TA Bugfix Community

by Stan Hebben

1. What is TA Bugfix Community?

Many additions, patches, extensions and maps have been released for this 10-years old game. Some of these extensions are so widely used in that everybody should have them installed. The installation of these packages is not that easy, and must often be done in the right order.

To ease the work of installation, this package has been created. It contains all of the additions that we use as Bugfix Community. This package contains:

* Original TA
* Upgrade to version 3.1
* The Core Contiguency units
* The TA Bugfix (version 1.7 beta 5)
* The Demo recorder (version 1.0.0.545) (includes 1500 unit patch)
* The Demo replayer
* The No CD patch
* 17 popular maps

Note: not all original TA maps are supplied. You can download these separately.

2. How to install

To install this package, run the installer and follow the steps. Everything is done automatically. After installation, you are ready!

3. Using the demo recorder

The demo recorder contains some very useful features. It installs an extra panel in TA which you can open at any time in the game by pressing Ctrl+F2.

On this panel, you can set some options and some commands which are executed when you press Shift+F11.

First of all, the demo recorder allows you to build rows of dragonteeth (or other buildings) automatically. To use this feature, you have to assign it a key first. To do so, go to the demo recorder panel, click in the ‘AutoClick’ area and press any key (which is not yet in use)

Now if you want to build a row of buildings, select the building in your unit’s build list, hold the key you have set, click where you want the first building, click where you want the last building, and release the key. You can also space the buildings by using the scroll wheel. (scrolling up = increase spacing)

The second function of the autoclick key is to surround a building with buildings (often dragonteeth). To do so, select the building you want to build, press (and hold) the key you have set, and click on the building which you want to protect. Now a full ring (or spaced ring) will be build around your building.

Another feature of the demo recorder is map drawing. To use this feature, you have to set the ‘Whiteboard Key’ the same way you did with the autoclick key. Now you can do four things with that key. To use any of these features, press and hold the whiteboard key.

* Draw a line on the map: drag on the screen
* Draw a mark on the map: double-click on the screen and enter a name
* Draw an unnamed mark on the map: middle-click on the screen
* Clear your drawing: right-click (the eraser is 100 pixels large)

These marks can be seen by you and your allies. If you place a mark, your allies will be warned by a visual indication on the minimap.The last noticeable feature of the demo recorder is the preset list of commands. Some TA commands (see section 4: TA commands for more information) are used in almost every game. Instead of typing these commands at the start of the game, you enter them in the demo recorder options panel, and they are automatically executed when you press Ctrl+F11

4. The TA commands

In TA, you can enter certain commands. To enter any of these, press and enter the command (which starts with + or .)

This is a list of useful commands:

* +shootall : by default, your units will only attack military buildings, but no economical buildings. To let your units automatically attack any target, enter this command. Always set on this one!
* +noshake : when units explode, the screen will shake. When big units explode, the screen will shake a bit more. When a lot of big units explode, the screen will go crazy. Use this switch to set off shaking.
* +showranges : if you set on this switch, you will see all ranges of a unit when you press shift (this seems not to work with any unit though). Very useful for radar jammed operations.
* +shareradar : shares your radar with allies. Always set it on.
* .sharelos : this command shows everything within your line of sight to allies which have this option set on too.
* .time : reports the playtime of all players. Useful to find lagging players (which slow down the game)
* .record xxx (xxx = filename to record to): record the game to the file. By default, the demo recorder will automatically record the game to the Demos directory.

5. Before you play…

To play with the Bugfix community, you will need both hamachi and skype. To get hamachi, go to www.hamachi.cc. Skype can be downloaded from www.skype.com. You will have to make a skype acount too.

To find us, add any person from the bugfix community to your skype contact list, which will put you on the official community window. If you don’t know any players, you can add ‘lukeev’, ‘brainben’ or ’stanhebben’. (please mention you’re a TA player)

6. Using the demo replayer

You can replay any game by double-clicking its file. You can also open the demo recorder and browse to the right directory. Select the file which you want to replay, click ‘play’, click on ‘Internet TCP/IP connection for DirectPlay’, click ‘ok’ and press ‘Start TA’. If you have to select an IP address, you can take any. Now Total Annihilation will open. You will see a game called ‘TA DEMO 0.99B’. Join this game, wait until the demo recorder initialized itself, and set yourself ready. The game will start automatically. Your commander will be in the game, you should put him somewhere far away, or self-destruct him and watch the game.

Note: compress your recordings before you upload them to the internet. They tend to compress quite well (typically 40-50%)

7. Version information

Beta 2

* DPlayX.dll crashes when playing with more than 3 players. Solved with the new demo recorder.
* You can now switch between OTA and BFTA mode using simple batch files
* Fixed a few registry entries
* Now runs in compatibility mode, fixes the following bugs:
o TA crashes when alt-tabbing
o “Please install DirectX” message
* Only selected maps are supplied to minimize file size
* A few minor visual changes are applied

Beta 1

* Initial release.