
        These are instructions on using the multiplayer ota files that allow
any single player Total Annihilation map to be played multiplayer.  It should
be mentioned that while this allows all the single player maps to be played
multiplayer they were not really designed for it.  In other words some of
them just plain suck for multiplayer.  Some of them because of the layout and
some of them because of the lack of resouces like metal deposits.  In
addition the computer AI doesn't know what to do when low on metal when there
are no metal deposits and in some maps ends up building metal maker after
metal maker without the energy to operate them.  At other times the enemy
commander goes wondering off in search of metal deposits and makes an easy
target ending the game in a very short time.  You remedy this somewhat on
metal poor maps by increasing the starting resource limit.



        The first step is to create a subdirectory in the totala directory
called maps.  The maps directory is where the ota files should be placed.
On my machine the path looks like as follows.
        c:\cavedog\totala\maps

        IMPORTANT: When the multiplayer ota files are in the maps directory
the single player missions will not work.  In order to play the single player
missions the ota files must be removed from the maps directory.  A simple way
to do this is to rename the maps directory to something other then maps when
you want to play the single player missions.



        The next step is to make the single player maps accessable to the
game while in multiplayer mode.  There is more then one way to do this so
pick the best one for your system.  If the ota files are accesable and the
tnt files (the maps) are not then it will crash when you go to select the
level.

        1) If you have 2 devices that will read cdrom disks then simply place
the multitplayer disk (disk #1) in one drive and the single player disk
(disk #2) in the other drive.
        
        2) Copy the file totala4.hpi from the single player disk (disk #2) to
your totala directory on your hardrive.  This is a big file so make sure you
have the space for it.  You then must either have the mutliplayer disk
(disk #1) in your cdrom or you must have used the multiplayer spawn install
option.  It should be noted that 1 out of every 3 players must have the
multiplayer disk (disk #1) in a cdrom drive.

        3) If you normally play without the cdrom in the drive on your
machine, in other words you used the multiplayer spawn install option, then
you can play with the single player disk (disk #2) in your cdrom drive.

        4) You can use a utility like writehpi to extract just the tnt files
you are interested in playing from totala4.hpi then put them in your
totala\maps directory.



	Questions and comments should be directed to mutmut@ten.net 
	Please don't bother to tell a map sucks in multiplayer.  I already 
know that some of them do.  After all they were designed as maps for single 
player missions.  If  you have a suggestion on how to improve a particular map.  
For example changing a value in the ota file like, surface metal, wind, etc.
then go ahead and let me know.  
	Also if you wanna rank them from most playable to least so in a future
update to these files I can let other people know which ones are cool and which
ones to avoid then that would be cool also.
	If you find another way to make the game see single player maps while 
also allowing you to play that would be cool also.
	Please don't bother to check my spelling or grammer I wrote this pretty
fast just to give quick instructions on how to use the ota files.

















