Aim, Accuracy and Splash

Every shot in Total Annihilation is a real object that flies across the map, and most of them can miss. Whether one hits depends on how well the weapon is pointed, how much random scatter it gets, and for artillery, whether a shell can reach the target at all.

Pointing the Weapon

A turret weapon fires only when it points close enough to its target. How close is the weapon's tolerance. A weapon with no tolerance in its data uses 150, which is 0.8°.

Weapons fixed to the body, such as the Merl's rockets, compare the target's direction with the way the whole unit faces.

Random Scatter

Each shot from a turret weapon is turned by a random amount, side to side and up and down. The shot can land anywhere within plus or minus half of its scatter, where:

scatter = the weapon's accuracy value + 2048 × the share of its hit points the unit has lost

2048 is 11.25°. Only 13 weapons in the game have an accuracy value, among them the Big Bertha, the flak guns and the plasma cannons of the Luger and the Core Mobile Artillery. The others are exact at full health. Every turret weapon gets worse as its unit is damaged.

At its full range of 4096, a healthy Big Bertha can land a shell up to 98 to either side of its aim. At half health, the same shell can land up to 300 to either side. Its blast is 80 across.

Veterans with 24 or more kills divide the scatter by their kills ÷ 12, rounded down: by 2 at 24 kills and by 3 at 36.

Spray

Weapons that fire a burst add spray. Each shot of the burst is turned by a random amount within plus or minus half the spray angle. The Peewee's E.M.G. fires 3 shots with a spray of ± 2.8°, so at its range of 180 the shots spread up to 9 to either side.

Range Is Measured Flat

The range check uses the distance across the map and ignores height. A unit on a hill gets no extra range, and an aircraft high above a point counts as being at that point.

How Far Shells Can Reach

Shell weapons, such as plasma cannons, fire at the angle that lands on the target. The game works this angle out from the shell's speed and the map's gravity. On level ground, a shell can fly no further than:

speed × speed ÷ gravity

Gravity is 112 on most maps. When a weapon's range is longer than this, the game finds no angle that reaches a target at full range on level ground, so the gun does not fire. It can use its full range only against targets below it.

A Guardian on level ground reaches only 1094 of its 1250. To hit a target at 1250, it has to stand about 167 higher than the target; the Punisher needs about 111 for its 1200. On Titanium Fist Bay, where gravity is 80, both reach 1531, so they can use their full range anywhere. On Dump, with a gravity of 8, every shell weapon can.

The wind also pushes shells and bombs while they fly. Other shots are not affected by it.

Shots in Flight

Every shot flies, lasers included: a laser beam travels and can be stopped by an enemy unit, a feature or a hill in its path. A shot in flight passes through your own units and hits the first enemy unit, feature or piece of ground it meets.

Splash

A unit takes full damage if the explosion touches its outline. Further away, the damage is multiplied by:

e + (1 − e) × (1 − distance ÷ radius)²

The radius is half the weapon's area, and e is its edge effectiveness, 0 for most weapons. With e at 0, a unit halfway to the edge takes a quarter of the damage.

• The Hammer's plasma cannon does 85 damage across an area of 48, a radius of 24. A unit 6 from the blast takes 47, and one 12 away takes 21.
• The Commander's death blast does 9999 across an area of 950, with an edge effectiveness of 0.75. A unit anywhere inside the radius of 475 takes at least 7499, before any reduction for veterancy.

The unit that fired is never hurt by its own explosion. Your other units and your allies' units take splash damage just as enemy units do. A weapon with an area under 17 that hits a unit directly damages only that unit.

Reload

A damaged unit reloads more slowly: the time between shots grows by up to 20% as its hit points fall towards zero. Veterans reload faster (see veterancy).

How Units Pick Targets

A unit set to fire at will looks for a new target about once a second. It does not simply take the nearest one: the game gives each enemy in view a random score up to the square of its distance, and the lowest score wins, so nearer enemies are only more likely to be chosen. Once a weapon has a target, it keeps it while the target lives, even if a closer enemy appears. A unit that is hit turns any free weapons on its attacker.