Supreme Commander

[sapi]

I honestly forgot that I hadn't posted this here yet

It can be posted in plain text if absolutely necessary, but it was much easier just to extract the pages from the pdf, so that's how it'll remain unless otherwise requested

Supreme Commander Review

[RollingWave]

Awsome Awsome game. a great successor to Total Annihilation.

Guys used to the more popular RTS out there might have some bones to pick with this. but it is truely truely great. the scale and numbers of units blow you away. the transition on the battlefield and multiple battlefield.

In a sense. it's like playing a real time chess game on a huge scale. it's pretty bad idea to just concentrate everythign at one spot .

[Tankfriend]

The only thing that I personally don't like are the huge hardware requirements to play it with an acceptable FPS value while still having a good graphics quality and a high amount of units on the field (played the demo and the free Multi-Beta). Other than that, it's a good "sequel" to Total Annihilation and if it weren't for reqs I'd have bought it a long time ago.
Then again, there's SupCom including addon for a mere 30€ around... :hmmm:

[Freddie]

If you’re interested in buying Supreme Commander I would suggest you buy the stand alone expansion pack Forged Alliance.

[Heinz Guderian]

I honestly forgot that I hadn't posted this here yet

It can be posted in plain text if absolutely necessary, but it was much easier just to extract the pages from the pdf, so that's how it'll remain unless otherwise requested

Supreme Commander Review

ing awesome review. I like effort. Effort should always be rewarded. REP+

[Roman Knight]

Plain text please, Adobe stuffs up my computer.

[RollingWave]

In essense, the difference between Sup Com and most other RTS is the scale and cordinations of different troops.

For one, all but a few troops can shoot while moving, doesn't sound like much, but you'd be suprised how many of the most popular RTs don't do that (AOE series / Blizzard's stuff / RA series)

the planes aren't some silly craft that just float there and shoot standing still , a few of them can hover (in a different style than just standing there) most fly by, either as bombers or fighters intercepting other planes.

in terms of resource, it's also one of the most interesting.

a. your income is both in terms of storage and per second, ideally you try to keep the economy going so that your using about the same as your per second income, other wise your storage will drop, if your mass (metal) drop to 0 your construction will stall, if your energy drop to 0 not only the construction stalls, but a lot of your energy weapons and shields stall too.

b. you can build storage to increase the capacity, larger storage give you more buffer between when your losing money to when you hit 0.

c. perhaps the most important and special aspect of the SupCom (TA style) economy is reclaiming, unlike most other RTS, destroyed tanks / robots / buildings /ships don't disappear from the face of the earth, they actually leave a permenant wreckage *GASP* you can reclaim the wrecks using your construction units and that will give you a single boost in income. sometimes the map will also contain objects that can be reclaimed for either energy or mass.

d. with the reclaim system, a much more agressive economic game, ie. attack a area, then go in and reclaim the metal to finance further defense / troops. instead of just turtling at your mines. base building in this series is almost always very spread out. where you often build many outposts. most for the purpose of mining. and other for the purpose of offense ( for example build a medium artillery and then surrond it with other defense structure and troops)

It is the most intriguing because of it's scale and options. there is almost always fighting on multiple fronts, you'll be fending of a raid at your mineing outpost by light units, while your main tanks push in the middle and the opponents just set up a heavy artiliery on your other front . laying constant barrage on top of you. mean while you set up a super heavy cannon deep in your base and launch (inaccurate but powerful) barrage on your opponents, all the while navies and airforces clashes all over the place.

[Tankfriend]

So, thanks to this review, I finally got myself to buy SupCom and Forged Alliance for the 30€ said above (SupCom Gold Edition) and it's absolutely worth the money. I encountered some weird crash issue (black screen - gray screen - freeze) at first but that seems to have gone with the newest graphics drivers.
And, well, the only thing that I can say about SupCom at the moment is as it still keeps me stunned because of its literal "greatness" in scale (the demo and beta were extremely tiny in comparison). The only weak point that I see is the rather monotonous campaign design which always results in "destroy everything" (I like design of the "story" though). Then again, that's not the real focus of the game anyway. And Forged Alliance adds some quite interesting units and buildings.

[RollingWave]

well, SupCom is bascically Total Annihilation 2, and TA 1's campaign will REALLY show you what a terrible campaign is

funny , I look on their multiplayer server and sees the best player is TAG_ROCK, he's one of the best player in TA too, I have known him for like 10 years now. (though I was under a different alias.)

BTW, i can't belive how bad i suck at this so far, I use to be at least a above average player in TA. though i guess i havn' t played enough yet. I'm getting my ass wooped in the campaign.

[Tankfriend]

well, SupCom is bascically Total Annihilation 2, and TA 1's campaign will REALLY show you what a terrible campaign is

I know about TAs campaign as I've got the game.
And you're right there, I can hardly think of many other games that have such a terrible campaign.

[RollingWave]

still, TA is by far my favorite all time RTS in terms of multiplayer. the economic system alone makes it really worthwhile, even when 80% of the units were useless.

[Aziel]

Amazing game. But, god damn it, it takes a lot of time to finish one mission, more than 1:30 hour usually.

[Ketzerfreund]

Yes, it takes a lot of time for every mission, but there's only like six missions per campaign, iirc.

Most good aspects of the game have been mentioned already; I just want to add one thing to the reclaimability of plants/rocks/ruins/wrecks - Supreme Commander has the probably most useful patrol feature of all rts-games out there in that it also works for engineering units which will automatically collect everything around their paths if stores are not full.

Great game. And, as TA, another great soundtrack as well, although I still like the one of TA better.


-Der Ketzerfreund.

[Tankfriend]

Supreme Commander has the probably most useful patrol feature of all rts-games out there in that it also works for engineering units which will automatically collect everything around their paths if stores are not full.

I've got to add even something more to it because engineers and SACUs on patrol also automatically repair, assist and (for SACUs at least) defend anything along their patrol path when necessary and SACUs ordered to assist a series of buildings automatically rebuild any that get destroyed. That seriously is the absolutely best and multifunctional patrol feature ever in an RTS. On the other hand, it's absolutely necessary if the battles are getting more complex and far-spread and you don't have as much time for base management.

[Visitor13]

A potentially awesome game greatly hampered by its system requirements and plain, totally boring units. A Supreme Commander in the Warhammer 40k universe (or a similarly gritty, inventive and over the top one) would be beyond insane.

[Roman Knight]

A potentially awesome game greatly hampered by its system requirements and plain, totally boring units. A Supreme Commander in the Warhammer 40k universe (or a similarly gritty, inventive and over the top one) would be beyond insane.

I'll accept your point about system requirments, but saying that the units are boring is crazy. Agreed, the t1s were all fairly similar, but by the time you got to experimental, it was great.

[Orgath]

I've played the demo and I'm a bit annoyed. It's a fun game, but one minute I'm running the game smoothly, the next I'm staring at my desktop. Then there's the rally points that don't work and the lack of a real tutorial.

I'm hoping these problems are absent in the full game, because I think the game is pretty fun and I would like to buy it. However, I won't buy it if the game keeps crashing five minutes into the game. Can someone who owns the game give me some insight on this?

Oh and I don't think it's my computer, my specs are well beyond the recommended specs, but I could be wrong.

[Ketzerfreund]

There have been a number of patches out. There are no patches for demos, though.
And by the way, I got Supreme Commander for 10,-€; not a too heavy loss, even if the game would have shown as being bad. Which it didn't.

[Holger Danske]

I'd love to see a more 'modern', sort of, mod for this game...

[Ältester der Motten]

but by the time you got to experimental, it was great.

Those don't even make up 1/12 of the units. I agree that W40k's units are pretty much cooler than those of SupCom, but it's just a universe too insane for SupCom, this kind of units in that setting would it up. And I like the setting as it is.

I'd love to see a more 'modern', sort of, mod for this game...

Hä?