I wanted to make you all aware that it does, indeed require a credit card. Not only that, but from the website:
(bolding mine) So…just be forewarned. I don’t like this system myself, I think it should be the other way - your account should not require a credit card up front for a so-called “Free Trial”.
Yeah, I downloaded & installed last night; I’ll try to get some play time in this week. Next week this time, if I’m not loving it, I’m cancelling.
A workaround for laptops has been posted.
Thanks, Maus, but I’m in the first poster’s dilemma. I’d be thrilled if my laptop used Intel Extreme or ATI Mobility. Instead, it uses JSMG (Joe’s Shared-Memory Graphics).
Alright, I withdraw my request for a code. It would be cool, but I think I’ll try to get into CoV beta if ever possible. Besides, I know that if I try it, I’ll probably get hooked, and then it’ll end up stealing both money out of my wallet, and time out of my WoW nights. And with school starting again, the latter just got a lot rarer.
(Oh, and I suppose not spending more money is a good thing. Or so I’m told)
Ah, so you’ve been unable to convince your bosses that you need the upgraded graphics chip for your speadsheets and presentations.
I’ve yet to convince my bosses that I need a fully functional laptop to do my work.
Are you *sure * you don’t work for Accenture?
Nope, the competition.
:dubious: Accenture has competition? They didn’t mention that at orientation…
Hey, the learning curve on this game seems kinda steep… I spent about an hour playing last night, 20 minutes of which was wandering around trying to find the superhero who’d tell me to click on the button to level up ( :rolleyes: ), then another 20 minutes spent trying to figure out where Atlas Park is… still haven’t run into anybody named Hellions yet…
Is it supposed to be possible to make the controls work like a standard 1st-person shooter? That right-click-and-drag to turn is, well, a drag… that’s what I’ve got a mouse for…
Ethilrist, they don’t want the new guys to get worried.
Hopefully, you found whom you needed to level. I agree, it wasn’t fully intuitive at first, and I was a nerd who read all the text in the tutorial.
I’ve never tried to get mouselook to work. Don’t know if it’s possible, as the mouse is used to select items (like bad guys at range and click objectives in missions).
Hellions are a group of bad guys, as are Skulls. It’s not the specific name of one bad guy. When you click on a bad guy, beneath his name (eg. Gravedigger Chopper) will be his association (eg. Hellions). Most of the bad guys in Atlas Park are Hellions (or Skulls, I forget - if it is Skulls, take the train to Galaxy City for Hellions), with some Vahzilok and Clockwork scattered throughout.
Now you know. Go! Hunt! Kill Skuls!
Hellions populate Atlas Park, Galaxy City, and Perez Park. Skulls populate Perez Park and King’s Row.
And when I say “populate”, I mean, “outnumber the citizenry.”
Ethilrist, If you’ll be on tomorrow evening, send me a tell after 8:00 PM EDT.
Just type “/t @Maus Magill” or “/t Armoury” and a message.
Armoury is my low level archer. I’ll give you a hand and help show you around.
Lina Lightning now has a low level Sonic defender and I also have a low level archery blaster on Virtue, and we might also be on Friday night around 8pm. /t @d_odds
Candid is right, I was wrong. Hellions are all over Atlas Park and Galaxy City. First time you will meet Skulls is probably King’s Row or Perez Park (the latter is very dangerous for lone, low level heroes).
As a matter of fact, there is indeed such an option! The default is to toggle mouselook with the middle button (click and release. Click and hold will allow you to reposition the camera around your character, useful only for screenshots)
Join the CECIL global chat! It’s good for looking at mildly entertaining inane chatter, if nothing else, comments about the pretty-ness of the floor notwithstanding. 
So, what is this “global chat” and how do I join it? Bear in mind I didn’t get a manual with this 640 mb download…
The manual is downloadable from www.cityofheroes.com as a PDF. Not nearly as convenient as a printed manual, but it’s the best us free-trial children can get.
If you’ve got chat up, the word “TAB” will be at the top. Click it, choose “Add New Tab” and find CECIL in the channel list. Select it, and you’ll have a tab on which you can chat with all the Dopers.
Right above the text area where you type to chat, there are several small buttons. The last one has an ‘A’ on it. If you choose that, whatever you type will be addressed to the active tab. You can add tabs for Local, Broadcast and Team for use with this feature.
See you in Paragon. Or, at the very least, I expect to chat with you there.
Actually, I’m not sure if CECIL will be on your channel list when you first try this. You may have to type it in. Just do it in all caps and you should have no trouble.
Actually, the downloadable manual is much better than the one we have from buying the game. The original is so outdated, it is really pathetic.
You will have to hit the Join Channel button the first time you add one. That will let you type in the name of the channel you want.
The 2 chat windows you start with already have Default channels, Top is set to Broadcast, and the bottom is set to Local. If you have the A button, you automatically use the Default channel of the Active Tab.
I have several windows always up with various Tabs and channels on them. You can see an early version of my set up here. You can also see that Culex doesnt’ care for my set up.
Lok
I’ve still got 3 more free trials if anyone wants them. Just send me an email if you do.