Spring RTS Engine

Ok, so the asshats on the newbie server kick nubs... the single player don't work:
1. Spawn points don't work.
2. Bots don't work.

There is no documentation re: commands, or any other documentation: The original TA commands don't work.

LoL here is the documentation to mark a map "Squirrely brace+double quote+apostrophe", then click mouse button 3.

The map download works for the first 20 minutes, then it dies and it's impossible to find the map using the web links, or the mods... impossible! The mod download doesn't work at all. After 4 days of trying to get this shit to work, I've discovered ALL of you are assholes, all of you are hackers, you don't really give a shit about newbs, and you should just fucking load the original game, cuz this is a joke. Just torrent the original game and get it over with, cuz this is not even close. The orignal game was 10 times more fun and it worked, so WTF are you doing?

Everyone says - your a nub... learn the game nub!!!! But the single player don't work, it takes 5 hours to actually join a multiplayer game, but then:

1. You all are building lvl 2 shit with lvl 1 construction bots.
2. You all have established alliances even though that's not part of the game.
3. There is lvl 3 laser towers in the first 3 minutes of the game which is impossible - meaning your just a bunch of fucking hackers.
4. Hey I got nothing against hackers, but you've made it impossible for new people to play.... so just die a slow death, then go play some fucking korean mmo.


P.S. What a piece of shit, for so much work... lol. It's like taking 100 years to build the great wall, but only building it 1 foot high.

P.S.S The original game has 3 times the detail, runs 5 times as fast, and has no bugs. It actually works. So this is like a joke or what?

And where is the lvl caps? I don't wanna play with you asshats, I wanna play with nubs - it's so easy to block ranks, except nubs can't block you?

This game needs an asshat limit, so that nubs can play without your cheating and hacking....

TA released in 1993? And it's 10 times more fun than this game... get a clue.

cool story bro

grey666 wrote:There is no documentation

WTFM!

First off: Spring is NOT a remake of Total Annihilation. And it looks like the people you've encountered are right pricks. Don't judge the entire player base because of a number of bad apples.

You'll need to have separate AI files to get bots to work. There are multiple different AIs, check out the AI forum to find them.

AFAIK, many original TA commands do work.

I never could get the built-in SpringLobby downloader to work either, just download stuff from spring.jobjol.nl, much more reliable.

What you refer to as "hackers" sound to me like people who've devoted a lot of time to one mod and know it inside and out, and know the exact build order to tech up as fast as possible. There's not much you can do about that. As for building lvl2 with lvl1 bots, that all depends on the mod you're using, the original TA data is often used mainly as a guideline at best. Also, these bots make for cheap build support units, and a couple of them assisting the first few lvl2 builders you have make for a much faster improvement of econ.

TA was released in 1997. And Spring isn't a game, it's an engine - I assume you're playing XTA? In that case, XTA is the game. If you're playing something else (BA, Spring:1944, etc.), then that is the game.

Again, don't judge the entire engine and the entire player base on a handful of idiots. Stick around a while, play some more games, get to know people, read the forums. Spring is a complicated piece of work. And don't expect an entirely similar experience to OTA, there isn't a single mod out there that captures OTA exactly, not to mention some engine restrictions making a 100% pure re-creating impossible.

If you want, I could walk you through some of the basics (but we'll have to use an autohost, if I try to host the game crashes). Get online and drop me a PM in the lobby. (Or join #strategia, it isn't registered but I autologon there.)

Haha what a newbie.

Strategia wrote:You'll need to have separate AI files to get bots to work. There are multiple different AIs, check out the AI forum to find them.

No matter what AI you get, bot start pos in 0.79.1.1 is broken, has been reported multiple time. Possibly fixed in the git.

Sounds like you're playing Complete Annihilation, which no longer has tech trees, but is instead flat balanced. Before you ask how that works, I just want to mention that you can win with any tree as your primary, dependent on your talents. Some people who are great with their economies can pull off an experimental victory, some people with are wonderful at macro can win over others with the most basic walkers.

There is virtually no hacking at this point which does not result in either...
A. Desync
B. Crash
Both of which render the game obviously unplayable. There is certainly nothing which allows you to increase your economic yield or your units activity beyond what you could accomplish with micro.

I'm here to play all the games on the engine, not to replay TA every day. Most of the time I would spend in either Gundam RTS or Spring 1944, which are well documented independent of the Engine documentation.

However, the Engine commands are documented.
A: Attack
F: Fight
S: Stop
W: Wait/Unwait
Ctrl+A: Select All
Ctrl+D: Self-Destruct
Etcetera... all right here: http://springrts.com/wiki/Command_Reference

I am sorry your initial experience was not an enjoyable one, but I assure you, it is not due to hackers or asshats. I can't remember why there is no upper rank limit to players, probably because we never have a very large new player base - new players quickly advance.

Oh, and to elaborate, the original TA balance was according to some never very good. People have been tweaking it for over a decade now, and for Spring this entailed moving from UberHack to Absolute Annihilation, and then to Balanced Annihilation. Original TA is not available in Spring, the closest we have are HOTA and BOTA, Hardcore TA and Basically OTA. This is because the engine is fundamentally different and numerous behaviors, intentional and unintentional, are hard to duplicate.

C:/Program Files/Spring/docs/GettingStarted.html#Quick_Start
Most of those keyboard shortcuts (the ones that had a function in OTA anyway) are the same is in TA.

neddiedrow wrote:I can't remember why there is no upper rank limit to players, probably because we never have a very large new player base - new players quickly advance.

I think its mainly because no-one has set up a newbies-only autohost. (ofc people would probably just smurf it, but thats beside the point.

Which game are you trying to play? They all have different ways of getting bots to work with them.

To find things online enter your search here: http://spring.jobjol.nl/search.php You then have the enter the same search again in the 'Per Site' box.

Thanks for all the replies... a lot of very good information.

I really like the game, but I can't find all the commands, shortcuts, etc. How do I draw on the map?

From getting started: (what button is that?)
§/` Draw stuff in map that you and allies can see (mouse1=lines, mouse2=erase, mouse3=marker,doubleclick=named marker)

I ran into an asshat my first visit to the spring lobby, then couldn't join a game for the next two days.

After 3 days to get in a multi player game, I finally did and it was a blast.... obviously people are cheating, but it was still fun.

Apologies for the over-reaction, I was excited to find this game and was really looking forward to playing...

When TA first released, I built a network of 9 computers in my living room and my brother, our friends, and myself played TA non-stop for weeks... or months... haha. One of my top 5 all time favorite games.

Cheating?

P.S.S. I did finally get single player to work - here's how:

Pick the map, then pick the mod - balanced ann. 6.95

Add 3 bots (I used 3 KAIK bots), not random starting locations, then select spectate only, the launch the game... then hit escape and quit.

Now turn off spectate mode, set all 3 bots to ally 1.

When the game starts you click to take the two units, and then move them away from the enemy commander...

Now you have 3 commanders vs 2 enemy bots and 1 ally, which is a lot of fun, haha. (I believe this is right, I've tried all kinds of things)

It works anyway...

Gota wrote:Cheating?

Well, 3 minutes into the game, players have rows of nano bots, lol how is that not cheeating?

P.S.S. I removed all of the files in the downloads tab, and now I can download maps... :)

Glad to see the asshats aren't getting to you after all :)

Drawing on the map requires the ` key, e.g. the left apostrophe. Hold it down and click on the map for a marker (team-coloured shaft), hold down the LMB and drag to draw (this doesn't alert your allies like a marker but is useful for demarcation or targeting), hold the RMB to erase markers/lines in a pretty wide area and double-click to create a label marker with text.

As for the lines of nanoturrets, that could indeed be cheating, but it could also be highly experienced players (or highly experienced players masking as newbies by using new accounts, called smurfing) timing everything down to the second and maximising resource efficiency and more such marketingese-esque terms. Watch the replay and see what they're doing. This is an excellent way to learn and pick up new strategies.

I doubt they were cheating...
You should know that there is a huge gap between the most experienced players and newbies...

Ok yes, I agree, but today - I got in 3 multi-player games where people didn't have rows of nano bots in 3 minutes, and it was the most fun.

It was actually pretty great, there was cooperation, there was strategy, there was everything that could possibly make this game great.

What there was not: Rows of nano bots in 3 minutes.

It was all normal players, no hackers... it was a blast! It was really, really fun. It was cool as hell.