- #Total annihilation escalation how to#
- #Total annihilation escalation mod#
- #Total annihilation escalation Patch#
When the TA designer met up with fellow Humongous employee and composer Jeremy Soule, they discussed at length how to incorporate this into an epic and exciting experience based around Taylor’s idea that the music should have a grandstanding feel to it, along the lines of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. “We came up with the idea early on of the music changing tempo whenever a battle commenced and created a complex design for how it would work.” recalls Taylor. The next step would prove to be another ground-breaking one for the genre. He came up with some amazing solutions, buffering the graphics, anti-aliasing and incredible special effects.” Together with Jeff Petkau (shift-clicking interface) and Brian Brown (unit scripting system), and under the guidance of Taylor, the engine slowly began to take shape. We brought Jon Mavor in as a specialist to handle the rendering as it was such a key part of the game. “Back then we didn’t have 3D hardware, so had to rasterize the 3D using the CPU. I was like, whoa, people are gonna love that!” he grins.Īn inevitable consequence of the ambitious design was that the game’s engine would have to be written from scratch. “I thought we should give the player the ability to use the radar screen to give orders and be able to gather intelligence from the way the blips moved on the screen.” And more superficially, if no less impressive, was the weapon fire rendered onto the radar screen. It gave a strategic advantage to the defender, which I wanted to reflect in TA.” And Taylor was convinced more could be made of the obligatory radar screen that had already become a RTS staple. As for the wreckage, if you watch documentaries on war, it’s a huge aspect with roads and fields littered with tanks and other vehicles, blocking the path of other units.
“I was frustrated by the limits and wanted immense over-the-top battles that could enthral the player. “I wanted to create a game where controlling the high ground really mattered,” he explains, “and that if you hid in the shadow of a mountain you could protect yourself from certain kinds of projectiles.” Meantime other design ideas such as a hugely increased unit allowance and the wreckage from destroyed vehicles remaining on the battlefield were borne more from his own experiences in playing RTS games. Similarly launching them from the folder/shotcuts for single player, as Steam only results into crashing when trying to launch anything modded.By the time Taylor began prototyping the engine in the Autumn of 1995, he had already spent considerable effort studying weapon systems and battle tactics, specifically the key strategic element of elevation when employing heavy ordnance. TOTALA/TA Escalation/totala.exe for the Escalation mod. On Game Ranger you can enter a room and hit Ctrl+e to determine which exe you want the GameRanger platform to launch, f.e. TOTALA/TA Escalation/ where you can alternate which totala.exe you launch, the original or the modded one.
#Total annihilation escalation mod#
The most played mod by far is Escalation, which can be installed with an installer so that it creates a folder f.e.
#Total annihilation escalation Patch#
, so no, Steam does not include even 3.9 (latest community patch to the original game), or any mods. Check out some of the map packs linked in the pinned post. Steam version is TA+CC+BT+3.1c(non-BY)+6(official units released after 3.1)+(the officially released downloadable)maps+TADR99B2Īnything extra you have to launch directly from the executable, which I recommend.Īlso, there are so many great extra maps by the community, and the resource files required to run them, outside the officially released Cavedog maps.