After a long time of slow development and silently releasing test builds on the forums, version Alpha 4b of Total Annihilation Zero is finally here! During this time the changelog has grown to a gigantic size. Taking a close look at the version history and unit guides of Arm, Core, and GoK is now truly recommended.
On top of several years worth of balancing adjustments and new units for all factions, Alpha 4b also delivers a complete overhaul of all unit scripts and weapon firing animations. Complex units should no longer run risk of dropping any parts of their script when moving, firing, and taking hits all at the same time, commanders and field engineers now handle much better in combat situations, and there is a wide variety of other improvements to scripts and animations all around. Sparks fly and fireballs animate smoothly when cannons fire, missile launchers have jets of flame shooting out from the rear, plasma cannons have crackling halos when they fire, railguns shoot out shockwaves, energy weapons emit pulses and leave trails of sparks, and distort cannons cause brief vortexes when hurling away their otherworldly projectiles. Laying down suppressive fire on the enemy forces has never been as satisfying!
Alpha 4b also brings some fixes and improvements to the venerable TA engine. Several old issues, such as reclaim sound looping and self repair of units that are under construction, have been fixed, and the old self repair code has been upgraded to support a wide range of values. As result, all construction units now have reasonable self repair rates and all Core units now have atleast rudimentary self repair ability as their factional specialty.
In addition to expanded ground warfare, the first tier 2 air units are here! Every faction can now build their own tier 2 air factory and gunship.
Download TA Zero Alpha 4b here, and visit the official discussion thread.
The hotfix, for those who need it, is included within TA Zero Alpha 4b patch archive in a separate folder. The hotfix for Alpha 4 should not be used with Alpha 4b.
