Supreme Commander Demo released!

[phongn]

I wasn't even going to mention that until you just had to get that ribbing in

[Darth Garden Gnome]

It certainly took me awhile to get oriented. I had one factory and I built like six interceptors and I thought that would be good enough to mess around in the other dudes base.

I figured it out eventually... half a dozen factories cranking out a hundred units a minute is the way to go...

And there has got to be a better way to manage airlifting an army. Worthless piece of shit T1 drop ships can carry a whopping TWO tanks, so you've got to click on each and every pair to go into each individual ship. All I want to do is move fifty tanks across a river. I should be able to select all of them, tell them to get into a ship, and they should file into all of the ships however they so chose so I can get a goddamn move on.

Anyways, it's pretty cool. I'll buy it.

[phongn]

I figured it out eventually... half a dozen factories cranking out a hundred units a minute is the way to go...

SupCom is very much a game designed for big battles.

And there has got to be a better way to manage airlifting an army. Worthless piece of shit T1 drop ships can carry a whopping TWO tanks, so you've got to click on each and every pair to go into each individual ship. All I want to do is move fifty tanks across a river. I should be able to select all of them, tell them to get into a ship, and they should file into all of the ships however they so chose so I can get a goddamn move on.

IIRC, there should be the ability to set up automated transport runs without having to manually airlift each unit. Either that, or get higher-tech transports

[wautd]

I was already convinced at the beta. Can't wait to try the demo tonight

[Stofsk]

What's in the beta? It's a 1GB download, which is fully a tenth of my monthly bandwidth. (I'll probably succumb to temptation anyway, but I'd like to know what I'm getting. Campaign missions? Or skirmish maps? How many? Units? All of them or only tier 1 etc)

[Darth Garden Gnome]

IIRC, there should be the ability to set up automated transport runs without having to manually airlift each unit.

Well fuck me. I tried running a tutorial but those lazy motherfuckers have it redirect back to the SupCom website, which promptly loads nothing.

Anyways, I was on a mission (I know, I know, what the fuck was I thinking) and the air factories couldn't be teched in it, hence my frustration.

[Shinova]

And there has got to be a better way to manage airlifting an army. Worthless piece of shit T1 drop ships can carry a whopping TWO tanks, so you've got to click on each and every pair to go into each individual ship. All I want to do is move fifty tanks across a river. I should be able to select all of them, tell them to get into a ship, and they should file into all of the ships however they so chose so I can get a goddamn move on.

Anyways, it's pretty cool. I'll buy it.

First off, use tech 2 transports, which can carry more.

Second, you'll love the ferry mode.


Inside the transport's command menu, there should be a special ability called "Ferry."

First move the transport to where you want one end of the ferry to be. Then hit ferry and pick the endpoint. You'll see a two-way purple waypoint. You can then select your factories, and right-click on the purple ferry icon that's underneath the transport (It takes a little effort to find, but it's pretty easy after you see what it is you're supposed to look for). Be sure to click on the small ferry waypoint and not the transport itself.

Once you do that, any land unit you make out of your factories will automatically gather around the ferry point and your transport will automatically start ferrying them to the other endpoint automatically. You can of course select any existing ground forces you have and click on whichever ferry waypoint you want and the transport will ferry them accordingly.

Want to get the ferrying process to go faster? Select additional transports and right-click on one of the ferry waypoints, and they'll assist the ferry, and they'll join in automatically ferrying units back and forth between the ferry waypoints.

[Darth Garden Gnome]

That was extremely helpful, thanks!

[Shinova]

Did some more testing. Turns out the ferry mode is only one-way. There's only one ferry beacon, and if you select people at your destination and right-click on the ferry beacon (which would be at the origin), the transport picks them up and then drops them back where they were.

And I tried shift-clicking when I set the ferry waypoint and all it does is make a semi-curved ferry path rather than a straight one. The actual ferry beacon that you can right-click on to get the transports to ferry units still appears underneath the actual transport.

All this is really minor and almost unnoticeable anyway. The ferry mode that's in the game right now is still a gift compared to how it was in the old days.

[AniThyng]

How does the game look with graphics settings tuned down to the level a measly x1400 can handle at 1280x800?

[Covenant]

How does the game look with graphics settings tuned down to the level a measly x1400 can handle at 1280x800?

It never looks bad, regardless of the settings. Set it high once just to look at it while it's stationary, then go back to a high performance setting. Even though I can run it all maxed out I set it low so I can run it really fast regardless of what's going on. The extra glitz is nice, and it takes the game from looking retarded to looking incredibly shiny, but aside from a few settings like terrain detail you won't really notice a crappier game experience. Or, maybe, you might--because now the game is running faster due to a higher framerate.

I think the game looks beautiful. What's your conception of a good-looking RTS?

It certainly looks amazing ... but it's a bit sterile compared to, say, CoH.

That's how I feel, and that's why I call it bland. It lacks the kind of character you find in CoH or DoW, the units themselves have almost zero personality to them, and the niceness of the units only shows up at a level that's not very efficent to play at. The T4 units are the only things you really get to see well, and those aren't even amazing.

I'd like more stylization. I feel the Cybrans have the best feel to them with their little zappy repair drones. Otherwise it just seems... well... bland. They could have just released one single faction with a lot more units.

[2000AD]

So far, colour me unimpressed.

The tutorial for the demo is this website:
http://www.supremecommander.com/tutorials/
Wow, really useful. The games logo, the makers logo and a pretty picture, that's really telling me how to play the game.

I can't seem to set the waypoint for where my newly produced units gather. They just come out of the factory and then immediatly head south east, and keep on going off the map (yes, they proceed straight into the black area where my area of control hasn't expanded to yet). I've tried left clicking, right clicking and using all those orders on the right of the bar (move, patrol, etc.) but nothing sticks, occasionaly one unit will go where i want but then the next one produced just goes right ahead and wanders off again.

Final straw was watching an enemy aircraft fly through the firepower of about 30 of my AA turrets, shoot down my fighter and then fly off again.

[InnocentBystander]

While I have no idea why your units are moving off the map (in the beta at least), you should be able to just select the factory and r-click somewhere on the map to set a waypoint.

Regarding AA. It misses a lot, esp. when you're talking about tech 1 vs tech 3. Its really best to use a combination of tech 2 and tech 3 air defense plus your own interceptors and tech 3 fighters to counter enemy aircraft.

But ya, tech 1 air defense doesn't cut it against the tech 3 guys.


Can anyone comment on Beta vs Demo?

[Darth Wong]

It took me roughly half an hour to download the demo, and a few minutes to realize that the "Tutorial" link was totally useless. I tried playing the game but I found that it still has the same things that have always bugged me about RTS games, albeit on a larger scale. Oh well, at least it looks kind of cool and it's new.

[phongn]

It took me roughly half an hour to download the demo, and a few minutes to realize that the "Tutorial" link was totally useless. I tried playing the game but I found that it still has the same things that have always bugged me about RTS games, albeit on a larger scale. Oh well, at least it looks kind of cool and it's new.

Yeah, I can't believe that the team didn't put the tutorial up when the game links to it! That said, anything in particular that bugged you?

[Mad]

I can't seem to set the waypoint for where my newly produced units gather.

Select the factory and hold down Shift to bring up the rallypoint/waypoint. Click and drag as needed.

What's in the beta? It's a 1GB download, which is fully a tenth of my monthly bandwidth.

Some early campaign missions (haven't tried them yet) and what seems to be an Instant Action skirmish mode with only 1 faction. No multiplayer.

[Stofsk]

It took me roughly half an hour to download the demo, and a few minutes to realize that the "Tutorial" link was totally useless. I tried playing the game but I found that it still has the same things that have always bugged me about RTS games, albeit on a larger scale. Oh well, at least it looks kind of cool and it's new.

Yeah, I can't believe that the team didn't put the tutorial up when the game links to it! That said, anything in particular that bugged you?

I'm guessing that Mike has an issue with the base-building thing that is so common to RTS games. Something like R:TW for example, has you build an Empire - your armies go and conquer cities or townships or piece of shit villages.

'Build base; search and destroy the enemy' is essentially the stock-standard formula for RTS games. Whether my guess is accurate or not would have to be confirmed by Mike.

What's in the beta? It's a 1GB download, which is fully a tenth of my monthly bandwidth.

Some early campaign missions (haven't tried them yet) and what seems to be an Instant Action skirmish mode with only 1 faction. No multiplayer.

So which faction is it? And are all their units included?

Thanks for responding to my question.

[Cincinnatus]

So which faction is it? And are all their units included?

It's the Cybrans, and all their units are unlocked in skirmish mode.

And there's only one campaign mission in the demo.

[Ace Pace]

I can't seem to set the waypoint for where my newly produced units gather. They just come out of the factory and then immediatly head south east, and keep on going off the map (yes, they proceed straight into the black area where my area of control hasn't expanded to yet). I've tried left clicking, right clicking and using all those orders on the right of the bar (move, patrol, etc.) but nothing sticks, occasionaly one unit will go where i want but then the next one produced just goes right ahead and wanders off again.

Got the same bug, temp workaround is to stop the queue, set location for unit rally, then refill queue. Fucking annoying bug.

[Mad]

So which faction is it? And are all their units included?

You play the Cybran (and I think the AI does as well; I wasn't paying much attention to its units and my detail settings were at the lowest so it could run on my laptop).

It seems like all units are included. I was in the middle of building one of the Experimental units (the giant spider-walker) when I beat the AI.

[Darth Wong]

Yeah, I can't believe that the team didn't put the tutorial up when the game links to it! That said, anything in particular that bugged you?

I'm guessing that Mike has an issue with the base-building thing that is so common to RTS games. Something like R:TW for example, has you build an Empire - your armies go and conquer cities or townships or piece of shit villages.

'Build base; search and destroy the enemy' is essentially the stock-standard formula for RTS games. Whether my guess is accurate or not would have to be confirmed by Mike.

Pretty much. I don't have much patience for sitting there staring at buildings slowly being constructed, units slowly being manufactured, and tech levels slowly being achieved while I'm trying to get a base up to speed. Every goddamned time you start a battle in an RTS game, you go through the same ritual. Some users become very proficient at going through this song-and-dance as quickly as possible. And it's nothing more than makework, dragging out the length of any individual battle.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

What the hell.. I run an Athlon X2 5200 with a x1900XT 512mb and the game video still lags? What gives?

[phongn]

What the hell.. I run an Athlon X2 5200 with a x1900XT 512mb and the game video still lags? What gives?

What settings are you running at?

[Companion Cube]

To those who've played the demo: What are your reactions regarding unit pathfinding? Are the various units satisfying to handle? I've seen my concerns about the GUI and so on echoed elsewhere, but according to most the interface isn't a deal-breaker.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

What the hell.. I run an Athlon X2 5200 with a x1900XT 512mb and the game video still lags? What gives?

What settings are you running at?

I was running at the default settings with 1048x1024 resolution.

Edit: Just updated my drivers and the problem went away.