New standalone SupCom title in the works
Eurogamer has the scoop on a new standalone game in the Supreme Commander series, titled Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. The release date is scheduled for November, and it will include over 100 new units, including “fully realised navies, orbital weaponry and advanced counter-intelligence technologies.” Hopefully all of these features will make it into the actual final product, as those of us who have been following SupCom for awhile will remember that it was originally supposed to feature some sophisticated intelligence and counter intelligence options. Perhaps those features were just pushed back to this title, however.
Interestingly, THQ and GPG have chosen to release the game as standalone, rather than as an expansion to the original SupCom. This is no real loss to those of us who already own the game, except perhaps that Forged Alliance may be priced as a standalone title rather than an expansion pack. Apparently, SupCom didn’t sell enough copies to make an expansion pack profitable.
As is mentioned in the Eurogamer story, the game will feature an entirely new faction. This, the game’s title, and comments in the past from Chris Taylor all suggest quite strongly that Forged Alliance will involve the invasion of some alien force, with the three original factions forced to band together to defeat them. However, if you have an alternate theory, we would love to hear about it in the comments!
I am really excited about this development, as I’m sure many of you also are. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
Update by Cyde Weys: The first screenshots have been published at Gamer.nl. The site’s in Dutch, though, so good luck reading the text. Here’s one of the screenshots. What are these units?!
June 28th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Sounds interesting, maybe it’s like Dark Crusade for DoW? Same publisher after all. Just hope it doesn’t fracture the online player base.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
The same price as Dark Crusade would be neat idd, but not the same limitations (races playable online only if you had the previous DoW games). Still, colour me excited as well, it is coming quite fast after the release of the first game though.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:10 am
The idea of having two standalone supcom games in one year is a little upsetting to me. I’m sure that the game will be good, but why doesn’t Chris Taylor just make an expansion pack and sell a gold edition instead of making a new standalone. I doubt that the game could have many large improvements if the time that they have spent developing it has been less than a year.
Also, this would explain why the patches have been slow to come. They have been splitting time between this and the new supcom.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Great news.
If it wasn’t stand alone the target audience would be less than the number of people playing SupCom, which wouldn’t make it very worthwhile.
Releasing a new stand alone game that will be reviewed everywhere, almost assured of +9/10 everywhere, is simply a great move by THQ and it’s great they’re sticking with the series.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:35 am
This is badass.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:51 am
A new standalone game doesn’t bother me in the least, Supcom is good enough for me to pay full retail for it again. I’ve gotten my $50 worth already. If this means more attention to things that couldn’t go into SupCom proper, I’m all for it.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:52 am
oh, @Grokmoo: do you have information on the sales of SupCom, or is that speculation on your part?
June 28th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hm. I hope this doesn’t follow the generic “Three enemies have been fighting for over 1000 years, then when a new threat emerges, they (for some reason) decide to become merry friends and live happily ever after while vanquishing the alien force.” That is simply overused. :P
I like the idea of having a stand-alone game (and have noticed that expansion packs are surprisingly rare nowadays…probably due to profit margin and such…); this would, indeed, explain the reason for gutting so many units or ideas from the game - why release something that has an insane amount of units for 50 US dollars, when you could release the main game and several stand-alone expansions and bring in 120 US dollars? I swear I have heard that Chris Taylor was initially pushing for around 200 units per faction, then had it trimmed to about 80…
On a side note, this is my first post here in SupCom Talk…I’ve been following you guys for about two months, and really like the layout of your site, in addition to the frequency of the posts. :)
June 28th, 2007 at 10:56 am
so is this new standalone going to be compatable with supcom? or is it going to basicly take supcoms place… cause thats kinda what it sounds like tis going to do with the addition of all those new units. like i know people are modding like crazy for supcom right now and its making the game sooo much better, but it does sound a bit like a community splitter to me:(
June 28th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Whatever they mean by “standalone title that’s nevertheless compatible with the original”, I assume people with the new version will be able to play standard SupCom just fine. I imagine this means a good price break on SupCom, as SCFA will totally replace it.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:12 am
i dont ‘care, i’ll still pay extra $50 for more supcom, possibly more complete one. Is there a site dedicated to supcom mods?
June 28th, 2007 at 11:21 am
My 2c:
- Story? I don’t care. I need no story for RTS. New faction joins the fight = enough story for me. :)
- Standalone? Hm. I don’t want to pay the full 50€ again… but since I am a stupid game addict, I will. I would find it fair if you could buy it either standalone or as an upgrade if you allready have SoupCom. Doubt we will see this, though.
- New faction, nice, new units, nice. But please no uber-units which break the balance. More weird, individual specialized, faction-specific units would be cool.
- Releasedate sounds quite early, but will probably be pushed back anyway. ;) Hope they don’t rush it and wait unitl its staple and balanced.
- Other features (intelligence etc) - well, to early to tell. Just wait and see.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:39 am
One word: Awesome! :D
June 28th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I actually think that SupCom: Original will probalbly be updated considerably, but you can’t play the new faction, etc, and vice versa, if you have the addon.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I’m excited. I can’t wait to play this.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I sort of hope that it is a cleverly disguised expansion pack. Basically a gold edition, if you will… That way, the game comes out, more people get it, it includes everything Supcom1 has as far as units and features… and then it just adds a little more. GPGnet could be set up the way battlenet is for Blizzard games. More Stuff. More Fun. Sounds good. (also, seeing as no one has mentioned this… it will give supreme commander a way to fight Starcraft 2)
June 28th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
I think the reason we don’t see quite as many expansion packs is because so many “sequels” are no more than standalone expansion packs. This is especialy true for First Person Shooters, but applies to all genres.
I agree with Yhtill. I would rather see a few clever units/abilities than a bunch of uberweapons. There are a ton of great suggestions to be found in the gpg forums. I also think that any new game would have to present wildly original aspects to the way the game is played. If it is just a new race and a few new units there will be no reason to buy it because there are already plenty of mods that do that already (and they are free).
Another reason the expansion would need to incorporate totaly new aspects of play is that modders could easily reverse engineer new units and distribute it for free. So it has to have something that cannot be done in vanila SupCom at all.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I’m all for it, but I’m worried about the online community. I’m assuming their going to make a new ladder for this new game?
June 28th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
It is entirely possible that the expansion story will continue after the events of the last missions of SupCom. Did anybody else notice that although the player technically ends the infinite war, none of the factions was really defeated?
I’m also excited for the new intelligence aspects. For example, I would hope to see the ability to find out where enemies have placed their move, attack, and patrol orders. after all those orders (in reality) would have to be sent somehow, with some type of electromagnetic transmission (radios to laser beams), which could be intercepted.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
i’ve seen screenshots of SC2. THey look quite dissapointing. more cartoonish SC1 just 3d sorta….
June 28th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
They didn’t release any screenshots for the game yet…
June 28th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
He’s talking about Starcraft 1 and 2 I think. Not SupCom: FA
June 28th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Wow, awesome news. I do kind of see expansion packs as being a dead art. Why make it an expansion pack when you can just throw the rest of the full game on the same disc, sell it for more, and have more people able to buy it?
June 28th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
@Sub
New game, new rules, new ladder. That’s the way it worked in the past.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
100 new units? good luck with balance.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Apparently I’m the only one upset about this. I mean, I was all ready for a new Supcom expansion, but now another $50 for another game, just like mine but adding some stuff? Why?
I wish THQ would follow the likes of people like Stardock instead of EA. For instance, Stardock and their Galactic Civilizations, they released the expansion not long ago, Dark Avatar. The expansion did something I’ve never seen anyone else do, and that was update the WHOLE GRAPHICS ENGINE. That’s awesome that company would do that. Then comes the very bad examples like EA. I’m an avid Battlefield player, I have 1942 and BF2, but I’ve been ripped off TWICE (Road to Rome for ‘42, Special Forces for BF2) by their so called “expansions”, I will never buy one again. I mean seriously, all they do is leech money. Battlefield Vietnam came out after 1942. the only thing I saw there was a SLIGHTLY better water/sky effect. Other than that, the Eve of Destruction mod did just about everything they did. Same thing with BF2, now we have 2142. What’s the difference? It’s essentially a MOD. A lot of changes and tweaks yea, but that doesn’t mean you can go off selling a whole ‘nother game. THAT’S an expansion. I hate how big companies have redefined expansion packs to “3 new maps, 5 vehicles, and a new gun!” or some crap like that. Geez…
Now, Supcom only came out a while ago, and now this came is gonna replace it? I don’t like that. I really do like Supcom, but this needs to be an expansion (like CC was for TA. It added a LOT of stuff. In fact, I don’t consider TA as just the 3.1 that came out, I include CC in my definition of TA. It completed TA).
-_-
June 28th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Most expansion packs are so extortionately priced they aren’t much cheaper than normal games. I’m just glad that we’re getting a substantial dose of new content. When games do have addon packs nowadays like Battlefield 2142 they end up being pretty insubstantial. You just get a few maps and maybe a weapon.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
@Stealth: Who said this will cost 50 bucks? It’s THQ, they didn’t rip off folks with the Dawn of War addons, not even with the Dark Crusade standalone addon (which still retained an addon-like pricing). I don’t think they’re that stupid to ask people to pay €50 twice in one year for two related products. If the DC price is anything to go buy then it’ll probably be in the €30-35 price range which is perfectly reasonable if the content is extensive enough (would love to see new music and new planet environments as well for example).
As for GalCiv2:DA; that game is still a buggy and slow-performing product, and it wasn’t even available in a seperate boxed version where I live. It’s enjoyable but I would have preferred they fixed the performance quirks (that for a turnbased game remember!) first.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
RE: “100 new units? good luck with balance.” Sorry, but no. Try to understand the marketing language here. Most of the 100 so-called “new units” are going to be the new faction’s standard units, i.e. ACU, factories, engineers, the usual T1/T2/T3 basic units, etc. The actual # of “new” units is likely to be quite small, maybe about a half-dozen per side. That’s about 1-2 units per tech level. Of these, many are likely to be niche units, i.e. T3 mobile missile launchers, T2 subs, T3 gunships for Aeon/Cybran, etc. It’s unlikely that we’ll see very many truly “new” units.
Nevertheless, I’m pleased to hear that Forged Alliance is on the way.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Interesting news. Along with several others, I’m looking forward to additional or enhanced features rather than an additional faction comprising the bulk of the new content.
The units in that screenshot remind me of The Can, but they seem huge.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Sexy.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
The screenshots are good. Making up your own meanings to the comments in Dutch is better.
“Whahahaha… En dat van een games-redacteur!”
TRANSLATION: “Whahahaha… in my van i play games of doctor!”
June 28th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
ROFL.
Babel Fish translated that to… “Whahahaha… And that of an editoreditor editor!”
June 29th, 2007 at 1:02 am
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/supremecommanderforgedalliance/news.html?sid=6173290&tag=topslot;title;2&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot
Unsurprisingly, new race is the Seraphim
June 29th, 2007 at 2:13 am
If it’s not an expansions… I think that’s a scandal !
I’m NOT gona pay the price of a whole new game for only a few new features and new units.
-Skrie 8)
June 29th, 2007 at 3:37 am
The other info in that Gamespot interview is very nice to hear though:
*new interface
*improved AI
*interface-skins
*improved graphics
*better performance
*base templates(!)
*Seraphim which use less but more powerful units (I guess that explains the MML which launches three missiles at once :D)
*one campaign but you can play the same missions with other factions (and get different objectives then of course), nice of them to expand on the strongest point of the original campaign imo (switching seats in that last mission)
Saweet:)
June 29th, 2007 at 3:45 am
I assume it will be around 30 USD.
If it’s a whole new game, I will still very, VERY gladly buy it. Two times over.
June 29th, 2007 at 4:16 am
“Whahahaha… En dat van een games-redacteur!”
means
“Whahahaha… And that from a games-editor!”
LD translator is a free to use service.
Supported languages:
Ducth
English
French
German
Italian
etc
[/translator]
June 29th, 2007 at 4:49 am
http://www.gpstore.co.nz/Games/PC-Games/Strategy/
Scroll down to November 9
June 29th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Skrie, I think it will have the typical Add-on price of around 30 USD / EUR.
It’s stand-alone only to draw more players into the community.
June 29th, 2007 at 5:55 am
Yes more new blood :D
June 29th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Questions:
-As a standalone game, does it include all of the existing content of SupCom? If not, that’s a huge loss to those of us who like the units, maps, and gameplay of the existing game.
-As a standalone game, will mods port directly over to it or will they require vast revisioning to become functional in the new game?
-Will it include a proper map editor instead of the kludgey hack of a tool that was released for SupCom? One can only hope the reason GPG tossed out the item they did and are not supporting it is because they are going to offer a REAL map editor for this new game that is actually polished and fully functional and useful.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Ryuken: most of those things we have in SupCom already thanks to modders, and we have them for free.
June 29th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Woohoo! Base templates are really needed…it’s a shame that they’re packing all this stuff in when the original game should have had some of these things, but I understand where the profit goes now…oh, custom faction skins for the UI sound interesting…this looks like it’s going to be a fun expansion. :)
Of course, now you have this generic ‘unholy alliance’ going on…ick. Not too creative in the story, GPG…
June 29th, 2007 at 10:25 am
bob: I’d rather see GPG going at it as well, the SCA-UI mod and such are great but it can be a lot better too, especially the skins.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
No way.. that’s my Birthday :D! It must be a sign from god (a)!
Can’t wait for it, maybe they can focus on patching the game to perfection.
Cough *slower teching up* Cough
June 29th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
” As a standalone game, does it include all of the existing content of SupCom? If not, that’s a huge loss to those of us who like the units, maps, and gameplay of the existing game”
-It would have to have at least the original three factions (if not the campaigns) otherwise there would be just the one race to play as, fighting against itself.
“As a standalone game, will mods port directly over to it or will they require vast revisioning to become functional in the new game?”
- It is very likely that mods would need to be reworked to some extent to get them to function on the expansion. This already happens with each patch. How much work will be required to get a mod functional is anyones guess at this point.
“Will it include a proper map editor instead of the kludgey hack of a tool that was released for SupCom?”
-IMHO, the real map editor for supcom was scrapped or delayed indefinately. GPG just decided to toss us a bone by releasing their internal map editor. It is functional and actualy not too bad once you get used to it. The bugs are the only huge drawback i have experienced.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
To Thygrrr :
That would be strange , but extremely cool.
Wouldn’t that selling anymore original SupCom games extremely unlikely ?
Anyways.. I’m confused. :P
-Skrie 8)
June 30th, 2007 at 12:17 am
new expansion pack CANT WAIT!!!!
paying full price FK OFF!!! ive allready spent $110 on this one
i think HAVEING the original sould either get me a DISCOUNT (in EVERY COUNTRY NOT JUST EU AND US) OR i should get extra units (to make it worth while to own the original copy or get pplz to buy the original afterwards)
as for the cost for the game it COSTS a lot more to make the game the engine get the GUTS to work….
adding units and adding more of the stuff we where PROMISED when supcom was being put together is so much easier
thus costs less to do and should make it cheaper…. (as in a expansion pack)
BUT if its released AS BUGGY and AS unbalanced then im NOT gonna be happy!!! in fact im likely to take my copy back and give up on supcom completely!!
June 30th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I’d like to see them release the “expansion” stuff over GPGNet. Not sure how much work it would take to set up GPGNet to handle something like that, or if it would save them any money, but it’d be more convenient and likely cheaper for the users.