Readme

For up-to-date information about this project, visit the project home page at http://taspring.clan-sy.com.

About

TA Spring is a project aiming to create a new RTS.

System requirements

About 1ghz cpu and a GeForce3 or better graphics card. For larger battles the requirements increases. Some graphics effects require a graphics card which supports ARB_vertex_program/ARB_fragment_program. This is the same as having a graphics card that supports DX9.

Quick start

Multiplayer

Run the TA Spring battleroom and create an account

Login to the master server and find a game to join

Singleplayer

Spring supports AI plugins, which allow for external AI programs to be used. There is currently one AI included in the download, but you can find more singleplayer AIs on the AI forum. If you start the spring.exe application directly, you will get to choose between these Global AI's. You can also use the lobby client to create a battle with AI (Bots) in it.

Multiplayer lobby

Name registration

Before you can log into the master server, you must register a handle. Click File->Register to open up the registration dialog. Names must be no more than 16 alphanumeric characters, and is not case sensitive. However, you may format your name with capitalization.

Options

If you are behind a proxy server, or you are having trouble hosting, you might want to consider overriding the IP the server sees you as having so that people joining your battle room know where to find you

Chat

The lobby supports basic chat functions. There is a permanent chatroom called Main, which you can join by double clicking it from the list, as well as any others that may have been created. You can create a chatroom from the menu, but this room is deleted when it becomes empty.

Battle room

You can host a battle by selecting it from the menu. To choose a map, simply click the minimap and pick one from the popup window. Once in the battle room, the host may boot anyone by right clicking and selecting boot. The alliance system is a little complicated and needs a little explaining... Any number of players can join a Team, which is the equivalent of one player in OTA. Everyone on a Team shares resources, units, and LOS. The first player to join a team is the team leader, and can pick an Ally Team to join. An Ally Team is a permanent alliance. You'll notice a strange shape with two triangles to the right of the Ally Team combo box. This functions the same way as it did in OTA. If you click it, you create a one-way alliance with another ally team moving the triangle on the left to the middle. If the other Ally Team reciprocates, the triangle on the right will move to the middle. The host can then start Spring once all non-spectators have clicked ready.

Features to come

• Clan support
• Map sharing
• Unit sharing
• Private messaging
• Private chatrooms
• New, slicker looking battle room

Game controls

Camera controls

Move the camera with the arrow keys or by placing the mouse curser at the screen borders. Holding shift makes the camera move faster, and holding ctrl makes it slower. Turn on mouselook with mouse button 3 (or backspace). Use ctrl mouse3 to toggle between the camera modes available.

Key assignments

You can configure the assignment of keys by editing the file uikeys.txt, and by running the Selectionkeys editor. These are the default key bindings:

Camera controls	Function
Mouse 1	Selects units. Drag to select a group, double click to select units of the same type. Gives order if a specific order has been selected.
Mouse 2	Gives the default order for the unit
Mouse 3	Toggles mouse look
Ctrl Mouse 3	Toggles camera mode
Arrow keys	Moves the camera
Ctrl/shift	Increases/decreases camera movement speed
Mousewheel	Moves the camera up/down
T	Track a selected unit
C	Take direct control of a selected unit
F3	Jump to last message location