A compilation of everything
Supreme Commander 2 related might be more handy for people who don't want to dig in all the different forum threads and online articles. Obligatory badass boxshot to get you in the mood:
Larger size | >>> Recently added: [last content update on 02/19/2012]
Dates are in [month/day/year] format, recently updated stuff has a red date and will be added separately at the top of this first post. [mind the out-of-context danger of every quote listed here]* [
02/19/2012]
Added Gas Powered Community as a new community site* [
12/25/2010]
PC Gamer UK has elected SupCom 2 as their co-op game of the year!, while StarCraft II won their Strategy Game of the Year award it's clear that SupCom 2 has captivated the entire PCG UK crew in joint matches against Sorian's vicious AI.
* [
10/8/2010]
Patch 1.23 is out and it revamps the queueing/economy system, making it lean more towards SupCom/FA. Wow. Bug fixes and balance changes are included as well.
* [
9/28/2010] The first DLC pack for SupCom 2 is
out now on Steam! It's approximately 500MB to download. A
press release further details the juicy content of this
Infinite War Battle Pack.
* [
9/23/2010] G4TV host a
video report with CT about the future of PC gaming. It's 2:49 minutes long and doesn't really show much new stuff.
* [
9/22/2010] An
IRC chat with Chris Taylor by reddev32 reveals plenty of things related to SupCom 1 and 2, KaC and GPG.
Must-read.
* [
9/24/2010] A new
teasing DLC video has been released on Gamespot, showing new units and new maps (including an impressive huge desert map).
* [
9/15/2010] There is a
new 1-hour long audio interview with Chris Taylor about everything GPG-related on Israeli games site
Hamishakia. CT pretty much details how he sees his future in RTS development,
really worth listening to.
>>> Useful Game InformationPC version and
Xbox360 version Out Now !
PC Singleplayer demo: download 1.68GB via Steam; contains two tutorials and two UEF operations.
Xbox 360 Singleplayer demo is available now!PC Reviews: Metacritic listing of PC reviews +
Gamerankings listing of PC reviews: this version gets scores around the 77% mark overall.
Xbox 360 Reviews: Metacritic listing of Xbox 360 reviews +
Gamerankings listing of Xbox 360 reviews: the console version gets scores around the 76% mark overall.
DLC packs: Infinite War Battle Pack (new units, new maps, new research options) (09/28/2010)
PC Patches/Updates: Patch v1.23 (10/8/2010),
Patch v1.22 (09/24/2010),
Patch v1.21 (09/16/2010),
Patch v1.2 (08/31/2010),
Patch 1.15 (06/03/2010),
Patch 1.14 (05/07/2010),
Patch v1.13 (04/26/2010),
Patch v1.12 (04/22/2010),
mini-patch,
Patch v1.11 (04/15/2010),
Patch v1.10 (04/08/2010),
Patch v1.04 (03/25/2010),
Patch v1.03 (03/17/2010),
Patch v1.02 (03/10/2010),
Patch v1.01 (03/05/2010), Patch v1.00 release day (03/02/2010) (no patch notes available). Check
all updates on the Steam Community Site.
Official Site and Product Pages: SupCom 2 Website,
SupCom 2 Steam Product Page,
GPG's own SupCom 2 page,
Official SupCom 2 Facebook Page*
Community Forums: Unofficial GPGnet SupCom 2 forum,
Official Square-Enix SupCom 2 forum,
GameReplays forum,
Steam SupCom 2 forum*
Community Sites and Blogs: English:
Sorian Developer Blog,
SupCom 2 Facebook Group,
SupComTalk blog,
GameNubs fansite,
The Future of RTS blog,
Supreme Commander Universe (English),
GameReplays.org SupCom 2 Portal,
French:
Supreme Commander Alliance fansite (French),
German:
InsideSupCom fansite (German),
Russian:
SupComGame.ru fansite (Russian),
Supreme-Commander.ru fansite (Russian),
Gas Powered Community| Send in cool unit ideas for SupCom 2 to coolunits@gaspowered.com |
| Send in comments and suggestions about SupCom 2 and/or Kings and Castles to crackedout@gaspowered.com |SupCom 2 Players Number | SupCom 2 Achievements Completion Rate | SupCom 2 Worldwide Leaderboards PC Online Manual can be
found on the Steam page.
Online Unit Database is
right here, courtesy of NowakPL.
Online Interactive Research Tree is
available on SupComResearch.com, check
this thread for the latest updates, courtesy of cwm32.
Online SupCom 2 Wiki is
available.
>>> Content overview:=> Developer Post Tracking:=> Sorian forum posts - Content Engineer for SupCom 2 =>
his own blog which, among other GPG projects, discusses SupCom 2 tidbits:
[ if you are even just a little bit interested in SupCom 2 then you should have bookmarked this already, check it daily, it contains loads of information about developing SupCom 2 and Demigod at GPG ]=> GPG-Servo forum posts - Community Manager
=> Eric forum posts - Lead Balance on SupCom 2
=> Steve Bauman (aka steveb) forum posts - Writer/Producer?
=> SquareEnixDave forum posts - SE Executive Producer/Director of Business Development (NA)
=> MCS500 forum posts on Steam forum - some kind of GPG community manager
=> Grok forum posts on SE forum - SE Forum Moderator, also gathers fan questions and delivers GPG's answers back to us.
=> totonka forum posts - "The guy who implemented the multiplayer"
=> SquareEnixSonia forum posts - Head of PR @ Square Enix (NA)
=> Toraque forum posts - GPG Employee
* [01/09/10] Toraque says
GPG ain't using the Granny format for SupCom 2 units and animations but updated SCA and SCM files.
=> jables forum posts - Cinna-bear and Producer(?) on non-SupCom 2 GPG game
=> Steve Bauman and William Harms talk about SupCom 2 on the Quartertothree forum.
<*> Official Gas Powered Games Twitter page GasTalk
<*> SE Producer Dave Hoffman's Twitter feed
<*> Sorian is on Twitter
<*> Chris Taylor is on Twitter - GPG CEO and Creative Director
<*> SE Sonia's Twitter feed[
more developer post tracking from past SupCom and Forged Alliance days ]
=> Articles (online, magazines, etc.):* [
9/28/2010] The first DLC pack for SupCom 2 is
out now on Steam! It's aproximately 500MB to download. A
press release further details the juicy content of this
Infinite War Battle Pack.
* [
9/22/2010] An
IRC chat with Chris Taylor by reddev32 reveals plenty of things related to SupCom 1 and 2, KaC and GPG.
Must-read.
* [
9/15/2010] There is a
new 1-hour long audio interview with Chris Taylor about everything GPG-related on Israeli games site
Hamishakia. CT pretty much details how he sees his future in RTS development,
really worth listening to.
* [
9/14/2010]
RPS interviews CT about Dungeon Siege 3 but he also gives some comments about development in general.
* [
6/20/10] PC Gamer has a
strategy article to get a clear victory (over the AI) by only using Cybran engineers.
* [
03/23/10]
The Flash of Steel "Three Moves Ahead" podcast discusses SupCom 2 and C&C4, conclusion: SupCom 2 wins again!
* [
03/20/10]
PCG UK writer Tom Francis has his own suggestions how to improve SupCom 2, a game he still likes a lot though (he gave it 85%).
* [
03/12/10] Worthplaying offers an
interesting interview with Chris Taylor about everything SupCom 2 related.
* [
03/10/10] CT repeats that the large scale of SupCom 2 is a defining factor of the game in
this Escapist report. Strategy game journalist Troy Goodfellow follows up with
his own opinion about it and the pitfalls that might arise in a large-scale game.
* [
03/10/10] Chris Taylor thinks
moving to Mac development is a great new opportunity for PC developers.* [
03/05/10] PC Gamer has put up a
small guide for SupCom 2 in skirmish/multiplayer.
* [
02/28/10]
Steve Bauman has confirmed that the paint brush select/attack feature will also be available on PC (wasn't in the demo) just like CT told it was in the TeamXbox interview, it was a console feature first for SupCom 2, you can see it in action near the end of this excellent
Xbox360 gameplay controls video.
* [
02/26/10] TeamXbox conducted a
lengthy interview with CT about the console version of SupCom 2. Xbox360 fans, this is a must-read for you.
* [
02/26/10] ArsTechnica is the latest site with a
Chris Taylor interview.
* [
02/25/10]
VoodooExtreme has published a new HUGE interview with Chris Taylor, very interesting and to-the-point questions.
* [
02/25/10] PC Gamer UK writer Tom Francis tells you of
five things which make the full version of SupCom 2 better than the limited, campaign-only demo we had the chance to try. He definitely has some points with some of them although some of the changes are clearly too much for certain hardcore SupCom folks on these forums. It's like the SupCom release all over again (where hardcore TA players were complaining).
* [
02/25/10] The RTS Concept blog has written a
short demo review.
* [
02/24/10] Tom Francis from PCGamer UK has written a
blog post about the Cybran Adaptor unit, a small but incredibly useful bot which seems a bit overpowered.
* [
02/23/10] A
new 'old' developer diary has gone up at the official blog, Chris Taylor describes the E3 2009 aftermath and some of the water tech in the game.
* [02/22/10] A
very detailed chat transcript with Chris Taylor has been published on these forums by forum user Manimal (source is the euh...
BestBuy forum). The chat totally came as a surprise to me but it contains lots of good and mostly promising information. A demo could be out on February 24th for PC and March 4th for the Xbox360 but it's not sure yet. Must-read.
* [02/22/10] There are rough GoogleTranslated impressions of a
SupCom 2 skirmish match and a
true multiplayer match by the folks from SCA. The last link reveals that the rumours about a very exclusive closed multiplayer beta on Steam are probably true.
* [02/20/10]
SCA is revealing the full Cybran tech tree with screenshots... euh, in French.
Here are some of the most remarkable techs:
land units which can get jumpjets (energy-costing ability with cooldown, awesome pics on this page) so not just the ACU, Kamikaze explosion upgrades (for land units and structures, only damages hostiles), a separate anti-Nuke building (compared to previous claims of both anti-Nuke and Nuke being in one building, might be the case for one faction perhaps).
* [02/18/10] A
new blog update from the past (April 2009), CT describes milestone 9.
* [02/18/10]
Gamasutra also has a report about CT's DICE debate, interesting read.
* [02/18/10] Chris Taylor
opens his heart at the DICE convention about the problems of staying independent, seems like GPG could have been bought at more than a few times by a larger publisher but CT said no every time. This article also mentions that CT's children won't go to college because of Demigod (lol) and that
Kings and Castles has only been in production for a month ! * [02/18/10] With some delay
Grok has released the second batch of community Q&A answers, they all come from Chris himself and they talk about the multiplayer. There's definitely more positive news to note here than with the first Q&A: a 1vs1 ladder might get in by release and the in-game scoreboard will be less clear now as well. Lots more stuff to read, get on it!
* [02/18/10] You should probably keep an eye out on 1Up this week as they have a
SupCom 2 Launch Portal. I think it's a safe bet that they got some exclusive information to offer.
* [02/18/10] Rock, Paper Shotgun's Alec Meer
appears to have received some kind of
gold/review copy of SupCom 2, he isn't allowed to talk about it until March 1st though. There are also some rumours of a closed beta for a very select few of top players. Whatever the reviews might say in two weeks, we might still see a big release day patch just like it happened for the original SupCom.
* [02/17/10] SE Producer David Hoffman has made a
new and recent blog update on the official site in which he talks about
finishing the demo, Ati Eyefinity support (down the line) and the concept of DLC. He doesn't say the DLC is gonna be free or paid for or even if it's certain it's going to be made but if GPG/SE do it it will be more than the smaller DLC content packs you often see for games.
* [02/17/10] PC Gamer UK has put their
critical SupCom 2 preview online. A good read although one can wonder how many of their complaints (like an imbalanced Soul Ripper II and too powerful experimentals) are due to the fact they were playing a preview version.
* [02/16/10] Gamespot has a
new multiplayer/skirmish preview, some new research options are discussed but nothing really shocking is revealed.
* [02/15/10] Plenty of new previews in German and French again:
4Players,
JeuxVideoNetwork and
GameBlog.fr share their impressions of an early SupCom 2 build.
Google Translate is your friend if you can't understand these languages.
* [02/12/10] Another French site, called Generation.nt, also has a
preview alongside
custom screenshots.
* [02/12/10] French gaming site JeuxVideo has
extensive impressions of SupCom 2 alongside their own,
nuke-filled screenshots.
* [02/10/10]
Games.on.net has a new preview on the game. It's generally positive but makes a few remarks about the map structure, army composition and the campaign.
* [02/10/10] Yet again a
nice interview with CT, on 411Games. Features some interesting quotes about the Loyalty Gun and the Unit Magnet, promises of online support and an Infinite War game mode which more sounds like some kind of sandbox mode.
* [02/10/10] A rather
interesting interview with Chris Taylor on AtomicGamer: even the Cybran aircraft carrier can walk on land, big and open maps are still possible with this engine, no comment on THQ's involvement of the beta FA patch, he's optimistic about SE's commitment to support and CT wishes he could get some of the Vaulting features back into SupCom 2's online service although it has yet to be seen whether Steam would support it.
* [02/09/10] The official site now features character profiles for all three protagonists in the campaign:
UEF's Maddox,
Cybran's Ivan and
Illuminate's Thalia Kael* [02/09/10] Play.tm offers a
preview and an
interview but nothing much relevant comes out of it.
* [02/08/10] StrategyInformer also did a
preview on the game, their report only contains a few lines which shows they've actually played the preview version but it's a good summary for the rest.
* [02/05/10]
VideoGamer also previewed SupCom 2, claiming its campaign isn't the best in the genre (but still saying it's better than the original game) while at the same time declaring the SupCom essentials weren't compromised in the sequel.
* [02/05/10] A
new preview went up at IGN.AU, unfortunately the writer was more interested in writing some kind of RTS study instead of a proper preview which would reveal any new stuff.
* [02/05/10] Eurogamer has a new
hands-on preview online, although the writer didn't exactly got into the first game he does outline what makes SupCom 2 different (and in his opinion also better).
* [02/05/10] SCA has finally released their
preview of the game, it's in French and you can try to translate it but Tiberius gave a
decent summary in English in this thread. In short, SupCom 2 feels like a better campaign game though not as good as a Blizzard RTS yet and while it definitely feels odd and more StarCraft-like in the beginning the flow of the game seems to resemble that of SupCom once you play more and more games. Several multiplayer maps are revealed as well.
* [02/05/10] SE has released
info on the Pullinsmash, Bomb Bouncer and Kraken experimentals, with new screenshots as well.
* [02/01/10]
BigDownload offers a new interview with CT, most eyecatching is this:
"We don't have a beta test planned at this time..." and the fact GPG did take a hard look at DLC but that nothing is officially planned yet.
* [01/31/10]
Fragland has posted a new interview with Chris Taylor, a nice read and a confirmation again that the game uses DirectX 9 and that an online leaderboard system for the PC version is still in the works.
* [01/30/10] Dave Hoffman from Square-Enix seems to confirm on his Twitter that a
demo for the PC version ? is on the way as well (we already got confirmation of an Xbox360 demo in February).
* [01/29/10] Again from Gamespot comes this
new preview which discusses several topics.
* [01/29/10] Square-Enix has gathered some fan questions and received
direct answers from CT to many of them. Lots of new stuff, not all good, not all bad either:
no Monkeylord, but it (and other cool units) might get 'added' later on (you can send cool unit ideas to GPG coolunits@gaspowered.com ). It's possible to gain so much research points in a single game that you can max out your entire tech tree, though it's gonna take long. A new snap-on-wreckaged-building cursor is revealed when you want to build a new structure. Slower airplanes, no more fuel. No more hydrocarbon powerplants. No strategic mode icon indicators of what upgrades units have. Capturing mechanic is fully explained. Some big names of the voice cast are revealed. Size of the maps are being discussed. Only one engineer can assist with a factory at a time. Howard Mostrom is the music composer (he already did work on the first games and composed Demigod himself). Replays are in, you can't co-watch them online though. Scheduled post-release updates: observer mode, online ladders, ...
Maybe coming in the future: Monkeylord, map editor, mod support, homing missiles upgrade, ... * [01/27/10] The full
SupCom 2 preview from PCG UK is online at Gamesradar.
* [01/21/10]
GamingNexus has a new interview with Chris Taylor. New notable stuff is the fact that engineers will automatically repair units (at no cost I guess) if you keep them near the units in question.
* [01/25/10] French fansite SCA now offers an
exclusive interview with Chris Taylor (use Google Translate to read it yourself as it's in French). Plenty of the answers have a "wait and see/it depends on Square-Enix as well"-vibe to them. He confirms patrol, ferry, shift-click are still in and that build templates aren't (but they are likely to get patched in after release). He also wants to support turtling players (UEF Noah Unit Cannon is especially suited for them) and tells us that there are no e-sports plans about SupCom 2 to announce but GPG is open for it. Things like UI modding support and post-release free maps are still up for grabs for now, CT likes these ideas but again it depends on the publisher as well. As for the 3603 FA patch: CT thinks THQ did give the ok in the end and that we might see it in the coming weeks.
* [01/23/10]
TeamXbox brings another three-page interview, this time with Chris Taylor. Topics mentioned are the relatively short development time, extensive background information about how Square-Enix and GPG teamed up, details on the AI but most notable are the few sacrifices made for the Xbox360 version; console players won't see 4vs4 multiplayer and the extra big maps which are exclusive to PC (again, this isn't that different from the original SupCom Xbox360 port):
Chris Taylor: We gave up very little [for the Xbox360 version]. I mean, we took our eight-player multiplayer down to four; we don’t think anyone will miss that, because most games were 1v1 or 2v2. The full unit count is there. The maps are all there. We are including some extra-big maps on the PC side that we can’t support [on the Xbox 360] due to the memory footprint, but, again, these maps are gigantic and they’re very hard core. We definitely know that the PC hard-core audience that wants those big five- and six-hour games—they’re not the same…that’s not a problem whatsoever, to be truthful.
All the command and control stuff, all the setting up a patrol route or setting up queueing up units or setting up factory repeat or pausing the output of a factory…all of that is there in the 360 version. We pretty much got it all." * [01/23/10] New details from the recent PC Gamer UK preview (I bought the mag myself, issue 210):
- no screenshots you haven't seen online yet
- a Monkeylord is being mentioned but this might very well be a mistake of PCG UK thinking the Megalith is the Monkeylord.
- a
new Experimental is revealed, the mobile
Bomb Bouncer: "... a device that projects an umbrella over your other units and absorbs everything aerial units try to rain on them. It can turn that stored energy into an energy blast to take down enemy planes." Well, well, could it be this
Cybran mobile shield unit they're talking about?
- the
Loyalty Cannon gets a decent description as well:
"It fires loyalty. It looks like one of Supreme Commander's characteristic stadium-sized artillery pieces, but it zaps nearby enemy units with a beam that rewires them to fight for you. I watched it neutralise a whole incoming army, turning the front lines against the rear, then turning the rear lines too."* [01/20/10] As promised TeamXbox has put up an
interview with Dave Hoffman, the Executive Producer of SupCom 2. It's quite an interesting but a lot of the answers were given with the Xbox360 version in mind. An
Xbox360 demo is being planned for February, no mention about a PC demo or beta though.
* [01/19/10] Destructoid has a
new preview of the game, not much new stuff but a nice read nonetheless, some new screens as well.
* [01/19/10] TeamXbox has a
two-page preview but it doesn't mention anything new, they will put up an interview with CT and SE's Dave Hoffman soon though.
* [01/18/10] Gamespot kicks off this week's coverage with a
new preview, new revelations:
reclaimable underwater ship wreckage, Strategic mode gets its own sounds and Strategic mode also gets automated number grouping (next to the usual CTRL+number which you can still perform here). It also features a
video monologue by Chris Taylor which shows some neat new footage of the game. From those scenes we can deduce that
all regular air transports unload troops by teleporting them on the battlefield. Of course we don't know yet whether the experimental transports will do the same.
* [01/12/10] Eurogamer has put an
interview with Chris Taylor, not much new is being said here though and some answers aren't always that clear/can be understood in different ways sometimes. The last sentences are probably the most hopeful for those who are afraid that with 27 different experimentals in the game there would be a lot of clones:
"You've got to have the right idea - like what we're doing right now with Experimental units. We know Experimentals are great, but we've got a nice balance between offensive and defensive, land, air and sea, so we can spread them around that way, and it's not nine different versions of the Universal Colossus. You only need one!"* [01/09/10] PCGames.de has a German preview of SupCom 2 along with some new screenshots; a
very close-up shot of the UEF ACU with some nukes going off in the background and
Cybran vs Illuminate battle. The preview mentions a 28th of March release date which only increases the
confusion about a proper release date for Europe. It's sure the US will get the PC version on March 2nd and the Xbox360 version on March 16th but for Europe there aren't any hard data and a lot of retailers display different release dates: March 2nd (Steam), March 16th/19th (Play) and March 28th (Amazon).
* [01/06/10] Several previews have cropped up over the past few weeks/days; written magazines CanardPC, PC Jeux, PC Gameplay all did articles on SupCom, as did online sources such as
Eurogamer (not much new stuff there but an interview with Chris Taylor is coming soon) and
IGN UK (the latter is the most clear with details).
An overview of some new stuff::
Steam is being used as multiplayer client, there are no details whatsoever as to how it compares to GPGnet though. A IGN UK preview writer saying it will be an "improvement" and a "superior experience" doesn't tell us anything specific.
SupCom 2 will be less moddable than before but the engine itself is still inherently mod-friendly.
Custom maps won't be officially supported with developer tools. Chris Taylor doesn't rule out fans might be able to cook up something of their own (like they did in the SupCom beta with a map editor) but it's clear GPG used lots of different tools to create the more intricate campaign maps (and presumably the skirmish/multiplayer maps as well). The
minimum requirements for SupCom 2 sound like they're even below the minimum requirements of the first game. Quad-Core support isn't even needed to run the game properly due to various performance and technology tweaks.
All Cybran ships are amphibian and can even be built on land.
Dual-screen support is still in. There are mentions of a
Loyalty gun experimental which can convert enemy units.
* [12/18/09] Gamespot has
new Q&A with Chris Taylor on SupCom 2. [ CT describes the Xbox360 UI,
confirms that the Illuminate won't have naval units (only hovering stuff), that there will be
voice chat and that the console version and PC version will have a different multiplayer backend tailored for each platform (does this mean Games for Windows Live has been ruled out for matchmaking on PC?), CT also gives a clear response to how the economy works with the queuing system:
"When we started development, we prototyped the exact system you described, but what we discovered is that we wanted to be able to set up a "repeat queue" just like in the first game, so we added that. How this works is that the player can queue up a series of units, in any amount, in any order. Then they can press the repeat button. If there are enough resources, the units are all built again, and the appropriate resources are deducted at that time. If, for whatever reason, that can't happen, the factory is paused, and when resources are available, the player can continue construction. This captures a lot of the same benefits of the old system without the downside of many players getting the "stalled economy" syndrome we saw before." ]
* [9/7/2009]
IncGamers has a sizeable SupCom 2 preview.
* [9/6/2009] German game site
Gamona has a preview, in German, but forum member Spooky singled out some new stuff and translated it:
"Not without pride does Chris Taylor present us the automatic grouping system. When different units get the same orders, they'll be combined together in one group and can thus be controlled together. [...] Those who want the old system like in Total Annihilation can still use it though, it's a setting that can be optionally turned off."* [8/26/2009]
Dutch games site InsideGamer.nl saw the game too at GamesCom [they claim that you can finish half-baked experimentals afterwards if they haven't failed completely by that time (they always have that chance apparently). They also know where CT got his inspiration from for this concept: as if a dictator would scream to his scientists that he needs the big weapon now even when those scientists would say it isn't finished yet. They'll just do it in the end and hope for the best though (it sounded funnier in Dutch).]
* [8/26/2009]
Gamespot played SupCom 2 at GamesCom as well [mentions Xbox360 controls,
King Cryptor, a mech that features several very powerful cannons to make light work of weaker units, presence of 27 mini- and big experimentals in the game, the
"half-baked" concept, "Taylor also told us about the new half-baked projects. If you're in a hurry to deploy forces, you can choose to send particular units out before construction is complete. The trade-off is that the build progress reflects directly on how effective they are in battle. For example, if you deploy a unit that's at 50 percent completion, it will work only 50 percent of the time, and the rest of the time it will simply sit there smoking.", the Xbox360 version will also have a limit of four players in multiplayer matches compared to the PC's eight-player matches.]
* [8/23/2009] Two forum users have posted their
extended impressions of playing SupCom 2 at GamesCom, read
keepvogel's report and
1=2's report now! [if only more game sites would write up such details...]
* [8/19/2009]
IGN wrote up a mini-preview at GamesCom [the writer doesn't know the concept of paragraphs but he does describe some handy UI improvements for the console version, he also mentions some
new research technologies like cutting the cost of production at your factories and boosting unit veterancy rates and this blurb: Another noticeable difference was the way in which units are upgraded. Instead of building a whole bunch of little structures to support and defend your base, you can actually build shields and guns directly on your factories, in addition to being able to set up the regular point and air defences.]
* [8/19/2009] GameStar has written a
small preview after they've been shown SupCom 2 at GamesCom [it's in German, the actual new stuff is mentioned at the end, this bit is translated by Spooky:
"If you pull an experimental out of production at 50%, it will have a 50% chance of falling to pieces..."]
* [8/12/2009] Game Informer has an article on SupCom 2 in their August issue,
without any new stuff though.
* [7/21/2009, Issue 191, September] The new
PC Gamer US SupCom 2 article (ten pages long and they have the
game on their cover) has been scanned by niplfsh, jables doesn't want them posted here so go look for them yourself or do the right thing and
buy the magazine when it comes out on the 21st of July. It's basically the same article from PCG UK but with a few more comments, much larger and more beautiful screenshots, new art drawings, more revelations about the different experimentals and comments from Chris Taylor on old PCs and the new pathfinding system. Here is an
overview of the new stuff compared to the PC Gamer UK article:
- Cybran Zilla has guns on its side/shoulders on the art opening page, the Universal Colossus looks cool, Cybran still have ships which can sprout legs to go on land but now it's an upgrade you first have to buy.
- The Aeon make-over into Illuminate makes them look more Jules Vernes/steampunk inspired, think of a 1960s submarine caricature, Beatles style.
- the Hunker mode on the UEF ACU will immobilize him but will also greatly increase his armor so he can withstand several attacks until reinforcements arrive. The UEF ACU can be upgraded with an
artillery gun which is hidden in his chest. The Overcharge cannon is now an upgrade as well.
- the
new Flow Field pathfinding system is key for making SupCom 2 playable on lower-end systems, like particles in a fluid simulation
"hundreds of units can roam the map by adjusting their heading to avoid colliding with obstacles, rather than bumbling into them [obstacles] and then correcting." Experimentals will also easily push allied units aside for a clear path through them.
* [7/17/2009] You can officially
download the old PC Gamer US article/interview with Chris Taylor in pdf-format. [edit: not available anymore]
* [7/8/2009]
IncGamers has a
late SupCom 2 E3 preview (
part 1,
part 2) [it's well written, new stuff includes details on the
UEF AC-1000 Terror mini-experimental, the
“boosts, upgrades, and unlocks” of the research tree, how GPG made the system requirements more modest (the
E3 demo ran at 1920x1080 resolution, with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x ansiotropic filtering - on a machine which was a couple of years old) and then there is also Chris stating the
"AI is very, very important" and he also
detailed some of the Xbox360 controls (
"you have a group of tanks selected, say. If you wanted to select a factory, then you'd lose the tank selection. Now, you can hover over the factory, queue up a bunch of units with the radial menu - still holding the selection - then go back out. That one little subtle change radically transforms it on the console. We've probably got another five, six of those subtle changes that'll make the console remarkably playable and you'll go 'Oh! Why didn't they think of this five years ago?' It takes time; it's an evolution."]
* [7/3/2009, Issue 203, August]
PC Gamer UK article (four pages), scanned screens (
1,
2,
3), new facts:
you play as the character from the faction you're controlling in the campaign, two
new maps detailed [
"We saw two other impressive maps. The first, called Borehole, is a cross-shaped four-player multiplayer map. It was designed as a geothermal facility situated atop a huge mine shaft that appeared to go down for miles. Looking over the edge I could see a huge rotating fan blade blowing steam up from the planet's core. The second map was the biggest yet. This industrial complex is made up of a series of interconnected platforms, both man-made and natural. In the campaign mission that takes place here there are several factories run amok, cranking out AI-controlled Fatboy tanks. If you can capture them [the factories], the Fatboys will fight for you (though still under AI control). Taylor says GPG's design team has more of this type of unconventional mission planned to make the campaign more interesting."],
no limit on mass and energy so no storage facilities needed anymore,
engineers can no longer group up on a building project to increase production speed, build times have been rebalanced to compensate for this so
you can build even the most powerful artillery structures in a reasonable amount of time with a single engineer.
* [6/24/2009]
Gamasutra mentions that GPG is using xaitment for AI technology in upcoming games [probably SupCom 2 as well I think, could explain the bold statements about the 'neural net AI', official announcement of the partnership can be found
here, dates back from March 13, 2009] [
EDIT: Eric from GPG already denied they're using an external AI for SupCom 2, it's written in-house so xaitment tech might be for another GPG project than SupCom 2...]
* [6/9/2009]
1Up E3 preview [zany cloud effects in those depths ahoy, the definitive word on the XP/resource research:
"You earn research points by going out into battle and blowing up the enemy; it's a lot like Demigod. Though, you can also create research points by spending mass and energy at the research facility, a
"failure concept" for Experimentals;
"we added an option for you to produce an experimental cheaper and faster, but it has the chance of failure."]
* [6/9/2009]
Kotaku E3 preview [not much new stuff except for a time-estimate of when the experimentals will be built:
"Mini's take about 15-20 minutes to unlock, while the megas won't hit the scene until 30-60 minutes have passed."]
* [6/9/2009]
The complete Joystiq E3 interview with Chris Taylor part 1 +
part two [interesting read, especially part two where CT explains the
flow field pathfinding system and where he says there will
only be
in-game mission briefings, that the
three story arcs follow after each other and that GPG is interested in doing another RTS after SupCom 2 (like an addon for that game) and that the multiplayer matchmaking has already been pretty much decided upon (will be announced by Square-Enix at next big event, maybe Games Convention?), in part 1 CT also repeats
SupCom 1 was quite successful in terms of revenue]
* [6/5/2009]
4players E3 preview (German) [
nothing really new tbh]
* [6/8/2009]
E3 preview by the aforementioned Troy Goodfellow on Crispygamer [
a good roundup of information, not many things we haven't heard before though except for "Though many of the basic units will still be similar from one side to the next, each faction has a different style. How extreme are the differences? One of them can't build naval units!" and
"Company founder Chris Taylor boasted that the demo was running on a two-year-old PC, not the top-of-the-line hardware that is traditionally used to show off new products." and
"Pathfinding optimization is the big cause of the power gain: The developers have moved to a group-flow model of mass movement instead of tracking every individual unit."]
* [6/8/2009]
Kotaku writer's face got saved by CT [
he thinks SupCom 2 looks lovely]
* [6/8/2009]
Chris Taylor tells Joystiq that the Xbox360 port of SupCom 1 didn't have enough time or resources +
Chris Taylor explains to Joystiq that Square-Enix didn't want GPG to change design philosophies* [6/7/2009]
Strategy game journalist Troy Goodfellow was positively surprised about SupCom 2's approach* [6/5/2009]
BigDownload E3 preview [ confirmation that nukes will be present and multi-monitor support still in ]
* [6/4/2009]
Gamezone E3 preview [ very
detailed stuff about the hunker mode/escape pod of the ACU:
"hunker mode where, if you’re in trouble in the field, you can hunker and all your weapons shut down, [which sets up for rescue]. The head, if you’re in trouble, the Ultimate thing – kind of like an escape pod, the head pops off. You can fly it back to base and land it on an experimental gantry and have your body rebuilt", also intel on Universal Colossus:
"Universal Colossus can suck up opposing units like a vacuum and spit them back out into the crowd."]
* [6/3/2009]
Jolt.co.uk E3 preview (same as
Play.tm preview) [
emphasises ACU's combat role, since you have escape pod and core dump upgrades now it seems less risky to use your commander in fights, fewer polygons on units but they look better anyway because of graphical engine improvements ]
* [6/2/2009]
IGN E3 preview [
contains much information]
* [6/2/2009]
Gamespot E3 preview [
contains much information]
* [Issue 189, July]
PC Gamer US interview with Chris Taylor part 1 scan and
part 2 scan [
lots of information in interview and tickbox oversight, two screenshots of the city/industrial environment ]
* [Issue 201, June]
PC Gamer UK first scoop preview scan +
online article (just the words) [
it took quotes from the PC Gamer US interview, better read that to clear up confusion ]
* [5/29/2009]
Venturebeat interview with Chris Taylor about Gas Powered Games in general [
not really SupCom 2 related but it's interesting nonetheless ]
