Below I will use the following abbreviations:
"Supreme Commander" - SC
"Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance" - SCFA
"Forged Alliance Forever" - FAF

FAF is a community effort having the primary purpose of providing a 'client' software having a multiplayer lobby (besides other functions). The client also integrates various improvements into SCFA which are also developed in the FAF project (e. g. balance). Furthermore FAF is running the server infrastructure to make multiplayer possible. FAF has it's home at https://faforever.com .

No, but the client has to be online once to download the FAF game files. Afterwards you can just launch the FAF executable with the "init" parameter: "ForgedAlliance.exe /init init.lua".

No. The multiplayer system is completely separate.

No.

No, but it would be better.

In no specific order, the list may be incomplete:

• News
  
• Chat
  
• Tournaments
  
• Multiplayer up to 16 players
  
• 1v1 Matchmaking (Ladder)
  
• Co-Op for campaign missions (SC and SCFA), alone or with up to 3 friends
  
• Map, mod and replay vault
  
• Leaderboards
  
• Achievements (Downlord's client)
  
• Unit database

Yes. It's only about 3 USD when it's on sale. The Gold Edition which additionally includes SC is only about 4 USD when it's on sale.

No (see question below).

No - neither when installing nor when running. You can either launch the unmodified game using the original shortcut or you can launch the FAF mod by using the client or directly (offline).

Extremely easy. Just follow my getting started guide.

There are multiple different "manuals":

• Original SC and SCFA manuals[manuals.thqnordic.com]
  
• FAF wiki[wiki.faforever.com]
  
• FAF forum[forum.faforever.com]
  
• FAF unit database[direct.faforever.com] (one of them)

No. A ping <= 500 ms is enough.[forums.faforever.com]

Anything less than or equal to 500 (one half second) is perfectly fine for FA, since the simulation forces all events to occur with a 500ms delay to begin with. [Lag] happens when one or more players have a ping that is consistently higher than 500ms. The simulation stops until the packets are received.

Very active. Just have a look into the forums and at the GitHub page.

Yes. In the evenings (CET) usually around 1000 at the same time.

Yes. The umbrella for the various FAF parts (projects/repositories) is a GitHub page.[github.com] Each project has a committed lead and the contributors can freely choose the project(s) they work on at any time.

There are multiple places where you can find help:

• FAF "I need help" sub-forum.[forum.faforever.com]
  
• FAF Discord Server[discord.gg]

2018-06-29 Initial version.
2018-06-30 Some rewording. Add link to FAF homepage.
2018-07-07 Correct link to getting started guide.
2018-11-04 Add FAF Discord as help source.
2021-07-03 Correct FAF forum link and some others, remove info about two clients.