Tech Annihilation and other thoughts

[smoth]

Neither does gundam. Then again gundam doesn't need one:

http://www.smoth.net
http://www.moddb.com/games/gundam-rts

in order for a project to have a subforum the dev of that project must ask for the subforum to be added.

[ContiX]

Hence why I'd suggest a thread that discusses what is where/active/inactive...

[smoth]

why not discuss it here? who is stopping you from starting one in:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=14

[ContiX]

It's not that anyone's stopping me from doing so, it's that I'm afraid it'll just get buried with only one person's comments.

[smoth]

You overestimate the forum activity

[luckywaldo7]

I am not an expert, but here is a quick write-up to give you an idea of what is going on with these:

Red = Dead

Tech Annihilation - You already tried this, like BA but with additional units and teching mechanic
Balanced Annihilation - Easily the most popular *A game, and can probably be considered the 'vanilla' TA-based game
Balanced Annihilation - Remake - BA with new unit models; this one is work in progress still
Rebalanced Annihilation - another BA fork that never caught on
Progressive Annihilation - Kind of like Tech Annihilation, based on BA with some additional units and small balance changes, by Juzza
Red Annihilation - BA with economy changes based on Red Alert economy, maintained by zerver I think
Mega Annihilation - dead
Supreme Annihilation - done by Gota and attempted to bring something more like TA, with some new models and effects, but is no longer maintained
Final Annihilation - presumably dead, especially given the terrible name
NOTA - Epic scale similar to Supcom 1 (boats are huge compared to tanks), and more centralized bases, as commanders are replaced with stationary towers. Gameplay tends to be focused less on unit micro and more about amassing armies and large-scale attacks.
XTA - Even older than BA, this tends to be play the opposite direction from NOTA, with much more of a focus on micro, especially on the powerful commanders.
Advanced Balanced Annihilation - another BA fork that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere
Basically OTA - probably dead; this was by Quanto and he hasn't been around in ages
Simple XTA - dead; (looks like this was just xta t1)
Absolute Annihilation - dead; this was the predecessor to BA
TA: Excess II - dead; looks like this was never fully ported
Very Supreme Annihilation - dead; troll game?
Impatient Annihilation - dead since forever
Paced Annihilation - also dead since forever?
Eternal Annihilation - was supposed to be kind of like the 'test' version of BA where the dev had more freedom to play around more, but didn't catch on (like every other BA fork)
Hardcore Annihilation -dead since forever; was originally supposed to replicate OTA behavior as much as possible
Maximum Annihilation - yet another BA fork, that was actually prominent enough at once point to get some youtube videos, but is now long dead
Tired Annihilation - dead since forever
Zexy Annihilation - another noraus mod I think; also dead since forever
Sky Annihilation - dead because it hasn't been touched in ages; doesn't look like it was much of anything anyway
Complete Annihilation - dead; was the predecessor to Zero-K
Universal Annihilation - never heard of this; probably not maintained
JoeAnnihilation - dead; also doesn't seem to have been much
Research Annihilation - interesting little game by Noraus with some nice effects, but is not maintained and probably not compatible still
TA: World Domination - dead
Total Annihilation - dead (so much emphasis on capitalizing on the TA brand means it was probably terrible anyway)
Gay Annihilation - dead; was nothing but a troll game presumably

In general, if you see something on spring files that hasn't been updated in the last 6 months or so, it is probably dead. There was a springfiles update that means a lot of games look updated around Jan 2011, when they really haven't been touched in years, and there was been a lot of engine updates recently that break some backwards compatibility.

[luckywaldo7]

Oh yeah, almost forgot...

childish interface and graphics

What?

Yes? That was my experience in zK. Designed like stuff in a toy store..

What?

That wasn't any less vague than your first post.

Specifically what characteristics of the game do you think bear resemblance to items found in a toy store? Please be more specific than 'interface' and 'graphics' and 'they do'...

[ContiX]

Holy crap, Waldo. That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

Which means, the current, maintained *A spinoffs are:

Tech Annihilation
Balanced Annihilation + Remake
Progressive Annihilation
Red Annihilation
NOTA
XTA

Right? Or am I missing some?

[luckywaldo7]

Cool, glad I could be helpful. :)

That's all I can think of, or at least all that have a forum or lobby presence. If there are any more their development is kind of secretive, or else they have been inactive for a while. (Or I just forgot)

[klapmongool]

Oh yeah, almost forgot...

Yes? That was my experience in zK. Designed like stuff in a toy store..

What?

That wasn't any less vague than your first post.

Specifically what characteristics of the game do you think bear resemblance to items found in a toy store? Please be more specific than 'interface' and 'graphics' and 'they do'...

Sorry that i cant go into more detail but i won't start a game of zK again. I remember there being an overload of shiny visual stimulation and 'roundness' on gfx and units. Also, you just dont put music under a game in which sounds are of tactical importance.

[gajop]

because it's so incredibly hard to disable music by moving a single slider on the epicmenu (pops with ESC)

[Google_Frog]

Tech tree depth does not imply an interesting or diverse unit selection. A lot of people seem to assume this.

klapmongool when last did you try ZK? It isn't any grittyer than it has been but I don't see how that would outweigh gameplay.

[klapmongool]

Tech tree depth does not imply an interesting or diverse unit selection. A lot of people seem to assume this.

klapmongool when last did you try ZK? It isn't any grittyer than it has been but I don't see how that would outweigh gameplay.

Maybe a couple of months ago. Also @gajop; the music, the reversed mouse scroll, the menu with a 1000 options, it all lead to a repelling atmosphere. I took 15 mins to try and change some stuff so it would be acceptable to play. That didn't work. The game didn't look more interesting than other mods so I quit. I don't care that all the things should have been easy to change. I don't want to change 20 things before I can play.

But before you try any further to convert me or people possibly reading this thread: I just don't like the game design choices, the graphics and the general attitude surrounding ZK. Furthermore I don't like the ZK lobby (its looks, its way of installing itself on my pc, the way it pushes ZK). Enough?

[smoth]

you just dont put music under a game in which sounds are of tactical importance.

HA HA HA

Name 3.

[ContiX]

you just dont put music under a game in which sounds are of tactical importance.

HA HA HA

Name 3.

This is a good point; almost every game I know of has music.

[klapmongool]

you just dont put music under a game in which sounds are of tactical importance.

HA HA HA

Name 3.

This is a good point; almost every game I know of has music.

Doesnt make it right, does it?

That it has been done does not mean it should be done.

[ContiX]

Doesnt make it right, does it?

That it has been done does not mean it should be done.

Actually, depending on the game, the music can change depending on the situation, thus being a notification in-and-of itself.

[smoth]

if he doesn't like it, he can turn it off. It is that simple. His whole argument falls apart right there.

[klapmongool]

Doesnt make it right, does it?

That it has been done does not mean it should be done.

Actually, depending on the game, the music can change depending on the situation, thus being a notification in-and-of itself.

Good point, dont see that happening successfully in multiplayer though.

and smoth. cmon man, i just wrote that it was on by default, hard to remove together with the other mountain of shit i didnt like. The other argument was that it is simply bullshit to have music while other sounds are way more important. Find me a top player that has the games' music on and i'll find you 10 that dont.

[smoth]

yawn.
top players know to tweak all a game's settings.
top player turn off music.
you are not top player.
most of spring is not top tier players.
top players turn off music.
did I mention the part where top players tweak the shit out of their game? They do.