i guess its just a late bloomer for some of us, but for instance at lvl 30 me and 6 other lvl 30s did the Sharkhead SF (so, 7-man-team-size mobs of Longbow at lvl 31) and we were escorting Barracuda outside of that cave full of the Longbow. Two ambushes came at us, I let the rest of the team move ahead, and killed both mobs. Without breakin a sweat, without using a single inspiration. No endurance problems, enough AoE dmg, it went pretty smoothly. So, no, I don't mean the "nerf me" button.

[ QUOTE ]
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If one jump hits a lvl 26 boss, it went down to about 1/3 of the experience it SHOULD have given me.

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That shouldn't happen. I haven't played my elec/elec brute much but I have played with a lot of mind control folks with my other alts. Even if an enemy loses half its hit points to confused enemies, it should still yield way over half the normal reward. To get it down to 1/3 would mean that the secondary shots must have been responsible at least 75% of the damage done to the boss! Are you sure on these numbers?

[/ QUOTE ]
That was a typo, I meant it went DOWN 1/3, not DOWN TO 1/3. So, 2/3 of the original. The jumps do nice dmg but I just don't like any of the XP being sucked off. That's just personal preference.

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How's the endurance cost on Build Up? I know it's pretty noticable on my blaster.

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Lol, not very noticable at all. Besides, once you get Power Sink (less so, Conserve Power, if you choose that instead), endurance will never be a problem again. Ever.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Swift+Sprint+Lightning Reflexes

[/ QUOTE ]
Errr.... this sounds familiar. My Claw/Reflex scrapper uses sprint/swift/quickness all the time but I would have to drop a lot of slots into it in order to get it up to the speed of a travel power (or just get a Speed Boost from somebody). Looks like thats what you did. You might try a copy to Test, respec out the whole fitness thing, get conserve power, and use those slots to add some end reduction slots to the most draining powers. Then you'll get to pick two more powers. Maybe get that Chain Induction so you can check the numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have a few valid reasons for going Swift/Sprint/Lightning Reflexes. For one, it is actually great if you 3 slot all of em... and I find I have enough slots to go around to see all of my powers' needs. For another, there is nothing more PvP friendly than an unsurpressed travel power. You can zip by, hit something, and not be slowed down at all. Still moving at a more or less unslotted SS pace. All you need is to flick on Sprint, and even with just your Auto powers (swift and Lightning Reflexes) you move very fast. Finally, I'm going to probably replace Cone Lighting (Electric Fences, whatever the hell the Scirrocco cone zap is called), and Lightning Clap and snag Combat Jumping and Super Jump, or Air Superiority and Fly. So, practically, unsurpressed SS, and SJ. Whee PvP! Ya, currently, with only the Swift+LR+Sprint, I look pretty pitiful hopping around trying to swat a flying kiter's feet. On the other hand, I kill everything I CAN reach, so getting AS to smack em down to the ground ore SJ for speed purposes, is going to be very helpful.

Valid points, I will probably just switch in some other slots elsewhere. Maybe some End Drain in my attacks, people say the end drain from Elec Melee isn't noticable, but in a protracted battle with a fellow toggler, it really is. &gt;_&gt;

I really hope they come out with one of these EAT's by i9, i might explode if they delay any longer. although, of course, i have no problem with them taking time to get it right .

that "deep" water pool outside the Grandeville wall SURE is encouraging though. But who knows, even if they get the pool and such figured out the devs might not have coralax out until i12. thats just the way they work =p