Cannot zone into Echo: Galaxy City and getting stuck

[Peacemoon]

Hey, I’m having a recurring issue with trying to zone into Echo: Galaxy City. Everytime I try the loading bar zips up to about 30% complete, and then just hangs until I time out. My character then becomes stuck as every time I try to log into the game the same happens.

 

I run on the 32bit client with just regular graphics settings. Is there something wrong with the zone?

 

A GM kindly rescued my character last time (my brother was keen to see Galaxy City again for old time sake so I travelled there a few weeks ago and first had the issue). I just realised that for the Pupil history badge I need a monument from galaxy city, so thought I’d try again and hope that it wouldn’t happen again... unfortunately it has.

 

The character in question is Svarteir on Everlasting server. Any help would be appreciated, thank you. 

[GM Tock]

It's possible the client file for the zone got corrupted and is making the client hang.  Try re-validating your files (Tequila, Click Options, Re-Validate.)

 

Let us know with a ticket in the Support area if you want us to bring your character back to a loadable zone.  We can't initiate actions like that through the forums, unfortunately, but you don't need to be logged in for us to help, either.

[Peacemoon]

Hi Tahquitz, thanks for getting in touch.

 

I've just tried re-validating the files, but still having the same issue when trying to log into Galaxy City. I don't know why as all other zones work fine. It has happened today, and two weeks ago. I have tried on the 64, 32 and safe mode clients. 

 

I have raised a support ticket thank you. Would like to figure out what is going wrong as there are some badges from Galaxy City I would like to obtain (for the accolades).

 

Thanks again.

[Peacemoon]

I'm fortunatetly getting a new computer soon within the next week or so (Corona permitting!), so I'll try again then and hopefully it should work. It just felt really random and wasn't sure if this was only effecting me?

[Peacemoon]

Update. Have installed CoH on my husband’s PC and have been able to log into Galaxy City on some throwaway alts. So this confirms it’s not network issues, the game per se, or my characters. 
 

Am now trying to update my graphics drivers. My graphics card is AMD mobility Radeon HD 5800 series and struggling to find an updated driver. The latest driver we can find is July 2015 🥺

Edited March 22, 2020 by Peacemoon

[ArchVileTerror]

I used to have problems with Kallisti Wharf not loading large chunks of geometery.  The only fix for me was a -complete- reinstall.  I moved personal files to a portable harddrive (screenshots, bind and option files, chat logs, et cetera), then deleted -everything- else related to CoH completely.  It was a serious pain in the butt, but it eventually fixed my issue.  If nothing else does it, I recommend attempting this method.

[Peacemoon]

Thanks, I was getting close to doing that!

 

quick update: I’ve been able to fix the issue by lowering the graphics down to minimal (and just using some custom options to upgrade character texture in isolation). This has fixed it. It seems to be loading the world zones which my computer can’t always handle. But no idea why Galaxy City... but anyway. I suppose my PC is pretty old, but it does run most games comfortably (like WoW, etc.) on regular settings.

If anyone reading this has a similar issue, try lowering your graphics to minimal to see if it will load. If it does (and minimal goes really really low!), then you know where the problem lies. Then you can inch up the settings till you get to a point which works and looks okay. 

[ArchVileTerror]

Did Peregrine Island or Port Oakes ever give you any trouble?  If so, it might be the Arena geometry assets.  Otherwise, the only other unique assets in Galaxy City -might- be in the Freedom Corps building.

[GM Tock]

The Radeon HD 5800 was released over 10 years ago.  While Radeon HD 2000 is the baseline to use any Ultra Mode effects, mobile GPUs back then had lower clock frequencies than their desktop counterparts.  You might be able to turn up Particle Effects to 10,000-12,000 so you can at least see your own powers work at least, but I would make sure the shadows are off or on the lowest option (the old shadow engine).  Ambient Occlusion, Bloom, Depth of Field should be off, and FSAA (Antialiasing) I wouldn't put above 4X.

 

That's interesting to hear... because of changes made with the rendering pipeline, the recommendation on older hardware running Windows 8/10 is to make sure Ultra Mode is on, but set to the lowest settings available on older systems, since it performs a degree better than Minimum/Recommended mode outside of Windows 7.  But if it's working, there's no argument.

[Peacemoon]

5 hours ago, ArchVileTerror said:

Did Peregrine Island or Port Oakes ever give you any trouble?  If so, it might be the Arena geometry assets.  Otherwise, the only other unique assets in Galaxy City -might- be in the Freedom Corps building.

Peregrine island was effecting my character as well. I went there for the first time after a GM rescued me from Galaxy City and got stuck on the loading screen there too. That was when it become more than just a nuisance and I started running the tests described above. 
 

Have to confess I’ve not made any villains yet so hasn’t tried port Oakes. 

[DeepSky]

On 3/23/2020 at 7:25 AM, Peacemoon said:

Thanks, I was getting close to doing that!

 

quick update: I’ve been able to fix the issue by lowering the graphics down to minimal (and just using some custom options to upgrade character texture in isolation). This has fixed it. It seems to be loading the world zones which my computer can’t always handle. But no idea why Galaxy City... but anyway. I suppose my PC is pretty old, but it does run most games comfortably (like WoW, etc.) on regular settings.

If anyone reading this has a similar issue, try lowering your graphics to minimal to see if it will load. If it does (and minimal goes really really low!), then you know where the problem lies. Then you can inch up the settings till you get to a point which works and looks okay. 

I had the exact same issue with Echo: GC (except 64 bit) on the exact same server, fixed via the exact same solution. Thank you so much for your update, Peacemoon.

[Peacemoon]

I’m glad this was able to help you ScurvyParrot!