StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Everyone who's remotely interested in fantasy sword-fighting magic type RPG games should download this massive 1 gigabyte demo. It's unbelivable. It takes Oblivion style combat to the next level, truly. I didn't know anything about it until I saw Ctrl Alt Del Online singing it's praises, and I must say it lives up to them in spades. A fully functional physics/combat model that makes Oblivion look positively pathetic. Great swordfighting moves. Kicking as a combat move- great for sending your opponents off ledges, tumbling down stairs- or straight into spikes on the walls that will instantly impale them.

Graphics to die for- Source Engine, naturally. Brings my PC to its knees for some reason. I need a new one.

Where is the download?

Erm- any game website?

I'll look-

Link

Aussies should try www.gamearena.com.au.

Wanted to try it, downloaded all 1.4Gb's of it three times, all three times same result, crash to desktop on launch. Latest drivers, latest everything, so this is one Demo I won't be playing.

First thought: Chocolate candies antichrist?

Thanks for the linkage, will try...eventually. Big d/l.

Mr Bean wrote:Wanted to try it, downloaded all 1.4Gb's of it three times, all three times same result, crash to desktop on launch. Latest drivers, latest everything, so this is one Demo I won't be playing.

Dur. Not getting the same problem, but I can't play it for long without a hardlock. Not a problem with the demo though, something with my system. Seems the more intense the graphics, the more likely my system is to hardlock. It's happened once in Freespace 2, painfully often in World of Warcraft, and consistently happens after no more than a few minutes in this game. Been working at it off and on for months now, reading various FAQs, and I still don't even know whose tech support to call.

Alan Bolte wrote:

Mr Bean wrote:Wanted to try it, downloaded all 1.4Gb's of it three times, all three times same result, crash to desktop on launch. Latest drivers, latest everything, so this is one Demo I won't be playing.

Dur. Not getting the same problem, but I can't play it for long without a hardlock. Not a problem with the demo though, something with my system. Seems the more intense the graphics, the more likely my system is to hardlock. It's happened once in Freespace 2, painfully often in World of Warcraft, and consistently happens after no more than a few minutes in this game. Been working at it off and on for months now, reading various FAQs, and I still don't even know whose tech support to call.

Run a program that will log your GPU tempature perhaps?

I've been trying to download this for a week - I haven't found anywhere that's giving me more than 15-16k/s. :S

Since I use Telstra Bigpond I get extreme high speed access from Game Arena, so I got it in a matter of 20-30 minutes, can't remember which.

Yeah, my parents are on Telstra cable, so they get 2-3Mb/s from gamearena. My ISPs file mirror is back up, so I'm getting it now.

I'm getting it at 95kbps from ausgamers.com, fucking Tassie and Telstra. (I'm with netspace, but Telstra isn't upgrading exchanges to ADSL2).

Ace Pace wrote:Run a program that will log your GPU tempature perhaps?

Logging every ten seconds, the last temperature reading before my last hardlock was 88C. Default core slowdown threshold is 127C, so I'm gonna figure that that's not too high. I suppose it could be damage to the graphics memory, I know memory problems cause crashes. I've already checked the system memory thoroughly, but I haven't gotten around to finding a way to check out the graphics mem yet.

Alan Bolte wrote:

Ace Pace wrote:Run a program that will log your GPU tempature perhaps?

Logging every ten seconds, the last temperature reading before my last hardlock was 88C. Default core slowdown threshold is 127C, so I'm gonna figure that that's not too high. I suppose it could be damage to the graphics memory, I know memory problems cause crashes. I've already checked the system memory thoroughly, but I haven't gotten around to finding a way to check out the graphics mem yet.

Uh, 127C is when there will be a meltdown, but you can have lockup and corruption issues far before that. I've had multiple. Another option is the GPU RAM.

My best advice would be to take the Graphics card out of the case, carefully clean it(but do not remove the heatsink), dust acumulates easily over months of operation. Doing this saved me 10C.

Another mirror linky, iinet's mirror will easy saturate any home connection.

88C? @#$@$ That's WAY to hot, 127C is melting plastic time, you need to adjust your default down.
Open up your case and get a fan pointed towards that GPU, it sounds like the fan is either dead or dieing.

Frankley a GPU tempature above 75C would have me flipping out, let alone 88C!

I have my system set to alarm at 40 for CPU and MoBo and BIOS level shutdown at 55. But then again, I run an intel chipset with a 40cm case-fan.

I did think it sounded high. To think I thought I knew something about computers. Oh well. I'm not sure what more I can do though. I've got an 80 intake that's pointed toward the card (though from some distance away), the card itself has a fan and radiators, and the area around it is well ventallated. Above that is the CPU with its own fan, and the 120 exhaust. All fans are running at max. I clean out dust on a semi-regular basis. Right now, with nothing graphics-intensive running, the GPU ambient reading is 38C and the core reads as 49C. I'd adjust the default if I could. Unfortunately to do that I'd have to void the warrantee, and I'd rather not do that....

Alan Bolte wrote:I did think it sounded high. To think I thought I knew something about computers. Oh well. I'm not sure what more I can do though. I've got an 80 intake that's pointed toward the card (though from some distance away), the card itself has a fan and radiators, and the area around it is well ventallated. Above that is the CPU with its own fan, and the 120 exhaust. All fans are running at max. I clean out dust on a semi-regular basis. Right now, with nothing graphics-intensive running, the GPU ambient reading is 38C and the core reads as 49C. I'd adjust the default if I could just figure out how. It seems to be based in the driver somehow.

You can't change the shutdown temp, but you can set alarms through 3rd party programs(like nvidia nTune). That idle tempature is fine(damn fucking better then mine), but the 88C is worrying.

LOL, my ninja edit was not fast enough.

Thoughts on the game itself, as oposed to combustible video cards:

+Fairly spiffy melee combat system, although parrying seems a bit too easy.
+Very good-looking
-Mana doesn't regenerate, BOO.
-Game seems bound and determined to be as generic as humanly possible. Oh noes! Dude in menacing armor! A Magic Thingy! A demon! The Old Master teaching the Young Fruitcake for some Mysterious End! Oh, and let's swear by a dragon, because yaknow, that's original.

Yeah, tried playing the game again and happened to get a few minutes in before crash (I now have an alarm set). That melee combat would definitely take some getting used to; without depth perception, having an idea of your or your enemy's reach isn't intuitive. But then, I never could figure out the biting in Natural Selection, and other people do it just fine.

And sure, that opening video is pretty generic, but I really like that armor. Kinda reminds me of a Narn G'Quon though.

I do not have the demo, but now I have it on preorder!

Muhahaha I will rule

Ah hah! I went and got a floor fan to point at the case. Now it won't go above 70 on minimum graphics.

That was rather fun.

Graphics aren't that great, though the gameplay was pretty nifty. Since it's using the Source engine we can expect it to be a dungeon crawler, unfortunatly. I'll probably still get it when it comes out, just for the impaling and decapitation.

White Haven wrote:T
+Fairly spiffy melee combat system, although parrying seems a bit too easy.

The combat system - like the rest of the game - strikes me as hopelessly generic. Click to slash? Click-and-hold to power attack? Right click to 'parry', 'parry' being 'hold your sword and hope someone will hit it'? It's by-the-numbers. Vympel's enthusiasm had me hoping for a Blade of Darkness-style challenging combat system.

And I'm sorry, but ragdoll is STUPID. I kick a guy... he sails ten meters away? What?