Supreme Commander Talk

The Vault on GPGnet has much potential that it isn’t living up to. Right now the only user-uploadable category it has is maps. This has done wonders for the custom maps scene in multiplayer. You actually see people regularly playing custom maps these days, which is great. And if you haven’t [...]

Cross-posted to Supreme Commander Live.
With the release of the latest hotfix patch we’ve seen the last change in a sweeping balance adjustment to air combat that has fallen beneath most people’s radar. But before I look at the ramifications of it in depth, let’s look at the balance of the air superiority fighters from [...]

One of my major complaints with GPGNet is it doesn’t really encourage interaction between players. You might chat a little with the host while you wait for more players to arrive for a Custom match. Perhaps you offer you opponent good luck during the start of a ranked match. But after the match is over [...]

Cross-posted to SupCom-Live
A bad practice referred to by some as “Ping Naziism” is sweeping the multiplayer arena (though you won’t hear me referring to it using that phrase). Despite the potentially offensive phrasing, it is a real problem within the community. Perhaps as a response to poor performance, custom game hosts are being [...]

As we have discussed previously on the site, the current game mechanics of Supreme Commander don’t really allow for proper battles at very large scales. In principle, fleets of battleships could engage each other or enemy bases, since individual battleships are such massive, powerful units. However, on large maps, it is just not [...]

It seems I jumped the gun, at least a bit, in my previous post when discussing tech 2 unit rebalancing. I have had the chance to play some more games, and it seems that on smaller maps, games now do tend to go through at least something of a tech 2 phase. While [...]

One of the largest deficiencies in Supreme Commander custom multiplayer right now that will only be made even more obvious with the release of the new patch is the lack of automatic transmission of custom game elements (such as units, maps, and mods) between players. This lack means that, in order to play a [...]

I love Supreme Commander. Its scale is as epic and its strategic possibilities as endless as promised. While you all probably agree with me, sadly, many of my gaming friends have yet to “see the light.” Even my friends who are huge fans of RTS have failed to join the bandwagon. Being [...]

One key aspect that I failed to cover at all in my recent screed against the no-rush game option is that it isn’t just no-rush, it’s no-scouting too. Each player is confined within a small area on the map until the predetermined no-rush period is over. So yes, this means you can’t attack [...]

The imminent patch will include a no-rush option that prevents players from expanding outside of a small area of the map for a given number of minutes. It’s basically a code-level enforcement of the no-rush disclaimers that many players today like playing with. And it’s a terrible, terrible idea.
Much of the fun of [...]