NewScrapper

Here's what I wound up going with: A Seagate 500GB external HD, with Windows 7 Backup saving a complete system image of both my 128GB SSD and my 1TB HD to the disk whenever I feel the urge to take a backup. Only snag I've run into so far is that Windows 7 Backup seems to save the system image you're currently making over the previous system image you made, rather than keeping the old while saving the new (even though the system image is datestamped). I suppose it's possible to rename the old system image directory so that Windows 7 Backup won't overwrite it...will have to try that next time.

The thing that bugs me about the new-style zones in CoH (I'm talking I3 and later) is how linear they are. You have to see contact 1 to get contact 2, contact 2 to get contact 3, etc, and practically everything is zone-contained. So it's not like, "Which contacts will I do now?" but instead, "Will I do this zone or not?" If you're not going to do ALL of the Hollows, then never mind the Hollows. If you're not going to do ALL of Croatoa, then never mind Croatoa. And the same goes for Striga Isle, Faultline, the Rikti Crash Site, and pretty much all the City of Villains Zones that I've seen so far.

Another thing that bugs me about CoV is that having to do 3-5 Newspaper missions before you can get a story contact sometimes means you level up past your contacts before you even get a chance to do their arcs. (Maybe this has been remedied already?) Also, the contacts are all single-story-arc -- no mission choices. I'd love to have more variety from the story contacts -- story arcs mixed with one-off content and "Defeat X" missions, just like in CoH.

My QOL thoughts on the early game of CoH:

1) Please make 1st Hollows contact David Wincott a popup contact like 1st Midnighter contact Montague Constanello (or whatever his name is). I am so incredibly sick of having to run to the Hollows just to blow through a "meet me" mission.

2) Please keep Architect Studio Manager from being your "you should talk to so-and-so" reference contact when your missions run out at your level. It's ridiculous.

3) Leave Perez Park alone. In all my time playing the game, I've never had reason to complain about that zone.

4) Revamp Boomtown and Dark Astoria. Those zones are just sad. Dark Astoria in particular has great story potential.

My QOL thoughts on the early game of CoV:

A) Give a choice of 2nd contacts in Mercy Island. Kalinda shouldn't force you to take Mongoose next, nor should Burke force you to take the Doc next. You should get a choice instead.

B) Really, really don't like secret contacts, nor do I care much to explore the city on my own. I played CoV for almost a year before finding out about the ghost traps missions in the NE area of Port Oakes, where I never had any reason to go and find that out.

C) Add some "Defeat X of this villain group" missions to the missions offered by contacts, especially in Mercy Island, but elsewhere, too. One of the nice things about CoH is that by singling out villain groups, CoH allows you to familiarize yourself with your enemies and form opinions of them as distinct groups, whereas in CoV, it's more like, "Here's some spawns. Rt-click and read the text if you care what they're about."

And here's a QOL issue that applies to both sides:

PUT TASK FORCE CONTACTS ON THE MAP!!! I SO hate looking for TF contacts!

P.S.: I would actually like to see "Defeat X of this villain group" missions added to the Newspaper and Police Band missions. Maybe they could count only halfway or a third of the way toward a bank mission credit, just so they're not exploited?

I used to enjoy Combat Jumping as a defensive power, and particularly for the jump control that it gave me. But ever since the Fitness Pool went inherent, I feel like I have zero jump control when Combat Jumping is turned on. I keep jumping and banging into things thanks to the amplification that Hurdle puts on Combat Jumping (or vice versa). I just read recently that the devs were going to introduce options to negate movement boosts for Incarnate buffs. Is there maybe a way the devs can add an option to negate the jump buff of Hurdle?

At this rate, I think I'll let the jump enhancement in my Hurdle slot expire to minimize the Hurdle effect, but I'd really like to have the option to negate Hurdle's jump buff altogether.

Actually this doesn't appear to be working for me. I removed the "-uiskin 2" parameter from the shortcut, but now it boots to the CoH splash screen all the time.

It's not a huge deal, but I kinda like the fact that the game remembered what character and/or location I last logged off from. Don't really know how the game did it before. Maybe if you were a hero you got the Heroes screen, a Villain got you the Villains screen, and either a vigilante or rogue got you the Going Rogue screen? Or maybe it was based on the location from where you logged out of the last character you played?

Been reading up on Windows 7. Is a "system image" the same thing as what Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image provides, or do they provide a "disk image" instead?

Since I have two hard drives -- a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HD -- what I'd really like to be able to do is say "select all" and just create a full image of my PC. Or I could select each drive individually and make a full image of each drive, but I'd like both images saved to the same external hard drive -- I think Norton Ghost on my old PC was able to do this, since I was able to save multiple backups to the same external hard drive. Is Windows 7 able to do this? I read somewhere that if you do a system image, you can only include with the image the drive on which Windows 7 is located. Since things like my temporary folders and emails and other data, etc., is on my 1TB HD, I'm not sure if that would work.

Or maybe a System Image of the 128GB SSD plus a regular Windows backup of the HD is all I need? And could I keep both of these on the same external hard drive?

I've got my new PC up and running, but the one thing I lack is backup software and an external hard drive. I have a 128GB SSD as my C:\ drive, which has Windows, CoH, and a couple other things on it, and then I have a 1TB HD as my E:\ drive, which has my data and some other programs on it. Any recommendations?

My last backup software was Norton Ghost, and that worked very well for me. I had one massive crash and successfully restored my whole PC. But I didn't know whether the latest version works well with SSDs vs. HDs, nor am I used to having multiple drives to backup and possibly restore. Also wondering if the backup software that comes with Windows 7 is sufficient to do what Ghost does so that all I really need is the external hard drive on which to put the files.

Got a new PC recently. On my old PC, the splash screen that I would see upon startup would be either CoH or CoV depending on whether I'd played a hero or villain last. When I got my new PC, I installed Going Rogue on it, and now it shows the Going Rogue splash screen every time I startup, no matter whether I played a hero, villain, or Praetorian. Is there a way to change things back so that the splash screen I see upon startup will depend upon who I last played as?

Heh, at least I got an extra costume slot out of some quick trick-or-treating!

The irony of the Halloween event happening right now is that I just got a new computer set up, and this weekend I was planning on figuring out how far I could push my graphics, and whaddya know...perpetual night!!! Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how things look in the daytime....

After some consideration, I think I'm going to go with this one:

Well, I got everything together, was all set to switch out the old PC for the new, and hit another snag, which I'm hoping to address in this new thread:

Buying a new monitor

Well, I just got a new PC all put together, disconnected my old one to move the new one in, and discovered to my horror that the new one won't work with my old monitor!

So, now I'm in the market for a new monitor, and I've settled on the following three:

A) ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers -- At $180, this monitor appeals to the cheapskate in me, plus it's got a 5-egg rating at NewEgg with 1400-plus reviews. Only drawbacks are the lack of USB hub support and the stand, which offers tilt adjustments only.

B) HP LA2405wg Black / Silver 24" 5ms Height/Pivot/Swivel adjustable Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 3000:1(1000:1) -- At $300, the big draw of this monitor is the 1920x1200 resolution, its USB support, and its fully-adjustible stand. However, the dynamic contrast ratio is only 3000:1, and that worries me. Lacks HDMI, but it's got a DisplayPort adapter, which my new graphics card handles.

C) ViewSonic VG2428WM Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 100,000:1 (1,000:1) Built-in Speakers -- At $240, this monitor might hit the sweet spot. It's got the fully-adjustible stand, the USB support, and an impressive dynamic contrast ratio. However, the resolution is maxed at 1920x1080. Lacks HDMI and DisplayPort.

D) SAMSUNG 2443BWT-TAA-1 Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DCR 20,000:1 (1,000:1) -- At nearly $350, this monitor is really scratching my price ceiling. The stand has height and pivot adjustibility only, and it lacks USB and DisplayPort support. But it has the 1920x1200 resolution with a more reassuring dynamic contrast ratio, which is the only reason I'm even considering it.

So I guess the questions I have are:

1) Is USB support from the monitor that big a deal? I guess I could always buy a separate USB hub.
2) How critical is DisplayPort support? I hear that DisplayPort will eventually replace DVI and HDMI.
3) Is there a substantial difference between 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 -- particularly as far as CoH is concerned?
4) Is a low dynamic constrast ratio of 3000:1 reason to be alarmed -- again, particularly as far as CoH is concerned?
5) How useful is the ability to swivel your monitor 90 degrees so as to put it in "portrait" mode? This is something I've only heard of, never actually seen in practice.

Let's say I've got a level 50 toon in the Rogue Isles, and I want to gather a team to play MA arcs. Where's the best zone for me to set up shop and announce I'm starting an MA team looking for members? Grandville? Cap? Mercy? Somewhere else?

Aaaaaand DONE!

Here is my final build, all parts purchased and on their way. The total price is actually around $1400 thanks to (1) getting the CPU for $190 including tax at MicroCenter, (2) rebates and promo codes from NewEgg, and (3) my friend letting me use his leftover thermal transfer goo so I don't have to buy any:

NewScrapper Gaming Rig

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the process! I'll let you know how it turns out!

Couple items dropped in price on NewEgg just today:

Crucial SATA-III 128GB SSD is now $234 with promo code until 1/22.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 dropped another $5 to $104.99.

I've waited long enough. Buying the rest of my components now!