je_saist

hmm? Why did the lights go dark? *turns around and looks up, then eeps as a Fey *flumps* atop ze Kitty!*

meeeewwwwwwww.... not again!!!!!

and... how exactly... would know what Kinetic Melee is like? Last I checked there was no public beta going on.

*pads in and notes that Ali is still wearing the bikini from yesterday*

mew mew meow...

*heads for the kitchen and works on some eggs and grits*

well, 10.2 and 10.3 had other issues. During the beta process some of the copied threads indicated that the developers were asking Ultra Mode testers to use Catalyst 10.1 for RadeonHD Cards, and Catalyst 9-3 / 9-3-1 for previous Radeon Cards. Catalyst 10.4 largely works with Ultra Mode under all circumstances other than the AA + AO.

Catalyst 10.5 brought some regressions across certain cards and certain operating systems (e.g. the most game breaking so far is Just Cause 2 on the 5970). The 10.5 regressions are reportedly fixed in the upcoming 10.6 release.

AA and AO do work properly together across one of the OpenGL 4.0 preview drivers that AMD floated, so there is an upstream fix for this conflict. I don't know why that fix hasn't propagated down to the release driver, but the preview build that I'm aware of has some other issues, mostly related to stability. I don't know if the fix that enables AA and AO to work also causes X-servers to lock up, but it's certainly possible.

Basically, I can see where the sentiment comes from AMD drivers have issues with Ultra Mode. Still, the list of problems and bugged drivers is no worse than the Nvidia side, where the older 173 release driver that supports GeforceFX will cause the skybox to disappear... the overheating laptops... the lack of Ultra Mode atop Linux... the crashes caused by the 256 beta driver... the crashes caused by an older 195 and 197 driver builds... or the broken OpenGL 3.3 preview driver and the botched OpenGL 4.0 driver...

Actually. Looking over it, Nvidia's had far more botched drivers than AMD for this game.

Well.

I'm not going to tell you no...

The quad-core is only clocked at 1.6ghz... and well... take a look at some of the more recent other computer games that have come out, such as Just Cause 2, Alpha Protocol, Aliens Versus Predator, BioShock 2, or Resident Evil 5.

Most of these games require processor clock speeds over 2ghz.

However, the 720q does have a Turbo Boost mode that cranks dual-core clock speed to around 2.8ghz: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122

Now, I don't actually have one of these newer I7's on hand, so I don't know how well this turbo boost actually... works. I'm not entirely sure that's going to still be viable 3, 4 years down the line. I also can't tell you what the battery life is like. I also don't know if the mobile HD 5870 is really going to be able to push DX11 / OpenGL 4.0 content in 1920*1080 which is the laptops resolution.

On paper, the Mobile 5870 is weaker than the Desktop 5770, but more powerful than the Desktop 5750. It's still powerful... ... I'm just not confident in telling you it's powerful enough for 3 to 4 years.

****

I can tell you that Asus makes good laptops. I'm using one of their F3Ka notebooks myself. I'm actually tempted to point you to Asus's Nvidia versions of this laptop:

Okay, the only one CDW have listed are a GTX 260 with the aging Core 2 Duo mobile processor...

and a 15" I7-720qm with the GTX 260 and a 1366 x 768 screen, the ASUS G51J

I can tell you that an I7 coupled with a GTX 260 at that resolution is pretty much going to drive every single game you'd want to play for a long time. DX10 / OpenGL 3.x support won't be going away anytime soon as there are loads of pre-existing Geforce 8000 series, 9000 series, and GT / GTS series cards from Nvidia on the market, never minding the number of RadeonHD 2000, 3000, and 4000 series cards from AMD.

Would I actually turn down a larger screen size for a better garentee of being able to run the games in the native resolution with all details maxed out?

Probably not... I did buy a Clevo D900T...

5gigs of Ram?

Dual Channel setups only work with Ram counts 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12gigs...

Triple Channel (I7) setups only work with Ram counts 3, 6, and 12gigs.

You'll probably actually improve performance by getting off an odd quantity of memory.

***

Casa: I answered you in the Tech thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...99&postcount=3

The short version is: If you are buying a Desktop or a Medium range laptop, buy AMD. AMD is the current graphics partner of the game, not Nivida.

Also: Nvidia cards have just as many issues with the game: just drop by the tech forums sometimes and check out how many people needed to update their Nvidia drivers... which... incidentally, was the same fix for AMD cards.

If you are buying a high-end laptop though... and you can get an Nvidia GTX 200 series card: the GTX 260m, GTX 280m, or GTX 285m, these are actually the fastest mobile graphics cards you can buy.

Nvidia has end-of-lifed these chips and there will be no replacements. This means that much like the current Desktop Nvidia cards, prices will skyrocket. If you are buying in August / September and you want one of these monster chips, chances are you will get ripped off in buying one.

Not any longer than the Nvidia issues. Drop by the Tech support forum sometime.

That's pretty much correct on the Melt Armor numbers.

Most Primary to Secondary to Pool power effects are in stages of 20 to 30 percentiles.

Defenses are on a rough 30% scaling
Attacks are on a rough 25% scaling
Heals, buffs, and debuffs are on a rough 20% scaling

Ergo: when you go from Tank armor to Scrapper Armor, you drop about 30% of the power strength. When you go from Tank Melee to Scrapper Melee, you add about 30% power strength.

• Fire Shield Tank - 30%
• Fire Shield Scrapper - 22.5%

• Deflection Tank - 15%
• Deflection Scrapper - 11.25%

When you go from Defender debuff to Controller debuff, you drop about 20%

• Radiation Infection - Defender: 31.25% debuff
• Radiation Infection - Controller: 25% debuff

Most of the epic power pools generally follow this scaling downwards, with the type of power another average scaling difference down from where it would be.
Energy Torrent - Tank: 42.71 :: 13.25 smash / 29.36 energy :: 39.91 dpa
Energy Torrent - Blaster: 60.06 :: 18.77 smash / 41.29 energy :: 56.13 dpa

Ring of Fire - Tank : 48.94 :: 5 ticks :: 41.83 dpa
Ring of Fire - Blaster: 96.34 :: 7 ticks :: 82.35 dpa
Ring of Fire - Controller: 33.64 / 67.28 :: 5 ticks + 5 ticks :: 28.76 dpa / ~57 dpa

For most of the epic powers, the scaling seems to be about right.

However, on this scaling system, the Epic Melt Armor is about another 30% down again from where it should be in relation to all of the other epic power sets. Looking at Blaze Mastery in the respec window, it seems the devs just listed the exact same numbers from the Tankers Epic Power set, and that needed to be fixed long ago.

ack!

*rushes over to give Snout to Snout resuscitation!*

*sneaks up behind NekoAli at the SnowCone booth, then cats a magic spell giving her an... (wait for it)... Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini!*

you'll need to be exemplared down by somebody who has the safeguards. Providing you are, the rewards should stack properly.

Several reasons for this.
A: Nvidia's got massive thermal issues, you can look up BumpGate if you are bored one day.
B: Intel's mobile systems require you buy both an I5, the junk GPU the I5 has inside, and then you need yet another graphics chip to handle performance if you are selling to the non-ultra-lite market
C: Nvidia's pretty much abandoned the AMD market.

Check again deary. AMD's the current graphics partner.

*points at the Radeon logo at the bottom of the City of Heroes home page*

I, personally, have gotten CoH with the Ultra Mode engine update working across:
Radeon 9600
Radeon x1950 Pro
RadeonHD 2600 Mobile
RadeonHD 3870
RadeonHD 4850
RadeonHD 5770

GeforceFX 5600
Geforce 6800 Mobile
Geforce 7900 GT KO*
Geforce GTS 250

*(the GT KO died during the beta test)

Well, a quick look at my posts will tell you what I think on this.

Right now, there's no way around it. If you buy an Nvidia card for a desktop, you are getting ripped off.

However... there's a slight problem that actually would lead me to buy an Nvidia card in a laptop.

It's found on TechArp's Mobile GPU comparison. They only list shader values, no texture values... so it isn't a fair comparison.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98

ATI performance: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=3
Nvidia Performance: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=7

The most powerful ATi mobile chip, the HD 5870, only pushes 28,000 megatexels.
The most Powerful Nvidia mobile chip, the GTX 285, pushes 38,400 megatexels.

In fact, all of Nvidia's Mobile GTX chips absolutely crush the AMD opposition in terms of raw shader power. The GTX 260 pushes 30,800 megatexels.

Okay, yes, the AMD Radeon 5x00 chips will do DX11 / OpenGL 4.0.

And yes, AMD did do a Crossfire Edition of the Mobility 4850, which actually uses less power and puts off less heat than the mobile GTX 285. Which is great, if Crossfire supports the game you play.

Right now... Crossfire does nothing to City of Heroes.

Basically... if it was my money on the line, and I didn't care about things like heat, power consumption, or battery life... I would buy one of the Nvidia Mobile GTX 2xx chips over a Radeon Mobile.

The big question for you is: will these chips still be on the market when August / September rolls around and you actually get around to buying.

Given that Nvidia has End-of-Lifed the entire GTX series, it's doubtful that the GTX 200 mobile series will be available in quantities that won't make your wallet scream.

Given that Nvidia can't get the run-away thermals of Fermi under control either, it's not likely we'll see a Fermi based solution hit either. That may take another Die-Shrink to the Fermi chip that TMSC and UMC won't have ready till 2011 at the earliest.

Basically then, if you wind up buying in August or September, your only performance option at that point might only be the Radeon laptops.

Again. CoX currently says AMD is best for the game.

Actually what worries me is this page: http://eu.ncsoft.com/en-gb/jobs/ncsoft-europe.html

Among the positions they have open are:

• Customer Support Team Lead
• European Territory Brand Manager
• Head Of PR, Europe

So you might be right. It might just the US guys right now till the Eu department fills some of those jobs.

Well, if you wanted to make a macro that you can click on your power bar, it would go something like this:

/macro targ say "$target"

If you were targeting a Fallen Gunner, you would shout into whatever channel you are currently in: Fallen Gunner

Of course you can extend this, say like:

/macro targ say "Bow before me $target!"

Now, if you were targeting Requim whenever you clicked the button, you will say into your active channel: Bow before me Requim!

I'm... not... against the idea. It is a logical extension of power customization...

but I do see several technical issues, and some major logical issues with the idea. Since the logical issues pretty much torpedo the chance of this ever happening, I'll just list them:

For starters, what's going to happen when the immature players who get their laughs from working around the word filter get their hands on this? I garentee you that half of them are gonna rename Nova with something using the F-word.

Second, right now, when I check somebody's information, I know what powers they have. I know when I see a bad kinetics because they don't have Increase Density. I know when I see an awful Mastermind because they don't have pets. I know when to avoid a therm-rad because they didn't take their shields. I know when to question an invlun tank that has only his first two primary powers, a couple of attacks, and nothing but pool powers over what he's thinking.

What is going to happen if players can rename powers that other players see? Neverminding the inevitable visual assault of thinly veiled sexual references, obscenities, curses, and vulgarities, you quite literally would not be able to determine what powers a player has. Couple that with power custimization of colors, and you'll likely never know what a team-mate is doing.

Third, if the developers said something to the effect of they'll let us remain powers, but due to the above issues, only the player will be able to see the renamed powers... what's the point? Why would you rename a power if only you could see it?

You would.

The LoTG 7.5 is treated differently than the other 7.5 buffs.

By that argument every single proc should come with a warning what it works best in.

The Miracle, Numina, and Performance shifter procs should have a label: Works Best in Passives

The Confusion procs should with warnings that they were best in Toggles

The Endurance Mod Sun Proc should come with a warning: works best on enemy targeted powers.

I'm sorry, but pretty much every single proc ever made is "hazy" with what it should be used best in.

we would need to know more about what you intend to try to solo with.

The short answer is: hours.

I think the shortest big-game hunt I've seen recorded was between 2 to 3 hours. Most take significantly longer.

*cough* FAN MADE RENDERS *cough*

For those who sat through the Iron Man 2 credits there's a quick shot of the Thor Hammer at the end. The Marvel execs were very careful in the end of the movie to keep from giving a proper sense of scale of the hammer.

Ergo: at this point, even those people using verbal descriptions from the movies producers won't be able to accurately portray the size of the hammer in relation to the actor. We'll have to actually wait for production shots / stills.

I'll trade you one sackthingy for a glimps at those plans!

agree with you on the respecs:

Okay, booster packs in the in-game store:

Improving the In-game store has often been brought up in the past. I can not tell you that the ability to buy the boosters and special packs located on NCSoft's site is going to be exposed in the in-game store UI. I can tell you that it has been a requested feature for some time now, and I would be surprised if the UI guys aren't looking for something to streamline booster access for Going Rogue and newly incoming players.

On test?

No.

Booster Packs on the Test Server are automatically enabled on all testing accounts in order to allow testing of the feature contents. E.G. I had access to Dual Pistols, Demon Summoning on the test server before I actually did the Going Rogue pre-purchase, and I have access to the Genetic mod guy despite not having actually bought the science booster pack.

The test server is ALSO where the developers check and make sure that the code functions of the product work.

Given that the test server currently has two instances again, one which is locked out to normal players, it's likely that the second test server is being used to test Either Going Rogue or the Mutant Booster Pack.

The updater will resume at any point on any already downloaded files.

So if your internet connection was limited to only 1gb daily, CoH would take 3 days to download.

If your connection is capped that low, you should be able to get it in 2days.

there generally are not support threads for the Store Being offline on the test server.

About the only test server feature that gets a support thread on a regular basis is the Character Copy tool, which somebody has to give the 3 fingered salute to every now and then.

As to what I think your specific question is, the Test Server's Store is likely offline as the Mutant Booster Pack is expected soon and the developers and marketing don't want any leaks until they are ready to reveal the pack.