SupCom: 29-minute gameplay demo vid!

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-28 11:36pm

There have been some recent info coming out of the recent game conventions regarding supcom. Anyway, here's a little bit about an Aeon superunit revealed recently, called the Galactic Colossus.

Getting hit with four nukes

After getting nuked four times

Beam weapons in action

Next to a Monkeylord

It's not fully finished in those pictures. Its main weapons are called "gravity claws" and those weren't coded for that build.

GPG says that Supcom is now "feature complete" and now it's just polishing and testing until release date.

PS: I wouldn't mind the crappy UI. There was another convention being held which featured supcom and it had a different UI. Plus it's fully customizable.

EDIT: According to Chris Taylor it stands at 120 meters tall.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-08-29 01:38am

looks like the Aeon are getting stomped by the UEF, judging by the minimap.

Anyways, is that the Cybran spider-laser-thingy in the last picture? I would *love* to see them duke it out.

I have a sudden image of TONS of guns appearing out of the Galactic Colossus' chest, like the Iron Giant. However, unlike the Iron Giant, he takes at least 5 nukes to kill!

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-29 01:41am

Wow, that UI really stinks. Is that some kind of management mode, or are we expected to look at that the whole time?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 01:50am

No clue. But like I said, we can change it to however we want it to look anyway, so meh.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-29 01:56am

There's a difference between 'mod-able' and 'anyone can change it', you know. Particularly regarding art and scripting, there's a pretty significant barrier to entry.

And seriously. That's a fucking 1995 RTS interface. It's appalling. It's more than a third of the screen! It boggles the mind.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 02:20am

Stark wrote:There's a difference between 'mod-able' and 'anyone can change it', you know. Particularly regarding art and scripting, there's a pretty significant barrier to entry.

I'm sure that at the very least anyone can be able to resize and move around the UI within the game.

And besides, I saw another, totally different UI in pics from the German convention. Both UIs may be in the game. Maybe you can choose from several default UI schemes.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-08-29 03:40am

Stark wrote:There's a difference between 'mod-able' and 'anyone can change it', you know. Particularly regarding art and scripting, there's a pretty significant barrier to entry.

And seriously. That's a fucking 1995 RTS interface. It's appalling. It's more than a third of the screen! It boggles the mind.

We've seen two differant UI screens, we know they can be moved around, probebly dynamiclly.

And we've seen new maps(at InnocentBystander).

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-08-29 08:40am

Stark wrote:And seriously. That's a fucking 1995 RTS interface. It's appalling. It's more than a third of the screen! It boggles the mind.

Woah, I'm getting flashbacks to The Journeyman Project Turbo...

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2006-08-29 11:08am

Stark wrote:There's a difference between 'mod-able' and 'anyone can change it', you know. Particularly regarding art and scripting, there's a pretty significant barrier to entry.

And seriously. That's a fucking 1995 RTS interface. It's appalling. It's more than a third of the screen! It boggles the mind.

Worst case scenario with modding: wait a month for the inevitable mod community to come up with a couple good looking UIs, buy it then.

I'm sure that's just an Alpha version placeholder though. Look at almost any game's early versions; the UI is usually the last thing to be developed.

"Supcom is now "feature complete" and now it's just polishing and testing..."

Sounds consistent: the game's actual features are just now finished, and remaining development time will be dedicated to squishing bugs and making the UI look (hopefully much) better.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 03:55pm

The UI shown is apparently for widescreen monitors.

The other one (it has the bar at the bottom and looks slimmer) is for normal monitors.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-08-29 04:11pm

Shinova wrote:The UI shown is apparently for widescreen monitors.

Are you serious? That's a freaking 4:3 ratio up there, Space Cadet.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 05:18pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Shinova wrote:The UI shown is apparently for widescreen monitors.
Are you serious? That's a freaking 4:3 ratio up there, Space Cadet.

I know that. He likely just used that particular UI just to see what it looks like.

Or he (or the people supervising the demo process) knows that most people have already seen the other UI so he picked the other one.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-08-29 05:20pm

Shinova wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Shinova wrote:The UI shown is apparently for widescreen monitors.
Are you serious? That's a freaking 4:3 ratio up there, Space Cadet.
I know that. He likely just used that particular UI just to see what it looks like.

Or he (or the people supervising the demo process) knows that most people have already seen the other UI so he picked the other one.

Apologising for devs is fucking stupid, regardless of how awesome a game is.

More likely, this is one UI configuration,they like it(for some reason), and we'll bitch and whine untill we mod it.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 05:58pm

Ace Pace wrote:Apologising for devs is fucking stupid, regardless of how awesome a game is.

I don't recall apologizing for anyone. I simply pointed out the most logical reason why that particular UI scheme would be in use.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-08-29 06:00pm

Shinova wrote:
Ace Pace wrote:Apologising for devs is fucking stupid, regardless of how awesome a game is.
I don't recall apologizing for anyone. I simply pointed out the most logical reason why that particular UI scheme would be in use.

Except its not logical.

If its a widescreen UI(IF it is), then it should be used in widescreen.

If it was used to be shown off, its fucking ugly.

Note: these screens suck, belive it or not, even IGN has better.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-29 06:22pm

Ace Pace wrote:Except its not logical.

If its a widescreen UI(IF it is), then it should be used in widescreen.

Like I already said, it was probably just to show what it looks like.

If it was used to be shown off, its fucking ugly.

I never disagreed with the notion that it's ugly.

Note: these screens suck, belive it or not, even IGN has better.

That's cause they were taken by an ordinary guy who attended the conference, with his personal digicam most likely. While at the same time trying to be discreet since THQ banned cameras (video cams at least) in both conferences.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-29 07:12pm

Yeah, yeah, I hate everything.

That UI sucks. It's ugly and primitive. Why are they even including it? I know (

) there's other ones, so why is this 'alternate' one so appalling? Surely a 'widescreen' UI would simply be the regular one, with a screen used for minimap, stats, etc... not Dune 2 returns. Not '20% of your screen real estate is ugly brown texture'.

And if nobody appreciates the difference between being able to drag around predefined UI elements (something fucking GUILD WARS lets you do) and actually customising the UI, that's their fucking problem. Look at GC2: the UI is pretty bad, but totally customisable... and there aren't any alternatives. Because scripting is a bitch and a consistent set of art is a pain to come up with. But it's moddable, so I shouldn't say anything mean about a UI created over FUCKING YEARS that sucks. We can fix it ourselves! We're missing the point!

There's certainly no such thing as professional UI designers who spend their lives developing friendly and effcient UIs.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-08-29 09:03pm

Anyone stop for a minute to consider just what some of those buttons are for? One of them is a piece of mail, and another appears to be a metal of some sort.

Regarding the look and feel of the interface, I'm not blown away or anything but I'm not going to pass judgement just yet.

As an aside, did anyone else notice that the name of that crazy gigantic robot is "Tech 3 Sacred Assault Bot"? The word Sacred aside; aren't there 4 tech levels (1-3 and 'experimental'), could that mean there is something *bigger* than this Galactic Colossus? That'd be just crazy...

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2006-08-29 10:28pm

What I find amusing is that in a thread about a newly-released unit, all the bitching is about a UI only ever seen in these four screenshots. Oh teh noes.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-08-29 10:38pm

White Haven wrote:What I find amusing is that in a thread about a newly-released unit, all the bitching is about a UI only ever seen in these four screenshots. Oh teh noes.

You know, it IS a pretty atrocious UI. Looks like that awful game 'Dark Reign'.

Still, superunit's as expected. Check out the '06 Krogoth! Or the new Orcone X!

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-08-29 11:06pm

Nephtys wrote:
White Haven wrote:What I find amusing is that in a thread about a newly-released unit, all the bitching is about a UI only ever seen in these four screenshots. Oh teh noes.
You know, it IS a pretty atrocious UI. Looks like that awful game 'Dark Reign'.

Total Annihilation actually. The minimap and unit commands are all in the same place, as are metal and energy bars.

SupCom is obviously TA2. Which is nice if more than a little anachronistic.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-29 11:29pm

White Haven wrote:What I find amusing is that in a thread about a newly-released unit, all the bitching is about a UI only ever seen in these four screenshots. Oh teh noes.

Yeah, a newly released unit... for a game that isn't finished. Wow, I'm amazed. Is there an RSS feed for it too?

It's been 'released' now! Pffft.

But hey, I better not criticise the UI! It's only a decade out of date and totally at odds with everything else we've seen... better not comment on it right? It's SO not worth discussing this new, out-of-left-field information! ZOMG TEH BIG MECHZOR.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-08-29 11:41pm

Stofsk wrote:
Nephtys wrote:
White Haven wrote:What I find amusing is that in a thread about a newly-released unit, all the bitching is about a UI only ever seen in these four screenshots. Oh teh noes.
You know, it IS a pretty atrocious UI. Looks like that awful game 'Dark Reign'.
Total Annihilation actually. The minimap and unit commands are all in the same place, as are metal and energy bars.

SupCom is obviously TA2. Which is nice if more than a little anachronistic.

TA's interface was a bulkhead metal grey, a more aesthetically pleasing motif. This one's like... Tie fighter cockpit.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-29 11:44pm

And what's with the anachronism? The other demos showed the transparent, seamless UI with strategic mode, whereas this is an oldschool minimap-and-orders thing. Are they anticipating resistance from recalcitrant Starcraft or TA players? Hasn't every RTS player been waiting for a UI like the other SC one for, like, a decade? Didn't Homeworld show that it worked?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-08-30 12:02am

Stark wrote:The other demos showed the transparent, seamless UI with strategic mode

They turned the UI off for those demos.