Blogs - SLi-Fox

I just wanted to say hi. I've been very distracted. I've been hiking, shooting, getting married, learning how to sew (needed an iPod pouch), shooting some more and working.

I was on Steam a while back and saw that Supreme Commander 2 was on sale for $10. Having only played the demo, I decided to buy it. And I still think it's horrible, so I deleted it. Had to give it another chance especially when it was priced at $10. Maybe GPG will put my donation to good use.

After watching the military channel the other day, I decided I wanted to get back into map making. I don't know where I'll find the time. I barely have time to play the games that I have, not to mention the games that will be coming out. 2011 is going to be a good year!

If anyone happens to see this, don't expect much. Just wanted to say that I'm not dead.

Many thanks to those who have given me support. It's winter time and it's raining cats and dogs outside. So I'm officially indoors. My latest map for Supreme Commander FA is 'Mars-Mining Sector Alpha.' An idea from GCF_Rakk. I'm actually quite proud of this one and I have to say that it's one of my better maps.

Play on!

I've had a great summer. Where I live, we only get 2 months of good weather and the rest of the 10 months is pretty much rain. I picked up a new hobby. Building AR-15's. I spent the summer with a Stag Arms Stag-15 just to see what I like and what I want to change. So far, almost a 1000 rounds through the rifle.

Anyway...I'm back to work creating Supreme Commander Forged Alliance maps and have just uploaded "European Theater." I hope everyone likes it. I'll be creating a North American theater in the coming weeks. I won't be upgrading to the new beta patch. It breaks too many things and I don't think HazardX will update his map editor or marker editor.

I would like to thanks those who have downloaded my maps. My work schedule is a real mess right now and I'm trying to keep up my work on SupComFA maps. I have 2 in the works with an idea for a 3rd after I finish the prior 2.

Supreme Commander 2:
I've been reading as much as I possibly can about it and from what I've been reading is that SupCom2 will have a simplified economy which pretty much means no mass/metal or energy to manage. I don't like it!
The economy in SupCom presents a strategic advantage or liability. The original Total Annihilation had it down very well. In the original, base defenses had an energy consumption value and if your enemy managed to knock out enough power plants, your base defenses would power down. In SupCom and SupComFA, that wasn't the case and we had to wait for someone to create a mod for that (I can't remember the author's name and what the mod is called. I havn't tried it yet considering I spend more time creating maps than playing the game).

I think Chris Taylor should give an option in the game to have an economy management mode and a non-economy management mode to not only appease long time fans, but also appease his greater target of the greater audience.

I've just uploaded Mesa II. For the past couple maps, I've been creating 3 maps for every 1 that I post. Still trying to figure out how to improve the Islands map.

L3DT is proving very handy and I'm really getting used to it along with HazardX map tools for SupCom.

Has anyone read about Supreme Commander 2? Apparently it's to use shaders. I will definitely need to upgrade my graphics cards before it comes out.

I'm taking some time off. The next following weeks will be busy for me. I do have some sketches for maps that I'll be working on when I have the time. Some are desert/mesas like the grand canyon. That will be my last desert/mesa map for a while.

And also, I've been experimenting with L3DT and hope to add some realism to past maps. While playing Islands, it seems ships have a hard time hitting the upper elevations, so I'll be lowering those elevations and will be adding in more islands.

I hope to have something posted within the next few weeks if anyone cares.

I spent the day modding the Crysis Mesa map by Crytek for Supreme Commander Forged Alliance. This was the map that I was going to build from scratch, but decided to use the heightmap from Crytek which saved me a lot of time.

It is meant for team vs team, however I did add AI markers and paths.

Now I'm thinking of the next map to create. Any suggestions?

I'm working on a new map that has the following:

- Huge bases will be less important and 'base wars' will be a waste of time
- Mass deposits will be grouped together in strategic locations
- Mobile artillery will play a much larger role and Exp Artillery will not
- Being able to maneuver your forces will play a much larger role. Many avenues of attack and flanking options will negate the creation of super fortified defense areas because it will be impossible to maintain.
- Setting up and holding strategic locations will play a much larger role

This will be accomplished by the layout of the map which I will make as challenging as possible. This map will also be geared towards player vs player and team vs team vice player vs computer, however at this point I don't know how the computer AI will react to the map.

Once the map is released, some may recognize the layout. I'm drawing inspiration from a map from another game. It won't be exactly the same. Areas of the map need to be optimized for SupComFA and I will be creating it from the ground up.

Time to release: unknown at this time

I might be asking for it, but does anyone make comments after downloading something? I'm interested if anyone has been working on the 'Freelancer' Twist of Trek mod or has any ideas of improving my Supreme Commander Forged Alliance maps. Comments are welcome! I'll still upload stuff if no one wants to say anything. I pretty much have a lot of time on my hands.