Mana and Building in TA: Kingdoms
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has one resource to manage: mana. Every unit and structure costs mana and takes time to build. Lodestones built on mana sites raise your income, and spellcasting units carry a separate store of personal mana for their spells.
One Resource
The manual names two things you spend: time and mana. Total Annihilation needs both metal and energy (see its economy), but Kingdoms has only mana. At the start of a battle, each unit you begin with adds its own storage value to your store, so a monarch alone starts you with 5000 mana (see mana income). In the campaign, each mission sets its own starting amount.
Your mana is shown by the crystal ball in the lower-right corner of the screen. The numbers beside it show the mana coming in and the mana going out, each per second.
Lodestones and Mana Sites
A mana site is a small round patch with glowing stars and standing stones around it. To use one, a builder places a Lodestone directly on top of it. In the game files, the sites are called Sacred Stones, and each one has a rating of 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0. The manual says your income depends on both the site and the type of lodestone.
Each house has 2 kinds:
| Structure | Income value | Storage | Cost in mana | Built by (Aramon) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lodestone | 10 | 1000 | 280 | Elsin, the Mage Builder, the Flying Builder |
| Divine Lodestone | 20 | 2000 | 8564 | The Acolyte |
The income values are the same in every house; costs vary. A Lodestone costs from 280 mana for Aramon to 492 for Zhon. In each house, the Divine Lodestone needs an advanced builder: the Acolyte, the Priest of Lihr, the Dark Priest or the Shaman. Creon's versions, from The Iron Plague, are the Mana Refinery and the Mana Amplifier.
The lodestone's income value is multiplied by the site's rating. A Lodestone on a 2.0 site gives 20 mana per second, as much as a Divine Lodestone on a 1.0 site. Lodestones are also targets: destroy an enemy's lodestones, and you cut their income.
A few other units add a small income. Each monarch has an income value of 10, and most builders and factories have 1.
Spending While You Build
You do not pay for a unit all at once. As the unit is built, its cost is drawn from your stores gradually. The manual warns what happens when you spend faster than you earn: once your stores are empty, all production slows down a great deal. It advises keeping your mana well above zero.
Storage
Your maximum store of mana is the total of the storage values of everything you own. Each monarch holds 5000, a Lodestone 1000 and a Divine Lodestone 2000. Builders and factories hold 100 to 300 each. Losing a lodestone lowers your storage as well as your income. The unit files list these income and storage values under the internal name "mogrium".
Personal Mana for Spells
Personal mana is separate from your shared store. Each spellcasting unit has its own supply, shown as a blue bar under its health bar. Every spell uses some of it, and it refills over time. Most casters have three spell buttons: the weakest spell is the cheapest and the strongest uses the most.
In the data, maxmana is the size of the supply and manarechargerate is how much returns each second:
| Unit | Max mana | Recharge per second | Spell costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elsin | 1000 | 20 | Lightning 0, Meteor 200, Earthen Wave 900 |
| Kirenna | 1000 | 10 | Water Ball 0, Water Burst 200, Water Blast 900 |
| Thirsha | 1000 | 20 | Lightning 0, Lightning Ball 300, Wind Wave 900 |
| Lokken | 1000 | 25 | Fire Ball 0, Guided Fire Ball 200, Fire Wave 900 |
| Acolyte | 1000 | 10 | Earthquake 250, Hail Shower 600, Turn To Stone 750 |
| Basilisk | 1000 | 125 | Individual Turn To Stone 999 |
A full Elsin can cast one Earthen Wave. Refilling those 900 points at 20 per second takes 45 seconds. The Basilisk recharges fastest of all, so it can cast its one spell about every 8 seconds.
Units that hide by cloaking also pay from personal mana. The manual says the Aramon Assassin stays hidden until his personal mana runs out.
Build Power
Every builder and factory has a build power, its workertime value. Almost all of them have 10, including the monarchs. Every unit has a build time and a cost.
Each second, a builder adds its build power to the job. The job is done when the total reaches the build time. So the time in seconds is the build time divided by the build power. The mana drawn each second is the cost divided by that time.
For example, an Aramon Barracks training an Archer:
- The Archer's build time is 125 and its cost is 325 mana.
- The Barracks has a build power of 10, so training takes 125 ÷ 10 = 12.5 seconds.
- It draws 325 ÷ 12.5 = 26 mana each second.
Early in a game, Elsin makes 10 mana per second and a Lodestone on a 1.0 site makes another 10. That is less than the 26 the Barracks uses, so your stores shrink while it trains Archers.
Helping a Builder
Several builders can work on one job, and their build power adds up. To help, select a builder and click on the structure being built, or give it a guard order on another builder. The manual's example has Elsin help a Mage Builder.
A Mage Builder alone needs 600 ÷ 10 = 60 seconds to build a Barracks, which costs 1955 mana. With Elsin helping, the build power is 20 and the job takes 30 seconds. The total cost is the same, but it is drawn twice as fast: about 65 mana per second instead of 33.
Sources
- The Chronicles of Darien, the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms manual: Game Components (time, mana, personal mana), How to Play, Working with Resources, the information bar and the unit descriptions.
- Game data from the GOG release: unit values (
units.json) and build lists (builds.json), as shown on the unit pages; the Sacred Stone feature files (features/*/…mana.tdf) in the install. - Core Prime's analysis of the Kingdoms game engine, for how build power, income, site ratings and storage are combined each second.