Sunstormer

To add to this:

NVidea Geforce4 series seems to be having issues with laptops due to drivers. Each driver seems to get a different type of crash, original windows drivers crash on power customisation, where as the latest drivers crash on name entry and costume change screens.

The drivers before that react the same way as the latest ones. Currently no fix has been found however the devs have been made aware and im told its an issue the engineers are working on.

I played tankers for over 3 years on EU, however after mission architect got released my entire SG just gave up. No one wanted to play city of farmers and were happy running regular missions and not farming 1-50 in a couple of hours.

Anyway 1 by 1 every single player dropped out of the SG simply because they had enough trying to get into teams that werent farming other than when SG members were online. Over the space of two months we went from a full, populated SG that would rival a lot of the SG's on Freedom, down to two members active daily. The final player said he was off to American servers in an attempt to get more teams and at the time EU was being shafted from every angle, being ignored in forums, mid day server downtime etc. All PvP had also died due to i13 as well. Generally life seemed better over at America.

I stayed on EU for another month or so, then the population declined even further and a lot more AE noobs started showing up in every single team I was in, asking very stupid questions and generally making everyones life hell. Most of them refused to even move from the door because thats all they did in farm missions.

I finally had enough, I stopped subbing my account and took a few months out until I saw an advert for Going Rogue somewhere. It peaked my interest but rather than resub my account, I made a trial on EU. I was literally disgusted to find at 5:30pm that theres were 96 people not hidden on heroes and 1 villain not hidden (me). So I made a trial account in America, deciding EU wasnt worth it and went to Freedumb. By this time it was about 6pm gmt and there were 500 ish heroes online 200ish villains.

I decided I would give America a shot.

Within ten minutes of me making an account on Freedumb I was invited to AE teams, which i said no thanks because I wanted in on a sewer team. However 25 minutes in I got nothing so rather annoyed with this I went over to Virtue. Within two minutes of making a charecter there, I was invited to a sewer team. However we got to the second mob and half the team was just standing still, playing a tank I know this only too well at this level so I pressed f7 to shout 'Ready!' and no one replies. I said 'You guys there?' then I get a message from the team leader saying 'Just *bleep*ing tank you noob', I was a little annoyed but I went against my judgement and ran into a mob, needless to say the team still stayed still appart from the one guy who was very rude. I got killed, and the other guy ran, the rest of the team were woken up then it seemed and they started attacking.

Figuring this sucked I quit team to search for another. Then I get 3 messages from random players in the team saying things like I should kill myself etc. Which I just found pathetic and blocked them, anyway after this incident I started asking on broadcast for another team and someone asked what happened with last one so I explained and 7 or 8 people all laughed and told me to 'QQ more *bleep* noobs' and general crap like that.

Having enough of that, I went to try Freedumb villains, since I figured I hadnt played villains in a long time since EU was dead. Within minutes of being on vills I got a regular team invite and was offered into chronos which i accepted. I got to about level 20 with nothing but farms being advertised on SG chat so I ended up quitting. I was very very close to leaving the game completley when I got an invite from Adrian Maxwell into The Ignios Institute of Higher Learning.

This turned out to be a godsend. They actually run regular missions and only recruit non noobs because there recruited from teams with an ignios officer in who sees there decent players. Yes we dont have the numbers of Chronos but judging by the community Im damn happy about that fact. Within a month I got promoted to Officer due to me helping out, I got my own room in the SG base and we have weekly officer meetings to discuss SG events. We even have a PvP night.

Although I really do miss the old EU community, its far from what it was and I cant see me ever going back. I would have prefered old EU simply because theres a lot more idiots in America and a lot more people who just want to talk crap about things they know nothing about, just for the sake of being included in conversation.

However I really cant see any amount of marketing bringing EU back from the dead now, theres not enough players to interest new players to begin with. Keeping the server list seperate was a stupid idea from day 1, this was always going to happen. As long as people are willing to pay for an American subscription when there from the EU, NCSoft will not do anything about it since there making twice the money from people buying the game twice, particularly if they have all the costume addons and stuff too.

I really feel for you guys still on EU, the devs wonderfix of making it easier to get teams really doesnt seem like its going to help at all since if you go into a zone and its empty it isnt going to keep players there for long anyway.

If anything it will have the opposite effect if its cross server teams since most will say there from Freedom and new players will think theres a massive population there so why not move?

Anyway I just read my post... I think I wrote an essay I apologise didnt realise I wrote so much but the decline of EU was something that greatly saddened me. Its also the reason I wish they would kill AE farming in the US but no one seems to give a damn here either which is sad.

Also my old charecters names were Protection (my main tanker for a long time) Predatoric (Another tanker) Starcrash (PB) and Commander Psyche (Psy/Psy blaster). I had many others, mainly level 50 tanks but my mind goes blank now its been that long

Dahjee its good but its not that good

Procs are definately nice in acid mortar in particular though since each mortar has a chance to apply the proc.

Web Grenade I wouldnt rely on the hold proc too much and the slow effect from slotting in there is kinda pointless, however web grenade is still a very nice power to have for those 'oh *bleep*' moments when a boss gets past caltrops.

Caltrops however is much better and more reliable since it can hit multiple mobs and have a chance to proc on each damage DoT per mob so all the procs you can slot here are nice.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, poison trap use depends on playstyle, i personally dont use it, although i used to until i found i only really needed it for AV's.

Your idea for Sirens Song/Dreadful Wail/Time bomb does work though, very well too as I have seen. However on higher difficulty settings this still isnt enough to kill a mob off because of defenders damage with the powers. More often than not you will do this then get bumrushed by whatevers left. However if you do this tactic then consider seeker drones for whatever survives the blast so you can limit the leftover attacks damage since you will already be in the middle of the mob, then jump back and spam howl and shockwave until mobs dead

The one talking the most smack is usually the one with the smallest male genetalia who believes chatting over broadcast gratifies the fact hes failed at life

Oh come on... no offence intended here but you seriously cant be trying to say that an optional update that lets you keep your settings the same, is stopping people playing simply because they have netbooks and laptops that dont cost loads?

An optional addon should be just that, the client crash is an issue with the files, nothing more nothing less. I myself could run CoH fine on test server, yet now everytime I do anything involving changing costume, editing costume, creating new charecters and talking to contacts I get a client crash.

The issue is we had a worse than beta version of i17 rushed out to clash with the 6th anniversary thats all. Ive completely deleted and reinstalled the game from scratch now and still get the same issues and my drivers are fine before you suggest that. As for wireless, yes I do use that but I also used a cabled connection too which is no better.

Happy 6th Anniversary! Enjoy your crash reports!

When I can actually make charecters again without crashing... i think im going to have to give this a whirl. Looks great

What card are you using?

If your using ATI Catalyst theres a solution for that already, if not they already know about it anyway so will prob fix it soon.

Oh come on, your not seriously trying to justify the power because of that range? -.-

At least take your arguement seriously.... In that size area anything over 7 or so villains is gonna hit you in seconds... at least with caltrops you arent limited to a crappy distance seen as you can jump backward and forward over them leaving your mob to run through them each time. With this there going to be on your butt before you have time to animate full auto anyway.

Id say at very least the known bugs mentioned were the least of the problems the beta launch on live has got...

Crashes with any costume selection screen at tailor or on menu for a lot of players, crashes with AE contacts, crashes with regular contacts and garbled display pictures for others as well as being unable to make any form of charecter without getting a client crash on name entry screen are all a lot bigger than any of the bugs mentioned -.-

Arbiter Kim has already mentioned these are being looked at by engineers but it is slightly worrying such large bugs as these are not even mentioned in the known bugs list.

As well as this there are reports of invincible AV's, the game not loading at all and wentworth bugs.

All in all this 'update' called i17 was more of a destruction than an update, it was nowhere near ready and is rendering the game unplayable for many a player. This is why theres a test centre, please use it properly instead of pushing stuff live way before there ready then making us wait half a week to a week to fix what it broke...

LMFAO yeah because thats really a massive movement area....

The pictures alone just go to prove you have no idea what your talking about

Either way, Im not in the mood to argue with people who I honestly think get all there data from mids and never actually play the set.

To the OP, if you think these people are worth listening to, go for it but im telling you poison trap, seekers and triage are no way in hell anywhere near as needed as these people will have you believe.

I really suggest you people actually try playing a defender traps before commenting on something like this because 1) its not the same as corruptor or mastermind 2) actual experience is completely different from reading what you found on mids go actually play the set first and try it on a defender.

The strategies people suggest here on a defender often lead to death seen as you arent kicking out enough damage. If you want to eat gravel, be my guest but please dont convince others that bad strategies like a melee based defender is a good idea -.-

I have a geforce card but the ATI drivers problem is fairly common, its also on the known bugs list. The other crashes however are nothing to do with drivers seen as I checked the drivers off the NVidea website and downloaded the newest version just in case mine happened to be corrupted.

Reading the crash logs its not an error in my drivers files its something with the games files. The info has already been sent to Arbiter Kim and the crash logs have also been sent several times too.

Its been looked at apparently no ETA on when a patch is expected though.

Also I would like to point out seeker drones I put in both taken and not taken parts for a reason, some people like them, some dont and it largely depends on how you use them. The dumb AI for me makes them useless since they would much rather hit a minion than a boss if its closer plus if the OP was going to pick AR which is a cone based set except for m30 grenade, then being in the centre of the mob wouldnt be in his favour anyway.

Maybe with something a little more AoE or PBAoE heavy this would be a better strategy, but i based my post on the idea of assault rifle which he mentioned. If he played Archery like he also mentioned, it could work since Explosive arrow and Rain of Arrows are AoE's therefore centre of mob works, fistful of arrows would have to suffer though.

Poison Trap is only useful for AV's, since regular mobs dont really have enough regen to worry about a debuff. Yes its useful for AV's as a debuffer, but taking a power for a single enemy per mission that you can kill without it with any half decent team, seems a bit of a waste to me but again, thats just my personal opinion.

All in all i think the arguement for poison trap is more valid than the seeker drones but everything depends on playstyle, if it works for you, go for it but all I am offering is personal opinion after playing the set several ways. However despite the post above, I really strongly advise against triage beacon for the reasons i mentioned earlier. Its one of those powers you think is useful on paper until you actually try using it and you discover to take advantage of it your limited to about 10 feet move space, which isnt good for any squishy.

The beauty of traps and devices is you have many ways to play the set which work well, where as other sets tend to only have one way to play them. Each to there own

I really hope this was just a player error, since it screws up my entire new charecter concept if its bugged

You do realise you can stack trip mines right? Thats the main reason anyone plays traps/devices usually
Regardless of the damage scaleback you can still stack a few mines for a lot of damage, you just might need a few more if you want to take a full mob

Going on the basis you are going to go AR though, and take ignite, make sure to slot web grenade and caltrops, since a normal tactic for boss involves pulling him/her over trip mines, and acid mortar, dropping caltrops, using web grenade then ignite so he/she cant run out of it, then using flamethrower, slug and finally full auto then rinse/repeat.

With a mob situation, the tactics usually involve: trip mine, caltrop, buckshot, m30 grenade, flamethrower and full auto.

All in all the powers usually take in traps are: Web Grenade, Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, Seeker Drones (read below), Trip mine, Time Bomb (Read Below)

The ones people avoid and why are:
Triage beacon - Regen boost in a short area with a long recharge... a defender with limited mobility sucks, end of. Unless you stack a buttload of other regen through sets, it isnt really worth getting and even if you did stack with sets, defence would still be better with FFG.

Poison Trap - Waste of time, its much better to just stack another trip mine than waste time planting another of these especially considering the recharge time.

Seeker Drones - Suffers from dumb AI, like many pets, unless you summon them from the middle of a mob they will go for the thing in front and explode, meaning you miss 95% of the mob usually. Although I have seen them used very well by some people, it goes down to your preference.

Time Bomb - Again another personal choice, the timer make time bomb a massive pain in the butt to use, although the damage is nice. If you can time it right with TP Foe you can use this to devastating effect but its a real pain to learn the timing.

Either way with Traps or Devices I strongly recommend getting TP Foe, it makes your mines a lot easier to manage.

With my devices/DP defender I can solo mobs fairly easily without a team, but on a team you will usually find yourself a bit more frustrated because people wont wait for mines unless they die a lot on the mob which usually means your better sticking with your ranged powers from your other set and caltrops. Even Acid mortar isnt really worth placing unless its a boss mob because 9 times out of 10 the mob will die before you place it. Web Grenade and Ignite with caltrops is very nice on tougher opponents though.

If you go Archery, I can tell you whats good in that set in a team as well with devices but its more or less the same as AR with no real need for web grenade.

Tanker taunt cap increased, hands down the biggest thing Id love to see.... coming from a player who has played every single tanker there is to 50, and has been playing the same tanker for over a year now.

Ahh the good old days when I could play a fire/fire tanker and horde a whole map to one point and kill them all at once... how I miss it.

It wouldnt even be gamebreaking if they only increased it to say 20 or so

Dual Pistols pairs quite nicely with Traps on defender. I have one myself.

Set up a few mines, with a acid mortar near it, pull a mob into it then spam hail of bullets, bullet rain and empty clips and you can usually destroy the mob.

Its one of the few defenders I could actually solo with before i17 changes.

AR isnt too bad either, but you have to think about Ignite being your main damage power, which means you need to keep one target locked down with it on, and AR has pretty suckish damage too.

Dual Pistols on paper isnt a lot better, but in reality it performs much better plus it looks cooler, with i17 changes to hail of bullets, your dancing also increases defence for a bit which would stack nicely with force field generator

If it helps though, I also have a catgirl corruptor as my main and would like to see a decent attempt at fixing PvP pwetty pweeze

Im sure with all the nerds in the office, you can get them to do whatever you want with a low cut top on lol

I think I just had a smilie overdose...

Its a known bug, can you tell me do you also crash with existing charecters if you try using the tailor? Also when you make a demon summoner does it crash on the name entry screen?

So far every person Ive heard of with this bug has also crashed there too, apparently its something to do with costume showing up on display, some people even crash talking to contacts because of it, others are just lagging talking to contacts and then get a weird distorted image on contact picture.

Arbiter Kim told me its being looked at by engineers right now and they think they know whats causing it.

Which means give it a couple of days and it should work

EDIT: Missed the part about clicking starting contact, you managed to get further than most of us lol.