fbandersnatch

If your machine is a few years old, you'll also want to confirm you have a PCI Express x16 video card slot and not an AGP x8 slot.

If you have PCI Express slot and enough power supply, you may want to look at a GTX 260. It's a lot more video card for the same money. Don't be fooled by the memory. The place where the GTX 260 outruns the 9800 far greater bandwidth to the memory and almost 2x the stream processors.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...564&CatId=3775

If your power supply is borderline the GTX does require more juice.

ArsTechnica has a great build guide. Moderate build comes out to ~$1300 with a nice monitor and speakers and high-end build comes out to around $2700. I like the article because they tell you why they recommend each part with out going into mind numbing detail (I'm looking at you TomsHardware) and they list a couple good alternatives for every part.

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guid...ide-200807.ars

I've also been running COH on Windows 7 for a month or so with no trouble. Was running with a Nvidia 8800 and last week upgraded to a GTX 275, no troubles with either video card. In fact I was doing a little dual instancing at 1920x1200 with no headaches.

ahh duh, thank you. I did the previous mish last time i played and totally forgot about it.

Is the "Talk to Ashley McKnight" mish in Darrin Wade arch is bugged? My Nav text says Talk to Ashley McKnight. The mish waypoint is on her. But when I click on her she just gives her generic can't-talk-now message ("Waiting for my Dad") and my mission does not progress.

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Well the cyborg pack let me refresh my old tanks look, though they dont show well in screenshots, he has the flies aura going too.
Poo the Robot Ape

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Despite the name, the costume is outstanding!

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No argument here. I've been saying for weeks now, maybe months, that the single most important thing this game needs to do is to revamp the level 5-15 game almost from scratch. It's so massively inferior to the rest of the game that it has to be costing potential subscribers.

...


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Wow! Outstanding post InfamousBrad. (Didn't quote whole thing because of length.) I agree with your CoH vs CoV observations and would love to see some reworking of CoH based on them.

There should be a tutorial for the CH as well as for inventions.

f.b.

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I always wanted to get her a "I Survived ED" t-shirt.

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ROFL! I would buy one of these. It would have a totally different meaning for a player than for Cuppa, but still funny.

f.b.

If my understanding of the current game mechanics are correct, I'm happy with the current values for 1-3. I have no idea how situation 4 currently plays out. Here's what I would like/expect...

1) default To Hit vs. no Defense: 75%
2) max To Hit vs. no Defense: 95%
3) default To Hit vs. max Defense: 5%
4) max To Hit vs. max Defense: 25% (I'd like the buffed ToHit to come into play, but defense should get the edge.)

My answers wouldn't change giving or receiving.

f.b.

I don't like PvP in CoH.

s.

Wow! Just, wow! Amazing post.

If I was a dev I'd be having a panic attack right now. How in the world are they going to maintain any sort of balance in a system with this kind of complexity. I'm not complaining I love the system and the fact that there are so many options makes it so much more fun to play with. I just would hate to be Castle, hahahahaha.

s.

1) IOs provide a bonus of 7.5% at level 10 through 40% at level 53. Is there a chart showing this progression by level? At what level would an IO out perform an SO?

2) What determines the level of an IO you invent? I was guessing player level, but if L53 IOs can exist that can't be it.

3) Since you don't out level your IOs (you can still get benefit from an IO 4+ levels beneath you) is there also no upward limit to IOs you can slot? If my L10 character had an L53 IO could they slot it?

s.

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* Some of the sets (the rarer ones), have parts of them that are only attainable by completing a Story Arc.

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I have a problem with this beyond non-repeatable and L50's can't get.

It's not balanced between ATs. I play about 1/2 Defenders and and about 1/2 Tankers or Scrappers. I don't think I've ever completed a story arc with one of my Defenders.

Solo'ing as a Defender is somewhere between tedious and impossible. When I'm teamed we rarely play my missions (often because I don't have current contacts because I don't solo) and when we do, it's never enough to finish a story arc.

Solo'ing heros will get far more of these recipes than people who team. I think that's the opposite of the effect you want.

s.

Thanks for the responses on these issues.

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Scrapper Mez protection abilities were reduced somewhat by intent. I was not involved in the change, so I don't know the specific reasons behind it, so I won't comment further at this time.

No Patch note is an oversight, nothing more. Just a quick note on how this works on the powers team, specifically: Each day, we make anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of changes to the Powers data, whether it is adding new creature and object powers, adjusting things in player powers, fixing bugs (it is amazing how many grammatical errors slip by!) When we put all of the changes into source control, we add comments on each and every change we made. That's the theory. In practice, sometimes we'll be in the midst of a series of things and get interrupted, causing us to forget to write down that particular change.

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This seems like a very reasonible and understandable explanation for missed patch notes on bug fixes and text changes. I hope something like reducing mez protection would be planned, discussed, and tested enough that it wouldn't slip anyone's mind.

s.

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Why would any informed person, who wants to be effective, play a Blaster over a Scrapper as the game now stands? Blasters need a boost in damage to fufill their role in a team.

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Because for some its a matter of how you do something, not that you do something.

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If what you are saying is, "do it to be different than everyone else, do it because it is harder," then I agree with you. That's why I played my Blaster through to 50 and didn't ditch when it became very hard and very frustrating in the late game.

However, I think one goal of the game is for each AT to have something to contribute and I want to point out an area where that needs work.

s.

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Hard Wired - L50 Elec/Elec Blaster
The Grump - L42 DM/Regen Scrapper
Sludge Bucket - L27 Rad/Dark Defender

To me base damage is a bigger issue than the damage cap. By most counts Scrapper base damage is very close to Blasters. By the time Blasters "pick and choose their targets from a distance", e.g.:

- wait for tank to get aggro before attacking
- be cautious about using AoEs
- try not to aggro mez'ing mobs
- run, phase, or drop dead when they do get aggro

...the Scrappers are clearly dealing more damage through the course of a play session because they can jump in with little risk.

Why would any informed person, who wants to be effective, play a Blaster over a Scrapper as the game now stands? Blasters need a boost in damage to fufill their role in a team.

s.

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Hard Wired - L50 Elec/Elec Blaster
The Grump - L42 DM/Regen Scrapper
Sludge Bucket - L27 Rad/Dark Defender

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Scrapper is involved in melee and thus in a riskier situation far more often.

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L1 - L20 This is true.
L21 - L35 This is questionable.
L36 - L50 This is dead wrong.

I like the idea of Blasters as an AT with little or no protection, but able to dish out major hurt. Devs just need to come through on the second part. I would like to see our damage output bumped, not defenses added. Maybe start scaling Blaster damage in the 20s faster than the other ATs. So as bad guys are getting higher damage, higher ranged damage, and more mezzes we are able to deal with them quicker.

Risk vs Reward - Blasters need help.

s.

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Hard Wired - L50 Elec/Elec Blaster
The Grump - L42 DM/Regen Scrapper