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As of now, I'm wrapping up the first semester of my second year of college - and whoo boy, it was a rough one. The campus bookstore had issues delivering my class supplies the whole time (most importantly, my textbooks), so I had to make due with what was presented in my classes as well as complete my assignments on time. I didn't do too well overall this semester, unfortunately. On the bright side, I've been taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again in the next semester! <3

With all of that out of the way, let's talk about what I'm up to right now. As of today, I plan on spending much of my time on working on my projects for Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. This will include downloadable maps (both multiplayer and singleplayer) and some cool ideas I have for mods. If things go my way, each respective project will be obtainable on both ModDB and Forged Alliance Forever's vault when it's it's ready to be shared with everyone.

Pimp My Experimental

• Vanilla Experimental Units will be able to be upgraded in various ways to give them different weapons, add new weapons, improve their stats, etc.
• Default stats of vanilla Experimentals will be adjusted to entice upgrades and/or address certain design issues (i.e "why does the Scathis need to be able to move if it has near global range?")

Inspired by a mod from Forged Alliance Forever I found, Pimp My Experimental will allow you to Customize most, if not all, of the vanilla Experimental units. I won't go into the specifics for this blog, as I'd prefer doing so for when I make a page for the actual mod itself. I currently intend on having this be my first mod, should things go well. If I have any difficulties, I'll try and shift focus to an easier project until I get better at modding.

Show Your Support!

• Removes Engineers from all factories and makes QoL changes to Support ACUs while also adding new "classes" of SACUs through new upgrades.

1. Versatile Commanders - Jack of all trades, master of none; can build just about anything so long as it has the appropriate Tech level criteria (upgrades or premade). Stats are adequate across the board, but not exceptional as its specialized cousins for any given task.
2. Combat Commanders - Has better Build Power and decent weaponry & stats for helping contest mid and aiding in attacks, but cannot build high-tech economic structures or T3/T4 artillery or nukes.
3. Naval Commanders - Designed specifically for maps with lots of water, Naval Commanders can turn into weaponless subs to quickly traverse water (but must transform back into its bipedal form to attack, traverse land, or build stuff). Naval Commanders are equipped with torpedoes by default.
4. Economic Commanders - Designed to maximize production and minimize costs, Eco. Commanders have improved Mass & Power production and have access to special items to improve your economy, but have slightly less build power than other specialized roles. Nothing personal - it's just business.
5. Experimental Commanders - With stats almost on par with an actual ACU, the Exp. Commanders have the best Build Power out of all the 5 build paths for your SACUs - making them the most optimal for building Experimentals, arty, etc. There's a catch, though - they cost a pretty penny to make, so don't make these until you can afford them later in the game.

• SACUs and your ACU do not take up your Unit Cap at all. Instead, the amount of SACUs you can build is dependent on a new resource (similar to the Novax's rework in the BrewLAN mod by Balthassar and his friends in BrewGroup).
• Quantum Gates can be built at Tech 1, but must be upgraded to provide additional SACUs, etc. Upgraded Quantum Gates can also spawn Support Commanders to be prebuilt with role-specific upgrades.

Engineers - love them or hate them, they're an essential part of a working army in SupCom gameplay. I have mixed feelings about them, however. On one hand, they're pretty cheap and have great build power overall (1 T1 ACU = 2 T1 Engies), allowing you to build up your base at an optimal rate while simultaneously reclaiming all the nearby props to help prevent stalling. On the other hand, pro players like Turinturanber can get to T3 air in 9 minutes (give or take) thanks to Engineer spam, and also - the UEF have the only non-SACU engineers that can actually shoot back at people attacking them. I hope on making a mod that'll change that by replacing Engineers with SACUs entirely. The SACUs will have their stats appropriately adjusted to avoid needlessly slowing down/speeding up the pace of the game and to prevent the possibility of "unavoidable early game stalling". With this mod, I hope to make it easier for players of all skill levels to manage a healthy economy while also making the loss of engineers (SACUs) much more impactful.

Muh Diversity!

• Adds a plethora of changes to most of the units and structures of each army to better reflect the differences and uniqueness of each.

1. United Earth Federation:
   • Overall HP advantage
   • Jack of all trades
   • Somewhat grindy playstyle (turtling, gradual map control, etc.).
   • A decent faction for players of all skill levels (a "beginner-friendly" fac).
   • Arguably reliant on build power.
2. Cybran Nation
   • Overall HP disadvantage, but compensate with mobility, firepower, and disruptive capabilities (EMP, Jamming, etc.)
   • Offense > defense
   • Aggressive, raid-incentivized playstyle.
   • Requires some adequate micro in order to maximize effectiveness in battle.
   • Arguably reliant on Stealth and map control.
3. Aeon Illuminate
   • Overall average, but efficient, stats.
   • Tons of damage + adequate mobility.
   • Micro-intensive, but adaptable playstyle.
   • Best fit for experienced SupCom/RTS players.
   • Arguably reliant on Shields and having a big economy to outpower enemies.
4. Seraphim
   • Mix between UEF and Aeon.
   • Smaller - but versatile - unit pool.
   • Offense = defense
   • Only "not beginner friendly" thing about the Seraphim is the design of their tech. Other than that, it's basically the best faction for new players.
   • Arguably, why worry about flanking and "backdoors" in enemy base defenses when "you can just knock down the front door"?

I'd gladly list some examples of my ideas for changes for each faction, but I think it'd be more fit to make that a blog of its own. I will say this, however: this is definitely gonna be on my list for "things to work on as I get better at modding". Changing the stats of all the vanilla structures? The units too? Yeah, that'd be a pretty big project - especially if I want it to be a balanced one and not just one for shits & giggles.

Advancements of War (A.K.A "Total Mayhem Lite")

• Adds a subcategory of new units for each faction's tech levels that are more expensive, but considerably more powerful than other units of its caliber - the Advanced units.
• Advanced units must be built from Advanced Factories, which are individual facs of their own for each type of army unit (land, air, and sea).
• For the sake of balance, Advanced units, as powerful as I intend to make them, will be designed to still be outpowered by higher tier units or specific units in their respective tech level.

Nicknamed by me and my buddies on Forged Alliance Forever as "Total Mayhem Lite", Advancements of War is meant to be structurally similar to Total Mayhem, but in a way that doesn't basically slow your game to a crawl due to the millions-of-weapons-and-total-absurdity induced CPU usage. I hope on making this mod to sprinkle a bit more fun into the game's balance without coming at the cost of performance or at the cost of making every other unit in the game totally obsolete.

Spoils of War

• Revamps the game's economy by removing mexes and readjusting Mass Fabricators and Power Generators to compensate.
• Definitely gonna be the hardest mod for me to balance! X_X

I always found it really... weird that mass deposits could only be harvested by the sci-fi equivalent of modern-day oil pumps. Even weirder was that these oil pumps had to be upgraded multiple times to maximize their efficiency. It makes sense in terms of game balance, but it makes no sense in terms of worldbuilding - and I'm not a big fan of the segregation of gameplay and story. Despite my concerns, I don't wish to start working on coding/modelling for this mod until I can really nail down some good ideas. I don't want to make a mod that no one will want to download because it'd totally screwball the economy of the whole game.

The Greater Terran Union

• Adds a new faction inspired by the Templin Institute's Greater Terran Union from their playthrough of Stellaris. You can catch up on everything they've done by watching their videos on YouTube. <3
• UEF-esque designed units and structures merged with alien technology - all of which are based on the accomplishments of the Greater Terran Union in Stellaris.
• Gameplay: Risk-reward playstyle with higher tier units becoming more sophisticated.
• Some notable unique qualities:
  • Transports are faster than average.
  • T3 naval nuke launcher is not a sub - it's a battleship (like the Seraphim, yes).
  • T3 Battleship have Strategic Missile Defenses.
  • T3 Gunships have Personal Shields.\
• Definitely gonna be my most ambitious mod so far. <3

As a novice writer, the Templin Institute's videos have been a huge inspiration to me. Their videos documenting the various factions of "alternate realities" (fictional franchises) are designed somewhat like educational, historical content, and they also make videos going over aspects of worldbuilding (magic, naming a civilization, troubling flaws of some franchises' worlds, etc.). As a nice little way to show my appreciation for their content, I intend to make a completely new SupCom faction one day by implementing their Greater Terran Union from Stellaris into SupCom: FA. It'd be a tall order, but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun once I get to start working on it. :D

Hydro City

• Players fight for control of a destroyed UEF settlement with numerous Hydrocarbon deposits.
• Naval players must fight for control of mass-rich islands.

Deep Impact

• After an asteroid impact in the middle of a battle, the survivors seemingly unite to worship what appears to be an alien artifact that was found inside the asteroid. The impact site is rich with mass, and expect the locals to put up a fight.
• Only way to the enemy base is to go over or around the rainwater-filled crater.
• Small island-like landforms can be found in the center, with mass deposits and sizeably defended civilian bases.

Gari's Wrath

• The former home city of Gari, Cynthianas, which was destroyed by Gari and the forces of her Order commander after its inhabitants were exposed as Loyalists. Gari's performance earned her a promotion.
• A destroyed Loyalist Galactic Colossus lies in the city's ruins.

Supreme Commander: T4 Edition

• Using the FAF Map Editor, the campaigns of both classic SupCom and Forged Alliance will have tons of new features and improvements to increase their difficulty, authenticity, and visual appeal.
  • Stronger enemy defenses.
  • Plenty more wreckage.
  • If possible, will also be designed to implement features from some of my favorite mods.
    • I might even include features from my mods if I get the chance. :)
• Will be designed for singleplayer gameplay at least; FAF co-op at best.