- Introduction -
Small bit of information.
The purpose of this thread is to provide the necessary information and organization to get some great Supreme Commander matches going.
But first and foremost i must explain what SC:FA is to those who do not know. Supreme Commander is the sequel to the wildly popular Total Annihilation. SC:FA is the stand-alone expansion pack to Supreme Commander. The game play in SC:FA over the original has basically been tuned towards tons of smaller, more intense battles. Whereas the first was often a game of spamming units, with less strategy.
The game play of SC:FA can be a bit daunting at first given the speed is much faster then most RTS once you are building efficiently. This speed however will turn into pure action once you get a foothold on how to play and develop your basic strategy(s.) I highly recommend this for any RTS fan, especially when it's in the bargain bin. (See below for where to buy.
- Game Requirements -
This game has serious requirements.
I should mention this game does place a massive strain on your CPU. It's not because of bad programming, it's because it's a massive game. Think about it. Sixy times a second (on that FPS) your CPU is being asked to step each unit through it's assigned duties and all the animations, sounds, and so on to make sure that it's done properly.
The game can and will slow down time in order to preserve playable FPS on the weaker machines, but this just makes the game unbearable. So to combat this i will lay out some specs to be a "preferred player" in the commanders list below. Preferred player just means that the commander in question won't slow down your match.
Preferred players will need to possess minimum amounts of memory and CPU power as well as a 2.5mbps/0.5mbps connection. Power being very relative to cores, and they must also have (but not always use) the SC:FA Core Maximizer application.
To meet the CPU requirement you must meet or exceed one of the following :
- AMD Athlon X2 3.4GHZ+
- AMD Athlon II X2
- AMD Phenom X3 3.0GHZ+
- AMD Phenom X4 2.5GHZ+
- AMD Phenom II X2 2.6GHZ+
- AMD Phenom II X3
- AMD Phenom II X4
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHZ+
- Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHZ+
- Intel Core i5
- Intel Core i7
- Microsoft Windows XP 2.5GB
- Microsoft Windows Vista 3GB
- Microsoft Windows 7 2.75GB
EDIT 1 (December 2nd, 2009) : Mandatory modification.
From this point forward the group will have mandatory modifications required to play in any game. The Sorian AI mod and the lobby mod. These mods provide a decent AI we can use to balance our matches better, and also to enhance the lobby to give us greater game control. It allows us to increase the unit cap to 2,000 units among other enhancements. This is done and said, no player is permitted without it. It's a simply mod, drag and drop into a folder. You only need two files. Uninstallation is as simple as deleting those files, which are easily identifiable. The modification is attached to this post. I may include an installer at a later time if i feel the need to write one.
- Commanders -
Quick list of participating members with information.
Preferred players are highlighted in green. Fine players in orange. People with especially weak systems or connections in red. Red also dictates unavailable information.
Dilyn
Dylan
Fishie36
Licht
MalXenos
Monkey92
urgrandpasdog
The Subtle Knife
ZHoob2004
Tagnar
Our commanders have posted their "epic" class screenshots in the thread below.
http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/61...ts-thread.html
- Software Version -
EDIT 2 (February 25, 2010) : Patch
Official game version is 1.5.3603. All matches are held on this version, no exceptions. This patch fixes a number of issues including an ACU upgrade exploit that ruined the game totally and completely.
If you have any issues patching i'll help you as best i can. I'll even remote connect via Team Viewer if necessary, i want all the players i can in this. Large SC:FA games are rare, but amazingly epic.
- Additional Software -
Core Maximizer and Hamachi are essential to making this easy.
Hamachi
First and foremost all games take place over a VPN client named Hamachi. Hamachi is owned and developed by LogMeIn. We all connect through a network i have set up for any kind of gaming. I'm not going to slap the password out here in public eye but network name is Publication LB and you guys can feel free to spread the password among friends.
Hamachi can be obtained from LogMeIn's site here :
https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/?lang=pt
To obtain the password send me either a PM or an instant message. Preferred client for instant messaging by the bulk of our members is Skype. It is also my personal recommendation for general messaging.
Core Maximizer
Core maximizer is a fan-made application that reschedules the threads in SC:FA. The result of this is more evenly distributed workloads on your cores. Boosting multi-core performance immensely. The issue here is in fact bad coding in SC:FA. The root of the issue is the game by default schedules as much as possible on the first core then everything that core can't do gos to the rest. A design flaw really.
The Core Maximizer can be downloaded here :
http://www.overclock.net/attachment....1&d=1254098389
- Where To Buy -
Because i got asked a few times. It's only $20!
For those of us in the northern Americas i recommend Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ged%20alliance
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...ged%20alliance (Canada)
But for those in the United Kingdom i would recommend Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supreme-Comm.../dp/B000VT5BPO
For those in other countries, i'm not familiar with your available shops. I suggest looking for some download site that services your area. Just ask and i'll see if i can help you out.
- Sequel -
EDIT 2 (February 25, 2010) : Sequel
Supreme Commander : Forged Alliance is soon to be dated. Supreme Commander 2 is the successor to the Supreme Commander (and thus Total Annihilation) series and offers a mass of improvements to keep gameplay going strong. The group hopes to be primarily using this new game as a primary source of matches. Please note it. We have a thread for it at the below link.
http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/67...ander-2-a.html
