Hi i'm new and got a lot of questions

[unknownn]

Hi i'm unknownn.
I played Supcom a long time ago when there still was gpgnet.
It's probably been 4 or 5 years since i last played supcom or supcom 2 (yea it sucked after playing FA and it was a huge disappointment )
I ended up here thanks to the youtube video's of gyle, so all credits to gyle and everyone starring in the video's. Watching supcom is still a lot of fun.
Since it been so long that I've played I got a lot of questions. Not only about gameplay but also about system requirements.

Firstly i'm about to buy a new laptop, but supcom used to be a very intense game for your desktop when I used to play supcom.
So my first question is can you now play supcom properly on a laptop. I'm probably gonna buy a laptop with an i5-processor. So would this laptop be able to run supcom?

So let's say that i can run supcom on my laptop. I buy the game at steam. But then what? How do i get the game linked to Forged Alliance Forever? (if this is a FAQ then don't mention the question)

Ok so next question. And this is for me an important one.
How is the player base? When i come home from work can i just randomly search an opponent or launch a game and find an opponent?
Probably the player base has been thinned out over the years. So can i still easily find a match?

All my other questions are over gameplay, or the patches that you guys made to complement the game and balance.
I'll probably find all that in the forums.
If someone takes the effort to answer all my questions that would really be great.
Hopefully I'll see you soon on the battlefield
Unknownn

[Rogueleader89]

Hey, and welcome to FAF. First on your question about specs, you definitely can run supcom on a modern laptop, just make sure you get a good enough processor and graphics card (processor is far more important though, an i5 will probably work but someone who has bought a laptop more recently than me can probably confirm/deny that better)

After you have the game just download FAF, make an account, and login, you can link FAF to steam if you want but its not required (if you don't then its 1 account per computer). Also if you already have the game the old cd key will register on steam and give you both the original and the expansion.

As to the playerbase, it depends on the time of day you are playing but there are generally games going 24/7, peak hours having a ton more of course, as I type this at non-peak hours there are 261 people in chat with 3 games I could join in the lobby and 24 games listed as being in progress on the live replay screen, additionally of course there is the 1v1 matchmaker, just starting in faf you'll probably have no difficulty getting opponents over that and a lot of people host low rated games if you prefer teams (and you can always ask in chat if you just want someone to practice with or something, we're generally nice people :P).


As for gameplay and balance, somewhere around here there is a full changelog (you'd think I'd know where it is after spending several hours on it..) but honestly its a ton to go over and if you've watched gyle's casts you have probably seen how much of the meta has evolved since GPG; the three main things you need to know about are engi-mod, which makes it so once you have teched up a factory (to a factory HQ) you can build and upgrade to much cheaper factories at the same tech level (but if the HQ dies all of those factories stop being able to build units at their tech level), Mobile t3 aa, which is what it sounds like, and that f1 is the key to rebind hotkeys, specifically in this you'll want to find and figure out the spread attack command (essentially splits up a group of units automatically to apply damage equally to multiple targets, really great for lots of things); other hotkeys can also be useful and there are several guides on how to set those up but in the end its entirely up to you on whether you want to use them or not

EDIT: This thread might be useful to you for a more detailed broad overview of gameplay changes: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=8820&p=85096#p85047

[NodCommander]

Welcome!

Awesome. I think its through Gyle I found out about SupCom a good two years ago or so by now. I'm hoping he will come back to us soon! Also BrinkoInsanity does regular casts every week. He might not have the voice of Gyle, but he has taught me a lot! https://www.youtube.com/user/BRNKoINSANITY

Your first question: Can you run it on a laptop? Yes. I have my gaming laptop as secondary computer and it runs fine with maxed settings. However, a big screen does wonders to this game.

An i5 doesnt say much much at all. Especially not on a laptop. You'll have to be a bit more specific on that part.

[unknownn]

First of all thx for the answers.
Secondly, the laptop i'm probably gonna buy is a lenovo u330 touch.
So do you guys think when you look at it's stats that it can run supcom?
Just regular games (I've never really liked games on seton's)
Unknownn

[Exotic_Retard]

gameplay? ok then : D
http://wiki.faforever.com/index.php?title=Main_Page try consulting this for info on how to use the lobby and what is where.
it also contains all of the patch change logs, and some useful tools like replay parser

for a more specific change, engy mod, go here: http://wiki.faforever.com/index.php?title=What_is_Engy_Mod?

hope this helps

[Resin_Smoker]

First of all thx for the answers.
Secondly, the laptop i'm probably gonna buy is a lenovo u330 touch.
So do you guys think when you look at it's stats that it can run supcom?
Just regular games (I've never really liked games on seton's)
Unknownn

As for the laptop question here are a few points to consider...

Do not get a laptop with INTERGRATED graphics as this implies that the CPU and on board memory is being used to run your display. Obviously this will kill your CPU performance and eat up a ton of your precious memory that could of been better used to run your applications. Instead look for a dedicated video processor and one where the overall wattage isn't so high that your laptop can be used as a space heater.

Hard drive or SSD,This should be a no brainer as SSD's are not only a shit ton faster (around 8- 20 second boot times are common) but they use far less power. This is important if you'd like to get the most out of your battery and help keep your laptop cooler.

Memory by default most systems ship with at least 4 Gb's. Now while this is "ok" it's a bit anemic for gaming so I'd suggest having 6-8 Gb's. Anymore than this is both a waste of money and will create more heat for your laptop to dissipate.

CPU's are important but don't buy off on all the hype. I-5, I-7 ect... Look up the CPU spec's as well as the reliability of a manufactures build with said processor. I say this because a great process will run like crap if the manufacture uses substandard components to build the main board.

Heat is your enemy! No matter how fast your laptop, it's still just a laptop. Now as such your system stability and longevity will be hugely impacted by how much heat is created during the long hours of play it will be subjected to. Base your CPU and Video selections off of what information you can easily get online about their required wattage.

Bloat ware, is almost a given with any laptop you but now days. I night recommend slicking the laptop and installing a new OS using a disk that was not provided by the laptops manufacturer. Reason is that all this extra software remains on your system even after you though you've deleted it. This bloat wares only job is spy on you and as such runs in the background, eating up your system resources and network bandwidth in the process.

Resin

[Resin_Smoker]

enovo u330 touch

Looks like it's not going to be a good system for you for two reasons.

1) INTERGRATED graphics

2) Windows 8, completely sucks balls. Stay with windows 7 or get a windows 7 OS from a third party to replace the one installed by the manufacturer.

Resin

[Softly]

I played for 2 years on integrated graphics no problem.

[Resin_Smoker]

I played for 2 years on integrated graphics no problem.

This really depends on his intended use...
If this is primarily going to be a gaming laptop then a dedicated card is the way to go.

Resin

[Resin_Smoker]

The U430 would be a much better laptop for gaming.

I5 series processors are dual core, while i7's are quad.

However the single biggest factor for good FAF performance appears to be single core speed. Apparently FA doesn't use more than two cores to their fullest potential. What core you choose will depend on what you intent to use the laptop for beyond FAF ?

I'd get the U430, I7-4510U if cost isn't an issue. Besides, this processor uses half the power of the 4558U, while costing much less for about the same performance.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4 ... e-i7-4510U

8Gb ram

256Gb SSD

Here is the spec on the video card: http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/GeForce-GT-730M
This card pumps out 33 watts of heat when running fullout.

Resin