Supreme Commander. Runs to the slowest machine?

Cuddlesworth

I was just reading up on Supreme Commander and was quite surprised when I saw that according to the beta testers, the game runs to the speed of the slowest machine. So if you are playing online, and some guy is running a 2ghz p4 with 512megs of ram and a ****ty card the game is going to chug along?

This is really going to be put me off, since playing Dow and having to wait 4 or 5 minutes for map to even load because strategy gamers seem to be the least inclined to upgrade or improve their machines?

Am I going to have to vet everybody I play against?

User45701

Actually running at the speed of the slowest is a good thing.
Either set up a sever with a name that says [your specs or better] then you can be happy, and if you dont do that just play against the AI or deal with slower players

Cuddlesworth

Something makes me think your machine isn't that good either . Just kidding.

Nah it just annoys me, because all you need is 1 asshole running around on the bare minimum specs to ruin the game for nearly everybody playing it. Why should I have to stutter along at 3fps because he decided to join.

User45701

Thats why servers have restrictions, just make sure you join a server that says high spec pc's only or like i said play against the AI, since supreme commander is allot like Total annihilation in the way a game could well last in the area of 48 hours i wont have much time for multi payer over the net so ill either play against AI or have a 1 on 1 with a mate who is up for a good game some weekend when im not going out

Nietzschean

em alot of games in teh beta are now specifying specs they want the players to have, ones specifying it have mention'd dual core alot...... but these days single core machines can run it(beta has improved performance alot of late) , though not the biggest maps with a redilicious number of units...

And the game doesn't 'chug' per say, time slows down....its unbelievbly annoying when it happens...

Cuddlesworth

Demo is out today....

Nietzschean

single player only i'm afraid, and i think it runs less well than the beta does...

bizmark

Its not very good is it?

Its just non stop power planet spamming followed by mass producer spaming followed by a bit of a defence followed by the i-win button experimental robots also this much hyped scale seems just that hype ;/ the Ui is massive as well perhapes to fool you into thinking the units / maps really are as big as they have been saying.

And what the hells with the spec's? the majorty of people wont be able to play this game and if they can it wont be very enjoyable

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better
1 GB RAM or better
8 GB available hard drive space
256 MB video RAM, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6800 or better)
Internet connection with Cable/DSL speeds

Note: recommended specifications provide optimal experience for single player and up to 4 player/medium size map multiplayer

What the hell are they smokeing 0o you need an uber computer to play this game over muiltyplayer as its ment to be played on a massive map.

Maximilian

I've been noticing a trend with this game and its no different to when Total Annihilation came out. Some people loved it and some hated it. You had your TA fans and your C&C fans. The same sort of thing is happening all over again, with people being unduly critical. What were people expecting; a cure for cancer messiah of a game?

If you actually take it for what it is, its superb. It does something different with a very, very jaded genre and does what it was designed to do. Extremely well. I love it myself & I hope it sells a bucketload.

The specs are high but that was always going to be the case, bearing in mind the scale of the game.

Cuddlesworth

bizmark wrote:

Its not very good is it?

Its just non stop power planet spamming followed by mass producer spaming followed by a bit of a defence followed by the i-win button experimental robots also this much hyped scale seems just that hype ;/ the Ui is massive as well perhapes to fool you into thinking the units / maps really are as big as they have been saying.

And what the hells with the spec's? the majorty of people wont be able to play this game and if they can it wont be very enjoyable

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better
1 GB RAM or better
8 GB available hard drive space
256 MB video RAM, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6800 or better)
Internet connection with Cable/DSL speeds

Note: recommended specifications provide optimal experience for single player and up to 4 player/medium size map multiplayer

What the hell are they smokeing 0o you need an uber computer to play this game over muiltyplayer as its ment to be played on a massive map.

Is suppose your definition of a uber rig is a hell of a lot different to mine. I have 2 pc's with better specs sitting in my closet.

jesus_thats_gre

krazy_8s wrote:

Is suppose your definition of a uber rig is a hell of a lot different to mine. I have 2 pc's with better specs sitting in my closet.

#
What else is in the closet

Cuddlesworth

Some beer bottles, high heels and that slinky little black number I was wearing last week. Pity I'm a dude.

robnubis

Luckily i know a large group of DoW players i know who will be playing Supreme Commander, and thankfully they have decent pc's...

I always found online play for RTS games less satisfying than say and FPS, but they are fun when you know who you're outsmarting.

My rig would be just above most of the specs for Supreme Commander, and it runs quite well even with a LOT of units on the field, no slowdown or anything, and my rig is outdated to the tune of 2 years. (roll on the summer, has me 2 grand to spend on mainboard, ram, gfx card and hard drive \o/ )

Nietzschean

bizmark wrote:

Its not very good is it?

Huh? its great.

Its just non stop power planet spamming followed by mass producer spaming followed by a bit of a defence followed by the i-win button experimental robots also this much hyped scale seems just that hype ;/ the Ui is massive as well perhapes to fool you into thinking the units / maps really are as big as they have been saying.

Powerplant spam? the build order is critical as in most fps's, that shouldn't be surprising really.


I-win button exp's? only if your a noob, any decent player can counter experimentals with either their own or classical units who can take out the exp.


and we've yet to get up to the biggest of the maps, the largest in the beta was what 20x20?, the biggest is 80x80 in the full version when it arrives thats one big ass map........

bizmark

krazy_8s wrote:

Is suppose your definition of a uber rig is a hell of a lot different to mine. I have 2 pc's with better specs sitting in my closet.

Afaik according to valve survey the recommended specs match what around 50% of people have but very few people have much higher so just because you and i have better specs doesnt mean the game doesnt need a rather uber pc to play as its ment to be played with the biggest map and large numbers of units

Huh? its great

Its no where near as fun as company of heros or dawn of war imho

Powerplant spam? the build order is critical as in most fps's, that shouldn't be surprising really.

Ya ya 2 mass extractors 2 power planets 1 land factor 2 power planets 1 mass extractor 2 engineers etc etc etc but at the end of the day the game boils down to building a large number of t3 power planets and mass fabs

I-win button exp's? only if your a noob, any decent player can counter experimentals with either their own or classical units who can take out the exp.

perhapes they should of thought the Ai how not to be a noob then ;/

and we've yet to get up to the biggest of the maps, the largest in the beta was what 20x20?, the biggest is 80x80 in the full version when it arrives thats one big ass map........

If you and your m8s have good enough pc's to run it i guess other wise your stuck with the Ai on medium map's which isnt great


I dont know im happy you lot like the game but it just doesnt meet what i wanted from it hopefuly when i and my friends get real copys it will turn out to be a lot better against / with humans

youcancallmeal

I have been aticipating this game for a while now but after playing the demo I must say I'm disapointed. I have an AMD 4000+ single core clocked to 2.6GHz, 2 gigs ram and a 256mb 7900gt but its really stuttering in single player and skrimish. I was running it on two 20.1" widescreen monitors which I thought was slowing it down but even going to one monitor and most settings on medium it plays crap and looks crap. As others have mentioned gameplay isn't great either, far too many units imo. Reckon I'm just going to wait for C&C3 and see how thats goes?

DemonOfTheFall

Single core = The fail at supreme commander.

Just don't play anything involving AI if you don't have a dual core, it totally sucks.

However, if you do have a dual core just about anything is fine. My mate has a reasonably modest system, cost about 800 euro at the start of last summer, Pentium D 805, 7600GT, gig of ram. He's able to play just fine with 2 AIs in a 2v2 on a medium map. 3v3 on a decent sized map with not much hassle either.

Another mate has similar specs except for a 3000+ single core instead of dual core, game runs like a piece of **** on his machine even in 1v1v1 on medium sized maps.

Basically the only requirement is a dual core.

DemonOfTheFall

bizmark wrote:

perhapes they should of thought the Ai how not to be a noob then ;/

I'm going to reserve judgement on the AI for the final release. At the moment if you're playing against the AI you've used a hack to unlock a feature from the beta which almost certainly isn't up to the standard of the final game.

That said the beta AI is appalingly stupid and so easy to beat that there is literally no fun in stomping a few of them.

If the AI is too dumb to manage any amount of Tech3 how can you say experimentals are overpowered ? Them not being able to deal with experimentals is a symptom of a much bigger problem with the AI just not having enough mass/energy to build the required amount of tech3 to easily kill an exp, or the brains to bomb/gunship a monkeylord/gc to hell

Nietzschean

bizmark wrote:

Its no where near as fun as company of heros or dawn of war imho

Thats a matter of opinion, imo coh was just one large exercise in micromanaging stuff, boring as hell

Ya ya 2 mass extractors 2 power planets 1 land factor 2 power planets 1 mass extractor 2 engineers etc etc etc but at the end of the day the game boils down to building a large number of t3 power planets and mass fabs

Um...nope thats kinda wrong. on a few fronts, primarily i've wiped out several people with far larger economies due to just having better tactics, numbers of troops don't always win the day, though it does help. Also, beyond t3, you should be using SCU's to supply your power requirement, while also supplying most of your mass.

perhapes they should of thought the Ai how not to be a noob then ;/

Have you only played the demo and not been on the beta?! hardly makes ye in much of a position to give such a damning opinion of the game. For one the AI in the SP is beyond easy on its hardest level, i tried it a few times and i crushed him in under 15mins every time.... The full version should have harder AI...

If you and your m8s have good enough pc's to run it i guess other wise your stuck with the Ai on medium map's which isnt great

There is no Ai on medium maps you could have played yet, so in fairness what are you basing this on?!

I dont know im happy you lot like the game but it just doesnt meet what i wanted from it hopefuly when i and my friends get real copys it will turn out to be a lot better against / with humans

The demo is ****e, its small maps and the AI is easy, not something even worth considering the game on at all really. Beta .52 and .53 were/are good representations i suppose of what we are likely to see on friday. And if i get beta .53 as my full game i'll be a happy camper....

Nietzschean

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

I'm going to reserve judgement on the AI for the final release. At the moment if you're playing against the AI you've used a hack to unlock a feature from the beta which almost certainly isn't up to the standard of the final game.

That crack went with beta .27, which is anicent

That said the beta AI is appalingly stupid and so easy to beat that there is literally no fun in stomping a few of them.

There is no beta AI that anyone has seen post .27, and we've no clue really how old the AI that crack put into the .27 beta. For one the gameplay of the entire game has drastically changed since that beta so all the AI will have been re-scripted largely

If the AI is too dumb to manage any amount of Tech3 how can you say experimentals are overpowered ? Them not being able to deal with experimentals is a symptom of a much bigger problem with the AI just not having enough mass/energy to build the required amount of tech3 to easily kill an exp, or the brains to bomb/gunship a monkeylord/gc to hell

He's just played an early AI, or one in the demo, neither are any kinda of representation of remotely like what we can expect to see on friday.......

I have been aticipating this game for a while now but after playing the demo I must say I'm disapointed. I have an AMD 4000+ single core clocked to 2.6GHz, 2 gigs ram and a 256mb 7900gt but its really stuttering in single player and skrimish. I was running it on two 20.1" widescreen monitors which I thought was slowing it down but even going to one monitor and most settings on medium it plays crap and looks crap. As others have mentioned gameplay isn't great either, far too many units imo. Reckon I'm just going to wait for C&C3 and see how thats goes?

Its just the AI/demo, the beta runs far better on my machine than the demo does...not sure the demo has all the optimisations that they put into some of the later beta's. Nothing in the demo to see supcom's gameplay tbh either, i'd say just try the retail game, though its far different unit wise than any of the C&C's anyway, your always going to have a fair amount of units, though with coordinated attack options and formations its pretty easy to manage massive large scale attacks. Its more like a proper war than lil battles!

e.g. on one map in a 1v1v1, i was engaged in 4 major battles against a m8 of mine(molc) in different parts of the map, 3 area's involved our ground troops engaging, both under heavy artiliary backup using mobile shield generators, then a sea battle for naval supremacy to delivery the heavy costal support while his gunships were attempting to take out my power systems in my base. The game is nothing if not hetic at times, keeps ye on yer toes, i've focused on one battle too much and lost whole fleets and islands through poor managment at times

_CreeD_

When it was first released TA ran like a dog too. Most of the maps were quite small to accomodate it and it was slowly hacked up over the years to allow for more units/larger maps as PC power increased. It seems to me this time they have had more forethought in planning for near-future pc standards and letting the game grow with them. It should also perform better in MP than against the AI as you won't be dedicating as much CPU cycles to the computer opponents. Anyway think about everything negative that's been brought up, it's all dependant on choice. So you can't play 10 AIs on the largest maps, does that mean you shouldn't have the option to in the future (or others that have the horsepower already)? Should we cripple the graphic options on an FPS because users don't want to have to turn down their res on their current boxes to play it?
Roll on the 20th

DemonOfTheFall

Nietzschean wrote:

That crack went with beta .27, which is anicent


There is no beta AI that anyone has seen post .27, and we've no clue really how old the AI that crack put into the .27 beta. For one the gameplay of the entire game has drastically changed since that beta so all the AI will have been re-scripted largely

He's just played an early AI, or one in the demo, neither are any kinda of representation of remotely like what we can expect to see on friday.......

Nope I've got the AI unlocked in Beta 53. It was a 770Byte .lua file that enabled it, so it's whatever the latest code in the beta is, it's not just a copy paste of the AI scripts from .27.

I do hope there will be a decent jump in the AI's skill with the final release, but I'm not holding my breath. The AI was retarded in the original TA aswell.

Sorry tried to find a link to the AI unlocker but had no luck, it was online on the big supcom download sites very recently but I cant remember their names. It's sc49_ai.zip if you want it, and it works fine with beta53.

Cuddlesworth

bizmark wrote:

Afaik according to valve survey the recommended specs match what around 50% of people have but very few people have much higher so just because you and i have better specs doesn't mean the game doesn't need a rather uber pc to play as its meant to be played with the biggest map and large numbers of units

Although the Valve survey is interesting, it is very biased. How many users of Valve who participate in the survey are playing Darwina on a office machine? Or halflife 1 a game that has long passed it's sell by date?

If you want to play games on a pc, be prepared to upgrade. Ai, physics and rendering to get better invariably need more power behind them.



I quite like the way the game plays, and I'm sure against a skilled opponent spamming power stations and fabricators would become very costly as they are quite a easy target to artillery/planes or just tactics in general. I can see games becoming more about resource wars though, especially on the larger maps.

Nietzschean

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

Nope I've got the AI unlocked in Beta 53.

oh cool, i'd never seen that, just been doing online play with any free itme

Nietzschean

krazy_8s wrote:

I quite like the way the game plays, and I'm sure against a skilled opponent spamming power stations and fabricators would become very costly as they are quite a easy target to artillery/planes or just tactics in general. I can see games becoming more about resource wars though, especially on the larger maps.

Only played a few times on the 81x81 maps, and resources play a big part for a while, but not very long cause everyone has lots, its more about being resilliant to attacks cause its all so big, you are going to end up being nuked somewhere, or loose a few bases to an attack, its about being able to survive.... Its an interesting dynamic...

jesus_thats_gre

Is this out tomorrow?

DemonOfTheFall

It sure is. If you're cool you'll be picking it up...

jesus_thats_gre

Don't know what I am more excited about, being cool or getting the game..

CombatCow

It is a great game if you enjoyed TA.....though i picked it up from HMV for €43 and it had a poster included but all the writing on it was in French .....anybody else get this ????


CC

bizmark

CombatCow wrote:

It is a great game if you enjoyed TA.....though i picked it up from HMV for €43 and it had a poster included but all the writing on it was in French .....anybody else get this ????


CC

Yep same with me was wondering what the hell was going on

CombatCow

Ah seems like there was a bit of a mix up with the packaging....


http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=157&start=0


:rolleyes:
CC

Lucutus

Aye, french poster here too, I considered that it must have been the cybran native language for a moment before I realised what they'd done.

HMV - 43 of your UEF robotic commander financial units, decent price I thought.

DemonOfTheFall

Yeah the GPG droids were on chat yesterday apologising about the poster, apparently it affects all of the copies destined for the UK.

I'm demonofthefall on GPGnet if anyone wants to add me.

bizmark

God this game is a total unoptimized pig of a thing did anyone read the sup commander forums? people with amd64s 3700's 1.5 gig of ram and a 6800gt getting 3fps on low bloody joke

Nietzschean

bizmark wrote:

God this game is a total unoptimized pig of a thing did anyone read the sup commander forums? people with amd64s 3700's 1.5 gig of ram and a 6800gt getting 3fps on low bloody joke

you more or less need dual core for any decent number of units in the game at once, real-time physics simulation is very very expensive.... the graphics detail doesn't matter all that much just the map size and unit count(assuming u can handle that res of graphics like..). Its just like TA was back in the day, good luck if you've anything but a very high end rig, i know several people who've upgraded to play it. Well worth it.

bizmark

Nietzschean wrote:

you more or less need dual core for any decent number of units in the game at once, real-time physics simulation is very very expensive.... the graphics detail doesn't matter all that much just the map size and unit count(assuming u can handle that res of graphics like..). Its just like TA was back in the day, good luck if you've anything but a very high end rig, i know several people who've upgraded to play it. Well worth it.

Well the point is the recommended specs is a 3ghz single core so it should work perfectly fine for that pc ....And i myself have problems with it on my dual core 5200 2 gig of ram and a decent enough 7900gs i had a low of 3fps and high of 50 with an adverage of 26 if thats the cost of "real time physics" id rather have the old system back.....But i figure its a buggy game at the mo it is fun enough though id give you that but this game could be dead in a few weeks the online servers seems to have a high of 600 people on not great for a 3 day old game but it matchs the number of pc's i think could play this game ;p

Nietzschean

bizmark wrote:

but this game could be dead in a few weeks the online servers seems to have a high of 600 people on not great for a 3 day old game but it matchs the number of pc's i think could play this game ;p

The game hasn't been released in the us, probally the worlds biggest market. there has been 8500 players online so far. The game is sold out of most stores in dublin. The channels for online play chat are full. I'd call that a success for an opening weekend.....

i've an AMD 4200 X2 in this box, 2gig of ram and an X1900XT, i've only noticed lag on the 81x81 maps with lots of units.......my laptop will play the game on most maps happily enough, not anything over 20x20 really but sure thats to be expected even

CombatCow

Just as an FYI, its €35.99 in Smyths "with" the loyalty card!

DemonOfTheFall

Yeah, the games only out in Europe for 3 days and so far about 9000 people have been online playing about 13000 games. In 72 hours I say that's a pretty spectacular launch...

Nietzschean

9100 now, hrmm damn people playing more i'm slipping down the rankings

DemonOfTheFall

Starting yesterday I've just said "2v2 DUAL CORE ONLY" or something like that in all my games have gone swimmingly... People seem to respect the request.

Since this is a "Games for Windows" game, I think they should incorporate a bit of MS's gameadvisor thingy into it. The system performance tester built into Vista isn't half bad. If they just used the CPU test portion of vista's tester and that came up along with your ping in the game lobby I think It'd be a solution that works for everyone.