Our fourth interview is with Funkoff, an expert SupCom:FA player and former Senior Replay Reviewer who also goes by the name Funkon. Funkoff has played ranked Supcom on and off but always manages to show his skill.
GR: What is your name/age/location?Funkoff: My name is... not to be disclosed here. I'm 22 and I live in Nebraska.
What is your job in real life? Or whats your dream job, if you are student by now?I'm in the US Air Force. My dream job would probably be head of a video game company, but I'm sure I'd see the down side to it if I were in, say, Chris Taylor's spot. It's hard to say.
What is the meaning of life?Have fun and don't be a dick. A lot of people I know have a problem with that last bit.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?That question's a tad simplist considering the answer it beckens.
Do you have a picture you can show us?I'd rather not.
When did you start playing?A little while ater the Supreme Commander beta started. I wasn't very good then, but I gradually improved.
Where did you first hear about the game?I'm not sure... I started playing Total Annihilation years after it was popular and I really liked it, even though I only ever stuck to single player. When I heard Supreme Commander was the spiritual successor I looked into it and decided to join.
How were your first experiences?I remember being sorely beaten in one of my first few online games. As I'm sure you recall, hunter spam was the predominant strategy at one point in the game. I tried to mix mantis into my armies but was beaten by the dedicated spammers. Also, I didn't like to relaim my factories past half health... which further lead to my defeats.
Did you have a Supcom/FA-teacher or did you learn it by yourself?I learned it by myself. I could always tell exactly why I lost when I watched a replay... I've always had that analytical nack.
Have you won any money from professional tournaments?I won about $200 from the first official money tournament. I tied for second place. It was an unfair tie... I only lost the final match of the tournament the Bluescreen himself. I was 5 straight victories, even beating unconquerable. I never liked Open Palms and I never will. (I did not participate in the second tournament.)
On average how much do you practice?I used to play ranekd games constantly. Since December I've been working heavily on my mod so I haven't had the time to play much. Also, the numerous bugs and imbalances make rated play less fun. As the recent QuadV games proved, T3 air is vastly overpowered... Loui completely stomped TBO by rush T3 air at about the 8 minute mark.
What is your favourite faction and why?I've always liked Cybran. Thier aestetics are most appealing. However, now that they are about the strongest faction in ranked (largely due to the Jester) I like them less. I like the other 3 factions about equally.
What is your favourite Experimental Unit and why?In 1v1 it's the Monkeylord. Increadable DPS, stealth, and extremely low cost. It really very overpowered.
In team games it's the ML and the Atlantis. Acting as an attack sub, SAM, air staging, and air factory all rolled into one is a pretty big boon. I <3 them.
Do you have any special strategy or tactic you like most?I'm extremely opportunistic... so I generally don't plan strategies too far out in advance. Powerbuilding Nukes and MLs I find to be highly effective because if somebody doesn't already have proper defenses in place, they usually can't stop either on the fly... a single quick nuke or ML can easily turn the tide of any game.
Which is your favourite map? Why?Finns revenge. The ability to hide in the water makes for very interesting tactical and strategic play. A
Which map do you dislike most and why?Open Palms. Most overplayed, no skill map in the history of Supreme Commander. It's always been about rushing T1 tanks blindly behind enemy lines... if you're lucky enough to blindly avoid the enemy tanks in the process you win by killing mexes. That map has always been blind luck.
How do you know when to transit from T1 to T2?Always depends on the map and player. My rule of thumb has always been to never tech a mex before my first factory (in 1v1, that is). So if I ever think I have enough mass to tech a mex, I tech the factory instead.
What advice would you give new players to get good in this game?Spam T1 land and T3 air. You can't go wrong. (Also learn to manage your economy.)
What is your most memorable match ever? Who was your opponent and what did happen?Beating Unconquerable in the money tournament was fun. I watched a replay of his off the vualt on seraphim glacier and I saw that he built a transport before anything else. In-game, I sent a pair of ints his way as fast as I could and downed that transport with 6 engineers on board. He was was effectively beaten 3 minutes into the game.
If you could change the game in one way, what would it be?Remove T3 air. All of it. If I had more options... well take a look at my mod.
Do you use hotkeys often in the game, if so which ones and when?Very rarely. I usually use build menu to build my first factory but that's it.
Do you use any UI mods? If yes, which, and why?No. I recently downloaded a bunch but haven't gotten to trying any of them out yet.
Do you use the minimap?I always have it enabled but I rarely even glance at it... zooming out is just so fast and seamless.
What do you like and dislike most about the SupCom:FA community?I like the FA community pretty well. The admins are kind of rude, but they deal with dumb noobs in chat all day so I can't say thier demeaner is entirely unwarranted. I guess I just se it as a fact of life.
The players are mostly 4v4 thermopoly PROS ONLY 20 min NR 2x no nukes/air/sats/TMLS/ACUs players, but sometimes nooby games like that are just fun. I wish the community was more willing to embrace competitive mods, the ones that get the most attention are really stupid half-assed mods like LD's "ASFs now fire nukes" mod....
Also, the modding community is really full of themselves and it's kind of annoying. Everyone views thier own project as the holy grail. I've asked numerous times for collaboration with other mods when making my own. Everybody wants to persue strictly thier own vision of balance and fun and they seem to think this comes at the cost of everybody else's. For example, I asked the leader of 4th D mod if I could use some of his unit models to make units for my mod. I was essentially told I couldnt because he wants only his mod to have these units... which leads me to believe he's doing it for glory rather than for the community. Quite a silly premise if you ask me... the FA community is hardly the place where anyone can become famous for anything... it's just not big enough.
What would you wish to change in this community for the future?If I could, I would make participation in Galactic War mandatory... assuming it comes out in the near future. And I would probably make my mod into the next official patch, too.
Also, Zock asked me to start reviewing replays again. I told him I'd do it if he could get me a cool custom forum signature. He hasn't gotten back to me yet, hehe.
What would you say about the work Chris Taylor and GPG have done?Chris Taylor and GPG have really pushed the bar up on strategy games... at least in my eyes. Starcraft 2 and Red Alert 3 (and DoW2...) all show that the majority of the RTS community likes looking at the battlefield through a tiny hole in a magnifying glass, microing every individual soldier and tank. If GPG can do a good enough job on Supcom 2 this might change, but so far it hasn't. Some [eople still think the minimap is a solid replacement for strategic zoom. I completely disagree... it'll take another leap forward in the genre to prove it to the nay-sayyers.
Who do you think the strongest player in the game is (other than yourself )?I'm the strongest player in the game when I'm in practice... which I am not at the moment beause I've played only 2-3 ranked games in the past month. That said, I think Loui is probably the strongest player. He showed he still has a good understanding of the game by spanking TBO around quite a bit. I probably would have put up a better fight than TBO had, but I did play a few practice games with loui before the QuadV games and he beat me 3-0. I just forgot all my build orders... and was woefully ill-prepared for his T3 air rush... as TBO was in the games that followed.
Is there any player you would like to see return to FA? Why?Unconquerable. The arrogant imba-screaming bastard that he was, he was good for the community. Noobs still often bring him up in chat, thinking that (largely because of his name) he is the greatest player there will ever be. I politly remind them that unconq has never ACTUALLY played Forged Alliance... but they remain unswayed in thier devotion. If Unconq came back and played some more I bet the active community would double in size.
Is there anything you would interrupt an intense ranked game vs a good opponent for, even if you lose 20 rating points?Hmm. I've answered the phone before... but kept playing.... with my attention divided it's harder to play but it's better than going afk.
What other games are you playing at the moment? If any, why?I bought Tom Clany's End War and I intend to beat it... but I've only played it once. It's a far shallower game than FA. Really, though, I've played tons of other games along-side FA... GTA4, Mirror's Edge, CNC3, Kane's Wrath, Orange Box, TF2, tons more. FA is the only game that I keep playing a month after I beat it on single player. It's that much deeper and better and more fun.
