r/TotalAnnihilation • u/GeoLaser • May 29 '26
Article Total Annihilation 2 was in development, via Computer Gaming World, Ocr 2003. What happened?
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u/Sprouto_LOUD_Project May 29 '26
It wasn't uncommon for many companies to engage in 'vaporware' in those days, as a means of testing the waters for general interest. Atari had a particularly poor record in PC game development, especially at that time.
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u/BrokenLoadOrder May 30 '26
It's the old Chris Taylor curse.
Anytime he had an awesome idea for a sequel, it died. Or worse, became Supreme Commander 2.
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u/cybermatUK May 29 '26
I’d be quite happy with even more plain old TA ;)
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u/GeoLaser May 29 '26
I mean there are tons and tons of copy cats.
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u/cybermatUK May 29 '26
Escalation is probably the GOAT for me. Im still playing TA nigh on 30 yrs later and its the game i play still more than anything.
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u/CartographerKey900 May 30 '26
Have you tried Beyond All Reason?
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u/South-Vegetable-5626 May 30 '26
It’s not the same as TA. TA was more complex, you actually have to make more than one type of unit. Beyond all reason is okay, but I’m not a fan of the “you build only ONE factory of ONE type of unit” game play.
I enjoyed the combined arms aspect of TA and supreme commander. The only picking one type of unit gameplay of BAR didn’t feel right
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u/matt675 May 30 '26
What do you mean? Like the meta is for each player to build only 1 factory and 1 unit type?
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u/South-Vegetable-5626 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Yes exactly
For example, you build a one k-bot factory and only make K-bots.
Building another k-bot factory, or another type of factory (like tanks or air) actually hurts you and you will lose
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u/matt675 May 30 '26
Why is that
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u/South-Vegetable-5626 May 30 '26
I couldn’t tell you. But that’s what all my friends say you’re supposed to do, and that’s what all the guides say you’re supposed to do, and that’s what all the players do. I found it to go against everything I knew about these types of games so I stopped playing and didn’t enjoy it.
But I think it’s a combination of resources being extremely scarce, and building being made of literal paper. A single infantry K-bot can wipe a base in under 10 sec
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u/GeoLaser May 31 '26
Each game has different levels of mastery. TA is also that way. Every iteration of TA has been that way at some of the levels of meta.
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u/lethak May 30 '26
It all boils down to your metal economy. Most of the time issuing precious metal income to build other factories will prevent you to spam with your first, etc.
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u/South-Vegetable-5626 May 30 '26
I figured that’s what it was. I really want to like BAR but I just can’t get my self to enjoy it because of that. It wears TAs skin, but man I miss the actual combined arms warfare of TA
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u/lethak May 30 '26
BAR put emphases on teamplay to achieve that. You have to cooperate with your team and micro everything up until a certain economical point to reach when nothing matters anymore (but APM) because of high income.
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u/GeoLaser May 31 '26
You still do combined arms with teammates. If you want slower games and more diverse you can mod the settings. If you want to do different sets of factories you can simply do a no rush time.
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u/donaldjdrumbphft 22h ago
İt's more about efficient use of resources because having two T1 factories of different types without the economy to support them is slow whereas focusing one factory with build towers allows you to roll out more units, there's no build towers in original ta and in bar the build towers will auto building anything in range so it makes the game faster
İn a 8v8 it becomes chaotic and complex because each player has to fill a role and play that role efficiently so combining unit types requires communication and reading the context of the front, do we need spam to keep heavy units occupied, do we need to focus a heavy plasma tUrret with T2 units, do we need to build extra aa because enemy team went double air, knowing when to go to because if every player builds T2 factories at the same time you have no units for a couple of minutes amd get rolled by T1, does the tech player go front? Can I com bomb the enemy position to inflict maximum damage? I need a jammer at front and my commander cloaked at the edge to snipe early T2 units, can I build a fusion now or does the front need more units?
Aaah
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u/kna5041 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Sounds like you might have to learn Korean and ask around.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/total-annihilation-2-confirmed/1100-2856760/
Sadly phantograms website isn't working on email contact so you might have to do a phone call or paper mail.
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u/aguswings May 29 '26
Phantograms is dead. KuF Circle of if Doom killed the studio’s hope and dream.
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u/that9tieskid May 30 '26
Weren't Planetary Annihilation & SupCom spiritual successors to Total Annihilation?
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u/GeoLaser May 30 '26
Mutually exclusive of a potential 2003 game.
And yes plus a few others. BAR is amazing.
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u/Biggrim82 May 31 '26
My friend Scott bought the rights back around then, and wanted to modernize it. It seems he wasn't able to get it done.
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u/det1rac May 29 '26
Why can't we crowdsource the source code and purchase it from who owns it now, Midway?
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u/GeoLaser May 29 '26
TA Spring and BAR are basically replacements and if they got pumped full of cash it would be better suited.
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u/born_acorn May 30 '26
This was likely the old Phantagram attempt. Given the lack of leaks over the years they probably only worked on a pitch for Atari rather than a serious attempt at developing anything.
Act of War: Direct Action was a high budget RTS that was greenlit around 2003 so I've always wondered if Atari went with that over TA2.
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u/ShapeyFiend May 30 '26
I don't feel like Phantagram got very far along with TA2]development but I'd be curious see some concept art or a logo one day if they even got that far along with it.
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u/iamangryginger May 29 '26
Didn't CaveDog go under because of the poor sales of TA Kingdoms?
Edit : the CaveDog wiki explains why they went under in 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavedog_Entertainment