System Requirements Single player system requirements * P-233 (recommend 266MHz or higher) * 32mb RAM (recommend 64mb or more) Multiplayer system requirements * P-266 * 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 * 100% SoundBlaster compatible sound card * VGA 16-bit Color video display adapter. * 350mb of available hard disk drive space. 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 systems swap file's virtual memory feature which may be required by Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Installing Kingdoms Standard Installation * Close all running applications. * Place the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms CD in your CD-ROM drive. * Wait for the installation menu to appear. When it does, click upon the Install 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: * Close all running applications. * Insert the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms 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 6.1 Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has been designed to take advantage of Microsoft's DirectX. You will need to install DirectX 6.1 or higher for optimum game performance. To install DirectX 6.1 into your system, select "Install Direct X" from the autoplay menu, and follow the prompts. NOTE: If you have already DirectX 6.1 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 6.1. DirectX Troubleshooting: If you run into any video/audio problems following the installation of DirectX 6.1, 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 Total Annihilation: Kingdoms 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 Kingdoms). NOTE: Please do not attempt to uninstall the game by dragging the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms folder nor the Cavedog folder to the Recycling Bin. As 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 manufacturers recommended cleansing agent and follow their procedure. * Check for programs running in the background. * Ensure you have DirectX 6.1or 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 Choose Renderer 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, which 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. 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 CD 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 (Multi-player only). * Disable Power Codes (Multi-player only). Choose Renderer The Choose Renderer 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. Multiplayer Multiplayer has two different forums for game play: Internet and LAN. Internet Play requirements * A connection to the Internet * Pentium 266 with 64mb RAM * 28,800 speed modem or higher * Internet game play supports up to 4 players LAN Play requirements * Local Area Network connection * Pentium 266 with 64mb RAM * LAN game play supports up to 8 players Boneyards 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 de-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. Key Bindings 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. KNOWN ISSUES 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 as soon as they become available. DEFAULT KEY COMMANDS 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