Comments on: Supreme Commander Demo http://www.mode7games.com/blog/2007/02/08/supreme-commander-demo/ The gaming podcast with intelligence. Each week, we don our utterly metaphorical armour and confront the most intriguing mainstream gaming issues, as well as venturing to the arcane depths of the indie games scene. PC or console games: whatever your favourite species of electronic entertainment, we drag it screaming from the dungeon all the way back to the village. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:06:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ian http://www.mode7games.com/blog/2007/02/08/supreme-commander-demo/comment-page-1/#comment-3414 Ian Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:25:44 +0000 http://www.mode7games.com/blog/?p=337#comment-3414 Hi Namaste. That all sounds very good - I'll be picking up SupCom this weekend and I'll maybe give it a more thorough analysis. Ian Hi Namaste.

That all sounds very good – I’ll be picking up SupCom this weekend and I’ll maybe give it a more thorough analysis.

Ian

]]> By: namaste http://www.mode7games.com/blog/2007/02/08/supreme-commander-demo/comment-page-1/#comment-3369 namaste Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:03:30 +0000 http://www.mode7games.com/blog/?p=337#comment-3369 I don't think you gave Supreme Commander a fair shake. While I've only been able to play the single-player demo so far, I think it is a fundamental improvement over TA. While new user interface features like ferrying and movable waypoints are great, they don't fundamentally improve the game. The two features which do are the larger scale and the strategic unit icons. When zoomed far enough out (or all the time with an option), units are replaced with abstract icons indicating what they are effective against. Anti-ground units and turrets have plus symbols, anti-air has an arc symbol, etc. Furthermore, they shape of the icon that has this symbols varys by the type of unit, so ground units might be squares, and air units might be diamonds (I don't remember all the different shapes and symbols). Anyway, the effect of this is that once I've scouted out a base or force I'm about to attack, I can zoom out and very quickly determine it's composition. If the base is defended only by a few anti-ground turrets and many anti-air, I will send in my tanks backed up by a few mortars, and target the anti-ground turrets, then mop up the base. So the advantage to the strategic icons is that they allow a quick assessment of the strength and weakness of the enemies forces assuming you have scouted them sufficiently. The real advantage to the larger scale is that it makes micro managing individual units or small squads of units nearly absurd in big battles. What do five bombers matter in a war involving many hundreds of units? For this reason, trying to win with micro is nearly absurd, because the superior strategist will just bring the correct wave of the counter-unit to bear at the right time and wash over your squad. Supreme Commander, like TA is built for strategic play, but by virtue of the scale, SC actually enforces it. I don’t think you gave Supreme Commander a fair shake. While I’ve only been able to play the single-player demo so far, I think it is a fundamental improvement over TA. While new user interface features like ferrying and movable waypoints are great, they don’t fundamentally improve the game. The two features which do are the larger scale and the strategic unit icons. When zoomed far enough out (or all the time with an option), units are replaced with abstract icons indicating what they are effective against. Anti-ground units and turrets have plus symbols, anti-air has an arc symbol, etc. Furthermore, they shape of the icon that has this symbols varys by the type of unit, so ground units might be squares, and air units might be diamonds (I don’t remember all the different shapes and symbols). Anyway, the effect of this is that once I’ve scouted out a base or force I’m about to attack, I can zoom out and very quickly determine it’s composition. If the base is defended only by a few anti-ground turrets and many anti-air, I will send in my tanks backed up by a few mortars, and target the anti-ground turrets, then mop up the base. So the advantage to the strategic icons is that they allow a quick assessment of the strength and weakness of the enemies forces assuming you have scouted them sufficiently.

The real advantage to the larger scale is that it makes micro managing individual units or small squads of units nearly absurd in big battles. What do five bombers matter in a war involving many hundreds of units? For this reason, trying to win with micro is nearly absurd, because the superior strategist will just bring the correct wave of the counter-unit to bear at the right time and wash over your squad. Supreme Commander, like TA is built for strategic play, but by virtue of the scale, SC actually enforces it.

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