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Total Annihilation Units Compilation Pack GUIDE for New Users
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Last Revised: 5th Of September 2002

Some parts of this new users guide was taken from the TAUCP FAQ. 
You SHOULD read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) as well after reading this guide.

What is OTA/NORMAL & TA:M Version?
- OTA (or NORMAL) version is known as Original Total Annihilation. Meaning that it is
unmodified and you do NOT have any other 3rd party OR even downlodable cavedog units
installed (such as FARK, Necro, etc). This is what MOST people have.

- TA:M (or TA:Mutation) version is a special version for TA:Mutation, a program that
allows you to swap between units, mods, maps, etc. Meaning that you can have more than
one mod/unit pack installed with TA:M. TA:Mutation users are however required to download
an extra 6-7 MB Rev31.gp3 setup program due to the nature of the TA:Mutation program.

Issue 1:
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Firstly, TAUCP requires you to install TA in the correct order, which is shown below:

1)TA
2)TA:Core Contingency Expansion Pack (If you have it)
3)TA 3.1 Patch/Update
4)3do Files (get it if you do NOT have the TA:CC Expansion Pack)
5)TAUCP itself

NOTICE: Some users have experienced problems playing TAUCP with the TA:Battle Tactics
expansion pack. If you face any problems, uninstall TA:BT and try TAUCP again.

Before you proceed to install TAUCP, you SHOULD check to make sure that your 3.1 patch
was successfully installed by launching TA and making sure that the main screen shows
a small version number "3.1". It should NOT read "3.0" or any other number, other than
"3.1". Once all that is done, you may proceed to install TAUCP.

You should also make sure that you did NOT install any other 3rd party units and also
any downloadable cavedog units (such as FARK, Necro, etc)

The 3do Files is necessary if you do NOT have the TA: Core Contingency expansion pack.
Just download it and extract the files to your TA main folder. TA will automatically
recognise its contents.

Issue 2:
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Secondly, AFTER you have installed TAUCP, you WILL get a bunch of "new maps". These are
not actually new maps, but merely AI profiles so that the AI can perform better on
those maps. There is nothing that you can do to remove those files WITHOUT messing with
TAUCP's frontend mechanism. So it is BEST to leave it alone and ignore it.

Issue 3:
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The Arm Flea, which is a cavedog downloadable unit, is NOT included in TAUCP because it
isn't a "decent" useful unit. Adding it takes up space, whereby the TA engine has a unit
limit of 512 units MAXIMUM. TAUCP (plus TA, TA:CC and some other cavedog downloadable units)
has already pushed it up to 511 units. The 512th unit as i have noticed, faces some unusual
problems or side-effects - for example, if you press CTRL+C to select the commander, it will
also select the 512th unit that was loaded by the TA engine.

Issue 4:
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On Windows 2000 or Windows XP Operating Systems, you may only hear "a few sounds". Since
TA is a very old game and it does not support full sound acceleration, you need to decrease 
your sound playback sound acceleration via the Sounds & Audio Devices in the control panel 
(or anything similar). Click on the advanced button in the Sound Playback section and click 
on the performance tab. Reduce the hardware acceleration to BASIC acceleration.

Issue 5:
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After installing TAUCP, if you get an error message when you launch the TAUCP Frontend, it is
most likely that you do NOT have the Visual Basic 6 Service Pack 5Runtime Files. You can get
these files at TAUCP Central itself - http://www.planetannihilation.com/taucp