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TA vs TA: Kingdoms — Format Differences

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A single page summarising what's the same, similar, or different between Total Annihilation (1997) and TA: Kingdoms (1999). Useful when porting work between the two games or deciding which game your tool needs to support.

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TL;DR. TA:K kept most of TA's container formats (HPI, GAF, TDF, COB) but simplified the wrappers (no XOR in HPI v2, no separate weapons/ directory, no 2×3 build grid) and introduced entirely new things on top (4 sides, mogrium economy, spell-cast "weapons", per-mission .kmp archives).

Quick-reference matrix

Format TA TA: Kingdoms Status in kbot
HPI / UFO / CCX / GP3 archive v1 — XOR-encrypted, multi-chunk per file, ≤64 KiB chunks v2 — plaintext envelope, single SQSH chunk per file, ~32-byte header ✅ Read both; ✅ write v1; ❌ write v2
.kmp campaign archives N/A HPI v2 with renamed extension; bundles per-mission map + scripts + GAFs ✅ Read
GAF / TAF sprite animations .gaf, palette comes from palettes/palette.pal Paletted .taf (same binary format), palette from per-side .pcx; plus a truecolor .taf/.tsf variant (16-bit ARGB, see taf.md) ✅ Read all; ✅ write GAF & truecolor TAF/TSF
PCX images unitpics/<name>.pcx for unit portraits (96×96 paletted) Used as 1×1 palette carrier next to .taf ✅ Read/write
PAL / ALP / LHT / SHD Global TA palette + lookup tables Per-side and per-terrain palettes, mostly inside PCX carriers; palettes/ also holds a .alp (65,536 bytes) and .shd / .lht (8,192 bytes) of the same layout for nearly every one of them (41 sets) ✅ Both (kbot pal lookup --palette takes a .pal or .pcx)
FNT bitmap fonts fonts/*.fnt 1bpp glyphs Same format, larger glyph set typical ✅ Read
SCT map sections sections/<biome>/*.sct reusable tile blocks for the TAE editor Not used — TA:K's tile system is different ✅ TA; N/A TA:K
TNT map terrain IDVersion == 0x2000, tile-grid + heightmap + features + minimap IDVersion == 0x4000 (variant); same overall structure, different tile decoder ✅ TA; ⚠️ TA:K (header reads, tiles undecoded)
TA:K map sidecars N/A .ota (TDF metadata), .txt (description), .crt (binary, purpose unknown) ✅ .ota; — .crt/.txt
3DO models Hierarchical, palette-indexed faces or textured Similar but skinning model differs; some additional per-primitive fields ✅ TA; ⚠️ TA:K (loads but kinematics differ)
COB / BOS unit scripts scripts/*.cob; stack-based bytecode Same bytecode format and same opcodes; some GET_UNIT_VALUE ports added ✅ Both
TDF / FBI / OTA text configs Same INI-shaped grammar Same grammar ✅ Both
Inline weapon defs No — weapons live in weapons/*.tdf referenced by name Yes — [WEAPON1]/[WEAPON2]/[WEAPON3] sub-sections inside each unit's FBI ✅ Both via documentor
AI profiles ai/*.txt with plan/weight/limit directives ai/*.txt with bare weight/limit (no plan block) ✅ Both
Build menus Static gamedata/sidedata.tdf [CANBUILD] + dynamic download/*.tdf [MENUENTRY] overlays Per-builder directory canbuild/<builder>/<unit>.tdf, each with [Menu].Priority ✅ Both
Build-menu grid 2 columns × 3 rows per page (BUTTON 0–5) Linear list per builder, ordered by Priority —
Sound bank wiring 3-layer: FBI SoundCategory → gamedata/sound.tdf → sounds/*.wav soundclass= / soundcategory= fields with different resolution ✅ TA wiring; ⚠️ TA:K wiring needs writing-up
Smacker / ZRB video data/*.zrb (renamed .smk) Same Smacker format under different extensions ✅ Both
GUI menus .gui (different format from TA:K) .gui whitespace-delimited widget tree; see takgui.md ⚠️ TAK only described; TA .gui not yet covered

Legend: ✅ first-class · ⚠️ partial · ❌ not supported · — N/A or no plans

Things genuinely shared

Same bytes, same parser, same Go types:

  • HPI marker ('HAPI') — every archive container starts with it.
  • TDF grammar — both games parse FBI/OTA/weapon TDFs with the same parser. Field names differ but the syntax is identical.
  • COB bytecode — opcodes, stack model, signal masks, every 0x10xxxxxx value catalogued in cob.md work in both.
  • Smacker video — .smk / .zrb are bit-identical; only the filename extension changes.
  • 3DO hierarchy concept — both games use parent/child/sibling trees of named pieces, fixed-point coordinates, and primitives that reference textures by name.

Things subtly different (read carefully)

  • HPI header layout. v1 = 20 bytes total (5 × uint32). v2 = 8 bytes prologue + 24-byte sub-header. The first 8 bytes are identical in both (marker + version) so a v1-only reader will succeed at validating the magic before crashing on the rest. See hpi.md HPI v2.
  • FBI economy fields. TA: BuildCostMetal= + BuildCostEnergy=. TA:K: single buildcost= (mogrium). The documentor handles both via Unit.BuildMetal/BuildEnergy (TA) and Unit.BuildCost (TA:K) — see types.go.
  • Side codes. TA: ARM / CORE. TA:K: ARA / TAR / VER / ZON + CRE (Iron Plague) + MON / LIF / NPC.
  • Weapon archetype. TA: a bag of boolean fields (ballistic=1, lineofsight=1, guidance=1, beamweapon=1, …). TA:K: a single type=Ballistic / Missile / Magical / Melee string.
  • Damage modelling. Both use a [DAMAGE] sub-section under a weapon with a default= plus per-target overrides. TA:K additionally uses damagecategory= on each unit (Human, Building, Magical) for broad-class resistance modelling.

Things only TA has

  • Multi-chunk file payloads in HPI archives (the ≤64 KiB chunks with size table model).
  • HPI XOR encryption (per-position seed + transformed key).
  • download/*.tdf [MENUENTRY] overlay for adding build-menu entries without forking sidedata.tdf.
  • 2×3 build-menu grid with BUTTON 0–5 (top-left to bottom-right).
  • Separate weapons/ directory of TDFs referenced by name.
  • SCT (section) editor format — TAE specific.
  • One global palette (palettes/palette.pal) that every asset is drawn with, and one set of .alp / .shd / .lht tables. TA: Kingdoms has a palette per side and terrain set, most with tables of the same layout.

Things only TA: Kingdoms has

  • HPI v2 with simplified single-chunk file payloads.
  • canbuild/<builder>/<unit>.tdf directory tree for build-menu registration (linear, no grid).
  • Inline [WEAPONn] weapon definitions inside FBIs.
  • Mogrium single-resource economy (buildcost=, no metal/energy split).
  • Per-side palettes carried inside PCX 1×1 stubs sitting alongside .taf animation files.
  • Magic / spell-cast units (arapries, vermage, zonsham) whose weapons are spells.
  • Four (+1) sides: Aramon, Taros, Veruna, Zhon — plus Creon from the Iron Plague expansion.
  • anims/buildpic/*.jpg — unit portraits as 64×48 JPGs (TA uses PCX in unitpics/).
  • .kmp campaign-mission HPI v2 archives bundling per-mission maps with mission scripts.
  • -disablecavedogverification command-line requirement to load most modded files.

Per-page deltas — where to find each game's coverage

Every format page that has TA:K specifics carries a clearly-marked "TA: Kingdoms" section. Quick index:

Page TA:K section
hpi.md TA: Kingdoms HPI v2, full hex walk in Appendix — Jersey.hpi
ai.md TA: Kingdoms — plan-less profiles
takgui.md Entire page is TA:K-only
takmap.md Entire page is TA:K-only

Reference catalogues live in separate repos:

See also