Old Player looking for help

[Mentaxus]

I used to play this back when it was new and only recently learned that it was still here after closing. Super happy to be able to play again but there are a couple things I'm having trouble with....maybe there add ons or something, my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be...or my eyes. 

 

Speaking of eyes, is there a way to make the trays bigger and the in game text? I know you can resize the global chat window but that's all I could figure out so far. The other thing is I remember being able to open a map of the zone and seeing how to get all the badges with little icons that would gray out after you got them. Was that a seperate thing? If it was a seperate thing is it still around? 

 

Is City Of Heroes Radio still a thing with the DJ's and talking about game stuff and music?

 

Thanks for any and all info

[Braix]

Menu - Options - Windows
Automatic UI Scale Disable
UI Scale slider will increase the size

Not sure about the rest

 

[DougGraves]

City of Heroes radio is still a thing

[cronus]

I think you might be referring to vidiotmaps

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, Mentaxus said:

The other thing is I remember being able to open a map of the zone and seeing how to get all the badges with little icons that would gray out after you got them. Was that a seperate thing? If it was a seperate thing is it still around? 

I don't think greying out was ever a thing, but Vidiot Maps is still a thing an a must have for me.

[Captain Fabulous]

25 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

I don't think greying out was ever a thing, but Vidiot Maps is still a thing an a must have for me.

Yeah, I don't remember any mod that would grey out badges you got, but the fog of war on maps will show you where you've been and can often help see which remote badges you've likely obtained. Also, Vidiotmaps FTW!

Edited February 5, 2024 by Captain Fabulous

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, Mentaxus said:

I used to play this back when it was new and only recently learned that it was still here after closing. Super happy to be able to play again but there are a couple things I'm having trouble with....maybe there add ons or something, my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be...or my eyes. 

 

Speaking of eyes, is there a way to make the trays bigger and the in game text? I know you can resize the global chat window but that's all I could figure out so far. The other thing is I remember being able to open a map of the zone and seeing how to get all the badges with little icons that would gray out after you got them. Was that a seperate thing? If it was a seperate thing is it still around? 

 

Is City Of Heroes Radio still a thing with the DJ's and talking about game stuff and music?

 

Thanks for any and all info

 

There's a DJ in Everlasting last I checked, they usually hang around Pocket D.

As the others pointed out Videot maps is what you're after, but it does not grey the badges.

 

The newbie guide in my signature has a few times, especially the last section for other chicanery hidden in the menus like showing numerical cooldowns in your skill bar.

 

AND WELCOME BACK!

[Shenanigunner]

ETA: WindowScaler is now updated and has a complete guide, on the website.

 

You can resize every element on the screen to suit yourself. One way is to grind through the menus, which way lies blindness and madness. The other is to use the /windowscale command and a list of window names; that way lies only madness.

 

So you can install the WindowScaler utility, found here:

 

...and with a productive fifteen minutes or so, you can resize everything easily.

 

Oddly, I just discovered I never put this on the website, nor wrote even a mini-guide for it. I'll fix that tomorrow. In the meantime:

 

• Download that file (windowscaler.mnu).
• Put it in your [COH FOLDER]\data\texts\english\menus folder.
• In the game, type \bind SUBTRACT popmenu WindowScaler.mnu

Now, when you tap the number-pad minus key (–), a menu will pop up. You can probably get by with sizing just the top dozen or so elements, and leave the others for later.

 

And when you get things where you like them, and as you get there, occasionally type \wdwsave. That saves all your work, and can be retrieved for any alt with \wdwload.

 

I'll do better with this tomorrow, if that's too cryptic. But yes, the came can be made easier on old eyes. Trust me.

 

Edited February 6, 2024 by Shenanigunner

[Mentaxus]

Thank you everyone for your help, due to your advice I was able to get the UI adjusted and figured out the vid map thing. Thank you guys, feels good to be so welcomed

[Oubliette_Red]

Something else I find handy to keep track of badges more easily is to place a macro on my toolbar:

/macroimage Badge_GotTip BgLst popmenu badgelist

 

This will put a noticeable 'Tips' mission notebook icon on your toolbar that you can click on for the badges popmenu.

 

I believe you'll also need the mod which can be found here:

 

Edited February 6, 2024 by Oubliette_Red

[Snarky]

8 hours ago, Mentaxus said:

I used to play this back when it was new and only recently learned that it was still here after closing. Super happy to be able to play again but there are a couple things I'm having trouble with....maybe there add ons or something, my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be...or my eyes. 

 

Speaking of eyes, is there a way to make the trays bigger and the in game text? I know you can resize the global chat window but that's all I could figure out so far. The other thing is I remember being able to open a map of the zone and seeing how to get all the badges with little icons that would gray out after you got them. Was that a seperate thing? If it was a seperate thing is it still around? 

 

Is City Of Heroes Radio still a thing with the DJ's and talking about game stuff and music?

 

Thanks for any and all info

Go big

Edited February 6, 2024 by Snarky

[Shenanigunner]

Well, I'd post a shot of City on a 49-inch ultrawide 5K, but there's not enough room here. 😄

[ZemX]

10 minutes ago, Shenanigunner said:

Well, I'd post a shot of City on a 49-inch ultrawide 5K, but there's not enough room here. 😄

 

Out of curiosity, do you run that with all graphics settings maxed?  I just bought a 1440p ultrawide and I find the game gets considerably slower when I try to go to native res vs. limiting to 16:9 with black bars.   I expect it must be a single core CPU speed issue since overall CPU and GPU do not report being anywhere near their capacity.  Still running an i7-8700K here which has so far been good enough for any other game that knows how to use more than one core. 🤪

[ZemX]

13 hours ago, Mentaxus said:

Thank you everyone for your help, due to your advice I was able to get the UI adjusted and figured out the vid map thing. Thank you guys, feels good to be so welcomed

 

You might want to use the /wdwsave command on that character.  This will save all those settings you just worked out to the window settings default file.  That way it will come up on new characters that way with your preferred window scale settings and tray/window positions.   You can use /wdwload to manually load that file if you have other existing characters you want to update.

 

I definitely needed to scale up the vendor window myself.  The enhancement icons were so small I could barely read the level number on them.

[Ironblade]

13 hours ago, Mentaxus said:

Thank you everyone for your help, due to your advice I was able to get the UI adjusted and figured out the vid map thing. Thank you guys, feels good to be so welcomed

 

You'll surely be happy to hear that it's considerably easier to make money and most stuff is cheaper than it was back on live.  Plus, there's a new update on the test server that adds some features to the 'New Player Experience' since there has been a large influx of new players due to the announcement of Homecoming reaching an official licensing agreement with NCSoft.

 

Also, be sure to visit the Pay2Win Vendor.  There is one standing in Atlas Park, on the left side of the big square platform (if you stand facing the front of City Hall).  There are a number of free powers (like Ninja Run and the 30 second Jump Pack), many cheap ones (like the jet packs) and some pricey but useful ones (like the mission teleporter, team transporter, etc).

 

And, worth mentioning since the offer expires at the end of this month, Yomo will give 100 million inf to anyone who asks.  See this thread for info.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/43870-yomos-new-and-improved-bang-up-salmagundi-spectacular/#comment-570668

 

[Shenanigunner]

Just a note here: the WindowScaler popmenu has been added to the list on the website, and an expanded instruction doc added.

[Scarlet Shocker]

once you've got your windows the size and position you like use /wdwsave to save their position. Then if anything breaks or changes you can quickly repair it with /wdwload

 

you can also do this for your chat channels using /chatsave & chatload

 

binds; /bindsave & /bindload

 

and options; (wait for it) /optsave & /optload

 

I find those tools invaluable for setup when creating new characters - I have all those parameters saved, so a quick /...load on each gets my screen looking and feeling the way I need/like it.

[Mentaxus]

Yeah I did the save thing as soon as I got it dialed in. 

[Shenanigunner]

5 hours ago, ZemX said:

 

Out of curiosity, do you run that with all graphics settings maxed?  I just bought a 1440p ultrawide and I find the game gets considerably slower when I try to go to native res vs. limiting to 16:9 with black bars.   I expect it must be a single core CPU speed issue since overall CPU and GPU do not report being anywhere near their capacity.  Still running an i7-8700K here which has so far been good enough for any other game that knows how to use more than one core. 🤪

 

I'm running a Samsung 5K (5120x1440) on an Nvidia RTX2060 (no great shakes, these days), and while I had tweaked settings, the recent update asked me if I wanted to just go all Ultra, so I did. At full res, on unmodified Ultra settings, with FSAA dialed down to 4, I get 45-70 fps.

 

In my experience, it's that FSAA setting that makes or breaks video performance. Other games can tolerate it much higher, but I think the older engine and implementation of CoX makes it a burden, so I keep it dialed down. Even with \visscale set fairly high (15-20) I am getting no slowdown.

 

(The 2060 is actually new. I had one of the mighty mouse cards, the half-size one that ran with the big boys, but it was just a tad underpowered with the 5K. I looked at a 3060, but for $3-400 more or something like that it wasn't worth the added power. Haven't regretted it. I spend most of the day burning out Adobe apps, so I'm not indifferent to video power... just not an insane FPS junkie.)

 

Edited February 6, 2024 by Shenanigunner