|  Author | Topic: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice??? (Read 32,273 times) |
N_Monsterer
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Karma: 0 |  | New to Total Annihilation and need some advice???
« Thread Started on Jan 4, 2005, 2:47pm » | |
Welcome!!! to this Total Annihilation website.
I have decided to make this thread to help the new players become familiar with Total Annihilation after all these years. The new people seeking online gaming have to understand that TA has evolved a lot since it was released. Cavedog created TA but due to a great success it also released Core Contingency and Battle Tactics add-on packs with more missions, units and maps.
The game is just great, playing missions is challenging at the beginning but it also has those lovely skirmish mode games in which you battle to death vs the artificial intelligence. BUT, BUT !!!!!, the greatest thing about this game is Online Gaming, its just so fun, people spend hours playing this game, some do not have a life , hehehe.
Anyways, Online game is my priority, there are several ways to play: Online or over a network connection (modem connection dialing to your buddies house, serial connection between computers or simple get online and look for a place where TA is still Alive). Online is fantastic, it is the best way to know most of the Total Annihilation community which is about 70-100 at this moment, being active about 50-60 all the time.
Online stared all at Boneyards. Boneyards was a type of program intended only for TA only to play online, and have a ranking system of all the players. I didn’t get to play there it was before my time but I heard it was great. There were others called Heat, MPlayer, Phoenix Works, GBL, Gamespy and Zone to mention the most active ones. Of all the above mentioned; only Gamespy and Zone are supporting TA as a classic MONSTER game. I believe Phoenix works and GBL are down , too bad.
So what are you waiting for????? GET ON ZONE !!!!!,, how???? Well, here we go….
Make sure you have at least Total Annihilation. You don’t really need the add-on packs. You can get them latter from several sites this web page is linked to.
Install the game on your system and make sure you install multiplayer spawn.
Go to the Internet with Internet Explorer. (Netscape or any other browser will not work or have a lot of errors). I strongly suggest getting latest Internet Explorer version.
Ok, now you have to go to the Zone domain, use this http://zone.msn.com and the main page of zone shows up. OK now we have to go to TA right, click on CD ROM and all the available cd-rom games to play online show up. Click on Total Annihilation, at the very bottom so scroll down. The click gets you to a sponsor page, simply click GO or wait a few seconds to be taken to the desired page.
Sign In Page.
Click on Sign In or Register Now.
If you do not have one of these two services and you do have an email account from any other place, please fill up the lower information on the same web page to be given a sign in passport
If you have a hotmail or msn account click on Sign In.
Either way you should come back to the zone.com sign in web page. Now you have a .NET password, use your email address and the password and hit sign in. A small rectangular window appears, click YES.
Create a Nickname
Ok, now you will have to create a nickname, click Yes again to the rectangular window and type a nickname there. A nickname is a name that you will have on the Total Annihilation lobby; you will be seen with this name. You can change the nickname later on, for now type something weird like: charlie98356599 or Jhon8743e4. If you use a common nickname like RICK, you will be taken back to Choose another nickname, The nickname is already taken. Try to avoid this by making one of the above examples.
If you have bad luck and run into a nickname like I did just now, I tried richi764393 and was taken, simply chose one of the five options zone offers as a nickname and hit continue. Click on YES. YES again. Click CONTINUE followed by YES.
Zone Newsletter, I clicked on NO, and I was taken to the following page
ZONE ….PAGE NOT FOUND, don’t worry this is a problem very few people have, actually I am the only one that runs to it. On the same page click on CD-ROM again.
Look for Total annihilation and click on it.
Zone is now downlaoding some files, so please wait…… a rectangular window appears asking for a directory to install the zone files, choose C:\Program Files and hit Install.
A square window appears and an agreement shows up, read it if you like and click YES I AGREE. Downloading and installing starts, after that it will ask if you want a shortcut on your desktop, I suggest you to click YES.
Ok, by now a Zone Friends window should be on your computer, this is the way you chat in private messages with your buddies. As for now you have zero buddies because you haven’t met any.
So go back to the MSN Games by zone.com and look for Total Annihilation and click on it. A Download starts automatically, let it finish.
As soon as it is finished you are taken to ZONE lobby. Congratulations !!!!!!!!
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n1_R4cTice
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Karma: 4 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #1 on Jan 4, 2005, 10:38pm » | |
Great work
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #2 on Jan 5, 2005, 9:35am » | |
NOTE to NEW players who want to play with 3RD PARTY UNITS
We've all been there , experimenting with new 3rd party units so you must be wondering where you can use them online.
Well first i must state that once you get better at TA you will find only using the original units better. Its like chess , if u add extra units, ur going to spoil the intricate balance of the game.
But anyway , since over 3 years ago, the large fan base that liked experimenting with extra units decided upon having a universally agreed unit pack so that players will be compatible with each other.
This Unit pack is called Tauip2.1 . If you have taucc3.0 or just downloaded the odd units and want to use them just forget it ,delete them, reinstall TA , and get tauip2.1 , the one that hundreds of players use and the one you are most likely to play games with. tauip2.1 boasts over 200 new units! plus , tauip2.1 allows you to play original TA with players who dont have it, without having to disable it or even reintall TA to allow for compatability.
so now you have Tauip2.1 tons of units to try out! , now where do you go to play with them . Well the answer to this is Gamespy. No one on zone uses tauip, but you will find Gamespy has many tauip players.
Often you will see room names like
"Game here 2v2 tauip 2.1 please"
There is a clan on gamespy called LTA, a very friendly clan that specialises in using tauip2.1 . Dont be afraid to join their games or ask to join their clan. As long as you are friendly and have Tauip2.1!!! , then ur welcome to play , They can tell you more about how to join.
http://www.tadesigners.com/TAUIP/21.shtml - this is the link to TAUIP 2.1 unit pack.
http://www.gamespyarcade.com/download/ - this is the link to GamespyArcade, u need the client to play TA
NOTE- tauip is compatible without core contingency BUT some units wont be available, make sure u have core contingency before u install
NOTE also- upon installing tauip2.1, make sre u select options , NO frontend NO repack
thats all , P5yKe , ( used to be in LTA ages ago)
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Abe
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Karma: 8 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #3 on Jan 6, 2005, 2:40pm » | |
If you are new to this game, please explain how.
This is no flame. I just wonder how you can be new at a game that left the store shelves some 5 years ago. How did you find the game? Who introduced you? Why didn't you take up a modern RTS instead?
Enlighten me.
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n1_R4cTice
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Karma: 4 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #4 on Jan 8, 2005, 12:08am » | |
i keep on hearing the "i had it when it came out, just never tried online"
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denimdemon
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #5 on Jan 9, 2005, 5:01pm » | |
Start here (thats a link so click it) and read down a ways to get started with TA Multiplayer.
So according to that you can play TA on Kali again and this place called MPZ. I had no idea.
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #6 on Jan 21, 2005, 5:43pm » | |
Total Annihilation, Strat guide 1
If yer a new player try to think about the concept of "real time" , this will improve yer game tremendously
What is real time ?
Real time is the amount of time u have AVAILABLE to spend managing a certain task.
Ok? so....
Well think about a Ta game this way, usally the guy with more resources wins , limit the real time someone has to build resources , and u have a hugh advantage.
Ok? and....
Well lets adopt this to your game ...
learn resource build orders! for every map!, from tadds! . People say you shouldnt, but trust me, only uber experts dont need to, and by that i mean only diablo  he makes hes own up every game fuck! . If u take time to learn where every mex spot is, u can spend less time on moving cons around , deciding if u need to build that extra solar etc and spend more time on controlling units
If a guy is constantly defending from attack , he cannot expand, cos he cannot spend any time to control cons.
However an attacker can always go back for a few seconds to his base and sort out his idle cons, granted some of your flashes might sit idly by enemy mexes for a few seconds, but the defender aint gonna know, hes gonna still be defending.
Always syncronise ur attacks, if u attack from 3 sides, always taper ur attack so that one side attack slightly before the other 2, this way, the oponent will prolly send all his defense to the first attack, then will have to use up real time picking off individual units to move back to defend the other attacks that will take him by surprise.
In flash v flash raid battles , make sure u get to his mex before he gets to one of urs,just making an opponent see a flash near his stuff, heck even a jeffy can make him fook up his real time management . An attacker uses up less real time because he knows whats hes gonna do. a defender always wastes it in the reaction phase.
Always crtl number with FFs , and use crtl f5- f8 at ur base and theirs to jump ur screen quickly.
know when ur opponent is busy with one thing, then attack at other areas, this could be them trying to maneuvre a con away from you or even them trying to radar target ur emgs.
one more thing , use the radar to move ur screen, if u use the arrows u waste a trmendous amount of real time getting ur screen from point A to point B, it feels like hard work but trust me, wipe dog shit on ur arrow keys , so u dont touch em, u will improve at TA!
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Real time best works on rushing maps like fm, rp , rhl , ds
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #7 on Jan 21, 2005, 6:14pm » | |
Total annihlation strat guide 2
If yer a new player u should get familiar with the concept of unit management... today im just gonna go over the samson.
Firstly get in yer head , a unit is only as effective as the amount of shit it dishes on other units.
so...that means....
if sams been firing alot and hitting targets - thats good.
=> if a sam dies before it shoots a single missle .dats bad
this can happen if u send sams in a long line towards mts forests one by one , or into an enemy group one by one because u are panicking and want to get units into the fray asap.
Instead always make sure sams are together in groups, atleast that way they are bound to get few missles off.
=> if a sam dishes its shit on a wrekage...thats bad
this might use up a bit of micro managment, but have u ever noticed that group attacking a unit, u sometimes happen to overkill a unit so half the potential missles hit a wrekage.(this also implies for mts), rather then overkillin a unit box one part of a group to hit one unit and box another part to hit another unit.
=> Sams at the back of a group do fuck all.
u select a group of sams, and target a unit, the ones at the back are given orders to attack? , but they dont attack cos they are blocked off from getting into range. try experimenting with the shape fo ur group. try to make a crecent shape group to involve more sams in a fight. tbh, in big sam group battles, theres alot of real tiem wasted watching the light show!
=> radar target or find los
self explanatory, if a sam is only as good as what it fires, then u want to make it fire as soon as something gets in its range. unfortunelty this is outside its los, so u have to either fire using the radar, or use other units like flashes to gain a line of site.
=> a damaged sam on red, still dishes out the same amount of missles on units. By this im implying , if a sam is on red, its ur gain if u can keep it alive by moving a healthy sam infront of it to shield it. its all maths but when ur fighting for example a mt forest, utlilsing real time for this is advantageous,.
=> sams also have other uses, dead sams make good dragon teeth
try maneuvering a dying sam infron of a missle tower, when it dies, its wrekage makes an effective wall to protect the mt, i thinks thats true 
=> the samson strat guide in rush maps, okay in this the idea is to use sams to pick off attacking emgs(flash peewee) until u get to a point where ur swarm is big enough , by sucking the wrecks of said emgs to build it, to take out the enemy. The advantages of the sam strat is u need less real time to control sams then u do flashes, so its easy to manage cons whilst defending with sams. its very much a slow build up strat, that leads to a final kill, but can work very well , especially with ur added real time to control cons.
To do the strat dot the sams (about 4 u have atm) around ur base, but make sure that each is within others firing range. Always build radar, thats whats gonna make it work. and make sure sams are in easy maneuvrable positons, no point sticking it in a hole or letting it sit in a place with a hill beteween it and ur base and the other sams.[ think rp], emgs will eat em up otherwise. Once u have about 7 sams, u can group them, becasue the overall firepower of 7 missles per volley should stop flashes in no time, u should then back up the sams with missle towers. slowly expanding, making the opponenet panick himself into building sams., then just mass rape him. alsonot a bad idea to supplement the sam strat with one flash that is heavily micro controlled with alot of real time devote to it, use it to knock out their mex, whilst they busy getting pissed of that ur prolly a no-emg noob and should be beating u somehow just because they using expert flash raiding skillz
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by now u should have figured why one flash can beat one sam, but a group of sams can beat the same number of flashes. If u cant, then u should quit TA and play noob real time strategy games like red alert 2 so u can pork up with super weapons and show off ur amazing unit control with tanks that are protected by iron curtains. 
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greycatmon
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #8 on Jan 31, 2005, 1:50pm » | |
Hello, you're mising someone here. Hye I'm greycatmon, and new to here. I'm an advanced player in Total Annihilation, but a little advice would help
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This place is awesome! I want to go further... What the **** is that? I need to hide. I wonder how to get out... I wonder... |
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #9 on Feb 1, 2005, 7:37am » | |
ummmm advise like what?
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greycatmon
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #10 on Feb 2, 2005, 8:34am » | |
Advice like how to get more defense on your base early enough to not lose energy, 'cause I tend to lose all my energy.
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This place is awesome! I want to go further... What the **** is that? I need to hide. I wonder how to get out... I wonder... |
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PRO_-|[CUBIC]|-_
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Karma: 1 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #11 on Feb 2, 2005, 1:50pm » | |
Quote:| Advice like how to get more defense on your base early enough to not lose energy, 'cause I tend to lose all my energy. |
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P5yKe has mentioned this...
Quote:
learn resource build orders! for every map!, from tadds! . People say you shouldnt, but trust me, only uber experts dont need to, and by that i mean only diablo he makes hes own up every game fuck! . If u take time to learn where every mex spot is, u can spend less time on moving cons around , deciding if u need to build that extra solar etc and spend more time on controlling units
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TADDs are TA demo recordings, game recordings. Get the game recorder. Make sure you read all it's documentation:
http://tazone.tauniverse.com/resource/recorder.shtml
Then download game recordings:
http://tazone.tauniverse.com/tadds/tadds.php?go=showreviewedgames
Watch cerefully, make notes. Play some games, record your own and review them. Repeat cycle until you become 'expert' and subsequent burnt out that could have done so much more with their lives than play a game 24/7 which was designed for a minimum of a Pentium 100 with 16 MB RAM! lolz
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EvilScott
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #12 on Feb 4, 2005, 7:45pm » | |
the greatest advice I could give anyone starting TA... expand far and wide and be fearless.. do not panic at all in game and you will eventually figure out how they play and win. But as soon as you give up hope you lose GG.
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TAG_Venom
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YOU FUCKING LANGER!
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Karma: -103 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #13 on Feb 9, 2005, 11:28am » | |
stfu red alert 2 owns.
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Karma: 0 | | Re: New to Total Annihilation and need some advice
« Reply #14 on Feb 20, 2005, 4:32pm » | |
Anything EA electronics touches suck
Red alert 2 , FiFa , Goldeneye Rouge agent ,
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