Total Annihilation Zero

[TaShadan]

Total Annihilation Zero by Vohvelieläin

Introduction

Total Annihilation Zero is a full-fledged modification of the classic strategy game Total Annihilation and aims to recreate the entire game to the maximum extent and quality that is currently possible. In addition to completely redesigned versions of the two factions from the original game, the Arm and the Core, TA Zero introduces a third faction, the Guardians of Kadesh. All three factions are stylistically and strategically unique and crafted to the highest standards that can be achieved within the Total Annihilation engine. The game is a work-in-progress with preview versions regularly released to the public as development milestones are reached. There's no telling what the final version will hold in store, but you can continue on to the Features section to learn more about what is currently available in TA Zero.



Compared to the original Total Annihilation the gameplay shifted from "macro" oriented gameplay to "micro" oriented one (do not be afraid, there still is a lot of macro involved). Every unit has to be microed differently and the terrain plays a prominent role. For example most units benefit from a high ground advantage. The game in general is more tactical and positional but still fast paced. Soft counters play a major role, while still having some hard counter units. Therefore it has a lot of aspect from other RTS games like Starcraft Broodwar or C&C mixed with the streaming-resource system, which allows you to queue production. In addition the TA engine allows you to dodge projectiles, which leads to very interesting and satisfying encounters. Although being based on a outdated engine, the visual aspects were increased (new very detailed models and handmade textures with a distinctive theme for each faction) and the controls/gui are on par with modern RTS games. A more detailed feature list can be found here: http://zero.tauniverse.com/features/. The design of the maps is unique and beautiful. Most maps feature ground, air and naval battles and therefore lead to a very varied game with lots of different units and play styles.

You can check out some of the maps here:
Implemented Maps
Community maps

One example from the community mappack:


To get an impression of the gameplay you can check out my youtube channel:

TaShadan Total Annihilation Youtube Channel

One example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfoJnzt ... U5RHn2h10w

Full Changelog

You like what you see?

Come and play on Gameranger!

Official Gameranger Site

You tried to play but you are having trouble learning the basics? Check out this Beginners guide!

Total Annihilation Zero Beginners Guide

I hope i play you soon on Gameranger!

Greetings

ash.TaShadan

[Google_Frog]

I think your post is a bit long for a cross-form release-post copy-paste. How is the multiplayer community?

The work required to wrangle the TA engine into doing some of these things is impressive. But with that much work I have to ask; why not use Spring? A lot of the hacky stuff is easy to script for Spring and the 'excess' work could be put into improving the engine if the TA engine happens to have any advantage over Spring.

[TaShadan]

Iam not the project leader therefore i cant answer your question. I will ask him myself but TA Zero without a fixed camera position will suck.

The community is small (the majority of TA gamerranger player play OTA or ESC), but there are people playing it.

[Anarchid]

Long description is too long.

Also, an unsynced gadget could force camera to do anything you want it to do, including
annihilating zoom and forcing modes.

[TaShadan]

I asked him and he thinks its too much effort to retexture all the models and rewrite the scripts.

[PicassoCT]

Still impressive.

[PepeAmpere]

Not enough Zero* projects around! More pigdog and catcow projects!

[luckywaldo7]

Not enough Zero* projects around! More pigdog and catcow projects!

Seeing that the project is Total Annihilation Zero, that would be *Zero*. Doesn't work nearly as well as *A, or even make sense, but it was a good try.

[CarRepairer]

Last but certainly not least, behold the megamap! Left is zoomed in, right is zoomed out. Cool, huh?

TA Zero without a fixed camera position will suck.

Mixed signals here. You're saying we should be impressed with a zoomed out camera and then you say that Spring is no good for your project because you can manipulate the camera. Zoomed in is good, zoomed out is good, zoomed medium is bad? I don't get it.

[knorke]

Zoomed in is good, zoomed out is good, zoomed medium is bad? I don't get it.

Seems obvious to me.
With full 3D camera there is the risk that eventually players zoom out so far that the units get indistinguishable. The graphics of terrain, explosions, effects etc might also look worse at distance.
With the large weapon ranges in TA style games zooming out farther gives an advantage, that is why players do it: Players are forced to play the game in an "ugly way" to be good, imo fundamental design fail.
New players are are often confused by the free camera, how to controll it etc. I think free zoom also makes it harder to judge distances, so you get the effect that newbs queue up buildings thousands metres apart.
(for examples of that watch any video of people playing for the first time, eg the indie marathon with zK)
Free camera/zoom also brings the questions of "what to do with mapedges", "do my units look good at all distances", "need to create tactical icon",...
In contrast overview mode ("mega map") is easier to handle but still gives a bit of the "epic scale" feel.

In spring one could recreate such classic RTS camera. Problem is once you are used to the free camera you will never want to play without it, despite some of its problems...

[luckywaldo7]

Zoomed in is good, zoomed out is good, zoomed medium is bad? I don't get it.

Seems obvious to me.
With full 3D camera there is the risk that eventually players zoom out so far that the units get indistinguishable. The graphics of terrain, explosions, effects etc might also look worse at distance.
With the large weapon ranges in TA style games zooming out farther gives an advantage, that is why players do it: Players are forced to play the game in an "ugly way" to be good, imo fundamental design fail.
New players are are often confused by the free camera, how to controll it etc. I think free zoom also makes it harder to judge distances, so you get the effect that newbs queue up buildings thousands metres apart.
(for examples of that watch any video of people playing for the first time, eg the indie marathon with zK)
Free camera/zoom also brings the questions of "what to do with mapedges", "do my units look good at all distances", "need to create tactical icon",...
In contrast overview mode ("mega map") is easier to handle but still gives a bit of the "epic scale" feel.

In spring one could recreate such classic RTS camera. Problem is once you are used to the free camera you will never want to play without it, despite some of its problems...

You seem to take a very Apple approach, i.e. you assume your users are idiots and you decide that you need to wall them in a garden of what you think their perfect experience should be.

[Jools]

Hey, that's nice. You even have fog of war working, something we have tried to get to spring for ages...

[smoth]

Hey, that's nice. You even have fog of war working, something we have tried to get to spring for ages...

ta always had fog of war working. I swear these threads always get cringeworthy the moment one of you lot come in with that sort of bitter crap.

go work on FOW, no one is. Knorke dicked around with it but stopped. if you put a real effort in, odds are it could be done.

What he meant by fix camera being important is probably because the models have giant holes in them when viewed from differing angles.

TaShadan, many people here are from TAU.. just saying.

[Jools]

FOW can't be done without change to engine.

[Beherith]

Undiscovered terrain is currently difficult, and I see no need for it. But speak of the devil, Kloot made some recent changes (extratextures can be updated with a callin) this last week that make pretty fog of war possible. Using it nicely is on my TODO list for BA:R this week.

[smoth]

FOW can't be done without change to engine.

Many things in the past were not possible without a change to the engine.

[FLOZi]

Hey, that's nice. You even have fog of war working, something we have tried to get to spring for ages...

ta always had fog of war working. I swear these threads always get cringeworthy the moment one of you lot come in with that sort of bitter crap.

go work on FOW, no one is. Knorke dicked around with it but stopped. if you put a real effort in, odds are it could be done.

What he meant by fix camera being important is probably because the models have giant holes in them when viewed from differing angles.

TaShadan, many people here are from TAU.. just saying.

+1 bitter TAU vet here

[TaShadan]

TaShadan, many people here are from TAU.. just saying.

After reading the replies here i doubt that...

[TaShadan]

Last but certainly not least, behold the megamap! Left is zoomed in, right is zoomed out. Cool, huh?

TA Zero without a fixed camera position will suck.

Mixed signals here. You're saying we should be impressed with a zoomed out camera and then you say that Spring is no good for your project because you can manipulate the camera. Zoomed in is good, zoomed out is good, zoomed medium is bad? I don't get it.

Its not a mixed signal. The megamap is a fixed position with icons but the icons are not as detailed as in spring or fa. Its just an improved minimap.

PS: this is not my project. Its made by Voh and N72 iam supporting the project with playtesting and mapmaking and sometimes with ideas.

[Jools]

Undiscovered terrain is currently difficult, and I see no need for it. But speak of the devil, Kloot made some recent changes (extratextures can be updated with a callin) this last week that make pretty fog of war possible. Using it nicely is on my TODO list for BA:R this week.

Yes, but there isn't even a way to get the LOS-map from the engine. If you find a way, then pray tell us. Only way I can think of is to probe each map position and see if that is in LOS. But that must be expensive to do in real time.

But painting the FOW is not the real challenge, imo the best option is to just make stuff in black and white. But if you want it to be useful, things must respect the FOW. That means changing how stuff like nukes and other projectiles, and also lights work. And some more stuff. And also make it work on minimap.

I think most agree that unmapped stuff isn't needed.