je_saist

mostly because it's a horrible idea that's dragged out because Champions Online and HellGate London did it. Nobody stops and thinks for a second about what happened / is happening to those games.

They. Failed.

I'm not even convinced that Lifetime Subscriptions are a good business plan when starting a game up. It is pretty much telling the player base that the developers intend the game to fail within the time-span of how long a Life-time subscription cost would be if you paid monthly. So if you paid $200 for a life-time sub, at $15 per month, the devs intend the game to fail in a little over 13 months.

About the only time a Lifetime Sub makes sense is in the scenario given where a game is being closed out or put out to non-maintenance in favor of a sequel title.

well. AMD can be contacted by a variety of ways.

You can file bug reports here: http://ati.cchtml.com/

You can file a post on the AMD community forums here: http://forums.amd.com/game/

You can email AMD using this form here: http://emailcustomercare.amd.com/

There's also the Catalyst Crew Feedback form: http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

ATi engineers also browse through the forums at places like Phoronix and Rage3D.

***

Now, Nvidia's a tougher nut to crack. The only way that I'm aware of to contact the company about driver support is through here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/driverq...assurance.html

***

Another approach, and one advocated by Terry Makoden and John Bridgman of AMD is to bug your graphics card vendor. Let them know you buy a card for a particular feature. An OEM like Sapphire, Asus, XFX, Acer, Tul / PowerColor, or the like has a greater amount of pull with driver developers. Michael Larabel (of Phoronix) wrote about this method in response to getting better Linux drivers back in 2007: http://www.michaellarabel.com/index.php?k=blog&i=121


This is probably the best way to get Nvidia's attention these days as well. I do need to note that some companies don't have contact emails. You'll need to send a snail mail letter.

I do kind of need to halt you here. Nvidia has dropped support for this card. You'll have to use an older driver set in order for the AGEIA add in card to work properly.

Xbitlabs looked at this cards in Crossfire: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...rossfirex.html

The good news is, AMD has launched a new Crossfire profile system which is fixing some of the software compatibility problems with Crossfire. The bad news is, the developers last word was that multi-gpu wasn't giving an expected performance boost in Ultra Mode. In Posi's edit for this thread, we need to start bugging AMD and Nvidia to make sure multi-gpu works for this game.

***

For now, the safe bet is a single GPU setup. Really, the 5850 is at least $50 less than the GTX 280... outruns the GTX 280 in all but "The Way it was meant to be sabotaged games", uses less heat and power... and... it's not even a contest really.

Unless you are buying brand name for the sake of buying brand name, the GTX line-up from Nvidia is just a bad buy right now.

and yes, I didn't check the HardOCP links I sent him, so they /dev/nulled due to broken formatting.

where's that emote for smacking my head against a brick wall...

Interesting. I guess this is one bug I'll never be willing to try and duplicate or replicate.

just throw him on ignore Hyperstrike. He's been reported to be one of the major griefers and hell-reppers on the forums. Unfortunately, one can abuse the rep system, or the forum system, without abusing the rules, so I think the GM's hands are tied for this player.

huh?

Right now, once you get to 50, Epic Archtypes are unlocked. You can delete the 50, and the epic archtypes are still unlocked. It's pretty much a one-time event. It is a one time event unlock.

And since I'm just wondering, why re-roll? Why not just make a new character? Or if you've run out of slots, why not try a different server?

PhysX only works if you have a physical AGEIA add in card from BFG or from AGEIA.

Some players are pressing the developers to support Nvidia's graphics-card based PhysX. I think this is a bad idea, and am one of the players pressing the developers to move to OpenCL for hardware accelerated physics.

The big problem with PhysX is that it locks you to Nvidia cards, and Nvidia's started playing nasty with their support. If you use up to date drivers Nvidia forces you to run PhysX with Nvidia hardware alone, and they've dropped support for the original add-in AGEIA PhysX card.

OpenCL, however, can accelerate pretty much on all platforms. Here's what I said in this post: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...03&postcount=5

***

I'm pretty much the wrong person to ask this question to. I will be the first to admit that I'm biased against Nvidia. I have no respect for the company. I have no respect for their driver development. I have no respect for their marketing. I have no respect for their Linux stance.

Right now the Nvidia product line-up is a clear financial rip-off. For every product they currently offer, you can get more performance for your dollar by buying an Add-In AMD card, with a small caveat.

Nvidia has been caught actively sabotaging graphics code in games developed under their "The Way It's Meant to be Played" banner. Games that ship with Nvidia marketing will undoubtedly work better on Nvidia hardware, but it's not because the Nvidia hardware is better. It's because the graphics code is deliberately structured to drop to a lower rendering mode or corrupt when running on anything but an Nvidia card. City of Heroes users have gotten a taste of this. Nvidia was a graphics partner back a few years ago, and as I understand it, they helped write some of the shader code for the game. Not a whole lot of surprise then that some shader functions that should work on graphics chips from vendors that are not Nvidia, don't work.

Just based on the corporate behavior that we know about... I don't think I could tell anybody with a straight face to buy Nvidia.

Unfortunately, in the current add-in card market, that means the only alternative to buy from is AMD. While I do like a lot of what AMD does... http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/ comes to mind... I've never been real happy with ATi's focus on DirectX. I've never been convinced that the ATi marketers understand that promoting OpenGL to game developers and publishers is a better long term financial option than promoting DirectX. ATi has gotten better about OpenGL since AMD bought them up... but there are still some legacy problems that are both perception based, and reality based.

Short answer: we don't have official numbers on how the 57xx or 58xx series stacks up. We do know that the performance of the 57xx cards in ultra-mode was described as excellent.

As I said earlier, I'd have a hard time suggesting you buy an Nvidia card.

Speaking for right now, you're going to pay out over $200 for a card that does not support DirectX 11 / OpenGL 3.2. I'm going to presume that you intend to use this card for 3 or 4 years before upgrading. So, you are going to spend 3 or 4 years with a card that doesn't support the graphics technologies that game developers are starting to bring online. Titles with DirectX 11 support are already arriving on the market. Those titles are playable with DirectX 11 features on RadeonHD 57xx series and RadeonHD 58xx series cards. Developers targeting these new features are using RadeonHD 57xx and RadeonHD 58xx cards as the reference platforms.

Barring anything else, buying one of Nvidia's $200+ card in this circumstance just seems like a bone-headed move.

***

Now, if you are not in that price bracket... if you are in the sub $100 to $130 range... yeah. The Geforce 250 GTS is tempting. It and the RadeonHD 4850 trade blows over which is faster in different games. The RadeonHD 5x00 cards at this price point, the 56xx series, isn't quite fast enough to run current DX11 titles at resolutions you might be using (1440*900, 1680*1050). Here in this price bracket, you might spend a bit more for the Nvidia brand name... but you aren't getting royally... well. You know.

****

If you are in the $140 to sub $200 range, things are complicated again. This is the price range where you'll find the RadeonHD 57xx cards... as well as the RadeonHD 4870 and it's brother, the 4890. In this price bracket, Nvidia is just once again a bad option. Okay, you can make the argument that future DirectX 11 / OpenGL 3.2 titles may not run that fast on RadeonHD 57xx series, so you'll just stick with DX 10 / OpenGL 3.0.

However, I can buy a RadeonHD 4870 for around $170. If I can find a Geforce GTX 260, it's going to cost me $30 more new.

So, if I want to risk bare minimum DX 11 / OpenGL 3.2 support, I can have it in this price bracket. If I don't want want to risk it, and just stick with DX10 / OpenGL 3.0... Nvidia's just a plain rip-off for the parts that are available.

the gun runner statement was retracted a bit later, I believe by Positron.

no need to try the patch.

What driver set did you install? the one that came with the card, or the most recent 10.2 set?

Oh, the devs have commented on it, and implemented a few fixes. The server side lag now is not as bad as it was when the Task Force was first introduced.

That being said, I think the developers are waiting on some of the engine changes made for Going Rogue to be implemented on the live servers, or for some of the coders to be made available. Remember, ITF hit in 2008, about the same time the developers began work on Power Customization and began to train new staff in how the existing engine works. I suspect that there are some underlying engine changes that could be made that will help reduce lag in this specific map.

That being said, I do agree that 2 years for a lag fix falls on the side of: TOO BLOODY LONG.

Mewwit, I knew I forgot something.


I do have some bad news for you. Buried somewhere in that gigantic "post Going Rogue Info here"We do know that SG's / VG's aren't going to be cross-compatible. If you want to have a current villain character join a Super Group, you'll have to completely make the change from Villain to Hero. If you want to have a current hero character in a Villain group, you'll need to completely make the change from hero to villain.

I believe this mechanic is in place to retain market separation. Rogue's will still have access to the Black Market, while Vigilantes will have access to LagWorths. If the devs allowed Rogue's to join SuperGroups, Rogue's would technically also have access to Hero Salvage and Hero Enhancements. If the devs allowed Vigilante's to join VillainGroups, Vigilante's would technically also have access to Villain Salvage and Villain Enhancements, enabling players to merge the markets through SuperGroup / Villain Group transfers.

Okay, I'm working on partial information here. The developers haven't actually explained what will happen with Badges or Accolades. My suspicion is that if you have earned an accolade power on one side of the game, you'll be able to retain that accolade power if you fully convert from one faction to another.

I suspect that unless you fully convert your avatar though, some badges, such as Task Force or Strike Force completion badges, might not actually be available.

If you are planning on making a complete switch though, I wouldn't get too cozy with the badges you have.

Again, the developers have talked about the lag issues in the past. The imperious task force is just one of the rare instances where the ambition of the developers over-stepped the boundaries of what the server could reliably accomplish.

sarcasm mode on
I'm going to presume he already updated to the 10.2 drivers that were released this week. Nobody would still be on drivers from last year with a RadeonHD 5x00 series cards!
sarcasm mode off

I'm glad you thought of this before I got around to it. Always make sure your graphics drivers are up to date!

Nvidia users can drivers from: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

ATi users can get drivers from: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

And no: just because you ran Windows Update, that does not mean that your drivers are up to date either.

This sounds like your refresh rate is off. Are you using an LCD monitor or a CRT monitor?

If it has a retail box, GameStop will let you pre-order it.

You might not be able to pre-order it from us.NCSoft.com, but that doesn't mean a retail vendor won't let you put down $5 to guarantee your box when it ships.

The original post also uses the term prepurchasing:

Per-purchasing is NOT the same thing as Pre-Ordering.

Now, this just might be a language / communication problem based on how the expansions are supposed to be obtained. If it is a communication error, it needs to be fixed.

If it's not a communication error, marketing and publishing need to get together and figure out exactly what that upgrade cost from the expansion order is going to be.

I'm not certain I want to comment on this portion of your post. I'm not exactly sure Blue Centurion is entirely in the wrong for his post, nor if he's entirely in the right.

This, I can comment on. It's the Katie Hannon Effect. Just a few issues ago a large number of players were optimizing builds to complete the Katie Hannon Task force as quickly as possible. At the time the reward system offered a chance for a rare recipe upon completion. For only 10 to 15 minutes worth of play time, CoH players had shots at stuff like Miracle Recovery, Numina Regeneration, Luck of the Gambler 7.5, and so on. As KHTF pitted players against Magical opponents and numerous bosses, the chances of rare arcane salvage drops was also fairly high.

The number of successive runs on KHTF saw some of the first changes to the Task Force system, such as the timer between how often players could run task forces. The... "abuse" of KHTF also lead to the the creation of the merit system we have now.

The Imperious Task Force has many of the same advantages as the KHTF. It can be completed in a relatively short amount of time. Some teams are capable of turning in sub-40 minute runs, and even pick-up-groups in Cimerora are capable of turning in sub 1-hour times on the task force.

ITF also offers a high chance of rare salvage drops across both arcane and tech types with it's mix of Cimerorans and 5th Column opponents. The task force is also conducive to dropping rare purple recipes.

The task force itself is not as difficult as say, Dr. Khan, Barracuda, Statesman's Task Force, or Lady Grey Task Force. Nor is it as long as Dr. Quarterfield, Sara Moore, Faathim the Kind, or Justin's TF. It is far less annoying than Lord Recluse's Strike Force.

So, it's the perfect storm of high-level task force components.

Chance for Purples? Check
Chance for rare salvage? Check
Can be done with a PUG? Check
Can be done quickly with a PUG? Check
Decent Merits / Influence for the time? Check

This is why so many players in the Task Force channels treat ITF as the only game in town.

This is why Ghost Widow is the only character in the game (so far) to have animated hair. I suspect Desmonda will show up with animated hair as well. This is also why back options lets you select between capes, tailcoats, and wings, as well as why trench-coats, waist-capes (on widows I think), and magic robes turns back options off.

Basically, if you want flowing headbands, that's fine. But, under the current engine limitations, you'll have to give up trenchcoats, capes, wings, tailcoats, waist-capes, and robes. In all fairness though, most players who have made a ninja probably don't care about the other costume options, and would be gladly willing to make the sacrifice for another animation option.

Microsoft stopped shipping PAE enabled kernels with NT6 non-server editions. If you want over 3gigs of RAM, you'll need a 64bit version of Windows.


unless you're cribbing notes from me on Vista and Windows 7 being the exact same operating system at the kernel level, and getting enjoyment when people read the notes on the update patches for Vista and realize that Microsoft brought the two OS's back in development synchronization with each other and is doing it's level best to keep consumers from realizing that if they bought Vista, then bought Win 7, they paid twice for the same product...

Windows 7 hasn't been out for 3 or 4 years. It was officially launched last year.

I suspect, however, that you meant to type:

Probably Not. The 9800 GTX is pretty much the starting point on the Nvidia side. The reason why the GT 240 strikes between the 9600 GT and the 9800 GT is due to Nvidia's marketing.

Nvidia used the GT moniker on the 9600 card to indicate the highest performing 9600.

Nvidia uesd the GT moniker on the 9800 to indicate the lowest performing 9800.

The GT 240 basically has the texture performance of the 9600 GT, and the shader performance of the 9800 GT.

Right now, the Evga 240 cards are running around $100-$110 on newegg.

In that price range you could have gotten a RadeonHD 5670 that will probably run Ultra-Mode (remember, the devs described the initial 5x00 performance testing as "excellent"), or with a bit more ($140) a 5750 that will run Ultra-Mode.

You could have also gotten a RadeonHD 4850, the starting point on the ATi side according to Ghost Falcon.

If for some reason you wanted to get ripped off and buy the Nvidia brand name, you could pick up a GTS 250 512 meg for around the same cost as a GT 240...

Although you'd still be over-paying for price / performance on a GTS 250 1gig.

Actually, what it reminded me of after we had quit the TF, it was like they were all using Reichsman's combat Values. We intend to run another STF on Test and see if we can duplicate the problem there.

no.

The 4670 competes against the Geforce 8600 / 9600 / GT 2x0 series of add-in cards.

Right now, none of the AGP cards listed by Newegg are capable of running Ultra-Mode. The 4670 and the HD 3850 are the most powerful cards they are selling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102730

PriceWatch's 1gb range of APG cards only list the 4650: http://www.pricewatch.com/gallery/video_cards/agp_1gb

And their list of 512 cards isn't that great either: http://www.pricewatch.com/browse/video_cards/agp_512mb

If this link works, the most powerful cards to be found on TigerDirect are also 4650's.

***

Unfortunately, you'll find a distinct lack of modern AGP cards when you go to manufacturer sites as well.

Powercolor's most powerful is the 4670: http://www.powercolor.com/eng/produc...asp?SeriesID=2

Asus's most powerful is the 4650: http://usa.asus.com/ProductGroup2.as...EWBZcGQvxHvrb4

Sapphire only does the 4650 and 3850: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presenta...gid=4&sgid=571 :: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presenta...gid=4&sgid=336

XFX's most powerful AGP card is the 4650: http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/produc...ries/4650.aspx

EVGA and BFG, two of the well known Nvidia-only vendors don't have any AGP cards at all.


So, I think you can see the pattern here.

If you want ultra mode, you are looking at an entirely new computer, not just a new graphics card.

Go ahead and delete then deary.

Okay. Here's the thing with Ice. It was built to be different from other blaster sets. It is intentionally, by design, less damaging and more controlling. Remember, each power-set within each archtype is supposed to give you a different play experience than any other set. The ice blast set relies on more direct mitigation than directed damage.

Also, keep in mind that the set was designed back when the game was really targeted to players of Everquest or Ultima Online. The set mostly consists of the same attack(s) being made more powerful. Ice Blast... then Bitter Ice Blast. Ice Storm... then Blizzard. Freeze Ray... then Bitter Freeze Ray.


***

However, it does have it's own advantages. If you take the Munitions Mastery set, Cryo Freeze Ray stacks well with Freeze Ray and Bitter Freeze Ray holds. You can put elite bosses completely out of commission. LRM Rocket also puts some punch into your long-range sniping / mob clearing abilities.

The nuke, Blizzard... is also one of the most powerful nukes in the game. With Aim and Concentration active, my own Blizzard can clock in for around a 2,600 Hp shred-fest. (996 base damage with a 162% bonus to base damage)... not including defiance values or IO damage boosts which can push that damage count even higher.

If you combine the set with Mental Manipulation, Psychic Scream will help add some punch to Frost Breath. Psychic Shockwave can help Ice Storm clear out minions.

Combining with Ice is a good idea if you want to go for something with a lot more control... which Ice Manip's collection of holds, slows, knockdowns, sleeps, but outside of Shiver at 28, you don't get much in the way of way of ranged power.

Granted, Frozen Aura's 2mag sleep every time is a better get out of the mob than Psychic Shockwave's 25% chance to stun.