Review of TA Spring

From Nick Jenkins
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Review of TA spring.

This is a review of TA Spring, an open-source game like Total Annihilation. The version reviewed is TA Spring 0.70b3.

What's to like

  • It's free (as in beer and as in speech).
  • It looks like TA.
  • It behaves like TA in some regards.
  • It's a fairly small download (around 35 Mb).
  • Rotating the scroll wheel changes zoom level.

What's not to like

A friend put it this way: "typical open-source project, the UI needs a *Lot* of work".

Here is my list of things not to like, with most annoying listed first:

Inconsistency of left-click and right-click

Left-click normally means "cancel", and right-click normally means "do something". Except when you're controlling a construction unit, and placing a building, in which case right-click means "cancel" and left-click means "do something". This inconsistency gets very annoying very quickly.

Can't order units to do something using the mini-map

Should be able to select a unit, and right-click on the mini-map to move or attack, as per the normal map - but you can't. Consequently, you have to scroll to the location, and then right-click.

Units do not obey you in battle

Units seem to have a mind of their own. For example, if you select 30 mobile units and accidentally include one building, you cannot move the group. The 30 units should be able to move.

No apparent way to make a LAN game

If you want to play a LAN game against someone sitting next to you, you might well do this: Run the "TA Springs Battleroom", then go "Battle screen", then go "Host battle". However if you do this, you will get an error message that says: "you must first log onto server". It appears that all the players need to logon to the Internet server, create an Internet game (which can have a password to keep other people out), and then play that game. I.e. there appears to be no standalone "LAN game" mode.

Update: LAN only mode is possible, need to download the seperate server (written in java).

Left-clicking on the mini-map should move to the mini-map to that location

Yes, left-click normally means cancel, but if you do it on the mini-map, you probably wanted to see that location, not cancel your current action.

Cannot jump out of a game to change settings

Cannot jump out of a game to change settings, and then resume the game. If you try this, you might well try pressing "escape". Pressing "escape" suggests pressing "Shift-Escape".

Pressing Shift-Escape ends the game

Pressing Shift-Escape ends the game. Without prompting or confirmation.

Game needs a PDF key reference

A key reference / cheat-sheet would be very helpful.

Getting stuck in first-person mode

The game features a first-person mode, where you can "jump" into the perspective of one of your units by pressing the "c" key. Pressing the "c" key then toggles back to the normal top-down isometric view. The person I was playing against did this, and the unit they were "in" was destroyed. They pressed "c" to get back to the normal view, but it didn't work. They were stuck in first person mode. They tried pressing every key on their keyboard, and eventually got back to normal, but had no idea how they did it. Pressing "c" should always go back to the normal view if you are in the first-person view.

Draggable interface

Parts of the interface are draggable, so you can customize your interface, in the same way that the toolbars in word can be dragged around the screen. For example, the resources indicator showing how much energy or metals you have can be dragged around the screen. I can't really see the point of this. The mini-map can be dragged and expanded. This is useful.

Minor polish things

  • Placing a cursor over the "You won the game" popup shows "No tooltip defined" in the info box on the bottom left of the screen.
  • Weird errors on the screen. Specifically this error: "Error: got patrol cmd with less than 3 params on Brawler in mobilecai" popped up.
  • Units that can't reach their destination. Examples are "Anaconda: Can't reach destination!". An Anaconda is a hovercraft (I think), so it should be able to get most places.
  • If you track/follow an aircraft using a "t", the screen jitters a bit. The original TA played pretty smoothly on a PC about one quarter the power of my current one, so it should probably be possible to do this.
  • In the "battle window", clicking on the "ready" marker next to your name should do the same thing as clicking on "I'm ready" at the bottom of the screen.
  • The resource bars jump up and down instead of increasing or decreasing smoothly. Makes it hard to visually see what's going on with your resources.