stoneheart

Just to address the part of the OP that I feel qualified to deal with: installation.

I was in the same boat as Sin, with limited experience; if it weren't for reading some threads here before I upgraded my video card, I wouldn't have realized that a new power supply would be needed.

Installing these two aren't terribly difficult, thankfully, although make sure to allow plenty of time for it; you'll want to go slow to make sure you didn't miss anything.

I'd suggest finding some kind of mental system to remember where all the connectors went in from the power supply; two of my failed restart attempts were because I didn't plug the hard drive back in. One key thing to look out for is the 20+4 connector; that will be the big one. If your mobo just uses 20-pin, you're okay; if it needs 20+4, take a moment to look at the connectors first, since they have to fit side-by-side in a specific way. These aren't just plug-and-play, they have to be rotated a certain way or they won't work.

Once all that's done, the card is pretty easy. Personally, I'd suggest removing your existing card if possible; with the LE, though, that might not be an option. Just make sure you can move it out of the way, since the cards you're looking at basically take up two slots (as has been mentioned previously).

Couple embarrassing things to look out for, based on experience: one, make sure the fan side of your new power supply is facing down, into the case, and not flush up against the case wall. It'll run initially, but you'll be getting a "fan failure" message in short order. Keeping it face down ensures air circulation. Second, if you're certain you have everything connected properly but your computer won't boot up (no hard disk activity), remove and replace your RAM. It can get jostled loose when you're putting the 20+4 connection in, and without it your system won't initialize.

tl;dr, it's not as hard as it looks, but you'll need patience.

Yeah, I think I would. My characters might disagree about sacrificing themselves, but the -player- would be willing to throw them into the chipper for the notoriety.

Mostly because I've felt that the players rarely if ever having an effect on a game's world has always been an unfortunate downside of the MMO game style. I understand the reasoning for the limitation, mind you, but it still feels like everything I do is for naught. This would be one of the coolest ways to cheange that.

Great! I'm already running a GTX 260, so I don't really need to finish building a super-rig to run GR.

I'm still building it, mind you, but now I can play on either PC.

So, to make sure I understand the answer (I'm a bit thick, so bear with me), there'd still be some degradation of the digital signal s it's fed through an analog port? (Specific details may vary, please make sure you live in a participating state, etc.)

Thanks muchly to Father Xmas for the converter link; assuming the card I end up getting doesn't have HDMI output, I'll just stick one of them onto the end and let it rip.

Thanks everyone!

Because I didn't know those adaptors existed?

Still it gives me something to look for. Anyone else know on the throughput question, though? My curiosity's still piqued, and I might need to know for plan B.

Let me preface this by warning that it's going to be very vague; my new rig is only just in the planning stages right now, which means I haven't decided on any actual hardware just yet. Once the devs let us know the requirements for GR, that will change.

The situation is: I'm going to be hooking up the new rig to an HDTV to use as a monitor, and I just saw a potential snag. See, my current card (which is attached to a normal monitor) only has DVI output. I'm assuming this is going to be a trend for newer cards, and thus can't guarantee that the new rig will have the necessary HDMI output for use with the TV. However, said existing card did supply a DVI-to-VGA adaptor for those with older monitors.

So, the question is: will the DVI-quality output from the card still display in all its glory? Or does the VGA-style plug have some inherent limitation that will step image quality down no matter how pretty it should be?

Haven't gotten any names reserved yet; I'm waiting to see what the name scheme is for Loyalist cops, etc. first before I roll up the local version of my main.

Do have a couple of side-switchers planned, but still can't figure out names for them, either.

I'll throw my own two inf into this mix.

I agree with most of the points here. I'll be glad to see daylight again, but the reasons for extending this event as long as it's been going were logical.

My only real complaint with the event is just how tough the banners were to drop. Multiple, coordinated teams with debuffs were the only way (as far as I've seen) to down them; several times I ended up getting skunked because all we had on hand were lowbies.

Rather than a blanket reduction on the banners' resistance, though (which would lead to smaller teams getting cheated out of the badge, as mentioned earlier), I would propose this solution: scale the difficulty based on how many people are there.

All you have is one team? Make it a tough fight, decent resist and regen, but nothing you can't power through, maybe a little tougher than your generic GM. Got four or five teams pounding on it? The banners scale up until they have resist/regen that would make Hami green with envy.

I'm sure I'll get a few eyerolls of "you don't know how to code this game, yadda yadda" and I'm fine with that; I really don't know how to code. Just thought I'd toss the suggestion out for review. Still a fun event, though, as long as it's just for Halloween.

I can't give solid numbers, but the TA/A Defender is pretty survivable. I'm not saying you can tank an 8x spawn solo, but for regular play you can manage a good standing for yourself even before taking things like Tough/Weave (assuming that's in your planned build).

Personally, I love mine; haven't tried the Corruptor version to give a comparison, though.

100-pointer: a rezzing Freak Tank. Taken from a Freakalympics arc run with some SG mates; we decided that if the Freaks got points for fragging us, we should get points for fragging them. The ones that got back up were worth 100.

Dingrush: The period after a level-up when all the high-level inspirations are active. Also referred to as "killkillkill!"

Probably entirely off-base, but the only thing I can throw in is: have you tried putting the card into another PCI slot? I've just had one burn out on me; even after sticking the new card in, I couldn't go online (despite the device appearing in Device Manager) until I swapped slots.

Other than that, I got nothin'.

I haven't offed any of mine to date; one is about to be 'decommissioned', but since he was always a remote rig played by a still-extant character, I doubt it counts.

Two of mine have come close to buying it; one by design, as part of his arc, the other just started drifting into a really ugly place. He's mostly better now, but there's still scar tissue.

Would I? I honestly don't know. I fully agree with the impact that Killed Off For Real can have when done well, but I suspect I'd end up too tied to the character to go through with it.

My fav is "you have to kill all the Dukes on the last mission of Synapse in order to finish". Almost came to virtual blows with someone who insisted this was true. Assassination is a perfectly viable method, as long as the whole room's cleared.

Well, that managed it. My spare PCI slot was taken up by something I don't want, but can't get rid of; simply swapping out the slots seems to have worked. Which now suggests that I didn't really -need- to buy a new Ethernet card, but what the heck, now I have a spare.

Of course, if this slot blows out too, it means I'm hosed....

Not directly game-related, but maybe y'all can help me with ideas.

Couple nights ago, I lose connection, and it appears that my Ethernet card has given up the ghost. No biggie; this sin't the first time it's happened, and they're cheap. So I buy a new one, plug it into the PCI slot, boot up... and still can't go online.

The new card appears under Device Manager, but isn't an option under Network Connection. I installed the drivers that came with it, but all I get is a Code 10, which (as far as I can tell) seems to be the generic "nope, don't wanna bother" message for Windows.

No more recent drivers are available, and the PC pretty much refuses to believe that there is a good Ethernet card sitting in there. I'm running XP at the moment; is it possible that something's wrong with the port itself and it's not really connecting?

"Uh, Sarah? When the mouse is strong enough to -pull you after it-, it's time to let go. Now hold real still..."

I've tried using Repulsion Field while on the first tower, pre-bug; I'd call the results "mixed". It'll send them flying, but the End drain as it tries and fails to throw the tower itself around cuts the running time down to almost nothing. Not to mention you have to figure out exactly where they're going to run up from for any effect.

I find myself very surprised that rains don't work; I assume the healing kicks in before they even start taking damage?

Okay, after reading through again... I'm still a bit puzzled.

While I'll happily concede that his writing style is less than complete (though I don't recall ever reading a description of an MMO that really felt right to its inhabitants), it seems that the largest point of contention was his play style. And that's where I'm confused. His choice of tactics - and more importantly, the mentality behind them - is the exact same as every other PvPer I've encountered: win, with as little risk as possible to myself.

I see a lot of muttering about "social mores", but there aren't any in PvP. The point is to win, period. Everything is fair game. As long as you're not doing something to the game's base code, it's legal. That is the point of view I most often see in PvP discussions, inbetween the name-calling and braggadocio.

Is the issue that he's written a paper that makes him look to be "skilled" at something that just requires a lack of concern over your opponents? Or is it that he shows that the mentality needed to repeatedly beat up on others for extended stretches, such as PvP, is simply another form of stroking your ego?

(Personally, I found the effects of when he went silent for a bit, such as the viciousness of the rumors and speculation that popped up, to be somewhat interesting.)

Okay, what am I missing here?

Every time I go into a PvP zone, it's made very clear that there are no rules. Everything goes. That's been the mantra on every occasion I've set foot in there.

So this professor operates under that agreement, and gets pages worth of hate for it? I'm confused.

I, on the other hand, do not have Office installed. (I use OpenOffice instead). And I'm getting the same error. XP, PC.

I suspect they increased it because once you craft the wand does not start your "smack the Lost around" mission. That has to be called in separately before hunting season starts; anyone not paying attention could conceivably run out of ammo without ever starting the mish.

I should know, I've gotten a head start before realizing, "Wait, where's my tally?".

James Calendar sat at the briefing table, gripping the edge of it with shaking hands. Just reading the notice was enough to bring back the memories of the worst year of his life. Some small, sadistic part of his mind insisted on replaying the sound Connoly's head made as it bounced across the courtyard at Portal Corp.

James had manged to climb back up after the war; Kelly had been a large part of that. She had saved his brother's life, she saved his soul. He'd finally managed to get back into school, and was on track to actually complete his junior year this time. Did he really want to risk all that for a chance at revenge?

Yes.

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: The Overlooked
Global Contact: @Protocol 9
Level of Classification: 45
Origin: Mutant
Super Rank & Super Group: Member, Young Sentinels


Captain Marks sat back after perusing his e-mail; it was about the only thing that worked in the shack that was HQ.

So they're coming back. Folks say how advanced they're 'sposed to be, but they keep sticking their snouts into the one town guaranteed to punch it in.

Time for us to get our shot in, eh Solarburn?

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Captain Freefall
Global Contact: @Protocol 9
Level of Classification: 23
Origin: Natural - Peacebringer
Super Rank & Super Group: CO, 7th Kheldian Airborne