Total Annihilation/Gameplay

This Chapter will cover the basic information about the game, either for those who want to know more before acquiring it, for those who are interested in information about the game which isn't obvious while playing it, or those who just like to read trivia about computer games. It will not cover the controls, or basic gameplay - it will be asumed that you own a legal copy of the game, or intend to get a legal copy before playing, and so will have the instruction manual, either in paper form or as a PDF. Using these assumptions, it becomes apparent that descriping the basic gameplay would be an entirely redundant exercise.

Ok, what is this game?
It's a three dimensional real time strategy (RTS) game. The object is generally to control various units in killing all units belonging to unfriendly players (including computer players). Some single-player missions have other objectives, and these will be explained in the individual mission briefings.

The game 'scales' with the computer that it is used on, so a powerful machine will be able to handle (potentially) thousands of units at high screen resolutions.

The game is multiplayer compatable over various online gaming systems, although a lot of the original systems are now defunct there are still a few that support Total Annihilation.

Total Annihilation is balanced in a different way to the majority of RTS games in it's time, and, infact, a lot of RTS games today, in that each unit's cost is directly based on how good it is, rather than as a counter to a unit that the enemy has.

Total Annihilation also has a very modular nature, a new unit can be all packed in a single .hpi archive, and the new unit installed simply by leaving this .hpi in the Total Annihilation directory, the same system applies for installing new maps.

Game history
Total Annihilation was released in 1997 by Cavedog, with most of the inspiration for the game having come from Chris Taylor. At the time that it was released it's engine and gameplay concepts were revolutionary, although it never gained the popularity of other games released at the same time, such as Starcraft, because it was not extensively advertised.

In 1999 Cavedog folded and Total Annhilation was acquired by Infogrames, who, at some point (which may have been before Cavedog folded) renamed themselves Atari after buying the trademark. Which basically means that Total Annihilation is now the property of Atari, although they aren't actually doing anything with it, other than providing a forum. Two expansion packs were released for Total Annihilation, "The Core Contingency" which was much like an expansion pack in the traditional sense, in that it provided new: maps, tilesets and units. i.e. new content.

The second expansion pack was called "Battle Tactics" and rather than featuring new content like traditional expansion packs & The Core Contingency it contained extensive single player missions to try to teach tactics to the player, as opposed to the more crude 'throw more units at the enemy than they throw at you' approach. It was mostly aimed at more experinced players as it assumed proficiency in actually playing Total Annihilation. Unfortunately, most of the experienced player either had small-scale tactics organised already, or had perfected the brute force method and didn't realy need them.

Total Annihilation was, for a time, released on the 'Replay' label (and, infact, may still be in such a situation) and it's having been released earlier means that copies of the original Total Annihilation are much easier to find than copies of Battle Tactics or The Core Contingency, this means that the two expansions packs are rare, and expensive when the do become available, as they are no longer being produced.

Back Story
This is mostly covered in the instruction manual, so it will only be briskly covered here. In a large, technologically advanced society, the armed forces decided the to make their weapons, vehicles, 'k-bots' (units, in general) more effective, by reducing the need for controls & life support and reaction times, they would integrate the consciousness of their pilots into the machines themselves.

A rebel group started a violent rebellion to stop this practice, preferring traditional methods of piloting their various machines, and cloning their best pilots to make up for the lost advantages from consciousness-transfer.

This spilled over into a full-blown war, which lasted a very long time and exhausted all the resources of an entire galaxy. Total Annihilation is set in the aftermath of this, with the once-mighty armies slugging it out for final victory using whatever weapons and machines they can scrape together.

The two sides
The government/military forces (the people who support consciousness-transfer) are called the Core, the rebels (the people who don't support consciousness-transfer) are called the Arm. Arm units tend to be smaller, lighter, faster and cheaper than Core units. Each side also has equivalent units, for instance, each side has a basic infantry K-bot, a fighter, and a medium plasma battery. This will be discussed further in the Units section.