Tactics Arena Online

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A screenshot of the game lobby in the commercial servers of TAO.

Tactics Arena Online (sometimes referred to as TAO) is a turn-based strategy (TBS) multiplayer online game which pushes the limits of Flash MX. TAO is home to over 300 thousand players over two websites and several different servers^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] History

Vito Sze, the author of TAO, who goes by the online game handle of 'Seed', was an active Flash Artist before TAO, creating a single-player game much like TAO called Tactics Core. Tactics Arena was a huge success, and it motivated Seed to make an Online version of the game.

On October 29th 2003, Seed launched Tactics Arena Online. Within days of it's launch, Seed was forced to make numerous updates to help handle the sudden influx of players. Due to its success, in late November Seed was offered by a company called Flash Player Studios to sell them certain rights to the game. Seed agreed, and he now gets a share of the profits,^{[citation needed]} while his own server was renamed Legends.

3 years, 11 more units, and numerous amounts of bug fixes and new features later, Seed's small-time game has turned into a big-time source of entertainment for thousands of people since only 350 can be supported on all of the servers put together.

[edit] Game Services

TAO servers operate on a two-tiered account system, one called "gray" and the other "gold,". The two types of accounts can be distinguished by the color of the font their name is displayed in. The gray, or free, accounts are limited in the units they can make use of, and also disconnect from the server at the conclusion of every match. On the Legends server, gray accounts are kept if a player uses them more than once a month. The commercial TAO servers regularly delete all the gray accounts in a server wipe to help encourage gray players to upgrade to gold.

For a fee (again varying depending on "Legends" or the TAO servers) you may upgrade your account to gold status. This grants you access to all the unit types in the game, no limitations to your chat speed, no disconnects after matches, and immunity from the regular server wipes (For Commercial Servers).

The Legends server fee is a one-time payment of US$10 or US$20. US$10 upgrades are called Single Gold Account, and US$20 upgrades are called Double Gold accounts. Double Gold accounts give you access to even more units. Being a member of Legends grants you first time access to new units and features, a one time payment, and a smaller and closer knit community.

The commercialized TAO servers has a fee of US$5 a month. This allows immunity against server wipes, upgraded forum status and priority access to customer service.

[edit] Formations

There are a number of formations a player may switch to, some of these largely depend on use of particular units. The formation used against certain opponents may gear towards an obvious victory irrellevent of skill. Commonly employed formations include: standard (default) turt (short for turtle) rush anti-rush

[edit] Clans

Good Clans Include:

Great Lakes: Netjak.net, The Arcadian Knights, Hells Angels, Strategic Insomniacs

Legends: ChaosGladiators, Judgement, Wolf Clan, Strategic Insomniacs, slayers Guild, The White Dynasty, Celestial Knights, MIA, The Einherjar

Banff: Stragetic Insomniacs, Netjak.com

Army: The Dawg Pound X-factor Netjak.com

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Legends server.
• Commercial server.
• The Einherjar Clan Site.