Slauterhause

This is a very interesting read! As a longtime extremely casual player, I've learned quite a few things, and I've been entertained. Kudos!

Yea that's awesome. I've wanted these for years.

I had the same issues with the game freezing every few seconds, using the 11.5 and 11.6 ATI drivers.

I read on the forums here to try the 11.2 or .3 drivers (I chose the 11.2) and I can report that fixed my problem.

Additionally, Praetoria was the first zone to be optimized for the new ultra video settings, so it's a lot more demanding on your card than the old zones. I have a pair of 5870's in crossfire, and it still lags a bit for me. *shrug*

I tried the mouse and while I did like it more than I thought I would, I didn't like it more than the ol' trusty Microsoft IntelliMouse that I've been using for a dozen years. I mention the dozen or so years that I've used the other mouse (I literally bought a case of them, I like them so much) because perhaps I'm too set in my ways to adapt to a new one (ya think?). However, like I said, I DID like it more than I thought I would. The reason I eventually sold it to a friend was more or less the shortcomings of it's software with Win7 64 than the physical mouse itself. This was pretty much right when the mouse was released, so perhaps the software issues are better now, I don't know. I remember the Mouse4 and Mouse5 buttons being at a very awkward position up near the left click, and I didn't like that at all since I'm heavily dependent on alt or ctrl Mouse4 or 5 clicks.

If you pick it up from Amazon, you can always send it back if you don't like it.

I'm a network engineer and I use Microsoft Security Essentials / Malwarebytes on my Windows machines. I don't care much for ratings or #'s from magazines or other professionals, I prefer to use what I deem to be effective (and in this case, free).

...And geez je saist, know much about network security?

Hilarious, I spit out some of my morning tea as I read this.

*obligatory 'posting in an epic thread' comment.

Well done sir. Well done.

I'm not.

I DID get my DS/Therm up to 37 before constant bubbling drove me insane. Deleted him and haven't remade. Having too much fun with Ninjas and Zombies right now. I will most certainly make another DS someday, when the popularity dies down a bit.

For it's age, CoX is actually a fairly GPU intensive game, especially when using some of the higher settings. You're using a laptop with integrated video, so some of the graphics settings you currently have may be contributing towards your slowdown.

1) Bloom is enabled and set to 100%. Lower this or turn it off.
2) Depth of field effects are on. Debatable, but turning this off might help.
3) World texture level is set to very high. Debatable, but lowering this might help.

Overall, your problem may be that the graphics options are set a little too high. I'd go through each option and lower the slider until you have a good balance of performance and desirable quality. Your system specs are well within CoX spec, and I don't believe you have a hardware issue.

Here is a nice post explaining all the graphics options in detail.

good luck.

As I work through my 3rd straight night of my five tip missions, the though hit me like a truck. Have tip missions become the dreaded....dalies of CoX?

Anyone who has spent time in that other game knows the bad rap that dalies got over there. "Second job" "Must-Do's" Etc. Personally, I'll be doing them everyday to I can experience the different things the morality system offers, however, there is a currency style reward for doing these missions, so based on that reward, have these become a must do?

Discuss!

I had Sea Witch down to about 20% :/

It's ok though, I knew I was playing with fire.

Very cool, thanks!

Yup, PhroX is right. The second application terminates the first one and overwrites it.

This can be demonstrated by casting something like an enhanced shield buff on a pet, then enhancing the power and recasting. If you look at the combat attributes monitor for the pet, you'll see the old defense number being replaced by the second enhanced value. If you also use something like Hero Stats, you'll see the shield timer value was refreshed as well.

TDLR - yea. It renews.

@Digital - That worked beautifully, thank you!

I've also been trying to download a new game from Steam for about 2 days now, without success.

My guess, is they (Steam) know about the issue and are working on it. Steam is only a reseller of CoH, so I seriously doubt an in-game petition on CoH will help you. In fact, I'm sure they'll refer you back to Steam.

What's funny...I was looking on the Steam forums for help, and I ran into your thread, and a couple other of your posts regarding this issue. It looks like you're not the only one having launcher troubles, so hang in there and wait for Steam to get it worked out.