Attention RTS fans: Supreme Commander is awesome

[Marquisate]

If you were a fan of Total Annihilation, you'll love SC. It's the spiritual sequel, made by the same developer though unable to use the name because of a licensing fall-out.

If you didn't play TA but consider yourself a RTS fan, head on over to http://www.supremecommander.com/ and check Supreme Commander out.

This game easily has the most epic feel of any RTS I've ever played. 5000+ unit limits. Maps over 6400 square kilometers in size, with plans for 320km x 320km maps available on release. Effortlessly-implemented and integrated. Air, Land and Sea combat. Real potential for a comeback victory, but with an importance placed on territorial control. Newtonian physics modeling. Fully 3d terrain. A wide variety of viable tactics - rushing, turtling, tower-rushing, etc. - can be successfully employed. And it has inarguably the best waypoint and troop-assist system ever implemented in a RTS.

Invites for the closed multiplayer beta ended a while back, but it's easy to find a cracked version of the beta which you can use to play skirmish matches against the PC. http://www.rebelz-nation.com/index.php has instructions on how to get the beta running (up to version .49, the beta is currently at .52) and a direct download for the .38 client available.

If you enjoy RTSs and you aren't intimidated by the immense, epic scale of Supreme Commander's gameplay, I think you'll find it one of the most rewarding strategy games ever made. The only problem right now, other than the beta already having been closed, is that the game chugs badly in big matches - the beta code is not optimized, and the skirmish matches lag much more than multiplayer matches, so if you find the performance unbearable than wait for release in about a month.

[Tekki]

Im waiting to command for the Messiah :X

[Marquisate]

Im waiting to command for the Messiah :X

http://downloads.gamereplays.org/suprem ... railer.zip

Watch that in-game footage and you'll be a convert in no time I'd like to get fired up about C&C but after tiberian sun and generals I don't know how good it will be.

EDIT: Aw, who am I kidding - Kane is awesome, C&C will be worth it for the storyline no matter what the gameplay is like.

[Plow]

Better than Age of Empires 2 and The Conquerors?

[Kurp]

How long are average multiplayer matches with that many units and maps that large?

[Marquisate]

How long are average multiplayer matches with that many units and maps that large?

Well there are several "game-enders" that are ultra-expensive and which generally prevent a player from turtling and dragging out a match for more than an hour and a half - 2 hours even on the biggest maps.

For instance, a large enough airforce will simply annihilate the enemy's commander before his AA batteries can shoot them all down, if they turtle up and give you ~45 mins to churn out t3 gunships / strat bombers. Also, nuclear weapons WILL destroy anything they're shot at unless your opponent builds anti-nukes, and if you can produce more nukes than he can anti-nukes, the game will end quickly. There's also the experimental units for each faction, which pack enough of a punch to tear through even the toughest defenses, and specialized ultra-expensive artillery which will tear any base apart no matter how well-shielded and protected.

Most of those types of units aren't used, however, because they're inordinately expensive - they come into play in the late-game, if your opponent has survived to his max tech level and is turtling up under a cover of positionary defense, AA batteries, shields and artillery. Even then you can still just go gonzo on tier 3 mobile artillery and just throw them at his line until it cracks.

Basically, the game is designed to give you a reason to hold territory. You cannot effectively turtle up against an opponent on a large map because of how open the bases are, and on a small map the match will be decided by who can rush more effectively or beat back the opponents rush. In mid-sized maps where you can turtle in a corner and still have enough distance from the enemy and real estate to make it through to endgame, ceding control of the map to the enemy gives him more resources than you, which means he'll produce more nukes than you can produce anti-nukes and you're gone. That, or he'll plonk down a Mavor strategic artillery piece before you can get nukes on-line, swarm you with scouts, and one-shot your commander.

So I can't see 1v1's lasting more than a couple hours tops. On the biggest maps that they're plannning, the ability to use radar helps find someone hiding their commander once they're beaten and the fact that taking him out = a win helps cut down on the length of matches. But if you're playing annihilation (killing commander doesn't auto-win the match) then you could be in for some REALLY long fights, especially in a big team game. They'd probably devolve into nuke-fests assuming you can't knock one opponent out and then just bludgeon the others to death with a larger number of units.

[Marquisate]

Better than Age of Empires 2 and The Conquerors?

I was a dear fan of AoE2, but it's hard comparing it to SC because they're different styles of gameplay. Micro is much less important in SC because of how easy it is to queue units, to transport them across the field and produce large numbers of buildings/defensive structures. It's all about having a strategic vision and implementing it. The sheer scale of the maps you're playing on also factors in. Being able to keep your mind on the air war, the land war, possibly the naval war, scouting your enemy's base to make sure he isn't working on nukes or a t4 artillery piece, continually upgrading and strengthening your economy and protecting your commander with AA and shield batteries while planning out the best way of getting at his commander are the sorts of broad strategic moves you need to do to be able to win.

EDIT: Plus the factions feel much more differentiated but are still pretty well-balanced, which is a big plus IMO. I loved the historical flavor in AoE2, but the factions always felt a little generic since they were only really differentiated by their unique units, techs and wonders.

[Plow]

Better than Age of Empires 2 and The Conquerors?

I was a dear fan of AoE2, but it's hard comparing it to SC because they're different styles of gameplay. Micro is much less important in SC because of how easy it is to queue units, to transport them across the field and produce large numbers of buildings/defensive structures. It's all about having a strategic vision and implementing it. The sheer scale of the maps you're playing on also factors in. Being able to keep your mind on the air war, the land war, possibly the naval war, scouting your enemy's base to make sure he isn't working on nukes or a t4 artillery piece, continually upgrading and strengthening your economy and protecting your commander with AA and shield batteries while planning out the best way of getting at his commander are the sorts of broad strategic moves you need to do to be able to win.

EDIT: Plus the factions feel much more differentiated but are still pretty well-balanced, which is a big plus IMO. I loved the historical flavor in AoE2, but the factions always felt a little generic since they were only really differentiated by their unique units, techs and wonders.

I'm gonna take that as a no

[Marquisate]

Better than Age of Empires 2 and The Conquerors?

I was a dear fan of AoE2, but it's hard comparing it to SC because they're different styles of gameplay. Micro is much less important in SC because of how easy it is to queue units, to transport them across the field and produce large numbers of buildings/defensive structures. It's all about having a strategic vision and implementing it. The sheer scale of the maps you're playing on also factors in. Being able to keep your mind on the air war, the land war, possibly the naval war, scouting your enemy's base to make sure he isn't working on nukes or a t4 artillery piece, continually upgrading and strengthening your economy and protecting your commander with AA and shield batteries while planning out the best way of getting at his commander are the sorts of broad strategic moves you need to do to be able to win.

EDIT: Plus the factions feel much more differentiated but are still pretty well-balanced, which is a big plus IMO. I loved the historical flavor in AoE2, but the factions always felt a little generic since they were only really differentiated by their unique units, techs and wonders.

I'm gonna take that as a no

All depends on what you're looking for - AoE2 was a great game but SC is more to my taste and it has much less focus on micromanagement which most people prefer. Plus nothing beats the feeling of sheer joy you can get out of salvaging a losing match by taking out their commander with the last of your depleted forces - kinda like regicide but with a huge nuclear explosion to top off your win :D

[Plow]

All depends on what you're looking for - AoE2 was a great game but SC is more to my taste and it has much less focus on micromanagement which most people prefer. Plus nothing beats the feeling of sheer joy you can get out of salvaging a losing match by taking out their commander with the last of your depleted forces - kinda like regicide but with a huge nuclear explosion to top off your win :D

In all honesty I'd shell out 50 bucks for literally the exact same game, and another 50 for literally the exact same expansion, even if there were no graphic improvements or anything, if it meant all the maphacks and shit would be gone and there would be 5000 people playing online at any given time.

I'm curious, just how good were you? Any of these names ring a bell? Arch_Vile or the other arch, Elfanor, MaJoR_SHaDY or the other majors, Pino, Baron, Fossil, Reznor, illusionS?

OH YEAH AND JOSES RED ARMY!!!

[VZX]

gonna try both C&C3 and this

I hope DX10 have a good future lol

[Demetrius*]

with those unit limits and the gameplay demos it kinda looks like a huge clusterfuck