So far Core has not really had a dedicated reconnaissance unit, all related abilities instead having been spread along various combat and support units. This will change along addition of Core T2 Spy Kbot. Not only is it the first unit so far to have both cloaking and radar jamming abilities, it is also capable of moving through roughest of terrain, climbing up and down steepest ravines. Anyhow, Core T2 Spy Kbot is not completely undetectable as its cloaking has standard detection radius, and its radar jamming only works when stationary, so its presence may still be uncovered with radar.

In addition to just straightforward reconnaissance, Core T2 Spy Kbot also has a minuscule nanolathe with which it can build T2 Cloaked Sensors, T2 Radar Jammers, and T2 Plasma Mines. T2 Cloaked Sensors are small and cheap surveillance towers that can be quickly built to keep eye on crucial locations of the map. T2 Radar Jammers are inexpensive, but still take a while to set up with the limited build speed of T2 Spy Kbot, and they are not particularly efficient either. T2 Plasma Mines are powerful multipurpose mines that have large AoE and are effective against most targets.

Core T2 Spy Kbot, Cloaked Sensor, Radar Jammer, and Plasma Mine

Most fundamental of T2 mobile units, Ground Construction Units will allow commanders to enhance their economy with T2 Metal Extractors and Power Generators, fortify their bases with heavy T2 Point Defence Turrets, and also bombard their enemy from afar with T2 Medium Range Plasma Cannons or Artillery Turrets. Arm T2 Construction Vehicle is lightly built and only moderately armored, but is cheaper and faster to manufacture than other factions' equivalent units. Core T2 Construction Vehicle then is larger and more armored, while GoK's T2 Construction Hovercraft once again counts on its void shield instead of heavy armor or sturdy hull. All of these have double build speed compared to their T1 counterparts, which equals to what Commanders have.

Arm, Core, and GoK T2 Ground Construction Units

Release of Alpha 4 and T2 ground units and structures is drawing near, and within next days we will start previews once again and take a look at all remaining T2 units that have been made so far, and also recap what has happened to earlier previewed units as they have been implemented to the game. Anyhow, first I will bring up recent changes to the commanders.

Arm, Core, and GoK Commanders in Alpha 4

Since T2 units are generally very powerful and many have highly penetrative weapons, all commanders have been adjusted to be more capable at fighting them. Arm Commander's EMG has been replaced by a much more potent plasma bolt cannon, which allows for the most vulnerable of commanders to reliably deliver damage to heavier enemy units before having to pull back. Core Commander now has a plasma shield to help deal with enemy heavy weapons. This shield will recharge faster when stationary, keeping it primarily a defensive ability. Due to scripting improvements, GoK Guardian can have an actual void shield again, now set up as a heavy void shield that is more efficient at blocking heavy weapons, while taking increased minimum damage from light weapons. In addition, the wrist-mounted ion blaster has been upgraded to a more penetrative ion beamer. While these changes don't particularly benefit the commanders against T1 units, discounting Arm Commander's new plasma bolt cannon, they still need something to limit their ability to go on rampaging around the map in early phases of a game, and to that end their movement speed has been reduced by some in Alpha 4.

It's now been just under two months since we launched this website and released the last version of the mod, and since that time we've had almost 30,000 views from over 5,000 unique visitors from 85 countries. Hopefully the eventual addition of T2 units with Alpha 4 will really get an online scene going, but today we have for you version Alpha 3b, the newest release of Total Annihilation Zero.

Naval gameplay has been improved with balancing adjustments, the removal of amphibiousness for kbots, and the addition of some new units (which were previewed earlier this week). New AI enhancement techniques have been implemented and the mod has also undergone some massive technical enhancements, such as dramatically enhanced pathfinding, improved smoke and damage effects, and customization of data structure, dlls, ini, registry entry, and savegame format, making TA Zero fully conflict-free with TA and any possible mod, unit pack, hack, or patch. The full changelog for Alpha 3b weighs in at 96 entries and you can read it at the Version History page.

A new Controls page has been added featuring a comprehensive list of the controls, commands, and cheats in TA Zero. Even TA veterans might want to look over it as we've changed and added a lot of things for TA Zero. In addition, the Installation page, FAQ page, Features page, and unit guides have all been updated to reflect the changes in Alpha 3b.

Download TA Zero Alpha 3b Here!

Don't forget to visit the official discussion thread.

We'll also be taking a break from T2 unit previews and don't know when we'll be resuming them, but you can subscribe to this news page and get notified whenever there's a new post, ensuring that you don't miss any updates or releases.

Finally, just how much of an improvement in pathfinding does Alpha 3b bring over the original TA pathfinding used in Alpha 3? See for yourself:

We have had a patch release Alpha 3b under work for a while now. Along a multitude of technical improvements and bug fixes there will be several significant changes to units. In order to clarify gameplay and give players more reason to build naval units, amphibiousness will be removed from all ground units apart from construction units and commanders. Several new units have been added and hovercraft and ships have seen dozens of adjustments, which should balance naval combat nicely. Most prominent part of these added units are T1 Floating Point Defence Turrets that can be used to boost your defences on watery maps. They all feature weapons well suited against hovercraft and provide large sight radius similar to basic turrets on ground, which can be really useful for your own hovercraft with their limited sight ranges. Should be noted that these are fairly easily overrun with focused attacks by hordes of hovercraft if left alone and are generally of little use against ships and their longer ranged artillery weapons.

Arm, Core, and GoK T1 Floating Point Defence Turrets

T2 Medium Range Plasma Cannons will be the heaviest defensive area denial units available. Arm and Core both have a turret falling into this category, but their abilities are not very similar. Arm's T2 MRPC aims to be more affordable and faster to set up than its Core counterpart. It is a sturdy and heavily armored design, and its twin heavy plasma cannon features relatively fast firerate and high damage output. Core's T2 MRPC takes armor and durability a step further and adds up plasma shield system, making it nigh indestructible monument. Its siege plasma cannon is basically the same weapon that T2 Battle Tank has, but with three times the range and slower fire rate.

Arm and Core T2 Medium Range Plasma Cannons

T2 Flak Tank provides Arm's mobile forces with heavy anti-air coverage for those days when amounts of enemy gunships or bombers become unbearable. While flak shots do not carry much power or area of effect individually, T2 Flak Tank features whole arrays of cannons with extreme fire rates to pepper the skies with shrapnel. Just like T1 anti-air missile weapons, flak cannons can also fire to ground at a shorter range, allowing this unit to hold its own against enemy light attack units. Anyhow, Flak cannons are effective only against groups of enemies at short ranges and are inaccurate compared to missiles, so these units are inefficient for dealing with enemy fighters or any single heavy units. Cannons will also need to keep reloading breaks after every few bursts. Unlike T1 Missile Hovercraft, T2 Flak Tank is armored enough to resist attacks of most gunships and bombers.

Arm T2 Flak Tank

Arm's T2 Radar Tower does not have any special abilities, but it is cheapest to build and rather well armored for a radar tower. It also features the longest radar range of all, but consumes lots of energy to achieve that. Core's one uses least energy relative to its radar range, but cannot detect targets from as far as Arm's equivalent can. It has slightly improved armor and will retract and protect itself with plasma shield when deactivated. Unlike others, GoK's T2 Radar Tower will be shielded even when active and features extended sight range. It doesn't improve radar range that much over the already significant range of GoK's T1 Radar Tower though.

Arm, Core, and GoK T2 Radar Towers