Beyond All Reason

Mostly PC, but console and mobile too
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

This looks like a free, community funded, modern Supreme Commander/Total Annihilation clone, which is in open Alpha. I don't know if multiplayer works but familiar looking 3v3 in the video below. I'll give it a download.



I registered a name and it's all smooth to the multiplayer. Ok wow - really smooth TA with two custom factions and experimental units. The one I picked has extractors with guns as a T2 thing. TONS of units. Like 8 tanks in the T2 factory.
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

Nice find. Very much an old school TA feel with some good additions. I haven't spent much time in it (1 game on a horrible cluster of small islands map which forced air only combat), but definitely has a strong TA feel to it. This is one that Troy will hammer to grand master level, then try to play with us. :D

Again, only one limited game, but this one has the most TA2 feel to it than all the other successors, in my opinion.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Cakedaddy wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:04 pm Nice find. Very much an old school TA feel with some good additions. I haven't spent much time in it (1 game on a horrible cluster of small islands map which forced air only combat), but definitely has a strong TA feel to it. This is one that Troy will hammer to grand master level, then try to play with us. :D

Again, only one limited game, but this one has the most TA2 feel to it than all the other successors, in my opinion.
I will try to hold off until we can multi. It's still in Alpha.
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

Played a couple more games to get a better feel for it.

Second first impression: Same as the first first impression. VERY much a TA feel with welcome physics updates, graphic updates, animation, etc. I have only played the "simple AI" and easily win. I'm going to upgrade to "Easy" the next time I play.

New things I've noticed:
When units die, they collapse and fall to pieces, then end as a clump of metal. They don't just turn into a clump of metal. Fun bit of animation.
Teams, by default, share all resources. When playing with an AI, he would hog it all!! I would try to build T2 fusion plants, etc to try to get ahead and start cranking out units and he's expand and take us right back to net zero! He wouldn't use so much that everything stopped building. But he would eat any buffer I would create. The AI is also a big helper. He would have many construction aircraft helping my factories create units. They would build defenses in my area as well. I don't know if you can turn off resource sharing.
The voice AI is very judgemental and condescending. "Your team is wasting energy" "Your team is wasting metal" "It's more efficient to help a single factory build units than it is to build multiple factories" (something I STRONGLY disagree with). It has a female voice.
There are a few maps I recognize, but some I liked are missing,
You can set artillery to high and low trajectory firing.
Unit path finding and movement AI seems exactly the same. Aircraft will do wide, sweeping bombing runs if left alone, or you can micro manage them like he did in the video.
I haven't seen any broken/OP units yet and everything seems to have a counter. Except maybe EMP weapons. I don't know if there is anything that will negate an EMP shot.
I haven't played with all of the new units yet. And I haven't played as the other team yet (who I think is CORE). So I don't know how close their units match up to the original.
No issues with unit/game lag.

They are doing a REALLY good job with this so far.
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Post by TheCatt »

Cakedaddy wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:23 pm The voice AI is very judgemental and condescending. "Your team is wasting energy" "Your team is wasting metal" "It's more efficient to help a single factory build units than it is to build multiple factories" (something I STRONGLY disagree with). It has a female voice.
If it were a man's voice you'd take it more seriously.
It's not me, it's someone else.
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

I don't know that I would take it more seriously, but it wouldn't be so 'preachy'. A man would give me tactical advice. A woman just judges.
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Post by TheCatt »

Cakedaddy wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:57 pm I don't know that I would take it more seriously, but it wouldn't be so 'preachy'. A man would give me tactical advice. A woman just judges.
Maybe you should stop wasting metal?
It's not me, it's someone else.
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Post by Leisher »

I'm in whenever it's available.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Leisher wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:50 pm I'm in whenever it's available.
I think in the name of science we should all do a X (us) v X (AIs) team game to help test it.
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

I'll be in discord while gaming. Look me up.

And as far as "When it's available". This "Alpha" version is more complete and polished than PA was on release.
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Post by Leisher »

What's the roadmap? I REALLY tend to avoid demos and early access games these days. That D&D one you posted was a rare exception.

I don't know if I want an unfinished game sitting on my hard drive for months while we wait for the gold, particularly if they cut off access with a closed alpha/beta.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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Cakedaddy
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Post by Cakedaddy »

Given some of the crap that has been released in the past, I honestly don't know why this isn't considered further along than just Alpha. Solid game as is, or, my expectations are low given the past failures of others. . . That being said, I've only played 3 skirmish games. Maybe multi sucks? But the skirmishes ran flawlessly for me. This is 100% playable right now. Maybe the pre game screens/UI (game setup, etc) could use some polishing, but everything is there and functioning.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Up to play tomorrow.
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Post by Stranger »

I usually put on some youtube video when going to bed at night and have been watching videos of this game. usually by this guy https://www.youtube.com/@BrightWorksTV/videos. He's really good at explaining tactics and what mistakes guys are making plus watching some of these large scale matches are crazy. Its a really good game to sit and watch. I've just got to learn how to play it now.

I'm gonna try and be on to play tomorrow too. Friday nights are usually the night my wife and i try and do something together so i'll let you guys know when i find out what's up.
WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
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Post by Leisher »

I'll check out some videos tonight. Thanks for the link.

I'm in tomorrow.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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Post by Stranger »

I'm down to play tonight.
WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Going for a quick run, grabbing some food, then and I'll be ready to go.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

Troy and I just finished two games. I think we won the first one. I know we won the second.

The second was interesting because the start boxes were in opposite corners, and were pretty small. So we started with me as the back line. I've changed my build order, and it's working better than the old. Of course, with him in front, he's taking all the harassment. I'm getting the lone units hitting all of my extractors. But my new build order has me cranking out bots very fast and I can patrol a pretty wide area, and this helps keep those guys at bay better. Troy was getting hit, rebuilding, hit again. I was left to scale. The game ended with me rushing T2 units, and him bringing T1. Worked really well. He would soak up a ton of the damage, because they were faster and targeted first. This let my longer range T2 do their jobs, and live to continue the push. He had the harder job of surviving and staying effective. I just had to make sure I kept my econ strong. We didn't set out with those roles in mind, but that's pretty much how it went. The game lasted a while, but the final push was solid and decisive.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

From my perspective I was just constantly doing drive byes with my slowly dwindling tank army and rebuilding infrastructure before Cake was just suddenly like "hey, I'm good to storm their bases now" and the bots rolled in.
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