Join BAR Alpha play-testing!

Hello, since the last brief promotion on Reddit, we have seen a major raise in interest with Beyond All Reason. We are astounded with the encouraging reception of BAR in its Open Alpha stage. You guys are awesome! We have seen many positive comments so far.

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With more players, we're able to collect feedback and make everything better. And oh boy, the promotion worked. In one week our Discord channel has grown by more than 400 members.

We are at 27.000+ members and growing!

date: DEC 2023

We have new players, new streamers and more contributors. If you are new here, welcome! Check the Alpha release news post to find instructions for setting up a single or multiplayer game.

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Welcome Home, Commander

A frequently asked questions has been:

BAR looks like (some) awesome game!
‍What's the difference?

Most people interested in BAR are familiar with games inspired by

• Total Annihilation (TA)
  and its spiritual successors, like:
• Supreme Commander
• Planetary Annihilation
• Zero-K

We are very happy that our game strikes the same note for you as these. BAR is descended from a popular mod of Cavedog's Total Annihilation, and the goal was always to continue its magnificent legacy. We are glad that this is what all of you have been looking for. Welcome home, Commander. Here is the general answer to this question:

BAR brings back the gameplay of TA with 150+ more units and modern graphics. It features a new UI and advanced controls that give you more power than in any other RTS

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How to be pro

As someone who has played and enjoyed all of these beautiful games and observed the feedback of players coming from these communities I decided to write a short guide to prepare you for competitive play. If you have played any games based on Total Annihilation you will grasp it in no time!

Anyone who played any RTS at a competitive level will know that the most important skill to learn is using the game controls in an efficient way. In real-time strategy the time matters. High APM won't help you if you are wasting time by not using shortcuts. Find all essential controls below.

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Movement

One of the most awesome control features BAR has, is the Line-Drag system.

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Queuing Commands

Also very important are queued (build) commands. See three very useful commands and hotkeys below.

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Most crucial keybinds

Z, X, C, V - for quick building of most frequently used structures. Press multiple times to get all the choices (z, zz,zzz, etc). See the infographic below.

• ctrl+z - selects all units of the selected type on the map
• double click on a unit - selects all units of the same type in view
• ctrl+[1-9] - assign selected units to a group
• [1-9] - select a group of units assigned to a given number

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Use Fight (F) to make units push along a given path, stopping to destroy each individual target.

Use Patrol (P) to make units guard a given area, attacking everything that comes close to it. (Useful for fighter aircraft)

A fight or patrol command will make constructors and resurrectors repair/assist/reclaim everything along their fight/patrol path. They can also be combined with a right-click+drag to spread out the units' paths.

Use reclaim (E) drag it for area reclaim

Use repair (R) drag it for area repair

See all the commands and check what they do

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Economy basics

• Find out what type of economy is best for the given map (wind/solar/tidal). Wind is effective if average is above 8 E/s. Tidal power is good above 15 E/s
• Wind meter is on the right side of the resource bars, tidal force can be found in map information (i)
• T2 economy is almost always more cost-efficient than T1. It is good to reclaim T1 to fund fusion plants
• Assist your labs with Commander and constructors (guard lab - right click) and construction turrets!
• ‍Don't make multiple labs of the same kind as it's a waste of resources
• Try to expand as quick as you can with constructors and commander, guarding your metal extractors with light laser turrets
• When you start overflowing energy, make energy converters to get more metal out of spare energy
• Reclaim your spare buildings to recover metal

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Fighting

• ‍Mix your army, remember that every unit in BAR has its counter, always include builders/rezbots in your front pushing squad for healing, reclaiming, resurrecting and building defenses to claim points of interest and choke points
• As in TA, Commander has a one-hit manual weapon - Dgun (D). Use it when it is safe, but don't risk losing a commander as it means losing the game in 1v1 or leaving a precious 2000 metal wreck in team games. The BAR Commander is way weaker than in SupCom or TA, so always protect it
• Leave no metal behind!
  ‍Always look for the wrecks to reclaim or ressurect. In competitive games reclaiming metal is often more important than 'eco-ing'
• Patrol and Fight commands used on builders/rezbots will make them auto-repair units in the given area and auto-reclaim wrecks if they see them. Alt+F used on rezbots will make them resurrect wrecks in vicinity instead of reclaiming
• Attack only when you are certain you can make it through. Losing a brawl on enemy grounds means donating metal to enemy
• Avoid stalling energy - all laser weapons and some heavy weapons like the Basilica and Pulsar need energy to shoot
• When using artillery, always make sure you have line of sight (LOS), long range weapons become very inaccurate without LOS. Use scouts, perimeter cameras or stealthy units to gain LOS

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User Interface

Last but not least, if you want to learn what each part the interface does, please check out our interactive infographic on the Commands Page.

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