Q: What is “third-party”?
A: Third-party content is any units, maps, mods, or other forms of content that is not created officially by Cavedog. To use third-party material, you need the 3.1 patch. Official material include the 3.1 patch, Core Contingency, Battle Tactics, and the 6 official units
Q: Where do I download Units?
A: You can find lots of units at http://www.unituniverse.com/, and many hosts right here at TAU; the hosted sites are at the right hand side of the main page and here once they fix the problem. To use third-party material, you need the 3.1 patch.
Q: How do I install downloaded units?
A: First, read the readme if available. However, you usually just place files with the extensions .ufo and .ccx in the folder where you installed Total Annihilation (if you don’t know where that is, try C:\Cavedog\Totala). If the unit comes in a file with the extension .hpi, rename the extension to .ufo or .ccx as .hpi can lead to problems. If you cannot see file extensions, you need to change this option in folder options. After you download the unit, you should run TA Conflict Crusher to fix any weapons and menu conflicts. To use third-party material, you need the 3.1 patch.
Q: How do I make TA:Kingdoms run with third-party content?
A: right click Kingdoms.exe create a shortcut. Right click on the shortcut and bring up “properties”. make sure you are in the “shortcut” tab and append a space followed by a “-disablecavedogverification” at the end of the “target” field. Click OK. Running the game from that shortcut will now accept third-party content.
Q: How do I open a zip/rar archieve?
A: By using some free program like WinRAR
Q: Third-party units/maps don’t work for me!
A: This might be because you haven’t installed the 3.1 patch.
Q: How many third-party units can I install?
A: Maximum 512 units and 256 weapons (the things the units fire). TA Conflict Crusher will report if you go over this limit
Q: Is there a patch that ups the number of unit and weapon types I can have?
A: Yes, but they might not work for you; they will not work over multiplayer; and no one needs that many units anyways.
Q: I downloaded some third-party units, but their weapons won’t fire.
A: First, check to see if there are any weapon id conflicts with TA Conflict Crusher and fix any you find. Second, make sure you have enough energy and metal to fire these weapons.
Q: Is there a patch a ups the ingame unit limit (the amount of units and buildings you can build)?
A: Yes. the 1500 unit patch and the 500 unit patch works well. The 5000 unit patch works but you can only build 100 of each type.
Q: Why can’t I use third-party content even after I installed the 3.1 patch?
A: You might have installed Core Contingency (2.0 patch) over the 3.1 patch. If you already have the 3.1 patch installed, but wants to install Core Contingency, you can do so without damaging your 3.1 patch by copying ccdata.ccx from your Core Contingency CD into your Total Annihilation Directory (C:\Cavedog\TotalA\ if you don’t know where it is). There is also no reason to install Battle Tactics after you have installed the 3.1 patch, as the content from Battle Tactics is already included in the patch.
Q: I’ve installed TAUCP/TAUIP/TA**P as well as some other units, now my TA crashes/has greyout units/broken weapons/some other bug.
A: These unit packs are stuffed, in every way possible, with units and weapons, they are not suppose to work with other third-party units, there is simply not enought room.
Q: I’ve downloaded a map and when I play it, I get an error message!
A: Certain maps require specific map features. Most common are TAMEC, TakAnims2004, and Atlantis MB features. Extract those files in your TA folder. Beware, TAMEC is extracted as a sub-folder, so make sure that you put the big tamechpi2004.ccx (25mb) where is located totala.exe.
There are some maps that also use the features available in Core Contingency add-on. But if you don’t have it, then there’s nothing we can do for you. I guess it’s still possible to buy it on internet ( on Ebay, maybe ? ), though that’s clearly a hard find.
Q: How do I download maps?
A: If the map comes in a .ufo or .ccx file, put it straight into your TA directory (usually C:\Cavedog\TotalA). If the map comes in a .hpi file, rename its extension to .ccx or .ufo and place it in your TA directory. If the map comes in 2 files, 1 .ota and 1 .tnt, create a “map” folder in your TA directory and put those files in there. Note that certain maps require specific map features. Most common are TAMEC, TakAnims2004, and Atlantis MB features. Extract those files in your TA folder. Beware, TAMEC is extracted as a sub-folder, so make sure that you put the big tamechpi2004.ccx (25mb) where is located totala.exe.
There are some maps that also use the features available in Core Contingency add-on. But if you don’t have it, then there’s nothing we can do for you. I guess it’s still possible to buy it on internet ( on Ebay, maybe ? ), though that’s clearly a hard find. the 3.1 patch is also needed to download maps.
Q: A mod doesn’t work for me.
A: You must have the 3.1 patch installed to play mods. Some mods require Core Contingency. Make sure you don’t have any other third-party content installed in the same TA folder. If you have those and the mod still won’t work, then it is a bad mod, and you should delete it.
Q: Unit X is available for skirmish but not available for multiplayer.
A: Any unit is disabled if both parties do not have the exact copy of this unit. TA Conflict Crusher will almost always change a unit so that even if both parties have the unit, the unit will have different ids and thus be disabled.
Q: Why do downloaded units get stuck behind obstacles. Why do hovercrafts not want to go into land/water?
A: It has to do with moveinfo.tdf in the gamedata folder. If you do not know how to solve this problem, you shouldn’t worry about it. Just delete the unit.
Q: Conflict Crusher crashes.
A: Conflict Crusher is a delicate program. It will crash on almost anything unusual. Sometimes the unusualness is required by a mod and the crash is not a bug of the mod but of Conflict Crusher itself. If nothing is wrong, leave it alone. If something is wrong, remove the offending files.
Q: Can TA content be Converted to Spring content and vice versa?
A: Yes, but it is more complicated than you think. Spring can run TA content, but the result will be full of bugs, and there is not one program that can convert everything for you. Spring and TA diverge greatly in how it interprets data and most advanced TA content simply cannot be transfered. For more information, ask on the Spring forums.
Q: I notice some blanks in the build menu.
A: The blanks are blank menu indices unfilled by official or third-party units. They mean nothing (they appear in official content as well); however, you can use a TA Conflict Crusher built-in option called “build menu aligner”. This takes a while and will automatically fix the blanks. Fixing the “blanks” will not result in multiplayer problems.