Total Annihilation Controls and Orders

You play Total Annihilation mostly with the mouse. You select units, then give orders on the battle map, on the mini-map or from the menu beside it. The keyboard has a shortcut for almost every order, plus keys for selecting units and squads.

Mouse and Selection

The Interface options offer two mouse interfaces:

• Left-click (the default): the left button selects units and gives orders. The cursor changes shape to show what a click will do. The right button deselects units and moves the mini-map view.
• Right-click: the left button selects and deselects units and moves the mini-map view. The right button gives the selected units their default order, for example to move to the place you click.

Click a unit to select it, or drag a box around several units. Hold Shift and click to add units one at a time. Selected units have a green outline. Orders work on the mini-map too, which is useful for long moves and long-range fire.

Build and Orders Menus

When a unit is selected, two buttons under the mini-map switch between its Build menu and its Orders menu. The Build menu shows six icons at a time, with arrows to see the rest. Hold the cursor over an icon to see the unit's cost in the status bar.

To place a structure, choose it and move the cursor over the map. A green outline means you can build there, and a red one means you cannot. To build units in a factory, click a unit's icon once for each unit you want. Right-click the icon to remove one from the queue. Since the 2.0 patch, a Shift-click adds 5 units at once.

Orders

The Orders menu shows only the orders the selected unit can carry out:

• Move: go to a place. This does not change the unit's standing orders.
• Attack: attack an enemy unit or structure. Bombers show a bomb cursor.
• Patrol: follow a patrol route. A construction unit on patrol repairs every friendly unit it meets.
• Guard: stay with another unit and protect it.
• Repair: the Commander or a construction unit repairs a damaged unit, or helps to build a structure that is under construction (see build power).
• Reclaim: the Commander or a construction unit takes metal or energy from wrecks, rocks and plants.
• Capture: only the Commander can capture enemy units and structures. Large, heavily armoured targets take longer. Set your nearby units to hold fire so that they do not destroy the target first.
• D-gun: the Commander fires its Disintegrator Gun. The data gives it 30,000 damage and a range of 240, and every shot costs 400 energy.
• Stop: cancel all the unit's orders, including queued ones.
• Load and Unload: for transports only.
• Activate and Deactivate: switch a unit such as a radar or a metal maker on or off.
• Cloak: hide a unit that can cloak. Cloaking uses energy.

Standing Orders

Two buttons at the top of the Orders menu set how a unit behaves when you are not giving it orders. The first sets when it fires:

• Fire at will: fire at any enemy in range.
• Return fire: fire only after being fired on.
• Hold fire: fire only when ordered to.

The second sets how far it moves:

• Roam: move freely and follow enemies it fights.
• Maneuver: move only a short way from its position.
• Hold position: never move from its position.

Queuing Orders with Shift

Hold Shift while you give orders, and the unit carries them out one after another. For a builder, Shift-click several sites to build the same structure at each one, or queue different structures in turn. In version 3.1, you can hold Shift with the cursor over a construction unit to see planned builds. Green squares are the selected unit's builds, and blue squares are those of all other construction units. The Stop order clears the queue.

Squads

Press Ctrl and a number from 1 to 9 to make the selected units a squad. Press Alt and the same number to select that squad again. When health bars are shown, each unit shows its squad number. In version 3.1, you can give a factory a squad number in the same way, and every unit it builds joins that squad. Type +switchalt in the chat box to swap the keys, so that a number alone selects a squad.

Keyboard Commands

Both manuals list these keys. The F9 key appears only in the 1997 manual.

Keys Added Later

Patches and The Core Contingency added these keys.

Chat and + Commands

Press Enter to open the message bar. In multiplayer, start a message with a: to send it to allies only, or with e: to send it to enemies only. Commands that start with + are typed here too. Some change how the game works. For example, +shootall tells your units to shoot at all enemy units and structures. +sharemetal and +shareenergy share resources with your allies. Others are cheat codes. The cheat codes page lists them all, with the everyday ones under commands that are not cheats.

Sources

• Total Annihilation manual (1997): interface, Build and Orders menus, orders, standing orders and keyboard commands.
• Total Annihilation manual (2000 re-release): main battle screen, unit orders, mouse interfaces and keyboard commands.
• Total Annihilation v3.1 patch readme (readme.txt): new keys and + commands from patches 1.1 to 3.1.
• The Core Contingency readme (taccread.txt): new keys.
• Game data from the GOG release of version 3.1c: D-gun values, as shown on the Commander's page.