Supreme Commander demo available

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: nullzero

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: CP5670
The framerates in the campaign are horrible for some reason, but the skirmish runs a lot better. However, the game in general feels very slow paced, much more than even TA. I loved TA back then but was finding the skirmish in this a bit boring. It will definitely take some getting used to.

i dont like how it takes forever for some units to build (tier3 naval). i mean yeah, im sure they're badass, but good lord - tier3 land is <1minute game time and tier3 air is <5minutes game. then i attacked the computer and somehow won.... i honestly dont know how, it just said "AI defeated". the most annoying thing though - attacking units i cannot see and having them appear as tiny grey squares... wtf!

The computer player in the demo is dummed down a great deal. Even when the AI coding wasnt even complete in beta when you unlocked the AI and put it on Hard it was almost impossible to beat. 20 mins in the game for example it would rush you with 2-3 experimentals. For those that find the gameplay mediorce its hard to judge the game without playing online against players. The engine in this game is revolutionary and there will be many mods and custom addons to the game in the future. If you want to play a RTS with the best engine to date, great multiplayer, and continuous stream of new content and mods then SupCom is for you.

The new C&C looks absolutely fantastic, and SC looks like it came out of 1997. Please explain the revolutionary part to me, because good ol TA plays better than this joke. Other than a larger battlefield, I fail to see whats actually been improved over TA.

Sure, the grand scale is interesting, but it's so grand that it's self-defeating. I just do not see the point in fighting a war on such a massive level that my units have to be represented by icons, and it's so frantic and messy that micromanagement is impossible.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: nullzero

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: CP5670
The framerates in the campaign are horrible for some reason, but the skirmish runs a lot better. However, the game in general feels very slow paced, much more than even TA. I loved TA back then but was finding the skirmish in this a bit boring. It will definitely take some getting used to.

i dont like how it takes forever for some units to build (tier3 naval). i mean yeah, im sure they're badass, but good lord - tier3 land is <1minute game time and tier3 air is <5minutes game. then i attacked the computer and somehow won.... i honestly dont know how, it just said "AI defeated". the most annoying thing though - attacking units i cannot see and having them appear as tiny grey squares... wtf!

The computer player in the demo is dummed down a great deal. Even when the AI coding wasnt even complete in beta when you unlocked the AI and put it on Hard it was almost impossible to beat. 20 mins in the game for example it would rush you with 2-3 experimentals. For those that find the gameplay mediorce its hard to judge the game without playing online against players. The engine in this game is revolutionary and there will be many mods and custom addons to the game in the future. If you want to play a RTS with the best engine to date, great multiplayer, and continuous stream of new content and mods then SupCom is for you.

The new C&C looks absolutely fantastic, and SC looks like it came out of 1997. Please explain the revolutionary part to me, because good ol TA plays better than this joke. Other than a larger battlefield, I fail to see whats actually been improved over TA.

Sure, the grand scale is interesting, but it's so grand that it's self-defeating. I just do not see the point in fighting a war on such a massive level that my units have to be represented by icons, and it's so frantic and messy that micromanagement is impossible.

that's because SC DID COME OUT IN 1997. i still consider it the best RTS ever, and many are sure to agree:thumbsup:

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: nullzero

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: CP5670
The framerates in the campaign are horrible for some reason, but the skirmish runs a lot better. However, the game in general feels very slow paced, much more than even TA. I loved TA back then but was finding the skirmish in this a bit boring. It will definitely take some getting used to.

i dont like how it takes forever for some units to build (tier3 naval). i mean yeah, im sure they're badass, but good lord - tier3 land is <1minute game time and tier3 air is <5minutes game. then i attacked the computer and somehow won.... i honestly dont know how, it just said "AI defeated". the most annoying thing though - attacking units i cannot see and having them appear as tiny grey squares... wtf!

The computer player in the demo is dummed down a great deal. Even when the AI coding wasnt even complete in beta when you unlocked the AI and put it on Hard it was almost impossible to beat. 20 mins in the game for example it would rush you with 2-3 experimentals. For those that find the gameplay mediorce its hard to judge the game without playing online against players. The engine in this game is revolutionary and there will be many mods and custom addons to the game in the future. If you want to play a RTS with the best engine to date, great multiplayer, and continuous stream of new content and mods then SupCom is for you.

The new C&C looks absolutely fantastic, and SC looks like it came out of 1997. Please explain the revolutionary part to me, because good ol TA plays better than this joke. Other than a larger battlefield, I fail to see whats actually been improved over TA.

Sure, the grand scale is interesting, but it's so grand that it's self-defeating. I just do not see the point in fighting a war on such a massive level that my units have to be represented by icons, and it's so frantic and messy that micromanagement is impossible.

that's because SC DID COME OUT IN 1997. i still consider it the best RTS ever, and many are sure to agree:thumbsup:

Hell yes...the *other* SC was indeed awesome. I'm one of the few people that think that WC3 was a superior game, but SC still has a special place in my heart. As does TA. They just don't make RTS games like they used to...so much focus on adding more and more that you can't even keep track of it all. The last C&C was kinda fun though, and tiberium wars just looks amazing...hoping that it's actually FUN though!

 

[Sylvanas]

Wow....what a crappy game, I want the last half hour of my life back please....I sure do hope C&C3 delivers, back to Company of heroes for now.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Hell yes...the *other* SC was indeed awesome. I'm one of the few people that think that WC3 was a superior game, but SC still has a special place in my heart. As does TA. They just don't make RTS games like they used to...so much focus on adding more and more that you can't even keep track of it all. The last C&C was kinda fun though, and tiberium wars just looks amazing...hoping that it's actually FUN though!

woops... wrong SC, sorry

 

[you2]

Hum.... Have to admit company of heroes was a lot of fun. No comments on SC yet - just played 10 minutes of the demo. It seemd a lot like TA with an update. I'll comment more when i finish the demo (well maybe if i remember).

 

[Vortex22]

Haven't played the demo, but I played beta and enjoyed it a lot. Anyone complaining about long build times apparently didn't play TA.

 

[Czar]

This is bad.. real bad

The interface is horrible

and frankly.. TA was much much better
extremely disapointed

 

[Czar]

oh oh I know...

This reminds me bit of MOO3, except this one has better gameplay, but has the same lack of profesional quality you expect nowdays.

The intro was ****** as well

 

[shortylickens]

I agree with Vortex22. This game aint for everyone and those who dont like it either hated TA or didnt play TA.

This is good. It is also different. For some of us that makes it unplayable.
THIS IS NOT STARCRAFT 2 PEOPLE!

You dont play it like Warcraft or Starcraft or C&C or any of the other pretty, yet generic strategy games.
You dont have massive tech trees or complicated resource systems.
You build up your armies and crush the opposition. If you arent hitting your unit limit right away (at least in the demo Skirmish map) you are playing it wrong and you would get wasted in multiplay. You are supposed to build up your basic resource buildings quick and easy. Then you make a bunch of level 1 unit producers. Make a BUTT-LOAD of tier 1 units and harrass the crap out of the enemy. Most of the game time should actually be spent in bloody, brutal combat.
You can set your robot plants to auto produce forever (thus freeing your attention to other matters, like the front line).
Just move the waypoints further up as you go. The reenforcements will fall in beside your army.
As the game progresses you can build even more level 1 unit factories and overwhelm the enemy, OR you can upgrade the factories and make stonger units. It doesnt matter what type of unit you have, each one takes 1 population point. Letting the weak guys die off and get replaced by stronger bots is how you make your army stronger.
But you do have to pay careful attention during the build-up phase. You will need to switch your commander between mass-producing buildings, energy-producing buildings, and unit-producing buildings. When he's not making something new he should be empowering some other structure.
For the first run-through I recommend keeping it simple and just use a bunch of tier 1 land units. See how fast you can pump them out. Make a lot of power generators and upgrade your mass producers when you can. Also, even if you run out of resources you can still build, just really slow. Have the commander and a few builders make more resources if you get drained. With him and about 5 of them all on 1 project you can still squeeze things out pretty fast.

This game is only slow if you play it slow folks. Making one unit or building at a time is wasteful against the CPU and dangerous against human opponents. Make lots of stuff.
When your base gets big and less easy to manage you will actually have to slow down the game to keep up with it all.

Which brings me to another point: The speed.
All you need to do is hit the plus or minus keys on your keyboard. You can go from -10, which is practically paused, to positive 10, which is like a rabbit on cocaine. You may need to speed it up when you are only churning out units. As soon you make an assault or the enemy makes an assault, slow it down and manage things.

This is a pretty intense game. I played it on my office machine (sckt 754 Athlon 3400+, 512 megs of PC3500 and an X800 Pro Radeon). I had to take details down really low just to keep the action fast and fluid.
Will install it on my game system tonight and let you know how it goes (sckt 939 Athlon 64 4800+, 1 gig PC4200 and a GeForce 7900GTX).

Its a good game folks, but we arent used to its kind of pace and strategy. Played well you shouldnt even spend that much time on base-building and defense. You should also use the speed controls to your advantage, its one of the things that set TA and TA:Kingdoms apart from the other games.
You could actually play the skirmish map in about 30 minutes if you get efficient enough.

Practice, practice, PRACTICE!
Just like I know so many of you did for SC, WC and C&C.

 

[shortylickens]

I just played the skirmish again.
22 minutes of real time and 55 minutes in game, meaning I spent most of it acclerated. I'll need those skills to survive online against all the hardcore TA fans and people who spend 12 hours a day playing the Beta.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I just played the skirmish again.
22 minutes of real time and 55 minutes in game, meaning I spent most of it acclerated. I'll need those skills to survive online against all the hardcore TA fans and people who spend 12 hours a day playing the Beta.

im curious, shortlickens, what do you like about SC, what makes it a great game to you?

 

[Vortex22]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I just played the skirmish again.
22 minutes of real time and 55 minutes in game, meaning I spent most of it acclerated. I'll need those skills to survive online against all the hardcore TA fans and people who spend 12 hours a day playing the Beta.

im curious, shortlickens, what do you like about SC, what makes it a great game to you?

I like it because it's pretty different from the other RTS games. In most games resources are limited and you have to be efficient with your unit construction. TA and SC have unlimited resources and are more about macro management; you build as fast as you can and constantly zerg the enemy. I suspect that many of the people who don't like it are trying to play it like WC3 and are getting bored fast. The goal is to overwhelm with numbers, not to build a small group of units and roam around with them trying to kill stuff. Notice how strong the defensive structures are... you can't overtake a base without a constant stream of units pounding it. The big long construction units shouldn't be used unless you run into a long stalemate because focusing so many resources on them early will get you crushed (just like in TA online games).

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I agree with Vortex22. This game aint for everyone and those who dont like it either hated TA or didnt play TA.

This is good. It is also different. For some of us that makes it unplayable.
THIS IS NOT STARCRAFT 2 PEOPLE!

You dont play it like Warcraft or Starcraft or C&C or any of the other pretty, yet generic strategy games.
You dont have massive tech trees or complicated resource systems.
You build up your armies and crush the opposition. If you arent hitting your unit limit right away (at least in the demo Skirmish map) you are playing it wrong and you would get wasted in multiplay. You are supposed to build up your basic resource buildings quick and easy. Then you make a bunch of level 1 unit producers. Make a BUTT-LOAD of tier 1 units and harrass the crap out of the enemy. Most of the game time should actually be spent in bloody, brutal combat.
You can set your robot plants to auto produce forever (thus freeing your attention to other matters, like the front line).
Just move the waypoints further up as you go. The reenforcements will fall in beside your army.
As the game progresses you can build even more level 1 unit factories and overwhelm the enemy, OR you can upgrade the factories and make stonger units. It doesnt matter what type of unit you have, each one takes 1 population point. Letting the weak guys die off and get replaced by stronger bots is how you make your army stronger.
But you do have to pay careful attention during the build-up phase. You will need to switch your commander between mass-producing buildings, energy-producing buildings, and unit-producing buildings. When he's not making something new he should be empowering some other structure.
For the first run-through I recommend keeping it simple and just use a bunch of tier 1 land units. See how fast you can pump them out. Make a lot of power generators and upgrade your mass producers when you can. Also, even if you run out of resources you can still build, just really slow. Have the commander and a few builders make more resources if you get drained. With him and about 5 of them all on 1 project you can still squeeze things out pretty fast.

This game is only slow if you play it slow folks. Making one unit or building at a time is wasteful against the CPU and dangerous against human opponents. Make lots of stuff.
When your base gets big and less easy to manage you will actually have to slow down the game to keep up with it all.

Which brings me to another point: The speed.
All you need to do is hit the plus or minus keys on your keyboard. You can go from -10, which is practically paused, to positive 10, which is like a rabbit on cocaine. You may need to speed it up when you are only churning out units. As soon you make an assault or the enemy makes an assault, slow it down and manage things.

This is a pretty intense game. I played it on my office machine (sckt 754 Athlon 3400+, 512 megs of PC3500 and an X800 Pro Radeon). I had to take details down really low just to keep the action fast and fluid.
Will install it on my game system tonight and let you know how it goes (sckt 939 Athlon 64 4800+, 1 gig PC4200 and a GeForce 7900GTX).

Its a good game folks, but we arent used to its kind of pace and strategy. Played well you shouldnt even spend that much time on base-building and defense. You should also use the speed controls to your advantage, its one of the things that set TA and TA:Kingdoms apart from the other games.
You could actually play the skirmish map in about 30 minutes if you get efficient enough.

Practice, practice, PRACTICE!
Just like I know so many of you did for SC, WC and C&C.

WC3 is the only game you mention that macro really dosent work in. SC has its zero clutter 50000k maps, the various c&c's all have their massive money maps, death valley in generals is one hell of a map for macro, they can be played how you want. Supreme commander didnt impress me at all. I beat the AI really easily in 2 minutes and i was led to believe by screenshots that things would be... bigger and better looking in it. Im holding out for c&c 3, i know for sure that its gonna be good, micro, macro, it dosent matter as it can be played how you want.

Ill wait and see what the final release verdict is like. But for now back to starcraft

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Vortex22

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I just played the skirmish again.
22 minutes of real time and 55 minutes in game, meaning I spent most of it acclerated. I'll need those skills to survive online against all the hardcore TA fans and people who spend 12 hours a day playing the Beta.

im curious, shortlickens, what do you like about SC, what makes it a great game to you?

I like it because it's pretty different from the other RTS games. In most games resources are limited and you have to be efficient with your unit construction. TA and SC have unlimited resources and are more about macro management; you build as fast as you can and constantly zerg the enemy. I suspect that many of the people who don't like it are trying to play it like WC3 and are getting bored fast. The goal is to overwhelm with numbers, not to build a small group of units and roam around with them trying to kill stuff. Notice how strong the defensive structures are... you can't overtake a base without a constant stream of units pounding it. The big long construction units shouldn't be used unless you run into a long stalemate because focusing so many resources on them early will get you crushed (just like in TA online games).

good points. one of my biggest disappointments was the naval units.. they take so effin long to build, and they're some of the coolest in the game.

 

[titan7]

Originally posted by: nullzero
One of the best RTS made in the last 5 years. Its the most modable RTS game made to date as well. Most people disappointed with SupCom are the ones with the slow 5 year old rigs that expect to play a next gen game with no lag. Supcom is the next gen Half Life of RTSes when it comes down to online play and modability.

How is it more modable than Company of Heroes?

 

[vhx]

I just got the demo and find it fun at times, but can be really annoying as the battles can swing from winner to loser VERY quickly.

The queue system is great and frees up time to do other things. I do like the fact you can zoom out really far, set patrols, as well as set units on a repeat cycle so you dont have to keep creating things leaving you free to upgrade and keep an eye out for enemies. Defense structures are actually very useful in this game, and do lots of damage, unlike a lot of RTS where they are more of an obstacle you need to just push through. These, however, you should destroy ASAP.

The experimental units are cool, however they are WAY overpowered. You don't even need to do damage with one, if you can walk it far enough into their base and wait for it to die, it will just explode taking out everything around it. And if it takes out a powerplant, expect a chain reaction that will own everything and anything connected to your power plants, which could very well be your entire base. This usually happens in most games. They will use it to make a B-line straight to the heart of your base from the sea.

The AI in this game is horrible, they never protect their commander. They always send him right into battle, and he gets owned and you win. LOL I build a Tech 3 artillery and it was just firing randomly all over the map. 5 minutes later I won, because my artillery actually killed their commander while randomly bombarding the map. Lol?

All in all it can be fun, but I expect it to be a lot more fun with different maps and multiplayer for sure. As for people saying it's slow, this is somewhat true, depends on how fast you advance really. I was looking through the lua files and there is actually an option for game speed and it's set to Normal for the demo. I expect a way to change it in the full version.

 

[Maximilian]

I tried it again without gun-turret rushing and with a medium AI this time instead of easy. I still squashed it, but that was pretty fun, it was like simpsons madness in starcraft only with... more too it. I did cancel my pre-order when i first played it, but now i *get it* i re-pre-ordered theres a mouthful. Its ALL about strategy, resource management is there too but its not the same in that you can pretty much waste as much as you like, just do the math before you click somthing expensive so it wont drain your reserves entirely.

Few issues/questions:

1. How do i "upgrade my construstion units"?? I gathered the commander was the construction unit, how do i upgrade him?

2. How can i attack submarines? I found a commander upgrade that allowed him to do it but i never got time to use it, my own shipyard and torpedo turret always gets owned by subs.

3. Related to issue 1, how do i get to tech level 3? The best unit ive been able to build was the heavy tank with dual lasers. It was a very nice unit too.

 

[you2]

The demo was ok i guess - kind of boring. I played on medium (not sure if hard is better or worse). Took forever for me to breach the final base but once i found a technique is was pretty easy. I did like TA pause >>> over SC pause (you can set commands in TA). Company of heroes (for me) was a lot more fun/entertaining. Then again this is a demo not sure how close it is to the final product. I just though the production for company of heroes was well done and resulted in a game that kept me interested/entertained. SC has more paths (tech ladder) (not sure how balance it will be) but the production seems weak.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: vhx
I was looking through the lua files and there is actually an option for game speed and it's set to Normal for the demo. I expect a way to change it in the full version.

Dude, seriously, pay attention.
I made a huge ass post and it was quoted too.

Originally posted by: you2
The demo was ok i guess - kind of boring. I played on medium (not sure if hard is better or worse). Took forever for me to breach the final base but once i found a technique is was pretty easy.

Dude, you too.
I already made it quite clear, you should be constantly busy on a low speed for the buildup portion of the game. If you're bored at any time you are doing something wrong and will get wasted in multiplay.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Tried the demo, it scores a big /10

 

[vhx]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Few issues/questions:

1. How do i "upgrade my construstion units"?? I gathered the commander was the construction unit, how do i upgrade him?

2. How can i attack submarines? I found a commander upgrade that allowed him to do it but i never got time to use it, my own shipyard and torpedo turret always gets owned by subs.

3. Related to issue 1, how do i get to tech level 3? The best unit ive been able to build was the heavy tank with dual lasers. It was a very nice unit too.

1. Engineers. Engineers can build too, you should have lots of these. When you upgrade your factory to Tech 2 or Tech3, you will have access to Tech 2/3 Engineers that can build new stuff. To upgrade your commander you there should be an upgrade thing next your buildings in the UI. You can upgrade his head, or either of his arms. There should be one called Tech 2 Engineering suit. Each upgrade does something different. You can also upgrade Shield Generators cover area doing this as well.

2. You need ships that can launch torpedos. Typically Torpedo Launcher defense structure, attack submarines, and there are some Tech 2 Airplanes all carry Torpedos. Also tech 2-3 Navy ships probably do as well.

3. Your best chance to get to tech 3 is to upgrade your land factory up to tech 3, and then build tech 3 engineers. This will let you build Tech 3 buildings as well as Experimental Units. If you are talking about other structures, you upgrade it to Tech 2 then tech 3, you can't skip from 1-3.

 

[you2]

Originally posted by: shortylickens

Originally posted by: you2
The demo was ok i guess - kind of boring. I played on medium (not sure if hard is better or worse). Took forever for me to breach the final base but once i found a technique is was pretty easy.

Dude, you too.
I already made it quite clear, you should be constantly busy on a low speed for the buildup portion of the game. If you're bored at any time you are doing something wrong and will get wasted in multiplay.

Dude - if you have to be constantly busy during slow build up that's called micro-management. Read: BORING.

 

[Illidan]

I've played Dune 2k, Total Annihilation, Starcraft, Homeworld, Empire Battle for Dune, Age of Empires, AOE2, AOE2 Conquerors, AOE3, Red Alert, Red Alert 2, Dawn of War, and all the expansion packs.

I've played Warcraft 3 a LOT.

None of them have come close to Supreme Commander for me. Total Annihilation and Warcraft 3 both had neato features I liked - and Warcraft 3 could win in the long run simply due to the social atmosphere of bnet, which I haven't seen replicated yet in online gaming -

but man.

http://illidanstr.googlepages.com/
(details are on low since I have a crap graphics card).
I've never had games like those anywhere else. Pacing? Sure, Warcraft 3 would have a hero rush a few minutes into the game, maybe some units after that, but Supreme Commander has bombers hitting my base, transports dropping off units in that time period.

And it just keeps ballooning. I can def. see how the game might not be fun if you don't know what you're doing; that said, I find myself concentrating so much more on the FUN of this game then any other. I'm not moving individual units, I'm not caring about individual resource points or even CLUMPS, I'm caring about the big deal. About the 300 units I'm dropping behind the enemy base to assault it from the rear. As for the power of experimental units, if they've got one and you can't stop it, what the heck've you been doing all game Yes, if one gets in your base things are going to be bad. How the crap did it make it past your defences?

As for being the constantly busy - yeah, that's true, but it doesn't LAST very long. Once you figure out the basic way it works, fighting is starting within minutes of the game's beginning o.o with this game I can actually play how I want. Everything just WORKS. I can zoom in how I want, zoom out how I want, transport units wherever I want whenever I want, I can move waypoints, I can build as many units as I want. It's freakin' incredible.

 

[igowerf]

I'm downloading now from Yahoo: http://videogames.yahoo.com/predownload?eid=503854