Supreme Commander Preview

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/01/05/Supreme_Commander_Preview/1.html

 

OMG! I wants! I wants! I wants! NOW!!! Ok, childish excitement out of the way, when is this supposed to come out? Hopefully not for a while yet, as i need a new computer before I can go anywhere near it. I love the concept of it. Although I never played the original TA, I'm a massive fan of the RTS genre and it's nice to see another exquisite and innovative game join its ranks. I absolutely love the idea of being able to use a dual monitor setup. I've been waiting for games, especially RTSs, to do this for a long time. I think this style of game enjoys a far greater gameplay benefit from dual monitors than, say FPSs.

-ed out

 

It's good but a shame that it had a total fit and really just didn't run right on my system at all. Even on low :/

 

Sounds like it'll be worth a purchase.
And the purchase of a 2nd monitor...

 

TA was possibly the best RTS game ever so I may be swayed to return to gaming, but as I am unlikely ever to play an online multiplayer gamer I do hope it has some form of offline singleplayer

 

i played the beta.... great game!!! it played on my system but every now and then it did struggle... paused every now and then... it look me a little while to figure out how to get started... first couple of times i played it against the AI about 30 mins into the game the AI had the big spider at my base... :S

 

Looks fantastic...this and C&C3 might get be back into RTS games.

 

looks fantastic im very excited esspecially about the dual monitors idea i wonder how this will be implemented tho will it support 2 monitors at different resolutions i.e one widescreen and one normal as although it would be brilliant i couldnt really justify buying another widescreen

 

yakyb - yes it does, if you have a widescreen panel and a standard panel you will be able to use different resolutions on both.

 

Can somebody please write a sentence explaining why I should be at all interested in this? It looks terrible!

Way too much micro-management, colourful plastic toy graphics and is there any plot??

Or is it just the giant walking robots that make it? Cos they're frankly just passe.

 

Because it's the most awesome game evar thats why.

And it's not micromanagement at all really, sure there are thousands of units in each game, but it's all about macro management. Build a big group of units, and tell that big group of units to attack another big group of units with one click and the AI deals with all the rest.

 

So it is basicly "mass-micro-management"

I always hated the "tiberium" controlled teritory. "One who controls the spice controls the universe" Seems that this is the same with SC. Once you take over a mining field and kill all harvesters of enemy you practicly win scenarios.

And second, it seems that "get up to the highest tech level as quickly as possible and crush enemy with your mighty weapon" scenarios are also at play. So basicly there is no improvement but same as any other RTS in the past.

Correct me if this is not the case with SC.

 

If you can't defend your resource production, then you will probably lose. That's not a problem with the game; it's part of the strategy. In any case, you can make a fairly self-sufficient base in SupCom using mass fabricators to compensate for a lack of extractors.

Many decent games will end before you can upgrade to the highest tech level. And the scale of SupCom is balanced fairly well - you can destroy a high-tech force with a sufficient number of cheaper units to a certain degree... after that point, you've no excuse not to be at the same tech level as your opposition. Even the experimental mobile factories and Monkeylords (the big spider things) aren't difficult to take out if you overwhelm them. Each unit has its weakness - many of the experimentals will fold easily if you use planes against them.

 

Does anyone know if you can use dual mode on a Widescreen Monitor?

Kinda just have a smaller tactical map on the right?

 

What size monitors, well more to the point maybe, what resolutions were used when stuggling to get it smooth ?

With a bit of luck I can finally get that 215TW I've been drooling over for the past what 5?6? months now in the next week and delegate my 17" to duty as a secondary..

 

Some types of games (like this rts) just arent for everybody, perhaps? Just like I'm not a big fan of fps's, usually. If they could make a game for everybody, we'd all be playing... the Sims...

But I drew first RTS blood with TA, and until just recently played TA:Spring (open source community remake) almost daily. Micromanagement was not an issue in TA:Spring any more than, say, Starcraft (there was metal and energy, you make a mine and let it do its thing, and energy producing facilities and they do their thing, not even little SCV's running about). Spent much more time trying to balance my army/navy/airforce to counter my opponent, and then pressing any advantage I might occasionally get.

TA, and I assume SC, is a different breed of RTS apart from C&C its safe to say.

If you can deal with a slightly clunky interface, google TA Spring. Not too expensive (free), and you'll see where the developers 'roots' are with the XTA mod loaded. Might have to look in to whatever AI can fight its way out of a paper bag these days, though. Last I checked XTAI was best, but could of changed now. Just don't let the AI sit to its own devices for too long; it'll 'turtle' and it'll take you half a day to carpet nuke its defenses.

 

Something I haven't seen mentioned is the excellent multithreading support this game has already, even while in beta. This screeny says it all I think:



Using 3 AI's, one on balanced and 2 on medium produces a 91% CPU usage (combined) on a E6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz (ignore the reading of 3600mhz maximum in iTAT, it's a known multiplier bug when you use a lower multi then default) and runs fairly smoothly but when the same scenario is run on any of my single core machines, including on Athlon 64 OC'd to 2.6Ghz, it runs like a dog and pegs CPU usage at 100%. This game is thread hungry with dual cores, not sure how well used quad core will be tho I imagine the returns will be less at best.

Edit: I should add that when multimonitor mode is used on my Core 2 Duo rig, the CPU usage spikes at 100% across both cores, but performance still tanks down a noticeable amount but still remains playable. GPU is important, but this game is insanely CPU hungry first and foremost.

 

DAMN, I want to buy!!!!

 

Is it just Total Annihilation with online multiplayer and bigger maps? From the pictures, it doesn't look like they've thought much further than a tweaked version of TA...

 

Is there even a chance I can play this on a 2.4c P4, 9600 pro, and 1 gig ram?