Tech

Normal factories[]

Land, air and naval factories are constructed by engineers, ACUs or SCUs. They always start out as Tech 1 factories, and are capable of building all Tech 1 mobile units of their type (land, air or naval). They can also upgrade to Tech 2.

Once upgraded to Tech 2 a factory can build all Tech 1 or Tech 2 mobile units of their type, or an upgrade to Tech 3. Similarly, Tech 3 factories can build Tech 1, 2 and 3 units of their type. Factories cannot build experimental units

Upgrading a factory changes its physical appearance. It usually becomes bigger, acquires more health, and an extra build arm.

Higher Tech factories build units faster than lower Tech factories, and they use resources at a correspondingly higher rate. Tech 2 factories build twice as fast as Tech 1 factories, and Tech 3 factories, three times as fast.

Variation between domains

Land factories cost the least overall. Air factories cost the most power. Naval factories cost more mass but the a similar amount of power as land.

Constructable units

Factories can construct almost each and every mobile unit in this game. The only exceptions are ACUs, experimental units and the UEF T1 Engineering Drones. Except for sACUs, each unit can be built by the corresponding factory type (Land Factory builds land units), provided that factory is at least of the required tech level (a tech 2 factory can build tech 2 units as well as tech 1, but not tech 3).

For a full list of units, see the complete unit list.

Strategy and build order

Usually a land factory is built at the start of a multiplayer match, as it is the cheapest in terms of overall resources. This factory is typically used to build engineers to capture mass deposits, although rarely a direct fire unit such as a light assault bot or T1 mobile anti-air gun is used. Factories may build a few more for reclaim and then switch into land spam as required.

In some less common cases an air factory may be used for a T1 attack bomber or T1 light air transport instead. Rarely if ever is it wise to get a naval factory. Air units are always useful because they are fast, and the ACU starts on land. However, naval units are not as threatening until later when they can bombard the shoreline. They are also much more expensive, at up to 5x the cost, and slower. Therefore air first can at times make sense strategically for flexibility even if it is more expensive than land, while naval does not make it worth it.

Naval forces[]

The Cybran navy isn’t the strongest navy in the game, but it is most definitely the best equipped. The Cybran Navy has a little bit of everything from all over the Cybran faction; stealth, amphibious units, nanodart AA, T2 air staging facilities… You get the point.

All of the Cybran’s T2 naval units empower Cybrans on the battlefield, and their T3 Strategic Missile Submarine, as well as the T3 sonar installation are interesting as well.

The Salem class is the cornerstone of the Cybran navy, and is a destructive unit no matter how it’s used. It’s weaponry isn’t particularly powerful, except it’s torpedoes, which are famous for their higher-than-average damage levels, nor does it have powerful AA or notable Torpedo Defenses. It’s strength lies in its ability to grow legs and clamber onto land, to continue the fight when other naval units would be left high-and-dry. It is noticeably slow on land, however, and does best on land when it has enough space to safely bombard the enemy base, but does not have to walk a far distance to do so.

The Barracuda is the Cybran’s submarine hunter. It is argueably superior to the other factions’ sub hunters due to its increased damage and stealth abilities.

The CI:18 Mermaid is usually the Cybran’s first and best naval stealth unit. It is somewhat easy to pick out in a direct confrontation, but is cheap, and a few of them will allow you to move massive naval-bombardment forces into position without your enemy ever knowing.

The Cybran Cruiser is noted for it’s multitude of uses on the Battlefield. It has a main cannon just as powerful as the Salem Class’, as well as air staging facilities, tactical missile defenses, and a powerful nanodart AA rack which can attack both air AND naval/land units. It is the most versatile of all the cruisers, and presents an opportunity which should not be passed up.

The two unique Cybran T3 units are the Plan B, and the Flood XR stand out from the rest, quite noticeably. The Plan B is not only capable of launching strategic and tactical missiles, just like the other subs, but also has unbelievably powerful torpedo tubes. It is capable of dealing with any task force coming it’s way, and with assistance can easily fend off small navies. While it doesn’t have stealth, this can easily be provided by a CI:18 Mermaid… or… a Flood XR. The Flood XR is a slightly less noticeable alternative to the Mermaid, it is tiny, no larger than the average T3 sonar installation. The reason it is a practical alternative is because of it’s stealth field, and the ability to move. It goes hand-in-hand with strategic missile submarines and experimentals allowing, them to be built, or build their payload in complete secrecy.

Sneaky strategy[]

Occasionally, if your opponent doesn’t scout, you can fool them into thinking that there is a walled point defense structure in a position that he hasn’t scouted yet but has radar coverage for. This is because any unidentified land structure appears the same to radar. The reason this can work is because the nine-block pattern of a walled point defense is easily recognizable, and therefore possible to fake for minimal protection. However, these fake point defenses will likely result in your opponent bringing artillery to bear on the position, so don’t expect it to hold for long. It is more of a deception and distraction tactic than anything.

Doing this multiple times on the same map might also lure your opponent units onto real point defenses, only to realize too late that this one was real.

Indirect Fire[]

Anti Matter Artillery

Anti Matter Artillery is the UEF’s most powerful artillery weapon. It does very high damage and moderate area damage. It also has a very large range.

Anti Matter Artillery is used by the Demolisher, Duke and Mavor.

The APDS Artillery has a good balance of accuracy, damage and rate of fire.

APDS Artillery is used by the Klink Hammer.

Fragmentation Artillery

Fragmentation Artillery is a powerful artillery weapon. It splits into 5 shells just before hitting the ground, capable of 600 damage if all the shells hit the target. It is equipped with the capability to give vision around a small radius of where it was when the shell splits (Shellcam).

Fragmentation Artillery is used by the Lobo.

Long Range Cruise Missile

The Long Range Cruise Missile does varying amounts of damage depending on the unit using it. Some variants of this missile do not home in on their targets while the others do.

The Long Range Cruise Missile is used by the Flapjack, Spearhead, Governor Class, Ace, and Aloha. Strangely, it is also used by the Aeon Silencer.

A variant of the Long Range Cruise Missile is the Tactical Warhead. Both are identical, and the latter is used by the ACU.

A Flapjack fires its Long Range Cruise Missile.

An Ace Firing it’s Long Range Cruise Missile

Nuclear Warhead

The Nuclear Warhead is the UEF’s only nuclear weapon, and is equivalent to that of other factions.

The Nuclear Warhead is used by the ACU, Ace, and Stonager. It is also used by the Aeon Silencer.

An Ace launches it’s Nuclear Warhead

A close look of the Nuclear Warhead

Air forces[]

Cybran Air is often considered the best of the 4 faction’s air forces, and while this may not be too apparent at first, it begins to show more and more as Cybran air units alone end up destroying entire bases.

Air Superiority is the name of the game with Cybrans. Their T1 and T2 air units aren’t all that spectacular (except for the gunships), the Corsair doing only 1/3 of the AA damage of other faction’s, but in T3 is where Cybran air units shine. The Cybran ASF is by far the most effective ASF in the entire game. It not only includes a STEALTH SYSTEM, but also has target-lock missiles which can decimate any air unit, no matter how fast. A single Gemini is capable of defeating other ASFs in pitched combat with micro, and in a dogfight, they fare better than other ASFs.

To add to this, not only does the Gemini have stealth, but so does every other T3 air unit of the Cybran’s (aside from the Wailer), allowing Strategic Bombers to wreak havoc on a base without Omni Radar, Spy Planes to gather intelligence without much worry about being shot down, and ASF’s to tear holes in unsuspecting enemy air.

Gunship family

The Cybrans are the only faction which have gunships for every tech level, including T4.

The Jester acts not only as an excellent early-on base defense, but can put an effective stop to an enemy’s expansion efforts. It is just as fast as a T2 gunship, and has decent damage for a T1 unit. Its primary effectiveness is in its unique-ness, however. It is the only T1 gunship, which already puts Cybran commanders at an advantage. In groups of 5, they will stop groups of T1 units in their tracks, even if they have Mobile Anti-air. The only thing Jesters have to worry about are T1 interceptors, which should be countered with interceptors of your own, which you should have an abundance of.

Next in line is the Renegade, a truly punishing unit at the least. The Renegade’s effectiveness does not lie in arbitrary abilities, such as a transport clamp, or even rapid fire by the Cybran’s standards. The Renegade’s effectiveness is in its excessive splash damage. While it may not look like it in combat, the Renegade’s missiles have a similar splash radius to Cybran artillery. This allows them to literally tear down ANY tight group of ANYTHING within a matter of seconds. Renegades will annihilate an unshielded base, just as easily as they will bury a force of land units of any size or tech level.

The Wailer is less spectacular than the previous units, but is still a fearsome sight on the battlefield. This is especially true if you can’t see one. Wailers go by the classic saying about Cybrans: «Don’t be worried if you can see Cybran units on the battlefield. Be worried if you don’t see them.» The Radar Jamming of these units is incredibly useful, and will easily render AA of any sort useless in large numbers. Further, a group composed of both Wailers and Renegades working in tandem allows you to capitalize on their strengths — the Wailer’s jamming provides limited cover for the Renegades. Since Renegades are superior for base assaults, mixing them allows for considerably less costly base assaults against bases with T3 AA. Keep in mind that both remain somewhat vulnerably to the AoE flak of T2 AA, however.

And finally, the mighty Soul Ripper. The Soul Ripper strays from the standard Cybran philosophy, being more similar to UEF units in that it is built for one thing, and one thing only: annihilating anything near, around, or under it. It still includes decent AA, and multitudes of weapons for dealing with different threats, as do other Cybran T4 units. It isn’t all that spectacular in terms of strategy, it will easily stem any attempts to attack with regular units, and will quickly take down any lone land experimentals. Its true weakness is a well defended base, especially one with SAM AA.

Cybran Experimentals[]

Dr. Brackman has created some of the finest experimentals the game has seen, and is known for their great battlefield effectiveness.

Megalith II Experimental Megabot

The Megalith II is the next model from Supreme Commander 1’s original Megalith, and combines its firepower with Supreme Commander 1’s Monkeylord’s lasers. It is the spearhead for Cybran land force, being researched early in the tech tree so quick and easy access.

Giant Transport Experimental Air Transport

The Giant Transport is the Cybran’s equivalent to the UEF’s Star King, having the same ability of transporting Experimental units over the battlefield, but with greater speed and more powerful Anti-Air, so it could go without that big of an escort.

Proto-Brain Complex Experimental Research Facility

The Proto-Brain Complex is a ‘homage’ to Dr. Brackman himself, apply his antic’s of research on the battlefield, to greatly increase research development. It also has a stand-alone Proto-brain air unit, which is effective at defending it.

Kraken Experimental Giant Submarine

As the name implies the Kraken resembles the great mythological creature, and it is just as fearsome on the battlefield. It wields eight mighty tentacles, capable of engaging all forms of enemy targets. While submerging, Kraken uses four Nanite Torpedo Tubes for hunting submarines and defenseless vessels

Pros: Can engage any unit that it can reach, high health

Cons: Weak weapon, limited to sea.

Magnetron Experimental Unit Magnet

The Magnetron uses similar quantum technology to that of the Pulinsmash, but to more defensive capabilities. It can be either set to pulling in units from fair distances away, or to push away invading land units for defense.

Bomb Bouncer Experimental Reflector Shield

The Bomb Bouncer is the Cybran’s main way of securing Anti-Air defense, harnessing the power of ‘bouncing bombs’ launch at its massive reflector shield. It also has the power to unleash a devastating ‘megablast’ capable of destroying land and air units within its radius. Bomb bouncers are a great gunship counter, and their overcharge one-shots any units except experimentals and ACU’s.

Cybranasaurus Rex Experimental Lizardbot

The Cybranasaurus Rex is the Cybran’s major offensive experimental unit, but unlike the King Kriptor or Universal Colossus, it is down and low and can get up-close and personal to an enemy ACU. Though it is smaller than then the other major offensive experimentals, it doesn’t lack any fire-power whatsoever. On another note, Cybranasaurus Rexes more firepower and more health than the other major experimentals, so they are a good unit to drop into an enemy’s base where it stomps around crushing buildings until it is blown up. This is a very powerful assault unit. It is a building destroyer. Drop it in when you can.

Strategy[]

Cybran forces boast the most multipurpose units of any faction, meaning that not many units are needed for armies, but they suffer from the fact that specialized units overpower multi-purpose units. The adaptor ADV takes the place of 3 other units for the other factions, allowing the Cybran commander to produce a more diverse force more rapidly. The LEGS upgrade allows the Cybrans to bring their ships inland; this can be devastating, as Cybran battleships have a range unmatched by any land unit save the much more expensive UEF Fatboy II. In no air games, Cybran walking ships are virtually unstoppable, as a land force has little to no capability to close distance.

Supreme Commander 2 Your Guide to Shields Part 2 Cybran Shields-1

The Cybran have somewhat good shield power. Their shields tend to have a 85% reduction when a projectile hits one of the shields. They are also able to effective stack shields to create the maximum effect. The Cybran shields suffer though with lower regen rate and health thus lowering its defences. Overall, Cybran shields are farely good. If you want to learn more about this I suggest you watch this video.

The Cybran enjoy an early economic advantage in that they can research Energy-to-Mass Conversion early, but due to an update require a separate structure. This can allow them to get Megalith IIs out early; these experimentals are very effective in the early game due to the long range of their beam cannons. The Soul Ripper is also quite effective, especilly if the enemy has overspecialized on repelling group units. Cybran naval yards can be upgraded with mid-range artillery; this combined with the land walking ability of the Cybran navy can make forward naval bases a viable strategy.

Cybrans suffer in the late game due to their lack of high power upgrades and experimentals. The Kraken is of limited use due to its short range and restriction to the water, and the Cybranasaurus is likewise range limited. The only extremely effective late-game Cybran unit is the DLC Infinite War Pack I Monkeylord, which deals more DPS than any other unit in the game, experimental or otherwise. Of the three factions, Cybran units benefit the least from upgrades. Also, the Cybran do not get any versatile deployment structures, meaning that, even in the late game, they must use transports to move units towards far away targets. Although this can be countered with the Cybran’s Jump Jet research for their basic land units, and the early research of the very formidible Giant Transport. Lastly, the Cybran protobrain complex is of limited utility; by the time it is aquired, most of the most useful upgrades have already been researched, and the protobrain is less valuable as an air unit than the Soul Ripper, though it does have the advantage of instant, free replacement. The Magnetron is useful in some situations but is range limited and micro-intensive. Also, using basic Cybran Land units as defences for your base is extremely difficult tactic requiring more units than it takes to attack a base, as Loyalist Assault bots suffer from their range and health and their lack of a tank, as opposed to a UEF Rockhead or an Illuminate Yenzoo.

While the Cybran lack any means of deployment on large maps, their speed and jump jets prove to be valuable on smaller maps…in other words, the Cybran is the best faction for rushing. The Cybran commander is also seen to be the most powerful ACU out of all three factions, with its Nanobot weapon and Overcharge uprgades, it can take on a formidable non-experimental land force, and prevail from the ashes. It has been spoken of as ‘god-like’, and when versing a fully upgraded UEF commander or Illuminate commander, will 7 times out of 10 defeat it, of course, when using micromanagement, since it lacks shields or artillery upgrades. 

Tips[]

The Monkeylord seems to need just its front legs in the water to fire its torpedoes. Useful if you keep it in defense of your coastal base and come under a submarine attack. Conversely, when attacking a coastal base, the Monkeylord is tall enough to bring its laser to bear without emerging from the water.

Do not overestimate torpedo tubes; they do very low DPS (Damage Per Second). A large submarine flotilla can overwhelm an underwater Monkeylord with relative ease, especially if they are Aeon or Seraphim.

You should avoid sending in a Monkeylord alone, unless you can score an immediate commander kill. An escort of Loyalists can protect against Tactical Missile Launchers, Geminis can protect against enemy air units, especially strat bombers.

If you are looking to ambush an unaware enemy ACU using the Monkeylord’s stealth, you might consider switching its fire mode to passive until you have the ACU in range of the Heavy Microwave Laser (or at least until its obvious the target has noticed you). The range of the Heavy Electron Bolters means they’ll often start firing while the ML is still out of visual range, giving away the coming attack before the ML can bring its primary weapon to bear.

Because of the Monkeylord’s high speed, the Massive ability is often capable of causing more damage than the actual weapons. Try to utilize this ability when assaulting a position. While the massive ability implies that it steps on the units, middle of the hitbox can sometimes crush units also. Due to its legs being extremely close together destruction of low tech units in assured.

Another advantage the Monkeylord has over the Galactic Colossus and the Ythotha is the fact that its Heavy Microwave Laser has a 360 degree arc of rotation, allowing it to fire directly behind the Monkeylord while it is still moving. Since the other 2 heavy assault experimentals cannot fire behind them and turn quite slowly, the Monkeylord can, with some good micro, literally run rings around them. It is also virtually immune to being backstabbed itself.

When you are looking for submerged Monkeylords look for the small trail of bubbles that come from its exhaust system, this is a tell-tale sign one is approaching.

Strength in numbers is the key for this unit, do not send less than three against a heavily fortified position or you will come up short of your goal. Not to worry, the Monkeylord is much cheaper and faster to build than the Aeon Galactic Colossus, making these numbers more acceptable.

The Monkeylord is not designed for survivability; submerged Monkeylords can easily be destroyed by 5 sub hunters, gunships can slice through its paper-thin armour in seconds, and a GC can slowly and surely whittle down its HP. So be careful with it Commander, escort it properly, and do as much damage as you can with it; you might not get a second chance.

Basic examples

A simple mod_info.lua

Explanation

Filled example

name = "Tutorial Mod Info"
uid = "431a0114-92a0-11e5-8994-feff819cdc9f"
version = 1
copyright = "nah, just copy it"
description = "A new description"
author = "Myxir"
url = ""
selectable = true
enabled = true
exclusive = false
ui_only = true
requires = {}
conflicts = {}
before = {}
after = {}

Understanding Hooking

Our way into modding the game is hooking.
Hooking in FA is basically file concatenation, that means that the file we’re hooking to will be extended by our file.

Paths:

\lua\ui\game\selection.lua is a UI side file handling what happens when we (de)select units
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\Mods\examplemod\hook\lua\ui\game\selection.lua is the full path to my own file, how i hook it
"/mods/examplemod/" is the path the mod can find its own files later

Ok so now i want to hook that file, i have created an empty selection.lua in the path as mentioned above. As said, hooking is file concatenation, so my empty file will be added at the bottom of the original selection.lua.
Now i can overwrite a function, let’s take PlaySelectionSound, which is playing the sounds of a selection when you select something.

-- original selection.lua file
function PlaySelectionSound(newSelection)
	-- the newSelection parameter is the table of units
	-- original code not displayed
end

Let’s say i want it to do nothing, so i can just destructively hook (overwrite) it completely in my own selection.lua:

-- my own selection.lua file in /mods/examplemod/hook/lua/ui/game
function PlaySelectionSound(newSelection)
end

As this is simple file concatenation, my own function has the exact same name of the original function, but is mentioned later and is thus overwriting it.
In result, nothing happens, no sound is played.

If i want to add something, instead of overwrite, i can construtively hook the function by saving a reference and calling the «old» function via that

-- my own selection.lua file in /mods/examplemod/hook/lua/ui/game
local oldPlaySelectionSound = PlaySelectionSound
function PlaySelectionSound(newSelection)
	oldPlaySelectionSound(newSelection)
	-- here i can execute my own code
end

Культура[]

В целом, быт гражданина ОФЗ не слишком отличается от быта обычного человека XX-XXI-го веков. Они артисты, атлеты, рабочие, воины, философы. Граждане ОФЗ хотят стабильности, но имеют широкий спектр взглядов на то какими средствами она должна быть достигнута, далеко не все из них согласны с методами руководства ОФЗ. Древние религии, сохранившие своё разнообразие во владениях Федерации, вдохновляют эти настроения. Тем не менее, общим чувством граждан Федерации является общность. Колонисты ОФЗ могут действительно сплачиваться в трудные времена, что вносит положительный вклад в развитие общества: общины ОФЗ редко включают бродяг и бездомных.

UEF[]

UEF units typically have more health and tend towards being jack-of-all-trades style units. UEF units tend towards weapons mounted on turrets, which can be both a hindrance and a boon, as they often move more slowly traversing smaller angles, leading to UEF units being slower in their initial salvo.

A good example of this mentality would be in the UEF T1 Frigate, «Thunderhead Class», which not only has AA but also a radar jammer, making tracking nearby units almost impossible with either radar or sonar, as well as having good DPS and great health compared to other factions Frigates.

Other good examples of the UEF philosophy are: UEF Percival and the UEF Fatboy.

The UEF additionally focus on overall defensive capability: Notice the ‘Ravager’ T3 heavy point defense tower, capable of falling even mighty experimentals in numbers. The UEF Fatboy also is useful for base defense with long range turret ballistae and a factory capability (which allows for engineers to be built, which in turn build defensive structures).

A Self-Sufficient Warrior[]

Although it is generally not a good idea to send a Fatboy, Monkeylord or sometimes a GC alone against a heavily fortified base, you should not feel as reluctant to send a Ythotha by itself against a heavily-fortified position, except where there are experimental units, Ravagers, heavy/numerous air-to-ground units (such as heavy gunships or 30+ attack bombers), or fully-upgraded SCUs guarding the base. The Ythotha has some of the best veterancy, regenerating its health anywhere from 20 to 95 HP/sec, and the Ythotha requires only 25 kills to reach the next level of veterancy. So, not only does the Ythotha’s high-end weaponry and huge damage radius make it easy to kill mass of structures and units at once, but it helps to increase its veterancy dramatically and quickly. Furthermore, should the Ythotha fail to completely penetrate a defense line or destroy a base, the Othuy will usually take care of the rest. So if you are successful in getting your Ythotha into the heart of your opponents base before it is destroyed, the Othuy will take over and wreck your opponents base like a tornado in a city. All in all, you will probably end up doing much more damage total than a Monkeylord or a GC could have by attempting the same move.

Of course, escorts and extra Ythothas help, but sending a Ythotha by itself will do quite a bit for you if the need arises, and allow you to focus your resources for other purposes.

One thing to keep in mind though is that unlike the GC, the Ythotha lacks Omni sensors, and so it can be attacked with impunity by cloaked units (like the Cybran ACU), unless it is fighting within the range of other friendly Omni sensors.

Factories attached to units[]

The experimental units, the Fatboy, the Tempest, the Atlantis, the CZAR and to some degree, the Megalith are able to function as factories, as well as act as powerful fighting units. Except for the Megalith, all of these units must be stationary in order to construct units. During the construction, their weapons are also disabled (the Megalith is again an exception to this rule, along with CZAR, which can use it’s beam and AAs while constructing (though it can’t move)). The Tempest and the Fatboy must also be surfaced or on land, respectively.

All types of Carriers are also capable of constructing units, including the T3 sea ones for Cybran and Aeon, and the Experimental versions for UEF and Aeon. They generally have a mostly complete catalogue of T3 air units. However, the units these can construct are on their unit page.

Build speeds[]

In absolute terms, all factories have a build rate of their tech level multiplied by 20: Tech 1, 20; Tech 2, 40; or Tech 3, 60. Quantum Gateways double that again at 120/sec. As with any other construction project, divide the build-time value for a unit by the factory’s build rate to get the actual in-game time (unassisted) required to build that unit.

To calculate resource drain, one method is to divide the resource costs by the in-game time to get the resource drain produced. For example, a MA12 Striker built by a T1 land factory will cost 56 mass. This is spent over a build-time value of 280 at a build rate of 20. This works out to 14s of construction. Dividing 56 by 14 leads to 4 mass/sec. Alternatively in one step, divide cost by build-time value and multiply by build rate (this may make it easier to calculate when assisting the factory). For a Percival’s energy drain, 14000/4800 = 2.9 energy per buildrate, or 175 unassisted and 14.6 per assisting T1 engineer.

In relative terms, this is four times faster than an engineer of the corresponding tech level. This means it takes no more than 4 engineers (of the corresponding tech) to double a factory’s build rate. Because of this, it is much more time and resource efficient to assist a factory at T2 and T3 levels, and quantum gateways, rather than building more. However it is slightly more resource and time efficient to build a multitude of T1 factories, rather than assisting them with T1 engineers (the mass cost is similar, at 208 mass for the four engineers against 210-300 mass for the factory; however the cost difference is particularly in terms of energy which nearly doubles for the factory).

Note that whilst it is most cost effective to assist factories with T1 engineers, their weak hp make them a prime target for bomber strafing runs, and having too many can create large amounts of congestion around a factory, resulting in a delay for the finished unit to enter the field, and in extreme cases actually increase the delay before another unit may be built. In addition, the more engineers assisting a factory, effectively the less efficient each engineer becomes due to the time delay of the exiting unit. This can be reduced by having a line of engineers assist parrallel factories (by patrolling between the factories), or simply by building more factories, and is also mitigated at air factories due to the extremely small takeoff time of constructed aircraft.

While it is tempting to assist a Quantum Gateway with the same sACUs it produces, those sACUs are often better purposed at the front line, where they can use their health and weaponry advantage. Even light artillery is enough to deter regular engineers, but is a moot threat to sACUs.

Introduction

Supreme Commander is extensible by mods, which can alter the whole gameplay (like PhantomX for example), change the balance of units, display information to the user or make the user automatically do things like renaming units or send messages to his allies when he starts upgrading.
This is a page for you to get a basic idea of modding FA.

See also Tips for Modding Efficiently.

What we need

• The Supcom FA installation files
• A texteditor, preferably one with syntax highlighting. Notepad++ or Sublime do fine, a full IDE like IntelliJ with a LUA plugin is fine aswell
• Basic LUA knowledge

Basic information

• Supcom FA is using LUA
• Mods are usually stored in C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\Mods
• Every mod needs a mod_info.lua file in its folder, containing infos such as Name, Description, UID etc.
• Mods usually have a hook folder (usually /hook, can be configured to have another path in the mod_info) which contains all files that the user is hooking to (overwriting or adding code)
• There is a SIM and a UI mod category. Sim mods affect everybody and usually alter the gameplay, so as example PhantomX and any balancemod is a sim mod. UI mods don’t affect other players (directly), as example notify is messaging them about your upgrade, but it’s not altering their game
• The game files (.scd) aswell as the FAF mod files (.nx2, …) are all just renamed .zip files. You can copy them somewhere to work with, rename their extension and unzip them to see their content.
• You can use the default hotkey F9 to open the live LOG in your game, and use LOG(text), SPEW(text) or WARN(text) in your code to print to it

Differences to default LUA

There are some things different to default LUA:

• The # sign is used to comment in FA, the #mytable operation to get its length is not possible, you can use table.getn(mytable) instead
• it’s not necessary but still possible to use «for i, v in ipairs(mytable) do», «for i, v in mytable do» works aswell

Sim and UI

Basic communication.

Basically, this game is divided in two interacting components, Sim and UI. Both are moddable, here is some info:

• The Sim (simulation) of the game happens for every player and is deterministic, so the same input will always yield the same result, that is why the players in a multiplayer game usually do not desync. Many mods introduce changes that affect all players equally, every balance change does this.
• The UI (user interface) component only has a part of the information that the Sim side is calculating. For example which units the user has, their health and vet points, and what they are ordered to. Orders about your opponent’s units are also calculated on your PC, in the Sim, but your UI has no info about it. The UI also displays these infos, resulting for example in the ecopanel or the scoreboard.

Both sides are interacting, to keep the user updated about what’s happening to his (and his allies’) units, and to inform the Sim about what orders the user issued.
This is done via two files:

• SimCallbacks.lua is used by UI operations to inform the Sim about something it should know (commands, pings, …)
• UserSync.lua is used by the Sim to inform the UI about something it should know (eco, unit info, pings from teammates, …)

Cybran[]

Cybran units tend to be Stealthy when possible, and their units are typically cheaper than other factions — often at a slight health penalty.

A good example of this would be the Cybran T1 Assault Bot, «Mantis». It is highly manoeuvrable, and cheaper than the other faction’s T1 units, while still retaining their DPS, and with only a slight penalty to health.

Other good examples of the Cybran philosophy are: The Cybran T3 Armored Assault Bot, with its sea-defences, making stealthy underwater attacks far less risky than with the UEF Percival and the Cybran Monkeylord, the cheapest land Experimental.

Debugging

This section is to help you debug your mods and scripts. If you’re creating a mod, and run into some errors, hopefully this will help you find a workaround.

Handling LazyVars

This is quite a common issue with FA. Usually, LazyVars are related to the User Interface of FA. This sub-section will help you find out how to debug LazyVars and
what’s causing issues with your User Interface code.

The first thing you need to do is find out what’s causing your error. LazyVars don’t provide any helpful error exceptions by default, but this can be changed.

Navigate to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\gamedata and open mohodata.scd with either 7zip or WinRAR.

Once you have opened the SCD file, find a file called ‘lazyvar.lua’ and open it with any text editor (Recommended: Notepad++ or Sublime Text 3) Be sure to make
a back-up of this file before you make any changes as this may cause you to desync in public games when playing FAF.

With the file open, locate the variable «ExtendedErrorMessages = false» and change it to «ExtendedErrorMessages = true».

Click yes and close the archive.

Now, when you open up your game again, you will find that your console (F9) will provide error exceptions related to «LazyVars».