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Information About The Pack Version 1.3.3

THE PACK is a large mod/unit pack which is based on Uberhack 3.1.4 by BSR. Along the way, some of the later changes in UH3.1.6, 3.1.8, and 4.0 were also included. THE PACK began as an attempt to redo the old UberHack Community Pack and Tech4 packs (which were fairly buggy), but quickly became somewhat larger than that.

THE PACK was developed over a period of about two years for a small Mac TA lan group in Vancouver BC. As such, THE PACK contains a number of changes to deal specifically some issues Mac TA has in dealing with 3rd party units developed for the PC version of TA. Namely THE PACK only uses 8-bit sounds and a number of troublesome scripts which cause weird graphical glitches upon unit death have been repaired. THE PACK is certainly the largest and most comprehensive unit pack every developed either for Mac TA or on a Mac.

THE PACK contains 510 units units in total, adding what I considered to be some of the best and most interesting 3rd party units available. If you play only at the lower tech levels, THE PACK will play almost identically to an older version of Uberhack. Only at higher tech levels do the new units make themselves felt.

Below is a brief listing of some features of THE PACK. For more detail, see the readme included with the download

Among features of THE PACK are:

  • Complete compatibility with either the Mac or PC versions of TA.
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  • Use of the Uberhack category tags, modified to be compatible with the Mac version of TA (cmd-Q and cmd-E for example and their PC equivalents CTRL-Q/E are not used as these quit the game or are used to change music CDs in the Mac version of TA)
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  • AA units are just that... AA-only. AA missiles typically do little or no damage to ground units and structures.
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  • Very potent defenses
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  • A complete under-sea economy, including Mohos, MMMs, advanced storage, and undersea factories. Powerful floating and submerged mines are also added.
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  • Uberhackian mines and scripting are maintained throughout, land and sea mines... mines are cheap and are potent defenses. In addition they can be set off as fields.
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  • Spies which are true spies, can replicate stationary versions of themselves in the field, can kill other spies, and destroy high value targets if they are undefended
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  • random delay nuke silos to stop nuke-swamping. UH insta-fire antis are included as are antinuke carriers.
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  • complete tech4 levels of resources and defenses.
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  • powerful offensive and defensive weapons including nuke cannons, ion cannons, and extremely long range LRPCs and RFLRPCs.
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  • powerful aircraft and equally potent AA structures and units.
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  • comprehensive intelligence gathering units and jamming units as well.
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  • A number of custom AIs.
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  • Carefully done special damage lists which take into account all the new units added in THE PACK.
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  • loads of interesting sounds and explosion animations.
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  • a genuine ton of effort at squishing bugs and dealing with conflicts.

AI

THE PACK includes 5 different sets of AI profiles.

  • standard included "Wimpy" AI... this AI is included inside the main rev31.gp3 file and does not support any of the 3rd party units not in the Uberhack base set of units.
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  • BAI2K... this is a very tough cheating AI which is unmodified from Uberhack. It will also not use any of the extra units included in THE PACK, nor does it probably need them. It will crush you thru sheer force of economy and numbers.
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  • Fleabowl... used with permission. A spoof AI which builds only fleas... slightly modified to include a few surprises.
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  • THE PACK "Tsunami" AI... a tough cheating offensive/general AI which uses Switeck's Counterstrike AI units as a set of cheating units. This AI is a fairly slow starter but will then attack in large waves of units... hence the name.
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  • THE PACK "Fortress" AI... a unique and completely defensive AI. It is intended to play a "porc" style of play and build solely defensive units and long-ranged stationary weapons. Give it 10 or 15 minutes to start and it's base can become almost impossible to crack without resorting to nukes or RFLRPC's yourself.
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  • THE PACK "Beserker" AI... a unique and completely offensive AI. It is intended to play a completely offensive style of play and build solely offensive mobile units and long-ranged stationary weapons. It hurts.

Requirements

The Pack requires as a miniumu a Full TA install including Core Contingency (CC). The PC version of TA must also be updated to version 3.1 (you need to have a Rev31.gp3 file). In addition it is recommended that PC users use a totala.ini file which allows them to use at least 500 units (r a cracked exe that allows 1000- 1500 units), and that Mac users upgrade to 3.1.2b6 and set the unit limit to 1000... the custom AI's in the pack really like to use lots of units. All these units and fancy models and animation mean the game wants lots of RAM and CPU speed... One the Mac side the game is acceptable with 300 meg of ram allocated and a 700mhz G3. It runs at slower speeds but gets pretty boggy with loads of players. Can't speak for the PC side... don't own one ;-)

Credits

The credit for a unit pack/mod this large extends to a huge number of people. BSR deserves a huge amount of credit, as THE PACK is based on Uberhack, which is his creation. The unitmakers themselves have contributed enormous amounts of effort and creativity. Late credit goes to DannyU who did many of the bug fixes in this version. Special thanks goes to zzyzy, No One, David Goding, and MacMaster for great efforts in beta-testing. Special thanks to zzyzy and No One for contributions to utilities which made THE PACK possible and for additions to various pieces of THE PACK. More extensive credit is given in the readme, including individual credit by unit/unitmaker. Note that in all cases, permission has been sought to use the included units. In some cases, the unitmaker's could not be contacted. In only a few cases was permission refused, and those untimakers units are not included as per their wishes.

Compatibility

THE PACK is compatible with the latest versions of tamec2004 and tak2004, or any later version. THE PACK is NOT compatible with any other 3rd party units, races, or mods. THE PACK consumes all known weapons IDs (excepting those reserved for tamec2004weapons.ccx) and is 510 units in size... right at the limit. You must be wary of 3rd party maps as a number of them contain cheating ai units within the map ufo... e.g Real Earth V1 contains some 40-odd ai units inside it and will crash the game when used with THE PACK. Use HPIView and check out the various maps you have installed carefully. THE PACK is also not compatible with any missions or campaigns. It is intended for skirmish or multiplayer use only. See the readme for further details and explanation.

Contacts

Feedback/bug reports can be sent either through the forums as linked in the sidebar, or via email to greybeard191"insert ampersand here"fastmail.fm
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