Modding Supcom

[dm-horus]

I know that for alot of you my endless pursuit of modding other RTS games to come up with a workable Outpost theme seems pointless or crude, but modding games has been a hobby of mine for a long time, thus the rest of this thread may interest some of you and others may find this totally useless. I am writing it for those that may find it useful.

Some Info
At the time of this writing the official mod tools have not been released. Before the release of Supreme Commander it was announced that the mod tools would be distributed with the boxed version of the game but this did not happen. There have been no further announcements other than the mod tools will be more rich than anything a publisher has released before and make it easy to completely convert Supcom into anything the user desires. It has been speculated that due to legal agreements the mod tools can only be released through a later download or subsequent patch, any legal difficulties the Supcom devs are experiencing to this end is not known at this point. Although official tools are not yet in the hands of modders, a number of people have created mods due to the ease of Lua, the programming language used in Supcom. However it is not possible to mod all aspects of the game simply by manipulating existing Lua files or adding new ones since the core Supcom library is still not accessible without the official mod tools. Therefore the amount and scope of the mod tools available to us now are small, but they will still get modders well on their way.

Blender Model Importer
Imports/exports model files with Blender.

Script download and info
Additional info and tutorial

Map/Scenario Editors
So far there is only one unofficial map editor and it is buggy. Expect frequent crashes, hangs and screen lag depending on what youre using and trying to do.

Map Editor BETA - laggy and sometimes crashes but good, the one I use

Scripting
Supcom is written with Lua, a relatively easy to understand programming language that is small and efficient.

Lua Homepage
Learn Lua
Lua Tutorial
Download Lua Binaries
Lua Packages

Mod Loader
Makes loading maps and mods easier and handles other tasks like replays and saved games.

Supcom Control Panel

Example Mods and References

Unit Chase Camera - Yes, 3rd person cameras are possible in Supcom! This little mod lets you view units from behind. It shows that eventually third and even first person drivable units will be possible when the official mod tools are released.

Official Info
Gas Powered Games Modding Forum - When the mod tools are released you will find out about it here. This is the official mod forum from the makers of the game and contains alot of good info on modding and other discourse.


I hope these help get you started on your Supreme Commander modding projects. Let me know if you have any questions or have suggestions! Feel free to discuss any of this with me as I am always interested in modding.