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Real Time Strategy (Games)

Total Annihilation Sequel Preview 51

Posted by Zonk from the old-skool-flava dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Fans of much loved RTS Total Annihilation will be excited to hear that a spiritual successor is in the works under the name Supreme Commander. Information on this title has been scarce until today, when Gamespy released a preview with screenshots galore. The preview contains an overview of the game, the storyline and, coming tommorrow, an interview with Chris Taylor."
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Total Annihilation Sequel Preview More

Total Annihilation Sequel Preview

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  • I was so addicted to total annihilation that it was the first and only game that I created maps for and played for hours and hours on end. The fact that the maps were not just the product of a game-packaged editor suite but could be any form of bitmap with a heightmap was one of the factors that drew so many people towards customizing the game environment. If you wanted to play on britney spears, that was easily doable given a decently sized scan.

  • Wow (Score:1)

    by niskel ( 805204 )
    Normally I'm not an RTS fan. Probably because I would always get my ass handed to me in Starcraft. But this game just looks amazing. The fact that it hs such an interesting and diverse scale is astounding. The nukes in particular. I remember in C&C and SC that a nuke might kill a few units and maybe damage a few structures but the nukes in this game actually seem like real nukes, full blown devistation. The whole zooming in idea reminds me of GoogleEarth.

    • Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)

      by Quikah ( 14419 )
      The nukes in Total Annihilation were the same. There was also a defensive weapon available to knock nukes out of the sky. Protecting that was vital, if you were to lose it, the nukes would come raining down completely wiping out your base.
    • You should definitely try the original! There's an excellent remake of it at http://taspring.clan-sy.com/ [clan-sy.com].

      I love it, and I absolutely HATE RTS'S!

  • TA 1 was great!... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by slughead ( 592713 ) on Friday July 08, 2005 @03:14PM (#13015751) Homepage Journal
    if you had the time.

    I found the games ran far too long, and though there were a wide range of units, combined arms were usually inferior to just building large quantities of 2 or 3 units.

    C&C Generals had far shorter games with better incentive to build a few of most of the units you were capable of building.

    The only reason I'm posting this short review is because many view TA 1 to be the best RTS ever made. My point is that it's all a matter of what you value most: huge waves of units and really really fast clicking or actual strategy.
    • Well if they run too long, you need a different strategy. I practiced a bit and on any metal world I can beat the AI in about 5 minutes or less.

      The point is that the AI isn't that great. When you have that huge palette of units to pick from, when you're actually playing against another human, the strategy variations are great! You can try a few of the Quell- or BA2k AI replacements, they're much more aggressive.

      I think when people say it's the best RTS, they really mean the most significant. About 9 y

  • Better than TA: Kingdoms (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oskard ( 715652 ) on Friday July 08, 2005 @03:17PM (#13015784)
    Total Annihilation was easily the most fun I've ever had playing an RTS. Warcraft III and Command & Conquer just don't give you the same rush as building 50 wasps and sending them simultaneously to swarm your enemy.

    I recently revisted the game (after finding the original 2 disc installation) and noticed how poor the graphics were. The units were 3d and the terrain was 2d. It worked for back then, but nowadays we need everything 3d. The Ta-Spring [clan-sy.com] project has been doing great in their recreation and enhancement of the original game. It features full 3d environments and even first person combat control. Some of the new weapons such as the plasma deflector are simply amazing and make the TA experience much better.

    On the whole, TA-Spring has brought new life into TA without completely changing the game. It looks almost exactly similar to its original, except for the better graphics and advanced features.

    I can only hope this sequel, Supreme Commander, will be better than the FIRST sequel, TA: Kingdoms. Futuristic combat just makes more sense given the view and nature of an RTS. One thing is for sure, the concept art and map design look out of this world - a theme that went well with the first TA.
    • I spent 2 hours yesterday playing warcraft II. I don't know how I managed to play it, since we need 3D units and terrain. I just played it, and I had a hell of a good time, too. Gameplay>Graphics WarCraft II Gameplay>All other RTS gameplay
    • I've found at least one game play deviation in Spring. The "fire at your feet" bug. In Spring, the cannons would actually, fire at their feet.

      Versus normal TA, where in order to hit a target so incredibly close the cannon would automatically aim up, but would hit the maximum height angle. This feature would send shells slightly beyond the rated range of the cannon.
    • > The units were 3d and the terrain was 2d. It
      > worked for back then, but nowadays we need
      > everything 3d.

      Actually, although the terrain was a 2d picture, it was actually 3d in that you could use elevation to your advantage. And actually to your advantage -- unlike the POS code named Warcraft III, where in the entire game I found only one place where I could put a tower where it would outshoot a stupid mobile meatwagon.

      And that was probably an oversight on the lame game designers.

      Nah, you can t
      • Oops, I meant WCIII's "upkeep". A lame concept.

        BTW, I forgot to mention Dungeon Keeper I, which I'd put with those two at the pinnacle of awesomeness. The original WC and Starcraft pull up the 2nd level of goodness after those three, along with Dungeon Keeper II.

        DK I was magnificent. I can recall racing my imps to fortify the walls only 1 block ahead of the tunneling dwarven heroes. What fun! DK II lost some of the magic by altering this and allowing busting through of fortified walls. Still good, b
  • I don't know...Dungeon Siege was pretty awful.
    • The major problem with dungeon siege was that it apeard to be Diablo 2 without the soul.
      The loot was boring , the voice acting (suprisingly) was worse than that of Diablo2 and even gave Nox a run for its money in its less than amature nature and last but not least it was just lacking any origional (even unorigional but good)plot that failed to capture the imagination.
      it felt like a cheap clone of Diablo2 with more of a team focus and less of a goal, though the engine was ok.
      Im just a bit iritated because i
  • I loved this game! I loved it when you would start working on your metal reserves, and get a plant up and running.
    You start on construction of a vehicle and.. wait.. where is my commander!

    The strategy was to make as many flying transports as possible as fast as possible, and have them go "load" up the enemy commander, ceasing their production of anything.
    It was fun! As long as you weren't the sucker who got carried away XD
    • the air transport was such a fun unit. After you loaded up the enemy commander, just self-destruct the aircraft for an instant win. Even cooler was the flying bomb strat. Load the crawling bomb (called "roach" I think) onto an air tran, then fly over the enemy base and watch the fireworks when it gets shot down. Good Times.
      • Ya, but if you held them all in one corner, and picked up all the enemy commanders, you could have the whole map to yourself. Even better is that you let only one of them flurish. Destroy all production buldings (nano factory, vheciles and airbases) and then destroy all the commanders over they remains, while a nuke hits. Nothing like THOSE fireworks :)
  • Total Annihilation was the king of RTS.

    This is the best possible news!
  • Thank you, and it's about freakin' time.

    Despite it being nearly eight years old, TA is still easily my favorite RTS game out there. In my humble opinion, no other RTS game before or since has managed to balance simplicity, depth, and strategy quite like TA did.

    I'm looking forward to Supreme Commander with bated breath.

    • Yup.

      TA is my favorite RTS, bar none.

      There have been some decent gamess (distractions) since then, like Rise of Nations, but nothing even comes close to TA.

      If Supreme Commander comes close to TA with improved graphics it'll be the best modern RTS. Bar none.

      Now I only hope and pray it works in Linux.

  • Soundtrack! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Atzanteol ( 99067 ) on Friday July 08, 2005 @03:43PM (#13016031) Homepage
    The single best thing about the original TA was the *fantastic* score used for the soundtrack. The only game I've ever ripped the audio from to listen to alone.

    • Re:Soundtrack! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That soundtrack was the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, multitracked. They took the whole orchestra and basically doubled it. That's why it sounds like a Mahler-sized orchestra, because it is.

      I certainly hope they do this for SC as well.

    • Re:Soundtrack! (Score:3, Informative)

      by eclipser13 ( 839296 )
      Rejoice, for it has been confirmed that Jeremy Soule, who composed the music for TA, will be on board for SupCom
  • It looks like it has the same feel as TA. Hopefully some of the same strategies will work. In the original you could hide a construction unit in the middle of nowhere and in the event your base is wiped off the map, you could eventually rebuild your whole base with enough time.
  • I've never played TA, how would it (and hypothetically, Supreme Commander) compare to others like Age of Empires/Mythology and War/Starcraft? I've been looking to get back into RTS, and this looks like a good candidate.
    • Exact opposite of warcraft III: very little micromanagement, (well, imposed micromanagement, you can choose to do so, but you aren't forced to) huge maps and armies, and a sense of scale that is missing from about every other RTS: the range of the different units vary, wildly.
      You also get a quite different method to build units and structures: instead of paying the full cost when you click the build button, the building units consume those incrementally during the creation.
      Basically it is mostly about exage
  • Strategy in a RTS? Surely you jest.

    RTSs should be called RTCF(Real-Time Click Fest)

    But maybe he will prove me wrong(I hope).

    • The original TA was easy to manage... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Richard Steiner ( 1585 ) * <rsteiner@visi.com> on Friday July 08, 2005 @05:12PM (#13016755) Homepage Journal
      Many of the games features were designed to reduce micromanagement, freeing the player's brain (and mouse) for more important things.

      For example, you could direct a given airfield to assign a team number to all units produced, and you could use the Shift key and mouse to define a multi-vector patrol route for the aircraft to navigate once built. Assuming you also had a few repair platforms around and activated, the aircraft would automatically assume a patrol along the assigned route, attack anything that came in range, and automagicaly fly off to repair themselves if they were wounded too badly.

      You could also queue up a few dozen build orders for a selected number of construction vehicles (nice for putting together some fairly organized defenses), committing those units to that action for a half-hour or more, and then you could set a few more construction units (level 1 construction aircraft were good for this) on patrol in the general area. Not only would the patrolling const a/c automaticaly perform repairs on wounded units as they passed (or harvest enegry or metal if needed), but they would also stop and assist the building units with their tasks, adding their own construction power to the power of the original unit until the given target was completed.

      The Shift key could be used to queue almost any type of order, be it builds, attacks, movements, or whatever, and I wish more RTS games would impelement that simple concept...
  • Can someone tell me what the two-headed, club wielding icon for this story is? I've wondered for years. TY
  • This is *exactly* the right point to ask for Linux support!

    Either a) A linux native version,

    or

    b) Disclosure of source code to Transgaming (or Codeweavers, or whoever) to create a Supreme Commander compatible WineX/Cedega. This should be a pretty easy option for them.

    I just sent them an e-mail, and I plan on asking all my friends to e-mail them.

    I suggest including tidbits like "I play Doom 3, Neverwinter Nights, and the Unreal series of games natively on linux, and I play Half Life 2, and World of Warcraft through cedega."

    Linux gaming needs you! Before release is the right time to pester the developers.
  • How can you make a sequel to a "Total Annihilation?" What's the title.. "Still Annihilated?"
    • It's not a sequel. It's a "spiritual successor". It's almost, but not quite, what TA2 would've been, but in a completely different universe.
  • When TA came out, me and several guys at work bought it. This was in the pre-DSL days, but we had high priced ISDN modems for "working from home". We played tons of games of 2v2 with coworkers.

    Those early games before we knew anything were the best. Building my first squad of brawlers (about 5) and emg'ing one of the enemy Coms to death. The abject fear when I faced my first incoming bertha strikes. The two pronged death of my ground attacks and my partners air-war-machine.

    New maps and units kept us playi

  • While you wait, checkout these other ports:

    http://taspring.clan-sy.com/screenshots.php [clan-sy.com]
    • TA in 3d using a custom graphics engine
    • has all the original units
    • checkout the movies

    http://ua.tauniverse.com/ [tauniverse.com]

    • TA in 3d using an unreal graphics engine
    • has all the original units
    • checkout the pictures.

    The TA community is live with an active single and multiplayer action. I would say the best overall quality that TA has is that it scales. You can play on a tiny map where you control the actions of each unit. O

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