Brand new install suggestions.

houtex · 02-18-2012 10:24 PM

I know the devs/mods read this, so here goes:

I hadda redo my computer. So it's 'new' again. I decided against moving anything from the old hard drive to this new one just yet. So, as part of that, a brand new, out of the box, just like they want to do it, installation of the NCSoft Launcher was done. No issues there. Then a brand new, out of the box, just like they want to do it, installation of Co* was next... and man... I gotta tell ya.....

Well, lemme just say this: While doing a new installation for Co*, these suggestions came to mind...

1) FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING EVAR, PLEASE start in the Windowed mode. I don't care if you start it at 640x480 windowed, just DO NOT go directly into full screen at a bad resolution. It sucks royally and ticks me off every time I have to do it, because:

2) DON'T START THE GAME IF ALL I CAN DO IS THE CHARACTER CREATOR. I get it, you want people to play with it. How about giving me an option? Please? Sugar, whipped cream, Bailey's, whatever you want on it? I'd rather wait, I've *seen* the character creator... I just want to play. I'll wait until it's all here, thanks.

3) Running the game in the awful video mode causes me to be STUCK in the awful mode, EVEN FOR MY REGULAR WINDOWS, such as this forums... unless I stop the game. Which I will, sure, it's not ready anyway. Still, that is... pitiful for me. I hate it. HATE.

4) WORSE, I CAN'T FIX IT UNTIL I GET IN THE GAME. This is the most annoying aspect. That I have to get stuck in the weird mode I don't wanna be in is annoying enough, that I have to exit the game, and restart the download, that is annoying even more. But the true bees in my bonnet is this one thing for sure. There is no excuse, NONE, that there cannot be a simple "Hey! This is the first time you've run this on the computer here! Want to pick out your desired resolution and test it and all that stuff like that?!?"

Um... yes. Yes I would.

BUT I CAN'T. No, I have to pick some character, log in, and have their trays all screwed up just so I can fix the resolution... then EXIT THE GAME. Then go back into the character I screwed up and fix the trays which are now all on top of each other in a jumbled up, tedious mess.

Grr.

---

I know, it's a nerdrage thing, but really. If I had anything to do with this game on the programming side, being a programmer as part of my job, and knowing things I know... These four things are frankly inexcusable. Period. It is kludgy, unfriendly, and wholly inadequate.

Thank goodness the game is as specatacular otherwise as it is, else I may have just ragequit when this happened to me the first time, were I new and trying it out for my first time.

Heck the whole Character Selection only thing in the first place ticks me the heck off, and I'd have totally ragequit without even trying the game. I ain't got patience for partial. I. Want. In.

Nao.

Thanks for readin'!

August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

TonyV · 02-18-2012 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by houtex

4) WORSE, I CAN'T FIX IT UNTIL I GET IN THE GAME. This is the most annoying aspect.

In the beta, there's a configuration settings button on the login page.

I hear what you're saying, though. Ideally, the launcher would have a configuration settings interface. Unfortunately, I think that it's an entirely different team that works on the launcher (NCsoft) as does the game (Paragon Studios), so I don't hold much hope there.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)

Tahquitz · 02-19-2012 12:31 AM

I agree, an option in NCLauncher to change video before launching the client would be nice (Allow a choice between Full Screen/Window, with a checkbox to "Force to desktop resolution" that's grayed out on Window mode.) No need for the 800x600 resolution, that's what Safe Mode's for.

Cursory look at the client, I don't see any obvious files where screen resolution is set (in ASCII anyway...) Possibly in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cryptic\CoH has a bunch of settings (ScreenX and ScreenY are keys of interest), but I can't imagine casual computer users wanting to apply a .reg patch when installing CoH.

That last part of Four has me raising an eyebrow... when I installed CoH after Freedom launched onto a new computer, COH doesn't need a restart to change resolution settings anymore (at least on my systems it didn't.)

houtex · 02-19-2012 08:15 AM

Perhaps I'm old school, but that's how it used to be. Been a while since I've had to do it, they may have fixed that "select windowed/exit/now it's windowed" thing.

But do it from the Character Creator. Go on. Try.

---

But, WOOT on the configuration button on login. That is fantastic. I stopped playin' and readin' about Betas about 3 issues ago. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised when it shows up in Live Main.

Yeah, I know... I totally should, but I just don't break things, I guess. Never had an issue in Beta, then when it went live, I... didn't play the new shiny because I'd already done it.

August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012