Recommended RTSes *spawn*

[Cyan]

I just recommend that you know exactly how to play the game before you try a skirmish against Sorian AI. Know how to manage the economy and how to defend against everything.

Beat the campaign and you will be good to go. Though you never have to worry about getting nuked in the campaign. Only some NPCs get nuked. Sorian AI will try to nuke you to oblivion if you leave nukes enabled. Big fun nuke salvos. Heh

Let me know how things go. Maybe we could do a FAF game vs the AI sometime.

It would be great to play a game online against the AI.

In regards to manage the economy and defend against everything, I play very much like Total Annihilation, those mechanics are like forever pasted in my mind. Dunno how effective is to play like that in Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, but for now I am using my classic style, which was building a base with a well protected economy and a line of laser towers at the very front surrounding the entire base and another line of anti-air towers protected behind that line of laser towers.

But I am still in the first map and getting used to the new units, so the adaptation might take a while depending on how much the game changes. Do you find it too different compared to classic TA? From my little experience, things seem quite familiar.

 

[swaaye]

It would be great to play a game online against the AI.

In regards to manage the economy and defend against everything, I play very much like Total Annihilation, those mechanics are like forever pasted in my mind. Dunno how effective is to play like that in Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, but for now I am using my classic style, which was building a base with a well protected economy and a line of laser towers at the very front surrounding the entire base and another line of anti-air towers protected behind that line of laser towers.

But I am still in the first map and getting used to the new units, so the adaptation might take a while depending on how much the game changes. Do you find it too different compared to classic TA? From my little experience, things seem quite familiar.

TA is quite similar but Supcom has a much more complex economy in its base building with the adjacency bonuses. You should just look at the wiki so you know what adjacency bonuses there are. And you need to be more careful about resource expenditure and when you do upgrades. It's easy to cripple yourself.

 

[Cyan]

I just recommend that you know exactly how to play the game before you try a skirmish against Sorian AI. Know how to manage the economy and how to defend against everything.

Beat the campaign and you will be good to go. Though you never have to worry about getting nuked in the campaign. Only some NPCs get nuked. Sorian AI will try to nuke you to oblivion if you leave nukes enabled. Big fun nuke salvos. Heh

Let me know how things go. Maybe we could do a FAF game vs the AI sometime.

nice to know nukes are also something to take into account in FA. nukes were almost game over in the original TA, just for the CPU though. Because if you had a good tweaked rival AI the game became quite challenging and fun, but if you manage to protect your economy well and build a silo, even if you launch it at random, it makes a lot of damage. It'd be better if the AI could defend itself at least launching an antinuke missile, but they don't do that either. Do you get warned when a nuke was launched or does it happen by surprise in FA?

In regards to the campaign, I advanced quite a bit but I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed, especially because I don't know all the button combinations, just some classic ones, but they aren't specified anywhere afaik. The idle commander and idle engineers button is a great addition btw.

I noticed there are level 1, level 2, level 3 labs, quite similar to TA, nothing new there, but the difference is that you can upgrade them and since they have different but useful units, I guess it is better not to upgrade all the tech labs, but keep a level 1, level 2 and level 3 tech lab to reach your faction full potential?

I am still planning how to achieve the goals of the 1st level of the campaign. It's been an hour but what I've done wasn't much except protecting the shield dome.

 

[swaaye]

nice to know nukes are also something to take into account in FA. nukes were almost game over in the original TA, just for the CPU though. Because if you had a good tweaked rival AI the game became quite challenging and fun, but if you manage to protect your economy well and build a silo, even if you launch it at random, it makes a lot of damage. It'd be better if the AI could defend itself at least launching an antinuke missile, but they don't do that either. Do you get warned when a nuke was launched or does it happen by surprise in FA?

In regards to the campaign, I advanced quite a bit but I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed, especially because I don't know all the button combinations, just some classic ones, but they aren't specified anywhere afaik. The idle commander and idle engineers button is a great addition btw.

I noticed there are level 1, level 2, level 3 labs, quite similar to TA, nothing new there, but the difference is that you can upgrade them and since they have different but useful units, I guess it is better not to upgrade all the tech labs, but keep a level 1, level 2 and level 3 tech lab to reach your faction full potential?

I am still planning how to achieve the goals of the 1st level of the campaign. It's been an hour but what I've done wasn't much except protecting the shield dome.

"Strategic Launch Detected". You know when nukes are heading into the air. The AI is quite adept at defending against them too.

F12 for hotkey listing. Some are the same as TA.

Leveled factories build lower level units and build them faster.

 

[Cyan]

"Strategic Launch Detected". You know when nukes are heading into the air. The AI is quite adept at defending against them too.

F12 for hotkey listing. Some are the same as TA.

Leveled factories build lower level units and build them faster.

All the hotkeys I remember from TA I use. (Ctrl+A air units, Ctrl+L all land units, etc etc, but I cant quite remember the all engineers select hotkey, nor naval....).

Wow this game has me so hooked, I can play for hours without realising. I am in the 3rd stage of the campaign (the one in the islands map). If you come from TA it is quite easy to pick up. There are many differences though!

I left the commander as is, like in the original TA, when I discovered that now the commander can actually be the "god" it used to be in TA, without the limitations of TA, where he wasn't as useful in the late game.

Additionally, I stalled my units production many times! Problem is that I built a Air Factory, for instance, and tried to upgrade it to level 3 and started producing air units of all kinds afterwards. I thought it was fast and easy was to upgrade factories to get to level 3, but was I wrong! And I am happy I was. However, I thought I was producing planes or units like crazy and not much came out from the factories....

Now in the islands maps I want to create 3 factories each, one for instant Tech 1 units production, another one to upgrade to Tech 2 units and wait, another for Tech 3 units, same for naval units, 3 naval factories. Maybe it is the wrong approach, but this certainly helps to build early protection, which is where I certainly fail. Thankfully in normal the ally Sorian AI does a great job fighting battles where I am not present 'cos I am usually stalling.

Something I noted is that, compared to the original TA, the campaign missions in Supreme Commander are not as numerous. However, each campaign mission has a lot of step-by-step sub-quests.

I was used to the TA approach of limiting your available tech and small, quick missions to begin with, much complex missions later. There were 32 missions in the campaigns of the original TA. Still, the SCFA approach is nice, specially because they don't limit you to certain units afaik. Original TA had an advantage there as it was easier to learn to use the basic units and stuff like that though.

Back the to AI nukes...when the CPU launches one....if you have antinuke defense do you need to launch it or is it automatically launched before the AI nuke hits?

 

[swaaye]

I was used to the TA approach of limiting your available tech and small, quick missions to begin with, much complex missions later. There were 32 missions in the campaigns of the original TA. Still, the SCFA approach is nice, specially because they don't limit you to certain units afaik. Original TA had an advantage there as it was easier to learn to use the basic units and stuff like that though.

Back the to AI nukes...when the CPU launches one....if you have antinuke defense do you need to launch it or is it automatically launched before the AI nuke hits?

Yeah I really like how SCFA's campaign gives you almost all the units immediately. It's a campaign for people who know how to play the game, but a beginner could probably figure it out too. The original Supcom has a more typical campaign that introduces you to everything slowly.

The anti-nuke defenses will launch automatically.

 

[Cyan]

Yeah I really like how SCFA's campaign gives you almost all the units immediately. It's a campaign for people who know how to play the game, but a beginner could probably figure it out too. The original Supcom has a more typical campaign that introduces you to everything slowly.

The anti-nuke defenses will launch automatically.

I have quite a few hours into the game now. Got the original Supreme Commander because of the tutorial and Supreme Commander 2 too, although the reason to get both games was because to me they are the true TA spiritual successors and I don't want to miss on any of those.

What is your favourite faction? I have a favourite faction now, so I expect to complete each game's campaign with them -also I think that the original SC has a campaign for each faction, save the seraphim-.

 

[hoom]

For the record Sorian made the AI for PA.
Pretty rare for the AI to get anti-nukes up though.

Most of the time if the AI gets that far you're already in seriously big trouble like stuck on a crippled T1 economy while AI is sending T2 & multiple Nuke salvoes at you already.
Or you're on different planets messing around with sufficient economy to build enough anti-nukes to protect yourself while building up for something stupid like a 10-nuke simultaneous strike that easily out-strips the AI anti-nukes. (multi-nuke area attack is great fun)

 

[swaaye]

I have quite a few hours into the game now. Got the original Supreme Commander because of the tutorial and Supreme Commander 2 too, although the reason to get both games was because to me they are the true TA spiritual successors and I don't want to miss on any of those.

What is your favourite faction? I have a favourite faction now, so I expect to complete each game's campaign with them -also I think that the original SC has a campaign for each faction, save the seraphim-.

I enjoy all the factions. I tend to play as Aeon though because I like their reclaim-capable Harbinger T3 unit and the Paragon is fun to get in multiplayer vs AI. Each faction has unique aspects that are cool.

I played through most of the Supcom 2 campaign again a few months ago.

You should probably buy Homeworld Deserts of Kharak. Really enjoyed the campaign there. I think I liked it more than the space based Homeworlds.

 

[Cyan]

I enjoy all the factions. I tend to play as Aeon though because I like their reclaim-capable Harbinger T3 unit and the Paragon is fun to get in multiplayer vs AI. Each faction has unique aspects that are cool.

I played through most of the Supcom 2 campaign again a few months ago.

You should probably buy Homeworld Deserts of Kharak. Really enjoyed the campaign there. I think I liked it more than the space based Homeworlds.

well, same here, I chose the Aeon, mainly because I like their ideal of The Way, from reading the description in the original SC campaign. Also enjoyed the Czar very much in the 2nd mission of the Aeon campaign, it has to be so fun building one in multiplayer games. What I miss from them is a good Heavy Shield and certain T3 defensive units like heavy towers against land/naval units. :/

Supreme Commander is a bit problematic with Windows 10. I managed to get it running with compatibility settings -Windows 7-, but even so, if I press Alt+Tab to go to the desktop and switch applications, the game window becomes grey, which could be relatively easy to deal with by restarting the game, but that grey screen covers everything... Maybe if there was a window mode to play.. but I don't think there is or that it could actually change anything.

 

[hoom]

Speaking of multi-nuke area attack, I just had this to end a Galactic War campaign

Thats a quad nuke from me hitting simultaneously with another quad nuke from my allied AI Commander

 

[Cyan]

Speaking of multi-nuke area attack, I just had this to end a Galactic War campaign

Thats a quad nuke from me hitting simultaneously with another quad nuke from my allied AI Commander

is that Planetary Annihilation? I wonder if it is a worthy TA successor, I wanted to get it at launch day but my PC couldn't run it and now the hype has logically faded a bit.

 

[swaaye]

well, same here, I chose the Aeon, mainly because I like their ideal of The Way, from reading the description in the original SC campaign. Also enjoyed the Czar very much in the 2nd mission of the Aeon campaign, it has to be so fun building one in multiplayer games. What I miss from them is a good Heavy Shield and certain T3 defensive units like heavy towers against land/naval units. :/

Supreme Commander is a bit problematic with Windows 10. I managed to get it running with compatibility settings -Windows 7-, but even so, if I press Alt+Tab to go to the desktop and switch applications, the game window becomes grey, which could be relatively easy to deal with by restarting the game, but that grey screen covers everything... Maybe if there was a window mode to play.. but I don't think there is or that it could actually change anything.

Windowed mode is in the resolution list. I always run windowed. If it goes grey or black you can still AltF4 + press enter to quit the game. This will happen when changing graphics settings too or if a Windows UAC popup happens. It's probably caused by the Win 8/10 DWM.

Aeon's T2 ground defense is powerful. Just build lots of them. Or just build Harbingers and Sprite Strikers instead of lots of ground defenses. They rip up experimentals. The T3 gunships are also extremely capable.

The Czar is very weak against air defenses so that complicates matters with them. Against the AI the ground experimentals are almost pointless too because the Sorian AI absolutely loves tactical missiles.

The unit balance in the original SupCom is quite different than FA though. I really don't like the old game much. The balance is irritating and there are a lot of little glitches like pathfinding problems.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Speaking of SupCom, there was one feature it had that I really liked. The ability to spawn the map on a secondary monitor. I found that so incredibly invaluable when playing that game as it allowed me to have a tactical overview of everything that was happening while still allowing me to have an unobstructed view of the battlefield and what I was controlling.

I had always hoped that it would encourage other developers to provide something similar, but alas that never happened. It was absolutely glorious to use in SupCom, however.

Regards,
SB

 

[swaaye]

Speaking of SupCom, there was one feature it had that I really liked. The ability to spawn the map on a secondary monitor. I found that so incredibly invaluable when playing that game as it allowed me to have a tactical overview of everything that was happening while still allowing me to have an unobstructed view of the battlefield and what I was controlling.

I had always hoped that it would encourage other developers to provide something similar, but alas that never happened. It was absolutely glorious to use in SupCom, however.

Regards,
SB

Unfortunately that feature will cause random crashes now. I think Windows 8-10 are the cause. They cause various graphics quirks with SupCom and SupCom FA.

You can just run it windowed, stretch it across dual monitors, and then use the game's split view function to get the same effect though.

 

[hoom]

is that Planetary Annihilation? I wonder if it is a worthy TA successor

Yes Sort of.
No unit cap (but pretty rare to get really big games), some really nice Quality of Life things like the area commands, some very fun ways to end the game.
But a lot of the time you get a neat multi-planet map, start planning an epic planet smash or something, only to find all AI commanders spawned same planet as you with at least 1 right next to you so its actually pretty hard to pull off the cool stuff.
Planets are generally quite small, there are good & bad things about playing on a sphere.
In some things its a step back from SupCom though.
Still being patched albeit at a slow rate, latest patch late June.
I really like playing the Galactic War: start with limited tech Commander (gotta unlock different starting techs to choose from), series of AI skirmishes as you take over the galaxy, earning upgrades as you go. Early battles can be very hard if you don't get certain upgrades (esp with certain starting Commanders), at certain stages you can blitz through really quick, sometimes get big epic multi-planet battles.

 

[Cyan]

Yes Sort of.
No unit cap (but pretty rare to get really big games), some really nice Quality of Life things like the area commands, some very fun ways to end the game.
But a lot of the time you get a neat multi-planet map, start planning an epic planet smash or something, only to find all AI commanders spawned same planet as you with at least 1 right next to you so its actually pretty hard to pull off the cool stuff.
Planets are generally quite small, there are good & bad things about playing on a sphere.
In some things its a step back from SupCom though.
Still being patched albeit at a slow rate, latest patch late June.
I really like playing the Galactic War: start with limited tech Commander (gotta unlock different starting techs to choose from), series of AI skirmishes as you take over the galaxy, earning upgrades as you go. Early battles can be very hard if you don't get certain upgrades (esp with certain starting Commanders), at certain stages you can blitz through really quick, sometimes get big epic multi-planet battles.

oh well, then I can wait to play it, no problem. Gotta admit that I was always hyped about the game although the planetary thing didn't seem convincing to me. Maybe because I was used to the typical TA maps, 32x32, 64x64, even 128x128, but nothing of galactic scale.

On a different note, I gotta say that @swaaye description's on SC games are pretty accurate. The best of them is Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, BY FAR. :smile2:

I've been trying to play the Aeon campaign of the original SC. Everything was good so far until the 3rd mission. As he said, the battles can take a very very long time because of balance issues. I had to create hundreds of units and speed the game up to 10 to get things done quickly 'cos I was getting desperate to defeat a couple of bases in some islands. The defenses of the bases were nothing special, yet it was pretty tough for whatever reason. The mission was simple and became dull and overly complicated because of that.

Also played Supreme Commander 2. Well, this one is certainly a bit more fun to me than the original SC, but it doesn't get me as hooked as SC Forged Alliance do. The characters are bland, at least UEF ones. I got far in this one back in the day playing on the X360.