Soulwind

Highly unlikely.

They don't just "load stuff up on the back-end" willy nilly, and especially not while folks are logged in. That's what the server maintenance downtimes are for.

I'd suggest you post your dxdialog and hijack this reports and maybe somebody can spot something.

(FYI - if it seems totally random and not linked to anything that's happening 'in-game', the first thing I'd do is to open up your machine and dust it out if you haven't recently. Heating issues due to dirty machines can cause all kinds of wierd happenings)

With your extremely limited budget, I'd get the video card.

You'll end up processor locked for performance once you've got the new card,
but you'll get a MUCH bigger bang for the buck with a better video card than a
better cpu (for playing CoH at least).

However, before you lay out the cash for a 5750 or 5770, check your computer's
power supply to make sure it's got enough overhead to handle the new card.

Many "pre-built" systems (especially older Dell's) are notorious for having power
supplies that are just barely big enough to handle the components they came with
and really start limping if you try to upgrade....

Honestly, you're going to have a ton of troubles trying to upgrade that machine.

It's a Pentium D, with 1 gb of DDR2-533 memory, with a barely adequate power supply, in a slim-line case that uses 1/2 height risers (meaning finding a video card that will fit is going to be as much of a pain as finding a larger power supply is).

You're not going to be able to put anything even remotely modern into it. Anything you find is going to make very little difference in how you are running, although you might get more stable than you are now.

I know it sometimes comes off as a flippant answer, and finding spare cash isn't easy, but in this situation the answer really is "get a newer/bigger machine".

Check out Father X-Mas' sub-600 dollar build for good ideas. And you can even go a bit cheaper if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of performance.

The toggles aren't the tier 5,6,7 powers. It just looks like it due to the strange way they implemented ammo swap.

When you took ammo swap you got the toggles. You don't have to individually select them with power picks. Your next available pick will be Bullet Rain.

Well, personally, I rarely take either.

I prefer my blasters (and scrappers) to have a consistent damage output rather than the big spikes that relying on BU/AIM give.

However, that's strictly a personal choice, and I know most folks don't agree.

If you're going to take one (and only one) of the two, I'd say that Build Up is usually the better choice.

Build Up (generally) provides: +15% to hit and +100% damage
Aim (generally) provides: +37.5% to hit and +62.5% damage

But, by time you are in the upper levels, accuracy/to hit isn't normally much of an issue. You're character will be well slotted with accuracy and will probably have some global accuracy bonuses from IO's as well.

So the +to hit isn't nearly as important as the +damage in most cases...

Well, I've got 'Marshall Willenholly' over on Pinnacle and I'm considering re-making my Assault Rifle blaster 'Marsha Law' as a pistol user on Guardian, but she's 50 and although I've deleted late 40's before, I've never deleted any of my few 50's.

Remember, that's an UPPER LIMIT lock. ie 40 = "I don't care that you could be rendering at 60 fps, don't ever allow more than 40 fps.

It won't do diddly unless your machine is capable of going higher than the set value. So in extreme slideshow times, it won't help.

1) Make sure your speakers are plugged in and turned on.

(Seriously, my sister just spent several days ranting about how her *newish* computer suddenly stopped playing her music. Turns out one of her kids had pulled the speaker plugs part-way out of the ports. They looked like they were plugged in, but they weren't).

2) Make sure you've got sound in other applications/games.

If not, then check your windows settings, mixer panel, and/or drivers.

3) Check your options settings to be sure that you haven't accidently turned
in-game sounds off / muted / turned volume so low you just can't hear it.

If all that checks out, then I'd head over to the technical issues forum and ask
for help. They are VERY knowledgable over there.

Obviously the rebuild of your harddrive has borked something up.

The most obvious answer would be your video drivers.

Since you're running an ATI card, and ATI cards have had troubles with CoH
in the past, it's possible that you had fixed things in the past and have now
lost those "fixes".

I don't know enough about the ATI troubles to really help, but I think you need
to have a specific version of the drivers and you might have the wrong version now.

Don't despair yet.

I'd post a help request over in the Technical Issues forum and ask for help.

There's quite a few very knowledgable folks over there who can probably help
you sort out what's wrong.

62 months on my account, 61 months on my wife's account, every booster/expansion for both accounts = a lot.

However, I view all of my gaming expenditures through the horribly expensive lens of
Magic The Gathering Online.

1 Draft = $14.00 (3 booster packs of cards + 2 entry tickets)

At my skill levels that equals 1-2 hours of playtime (about 50/50) and I get back $0 to $8 in prize winnings (about 50/50).

In other words, I stink at draft, but I do love it and was spending A LOT before I burned myself out on magic.

So, after that, no other gaming expenditure really seems all that much.

Normally, me too

But after laying out what I did for the water-cooling, an extra 40 bucks for the monitor software was a drop in the bucket (hehe, get it, water-cooled, drop) (ok so I'm a little loopy today )

SpeedFan is a pretty good monitor for a free one.

One of the best total system monitors that I've found (and it's the one I use) is Everest.

It does a ton of system monitors, including voltage (both configured and 'real - after v-droop'), temps (each core, hd, gpu, gpu mem, mb mem, mb ambient...basically only limited by what your mb will report) [it also accepts feeds from external temp sensors if you have any], overclocks, etc. I also use it to monitor my pump speeds (I'm water-cooled).

Overall, it covers everything I care to monitor (and it puts them all down on your quickbar for fast reference if you want it to). It's not free though, you'll have to pay for it.

Although it works great in Taunt, I'll put my recommendation in that you slot the Zinger proc into your attack powers.

It's a (relatively) cheap proc, does psionic damage, and (in a tank) can be slotted into every attack power (due to gauntlet). . .

It would break way too many tanker and controller powers. War Mace would go from being a great powerset back to being wussy, Earth Control and Ice Control lose thier primary mitigator, etc...

On a side note, I've never really understood the "I can't tank with you energy blasters around" attitude. To me this is just the mark of a bad tanker. It isn't necessary to keep every single mob centered in a 2 foot circle. Taunt (and gauntlet) effects last long enough (especially once slotted correctly) that you might blast the mob away from me, but it's just going to stand up and run back over to me again.

Of course, if you're playing a tanker who doesn't slot taunt durations into your powers, doesn't regularly use Taunt, and doesn't keep your gauntlet effects spread around (which is perfectly fine, I've more than one tank built/played this way as well) then you just have to recognize that you aren't the be-all-end-all aggro holder and compensate if you're primary tank for a team.

Hurdle doesn't have any visual effects. No auto power does.

Question: are you wearing the Piston Boots costume part by any chance?

The Piston Boots put out a particle-effect smoke/steam/dust cloud every time
you land from a jump (any jump regardless of powers/height/etc).

By the way, food and rent aren't the only things around here that cost money. You sleep on the couch.

Frankly, all of the aura powers are dubious (at best) on a blaster.

1) They are all PBAoE powers that do a minor damage over time effect plus a minor other effect (-recharge/-speed, low mag confuse, low end drain, or a little more damage).

2) You're a blaster.

You are either attacking from range - rendering the PBAoE worthless.

Or you are blapping in melee and defeating things so fast that the minor extra damage from the aura is STILL more or less worthless.

And, being toggles, they really aren't even a good place for a proc (once every 10 seconds and all that).

While I hesitate to say never take them, as I'm certain there are situations where they are useful (especially the -recharge/-speed from the cold aura), overall imo the auras are very skippable for a blaster.

When first getting into the inventions crafting, it can be a little daunting.

If you're relying strictly on what drops for you, you're going to get frustrated as you'll rarely have exactly the salvage you need for the receipes you've got and vice versa.

When working with IO sets, it really helps to plan out what you're going to need ahead of time.

That way when/if you find what you need you can keep it handy (you can store up to 30 pieces of salvage in your personal vault space) until you're ready to use it. And when you find stuff you don't need then you can sell it at the market to build up enough influence to buy whatever you happen to be missing.

It's really difficult to give specific info here, as the whole inventions system and market interactions are huge and a bit complex. But here's the main things:

1) Plan ahead for what IO sets you want/need. Keep the receipes and *expensive* salvage you happen to find that meet your needs. Sell everything else at the market.

2) Unless you just farm, farm, farm, you'll almost certainly have to buy missing receipes and salvage from the market.

3) Go over to the market forums and read up on things.

4) Unless you're specifically going for certain uber-builds, you could just use the TO/DO/SO path (with the occasional or total common IO usage).

5) Plan ahead. I can't stress this part enough. If you don't know what you want/need, then you'll certainly end up frustrated.

SO's (normally available from level 22+, you can get some earlier in special circumstances, but level 22 is the "default" for using SO's) are available in the normal stores and are perfectly acceptable for use. You won't be ultra-super-duper-uber, but you'll be more than good enough.

The nice things about TO/DO/SO's is that they are easy to acquire (just buy them from the correct origin stores), but you do have to replace them every 5 levels or so.

Common IO's are easier to acquire than Set IO's. They never expire, and at upper levels do give a better boost than plain SO's. You will need receipes (found, bought at the market, or bought from the invention workbench itself) and salvage (found, bought at market, or by spending AE tickets), and the crafting cost can be a bit steep if you haven't accumulated influence (but you only spend it once..as opposed to replacing SO's all the time).

Set IO's are the hardest to deal with. You have to be lucky to find the exact ones you want, so you'll almost certainly be buying from the market. You can also buy them with Merits (directly or from random rolls) and with AE tickets (random rolls). These REALLY need to be planned for and (usually) slowly acquired over the course of the characters lifespan.

And if none of that works, then you'll have to contact customer support.

Don't freak out though, unlike a lot of companies, NCSoft's CS is very helpful and will get you straightened out.

You won't have wasted anything....once you're playing you'll be here for life

It's probably a stupid question, but are you sure you're looking at the right powers?

Some of the MA attacks are still kicks even when the punches theme is chosen.

Other than that, I don't really have any idea. I've got one of my MA characters changed

and haven't had any problems with it.