Playing

What is with this weird right-click mode? I'm 'bout to break my keyboard.

Sorry, you'll just have to get used to it. As of now it can't be changed.

Why is somebody else also controlling my units?

In the 'game lobby' there are two sets of teams. There are the 'Ids' and the 'teams'. If you are on the same 'Id', then you both get the same commander, and can control the same units (commonly referred to as comsharing). If you are on the same 'Team', then you both get different commanders and can't control each others units.

Then why would I want to be on the same 'Id' as somebody?

Because it's fun to just drive around units and not have to worry about commanding (assuming that one of the people on the team is commanding). Most importantly, however, you can split tasks, such as base building, and troops management.

Is there a way that I can play music directly through Spring, with alternating tracks for building/attacking like in the original Total Annihilation?

Yes, there is. It is an add on (GroupAI) you have to download separately:

http://jobjol.nl/1188

There is also an ingame sound-volume-slider you might find useful (lua-script):

http://jobjol.nl/1218

Sometimes I can't write anything but numbers and some other symbols. Why is that?

This is most likely because of the Windows language bar change from which
Spring doesn't recognize the characters written.

Note: That Default hotkeys in Windows XP for changing the language is 
Shift+Alt, which is similar to square build hotkeys in Spring!

How do I talk to my allies only?

You must type 'a:' before you speak, or press "Alt Enter" at the same time. Here's an example: a: Now I am talking to my allies only.

Help! After I'm finished driving a unit, the camera is all insane! This is nuts! How do I fix it?

Whoa now. Calm down. Just press ctrl + mouse button 3 to change camera modes. If your unit is destroyed in FPS mode, you will stay in FPS mode until you change camera modes. Also, the camera will stay in "free look" when FPS mode is disengaged, press middle-mouse or J to switch to normal scrolling.

After I'm finished driving a unit, where what used to be my mouse pointer is now a crosshair. Why?

This is a special 'view mode' that allows you to move around the screen much faster. It's good for viewing the battle or getting screenshots. Simply press on your third mouse button or 'delete' to revert back to your mouse pointer.

But I don't have a third mouse button!

The key 'J' works in the same way as the 'middle mouse button' does. So where you would use ctrl + middle mouse button to change camera modes, ctrl + j does the same thing. Pressing J once will also switch you from 'crosshair mode' to 'pointer mode' and vice versa.

IÃ‚Â´ve managed to get stuck in this weird camera mode and my perspective is all messed up. How do I switch to the overhead (OTA style) camera?

Shift+Backspace (or Shift+J or Shift+MiddleMouseClick) switches between the fps style, total war style and OTA style cameras. Use it to get your camera back to normal in this situation.

People are cheating! How do I stop it?!

Well currently, you can't.

Only the host can "activate" the cheat codes. After that, any player can do almost all cheats.

The best thing to do is just not play with the cheaters anymore. But with new spring version cheats are disabled in multiplayer, so that paragraph is hopefully now irrelevant.

Well how do you cheat?

Cheat Command	Effect
.cheat	Enable cheats (Note: cheats don't work in multiplayer until the host types this)
.nocost	Instabuild (doesn't work on things already under construction, only on new ones)
.setmaxspeed 50	Changes the maximum speed multiplier (default is 3.0)
.setminspeed 0	Changes the minimum speed multiplier (default is 0.3)
.spectator	Allows you to see the entire map... but you lose control of your units
.team 0, .team 1, etc.	Change player
.give ARMCOM, .give 10 CORKROG, etc.	Place 1 or specified number of specified unit. Valid units are the internal names of units as specified in the unit definition.

You can use auto-completion in the spring console if you don't remember the internal unit name. To do that type:

".give arm" and then press your TAB key

A list of all matching units will be shown.

In Game Commands

The following non-cheating commands are also available in game:

Command	Effect
/info	Shows you what colour each player is and their ping delay in the bottom right corner of the screen.
/clock	Shows you the elapsed game time in minutes and seconds in the upper right corner of the screen
.take	Pulls all allied units, that are owned by players who have lost connection to the server, to your team.

How do I ally or unally in game?

Type /ally <teamID> [0|1] (this only works if the host allows changing allies midgame).

How do I give somebody units or metal or energy?

Press the 'H' key. Then select the amount of metal and/or energy to share. Then select the receiving player and press OK.

When sharing units, you must first select the units to share, then press 'H' key. Tick share units checkbox and choose a receiving player.

How do I continually give somebody metal and/or energy after a certain point (i.e. Original TA commands +setshare..., +shareall)?

You'll notice that on your metal and energy bars (top of screen), there are two red bars. You have to put them wherever you want your metal and energy to be shared after.

This game is different than TA, the units HP and damage are not the same

First off, Spring is not TA. Spring is an engine, on which various games can be run, some of which are modifications of TA content.

Now, there were several third party "balance" mods for the original TA game. One of those mods were XTA, and was developed by the same clan (SY) that has brought life back to TA, making Spring.

There are many other such mods, of which Balanced Annihilation is the most popular.

Now are several mods available, install the mod of your choice.

XTA? OTA? AA? OMFGLAMO? WTF do those abbreviations mean?

zwzsg maintains a handy dandy FAQ about TA, and the abbreviations that relate to Spring too, of course. Click here. See also the Spring Glossary, which contains brief explanations for all non-standard words and phrases.

Why am I destroyed so easily by long range assaults?

This is a realistic feature of Spring. Units will automatically attack 'radar blips' (units that they can not actually see, but that are indicated on radar). However, the accuracy is very bad while shooting at radar blips until:

Your unit kills a lot of units and gets experience
You get a targeting facility.

Can I kick people from my 'game lobby' or my game?

First of all, you have to be the host to kick. Use the good old "/kick playernamehere" command. Works in-game too, use it wisely.

I hate driving around with the 'arrow keys'. Is there any way I can use the 'W-A-S-D' controls (the controls most First Person Shooters use) anymore?

Go into your Spring directory and edit the uikeys file. Keep in mind that 'S' is originally a 'hot-key' that will stop your units and that 'D' is a 'hot-key' for your commander's D-Gun. You might want to change those too.

I turned the shadows feature on; I still don't see shadows. What gives?

Your graphics card can't handle shadows, so Spring automatically turns them off.

I can't go backwards when I am 'driving' a unit. Why not?

Because TA units were never intended to go backwards. Sorry, but you just cant.

I'm in an Unreal Tournament kind of mood. How do I strafe?

You can only strafe in 'brawler type' ships, such as the brawler, rapier, and light gunships.

How can I record and watch demos/replays?

From version 0.62 onwards recordings of all the games you play are easily available for replay via the Replays button in the TASClient.

You can use the Speed up/Slow down game keys while watching the replay, along with other in-game commands like .team

From version 0.60b1 onwards, demos are automatically recorded in the "demos" folder, underneath your Spring folder (default is C:\Program Files\Spring\demos), named for the date and map they were played on. If you play multiple games in the same day on the same map, the games will also be numbered to prevent them from overwriting each other.

From version 0.62 onwards, to view a demo from the Windows file manager you can just double click the file name.

Sometimes when I play get "not sync" "delayed sync" errors

That's caused because of lag. One of the players in the game is having some lag issues. Ask him/her to free up its bandwidth for the game to use.

Alternatively, you can use the pause key and wait till the connection gets more stable.

Ping is the second number showed when you use the /info command ingame, values larger than ~1000ms are not usual in a normal game and are a signal of lag.

Can I invert the mousewheel behaviour?

Yep. You have to set a negative zoom value. There are 2 choices for you:

Under Windows open regedit tool & set DWORD key ScrollWheelSpeed to 0xffffffe7 (this is -24 decimal value) under the following registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SJ\spring\
Set the value by using SpringSettings tool (UI Options tab > Zoom). Make sure your version is 0.1.1 or higher, otherwise it won't let you input negative values.

Discuss this issue.

Can i change Ctrl+Z behaviour to select visible units on the screen only, not of the hole map?

Double click on a unit or adjust the desired behaviour by using SelectionEditor.exe tool at Spring root folder.