Supreme Commander thread

[Helion]

SupCom 2 is coming out, but I was wondering if someone else had played the first. I did stay on single-player, what with my ass getting handed over to me in ranked multiplayer games. It's a hard game, and it looks like the second is going to be more accessible so who knows? Maybe my ego could afford a brief foray into multi-player land before it's bruised into submission. Is anyone else here interested?

[Doomsday]

I'm a massive fan of SupCom, and I'm eagerly awaiting the second one. Not sure wether my rig will run it though. It doesn't handle the first one well when things get hectic with 4+ players at least

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Bought the budget-label version for about ten bucks this fall, played the UEF campaign and half the Cybran campaign. I never bothered with multiplayer, but loved single player. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that SupCom has the best UI in an RTS I've ever seen.

[orinrin]

I really hope they fixed those optimization issues.

[Naut]

SupCom 2 is coming out, but I was wondering if someone else had played the first.

Yeah I played the first, was pretty awesome. Didnt get around to the second (despite my anticipation before it came out), so I think I'll be trying the third. I fear I may be putting really high expectations on it though.

[Ghaleon]

I didn't enjoy TA very much. But SupCom was fun, I stopped playing it after I discovered it was too advanced for my bro's computer to run properly. I generally try not to get into RTS games if I ca n't play them with my friends/brother. But he has since upgraded and trying it out again should be doable.

TA did actually have a quasi-sequel prior to TA, but it was so unlike the original, as well as just plain FUCKING BAD!!! that everyone pretends like it never existed. It's called TA: kingdoms.

Imagine your stereotypical RTS game, with absolutely no redeeming features that made it unique.. Oh wait, no it had one unique feature. Every map had a certain element (fire/water/etc), and every race had an element. Each race was particularly good when on a map of their element, no map had multiple elements.. So like..you chose the race depending on the map. REALLY SMART HUH durr.

[Helion]

total annihilation

Oh God. BRB reinstalling.

[Helion]

Apologies for the double post

Would anyone here be up for a friendly match at SupCom? Possibly in GMT, so it's easier to coordinate our timings, but if we can manage with other timezones, why not?

[helvetica]

I fucking loved TA, I still play it regularly.  I was really into SupCom pre FA as well, was rated 1950 on the 1v1 ladder and mained Aeon.  Already preordered SupCom2 and furiously waiting for it to arrive :*

[orinrin]

My friend decided to main Cybran.  What a fag.

I guess I'll stick with lolturtle UEF then.

[Helion]

SupCom 2 demo is out.
WHAT. THE. FUCK. DID THEY DO. TO SUPCOM.

[Ghaleon]

Tell me please while I figure out how to make HD space... I wonder ifmy machine can even run the game too. As for cybrans, they never appealed to me because stealth is never my thing and that seems to be their specialty. If uef is turtle what's aeon? I mean I don't see why you can't turtle as well with aeon either. But I'm a nun so I really just don't know.

[helvetica]

SupCom 2 demo is out.
WHAT. THE. FUCK. DID THEY DO. TO SUPCOM.

I'm actually considering rescinding my preorder from what I'm hearing about the demo.  I'm holding my judgement until it's done downloading at home.

[helvetica]

Tell me please while I figure out how to make HD space... I wonder ifmy machine can even run the game too. As for cybrans, they never appealed to me because stealth is never my thing and that seems to be their specialty. If uef is turtle what's aeon? I mean I don't see why you can't turtle as well with aeon either. But I'm a nun so I really just don't know.

Aeon's specialty is hyper-specialized units.  Each of their units does one thing, and one thing only, but it does it damn well.  They're not very heavily armored but they are damn fast and cheap, designed for swarm tactics.

UEF is the big bulky tanky bulldozer race.  Their bots have higher HP than everyone else, their shields are best, and they tend to be able to take on bigger forces with much smaller armies.

Cybran is the jack of all trades race.  Their units like to do multiple roles, like being able to repair with the T1 spider bot, or having anti-missile on the T3 assault robot.

[Helion]

Also they seem to have a degree of excellence in specific sectors.
Cybran have the best air units in the game, especially T3. There's no match for them. If they achieve air dominance early on, they're going to be problematic.
Aeon have the best navy. While their ships may lack in firing rate, their damage, their health, and their excellence at doing their own specific jobs makes them extremely powerful. They are costly, but everything Aeon does is costly.
UEF specialize in land units, they've got some pretty powerful ones. They are designed to resist enough to come knocking at your door.

[Ghaleon]

Yeah I recall the guide saying something about Aeon being specialized. A part of me suspected that that was just due to in-game descriptions of units which weren't neccesarily true (true for the unit, but not for the race). I suspected it wrong because the units I seemed to like often didn't seem very specialized when I tried Aeon.

One thing I've only just recently noticed, I don't know if it's true for all the cases, but...When it comes to BIG weapons (artillery, mobile siege thingies, bombers, etc)

UEF: normal mode, often best dps.
Cybran: MOAR splash damage/radius (I think I like this best, haven't tried cybran yet since I figured they were just a "stealth lol" race)
Aeon: Almost no splash damage, better damage at the cost of slowass firing intervals, resulting in sub-UEF dps.

Also, is there a way so that units that can repair automatically repair anything nearby if they aren't doing anything else?

[helvetica]

Also they seem to have a degree of excellence in specific sectors.
Cybran have the best air units in the game, especially T3. There's no match for them. If they achieve air dominance early on, they're going to be problematic.
Aeon have the best navy. While their ships may lack in firing rate, their damage, their health, and their excellence at doing their own specific jobs makes them extremely powerful. They are costly, but everything Aeon does is costly.
UEF specialize in land units, they've got some pretty powerful ones. They are designed to resist enough to come knocking at your door.

The Aeon bombers and gunships kind of blow but their ASF is the best in the game.  Geminis can't compete.  What hurts Aeon the most in air is the fact they don't have traditional torp bombers.  Instead they got those halfassed depth charge droppers :|  The flying donut is a beast though.

[Ghaleon]

So I tried cybran, and I rather like them actually. The artilery seems MUCH more useful than the Aeon's, cheaper too. I know the big one doesn't shoot as far but they all tend to shoot "far enough" IMO. I think those mantis bots are really good tier 1 grunts as well.

Bear in mind I'll only play this game with my brother and RL friend, both of whom yell at me when I take too many kills, or who don't like me killing them so fast (neither are really big gamers). So I'm pretty much forced to play turtle alot of the time or else they whine >=p.

That experimental artillery is fun too. I don't know how useful it is though. it shot far, seems to shoot rapidly, and the graphics look like the explosion is large. But the accuracy stunk, and I never really saw it actually destroy much >=P. The experimental gunship also didn't seem very impressive damage wise....For an experimental I mean. Seemed to do only as much as 2 or maybe 3 of UEF's T3 gunships, and costed a helluva lot more. Was beefy yes, but also slow.

I don't have the HD space to try the demo yet (discovering touhou music slayed my HD..I don't even have all the touhou music I want!), so please fill me in your impressions, details please, WHY do you think it's good/bad >=)

[helvetica]

Cybran experimentals blow.  The gunship is easily owned by a small squadron of T2 gunships, the monkeybot is wayyyyy too slow, and the scathis's damage output is terrible (although scary looking).  Really the only time I get any of them is to combat other experimentals.  It's usually a better buy just to spend that mass in T3 siege bots or SCUs.

Really the only race with good experimentals is the Seraphim T4 bomber, the Atlantis, and the flying donut experimental for Aeon.  Mavor is impressive and great but so fucking slow to build, Fatboy and GC gets owned by strat bombers, Tempest is worse than most T3 battleships.  No comment on the other Seraphim experimentals because I never saw anyone build them other than the T4 bomber.

[Helion]

Is it the demo, or did they actually remove the unit tiers from SupCom2?

[helvetica]

Ok reinstalled FA, whoever wants to play with me hit me up on Steam or IRC or w/e.

[helvetica]

BTW anyone interested in Supcom/FA the gold pack with both games is only 15 bucks on Direct2Drive http://www.direct2drive.com/1/5269/product/Buy-Supreme-Commander-Gold-Download

That'll get you everything you need for all 4 races.

[Helion]

You already gave up on SupCom 2?

[helvetica]

I cancelled my preorder for now.  It may be a good game, it may not.  Gonna wait until full impressions are made.

[orinrin]

The demo does a horrible job of showcasing what SupCom 2 is capable of.

I also heard that the demo uses a really old alpha build of the game.

It was not intended for anyone to judge the game based on the demo, as it is merely a demo and nothing more.

[Helion]

The demo does a horrible job of showcasing what SupCom 2 is capable of.

I also heard that the demo uses a really old alpha build of the game.

It was not intended for anyone to judge the game based on the demo, as it is merely a demo and nothing more.

That's retarded beyond credibility. I sincerely am unable to fathom why would someone release to the public an alpha build in order to encourage the public to buy the full release.
Also: if you release a demo, it's to make your game look good, to encourage someone to buy it but not have them completely in the dark before they buy your product. It's the equivalent of a movie trailer. That they would use an alpha build and "not want for anyone to judge based upon it" is inadmissible.

[orinrin]

To be honest.  Even I am beginning to have my doubts about this game.

I guess nothing can really be done until the game actually comes out.

[helvetica]

Reviews are out.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/supreme-commander-2-review
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/supremecommander2/review.html

General consensus.  Faster, more flashy, more gimmicks, less need for an economics degree.  Most are also saying "veterans may not take to the changes very well" meaning to me it's a vastly different game.

On the fence but I think I'll go and pick it up on my way home if I have the cash.

[orinrin]

I got $5 off from pre-ordering.

Yay Steam.

[helvetica]

I lost a 15 dollar credit for cancelling my preorder but ohwell the beta really really soured me on it.  Guess I'll see who has it for cheapest.