| pkcRAISTLIN |
well, looks like my fears are being realised. talk about some major steps backwards.
| quote: |
If you played Supreme Commander, the excellent PC strategy game, you know that Chris Taylor and Gas Powered games can make great RTSs. You also know just how ambitious and massive they can be. Supreme Commander was a complex and satisfying game, and it looks like its sequel is going to be just as massive, but will address a number of problems with the original. Better art design, a better economy, and improved pathfinding are just some of the improvements we can look forward to. We got to sit down with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor for a demo at E3 2009, and he filled us in on the details. Want to know more? Read on!
Taylor mentioned at the beginning of the demo that he wanted to explore story and characters more in Supreme Commander 2, but that he also wanted to continue to focus on technology just as much as before. He then showed us our first glimpse of the game, an overhead view of a map called “Illuminate 5.” If you've played the same developer's Demigod, you'd be familiar with the art style of the backgrounds. It featured a giant arena hovering over an illuminated city, and its color palate and 3D-on-2D look were highly reminiscent of the aforementioned game. This isn't the only aspect of Supreme Commander 2 that took its cues from Demigod. The same graphics engine is being used, which makes Supreme Commander look more natural--and run smoother. Expect the game to run on a variety of systems, and to run better than its predecessor. Of course, Demigod is also known for its multiplayer connection issues. Taylor acknowledged the issues, adding that Gas Powered has learned a lot from the experience. They have yet to settle on a multiplayer technology partner, but assured us that the Impulse multiplayer technology powering Demigod will not be used for Supreme Commander 2.
Expect Supreme Commander's level of strategic zoom to return in Supreme Commander 2. If you recall, the original allowed for unprecedented zoom levels, allowing you to pull the camera directly into the action, as well as to an expansive overhead view that reduced the units to small geometric icons. We didn't get to see the most distant zoom levels in the demo, but Taylor suggested that the process of zooming in and out will feel a lot more natural, and that the transition between fully rendered units and icons will be smoother and more sophisticated. The stronger art style should also make it easier to identify units at a distance.
Speaking of that art style, expect to see less generic units across the board. The Aeon faction has evolved into a new faction--The Illuminate. We saw their units in action, and they look more organic than their prior counterparts. All three factions--the new, as well as the returning Cybrans and the UEF--possess more detailed units, with a stronger overall look to them. We watched as UEF tanks were attacked by Cybran gunships, and lasers flashed everwhere, and though this battle would generally have tipped in favor of the gunships, you'll now be able to use a unit cannon to fling units from the other side of the map and get them right into the action. This lets you get the proper counters into the battle much more quickly, and leads to more flexibility than before.
Actually, flexibility is the name of the game in Supreme Commander 2. In the original, early units were rendered almost totally obsolete as you gained tech levels. Now, tech upgrades effect existing units, and new tech trees will let you outfit units with things like additional (or longer) barrels, anti-aircraft weaponry, and more. These skill trees are another of Demigod's features that inspired Supreme Commander 2, according to Taylor. You will also be in charge of the all-important ACU unit, just as before. Its upgrades also allow for a more flexible approach. For example, you can add artillery to the ACU's shoulders, grant it torpedoes, perform a “core dump” ability should you fall under nuclear attack, or even pop off its head if you need to quickly escape from battle (the benefits of such a move remain unclear). Of course, there are all new units as well. For example, while experimental units return, there are also mini-experimentals, such as an Illuminate unit we saw that Taylor affectionately referred to as an Ear Canal. These snail-like units look as if they would have been at home in Star Wars: Episode One, and were cool to watch as they moved across the map. We also saw a standard experimental call a Cybran-zilla, which was looked appropriately draconic. There will also be naval units--but we weren't able to see them in action in the demo.
The economy has been tweaked as well. Energy and mass are still your two resources. However, now you will only be able to purchase a unit or upgrade if you can afford it, rather than queue it up as you could in the original. This means that players are less apt to paint themselves into a corner early on that they can't escape from later. Additionally, you will be able to earn experience by attacking other units. This experience can be used to research upgrades (though so can other resources). This means that if you prefer to turtle up, you will still have access to upgrades, though players that want to get into the action immediately will still be able to tech up as well. Pathfinding has also been improved. According to Taylor, when you have hundreds or thousands of units in play at one time, it's more difficult for a PCs processor to keep up with the pathfinding needs of the game. Newer software technology and multi-core processors will now lead to better pathing, where units will adjust their path even before reaching the object in their way, much as you would notice someone walking directly towards you and move to the side, rather than waiting until you are directly in front of him.
What we saw of Supreme Commander 2 looked great. The stronger art style serves the game well; the bland, austere environments of the original have given way to a more interesting and artistic feel. We saw impressive details everywhere, from the smooth animations of mass extractors to excellent lighting and shadows. And of course, the battles were huge, raging across enormous vistas just as big as those in the original. Taylor wants the game to run--and run well--on three-year-old hardware (the first game brought even some then-modern systems to their knees). Sadly, we didn't get to see any nukes, though Taylor assured us that nuclear warfare is back, and will remain the most powerful attack in the game.
Taylor also talked briefly about the “neural net,” an evolving database that allows the AI to adjust for actions you make during battle. For example, if the enemy spams gunships and you keep taking them down, it will use what it learns from the net to adjust its strategies. Clearly, Gas Powered Games aims to make Supreme Commander 2 just as big as the original while streamlining its complexities in ways that make sense for both veterans and newcomers. We'll have to wait and see if Gas Powered can succeed: Supreme Commander 2 is due for release for the PC sometime in 2010. There will also be an Xbox 360 version, developed concurrently within the same studio, though we learned no additional details about that version. We'll bring you more on this hotly anticipated strategy game as details become available. |
http://e3.gamespot.com/story/621108...r-2-impressions
| quote: |
Two years ago, Gas Powered Games released the spiritual successor to the critically and fan acclaimed Real Time Strategy game Total Annihilation. Supreme Commander provided a sense of scale and depth that had never been seen before in an RTS. At E3 today, I was able to get a glimpse at Supreme Commander 2, the next chapter in the franchise, which has been in development for nine months. Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games pointed out that the design team wanted to focus on story, gameplay and characters while improving on all elements of the technology that made Supreme Commander stand out. While he didn't go deep into the story details, Taylor mentioned that Supreme Commander 2 takes place 25 years after the events of Forged Alliance, and will involve three friends that eventually find themselves on opposite sides during the war.
The Cybran and United Earth Federation will make their return within Supreme Commander 2, as will a "new" group, the Illuminate. In reality, Taylor explained, this is essentially the Aeon, but the splinter faction of the Aeon, once known as the Order of the Illuminate, has a new look, units and technology. Regardless of the campaign you select, players will find that a few gameplay features have been improved. For one thing, the economy system, which some players found to be a bit arcane or tricky to correct if you made the wrong moves at the start of a mission has been improved upon. While you still have to focus on collecting mass and energy for your units and weapons, Supreme Commander now places a larger premium on whether or not you can afford a unit or a structure. If you have the cash, you can start producing units, which also build much faster than they previously did.
On top of this economy system is a new tech system, which will be controlled in one of two separate ways. The first way is to go into combat and destroy enemy units, earning experience for your troops and improving their veterancy. The other way is to use your resources to provide you with research points that you can purchase, allowing you to expand your tech tree. There are five separate categories that you can improve: land, air, naval, structures and the commander, and all upgrades cover all units at once. So you can modify tanks with larger barrels or longer range attacks, or provide instant anti-aircraft support for vehicles. Units themselves have also been expanded upon; there are now mini and major experimental vehicles that you can pour your research into. In all, there will be twenty five of these powerful machines that can be deployed into the field. One of the ones that I managed to check out was the new Cybran Zilla, which took dinosaur DNA and mixed it with machines to create a brutal killing unit.
While Taylor only showed off one map with a UEF base perched on a cliffside, the map provided an incredible sense of scale. In fact, as the battles progressed, aerial transports that were shot out of the sky tumbled into the crevasse below, falling through the clouds that floated across the map. In fact, there were some new unit cannons designed to launch troops across the map, providing reinforcements for the assault on the UEF base. Taylor also used this as a way to highlight the fact that the full strategic zoom feature would return, but he stressed that the team is changing how the zoom works as well as the icon system for players to read within Strategic Icon mode, so it wasn't implemented in the demo. The design team also spent a lot of time working on the pathfinding of every unit. In fact, Taylor mentioned that thanks to some new flow field algorithms, up to 500,000 units could potentially be moved from one area on a map to another without collision issues or failing to move at all. The pathfinding issues from the previous Supreme Commander games, he sated, have been solved.
Another adjustment that's been made has been an adjustment of the AI into essentially a neural net as the game runs, so the AI truly adjusts to how you play and what your tactics are. Taylor provided an example where the computer might send a number of aerial units at your base if you decide to turtle for a while. If you manage to repel these forces easily, the game will stop these tactics and will figure out a different way to probe your defenses. Needless to say, you'll probably need to adjust your plans to make your way through each mission, although Taylor mentioned that battles should last between half an hour to sixty minutes, which should be substantially shorter than the previous conflicts in previous games.
Although he wasn't willing to commit to the number of skirmish maps, Taylor mentioned there should be somewhere between twenty-five and thirty maps for the final product. Gas Powered Games hasn't announced a multiplayer partner yet, but they did mention that they learned a lot from Demigod, particularly with the peer to peer trouble that title experienced. The game will also feature heightened production values thanks to the new rendering engine that was taken from Demigod and completely rewritten with new illumination models and aesthetics to fit the Supreme Commander universe. Even with all of these changes, Taylor stressed that Gas Powered Games is committed to making sure that the title isn't as much of a performance beast as the first game was, mentioning that computers that are at least three to five years old will be able to comfortably run Supreme Commander 2. |
http://pc.ign.com/articles/990/990285p1.html
Looks like I'll be sticking to forged alliance. Taking out infinite build cues is completely unacceptable. |
|
|
