Supreme Commander Demo released!

[Stark]

Bland like TA? Because TA was pretty bland.

Do the units have *some* personality? (not that this is a dealbreaker for me)

What makes it bland?

Basically the game feels soulless. The fun isn't the units or the action or anything, it's the great tools they've given you for coordination and control. The units are samey, the maps are meh, the effects (on my lameo card) are nothing impressive, and the AI sucks.

If someone used the engine for a more interesting game - like, DoW, CoH, Act of War etc - it'd rule the shit because of the innovative tools and UI. As it is, I'm back to playing Act of War already. I've had the game for five hours.

The game doesn't have the flexibility of TA. Three teams = 33% of the units available at a time.

[Stofsk]

This is sad.

I'm still gonna download the demo and see for myself, but I had such high hopes for SC.

[Hawkwings]

Honestly, it's not as bad as some people are making it out to be. It's fun because of what it has, and what it doesn't have doesn't really detract from the main focus of the game.

I don't have the demo yet, but I have a feeling it doesn't really describe what the game is on multiplayer.

on a side note, Firefox says 'multiplayer' is misspelled. It also doesn't like lowercase "firefox".

[Stofsk]

Well some of you guys do tend to be negative, but I figured that the spiritual successor to TA would have the same problem TA had, namely not enough soul.

I can only guess, without having played it yet (the download is not even 50% complete yet), that this is more an issue of the demo than anything else. Time will tell.

[Darth Garden Gnome]

All the units should say cool stuff. "Soviet Power Supreme," "My Life for Aiur," that kind of shit is fun. *Zerp* and *Screech* suck.

Still, I quite like the game. Having never played TA, this is a massive shift in the norm of my RTS gaming.

[Stofsk]

All the units should say cool stuff. "Soviet Power Supreme," "My Life for Aiur," that kind of shit is fun. *Zerp* and *Screech* suck.

You mean they still sound like fucking robots?

Wait. That might be because you play as the Cybrans. They're supposed to be cyborgs or robots right? Even when you played Starcraft the zerg just made squealching noises. (and the overlord always sounded constipated) The UEF and the Aeron might be different.

Still, I quite like the game. Having never played TA, this is a massive shift in the norm of my RTS gaming.

Still, I quite like the game. Having never played TA,

Having never played TA

[Uraniun235]

I think a big part of the problem in the reception is that SC is really oriented at being a multiplayer game, and the demo doesn't have any multiplayer capability.

The game doesn't have the flexibility of TA. Three teams = 33% of the units available at a time.

I'm not sure what you're even getting at. Each of the three sides has something to fulfill every function.

You mean they still sound like fucking robots?

Yes. So do the UEF and Aeon (as I've played the beta).

All the units should say cool stuff. "Soviet Power Supreme," "My Life for Aiur," that kind of shit is fun. *Zerp* and *Screech* suck.

Meh, whatever. It'd get grating on me in a large-scale game hearing disconnected voices like that. I like it in Dawn of War because I can actually associate the voice response to a specific squad/unit (and WH40K is really just a big dark comedy to me anyway), but in a game like Supreme Commander where I'm going to send several dozen tanks off to grind through the front lines while I work on positioning an aerial attack, I really don't care that Medium Tank #1047 is feeling just chipper about his impending doom.

Well some of you guys do tend to be negative, but I figured that the spiritual successor to TA would have the same problem TA had, namely not enough soul.

I can only guess, without having played it yet (the download is not even 50% complete yet), that this is more an issue of the demo than anything else. Time will tell.

Did you like TA? Then you'll probably like Supreme Commander, because it really is just about TA2.

Maybe it's just me, but I simply cannot bring myself to care about individual units having personality when the game allows me to field a force of several hundred units. Hell, I spend a bunch of time zoomed out to where they're all icons anyway.

The units are samey,

Am I the only person who doesn't mind this? Imagine if there were an RTS based on Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising; there'd be a ton of people who complained about the units being too much alike. Myself, I really like the notion of a very 'conventional' match-up.

Hell, if anything, it's nice we've got a game that does that, seeing as most other games pursue "well this side is radically different from that side".

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Bah, the game is great! I'm sure it won't cater to everyone's tastes. If you liked TA, you will probably like SC. Yes, the sounds of the units are very alike and aren't as diverse as say Warcraft III. But like TA, SC's strengths lie elsewhere.

Perhaps it's the demo. I played it briefly for the single player campaign and didn't even touch the skirmish. I loathe playing against the computer. My experience with them can only be described as irritating. However, some of the multiplayer games I've played were nothing short of awesome.

[Covenant]

Bah, the game is great! I'm sure it won't cater to everyone's tastes. If you liked TA, you will probably like SC. Yes, the sounds of the units are very alike and aren't as diverse as say Warcraft III. But like TA, SC's strengths lie elsewhere.

And that's the biggest rift right there. Some people will love the game because it's got probably the best huge-scale battle controls ever seen in an RTS, while others (like me) give that a 'meh' and wish the units themselves had more flair. Even the multiplayer didn't do it for me, since I was just aggrivated that things took so long.

And, Uranium, I don't think you're the only one who wants an equal slugfest. I like those too! My qualms are with the ways the units themselves look and perform, really. I don't need them to all be entirely different in play, but I'd like more personality. They look the same, sound the same, and handle the same. They really could have just made one faction out of all three of these, and then made two more that are incredibly wierder.

Or, they could have just made the factions nearly all the same and equal. Problem is, the units on each side are mostly the same but the bases and superweapons are not. The things that SHOULD be equal, the most potent stomping deathbots and such, are the things they choose to goof with? It seems backwards. I would rather have identical bases with unique unit selection. Hell, I don't really care of each side's units are 90 percent exactly the same units, just with a few specialty units ala Red Alert 2. That to me is enough difference, just a little flavor, or some customization.

I'd be happy with two sides, and then I could choose from Cybran Mobile Infantry or Cybran 4th Armored or Cybran 9th Air Wing or whatever as my personal style.

Really, I just wish they weren't all little * shaped thingies zipping around on my radar. It takes the interest in the graphics away, and just makes it a rather bland-looking map with some okay battle simulation. I would have preferred them going one step further and making it a bit more like Total Annihilation: Total War would have been.

[Stark]

The game doesn't have the flexibility of TA. Three teams = 33% of the units available at a time.

I'm not sure what you're even getting at. Each of the three sides has something to fulfill every function.

At any level you have 'the tank guy', 'the arty guy', 'the AA guy' etc etc. Level up, get better tank guys and arty guys. This is not awesome. The single power/gun per unit thing was weak in TA, it's still weak now.

Frankly, I can play Spring and like it. Supcom has me underwhelmed. That's really not what I expected: I thought since I like TA, Supcom would be simply 'moreso, with better tools'. Turns out it's just boring - although you're right, much of that could just be the ineffective AI.

[Stofsk]

Did you only play medium? Did you crank it up to Hard?

[Stark]

Did you only play medium? Did you crank it up to Hard?

Yeah, I haven't gone back to play on hard after Phongn's comments. That should be a good indication of the level of 'meh' the game provides.

And shouldn't your ISP provide mirrors for stuff like this? I got my file quota-free in this way.

[Vympel]

This will probably come out as total blasphemy, but while I'm looking forward to Supreme Commander (haven't downloaded the demo- I can get it unmetered from Game Arena but I just can't be bothered) I'm looking forward to Command & Conquer 3 more. Supreme Commander, as the TA sequel, will be good multiplayer but I reckon the single-player will be as barren as that of the original.

[Stark]

How about that World in Conflict game (or whatever it's called)? That looks pretty neat, and doesn't have the 'grrr grrr C&C grrr' handicap.

[Stofsk]

This will probably come out as total blasphemy, but while I'm looking forward to Supreme Commander (haven't downloaded the demo- I can get it unmetered from Game Arena but I just can't be bothered)

why am i learning about unmetered downloads only AFTER my 1 GB download was complete

[Pint0 Xtreme]

At any level you have 'the tank guy', 'the arty guy', 'the AA guy' etc etc. Level up, get better tank guys and arty guys. This is not awesome. The single power/gun per unit thing was weak in TA, it's still weak now.

Frankly, I can play Spring and like it. Supcom has me underwhelmed. That's really not what I expected: I thought since I like TA, Supcom would be simply 'moreso, with better tools'. Turns out it's just boring - although you're right, much of that could just be the ineffective AI.

I don't get it. SupCom is almost exactly like TA to the tee. TA never had the "tank guy" or "arty guy". And when it comes to blandness, TA was a lot more "bland" than SupCom. I'd imagine that if you found SupCom to be boring, TA would put you to sleep.

[Stark]

Except you're clearly wrong, because I can play Spring for hours at a time.

I know this is hard for some people to understand, but you can like a game and be aware of it's flaws at the same time. I liked TA: it was still bland, had awful unit balance, all kinds of stuff. Saying 'TA had the same problem' doesn't change the fact that it's a problem and it's still right there. If it doesn't bother you, bully for you.

[Vympel]

How about that World in Conflict game (or whatever it's called)? That looks pretty neat, and doesn't have the 'grrr grrr C&C grrr' handicap.

Oh yeah, that goes without saying- but it's like a cousin of the classic "RTS" (strategy my ass ...) genre, as it's more along the lines of Ground Control.

Any game where I get to invade the US and use T-80s, BMPs, BTRs, Mi-28s, and so on and so forth gets my undivided enthusiasm.

[Vympel]

why am i learning about unmetered downloads only AFTER my 1 GB download was complete

LOL.

Didn't know it was a secret

[Stark]

Oh yeah, that goes without saying- but it's like a cousin of the classic "RTS" (strategy my ass ...) genre, as it's more along the lines of Ground Control.

Any game where I get to invade the US and use T-80s, BMPs, BTRs, Mi-28s, and so on and so forth gets my undivided enthusiasm.

That's the best part, I think - the laughable premise. The Soviets invade the US with help from Gandalf and the Ooompah-Loompahs.

[Vympel]

Ever seen Red Dawn? That laughable premise was a blockbuster early 1980s movie (remember, they were so naive back then they actually believed the real life scaremongering about Cuba and Nicaragua, and it's made it into the movie!)- why not a video game?

Besides- Larry Bond!

[Xon]

I'm hoping I'll get back to work on the automatic TA to SupCom conversion tool me & someone else are working on. (It got me into the friends & family of GPG beta back before the public beta even started!). Like most hobbist software projects it ran out of steam, the other guy's work didnt leave him much time for hobby programming (he works as a programmer) and I had uni to deal with.

You mean they still sound like fucking robots?

Every unit but the Commander(which is a giant robot with someone piloting it) is a computer controlled robot of doom (With a kbot, err T1 unit being vastly lesser than a Monkeylord).

[wautd]

I don't see why so many people are complaining. The game is exactly delivering what it's been promising: huge scale warfare. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm buying it for sure anyway

[SylasGaunt]

I've been playing the demo and loving it. Definitely snagging this when it comes out, and I can't wait to see what sort of mod community it spawns.

[Stofsk]

Dear god the gui shits me to tears. It's like half the screen is taken up by the build queus and unit commands.