SupCom: The How-To thread

Games
#1

I am making this thread so it can be a simple repository for Q&A on how to do things in SupCom. I know some other threads have some Q&A in them, but they are buried and not easy to find. Id like this to be simply short questions and answers rather then any long discussions so that it will be easy to look something up.

My first few questions:

  1. Once you have made a large build que for one unit, like your ACU, is there a way to get other units to work on different parts of the build que? The reason I am asking this is because I was watching a replay and this guy laid out a bunch of structures to be built. Then he made his first land factory, and some engineers came out. Then the engineers started building things that were already laid out by his ACU. I know ‘assist’ will assist the ACU, but these guys were working in parallel on other things in the que.

  2. Do tech 2 and Tech 3 engineers build faster then Tech 1 engineers?

  3. What is the attack command to move somewhere, but stop and engage enemies opposed to driving by them while shooting?

  4. Can friendly turrets / units shoot past friendly walls? Or is it just friendly defenses?

  5. What does the overcharge command do? It always seems that when I use it, my commander blows up, but then again, big units may be killing him fast.

#2

I thought Overcharge was the command unit’s self-destruct mode. Does it actually do something else?

I’d like to know the answers to your questions, too. Also:

  1. Is there a way to set up a group of transports to ferry newly produced units from a factory location to the front lines automatically? I can’t find it in the manual and I haven’t been able to figure it out through experimentation.

  2. Is there a way to upgrade your supreme commander to higher tech levels, or is your main man always relegated to Tech 1 construction?

  3. How big do your bases usually get when you play, say, a medium sized map? I don’t think I’m building my stuff big enough. My skirmish games go for two hours sometimes before I build up enough units to break through the enemy defense lines.

I’m enjoying the game, but holy crap is it not for everyone.

#3

Set your factory destination to the front lines, then have transports assist the factory.

Such a nifty system.

#4

Overcharge Overcharge is the Commander’s D-gun, aka, the Particle Cannon of All-Death. It costs 3000 energy a shot, and is very short ranged. It’s not quite as powerful as the old D-gun of Total Annihilation days as it doesn’t go through. I haven’t tested if it can kill Tier-4 Experimental Units, because these units get a bonus vs. Commanders and kill them quickly. I’m certain it will kill any factory unit however.

Upgrading Commander’s construction kit. Commanders have an construction kit upgrade, generally on their left arm (right side on display). You must use this to access buildings above those available by default on the Commander.

#5

Yes. To do this simply select a transport and have it assist the factory. Then make sure the factory has a rally point (select factory then set a move order to where you want the units to rally at). The transport will then wait outside the factory, load units as they are produced, and when it’s full will ferry them to the factory’s rally point. You can have multiple transports assist the factory if a single one can’t handle the production rate.

Edit: removed stuff that TheSelfishGene put up first and more accurately.

#6

Getting the proper number of transports assisting the factory is a little tricky though. Too few, and it takes forever because there aren’t enough ferrying. Too many, and it takes forever because the transports don’t always fill one-by-one.

Lorini

#7
  1. Is there a way to CANCEL something in the build queue? In the old TA, if you put the solar panel in slight the wrong place, while still holding the shift key you could click the exact same spot to delete it. SupComm, oddly enough, doesn’t allow this.

Sam

#8

You can cancel stuff in build queues by clicking on it in the queue. I don’t think there’s a way to cancel any actions or a way to cancel anything by clicking on its image.

Lorini

#9

Yes, much faster.

Hold down alt when issuing the move order.

No, you cannot shoot past friendly walls any better than enemies can. It’s all height-based.

Hold shift and control and right-click an order to delete it. Alternatively, you can just hold shift and drag and drop that order to where you want it.

#10

That is useful to know about transports. I had been using the ferrying method instead.

Is there a way to set a round-about ferry route? IE: Going in a strait line will cause your ferries to be shot down, but you could navigate around the threatening zone.

Is there a way to delete a specific item from a build que? IE: I accendtly place a mass maker instead of a generator but only notice it after I have placed 5 other things. Can I just remove it (assuming I have other mass extractors I want built too) from the que?

#11

I think a lot of people don’t know that combat is simmed in SupCom and not rolled-dice. Each shot takes into account angle, trajectory, bullet speed and does a collision check against the polygons of the target unit or the terrain or the walls.

This is the primary reason why things bog down so much in big battles as your CPU tries to keep up with all the shot calculations, not necessarily the GPU drawing everything on the screen.

Tactically that means walls are much more effective against line of sight weapons like lasers and flat trajectory cannon shots. and pretty much ignored by artillery. They provide a lot more protection for units next to the wall and not back away form it up the hill.

#12

I don’t think so because the logic choosing routes to destinations seems to be dependent on the move or patrol command.

Right, just eliminate the mass marker from the queue by clicking on whatever it is you have building it. You’ll see the set of stuff the builder has queued, and just click on what you don’t want built. It will be deleted from the build queue.

Lorini

#13

This bugs me more than anything since I played TA so much. Old habits die hard.

From playing the campaign, I picked up on one useful adjacency bonus: Building Mass Storage next to a Mass Extractor increases it’s mass output. Putting four of them on each side of the extractor is a significant increase.

#14

I’m pretty sure you can just hold shift and issue multiple ferry waypoints, and the transports will drop off units at the last one.

#15

Yup, you can make your transports take as circuitous a route as you like, although I haven’t checked whether they head back home along the same path or if they just go straight back to the start point. I would hope they’d be smart enough to retrace their steps.

#16

sigh
As if the obvious wasn’t obvious enough. Heh, that DOES make sense! Though why they would “remove” the way it was done in TA is odd.

SamF7

#17

but you can move it. Hold down the shift key (I think) and you can select the center of the building to be built and left click and hold the button down… you can then move the to be built building around to where it should be.

helps me when I am doing lots of queues and screw up.

#18

The same is true of power gens and energy storage. The bonus is 50% if the building is surrounded orthogonally (that’s 3750 energy from T3 reactors with 16 storage next to them).

This is the primary reason why things bog down so much in big battles as your CPU tries to keep up with all the shot calculations, not necessarily the GPU drawing everything on the screen.

QFT. When the simulation is slowing things to a crawl taking the game speed down a few notches will make things silky smooth again.

#19

+++ on the reduce speed tip. I have to do that in big air and sea battles when hundreds if not thousands of guided projectiles are sailing through the air.

#20

Does anyone know what the benefits are to coordinating your attacks between air and land units, and just telling them both to move to the same spot on the map?