Starjammer

Well, just bought my online GR, to add to the 5 slots I paid $20 for yesterday...

aaand nothing!

But the money's already gone from my account.

Isn't it funny how "issues" with the online store never stop NCSoft from taking my money. Only from delivering the service I paid for.

Taking money and giving nothing of value in return. There's a word for that.

The program is called IObit SmartRAM. I picked it up as an add-on to their Advanced SystemCare tool suite.

It runs in the background and when CPU utilization is low it reclaims memory and swap space. You can also manually force it.

When CoH is spiking memory usage and it's not on, I can watch the client shoot up to hundreds of megs of memory utilization in the span of a minute or two. When it's running, the client will usually fluctuate between 60 to 80 megs, climbing and then getting reset.

The only problem I've noticed in using it is that when CoH is performing this behavior, SmartRAM itself starts swelling the swap utilization. I have to periodically exit and restart the tool to reduce it. SmartRAM only displays this behavior in conjunction with CoH while memory-hogging that I've noticed. EDIT--I run SmartRAM in the background all the time and it does not misbehave at all when CoH is not running, that I've noticed.

It's also only a delaying tactic, not a total solution. Eventually my graphics will start chopping and my framerate will drop into the single digits. Then an exit and restart or even a reboot may be called for. However, it's the difference between seeing this behavior 15-30 minutes after marketing and a few hours with intense marketing.

If a 50-foot robot can transform into an actual-scale handgun or tape recorder just by refolding its body parts, a Toxic Tarantula can get through a door.

Teleport insertion.

Keep an eye out for something inside the case possibly shorting the motherboard.

If you have a Friday deadline to RMA it, it might not be worth the risk if your CPU or motherboard is inching its way towards self-immolation.

Force of Nature means never having to say you're sorry... for grabbing all the aggro with your Aimed, Built-up, Power-Boosted AoE.

The main problem I see with it would be if it allowed build switching within a mission instance.

If nothing else, it would be a problem by allowing the insta-recharge of long-recharging powers. Pop the trainer and switch builds and everybody's got another shot of Eye of the Magus, Geas of the Kind Ones, tank god-modes, etc.

I like /db on tanks because unlike most tank secondaries, DB is fast. Most tank secondaries have kind of a ponderous feel to them, at least until you get some global recharge going, and even then they tend to have longer animation times. DB does not suffer from that.

The speed of the set does lend itself to higher EPS, despite the lower end costs of the individual powers. I'd recommend pairing it with one of the sets that provides for END recovery early on.

I think the real flaw in the concept design for Arachnos is that it's set up like it's a super-mafia without the back story that makes actual organized crime syndicates work.

Recluse is the don/capo/godfather/whatever. He's got these four lieutenants who are each jockeying for position and they each have hundreds or thousands of soldiers working for them in a hierarchy of power. Your character is a soldier trying to work his or her way up the ranks of the organization while paying respect to those above you, until you can theoretically take their place one day.

Through it all, there's this idea that for better or worse, you're locked in to the organization and it's your first, best chance for fulfilling your personal ambitions.

The flaw is that the Arachnos concept does not imbue or even imply a common connection between you and all these other crooks. There's no real reason for all of you to be in the same boat together, unlike for example, a bunch of immigrants or low-caste people who have a common culture, a need for protection and few choices. It's just sort of expected that you'll go along with it for no particular reason.

I kind of like the four-factions approach to Arachnos mentioned earlier. If I could wave my wand and re-design CoV from scratch, I'd have four primary contacts in each level range, one for each faction. You initially choose which faction you want to join coming out of the training scenario, which would be redone as a "demonstration" of your power and will to get things done. Whichever faction your character has greatest standing with when they hit that range, that's the contact who offers you a primary story arc for those levels. BUT... I'd design each stage of each arc so that you can talk with EACH contact from each faction, who will each offer you different incentives to either complete the mission for the original faction or sell out in some fashion to one of the rivals. Standing with the faction would influence the offers/threats made or received.