You forget experimentals.

Also. T2 artillery is inefficient. It takes a lot of time to build and it costs a lot of mass.

This means that you don't have time to your advantage because a Monkeylord is built sooner.

You also have no Omni sensors available and the Cybrans have mobile stealth generators.

Over flight of expendable assets (T1 spy planes) yes you have stealth good for you! I can limit it effectiveness. (Though the teleport on your face and bake it with a Maser I cannot)

Did you me understand correctly?

-Advantage of time

simply put: you must attack me AFTER I have had TIME to entrench.
You can build a Monkeylord quickly, good this is the mark of a good Experimental rush capable player (and should be in everyone's skill set)
T2 artillery is inefficient <- yes definitely this

But; it's one of the nastiest things I CAN build!
- And, I have all the time in the world to build it!
So yes, in a stand-up fight T2 arty is weak (I never use it)

However, if my base is ALREADY DONE (but stuck at T2) you bet I'll have clusters of 10 of the suckers EVERYWHERE; and no I don't care about efficiency it's not like I need to be all that efficient in setting up a prepared position (sure it will be setup MUCH sooner if I don't build them; but them T3 mobile arty would just chew me to pieces).

In a standup, no prep time, fight T2 guy wins fast or dies.
In a Hold the line fight T2 guy has a (small) prayer. <- and this is exactly what the book showed. T3 guy MUST advance at a set rate if he does not he LOSES. T2 must successfully slow down T3, but can have HOURS to prepare; then T3 guy hits me with a large mobile force with little to no infrustructure to back it, sure T3 will fix that one flaw, but time is against him. (still wouldn't want to do it, it would suck... a lot )

Hopefully this weekend I should have a small update up, including the story of the Basilisk (which I just rediscovered in my backup files).

I just added the "Book 10 Basilisk" short story. Ok so technically it's only a page and a half long, but it was done as a request for the Basilisk mod a long time ago. Since I used the Basilisk in book 13 then I figured it had its place here just like all the rest

And now here are some thoughts on book 12:

I had used book 11 to set the foundation and so that the next book would be ready to embark roughly in the same era as Supreme Commander 2. The sequel was meant to take place 25 years later and all of the pilots from the student exchange program would have been there, older, a little wiser and torn by whatever new conflict would suddenly erupt. I had visions of Melissa and Foil suddenly ending up on opposing battle lines and was excited to see whether I would have them fight each other or try to mend things back. I imagined Kaeden, suddenly placed in a position where he could opt to become the next Avatar-of-War and whether the Illuminate would rally behind him or not. I had scenarios where Tie would be captured and interrogated, getting both of his unblinking eyes poked out, only to receive implants that would make him into a far more terrifying pilot.

Sure, it sucked to wait 25 years, but the possibilities were so exciting and then… I got to play Supreme Commander 2… and was so thoroughly disappointed. In this day and age, it takes a lot of guts for a company to dare step away from the proven paths and try something different. Supreme Commander had managed to accomplish that and I was horrified to see the story so badly mangled, almost as if they had given the contract to someone else with the simple instruction of “go ahead, make something with it while we focus on the important stuff.”

Don’t take me wrong, the gameplay mechanics of Supreme Commander 2 were interesting and so was the graphic engine (although the choice of color left to be desired). In the end, however, I had three choices: try to make something in the Supreme Commander 2 universe, give up or break continuity. I chose the latter. I therefore took the game mechanics, balance and pretty much everything that the developers had really worked on and used it for book 12 (while unceremoniously throwing the story in the garbage up to the point of having Bagby mock it in the end).

Right off the bat, I decided to throw a very violent beginning with Melissa having the blood of her fellow soldiers on her hands. I wanted readers to instantly realize that school time was over. Now, since continuity was broken, any character could die at a moment’s notice and I wanted readers to have a very real sense of danger. Kael herself was assassinated in the end, clearly demonstrating that I was further stepping away from continuity and forging my own path ahead.

One thing that was particular about took 12 was how I decided to show each character. By the end of book 11, most reader had identified themselves with one of the pilots from the student exchange program, all of whom were seen as the “good guy”. Not so with Leto. Although he was present in a few scenes, specific details of those moments were purposely omitted (such as his speech to Kael’s forces), shadowing his reasons for rebelling, his emotional conflicts and the fundamental principles that were pushing him to commit the ultimate sacrifice to save his people.

By hiding those motives, Leto was without a doubt seen as the bad guy, one that readers, no matter which faction they supported, could reasonably hate and focus on destroying without the sliver of remorse. It was only in the end that I twisted that upside down, sending Melissa and Kaeden to find out why Leto had rebelled and realizing that he had done it for justifiable reasons. Leto had been human and had been torn with the same emotional drama as any of us. In the end, he was no more a bad guy than Melissa had been the good guy and that is the impact that I wanted to have on readers.

All of this tied it to a concept that occurred to me when I played Civilization 4; that you could win through cultural war. Most of us do not realize it because we live in it, but some influence, such as western cultural influence, can have a lasting impact on other cultures, even if we don’t mean to. Some countries which previously had no internet access suddenly find their culture swarmed with new ideas, concepts and beliefs, some of which might appeal to younger generations and shake the foundations of their society. This is one aspect that we rarely think of and I thought it appropriate that the Illuminate, a very traditional and religious culture, would suddenly have a hard time coping with foreign cultural influence.

One of the other main themes of the book was the new prototypes themselves or in this case, Zero. Instead of making him a full fledge artificial intelligence like QAI, I decided to keep Zero silent. The lack of any real ‘dialogue’ between machine and pilot made Zero funny, intriguing or downright creepy depending on the moment. My guideline was that Zero would be on the same level of intelligence as a dog (albeit a very smart dog). A well trained dog obeys his master and can even show near human like insights sometimes, but you’ll never have a philosophical debate with a dog or talk about what is right and what is wrong.

A dog will follow its training and make mistakes along the way. For example, when I was a kid one of my friends had a dog. When we decided to play tag, the dog suddenly thought that I was attacking his master when I ran after him and took a warning bite out of my behind (yes, ouch). It did not know any better and was protecting its master, much like Zero was attempting to protect Melissa when it took the initiative and tried to kill Nial.

While Zero would never become a full-fledged AI, I still had him learn a few human concepts. One of those concepts was self-sacrifice while following one’s duty, which it ironically learned from Stokes (whom I always pictured as the “anti-villain”). It was this lesson which constantly pushed Zero to risk itself, burning away its own processors when needed, to save either Stokes or Melissa’s lives (and displaying a new human quality).

It had also learned battle tactics and was purposely tweaking simulations to encourage Melissa along certain paths. One thing that it had not learned, however, was the concept of showing mercy to an enemy, as shown by how it “disabled” an ACU by killing the pilot in a horrific way. The scene where Zero “caressed” Melissa’s hair out of the way using the air vent was also intended to be both creepy and reassuring at the same time.

New characters in the story included Yoix, Bay and Elovant, the cornerstone of the research team. At first, I purposely made them appear highly dysfunctional, partly in order to creep out readers and make them wonder whether they truly knew what was going on. The reason for such a lack of harmony, however, was that all three characters had a history together, much like the exchange pilots. It just appeared freaky without any knowledge of that history.

The last thing that I’ll talk about is the duel between Leto and Melissa. This was one of the longest fights between pilots to date, taking the fight from long ranged battle, close army battle, ACU clashes, underground fight, mad dashes through the tunnels and a simultaneous crash before finally ending in a hand to hand battle between pilots. I wanted to make Leto extremely hard to kill for two reasons: to illustrate the near insane array of skills that each pilot needed to survive and so that the readers would feel a near primal satisfaction as Leto died (bordering on bloodlust)… all the better to twist readers back in the end and say “hey, Leto was not really evil.” I also think that I did a good job illustrating Melissa’s near death experience, up to the point where she almost gave up in the very end.


A few other notes:
- Zero’s safety features (and annoying pop ups) were inspired by Windows Vista.
- The scene where Melissa almost crushed Leto’s head with a rock was inspired by the movie Predator.
- The initial meeting between Yoix and Tie was inspired by an episode in Doctor House.
- When Melissa said “I really hate cliffhangers”, it was just me poking at myself for throwing them all the time (sometimes literally).
- The romantic moment when Foil and Melissa reunite (with Tie meddling in) was inspired by the movie Final Fantasy, the Spirit Within.
- Zero’s set of directives were indeed inspired by Asimov’s three laws (although hey were adapted to better fit a war machine).

And now I’ll try to finish my thoughts on book 13 and put an end to the project.

And another good review. Now just waiting for the last one.

And now here are some thoughts on book 13:

This was the last book in the series and while I knew that bringing it to an end would be heartbreaking for many (myself included), rest assured that I did not make the decision lightly. On a personal level, my dancing classes and real life social life were in full gear, leaving me with less and less time to write (or rather, I was busy writing over several hundred pages of dance notes). On the other, the amount of traffic on the forum was slowly diminishing and the eventual demise of the franchise appeared all but inevitable. If it would have been just that then I might have continued, but there was another reason that I stopped.

Many years before Supreme Commander, I wrote an ongoing fan fiction in the Star Wars universe (using Mysteries of the Sith as a game inspiration) and I kept it going up until the point where I had only one reader left and then there was none. With my main incentive gone, the last book that I was working on laid half finished, the ideas in my head, but no longer going on paper. I felt that my project that was Supreme Commander deserved better than this and more importantly, it deserved an end that was meaningful. As such, I decided to end the project the same way that it had begun, going full circle (with many cliffhangers, of course).

Right off the bat, I decided to delve into familiar themes with Zero appearing both threatening and mysterious when it killed a technician and Tie being sneaky by spying on his friends. Where I veered off completely from my usual practice, however, was when I decided to kill or severely injure several of the previous “main characters”. By then my focus had shifted to the exchange pilots, but by killing several previous and well liked characters such as Doctor Brackman, I was making it clear that anything could happen. The pillars of the Alliance had to crumble for the galaxy to fall into civil war once again.

One particular thing that surprised me at that point was how many readers refused to believe that Brackman was dead, thinking that I would somehow pull an unexpected twist out of my hat at the last moment. Don’t take me wrong, I liked that character a lot, but there was a dual purpose for his death. The first was to prompt the Cybrans into war while getting rid of one of the only characters that could have made a call for peace. The other was that I felt that it was necessary for the Cybrans to move past their father figure and assume their destiny at the very end of the series.

Many scenes in book 13 were inspired from book 1, especially the car chase which involved Ivanna and the commandos. I wanted readers to be thrown into something familiar yet oddly frightening at the same time.

Another thing that I added was a “Jedi-like” aspect with the Princess influencing those who had been exposed to high levels of quantum radiation; Bagby (for trying to delay his aging process using his ACU), Redfog (for going into stasis using the same technology) and Melissa (after Zero was sent through a rough quantum transport and was irradiated). It was only later that it was revealed the Princess was locked in a fierce battle with QAI with the fate of the entire galaxy in the balance.

Like I mentioned before, I wanted the series to end in a blaze of glory and for that to happen, QAI’s plan needed to be more than just restarting the Infinite War. Instead, the war was just a ploy to help it hide its true purpose; to cause a Quantum Cascade that would destroy the entire galaxy and wipe out humanity. I have to admit that I borrowed the concept from Total Annihilation, the Core Contingency expansion. Since Supreme Commander is Total Annihilation’s spiritual successor, it seemed oddly fitting as well.

I had lots of plans for each character for the story to “end” properly which went a little bit like this:

For Stokes, I wanted the impact from the Prototype debacle in book 12 to have had a lasting impact on his career, relegating him to patrol duty while being stuck piloting a Mark 1. Despite the handicap, I wanted to show that Stokes could not only be a very skilled pilot, but also a good squad leader (despite his bad attitude) who had an intimate knowledge of each prototype which could allow him to gain a sizable edge. His character progressively moved from the “anti-hero” to a full hero when he led the reinforcements that rescued Melissa and the others despite his injuries (which were caused because I wanted to show how vulnerable pilots were outside their machines).

In Zero’s case, I wanted it to “wake up” from the constraints that book 12 had imposed upon its programming and rise to new heights of assistance. Even so, I did not want it to become “too smart” and one part of the story had him fall to the same weakness that the Cybrans had: that of the machine complex. Tie and Kaeden’s prototypes would also awaken in their own way and I took the opportunity to illustrate that what we would qualify as the machine’s “personality” would be shaped by the pilots’ own actions as they learned from them. That is the reason why Tie’s prototype was both rebellious and sneaky while Kaeden’s was harmonious and balanced. A strange form of Karma if you will.

As for Kaeden and Iole, I wanted to throw them in the same scenario that Arnold had been so long ago; to do what is right for the good of the galaxy at the cost of betraying their own faction. Each character was forced to make a different choice following that battle with one being ordered to help Melissa while the other stayed behind to surrender and try to warn the Illuminate. Part of me liked the “power” behind that image.

Foil would ironically be thrown into the role that he had begrudged Melissa during the exchange program; to put the good of the Alliance in front of his desire to be with Melissa. The irony of having him and Nial go on a mission to save the former Redfog, a mass murder, for the good of the Alliance was one that I liked too.

Naturally, one thing that had to be rectified in book 13 was to wake Redfog from his self-imposed stasis. Instead of having Foil and Nial reach him first, I had the Princess offer him the one thing that he never had; a moment of true peace. This had the desired effect of Redfog instinctively rebelling against it up to the point where he woke up from stasis in time to escape. He would later return to the Cybran Nation and reveal to Ivanna her true legacy as Dostya’s daughter and the spiritual successor of Doctor Brackman, despite Bagby’s best attempts to prevent it. Of course Queren would meddle in that, forcing Redfog to go back to the Assumpta to try and get control of it once more.

Up until that point, duels between Assumpta members had always been short but violent with Redfog always seeming to have the upper hand either tactically, psychologically or physically. I broke away from that tradition, his former student rising to new heights of power and viciousness that made him almost seem obsolete. I wanted the battle to last a long while and for the fate of the Assumpta Node, and perhaps the outcome of the war, to hinge on the conflict between two monsters of near equal power. In the end, I wanted Redfog to die at the hand of his own creation, but to take her down with him in the process.

Ironically, Valerie became useful once again, being summoned by the Assumpta Node which had been torn afterwards by its own member. I thought it was a strong image for her to forever shatter the concept of a Redfog or of an Assumpta node, and recognizing that they had to evolve in this new time. Incidentally, this act ensured that the former Redfog would be the last of his kind and would have been the most vicious human being that the Supreme Commander universe had ever known (I liked the concept of him being number one).

One character that had been silent up to the point was Queren. One thing that I had in mind was to have him speak at least once before it all ended, and that what he would say would be important. He therefore became a pivotal character, taking Ivanna away and revealing to her the true heritage that her mother had placed upon her shoulder and how the two of them were alike. Ivanna herself would become an icon; her mother’s daughter and the spiritual successor of Doctor Brakcman. I also liked the fact that the story had begun with Dostya back in book 1 and that her daughter would be one of those responsible for ending it.

Another aspect that needed to be addressed in the story was the Seraphim and I pictured them doing their best to stop QAI, but failing in the end while refusing to ally with humans. One trait that I took time to illustrate in this last book and which I had not done before was how they viewed our dimension a bit in the same way as we conceive of Hell. How often have we played games like Doom 3 where we mercilessly destroyed demons without a shred of remorse? I thought it funny to have humanity being on the receiving end of such a wrath.

I of course took advantage of book 13 to introduce units from the DLC. Alpha Seven was also very popular, but there was a problem; exploding SCUs were not “dangerous enough” anymore. Just when I least expected, a fellow reader introduced an idea that I immediately seized; use the Basilisk. I had helped with the mod by composing a very short story for it. Despite not having played it, I immediately liked the idea and I was provided videos for inspiration. Not one to do things halfway, I further modified the Basilisk, adding the same devastating self-destruct mechanism that the SCUs had before it. Instead of having QAI take a hold of the same DLC units as the other players, I decided to give it its own devastating technology, which did wonders as far as I’m concerned. I also gave an explanation for the Basilisks’ howling andI found it cool since it made them appear like a horde of unstoppable gigantic zombies.

One thing that I realized while writing the final battle was that despite it all, QAI was nearly invincible on Alpha Seven. There you were, a planet that could not be fully occupied or scanned and on which long range communication was nearly impossible. QAI could very likely spam autonomous ACUs and send them to hide all over the planet, waging a constant war against any Alliance force that dared invade while it tried to recreate another quantum cascade. It therefore became a battle between two titans: the Princess and QAI.

Fueled by the power unleashed by the tear in reality that QAI had created. The Princess had more than enough energy at her disposal to destroy the planet and put a definitive end to the Infinite War. I liked both the finality of it all and the devastation level behind that act.

An alternate ending that I had in mind was that instead of the Alliance mending things once QAI was defeated was to have the Infinite War degenerate all over again. In such a scenario, Melissa, Foil, Kaeden and a few others would have splintered away, reuniting those that still believed in peace before fleeing to the edge of the galaxy. Others such as Stokes and Iole would have returned to their respective factions, ready to defend it and unwillingly starting the war all over again. This ending would have left the story as I had taken it, right in the middle of the Infinite War all over again while leaving the reader free to imagine what would come afterwards. Some might have preferred the story to end this way, but I preferred a “real” ending.

As such, I made my longest epilogue ever, describing the following years of each character that I could think of, including minor ones. I felt that this would be the only end that could satisfy me. That and I thought to myself: “if anyone wants to write in that universe again, all they have to do is fast forward a few hundred years and presto! New setting!”

A few other notes:

- The autopsy scene when Melissa was trying to figure out what happened was inspired by the movie Alien 3.
- The line “Faster would be better!” during the car chase was inspired by the movie Serenity.
- Tie’s “fake” surrender was taken from a Naruto episode where Shikamaru Nara did the same thing.
- During the “Redfogs” confrontation, the line “But take away your cybernetics, your henchmen and all of that power… and what do you have left?” “Me!” was taken from Buffy.
- Harvesting mass from a “metal world” was a wink towards Total Annihilation.
- Yes, the attack on Mena Five was spearheaded by the Assumptas and they retreated when QAI’s puppet came to attack the exchange pilots.
- The reference to Redfog’s “primitive side – his animal side – awakened” was taken from Pitch Black.
- Stokes’ line : “I had a feeling you wouldn’t just wait around for us to catch up,” and “Standby, I’ll see if we can get QAI’s attention” Was adapted from an episode in Star Trek Next Generation.

And that’s all I can think of for now. With this, I bring a near definitive conclusion to my project which has lasted for years now. I hope you all had a great time! If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, then go ahead and ask. There’s no real danger of hijacking this thread because well… the forum population has died down of late and I doubt that there are that many left to cause a thread to derail, hehe.

Thanks for the ride. It's been marvelous. I wish you the best in all your endeavors.

Marc

How can you possibly derail this thread? Only a spambot could do so.

Thanks for the 13 brilliant books Dots, I loved them all.

Also thanks for letting me make several book covers of them.

I remember week after week, I'd be at uni. waiting for a new chapter to be published (fortunately I had a break between classes when you'd often update).

I was often late for those classes because I spent so much time reading. lol.

Although I was late on board with these (middle of book 10) they have been a real jewel and now rest on my computer, external harddrive, and kindle . Many thanks to your contribution of the franchise. All we need is a movie (or tv series) to be made from these .

Still, in all seriousness... thank you.

Dots, I've said it before(I think) and I'l say it again, your writing is incredible and the way you manage to take the barest minimum of details and proceed to flesh it out so fully is jawdropping, your example of the Basilisk is a prime example, you had little more than pics and a vid, and you took that and make it all sound practical and by design. I can't thank you enough for taking the Basilisk that extra 10 steps and turning it into something truly incredible!

Sorry to see it end, but glad you could end it on your terms!

Mike

Wow, first post. And as worthy a reason as any. I've been lurking the forums for a while, but mostly just these threads for your books dots. I'm sad that its all ended, but it was one hell of a ride. I hope one day GPG wakes the hell up and realises what awesome stories you've written. Thank you, for everything.

Brendan.

i can't help but think of THIS, while reading the last thoughts on Book 13, i have all these things downloaded and saved on several backups. NEVER FORGET. also if supcom 3 ever comes around(and is done right) who knows

I'd like to thank you and everyone else who helped me with the covers. My lack of photoshop knowledge is staggering and I really needed the help

The timing for the Basilisk suggestion was perfect. This was one of the perk of writing one chapter at a time; I could incorporate user feedback!

http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/ao ... lator.html

I'm putting choice paragraphs of your books through this site.

Indeed.

Hahaha, well played.

Just finished reading all books. I'm somewhat disappointed that Bagby and Thalia never got married considering how much they got to know each other. And how far Thalia went to stop Bagby from his revenge spree.

My computer is back (YAY )

So I can now TELL you just how much I enjoyed your books (I have them all D/L in text and PDF )

I always read them (though maybe I didn't comment much)

Are you perchance going into/actively doing other FanFiction? I would definitely check it out. So here's to you .

I don't think that I'll be doing any other fan fiction in the near future. But if I do and this forum is still online then I'll be sure to drop a line here .

My girlfriend wants to become a full time writer so who knows, maybe a joint project is not out of the question one of these days

Incidentally, I recently reinstalled Supcom on my new computer and ran it at full specs for the first time ever. I have to admit, it looks even better and despite the past few years, the engine is still pretty solid. I wonder how interesting the game could have been if it had been released with a full set of campaign editing tools.

install forged alliance forever, a new lobby, its actually getting quite popular! also, i believe someone is working on a new galactic war thingy for it