So I finished downloading Supreme Commander 2 and installed it. Some problems with a missing dll file since Windows 7 uses DX11 and not DX9 but dllfiles.com helped me and the game works even better then a newly bought one since my house mate has bugs and he bought it originally
First things first, I love Supreme Commander, in fact, I have it original which means that I have to find it *worth* buying. I played it a lot, with my house mate mostly. The managing of resources, the sizes of the battles and even the zooming, I love it all.
Supreme Commander 2 brings some changes, but not like Forged Alliance brought to SupCom, no it took a rather steep turn. It was a lot different while still trying to hold on to what SupCom made great. And it fails in just as much area's as it succeeds. Firstly a few things have been simplified, most notably the bases. Land factory builds land units, air factory builds air units, naval factory builds naval units and each of those factories big brother version builds the experimentals, no need to upgrade each individual factory. Now if you want a higher tech land unit, you have to research it, which goes surprisingly easy. As you fight you get research points as your commander 'learns' from the battles. You can build a special research building that generates these points at a steady rate and provides a really small modifier for your combat earnings. As it's explained, the research building 'analyses' the battle data and improves your 'learning'. Then once you have enough points, it's two clicks and you can build the units (assuming you click on the research button and you have met the prerequisites). The research also includes increased weapons range, damage, add shielding or for the Cybran, for example, add legs to all your naval units.
Now research costs research points, which is straight forward and buildings and units still cost matter (mass) and energy. The change is, one that I don't like, once you order the construction of a unit or building the resources are taken from your reserves. Your income is still per minute, but you have unlimited storage and it's taken off your reserves that very moment. Aiding with other workers, this only works on assisting factories you can't assist an engineer who's building a structure with another engineer, only speeds up the process, no extra costs, which is understandable. This also means that you can't start a building if you don't have the resources at that very moment.
Now let's talk about minor but notable changes. First thing I noticed, buildings can't assist one another anymore. Each has their own queue and can only be assisted by your ACU or engineers.
The build templates which I almost cheered for in Forged Alliance are gone too.
Mass fabricators are now, probably to accommodate the new resources are taken instantly style, big facilities with a 'press here to convert energy into mass' button.
A change I really liked, on the other hand, is the ability to build add-ons to buildings. So can your factories be upgraded with guns, missiles and shielding for example.
Experimentals were the fear of every commander in SupCom, in Forged Alliance they were still a force to be reckoned with but most had been given a downgrade so that a large army could still take them on, now in SupCom2, though still powerful, they have been given yet another downgrade. The experimental units are still expensive, massive and destructive, but not so much as before. Now a decent sized army won't have too much trouble with even multiple experimental units. Some did get nice upgrades in weapons, usage or abilities though (so don't count them out).
Instead of the useful though somewhat clumsy 'ferry' ability, air transports can now assist a building and they will carry the units to the way point once they are full.
Now mind you that, as with Forged Alliance, SupCom has gotten an upgrade. There are different units, different abilities, different mechanics (though the mechanics are the ones mostly unchanged) and I suspect it will be fun to walk them through. Not all of these units and abilities suit my taste, but I enjoy the change none the less.
All in all there are a lot of changes with the original SupCcom and Forged Alliance and I'm not too happy with them, the research is a nice change and I like it, but a lot of other changes are not what made SupCcom great in my eyes. But the thing that bugs me, perhaps even the most, is it's incredible easy to loose overview. In SupCom I had a mod to increase the AI and the unit cap to 2000 so I had almost 2000 units and buildings, fighting against 2 or more hard AI's and even the extra improved AI's (the mod not only improved the AI but also added extra 'super' AI's) and yet I was never lost. I easily loose sight of things in SupCom2. Searching for my units, searching for the right queue on that specific factory, searching for that one upgrade (read research) to help me, searching for the mass converter, frankly this is a bad sign especially on an RTS. In fact, I even have to pause the game in campaign or skirmishes.
I'm not good with giving a number, but I suppose I might get a few angry looks if I leave it at this... I'm giving SupCom 2 a 71 out of a 100 for the sole reason that it is fun to play. The ACU, the massive armies, the experimentals, they're still there and you will likely have a good time playing it. But the things that made SupCom, Supreme Commander to me, are mostly gone.
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Also, I've been playing it every now and then, firstly a bunch of campaign missions, which I have to add have a better story then normal SupCom (I never really followed the SupCom Forged Alliance plot), and later more skirmishes to test the AI. And the unit cap is down from 1000 to 500, which I really blame THQ/Gas Powered Games for. Don't let it fool you, even if you never reached 500 before, the changes will make it a lot harder and I'm always at the 500 unit cap when I fight against Hard or Cheating AI's. The changes will make sure you have more buildings then usual even though you probably won't have the large fields of resource generators.
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