Review of TA Spring

From Nick Jenkins
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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. Since Total Annihilation is one of my favourite computer games, this is definitely a good thing!
  • 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 technical game-playing friend put it this way: "typical open-source project, the UI needs a lot of work".

My very non-techie girlfriend (who likes most RTS games) said: "Interface is critical; and the interface on this game majorly needs work". Also: "they've got all the fancy features, but have gotten the interface basics wrong". And: "it required the player to hang in there a little too long" (learning curve too steep). Also: "the screen is way too cluttered".

For both of these people, I asked them to be more specific, and vocalize exactly what they disliked, and be specific about how they would change it to solve the problem. I added my own thoughts, and tried to priortize these. So, here is our list of things not to like in TA Spring, listed from most annoying to least annoying, with suggestions on how to fix them:

Inconsistency of left-click and right-click

Left-click normally means "cancel", and right-click normally means "do something" (e.g. when ordering a unit to move or attack). 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". Or when you're specifing a patrol path. This inconsistency gets very annoying very quickly. Please please please please: Pick one! Either left-click means cancel, or right-click means cancel. Either one is fine. But then please apply it consistently.

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

... Except, do you right-click or left-click? Because clicking is inconsistent, I had several occasions of carefully selecting units, scrolling to other side of the map using the minimap, and then accidentally cancelling the order and losing my selection! This is an example of bad interface behaviour compounding together - 2 problems (inconsistent clicks + the minimap not being useable to give orders) compounding to be especially frustrating.

Arguably, you should also be able to drag a box around units using the minimap to select them.

Units do not obey you in battle

Units seem to have a mind of their own. I had a group of several gunship aircraft and some tanks. I ordered them to attack an enemy unit. 30 seconds later I see the gunships land, having travelled half way to the battle. Why? Attack means attack that unit. If that unit disappears, it means travel to it's last known location, and then attack any enemy units in the vicinty. Attack means attack.

Move means move

If you select 30 mobile units and accidentally include one building, you cannot move the group. The move order will have zero effect. The 30 units obey the move order. The building should ignore the move order (unless it is a factory, in which case future units produced should move to that location) - but most importantly, the mobile units should move. The alternative is having to carefully deselect buildings from the group, hoping that you don't miss a building.... whilst you're being attacked and your base is being destroyed. Not good.

No way to make a LAN game in the default install

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, but you need to download the separate server. It would be better if the "TASServer" software needed to do this (which is very small at 122 Kb) were included as part of the default Windows install, with an icon in the "TA Spring" program group for "LanServer.bat" that said "Play LAN game".

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.

Needs a spacebar goes to source of last message function

Some RTS games have pressing space = go to source of last message command, and select that unit. It would be an improvement if this was added - currently the minimap blinks a warning, but this would be quicker.

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 to quit the game".

Pressing Shift-Escape should probably prompt

Pressing Shift-Escape quits the game without prompting or confirmation - it would probably be best to prompt to confirm this.

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.

Stop Resources indicator from being a Draggable window

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 potentially useful.

Left-hand unit action window looks transparent, but it is not transparent to actions

The left-hand unit action window (that shows buildings that can be built, stop/patrol/attack, etc) is transparent (shows the terrain underneath). However, you cannot click through it (i.e. it catches any clicks). This window should not look transparent if it does not behave transparently. It should be a solid colour instead (e.g. black), so that the way it behaves matches the way it looks.

Get rid of "Free Look" mode

Jumping out of FPS mode should not switch to "free look" mode, where you cannot select any units. It's very confusing to beginners, and not obvious to them how to get out of it. If you won't get rid of it, please make it disabled by default so that it requires the user to enable it.

Tooltip area should pass-through clicks, like the console

To see what I mean, select a unit, and order it to move to the location behind/underneath the console/message window. This works. Now order the unit to move to the area behind the tooltip window. This does not work - the tooltip window "captures" the click. I think it should pass all clicks through, like the console does, because I can't think of any situation where the tooltip window itself needs to respond to mouse clicks. The behaviour of the tooltip window should match the way it looks (i.e. transparent behaviour for transparent appearance).

Unit sometimes get stuck

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. Another example is Kbots on the "small divide" map will get stuck in the trees, and give the same "Can't reach destination!" error message. If they were able to get into that location, and the path in has not been altered, then surely they should be able to get back out again?

Less clutter on the screen

What does "nickj 6% 1" at the bottom of the screen mean? And can it please be off by default? And if it can't be off, can it at least have a tooltip defined that explains what it means?

Occasional weird errors

Specifically this error was repeated about 40 times in the console: "Error: got patrol cmd with less than 3 params on Brawler in mobilecai".

Define two tooltips

  • Placing your cursor over the "You won the game" popup shows "No tooltip defined" in the info box on the bottom left of the screen.
  • Placing your cursor over the tooltip window that shows tooltips says "No tooltip defined". :-)

Minor polish things

  • 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.
  • When my commander died at the end of game, the energy and metal scrollbars went way off the screen (looked like they went to infinity). Happened on a game starting with 10,000 resources, so maybe that was the issue.

Smoother unit tracking

If you track/follow an aircraft using the "t" key, the screen jitters a bit. The original TA from 1997 played pretty smoothly on a PC with one tenth the CPU speed of my current one, and little or no 3D graphics acceleration - so it should probably be possible to do this on a reasonably modern PC with a 3D graphics card.