[tobinfekkes]

This is amazing to see TA on HN.

I grew up playing Total Annihilation in the 90s because my cousin worked for Cavedog and got us a CD for free. It is still one of my favorite games to this day.

So many great memories with that game, countless hours playing with my brothers, getting up early to play before school, asking my parents for extra chores to earn more computer time.

Games aren't the same anymore.

I still have the original game and expansion packs. Highly recommend playing it.

[whartung]

TA is the only game I consciously went out to buy a faster machine to play. Upgrading from my 133MHz to a 400MHz so I could run more units in TA.

I rarely played TA vs other people. It was always either the PvE scenarios, or skirmishes.

Against multiple AIs I would strive to take out several of them, leaving one time to build up. Then the game would quickly devolve into "hose on hose" combat where my automatic production with bottomless resources would push out toward the oncoming bot army fueled by their infinite resources.

You could see on the large map how well you were doing based on how close the hose front of clashing machines was to whose base. But that was necessary to open up space to create special armies and other techniques to get around the hose, and flank the base.

All while being blasted to splinters by bots and Berthas and Brawlers and everything else.

But get a good Goliath drop into the rear, and it's just glorious spectacle.

The whole thing, in the end, was spectacle. The sounds, the shrapnel, the rocking of the maps when some wandering commander would wander into the wrong area. Like getting winged by a far off Bertha and giving chase to enact revenge upon it.

And a special Flea scenario is hilarious fun.

Loved that game.

[taplayer]

I set a scenario against multiple AIs on the large metal map. The only way to survive was to quickly construct barriers between the buildings to seal off your base because the AIs weren't programmed to destroy barriers. Then came the job of hunting down the AI commanders (I played killing the commander kills all of his units otherwise it was impossible to win).

Great game!

[blindriver]

I got the largest metal map and created a basically impenetrable base, and then left the game running overnight.

It turned into a huge battle between the highest level of units and it was so much fun, but even then the AI wasn't extremely challenging.

[moffkalast]

You know, just the other day I dropped back into RA3 for a few hours and left wondering why they set every map up so that everyone runs out of resources 15 minutes in as the collectors go empty, so nobody can really do much. Makes for battles that are really limited in scope for seemingly no reason.

Hose vs. hose sounds epic af.

[whartung]

Al (most?) of the other RTS games are very resource constrained. So, you have to focus on tight unit mixes, concentrate on individual battles, doing micro, and running about.

TA is more a game of raw tonnage, not of finesse and subtlety.

As the same time, original TA is notorious for not being finely tuned or balanced. And I'm sure that's much more important in PvP.

But in PvE flinging two industrial powerhouses against each other, where subtlety is replaced by 100, throwaway, Flash tanks, it's just a different play experience.

[samplifier]

Bullet hell, or rather bullet heaven. TA was the first game where I saw the PC struggle during big battles and it was a pleasant experience, unlike the lag in multiplayer games where I mainly played against people across the pond.

[jadbox]

I once reported a bug to Cavedog and stated I didn't have Internet access out in the country to download a patch. They were kind and sent me the patch with the fix via floppy in the mail!

[jq-r]

I really enjoyed TA back in the day. And I still remember the fantastic music background which dynamically changed if you went into battle. Starcraft was released after and it looked so ancient compared to TA in my view. But all my friends played SC at the time so it took over.

[nekusar]

Not to mention "Buy 1 game, 2 OTHERS can play against/with each other for free"

[parpfish]

I always love RTS games and am sad to see how they've largely disappeared.

some of my first experiences 'hacking' were modifying .ini files for command and conquer to make a new version of the game for my friends. it was... very unbalanced

[jansan]

I had the most intense battles with my brother, even well into our 30s when we only met a few times a year.

It is sad that there never really was a successor that was as good. They could have lifted the 255 units limit, made the game more balanced, added a few more maps and units (but not too many), enhace the graphics (but keep it 2.5D, I do not want 3D in this kind of games) and make connectivity easier.

Cavedog released a fantasy game after that, which I wanted to like, but it was crap. And the Command & Conquer games were never for me. Tried them but never felt them.

[jon-wood]

Supreme Commander was that follow up. Basically the same team as worked on TA, making more or less the same game but with larger maps and higher unit counts.

[jansan]

I remember trying that and did not like it. They did that 3D view that I just do not like in RTS games. 2.5D is the way to go IMO.

[LorenPechtel]

I've got it. For me, I can't hope to beat the AI using low tech spam to grab wide open resources. But when resources aren't to scattered I almost always win against the AI.

[Dodrekai]

You can easily double the unit limit. find the "totala.ini" in the root folder and change UnitLimit to 500. Yuo can have more butyou need a patch if I remeber correctly.

[caspar]

There was/is a patch available that lifted the unit limit significantly. I played with it constantly. Even played a match at a lan party with friends last year.

[blindriver]

TA is my most favorite game of all time. I bought it on Steam and got all the modern Escalation mods. I will spin it up every 6 months or so and play a new game just for fun, I just with the AI were more challenging.