Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val/SJ, et al.... been comparing the Hyach (uses default AI in my setup) vs the EA. One peculiar thing I noticed was that the Hyach will put reactors in their attack ships (escorts) and troop ships (small transport) the EA didn't until I deleted the .emp file and made a new one. Colony ships still don't put a reactor on board nor will pop transports.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

First Things First - Here are the latest Data/AI files--

DataAI041202.zip

Something that needs to be done- Mod the Systems so blackholes & nebula have an 'invisible' star, using either the BlackHole Star or 'blank' star from the planets folder. This is important for the reactors to work properly.


Pathfinder:
Oh man! I can't believe you actually printed the whole kit-n-kaboodle out! Insane!! Well, at least you'll get a good workout carrying it around http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif If you would like a list of the Weapon Families by race, I am working on an Excel list to make AI modders lives easier. If you were printing out for some other reason, let me know what you are looking for and maybe I can make your life easier http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Thanks much for the tireless effort (that goes for everyone else working on this as well). You might want to use the latest Data and such files posted above and move all the old EMP files and AI out of the mod folder.

Andy:
Right now my main site is down, but you can go to one of the other sites (SJ posted a link below, plus there is a mirror at SJs site and may soon be one at Rambie's) and if you just download the Races zip file, you will have the shipsets for everything we currently have. The actual mod aims to go much further though. Once the mod is completed it will have different graphics (including win/lose/title screen - thanks Rambie), a variety of new weapons (when Last counted over 200 unique weapons each with up to 10 Versions), different armor system (thanks SJ), some new shipsets (such as the Shag'Toth, aka SoulHunters, and Hyach - thanks Oleg & Zircher), new Random Events (including Dracus' - Danka) and quite a few other things (thanks Atomannj, Master Belsarius, Imperator Fyron & Pathfinder). But we need people to test it as we get the AI finished and start working on the individual AIs, so if you're up for it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


Engines & Reactors:
Revised both for all types. AI is much happier with it this way. Size is consistant, thrust/cost/struct differ. Instead of Light/Medium/Heavy/Huge now Prototype/Standard/Advanced/UltraEffecient. Reactors provide enough fuel for ship to avoid the Narn circle (fly out one turn, fly home next because it thinks supplies are low). Hope y'all like.

AI:
Working a bit better, still working on base AI, though I have at least changed the racial AIs to include their individual races as a first step.

Weapons:
Still have to add ElectroMag and Gravitic. Now that engines/reactors are working I will do this weekend.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val: Yeah, I was looking to setup a database or spreadsheet so that weapons mod-stuff would be easier http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I'll go ahead and get those data/ai files http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

*Dances jig* WHooHoo! ya got the reactors fixed!

*Salute* Good job Val!

Only one not using them is the escort-based satellite layer *shrug*...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Ah, who needs satellites http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

WeapList.zip

Here is a rough excel sheet, if you look in the tech column you can see what race the weapon is for (in some case more than one race). Also, most basic weapons can be researched by all races (such as light/medium lasers) up to a certain level, then you need to have the specific racial trait or tech (depending). I also included a corrected AI and Data folder (1 file in each). Doesn't do too much, just corrected a few things. Must get some rest now.......

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Thanks everyone I've downloaded nearly 5 meg of race piccies, will see if I got the right file!

Andy

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Andy Watkins:
Thanks everyone I've downloaded nearly 5 meg of race piccies, will see if I got the right file!

Andy<hr></blockquote>


See what have you done :

"The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information.
Access to this site will be restored within an hour. Please try again later." - this is what I get when I tried to download B5 files.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Geocities sucks !

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Andy Watkins:
Struggling a bit with the piccies.

What I have tried is moving the Earth Alliance directory into the main game pictures/races directory.

When I looked at the others they had about 6 or so .txt files for aggression, facilities etc, these did not appear to be with the race pics on the B5 page, and from what others have said I am not sure if they would work with SEIV gold anyway??

---
Andy<hr></blockquote>


Race AI files are in separate download link "AI files 1.49" and yes, AFAIK, they will not work with Gold. But you can still utilize EA speach file. It is quite hilarious.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Sorry to be dim, but I have been playing for a couple of weeks (with the speakers switched on!) I get explosions in combat but that is it, I have never heard any voices?

Andy


But you can still utilize EA speach file. It is quite hilarious.[/QB][/quote]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

It is "AI_speech.TXT", that he is referring to.

Combat should include weapon firing sounds as well as the explosions, but not voices.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Andy:

Here are the Gold compatible AIs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1018617744.zip

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Dear Suicide Junky,

I meant I didn't get any voices at all anywhere in the game ever, not in combat. Presumably they should be somewhere or there is little point having a speech file?

Andy


It is "AI_speech.TXT", that he is referring to.

Combat should include weapon firing sounds as well as the explosions, but not voices.[/QB][/quote]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

My point was that it is a text file, not a .wav, .mp3, or some sound format.

The AIs "read speeches" when they send you political Messages. It is text, not voice, and the file causes the various races to use words appropriate to their culture when communicating.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Would be great if they do eventually get a few WAVs in the game for each race. Would be cool to hear a voice proposing a treaty or declaring war http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


AI:
Making progress, ships are flying all over the place, colonies springing up sectors away from homeworld! Scout flying about and AI now builds each new shipclass as it becomes available. Having issues with how well armed the ships are, AI prefers to load ship with engines - of course this can be tailored for each individual race as we go along to intentionally stress Speed over FirePower, but I would like to see the AI put in a few more weapons on the generic ships then adjust up/down from there depending on race. I posted a query in the main forum asking for help with a more detailed explanation, go check it out and see what y'all think. Also, once that is fixed I am going to fix the 'lack of armor' on the AI ships.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hi,

you can find a large load of wav-files at the Babylon 5 Sound Archive

ru

vulture

[ 12 April 2002: Message edited by: Vulture-B ]</p>

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Dear all,

Help !

I have broken SEIV. I have loaded lots of new races etc. I have also loaded the new GOLD race ai's that were suggested, but am concerned I have loaded some non gold generic or neutral ai's? Are these gold or non gold?

Message I get it is

"Could not find field percentage of resources to reserve for unit construction in record 1"

The B5 races I set up seemed to work fine. Had about 10 other computer controlled races and about race 5 of these gets this message when I press end of turn.

I am sure I can undo the damage, but not sure which records to get rid of, I reckon it is the neutral or generic races??

Andy

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What subfolders do you have in your genericraces folder?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val,

picture \ race generic \ no sub folders, a lot of files I may have overwritten?

pictures \ race neutral \ (Gaim) (Grome) (Hurr) (Llort) (Mako) (Neutral1) (neutrral2,3,4,5,6) Yolu.

Do you think it is the extra sub directories in the neutral races? Or my possibly overwritting the files in the generic race.

My guess the nuetrals....

Andy

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Try removing the subfolders for the 'named' neutral races (eg: Gaim) and see what happens.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val: my baby test of the EA v Hyach is going nicely http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

So I guess I'll be "enabling" all the rest of the B5 races with the current build and run a larger test run this week-end


Good job!

[ 12 April 2002: Message edited by: pathfinder ]</p>

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> "Could not find field percentage of resources to reserve for unit construction in record 1" <hr></blockquote> According to History.txt, that line was added to AI_Construction_Units.txt in v1.66, and that file was only added in v1.64.

That narrows down where to look to fix the problem, at least, because that file is ignored if it hasn't been included in the AI's files.

I forget whether I've posted to this thread at all. In case I haven't, I'll put another plug in for my AI conVersion instructions, in the second link in my sig. These instructions get rid of the errors that pre-Gold AIs generate, but don't teach the AI how to use drones.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val: Drat !

seems the escort size ships revert to "old tricks" by putting an external cargo pod and self-destruct device on them and no reactor. Saw this in escort-sized attack/sat layer/kamikaze ships. The races had just gotten standard engines and medium reactors..

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Good to hear it is working http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif It has been frustrating getting the AI to do what I want, and it is by no means anywhere near finished (even the basic), but it is at least providing me with a challenging game early on, with any luck we can get this developed to the point of a challenge throughout and very individualized races.

Try these files out (you may want to copy the old files elsewhere first), it should give you better results:

AIDATA041202New.zip

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Good to hear it is working http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif It has been frustrating getting the AI to do what I want, and it is by no means anywhere near finished (even the basic), but it is at least providing me with a challenging game early on, with any luck we can get this developed to the point of a challenge throughout and very individualized races.

Try these files out (you may want to copy the old files elsewhere first), it should give you better results:

AIDATA041202New.zip

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Spoke too soon... actually, if you still have medium reactors then you definately need to use the latest files posted below. Your components file is out of date. Also, if the reactor is not on every ship built (before the 3rd engine is placed on board) then you are using an older AI_Design file. Both these files and a few other corrections are in the Zip in my Last post. Try loading them in and seeing how they do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

So far, in my test game, I have been spreading as quickly as possible, and was pleasantly surprised to find the Narn, Vorlons and Yolu around me - all with quite a number of worlds setttled (I know it is rather UnVorlon like, but we can work on the Ancient races more later). The Narn were beligerant and went right on the offensive, the Yolu wanted trade in a bad way and the Vorlons... politely asked me to get my ships out of their system before they were 'accidently' lost.

With all luck the next set of revisions to the base AI will get me far enough that I can start some basic AIs for each of the races (would prefer to see the Narn using Narn weapons instead of the same old BLast Guns everyone else is using).

Anyway, back to work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Ach, thought it might be that. Me gonna d/L those files and re-build the mod my end. hehe, they ARE being rather aggressive (Hyach and EA).

I'll enable the others as I said...while I "re-build"....

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

BTW - in case you were wondering:

The External Cargo Pods are being put on because the ship sees them as Armor (which is an ability they have, to represent the fact they are usually hit first in combat). To get around this I lowered the Armor number in the AI_design to 0 and will add a different ability to all of SJs current armors so we can control the AI better.

Reactor Issue - Added this as a required ability with different sizes for each group of ship classes (well Scout through Super Dreadnought at the moment plus the generics the game comes with).

Engine Issue - After finally figuring out how the AI loads the ship up and with confirmation from SJ, the engines are now just enough to get the ship moving at a standard pace with extra engines added in after all other components are slapped on. Engines are also now all around the same size.

Self-Destruct - Removed the component from the AI_Design for now, didn't see too many people destroying their ships in B5 to avoid capture. Though some races will have this as part of their racial identity. Just means we'll have to make sure security teams are researched sooner to protect from takeover.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Struggling a bit with the piccies.

What I have tried is moving the Earth Alliance directory into the main game pictures/races directory.

When I looked at the others they had about 6 or so .txt files for aggression, facilities etc, these did not appear to be with the race pics on the B5 page, and from what others have said I am not sure if they would work with SEIV gold anyway??

So I copied all the files from "Terran" into Earth alliance and changed their names. This seems to be OK and seems to work?

Did I do the right thing just to get the pictures?

Any ideas as a quick fix which .txt files I should copy for narn, vorlons, shadows etc,

or am I doing it wrong

or are the .txt files available that work on SEIV gold.

or is it irrelevant what these files are anyway??

Ta

Andy

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Andy: Terran to EA txt files will work. Not sure whch "stock" races match up to the other B5 races but doing similar opration that you did with the EA will work across the board.

I haven't tried the B5 Gold AI yet...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

hehe..Thanks Val and S/J. Got me dandy going, even if only with general light weapons and slow but long-legged (depending on race) ships. LNAW and ShagToth are going at tooth and claw...

No major bugs seen with the new files so far

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I'm almost done with basic (general) weapon AIs, it now progresses as the AI researches more powerful weapons rather than a straight shot of Light Bolt Cannons. Next stop is armor then targeting/ECM systems!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I'm getting ready for the next step for the AI and had a question for y'all:

I need to assign point costs to the various racial traits. In general most races get a bunch of specials for their race (weapons, components and eventually facilities), some only get the basics plus their rather pathetic technology, a few have more powerful weapons in general and some get access to ancient tech.

What I was thinking, was to base the race cost on the 'age' the race falls into on the show - since the technology in the game is based on the level they achieved by the time of the show.

So:

Fledgling Races (like Grome & Hurr) - 100
Young Races (EA, Narn, Centauri) - 250
Midborn Races (Minbari, Yolu, Hyach) - 500
Ancient Races (Vorlons, Shadows) - 750 (this is actually 2 racial abilities)

What do y'all think?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Sounds ok to me. I didn't get to watch much B5 so I'll defer to those who did.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I fine with it, sounds good, though arent the Humans more "advanced" or "wiser/older" whatever, than the Narn Regime ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The Narn actually had space flight and more advanced weapons before the humans, stolen from the Centauri of course (or is that 'reappropriated'). There is some variance between the main 'young' species, but it is a relatively level playing field. The Minbari would be a step up, the Vorlons would be a jump up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

oh didnt knew that :]

well the reason i like Babylon 5 are mainly the wars and combats in space. it just looks fcking great :] though i know a bit from the background story, still you know more, Val http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val,

I deleted everything I could think of and it made no difference ot the error message so I reinstalled the entire game, and JUST copied in the pictures / races / earth alliance files. I can now play as sheriden. All other races are standard SEIV. Will do for now!

Andy

Try removing the subfolders for the 'named' neutral races (eg: Gaim) and see what happens.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Gunslinger:
That's what drew me in as well and is what I am hoping for in the mod (with time).

Andy:
You have Gold, right? I will try to check all the B5 Gold AI sometime this week and repost in an 'easier to use' format. One thing MM recomends is that you create a subfolder in the SEIV folder andd put all your mod stuff in there, then use mod launcher (which is on the CD) to run the mod. This way, if you mess something up in the mod, you don't mess up your game. The way the whole B5Mod started for me was when I was trying to collect all the B5 races in one mod folder to play normal SE IV, then I got this bright idea...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Is the game going to be scaled similar to the Proportions Mod in regards to homeworlds and colonies? This would be most appropriate to B5, since there are few colony worlds (mostly controlled by older races) that posess similar levels of production as the homeworlds.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val,

Yep I have SEIV Gold and modded it up to 1.67 with the latest patch

Andy


Andy:
You have Gold, right? I will try to check all the B5 Gold AI sometime this week and repost in an 'easier to use' format. One thing MM recomends is that you create a subfolder in the SEIV folder andd put all your mod stuff in there, then use mod launcher (which is on the CD) to run the mod. This way, if you mess something up in the mod, you don't mess up your game. The way the whole B5Mod started for me was when I was trying to collect all the B5 races in one mod folder to play normal SE IV, then I got this bright ide

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Fyron:

Colony construction rate begins at 10%.
Add +1% for every 25M people after that

Resource production follows a sine wave up from 0% @ zero people, peaking at 225% for populations between 520M and 620M, and then falling to 100% at 1.73 Billion population.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

IF:

As SJ posted, he had the pop proportions thing done a while back, though I may ask PvK if he minds us stealing a page from Proportions in using the "Cultural Centers". I had had a similar idea for the B5 Mod with multifunction 'cities', 'mining colonies', 'Centauri Houses' and so forth, but hadn't thought it out to the extent PvK had (kudos to him). Once the basic stuff is done (we are almost there) we will move on to facilities and then (finally) each race will be fleshed out with extra goodies. Should make for a diverse game.

Andy:
Once I test the Gold AI I will post and let you know.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Maint rates are going to have to be adjusted as well, else there is no way you could maintain the huge B5 fleets. My favorite quote was for the Gaim race (which only has a single homeworld, no colonies) saying they had a small fleet... of a couple thousand ships!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ:
So, which production curve is that, the P&N one or the Proportions one? Or is it a new one? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Val:
Small fleet of 1000s of ships? Damn. What would they consider a large fleet? 100000000? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Technically, Shadow and Vorlon ships should be maintainence free. They are completely self sufficient. And besides, all of the Shadow fleet remained in hibernation for 1000 years, all without any resource production what so ever (at least by the Shadows themselves; their "allies" still did stuff during that time period, but nothing could have gotten to the ships).

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

So, which production curve is that, the P&N one or the Proportions one? Or is it a new one?
That is the one from the B5 datafiles.
I think I'm using the same thing for P&N v2.6

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Technically, Shadow and Vorlon ships should be maintainence free. They are completely self sufficient. And besides, all of the Shadow fleet remained in hibernation for 1000 years, all without any resource production what so ever (at least by the Shadows themselves; their "allies" still did stuff during that time period, but nothing could have gotten to the ships).<hr></blockquote>Sounds like mothballing to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Something like a -98% to maintenance built into the hulls of ships, and -99% for bases?
In that case, purchasing racial maintenance bonuses can reduce your maintenance from 2% down to 0.5%

A ship would be good for 50 turns before you've paid enough maintenance to buy a new one.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

It's the same as the P&N one (IIRC).

I can't recall, but the Earth Force fleet was incredibly HUGE in the 'official' storyline - some ridiculous amount! So I think adjustments will have to be made to maint. Also, been trying to figure out a way to do the Ancients so they aren't really building colonies and spreading about the universe at large. Rather have them more nomadic. What's the opinion of Joe (or Jane) Public?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Remember that SE4 has a limit of 10,000 ships & bases, and human players can't be expected to deal with that many ships. Scale down the numbers to manageable levels first, and then reduce the maintenance appropriately.

Giving the ancient races powerful remote extraction tech would cause them to generally drift around, holding only a few colonies for maintaining contact with aliens, and to get research points.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I'd like to make a recomendation. You may want to think about simplifing the engine tech. Maybe getting it back to the way SEIV origanlly had set for them. Customize around that in stead of the Quasi-Neutonian Version. I think it would make developement a little bit easier.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

From what I've heard, it is not the QNP itself that is causing the biggest problems. It is the many different sizes of engines (Small, medium, large, massive) The AIs always like to add the biggest engines, and that throws things out of whack, especially on the smallest shipsizes.