NoOne on 14/4/2010 at 17:58

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why total annihilation?

the answer should be supreme commander (with or without forged alliance) unless the reason is lack of hardware for supcom.

Vernon on 19/4/2010 at 14:47

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Don't want to derail from the TA discussion, but Spring (Balanced Annihilation, specifically) is one of the best multiplayer RTS games out there. It evolved from a mod for TA made by a Swedish TA clan and became the most popular online TA game. There are very few other RTS games that offer the choices that BA does. There is a 1v1 scene aswell as a big-map 8v8 scene. The sheer variety of strategies you can conjure up is mind-boggling. The economy is exponential, which means teching is something that makes an enormous difference, and you can actually make a real choice between macro and micro. Not to mention that you can fit a few thousand units on a map at the same time. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is after a decent RTS - there is really nothing else out there like it. SC and CoH are great RTS games, but if you are looking for something different, give Spring a whirl.

Also, international games are played all the time - I play against people from all countries in almost all the games I play. Ping rarely makes a difference, unless you get to pro level.

Do any TTLGers actually play Spring? If so, what's your online nick so we can play sometime (if we haven't already)?



The problem with SupCom is that unit control is pretty much painted out of the picture and most games become a econ-rush for Tier 3 and Experimentals. I liked SupCom for its graphics and some of the unit ideas, but it doesn't have sustainable balance, not to mention the fact that it is buggy as hell.

Brian The Dog on 18/8/2010 at 08:25

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So does this mean that the version on GoG is actually provided to them by Impulse? Not that it matters to me as an end user, but it's interesting that the "exclusive digital distributors" didn't last too long.
[blatant interest here on Thief currently being distributed by Mastertronic but wondering if it could be digitally distributed by someone else ;) ]

Shadowcat on 18/8/2010 at 11:58

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I was just listening to it now (the GOG mp3s as background music for Brainpipe*) and a bunch of it, in the first half at least, sounds very Star Wars-ish. Is that my imagination (it's not like I remember very much Star Wars music in detail), or maybe just some coincidental elements in common?

I certainly agree on the general quality. No cheap midi here :)

(*) Damned annoying, too. It was just a casual play while I listened, but I missed the last glyph in level 5, and no others in the entire game. 99/100. (I've had a perfect run before, but only when I was really trying :)

Koki on 18/8/2010 at 16:36

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I watched a handful of "expert" replays of FA games and can't really say the same. I was actually surprised how long people stayed at T1 and T2. And experimentals were very rare.

Basically, if you don't have at least six factories non-stop pumping out units on repeat you're going to get swarmed. There was also insane rush for air superiority, because having it means you could theoretically prevent the enemy from ever gaining it again(since your 80 plane ball will wipe the floor with enemy ball unless it's of similiar size, even in the middle of his base).

The 3603 patch, which was never officially released but exists in "beta" version, tried to fix some of these things(such as cutting T1 bomber cost in energy by 50% and making T3 AA much more affordable, etc.) but it's pretty obvious support for FA is over.