Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation was a true revolution in the RTS genre at the time of its release, featuring fully 3D-rendered units, Z-buffered environments capable of fully simulating 3D terrain with all its slopes and mountains, fresh gameplay ideas such as inexhaustible resources, reclaimable (and impassable) unit carcasses, and full-fledged naval and underwater warfare without any need to have even a small piece of land, and a sci-fi story of a human clone civilization fighting against self-replicating robots across a whole galaxy (the factions, Core and Arm, being named by the corresponding occupied galaxy part). Destroy the biological vermin or earn humanity freedom!

Unused Weapons#

Mind Gun#

An unused weapon type that supposedly would convert units to the weapon's owner's side. This idea was later used in Total Annihilation: Kingdoms with the Harpy and Mind Mage units.

[MINDGUN]
    {
    ID=7;
    name=Mind Gun;
    rendertype=2;
    lineofsight=1;

    range=500;
    reloadtime=1;
    weapontimer=2;
    weaponvelocity=91;
    areaofeffect=16;
    soundstart=phaser;
    soundhit=explode;
    unitsonly=1;

    [DAMAGE]
        {
        default=100;
        }
    }

Unused Properties#

Map Properties#

solarstrength=20;

This string is supposed to determine the Energy output for Solar Generators, but it remains unchanged for every map. Even then, it's not actually used by the game at all since the Solar Generator output value is set in the building's file by the Energy consumption string having a negative (-20) value.

Unit Properties#

reproduce=0;
reproducearea=6;

These two strings are present in all files of units that are supposed to be organic, such as trees and foliage. Presumably they were intended to regulate flora growth, indicating that there was such a feature, but the final game doesn't have anything similar. Changing these values doesn't seem to do anything.

teleporter=1

This string is used for the Galactic Gate (interplanetary teleporting device) building, though in-game this building doesn't teleport anything and serves solely decorative and story purposes.