codepants wrote:
Hi all,

First post, woohoo. Hope this is the right place for it, etc.

I'm starting a Supcom group at work and figured a good boost to our membership would be to send an e-mail to the Starcraft group (81 members) inviting them to try Supcom. I'm looking for suggestions about what to say.

I acknowledge that Starcraft is not Supcom and my intent is not to magic them over or to convince them Supcom is "better" (though obviously I think it is, and I hope they will too). I simply want an outline of the features of Supcom, something quick to read and something that will make them want to try it out or ask more questions.

Below is a quick draft; all edits and recommendations welcome.

Thanks!
cp

- - -

Hello Starcraft group,

I'm looking for people interesting in playing a somewhat similar game, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (AKA "Supcom"). If you're perfectly content playing Starcraft and not looking for anything else at this time, you can delete this e-mail. Otherwise, read on.

For the quick and dirty, watch a trailer here: (link to FAF trailer on youtube, which I can't put here because apparently it's too spammy for a new forum member to post).

Supcom is an RTS that is similar to SC in many ways, but also (in my opinion) better in many ways. The scale is larger, the strategy is deeper, and there is a much lower correlation between clicks per minute (CPM) and success rate. In other words, Supcom is much more about strategy and much less about building x building at y population. I acknowledge there is some variation to SC and don't want to downplay that, of course. They are not the same game -- but if you enjoy SC, it's likely you'd enjoy Supcom. I like Supcom many times better, and I think it's worth a shot if you are looking for something new.

Supcom has a fan-made multiplayer platform, donation-supported, called Forged Alliance Forever ("FAF") (link to FAF homepage). At any given time there are at least 300 players online and about two-thirds of those players are in-game. The Forged Alliance version of the game (the one you'd buy to play FAF) is $4 on Amazon (link to Amazon page) and that purchase is redeemable on Steam.

If anybody is interested, please join the group (link to group) and let me know. My friends and I currently play most Sundays at 6:30, and I'd be happy to start regular after-work meets at (workplace). I'm also happy to "show you the ropes;" I'm not a pro, but I've got the basics and some advanced tricks as well.

Thanks for your time, and happy gaming,
(me)

Krapougnak wrote:
Supcom and Starcraft are RTS not RPG.

ZLO_RD wrote:
(...)

also if you have 15 barraks with reactor and making marines, you will need 60 apm for that
in FA you can be top 20 with 50 apm or even less (Congreve, Voodoo)

Aarhun wrote:

Nombringer wrote:
Hmmmm this is interesting that you say this because I always saw FA UI as being much more streamlined than SC, especially with the zoom.

I will have to bear this in mind

Yes the zoom is awesome, that couple with relative slowness of units make the game far more strategic.

But the rest of the UI… I found surprising to not have by default a list of unit/structure that have energy and mass upkeep that is capable of select and zoom on it (a mod can do this).
When you see how it can cripple you in a game, plus the fact that there is a build-in mechanism to disable those unit/structure.
The upgrades of the com are not listed by tech level, we have to figure out that some cost is linked to some tech level.
Another point is to have more verbose information about unit. Take the T1 Cybran AA, where do you find the information that you can toggle the attack mode to make it shoot against land unit ? In forum, database, hardly in game, except if you notice the strange icon for this unit in bottom left of the screen :p
In general having the information of the way units shoot. (I guess it is too complicated and diversified to be clearly display by the UI )
In SC2 you know which unit can shoot which unit, you have the armor type, the "+ against this type of armor" in tooltip of weapons.
I don't say that FA do not tell us information, but it is very minimal. It fits perfectly well with the game style. And for medium/pro player it is cool to not be flooded by information, I can understand that.

Aarhun wrote:
Take the T1 Cybran AA, where do you find the information that you can toggle the attack mode to make it shoot against land unit ? In forum, database, hardly in game, except if you notice the strange icon for this unit in bottom left of the screen :p

Nombringer wrote:
Hmmmm this is interesting that you say this because I always saw FA UI as being much more streamlined than SC, especially with the zoom.

I will have to bear this in mind

Aarhun wrote:
When I went from SC2 to FA the thing if found the most annoying was the interface.
I find the FA one too small and that it give not enough information.
The SC2 one is polished you know exactly what a unit is doing, against what etc...
After some mod installation it is better but far from perfect.

I mean after some time playing and reading through the net, the lack of information given by the interface is not that important, but for a new player coming from SC2 it might be repulsive. You might want to be prepare for such criticize and to counter them with a pack of noob friendly mod.