Hi all,

I have a few technical questions regarding SC2 that I wasn't able to find from the wiki or from a search.

1 - What's the exact range on the Cybran Magnetron? I would like to know this range to know which other structures (that have a listed range) can be built to hit the magnetron (theoretically) without the builder ever needing to enter the magnetron's range.

2 - What's the exact range on the Aeon Loyalty Gun? Similar reason.

3 - What's the difference between the Cybran and Aeon shield generator? On the article "The Science of Shields", it says the following:



Does this mean that the absorption on Aeon shields is only 50% as effective because only 50% of the time, the projectile's damage is reduced by 85%? What does this tell us about the remaining 50% of the time?

1: http://supcomdb.com/sc2/unitdetails/ucx0114:latest

0-250

2: http://supcomdb.com/sc2/unitdetails/uix0114:latest

0-175

3: No. When a projectile interacts with an Aeon or Cybran shield, its damage value is decreased by 85%. The subtracted amount is also decreased from the shield health. The projectile then proceeds moving, and eventually explodes, dealing 15% of its normal damage to whatever it hits. The difference between the Aeon and Cybran shield is that AFTER this interaction, the Aeon shield has a 50% chance of bouncing the projectile back. But since it only has 15% of its normal damage potential left, its not really a big deal.

Thank you very much. 250 range is quite a shocker! Only LRA could possibly out-range it!

By the way, I just picked up this game as a result of the Steam sale. Have to say that I'm enjoying it so far. I have owned FA for ~1 year or so, and the performance problems when more than 2500 units existed (try playing with you vs. 7 AIs where the unit cap per AI is 1000-2000) slowed the game to something like 5-6 seconds per single game don't *seem* to be as impacting in SC2.

Thats just silly, play against fewer better AIs and you'll see improved performance.

Mike

Yeah - playing against 1 cheating AI is already almost impossible if you do not rush, and even a hard AI can beat all but the best players if given the time to build up a sizeable economy. There is really no reason to play against 7 AIs - 1 good AI will take all bases on the map eventually

As for the magnetron - its not as bad as it sounds. Its effect decreases over distance, so its effective range, where it sucks units in faster than they can run away, is more like two thirds of its range. This is why stacking multiple magnetrons is deadly - it increases the effect, so also the effective range. Also keep in mind that jumpjets/teleport/afterburner can save your units from the meat grinder, and major experimentals (which cost around the same) can kill a magnetron before it kills the unit. In fact, its really squishy, so you'll need shields to protect the magnetron. All in all, to get an effective meat grinder established, it will not only cost a huge amount of RP, but also the cost of at least 2 magnetrons and a few shields. For that amount of time and money, you have options like a whole field of LRA batteries, nuking it, sniping the commander, or bombers/air experimentals.

Additional note to the Loyalty Gun, once a capture starts (max range 175) the unit must wander out an extra 50% (I believe, but am not positive) before the capture is to stop.

As a totally unrelated strategy sidenote in dealing with Loyalty Guns:
If you think it is a big deal that he will capture it, ctrl+k is the best option (such as for lonely experimentals). However if whatever he is stealing can easily be desroyed once captured without suffering further losses (or even captured back by friendly ACU/engineers), you are best to let him steal it as; a) it will occupy the Lolgun for the longest possible amount of time, and; b) you will get research points and unit veterency for earning the kill on his newly aquired unit.

I used to play with that many AIs just for the epic feel, not because it was really necessary. I also used to play with TVg, which is a really awesome mod for sandboxing. Like, I would spend time trying to level up a low tier unit, even though it was painfully slow, or have a few supremely OP ACUs walking around killing stuff, gaining XP, and becoming even more OP.

(as you can see, I enjoy playing Sandbox way more than 1v1 strategy, because it's just fun to spawn units of all sorts and test them out!)

By the way, does anyone know if there are any veterancy mods for Supreme Commander 2? Something where you can gain like 100 levels of veterancy, I think would be pretty damn fun.

Not that I am aware, but im very sure its possible to increase the bonus per veterancy level... That would be very easy in fact.