Supreme Commander - Um.. I'll take one.

[Scott]

I don't know if you meant this as an actual question, but I'll answer anyways. From what I've read you'll be able to set up pick up and drop off zones for your transports, so they'll automatically deliver soldiers and go back for another batch.

It wasn't so much of a question, as a hope that the systems talked about will work smoothly!  Automatic troop transports, the full coordinated assaults that are talked about, etc.  They all sound incredible!

Though, I have to admit, I still have a pretty negative taste in my mouth from Dungeon Seige for Taylor now.  I'm hoping Supreme Commander will make me forget it.

Those pictures in that interview were great.  I want to know what the actual hardware was running those.

[wonderpug]

Though, I have to admit, I still have a pretty negative taste in my mouth from Dungeon Seige for Taylor now.  I'm hoping Supreme Commander will make me forget it.

The thing is, most of the things that made Dungeon Siege bad would be good things in the RTS world, i.e., troop automation is good for a RTS with a thousand troops and bad for a Diablo with 1-6 troops.

Wounds from Black & White be damned, I'm going to let myself get sucked into the Supreme Commander hype 100%.  If Supreme Command ends up being a huge disappointment, I'll sign the papers for the 'PC Gaming is Dead' club and fully embrace my Wii.  That didn't sound right.

[Scott]

The thing is, most of the things that made Dungeon Siege bad would be good things in the RTS world, i.e., troop automation is good for a RTS with a thousand troops and bad for a Diablo with 1-6 troops.

That's a good point.  

I think Supreme Commander will be great.  In a lot of ways, I'll be really happy with just a really nice upgrade to TA.  That game still hasn't been surpassed in a lot of ways.

[Lockdown]

and He continued to giveth to the people...

Mostly Fluff - GS Link

Take note of the Princess's last name...

Coincidence....?   I thinketh not!

[CSL]

Awesome interview, I can't wait for this to be released. Multiplayer will never have been as sweet.

[Lockdown]

Lest ye forget...

[Dimmona]

My favorite part of that interview:
Shack: In terms of the balance side of gameplay, one thing you've frequently mentioned is that you're not a big fan of the rock/paper/scissors model of balance. Can you speak a bit on the distinctions between the three factions in Supreme Commander, both in gameplay and background?

Chris Taylor: Well, with rock/paper/scissors, you create a unit that very specifically has a weakness against another unit. Imagine in a computer wargame, you wouldn't really create a rock/paper/scissors, you'd create a circle that has twelve components, or ten components or eight components, and you'd say this beats this beats this, until it goes all the way around and the snake eats its own tail. That system means you have to look away from reality, and nothing can be superior just because. In real life, there are things--units and vehicles and equipment--that are completely superior. They have no weakness. There are examples, where if you have the XYZ, it's the best there is and nobody can beat that. And why do you have the XYZ? Because you have superior technology.

The Germans in World War II had all kinds of things that were just superior, hands down, to their Western counterparts. The reason they failed was that they had bad strategies, bad leadership, they were too ambitious. They thought they could do ten times what they could really do. That's what their fault was, but some of the equipment they had was fine. If you were trying to design the game that accurately reflected World War II, you would purposely make the panzer weak to such and such, because you'd say, "Well, it's a rock/paper/scissors game, we have to give the panzer a weakness!" But there were very few weaknesses of that tank, and it would be meaningless to capture those in a game so you'd have to create a meaningful weakness.

Do you know, offhand, what the weakness of the panzer was?

Shack: I can't say I do, off the top of my head.

Chris Taylor: It was called twenty Shermans banging on it at once, okay? [laughs] That's not a weakness! That's Western production superiority, that's what it's called. If you design a game based on rock/paper/scissors, you're stepping away from reality. You've moving away from reality to make something to fit a spreadsheet, and a good design does not belong on a spreadsheet.

[CeeKay]

and He continued to giveth to the people...

Mostly Fluff - GS Link

Take note of the Princess's last name...

Coincidence....?   I thinketh not!

Ron's a princess?.... Rhianne could be mispronounced as Ron.....

OMG, we are in the presence of royalty!!!!!

[Lockdown]

OK... I've been a bit weak on my keeping up with this.  Mostly cause I figure you all know about this stuff before I do anyway.

But, for those of you who are out of the loop as much as I am...

Gametrailers Interview with Chris Taylor

Some of the video footage from the game is incredibly clear and zoomed in, although I think most of it has been seen before.

Find Interview at this link.  Date:  Aug. 3th.  Streams pretty good.

[Scott]

Thanks for the continued updates Lockdown.  This game looks incredible.

[Lockdown]

Just how big are transports anyway?  Here's a cool pic.



. . .

Creating your own "chokepoint"... so to speak.

[Eduardo X]

This game looks great, but it also looks like I will suck at it. Hardcore.
And I hate RTS games, so maybe I'm just grasping at straws.

[Calvin]

LD, your contributinos to getting us pics and info are very very much appreciated. I think this might be my most anticipated game right now, maybe just past FF12. It just looks like it could be the greatest RTS of all time.

[Scott]

I appreciate the pics too.  I really hope this gets close to the hype its generating.  It looks fantastic.  I will be happy if its just a pretty update I think, let alone all the great new features.  Total Annihilation was far ahead of its time when it came out.

[Calvin]

Lest ye forget...

LD-could you provide desktop size copies of this picture and some of the others? Thanks in advance if you can.

[SuperHiro]

This game has me thinking mighty hard about it.

But I remember Dungeon Siege.

[Calvin]

This game has me thinking mighty hard about it.

But I remember Dungeon Siege.

Did you somehow forget Total Annihilation when remembering DS? 

[SuperHiro]

Never played TA in great amounts.  I was a SC junkie.

And I go by the "You're only as good as your last game" logic.

[Calvin]

Never played TA in great amounts.  I was a SC junkie.

And I go by the "You're only as good as your last game" logic.

Well I liked DS 1 and 2, so I'm happy, so there!! 

Plus, you like BFME2. Eww.

[Lockdown]

Thanks to the German site, Gamestar, I bring you two more pics...

Pic one is a NICE looking artillery piece. 

Pic two is a shield generator getting tested by the enemy.

Are we drooling yet....   




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[Atragon]

 

[Scott]

That shield looks great!

[Jarrodhk]

Honestly, if anything in the next while is going to get me to actually upgrade my computer.... this is the game.

[Lockdown]

If you look at the arty pic, it would appear 1 of 3 things is probably happening:
(1) There are six units of some type building the arty piece.
(2) There are 6 units of some type repairing the arty piece.
(3) There are six units of some type "powering" the arty piece.

My bet is on option 3.  If that's true, that would be a pretty neat concept.  I'm not sure how it works in the grand scheme of energy management, but it does make you start thinking how the concept of resources may work in this game.

[Calvin]

Option 3 for sure, and jesus, those screens look awesome.

[wonderpug]

Your option 3 sounds pretty cool, but my guess is that they're a less exciting option 4:  They're just a part of the cannon's anchor system.  Maybe you see them tug their energy beams to rotate the cannon around, but I think they're just part of the visual design--not adding any gameplay elements.

When I first saw that pic I thought it looked like the cannon was locked down into a certain facing direction.  That would be a cool balancing mechanic, you've got an uber-gun, but it will always be limited to a set field of fire.  Great for devastating a known enemy stonghold or covering a chokepoint, but useless if the enemy relocates to a secondary base or if they land ground units to the cannon's flank to stop it...unless you've got a second cannon they don't know about built further back covering the first.

Sadly, upon closer inspection it looks like the cannon can rotate 360 degrees, ah well.

[raydude]

When I first saw that pic I thought it looked like the cannon was locked down into a certain facing direction.  That would be a cool balancing mechanic, you've got an uber-gun, but it will always be limited to a set field of fire.  Great for devastating a known enemy stonghold or covering a chokepoint, but useless if the enemy relocates to a secondary base or if they land ground units to the cannon's flank to stop it...unless you've got a second cannon they don't know about built further back covering the first.

Sadly, upon closer inspection it looks like the cannon can rotate 360 degrees, ah well.

I'm actually glad that the cannon does NOT look like its locked down in a set direction. I would hope that in a futuristic setting warring societies would not forget about rotating turrets and how much better, cheaper, and more efficient it would be to let a gun turret rotate to change direction of fire than it would be to build multiple turrets with immovable guns.

[Lockdown]

Ahh....  Looking closer at the pic myself, it does appear the streams are locked onto the balancing mechanism for the gun itself, so you may be correct on option 4.  (which would be fine from a visual standpoint, but a bummer from my option 3 standpoint).

I also like your idea regarding the field of fire arc.  Hmmm.... that would be somewhat like what you get with Company of Heroes, which would be quite cool.  Oh well... guess we just need to wait and see how it all works out.  I can also see where ray is coming from, and not having it locked down is understandable.  Maybe they will make it really slow to turn...   

[raydude]

Ahh....  Looking closer at the pic myself, it does appear the streams are locked onto the balancing mechanism for the gun itself, so you may be correct on option 4.  (which would be fine from a visual standpoint, but a bummer from my option 3 standpoint).

I also like your idea regarding the field of fire arc.  Hmmm.... that would be somewhat like what you get with Company of Heroes, which would be quite cool.  Oh well... guess we just need to wait and see how it all works out.  I can also see where ray is coming from, and not having it locked down is understandable.  Maybe they will make it really slow to turn...   

Actually, if you look at the "shield" pic you see a zoomed out view of the base. There are more of the "stream" boxes shooting streams to two other buildings. It doesn't look like those buildings need balance, so I'm leaning more towards some sort of power supply.

And actually, with the latest patch of CoH the howitzers can now turn to change facing. So even the simulated ww2 guys know a thing about not having fixed turrets .

[wonderpug]

When I first saw that pic I thought it looked like the cannon was locked down into a certain facing direction.  That would be a cool balancing mechanic, you've got an uber-gun, but it will always be limited to a set field of fire.  Great for devastating a known enemy stonghold or covering a chokepoint, but useless if the enemy relocates to a secondary base or if they land ground units to the cannon's flank to stop it...unless you've got a second cannon they don't know about built further back covering the first.

Sadly, upon closer inspection it looks like the cannon can rotate 360 degrees, ah well.

I'm actually glad that the cannon does NOT look like its locked down in a set direction. I would hope that in a futuristic setting warring societies would not forget about rotating turrets and how much better, cheaper, and more efficient it would be to let a gun turret rotate to change direction of fire than it would be to build multiple turrets with immovable guns.

The idea isn't that they've forgotten how to make rotating turrets.  It's that they've designed a gun SO MASSIVE it couldn't possibly fit onto a turret mechanism.  Sort of like the London Gun in WWII that would've been able to do little else besides bombard London from France.

[Lockdown]

Chris Taylor strikes again...

Short interview   -   Link is spotty.  It's at 1up if interested.

Discussing a sequel to a game that hasn't even been released yet.  That's my man!

[Lockdown]

Oh... and here is another picture of the "streams"...



[attachment deleted by admin]

[wonderpug]

No matter where our speculation on those energy streams goes, one thing is for sure.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Don't cross the streams!

[Lockdown]

Tiny article from IGN.  August 25th.

Link to IGN snippet

You will notice a typo in the artilce stating the game won't ship until Late 2007.  That is obviously inaccurate.

[stiffler]

Tiny article from IGN. 

That is obviously inaccurate.

SHOCKING! :icon_eek:

[wonderpug]

You will notice a typo in the artilce stating the game won't ship until Late 2007.  That is obviously inaccurate.

What's funny is that they say 'Late 2007' and 'Spring 2007' in the very same paragraph.  Quality journalism right there folks!

[Turtle]

Those are energy steams, they represent power and are one of the ways the developer promotes building buildings closer together, even if that means exposing them to more enemy fire.  I assume having buildings linked by energy like that makes them more productive, or simply powers the building.  Probably all those little buildings that the steam originates from are mini generators.  So considering how many generators are around that thing, I assume it takes a ton of energy to fire.

Oh, and that big cannon is the equivalent of the big bertha.  Yes, it can angle upwards since it can be used to shell things just like artillery.  However, in that screenshot, it's lining up a direct fire shot against the giant walker that's getting much too close for comfort.

[Lockdown]

THQ gets involved.

Developer Interview and Stuff



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[Calvin]

This game looks so EFFING AWESOME!! 

[wonderpug]

This game looks so EFFING AWESOME!! 

It kills me every time Chris Taylor says the game is already finished and just being optimized and balanced.  Me want now!