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Home of the Total
Annihilation Lan Mod and Unit Pack called
THE PACK
News
November
26, 2011
Big
Doin's today... a new map, a new mission, and a bevy of
tileset releases!
Grong's landing is a new mission by Mufdvr. It uses the Armon tileset, and can be played
as a single player mission, single player skirmish, or multiplayer map. In the mission you need
to capture Core's gate without destroying it, while defending your own gate and commander... steep
requirements given the way Mufdvr writes his missions
The map is sized at 19 x 19, and is a 5.7 meg download.
TA-Features_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Missions page for download link and more info.
Inferno is a 3rd demo
map
to demonstrate today's lava tileset release by Chinahook. This map is
used to demonstrate the different levels of heights, and also the new
"cracked" lava tiles.
The map is sized at 20 x 20, and is a 12.1 meg download.
TA-Features_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download link and more info.
Further News... Chinahook has released his New UTAS lava tileset plus some transistion tiles, and
a pair of new Aramon/urban tilesets. All these are technically still beta, but are bugfree as far as I know.
The beta status more comes from a desire to add more stuff... Anyway Chinahook doesn't really have time to
add "more stuff" right now, so you can download them by going to this link
January
23, 2011
A new
map for
release today...
Hot Pot is a second demo
map
to demonstrate an upcoming lava tileset release by Chinahook. The
latest beta of the tileset
includes two new sets of heights, and a new cracked lava surface. This
map uses all these new
features.
This particular map has maximum height areas in the corners, for
players 1 through 4.
Each of the 4 corner players starts in a very confined and small
fortress area with limited resources.
There is more space, metal, and geos on the heights surrounding the
corners, and in the center caldera area.
8 players are supported. Players 1 is top left corner, 2 bottom right,
3 top left, 4 bottom left.
Players 1-5-3 across the top, 2-6-4 across the bottom, 7 and 8 are on
the sides.
The map is sized at 12 x
12, and is a 7.0 meg
download. TA-Features_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
January
15,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Winter Canyon is third
demo map
to show off a new tileset release, UTAS_Snow_SET_Winter_v24.hpi
(final), by Chinahook.
The map creates a pair of somewhat enclosed areas at the top and bottom
of the map, and then
inserts a winding canyon, with restricted access to heights, in
between.
Ten players supported… odds across the top (1, 3, ), evens across the
bottom ( 2,4,), positions 5 thru 10
across the middle. Best games against AI will be to take 9 or 10 and
have the ai take all others.
The map is really intended for team play for 4 players (player
positions 1 vs 2 or 1-3 vs 2-4)
The map is sized at 20 x
35, and is a 16.9 meg
download. TA-Features_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
December
22,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Winter Maze is another
demo map
to show off a new tileset release, UTAS_Snow_SET_Winter_v24.hpi
(final), by Chinahook.
The map creates a pair of somewhat enclosed areas at the top and bottom
of the map, and then
inserts a maze of canyons, at different heights, in between.
Ten players supported… odds across the top (1, 3, ), evens across the
bottom ( 2,4,), positions 5 thru 10
across the middle. Best games against AI will be to take 9 or 10 and
have the ai take all others.
The map is really intended for team play for 4 players (player
positions 1 thru 4)
The map is sized at 20 x
25, and is a 8.5 meg
download. TA-FEatures_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
November
27,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Dragon Lake is a demo map
to show off a new tileset release, UTAS_Snow_SET_Winter_v24.hpi
(final), by Chinahook. This large (120meg) tileset includes a host of
different types of
tiles, including snowy and frozen water, different height levels,
sinkholes etc. Not all these tiles are
used on this map. The tileset is available on FU in the modding
resources/tileset section under
TA Power.
The map is loosely based on an actual lake in Siberia, called Dragon
Lake, which vaguely looks like a dragonf rom the air.
This map REALLY looks like a dragon, and the "fiery breath" is added
using a beta lava-snow transition tileset from Chinahook.
Ten players supported… odds across the top (1, 3, 5), evens across the
bottom ( 2,4,6), positions 7 thru
10 across the middle. Best games against AI will be to take one of
positions 7-10
and have the ai take all others.
The map is sized at 45 x
45, and is a 28.4 meg
download. TA-FEatures_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
Nov. 08, 2010
A pair of map
releases today, and also a Mission crafted for an existing map,
available on
maps and missions pages.
  
First
the map on the left... Upheaval Dome Small
is a piece of the previously released Upheaval Dome map. It's sized at
25 x 25 and supports 10 players.
The map at center is called Crooked Creek. It is 30
x 30,
supports 10 players and is a 10.6 meg download. It uses Chinahook's
Green Completion tileset. No feature files
required for this one.
The map at right is a mission called Core Comeback
. This is a mission crafted by Mufdvr for a map I did sometime ago
called Metal island Hopping. Details for
this are on the Missions page.
May
1,
2010
Update:
Version 2 of
the map is now available, removes damage done
by water. A new map for
release today...
Upheaval Dome
attempts to replicate the terrain and topography around a geological
structure in Utah known as the
“Upheaval Dome”. The actual dome is in the approximate center of the
map. The map fairly closely follows
the actual terrain, although the heavy forests along the rivers are
rather unrealistic.
Ten players supported… odds across the top (1, 3, 5), evens across the
bottom ( 2,4,6), positions 7 thru
10 across the middle. Best games against AI will be to take 10 (in the
center of the upheaval dome/map)
and have the ai take all others.
The map is sized at 45 x
25, and is a 11.9 meg
download. TA-FEatures_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
April
5,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Ripped Earth
is actually a test map for the new UTAS_Lava tileset by Chinahook. As
such is is designed to make
use of the various low coast, paths, and rivers pieces as much as
possible. There's nothing much in
the way of any heights, as those don't exist yet in the beta version of
the tileset.
10 players are supported. Odds are across the top half of the map,
evens across the bottom. Players 1 is top left corner, 2 bottom right,
3 top left, 4 bottom left.
The map is sized at 30 x
30, and is a 9.0 meg
download. TA-FEatures_2010 required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
March
7,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Thin Air
is a first try at using the Cavedog Lunar tileset… hopefully it looks
somewhat artistic and interesting.
The map supports 9 players in multiplayer and skirmish modes.
The map uses Cavedog's Lunar tileset, and is sized at 35 x
15, and is a 7.5 meg
download. No extra features are required for the map to load. See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
January
28,
2010
A new
map for
release today...
Metal Island Hopping
is a map intended to show off some of the features
of Chinahook's U Metal tileset. There is nine major islands,
interconnected shallow sea areas,
lots of little islets to defend and attack from, and loads of metal and
geos.
The map supports 10 players in multiplayer and skirmish modes, and the
esources are well laid out and plentiful.
The map uses Chinahook's U_Metal tileset, and is sized at 45 x
45, and is a 3.5 meg
download. No extra features are required.See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
December
30,
2009
A new
map for
release today...
Bowron Lakes
is a new map that attempts to replicate a portion of a provincial park
in central British Columbia. The real Bowron lakes are a canoeing
destination, where the outdoorsy types will launch their canoes/kayaks
in the upper left corner of the map, and canoe/portage their way around
the lakes over the course of a week or more. This map actually
replicates the terrain fairly well, with exception of a number of the
portage areas being removed.
The map supports 10 players in multiplayer and skirmish modes, and the
esources are well laid out and plentiful.
The map uses Chinahook's Green Completion tileset, and is sized at 45 x
45, and is a 17.7 meg
download. No extra features are required.See the
Maps page for download
link and more info.
November 13,
2009
A new mission for
release today...
Confluence
is a new combination mission, multiplayer, and skirmish map created by Mufdvr.
The map supports 8 players in multiplayer and skirmish modes, and the
carefully scripted mission
appears under Arm Missions and is entitled "Confluence".
The map uses the Taros and Veruna tilesets, with deep seas around the
outer edge. There's shallow and passable rivers at the confluence where
the land masses meet. It's sized at 23 x 23, and is n 30.7 meg
download, requiring
the new TA_Features_2009.ccx feature file to load correctly.See the
Missions page for download
link and more info, including link to the new feature file.
November 5,
2009
A new map for
release today...
Nothing Lives Here
is a a map used to demonstrate Chinahook’s U_Lava_Crystal and
U_Lava_Transistions tilsets, as well as showing off some of the new
features in the TA_Features_2009 features set
The map supports 10 players, and is a harsh landscape where everything
is dead. Looks fairly nice, considering it's all dead....
It's an 13.7 meg download and requires
the new TA_Features_2009.ccx feature file to load correctly.See the
Maps page for download
link and more info, including link to the new feature file.
Sept 19, 2009
A new map pack for
release today...
Zombieland Map Pack
is a a set of 9 maps packed into a single ufo file, intended for
skirmish play only.
The maps are all metal, and all place the human player in the hot seat
at position 1.
It's an 20.2 meg download and requires
no additional features.See the Maps page for download
link and more info.
July 20, 2009
A new map for
release today...
Hot Air Melting Roads
is a modification of the original Hot Air map. It adds additional
platforms and
land links so land units can be used.
The unique thing about the map is the custom ai files included, which
allows for some
truly breathtaking games against the ai... see the Maps page or readme
for more details
It's an 4.2 meg download and requires
no additional features.See the Maps page for download
link.
July 11, 2009
A new mission for
release today...
The Keys (Mission)
adds a difficult Core mission scripted by Mufdvr to this nice looking
map. I had talked
with Mufdvr some time ago about making a mission for this map, but
unfortunately he finished just
prior to File Universe disappearing.
Anyways, it's a very difficult mission which has victory confditions
requiring that you destroy the Arm commander
and all Arm Vulcans on the map in order to win. The fact that there is
Vulcans to destroy should tell
you Volumes about how hard this is. My thinks Mufdvr has a mildly
sadistic bent...
It's an 5.7 meg download and requires
tamec2004, and tak2004 for features.See the Missions page for download
link.
JUNE 14, 2009
MINOR NEWS... the
download links for the Maps have been repointed to
files which are now hosted on ModdB... hopefully this will aid in
maintain sites bandwidth so that it stays up for the whole month.
Thanks for The Brit, who uploaded the majority of them.
Jan 11, 2009
A new map for
release today...
Rocky Lakes
is a demo map intended to show the wonderful coastlines and mountain
scenes that are possible with
Chinahook's new consolidated and updated Evergreen tileset. The map is
44 x 44, heavily forested, and looks fabulous, if I do say so myself
Ten players supported… odds across the top (1, 3, 5), evens across the
bottom (2, 4, 6),
postions 7 and 8 on the sides, 9 and 10 dead center. Best games against
AI will be to take one
of the two center positions and have the ai take all others.
2.
It's an 14.0 meg download and requires
tamec2004 for features.
Nov 21, 2008
A new map for
release today...
The Keys
is a large 50 x 30 map that attempts to replicate the actual topography
of the Florida Keys. Space is very tight on the actual Keys themselves,
but there is lots of wreckage on the reefs and shores. There is more
space on the mainland to the north end of the map, but it is densely
overgrown, and requires clearing for substantial base growth.
10 Players are supported. The odd players start on the keys, 1 at the
furthest south, and then 3, 5, 7, and 9 each being successively more
north. Player 2 starts on northernmost island, players 4, 6 and 8 are
on the mainland, and player 10 is on the next island south from player
2.
It's an 5.6 meg download and requires
tamec2004, and tak2004 for features.
Sept 6, 2008
A pair of map
releases today, and also a revision of an existing map, available on
maps page.
  
First the map on the left... Aorounga Crater Chain
is a huge map which replicates the topography of a real impact crater
chain in northern Africa, now partially filled with water. This map is
44 x 63, and supports ten players. It uses the Zhon tileset conversion
and Zhon shallows tilesets. It's an 31.7 meg download and requires
tamec2004, tak2004, and the included Zhonmetal.ufo file for features.
The map at center is called Hot Air. It is 51 x 51,
supports 8 players and is a 3.6 meg download. It uses Chinahook's
Volcano_metal tileset. The map is a total resource fest, all metal,
loads of geos... and intended for a hot air battle. No feature files
required for this one.
The map at right is a revision of Creon Burning Woods
now at V2. I discovered that the version I've been playing with is not
the one I uploaded to this site. The one on the site was an older
version which was missing invisible metal tiles in the three central
creon forts. Please download the revised version to correct this error.
January 22,
2008
A pair of map
releases today, available on the maps page.
 
First the map on the left... Chinahook has
completed a new tileset (hosted at File Universe) called U_crystal
(crystal-adamante). To give it a whirl, I've created a map called Hard
Water Shore to Shore. This map is 18 x 41, and ten players.
It's an 11 meg download, has a bleak hard look to it.
The map at right is called Boxy Seas. It is 51 x
51, supports 10 players and is a 2.1 meg download. It uses Datanut's
Atlantis metal tileset. The map is a total resource fest, all metal,
loads of geos... but fun. Lots of little boxy seas to hide stuff in.
The first map, Hard Water Shore to Shore, requires
tamec2004 for features.
September
22, 2007
Big News Version
1.3.3 Final of THE PACK has been released. This version
includes much rebalancing, a couple of new/replacement units, and most
importantly a whole slew of bug fixes... mostly courtesy of the hard
work of DannyU. Many, if not most of the niggling crashes seem to be
gone. In addition, the new version also includes a completely new AI
called Beserker, which only knows how to attack. It
only builds factories, resources, and mobile or long ranged attacking
units. Nasty.
Please see the download and information links in the sidebar, and
report any issues or comments in the forums.
April 29,
2006
First the big news. Chinahook
has completed an addition to the Zhon Tileset conversion. The Zhon
shallows addition adds a host of shallow water pieces which interface
with all the zhon coast types: sandy, savannah, jungle, and red coast.
Anything without a coastal cliff now has a shallow water interface, and
a grand variety of them as well. The tileset addition had its genesis
in Tangaroa's Gorges map, which added a small set
of north south shallows which had never been seen before. The tileset
is now freely available as a 53.1meg download from File Universe here.
In celebration of the tileset release, I've done a pair of demo maps
using different parts of the shallow water tileset almost exclusively.
 
The map at left is called Dead Red V2. It is 19x19,
supports 8 players and is a 6.3 meg download.It uses the red coast
shallow pieces to create a hostile acidic landscape with many shallow
paths through which units may trek, if they dare.
The actual level of damage done by the water is quite mild, with
cheaper and weaker level one units being unable to survive a corner to
corner trek. Commanders and any units with a decent amount of
self-healing will survive unscathed. Level 2 units and others with
substantive armor will easily move around the map... this has the nasty
effect of changing gameplay as the game wears on... if you've bet all
on an air assault, land units might well get you in the end.
There is little in the way of metal patches on the map, but much
reclaimable and rezzable stuff lying around. The map is a vertiable
junkyard, and some of the junk is exploding boxes and crates, so be
careful.
The map at right is called Wading Pools. It is also
19x19, supporting 8 players, and is a 10.6 meg download.
This map is a much prettier place, using the sandy and jungle shallow
portions of the tileset. There is no wreckage and a lot more metal and
geo vents. Both maps require tamec2004 and tak2004 for features. The
Wading Pools map also includes a zhonmetal.ufo feature file which must
be added to your install in order for the map to load.
March 24,
2006
There is now a
version 2 of Wetumpka available for download. To find it, go to the
maps page and scroll down to the Wetumpka map... both the original and
version 2 are side by side.
Datanut has graciously acceded to some proding on my part and added
some useful pieces to his update of the earth desert tileset, currently
standing at version 2.1. Among the additions to the tileset are a set
of river mouths which allow for the first time the small desert rivers
to actually enter the desert seas, and a conversion of archi-shallows
to desert-shallows which allow land units to potentially cross those
seas. There are also a number of other fixes to the lava and dune
transistion tiles and a general restructuring of the tileset
organization which makes it much more useable and user-friendly. You
can and should snag it from File Universe here
Anyway, onto changes to the map... The small river to the south now
enters the large river to the north via one of the new river mouths.
This much better matches the actually topography of the area. The
biggest change is the fact that the large river (which is really a very
narros desert sea) is now passable in three spots via the new desert
shallows. What was previously an inaccessible and land-locked area to
the left of the large river is now longer so inaccessible.
The change to the large river changes gameplay on the map quite a
bit... there is now no "safe" starting position which the ai cannot
easily get to with land units. Ultimately, this version 2 is the way I
would have made the map had the tiles existed at the time of design.
The original remains downloadable for the sake of completeness.
The map supports 2-8 players, with odd teams of 1-3-5 being at the top
and 2-4-6 being at the bottom (roughly). 25x58, and a 18.2 meg
download. It requires tamec2004 to load the required features.
Thanks to Chinahook for providing a copy of the desert-archipelago
transistion tileset (mine was corrupt). Thanks also to Datanut for the
previously mentioned additions to the Earth Desert tileset which made
version 2 of this map possible.
Upsides: Great terrain, tons of resources, looks closest to a real
place of any map I've made, IMHO.
Downsides: Mini-map does not reflect terrain well at all... the desert
cliffs almost disappear, although it looks better in-game.
March 16,
2006
An Epic-sized map
release:
Another map release
that recreates some real topography... this one is an impact crater
site known as Clearwater East and West, located in Northern Canada. A
pair of craters are separated by a broken rim which have become islands
as the craters filled with water.
Map Name: Clearwater East and West
Tileset Type: Evergreen/Adamante/Lava and various transistion tiles
Size: 63 x 44 (66.0 meg download, includes both maps!)
Players: 2-10
AI: profile set to default
Notes: The is loads of metal on the map. Geo vents are sparse and
separated, with the heaviest concentration in the lava areas and on the
ring of adamantine islands in the west-most crater.
The map supports 10 start positions, with positions 1-4 being in
corners, and odd positions 1/3/5 being across the top and even
positions 2/4/6 being across the bottom
Tamec2004 is required for features
Enjoy.
Greybeard
January
8, 2006
A Map
release that comes in two flavours:
  
Above is a satellite image of the real place... the
infamous Bikini Atoll, site of many U.S. Nuclear tests. The map
download includes two separate maps, V1 and V2. Both play differently,
and have a different story to them. Differences are described below.
Map Name: Bikini Atoll V1 and V2
Tileset Type: Archipelago/Archipelago Completion
Size: 50 x 30 (6.0 meg download, includes both maps!)
Players: 2-7
AI: profile set to hover for V1, acid for V2
Notes: Another map that attempts to redo a real place... inspired by a
satellite image of the atoll from space...
This is a large map which does a more than decent job (if I do say so
myself) of recreating the actual atoll. This map uses Cavedog
Archipelago and Chinahook's archipelago completion (beta) tilesets.
Land units can traverse the shallow areas, but many of the smaller ones
will be almost completely submerged and their weapons will not work
until they hit land. This leads to interesting tactics that change over
time, as level one land units can easily be destroyed when mostly
submerged, but the larger level2 and level3 units have both more armor
and can tend to fire back as they are larger and their firepoints tend
to be above the water level.
Version Differences
V1) The map is an attempt to recreate the
actual atoll, including the massive damage done by U.S. nuclear testing
after the second world war. Version One is closest to reality. Several
of the blast sites are well created, including the massive Bravo crater
at upper left which vaporized a few kilometers of reef. There is some
submerged wreckage around the various blast sites. Land is at a
premium, with comparatively little build space. Land units can migrate
from the extreme right of the map all the way to the extreme left, as
long as they use the top. The bottom of the map is broken up by
multiple channels.
V2) Version Two is an alternate history
version where nuclear testing was restarted and continued until recent
times. There are more obvious blast sites, and much more wreckage from
destroyed sea dna land units. There was an attempt to create a man-made
island on the left side of the map, on the inner atoll, and much of the
radioactive soil and wreckage was interred there under a massive dome.
This is the hottest site on the island... even the ground is damaging
to be on. The whole area is mildly radioactive and does slight
continual damage to all units. Damage is slight enough that units with
self-healing to any great degree (commanders for example) will survive
unscathed. Light units will be able to traverse along the reef, but
will suffer enough damage to only be useful over short hops (e.g. don't
think your flash tank rush will make it from extreme right to left
along the top of the map... it won't work). This slow damage, combined
with the inability of level one units to fire in the shallow water,
makes the need to tech up quickly much more important. In addition,
there is explosive crates and barrels on the three largest natural
islands and the man-made island as well. This makes the larger islands
less attractive.
The map is graphically attractive, at least until the lovely
archipelago forests start to burn.
Thanks to Chinahook for much help and support in making additions to
his on-going archipelago completion tilesetÊproject which specifically
supported making a map like this. This tileset builds on the work of a
few others (some fixed archi shores (Sphere) and shallow water tiles
(Tangaroa)), and then added many other sections such as narrow shallow
channels and corners which allowed for diagonal coast.
The map supports 7 start positions, with odd positions 1, 3, and 5
starting in in an arc beginning at the right side of the map and even
postions 2, 4, and 6 occupying the lower map and extreme upper left
nearest test-site Bravo. Position seven also occupies the extreme upper
left with the possiblity of using odds and evens as teams for the first
6 positions, and position 7 also being available for as a last team
member for the evens.
Tamec2004 and tak2004 are required as feature sets for both maps
Enjoy.
Greybeard
October
4, 2005
A pair
of demo map releases for today and a
tileset release:
 
First a biggest news is the fact that the Aramon Tileset
(TAK-->TA) conversion has been released for public consumption.
Started by Wotan and completed by Chinahook, this tileset is
graphically pretty darn spectacular. It offers a huge selection of
rivers and sinkholes, along with a host of other tiles. Gnome from
fileuniverse has comsolidated the various files into two downloads...
This is Part
I (59 meg) and this is Part II
(29 meg).
I've made a pair of demo maps... the first, Soggy Bottom, was made to
demo Part One of the tileset release. Just as I finished it, Chinahook
completed a beta version of Part Two. So I made a second map and used
it to test the tileset with. These maps are released for your enjoyment
below.
First:
Map Name: Soggy Bottom
Tileset Type: Aramon
Size: 18 x 18 (20.0 meg download)
Players: 2-8
AI: profile set to hover (custom)
Notes: first demo map made for the Aramon tileset conversion by
Wotan/Chinahook.
The demo map was built to show off the best parts of the Aramon
tileset, and thus the name... "Soggy Bottom". This landscape is
littered with streams and rivers, and a variety of boggy sinkholes.
There are a fair number of shallow river crossings and also a few
larger lakes to hide in if you're so inclined.
The hover ai is a custom job written by Chinahook specifically for this
map. It is included inside the map ufo and renamed to hover.txt for
this map to make the ai useeasier for Mac TA users
The map requires tamec2004 and tak2004 beta for features
The map supports 8 start positions, with positions 1 thru 4 starting in
rough corners, with the possiblity of using odds and evens as teams for
the first 6 positions (odds across the top, evens across the bottom).
PositionsÊ 7 and 8 start on hilltops near the center and are far more
difficult to defend if you want a tougher ai game.
Second:
Map Name: Aramon Forts
Tileset Type: Aramon
Size: 18 x 41 (26.4 meg download)
Players: 2-10
AI: profile set to hover (custom)
Notes: This is the second demo map made for the Aramon tileset
conversion project. This one was specifically made to test and
demonstrate the towns and forts included in part two of the tileset
release.
Aramon Fort areas are overlaid with invisible metal tiles. Roads are
NOT metal. There is basically no other metal on the map, save a few
metal pits inside small bermed fortsfor use with Arm Devestator cannons
(Uberhack or THE PACK). Geo Vents are liberally used and are placed in
defensive positions for Behemoth cannons.
The hover ai is a custom job written by Chinahook specifically for this
map. It is included inside the map ufo and renamed to hover.txt for
this map to make the ai use easier for Mac TA users
The map requires tamec2004 and tak2004 beta for features
The map supports 10 start positions, with positions 1 thru 4 starting
in rough corners, with the possiblity of using odds and evens as teams
for the first 6 positions (odds across the top, evens across the
bottom). PositionsÊ 7 and 8 start on hilltops/forts at the edges of the
map (centered vertically). Positions 9 and 10 start on the center fort
area and are very close together... these last two sports are intended
to be used as the most difficult spots to start against the ai. I don't
advise on setting an enemy ai as one of the positions, as you'll likely
end up with a D-Gun facelift in short order.
July
2, 2005
A trio
of map releases for today and a tileset release:
 
First:
Map Name: Creon Burning Woods
Tileset Type: Creon
Size: 25 x 58 (26.5 meg download)
Players: 2-7
AI: profile set to default
Notes: Inspired by Burning Woods by Pierre-Be, taken to hopefully new
and glorious graphical heights...
A large north south map. Wotan's Creon Tileset conversion and
Jodark/Weirdly's Creon Tri-level addition are used. Map supports 5
players... 1 and 3 at top, 2 and 4 at bottom, 5 in center, 6 and 7 on
side-center platforms.
Creon Fort areas are overlaid with invisible metal tiles. Roads are NOT
metal. There is basically no other metal on the map, save a few metal
pits inside small bermed forts and near bridges for use with Arm
Devestator cannons (Uberhack or THE PACK). Geo Vents are liberally used
and are placed in defensive positions for Behemoth cannons.
There are many paths thru the forests, some with roads and some
without. Amphibious units will even be able to make much of the trek
under water due to the many rivers and ponds/lakes. There are large
forest to burn and destroy.
Lakes are located behind the forts to aid in hiding underwater economys
or building other underwater-based stuff. Or simply to hide and cower
in.
The center position (5) is much smaller and more cramped than position
1-4... and thus gives a more difficult game against the ai
Note also that the Creon Tri-Level Tileset authored by
Jodark and Weirdly (first seen on a map at Tamec called "Creon Plaza")
has been uploaded to File
Universe. This tileset adds a middle level of fort heights,
wider bridges, wider ramps, and interfaces to all other Creon tiles
from the new middle fort level. About a 24 meg download. I'm attempting
to get ftp access to Tamec to get it uploaded there as well via
Fileplanet
Second:
Map Name: Metal Picnic V2
Tileset Type: Green/Metal
Size: 22 x 40 (4.8 meg download)
Players: 2-7
AI: profile set to default
Notes: This is a remake of the well known map by Pierre-Be... one of
the most popular downloads ever at Tamec.
Changes made:
1) map is no longer all metal
2) invisble metal tiles laid over all metal areas
3) Chinahook's green/completion/metal tiles used to redo center metal
area and previous urban/green transistions are now predominantly
green/metal
4) voiding done on all metal walls
5) Ramps added to metal platforms.
6) quite a few additional geo vents added to allow for use of behemoth
cannons in defensive positions (Uberhack or THE PACK)
7) players positioning revamped... pos 1 and 3 are teamed at bottom, 2
and 4 teamed at top. 5 is center, 6 and 7 are on platforms at middle
left and right. Position 5 is hardest to defend against ai... you're
surrounded.
8) Impassable water made passable, stuff can now be built in metal
water ponds
Third:
Map Name: Burning Woods V5
Tileset Type: Green/Metal
Size: 16 x 40 (5.4 meg download)
Players: 2-5
AI: profile set to default
Notes: This is a remake of the well known map by Pierre-Be... one of
the most popular downloads ever at Tamec.
Changes made:
1) map is no longer all metal
2) invisble metal tiles laid over all metal areas
3) Chinahook's green/completion/metal tiles used to redo center metal
area
4) heights redone and sea level reset
5) voiding done on all metal walls
6) voiding REMOVED on allÊpaths thru the forest... previously the
forest could burn, be destroyed, reclaimed, and you were still stuck on
the now invisible path. No longer the case.
7) Ramps added to metal platforms.
8) Some minor wreckage removed... some rocks in metal areas, and all
con unit wreckage is removed from the map to stop side-jumping via
rezzing.
9) a few additional geo vents added to allow for use of behemoth
cannons in defensive positions (Uberhack or THE PACK)
10) ponds are made larger, features (coral) removed, and impassible
water made passable... stuff can now be built in the ponds.
11) voiding removed on some of the metal platforms which prohibited
building on some areas which should have been buildable.
Enjoy!
June
7, 2005
A map
revision for today:
I've found an annoying series of small errors with one of the more
popular maps at the site, Manicouagan. I've
realized (in the course of making another map) that overlapping
features are removed by the TA game engine. Manicouagan has multiple
small metal forts for the players to start on, and I was less than
careful in how I placed the invisible metal output features. The result
was "patchy" metal output at all the forts and on the surrounding metal
ground areas. In addition, one metal fort was missing metal output
feature on its top level entirely.
All fixed up now, but requires a download of version 2
May
30, 2005
Today
I'm releasing a map which is a "teaser" for Chinahook's upcoming
release of an archipelago completion tileset. Similar in scope to his
Green/Metal completion set, this tileset adds a host of options and
heights to Cavedog's original tileset, fixes a a number of known bugs
with shorelines, consolidates the work of others in areas like shallow
water, consolidates it all in a neat package, and then adds all sorts
of additional pieces which gives quite marvelous flexibility. And best
of all, there's more pieces to come which aren't in this teaser map.
I've been testing this tileset for a few months now and one outcome of
this is the creation of this map, Bora Bora.
Inspired by an Ikonos satellite image of the atoll from space, this is
a large map which does a more than decent job (if I do say so myself)
of recreating the actual atoll. This map uses Cavedog Archipelago and
Chinahook's archipelago completion (beta) tilesets. Land units can
traverse the shallow areas, but many of the smaller ones will be almost
completely submerged and their weapons will not work until they hit
land. This leads to interesting tactics that change over time, as level
one land units can easily be destroyed when mostly submerged, but the
larger level2 and level3 units have both more armor and can tend to
fire back as they are larger and their firepoints tend to be above the
water level.
All areas of the map can be reached by either land or sea... a couple
of liberties had to be taken with actual map topography (as referenced
to reality) to allow this, but hey, it's just a game. Resources are
plentiful, even excessive, and mayhem should ensue in short order. Even
the standard Hover AI runs well on this map, and games against allied
AI's can be tense.
The map is graphically attractive, at least until the lovely
archipelago forests start to burn.
Thanks to Chinahook for much help and support in making additions to
his on-going archipelago completion tilesetÊ project which specifically
supported making a map like this.
The map supports 8 start positions, with positions 1 thru 4 starting in
rough corners, with the possiblity of using odds and evens as teams for
the first 4 positions.
Enjoy and post feedback on the forum
Minimap and satellite image are posted below for your comparison... Map
requires tamec2004 and tak2004 for features loading and is a 7.8 meg
download.
 
March
31, 2005
My
Second attempt at making a real place using Annihilator. Wetumpka is
the site of an ancient impact site in Alabama USA. The actual real
crater structure is about 6.5 km in diameter. The real terrain is
nothing desert-like at all, and in fact the city of Wetumpka resides on
the piece of water-locked land on the mid-left of the map.
Nevertheless, the satellite photo of the terrain looked desert-like
enough, and the desert tileset and 3rd party additions to it had the
advantage of having "stacked-cliffs" which allowed a reasonably close
emulation of the actual crater terrain... so there you have it.
The map offers a rough and canyon-gouged terrain in the north end, all
of the canyons either opening or terminating at the river or the flat
area directly south of the rough northern end. The middle of the map
offers a water-locked piece of land to the left and the actual Wetumpka
Impact crater structure to the left. The crater itself is horseshoe
shaped and open at the bottom left. The walls use the stacked crater
tiles to try and recreate the actual "lay-of-the-land". South of the
crater is a desert area which is created using either dunes or
desert-archipelago transistion tiles. The very southern left corner has
more rough terrain. Along the way, various mesas and desert plateaus
are used to try and roughly follow the geography of the original
satellite picture
The terrain means gameplay is quite different depending on where you
start. The water-locked land at left is easiest to defend, but also the
toughest to get off of. The northern areas are also easy to defend due
to the chokepoints in all the canyons, but it's tough to put a base
together amidst all the rugged landscape. The crater area is also easy
to defend and has a little more room. The south is easiest rolling for
tanks and kbots, but also easiest to attack. Resources are slathered
all over the map, tons of reclaimable rocks, trees, geo vents, lava
flows (which even steam as they enter the water), etc.
The map supports 2-8 players, with odd teams of 1-3-5 being at the top
and 2-4-6 being at the bottom (roughly). 25x58, and a 18.2 meg
download. It requires tamec2004 to load the required features.
Thanks to Chinahook for providing a copy of the desert-archipelago
transistion tileset (mine was corrupt). Overall, I'm quite pleased with
how the map turned out.
Upsides: Great terrain, tons of resources, extremely varied in gameplay
depending on where you start.
Downsides: Mini-map does not reflect terrain well at all... the desert
cliffs almost disappear, although it looks better in-game. No way to
make a wide crossable river with desert tileset, hence water-locked
piece of land at left.
 
March
5, 2005
Today we
have a new rendered map by a new map author. Jodark is the author's
name, and this new map is a Bryce-rendered affair which offers stunning
realism. Called Drumheller AB CA, it was inspired
by the canyon is Alberta by the same name... a Grand-Canyon-like area
which is littered with many dinosaur fossils. Jodark used Bryce,
AutoCAD, and photoshop to create a graphically fabulous landscape.
Feature placement is very well done and the whole thing has this aura
of realism that has to be seen to be believed. One of the most pleasing
maps I've ever seen.
Gameplay is excellent, with ai play being difficult even with a default
ai. The map is 22 x 13, and weighs in at a huge 29.7 meg download due
to the non-repetitive rendered nature of the map. Tamec2004 and either
tak2004 or creon features.hpi (not both) are required to run the map,
and C_A_P's MC WindyTrees.ccx is recommended.
Pay particular attention to the map's readme... a fairly detailed
description of the process and effort required to put the map together
is detailed there. Makes for an interesting read.
Download and enjoy!!! A feast for the eyes!
February
27, 2005
Two
items today:
First, MacMaster's first map is up at the site. Called Backyards,
it's an Atlantis Metal affair whereby players attempt to build a decent
army in their "backyard" and then attack... or something like that. 22
x 32 and a smallish download at 1.4 meg, no additional features
required.
Second, my first attempt at recreating a real place as a TA map is
available. Manicouagan attempts to recreate the
ancient and very large (60km wide) impact creater site in Quebec
Canada. Big enough to see from low earth orbit, it was tough to make it
come out even remotely like the real place. Add a few TA-twists for
gameplay and it becomes much less than the real thing. Anyway, it seems
to play well enough... it's 50 x 50, 22 meg to download, and requires
tamec2004 to run for features. TA mini-map and and the shuttle pictures
of the real place are below for you to compare.
January
30, 2005
Mufdvr
has uploaded a second version of his GD2 mission. In response to
requests in the forums, this map has been updated to add a second
version of the download... this one featuring a Core mission. Check out
the mission page and scroll down to the GD2 mission. A second download
link appears there for the Core version.
January
20, 2005
First we
have another mission from Mufdvr, this one called Quagmire
Pass. This map has long been a favorite of mine, and it plays
very very well in multiplayer. It uses C_A_P's Quagmire Jungle Tileset,
which is hardly ever used in maps.
Sized at 25 x 25, and 8.2 meg to download. It's a well done map which
includes a campaign mission under the Arm side. Grab this map, you need
to have it!
In
addition, the most popular map at THE PACK's website has been
updated... Crater Floor has been updated. Mufdvr
has scripted a hard mission for it which appears again under the Arm
side... seems Mufdvr seems to need to rid the crater of Core scum or
something :-) Come to think of it, how come all his missions revolve
around destroying Core Scum! I Play core all the time!!!
Jan
10, 2005
Today a
couple of things happened.
First, Mufdvr posted three new missions... GD2, Krogoth Testing Range
V2, and The Cold Place. Mufdvr is not the original author of any of
these maps, but has updated them to add difficult and quirky missions
for your TA enjoyment. Having been the "victim" of a number of his
"missions" (AKA grief inducing/ego-cracking thrashings), I'm sure
you'll enjoy them.
Of particular "enjoyment" is the Krogoth Testing Range V2 mission. This
map has fond memories for me... it's actually the first map I ever saw
TA running on many years ago. I don't remember the Krogoths arriving so
fast though!
There's a few more of his missions hanging about at Tamec as well...
find Quagmire Pass and give that one a whirl... long one of my
favorites.
Second, to facilitate this spat of Missions, I decided to redo the site
slightly and split the Missions off into their own page. Muf's first
mission posted here, Zhon Fort, also appears on this new page. Give
them a whirl and post feedback in the forums
 
January
8, 2005
We have a
new map for you to try called Gorge. This map was
originally created by Tangaroa, taken to the stage of having all
terrain, player placement and heights done, and then offered to the TA
community for completion. I've added features, and hopefully Tangaroa
isn't displeased at the result.
Sized at 19 x 19, and 13.6 meg to download. It's a well done map.
Tangaroa went to the extent of creating an additional level of heights
for this map (which doesn't exist in Zhon Tileset part 1).Give it a
whirl and post feedback in the forums
September
15, 2004
It's my
pleasure to announce that Mufdvr has graciously
agreed to host some of his map-making creations at THE PACK's website.
Those of you into 3rd party maps will know of many of his creations
which appeared at TAMEC. His maps are always artful, and mechanically
amongst the most perfect I've run across. As an intial map at this
site, he's uploaded a single-player mission called Zhon
Fortress. It features a very difficult mission, and can also
be used for multiplayer action. Wotan's Zhon tileset conversion is used.
Sized at 19 x 19, and 5.5 meg to download. Give it a whirl and post
feedback in the forums
August
25, 2004
A new map
is available on the maps page, called Crater Floor.
This is the most complex map I've done to date. It features and extinct
crater floor as a center, and Adamante and Evergreen Tilesets and
various transistions and add-ons. Sized at 40 x 40, and A staggering
29.7 meg to download. Give it a whirl and post feedback in the forums
June
19, 2004
A new map
is available, called Impact Gauntlet. It uses
Punkkid's Impact Green tilest and offers an insanely bumpy landscape
with a relatively clear gauntlet down the center. Sized at 20 x 40, and
about 6.7 meg to download. Give it a whirl and post feedback in the
forums
May
13, 2004
Maps
section opens with two new maps, Atlantian Skirmish V2 and Closer Than
You Think. Atlantian Skirmish is meant for skirmish play only and pits
you against 9 AI's with only a causeway between you. Closer Than You
Think is meant for 1 vs 1 or teamplay. Both maps are large at about 20
x 40. Give them a whirl and post feedback in the forums
 
Apr.
26, 2004
A
replacement version of the A Skirmish ufo is released. This fixes a
lingering line feed issue and a couple of apparently corrupted
models/scripts which could cause crashing partway through loading units
for Win98/XP users. Please snag this file and replace the version you
have. See downloads page for link...
Mar.
9, 2004
Version
1.1 of THE PACK is released. This version fixes a major problem with
line feeds which affected TA users running Win98. In addition, a
fouled-up F1 pic is fixed (thanks, No One), and the Core Warhammer
(glitchy firing script) is removed and replaced with the Core Cougar
(TARAD/Aftermath version). An additional error which caused Arm and
Core ai seaplanes to misfire their AA missile has been fixed. AI
profiles have been updated to take into account the new Cougar. See the
download page for links.
Feb.
20, 2004
The
MacUtator download has been replaced with a corrected version which
contains a corrected control file and four missing ai ufo files in the
correct format. Sorry for the error, and thanks to Darkstar for the bug
report and No One for aid in the fix.
Feb.
17, 2004
The
Pack's website is open for business. Please see the information page
for info (duh), and the download page for downloads. Thanks to all the
people that helped make this possible and special thanks to TA Universe
for hosting us.
Comments
welcome in our forum.
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