Total Annihilation: Dark Suns – Design and Planning Document – Revised

Index

								Page

Index	1

1	Introduction	2

1.1	Introduction	2
1.2	Project Goals	2
1.3	Project Constraints	2

2	Story / Missions	4

2.1	The TA’AK	4
2.2	The IAF	5
2.3	Mission Outline	6
2.4	Missions	7

3	Gameplay	9

3.1	Gameplay	9
3.2	Artificial Intelligence	11
3.3	TA’AK Units	13
3.4 	IAF Units	21
3.5	Weapons/Balance	29
3.6	Controls	32
3.7	Scaling	33
3.8	Competitive Analysis	34

4	Art and Sound	35

4.1	Aesthetics	35
4.2	Art/Sound Tasks	36

5	Scripting	37

5.1	Scripting/Scripting Tasks	37

Section 1 -	Introduction

1.1	Introduction

TA: Dark Suns is a total conversion for Total Annihilation. Its goal is to remake the basic TA game of land based combat into a game of space combat. It has a devastating war between two sides, as the original, but with very different forces involved.

The essential elements are the replacement of Arm and Core with the – new, and unique to Dark Suns -  TA’AK and IAF, who will fight through ten missions and across several skirmish/multiplayer battlefields, set in space.

Many of the essential concepts behind Total Annihilation – the powerful commander, the unlimited resource model and the large unit count – are being retained, but given unique twists.

Familiarity with the original game is not necessary, but will help.

1.2	Project Goals

The project is aimed at both single player, skirmish (individual player vs AI battles) and multiplayer experiences.

It takes two sides with very different aesthetics and combat styles, and balances - using as a partial base a mathematical model designed for Total Annihilation unit balance - for games involving any mix of these, for any play up to and including 3v3 and 6 free-for-all play.

Along the way, it will push the boundaries of the Total Annihilation engine and beyond by using features from the user-made TA4 patch and associated DLL’s – setting units health from their scripts, true teleportation and more.

New maps will also be made using a new tileset (essentially, Total Annihilation maps are a bitmap covered by a height map, with an additional layer for things like start positions and mission commands), which is essential for the playing experience as Dark Suns does not work with the stock Total Annihilation (or any other non-custom) maps.

All the build pictures and other miscellaneous graphics will be re-done in a more consistent style.

1.3	Project Constraints

The project is not original. It has gone through two previous stages.

The first stage was in 1998/1999, when Jer of LD and Wizzball created the TA’AK and IAF respectively, and created the majority of the units. I created some minor elements of the project at this time, for example the background to the TA’AK build pictures.

The second stage, in 2002/3, when I and Wizzball worked heavily on maps and balance. We each created several maps and units for Dark Suns in this time period, as well as the current GUI. When Wizzball left, the project was left in a state approximating a very early alpha. Please see Appendix E for greater detail.

No new sounds or are being created, instead the library of sounds developed in over five years by the Total Annihilation community are to be used. The same applies to some weapon effects, although not all. The interface screens are not being altered.

Maps to be made using the existing Dark Suns and Dark Suns: Giants (large tiles) tilesets.

The root mathematic algorithm will also not be disclosed, although its implications will be extensively discussed throughout this document.

Section 2 -	Story / Missions

2.1	The TA’AK

TA’AK - Technological Alliance of Aliens Kossavus

The TA’AK are a conglomeration of dozens of races. The Deephaunt sector they originate from is rich in life, and shortly after the invention of a FTL drive by the Kossavus (now sadly extinct), a peaceful federation spread across the sector. With few FTL warp links out, they were content to remain within the sector.

The Ravagers changed that. A machine race from the neighbouring Sparkle sector – filled with mineral-rich nebulas – they forced the TA’AK to field a massive force to face them. The Ravagers were defeated – at the cost of several races, including the Kossavus - but they caused changes in TA’AK society.

The TA’AK became expansionist, settling the Sparkle sector and running into several small alien Empires. These, they conquered or intimidated and eventually made them allies, taking what was unique from their culture and adding it into their own.

Some races resisted, and TA’AK might took some awful setbacks – they lost entire sectors in massive conflicts – but they always prevailed. Over time, their society and doctrine hardened. No longer did they take from cultures, they GAVE. Nothing about an alien society was worth anything to them, anymore.

The TA’AK control six sectors, and they have just created a vast gateway from the Sparkle sector into a new area of the galaxy – a sector in the centre of a cluster pulsing with the signals of FTL travel. One bustling with life. One which is mainly peaceful.

One alliance immediately stands out as the major problem for the TA’AK in this new sector, which they call “Gateway”. And so, the Interstellar Armed Forces must be the first to fall beneath the TA’AK’s “Alliance Central Fleet”.

2.1	The IAF

IAF - Interstellar Armed Forces

The IAF are the armed forces of the Stellar Commonwealth, a Human-dominated Republic spanning parts of four sectors. They are considered the dominant military power of the region, but their weak economy makes them dependent on trade with a number of other powers and thus they are not considered overly threatening.

The IAF undertakes many mercenary missions, destroying pirates and rogue fleets, fighting in border wars and acting as peacekeepers in tense areas when the loose Interracial “Council of Powers” acts to prevent major conflicts between it’s members.

The IAF is an elite force for the slowly-growing Stellar Commonwealth, and is 97% Human, with most of the remainder being K’Kree. This racism does not endear many if the Stellar Commonwealth to their armed forces, but they understand that they are the source of their wealth and power.

The IAF scout forces quickly detect the TA’AK advance fleets, and under a remarkably quickly issued mandate by the Council of Powers, move significant forces to the edges of several minor powers who stand in the way of the TA’AK advance, until the newcomers intentions can be established.

2.3	Mission Outline

There are two campaigns – Denizens of the Night, the TA’AK campaign, and A Time for Heroes, the IAF campaign. Each is 5 missions long, and charts some of the initial fighting in and around the TA’AK’s “Gateway” and the planets in the sector.

In Denizens of the Night, the player leads the TA’AK advance, scouting out an IAF base, and taking a planet. Hunting down an enemy commander, he kills it and then smashes an IAF convoy. Finally, he blunts a major IAF push against TA’AK lines.

In A Time for Heroes, the player leads the IAF defence, raiding a TA’AK convoy to discover something about these enigmatic attackers. He locates and destroys a mineral-mining operation in a dust cloud, then leads a deep thrust while the TA’AK are distracted. He must withdraw crush some traitors, and finally smash a TA’AK base.

The first three missions are relatively easy. The final two missions are – by design – difficult.

2.4	Missions

2.4.1  - Denizens of the Night (TA’AK)

(a)	Scouting		-	First Contact

The player takes L1 forces, not including a Commander, against a small selection of IAF units. The player must establish an economic base and crush a defence spread across a natural asteroid field in the map, making him rely heavily on fighters until lanes can be cleared, or defences in the existing gaps be smashed.

All enemies must be eliminated.

(b)	Conquest		-	Day of Death

A world, ringed with defences. The player must use a Commander and a force of L1 units with two L2 capital units (that he cannot replace during the mission) to destroy a mix of L1 enemy units, who have their own resource asteroids on the other side of the planet.

All enemies must be eliminated. Do not lose the Commander.

(c)	Assault		-	Fire In The Sky

Hunt down an enemy commander in a region of huge asteroids, using both L1 and L2 units including 2 capitals.

The enemy Commander must be destroyed.

(d)	Convoy Attack	-	Hand Of Fate

Scouts have discovered an enemy convoy trying to relieve the planet. Neither side has a base although you do have a Commander, a full range of L1 and L2 units available and a Capital.

 All enemies must be eliminated. Do not lose the Commander.

(e)	Defence		-	A Line In The Stars

An enemy counterattack of mixed L1 and L2 units is imminent against your lightly defended baseline. You must fortify rapidly and withstand a powerful initial thrust and follow-up attacks by a powerful enemy force. You have the full range of units available. 

You must survive for 30 minutes. Do not lose the Commander.

2.4.2  - A Time For Heroes (IAF)

(a)	Convoy Raid		-	Counterstrike

Using only L1 units, and without a Commander, engage and destroy four freighters before superior enemy forces some distance away can engage and destroy you.

You must destroy all four of six freighters.

(b)	Mining Operation	-	Caliban Clouds

With a Commander, L1 and some L2 forces you must build a base in a region of space just outside the Caliban dust clouds, and then venture in to destroy an enemy presence which includes four dustminers, each of which have substantial protection and provide a great deal of income for the enemy.

All enemies must be eliminated. Do not lose the Commander.

(c)	Deep Strike		-	Lords Of Thunder

With a strong initial force, including a Commander and many L2 units – and the ability to build L1 and L2 units – you must smash a strong if uncoordinated L1 and L2 enemy presence within half an hour. They have some asteroids, but you have a decisive advantage, if you can maintain the attack.

All enemies must be eliminated within 30 minutes. Do not lose the Commander.

(d)	Destroy Rebels	-	Crusade of Ashes

With your commander and a mix of L1 and L2 units, destroy an entrenched base of IAF rebels which has a mix of L1 units and some damage L2 capital units.

All enemies must be eliminated. Do not lose the Commander.

(e)	Attack			-	Against The Storm

With a mixture of units and the ability to build them all, take a force against a TAAK force which is also trying to establish itself in a nasty race against time.

All enemies must be eliminated. Do not lose the Commander.

Section 3 -	Gameplay

3.1	Gameplay

There are three basic classes of ship - fighter (fighters, bombers), warships (escorts, corvettes, frigates) and capital ships (destroyers, cruisers, etc.). All fighters and escorts move like aircraft from the original Total Annihilation – they “fly”, moving over terrain features and weapons can be designed to target only them.

The other warships and capital ships move like vehicles, and indeed the basic “space” is, to the Total Annihilation engine, land. Movement over asteroids is restricted by the fact that they are actually 1 pixel underwater. Using movement restrictions, this allows both “land”-based ships to be blocked from moving over said asteroids and for asteroid-only buildings (which can only be built in “water”) to be built.

The TA’AK have a relatively limited grasp of high-energy physics. Their FTL drives are extremely efficient, but slow compared to those of the Gateway races. While they do have energy weapons, they are limited to fairly simple pulse lasers, and the potent but nastily short-ranged electron whip.

They can manufacture minute amounts of anti-matter for their torpedoes, giving them a nasty punch, but their smaller warheads rely on advanced chemical explosives which do not do that much damage to modern armour.

Underlying the fighting techniques of the TA’AK is the combat swarm. They use large numbers of relatively cheap, disposable, units to wear the enemy down. Their fighters are small and can be mass-produced, and they only have minimal backup in the form of a repair corvette. There is a definite jump from these to their very capable corvettes and frigates, but their capital ships – mainly destroyers and cruisers – are little bigger.

While they have no direct counter to some of the IAF’s more potent weapons, their cheaper capital ships and weapons such as the railgun which can punish groups of enemy ships allow the TA’AK to more than hold their own.

The IAF are masters of energy technology, wielding a dazzling array of plasma and energy weapons which use numerous particles and range from simple fighter weapons to massive, fixed beam lasers.

Their missiles are quick, and use micro-fusion warheads to give them a relatively nasty punch. At larger sizes, however, their torpedoes fusion warheads lack the raw power that anti-matter can give. They support their fighters with carriers which can repair and even build new fighters in the field, as well as space-based fighter repair facilities.

The IAF use mainly powerful but sophisticated and expensive units. Their individual units are capable and often multi-role, but are usually outnumbered by the enemy. As partial compensation, their corvettes are small and they use an intermediate class known as escorts, which are larger than but move like fighters. On the other hand, their capital ships are large, powerful and very expensive units which are extremely hard to destroy.

They do have a split at the high-end between Astro-tech and conventional space technology. Astro-tech includes the essential moho (advanced) extractors, and some of the IAF’s most devastating weapons, but other essentials such as fusion reactors are space-only.

One of the important concepts is armour/damage. While big weapons work fine if they can hit small targets, small weapons can only do minimal damage to larger targets. That is, for example, fighter energy weapons as a rule do only 50% damage to light base units and warships (escorts/corvettes/frigates) and 10% to heavy base units and capital ships (destroyers, carriers and larger). On the other hand, torpedoes damage capital ships best, and do minimal damage to fighters – although their low speed means they are lucky to hit anything unless it is stationary or a capital ship.

3.2	Artificial Intelligence

AI in Total Annihilation can only be partially edited. There are two components which can be edited, independently of each other.

Firstly, one can control what the AI builds. This is done by using “weighting” of units – if a factory can build two units, one with a weighting of 100 and the other 50, the one with 100 would be twice as likely to be built. Equally, one can limit units both individually and by a number of categories.

These categories are defined in each unit file, and also interact with the other side of the editable AI – targeting. By using categories like BOMBER and CAPITAL, one can define both what a ship is, low priority targets for weapons and what types of target a ship should NOT chase.

There are some subtleties to this. For example, while air-only weapons can only target escorts and fighters, they have FLYING (the escort/fighter targeting category) as their “bad target” (low priority) target class. This is because there is a rare target lock (it “locks” a target, even when it moves out of range, and thus does not fire at a new viable target entering range) bug, but by making all targets for the weapon “bad”, it acquires a new target each time it fires and thus never target locks.

As a note, the AI has certain production fail-safes which can seriously obstruct it which come in when it is short of metal or energy, but it is unaware WHICH is short, and can thus make a bad situation worse. We are avoiding this by giving the commanders a basic production of 5 metal and 75 or more energy, which stops these fail-safes activating.
 
The AI will not be able to use certain units, which it cannot understand, or has trouble using. For example, a unit with both a weapon and the ability to build will not be used to build by the AI. Fortunately, there is a simple way round this – the AI can be given a variant of the unit (not available to Humans) without the weapon.

Other units will also be altered – for example, the AI has little knowledge of cloaking and can quickly run out of energy by building lots of cloaking units and not utilising them. Thus, units with a cheaper cloaking cost can be made specifically for the AI.

On harder difficulties the AI can (and has – the “solur” units on each side are these “cheating” units) also be given several special production units which look just like a player’s production units, but in fact produce a large amount of resources for the AI. Even in small numbers, this lets the AI outbuild the player.

This is to ensure that the fairly weak Total Annihilation AI stands a chance against a skilled player. To be sure, on easy it will not use its “cheating” units, and even at higher levels only a few but these will help it equal a Human player’s production.

A basic AI for Dark Suns, Queller DS, was made by Quitch(y). It has been decided that this is not a suitable base for the revised balance and thus it is not being used. Essentially, it makes certain assumptions about balance which are no longer true, and requires that every unit have an AI counterpart (an approach since proven to have drawbacks by Switech).

3.3	TA’AK Units

Commander	-	Almighty

A slow, heavily-armoured Cruiser. It has a capital class laser in a mount which is agile enough to engage fighters, and a massive anti-matter rocket launcher. Very short ranged, the launcher can take out any corvette in one shot and capitals in several. It has a fairly fast building nanolathe and can make a selection of L1 base units.

Basic Fighters

Construction Fighter	-	Assembler

Relatively cheap, these slow and fragile fighters have a slow, basic nanolathe, and can build a variety of L1 and L2 units. Their real advantage is that many can work on the same project.

EMP Fighter	-	Rogue

The second most expensive L1 fighter (behind the Firestorm), this craft is slow and lightly armoured, but has a fighter class laser and a modified fighter missile launcher which fires an EMP missile which stuns the target. The smaller the target, the longer it is stunned. Several fighters are needed to keep a target constantly stunned.

Scout Fighter	-	Rodent

Very cheap, quick fighters. They are essentially un-armoured and have only a single fighter-class laser, but they have a good visual range.

Interceptor	-	Shredder

Cheap, lightly armoured and quite fast. These craft carry a fighter class laser and a light missile launcher, giving them moderate punch against other fighters.

Light Bomber	-	Hole-Puncher

A fairly quick and lightly armed bomber, these craft carry only a light torpedo, which can do moderate damage to slow and stationary targets.

Medium Bomber	- Firestorm

A large, slow target with only moderate armour, despite their fighter-class laser the Firestorm needs escorting to its target. The torpedo they carry is, however, more potent.

Advanced Fighters

The TA’AK advanced fighters ADD capacities, in the main, and thus will not replace the cheaper basic fighters.

Advanced Construction Fighter	-	Paramedic

While no more armoured than its smaller cousin, it costs more but has twice the build rate. Thus, it is a worthy build if the advanced fighter lab is not seeing other use.

Advanced Interceptor	-	Blade

Armed with a rapid-fire fighter missile launcher, the Blade is a highly effective stand-off fighter. It is quite lightly armoured, but not very expensive. It’s slow rate of fire means that energy-armed fighters will destroy them in short order if allowed to close

Minesweeper	-	Minesweeper

While the TA’AK do not use mines – an essentially defensive weapon – races which they fight have done so. Hence, the minesweeper. It can fire a weapon which destroys all mines within a small radius around the impact point. It is, however, fairly expensive and quite fragile.

Jammer	-	Cloak

With the TA’AK reliance on quicker units for clearing the way for their forces, a jamming fighter is essential. Not especially cheap, but able to shield a small area from enemy sensors for a small energy cost.

Heavy Bomber	-	Hellfire

A quite well armoured but slow bomber, with an extremely powerful torpedo. They are the most expensive and slowest building of any TA’AK fighter, however.

Fighter/Bomber	-	Striker

The striker carries the same torpedo as the Firestorm, but quicker, with better armour and with an advanced fighter class laser. They are, however, considerably more expensive.

Corvette Shipyard

Construction Corvette		-	Constructor

A lightly armoured, moderate speed corvette which can build a range of L1 and L2 structures, including a capital shipyard.

Radar/Jammer	Corvette	-	Discovery

This small corvette has a large, fragile array of sensors and projectors. When turned on, they hide themselves and any directly adjacent units from sensor detection, and have a moderate sensor range themselves.

Energy Storage Corvette	-	Battery

A small, mobile energy store. They are lightly armoured and explode when destroyed.

Metal Storage Corvette	-	Silo

A small, mobile metal store. They are lightly armoured and explode when destroyed.

Fighter Repair Corvette	-	Medicare

A large corvette, which is only lightly armoured and entirely unarmed, but has a fighter repair facility onboard. While not cheap, they can cloak and form an essential part of the TA’AK strategy.

Anti-Fighter Corvette		-	Purifier

The smallest TA’AK combat ship from the Corvette Shipyard, they have only moderate armour and speed, but two missile launchers which fire small, fast, homing anti-fighter missiles to a reasonable range.

Escort Frigate		-	Ruthless

A larger combat ship, the Ruthless is designed to work in any environment, but excels in none as a result. It has a streaming laser which can tear up fighters, and two slow tracking but moderately powerful – if short ranged – frigate class lasers.

Torpedo Frigate	-	Nightstar

One of the quicker frigates, it emphasise speed over the armour - frigates cannot take capital many weapon hits anyway, and their weapon is served best by speed. They have a powerful torpedo launcher, firing semi-guided torpedoes a considerable distance.

Electron Whip Frigate		-	Electron

Very short ranged, but immensely powerful, the electron whip carried by this ship can rip apart any capital’s armour at close range. They also emphasise speed over armour.

Assault Frigate	-	Malignant

Favouring armour over speed, this ship is designed to lead assaults on defences. They have a powerful frigate class laser and a rocket launcher which can seriously damage stationary targets at short range.

(The Battle frigate originally specified in the TA’AK lineup is redundant)

Capital Shipyard

Construction Capital		-	Weaver

A large, heavy and extremely quick builder, the Weaver is the only ship able to build the most advanced TA’AK structures. Well armoured, but slow.

Anti-Fighter Destroyer	-	Cleanser

Small and agile for a capital, the Cleanser is still well armoured and slow compared to the combat Frigates. It has a streaming anti-fighter laser and two anti-fighter missile launchers which lack an amazing direct punch but have a blast area which lets them rapidly damage large numbers of enemy fighters and a decent rate of fire.

Kamikaze Destroyer		-	Battering Ram

Crewed by a devoted, short-lived species, these ships have little armour for a capital, but are almost as quick as most frigates. They require an ongoing amount of energy to contain their anti-matter charge, which devastates the area around them when they detonate. This also happens when they are destroyed.

Electron Whip Destroyer	-	Thunderbolt

The ultimate close attack weapon, the Thunderbolt has a lightning gun which while short ranged can smash through any armour in a single shot, devastating its targets. Always a priority enemy target.

Torpedo Cruiser	-	Payload

A large ship with a bulky loading and firing mechanism, the Payload has a considerable range for it’s powerful, fast-moving torpedoes although it’s reload time is considerable and it has no secondary weapons for defence.

Laser Cruiser		-	Nullifier

With a moderate range, this ship is the best armoured TA’AK capital. It has two lasers, a lower powered rapid fire laser and a higher powered slower firing laser.

Level 1 Base Units

Solar Collector	-	Solar Panel

A large array which generates energy from sunlight. Can be placed anywhere in open space. Cheap.

“Solur” Collector	-	AI Cheat Unit

A unit to enhance the capacity of the AI.

Metal Extractor	-	Metal Extractor

A tough extractor which can only be built on metal spots on asteroids. It produces a moderate amount of metal, using a small amount of energy to mine it.

Metal/Energy Storage		-	Storage Cell

A tiny, fragile cell which holds a small amount of metal and energy

InfraRed Station	 -	InfraRed Station

The TA’AK “wind generator”. Less expensive and smaller than the Solar Collector, generates a fixed energy income plus a variable amount which makes it more useful on “windy” maps.

Sensor Satellite	-	Sensor Satellite

A small sensor array which can detect enemy units at beyond visual ranges.

Observation Centre	-	Observation Centre

A small, well armoured defence, it does not have a weapon directly but instead has a considerable visual range and can allow early targeting of incoming enemy units by defences.

Light Laser Turret	-	Scratcher

A small laser turret which can destroy fighters and slightly damage corvettes.

Torpedo Turret	-	Tormentor

A small torpedo turret which fires light but quite long ranged torpedoes.

Space Barrier		-	Space Barrier

A small, cheap inert barrier which blocks the passage of corvette and heavier units. Quite tough for their size.

Fighter Shipyard
Corvette Shipyard

Level  2 Base Units

Medium Laser Turret	-	Blender

A larger laser, without the speed to easily track fighters but able to damage corvettes ands slightly damage capitals.

Rapid Missile Turret	-	Ripper

This medium sized  turret can throw fighter-class missiles out quite rapidly.

EMP Missile Turret	-	Stunner

More expensive than the other medium turrets, and a lot slower firing than the Ripper, its missiles stun their target briefly. They can only target corvette and larger targets.

Metal Extractor/Maker	-	Metal Converter

The second generation TA’AK extractor, no better armoured but marginally more efficient and with a second stage module which burns a degree of energy to make additional metal.

Unlike the IAF’s Vortex Generator, they cannot be placed anywhere. They are, however, a LOT more energy efficient (to add to the TA’AK metal advantage anyway) and a LOT better armoured.

Metal Maker		-	Vortex Converter

Like the IAF vortex converter, but slightly less efficient

Advanced Fighter Shipyard
Capital Shipyard

Level  3 Base Units

Advanced Capital Shipyard

Anti-Matter Reactor	-	Anti-Matter Reactor

Produces a moderate amount of energy.

Jammer	-	Jamming Satellite

A small unit which generates a small jamming field around itself. Fragile.

Advanced Scanner	-	Advanced Scanner Satellite

A small satellite which has fragile long range scanners.

Advanced “wind” generator		-	Gamma Station

An advanced version of the infra-red station

Advanced Storage	-	Advanced Storage Cell

A large building which stores a moderate amount of metal and energy.

Moho Extractor	-	Moho Extractor

An advanced extractor

Sniper Laser Turret	-	Sharp Shooter

A nasty, fairly powerful laser weapon.

Heavy Torpedo Turret		-	Supressor

A moderate ranged, slow and heavy torpedo launcher.

Long Range Torpedo Turret	-	Menacer

A massive, somewhat fragile structure. It has a range which can cross a map, sending massive, fairly quick and long ranged torpedoes with a decent warhead into the enemies bases.

Railgun Turret		-	Darkness

The  most expensive turret, the TA’AK railguns can devastate packs of enemy ships. They can literally punch through their targets, damaging anything in the way of their projectiles.

Lightning Turret	-	Enlightenment

A short ranged but utterly devastating turret.

3.4 	IAF Units

Commander	-	Destiny

The Destiny class destroyer has a pair of rapid-fire, powerful particle turrets which can engage any target. While they lack somewhat in raw firepower, they use an extremely advanced armour on their hull – they remain quick for their size and can build rapidly, as well as cloak for a small energy cost.

Basic Fighters

Drone	-	Drone

A small, robotic fighter which is extremely cheap and quick to build. Drones are only minimally effective in combat – they are unarmoured, not very quick and have a tiny particle gun – but they can also act as scouts and harass unguarded capitals and base units.

Because they “hover”, a pack of drones can devastate a building quick rapidly, but area effect weapons can take multiple drones out easily.

Scout Fighter	-	Sparrow

A good example of IAF philosophy, the extremely quick sparrow has both a small sensor array and good visual sensors. It is armed only with a moderately powerful laser cannon. Their coating ensures they cannot be detected on scanners, but makes them somewhat fragile.

Standard Fighter	-	Hammerhead

The Hammerhead has a plasma packet cannon, which can throw tiny packets of plasma like a gun. They also have a missile launcher which – while slow firing – can devastate enemy fighters. It can both hit fighters and do a little damage to corvettes and base units. They are quick, agile and well armoured.

Interceptor	-	Starling

The Interceptor is designed purely for dealing with enemy fighters. It has a pair of light laser cannon and a light missile on a quicker but lighter armoured frame than the Hammerhead. It is extremely agile. 

Heavy Fighter		-	Thunder

The heavy fighter is still quite quick, but better armoured. It has two heavier plasma packet cannon, which are not especially effective against fighters but which can tear up light defences and corvettes.

Light Bomber		-	Wasp

The basic IAF bomber, armed with a light laser cannon and a single fusion torpedo. While under armoured by IAF standards, they can hurt even capital ships on a successful attack run.

Advanced Fighters

The L2 IAF units are more an evolution than a revolution, and will replace the L1 units as time goes on. This is intentional. They build in roughly the same time as their L1 counterparts despite being more expensive and thus require storage or a very well developed economy to build en-mass,

Astro-Tech Builder	-	A-Tech Flyer

A flying, dedicated construction unit. They can fly over asteroids where their larger cousins cannot reach, and can build several very special weapons which require an asteroid as their base.

Scout Fighter		-	Raven

Blisteringly quick, these fighters are also immune to scanners. They can also cloak - this is not cheap, however, and firing will reveal them. They carry two medium laser cannon.

Standard Fighter	-	Hellcat

The Hellcat is a good all-around fighter with a heavy laser cannon and a missile launcher which fires two missiles “in rapid succession” (actually, 2 identical weapons), but has a lengthy reload time.

Interceptor		-	Nova

The Nova has two short ranged, relatively rapid fire micro-missile launchers. It cannot engage non-fighter targets at all, but is devastatingly effective against enemy fighters at close ranges. Like scout fighters, it does not show up on enemy scanners.

Hyper Fighter		-	Stinger

The only “new” concept in advanced fighters, the Stinger is THE quickest fighter. With a plasma packet cannon, it can engage any light enemy unit and is very, very hard to engage – able to move too quickly for most enemy missiles to track and faster than the tracking mechanism of most enemy turrets.

Medium Bomber	-	Mentor

The heaviest, slowest and most expensive advanced fighter. Mentor’s pack two torpedos, each the same punch that the single torpedo the Wasp sports. Their blast area can damage several units caught in its blast.

Corvette Bay

Construction Corvette		-	Constructor

A quite quick but lightly armoured unit capable of building any L1 or L2 base unit at a fair speed.

Scanner / Missile Escort	-	Voyager

Escorts move like, but are more heavily armoured and slower than, fighters. These ships have a light, rapid-fire energy “missile” which can damage anything at close range and a medium-sized scanner array.

Assault Escort		-	Ranger

Another escort, marginally slower and lighter armoured. They have a phased beam weapon which has unusual visual properties. While unguided and thus fairly unlikely to hit fighters, it can do considerable damage to corvettes, frigates and base defences.

Anti-Fighter Corvette		-	Vicious Mk. II

A well-armoured corvette, the Vicious Mk. II has a pair of rapid-fire, tracking missile launchers which can devastate enemy fighter formations.

Heavy Corvette	-	Blockade-Breaker

The best armoured and slowest of any IAF corvette, they can match the heavier TA’AK corvettes for armour and their weapons – two particle guns – are superior. They are, however, somewhat more expensive and their weapons are not especially long ranged.

Artillery Corvette	-	Launcher

With a long ranged energy-matter projectile launcher, the Launcher is only lightly armoured but quite quick. They can devastate targets which are spotted by scouts and closer ranged units quite rapidly. Mobile targets can, however, dodge the fairly slow and unguided projectiles.

EMP Corvette		-	Stasis

Designed to work alongside the Assimilator. The Stasis has a rapid-fire stun beam which can hold a single enemy corvette or frigate motionless for an Assimilator to capture.

Capture Corvette	-	Assimilator

Designed to work alongside the Stasis. They can capture units, but not especially quickly. A target held immobile by the Stasis is ideal, else they tend to be attacked and destroyed in quick order.

Kamikaze Corvette	-	Cannonball

Manned by K’kree limited-lifespan clones, these Corvettes have a powerful fusion warhead which takes energy to contain. They are, unfortunately, not especially heavily armoured but they are quick. If destroyed, their warhead fizzles – they must be manually detonated for their considerable explosive power to really manifest.

Capital Bay

Destroyer	-	Salvation

The smallest IAF capital, still almost the size of the TA’AK cruisers. They have a powerful fusion missile launcher and a large plasma packet cannon which can tear though corvettes and frigates.

Freighter	-	Transit

Lightly armoured but cruiser size, this ship can store an immense amount of metal and energy. Useful, but it’s loss can also be devastating.

Cruiser		-	Andamon

The Andamon is a slow but well armoured ship. It has a powerful laser cannon and two multi-role missile launchers – the missiles are quick, agile and mount a fair warhead. The launchers cycle relatively quickly.

Battleship	-	Behemoth

The Behemoth is a truly vast ship. It has three separate weapons systems – a mega-laser, a huge plasma-packet cannon and an anti-fighter missile launcher. Massively armoured, but very slow.

Carrier		-	Saratoga

Armed only with two anti-fighter missile launchers, the Saratoga can build fighters directly – if a little slower than a shipyard. It also has an array of fighter repair pads and even (for a considerable energy expenditure) cloak.

Construction Cruiser	-	Ritek Mk VII

A big, well armoured and very fast building ship.

Defence Destroyer	-	Invincible

This ship mounts a massive, wide-area jammer which conceals a vast area from enemy sensors. It also has a powerful, rapid-fire laser cannon.

L1 Base Units

Solar Collector	-	Solar Array

A large array which generates energy from sunlight. Can be placed anywhere in open space. Cheap.

Metal Extractor	-	Metal Extractor

A tough extractor which can only be built on metal spots on asteroids. It produces a moderate amount of metal, using a small amount of energy to mine it.

Energy Storage	-	Energy Cell

This tiny cell stores a small amount of energy.

Metal Storage		-	Metal Cell

This tiny cell stores a small amount of metal.

Magnetic Field Generator	-	Magnetic Field Generator

The IAF “wind” generator – how useful they are depends heavily on the map.

Metal Converter	-	Vortex Converter

Large, fragile. Useful. The Vortex Converter makes metal out of energy. While it has a very low conversion rate, the converters are cheap and can be built anywhere.

CrossFire Turret	-	CrossFire Turret

A small, light laser turret.

Spacemine	-	Spacemine

A fusion-effect mine which can seriously damage warships which run into them.

Sensor Array		-	Sensor Array

A small sensor array which can detect enemy units at beyond visual ranges.

Space Barrier		-	Space Barrier

A small, cheap inert barrier which blocks the passage of corvette and heavier units. Quite tough for their size.

Alpha Spacestation
Corvette Bay

L2 Base Units

Beta Spacestation
Capital Bay

Gun Defence		-	Gun Guardian

A plasma packet cannon-armed defence, able to track and fire on fighters and capable of damaging enemy corvettes and frigates.

Missile Defence	-	Missile Guardian

An anti-fighter defence, long ranged and with a burst-effect fusion warhead. Can only engage enemy fighters.

Heavy Defence	-	Golem Platform

A heavily armoured defence platform with two heavy plasma packet cannon and a torpedo launcher. Not very effective versus fighters, but a deterrent to anything larger.

Astro-Tech

Astro-EMP Cannon		-	Astro-Ion Cannon

A powerful, expensive, EMP beam weapon which can briefly stun even capitals

Astro-Missile Launcher	-	Astro-Missile Launcher

A small, cheap missile defence intended to be positioned to defend asteroid units against fighter attack as it is asteroid-built as the Guardians are not.

Astro Laser	-	Astro Laser

A small, cheap laser defence intended to be positioned to defend asteroid units against fighter attack as it is asteroid-built while the Guardians are not.

Astro-Bombardier	-	Astro-Bombardier

This is a missile launcher with eight heavy missiles. It can fire them as a rapid salvo, but must then rearm, which can take a considerable amount of time. The missiles are blast warheads which damage a wide area.

Astro-Destroyer	-	Astro-Destroyer

This is a big cannon, the most powerful astro-weapon. It is a weapon which fires a powerful beam of energy which can tear apart even the largest ships.

L3 Base Units

Advanced Capital Bay

Fusion Reactor	-	Fusion Reactor

Generates a fair amount of power.

Large Scanner		-	Large Scanner

A wide-area scanner system.

Advanced “wind” generator		-	 Advanced Magnetic Field Generator

Relatively cheap, and of much higher production that it’s smaller counterpart. It is, however, just as variable in production.

Fighter Repair Base	-	Fighter Repair Base

A cheap base with 4 fighter repair pads.

Heavy Gun Guardian		-	Heavy Gun Guardian

A well armoured, heavy plasma packet gun.

Heavy Missile Guardian	-	Heavy Missile Guardian

A well armoured, rapid-fire anti-fighter light missile launcher.

Heavy Torpedo Guardian	-	Heavy Torpedo Guardian

A well armoured, medium torpedo launcher.

3.5	Weapons/Balance

There are, essentially, six families of weapons and three classes of each in the game.

Families:

Laser / Energy
Missile
Torpedo
Plasma Packet Cannon
Cannon
Electron

Classes:

Fighter / Light Defence
Warship / Medium Defence
Capital Ship / Heavy Defence

Some guidelines I have (generally) adhered to:

Fighter weapons do less damage to warships, and very little to capital ships. Warship weapons do less damage to capital ships. Unless specialised to do so, Warship and especially Capital Ship weapons have problems tracking fighters.

Laser / Energy weapons are especially prone to limits on hurting larger ships, although they are quick firing and damaging, they do no more than 33% damage to higher classes. They are “homing” direct-fire weapons, as described below.

Missile weapons are less prone to damage reductions than Laser / Energy weapons, their maximum is 50%. They tend to be more potent individually, but far slower firing. They give “first strike” ability to fighters, while they can be pumped out by some specialist larger ships.

Torpedo weapons are an exception to the class guidelines. They are DESIGNED to damage capital ships, and do more damage to heavier ships. That is, full damage to capital ships, 50% damage to capital ships and 10% damage to fighters.

Plasma Packet Cannon lose as well versus large targets, but less than 25% of their firepower. Very rapid fire, they resemble bullet cannon but are in fact “guided” weapons like lasers – although slightly short ranged.

Cannon are only present on a few ships. They are unguided ballistic weapons only suitable for use on corvette and larger ships (see below). They do full damage unless the target is two classes above them, when they do 50%. This also includes rocket-type weapons (and some “pulse cannon” are guided).

Electron whip weapons are very short ranged, but they completely ignore armour and as such do equal damage to all targets.

All this is being done with lists of special damages, which are being manually generated. Despite fears that these slow the game down, it has been conclusively proven that the game loads individual damage values for each weapon against each unit in ANY case, and that long lists of weapon damages only have a very slight effect – on loading times, not on gameplay speed. Given modern PC’s loading time for TA is extremely low in any case, this is not a real issue.

While this could be somewhat automated by using Rhadermanthus’s Aegis Nanoforge, testing of that program has uncovered both bugs (relating to “forgetting” certain damage categories) and the fact that given the special cases which I am dealing with it would not actually save any time (given the need to check it’s results) and thus I am doing it by hand.

Why do direct-fire weapons have a minimum speed, a maximum speed 100 higher and an acceleration of 100, as well as a high turning radius? Surely they shouldn’t be guided…

Well, in an ideal world, they would not. However, the Total Annihilation engine has some quirks. One is that direct-fire weapons do not lead the target, and thus direct fire weapons can *repeatedly* miss their targets. Giving very quick weapons (700+ speed) this kind of tracking (and the speed difference/acceleration is necessary for engine-related reasons) allows these weapons to hit reliably.

Why am I not using anti-weapons? That is, Total Annihilation supports “nukes” and “anti-nukes”. You might that that is would be reasonable to have torpedoes as interceptable weapons. Unfortunately, for several reasons, this is untrue.

Firstly, there is only one type of interceptable weapon. All interceptable weapons can be intercepted by all interceptors. In addition, the anti-weapons at least MUST be manually stockpiled on each unit which is to work as an interceptor, and the unit cannot have other weapons.

Perhaps more critically, while the AI can be “tricked” into (usually) using interceptable weapons, it CANNOT in skirmish or multiplayer use interceptors, and in missions it can only use them in a limited fashion. Thus, the AI would likely have to have special versions of all it’s capital ships with additional armour vs. torpedoes.

There are also lag issues. Each torpedo is marked on the minimap (one can alter the default cross into a small dot, admittedly), and this can quickly cover important information and lag the minimap. Too many (50+, in testing) interceptable weapons in play at once can also cause more general lag, and even in smaller numbers (20+), some interceptable weapons slip by. This seems to be related to faulty targeting code (some interceptable weapons will be targeted by multiple interceptors, and others by none), in situations with large numbers of interceptable weapons flying.

For all these reasons, I am not using interceptable weapons.

3.6	Controls

Controls remain basically unchanged from base Total Annihilation. The only changes are to selection hotkeys, for these please see Appendix C.

3.7	Scaling

Dark Suns remains an ambitious project, and certain elements of the project may have to be cut.

The L3 units, while helpful, are not entirely needed to complete a fun and fast-paced game. Some features – IAF mobiles-building-mobiles, persistent beam weapons and teleportation, as well as TA’AK railguns (as currently considered – a variant IS possible) may need to be dropped, as they are based on time-consuming TA4 features.

Equally, of there is time additional missions and maps for multiplayer ca be created, as well as additional work on the AI to strengthen it.

// While the first paragraph has, unfortunately, been acted on, the AI has been had a lot of work put into it.
3.8	Competitive Analysis

There is nothing quite like Dark Suns.

It is tied, of course, to Total Annihilation. It shares many traits of the same pseudo-3d engine, many of which are hard coded – some of these admittedly bypassed by TA4 – and some of which almost define the TA gameplay such as the economic model of metal patches which do not run out.

It is, however, a TOTAL conversion – TA is a game of land, air and sea battles and Dark Suns is a battle in space. It uses the TA engine in new ways only possible with 3rd party tools and utilities, creating units never intended or allowed for by TA’s original designers.

The other comparison is Homeworld and it’s ilk. They are both space games, featuring two different sides. The original Homeworld’s sides are almost identical, true, but it’s sequels Cataclysm and Homeworld 2 have two very different sides which must be played very differently to succeed.

Homeworld is, however, a 3d game to TA’s pseudo-3d fixed top-down view, and has a single resource to TA’s 2. More fundamentally, Homeworld is caught in a rock/paper/scissors balance model which TA and Dark Suns replaces with a far more subtle, overlapping model of balance.

Dark Suns stands on it’s own as a unique blend of the revolutionary Total Annihilation and space-based RTS’s such as Homeworld and it’s sequels.

Section 4 - 	Art and Sound

4.1	Aesthetics

There are two distinct aesthetics at play.

The TA’AK  look is functional and angular. They favour generally dark colours with bright stripes. Many of their ships are bulky and wide, and they have a distinctively shaped nose section.

The IAF look is sleek and streamlined. They favour whites and blues are their predominate colours, with some bright stripes. Their ships are long and narrow.

These contrasting aesthetics are the base of Dark Suns, and every effort will be made to keep the sides very different in look and texture.

4.2	Art/Sound Tasks

Looking at Appendix D, the Unit Spreadsheet, all units must be reviewed for texture and style. However, only the following units will undergo substantial revision:

The following units were incomplete at the start of the project were and were finished:

IAF 		Spacemine
IAF		Astro-Ion Cannon
IAF		Astro-Destroyer
IAF		Astro Missile Launcher
IAF		Freighter
TA’AK	Railgun Turret
TA’AK	Minesweeper

The following units are taken from TAWIS, and need retexturing:

IAF	Moho Extractor
IAF	Astro-Missile Launcher
IAF	Astro-Laser
IAF	Fusion Reactor
IAF	Fighter Repair Base
TAAK	Vortex Generator

The following units do not exist and must be made:

IAF		Hvy. Gun Guardian
IAF		Hvy. Miss. Guardian
IAF		Hvy. Torp. Guardian

All splash screens and other GUI elements are already completed.
All weapon effects are being taken from existing Cavedog and 3rd party sources.
All sound effects are being taken from existing Cavedog and 3rd party sources.

Section 5 -	Scripting

5.1	Scripting/ Scripting Tasks

All unit scripts will be recompiled with Scriptor, which produces quicker compiled code and will reveal any errors in scripts, as these are, which were designed to be complied with Cobbler. While no major bugs are anticipated, this will allow pre-empting of any minor problems with defective scripts.

In addition, those units marked in section 4.2 as incomplete or needing making will need their scripts written from scratch, although use of LazyScriptorwill greatly reduce the time needed to perform this.

Units arrangement on build pages is laid out in Appendix D, the Unit Spreadsheet.

Total Annihilation has 2 ways to arrange build menus. TDF and GUI (referring to the file extension of the files involved). While the GUI format is more flexible (it allows, for example, differently sized build pictures) it is also tricky to use and requires a central set of files which complicate adding and removing units from build menus. GUI’s also cannot be edited with either of the available build menu editors.

Thus, we are using TDF files. While they cannot use a format other than the standard 3x2 build menu standard, they allow units to place themselves into build menus and are very simple to use (and can be placed graphically using build menu editors).

While it would be possible to use TA: Mutation to rearrange build pages automatically to more than 3x2 units on a single build page, this would unfortunately cause several issues. Even a 4x2 arrangement does not work properly at any resolution under 1024*786, and while it may be acceptable to specify a minimum of 800*600, requiring higher than this is likely to radically reduce the audience.

In addition, the menu resizing can unfortunately trip TA Demo’s anti-cheat detection. This would be unfortunate on several levels – as well as rendering the cheat detection worthless, those who failed to read the documented notification of this could believe their opponents to be cheaters when in fact the TC itself was at fault. Thus, no menu resizing will be used.

TDF’s will be used instead of GUI files as while greater flexibility is possible with GUI files, the GUI format is overly complex, error prone and the project is not doing anything to warrant the use of the GUI format.