Single player system requirements

• P-200 (recommend 266MHz or higher)
• 32mb RAM (recommend 64mb or more)

Multiplayer system requirements

• P-200
• 64mb RAM
• Internet connection or LAN is required
• 28,800 speed modem (recommend 33,600 or higher)

Plus

• Microsoft or fully compatible mouse
• 4x CD-ROM Windows 95 or 98
• DirectSound compatible sound card
• VGA 16-bit Color video display adapter.
• 170mb of available hard disk drive space for a minimum install of Total Annihilation: Kingdoms and The Iron Plague.

NOTE: It's good practice to have some free space on your hard drive, preferably 10% of its capacity. This is to allow for enough room to utilize the system swap file's virtual memory feature which may be required by Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.

Standard Installation

• Ensure that Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is properly installed on your system.
• Place The Iron Plague CD in your CD-ROM drive.
• Wait for the installation menu to appear. When it does, click upon the Install Iron Plague button and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Installation without AutoPlay

If you do not see the installation screen appear automatically after inserting the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms CD into your CD-ROM drive please follow these steps:

• Ensure that Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is properly installed on your system.
• Insert The Iron Plague CD into your CD-ROM drive.
• Double click upon the "My Computer icon" on your desktop.
• Double-click upon the CD-ROM drive icon.
• Double-click upon the SETUP.EXE icon.
• Follow the on screen installation instructions.

Installing DirectX 7.0a

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has been designed to take advantage of Microsoft's DirectX. You will need to install Directx 7.0a or higher for optimum game performance.

To install DirectX 7.0a into your system, select "Install Direct X" from the autoplay menu, and follow the prompts.

NOTE: If you have DirectX 7.0a or above currently installed on your system, you do not need to perform this process. Almost all-video and sound cards support DirectX. However, if you have an older video or sound card, this may not be the case. Contact your video/audio card manufacturer to obtain updated drivers that are compatible with DirectX 7.0a.

DirectX Troubleshooting:

If you run into any video/audio problems following the installation of DirectX 7.0a, but had an earlier version of DirectX installed which works fine, you may restore your original DirectX drivers by following these steps:

• Double-click upon the "My Computer" icon located on your desktop.
• Double-click upon the Control Panel icon.
• Double-click upon the Add/Remove Programs icon. You'll see a list of programs that are present on your system, including DirectX.
• Click upon the DirectX entry, and then on the Add/Remove Button in the lower right hand corner.
• Click upon the Restore Drivers button. This will restore your previous DirectX drivers.

Uninstalling The Iron Plague

If you decide to remove Total Annihilation: Kingdoms from your system please use the Uninstall program included with the game. You'll see the Uninstall icon below the game icon in the Windows shortcut menu (Start > Programs > TA Kingdoms > Uninstall The Iron Plague).

NOTE: Please do not attempt to uninstall the game by dragging the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms folder or the Cavedog folder to the Recycling Bin. This process will leave some of the game's components installed on your system.

Installation Troubleshooter

The Game Doesn't Install

• Check whether you have enough available space on your hard drive.
• Make sure that the CD-ROM drive is working properly.
• You should also check the CD for cleanliness, if it is not clean use your computer manufacturers recommended cleansing agent and follow their procedure.

Game Won't Run

• Check whether you have enough available space on your Hard Drive.
• Make sure that the CD-ROM drive is working properly.
• You should also check the CD for cleanliness, if it is not clean use your computer manufacturer’s recommended cleansing agent and follow their procedure.
• Check for programs running in the background.
• Ensure you have DirectX 7.0a or higher installed.
• Try a complete system restart.
• Contact our Technical Support Department at www.cavedog.com or call 425.398.3063.

Compatibility Issues

Running out of memory may cause severe problems to the functionality of Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Fixed size swap partitions are an indication of this phenomenon. Total Annihilation: Kingdoms requires approximately 100 to 150 MB of virtual memory and RAM combined to run.

If you remove a Voodoo card but don't uninstall the Glide drivers, you will receive the Glide option when ChooseRenderer is run. Removing or renaming c:\windows\system\glide3x.dll will make this problem go away.

D3D mode requires at least 8 Megs of video RAM - Total Annihilation: Kingdoms specifically checks for this and should not offer the option of D3D on cards that do not have enough video RAM.

If you are running in hardware mode (Glide or D3D) you may notice cursor slowdowns due to the lack of support for the hardware cursors. There are a few options to try to improve this performance. Turning off the different graphics options (shading, shadows, and anti-aliasing) and making sure that you have the most current video drivers for your hardware, may result in an improved gaming experience. If none of these improve the performance of your cursor, you may want to switch to Software Mode.

The ChooseRenderer performs a system search for video hardware and allows the user to pick a rendering device that TA: Kingdoms will use. The game default is to run in Software. If you have a hardware accelerator supported video card, run this program and select the rendering device specific to your card. This will enable Total Annihilation: Kingdoms to utilize the enhanced graphics functions offered by hardware acceleration. It's worth noting that TA: Kingdoms may run slower with certain hardware cards and/or drivers. You may need to run in Software mode to get the maximum performance.

Improving Game Performance

Large numbers of units and structures among other things may slow down the game. You can try to improve the performance by making some of the following adjustments to your system and by adjusting the in-game options.

Adjusting Your System

You may improve game performance by adjusting the following system settings

• Close all other applications.
• Check your system for programs running in the background (for example, virus detection programs). These can not only slow the game down, but also result in system lockups.
• Run Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter (provided within Windows 95 and 98).
• Check the startup menu for applications loading automatically whenever you boot up your system and disable them.
• Change the "Primary Use" of your computer to a Network Server. To do this right-click upon the "My Computer" icon, select properties, click upon the performance tab, choose File System, change the primary role of your computer to "Network Server", click "OK" and restart.
• Lower the refresh rate of your computer to improve the visual performance of Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. To do this Right click upon your desktop, choose Properties, select Settings, click upon Advanced, choose the Adapter tab and lower the Refresh rate.

Adjusting Game Options

You may improve game performance by adjusting these following options

• Turning off music in the Game Options screen.
• Turning off or reducing unit sounds through the Sound Interface buttons in the Game Options Screen.
• Turning off shading, anti-aliasing, and shadows through the Visuals button in the Game Options screen. This can result in less impressive graphics, but should allow for faster gameplay.
• Slowing down the game speed with the slider available through the Interface button in the Game Options screen or using the +/- keys while in game.
• Switch to software Mode. Some 3D cards can actually slow down TA: Kingdoms. This is because these 3D cards were designed to draw large polygons quickly. TA: Kingdoms uses thousands of very small polygons to draw units and structures.

In addition, in Single-Player Skirmish or Multi-player games, you can do the following to improve game performance

• Reduce the number of computer opponents.
• Select a smaller map.
• Choose Permanent LOS.
• Restrict the number of units that can be built.
• Disable Power Codes (Multi-player only).

Advanced Options

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms 3.0 includes a number of options to allow players to trade off image quality for greater performance. In its default mode, Kingdoms 3.0 will slightly diminish image quality when the frame rate drops, in order to maintain a high frame rate. It does this by rendering some shadows at half size and then scaling them up, and by skipping some frames of unit animations. On fast machines or during normal load this will not be done, but in intense battles this will automatically happen. The options below let you override the default behavior to either lock in perfect quality, or increase the frame rate.

Command line options - these are specified on the command line when you initially run the game.

-skiplogo: This option disables the intro movie

Console options - these are typed into the game console while you are playing a game.

+kenny: This command toggles between "Kenny mode", where the units move around without animating at all! and normal mode, where the unit animations are updated as frequently as possible, while still maintaining a good frame rate. "Kenny mode" exists because a) it looks cool and b) it gives you the highest possible frame rate

+kenny n: This command, +kenny followed by a number, sets the animation update frequency. +kenny 0 disables all unit animation updates. +kenny 100 tells Kingdoms to update the unit animations every frame and +kenny 50 tells Kingdoms to update the unit animations every second frame. +kenny 101 sets Kingdoms to its default behaviour where the unit animations are updated as frequently as possible, while still maintaining a good frame rate.

Registry options - these are entered into the registry. Do not modify the registry unless you are confident in your abilities to make the modifications properly. Incorrect changes to the registry can cause serious problems with your system. We do not recommend that you change these settings as the default settings were carefully chosen to be optional. All of the new registry options are in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cavedog Entertainment\Kingdoms\VisualOptions. They are:

UnitRedrawPct: This setting is what is controlled by +kenny. You can set this to any decimal number between 0 and 101 and the behavior will be as described for +kenny followed by a number.

ShadowScale: This setting controls the scaling of rendered shadows (note: not all units have rendered shadows). There are four legal settings:

	0 - the default. Adjust shadow scaling based on frame rate.
	1 - always do full resolution shadows.
	2 - always do half resolution shadows.
	3 - always do quarter resolution shadows.

ScaleAll: This setting controls the scaling of units. By default none of the existing units are scaled. If you set this to 1, to enable scaling of all units, then units will be rendered at a lower resolution as specified by the UnitScale registry setting. By default this means that they will be scaled down only when this is needed to maintain a good frame rate.

UnitScale: This setting controls the scaling of units. This entry is interpreted in the same way as the ShadowScale entry. However, note that by default UnitScale only applies to units that are flagged as needing optimization - which none of the existing units are. Therefore this option has no effect unless you set ScaleAll to true.

Options from the Visual Options dialog in the game. This dialog is accessible by pressing F1 and selecting Options and then selecting Visual. There is one new entry in this dialog:

Bilinear Filter - when running in D3D mode you can select Bilinear filter. This affects how shadows and units are scaled up after being rendered at a reduced resolution. It smoothes them out and makes them look much nicer. However, many cards implement this feature incorrectly, which causes a purple halo around shadows and units. This is why this feature defaults to being off.

Here are some possible ways to configure your registry settings, depending on your own particular needs:

Default:

	ScaleAll = 0
	ShadowScale = 0
	UnitRedrawPct = 101
	UnitScale = 0

Fastest:

	ScaleAll=1
	ShadowScale = 3
	UnitRedrawPct = 0
	UnitScale = 3

Highest quality:

	ScaleAll=0
	ShadowScale = 1
	UnitRedrawPct = 100
	UnitScale = 1

Cursor Bug Fix

1. If you use a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 make sure your desktop resolution is as high as your game resolution.

2. If you use a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 and your desktop resolution is lower than your game resolution, use Glide and use the "-fixcursor" command line option. (this is done by creating a shortcut and adding the -fixcursor to the end of the shortcut pathway in its properties.) This should restore proper cursor behaviour. This option does not work in D3D mode. You can also specify +fixcursor on the chatline inside the game to toggle the fix on and off.

Boneyards is Cavedog Entertainment's free gaming site. It is a service that integrates player matching and chat rooms directly into the game. You may play others just for fun or join in battles that will determine the ultimate fate of Darien.

To register and connect

Connect to the Boneyards gaming site by pressing the Boneyards button in the upper right hand corner of the Multiplayer game selection screen. Boneyards registration is a simple process that is required to play in the Boneyards environment. When you connect to Boneyards enter a user name, password, email address and your valid CD key (found on your TA: Kingdoms CD case) and your account will be instantly validated.

If you already have an account on Boneyards for Total Annihilation, your existing account name and password will be reserved for you, but you will still need to register for Boneyards with a valid CD key to play TA: Kingdoms.

Meeting Friends, Playing Games and General Fun

Players enter Boneyards through the War Room. Initially, you will see a list of players in your gathering (essentially a chat room). You can change your list to show battles that are forming or being played in your gathering, select a new gathering from the list of gatherings, or use the finder if you know the exact name of a person or gathering.

Right-click on a name in the player list to access player specific controls like private message, view statistics, or mute on/off.

The news and information section contains dozens of articles and news of late-breaking Boneyards developments (like custom multi-player maps and where to get them).

A variety of in-game statistics (wins, losses, scores) are reported to Boneyards automatically. This makes viewing the participation on one of the many Boneyards ladders a snap. More detailed information, is available by consulting the help section within Boneyards.

Customization of the keyboard commands and shortcut may be edited in the keys.tdf file. An example of this file can be found in the root directory that Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has been installed into c:\cavedog\kingdoms.

Customization is easy. Inside you will find the default/current keyboard settings. To change a keystroke just move the command you want to change, from one "key" to another.

Example:

Moving UnitCommand Attack from Key "A" to Key "B".

Before change:

[CUSTOMKEYS]
{
	LOWER_A = UnitCommand Attack;
	LOWER_B =;
	UPPER_A = UnitCommand Attack;
	UPPER_B =;

After change:

[CUSTOMKEYS]
{
	LOWER_A =;
	LOWER_B = UnitCommand Attack;
	UPPER_A =;
	UPPER_B = UnitCommand Attack;

It is important to note that for all letters there is an upper and lowercase variable that must be set. If you were to save the above changes, when you hit the "B" or "b" key and had a unit selected, you would get your attack cursor.

Note: All keyboard shortcuts can be modified in this manner.

Due to problems with the original version of Windows 98 we strongly recommend that Windows 98 users upgrade to Windows 98 Service Pack 1 or Windows 98 Second Edition.

• A = Attack
• G = Guard
• M = Move
• P = Patrol
• S = Stop
• K = Cloak on/off
• L = Load unit into transport
• U = Unload unit from transport
• O = Open/Close or Activate/Deactivate unit
• C = Clear
• H = Heal
• CTRL A = Select all units
• CTRL B = Select all builder units
• CTRL D = Dismiss selected units
• CTRL E = Select melee units
• CTRL F = Select factory units
• CTRL M = Select and track monarch
• CTRL N = Select naval units
• CTRL R = Select all ballistic units
• CTRL U = Select all units on screen
• CTRL W = Select all units with weapons
• CTRL Y = Select all units that fly
• CTRL Z = Select all like units
• CTRL 1-9 = Create squad
• CTRL F5-F8 = Set bookmark location
• ALT 1-9 = Create formation
• 1-9 = Select squad / Select formation
• F5 - F8 = Return to bookmarked location
• N = Move to next unit off screen
• T = Track unit
• F1 = Game options
• F4 = Leaderboard
• F2 = Briefing
• D = Diplomacy menu
• TAB = Full screen radar
• CTRL L = Load saved game
• CTRL S = Save game
• PAUSE = Toggle pause
• F3 = Track last reporting unit
• F9 = Screen shot
• F12 = Clear chat
• CTRL F1 = Select weapon 1
• CTRL F2 = Select weapon 2
• CTRL F3 = Select weapon 3
• + = Increase Game speed
• - = Decrease Game speed
• ~ = Toggle damage bars