Hi all,

ever since those nasty hovercrafts came out, I kept cursing Cavedog. In themselves, they're not that powerful, and when I used to play LAN, they actually rarely saw the battlefield.

But now, I play this solo, and enjoy skirmishing now and then. But the IA basically only uses them whenever possible, and it makes most games quite dull.

Is there a possibility to remove their usage - either altogether, or by the IA ? I kinda remember there were mutators for the game back in the days, but I couldn't find a reliable source for any files...


Thanks

Apparently it is really easy to do with an AI, by simply setting the build limit for hovercraft to 0:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/298030/discussions/0/2244426186208513858/

Read about AIs here:
https://www.tauniverse.com/articles/tutorials/ai.html#4.%20How%20does%20the%20AI%20choose%20the%20right%20Profile?

Get the 'mostly harmless' AI series here (each AI therein is customized to play well on a particular map type):
http://switeck.tauniverse.com/

Unzip those into a folder named 'AI' in the TA game folder (you will have to create this new AI folder yourself; e.g. Program_Files/GOG_Galaxy/Games/Total_Annihilation/AI). The next step would be to 'unpack' the .CCX game file (ie. its like a .zip that only TA can read) to be able to access the .OTA that tells the map which AI to use. I have no idea how to unpack CCX files, sorry...

Although there may be a way without unpacking any CCX or editing OTA files: Choose one of the 'mostly harmless' AIs you put into your new AI folder and would like to try, and rename it to Default.txt. That should trick the game into using it as the default AI. (Note: there is already an AI included in the mostly harmless pack called 'Default.txt', so we're talking if you want to try a different one than that).

Thanks ! I'll have a deeper look into this later tonight =)