Sugggestion: Please make a 'Laptop Mode'

I remember playing COH back in 2006 on my old Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop. I'd be sitting at the airport with 2 hours to kill, and I'd log in and play and the time flew by, it was great.

Today, I have a new "gaming" laptop (Dell Studio 15 w/ Windows 7, loaded with processing power and 4gb memory) and when I play COH the thing shuts down after a few minutes of playing.
I've done everything to it, even bought a $60+ chillpad, and nothing. Still wont play.

I dont understand how my old junky laptop could play the COH version from back in 2006, but my fancy schmancy new laptop wont play the 2010 version of COH.

I guess you've added significant "Improvements" to the game, but they've made it so I cant play on my laptop.

I would Love Love Love if the older version were available in a "Laptop Mode" kind of thing, so I could play the game.

And yes, I sign in under Safe Mode and the graphics and gamma alllll the way down so the game is all washed out, and my fancy new laptop still cant play long without shutting down.
and yes I went through technical support and the issue never got resolved.

Please offer the older less intense version for those of us with computers who cant access the game.
It stinks so much to only be able to play a few minutes then get constant shut downs.
I wanna play!!!

You can turn off the "improvements" without having to be as exteme as using Safe Mode. You can start out on Performance and work your way up to whatever it can handle.

Not for nothing, but most systems advertised as a "gaming laptop" is just a gimmick meaning that it has a better graphics acceleration than your average office computer... especially if you are getting it from Dell or HP. It doesn't mean it's made to run MMORPGs well. If you are having that much trouble with it, it might just have an Intel Graphic accelerator in it. For all we know, your "old junky laptop" had something better.

Run a CoH_Helper Report and post the results here so we have a better idea of what you are working with.

Here is the RWZ in laptop mode:

There is a thread on the forums detailing all of the graphics settings: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219534

Also, the list of Mobile chipsets that can run City of Heroes in Ultra Mode is fairly limited. The starting point on the Desktop Side of the graphics cards is the RadeonHD 4850 and the Geforce GTS 250.

This is about 10,000 MegaPixels / 25,000 Megatexels on the R700 Architecture, and about 11,000 MegaPixels / 40,000 MegaTexels on the G80/G92 Architecture.

Of the Mobile segment on the RadeonHD side, only the Mobile RadeonHD 4850, 4860, 4870, 5850, and 5870 are capable of driving Ultra Mode graphics.

Of the mobile segment on the Nvidia side, only the 265bit GTX 260, the GTX 280, and the GTX 285 have the on-paper performance to drive Ultra Mode graphics.

On paper, the GTX 460, 470, and 480 are significantly weaker than their older 2xx generation friends, although I think Techarp has the performance fields for the GTX 460m and GTX 480m swapped : http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=7

It sounds like the OP completely missed "Ultra Mode". It added several graphics improvements, yes they can be "turned off", but implementing them raised the bar of requirements even when they are turned off. Unfortunately it was not done in an afternoon on a whim and they can just add a button to give us the old system back, it was so major it was given it's own issue for release and from the sounds of it things were changed, and there's no going back.

Btw guys I know exactly what you mean by the "gaming" gimmick, I looked at some just to compare my custom design to pre-builts earlier today.... I remember all the data from the graphicscard hierarchy chart that was given to me here, 9/10 of them would struggle to play coh on recommended, let alone turn on UM. A few were even integrated intel chips Lol.

I clicked this thread thinking it was a suggestion for a profiles feature in the graphics tab, I've seen that requested before in the suggestions forum, and I read an interview from a panel this year and i'm 90% sure it was brought up and the interviewer in the room commented in his article "a dev took out their PDA and made a note".

10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online

What's funny is the few people I know with similar issues all have cats.

Cat hair is the Devil!

I bet the OP doesn't even have a cat though.

I've got nothing.

Im still confused about Ultra mode
can soemone tell me exactly what my settings need to be in order to (attempt to) run this game smoothly on my laptop?
thanks

Edited because people can't read something 2 posts on... It was getting a bit boring being replied to multiple times for an obsolete post...
Remaining original content follows:

In Australia we have statutory rights which go so far as meaning we can get a refund or replacement if the product isn't fit for the purpose it was advertised for. (Presuming it was purchased from an Australian company). I don't know if you've got similar legal backing there though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McNum Between the Loyalists and Resistance, I'd be tempted to support Praetorian Hamidon. One side uses mind police and will "disappear" you and the other uses poison gas and bombs on civilians. Hamidon? He'll just have a tree eat you. Much simpler. If we're all going to be oppressed and/or killed by someone, it might as well be the walking trees. At least they don't speak in annoying code or doublespeak. They just devour you.