I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it right"

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

H-h-h-how can you say 'Risk, Relief, Victory' sucked? And how can you say that the non-combat music of Total Annihilation was brilliant?

But, while I love both game's music, and although 'Risk, Relief, Victory' is amazing, I do believe that, all in all, I'd rank Total Annihilation's music above Supreme Commander's. But only barely.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

The "non-combat" music for TA was brilliant. It may not be as iconic as the battle music, but it definitely sets a mood and a tone... something SupCom failed to do as well as TA did it.

Go back and actually listen to "Licking Wounds", "Futile Attempt", "Charred Dreams" and "Blood of the Machines"... they're stunning tracks.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

WTF. That is one of my favourite pieces of music.

And I'm not saying on the SupCom soundtrack.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

I love the non-combat music of TA.

Those are haunting pieces that really made me feel like I was playing in an endless war on desolate planets void of humanity. If you want to feel in an emo mood, just listen to some of the slower tracks at the end of the cd. It really gives a nice setting.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Ok, you're right. I just listened to them, and they're much better than I remembered. They're good!

But I still don't think I'd like to hear those more than once or twice in a game. Still, you guys are right. It's nice!

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Ha ha told you! If you didn't play ta music while playing supcom you missed out big time..ta had the greatest music of any rts game and I feel confident in saying the one of the greatest sound tracks in video gaming period.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

@OP - congratulations, and welcome to the club! hehehe :mrgreen:

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

See here -- I already knew of the things the original poster brings up with Total Annihilation, and felt similar.

Which is why anyone claiming its economy system is more complex than Starcraft's is utterly baffling.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

how can anyone think a mortgage is more complicated than buying socks

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

If you guys like Jeremy's work he just did a kickstarter for his first symphony. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/499 ... phony-no-1

TA was the first time he ever recorded with an orchestra so he poured his soul into it. It was a big deal.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Jeremy Soule is just amazing. No doubt about it.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Wow he destroyed his goal amount lol

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Oh no, I did play the Total Annihilation music during Supreme Commander, but only the combat pieces (and in addition to Supreme Commander music such as 'Risk, Relief, Victory').

I thought the non-combat music of Total Annihilation was crap, but it's actually kind of cool. Haunting, perhaps? It's... Different. Distinct. I like it, but not as a piece of music that's played repeatedly, in a playlist. I like it as... I don't know. Background music sounds too degorative, if that's the word I'm looking for.

Ah well, here's a massive yay to Jeremy Soule, living up to his last name with his music.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

I would put on TA music on the CD player from time to time.
When the idle music kicked in my mom would be like:
"Why do you listen to such sad music?"
"I'm gonna change the music. It's too depressing."

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Did, did I win the internets?
Pre-emptive sorry for such a massive reply, i have alot to say about the good comments here.

So true!! It is half the game right there.
It reminds me of some comments made by Turn 10 (the developers of Forza for xbox 360), when they were asked how they approached sound design and how the sound in the game managed to be so satisfying compared to competitors.
They said, it's because when a person hears a Ferrari for example, they hear it on a limited band on a TV or HiFi system. They get sound cutoffs at the high bands that makes the engine sound powerful despite being of the same technical volume as anything else you hear on the same speaker system.
This of course because the only way to capture how much louder or powerful something feels with speakers, is to make the sound cutoff a bit, to seem as if "the speakers can't handle it".
If one keeps the sound below the cutoff point, it won't sound any different in power from a Skoda Octavia, since both sound files played by the speakers have the same volume spikes, the same level.

This is something that DICE employs in their Battlefield series as well. A player being close to an explosion causes the sound to literally "become bad quality", because it represents the physical force of the sound on the virtual ears of the character.

I think this applies alot to the feel of TA as well. The sounds are of quite "low quality" in that they do cutoff at the high end, an explosion sounds distorted and a bit crackly. One might argue this is bad sound engineering, but in a way it makes it sound far more powerful, as if your speakers are being blown out or as if your eardrums (if you were there) couldnt handle it.
In Supreme Commander there was better sound by a technical standpoint, but they also felt less powerful due to being more restrictive on the high end. They wanted it to sound clear, instead of ear-bendingly powerful.

I can't agree more. That's part of why i loved TA & Supcom compared to other rts games.
In every single other rts game the devs were always too scared to take things to the next level, a NUKE in other games only took out half the health of a command center and an area the size of a parking lot.
In TA & Supcom, it's imba as hell. A nuke absolutely wrecks everything.

I actually have the opinion that making things imba in games, then making the counter imba as well (sort of, fight imba with more imba) is way more enjoyable than having everything be nerfed down to pea shooters.

There's two ways to balance a game about warfare.
1. You have nukes that dont do much, so the recieving player doesn't cry about it.
2. You have devastating nukes that are expensive to get, but you also have great anti-nuke capability that's slightly less expensive to get.

I much prefer the latter option. If something is imba powerful, just add a counter to it instead of nerfing it. Simple.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

As well as the sounds in TA, the weapons had the following properties which made them feel "real":

1. The graphics matched their damage potential. Bigger explosion = Bigger damage (yes, there were a few exceptions, but mostly).
2. There were established Weapon types in the design of the game, and only a limited amount. The units were then constructed around these, rather than making new weapons for each unit. This helped the game feel more grounded than sup com, where the weapons all feel fake because there is no consistancy.

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

That's a very good point!

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

good point

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Indeed great point.
In TA it felt like, every time you saw a cannonball fly towards you, you knew it was going to hurt, no matter if it was from an Immolator, Punisher, Guardian or Bulldog.
You knew what each weapon was capable of, no matter the point of origin.

In Supcom, despite having amazing weapons in some cases (come on, spider bot cutting beam laser, who doesnt like that?? i really want a similar BLAAAAWRRR laser in PA).
Usually, it just felt like "oh another pew-pew thingy, what does that do? does it do alot of damage? no? yes?".

Re: I went from "SupCom clone plz" to "no you're doing it ri

Compare it to buying a luxury car. A fair comparison requires similar value brackets.

Because children know how to do either.