In my humble opinion, Total Annihilation is the closest thing to a real time stragy game on the market. I have played the a few of the Total War series games as well as every Command and Conquer game and Starcraft and War Craft III as well as a few of the real time stratagy games release by Microsoft. My reasons for this are in how each of the other games are played.
War Crat III plays more like a real time action RPG. By this I mean that first you pick a hero then you build up this hero's party. Next you take the party out to level your hero, gain items, and then assaut the enemy hero in a small strike. There is no room for any mistakes in this.
StarCraft usually relies on one massive push against the enemy in a winner take all style of battle.
While I have all of the Command and Conquer games I rarely played them online. There are some elements of stratagy in these games they mostly are one massive tank rush or aircraft rush.
In Rome: Total War resource managment is based on a turn base system outside of battles. Once in battle a commander must rely on clever tactics to defeat his enemy. The only stratagy that occurs outside of battle is careful positioning of armys and diplomatic relations.
However, in Total Annhiliation one must properly manage his resources or else he will fall behind in unit production and be crushed in a swift assault. However, if both sides manage resources correctly they have many options available to them of how to build an army. A commander can use air, land, sea, or nuclear weapons in any combination of ways to achieve victory. When a battle commences between there won't be occasionall bits of fire like most games. A commander will see constant fire from light troops and larger caliber but slower firing from the heavier units. After a battle the units dont decay with time, their remains are still their long after the battle unless they are destroyed by high power weapons or harvested for valuable metal. Units are only hit if it appears that they have been hit by a weapon. Most units are easily repaired by any builder unit. While higher teir units are stronger they are not unstoppable.
In Total Annihilation there are few ultimate stratagies and there are many viable stratagies. All the other games I have mentioned usually only have a few tried and true methods of obtaining victory. The options available in Total Annithiltion make it, in my humble opinion, the best real time stratagy game available.
NeonSpyder"Das est NTLDR?"Join Date: 2003-07-03Member: 17913Members
well.. isn't that implied by me posting it? yeah, go nuts, use it to your hearts content, jesus i wouldn't want it any other way. no need to ask even, wow, you've blown my mind man, you've blown my mind.
<!--QuoteBegin-Rapier7+Apr 28 2005, 09:22 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Rapier7 @ Apr 28 2005, 09:22 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Total Annihilation is the best RTS on its own rights. Ever. No exceptions.
Its move to true 3-D is going to be awesome, but it still isn't in a playable state yet. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> So true. Although technically the units were 3d, so it wasn't entirely 2d <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
I'm going to have to check this out. TA was an incredible game.
GrendelAll that is fear...Join Date: 2002-07-19Member: 970Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, NS2 Playtester
edited April 2005
Just some random suggestions
a) Go buy a dictionary. Look up the meaning of the word strategy.
b) Play enough multiplayer TA to know what you are talking about.
c) Play enough of Blizzard's games to know what you are talking about.
d) If you have a hard-on for the military, why not cease superimposing your idealistic view of combat and warfare on reality and instead go and find out how and why people go and kill each other. That way you won't give away the fact you have no military experience whatsoever and that your analysis of a games martial authenticity is based from your experience of watching movies and reading websites.
e) If you don't think that you need much micro-management to play TA, then you should stop playing against your grandmother over LAN.
TA is a great game, for a number of reasons that have barely been touched upon. If you enjoy it, you should really look at Empire Earth (which Flayra worked on) or its sequel. It has bags of variety. Sadly, this seems to have confused certain people who seem unable to differentiate between variety and <b>depth</b>.
Grendel owned you all. I have always knew that there is something in TA that makes it so great that I cant understand without irl war expierience. I think while it has the massive 1k unit battles It is still really close to games like myth. You need to backup your forces and not just rush with them.
Oh and one reason I loved TA over anything was: TEH VULCAN AND TEH BUzZAW. Nothing like continious volley of plasma balls that goes from one side of the map to other destroying anything even relatively close. And of course then there was the h4xing with xtra-range by aming at the cannoncs legs ^_^
Grendel, if you're talking about microing on maps like GoW and small land maps where positioning your raiding flash correctly can mean the difference between a dead mex and a dead flash, you're right. But once you get past the initial raiding, as territory is solidly entrenched with slashers and MTs, you start building massive armies and practically all micromanagement gives way into one giant select all then click to the opposite side of the map.
The only real micromanagement that the game has is managing air units effectively (the difference between a dead commander and....fifty dead vamps, say) and managing your construction units.
Oh, and I consider myself a reasonably competent TA player over the internet. If you want a game, Grendel (OTA+CC only), unless you're one of those really old guys from GBL and Phoenix Worx, I'd be more than happy to play against you.
For anyone who still plays TA but not online, there's a community at irc.gnug.org channel #gnug that has about a dozen active players.
It's going to be more than moddable. It's open source under GPL. So the answer to both questions is yes.
I have not intention to start any kind of flamewar but someone has to say this first: TA > SC any day of the week !!! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I remember playing TA a long time back... it was the only game I've ever played that left me feeling... well... nothing :/
I wasn't bored, I wasn't excited, I wasn't frustrated, I wasn't happy. Just this sort of strange empty neutrality that scared me. I uninstalled it after continuing to play it like that for quite a while in the hopes it might invoke some kind of emotion or reaction without success and didn't really care after that :p
i play TAUCP in skirmishes against the computer. Its a shell for the original game that loads up every third-party add on unit. (every one that is relatively balanced) so that there are over twice as many different units to use.
then, although its hard to lose against the computer, its hella fun. I would die to play over a LAN but my friends are obsessed with starcraft.
I played a quick test in Commaders mode, and it looks very promising, if they can just get rid of the bugs, and get some classic maps on there, and fix the camera, then this could be a winner.
Comments
War Crat III plays more like a real time action RPG. By this I mean that first you pick a hero then you build up this hero's party. Next you take the party out to level your hero, gain items, and then assaut the enemy hero in a small strike. There is no room for any mistakes in this.
StarCraft usually relies on one massive push against the enemy in a winner take all style of battle.
While I have all of the Command and Conquer games I rarely played them online. There are some elements of stratagy in these games they mostly are one massive tank rush or aircraft rush.
In Rome: Total War resource managment is based on a turn base system outside of battles. Once in battle a commander must rely on clever tactics to defeat his enemy. The only stratagy that occurs outside of battle is careful positioning of armys and diplomatic relations.
However, in Total Annhiliation one must properly manage his resources or else he will fall behind in unit production and be crushed in a swift assault. However, if both sides manage resources correctly they have many options available to them of how to build an army. A commander can use air, land, sea, or nuclear weapons in any combination of ways to achieve victory. When a battle commences between there won't be occasionall bits of fire like most games. A commander will see constant fire from light troops and larger caliber but slower firing from the heavier units. After a battle the units dont decay with time, their remains are still their long after the battle unless they are destroyed by high power weapons or harvested for valuable metal. Units are only hit if it appears that they have been hit by a weapon. Most units are easily repaired by any builder unit. While higher teir units are stronger they are not unstoppable.
In Total Annihilation there are few ultimate stratagies and there are many viable stratagies. All the other games I have mentioned usually only have a few tried and true methods of obtaining victory. The options available in Total Annithiltion make it, in my humble opinion, the best real time stratagy game available.
<img src='http://img258.echo.cx/img258/2750/taspring7eb.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
which also happens to be my signature
<img src='http://img258.echo.cx/img258/2750/taspring7eb.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
which also happens to be my signature <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mind if I use?
Its move to true 3-D is going to be awesome, but it still isn't in a playable state yet. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
So true. Although technically the units were 3d, so it wasn't entirely 2d <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
I'm going to have to check this out. TA was an incredible game.
a) Go buy a dictionary. Look up the meaning of the word strategy.
b) Play enough multiplayer TA to know what you are talking about.
c) Play enough of Blizzard's games to know what you are talking about.
d) If you have a hard-on for the military, why not cease superimposing your idealistic view of combat and warfare on reality and instead go and find out how and why people go and kill each other. That way you won't give away the fact you have no military experience whatsoever and that your analysis of a games martial authenticity is based from your experience of watching movies and reading websites.
e) If you don't think that you need much micro-management to play TA, then you should stop playing against your grandmother over LAN.
TA is a great game, for a number of reasons that have barely been touched upon. If you enjoy it, you should really look at Empire Earth (which Flayra worked on) or its sequel. It has bags of variety. Sadly, this seems to have confused certain people who seem unable to differentiate between variety and <b>depth</b>.
Oh and one reason I loved TA over anything was: TEH VULCAN AND TEH BUzZAW. Nothing like continious volley of plasma balls that goes from one side of the map to other destroying anything even relatively close. And of course then there was the h4xing with xtra-range by aming at the cannoncs legs ^_^
The only real micromanagement that the game has is managing air units effectively (the difference between a dead commander and....fifty dead vamps, say) and managing your construction units.
Oh, and I consider myself a reasonably competent TA player over the internet. If you want a game, Grendel (OTA+CC only), unless you're one of those really old guys from GBL and Phoenix Worx, I'd be more than happy to play against you.
For anyone who still plays TA but not online, there's a community at irc.gnug.org channel #gnug that has about a dozen active players.
I have not intention to start any kind of flamewar but someone has to say this first: TA > SC any day of the week !!! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I wasn't bored, I wasn't excited, I wasn't frustrated, I wasn't happy. Just this sort of strange empty neutrality that scared me.
I uninstalled it after continuing to play it like that for quite a while in the hopes it might invoke some kind of emotion or reaction without success and didn't really care after that :p
then, although its hard to lose against the computer, its hella fun. I would die to play over a LAN but my friends are obsessed with starcraft.