Total Annihilation Sequel Preview

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."

Comments

Better than TA: Kingdoms

[oskard]

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 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.

Soundtrack!

[Atzanteol]

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!

[eclipser13]

Rejoice, for it has been confirmed that Jeremy Soule, who composed the music for TA, will be on board for SupCom

The original TA was easy to manage...

[Richard Steiner]

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...