Supreme Commander Interview - Total Annhiilation reborn?

[Ustauk]

I know there's a few fan's of Total Annihilation (Cova and Melbosa come to mind in particular).  Here's an interview with the creator of Total Annihilation, about his new game, Supreme Commander.  It looks like the scale of the maps, and the range of scales of the units, will make it a worthy successor to TA.

[Shayne]

TA sucked ass.

[Lazybones]

TA was great until you learned the tricks to it. Then it was a race like any other RTS..





Probably one of the best queue systems in an RTS.

[Shayne]

My biggest complaint was that it had such a vast array of units.  Not a lot of depth per unit, just a unit for every situation.  It became a test of knowledge instead of a test of strategy.  (though im very biased as at the time Druid and I were playing Starcraft 5 hours a night for almost 2 years)

[Cova]

1. Thats an old interview



2. Yes TA does have a few tricks you can learn that really IMHO ruin the game.  Flash rushing (really cheap/low-lvl units that can take out a commander) and knowing how to make flak-tanks shoot at ground units are a couple of the worst, hiding your commander off-map so you can never die is just dumb, and using air-transports to pick up an enemy commander (only works if he's dumb-ass and not paying any attention at all), then flying it and detonating over a different enemies base is the best way to take out 2 opponents in under a minute in any RTS ever.



3. TA to this day is still better than many RTS's fresh on the market.  Ya - there's way too many units to remember them all, but unlike most modern RTS's you don't need at least a few of every unit to be effective, you can get away with some type of armored thing for front-line, and a longer-range thing or two behind them to pummel @%&# to death.  Then base your choices on other requirements - kbots (infantry) can fill all those roles, and work well in lumpy terrain/hard-to-access places.  Vehicles cross large distances well, hovercraft are a little weaker but can cross water.  Bring in air-support and naval bombardment if you like.  From all these units, I never use hovercraft, only use 1 or 2 units of the 20 or so kbots, and only 1 or 2 models of aircraft, and fight primarily with vehicles.  And having those very specialized units available is damn handy sometimes.



Best thing about TA is that its one of very few RTS's where you don't have to rush out and take over all of the land ASAP to harvest all the resources before their gone.  Build a few nuclear power plants and get some moho-mines running and you're mostly set for resources for the rest of the game - especially if its a metal-map you hardly have to worry about resource collection.  And the battles aren't just about having more/bigger units either - it's all about strategy and battlefield intelligence.  My long-range defence guns destroy most approaching armies before they fire a shot back, because I know they're coming and where from.  And I usually get the first shot when attacking too, because I strike with small armies that travel under the cover of radar-jammers and attack from different angles.  Knowing the battlefield, where your enemies are, and keeping that information from him, is IMHO far more important in TA than any other RTS.

[Shayne]

Id have to say that Starcraft is the best RTS ever made to date.

[Darren Dirt]

Id have to say that Starcraft is the best RTS ever made to date.

...until some person with a lot of free time makes this game, I presume (Although I doubt any military sim could beat the realism of this "game")