The widespread adoption of real-time strategy games by console players has been limited almost entirely by the notion that, at least for this genre, a controller is inferior to the traditional mouse and keyboard. The first question that pops to mind when another RTS is announced for the console is invariably one of how it can be made to work with a standard controller. Indeed, when it was revealed that the acclaimed Supreme Commander would be making the move from PC to Xbox 360 in early 2008, that topic is the focus of the set of questions we took to Aspyr and Gas Powered Games. Marc Scattergood, Producer, Gas Powered Games, was kind enough to field them. IGN: How have you adapted the interface to work with a controller? Could you give us a rundown of the HUD and controller changes?
Marc Scattergood:
When we started this project, it was understood that the biggest challenges were making the controller feel natural and keeping the interface as simple as possible, but still capable of relaying all of the necessary information. The latter is especially important because Supreme Commander is an extremely deep game. For the interface we picked the elements that we knew needed to be onscreen all the time, such as economic data. Every other piece of UI only turns on when needed, like the build menu, command and control and grouping wheel, unit info and scores.
As for the actual controller, we had a working scheme in place well over a year ago, and have spent much of our time playtesting and iterating on that control scheme. The final layout achieved our goal of making all the gameplay basics easily accessible. You can play the entire game with just the standard buttons, barely even touching the left trigger or left bumper. But as your skills grow there are more complex hotkeys and functions available to the player, such as using combinations of the right trigger and the A, B, X and Y buttons.
IGN: Specifically, has anything been done to the commander and zoom controls that Supreme Commander is so well known for?
Marc Scattergood:
The zoom is still one of the most important features of Supreme Commander. In other games you may find yourself panning back and forth across the map to try and keep track of the action, but that can use up a lot of time. If you want to know what's going on in Supreme Commander, just pull back on the right stick and you suddenly have a full view of the theater of war. Want to see what's going on in that battle to the northeast? Pan your cursor over in a half second and zoom back in with the right stick. We don't kid around when we say we're putting the strategic element back into RTS games.
IGN: How will the controls for the tech tree work?
Marc Scattergood:
Since the very first prototype of Supreme Commander on the console, we have used a circular UI that we simply refer to as "the wheel." The left stick quickly chooses the unit you want to build, and you can easily navigate through the tech levels, commander upgrades and the build template system. That wasn't available in the original Supreme Commander, and it definitely makes it much easier to get your bases up and running.
IGN: How does the unit selection and grouping work?
SELECT Hit A: Select unit. Double Tap A: Select all units of that type on screen. Right Trigger Tap: Select all combat units on screen. Hold A, drag with left analog stick: select specific units. Right Analog Stick Click: Select and track ACU. Right Button + A: Select unit while having other units selected.
GROUP Select the units you want to group. Press down on the d-pad. Move the left analog stick to one of the numbers on the left side of the screen. Press and hold A. Units assigned to that group will have the number under their health bar.
To select a group: Cycle through using Right trigger + X. OR Press down on the D pad.
IGN: Will the Xbox 360 release include the Forged Alliance content and rules?
Marc Scattergood:
We have integrated much of the more mature code base and enhancements that went into Forged Alliance. But this is the original Supreme Commander. It has its own new multiplayer modes and nine new units not originally included in Supreme Commander for PC. Three of the units are exclusive to the 360 version.
IGN: How much, if any, of the PC content is being removed for the 360 release?
Marc Scattergood:
The only thing we've taken out of this version are the largest multiplayer maps. After examining how various maps played and looking at which maps were most popular with our player-base, we made the decision to stick with the smaller multiplayer maps, 5km x 5km to 20km x 20km. These maps account for 34 of the 40 maps originally included in the game, and make for the best playing experience on the 360.
IGN: Controlling so many units across such large maps with a controller seems daunting -- are the map sizes or unit limits being reduced to accommodate the console?
Marc Scattergood:
This touches on the previous topic. The only thing we excluded were the six biggest maps, because we found they were not as much fun to play on a console. As for unit caps, our default is still 500 units per player. We don't go higher than that, but that was a standard number across the campaigns as well as many multiplayer games. The players can choose to have lower unit caps, but that is a player decision. Performance is not noticeably different with a 500 unit cap or a 250 unit cap.
IGN: How similarly will the game play to the PC version aside from the controls?
Marc Scattergood:
The gameplay is faster, but otherwise unchanged. We've incorporated a lot of the balance and fixes over the past year to make sure everything that makes the gameplay better is in, but the core experience of playing Supreme Commander still feels very natural and fun. Formations move faster and air units don't have to refuel nearly as often. Just general tweaks that help keep the game going and minimize combat downtime.
IGN: In the Supreme Commander announcement release, it was revealed that the Xbox 360 version will feature exclusive new units, maps, and multiplayer modes. Could you go into a bit of detail on what these will be?
Marc Scattergood:
The 360 will include nine total new units, three [of] which are completely exclusive to this version. All nine units help round out the forces for each faction. The new gameplay modes provide faster, point-oriented gameplay for the console. One mode is King of the Hill, and the other is Command Point. Every map that can support these modes in the game has been updated to support these game modes so that you can play against your friends or against the AIs.
IGN: Will the Xbox 360 release support the same number of players online as the PC?
Marc Scattergood:
The 360 release will support four players in a game. This creates the best mix of number of players and performance on the 360 to make for fantastic gameplay.
IGN: Visually, how will the Xbox 360 version stack up against the PC?
Marc Scattergood:
It is on par with the PC. Because we could focus on just two resolutions, 720p and 480p, we had some advantages the PC didn't have to know exactly what resolutions all of our players will be in. The game looks great on older 27" TVs, or on a brand new 50" HDTV.
IGN: Any chance of a downloadable demo in advance of the release early next year?
Marc Scattergood:
There will be a downloadable demo. Timing for the release of it is still being determined.
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