Total Annihilation's Spiritual/Actual Sequel Planned?

Thanks to IGN PC for its article discussing hints from Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games regarding a possible follow-up to seminal RTS Total Annihilation. Apparently, at a recent gaming career day, Taylor, the original designer of TA, informally confirmed "...that Gas Powered Games was working on 'an RTS follow-up to Total Annihilation'", but IGN note "it's not exactly clear yet [from his brief comment] on whether or not the game will be a true sequel... or simply a new RTS in the vein of Total Annihilation." Although Gas Powered Games are currently working on a sequel to Dungeon Siege for Microsoft, their jobs page confirms they're also looking for RTS genre artists, and an earlier GameSpy interview discusses this long-under-wraps strategy title. Taylor also mentioned the publisher of this new title is "a big one... one that doesn't also publish operating systems [like Microsoft]" - it seems Atari own the rights to Total Annihilation 2, and previously asked Korean developers Phantagram to develop a sequel before that deal allegedly fell through, though Taylor's game could still be a sequel in concept only.

Comments

Re:Alas...

[king-manic]

To back up my arguements:
TA did not sell well. Thus for the vast majority of players and RTs players it was a blip in their radar. A game they heard of and never played or one that was played but did not sustain a market for either a sequel (kindoms) or their expansions (all 3 of them).

TA units were more or less made by a 8 year old. They looked like what an 8 year old would do with grey metallic looking lego blocks. Very bland. Very amatuer even for it's time.

TA has very strong defence. Defence was cheap and witht he dragons teeth, very hard to avoid. IT did become an immense arms race because you can not assault a base early. A quick rush would use from 50-75 untis or the cammander in a often suicidal rush with your own commander.

The AI also had soem problems. The unit AI would fire blindly into the ground. The patrol commands and some interface features were nice. But the amss attack feature is what makes it less then other RTS. Just like C&C is derided for it's tank rushes, TA has the same problem. Mass them, then send.

TA is not a RTS for RTS players. Even in the replies it's people who did not like *craft or C&C or AGE that like TA. It's the ones who could not multi-task well enough for the *craft games. Who did not like the direction that C&C went (I can't blame them) and who not handle the Complexity of the newer RTS or Age. Which is a small part of thos einterested in RTS's, basically the non-RTS gamers.