This is the big one! Sixteen years to the week that Total Annihilation was originally released, version Alpha 4 of Total Annihilation Zero arrives not only with T2 ground units but also with a brand new feature called the megamap, an interactive fullscreen map that lets you build and fight better than ever before. Furthermore, TA Zero has now fully adopted the TA Unofficial Patch framework and has moved to a new installer system. We have also decided to integrate the TA Zero Map Pack into the mod itself, so now all TA Zero maps are included with the main download.
So what else is new in Alpha 4?
First of all, there's a host of game adjustments and fixes as usual, which you can read about in detail at the Version History page. Secondly, because TA Zero is now fully based on the TA Unofficial Patch (it was partially based on it before), it now benefits from all of the same great features introduced by the Patch, which you can also read about in the version history as well as at the updated Features page.
Playing online is now easier than ever thanks to hassle-free multiplayer support via GameRanger. Simply set the "…\TA Zero\TotalA.exe" file as your Total Annihilation location in GameRanger's options menu and you're ready to play. Not only that, but TA Zero now automatically records all multiplayer games, which you can rewatch anytime using the included Replayer. Check out the Features page for more information.
A new duelling map called Brimstone Steppes has been added to the growing repoirtaire of TA Zero maps. Layed out in an east-to-west format and featuring multiple routes and spectacular rains of fire, this is a perfect battleground for short, but intense matches. Click the thumbnail below to view a larger sized preview.
Are you ready for battle?
Download TA Zero Alpha 4 Here!
Don't forget to visit the official discussion thread.
Last but certainly not least, behold the megamap! Left is zoomed in, right is zoomed out. Cool, huh?
UPDATE:
It has been discovered that the game might not launch when using certain graphics cards, usually AMD/ATI (with any OS), or when using Windows 8 (with any graphics card). We will release an update when the issue is fully resolved. Until then, you can install this preliminary hotfix (unzip to your TA Zero folder) and post your results. This fix should allow your game to launch, but you may encounter unsatisfactory frame rates or hangs on the megamap (if it hangs, just roll the mouse wheel up and wait for the game to zoom back in). However, the regular game view should be fine. Please DO NOT install this fix if you are not affected by the game launch crashing issue (most Nvidia users on Windows 7 or earlier) as it may break your game.
OOHHH MY GODD!!!!!!! it finally here >…..< ^.^ ^.^ ^.^ :D :D :D :) :) XD XD
FINALLY!!! But i must ask is the death animation limit issue was fixed or not?
I don't think that's been fixed yet, it's been mentioned but I don't think anyone has figured that out yet, the focus has mostly been on other things.
EDIT: Actually, apparently it might have been fixed in the public Alpha 4 release already, can you check? We have it fixed in our latest development versions now, but it looks like it might have been fixed for a while now and I forgot about it or didn't realize.
W00T
Gostaria de poder baixar o jogo TA completo
It seems that Retailator script isnt completely correct. This thing frequently stuck with no possibility to fire. Cant point to conditions now.
Plus i think that Devastator main weapon has a lack of range.
There is an engine related bug that causes it to jam up if you order it to directly attack a mobile unit with EMP missile. It might also fail sometimes if ordered to attack a mobile unit with standard missile and the target goes out of range before launch. There should never be any issues if you order it to attack ground or structures.
Devastator then is considered as probably the most potent T2 unit, and it already has the longest-ranged flat-trajectory weapon of all the mobile units in the game now. Any more and it would be able to outrange basic T1 turrets.
The Retaliator issue is mentioned on the unit guide, we're aware of the various problems with this unit. It's really frustrating as there are a lot of TA engine issues that cause problems with this unit concept. For example, in TA buildings are not designed to have a weapon 3 (dgun slot), so when you use the special button to fire EMP missiles, there is no "out of range" status for the crosshair preventing you from firing out of range. If we were to set the range of the EMP missile to 3000, any time you try to fire out of range the unit would permanently lock up. So the EMP missiles actually technically have a longer range than 3000, but they will run out of fuel at 3000… so when firing them you need to make sure you aim within the range ring otherwise you will waste your missile.
We might be able to fix these engine problems eventually. We might also have to change this unit if it proves too troublesome. For now, you just have to keep in mind all of the various limitations when using it. For best results, you should basically just avoid firing its missiles directly at enemy units and aim them at the ground (or at least enemy buildings) instead.
The devastator is the strongest t2 unit right now. Covered with some marines or other t1 units its a hard to beat unit. A range buff is not necessary.
I recently tried to play Zero with 3(me+2AI) vs 6AI on map with difficult terrain. Where was a big problem with absence of breakthrough units on Arm side. Devastator can be such unit but only until it fills up the passes by its own corpses.
“Any more and it would be able to outrange basic T1 turrets.” I dont see any problems here since this is costly T2 main unit. Core T1 art tank has even higher range that arm’s T2 pd turret.
No offense but the gameplay vs AI is not compareable with the multiplayer experience.
BTW T1 ARM Artillery (Ballista) is the strongest T1 arty with the highest range. They require a certain amount of micro though.
i have noticed that KamikazeDistance parameter still does not work. Thus Arm’s heavy mine is the only one with some issues.
Hi Voh, I have a tricky question for you. Why do you use a movement class Tank3 for Scorpion instead of Tank2 (and footprint 3×3)? It is seriously decreases the practicability on forest maps for this unit. No compare with the core Grunt.
Hey, I tried installing it on windows 8.1 and it didn’t work.
First it complained about smackw32.dll missing. I then extracted the windows 8 fix into the folder. It gets past that error, but now I get an error that says “anims\igtitles.gaf”. See: http://imgur.com/3imtQ5j
I have installed everything with default options. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)
You installed it to the wrong folder.
Check out the forum http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43794
I got it working now. :D
Actually I didn’t even have TA installed in the first place. I feel like an idiot now, but I think it could have been a little more clear that you needed TA already installed for it to work. This is coming from someone completely new to TA zero. A small notice above the download link would be nice. Like “you need an existing TA installation to play/install” or similar.
I’ll take look into this Scorpion movement class thing. They’re one of those units for which I would want to use 2.5×2.5 footprint, but sadly there is no such thing in TA. Might be that they have been somewhat small enough for 2×2 footprint ever after reducing unit sizes in Alpha 2, but I just haven’t thought about it.
I downloaded TA Zero Alpha 4 and when the download was scanned by my antivirus this was found in the download; WS Reputation.1 malware. Thought I’d give you a heads up. You might want to check it out.
Its a false result. I never had a problem with a virus detected by my antivirus.
My son and I have been playing zero a 3 for some time now [in lan games] and with great success, we downloaded zero alpha a4 and started lan games, the game plays for some time and crashes, we tried several links and all ended the same way, I’m using 3 rm al laptop with more than enough resources and my sons pc is a gaming pc with even more resources. Can I send you the error log? might throw up a cause we can rectify
Alan
You should probably make a detailed post about this problem and your system specs over the forums and paste the errorlog there.
Thanx 4 the response,
my laptop specs are 1.73ghz 2gb ram always worked ok with zero a3
My sons pc is megga, no worries about resources there
the error log within the directory is:-
TotalA caused an Access Violation in
module TotalA.exe at 001b:00424532.
Exception handler called in Main Thread. Time: Sun Jan 26 23:23:00 2014
C:\CAVEDOG\TOTALA\TA Zero\TotalA.exe, run by Alan on N-C80C1673DBB74
Executable is 1215488 bytes long and dated 10/1/2013 05:53:46
UTC link time: 35c0b9e5 – Thu Jul 30 18:22:29 1998
Library version 996. Library date Jun 30 1998 16:08:53
1 processor
2040 MBytes physical memory
Stack goes from 0011A434 to 00130000
Instruction pointer is 00424532
ExceptionCode = C0000005 – Access Violation
Access violation: Illegal read, data address 0x00000097
ExceptionFlags = 00000000 ExceptionAddress = 00424532
Parameters = 00000000 00000097
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=001B EIP=00424532 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=019F6522 SS=0023 ESP=0012FA2C EBP=0012FC48
ECX=00000000 DS=0023 ESI=2139C040 FS=0000003B
EDX=019F6522 ES=0023 EDI=1E3CF33C GS=00000000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f6 81 97 00 00 00 01 75 49 8b 54 24 28 66 8b 4c
Call stack:
00424532 0049A62B
Stack dump:
0012FA2C: FFFA198B 00000000 0012FC48 019F6522 08E80000 00000000 0049A62B 1E3CF33C
0012FA4C: 0000008C 00000150 00F6F0EC 00F6F0EC 0CD6011E 00000000 00000152 1E3CF33C
0012FA6C: 1E3CF349 0000008C 00000000 001CA0D4 00000000 0012FF24 00000150 00000020
0012FA8C: 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000008D 00000000 00000090 0000001E 0000008C
0012FAAC: 08E80000 00350000 15180000 0012FB08 00000150 0D9EC748 3E800000 0150008D
0012FACC: 3F800000 0150008D 002F0003 FFFA198B 0019F799 FFF57D55 0005889C 001CF799
0012FAEC: FFF05E55 00000001 00000001 0EC81180 11CFAC9B DB28D6A5 0000C104 00000000
0012FB0C: 00000002 0012FB2C 73F180B8 00000B98 73F180BC 00000000 0012FB38 00000004
0012FB2C: 0012FB48 0050F0C8 016BD000 005109E0 00000006 004F264E 016BD02A 1E3CF33C
0012FB4C: 00000006 00000000 00000060 004EACF4 00529FC8 0CD60122 004E8936 00000009
0012FB6C: 00000000 00000060 004E88D3 00000060 00000060 00000003 004E88A0 00000060
0012FB8C: 00000000 00000001 01C4E7C8 01C4E7E8 01C4E7BC 01C4E7C8 00000001 00474F37
0012FBAC: 00474F58 00000020 00000001 0012FBD4 01C4E7F4 01C4E7BC 0CD60122 0C21D730
0012FBCC: 00000003 00000000 030D7478 08E2198B 004EF799 150D7D55 00000003 00000000
0012FBEC: 00000007 01C4E7F4 0C21D7C0 0CD60122 0C21D730 0C21D7C0 00000000 00472710
0012FC0C: 04854A18 00000001 0012FC30 01A0AE3D 01A0F911 0CD60122 00420AE6 0CD60122
0012FC2C: 00000007 01C4E7BC 00000009 00000000 0CD6011E 00F6F0EC 0049A01B 0CD60122
0012FC4C: 0049A0AE 0CD6011E 0CD60122 019F6522 0CD6011E 00360000 1E3CF356 0049B218
0012FC6C: 0CD6011E 0EC81180 00000000 00F6F0EC 0CD6011E 150D7D55 00000035 00000000
0012FC8C: 0012EFF8 0010EFD5 00F6F0EC 0CD6011E 0049BD8D 00F6F0EC 1E3CF356 00000002
0012FCAC: 7E42A340 01A2F2A7 00000001 00000002 000000D6 00000018 00F6F0EC 00000055
0012FCCC: 00495518 00000001 0012FD14 01A2F2A7 00496811 00000001 019F91B0 00000000
0012FCEC: 004995BD 00000000 021A7602 00000000 000001CA 000001A2 00000000 00102761
0012FD0C: 00000200 00000000 00499A22 7C80934A 021A7602 000001CA 000001A2 00000000
0012FD2C: 00102761 00000200 00000000 000001CA 000001A2 00000000 00102761 00000200
0012FD4C: 00000000 00000200 00000000 01A201CA 1000E930 DCBAABCD 00000000 0012FDAC
0012FD6C: 1000E930 0012FDD8 7E418816 7FFDE000 0012FDD8 7E41885A 0012FD98 7E41882A
0012FD8C: 0012FE80 0012FE78 0087A938 00000014 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000010
0012FDAC: 00000000 FFFFFFFF 00000000 00000000 00000000 0012FD8C 7E4278E0 0012FE28
0012FDCC: 7E44048F 7E418830 FFFFFFFF 7E41882A 7E4189CD 00000000 7E4193E9 7E4193A8
0012FDEC: 0012FE78 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0086A560 7FFDE000 00000000
0012FE0C: 0012FE38 7E42A43B 0012FE78 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001
0012FE2C: 7C80934A 021A7602 00000000 7E42A340 0049EC49 0012FE78 00000000 00000000
0012FE4C: 00000000 0049EC68 80000001 00142397 0012FF34 7FFDF000 0000035C 00000032
0012FE6C: 00000001 00000040 00000001 001B00F6 00000200 00000000 01A201CA 021A75F2
0012FE8C: 000001CA 000001A2 7C910435 7C91043E 00510001 00000002 004F264E 7C90D09A
0012FEAC: 7C80A78A 00000000 00000000 0012FEF4 7C80A7AE 00000000 0050104C 7C910435
0012FECC: 7C91043E 80000001 00020000 7FFDF000 00000018 004EACD3 7FFDF000 7C901000
0012FEEC: 0012FED0 00529FC8 0012FF30 7C90E920 0049EDE2 00400000 00000000 00142397
0012FF0C: 00000001 80000001 00142397 7FFDF000 0012FF10 0012F650 0012FFB0 004E6718
0012FF2C: 004FDAE0 00000000 0012FFC0 004E70F2 00400000 00000000 00142397 00000001
0012FF4C: 80000001 00E1E0C0 7FFDF000 0073AEB3 00142397 80000001 00000044 00144420
0012FF6C: 00145C58 00145C70 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0012FF8C: 00000000 00000C01 00000001 00000000 00000000 00010001 00000000 0012FF4C
0012FFAC: 80000001 0012FFE0 004E6718 004FDCF0 00000000 0012FFF0 7C81776F 80000001
0012FFCC: 00E1E0C0 7FFDF000 8054B838 0012FFC8 89457248 FFFFFFFF 7C839AB0 7C817778
0012FFEC: 00000000 00000000 00000000 004E6FA0 00000000
Dr0 = 00000000 Dr1 = 00000000 Dr2 = 00000000
Dr3 = 00000000 Dr6 = 00000000 Dr7 = 00000000
ContextFlags = 0001003F
Control Word = FFFF127F StatusWord = FFFF0020
TagWord = FFFFFFFF ErrorOffset = 0049A5C6
ErrorSelector = 05D8001B DataOffset = 0012FA44
DataSelector = FFFF0023 Cr0NpxState = 00000000
ZMUSI.dll : 00340000 : 0000C000 :
audiere.dll : 00360000 : 0008A000 : 1.9.4.0
TotalA.exe : 00400000 : 00137000 : 0.8.401.0
smackw32.DLL : 00540000 : 00018000 :
ZPLAYX.dll : 00700000 : 00046000 : 3.9.2.0
ZDRAW.dll : 10000000 : 00077000 : 3.9.2.0
comctl32.dll : 773D0000 : 00103000 : 6.0.2900.6028
MSVCP90.dll : 78480000 : 0008E000 : 9.0.30729.1
MSVCR90.dll : 78520000 : 000A3000 : 9.0.30729.1
Long time since updates! You guys still alive and kicking?
Looking forward to future updates! When do you plan to preview some more T2 units? Hopefully sometime soon – its been quite a while now since the last previews/release!
I was expecting that Alpha 4b release would already have happened early this year, but N72 has been too busy to do any TA stuff lately. Several new units have been in testing for a while now, so I could make preview posts about them here any of these days. Lots of bug fixes and balance adjustments coming as well.
Thanks for your hard work guys. Love this Mod.
I check back on this every month or so it seems… sad to see that it appears to have died or at best majorly stalled. Heres to hoping you make a come back.
I’ve always worked on this only randomly, but yeah, things have stalled lately. Absence of N72 threw whole TA modder community into disarray since he was central figure of the TA 3.9 unofficial patch. I’ve been waiting for buildpics of new units for ages now, along other things.
I’ve been sharing test builds to those playing Zero on GameRanger every here and then; show up there if you want to test new stuff. All the changes made and units added during last year are now thoroughly tested, and I would like to get a proper release done as soon as possible.
Join us to play on Gameranger! Just add me to the flist.
Hy all.. i was playing TA in my child age.. soory for bad english.. ONE question : TA ZERO have no camp[aign ?? TKS !
Campaign mode has been disabled entirely for the simple reason that none of the original units required by the missions exist anymore. Some new missions could perhaps be made eventually, but I’m not promising anything.
Release a new official version at least :(
Hey this looks like a solid game community. i played this game back in the day and uncovered it while i was home from college. I tried to install the old game disk to my computer but my laptop was an incompatible operating software. I stumbled upon the fact you can download the game online and I was pretty excited. I found this website and i downloaded the game. How do i access it and start playing?
You need to have original TA installed before you can use mods like Zero (or Escalation, Mayhem, Devolution and the others). Most mods require you to have the Core Contingency expansion installed as well. TA Zero Alpha 4 comes in form of an installer which first updates TA with the 3.9 community patch and then adds TA Zero into a separate subfolder.
Do you have trouble with TA installation or just Core Contingency? CC installer is 16 bit, and as such is known to not work on 64 bit systems, but you can manually copy the .ccx files into your TA folder.
http://www.gog.com/game/total_anihilation_commander_pack
Its on sale right now!
Connor do you have steam or gameranger? Add me plz in both cases search for tashadan.
Checking back in… hoping for a new Alpha! Also, does the most recent Alpha contain the pathfinding enhancement patch?
Yes, pathfinding enhancement is there. Check TAZero.ini and see that AISearchMapEntries is set to 66650 instead of 1333 if you are unsure.
No idea when next proper release can happen, but I’ll be sharing new test builds on the forums whenever there is something to adjust or new stuff to test.
Instead of a Campaign, how about a tutorial? Don’t really need much plot (as of right now it leaves a lot to the imagination which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, many times it is even better), just introduce the sides, the game…
On permanent hiatus? Any hope of continued updates?
As always, I’m working on the project only randomly, and N72 is probably gone forever. Anyhow, I’m handing out new Alpha 4b test builds on the forums every here and then…
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showpost.php?p=743031&postcount=269
I am having anims\igtitles.gaf error. TA crashs at the strart
That file is located in totala1.hpi, which is one of the basic data archives that you really should have around if you have a valid TA install.
My guess would be that you used the Alpha 4 installer, and it failed to automatically locate the file and copy it to your TA Zero folder. You can copy it and rest of the .hpi files manually.
Also, why would you reply to a years old post? It will take a while for me to even notice such messages.