City of Heroes Legacy Updater no longer in use from August 4

Having just checked, your answer seems ever so slightly disingenuous. Steam brings the old CoH Launcher straight up. Care to clarify or to point me to a faq on how I can get the NC Soft Launcher and Steam to play nice please?

| dave | onion | @davejb |

The mac version is out (at least a beta of it, forget if its official yet or not). I installed it about a week ago myself. I think the FAQ needs to be updated. Instructions are in mac section of the forums.

I don't let the launcher run all the time (it is set to close itself while playing) in order to conserve system resources. So any patch means I still have to wait for it to download & patch when I log in if there is a new patch. The trickle download is pointless unless the resource hog is running.

I had the test (and beta) client installed far easier than with the NCsoft launcher. I don't use, or even care about, the other NCsoft games.

As far as I know, the mac users have been able to use a version of the launcher for a month or two now.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Do you leave it running while playing? I can see it might be faster IF you have it downloading in the background, but I don't.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

This, also is very easy to use, and we can access to test and beta from there too.
I was a bit worried when it was announced but now I love it.

From How do I resolve issues with the NCsoft Launcher?:

1. If you are connecting through a router, make sure that TCP port 80 is fully opened and unrestricted.

I wonder if this also applies to ISPs.

I just wanted to echo what Tony said, I completely agree. Love how it keeps track of updates for Live, Test and Beta servers all in one place, and while I don't think it's any faster launching the game client, It also isn't slower... everything feels about the same on my end.

Also, I can't speak for others but I haven't run into a single problem (yet) using the launcher with Windows Vista ultimate (64-bit). I've been running it since about a week after the original announcement. My wife and son also haven't had any problems running the launcher on Windows XP professional and XP home, respectively. All of our installations were setup and go, very smooth transitions.

When I have it download a patch (before logging in, a la the old launcher, not in the background), it downloads and installs MUCH faster than the old installer did.

The same here.

Whether I already have the launcher running or I start it up before playing and it tells me it has a new patch to download the patch dls and applies much much quicker than the old.

I agree 100%. I use the launcher myself...tried it and I have hated it since, but been too lazy to switch back. I was planning on doing so next time I did a reinstall.

This SUCKS...no way around it. I do not play any other NC Soft games. I hate the new launcher with a passion.

However, it works so I will use it if I MUST.

What I find the worse thing is the treatment of customers. People that cannot get it to work are simply out of luck?

Customers on Linux are told too bad?

I think, for a game that has recently announced "free-to-play" CoH is pushing their luck.

If any other game went free to play, we would all know the real reason...low subscribers. Regardless of how it gets spun. The last thing CoH should do is alienate players (which honestly they started to do with base builders and PVPers.

I'm planning to stay with the game as a premium member...or at least I am currently planning to. However, the only thing keeping me here is base building, and a certain other game recently added bases and hideouts to their system.

Sort of makes on reconsider his loyalties (since original beta too).

EDIT:
Thank GOD for
"C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\cityofheroes.exe" -project coh

Huh. Well, I'll be...

I'm not sure that article is a list of requirements as I do not have anything set up as it suggests. I think it is more a list of things to try to resolve issues. Sort of a "well here. Try this and see if it works."

Because all of my ports are stealthed at the router, and nothing from CoX/NCSoft is given specific permission on my PC firewall lists.

But that right there could be the problem if opening port 80 can help all by itself. Of course, good luck trying to get an ISP to change its "security measures" of blocking incoming port 80 packets.

Sorry, man, but NCSoft implemented the new Launcher BEFORE they even told us about Freedom. They just haven't made it mandatory till now, though they did say from the beginning that it would be eventually.

I like the launcher. One place to tell me what version of the game needs patching, and it's the same speed, if not faster (never slower than the old launcher).

I can't speak to the other folks who've replied to say that it loads faster than the old one and updates/patches faster - but for me, I DO NOT run it in the background - ever. When I want to play, I launch the NCLauncher, if an update is needed I hit the update button and let it launch CoH when it is done patching (and my settings have the launcher close - not minimize to tray - upon game launch). It is still FAR faster for patching and loading than the old CoH Updater for me on my Win7, Vista, and XP machines.

I was also in the crowd that before the push to get us all on the NCLauncher was whole-heartedly against it. Vehemently and without a doubt in the "this is a BAD idea" category. However, switching to the NCLauncher resolved a huge issue I had been having before with my Win7 PC wherein I was unable to play the game (most of my mouse buttons ceased working while in CoH) if I used the old CoH Updater. I'd reported the issue and tried to get it resolved for months with absolutely no acknowledgement that there was a problem - I had to patch the game using the updater, then exit the updater and use a special shortcut to bypass the updater but allow CoH to load.

The new launcher is far more stable than the old launcher I'd had experience with back in the days of Auto Assault beta - does it still have some problems (mostly security and memory use issues)? Sure. But for me, it only runs when I need to load CoH and it patches the game easily 2-3x faster than the old updater did - on the same hardware (experience is with five computers using the new launcher in my household, all with much improved update/patch speeds), so I'm not seeing a patch speed change due to new hardware not being a bottleneck here.

For me at least, the new NCLauncher is a lot more friendly with regards to how it plays with the UAC in Vista and Win7 - the old updater shouldn't have been requiring the OS to ask for permission using UAC upon every launch. Which is what was causing my mouse buttons to stop working in CoH, the permissions weren't being handled correctly since telling UAC that "yes, the updater is allowed to run and make changes" altered permissions for the updater and for the cityofheroes.exe when it was handed off from the updater to the game app. I mention this in particular because if anyone else has been having issues in Vista or Win7 with mouse buttons not working ingame when using the old updater - the NCLauncher fixed the problem for me.

For those having issues with the new launcher - I really really hope they can get it running for you or at least find a workaround once it is required. I do understand sticking with the old updater as long as possible if you cannot get the new launcher working. I also understand wanting the Steam interface to be as well integrated with the new launcher as the old updater was with Steam if you're used to the Steam functionality. I am in no way trying to discount your issues here, but for those of us who switched with no functional issues to the new launcher - the overwhelming response I hear (even from those who were vehemently opposed to the idea) is positive once it is up and running - I've only heard one person say it is slower than the old updater, and a few say it seems about the same speed - but mostly I hear how much faster it is.

How would I check this? I'm not savvy in these things

I'm in phoenix, using CoX. Does this mean that every player in phoenix, or every player using CoX internet, will no longer be able to play?

Go here:

http://canyouseeme.org/

Enter 80 into the "What port?" field. Click "Check".


If your ISP blocks incoming port 80 connections, and the FAQ or whatever says that you need to have that port open, I'm afraid that you can't play the game using your ISP.

I wouldn't go so far as to say every player in Phoenix (or using CoX Internet) won't be able to play... But it will likely put a damper on some players ability to play.

As the CanYouSeeMe page (below) states, port 80 is a common port for ISPs to block incoming traffic on.

I'm afraid that CanYouSeeMe probably won't see Jawbreaker on port 80 as s/he already listed that CoX blocks incoming port 80 traffic. :-(

EDIT to add: I tried looking for a guide site on how to check router ports (every manufacturer has different ways to go about it), but the one I knew of years ago has turned into a HEAVILY add supported / guerrilla downloader site that I won't link to.

I would suggest trying "open ports <insert name brand/model of your router here>" in your favorite search engine. Or, if you would like to inform me/us of your router we can look into it for you.

I would guess that would be the case. But, canyouseeme can't see me on port 80 (I was not surprised by this - I knew my port settings) and I can use the Launcher.

--Rad

Same - I get the timeout message.

It actually is faster to update the game for me personally. But I believe this is because
of the differences in how updating is performed, which is itself its own problem.

The old CoX updater seemed to only need "duplicate" space for one pigg file at a time -
it'd dup the file, stuff its crap in, then remove and replace.

The NCsoft Launcher makes duplicates of each and every file being updated, and
doesn't remove these duplicates until the update process is finished. For most people
this isn't too big a deal. If you're a user playing on a system with a small amount of
disk space though, you may find this to be troublesome - updating from a new game
install, obviously requires most if not all piggs to be updated. Effectively doubling the
minimum space requirements of the game, since you can't update it(and therefore,
can't play it) without enough free space for roughly two game installs. 8-9GB isn't
any big thing for most drives nowadays, but again, it's a nasty and undocumented
stick in the butt for anyone hard up for space.

Actually launching the game I agree is much slower now on my machine as well, and
my copy frequently likes to get "stuck" on whether or not it wants to show the agree
to TOS insert, which slows it down further. That in-client overlay thing alone causes
me as much "Let me PLAY darn it!!!!" rage as the launcher seems to cause other
folk.

Not that any of this matters I guess, since the NCSoft Launcher Mandate is undoubtedly
being crammed down from On High, and they don't really care if it's efficient, clean,
safe, or even desirable. They want it, therefore we're going to have it, and that's that,
too bad.

If I know that there is going to be a large patch, I leave the launcher running when I go to work. That way, it downloads the patch while I'm out. This is important to me since my "broad"band sucks.


And this is different from every other piece of software in existence in what way? If someone has trouble with the launcher, tech support works with them to try to get it to work. If you can't get it to work, you're hosed. I had that happen with an anti-malware product. Absolutely could not get it to work even after 3 full uninstall/reinstalls at the behest of tech support. I ended up going to another product. It happens. No software is perfect.


It was broke. The old launcher sucked. Unfortunately, the new launcher is not an unconditional improvement. It also has issues.