Supreme Commander

Smart units
Simpler RTS games tend to have an ideal build order. SC is deep enough and has such an enormous variety of units, structures and upgrades that there’s no one clear ‘optimum’ build sequence of structures or units. The game is designed from all aspects to offer complete strategic freedom, and to reward daring and creative thinkers. SC will really bring out the best in gamers that are able to adapt strategies on the fly.



SC’s waypoint system in particular is almost excessively powerful. Master players will learn to make the most of its features. For example, waypoints can be issued for units while they are still under construction. Individual orders can be set for units per waypoint, so an Engineer unit can be instructed to patrol the front line and repair any unit, then periodically return to roam your base and repair buildings. Think that’s cool? An Engineer can also be given standing orders to automatically rebuild any destroyed structures!

Waypoints also display a countdown timer at each point before the unit arrives. It’s just one more element that makes SC look like a spiffy techy sexy game you can’t help loving.

Being a proper strategy game, you can set various unit types spread across the map to all attack one target simultaneously. The AI will ensure they all hit your target at the same time, regardless of their individual unit speed or distance to travel.

Another particularly cool use of a strategic unit is to ‘spoof’ the enemy. Special units can be built that appear on the enemy’s radar as multiple large units, thus (hopefully) diverting the enemy’s attention as a diversion away from an attack elsewhere on that map. Très cool!

Unit AI is promised to be well above average. Units near a base will automatically defend it, and can be preset with varying degrees of whether they stay close to base, or pursue enemies back into their territory.
AI-controlled formations take a load off micro-managing armies. Group select a bunch of different unit types to move them to attack, or defend, and they will automatically arrange themselves in the optimum formation, with heavy armour to the front and ranged attack in the rear.

The entire design ethos of SC is built around the premise that winning is up to player thought, not the exploitation of game mechanics. As Chris Taylor summed up: ‘We want a strategic thinker to be the victor. This is not a clickfest!’



Interfacing
SC uses a unique iconography set when zoomed out. It’s very close to the icons NATO uses in naval Combat Information Centres, or AWACS displays. Instead of little aircraft, tanks, etc, the icons are a simplified set of squares, semi-circles, etc, that will quickly become more readily interpretable for the player. There are subtle differences that mark different units. Naval units, for example, may be a semi-circle, but if it’s a submerged unit the semi-circle is inverted. They also look very cool and add much to the sim feel of SC.

The UI that players in the multiplayer beta test used, as well as the UI shown in the screenshots on these pages will be completely reworked prior to release. It’s the last bit of major work that SC needs, according to Chris Taylor. One particular change will be adding function to the mini map, so clicking on a spot on it will take you there on the main screen. In the early stages of design the developers believed that most players simply scroll around to navigate, but the beta test showed that many players wanted to be able to navigate using the mini map.

Despite the sometimes enormous playing fields, which can be up to (the equivalent of) 80km on a side, getting around is easy. When zoomed out just click on where you want to go and spin the mouse wheel and there you will be.
Within the game you can adjust the position of the UI to suit your tastes. Much like the Windows Task Bar, simply drag the UI, or elements of it, to wherever you like.

The UI will be completely moddable. Expect to see a cottage industry of themed UIs as the game’s community develops. According to Chris Taylor, ‘every single aspect’ of the UI will be moddable.

While the degree the UI can be modded is apparently infinite, the game has an in-built mechanism that detects a UI mod that it deems to give a player a competitive advantage. In that situation the game will disallow that mod. Exact details of how this system works were not revealed, as it’s still being fine-tuned. Further protection against cheating will be patches issued by Gas Powered Games to counter cheats or exploits as needed.