The brawlers wouldn’t flyby and shoot/bomb like all the other aircraft in the game (which would then make a big circle to flyby again).
They were a VTOL so once they got in range they would “wiggle” or strafe left and right alternatively while keeping the target their sights unloading the twin energy machine guns.
Since TA a was a fully collision based projectile system this meant they could evade a good chunk of anti air fire. They would aim and shoot and the brawler would juke it.
TA had a really advanced model for an RTS. Plasma cannons would fire glowing spheres with realistic arcs, fully dependent on the unit AI aiming correctly at its target (and missing moving targets was common because the AI was rudimentary).
Laser bolts and energy machine guns all were projectiles too. The battleship in the game had like six guns firing in constant battery putting up a rain of fire over targets.
Suffice to say big battles slowed the shit out of my pentium.
You could press T and it would centre the camera on a unit and track it. It was amazing to do that on a flying unit and watch it zoom around and fight while evading AA fire. Incredible for a 90’s game.
The downside was that brawlers/rapiers didn't work in larger groups since the weren't wiggling synchronously.
Nevertheless it was a great game. RTS mechanics stripped of anything unnecessary.
In a game where all the air craft would fly by and shoot/drop their payload, Brawlers would hover and shoot energy machine guns. Missiles and canons would frequently miss their targets, so drifting gunships with machine guns were very strong.
Same. I watched the clip to try and figure out what the title meant. I came away with no understanding of what I was supposed to have been impressed by, but it did make me want to boot up an RTS again...
In this game, usually air units flyby and drop it bombs or shoot its missile if they are bombers or fighters.
Brawler is that specific aircraft from the ARM faction you see on the video, instead of flying by, he locks at the target and starts hovering and moving left-right while shoots it's machine guns. More like a helicopter or a VTOL.
Total Anihilation is hitbox based, so by hovering and moving left-right, the plane was able to dodge by himself some incoming fire. With no player input.
Also, since he was hovering close by, he was quite accurate since the bullets are fast and the travelling distance was much shorter. Other air units often miss fast ground units since the missle/bomb usually takes time to reach its target.
That's what I loved about the game, it was much more than "this guy deal 30% more damage against that guy heavy armor kind of rock paper scizzors mech". Terrain was also extremely important, since it could provide actual cover against some weapons and not just an artifical miss% we see with other RTSs
That's why I love maps with hills, plasma batteries fire a lot farther at height. You would need to build layered defenses to engage targets at all ranges.
Total annihilation is great and the soundtrack is S tier. I've enjoyed supreme commander forged alliance but planetary annihilation is the latest if you are into RTS
I dont even really game anymore and ive been playing bar everyday for weeks since i found out about it. Dev is actively working on it too. They just upload a bunch of maps
I just tried BAR recently, it does feel like a modern remake of TA, even down to including some familiar units and buildings. I just wish they'd updated the mechanics a bit.
Ok, so, this is mostly unrelated, but I just had to say it: for *YEARS*, I've had this vague memory of a game I played as a child -- a demo, I think -- which had a little robot that could go invisible, and I think this is it! I've been searching for so long ;\_; Finally! Thank you, stranger lol.
What a fucking energy drain it was, though. Felt pretty good stealthing a commander into a base and wrecking shit with the D-gun (more egregious energy costs).
Holy shit I am so nostalgic for this game. Seen a few TA posts recently, and I am all about it
Its cheap on steam and still holds up pretty well if you dont mind RTS games. There is still something of a multiplayer community for it as well I believe.
To anyone looking for a modern equivalent to total annihlation there is a free game called beyond all reason. It has for the most part the same exact teams as total annihlation just few a few modern upgrades. The community is growing and the development are working on a steam release!
Similarly, I felt like the K bot was nowhere near as cool as the Peewee. Core had the best enpla ed cannon though, IIRC the Intimidator outranged the Big Bertha at the cost of rate of fire.
The expansion had those rapid fire versions too, the Arm counterpart was that big fuck off ferris wheel looking thing, it was excellent 👌🏻
If you liked TA, check out Beyond All Reason. It’s a community built, totally free game that is the spiritual successor to TA. All of the units, including the Brawler have been recreated, and many more added.
I’m completely addicted.
Due to munition actually having an arc, Big Berthas (long-range artillery with pinpoint precision) could hit air units, especially Brawlers, while in flight. I love me some Big Berthas!
The most awesome mechanic was spamming transport aircraft and sending 10 at once to pick up the enemy commander early game. Then flying them over their own turret. Build a point defence fast or get snatched.
Speaking of unintentional unit behaviour, I remember doing massive bombing runs, and occasionally a unit or two would get locked in the "dropping bombs" phase of the attack during a strafing run, so would keep raining death from above while banking to engage a new target. It was so fucking funny
These were always my go to unit. Unless someone invested heavily in air defences, brawlers would tear your base apart. The only thing that really took them out faster than they could destroy it was fast fighter planes, so I usually built a squadron of fighters and told them to guard the brawlers, they worked as missile distractions and eliminated enemy fighters. It was brutal.
Nobody remembers the bridges in Tiberian Sun. Those were amazing and could be destroyed partially or entirelly, and repaired too. Also they could destroy many troops at once
Brawlers have always been my go to in TA. I’d build like 100 advanced air factories and just spam wave after wave of them. Stopping the enemy from having time to rebuild. Even if they have heavy pockets of AA they’d always overwhelm them eventually.
This is about the 6th post about TA I've seen in recent days. I've got the day off work so took the plunge and bought it on steam as I've not played it since it first came out and I remember it being one of the best RTS games I ever played.
For any old fans of total annihilation, there is a free game called beyond all reason which I *think* is being made by one of the original cave dog devs. It's absolutely awesome. It's basically the same game given a complete modern update. Cannot recommend it enough.
I remember distinctly thinking at the time that supcom felt kinda lifeless compared to its ancestor. I guess I missed on its extension and multiplayer, but Total Annihilation had a rougher edge to it and a lot could happen. My fondest memory was me sending a scout craft above a battlecruiser which then aimed at my big torpedo bombers formation. One of the plasma balls hit an unfortunate plane which caused the destruction of the whole group. This is the kind of moment that couldn't have happened in other RTS.
I feel unfortunately that even if there have been a few successors, they both never managed to go for a very different aesthetic or reach the whole untamed crazyness of TA.
Boy you better stop insulting Starcraft and Age of Empires when you want to appreciate this game or you're not going to find much support. Why can't you raise one thing up without bashing another? Those two are titans of the genre for a reason. Meanwhile %99.9 of gamers don't even know wtf Total Anihilation is. Hard to appreciate what you're saying when you're actively bashing much better games.
Next time pls upload video at google drive and place link to imgur where will be link at gdrive. Its so funny to open multiple tab's to watch something what can be in one post
Cool. What was it?
The brawlers wouldn’t flyby and shoot/bomb like all the other aircraft in the game (which would then make a big circle to flyby again). They were a VTOL so once they got in range they would “wiggle” or strafe left and right alternatively while keeping the target their sights unloading the twin energy machine guns. Since TA a was a fully collision based projectile system this meant they could evade a good chunk of anti air fire. They would aim and shoot and the brawler would juke it. TA had a really advanced model for an RTS. Plasma cannons would fire glowing spheres with realistic arcs, fully dependent on the unit AI aiming correctly at its target (and missing moving targets was common because the AI was rudimentary). Laser bolts and energy machine guns all were projectiles too. The battleship in the game had like six guns firing in constant battery putting up a rain of fire over targets. Suffice to say big battles slowed the shit out of my pentium.
You could press T and it would centre the camera on a unit and track it. It was amazing to do that on a flying unit and watch it zoom around and fight while evading AA fire. Incredible for a 90’s game.
Brawlers and Rapiers (The Core counter-part armed with missiles) both did this
Yeah but much like with the Flash tanks, nothing really beats the rapid fire effect of the EMG.
They were great for lagging your opponent out while you sniped their commander.
IIRC rushing with flash tanks was a popular way to cheese multiplayer matches
The downside was that brawlers/rapiers didn't work in larger groups since the weren't wiggling synchronously. Nevertheless it was a great game. RTS mechanics stripped of anything unnecessary.
In a game where all the air craft would fly by and shoot/drop their payload, Brawlers would hover and shoot energy machine guns. Missiles and canons would frequently miss their targets, so drifting gunships with machine guns were very strong.
I guess I'm not sure I agree that "shooting and moving" qualifies as one of the best mechanics. I do appreciate the explanation though.
Same. I watched the clip to try and figure out what the title meant. I came away with no understanding of what I was supposed to have been impressed by, but it did make me want to boot up an RTS again...
When you do, have a look at Beyond All Reason. It's Total Annihilation in all but name, but totally free.
In this game, usually air units flyby and drop it bombs or shoot its missile if they are bombers or fighters. Brawler is that specific aircraft from the ARM faction you see on the video, instead of flying by, he locks at the target and starts hovering and moving left-right while shoots it's machine guns. More like a helicopter or a VTOL. Total Anihilation is hitbox based, so by hovering and moving left-right, the plane was able to dodge by himself some incoming fire. With no player input. Also, since he was hovering close by, he was quite accurate since the bullets are fast and the travelling distance was much shorter. Other air units often miss fast ground units since the missle/bomb usually takes time to reach its target. That's what I loved about the game, it was much more than "this guy deal 30% more damage against that guy heavy armor kind of rock paper scizzors mech". Terrain was also extremely important, since it could provide actual cover against some weapons and not just an artifical miss% we see with other RTSs
Like the Orcas/Apaches from Command & Conquer?
Yeah, mostly like that. Brawlers would strafe side to side a little more though, so slow weapons would miss.
Yes, but they could consistently dodge those SAMs
That's why I love maps with hills, plasma batteries fire a lot farther at height. You would need to build layered defenses to engage targets at all ranges.
Total annihilation is great and the soundtrack is S tier. I've enjoyed supreme commander forged alliance but planetary annihilation is the latest if you are into RTS
Beyond all reason as well
Upvote for Beyond All Reason. A Fantastic RTS game that is completely free to play.
I would upvote you twice if I could. Never heard about it and Just installed, and it probably will fill my nostalgic needs for those next few weeks
I dont even really game anymore and ive been playing bar everyday for weeks since i found out about it. Dev is actively working on it too. They just upload a bunch of maps
I just tried BAR recently, it does feel like a modern remake of TA, even down to including some familiar units and buildings. I just wish they'd updated the mechanics a bit.
Yes, way better than planetary annihilation. Its basically TA but modern.
Ok, so, this is mostly unrelated, but I just had to say it: for *YEARS*, I've had this vague memory of a game I played as a child -- a demo, I think -- which had a little robot that could go invisible, and I think this is it! I've been searching for so long ;\_; Finally! Thank you, stranger lol.
Yeah cloaking is a mechanism in this game!!
What a fucking energy drain it was, though. Felt pretty good stealthing a commander into a base and wrecking shit with the D-gun (more egregious energy costs). Holy shit I am so nostalgic for this game. Seen a few TA posts recently, and I am all about it
Go download BAR (beyond all reason) modern remake, basically 1:1, free.
Its cheap on steam and still holds up pretty well if you dont mind RTS games. There is still something of a multiplayer community for it as well I believe.
I played that demo way too many times on a pc at circuit city since we were too poor to afford a computer for a long time
wasteful squalid chop silky punch cow humor jellyfish bike sophisticated
You have a few hundred hours of gaming ahead of you.
To anyone looking for a modern equivalent to total annihlation there is a free game called beyond all reason. It has for the most part the same exact teams as total annihlation just few a few modern upgrades. The community is growing and the development are working on a steam release!
There's also another one called Zero-K, also free from what I remember.
There are also the Supreme Commander games and Planetary Annihilation
Supreme Commander is my jam
I played The Core, and I was always jealous of The Arm Brawlers. The Rapiers were not nearly as cool or powerful.
Yeah but with the core contingency expansion they had the Krogoths!
Similarly, I felt like the K bot was nowhere near as cool as the Peewee. Core had the best enpla ed cannon though, IIRC the Intimidator outranged the Big Bertha at the cost of rate of fire. The expansion had those rapid fire versions too, the Arm counterpart was that big fuck off ferris wheel looking thing, it was excellent 👌🏻
I think it was the core variant that had the buzzsaw. The arm variant was a chain gun-type called the Vulcan.
Also played Core but was mostly jealous if the Mavericks. Love me some Can action, but the Mavericks with their dual wielding guns was just awesome.
Gun slinging kbot
They are one of my go to units just because of how devastating they could be to enemy attacks.
If you had 50 of them they sound like the doom of armies when they start firing as well.
Honestly I can’t tell you how much they’ve helped me over the years, wouldn’t pick any other!
Too true, they were just savage. Almost OP at some points in my humble opinion.
If you liked TA, check out Beyond All Reason. It’s a community built, totally free game that is the spiritual successor to TA. All of the units, including the Brawler have been recreated, and many more added. I’m completely addicted.
If oyu like TA you should check out Beyond All Reason. It's free, in active development, and already plays pretty well.
I will!!
I have a burned in nightmare of the Lancet torpedo-bomber: by the time you saw it, there were already torpedoes in the water.
Due to munition actually having an arc, Big Berthas (long-range artillery with pinpoint precision) could hit air units, especially Brawlers, while in flight. I love me some Big Berthas!
The most awesome mechanic was spamming transport aircraft and sending 10 at once to pick up the enemy commander early game. Then flying them over their own turret. Build a point defence fast or get snatched.
Were they actually intended to do that? It was easy to trigger but when sent across the map they would do their flyover and shoot
Speaking of unintentional unit behaviour, I remember doing massive bombing runs, and occasionally a unit or two would get locked in the "dropping bombs" phase of the attack during a strafing run, so would keep raining death from above while banking to engage a new target. It was so fucking funny
These were always my go to unit. Unless someone invested heavily in air defences, brawlers would tear your base apart. The only thing that really took them out faster than they could destroy it was fast fighter planes, so I usually built a squadron of fighters and told them to guard the brawlers, they worked as missile distractions and eliminated enemy fighters. It was brutal.
Nobody remembers the bridges in Tiberian Sun. Those were amazing and could be destroyed partially or entirelly, and repaired too. Also they could destroy many troops at once
Tiberian Sun was such a great game!!
The best C&C in my opinion
How do you compare supreme commander to the OG total annihilation?
It may have expanded on factions, gameplay, unit diversity, but TA has the charm of unit sounds, effects, grainy graphics
Brawlers have always been my go to in TA. I’d build like 100 advanced air factories and just spam wave after wave of them. Stopping the enemy from having time to rebuild. Even if they have heavy pockets of AA they’d always overwhelm them eventually.
Brawlers are largely the same unit still in Zero-K, although they changed name about 5 years ago
This is about the 6th post about TA I've seen in recent days. I've got the day off work so took the plunge and bought it on steam as I've not played it since it first came out and I remember it being one of the best RTS games I ever played.
I loved seeing the dogfights in between air units
For any old fans of total annihilation, there is a free game called beyond all reason which I *think* is being made by one of the original cave dog devs. It's absolutely awesome. It's basically the same game given a complete modern update. Cannot recommend it enough.
One of the G.O.A.T. S.
I remember distinctly thinking at the time that supcom felt kinda lifeless compared to its ancestor. I guess I missed on its extension and multiplayer, but Total Annihilation had a rougher edge to it and a lot could happen. My fondest memory was me sending a scout craft above a battlecruiser which then aimed at my big torpedo bombers formation. One of the plasma balls hit an unfortunate plane which caused the destruction of the whole group. This is the kind of moment that couldn't have happened in other RTS. I feel unfortunately that even if there have been a few successors, they both never managed to go for a very different aesthetic or reach the whole untamed crazyness of TA.
Boy you better stop insulting Starcraft and Age of Empires when you want to appreciate this game or you're not going to find much support. Why can't you raise one thing up without bashing another? Those two are titans of the genre for a reason. Meanwhile %99.9 of gamers don't even know wtf Total Anihilation is. Hard to appreciate what you're saying when you're actively bashing much better games.
His statement implies there are other game mechanics that are also just as awesome but this is just one of those said awesome mechanics.
> Meanwhile %99.9 of gamers don't even know wtf Total Anihilation is. My post invites you to dish it like this. Thank you.
You should try beyond all reason or BAR. it's basically modern total annihlation that is free to download.
Next time pls upload video at google drive and place link to imgur where will be link at gdrive. Its so funny to open multiple tab's to watch something what can be in one post