Tahquitz

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TonyV View Post
    Remember when villains got Mayhem missions and all sorts of new shinies? I can't tell you the number of threads of, "Why are you catering only to villains?" Then we got Safeguards and some more hero-side content. "Why do you hate villains?"

    Remember when CoV hit and there were a bunch of badges added in PvP zones, along with perks such as Shivans and nukes? "Why are you catering only to PvPers?" Then they changed some of the PvP rules to level the playing field and make it easier for newcomers. "Why do you hate PvPers?"
    Or maybe it's just we're all tired of each other on some level as players. That is the question that the Devs have no idea how to solve. A lot of the posts on here all read the same each week: older players anticipating arguments that have happened already on other people's crises, vets starting arguments when someone rubs them the wrong way, players bickering about the .010% increase in animation time on "insert FOTM build nova power here" with a slew of short responses that make new players feel like they don't belong in the forums let alone the game, or in my case just being on full hide for way too long for my friends list to count me as a living human anymore from saying no to too many requests for teaming in Trials or Exalted, when I don't pay anymore. Is that alright as a reply? Or does there have to be a 6 page answer about how terrible of a person I am for being honest? (Not being sarcastic, just weary.)

    I get the "stop whining" and "play happy or go home" aesthetic, really, I do. But at some point one has to be honest to how they feel. Ignoring that is a huge symptom of mental illness. Of course, it doesn't mean you have to solve my problems, because I never asked you to. They're still my problems, with or without your interest or help. I'm not looking for an answer from you or others reading this, heck, I'm still not sure what the right question to ask is. Teaming, or the necessity to team isn't as big of a problem as we all are.

    You're all tired of people like me complaining that we're not having fun yet somehow refusing to leave because we have no better alternative, and I'm tired of being told in so many words that I'm too dumb to realize nothing I've said has any merit or worth to anyone but myself, community, developer or otherwise.

    Nah, that's all hot air. Introvert equal troll. Ignoring both has the same effect in the end.
  2. I can see that for content I'm playing through the first time (I want to read stuff when the rest of the team is bickering that the timer for the Gold Badge is running out), but all the same there are plenty out there that agree with you.
  3. I'm an introvert as well. I'm actually terrible with people. There's a medical reason for that, but I don't want to go into it. I'm fine, but I want to keep it to myself as to why. I'll leave it at that.

    I don't agree with Software being akin to medicine, a product wholly owned by the creator of it, with specific proscribed uses and any deviation of that resulting in adverse side effects (if not criminal charges or quite simply death.)

    I consider licensed software closer to a tool you don't own. You're borrowing a socket set from your older brother to work on your bicycle. The Garage Door to get your bicycle hasn't been opened for a while and it's got sand in the tracks. So you grab the longest, thickest wrench you have in the set, wedge it under the door and carefully use it as a lever to open the door. Luckily, the wheels give and start moving, lifting the door.

    As long as you have permission in the first place to use the software, if it's useful for another purpose (and you're careful to avoid certain foreseeable consequences, like bending the bottom panel of the garage door so it doesn't close evenly, or break the wrench itself) then there's nothing wrong with your 'unintended use' of the given tools.

    City of Heroes could crack down on Vidiot Maps for making a modification of the client, but they don't. Paragon Studios could grow a wild hair up a lower orifice (pick one) about Titan Network's existence, and decide to change their client to lock out Sentinel completely and make future client fixes to reinforce their exile, but they haven't. Whoever is the General Manager these days (Brian Clayton, unless I'm mistaken) could have an all-hands meeting to discuss Freedom being designed around queues for Trials, Raids and Task Forces only, dropping all missions, newspapers, radios and contacts from the game... then put in a draconian timer for 1 hour which players must find a team to run a TF/Raid/Trial, chat in a channel with no emotes or avatars (just a queue, like on Quake Tournament) or get kicked for 24 hours for not getting on a team (you know, to remove solo players completely from the equation). But they haven't.

    I'm an Introvert. I play alone a LOT. Mostly from my own proclivities, secondly because I'm not a min-max kind of guy. Partly from being not interested in the Incarnate system. That limits my teaming to: anyone in the Sewers, friends who hop on for certain needs on teams through Ventrilo (which is mostly done for the year because the Holidays are over, other galactic MMOs, and it's not Summer yet) or in the case of tonight, a Triumph Watch message told me of a Mothership Raid from a ex-City Scoop Chief of Staff who I teamed with a lot in 2008 but doesn't remember me (which is fine, I wouldn't remember me either if I was him.) I do team, but I love the game for the fact that I don't HAVE to. and you don't have to team with people like me. I agree wholly with Generic Past above, there are many shards, many zones, and many mission doors. If you don't want to team with people like me, as soon as figure it out, leave at the end of the current mission/TF and leave a Note on my global name to avoid me in the future. Take the team with you, or get bold and kick me from the team with no explanation. Or Global Ignore me. You have the tools to fix this yourself if you like.

    And until a higher up from Paragon Studios says that they're throwing RP'ers, Soloists and non-Incarnate players under the bus on the next issue, it's unfair to insinuate that recent design choices mean their intent. There's a difference between being forgotten (which is fine... that's what "QOL" issues are for, and the "Leets only or GTFO" types will lament it's release until the next issue neglects us edge-cases once more)... and being marginalized. I'll wait until Melissa Bianco, Matt Miller, or whoever's at the Programming "Turntables" this year gets on the mic and says "Alright, Soloists, RPers, and anyone who was in Icon all night, time to go home, the rest of the night's for teams only. Repeat, TEAMS ONLY."

    But they haven't said that yet. And I don't remember them saying "we don't want players to run solo" anywhere. I do know they prefer players to TEAM, you know, being an MMO and all. And that's fine if they design parts to make missions easier with teams than on solo players. I'll just do other things as long as they're there.

    Or until they actually say "if you solo, get lost" in a press conference or on this site. But if it's all the same to you, I'll wait for them to say it. If it's not, don't talk to me. It's pretty simple.

  4. So far so good...

    And for nightfall, it's fixed for the most part.

    So much for using NVidia drivers. Hope the old ASUS driver doesn't break my other games. Thanks guys!
  5. [QR]Driver Sweeper swept, no files left. Reinstalled Verde, reboot, and still doing it. FML, off to bed. I'll cry about it tomorrow.
    Sept. 2009 driver at the top of the list. For now, sleep.
  6. WTF? I thought Turbo Gear was the Power Management program. What's a VGA Driver doing there? Never looked into this the last three years I've had this machine. Good tip, thanks!

    Cranked open MSCONFIG, hid MS Services and deselected everything. Processes, anything from ASUS I've disabled, left the rest alone.

    While that's made my frame rate much more stable, the "rogue texture" still appears. You're right, it IS only at night when it appears (daylight may be simply covering it?) I don't believe it's the client doing this: it passes verification (both after a patch, and when I trigger it by right-clicking COH on the NCLauncher), and I've had this problem when I had to reinstall Windows throughout the years. (Did it the first time I installed on purchase, did it just today three reinstallations of Windows 7 later... as I said, I dabble in other OSes, and sometimes they eat the MBR when they go.)

    Alas, it still happens. On Performance settings:


    I'll try removing the NVidia driver, flushing with Driver Sweeper and reinstalling, I'll report back.

    Otherwise, I'm out of ideas... I DO live in a desert. Maybe it got too hot one summer day and I had no idea.
  7. Soft bump, still watching. No replies in a week, I understand.
  8. Tahquitz

    Guide to Guides

    Guide to City of Heroes: Freedom-Friendly Laptops - Issue 21/Jan 2012 Updated
    http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=283133

    I moved my prior guide to a new forum since there was no space to expand my original entry. Now there is. And I violated rule #1: Put the word "Guide" in the title. Two birds worth killing, so I threw the stone.
  9. Extra Credit: Finer Details
    So, you're in. A Gaming Laptop is right for you. You want to play City of Heroes somewhere other than home, or all over your home. Here's more to think about.

    -- BRAND LOYALTY/TECH SUPPORT vs. NEWEGG DARLINGS/"GO IT ON YOUR OWN":
    You're going to pay more for a laptop than gaining similar or superior performance on a cheaper desktop IF YOU CHOOSE A KNOWN BRAND (HP/Lenovo/Sony/Dell). Evidence: you've got $1,200 and have a choice between a laptop or a desktop, both from HP. The premium is that you can play on the go, simple as that, but you'll be playing on the go with a slower (not markedly, but noticeable) GPU on the laptop, and a major drop in CPU power for that same amount of money. But you may be able to mitigate that sacrifice with no problem. If you need to be able to send a PC to decent warranty service (and with that, for every testimonial, there's two horror stories about that same company) then go with the big four.

    If you are not afraid of doing your own tech support, consider brands like ASUS, Acer/Gateway (they're the same) and MSI instead. Just know what you're getting into, and should something go south, you may overclock a $1,000 pizza box straight into the trash can if you get too froggy. Temp controls have improved dramatically since the 2004 Dark Ages of Overclocking, but it still happens.


    -- WHY LAPTOPS ARE STILL PROFITABLE, EVEN IN A RECESSION:
    Laptops are not upgradeable. Well, they're upgradeable insomuch as you can get bigger memory or a hard drive, you can even swap out keyboards on some models, but changing CPU's or graphic cards is mostly undocumented and warranty-breaking territory. If one of these two PC components fail or gets outdated in a desktop, 2 out of 3 you can change it to something that works or works better. If a laptop CPU or GPU fails from eventual wear/overheating, the pizza box is either mostly dead with each error making it progressively worse, or it's completely dead (and then there's only one thing left to do: you go through it's pockets and search for loose change). Your recourse is to buy another laptop in most cases.

    Even if not, consider future games and their needs: your state-of-the-art in two years will be excluded by riskier developers (re: Crysis), and in three years will barely run the new bleeding-edge titles. With a Desktop, you can squeeze a few more years out with upgrades and replace a whole system once every five years or longer if you're not worried about top-of-the-line parts. But with gaming laptops, once they're ready for that Unreal Tournament in the sky, you'll basically Craigslist your current one to buy your next one. Anyone who buys computers can tell you they never appreciate in value, no matter how much you paid for it. (Car manufacturers would LOVE this rate of churn, if you haven't guessed.)

    There has been efforts made towards upgradeable laptops (Read Engadget's Shuttle SPA article: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/s...ndards-launche), but usually different manufacturers couldn't find common ground on a single standard and let progress on such initiatives die. It's not likely to happen in the next ten years, so the best advice: buy the most powerful one you can AFFORD. Where a difference between a Core i3 2.53 GHz and 2.6 GHz is largely splitting hairs, a Core i3 2.6 GHz and Core i7 1.8 GHz is a big difference worth considering. (The Core i7 is the winner in case you were curious: particularly if the Core i7 is a quad-core model.) And again, if all you have is $700, it's not worth skipping on the electric bill for that $150 difference between two machines. If it's bugging you that much, just wait.


    -- DATES OF INTEREST:
    If you are an enthusiast, price is not an object, and you want the best technology, buy your laptop in Spring/Early Summer. Why? Most OEMs make new product announcements in Q1 Winter yearly just after the holiday season (Intel, AMD, NVidia, among others). The first models with the new technology come out around Spring/Summer as manufacturers can turn them out. For example, as of this writing in January 2012, this is a "tick" year for Intel, so new Processors are going to be released in April 2012 based on Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge architecture and 22nm manufacturing processes (compared to 32nm processors in vogue now) where in 2013, it's a "tock" year and the Haswell Architecture will exist to further enhance the 22nm process on the way to 14nm. AMD will release Virgo and Comal (A-Series Architectures) as part of their Piledriver Manufacturing Run in the First half of 2012 (dates as of yet unknown, usually announcement is made late Spring.) NVidia GeForce 600 GPUs (Codenamed "Kepler") is coming out before Q2 2012, and AMD's Radeon 7000 series based on the Southern Islands chipset is available right now (as of January 9th).

    By the way, all of this information on new parts is thanks to little searches here and there on Wikipedia. You can do this too. You can be an enthusiast just like me! Find the retail dates of products you're interested in, and when it's close to the street date (one-to-two weeks before, of course) search for new systems announced online (blogs, PR releases, launch parties, etc.) from manufacturers to coalesce around said desired technology, and you'll find the laptop you're hunting for.

    If you are a bargain-hunter, almost any time of the year is good depending on what you're looking for, but the Holidays/New Year are particularly good to buy a laptop. Why? After first adopters have had their crack at new parts, manufacturers want to clear their stock out before the next year breakthroughs & new manufacturing runs. That means the Holidays/first thing in January is the time for overstock liquidation on last year's must-have tech. When new announcements are made in winter, prices on old technology doesn't really drop dramatically since the margins on Motherboards, Processors and Video Cards are fairly tight. The bottom of the range lands around the holidays, if there's still a large count of a model past Spring, they just send it back to the manufacturer for Outlet Sales (Read: Government/Education/Small Business Contracts).

    If you're a student, replace the Holidays with August... but I wish you good luck finding decent laptops for gaming, since most of the "Back to School" specials are the lowest cost, lowest spec priced-to-move laptops (see above paragraph on models left past Spring from a prior year). You likely won't run City of Heroes on any sub-$400 laptop sold during the Summer. Not that I expect people to know this, just something to help explain when a relative who doesn't understand computers tells you there's back to school sales and they don't understand why it's not a good deal for you.


    -- ONLINE SHOPPING LOCATIONS:
    The offering online is broader than in brick-and-mortar stores. In fact, if you want a Gaming laptop, online is pretty much the final frontier. Specialist laptops such as Gaming, Mil 810F Spec, and Engineering models just aren't sold in stores. There's too few buyers out there except in niche markets: Los Angeles residents will have more availability than let's just say, Amboy, California, where the population is less than 10 and you're too far to shop from LA County easily. (You can, but it's a bit of a trip.) Extreme case, I know. Isolation is out there, your market might be different.

    So, thankfully with a shipping charge and enough wait time, online retailers are standing by to serve your needs. Here's a good list of places to look for the uninitiated:

    -- NewEgg
    Straight outta City of Industry, CA, NewEgg is sung in praises for a reason: it's unusually helpful. Their searches are in multiple categories, and specific to the product line you're looking at: you're not going to search gigahertz on a remote control, so it's not there. If you want multiple categories, you got them. Made a mistake and got 0 results? Click the X next to a category you'd like to eliminate to broaden your search. Even now, online retailers have a LOT to learn from their setup.

    Selection? TigerDirect is similar. Product diversity? Amazon has them beat with a much larger spread. But NewEgg still has the best search, the most detail in product specifications, and in my opinion, the best New-In-Box photos of computer parts. NewEgg neglected to share how many watts your new Power Supply can hold on a 12 volt rail? Find a picure of the label-side of the Power Supply in their result page, zoom in with the tools provided, and read it for yourself!

    -- Best Buy
    Best Buy's laptops in the Gaming Category take much of the guesswork out of shopping. Odds on, any of their Gaming Models will run City of Heroes and for good reason: they only sell new/refurbished products. If it's more than 2 years or closed out, it's not there. Can't argue with that.

    Their pricing isn't very generous, and that's to be said from eliminating Circuit City as a competitor, but even if you're not interested in their lineup, it's a good baseline to see how much a particular laptop brand, class and size is going for. Also, there's probably a location close to you. If you're scoping out a middle-range laptop, odds are you can go see it for yourself.

    -- TigerDirect, CompUSA (and Circuit City Online)
    Under the oh-so-consumer-friendly name SysteMax, TigerDirect has a lot of faces these days, but they're still one of the best Refurbish/Closeout PC Retailers out there.

    The only caution: TigerDirect has frequent mistakes in their listings. If you can snake a part number out of them and hop to a manufacturer website to fish out better descriptions, it's recommended when they mention a laptop with a next-generation "AMD Celeron Quad-Core" processor. (When the actual processor is Athlon. Celeron belongs to Intel.)

    -- Fry's Electronics
    Being in Southern California, Fry's Electronics is my Wally World. Making the pilgrimage to Anaheim is worth it to me for the fact it's the only Brick-and-Mortar that sells Processors and Motherboards with 14-day returns and online price matching. Get that from a hole-in-the-wall PC Repair joint. Their online store has a fairly good selection, and serves as a good comparison site. Some articles are more expensive than others, while certain items are that extra-special "Big Lots" kind of affordable.

    Extra Credit: Laptop Video Card Spec Hunting
    Recommended laptop specs for gaming on City of Heroes:

    -- Processor, Memory, Hard Disk, Sound Cards, viles of Cheetah's Blood used for liquid cooling, etc.:
    I won't go into depth on these, since FatherXMas wrote better guides than I have for the core specs of a PC. Since I don't want to plagiarize their hard work, I suggest heading there.
    BillZBubba's Final Performance guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115082
    FatherXMas' hardware guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124080

    -- Video:
    Right now, I'll share what I DO know about: Video Cards.

    Here's how to decipher the Swahili of Video Cards offered for laptops. For all the examples and stats, I'll use the desktop versions of the cards. Laptop versions are all across the board reduced in speed for it's core, shader and memory clocks to reduce power draw and heat. But the comparison between two laptops is proportionally the same.

    Also, I don't list the OpenGL versions of each family of cards... they change radically between individual cards and in some cases are hard to generalize between families. Also, in most cases, the OpenGL line is usually very backwards compatible, so it's irrelevant. DirectX versions are very specific to particular versions of Windows, so I share those.

    Before we begin: Finding out what Video Card you're trying to find.
    Let's say you're on Amazon.com looking for a video card for a laptop they sell.
    http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-G71GX-RX0...806537&sr=1-24
    ASUS G71GX Refurbished -- Description page doesn't say what the video card is. You could look at Customer Reviews, but let's assume they're lying for our sake. (You know how the internet is. You trust me, right?) Parts of this search will fail on purpose, I'm just sharing my process with you. Adapt as needed.
    1. Find the Item model number in the description. This is the number assigned by ASUS, not Amazon, in order to identify that specific computer. Unless you're seeking support for a system you own, you don't need a serial number for this info.
    2. Find ASUS's website. On Google, typing in ASUS leads to asus.com. (This sounds banal, but not all manufacturers are obvious. MSI. I said enough.) Go to their support section. On usa.asus.com, it's under Services > Support.
    3. Enter in the model number. Apparently ASUS dropped their information about the product... hmmm. Odd.
    4. Go to Google and do a search for ASUS G71GX-RX05. Newegg is one of the first results, let's try them. Beware of search bombs when doing this kind of lookup: look at the address of the result you're about to click on. If the address is a blog (wordpress.com, blogspot.com) or if the product title in in a subdomain of an unrelated site (asus-g71gx-rx05.prescripsforfree.net), it's most likely a search affiliate looking for ad money or a silly malware site with no information about your product. Also look out for eHow, Mahalo, and other sites with nonsense articles designed to drop you into an ad-filled site for their benefit. They have no idea of what you're looking for. Watch what you click.
    5. Newegg reports this item as deactivated. ASUS must have discontinued this model from age, since G73 and G74 models exist. Fortunately, Newegg does keep specs on it after deactivation (Look under "Details" tab): according to them, the laptop has a GeForce GTX 260M.

    Other good sites for Laptop Information: Cnet Reviews, and Notebook Review. Tom's Hardware is good, but they only had a news story for this specific model.

    Now you have the Card Name and Model, what does it mean? Read on...

    NVidia Only: There will be two number systems, each card falls under one or the other.
    If the card name is the following--

    GeForce XXXX GTX

    (*GTX can be substituted with any letters: G, GS, GT, GSO, GTS, GTX. These are feature codes, and while they indicate better provisioned cards, they are not critical unless comparing two exactly numbered ones. The graphic card number is a better indicator of output than these codes anyway. Rule of thumbs: the more letters the better. GSO, GTS, GTX always trump GS, GT, which beats G. G is as cheap as it gets. Letters after these like E, M, Go don't really matter.)

    --then it was made from 2003-2008, and the following applies.

    Thousands Digit: Series,
    Hundreds Digit: Class,
    Tens Digit: Major Revision, used as a tie-breaker.
    Ones Digit: Minor revision, unimportant, usually 0 unless in certain cases.

    Series:
    6000-7000 - Unless refurbished or used, you can't find these anymore. Even if you do, don't consider them unless you want Bejewelled 2 at full frame rate.
    8000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, came out in 2007 along with Windows Vista.
    9000- Made for Direct X 10 systems, faster and stronger. Last of these came out in 2008.

    If the Card Name looks like this

    GeForce GTX XXX
    (* see note above under Geforce XXXX GTX)

    -- then it was made during or after 2009, and the place value changes:

    Hundreds Digit: Series,
    Tens Digit: Class,
    Ones Digit: Revision

    Series (Post 2009 changes)
    100- Built-in for laptops/motherboards only, all entries are Budget/Entry class regardless of number.
    200- Made for Direct X 10 and 11 systems, came out in 2009. (If there's a codename for it, I don't remember it.)
    300- Same as 100's, models released on notebooks only for some reason.
    400- Made for Direct X 11 systems, to launch March 2010 onward. (Codenamed Fermi)
    500- Same as 400's, March 2011.
    600- Upcoming 'state of the art' in 2012. (Codenamed Kepler)
    700/800- Past 2012 (Codename Maxwell)

    It's safe so far to assume future numbers that start with an odd digit will be entry level or on-board cards, and even numbers to be enthusiast/professional grade cards. In 2012, we'll be looking at 600 series cards. Past then, If we're not all dead according to Roland Emmerich, 700 or 800 series cards.

    Regardless of year made, the classes didn't really change at all with NVidia. Again, if it was made before 2009 (6000-9000), it's the 100's digit. If in 2009 or after (G 100-G 900), it's the 10's digit.

    Classes for either group:
    0-2- Budget class
    3-4- Entry class
    5-6- Enthusiast class
    7-9- Professional class

    (With the understanding that the built-in cards are limited to the first two categories of class: G 300 series Integrated processors in a motherboard will never be called a GeForce G 380, for example.)

    How the numbering works, let's say you see the following cards on the shelves:
    NVidia GeForce 9300
    NVidia GeForce 9350
    NVidia GeForce G 210
    NVidia GeForce GT 210
    NVidia GeForce GTX 295
    NVidia GeForce 6200 LE (on Clearance)
    NVidia GeForce 7800
    NVidia Geforce GTX 260
    NVidia Geforce 7150

    On a store shelf, this is confusing, but if we put them in order of Pixel Fill Rates:
    NVidia GeForce GTX 295 16.128 GP x2
    NVidia Geforce GTX 260 16.128 GP
    NVidia GeForce GT 210 1 GP
    NVidia GeForce G 210 1 GP
    NVidia GeForce 7800 6880 MP
    NVidia GeForce 9350 2200 MP
    NVidia GeForce 9300 2200 MP
    NVidia GeForce 6200 LE 1400 MP
    NVidia Geforce 7150 700 MP

    You can see how the 100's digits indicating their performance class affect their placement in the list: the 1,000's digit is less important, but still a factor considering the 7000's were all current in the Windows XP era. Also, a clear break between the 1,000's line and the three-digit line: even the lowest end GeForce G2XX cards fill-in 1 GP/sec. While not 2X the fill rate of the 7800, it's a dramatic improvement over the 9000's on the shelf.

    (MP = Mega Pixel, GP = Giga Pixel, GTX 295 has two graphic cards running side to side in one slot)

    Mind you, that's one standard of measurement, there are many standards, and by changing which metric you wish to use, the line up will change dramatically. I feel this is the most fair metric to compare the card's actual ability in the shortest amount of time, so I use it. Opinion varies. Share it if yours does.

    ATI Radeon Only --
    I'm less familiar with ATI's family, but fortunately for me, they are much more forgiving when shopping for them... HD 2XXX/3XXX/4XXX and now 5XXX use a similar scheme by class that NVidia uses:

    Thousands Digit: Series
    Hundreds Digit: Class
    Tens/Ones Digits: Revision (ATI actually uses BOTH)

    Series:
    HD 2000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10.
    HD 3000- Windows Vista released cards, only more powerful. DirectX 10.
    HD 4000- Windows Vista released cards, DirectX 10/11
    HD 5000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11
    HD 6000- Windows 7 released cards, Direct X 11, coming out during 2012.


    Class:
    0-4 Budget/Value class
    5-7 Mainstream class
    8-9 Enthusiast/High Performance class

    So, sorting these:
    Radeon HD 5970
    Radeon HD 5450
    Radeon HD 4870
    Radeon HD 4850
    Radeon HD 4350
    Radeon HD 3650

    Would stack out to the following Pixel Fill Rates:
    Radeon HD 5970 46.4 GP
    Radeon HD 4870 12 GP X2
    Radeon HD 4850 10 GP
    Radeon HD 3650 2.9 GP
    Radeon HD 5450 2.6 GP
    Radeon HD 4350 2.3 GP

    Notice how neatly the 100's digit cascades from 9 all the way down to 3. Again, not fully indicative of what the card does, just gives you an idea.

    Extra Credit: Video Card Resources
    The Raw Stats from Volunteers:
    Wikipedia: Comparison of AMD graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...on_R600_series

    Wikipedia: Comparison of NVidia graphics processing units -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ocessing_units

    Side-by-side comparisons:
    Notebookcheck --
    Comparison into Tiers of Cards:
    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compari...rds.130.0.html
    Comparison by Game Frame Rates: (most of these are speculation, this is only for BROAD comparative purposes, not as a compatibility guide: games reported not to work may in fact be okay on your card.)
    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compute...s.13849.0.html

    Tom's Hardware --
    High Quality: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,70.html
    Mainstream: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,69.html

    Extra Credit: Mobile Internet
    Particularly for this game, you need to answer how you will get the laptop online. You have choices, of course...

    AT THE HOME
    ----> Wired Access. If you like the superior transmission rates of a wired connection, you'll need a Router to plug your laptop into. More often than not, if you have your laptop in one fixed location all of the time with a wired connection, it'll defeat the purpose of this guide. (Go buy a desktop, you're doing it wrong! ) My only advice: buy what you need. If you don't plan on using Wireless, get a wired-only router... they're cheaper.

    You can still keep your laptop's portability and NOT use Wi-Fi: get a powerline adapter for your internet connection. This allows you to run one ethernet plug into a wall socket with one adapter box, then you can plug the other adapter box anywhere else in the house and connect that adapter to your laptop. Powerline Ethernet Adapters carry anywhere from 85-200MBps of bandwidth in the same house and are dirt simple to use. If you live in a multi-dwelling property (apartment, condo, duplex), this is not secure: an unscrupulous neighbor can plug into the same network and use your bandwidth/resources. Consider another answer if this is the case.

    Powerline networks stop at the breaker box, or your power company's Point-of-Entry of your dwelling, so you may be safe if your place has it's own electric meter that is not shared/banked with another tenant's connection. Ask your landlord/super to learn more. If you're in a single home, you should be fine.

    ----> Wireless Access. This is the most popular route: you can get a router to deliver internet to your laptop's wireless card, or use a public hotspot at another business or your workplace (again, check if this is cool or not to do.) Wireless Adapters deliver anywhere from 11MB all the way to 150MBps, and unlike wired routers can handle more than 4 devices without breaking a sweat.

    One consideration: it's in the nature of Radio to be half-duplex. This means your wireless card is designed to send a signal or receive one, not both at the same time, your thoroughput on wireless gaming will be typically half of your advertised network speed from your ISP (Exception: if you use MIMO/802.11n wireless adapter/router pairings, then you're using two or more frequencies at once - MIMO = Multiple Input, Multiple Output). You can also expect ingame rubberbanding, timeouts, and disconnects if your wireless card loses association with your Router frequently. This comes with the territory of radio and you may need help with configuring your network properly, relocating your router, or reducing/removing interference sources if you're not technically inclined.

    How can you eliminate wireless as a culprit? Consider running ethernet cable temporarily to where you frequently game, or bring your laptop to the router (shut Wi-Fi off) and jack into it to see if it's your network that's causing the issues. If wired ethernet resolves the problem, you need to rethink your wireless setup.

    ABROAD
    ----> Modem. Well, it's fine for backup internet access. For City of Heroes, you can sign on with terrible speeds, decent latency (much better than Satellite anyway), and maybe run a mission on a small team as long as noise doesn't disconnect you. (I've used one from 2008-2009 waiting for High Speed Microwave to hit my area.) That's about it. If cost is why you're using Dial-Up, check out Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go program (write up below) before writing off City of Heroes play altogether.

    ----> Cellular Access. You can use a cellular USB or Expresscard adapter to connect using your cellular network. Average speeds range from 1MBps-3MBps, which doesn't sound like a lot compared to home access. The advantage of Cellular is that you get a signal from anywhere your phone works. The disadvantages? Cellular data access is a 2-year contract with most providers, charging a hefty ETF if you change your mind midway through. Your signal may change due to weather, drift, fresnel-zone radiation (stronger radio sources between you and the Cell Tower, even if they don't block line of sight... mainly trucks with overpowered CB/FM Radios) or other factors. Currently the big four providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T) limit total down/uploads (YES, sending data counts against this total) to 2GB a month maximum on the lowest tier. Exceeding this will cause you to be charged per MB.

    Cellular Access is just fine for casual play, but consider your plan limit: if it's 2GB, you can waste ALL of it in a month on casual play and end up spending another $20-30 for more bandwidth, or waiting for your monthly bill to land. If it's 4GB-5GB, you can make it last a month on casual without counting MB spent everytime you sign on. If you play regularly, consider 10GB (yes, it's $50-100 a month. That's what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were after the last two years. Isn't tiered access just wonderful?!)

    WiMax: (US Customers) If you want to start Clear 4G service (or by extension, use Sprint 4G since they share networks), I would strongly recommend you read some online reviews. The advertised speeds vary greatly than the actual service, customer support is terrible (if non-existant), and there's plenty of horror stories of customers getting billed for roaming use, as well as their billing system reactivating auto-pay on closed accounts with no path for a refund. To wit, Clear is also in the process of working with Sprint to rollover to 4G LTE service as their going-forward effort with data service, so even if Clear resolved their customer problems the future of WiMax expansion has hit a brick wall if you don't have service (Why invest in a fledgling network when you're building another more popular one with better support?) WiMax 2 service is probably not going to happen in America. "Know what you're paying for" for is the best way I can put it. And EVEN if that doesn't dissuade you from 4G service, consider the following.

    4G: Ignoring the CTIA/ITU tiff on what 4G actually means, more speed from 4G service compared to 3G service means typically that you'll use up the allotment you're paying for faster than with 3G service. RIGHT NOW (January 2012), there is no particular advantage between 3G and 4G networks to care as a gamer thanks to tiered service. 3G's speed caps slows down how much you consume over time, and the 2GB you get on 3G service and the 2GB you get on 4G service COSTS THE SAME AMOUNT on all cellular providers (Conscious Parallelism, anyone?) There's really no advantage here, and City of Heroes (like most MMORPG's) is not a bandwidth hog. A 768k DSL modem more than serves the demands of this game, considering radio technology is half-duplex, 1.4MB/s is all the speed you need (even that's a lot), which 3G more than provides. Anything past that is excess. If the salesperson is pressuring you into 4G, unless they offer 4GB-5GB around $30 (Verizon's holiday deal, for example), insist on 3G and don't let up.

    And if you don't live in a Metro area, 4G right now is a joke and will continue to be one for another couple of years. Besides, 3G networks aren't going away in the next 2-3 years, so it's still safe to get a 2 year 3G contract with little or no consequence. In 2013, 2014, OTOH, all bets are off.

    ----> Special Note: WalMart Virgin Mobile (US Customers) -- Specific to City of Heroes, there is one thing worth mentioning on mobile gaming if you intend to do it only occasionally: Virgin Mobile does have a Prepaid 3G Broadband Service at WalMart. Granted it is more expensive up front since you have to buy a $100-150 adapter to use it (not subsidized, since it's prepaid). And the cost is more expensive than contract service per month: nothing offered from Virgin Mobile competes with $30 for 2 GB of use. (Virgin Mobile charges $50 for "Unlimited" access, but after 2.5GB, you're throttled to 1XRTT speed, which will NOT carry a City of Heroes session. You've been warned.)

    I know what you're asking: Why WalMart on this one? Virgin Mobile's plan is typically $20 for 500MB or 30 days use, but in WalMart, devices purchased there are offered $20 for 1 GB or 30 days use. (Understandably, not an enormous deal: after paying $20 three times in a month, you may as well own postpaid service.) There is one decided advantage: if you don't want to use it for a long period, simply enough, don't pay for it. You can put in money any time you want to play with no obligation to keep it on; your device is activated for a year at a time (after a year, your price plan may change to something worse, so it's wise to fire it up once per 12 months to keep the going rate alive). Using their service, I can play City of Heroes for 4-6 hours over a 10 day period and use up all 250MB for $10 a pop (faster with longer sessions over fewer days) which will give you an idea of how long it lasts. Especially for casual use, it's great.
  10. TAHQ'S LAPTOP SHOPPING GUIDE - 2012
    This guide covers PC's, Windows, and the like. If you're a "Think Differently" kinda person, check out this guide instead for advice on Mac OS X and City of Heroes.

    INTRODUCTION
    Conventional wisdom the last four years have been turned on it's head. Ask anyone around the first half of City of Heroes' existence and they'd laugh you off the forums if you asked a simple question:

    Quote:
    "What laptops play City of Heroes?"
    The reason why it was a terrible idea:
    -- Laptops offered smaller LCD resolutions than their desktop counterparts, which had bigger LCD displays, or power and space hogging CRT displays that despite their faults can switch-hit between higher resolutions like a champ.
    -- Underwhelming access speeds: low FSB MT rates, lower speed memory, smaller 2.5" HDD's that were lower capacity or lower speed than the current state of art IDE/SATA hard disks.
    -- The kingpin: terrible graphics. Most laptop video went to the VESA specification and stopped right there. Video memory was often shared, or if not, as low as 16-32MB. Video modes... well, there was two: CUI 80x25 for boot-up, then Super VGA or at most XGA resolution.

    But anymore, the conversation has changed. The first salvos were fired in the mid 2000's with companies like Alienware and Voodoo setting the bar. Then others followed: laptop screens come in 16:9 resolutions, access speeds comparable or on par with desktops with widespread SATA adoption and equivalent motherboards, and most importantly, while ATI and NVidia made mobile cards for years before they came out, the ATI Mobility Radeon series and NVidia GeForce Go series opened up a whole new reason to get yourself a new electronic pizza box.

    Now is a great time to consider mobile gaming with a laptop. But it's not for everybody.


    POINTS TO CONSIDER
    Why?
    A page from "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Do you REALLY see yourself playing COH outside of home? The answer of yes does make sense for a few occupations: Business Execs, Volunteers, Field Workers (all three who spend more time in Hotels than home), the Military (You'd be surprised who you find at 3am playing on a laptop from Afghanistan), Hobbyists, etc. (a.k.a.: you have enough money to try it).

    If you are expecting your Laptop to replace your desktop PC and are not doing it for lifestyle/professional reasons, again, the reason "Why" will affect your play. If you buy a large laptop, consider the fact that you'll be setting yourself up in the living room for 10-12 minutes each time vs. a desktop where you hit a power button and can get started as soon as Windows boots. If a small laptop, you're not going to play in Ultra Mode. In fact, settings above Recommended may lock your machine up entirely.

    What You Expect
    Ah, Ultra Mode brings up a good point; if you want performance over value, your Laptop will most likely be huge. It's a reality of the industry: gaming laptops have bigger power requirements, bigger heat dissipation needs to consider, and most often bigger screen sizes. There's a few laptops with "enthusiast" level gaming capabilities that are 15-16", but they're certainly not cheap.

    If you don't mind Minimum or Performance mode, there's a lot more choices out there for you. If you don't mind Minimum settings, you can spend as little as $650 and get an acceptable performance out of it (for the love of cake, please turn Particle Count above 1000 so you can see your own powers at least. )

    Price Range
    Tied into the above two points: if you want a similar experience to your desktop expect to pay $1,000+. Simply enough, this kind of laptop is at a premium because like the rest of the segment, Laptop computers are dealing with DC power input, small form-factor placement (compared to a PC counterpart) and different construction standards due to the fact that a laptop poses greater physical risk than a PC would encounter (Laptops face drops as a reality; your desktop can safely ignore that as a manufacturing consideration). You can't equal a desktop computer at the same price-point for a laptop. It just doesn't work.

    More reasons as to why: Consider the Intel Core i-Series processors. Core i3 processors are all dual core (well dual physical core, anyways), which is paralleled by both laptop and desktop versions (with obvious differences in wattage and speed). We'll ignore those for now while I get to my point: Core i5 processors are a blend between Core i7 variants and Core i3 until you consider the difference between Desktop and Laptop varieties: some of the desktop Core i5 processors are dual-core, others desktop Core i5 processors are quad-core. For the laptop Core i5's, all of them are dual-core, no matter the price. You can't have a quad-core laptop until you consider a Core i7 processor, and even with that, quad-core is the best you can do. Core i7 desktops are either quad-core, or six-core. Just because a laptop and a desktop share a processor name DOES NOT mean they are comparable in performance. Just in price points.

    The same is true for AMD's lineup, as well as past processors. This is good to keep in mind when considering the discontinued gaming laptops at Tigerdirect or Fry's Electronics: even if it's Core 2 Duo, it's most likely not as fast as the Core 2 Duo or Quad processor sitting on your desk.

    In a nutshell: On a gaming laptop, the processor type and speed is used to argue it's worth, but essentially you are buying the Graphics Card. A specification that brick and mortar stores are intentionally vague on sharing. Why? To sell more computers. The pitch? "Of course your new laptop can't play City of Heroes. You need a new desktop for that. (wink)" Retail is concerned with selling more products. The right machine doesn't matter to a salesman who is doing their job if they can get a customer to buy two for more than what one could do for less. Caveat emptor.

    Diminished Returns (Why is this more expensive than my desktop with higher specs?):
    The same spec graphic card/processor on a laptop WILL PERFORM SLOWER than it's desktop counterpart. FatherXMas talked about the downclocking of the GTX200 lineup in another thread and I can attest to this: the prior desktop GTX 260 cards ran 700MHz+, whereas most gaming laptops are downclocked to 500MHz with their mobile counterpart of the same card, the GTX 260M (okay, XMas was discussing later run desktop cards being downclocked and not laptops. I took some liberty on that one. :P) This sounds insipid, but there is a very good couple of reasons why this is:

    ----> Heat Dissipation: Desktop PC's can have fans, cooling assemblies (heat-pipes, waterblocks, etc.) and a bigger interior to mitigate temperatures with. Laptops have a lot of demanding components in a small body. Laptops usually get 1-2 fans and a single exhaust port. This affects things- the cooler your GPU, the less errors it gets (if any) and the smoother frame rates and texture fills run.

    ----> Power Requirements: Desktop cards can accept more power through a single or multiple cable input direct from the power supply, which may carry 30-40 amps for the card on a single 12 Volt rail of a 600 Watt power supply. Laptops get a huge power brick, but a tiny cord of DC delivering around 20 Volts, but 7 Amps on a decent gaming laptop that it has to share with a processor, motherboard and IO/USB components. A desktop will have typically three times as much power available.

    A laptop GTX 260M will run ultra mode, on it's LOWEST CHOICES (some Ambient Occlusion, some Shadowing above the lowest/off, some Env. Reflections). It'll run great with a lot of settings turned above recommended, but it won't compare blow for blow to the Desktop GTX 260. A GTX 260M Laptop will still royally beat the pants off of a GT 240 or 220 desktop card, however.

    About Battery Life:
    Disregard it, no matter what the price. You're going to run on AC power, like it or not, to get your processor running at full speed. If you're at Burning Man, do you really want to drag a gaming laptop there anyway? And even if you did, it wouldn't matter. An upgrade to an eight-cell or twelve-cell battery doesn't make sense. If you try to game on any battery, expect about 45-60 minutes before the lights go out. Not kidding.

    I'll even go as far to say that playing CoH on battery is irresponsible. Drawing a big load from your battery to keep your game running (even if Intel/AMD scale your processor 30% beneath it's advertised speed) adds unnecessary heat to your laptop. In the middle of the hottest part of summer (depending on where you live: August-September for North America, January-February for Aussies.) If it's a Desktop Replacement/Gaming Class machine, this is not only a great way to shorten it's overall battery life, you can damage it royally.


    THE LINEUP
    So, one more time, what kind of Laptop are you looking for? There's three useable groups that come to my mind, priced from highest to lowest (yeah, I wrote five categories for laptops, I know, read it anyway):



    ===========================================
    -1-

    Professional Gaming Laptops
    WORTH CONSIDERATION

    $1,000 and higher. Really. Top of the heap is around $3K.

    This kind of category makes me ill having less that $200 a month to spend on myself, so I'll recommend such types to visit Alienware (part of Dell). Their Area 51 Laptops are very powerful, even at their 'bargain bin' sub $1,500 price. The only kind of laptop I've seen them sell is "big", but their website assures me indeed that they do sell 15" laptops.

    If the fact that you can customize a Desktop PC to cost $24,000 for a single machine makes you as ill as it does me, there's other manufacturers out there: eBuyPower, and the brick-and-mortar-free Newegg and TigerDirect offer high end models as well. Gaming PC's come in all shapes and sizes. If you can afford these, you probably won't need my help at all: everything that's been out in the gaming category since 2009 is more than good gravy for CoH.

    Product lines to consider: Alienware (and it's cheaper little brother: Dell XPS... Dell owns Alienware), ASUS Republic of Gamers (ASUS G-Series Laptops), Gateway FX (silently being discontinued, but you might find discontinued models out there, and they do perform well compared to the rest of Acer/Gateway's offerings), Lenovo Y Series laptops, Toshiba Qosmio, iBuyPower. HP Envy (SOME models, be careful, if netbook is anywhere in the title or "Worlds thinnest/lightest", avoid. I really wish HP would resurrect the Voodoo line, but it looks like it's dead on arrival.)


    ===========================================
    -2-

    Desktop Replacement
    WORTH CONSIDERATION

    Costs $800 - $1,400 depending on how it's equipped.

    Almost all laptop manufacturers offer desktop replacement models. Desktop Replacement models aren't explicitly designed for gaming (i.e.: 2.0 Audio, non-backlit keys, USB ports may be in front or close to palm rests, etc.) but are cheaper than Gaming laptops anyday. These are types of laptops, not solid rules, and there are exceptions of course. All of them, Gaming and Desktop Replacement types, have the same "CON": not portable enough to throw into a backpack and run, they take 5-10 minutes to into their comparatively snug-cases compared to a 12"-15" laptop (good luck finding a "roomy" 17" laptop bag by the way) and they're certainly not light. But they are portable enough that you can take it to a hotel room, set it up on the little table they give you, and not skip a beat from being away from home. Most Mac's fall inbetween Desktop Replacement and Notebook, particularly MacBook Pro. But that's not my guide (scroll to the top.)

    Due to the large size to handle the cooling requirements and bigger screen real-estate (16" or bigger) expect the machine to run on a table. The positioning of the vent ports require a solid surface. Playing CoH on your lap or a hotel bed will block the vents without a lap-desk (or a flat flank of wood I find works.) Ultra Mode is easily possible, but at reduced settings if you want to keep the heat draw and driver errors down. On both, I'd recommend a "chill mat" to place under the laptop to give it extra cooling to squeeze an extra 5-10 FPS out of them while gaming.

    Product lines to consider: Dell Precision and HP EliteBook models are examples of this type of laptop, but any Gaming laptop really fits this category easily. While being cheaper, they're not affordable: you'll still need to give up around a grand for one of these. If you're on a budget, read on.


    ===========================================
    -3-

    Notebook/Subnotebook-class
    WORTH CONSIDERATION

    Costs ballpark $600-800.

    May be mid-range, may be entry level, depends on the overall cost of the machine and it's physical size. (But be warned: +$1,000 laptops that are less than 16" do exist with no graphic card at all... this confuses the hell out of me too.) In this category, INSIST ON Discrete Graphics Cards. Even if they claim that Intel Core i-Series and AMD Vision doesn't need one, it doesn't matter: you need one. (Intel laptop models with Radeon graphics DO exist; the same for AMD models with NVidia graphics.) If the salesperson can't answer if it has a discrete Graphics Card or not, they don't want to sell the laptop that badly. Move on.

    These machines are Mid-sized, ranging from 11-16 inches, and since less heat draw is made they can be played on your lap easily but gets warm after extended periods. Subnotebooks will not come with optical media drives or extra ports, limiting the roles the computer can take when exchanging data is necessary: buy an external optical drive to play CD/DVD media (when possible) for less than $80. You can run CoH, but you can forget about Ultra Mode with these. Recommended or Performance settings are more than possible on these machines at 30 FPS. If you have a budget to consider, you need to shop them thoroughly, but with the right amount of research you will come out alright.



    ===========================================
    -4-

    The Doldrums: This isn't a category, but an omen-- READ ANYWAY!!
    AVOID

    Business-class/school-ready laptops that cost anywhere from $300-700.

    They may or may not contain graphic cards, but if they do, most of them are intended to boost Windows 7 performance at best. There is one salvageable point of contention: ones with Intel MHD4500 WILL play CoH, but they deliver no graphic options, no antialiasing, shading, or anisotropic filtering, and does weird glitching at points (particularly bases). Their performance is comparable to a GeForce 6200 with overall better FPS (CoH at release in 2004 recommended this card).

    Since Intel/AMD are getting into the "Graphics Card on the Processor Die" setup with the Intel Core i-Series and AMD Vision computers, graphics capabilities are harder to gauge than before when walking through a store checking them out. (Again, this is on purpose: ideally, a store would like you to buy both a desktop for gaming, and a laptop for mobile use.)

    You can expect the lowest priced Intel Core i-3 laptops (under the guise of Intel HD Graphics) and AMD E-Series processors (called AMD Vision on the case sticker) to run City of Heroes on Minimum settings at 15 frames per second or better in low traffic areas (if you're in Atlas Park, get ready for stop-frame animation).

    If it's an Intel Core i7 processor or AMD Vision laptop with an A-Series processor, you'll fare a little better: A-Series processors deliver around the Radeon HD 6400-6600 level of output, which places it above budget class, but beneath enthusiast class. Regular frame rates above 25-30 are expected in low-traffic areas and 10-15 FPS in crowds. Core i7 processors have a version of Intel HD Graphics that make gameplay possible on City of Heroes around 20-25 FPS, but with good cause, Intel is not known for it's graphics card quality. In fact, it's the lowest quality for the price compared to NVidia and Radeon counterparts.

    But I digress: most laptops in this group with integrated graphics will NOT play CoH well or at all. If it's costs $400-600, be skeptical of it until you know what card it uses, or until you can try it yourself. Most integrated chipsets will not play games like COH with very FEW exceptions; that's why they're affordable.

    On this note: terrible places to buy Laptops that run CoH -- anything offered at Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, WalMart (any variety) and Sam's Club, Sears, and by extension K-Mart (or any K-Mart conjugation: Super, Big, or Mega), RadioShack. Take Costco with a grain of salt (closeout models = no control of what spec or class of laptop they receive.) Online, Amazon may as well be Sears. Except for the customer reviews, you're on your own.

    Protip: Even most Best Buy floor models fall in this category, so SHOP CAREFULLY. Fortunately, Best Buy does store-received shipping on online ordered Gaming Laptops from their website vs. NewEgg/TigerDirect's shipping options. It's not immediate or overnight delivery, but a shorter wait than UPS/FedEx, and much easier to return/service.

    So, in short, if they don't mention the graphic card in the ad, it's called integrated graphics, or if it's Intel GMA (except MHD4500) or VIA S3, AVOID AT ANY PRICE. If it's Core i-3, i-5 or AMD VISION E-Series and says integrated graphics, take it with a grain of salt; it may work, it may not. If it's a Intel Core i7, AMD A-Series, the integrated graphics make gameplay possible, but at low to medium settings at best. If you want better performance, consider a laptop with a DEDICATED (DISCRETE) Graphics Processor.



    ===========================================
    -5-

    Netbooks/Low-End Subnotebooks
    AVOID

    Costs below $500, smallest laptop form factor.

    Two years ago, I recommended a short list of Netbooks to play COH on at Minimum Settings only. Now I feel a need to recant my testimony based on a few developments:

    -- Intel insists on making Integrated Graphics part of the Processor die.
    -- NVidia is getting out of the chipset business.
    -- AMD never really played this category with any serious hardware offerings to begin with.

    NVidia used to make a chipset called ION, which married low-end enthusiast graphics with a small form-factor netbook processor. Intel had a virtual monopoly with the Netbook lineup which was almost all unabashedly the same specs (1.0 GHz, single core, 1GB RAM, GMA 950 Graphics Chips). Intel tried suing NVidia for dipping into it's Kool-Aid, and they settled out of court. In the end, Intel moved forward with removing Integrated Graphics chips off of the motherboard and embedding it into the processor instead, thereby cutting NVidia out of the motherboard business. If you want an NVidia or Radeon Graphics Card on your motherboard, it's either Discrete, or nothing.

    Intel's on-die graphics implementations are famous for being about video rendering rather than 3D performance, and in the Netbook category, it's even more so. 3D performance on Atom chips with integrated graphics are TERRIBLE. NVidia gently killed off the ION after trying to rebrand it as Optimus, the effort largely died after settling with Intel. NVidia is considering Tegra it's sole mobile effort (and that GPU chip isn't touching netbooks). NVidia discontinued their motherboard/laptop mainboard lineup and is sticking to discrete/dedicated graphics only going forward for consumer video cards.

    For these reasons above, I cannot recommend a brand new Netbook for City of Heroes. If you can find a NVidia ION, ION II or ASUS N630 netbook left, go for it if you feel compelled to buy it. Otherwise, with the decline of netbook sales, I doubt anyone's going to mourn this loss.



    ===========================================
    -*-

    Anything Else
    (Hopefully you know this, but it needs to be said. We were all innocent at one point.)
    IMPOSSIBLE

    Tablets, Consoles, ChromeBooks, E-readers, Nettops, Fridges with touch displays, Smart TV's, etc.

    Pass. None of these will play City of Heroes. Ever.



    CONCLUSION
    Consider the following points when shopping:
    -- Mobile Gaming has to be the purpose. Another computer at home may as well be another desktop.
    -- All the good laptops are going to be big. Expect a size over 16" if you're getting a gaming laptop. If lugging this around doesn't sound fun, you may want a subnotebook or reconsider getting one at all.
    -- They are a potpourri of slots and ports: pick the right one for your peripherals.
    -- Gaming-class laptops are not a good idea to impress co-workers... unless you work in the entertainment industry. (Few do.) Goofy case-designs, less than useable battery life, and giant brick of a power supply = Not recommended for your primary "work" laptop.
    -- A choice you'll need to make early on: do you want tech support (go for HP/Lenovo/Dell/Sony) or do you want a good deal and self-support? (ASUS, Acer/Gateway, MSI, etc.
    -- Laptops are generally not upgradeable beyond Memory, Hard Disk and accessories. Processor and Graphic Card is mostly set in stone once it's bought.
    -- Consider how you will go online, and prepare accordingly.
    -- Your graphic card will not match it's desktop card equivalent blow for blow. This is due to heat dissipation, limited voltage, and should be expected.
    -- Nevermind the battery life. You're gaming, and long battery life is sacrificial to your cause and pocket book.
    -- Laptops have a variety of form factors and builds to consider. Make the call based on your desired capabilities, physical needs, and overall budget.

    THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU NEED TO KNOW
    -- Processor is largely irrelevant; multi-core processors are widespread, even in the Celeron-Pentium/E-Series tier. If it's single core and on-sale at Best Buy, you're either holding a Atom-based netbook, or a unicorn. As long as the processor is over 1.2 GHz, City of Heroes will try to run on it.
    -- Video Card - Get the highest numbered one you can afford. If it's a tie between two, read on:
    NVidia - GeForce The critical digit is the hundreds digit (tens digit if it's 3 numbers long): if it's 4 or higher, it'll run CoH well. The higher the better.
    ATI - Radeon - the critical digit is the hundreds digit: if it's 4 or higher, it'll run CoH well.
    If they don't advertise the Video Card number, or if it's Intel, assume it's Integrated and keep hunting.
    -- Display - Any resolution is fine as long as it's at least 1366x768 (typical on 11" and 12" form factors.) 1280x1024 and lower has left the arena in new laptops, so UI real-estate isn't a consideration anymore.

    Now go shop.
    =====

    Well, that's the end of the main guide. This is all you need to go shopping with. If you're not a nerd, avoid the next post. It'll save you from ripping out your hair.
  • Broad generalizations I make. There's always an exception.

    As my HS Math teacher would say, "If you got a better way to get there than how I did, use it. But if it doesn't work, that's why I'm here."
  • Thanks, Father Xmas, I remember long ago when I could post DXDiag directly. Despite playing since 2007, I never used CoHHelper... but I started out with a GeForce 6200, so there really was no need to troubleshoot anything (low end cards may not rock, but they rarely break as severely as the high end ones seem to do). Here you go:

    ===========
    CoH Helper Log
    ===========

    ---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

    DxDiag gathered at January 28, 2012 10:27 (-08:00)
    Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
    System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
    System Model: G72GX
    BIOS: BIOS Date: 12/22/09 14:37:04 Ver: 08.00.14
    Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
    Memory: 6144MB
    .Net Memory Report: 4466MB out of 6143MB available
    Page File: 10394MB (1889MB currently in use)
    C Drive: (ST9500325AS) 122841MB out of 238469MB (51%) free
    D Drive: (ST9500325AS) 223326MB out of 223469MB (99%) free
    E Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT30N) zero-size drive
    F Drive: (ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
    Windows directory location: C:\Windows
    DirectX: DirectX 11
    DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7601.17514 (64-bit version)

    Display Notes: No problems found.
    Sound Notes: No problems found.

    No problems found.

    No problems found.
    Input Notes: No problems found.

    Monitor:
    Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
    Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
    Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce GTX 260M
    Video Memory: 3817 MB
    Driver Version: 8.17.12.8562
    Driver Date: 10/15/2011 12:53:00 AM
    Driver Language: English

    Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
    Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5924
    Driver Date: 8/25/2009 3:28:07 AM

    Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
    Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5924
    Driver Date: 8/25/2009 3:28:07 AM

    Sound Device Description: Realtek HDMI Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
    Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5924
    Driver Date: 8/25/2009 3:28:07 AM


    WMI Information
    Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
    Motherboard Model: (empty)
    Motherboard Product: G72GX
    Motherboard Version: 1.00
    BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
    BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 12/22/09 14:37:04 Ver: 08.00.14
    BIOS Version: _ASUS_ - 12000922
    BIOS Release: 20091222000000.000000+000


    Registry Information for Current User
    Resolution: 1600x900
    3D Resolution: 1600x900 (Not using renderscale)
    Full Screen: Yes
    Maximized: No
    Screen Position: 0, 0
    Refresh Rate: 60Hz
    Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


    Physics Quality: None
    Maximum Particles: 50000
    Max Particle Fill? 10.000
    Physics Card Enabled: No


    Anti-aliasing: Off
    Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
    Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
    Water Effects: None
    Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
    Depth of Field Enabled: No
    Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
    Shader Detail: Unknown (5)


    World Texture Level: High
    Character Texture Level: High
    World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.800
    Entity Detail Level: 1.000
    Shadows Enabled: No
    Shadow Mode: Disabled
    Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
    Environmental Reflections: Disabled
    Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
    Ambient Occlusion: Off
    Occlusion Strength: Off
    Blur: Bilateral
    Ambient Resolution: Performance


    Gamma Correction: 1.000
    Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
    Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
    Close Suppression Range: 3.000
    Show Advertisements: Yes

    Audio Mode: Compatiblity
    3D Audio: No
    FX Sound Volume: 0.000
    Music Sound Volume: 0.000

    Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
    Overall Graphics Quality: 0.250
    Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
    Save Login Username: Yes
    Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
    Current Game Version: 2060.201107262317.0.0
    Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\NCsoft\City of Heroes

    Mod files in the Data directory
    .\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
    .\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
    .\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
    .\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
    .\texture_library\MAPS\static has 38 files
    .\texture_library\V_MAPS\City has 1 file
    .\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
    .\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files

    ===========
    I partitioned my HDD in case I feel like noodling around with Linux. Not a fan of WUBI/SquashFS installations on Windows, plus if I have to nuke it, it doesn't affect Windows 7, just reinstall Win 7 Boot Loader from the DVD, and I'm back in business. Right now, it's blank.

    It shows sound drivers as being out-of-date, but I play City of Heroes on mute all of the time due to Ventrilo. Glowie hunting sucks, but I have other teammates who have OCD, so it works out. I could care less about in-game Audio unless it's known to cause issues with the Graphics for some weird reason.


    ===========
    HijackThis Log
    ===========

    Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.4
    Scan saved at 10:30:34 AM, on 1/28/2012
    Platform: Windows 7 SP1 (WinNT 6.00.3505)
    MSIE: Internet Explorer v9.00 (9.00.8112.16421)
    Boot mode: Normal

    Running processes:
    C:\Users\Micah Collard\AppData\Roaming\SanDisk\Sansa Updater\SansaDispatch.exe
    C:\ExpressGateUtil\VAWinAgent.exe
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Real\RealPlayer\Update\realsched.exe
    C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ASUS Data Security Manager\ADSMTray.exe
    C:\Windows\AsScrPro.exe
    C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\Power2Go\CLMLSvc.exe
    C:\Program Files\ASUS\Turbo Gear\TurboGear.exe
    C:\Program Files\ASUS\Turbo Gear\GearHelp.exe
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
    C:\Users\Micah Collard\Downloads\HijackThis.exe

    R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://asus.msn.com
    R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
    R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://asus.msn.com
    R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
    R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
    R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
    R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
    R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
    R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
    R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\Windows\SysWOW64\blank.htm
    R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
    F2 - REG:system.ini: UserInit=userinit.exe
    O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
    O2 - BHO: RealPlayer Download and Record Plugin for Internet Explorer - {3049C3E9-B461-4BC5-8870-4C09146192CA} - C:\ProgramData\Real\RealPlayer\BrowserRecordPlugin \IE\rpbrowserrecordplugin.dll
    O2 - BHO: Groove GFS Browser Helper - {72853161-30C5-4D22-B7F9-0BBC1D38A37E} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\Office14\GROOVEEX.DLL
    O2 - BHO: URLRedirectionBHO - {B4F3A835-0E21-4959-BA22-42B3008E02FF} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\Office14\URLREDIR.DLL
    O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
    O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BCSSync] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\BCSSync.exe" /DelayServices
    O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VAWinAgent] C:\ExpressGateUtil\VAWinAgent.exe
    O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Real\RealPlayer\Update\realsched.exe" -osboot
    O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe ARM] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe"
    O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [SansaDispatch] C:\Users\Micah Collard\AppData\Roaming\SanDisk\Sansa Updater\SansaDispatch.exe
    O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\Office14\EXCEL.EXE/3000
    O8 - Extra context menu item: Se&nd to OneNote - res://C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\Office14\ONBttnIE.dll/105
    O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ONBttnIE.dll
    O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Se&nd to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ONBttnIE.dll
    O9 - Extra button: OneNote Lin&ked Notes - {789FE86F-6FC4-46A1-9849-EDE0DB0C95CA} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ONBttnIELinkedNotes.dll
    O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: OneNote Lin&ked Notes - {789FE86F-6FC4-46A1-9849-EDE0DB0C95CA} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ONBttnIELinkedNotes.dll
    O11 - Options group: [ACCELERATED_GRAPHICS] Accelerated graphics
    O15 - Trusted Zone: http://*.cinemanow.com
    O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{F2D69A67-15BB-4785-B519-80FD8F85590B}: NameServer = 216.146.35.35,216.146.36.36
    O18 - Filter hijack: text/xml - {807573E5-5146-11D5-A672-00B0D022E945} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE14\MSOXMLMF.DLL
    O23 - Service: Adobe Acrobat Update Service (AdobeARMservice) - Adobe Systems Incorporated - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\armsvc.exe
    O23 - Service: ADSM Service (ADSMService) - ASUSTek Computer Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ASUS Data Security Manager\ADSMSrv.exe
    O23 - Service: AFBAgent - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\FBAgent.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: ASLDR Service (ASLDRService) - ASUS - C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ATK Hotkey\ASLDRSrv.exe
    O23 - Service: ATKGFNEX Service (ATKGFNEXSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\ATKGFNEX\GFNEXSrv.exe
    O23 - Service: Creative ALchemy AL6 Licensing Service - Creative Labs - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Creative Labs Shared\Service\AL6Licensing.exe
    O23 - Service: Creative Audio Engine Licensing Service - Creative Labs - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Creative Labs Shared\Service\CTAELicensing.exe
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\efssvc.dll,-100 (EFS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\fxsresm.dll,-118 (Fax) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\fxssvc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @comres.dll,-2797 (MSDTC) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\msdtc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\System32\netlogon.dll,-102 (Netlogon) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: Palm Novacom (NovacomD) - Palm - C:\Program Files\Palm, Inc\novacomd\amd64\novacomd.exe
    O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (nvsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\nvvsvc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: NVIDIA Update Service Daemon (nvUpdatusService) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA Updatus\daemonu.exe
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\psbase.dll,-300 (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\snmptrap.exe,-3 (SNMPTRAP) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\snmptrap.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\sppsvc.exe,-101 (sppsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\sppsvc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service (Stereo Service) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvSCPAPISvr.exe
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vaultsvc.dll,-1003 (VaultSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vds.exe,-100 (vds) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\vds.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: VideAceWindowsService - Unknown owner - C:\ExpressGateUtil\VAWinService.exe
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Wat\WatUX.exe,-601 (WatAdminSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\Wat\WatAdminSvc.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\wbengine.exe,-104 (wbengine) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbengine.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: WB VGA Service (WBVGAservice) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\Turbo Gear Enhanced VGA Driver\WBVGAservice.exe
    O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing)
    O23 - Service: @%PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe,-101 (WMPNetworkSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe (file missing)

    --
    End of file - 8572 bytes

    ==========
    Didn't know I "trusted" cinemanow.com. Freakin' Best Buy and their bloatware crap.

    ========
    HOSTS File
    ========

    For some reason, HijackThis couldn't edit/load this file, but when I opened it, it just has loopback IP4/IP6 addresses, but everything's commented out. For some reason if that's important, here it is.

    # Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
    #
    # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
    #
    # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
    # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
    # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
    # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
    # space.
    #
    # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
    # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
    #
    # For example:
    #
    # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
    # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

    # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
    # 127.0.0.1 localhost
    # ::1 localhost

    ====================
    Anything to upgrade, kill, or change, let me know.
  • That's what I was afraid of. Kinda sucks to have a laptop that costs a grand that can't leave Minimum settings. Well, it was three years ago, but all the same.

    The weird thing is that other games run on higher settings: Star Trek Online, Portal 2, and Mirror's Edge all have no problems, glitching or errors. Framerate chugs at full power, naturally, but otherwise it's fine. City of Heroes is the only game that does this.
  • Well, if it's a message I can't read it.

    I'm having problems, and when I asked on NVidia.com, I got no reply whatsoever. My sky is broken. (Another song title, but who listens to Moby anymore?)



    Is there something I can set to make this stop? Any setting I make over Minimum eventually does this. My computer has BSOD'ed on Bloom settings on CoH, so I shut it off. It's not that. I was offline for a while, and this never happened with Issue 16 and prior. Haven't touched Ultra Mode until now, and this happens almost instantly when I do.

    PC Specs: Core 2 Duo, 6GB RAM, NVidia GeForce GTX260M 1GB, Windows 7 64-bit. ASUS G72Gx Laptop. I do use a cooling pad, it does get understandably warm during play, but I've never overheated it as far as I know... I do keep an eye on the temps. Running at stock speeds, overclocking a laptop just seems nuts when living in a desert. Normally I'd post DXDiag, but apparently I can't attach or post it here without the forum refusing to post it, so I can share bits/pieces on demand if needed.

    I'm no expert on Computers... well, that isn't completely true, I'm good with Operating System stuff... If it helps to explain, I can slipstream Service Pack 3 into an old Windows XP ISO with my eyes closed if that makes any sense. Just don't ask me to open up PowerShell or a Hex Editor. I've been gone for a while...

    Any ideas?
  • Quote:
    Originally Posted by Obsidius View Post
    Well, at least I'm sort of comforted that we're not the only one with this problem. Here is one other post on the topic, and another.
    Good to know I'm not crazy... my laptop is affected too. (Using Realtek EAX Advanced HD 4.0) I'm not much of an Audiophile, but I did notice.
  • I don't feel party emotes is worth $8.00, so I'll pass on this one. RP'ers may see it differently and buy it for more flexibility in RP. Paragon Studio fanbois (much in the sense of Apple or Linux fanboi-ism) will lap it up and yell STFU to anyone who says otherwise.

    There's plenty of positive and negative reasons out there that the pack speaks for itself... But getting on people for how they rationalize spending money on a non-tangible entertainment product (like your monthly sub fee perhaps?) makes about as much sense as rationalizing the reason why you play City of Heroes at all to someone who views MMO participation as a total waste of money. If you dig it, get it. If not, don't partake. No need to scream bloody murder or bake entire theories over it.
  • Tahquitz

    Triumph is dead.

    Your Mom's on Triumph. :P
  • Don't know you personally, but I do find you very entertaining on the forums...

    Hope everything works out, Rhyn.
  • Tahquitz

    Triumph is dead.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DrGemini View Post
    Only the idiots who's life revolves around farming and powerleveling would agree with you at all.

    The people complaining are probably the people you'd rather not do anything with to begin with. So, I see not much has changed in that regard while I've been away.
    I'm anti-social, so I don't know what folks are complaining about, this server is great: not a single blind invite! Triumph is finally awesome!
  • Quote:
    Originally Posted by Greyhame View Post
    The replies to this post have been a grave disappointment. Everyone's so reasonable that its just not entertaining!
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Emberly View Post
    You must have J_B on ignore.
    I'd have to agree, this is one of the more calm threads I've read. (And yes, I do use the ignore feature.)

    Personally, I wasn't expecting any I19 content in GR in the first place. I'm not disappointed at all. Wouldn't be surprised if Incarnate becomes I20 (Sounds more "milestone" to me) if more sweetening is needed and I19 becomes a maintenance release for after-GR fixes, but I only speak for myself. When it comes is when it comes.
  • Tahquitz

    Hami Time...?

    I wish I didn't have work... when this is happening, I'll be stuck on I-15 dodging Vegas tourists. (Why the hell did I pick Wed/Thurs. off three years ago?)

    Good to see you back though Batz! Rip up that jello like a forf o' Jooh-laih block party!

    RE: SwellGuy -- Batz is an eastcoaster... Eastern Time indeed.
  • Quote:
    Originally Posted by KAKTOS View Post
    Wow you have had some really bad experiences . If that was my store I would have fired the idiots. Once is a okay but that sounds like employes who don't care. Either way hope it works better this time.
    It scares me more that there's no retort to this at all. I expected some GameStop employee to spring up and say "No, you're wrong" by now.

    But tempering the expectations with realism here, I don't expect Paragon Studios shipping out motorized cardboard standees for retail stores with Tyrant shoving a fist upward or anything, but a poster or ad in the Sunday paper would be nice. (If I saw the box art in a Best Buy ad, I'd bring it to a Meet and Greet for devs to sign.)
  • That's assuming GameStop executes the preorder program successfully at all.

    How bout a mini-rant? Three out of four preorders I've made for MMO titles in GameStop end the same way: they'll sell your preorder to someone else as soon as the doors open if you're not on the other side of them at 9am. It's the one thing they purportedly cite as one of the 'advantages' of buying a preorder that each of the clerks love to harp on: Launch day, you can pick up the title whenever you feel like it. (The only one that succeeded was my Aion Collector's Ed., which is still available in most stores... I've quit playing, but I think the Soundtrack CD was worth the money... the music alone for that game is awesome.)

    When you learn the game you've preordered was sold 'on accident', the fix involves them rolling their eyes at you as they call five or six other stores until you get the hint that none of them have it (also assuming that the associate who sold it to you knew that the store was getting them at all... when the manager who's not there that day knows that they're actually preselling the game at another location), or telling you that they'll hold a copy for sure when the next shipment comes in... three weeks later. Either fix usually has the same result for them: you ask for a refund and leave.

    And that assumes that you've been polite at all in the exchange. If you show any sort of attitude or disgust, some snark-filled manager takes over who feels some evangelistical preference towards console gaming and proceeds to tell you that there's nothing that anyone can do. Then they try to wheel and deal you into spending your preorder cash on another product then proceed to educate you to forget MMO's and spend your cash on the product that everyone else is buying up like T-Shirts at a backyard wrestling match, like a new FPS release, or the latest Wii or Harmonix oddity.

    But if you manage to crack their veneer of manic-depression and persist through all of their levels of employment, and I managed to pull this off myself once... you might just witness a manager's face glow bright red, rip up your preorder receipt and go Gandalf on you, banning you from their store in a cinematic fashion that makes Julie Taymor's 'combat' scenes in Across The Universe seem more rational and subtle.

    I don't know why companies still prefer to make deals with GameStop with such inconsistent execution, I feel they would save money on marketing if they keep deals in-house when possible (NCSoft Store Online), especially if GameStop has no idea the preorder is happening (I checked my local store just for laughs. They have no idea about Going Rogue where I live, other than Sarah Palin jokes, then the manager remembered my face from before as I left and had Security stop and escort me out of the mall... just sad).

    Otherwise, I'd much rather preorder at Best Buy. Don't get me wrong, they're no better at holding on to copies than GameStop is, but they don't pretend to care more than they actually do: you're refunded usually within minutes, sans contempt or apology.