SupCom beta impressions

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-10-20 04:33pm

Since the stage 1 beta doesnt work on my computer yet, i'll have to let someone else fill you in;

Linky.

I'm already poking around the scripting files (all plain text data is entered via lua scripting, so very flexible scripting!)

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-10-20 04:35pm

Well, I didn't get in. Damn. But good stuff to read.

EDIT: this is the friends and families beta, irrelevent to the larger one.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-10-20 04:46pm

Urgh, along with MTW 2 I think I am going to have to buy a new PC for this baby. Very excited. TA was such a fun game.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-10-21 04:56am

According to Fileplanet some sort of 'news' is going to happen on monday regarding Supreme Commander.

While I did sign up for the gas powered beta, chances are pretty low I'd get in. If fileplanet offers the beta to members... I don't think I'll have any option but to subscribe

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-10-21 08:43am

Hitting the latest Supcom video interview, I have to say several things:

1) The dual screen support is awesome. Demonstrated was one stregic view, then a 3D view of a unit, then the minimap was controlled seperately.

2) The Battles rock, period.

3) The Userinterface looks really easy to control, better then some of the userinterfaces today.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-10-21 10:26am

InnocentBystander wrote:According to Fileplanet some sort of 'news' is going to happen on monday regarding Supreme Commander.

While I did sign up for the gas powered beta, chances are pretty low I'd get in. If fileplanet offers the beta to members... I don't think I'll have any option but to subscribe

Yes...strike out in greed and your journey to the dark side will be complete!

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-10-24 01:34pm

Well, I'm now in the SupComm FP beta, and I have a few impressions from what little gameplay I've managed so far. Keep in mind this is a beta and the game itself is still rather rough. When playing against other people, the first thing I've noticed is that most people are really, really bad. None of them seem to have played TA or had any idea how that sort of economy worked. That said, if you liked the TA economy, things are pretty much the same, only this time there are specific points where you put mass extractors, not fields of green. The upshot is that you can upgrade your mass extractors right off the bat, you don't have to tear them down and build new ones.

Units are condensed from the ridiculous list that TA had, a lot of the worthless units are gone now, and engineers are always the same type no matter where you build them from (all hovertrucks).

Another new bit is that if you build your power generation next to buildings that use power, you get a rebate (for example, building a T3 power generator next to a T3 shield generator gives you a rebate of 50 power per second). This is clearly designed to encourage you to put your base closer together, which of course can work against you if your enemy gets nukes.

That brings me to the downside part of the discussion. Nukes. It is entirely possible that someone will get superunits on the field long before you get nukes. As of right now, the nuke silos take so freaking long to build I could leave my computer, go to the movie theater and watch King Kong, then be back in time to watch it be about halfway done.

Seriously, it's ridiculous. The only way anyone is building these in a reasonable amount of time is to have damn near a dozen builders all working on it (and of course the economy to support that) and pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. Also, these nukes have a huge minimum range, which means just about all they're good for is hitting very far away targets. I still don't know how well missle defense works, but the energy shields seems rather overwhelmed.

Also, it seems like work isn't yet done on the superunits. The supercarrier doesn't seems to be able to unleash the fighters you put inside, and the huge tank factory seems to be capable of loading units inside it, but I can't seem to make it do so.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem to really matter right now. Quite often the game is over before such units can even be built. Take in mind that these are first impressions and may change.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-10-24 01:54pm

And I get an application failed to initialize error when I try to log into their multiplayer client.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-10-24 08:03pm

Hotfoot wrote:That said, if you liked the TA economy, things are pretty much the same, only this time there are specific points where you put mass extractors...

Uh, that's precisely how TA metal extraction worked.

Looks like somebody's a poser who only played Spring!

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2006-10-24 11:13pm

Hotfoot wrote:
Seriously, it's ridiculous. The only way anyone is building these in a reasonable amount of time is to have damn near a dozen builders all working on it (and of course the economy to support that) and pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. Also, these nukes have a huge minimum range, which means just about all they're good for is hitting very far away targets. I still don't know how well missle defense works, but the energy shields seems rather overwhelmed.

IIRC nukes in TA also took a long time to build, and required a number of dozers to complete them in a reasonable amount of time.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-10-24 11:29pm

Uraniun235 wrote:Uh, that's precisely how TA metal extraction worked.

Looks like somebody's a poser who only played Spring!

Actually, I've played the original, it's just been so long, I never bothered going back after finding out about spring

Kamakazie Sith wrote:IIRC nukes in TA also took a long time to build, and required a number of dozers to complete them in a reasonable amount of time.

Not this long. Trust me. It's insane. You could build a pair of Krogoths in the time it takes to complete ONE nuke silo. You could easily build the mobile artillery experimental unit (perhaps two) in the time it takes to build ONE nuke silo.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2006-11-03 02:21pm

Actually, TA didn't have specific spots for metal extractors. In fact, if you stacked four extractors onto the small zone intended for one, you'd get more metal per second than a single extractor dead-center in the zone.

On another note, WOOOOHAHOO! I'll be forming my own impressions this weekend! BETA KEY!