I think I caught Evan's Cold...

[sinjun]

 Ahem. 

And to be honest, I didn't even see Evan!

But Mom did. And unless I miss my guess, I might well be coming down with the cold she caught from Evan. Darn bug is getting around. Well, we'll see. So far, I'm a little congested and my throat is scratchy. We'll see if it develops into the laryngitis Mom had on Saturday when she called from Florida.

In other news, LOTRO - level 16 Captain, level 10 Champion. the Captain has died any number of times, but the Champion is now "Undefeated" ... wonder if I can make it another 5 levels to whatever that title is. That would be kinda nifty. Helped a friend complete a couple of quests, and even got a bit of xp for it, which is just amusing. I also learned how to set up Ventrilo. But ... alas, my computer is not up to the task of running voice chat and lotro at the same time. Well, it manages to run Skype and LOTRO at the same time, but not Ventrilo. Or the ingame chat. Hrmph.

Ah well, note to self - more RAM, better video card, and maybe even a better audio card. Hrm. Oh the decisions! And all for a game. ;) Course, I was already planning on the video card - 512mb on the card might help out some, maybe. I guess I'll have to look into it when I have some time. This weekend sounds good. 

Since I didn't get out of my house at all on Sunday due to snow not being plowed, I never got some shopping that I wanted done. So, that's postponed to this coming weekend. Guess I can take the computer out to the shop at the same time, and see if they can upgrade the video card, and possibly the ram. Interesting thought, at any rate. 2gb RAM should help, right? 

Comments

[insaint.livejournal.com]

Do you research on video cards before you spend money. 512MB isn't automatically better. If you get a card that sucks at doing its math, it doesn't matter how much memory is on it. For example, when I upgraded mine, I just grabbed a card off the shelf at Future Shop, figuring that 256Mb should do me nicely. Alas, even though it had twice the capacity than my old one did, it performed almost worse. I returned it, read up on cards online, keeping the store's stock in mind, and tada... my current card isn't quite kick-ass, but it's definitely an improvement.

In general, 512Mb at the moment is a "nice to have" but most games aren't going to take full advantage of it anyway. You'd be better off putting money into a solid 256Mb card especially if you don't do much PC gaming outside of LOTRO.

It also wouldn't make any difference for your ability to run Vent and the game at the same time. It'd only affect in-game frame rate.

More RAM would most definitely help, and you might look into a better CPU, but I don't know what you have. As I recall, you upgraded not too long ago, so you might be okay in that department.

[damara.livejournal.com]

Remind me when I get home to check the specs... and then I can figure out what sort of upgrades to do.

Or I'll try to remind myself. But that hasn't worked too well so far.

[eustacio.livejournal.com]

From what I've been told, Vent is a resources hog. I haven't had much trouble at all with Teamspeak, but haven't had the opportunity to use Vent yet. However, that's just the experience from my corpmates on EVE, but there it is for ya.

More RAM is never a bad idea, IMO. I wouldn't worry about the sound card though. I'm running on-board sound and it's perfectly fine for Teamspeak and EVE.

[damara.livejournal.com]

In general, Skype works a-okay even with lotro running. I am still amused by the whole thing though.

More pondering is obviously required - so thanks for the tips! (I have some other friends who are playing on EVE. They're trying to talk me into giving it a shot too.)

[eustacio.livejournal.com]

EVE is good if you like PVP and/or fairly complicated economics. It's alright for PvE. It's also a game where, really, patience is important, as skill training is done in real time. So if a skill says it takes 45 minutes, that's 45 minutes if you're logged in or not. It's helpful for those of us who tend to have to disappear from the game for a few days for work, like is often the case with me.

[damara.livejournal.com]

I don't like PvP so far as I know. But I'm having fun yelling mobs to death. *grins*

And I do love the story line - It keeps making me grin.

Still, I'll check out EVE when I visit with my friends - not sure it will win me over though. Because I don't have time for too many games. I'm already obsessed with enough of them.

Which Corp do you belong to, if I might ask?

[eustacio.livejournal.com]

Eve-Uni, which is a player-run 'teaching' corp. Good place to learn the various things you can do there, and has lots of resources for figuring out what you want to do in the game.

I like PvP, but I apparently am not that great at it yet. Partially because I chose the race that isn't so great for solo PvP, but is very nasty at support in small gangs/fleet ops.

I've also got a ship called 'The Flying Coffin' because it always becomes the first target of our foes due to the type of ship it is. It's not died yet though!

[damara.livejournal.com]

My friends are in a corp called TPOG. I can get them to get in touch with you, if you want. They've been playing for a while. What's your character name?