Annihilation Engine X
The battlefield, in focus
Total Annihilation at the starting point. More ways to set up, command and revisit your battles in Annihilation Engine X.
Status reviewed
Compatibility at a glance
Original TA behavior is the default. AEX additions can be configured individually in the same game. Lobbies, map setup, Tactical Overview, recording and replays are present in the development build. TA fidelity, mod-specific behavior and large-battle validation remain active work. This checklist cross-references reviewed features; it is not comprehensive TA parity, mod certification or a promise of future delivery.
Implementation status describes the reviewed feature's scope. Validation notes separately explain the evidence and any remaining checks. Supported does not mean every interaction or mod has been certified. This review checks documentation and source; it does not report new live-game acceptance tests.
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The original game
Original content and behavior, with remaining fidelity gaps called out feature by feature.
Read original TA archives, maps, unit models and compiled unit scripts without converting the collection. This does not certify every mod or every gameplay interaction.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Builders can place and construct buildings. Placement and unreachable-site behavior still have differences from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Factories build queued units on their pads. Factory exits, blocked yards and unit-limit retries differ in some situations.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Multiple builders can help complete a unit or building. Approach behavior and completion timing are not fully matched.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Unfinished structures lose progress after being left without construction work.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Ground units travel around obstacles and through narrow passages. Group passage timing and some terrain responses still differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Water units and amphibious units use their water and terrain limits. Exact route and movement parity remains incomplete.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Hovercraft cross land and water. Route behavior and terrain presentation are not fully identical to stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Aircraft take off, fly and search for landing space. Overlapping aircraft can choose different landing places from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Units attack targets and explosions damage nearby units. Some hits and crowded explosions can produce different results from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Aircraft engage air and ground targets and bombers make bombing runs. Weapon use during an attack approach still has a known difference.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Ships and submarines can fight with water-capable weapons. Shared targeting and hit differences mean complete naval parity is not established.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The Commander can fire its D-gun. Clicking a moving unit aims at its clicked position rather than following that unit.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Silos build ammunition using metal and energy and spend a stored round when firing.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Anti-missile weapons can intercept incoming missiles. Some interception and explosion edge cases still differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Paralyzing weapons stun units, including repeated hits. Stun duration can end slightly earlier or later than in stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Units earn experience from kills, with stock TA kill-credit rules in the TA preset.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Destroyed units explode and can leave reclaimable wreckage. Wreck selection and some death timing still differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Completed, active solar collectors generate energy using stock TA output rules in the TA preset.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Wind generators respond to changing wind and tidal generators use the map tidal strength.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Extractors produce metal from the map and stop producing when their energy debt is unpaid. Some metal-deposit map values can yield different output.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Active metal makers convert energy to metal and stop producing while their energy debt is unpaid.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Storage limits resource reserves and shortages slow construction and other paid work in the TA preset.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Builders restore damaged units using energy. Unreachable-target behavior and repair voice announcements are not fully matched.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Builders reclaim eligible features for metal or energy, including underwater wrecks. Unreachable reclaim orders can retry differently.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Eligible units can be reclaimed for metal. The working voice announcement for reclaiming a live unit is still absent.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Capture-capable units can take control of enemy units. A capture order gives up after repeated failed approaches where stock TA keeps trying.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Air transports pick up eligible ground units, carry them and unload where they fit. In the TA preset unloaded cargo starts idle.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Shift queues movement, attacks and work orders. Repeated-click cancellation and some order markers differ from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Guards follow and assist units; builder patrols repair, assist construction and reclaim resources. Target choices and approach behavior can differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Units offer Hold Fire, Return Fire and Fire At Will, plus Hold Position, Maneuver and Roam.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Active radar and sonar reveal eligible contacts above and below water. Detection boundaries and some computer-player behavior differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Cloak-capable units spend energy to hide and can be revealed by nearby enemies and work. Some underwater visibility details remain unmatched.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Units reveal explored ground and terrain can block sight. The Permanent visibility option is not fully confirmed against stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Players can change alliances during a match. Vision sharing and allied victory follow AEX rules that differ from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Matches can end on Commander loss or elimination of every unit. Commander-loss aftermath and defeated-player behavior still differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The stock Deathmatch option that respawns a defeated Commander is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The stock menu for banning unit types before a match is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Weapon fire, impacts and death explosions play sounds. Loudness and distance behavior differ from stock TA.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Unit selection, orders, arrival and reclaiming have voice support. Voice timing and some work announcements remain incomplete.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Original TA campaigns and their ending sequences are unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Mod and patch behavior
Reviewed Escalation 10.2 and TA Patch-family behavior. These entries do not certify every beta patch version or every mod.
Units can be gifted, but the patch’s delay before the recipient can control a large gift is absent.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
An enhanced repair mode scales repair work; the exact Escalation repair adjustment has not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The host can remove players; majority voting is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The match can slow when a player falls behind.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX waits for match updates when network progress stops; the original patch is not required.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Teams are assigned manually; patch commands for balancing or shuffling teams are unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Fixed, random and player-selected starts are available; automatic team-based and sequential patch modes are not covered.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Patch commands for neutral and extra per-player map units are unavailable; mission unit placement is separate.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Wind is shared consistently across the match without this original-game patch.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Your jammers do not block your own radar or sonar.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Dropped allies’ units continue their existing orders; the take-control command is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Shared allied vision is a lobby rule; the patch’s in-game chat command is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The precise patch protection behavior has not been established well enough to claim compatibility.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The command’s exact gameplay effect and compatibility have not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch command for relocating a commander at the start of a match is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
A player disconnect does not automatically pause the match.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Match synchronization checking is already active; a patch command is not needed.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The command’s exact player behavior and compatibility have not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s random-map command is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX has native spectators and match recording; the original watcher workaround is unnecessary.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX records matches for playback in a compatible AEX build; this does not promise playback of every original TA demo.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The original fixed-limit warning is unnecessary; the lobby provides a match unit-limit rule.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Replay controls let you watch each recorded player’s perspective.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Received shared resources currently contribute to production totals.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
A single human can start a ready game with AI opponents.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
View the whole map with unit icons, selection, orders and range circles. Escalation icons are supported; some patch-specific cosmetic settings differ.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX provides its own minimap presentation; the original display patch is unnecessary.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Double-click selects units of the same type on screen.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Share resources or selected units and configure automatic sharing through AEX’s sharing panel; its layout differs from the patch.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX menus use the window size without the original patch.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX uses its own layout-fit rules instead of this patch’s minimum-height restriction.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Idle-builder cycling and camera centering work; excluding carriers as the patch does remains unsupported.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The factory shortcut selects factories but does not center the camera.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The screen-selection shortcut includes mobile builders.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Control groups and numbered build choices work; Alt-number recalls groups rather than the patch’s build-menu behavior.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s shared map drawings and text markers are unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Income and game time are shown in play; wind and tidal values are available in map selection rather than the in-game HUD.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s in-game weather report is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX does not display the patch’s allied resource bar.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s built-in screenshot shortcut is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s chat macro shortcuts are unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Chat displays UTF-8 text; input-method composition has not been implemented or accepted across languages.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Chat messages appear on screen during play.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The host can toggle the shoot-all match setting through chat.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX does not use the original game’s camera shake.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Line-of-sight mode is a lobby rule rather than the patch’s runtime command.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
An in-game scoreboard is available.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX provides its own options and resource-bar layout.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Clicks can snap to nearby wrecks; the patch’s adjustable radius and Alt override are unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Extractor placement can snap to metal spots, with a configurable radius including off. The default differs from Escalation.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Queued orders cannot be repositioned by dragging.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Builder patrol can reclaim, repair and assist; it does not use Escalation’s hold-position versus roam task split.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s load/unload ferry sequence is unavailable; ordinary load and unload orders are separate.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch’s attack-order spreading behavior for transport loading is unavailable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Building rotation is available with a remappable shortcut; the default key and rotation artwork differ from the patch.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX shows a placement footprint; patch-specific model previews and preview-piece or facing options are unsupported.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch option’s exact player behavior and compatibility have not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
The patch option’s exact player behavior and compatibility have not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Sensor ranges appear on the minimap; Tactical Overview also shows selected sensor and defense ranges. The patch’s complete range-ring presentation is not reproduced.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
In-game chat is available; availability across every screen covered by the patch has not been verified.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Original-game capacity patches are not required. This is not a guarantee for any battle size or mod.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Weapons can exclude air or submerged targets and can fire from underwater when the mod permits.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Per-unit kill-based progression is supported and a representative rank-up is verified; every unit’s full progression has not been accepted in play.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Gameplay changes outside the reviewed feature inventory have not been certified. This checklist does not claim support for every TA patch release.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Original-game display, disc-check, music-player and diagnostic add-ons are not AEX compatibility requirements.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Beyond the original
Match setup, battlefield controls and ways to revisit a battle, alongside current development priorities.
Set up human and computer seats, teams, colors and ready states in one room.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Preview the map, enlarge the placement view and choose supported starting positions before launching.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Choose starting metal, energy and the per-player unit cap in the lobby. These are match settings, not a promise of performance at every size.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Zoom out to a whole-map view with unit icons, selection and commands. The build and command rail remains usable.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Choose classic TA or standard RTS mouse controls, rebind keys and use control groups.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Lay out lines of buildings and use modifiers to add multiple units to factory queues.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Capture menus, the lobby and gameplay at native resolution up to 4K, with 30 or 60 fps recording settings. Actual output depends on the capture size and machine.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Revisit a recorded match with speed controls, a free camera and player perspectives. Replays are separate from videos and require a compatible build.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Save single-player games and re-host saved multiplayer matches. AEX uses its own save formats; multiplayer resume requires a compatible build and the required players.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Original TA behavior is the default goal. Remaining behavior differences are being investigated and refined; complete parity is not claimed.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Escalation 10.2 runs in AEX, but upgrades and other mod-specific effects still need compatibility work and validation.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Work continues on demanding battles and smoother play. No frame-rate, unit-count or hitch-free guarantee is made.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
AEX development targets macOS, Windows and Linux; platform-specific stability and compatibility work continues.
Evidence: documentation and source review.
Minimum and recommended hardware remain provisional while reference-machine and battle-size checks are pending.
Evidence: validation pending.
See the battlefield
The teaser shows Total Annihilation with Escalation 10.2 running in AEX. Game content is not included.