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Supreme Commander: The Annihilation is Total

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  • SushisourceSushisource Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    ben0207 wrote: »
    What, are you posting from your DS or something? :P
    DISCRIMINATION BASED ON MONITOR RESOLUTION!

    PENALTY! -5 NICE POINTS

    Sushisource on
    Some drugee on Kavinsky's 1986
    kavinskysig.gif
  • FreddyDFreddyD Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Unfortunately, yeah, I find most of my play time is spent on the strategic map, so all I see are little red dots.

    But the game makes me feel like I'm really commanding my robots because of that.

    As for personality and soullesness, the only units that really have any sort of soul are a few of the third tier units, and the experimental units, which do give you some FUCK YEAH moments, like when the Monkeylord rapes an entire army with his giant death laser. But the layers of complexity in the gameplay make soullessness unimportant, really. It's more like a game of chess, in that it is pure game.
    I agree with this sentiment. I usually build units in large groups and I don't have time to micromanage each individual one so their uniformity actually makes them easier to organize.

    Doing things like pumping out hundreds of soldiers while automatically ferrying them to the battleline gives you the feeling that you are fighting a war, not just a battle.

    FreddyD on
  • SushisourceSushisource Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Explain to me how to use the ferry feature, I never quite got it.

    Sushisource on
    Some drugee on Kavinsky's 1986
    kavinskysig.gif
  • FreddyDFreddyD Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Explain to me how to use the ferry feature, I never quite got it.
    Well, you park your transport where you want the ferry point to be and select it. Then you hit f or click the ferry button and left click where you want the drop off point to be. The transport will then create a small ferry icon at its current location. You can then select a factory or units you want to transport and right click the ferry icon. Units will then queue up to be ferried.

    My one problem with the UI is that there is no clear difference between left and right click.

    FreddyD on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited February 2007
    When I discovered the ferry function I had an "I wonder if..." moment.

    I instructed other transports to assist the transport beacon. Yep, worked like a charm.

    Echo on
  • XantusXantus Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Echo wrote: »
    When I discovered the ferry function I had an "I wonder if..." moment.

    I instructed other transports to assist the transport beacon. Yep, worked like a charm.

    this makes me hot in the pants.

    oh 2 days... I can't wait!

    Xantus on
  • TalithTalith 変態という名の紳士 Miami, FLRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I'm not understanding what the hell is killing speed. It doesn't matter if I play on all high or all low, if I press shift then massive stalling occurs. I'm enjoying the demo so far, but I would enjoy this sooo much more if I can play without this little problem.

    Talith on
    7244qyoka3pp.gif
  • JJJJ DailyStormer Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Dusda wrote: »
    How the deuce do you uninstall this thing? There's no entry in my Add/Remove Programs, and there's no uninstaller in the start menu.

    I guess just delete the folder in program files? It's just a demo so it shouldn't have fucked with your registry for you to worry about an uninstall.

    I guess.

    JJ on
  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Yeah, you really don't care about your units in this game. I've played a few Skirmish games with the computer, and I just built and built until I got nukes or TX4 or big artillery and killed the enemy from afar.

    The campaign is really not very interesting either.

    I think I like stuff like DoW and CoH better.

    Man, you must feel like a huge jerk if you feel for your units in other games, and then you send them in to attack and they get murdalized. I find that COH does the best job when it comes to making you care about your units, in that I actually feel a little bad when my unit gets burned alive by a flamethrower and they're screaming and running around.

    For me, RTS games especially are about whether or not the gameplay experience is exciting and intense. Do you play chess, or Go? It's a similar sort of experience.

    Regardless, I wouldn't give up on SupCom yet. The singleplayer sucks because the AI is a dumbfuck. Multiplayer is where the game will shine. Sending four transports filled with lasertanks around behind his forces while your air troops distract his frontal defenses and your bombers drive for the anti air turrets, for example. You don't need to do anything like that for the AI. You can just stomp them with sheer blunt force.

    Evil Multifarious on
  • DusdaDusda is ashamed of this post SLC, UTRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    JJ wrote: »
    I guess just delete the folder in program files? It's just a demo so it shouldn't have fucked with your registry for you to worry about an uninstall.

    I guess.

    Bah, this is 2007, why didn't they just include an uninstaller? Oh well.

    Dusda on
    and this sig. and this twitch stream.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited February 2007
    OK, the AI isn't exactly a brilliant innovator and will keep sending tons of to their death by my tons of tech 2 AA turrets, but it does react a bit.

    Mission 2 in the demo, after
    Mach goes FUBAR
    , I sent some suicide scouts to scope out his base. Lots of defenses by the front, and lots of air factories. So I rushed like hell to set up my own AA turrets by the new base -- yep, they kept getting bombed, so I set some engineers on patrol to repair.

    Then I airlifted a sizeable force over the mountain to the other side of the bsae where I saw that it was weakly defended. They were safe for a while, then a bomber spotted them -- and the AI shifted target to that force. Time for more defenses there.

    Echo on
  • LavaKnightLavaKnight Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I just used the add/remove programs function.

    It is weird that it wasn't included, though.

    LavaKnight on
  • SushisourceSushisource Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Man, you must feel like a huge jerk if you feel for your units in other games, and then you send them in to attack and they get murdalized. I find that COH does the best job when it comes to making you care about your units, in that I actually feel a little bad when my unit gets burned alive by a flamethrower and they're screaming and running around.

    For me, RTS games especially are about whether or not the gameplay experience is exciting and intense. Do you play chess, or Go? It's a similar sort of experience.

    Regardless, I wouldn't give up on SupCom yet. The singleplayer sucks because the AI is a dumbfuck. Multiplayer is where the game will shine. Sending four transports filled with lasertanks around behind his forces while your air troops distract his frontal defenses and your bombers drive for the anti air turrets, for example. You don't need to do anything like that for the AI. You can just stomp them with sheer blunt force.

    See. The only problem is, I was in the beta, I played multiplayer, and I was still thinking "meh". The games just take such an inordinately long amount of time that it's almost not fun after a certain point.

    However, I'll still probably buy the game. I still have hope for good mods, and I think the game will probably get more entertaining on the other side of the learning curve.

    Sushisource on
    Some drugee on Kavinsky's 1986
    kavinskysig.gif
  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I agree that the game takes too long, and that will probably make it mostly a LAN game or a once-in-a while game.

    Evil Multifarious on
  • GiganticusGiganticus Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Ferrying is pretty cool, but another thing you can do is fill a squad with say, tanks, other land units, and Transports (or the UEF Gunship) and then tell them to go somewhere. The Transports will automatically start picking up the slowest units and will Transport them to the destination. And will repeat until everyone's there. It's a great way of speeding up a load of units without needing to set a definite ferry point.

    Giganticus on
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    the demo wont even run on my current pc. just pops up a dialog that says something like "please make sure you meet the minimum systen requirements" :P

    ah well, been meaning to build a new system for prettified COH anyway.

    Ah_Pook on
  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I don't know what I am doing, but I am able to run the demo easily on minimum settings at 1280x768. My computer is a Athlon 2500+ XP with a Radeon 9600PRO and 1.5 gigs of RAM. There is no stutter or slow down and the FPS is smooth around 40. And I build forces of 100 guys or so before I finish the computer off.

    Veevee on
  • SurikoSuriko AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Veevee wrote: »
    I don't know what I am doing, but I am able to run the demo easily on minimum settings at 1280x768. My computer is a Athlon 2500+ XP with a Radeon 9600PRO and 1.5 gigs of RAM. There is no stutter or slow down and the FPS is smooth around 40. And I build forces of 100 guys or so before I finish the computer off.
    Dude. I have exactly the same specs as you, and was worrying I'd have to upgrade to play.

    You are my hero.

    Suriko on
  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Suriko wrote: »
    Dude. I have exactly the same specs as you, and was worrying I'd have to upgrade to play.

    You are my hero.

    Well, if you wanted it to look really really pretty AND run well then you'd need to upgrade. But I imagine the game is pretty scaleable so even machines like mine and yours can play this game, though I honestly have no clue.

    Darmak on
    JtgVX0H.png
  • VicVic Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    This may have been asked before, but how do you properly use air units? Firstly I am uncertain of the controls of air units, specifically bombers, as in this game it seems the attack command means ordering your unit to uselessly shoot the ground where you aim it, and the move command means ordering your troops to move at max speed to the destination while taking pot shots at enemies on the way.

    Neither seems to be efficient for bombers, and they are further crippled by their nonexistant health. Their great damage means little when that squad of 20 bombers I just sent in over those three anti air guns are chewed to bits in seconds. The obvious third option is giving them specific targets, but that would make them even more doomed to be a one shot weapon.

    Torpedo bombers seem decent, fighters are a (very temporary) but seemingly efficient way to provide long range air support, and there is no doubting the efficiency of the air transports. Overall though I find air units to be too fragile to be of any real use, other than against targets that are utterly without anti air support. Basically they seem to be one of those things that can be devastating in the hands of an insane micromanager or evil AI player, but useless to a casual player.

    Vic on
  • GiganticusGiganticus Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Vic wrote: »
    This may have been asked before, but how do you properly use air units? Firstly I am uncertain of the controls of air units, specifically bombers, as in this game it seems the attack command means ordering your unit to uselessly shoot the ground where you aim it, and the move command means ordering your troops to move at max speed to the destination while taking pot shots at enemies on the way.

    Neither seems to be efficient for bombers, and they are further crippled by their nonexistant health. Their great damage means little when that squad of 20 bombers I just sent in over those three anti air guns are chewed to bits in seconds. The obvious third option is giving them specific targets, but that would make them even more doomed to be a one shot weapon.

    Torpedo bombers seem decent, fighters are a (very temporary) but seemingly efficient way to provide long range air support, and there is no doubting the efficiency of the air transports. Overall though I find air units to be too fragile to be of any real use, other than against targets that are utterly without anti air support. Basically they seem to be one of those things that can be devastating in the hands of an insane micromanager or evil AI player, but useless to a casual player.

    There's a video linked earlier in this thread showing exactly how to use bombers, with scouts circling the enemy base to distract the slow-tracking AA.

    Giganticus on
  • VeegeezeeVeegeezee Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Giganticus wrote: »
    Vic wrote: »
    This may have been asked before, but how do you properly use air units? Firstly I am uncertain of the controls of air units, specifically bombers, as in this game it seems the attack command means ordering your unit to uselessly shoot the ground where you aim it, and the move command means ordering your troops to move at max speed to the destination while taking pot shots at enemies on the way.

    Neither seems to be efficient for bombers, and they are further crippled by their nonexistant health. Their great damage means little when that squad of 20 bombers I just sent in over those three anti air guns are chewed to bits in seconds. The obvious third option is giving them specific targets, but that would make them even more doomed to be a one shot weapon.

    Torpedo bombers seem decent, fighters are a (very temporary) but seemingly efficient way to provide long range air support, and there is no doubting the efficiency of the air transports. Overall though I find air units to be too fragile to be of any real use, other than against targets that are utterly without anti air support. Basically they seem to be one of those things that can be devastating in the hands of an insane micromanager or evil AI player, but useless to a casual player.

    There's a video linked earlier in this thread showing exactly how to use bombers, with scouts circling the enemy base to distract the slow-tracking AA.
    I still can't make that tactic work half as well as it does in the video.

    Veegeezee on
  • Namel3ssNamel3ss Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I just spent the last 6 hours playing this game. I rarely do that with WoW, lol. It is really addictive. However, I have one gripe, and I am sure that one of you fine, bright, individuals can solve this.

    I spent a ton of mass, energy and time in making one of those massive tech 3 be all and end all of cannons. The one with range of nearly the whole map. Once it was complete, it did nothing, I would tell it to attack other enemy buildings/units and it just sat there like a goddamned lawn gnome. So I had to send in my units and distroy the computer the old fashioned way. Anyone know what I did wrong? I assume these things do actually fire at stuff.

    Namel3ss on
    May the wombat of happiness snuffle through your underbrush.
  • VeegeezeeVeegeezee Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Artillery fire draws loads of power, you may not have had enough capacity. Was it tracking targets at all?

    Veegeezee on
  • Namel3ssNamel3ss Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I don't think it was, but I had loads of power, my storage capacity was full, around 27k and I had a tech3 power generator right next to the thing.

    Namel3ss on
    May the wombat of happiness snuffle through your underbrush.
  • SushisourceSushisource Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Namel3ss wrote: »
    I don't think it was, but I had loads of power, my storage capacity was full, around 27k and I had a tech3 power generator right next to the thing.
    I think it might be a bug of sorts, I build one and it proceeded to fire upon targets out of it's supposed range, and it completely ignored my orders to attack important shit.

    Sushisource on
    Some drugee on Kavinsky's 1986
    kavinskysig.gif
  • UrianUrian __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2007
    Some screens I took a while back, slightly edited for some besides obvious edits for the nuke shot, just contrasted it for dramatic effect.

    SUPCOM3EDIT.jpg
    NUKE2.jpg
    SUPREMECAMP11.jpg
    ultra.jpg
    SUPREMESPIDERFINAL.jpg

    Urian on
  • FreddyDFreddyD Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Veevee wrote: »
    I don't know what I am doing, but I am able to run the demo easily on minimum settings at 1280x768. My computer is a Athlon 2500+ XP with a Radeon 9600PRO and 1.5 gigs of RAM. There is no stutter or slow down and the FPS is smooth around 40. And I build forces of 100 guys or so before I finish the computer off.
    You're talking about skirmish mode and not campaign mode, right? I hear the campaign has a lot of performance problems and I couldn't get over 15 fps near the end even when I turned down everything. It was still fun as hell though.

    FreddyD on
  • VeegeezeeVeegeezee Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Urian wrote: »
    Some screens I took a while back, slightly edited for some besides obvious edits for the nuke shot, just contrasted it for dramatic effect.

    (snip snip)

    That first shot kicks ass.

    Veegeezee on
  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    FreddyD wrote: »
    Veevee wrote: »
    I don't know what I am doing, but I am able to run the demo easily on minimum settings at 1280x768. My computer is a Athlon 2500+ XP with a Radeon 9600PRO and 1.5 gigs of RAM. There is no stutter or slow down and the FPS is smooth around 40. And I build forces of 100 guys or so before I finish the computer off.
    You're talking about skirmish mode and not campaign mode, right? I hear the campaign has a lot of performance problems and I couldn't get over 15 fps near the end even when I turned down everything. It was still fun as hell though.

    The problem is, on low settings, this game looks worse than C&C Generals.

    Daedalus on
  • FreddyDFreddyD Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    FreddyD wrote: »
    Veevee wrote: »
    I don't know what I am doing, but I am able to run the demo easily on minimum settings at 1280x768. My computer is a Athlon 2500+ XP with a Radeon 9600PRO and 1.5 gigs of RAM. There is no stutter or slow down and the FPS is smooth around 40. And I build forces of 100 guys or so before I finish the computer off.
    You're talking about skirmish mode and not campaign mode, right? I hear the campaign has a lot of performance problems and I couldn't get over 15 fps near the end even when I turned down everything. It was still fun as hell though.

    The problem is, on low settings, this game looks worse than C&C Generals.
    Yeah, but still better than Total Annihilation.

    FreddyD on
  • Captain KCaptain K Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    FreddyD wrote: »
    Yeah, but still better than Total Annihilation.

    I know it's irrational, but I'll never think any RTS is as beautiful as TA.

    Captain K on
  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    The problem is, on low settings, this game looks worse than C&C Generals.
    Yes, but I think I can stand that for my giant robot death.

    Veevee on
  • MorninglordMorninglord I'm tired of being Batman, so today I'll be Owl.Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I had a go of this and it was TA all over again, but in true three dee. Luckily, this is what I wanted, so I'll be picking this up.
    Mmmm a real queue system again. How I have missed you.

    Morninglord on
    (PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Yeah, you really don't care about your units in this game. I've played a few Skirmish games with the computer, and I just built and built until I got nukes or TX4 or big artillery and killed the enemy from afar.

    The campaign is really not very interesting either.

    I think I like stuff like DoW and CoH better.

    Man, you must feel like a huge jerk if you feel for your units in other games, and then you send them in to attack and they get murdalized. I find that COH does the best job when it comes to making you care about your units, in that I actually feel a little bad when my unit gets burned alive by a flamethrower and they're screaming and running around.

    For me, RTS games especially are about whether or not the gameplay experience is exciting and intense. Do you play chess, or Go? It's a similar sort of experience.

    Regardless, I wouldn't give up on SupCom yet. The singleplayer sucks because the AI is a dumbfuck. Multiplayer is where the game will shine. Sending four transports filled with lasertanks around behind his forces while your air troops distract his frontal defenses and your bombers drive for the anti air turrets, for example. You don't need to do anything like that for the AI. You can just stomp them with sheer blunt force.
    Seriously, I usually HATE HATE HATE losing more than one or two individual units (and not squads) in RTS games. I guess that's because most games have finite amounts of some resource or another, and sometimes, when you lose an army, you just cannot build it back in full.

    Of course, that is NOT an issue in SupCom, you have infinite of everything, so you can and should just build hundreds of guys.

    Stormwatcher on
    Steam: Stormwatcher | PSN: Stormwatcher33 | Switch: 5961-4777-3491
    camo_sig2.png
  • ZellZell Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I had a go of this and it was TA all over again, but in true three dee. Luckily, this is what I wanted, so I'll be picking this up.
    Mmmm a real queue system again. How I have missed you.
    If you only want Total Annihilation in 3D with an awesome queue system, you might as well just play Spring. While I haven't tried Supreme Commander's queue system much, there's just something very annoying about having to wait for a factory to finish building an unit before I can tell it what to do.

    Zell on
  • MachismoMachismo Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Man, this game was MEANT to be played with two screens! MY GOD! Even the DS could learn some things!

    So, I have one screen zoomed in to my base and I have the second zoomed out to the far-out view as I order units on patrols. When a battle begins, I zoom in on the right as I maintain production and order at home on the base.
    It feels so nice to select some units on one screen, group them with some on the field on the second screen and order them to a patrol path on the second. Amazing!
    My mouse wheel is used almost as much as the left click button. In and out, like good Catholic guy on his honeymoon. The screen is in constant motion as even scrolling is done with the mouse wheel, in my case.

    I LOVE this interface.

    Machismo on
    steam_sig.png
  • contrabandcontraband Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    So I'm playing the demo, skirmish mode. What does the hunk of rock do? The big one that's 2x2 squares big, and when I zoom out if shows the "energy" icon over it?

    contraband on
    sigxw0.jpg
  • bongibongi regular
    edited February 2007
    you build a hydrocarbon plant on it

    bongi on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Namel3ss wrote: »
    I don't think it was, but I had loads of power, my storage capacity was full, around 27k and I had a tech3 power generator right next to the thing.
    I think it might be a bug of sorts, I build one and it proceeded to fire upon targets out of it's supposed range, and it completely ignored my orders to attack important shit.

    Are you sure that was its maximum range and not its minimum? The UEF cannon has such a ridiculous range that if you build it on a medium-sized map you won't SEE the maximum range circle, because it'll be off the map!

    Phoenix-D on
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