Supreme Commander

[audiobot]

Hey there. Is anyone here playing Supreme Commander or Forged Alliance?

Steve

[GlenGrainger]

Hi,

I play Supreme Commander from time to time, I like it better then Forged Alliance, not happy with the way they have changed it.

[audiobot]

Originally Posted by GlenGrainger

Hi,

I play Supreme Commander from time to time, I like it better then Forged Alliance, not happy with the way they have changed it.

Interesting. I have not yet installed Forged Alliance. One of the biggest problems I had with SC the original was the fact that the interface took up 1 third of the screen real estate. From the look of it, this seems to have been addressed in FA. What have they changed that you are unhappy about?

[GlenGrainger]

I guess that it depends on what resolution you play at, I run SupCom at 1280x960 or 1680x1050, usually depends on how what unit cap I run at, but mostly its the bigger of the two.

They have changed the economy system, its a lot harder now to get "up and started" right from the word go, where in SupCom I can easily handle a AI at Normal or Balanced but in FA I can only just manage an AI on easy, havn't even tried Normal yet.

My strategy in SupCom will not work in FA at all, T1 MassFabs are no longer, units and buildings take longer to build, so its pretty much right back to basics and learn a new system.

Though on the good side, FA is more balanced I feel, the UI (User Interface) is much nicer, the new race is pretty cool and we have some more T4 units (expermentals).


Hope all that makes sense...

[audiobot]

Yep, mostly makes sense. I was a long time fan of the original TA, so SC is not all that different in concept. I haven't played a lot of SC though, so there are details I'm not aware of.
FA will probably be ok for me because I was never used to SC. The UI in SC was always what annoyed me. I'll be running it on an 8500 GT card, which, while not top of the line, will hopefully handle it ok. The system requirements are very steep.

[GlenGrainger]

Indeed they are, the requirements are very high for an RTS game.

Your 8500GT should be ok if you keep the population down to below the 500, 4 players (you and 3 AI for example) could be a slow down when you 'zoom' all the way out and view the entire map.

[audiobot]

You can almost guarantee with a Chris Taylor game (TA, Kingdoms, SC) that it will be at least a year after release that the required gear specs become inexpensive enough for most people to afford them.
It's rather annoying.

[BlackIce]

I finished the FA campaign today. I have always liked TA and SC, but this expansion had some very nice improvements on the missions.
I liked the couple of special attacks it gave you on some of the missions. They were never required for me to win, but I liked them as a novelty. Actually, they reminded me of the Tactical Aid strikes in World in conflict
Some of the missions forced you into a defensive role. Something that never happened in any of the other releases. One mission in particular requires you to defend yourself for 20 minutes while they try to gate you off the planet. That was intense and I loved every second of it.

Other then the major change to Nukes and anti-nuke silos, I found no difference in the speed to get a base up and going.
Nukes have had a major overhaul to fix some balance issues. It takes very little time to build the silos now, even with just one constructor. However it is almost impossible to rush the construction of the missiles. You can no longer put all your resources into assisting to fill the silos. This confused me initially, but I have now read more about it and understand. With the old method, it was possible to hear the Nuke launched warning, get all your constructors together, start building an anti-missile silo, then build an missile in the silo...all before the nuke reached you. Now it takes 3.5 minutes to build an anti-missile, and 4 minutes to build a missile.
I was told about this very impressive site. SC:FA Database. They have full stats of every unit pulled from the files themselves, and you can even check out the stats from previous patch levels. Does a fatboy take longer to build then a colossus? Really easy to compair them.

The new gui took a little while to get used to, but it is a major improvement. Takes a lot less space and shows you more information.

[GlenGrainger]

Sorry, but I have to disagree a little on the speed to get a base up and going...

I guess it depends on the strategy employed by the player, it SC my strategy was simple, get 2 mass extractors, 2 power gens then a land factory adjacent to the power gens. From there, start producing T1 engineers and scouts and or assault bots followed by medium tanks.

Send the scouts and or assault bots out looking for 'choke points' on the map, once tanks are in full swing, backup the scouts and or assault bots.

T1 engineers are on reclaiming duties, building point and air defences along with more mass extractors, when I find a good spot nearer to the 'front line', I will start building more land factories along with air factories.


But now with FA, I find that this strategy doesn't work, the first land factory pretty much has to be the first thing built, then mass extractor, power gen, mass extractor, power gen while building T1 engineers and scouts and or assault bots with medium tanks.

This "stretches" your economy to the breaking point early on in the game, which can lead to collapsed economy and disaster.

[BlackIce]

Thats what I have always loved about these games. Your strat is totaly different to mine.
As a note, I don't play against other people, just skirmish or 2 person coop against as many AI as we can manage. I fully expect to get pummeled if I played this way against humans

I focus on the tech tree, and aim to have my first experimental rolling off the fully resourced base within the 10-15 minute mark.
My starting order is 1 mass extractor and 2 power generators with an air factory along the line created. I then grab the next nearest mass point and then set my commander to put a 3rd power gen on the last point along the factories wall, and then queued to complete 4 power along a second wall. I also queue 2-3 tech one constructors so they start coming out as soon as the factory is completed. I also queue 1-2 fighters for defense, and then queue a tech 2 upgrade for the building, and then tech 2 engineers.

My first constructor normally completes at the same time I finish my 3rd power plant (depending on if the commander had to walk to the mass point or could reach from where he stood). I use these constructors to go put down extractors on all other mass points. I will also build a hydro plant if there is a gas point available, but normally have enough power without one anyway. I also will use any constructors that finish their queue early to build a few mass storage adjacent to the mass extractors.

Once I get my t2 engineers I start on a t2 power plant and get that up and running as quick as I can. I also watch and time my upgrade of my first mass extractor to t2. This requires the most judgement to avoid resource hell with the -10mass, -60 energy requirement for the upgrade. Once you get one done it is easier to have the resources to upgrade others as well as expanding the number of construction jobs you can do.
I also start placing down t2 defenses at choke points etc that my planes have found, and replace any lost air units. I normally have only about 2-5 fighters and 2-3 gunships before I start upgrading to my t3 factory.
T3 focuses on getting my first fusion reactor, followed by a mass fab, and other engineers work simultaniously on t3 sams, shields, and other defenses around my core.

In the campaign, I had no difficulty using this strategy, but will have to try it in a skirmish tonight and see if anything has changed.