This is where the technical knowledge about Total Annihilation lives — gathered from chats, websites and old documentation, cleaned up and explained.
Where to start?
- File Formats in TA — HPI, UFO, TNT, OTA, FBI, TDF, BOS, COB — what is what?
- Reverse Engineering TA Files — how we deciphered HPI, Cavedog’s encryption and the hidden 252×252 minimaps, with working code.
- Map Building Basics — From TNT/OTA via TAE to Terragen.
- Unit Building Basics — FBI definitions, 3D models, scripts.
- Download Verification & Safety — How every file on this site is checked.
- Cheats & Console Commands — +atm, +shootall, DRDEATH and every command the manual forgot.
- The totala.ini File — Unit limits, sound fixes and the config file the game never created.
- The AI and its Profile Files — aiprofile=, weight/limit/plan — how TA’s skirmish AI thinks.
- Procedural Map Generation — how the Map Builder writes valid TNTs from noise + a Cavedog tile atlas.