Spring RTS Engine

Hey guys, I recently re-discovered this project after remembering when it was just 3-D TA and I have several questions that I could not find the answer to on this website.

Do I have to have TA (and its expansions) installed in order to download Spring. Specifically, do the TA "mods" need the original game installed?

Which are the most popular/"best" games for Spring?

Do a lot of people play it online?

Thanks in advance, and to the creators of Spring, it amazes me how far this has come. Great job on it, and I'll be sure to get everyone I know to download this!

Officially, you have to own a copy of TA (not more needed) to play any *A-Mod.

But its technically not required. There are no "best" games, but CA and BA are very popular and there are alot of people online through night and day

Okay, so I'll reinstall TA and the two expansions in a bit. When I install a mod, do I install it somewhere in the TA folder or into Spring? I'm guessing the latter, as TA is so ancient that I doubt there is any in-house support for mods.

One final question (Or atleast last one on my mind for now...) does TA need to have the latest patch in order for the Spring mods to work?

AHHHH STOP!

You can erase TA from you PC, it has nothing to do with Spring. Its just a question of copyright.

Ahhh okay, those CD's are probably covered with eight year old dust by now anyway.

it would really help to write these things somewhere in the site, like a Q&A section

Q: do i need to install TA to play spring?
A: OMFG NOOB NO

Do it!

In legaleeze, you have to own TA to legally download some spring mod content. But it's on par with downloading abandon ware, hundreds of thousands of people do it, no one has ever been prosecuted, and if anyone gets in legal trouble it's likely to be the owners of the mods/projects, not their users.

Effectively, TA isn't needed in any way at all, it's just needed if you have moral issues preventing you from breaking irrelevant laws.

Since almost every newb ask that question, it really should be wirtten in plain term. That, is, on the download page:

NOT:

you are legally required to own the original total annihilation game

BUT:

Spring is nothing but B.A., other mods may exist but they are not worth mentionning. The installer contains all the needed files to run, including stolen assets. Click'n'go!

SwiftSpear wrote:
Effectively, TA isn't needed in any way at all, it's just needed if you have moral issues preventing you from breaking irrelevant laws.

its not irrelevant to some exorbitantly rich guy who runs a company that owns the ta franchise, SO BE COURTEOUS TO THAT GUY OKAY

hunterw wrote:

SwiftSpear wrote:
Effectively, TA isn't needed in any way at all, it's just needed if you have moral issues preventing you from breaking irrelevant laws.

its not irrelevant to some exorbitantly rich guy who runs a company that owns the ta franchise, SO BE COURTEOUS TO THAT GUY OKAY

As far as we can tell he doesn't exist. We've done everything we can to find him.

SwiftSpear wrote:

hunterw wrote:

SwiftSpear wrote:
Effectively, TA isn't needed in any way at all, it's just needed if you have moral issues preventing you from breaking irrelevant laws.

its not irrelevant to some exorbitantly rich guy who runs a company that owns the ta franchise, SO BE COURTEOUS TO THAT GUY OKAY

As far as we can tell he doesn't exist. We've done everything we can to find him.

I bet he looks like Willy Wonka.

SwiftSpear wrote:In legaleeze, you have to own TA to legally download some spring mod content.

And again it's not true, owning the CDs does not change the legality in any way. Copyright law does not include any exemption for downloading derivative works if you own a copy of the original, the only special rule is that YOU can make a backup of your copy (and that special case does not apply in all countries).

That's really a technicality though. The mods could just depend on the ota files, but it would be a lot of work with no useful result.

Well after playing for a bit, I have one other question.

Is there anyway to adjust the difficult of the computers? Or is one AI program better than the other. I'm playing BA, and the computers never really seem to do anything but build about five pee-wee's and maybe a freedom fighter...

Use more ais, and give them an economy bonus.

Also use the TASCLIENT program included with spring. There will be a screen FULL of bots of different ranges of difficulties that will play BA with you automatically. They even talk to you O_O

sos32291 wrote:Well after playing for a bit, I have one other question.

Is there anyway to adjust the difficult of the computers? Or is one AI program better than the other. I'm playing BA, and the computers never really seem to do anything but build about five pee-wee's and maybe a freedom fighter...

AIs are hard to make and we don't have many people who even know how to get a basic AI going. You're better off playing online against human players.

Well I like playing agains the AI simply because I have had years of bad experience playing games like the original Red Alert online. Something about games finishing in less then five minutes, or only a single unit being used because its all around amazing makes me very angry at people.

That, and when me and my friends decide to preety much fence in an enemy, I doubt humans would respond very well besides by quitting.

BTW, where is this TASClient "automatic" bot program? The only options I have are the race and the team of the bot. I cannot find economy modifiers either. The only bot programs I have listed are AAI.dll, KAIK.dll, and TestGlobalAI.dll.

sos32291 wrote:Well I like playing agains the AI simply because I have had years of bad experience playing games like the original Red Alert online. Something about games finishing in less then five minutes, or only a single unit being used because its all around amazing makes me very angry at people.

That, and when me and my friends decide to preety much fence in an enemy, I doubt humans would respond very well besides by quitting.

Then these indicate flaws in the game. Look around here and you'll find many games that are particularly designed to avoid these issues in order to make multiplayer an amazing experience.

sos32291 wrote:Something about games finishing in less then five minutes, or only a single unit being used because its all around amazing makes me very angry at people.

well BA probably isn't for you then :D however, it is still skill-driven in as much that if you play vs a pro player, they will probably crush you with whatever unit they choose.

That, and when me and my friends decide to preety much fence in an enemy, I doubt humans would respond very well besides by quitting.

IMO the humans would respond by winning the game quite fast.

There are games out there for less-competitive players tho, and you will never get close to the fun and excitement of playing ppl online if you play v bots, so at least give it a chance.