|
Cythereal posted:The reason behind the Knights and Princesses and whatnot is also pretty simple: it is explicitly canon that Miranda Burke, the leader of the Seraphim Two colonists who defeated the Earth Empire forces on Seraphim Two and adopted the Way, was a huge nerd and so were many of her followers, so they deliberately adopted a fantastical nomenclature in their society, and at this point it's an ingrained part of the Aeon. Cybran and UEF civilians in the backstory do love making fun of the Aeon for this, and one backstory note says the easiest way to tell the difference between a born Aeon and a UEF or non-Symbiont Cybran convert is if they use terms like Knight and Princess with a straight face or not. I'm always glad to see the people in-setting are completely aware of how ridiculous the Space Wizard Aeon are.
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 03:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 08:56 |
|
|
Where are you getting all of this info, Cythereal?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 03:59
|
|
|
Polaron posted:Where are you getting all of this info, Cythereal? The defunct old forums and website. They had a couple staff who would regularly post lore tidbits and approve fan ideas, especially regarding the expansion.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 04:04
|
|
|
my dad posted:A friend told me about a dude who built several of those things to make sure he always has at least one up and running, but didn't quite put enough space between them. Heh. Why would you do that? It scales infinitely.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 04:21
|
|
|
Yeah a couple of the devs would go on these huge lore spiels at the drop of a hat on the old forums which is where a lot of the extra background material comes from.Night10194 posted:I'm always glad to see the people in-setting are completely aware of how ridiculous the Space Wizard Aeon are. I don't think anyone outside of the Aeon is actually aware of the properly wizardy part; the UEF have sort of figured out that the Princess can apparently brainwash\take control of their commanders just by talking to them but they haven't figured out why she can do that. wiegieman posted:Why would you do that? It scales infinitely. It actually doesn't; there's a max number of resources per tick it can produce. The number is just so high that without abusing UEF Kennels you'll probably never reach it. Neruz fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 05:05
|
|
|
Neruz posted:I don't think anyone outside of the Aeon is actually aware of the properly wizardy part; the UEF have sort of figured out that the Princess can apparently brainwash\take control of their commanders just by talking to them but they haven't figured out why she can do that. I more meant that the characters in-setting can tell the whole Knight and Crusader and AVATAR OF WAR naming scheme was probably invented by a massive nerd, and I'm glad that's canon.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 05:10
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Why would you do that? It scales infinitely. They're strategic bomber bait that is all but guaranteed to die when your enemy realizes that you have it, and it's not like you're gonna have trouble building another one while the first one is still operational. my dad fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 08:49
|
|
|
"Bait" is the right word there. You know, the kind of stuff you put into traps to lure unsuspecting shitloads of resources that the enemy really should have been better off spending on other things right into a massive gauntlet of anti-air fire and patrolling interceptors looking for easy kills...
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 11:12
|
|
|
kaosdrachen posted:"Bait" is the right word there. It's less bait and more threat - the game enders aren't called game enders because they're bluff cards. If your opponent doesn't have the forces ready to swat your game ender before you finish it or at worst immediately after it's finished, it's game over no matter what they have in reserve. There's no 'better off' for the opponent, it's just straight up Black Sun type 'counter or die'.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 11:28
|
|
|
Pingcode posted:It's less bait and more threat - the game enders aren't called game enders because they're bluff cards. If your opponent doesn't have the forces ready to swat your game ender before you finish it or at worst immediately after it's finished, it's game over no matter what they have in reserve. Well, yes. The definition of a perfect bait is something the target will have no choice but to go for even knowing it's a trap.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 11:47
|
|
|
The Aeon game ender is also unique among its kind by its very nature making it very difficult to quickly snipe if you know how to make the most use of it. Which is actually the key to using the thing - almost every multiplayer video where I've seen someone lose with one operational has been because they didn't pump out the build capacity to use it to its fullest.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 14:14
|
|
|
Sorry to double post, but I got fully caught up on the videos and have some things to add in response to things you note: * Aeon units and structures folding and unfolding was dropped for resource reasons. Making every unit and structure constantly check for nearby enemies to unfold was found to be too draining on computers when the game's a system hog as it is. This is also why naval wrecks were removed from the game's release. * The UEF gate screw-ups are from the Cybrans messing with the quantum gate network, specifically QAI. They're trying to disrupt quantum gate travel for the UEF to make their attack easier and slow down Black Sun's development. * Why Mach went insane when he interfaced with Seraphim technology does have an explanation, but the answer spoils things about the expansion. No explaining the Aeon gateway, though. * Eris refers to the UEF as Imperials a lot, and Barry makes a comment about 'restoring the Empire.' In the fiction, most Cybrans and Aeon don't see a difference between the UEF and the Earth Empire that preceded it, especially when the UEF has tried to tell them they're not responsible for the Earth Empire's sins that got those two factions started. It does not help that the UEF's mission statement is basically to reunite humanity and restore the Earth Empire. * It's only vaguely implied in the game, and hinted at further in the manual, but Zachary Arnold's backstory explains why he's so receptive to Burke in the Aeon campaign. Arnold is one of the longest-serving ACU pilots in the Infinite War, and during that time he's seen so many people die, comrades and civilians alike, and seen so much of the UEF's flaws that he's been on the verge of a nervous breakdown for a few years now. He's been throwing himself into the war to avoid thinking about it, but Arnold hates himself and what he fights for. All it takes is one good push by Burke to put him over the edge. This is the main bone of contention between Arnold and Samantha Clarke, and why she's the supreme commander (no pun intended) of the UEF military while Arnold serves on the front lines. Clarke still believes in the UEF, but Arnold does not. * Eris more or less takes the place of the Aeon Commander in the UEF and Cybran campaigns, but is explicitly not her. Continuity in SupCom with regards to the three campaigns is pretty vague, but everyone who can die in the vanilla campaigns (Leopard11, Mach, Barry, Eris, Ariel, etc) is confirmed KIA during this time period. When in doubt, the Aeon campaign more or less takes precedence for reasons we'll see in the expansion. * For anyone who's curious, no name is given for the Aeon or UEF Commanders, and the Cybran Commander only has a last name. According to GPG, this is the main reason why none of them appear in the sequel, though one of the lore nut devs gave an unofficial explanation of what happened to each of them between the expansion and sequel.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 02:53
|
|
|
They said specifically that all 3 campaigns are basically altering events so that for this playthrough, that side is the protagonist, didn't they? Thus the protagonist for the other two sides doesn't really exist when you're playing as 1 faction.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 02:57
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:They said specifically that all 3 campaigns are basically altering events so that for this playthrough, that side is the protagonist, didn't they? Thus the protagonist for the other two sides doesn't really exist when you're playing as 1 faction. Yes, that's how it works in vanilla SupCom. The expansion works a bit differently in that it's one story you can play through as any of the three commanders from vanilla SupCom, mainly changing who's yelling at you to hurry up, and the expansion strongly implies that the Aeon ending happened. At any rate, sorry for sperging. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Jul 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 02:59
|
|
|
Aeon is canon? There's a number of things that support Cybran being the canon campaign.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 03:25
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Aeon is canon? There's a number of things that support Cybran being the canon campaign. It's always been my theory that Aeon is canon, mostly revolving around Burke's circumstances in the expansion. But as I said, according to GPG it's intentionally vague and murky and they didn't care to make any campaign officially canon. I really need to stop posting. >_>
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
I, for one, find the combination of internet archeology and  quite entertaining !
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 03:33
|
|
|
I like the straight lore dumps. But yeah, I can see wondering if you are going too far when you realized you are half of any given page's post content.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 04:45
|
|
|
None of the three victory scenarios in vanilla SupCom are strictly canon; the final story is a sort of mix of all 3 campaigns but we'll get to that when we get to it. Next ep is processing, should be up in a couple of hours.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 06:56
|
|
|
I know it's not actually what you meant, but i can't help the idea of the three player ACUs having a gundam fistfight right outside of Black Sun, and ending up all accidentally throwing their Plans into the Plot Device at the same time.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 07:14
|
|
|
Ceebees posted:I know it's not actually what you meant, but i can't help the idea of the three player ACUs having a gundam fistfight right outside of Black Sun, and ending up all accidentally throwing their Plans into the Plot Device at the same time. It is one of the great tragedies of this game how impossible/unwise it is to take out an enemy commander with your own ACU like a proper mecha fight.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 07:16
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:It is one of the great tragedies of this game how impossible/unwise it is to take out an enemy commander with your own ACU like a proper mecha fight. Unless you're a Cybran 
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 07:35
|
|
|
Lprsti99 posted:Unless you're a Cybran Is the Special Beam Cannon good for that, then? I never really tried because I was afraid the cookoff would fry my ACU.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 07:36
|
|
|
And yet most of the time I'm in multiplayer, it happens all of the fricken time. Either by me suiciding my commander into an enemy base or by having a tact/nuke launched right beside me into my face.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 07:38
|
|
|
"gently caress this guy, and his base" is the best justification for team matches.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 08:16
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Is the Special Beam Cannon good for that, then? I never really tried because I was afraid the cookoff would fry my ACU. Its incredible for that and I am absolutely going to show off a Fully Operational Cybran Commander at some point because hahahahahahahahaha. Forged Alliance also altered Commander death booms to do reduced damage to structures and other commanders, making ACU fistfights totally workable. I think FA commander death booms do 1000 damage to other commanders.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 08:24
|
|
|
Also if you want to have Murder ACUs you could play BlackOps in FAF; one of the add ons enhances ACUs and makes all of them pretty deadly and great. BlackOps is great in general really.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 09:20
|
|
|
Neruz posted:Its incredible for that and I am absolutely going to show off a Fully Operational Cybran Commander at some point because hahahahahahahahaha. It can literally solo some missions.  (well, you need adequate power infrastructure, but beyond that, it's entirely capable of leveling armies, bases, and most experimentals on its own)
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 09:29
|
|
|
Time for some hot UEF on Cybran action! The UEF have located a Cybran Core World and for the first time ever will be launching an assault on one in order to end the irritating quantum virus that has been ruining gate accuracy. If you remember Cybran Mission 3 a UEF Commander showed up on the Core World Brackman was on and we had to save him, well now you know why said UEF Commander turned up! UEF Mission 4 - Youtube Now if you'll excuse me I need to go lie down.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 11:34
|
|
|
Loving the LP, this game I could never actually get into. Just the scale did my head in. But with the latest vid, wouldn't QAI's main thing be not letting the gate network jump anyone to the Cybran home worlds?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:19
|
|
|
QAI's control isn't that great; he can mess up jumps by creating 'interference' that makes it difficult to hit a specific location but he can't prevent jumps entirely. Basically he can flood the system with static and knock gates off course, but not actually stop the gate. This is also somewhat of a surprise attack; no-one of the Cybran side had any idea the UEF were going to launch this assault so its possible QAI simply didn't notice in time to have any impact on the jump.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:26
|
|
|
One of the things that annoyed me about designing resource outposts in SC is that the most effective compact designs usually look like a swastika.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:50
|
|
|
Neruz posted:QAI's control isn't that great; he can mess up jumps by creating 'interference' that makes it difficult to hit a specific location but he can't prevent jumps entirely. Basically he can flood the system with static and knock gates off course, but not actually stop the gate. Doesn't QAI mention "UEF signatures in orbit" during the briefing of the Cybran version of this mission? Presumably they brought a fleet in above the planet and then sent a Commander down. I doubt there's much QAI could have done in that case either way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 14:44
|
|
|
Polaron posted:Doesn't QAI mention "UEF signatures in orbit" during the briefing of the Cybran version of this mission? Presumably they brought a fleet in above the planet and then sent a Commander down. I doubt there's much QAI could have done in that case either way. Having just watched the Cybran mission last night (at work so I can't watch the new UEF one just yet), yeah QAI mentions that the UEF arrived in orbit first. Again the fiction explains that by now the UEF has realized the network isn't at all reliable so they've started moving into orbit first where throwing them off course doesn't actually hurt them because space is so vast, then the ACU performs a short-range jump down to the surface.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 14:52
|
|
|
I figure the orbiting ships are there for the scans and maybe as a gate relay. By the way the mission starts from the UEF side I do not get the impression that your commander pilot is just sitting there ready to be deployed to a mission in orbit over a planet. He gets interrupted and then briefed quickly before being dumped there.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 15:05
|
|
|
I generally like to back Triads up with a Plasma Cannon or two to deal with lighter, faster units that can overcome its fire rate.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 17:05
|
|
|
my dad posted:One of the things that annoyed me about designing resource outposts in SC is that the most effective compact designs usually look like a swastika. What is the efficient way to do things? I just stumble along until T3 and then make a checkerboard of T3 shields, T3 mass fabs, and T2 powerplants. And then everything explodes in a chain reaction when I get distracted and someone sneaks in under a shield bubble.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 19:24
|
|
|
It's a balancing act, you basically need to juggle having a decent standing army with progressing up the tech tree. Part of why the multiplayer is such a pain in the rear end.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 19:26
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:It's a balancing act, you basically need to juggle having a decent standing army with progressing up the tech tree. Part of why the multiplayer is such a pain in the rear end. Though in single player you're usually safe to turtle and tech up in the first phase before the map expands. A few fiction notes about this mission: * Gauge here is a representative of the Scorched Earth Node of the Cybran Nation, which makes his guarding Brackman rather odd. The Scorched Earth Node, as the name suggests, are a violent and extremist Cybran faction that enjoys large-scale sabotage campaigns and raids into UEF and Aeon territory, and will explicitly target civilians for the morale effect. When UEF and Aeon talk about Cybrans being crazed terrorists, the Scorched Earth Node is the primary group responsible for that reputation. Brackman deplores the group's tactics and thinks they ruin the Cybran Nation's good name, but they're nevertheless useful and Brackman can't bring himself to condemn any of his "children." Backstory-wise, there's not much to Gauge himself beyond that he's an accomplished Cybran commander with a reputation for both getting results and inflicting enormous amounts of collateral damage in the process. * All of the experimentals were given a bit of backstory, and this is canonically the first time the UEF has encountered the Cybran spider-bot known as the Monkeylord, as shown by the UEF not knowing what the heck that thing is. The Monkeylord is an innovation of the Wired Tigers Node (Mach from Cybran mission 2 belongs to that group) who wanted a stealthy, amphibious platform for that microwave laser, a hugely scaled-up version of the same weapon the Cybran ACU can equip. Although originally intended mostly as an assassination weapon, the first few uses of the Monkeylord against the Aeon persuaded the Wired Tigers to mount a conventional weapons suite on the spider bot as well - long-range autocannons, an AAA battery, and a torpedo launcher. It's a common, popular weapon when Cybran ACUs reach that point, being fast, stealthy, heavily armed, and inexpensive for an experimental. The downsides are that it's pretty fragile for an experimental unit, the microwave laser is short-ranged, and its secondary weapons are all fairly lackluster. Popular for quick strikes and bolstering a Cybran advance, but tends to wilt against other experimental units and tech 3 power, particularly from the air and sea. As it happens, these statements also accurately describe the Monkeylord's strengths and weaknesses as a unit in the game.  * In case you're wondering why the UEF didn't bombard the area from orbit, as suggested by the Cybran comments about a UEF presence in orbit, space warfare just isn't a thing in the Supreme Commander universe. ACU warfare is more than sufficient on the planetary surface and spaceships are so slow relative to the space [no pun intended] they have to cover that quantum gateways and ACUs are the most practical form of warfare. In the fiction, each faction does have a full suite of surface-to-orbit weapons and space-based units they can upload to ACUs and build should circumstances warrant such, but it's pretty rare and so ACUs don't have that as standard.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 19:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 08:56 |
|
|
I struggle to imagine what a terrorist strike looks like in a universe with instant nanite construction, nuclear warheads as part of conventional weaponry and skyscraper-sized robots shooting death-beams, commanding armies that they literally built 2 minutes ago.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 19:50
|
|
