TA:Spring
From CE Wiki
Explosions! |
A commander blowing up |
A map from overhead |
Uphill battle |
Building a ship |
Battle going on in the distance |
Another com explosion |
Example of deformable terrain |
While this guide is pretty long, definitely read these sections before ever playing a game.
It's a good idea to scan the Tech Trees and Basic Defenses sections too.
Contents |
[edit] Why Play
TA:Spring is The Greatest RTS Ever, and it's free on top of that!
While the other games focus on careful control of individual units, Spring is all about massive battles. Hundreds of units flying around. Giant nuclear explosions that can wipe out half your base in an instant. 100 foot tall robots with lasers, cannons, and rocket launchers taking on giant armies and winning. More unit types than you can count. Awesome action on a scale you might not have seen before. All this for free. [quoted from the SA forums]
I think the eight biggest points of it are:
- Completely 3D graphics and gameplay
- 3D physics engine which includes effects like higher ground increasing range of artillery or radar towers being blocked by hills
- You can assume first person control of any unit (giant robot, plasma turret, bomber, submarine, etc)
- Deformable terrain - big explosions leave big craters
- Automatic recording of every game. If someone beats you, you can easily go back and watch exactly how they won.
- Support for markups on the map for teammates (and spectators). This makes it very easy to draw arrows and label points to coordinate strategy with teammates.
- High unit counts - it's not unusual for your army to number in the hundreds
- Incredibly high amount of automation and scripting for units. It's very simple to tell a construction unit to "build a factory, then build a giant grid of energy plants, then go back and help the factory build things faster", then tell that factory (while it's still being built) to "keep building 2 tanks, 1 scout, and 1 mech indefinitely, and as they finish have them patrol/guard/goto point A", then tell a transport ship "continue to pick up any units at point A and transport them to point B until I say stop". Now you can ignore your base as your energy needs are met and your new units are rapidly transported to the front line.
[edit] Files
Grab the Regular Installer here!
You will also need the BA mod. Unpack it to the taspring/mods directory.
For maps, you can download them here.
[edit] Joining A Game
There are four things you can control when joining a game:
- Your team color
- Team (Share control of the same units)
- Ally (Friendly units)
- Race (Arm or Core)
Don't be a noob and choose a dark color that's hard to see on the minimap, everybody knows you're doing it just because of that. I actually like bright colors so allies can see my drawings on the map. You'll always want to make sure your Team is different than someone else's, otherwise you'll be starting with the same commander, and sharing control of units and resources the whole game.
Don't worry about learning the Core race for now, Arm models are a little easier to differentiate. Core has about 80% of the same units as Arm, just with different models and names. However, Arm units usually are faster and have a longer firing range, while Core are usually stronger and more powerful.
Be sure to note the Game end condition, max/min wind speeds, and whether dgun is limited. It really sucks having a huge army and the complete upper hand in a game, only to have your commander be hunted/lured out and you lose the game abruptly.
When you're ready to start, click "I'm ready" at the bottom of the battleroom window.
In game, you can chat using the Enter key. Typing "a:" before your message will let only allies see it, "s:" for only spectators. After the first time you use it, it will automatically be prefixed when you type again (until you backspace over it).
You can also draw and set label points on the map to share with your allies and spectators. To draw, hold ` (the ~ key) and draw with the mouse. Erase by `+right click. To set a point with a label, hold ` and double click, then type a label and hit enter.
To move the camera around using the minimap, right click in the minimap.
[edit] Hosting A Game
Go to Battle screen->Host battle. For the mod, set it to "Balanced Annihilation" (no letter variants). If you're not going to forward port 8452, choose Hole Punching. If you want to let players choose their starting position in game, you'll need to set starting boxes. To set starting boxes, hold shift and drag on the minimap. To see the suggested starting positions for the map, click the minimap. To delete a starting box, hover over it and hit the Delete key.
The host can also force settings on players by right clicking their name. Most things are obvious. Handicap sets how much extra % resources they gather. The host can also "ring" players by typing /ring PlayerName when they're afk or not readying up (they can also just kick them).
If you want to play a game by yourself, be sure to add a bot, otherwise the game will end in victory instantly. A few useful tips for playing by yourself: in chat (<Enter>) type ".cheats" and ".nocost" to build things instantly. Then build some defenses, and give them to the AI using the H key (be sure to give the AI some energy generators to power the defenses).
[edit] Resources
First off, there are two resources in the game: energy and metal.
[edit] Energy
You use energy for everything- units moving around, firing weapons, building, reparing, and even running buildings takes energy. If you run out of energy, turrets will stop firing, construction will slow, and metal extractors will stop mining metal.
There are four ways to generate energy: wind, solar, geothermal, or fusion (they're very eco-friendly).
Wind is totally dependent on the map. When you first start, notice the min/max wind speeds on the map. While playing, the wind will randomly fluctuate between those speeds. If the average wind speed is greater than 7, then wind is the most cost effective. However, if the minimum wind is 1 or 0, be sure to build a few other kinds of energy collectors, otherwise when the wind dies down, you'll be a sitting duck. Also note that if you build wind generators next to each other, they'll chain react when one explodes. Be sure to build them at least one space apart.
Solar is straight forward, keep in mind that advanced solar is much more cost efficent than normal solar. Only level 1 construction units can build advanced solar.
Geothermal is almost always the most cost efficent early-mid game. Build these on steam vents in the ground. Be careful though, they have a huge explosion radius. So don't build them in the center of your base!
Fusion is not as cost effective as tons of advanced solar or even regular solar, but it provides a lot of energy. Advanced Fusion however is by far the most cost efficent of any generator. Only level 2 construction vehicles can build Advanced Fusion.
[edit] Metal
You can either mine metal from the ground using metal extractors ("mexes") or convert energy into metal. To see mine spots on the map, hit F4. Black means no metal, and the brighter the green, the more metal there is (with light blue being the highest). Red means that a mex is already mining that area, and it's pointless to build on that spot again. When choosing your start position, be sure to start next to lots of metal using the F4 view. All Moho (level 2) metal extractors or metal->energy converters are more efficent and produce more than their level 1 counterparts. Once you have a level 2 factory or lab, quickly replace your metal stuff with moho equivalents. You can replace mexes by reclaiming them, self-destructing them, or if the extractor radius is large enough (map dependent) you can just drop a moho next to a regular mex to cover the same spot.
[edit] Commander
You start off with your Commander ("com"). Your com is hands down the most important unit in the early-mid game. He serves two purposes: 1) as your first (and fastest) builder, and 2) as your ultimate anti-rush defense. To help in the latter purpose, he has a ton of hitpoints and a Disentigrator Gun ("dgun"). The dgun will instantly destroy any unit or building in the game in its path. To fire: select your com, hit D and left click somewhere. To prevent coms from dgun'ing each other, a com's explosion radius is the same as a nuke. If you dgun another commander, you're losing your commander as well.
Note: if your dgun fails to fire, it's either because a) you don't have enough energy, or b) the server has limited dgun to your starting position (hold shift and mouse over your com to see the allowed dgun range (the white circle))
Your com can build basic things, but to build more complicated things you'll need a level 1 construction unit.
[edit] Tech trees
There are five tech trees you can choose from. K-bots, vehicles, air, sea, and hovercrafts. Most tech trees only have two levels of factories or plants. Decide early on which tech tree to follow and stick with it, for the amount of metal you built an extra factory with, you could have built a lot of units. Of course, most games you might end up completely switching your tech depending on the situation.
K-bots (robots, mechs) can climb most steep slopes that vehicles can't. And only level 2 construction kbots can build a Gantry (which can build giant level 3 mechs). Kbots also can build farks which are one of the fastest construction units (in terms of construction rate and movement).
Vehicles are usually faster and stronger (tanks, artillery) than kbots. Only level 2 construction vehicles can build Advanced Fusion. Although vehicle construction units are much, much slower moving around than kbot construction units.
Air is obviously fighters and bombers. It is strongly, strongly not recommended to go air from the start. Air units eat up lots of energy flying around and the air construction units don't build as fast as kbots or vehicles. Instead, most players get a decent economy going with kbots or vehicles, then go air. It's a good idea to hide the fact you're going air until you're ready for attack, since most players only build one or two aa defenses early on and then forget about it.
Sea docks can produce boats and subs. Ships are somewhat considered to be the most powerful units in the game (aside from tier 3 mechs), however they are really, really slow. You can build most any building in or under the sea that you can on land (including Underwater Fusion). Also level 2 construction boats can build a Sea Plane Factory, which is the equivalent of a level 2.5 air factory (if there were such a thing).
Hovercrafts, equivalent of vehicles, maybe a little less powerful since they can go on sea and ground.
[edit] Basic Defenses
Radar is not to be underestimated! It's incredibly cheap and should be among the first buildings you build. In the early game it will give you a head's up to start your commander's slow trek back to your base, or to the front lines. Keep in mind that radar is line of sight, so be sure to build it on top of a hill.
Light laser turrets ("llt") are cheap ground defense. Just one will slaughter most tier 1 units, so it's always wise to build one or two in your base for defense. They're especially nice in your base since most fast units that can run past choke-defenses are weak. Llt's can also hit air, but very very poorly.
Heavy laser turrets ("hlt") are all around better than llts. They shoot faster, do more damage, and have a longer range.
Plasma battery ("guardian") are more of static artillery than laser turrets. With their very slow firing rate, they're much more effective at preventing your opponent from building his own defenses close to yours. Setting it to "high traj" mode will tell it to shoot at a higher trajectory. This allows it to shoot over obstacles that may be blocking it, as well as doing much more damage. Being artillery, you can also increase its range by building it on a hill top.
Anti-air ("aa") should always be built inside your base and next to your defenses.
Radar Jamming jams all radar in the area. Be careful when building jammers that units still have line of sight within the jamming radius.
Dragon Teeth are basically walls. They can only be removed by large explosions, dgun, or having a construction unit "reclaim" the wall. Because of the latter, it's always wise to build llts behind the wall. Some upper level 2 units (eg, Bulldogs tanks) can walk right over teeth. Level 2 walls can block all ground units but level 3 mechs (built at the Gantry).
Tier two defenses:
Annihilators and Doomsday Weapons ("annis") have the longest range of any static ground defense as well as doing enormous damage.
Flak is great at short range, rapid fire anti-air.
Screamer Missile Towers are extremely long ranged, very powerful missiles. With their slow firing rate, they are terrible by themselves, but are a great psychological deterent with their extreme range.
Anti-nukes are obvious as well. Be sure to queue up lots of ammo for them. Ctrl+click on the missile icon to queue up ammo 20 at a time. One anti-nuke launcher can take down 5 nukes at once (given that it has 5 anti-nuke missiles). Anti-nukes cannot shoot down tactical nukes or EMP missiles.
Shields provide defense against plasma-based weapons (artillery, lrpc's). Once a certain amount of damage is done against the shield, it then takes one minute to recharge.
[edit] Shortcut keys
L shows the fog-of-war and ; (semicolon) shows the radar.
F2 shows in green where the selected unit can walk, and in red where it cannot. Before building a ton of kbots, make sure they can actually walk over the mountain you think they can! Different kbots can walk up varying levels of slopes.
F4 shows metal spots on the map.
Ctrl+C finds your com.
Ctrl+B finds an idle builder.
Ctrl+Z selects all units/buildings on the map of that selected type.
Ctrl+# will bind a unit/building to that number.
Ctrl+A select all units and buildings.
Ctrl+D self destruct selected units and buildings.
Ctrl+right click tells the selected group to move to that point, but stay in the current formation. This is useful when you don't want planes or units bunching up (which makes them vunerable to splash damage defense like flak or screamer missiles)
Shift+mouse over a unit or building (turrets, radar, antinuke) will show its effective range.
Shift+click on a task icon to queue up 5 things at a time, Ctrl+click to queue up 20 at a time.
PROTIP: Instead of queueing up 200 units, set Repeat On. This saves you time from dequeueing them when you want to change, as well as lets you pump out combinations of units. For example, if you queue up 2 light tanks and 1 heavy tank, set Repeat On, then it will keep building 2 light tanks and 1 heavy tank.
Holding shift allows you to queue up orders. For example, you can tell a unit to move to a point, hold shift, hit P, and click a point to tell it to "go to this point, and then patrol back and forth from that point to the other".
While holding shift and dragging, you can tell a construction unit to build the same building in a line.
Shift+alt lets you build in a square area.
Shift+ctrl+alt lets you build in a perimeter.
Z and X set the spacing (smaller, bigger) between shift-dragged buildings.
PROTIP: To easily build a field of wind mills, select two or three construction units, hit X, then shift+alt drag the wind mills.
G tells a unit to guard another. If it is a construction unit, it will repair or build the target. This is useful to tell a construction unit to guard a lab that's currently being built- it will help build the lab and when the lab is finished, it will then help build units automatically.
P tells a unit to patrol from its current point to the next point you click on.
K toggles a unit's cloaking if it has the ability (commanders, spy bots, and snipers can cloak). If the unit wanders too close to an enemy unit, the enemy will be able to see the cloaked unit for a few seconds. This applies to enemy planes flying over cloaked units as well. Also, cloaking takes energy, if you run out, your unit will immediate uncloak.
H will bring up a menu to let you give the selected units/buildings to another player. Be careful, as you can give units to an enemy if you're not paying attention.
C will let you take first-person control of the unit. Hit C again to go back to the normal camera.
Pause pauses the game. Insert and Delete increase and decrease the speed of the game.
[edit] Big Guns
Big Berthas ("lrpc") and other Long Range Plasma Cannons have the longest range of any weapon (aside from nukes) in the game. These can let you rain death on your opponent's base from the safety of your home. For this reason, they are also repeated invitations to the opposing players to attack you as soon as possible (usually with suicidal air raids).
Nukes let you punish other players for their noob mistakes of not building anti-nukes. Alternatively you can try to overwhelm their anti-nukes by building more nukes than they have anti-nuke ammo. Keep in mind that one anti-nuke launcher can shoot down 5 nukes fired at the same time no problem (number 6 will get through though). Because of this, most players only build one anti-nuke, which means a few cloaked snipers in their base or an air raid could take it out and leave them completely exposed.
Tier 3 Mechs ("krogs" and "orcs") are usually how people end games on speed metal maps (money maps). Just one is usually pretty vunerable, especially to air attacks. But with the nuke explosion when they die, they'll take out any defenses in the area with them.
