DoctorDitko

I keep a "c:\utils" directory for nifty portable apps such as this, I find Winders largely leaves them alone. And I'll add a second vote for c:\games\CoH! And a further "me, too!" on Norton. It's no Mcaffee malware, but it's usefulness vs pain-in-the-ass-ness has been on the losing side for some years now. I use TinyWall to blacklist new programs with the built-in firewall, NoScript websites I don't know, and run a free Malwarebytes scan when I'm feeling paranoid. And I haven't had a virus since "something wonderful" happened to my Amiga!

I think both have happened to me, but my favorite characters are when both happen at once... Something just clicks and I find the character writing their own dialog, and I lose myself in them almost like a really good in-person RPG session. Reading back over this, it sounds like I'm describing falling in love. I'll own to that. Well, love with particularly synergistic powersets!

Possibly, in the sense that I am deeply suspicious of software that reports back to its makers. Granted, Nvidia has more excuses than most to report back. The Georce Experience can be quite helpful, especially to new users who haven't been tweaking games/gfx settings for many years. Still, the modern drivers in a default install include: The display driver itself. PhysX support. An auto-updater. Reporting on all games installed, including downloading special settings for many games. A streaming server that automatically records the last 20 seconds of gameplay, just in case you want to stream or save it. A screenshot utility with various options to upload to many different services. Telemetry that reports which games you play and for how long, hardware details, and game settings. A javascript engine. Software to support the Nvidia Shield wireless controller. Various hotkeys to invoke the above services on command. If you use all these background services and utilities, you may be glad of them. Personally, my data cap won't allow me to stream, etc. I don't need to waste my limited throughput on telemetry (or ads, helpful tips on settings, or helping anyone "improve their customer experience.") so I have no need for most of the above. I use the aforementioned NVSlimmer to trim it back to: Display driver PhysX (Are we one of the few games still using PhysX? It seems so.) It works well for me. If you make use of the other features, good for you! I still suggest keeping an eye on what's going on in the background. You are the owner of your computer, no matter what the various vendors think.

Laser pico-projectors and micro-LED displays are both looking promising, though. Apple went with microLED displays on their new notebooks. Maybe it'll catch on, and last? We'll see in a few years.

To be sure, the online game managed to take all the great parts of the Champions tabletop game and eliminate them. Whereas the tabletop game was in dire need of computer assistance to run smoothly. Great game, though. It looks like Prowlers and Paragons may be a fitting successor. OT, I usually can get a name I like with one or two tries. But I was bitten by a radioactive thesaurus as a child.

Have you tried playing around with the fullscreen/fake fullscreen/windowed settings in-game? It's possible your gfx card is failing to recognize CoH as a proper game, deserving of top performance. I love my AMD CPUs, but their videocards have never really impressed me. I stick with Nvidia for GPUs, but their software is getting to be a real pain, with too many unwanted misfeatures and intrusive tattleware. I find this utility to be a big help, it lets you pick and choose what bits to install: https://www.guru3d.com/files-get/nvidia-driver-slimming-utility,2.html Sadly, it looks like future Nvidia drivers will be the shitty DCH-style, which you can't downgrade or uninstall. (It's MicroSoft's computer, after all, you're just paying them for the privilege of using it!) In general, Guru3d is a great place to find advice and utilities to tweak your graphics, 'tis highly recommended. You may even find tips for AMD cards to alleviate your issues.

I hope you find what you are looking for, and if you do, please share the image format you are using. I recall on Live there was someone who managed to 3d print CoH characters -- for a hefty price -- but the art has advanced. I'd love to know how it was done.

As others have mentioned, the Upgrade button is a luxury item, meant for folks with more inf than time. I played with it on and off, and now I use it purely as a mid-mission buff. That extra percentage boost in powers can be a real bargain, especially on a TF or similar. Otherwise, especially every level, it is an inf sink to help the economy along. Good on ya for doing it, but don't expect it to be a net win.

Just getting the Inner Inspiration p2w power (and selling or auctioning the insps)* can bankroll many of my alts to the point where I decide if they are fun enough to keep playing. * Sometimes the inf gain for selling to a vendor or auctioning to the public can differ noticeably!

1.0 x 10^6 thanks for these! My 2nd or 3rd character from Live was a Grav controller, and was devastated to learn that his brilliant post-Propel quips (e.g. "Eat Buick, b*tch!") were making his teammates doubt his sanity, rather than making them laugh. Or, making them laugh at him rather than with him. And for those of us using old-school shortcuts and new TP powers to be first to the mission (when character-appropriate, of course!) will no longer have to suffer the scorn of our teammates for clicking the door! I sometimes fell for that temptation, and fulsome apologies did not make up for my teammates being forced to reset or log to fix my impulsive error. Thanks from me and my long-suffering teammates!

"And hearing this, the monk was enli-- Oooh! Patch notes!"

I'd suggest more folks use the magical Edit button. Revisit when you've had a chance to cool down, maybe switch some hot-button keywords for less aggressive alternatives? It can also help to cite your sources. Many times searching for references has led me to see that I grasped the wrong end of the stick. I also try to apologize or retract when I've misremembered or realized I'm misinformed. I guess I draw from scientific practice when I can. It's a good model because Science is designed to be argumentative without being uncivil. Every hypothesis should be tested, every experiment replicated. Most important part of the process!

My apologies for using my in-game shorthand (empowerment is way too long to type in chat) here where more precise terminology is well worth the effort! Incidentally, I failed to mention another handy item: Salvage Storage in easy reach, stocked with the ingredients for the most popular buffs (mostly white salvage with a few yellows). Also, if you have a leftover buff with just a few minutes on it, the Station won't let your freshen it. But you can delete it from your Powers list and replace it with a new 90-minute buff. We so seldom want to delete powers that it's easy to forget the option.

I swear I only ever make a sandwich while the villain is monologing in a cutscene. Sometimes PB&J, sometimes (kaff ITF! kaff) a grilled cheese.

I thank you for the incredible cat-herding marathon this must have been. I dropped in (usually as a namesake) and tried to hit each server, and was blown away by the base designs and personable hospitality in each and every base. Just tremendous fun, thank you all! And the treats were over the top! Thanks to all for this, it made a gloomy Sunday Halloween more enjoyable than I had imagined!

Agreed with all of the above. I also like having the Base Rez Circle right next to the Base Buff Station. I can rez, buff myself vs. whatever killed me, grab some insps, and be back at the mish door all within a minute, as long as Mish or Team TP is up. Just the thing for those for special occasions!

Greets to a fellow Spam Fan! Don't you think Kind Henry is a bit more Halloweeny, though?

Thanks, guys! Blackbird found the darn thing, much appreciation! I'll pipe 'em through sort and go to town! And as far as me being crazy? The jury is still out.

Not that the two are mutually exclusive! I thought I had seen someone post such a trick, but I've searched for hours and can't find it. (My Duck-Duck-Go-fu is weaker than I thought!) I've had to reinstall some Linux boxen recently and have automated great swathes of setup with a few shell scripts, but CoH always loads a random character list, which is frankly a pain. May the gods bless Lutris, though, it certainly helps get CoH working! Any help?

I came up with a villain group called EarthFIST! who are basically more moral than the governments and corporations, and devoted to saving the world from the govs & corps. Kind of like GreenPeace if they had respect for Science. And better morals. And some common sense. They'd be out there darting idiots with COVID vaccines, pumping the contents of pipelines back where they came from, and secretly building the newest generation nuclear power plants that can run on the radioactive waste from the old nuclear power plants. (Which are real, btw. We could be using the waste with half-lives in the hundreds of thousands of years to make power, eliminating the millenia-long risk such waste presents.) That's my kind of "villain!"

Love me some FREEM!

Grats!

I tried DCUO back when I was forking out for satellite Internet, and downloading was free from 2 to 6am. My satellite-induced lag made it hard to team, so my experience was mostly solo. I enjoyed seeing the iconic characters, loved the conceit that Metropolis was always sunny and Gotham always night-time. Edited to add: I also didn't like the fact that the goal of the game seemed to be to work your way up to being a guest starring sidekick. After CoH, that seemed really limiting. My main problem, though, was the headache induced by the constant ka-CHING of the cash register, it sorta drowned out the game. To add insult to injury, the game would reward you with a *FREE* loot box... that you had to pay or grind to open. When I decided I couldn't afford the satellite any more, I didn't much miss it. I'm afraid any modern Superhero MMO will wind up with the same background noise... It just seems to be the current model.

"It isn't so." I will cave to the man only when the check clears on some mortgage-payin'-off money! If Discord follows the path of Fakebook, into destructive, Aneristic discord, not the creative, syncretic discord that is the hallmark of modern Eristic Discordianism, then they shall share their fate: The Popes of the James Branch Cabal will hold a synod, declare them excommunicated, and -- if they don't change their ways within 23 days -- declare them anathema, and forever damned. So there! Even if they change their name.