Winterminal

This could not have come at a better time. I have just very recently delved into base building, and stacking things on top of stacked safes for vertical placement has been a pain. This is going to make things SO much easier going forward.

I could care less about the incarnate content, haha. Though I am certain I will find a character or two in the future who will make use of the new powers.

And now I can't wait to run Keyes! Funny how that works out...

First off, just in case you have not heard, Apple has ceased support of OS X Leopard (a.k.a. 10.5), and thus City of Heroes and NCSoft can no longer offer support of their game on it. (They announced it here about a month and a half ago.) What this means is that while the game has continued to work on 10.5, and may continue to do so, the company can make no guarantees that it will continue to work, nor can they offer tech support for any errors Leopard users may encounter (such as this one). So while we here on the forums will do all that we can to help you out, there's no guarantee that a fix exists, and you may want to consider upgrading to Snow Leopard or Lion.

Now that that is out of the way...

This same error happened a little over a month ago to someone else. The problem was that they had anti-virus software engaged (specifically Norton) which was quarantining the file halfway through the download, which prevented the rest of the download from actually happening (despite what the status bar may have said). They fixed it by disengaging the anti-virus software and then downloading the patch.

So the question is: do you have anti-virus software active? If so, I would try disengaging it and then downloading the patch.

My hope is that it is i21 Special Update and that I am wrong about the following.

As many have said, they typically launch large updates on Tuesdays. With that in mind, I am going to guess that this a lot of background stuff for i21 Special Update, and that it will actually launch this coming Tuesday, with a lesser patch and downtime thanks to today's preliminary patch.

The return of weekly or biweekly Mothership Raids.

I have always enjoyed putting together and leading a team or league, but apparently I am one of the few. Since Freedom launched, these seem to have disappeared from our server mainly because no one wants to run them or the old leaders have left us for Exalted. I figured I would step up and try to prove myself. Keep your eyes peeled, I hope to start these back up before the end of the month, most likely on a Sunday evening like we had in the past.

In addition to that...

I am opening a themed SG here come this weekend, but you will have to wait to find out what it is all about

Here's what I can tell you:

• It is based around existing in-game lore and events
• There will be planned events for the SG with no required attendance whatsoever.
• It will be RP-Lite

About the RP-Lite: this isn't Virtue server. I don't want to bring that here, especially the obnoxious parentheses. Drop in and out of character as you will without any requirement, pressure, nor enforcement. There won't be any "scenarios" to remember either. The effect I am going for is for is purely action-based. I hope any member will walk away feeling as though they just participated in an action scene straight out of a movie.


Spread the world about the Mothership Raids! And if there are any questions about either those or the SG, post 'em here! I am trying to cater to as many people as I can, so if you're curious/skeptical/concerned, let me know about what!

November 11th, 2009

As Lady Grey sent off an over-eager Task Force Silver to face Hro'Dhotz and his numerous Rikti forces, she was once again visited by that increasingly familiar feeling of triviality. The second Rikti War had ended over two years ago, and despite the Rikti maintaining activity in the War Zone and their occasional attempts at different parts of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, Vanguard had managed to keep them at bay, with the help of Earth's super-powered beings. Vanguard was thriving, yet a dark feeling persisted to grow in her stomach, and this feeling had nothing to do with her powers.

The fact was that Vanguard's importance had dwindled. Lady Grey and her substituents were no longer an important facet in the safety of the world. Rather, they had become mere vehicles for the volunteers. Supers were running all over her base, using Vanguard's equipment as they pleased, and there was little to no gratitude to show for it. While she was glad for the supers' constant efforts at the downed mother ship and against Vanguard's enemies, she found it infuriating while watching a costumed crusader talk to Serpent Drummer and, essentially, ignore all that he had to say besides the particular mission objective. Or perhaps worse, watch as a one blew off his/her introduction to The Dark Watcher, one of Lady Grey's most valued consultants. She and her team deserved better than this.

The problem, she had determined, was that none of these supers were part of the Vanguard. Sure, many had assisted her forces countless times, and bore the same badges as most of her troops, but there was no loyalty. Their allegiances were to Freedom Corps or Arachnos, the people of Paragon or the freedom of the Rogue Isles, justice or anarchy. As long as there was another threat to deal with, or another opportunity to be had, she could not count on any of them be there for Vanguard 100%. The recent resurgence of the 5th Column had proven that anything could happen at any given moment, and that the supers would follow the fight wherever it took them.

Though the problem had been identified, a plausible solution continued to elude her. Her consternation must have been quite visible as she stepped through the portal into the Atlas Park Vanguard Base to meet with Dr. Broadet, for he immediately inquired as to why she felt that way. Dismissing his question, she followed him to the lab where they were dissecting a dead Rikti Chief Mesmerist, attempting to discern what exactly gave these humanoid creatures their supernatural abilities. Indeed, Dr. Broadet had made notable progress on that front, isolating clean genes and reverse engineering their tech. He told Lady Grey that, with just a few more days time, he should be able to make some modifications to the Talsorian weaponry to make them over twice as potent in battle. And suddenly there was a light in Lady Grey's head, so bright that would have shamed the darkest of her powers.

She immediately ordered everyone in the room to leave, save for Dr. Broadet, and set a dark illusion about the surveillance cameras. She explained her idea to Broadet, and only allowed him to leave after swearing to secrecy. As she exited the lab, she did not worry about his ability to keep the secret: either he would be too honored to betray her seldom-given trust, or too scared of the consequences.

((Part 2 coming soon. Feel free to post comments/feedback!))

Death Shroud does not have the -To Hit secondary effect attached to its damage, unlike Smite and Shadow Maul, so it really will not give you any mitigation. In fact, the constant DoT will probably draw more attention to yourself than you actually want. It is definitely a power you should get a little later in your career, when you will be able to handle the attention.

Speaking of attention/aggro, just a heads up in case you've rarely gone in close with a blaster: blappers have very short lifespans before level 30 or so, because you are removing the one type of inherent mitigation that blasters get (the ability to deal high damage at a distance). You will most likely feel quite weak until level 40, which is about the time you'll have all your main melee attacks taken and slotted up. Persevere through the first 2/3 of your journey to 50 by knowing that you will, eventually, be a beast.

I've been doing the same for about the past 2 weeks on Pinnacle, mainly because I still feel indebted to those players that showed me certain parts of the game for the first time.

This game is HUGE, and for a new player it is hard to find the courage to just go find whatever is out there, especially when most of your peers seem to be playing the same Trial over and over, and that gives worthwhile rewards. Taking these types of players away from DFB will almost certainly give them a new view of the game. Not only will they be able to use the full spectrum of their powers, but they'll see the wealth of content available and be more willing to venture out to new paths. They just need someone to give them the first steps.

If you're going defense based, then Cold Mastery is really your only choice blue-side. But don't paint Hoarfrost to be all that. You gotta remember, 40% of Blaster health numbers is not a whole lot of hit-points.

If you want to be a hard-core Blapper, then I would NOT take Ice Manipulation. You will not hit nearly as hard. No, I actually think Darkness Manipulation would be a good choice in this respect. The set is primarily based in close-range, and the -To Hit effect of the attacks will combo nicely with a defense-based build. From there, you have your pick of a load of effective primaries for close range combat. My top 3 picks would be:

• Dark Blast: the -To Hit will stack nicely with Darkness Manipulation, and comes with a nice variety of utility tools including a self-heal and an immobilize cone to keep your enemies from running.
• Ice Blast: The set hits very hard, the slow effects will keep your enemies close, and the 2 holds should provide some nice mitigation for you in the early game.
• Fire Blast: Pure, uninhibited damage. The one pitfall of this set is that you'll end up using it more than you use your melee attacks.

Radiation and Dual Pistols can also perform well in close range, but those are my top 3.

There's my 2 cents.

Thanks for the vid Zombie Man! All three of those look quite excellent. I very much like the small plant spawns that the path aura leaves behind, and the pooch looks great.

To the OP: Yes.

I have found solace in creating a themed SG (going public very soon) that is focused on the 1-50 game. Sure, Incarnates will be allowed, but the theme of the SG does not exactly encourage them, so I am betting most members will pick up maybe one Incarnate power on any one toon, which would specifically relate to that toon's abilities. However, thanks to the annoyingly rigid lore of the Incarnate System (another issue entirely) I don't know how true that is...

My advice is to find a group of players that share your mindset (like me or some other people in this thread) and play with them. No need to play less than you would like, just need to find the right players.

"Standard code rant."

Something important to remember is what is or is not possible within a certain game, based on said game's design foundations. Natural claws, for example, are darn near impossible because a) we do not have fingers and b) they would require reworking all of the claw animations with an open-hand-no-weapons animation. Doable, of course, but probably low on the priority list.

My point is that certain design elements make certain other things far more difficult. Why do you think the Devs have yet to give us Pool Power customization? It isn't that they do not WANT us to have it, it is just that with the way the game is designed the Devs probably think that the ends would not justify the means.

Also, this is very close to being a compare/contrast thread. Don't let moderation come as a surprise.

In this particular instance, I am okay with it. Last year, I found that mission to be most successful when we had more than one team. Not full teams mind you, but if I saw at least 12 players gathered around the present, I felt we had a very good chance at success. And now that we can schedule the events as we see fit rather than waiting for a present to spawn, I think this addition to the LFG tool is worthwhile.

To first answer the OP: I am indifferent. I have characters that, for conceptual reasons, have not taken a travel pool and just use some of the inherent powers (Rocket Board, etc.). Having an inherent travel power on those characters would neither help, nor hurt them, and would probably be a boon to my characters who do take travel powers. So in that respect, I would not mind if something like this was implemented.

That said, I think customization would go a long way toward increasing travel power value. Sure, the min/max community would continue using SS + SJ/CJ, but the rest of us would really appreciate it. Different effects for Super Speed, Teleport, and Fly could really flesh out some concepts (not sure what they would do for Super Jump).

"Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion!"

Then again, that rule applies to something different, so I'll simply say "get well soon."

My 13" Macbook Pro was purchases circa August 2009. I'm running on a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of memory, and an Nvidia GeForce 9800 graphics card. I Ultra Mode enabled, but very few of the options actually active (really, I just wanted the glow on the glowing costume pieces). I have had very little trouble running it on this machine. Granted, I am pretty conscious to run very few, if any, programs in the background while playing.

However, this is a different model than the one you would be purchasing, so your mileage may vary. In my experience, the Macbook Pro is fine for the casual gamer who won't sweat the fact that he/she lacks the best graphics or lacks a huge screen with high res.

It's memory and graphics are fine (though I personally prefer Nvidia). The most likely issue will be the slower processor. You would most likely have to run nothing else but the game to even get close to what your ASUS was offering. (I am sorry to hear that, btw. This is why I love dogs...)

If I may ask though, are you someone who is constantly on the go and therefore needs the Macbook Air? If not, I strongly suggest the Macbook Pro. Judging by your posted specs, you are looking at the more expensive 13" Macbook Air. The most basic, default 13" Macbook Pro comes with the same amount of memory and the same graphics card, double the amount of hard drive space, and a faster processor. And hell, at 1.54 lbs. heavier than the Macbook Air, there really is very little reason not to.

If you took out the last "i" in the name, I bet few people would notice. it is right next to a taller letter, so visually it would be glossed over, and it is also on an unstressed syllable, so people are less likely to notice its absence when reading it.