Kirin_Persus: I found TA3d was good to look at but I had no music and the weapon and explosion sound effects were sporadic at best.
TA3D does support the TA music, or any other music for that matter, you have to rip them to mp3 or ogg and place them inside the music folder of TA3D. Works perfectly. Be sure to grab the latest release here: [url=ftp://downloads.ta3d.org/binaries/windows/dev/0.6/]TA3D Windows Development Snapshots[/url]. Latest release is r2918, a lot of stuff has improved and gotten better since September 2010. I have no issues like the ones you are describing so my guess is that they fixed it up nicely.
Also be sure to give Switeck's TA Bugfix a try, latest beta version found here:
TA Bugfix v1.7 beta 6, or the non beta final here:
TA Bugfix verion 1.6 FINAL, since it really polishes and crushes bugs in TA a lot, without modifying or changing the original gameplay.
The Switeck Bugfix is an ambitious attempt to resolve all the bugs, issues and other mechanical problems with the Total Annihilation game engine and add a few "improvements" along the way. The Bugfix makes many, many fixes and optimisations short of actually hacking the game executable itself. Think of it as a homegrown, unofficial patch that follows Cavedog's official 3.1c patch. Its been several years in production and has addressed many game play and game engine issues by comprehensively going through all the "glaring" errors in the unit data tables and scripting. There are many loopholes in the 3.1 official patched version of Total Annihilation; shrewd players can take advantage of them to utterly demolish anyone who's not aware of them. As the Bugfix documentation says:
TA Bugfix is nothing short of a major attempt to fix the many bugs in TA. Some of which are so glaring (Pelican bug, EMG lag, Core Necro bugs, and Adv. C-Kbot bugs) as to nearly kill TA as a "fair" game worth playing...
Total Annihilation feels just that little bit slicker than before. The Map Selection menu now present you with a massive image of the map you've selected, and a lot units and structures now sport an On/Off control, giving you extra control over their behaviour. Units and turrets with two or three weapons have the DGun command add to them, giving you direct micromanagement over their secondary weapons. The build pics have been condensed in all the Build Menus, so there are no longer any lone buttons floating around on their own pages. Many unit scripts have been edited and tidied up, improving unit performance and behaviour. Turrets can now guard buildings or units; Anti-Nuclear Silos are less prone to being confused by multiple nuclear strikes and permanently "jamming" so they never fire again; the Core Necro resurrector K-Bot is now almost useable as a unit; many weapon effects have been tightened up: lasers all now travel at the same speed (i.e. very fast!) and aren't sometimes outrun by plasma shells or missiles! Landmines are now far more potent; Torpedoes and Depth Charges feel less rubbery when it comes to doling out damage. Along the way, you get a whole swag of extra keyboard shortcuts and even a small speed increase in gameplay! The Bugfix readme is like reading a short novel...
For those who are complaining about the weak AI, i suggest you install Switeck's TA Bugfix together with
Queller AI TA & CC v17, plus
TA Demo Recorder and
. The Demo Recorder will also give TA a 1500 unit limit, without modifying the .exe or needs of a .ini file. And also give [url=http://aicentral.tauniverse.com/files/MostlyHarmless16.zip]Mostly Harmless v16 a try, from the creator of the TA Bugfix patch.
Without TA Bugfix Queller will not perform at its best, it will not nuke you, it will not use bombers and sometimes it will play incorrectly for the type of map you are gaming on. Having TA Bugfix will ensure that you do not encounter these problems.
Without the 1500 unit limit Queller may build too many buildings to field a sizable army.
The demo recorder patch allows more than one AI per person in multiplayer, but more importantly, allows you to share LOS with AI allies in skirmish.
Even on Easy Queller is probably tougher than the original AI on Hard though, so be warned.
