Starship Troopers: Terran Command - survival RTS from Order of Battle devs

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

so u want the floor plans on pdf?

 

[RaggleFraggle]

so u want the floor plans on pdf?

I want an IP that isn’t being bungled by corporate malfeasance and incompetence.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I get that the source material is absurdist (e.g. society collapsed because parents didn't spank their children)

Which source material are you talking about? Because there's no societal collapse in neither the book nor the movie.

In the book, the world we are presented with is clearly supposed to be an improvement of everything that came before. The novel is also less about the world the story takes place in and more about Rico's experience in the Mobile Infrantry, which i take is mostly an autobiographical reimagining of Heinlein's own experience in the Navy. This is the part the movie fails hardest at because in it's effort to make everything satirical Verhoeven essentially ended up making a live action cartoon where all the complex logistical detail that goes in the operation of the MI is lost for the sake of playing retarded jokes nobody thinks are funny except Verhoeven. The movie portrays the military as only a faggot l1brul who never experienced danger in his life could: as just a bunch of retarded jocks waving dicks at each other. Heinlein by contrast shows us how complex and incredibly technical the operation of any military can be, where even stuff like deployment and communication plays a decisive role in whether infatry units make it back alive or not.

Communists reeeeing and screetching about the book and calling it fascist was always meaningless because for them everything that even remotely smells of testosterone is fascist so who gives a fuck.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I get that the source material is absurdist (e.g. society collapsed because parents didn't spank their children)

Which source material are you talking about? Because there's no societal collapse in neither the book nor the movie.

In the book, the world we are presented with is clearly supposed to be an improvement of everything that came before. The novel is also less about the world the story takes place in and more about Rico's experience in the Mobile Infrantry, which i take is mostly an autobiographical reimagining of Heinlein's own experience in the Navy. This is the part the movie fails hardest at because in it's effort to make everything satirical Verhoeven essentially ended up making a live action cartoon where all the complex logistical detail that goes in the operation of the MI is lost for the sake of playing retarded jokes nobody thinks are funny except Verhoeven. The movie portrays the military as only a faggot l1brul who never experienced danger in his life could: as just a bunch of retarded jocks waving dicks at each other. Heinlein by contrast shows us how complex and incredibly technical the operation of any military can be, where even stuff like deployment and communication plays a decisive role in whether infatry units make it back alive or not.

Communists reeeeing and screetching about the book and calling it fascist was always meaningless because for them everything that even remotely smells of testosterone is fascist so who gives a fuck.

Here’s a relevant video analyzing the book:

Is the analysis wrong and, if so, how badly?

 

[Lyric Suite]

I think you are better off reading the book yourself. It's short and almost devoid of redundancy in the first place. If Ernest Hemingway was in the marine corps and had an interest in science, progress and evolution is how you'd end up with this book. Heinlein is not quite on that level as a writer but his writing style is very much a by product of the post-Hemingway era. Even the supposed "racial" slurs (bugs, skinnies) remind me of the way Hemingway used nigger or chink to emphasize the "grit" of his settings.

In fact, this last point as well as the connection i just made with Hemingway is probably the most crucial aspect in understanding what Heinlein is trying to do, which is basically to tell it like it is.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

The story itself is… I’m not impressed, considering how hyped and controversial it is. It falls into most of the well trod cliches and pitfalls of military scifi. It’s mostly scenes of boot camp, some political screed, vague world building, and barely any action. I feel cheated. On the bright side, it doesn’t insult my intelligence like those horrible movies.

The Roughnecks cartoon is great, tho. It captures the spirit of Heinlein’s work while cutting out the boring bits and adding a few new elements to make things more interesting. While the CGI hasn’t aged well, the writing is probably the most entertaining in the franchise. It would have been a perfect nucleus around which to build a multimedia franchise. Sure, it doesn’t go into politics, but it gives us plenty of action and puzzles of the week for the squad to solve. Pity it’s just a footnote

 

[Lyric Suite]

The story itself is… I’m not impressed, considering how hyped and controversial it is. It falls into most of the well trod cliches and pitfalls of military scifi. It’s mostly scenes of boot camp, some political screed, vague world building, and barely any action. I feel cheated. On the bright side, it doesn’t insult my intelligence like those horrible movies.

Well, the hype and controversy was never Heinlen's doing, so it's unfair to punish the book for it.

And while i can't be certain, i'm pretty sure the military sci-fi cliches were invented in this book. Heinlen's is trying to give a realistic, frank and matter of fact account of the workings of a made up military while using his own experience in the army as a reference. Even the political stuff was probably inspired in his time in the army since it's well known that the military in the US is heavily involved in social engineering and the mental programming of soldiers, which became all the more pervasive once the CIA was created.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

The story itself is… I’m not impressed, considering how hyped and controversial it is. It falls into most of the well trod cliches and pitfalls of military scifi. It’s mostly scenes of boot camp, some political screed, vague world building, and barely any action. I feel cheated. On the bright side, it doesn’t insult my intelligence like those horrible movies.

Well, the hype and controversy was never Heinlen's doing, so it's unfair to punish the book for it.

And while i can't be certain, i'm pretty sure the military sci-fi cliches were invented in this book. Heinlen's is trying to give a realistic, frank and matter of fact account of the workings of a made up military while using his own experience in the army as a reference. Even the political stuff was probably inspired in his time in the army since it's well known that the military in the US is heavily involved in social engineering and the mental programming of soldiers, which became all the more pervasive once the CIA was created.

So basically it hasn't aged well because it invented the clichés. Which is all kinds of frustrating. I do acknowledge its foundational place in military scifi

 

[Parsimonious cook]

So I tried the full version for a few hours now (got to the power plant mission so far and the hard difficulty) and tbh fam the game is better than I expected, I am glad I bought it.

Including human enemies was a nice move (honestly wish they showed up more often, the game does need some more diversity - Skinnies would be best, but oh well...), the "dungeon" maps were OK and the game can get really tense (I had some really hard moments during the power plant mission due to sudden bug hordes and time limit). The cutscenes are p. cool as well.

The game could have been even better with persistent units (and deeper RPG elements that could go with that) and proper base building. An MP with playable bugs (and Skinnies lol) would be awesome as well. I wish neo dogs would be a unit in the game too, but what we got here is p. gud for an RTS released in the current year. I still wish there would be a proper sequel to Terran Ascendancy, but this is a pleasant surprise - hopefully the devs will keep working on it.

 

[Acrux]

There's supposed to be a roadmap of planned updates out "soon". From what I've heard, skirmish and more campaigns are on the list.

I also know of 3 mods at the moment that are making improvements - one is a rebalance, one improves veterancy for units, and one allows you to build a base like a traditional RTS.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Apparently Slytherin got the core gameplay loop right, so it wasn’t destroyed by a poor reception. But I honestly can’t raise much interest because the setting they went with is pretty stupid. 40k makes it work by being so ridiculously over the top with catholic space nazis and space demons from space hell and space elves who literally fucked themselves to hell, but Verhoven’s diarrhea is just idiotic and generically bland. Starcraft is better at satire, even though SC was intended to be dead serious and was written by idiots who make the even shittier sequels to Verhoven’s original turd look like Shakespeare.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So is this like Company of Heroes?

Because in that case i'm not sure modding base building is gonna do anything.

Base building doesn't make much sense in the setting anyway. The whole point of the Mobile Infantry was to be... well, mobile. Drop in hostile alien territory, empty load of ammo and missiles (indiscriminately if need be), hope you make it back for retrieval.

The biggest sin of basing this on the movie rather than the book is no power armors, which is just gay.

 

[Luka-boy]

There are power armor squads. They are fast, can use jump jets and have shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and pretty good guns.

 

[Acrux]

So is this like Company of Heroes?

Because in that case i'm not sure modding base building is gonna do anything.

Base building doesn't make much sense in the setting anyway. The whole point of the Mobile Infantry was to be... well, mobile. Drop in hostile alien territory, empty load of ammo and missiles (indiscriminately if need be), hope you make it back for retrieval.

The biggest sin of basing this on the movie rather than the book is no power armors, which is just gay.

It's kind of like CoH. There are powered suit troopers in the late game.

Yeah, base building doesn't make sense in the conext of the game, although I do like the thought of putting more forward-towers up. I think it's neat that the game is so open to modding, though, even if it's not official.

 

[Lyric Suite]

There are power armor squads. They are fast, can use jump jets and have shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and pretty good guns.

Noice.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

So is this like Company of Heroes?

Because in that case i'm not sure modding base building is gonna do anything.

Base building doesn't make much sense in the setting anyway. The whole point of the Mobile Infantry was to be... well, mobile. Drop in hostile alien territory, empty load of ammo and missiles (indiscriminately if need be), hope you make it back for retrieval.

The biggest sin of basing this on the movie rather than the book is no power armors, which is just gay.

It's kind of like CoH. There are powered suit troopers in the late game.

Yeah, base building doesn't make sense in the conext of the game, although I do like the thought of putting more forward-towers up. I think it's neat that the game is so open to modding, though, even if it's not official.

I would say its much more like Ground Control 2 then CoH tbh fam, as you dont really capture sectors on the map.

 

[Nigromancer]

Decent game, nothing fantastic though.

I watched this between missions:

 

[Acrux]

Roadmap for the next year released

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1202130/view/3276953770275869729

Year 1 Roadmap & New Beta
The Federal Council has been hard at work on new plans, and we are now ready to tell you about the new plans.

The Federal Council has been hard at work on new plans, and we are now ready to tell you what is in store for the first year of post-release development of Starship Troopers: Terran Command, live on FedNet!

Free Updates
Initial free updates will focus on
balance and interface improvements
. Following that, an update will contain a
new free scenario and a new Federation unit
.

The following update will bring
Achievements and new Challenge missions
. This new type of missions will come with a freshly implemented
High Score system
.

A
Scenario editor
will also be released, allowing players to craft their own maps and scenarios.

Finally, a
new top secret game mode to enhance replayability
is being worked on and will be released in 2023.

Premium Content
We are planning to release two paid-for DLCs within the first year of release: the first is a
mini-Campaign based on challenge missions
. A more extensive DLC will follow, with an
entire Campaign set in a new environment and featuring additional units
.

Would you like to know more? Additional details will be announced later this year.

New Beta Patch
Speaking of new content, we're about to open a new beta! The Federation once again calls its citizens to their patriotic duty and to help us test some new features.

What does it add?

-
A new unit type
, a squad of troopers making use of chemical weapons;
-
A new scenario
, called "Chemical Reaction". Arachnid test subjects have broken out of an experimental lab, and it's up to the player to clear them out;
-
The option for units to prioritize certain types of enemies automatically
, a highly requested feature (and very useful for snipers);

... and a lot more.

You can find the full changelog here, an you can start applying to the beta here. Please note that a Slitherine account is required, but you can register one for free. Actual access to the beta patch will be given to those testers who have been picked in a few days.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

After Sony’s horrific mismanagement of what could have been a decent franchise, I honestly can’t give a fuck.

I’d rather write my own scifi story in the vein of SST.

 

[Storyfag]

After Sony’s horrific mismanagement of what could have been a decent franchise, I honestly can’t give a fuck.

I’d rather write my own scifi story in the vein of SST.

Your shtick is getting old, mate.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

After Sony’s horrific mismanagement of what could have been a decent franchise, I honestly can’t give a fuck.

I’d rather write my own scifi story in the vein of SST.

Your shtick is getting old, mate.

If you know about anyone who already wrote a decent bug war setting that hasn’t turned to shit like SST, SC, Alien, etc then feel free to let me know. I’m not a professional creative because I had to get a real job, I have a ton of real life shit going on, I’m absolutely burned out on corporate multimedia, and I would appreciate it if you got off my back. I’m the absolute last person that should be picked to write the next SST, but I seem to be the only person on this shithole planet who gives a fuck. No, I haven’t made any fucking progress even though my notes and story ideas date back to 2018. Your complaining is not making me work faster.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Just finished the campaign today, Steam says it took 23,5 hours. All in all its a pretty decent RTS, I would say 7,5/10 easily, make it 8,5 if you like the (movie) Starship Troopers universe. The devs mentioned that some sort of "lava planet" DLC is coming, might be worth checking out once it comes out. Other than that it seems there is quite a bit of fan made content available through Steam workshop, will check out some of that stuff for sure.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]