Planetary Annihilation

Hi Warsow :)

Years ago, I used to play a little game called Total Annihilation. TA was a cutting edge real time strategy game - full 3D - at the time that the first C&C and Starcraft were just 2D pixellated blobs. This is the game that made me want to go into games dev. And that's what I do now. I make games. Because I wanted to make the sequel. I wanted to make THIS game.

A few days ago, a number of the ORIGINAL devs from Cavedog (along with the ORIGINAL voiceover guy John Patrick Lowrie) and other big names put together a kickstarter project to do just that. This is no Supreme Commander. This is what TA2 should have been.

Warsow has a special place in my heart as an FPS, as much as TA has a special place in my heart as an RTS. I hope you understand what it would mean to see this game happen. Please put aside the angry in your <3 because this is not a Warsow post and pledge...

Your favourite Muffy :) :) :)

PLANETARY ANNIHILATION
(updated 2012-08-21 13:49:59)

awesome, thanks for the heads up. will definately back this.

for those interested in Total Annihilation look at SpringRTS, free RTS engine with many games on it, some derived from TA itself.

Yep :) SpringRTS, originally known as TA Spring, was developed by a bunch of Swedes (Swedish Yankspankers, clan-sy). SPRING RTS

TA was so extensible that they were able to integrate it with whiteboard (so you could draw anything onto the map) and added a DEMO RECORDER. This was years before other RTS games started adding their own integrated recorders. Spring started out as an OpenGL 3D replayer for the demo recorder. Then they decided to develop it into a playable version of TA, in full 3D. They then made it possible to run any kind of unit or map mod on it.

Spring is a brilliant open source ENGINE. It's not just a game any more. In 15 years, the TA spirit never died. Without it, Spring wouldn't have been possible. Quake is to Warsow what TA is to Spring.

And that's what I do now. I make games. Because I wanted to make the sequel. I wanted to make THIS game.

Are you personally involved in planetary annihilation ? If so, what are you working on ?

Btw i love their video. "We wanted a music that would make you want to destroy planets". Yes ofc
(updated 2012-08-21 16:53:16)

I'm not involved in making it. If only. :) All I can do is pledge a (fairly substantial) amount of money and see what happens.

I personally thought the bit where John Patrick Lowrie takes his shirt off to the sound of his own voice was the best...
(updated 2012-08-21 18:41:53)

Shame there isn't any _really_ good RTS games using Spring engine. Evolution RTS looks most promising so far, though.

Some sweeping and totally subjective statements to follow... Balanced Annihilation was a decent mod but the models and animations didn't look so great. It was based on a mish-mash of units from a TA mod (produced by caydr and eventually updated by Daywalker). Expand and Exterminate was decent, but gameplay was a bit limited - not enough variation in the units. It reminded me a lot of Earth 2150. Kernel Panic has the most unique style, but it's never felt polished. Great idea though. Very TRON. Evolution is looking good, but I couldn't comment on gameplay. I think it inherited models from CA (Complete Annihilation) which had some of the nicest looking models at the time I last played. XTA was maintained by the SY's. Not sure who's still doing that now.

I think the engine has a lot to offer. What Spring lacks is a mod with units that are balanced, and also have polished models and animations. Part of the problem in my experience is that you have either too many people working on the same mod in multiple directions, or there's one guy who just can't keep up. And afaik, mods never reach completion. There are always massive revisions from one version to the next. You sometimes hear people complain about changes in Warsow - they're nowhere near as drastic as the revisions in Spring mods.

That's just my opinion and previous experience. :)
(updated 2012-08-21 20:26:32)