"War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory."
-Albert Pike
Controls, Commands and Cheats
Now, there are a lot of sites out there that have a TA Keyboard controls list but I have yet to see one that has them all. So we are attempting to peice together every control, keyboard command and cheat code for original TA. That being said, please note that I do mean original TA, meaning everything put out by Cavedog including patches and expansions. The latest patch added quite a few new commands. We are not including any commands from 3rd party shit. That means NO demo recorder commands (all those are in the beautiful readme that comes with the recorder), no 3rd party mods or 3rd party bug-fix commands etc.
| A Attack | CTRL A Select all units |
| B Build menu for selected unit | CTRL B Select all construction units |
| C Capture order (Commander Only) | CTRL C Selects, centers on and tracks Commander |
| D Toggles D-gun (Commander Only) | CTRL D Self destruct selected units (on/off) |
| E Reclaim order | CTRL P Select all aircraft with weapons |
| F Fire orders (hold fire, return fire, fire at will) | CTRL R Select all radar, jammers and sonar |
| G Guard order | CTRL S Selects everything on screen |
| H Share resources with allies | CTRL V Select all aircraft |
| L Load order (transport units) | CTRL W Select all units with weapons (except Commander) |
| M Move order | CTRL Z Select all units of same type |
| N Scroll to next unit (offscreen) | |
| O Orders menu for selected unit | |
| P Patrol order | |
| R Repair order | |
| S Stop order | |
| T Centers on and Tracks selected unit | |
| U Unload order (transport units) | |
| V Move orders (hold position, maneuver, roam) | |
| 1-9 Select menu for the currently selected unit (See +SWITCHALT) |
|
| CTRL 1-9 Assign selected units to a squad | ALT 1-9 Select a squad (See +SWITCHALT) |
| + Increase game speed | - Decrease game speed |
| ,(comma) Previous menu for selected unit | .(period) Next menu for selected unit |
| ~(tilde) Toggle unit health bars | |
| ESC Unselect | SHIFT Queue multiple commands (hold down) |
| ENTER Activate message bar/typing | PAUSE Pause the game |
| TAB Multiplayer options menu | SPACE Game stats/Player names/scores/colors (hold down) |
| F1 Display info on unit cursor is hovering over | |
| F3 Go to unit that last reported to you | |
| F2 Main options menu | |
| F4 Toggle player names/scores/colors | |
| F5-F7 Go to map bookmark | CTRL F5-F7 Set map bookmark |
| F8 Toggles Movie capture of game (on/off) | |
| F9 Take Screenshot (will print screen to file SHOT####.pcx) | |
| F11 Switch modes (normal to debug) | |
| F12 Clear messages |
| +ANTIALIAS Toggles antialiasing on 3d models |
| +BIGBROTHER Toggles scrolling through each of your units |
| +BPS Network transfer rate meter |
| +CDSTART Starts CD music |
| +CDSTOP Stops CD music |
| +CLOCK Toggles game timer |
| +COMPRESSIONTURNS Toggles multiplayer compression |
| +CONTOUR # Rate of displayed 3d contour (# = 1-15) |
| +DITHER Changes line of sight to a dithering effect |
| +FSHADOW Toggles terrain feature shadows |
| +GAMMA # Changes brightness level (# = 1-20) |
| +HONK Makes units honk when they stop (couldn't get this to work) |
| +NETSTATS Undetermined effect |
| +LOGO # Change your color (# = 0-9) |
| +LIGHT # Undetermined effect |
| +MAKEPOSTER Huge screenshot in Bitmap format |
| +MUSICMODE # Sets CD music mode |
| +NOSHAKE Stops all shaking from explosions and earthquakes |
| +RELOADAIPROFILES Reloads AI |
| +SCREENCHAT Toggles chat text on/off |
| +SETSHAREENERGY #### Will share any energy (with allies) that is above a chosen amount (####) |
| +SETSHAREMETAL #### Will share any metal that is above a chosen amount (####) |
| +SFX Toggles certain visual effects such as Nanolathe and smoke |
| +SHADOW Toggles building shadows |
| +SHAREENERGY Toggles full energy sharing with allies |
| +SHAREMAPPING Shares map information with allies (I don't believe this ever worked; use Demo Recorder .sharelos instead) |
| +SHAREMETAL Toggles full metal sharing with allies |
| +SHARERADAR Toggles sharing radar information with allies |
| +SHOOTALL Units will shoot all enemies they see including unarmed structures |
| +SHOWRANGES Toggles ability to hold shift while hovering cursor on a unit to show various range information |
| +SING Makes units sing when moved |
| +SING JERSEY Makes units sing when moved |
| +SWITCHALT Switches the Menu select and Squad select so that unit menu selection is ALT 1-9 and squad selection is 1-9. Only needed once per TA install. |
| +TSHADOW Toggles unit shadows |
| +ATM Gives you 1000 metal and energy |
| +COMBUSTION Kill all other players units |
| +CONTROL # Lets you control a skirmish AI (# = 1-4) |
| +DOUBLESHOT All weapons do double damage |
| +HALFSHOT All weapons do half damage |
| +ILOSE Causes you to lose |
| +INFRARED Toggles fog of war (couldn't get this to work) |
| +IWIN Causes you to win |
| +KILL # Kills off a player (# = 1-4) |
| +LUSHEE Limited resource increase |
| +MAPPING Toggles screen between dark or mapped |
| +METEOR Activates a random meteor shower |
| +NANOLATHING x2 building speed but also x2 metal use |
| +NOENERGY Drops your energy to 0 |
| +NOMETAL Drops your metal to 0 |
| +NOWISEE Full mapping and no fog of war |
| +RADAR Full radar coverage |
| +SETI Toggle radar minimap on/off |
| +TILT Max out men and material |
| +VIEW # Lets you see how much metal and energy a player has |
| +ZIPPER Speeds up unit building |
Skirmish Mode Cheat
This allows you to have more than 3 computer players in Skirmish Mode. Go into the skirmish setup screen press Shift-8. Now type the total number of players that you want in the game up to 10 (this includes your Commander, so you can fight against 9 other AI's total). HOWEVER you must use Roman Numerals:
| 1 = | i |
| 2 = | ii |
| 3 = | iii |
| 4 = | iv |
| 5 = | v |
| 6 = | vi |
| 7 = | vii |
| 8 = | viii |
| 9 = | ix |
| 10 = | x |