Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh yes, there was a very good episode for ship-to-ship combat with Vorlons. Interludes and Examinations where Sheridan finally brow-beats Kosh into getting the Vorlons to help in the Shadow war. It results in Kosh's own death, of course, when the Shadows take revenge on him. But the combat scenes where the Vorlons spring out of hyperspace and pummel the Shadows are fantastic. I didn't see any evidence of what we would call shields in those scenes. The Vorlons definitely understand the concept of organic armored rammers, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I think the 'force fields' you think you saw in respect to Vorlon encounter suits were just telekinetic forces exerted by their occupants.

[ June 21, 2002, 02:53: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

There was also a season 1 ep with that human super-telepath guy who was transforming. Made a huge force wall cutting off a large section of the station.

There was some comments before about using telepaths it disrupt the shadow CPUs. If we add TK shields, the TPs should be able to disrupt them.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val,

Got three friends play-testing B5mod and one of them asked, if you could used another color or outline the black with a lighter color that labels shadows alliance. It's hard to spotted the shadow's planets.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ: There is a telepathic studies tech which leads to a combat psych tech which is basically an anti-living cpu tech. which means the Shadows shouldn't get it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . However, EA, Minbari(?), maybe others should/could

Update: Anyway to get the AI to build, as initial priority, defense satellites? The Shadows are extremely vulnerable early on (dratted EA!) and need SOMETHING to hold off early extinction http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Also, how the heck to you get them to build population transports?

Val: I agree with Lighthorse, the dark outline for the Shadows is darn hard to see on a planet ..

[ June 22, 2002, 01:06: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey Val,

Another idea for you. Combine the advanced traits B5 ancient, standard and nomadic in with all the different races traits. Just added B5 advanced traits in with each B5 races's traits. I don't know them all. Who should start with ancient or standard or nomadic? Or is this an opional for each player to pick?

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Ancient: Vorlons, Shadows.

Nomadic: Raiders

Standard: All others.

Then in addition the races get their individual race trait thingy..

Question on PD: In order to get this idiot AI to design in PD to I have to put a PD in primary weapons? ATM the PD is set in secondary weapon slots in designcreation. hehe, EA has tearing the Shadows up now that they have fighters and Shadow designs have to PD...

This is gonna get intersting shortly...finally the Shadows get their own racial weapons tech...mwuahhhaa, let's see how the EA like being sliced and diced! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ June 22, 2002, 14:25: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They should be quite dangerous when they start halfway up the passive armor branch of the tech tree.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ: That doesn't help the 1st 100 turns...only sats they built were homeworld. no fighters researched, no pd for wp (I scripted PD-only into the wp)...so they get hammered early on. though they DID survive...barely..

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

They'd start halfway up that tree... as in having the tech on turn #1.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

hehe, ok.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Welp, me thinks the research and designcreation for Shadows are done...basics that is and less the exotic armors. I only have 1-2 levels of the basic armor in the research file. Not sure how to make the AI design, using it ....

but they do ok with slice and dice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif but most of the best tech I have in the late mid to late game...

doodoo headed Shadows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif they got nice slicing molecular cannon and instead they put an ecm pod in a satellite ...LOL! designcreation has must have a weapon, I put the molcular light cannon, light pulse molecular, ion, light/medium matter in the majority slots....*shakes head*

However, it looks like the Old Farts (Hyach) wanna be the first on the Shadow barby q

[ June 23, 2002, 02:21: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Seems the satellite building is tied to state of the empire: Shadows started building Sats on other-than-homeworld after going to war with the Hyach...
they still designing them without weapons though...ecm and sensor pods are all they put in (along with the mandantory coputer)...

Val: seems to be 1 major and two, medium?, bugs atm: the propulsion lvl 6 design RCE, spaceyard ships end up designed without a spaceyard and this thing with the sats (no weapons designed in)...other than that, most everything seems to go ok...

UPDATE: Molecular pulser & Molecular disruptor (minbari tech) don't have pictures.

[ June 23, 2002, 17:04: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey Val,

I agreed with pathfinder, the AI empires need better defence for their planets. Also their should build weapon platforms with their latest weapons on each of they planets. Even after fifty turns or more they have NO defences for they colonized planets. The first thing they should do is to build five or more weapon platform for each new colony, with they hottest/newest weapons. At present, you rolled into section helded by AI and attacked their planets, NO defences, excepted a few fighters at best.
After the AI empire digs in with 5x weapon platforms and 10x sat's on a planet, then programmed them to start building a few mining or research centers.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Lighthorse: To keep the MOD in "sync" with the TV show, no weapon platforms. The TV show had them using sateliites and space stations for defense. Though I have things setup so that the weapon platorms only use PD, which can help.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Pathfinder

Either way, AI needs to defended their planets. May it be Sat's, space stations and/or planetary bases filled with PD's, its a vast improvement over no defenses at all.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

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

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Actually, I think there should be weapon platforms.

However, they should be civilian bunkers. IE: armor only.
Possibly a range-1 PDC or something as well, but mainly just a bombshelter.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Well, at least one planet in B5 had surface based weapons. And very powerful ones. Too bad the "Great Machine" was a one-off... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey Guys,

One other thing about AI defences. They got about 10 to 30 space mines in cargo on they home worlds, but they never launched these mines over their our homeworld, even when threated or attacked. Instead the mines sit in planet cargo, and there always an empty minelayer vessels in orbit above the same planet. Somewhere in B5mod/SE4 the AI programming failed.
Wish I could help, but I'm no programmer.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey all,

Sorry to interupt the general flow of ideas, but I've been hit by a bit of a concern (to me atleast).

It seems to me that if we (you is more accurate, cause I've done very little on the mods) have the various races (and sets of races) having "exclusive" tech trees, then things such as capture, technology trade, etc. will be meaningless, especially between the genres. This is of considerable concern to me because I envision stealing other technologies, alliances versus enemies that include technology swaps, etc. This is what I said in the ST forum:

[clip]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">How about recycling node, as per nomads in p&n? It would be nice if races other than just the Ferengi could use this. In fact, any nomadic/trading race should really be able to build this device, which brings me to my next point...

Just in general I have a big concern. If this mod is merged with the B5 and SW mods, and everyone introduces exclusive tech trees to define the genres (lots of armor types in B5, droids in SW, recycling nodes & regenerating/crystaline sheilds in ST) then how can we capture other ships and gain their technologies? It seems to me that people will be sort of painted into a corner on what they can research, and ship capture will be pretty well useless. Guys like the borg and other 'pirate' races would be entirely hobbled if there are not enough races from their 'genre' present in their game. Technology trading will be pretty well useless as well, because heck, what could they actually trade when most of the useful components are from exclusive trees?

I'd like to propose some alternative mechanisms to the exclusivizing of the "genre tech trees", but would anyone be interested?

Just my $.02

cc/ B5 mod thread

[end of clip]

Any thoughts? Like I said, I think there are some relatively easy work-arounds, but they might take a bit of work.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

So much to reply to http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Glad to see that the forum doesn't need me to keep it moving on a daily basis http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Jimbob:
Capturing other race's tech is completely possible in the B5 mod, though the intial level of tech requires the 'racial only trait' of that race, subsequent branches built from that tree can be captured and researched. So, if a Narn ship captures a Drazi ship, it can reverse engineer and may discover Drazi Light Weapons, and they may then research forward.

That being said, there are still some things that are totally racial specific - mostly ancient technology. The reason is that most other younger races shouls not be able to grasp that level of tech - hard to reverse engineer something that is barely understandable to begin with. As for other ancients, all media on them says they would consider it 'distasteful' in the strongest of terms to be caught using technology from another ancient - almost admitting theirs isn't the best. Doesn't mean they wouldn't try to imitate the tech though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Pathfinder:
Combat Telepaths are available to Shadows, but they are pretty useless, as they only harm Shadow vessels http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Pop Transports - I have to look at the AI again before I can answer that one.
PD- After the ships asign weapons and base engines, there is a requirement for Point-Defense, set the % there for PDF weapons.

Lighthorse:
I wanted to leave the traits seperate in case someone wanted to make their own race or have a 'nomadic narn' tech based race. But it is a good idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Other Nomadic Race - Soulhunters
Other Ancient Races - Torvalus, Kirishiac, Mind Riders, Triad, Travelers

Shadow and LNAW colors - Done!

Shipyard Ships - Early SYS are actually just repair vessels, you need much larger ships to make a 'real' SYS, so at a higher level they will (well should) start bulding SYS with yards in them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Simon:
Simon had mentioned that there was no evidence of shields for the Brakiri, the source that I had found that in was the Bab5Wars game, it seems they 'borrowed' the tech from the Abbai, so I guess we can just make the Abbai shields stealable so this could happen - and the Brakiri would not be able to research it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Terra-forming - he was also concerned about terra-forming (as has been mentioned by others), but I can't seem to make the terra-forming process slow enough (funny as that sounds). Any suggestions?

SJ:
Weapon Platforms - Exactly! They will only be able to attack incoming troops and fighters for the most part, and act as damage absorbers for planetary assault weapons.

Gil:
Simon has finished the text for your shipset, if you can put all your most recent ships in a set and zip it for me, I will put it in the next patch.

Baron Munausen:
Yup, the Great Machine is in there as a Ruins Tech. It will be one of a very short number of Weap Platforms that can do serious damage to a ship. It gives access to a HUGE weapon platform and a weapon that takes all that space - it is expensive to build and maintain, but I could not think of a way to restrict it to a single planet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey Val,

Byside the earth alliance that has anti-mine misslies, what other technology is available for other races to sweep mines. I noticed in my vorlon game, that I only have mines and minelayers level one and two, no minesweeper devices.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hmmm, must have accidently written over the mine sweeper at some point. It should be available to all races once they have particle weapons and mines technogies (and generic light weapons iirc). It is actually a particle weapon that can be used in combat as well as to clear mines during movement.

The latest update should help with that - it includes all modifications that have been made since the May 24th post.

Update062902.zip

It does not include the incomplete races (Abbai, Drazi, Vree, Brakiri, Technomages, Raiders, Dilgar, Drakh or Pakmara)

Gil's shipset and AI will be posted seperately once I hear receive the complete set.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

As it always inevitably happens, there is a slight error in 2 of the Neutral Race's general files and 1 error in the general AI

Replace the Hurr and Markab general files with these instead:

Hurr_AI_General.txt

Markab_AI_General.txt

Replace the Default_AI_DesignCreation in the AI folder with this:

Default_AI_DesignCreation.txt

Sorry!

[ June 29, 2002, 23:50: Message edited by: Val ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Here are the Lorkan http://www.gev.cc/SEIV/lorkan.zip Add Description and AI, shake thoroughly, step back and watch out!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val:

I'm getting a 404 Page Not Found error when I click on your signature's link to the Bab 5 Mod site...just thought I should let you know.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val: Good news, No RCE due to the LvL 6 engines http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Narn had an RCE but that due to stupid ship movements (I think).

All 5 of the other races are beyond LvL 6 engines and no design problems that I could see.

Only silliness I see is that instead of the exterior cargo pods taking the living cpu place on refit, the Shadow ships are now designed with 3 living cpus! I guess 1 for bridge, 1 for crew quarters and 1 for life support.

[ July 02, 2002, 02:06: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Owwwwwww! When are the other races going to get their AI? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif The Narn (Minbari, my race, are at war with them) have Advanced fusion III...6 movement per engine! Yikes...and have Battleships and I (the Minbari) barely have destroyers....

Good thing the Shadows are now essentially a neutral race...they have their slice and dice but have NOT moved out of homeworld system yet...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

PF:
Thank the Prime Builder! About time that went away http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Now that life is looking more stable for the generic AI, I am working toward finalizing the basic racial AIs - including the Lorkans (gil's) Nomadic AI.

The Shadow siliness is due to a change I made, but soon that will dwindle to a single living CPU for most Shadow vessels (not all) and we can remove the Master Computer requirement from the AI design as it will be filled with the NewImproved (*tm pending) Living CPU http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Good to see the Shadows are acting more like a neutral race now - with the freedom to travel though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif We do have to tweak the AI so it builds a few ship yards to make more ships. The 'advanced ancient facilities' that I have in the works will help the situation as well.

CQ:
Damned if I know what's up, I've barely had time to post here much less do anything on the site http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif probably locked out again ! I'm going to be even busier up until next Tuesday, then sanity may well return to my life and I can get back to the important stuff - like the 100+ new weapons to add to the mod and the racial non-weapon components I've been wanting to add.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hi all,
Val,
Sorry for not having done the uploads you've asked for, I'm totally enthralled by NeverWinter Nights RPG since I have it... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif !!

I'll upload the stuff soon, do you need all files - Base files, 1.49 data, and 1.67 data ?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Greeting Val,

What does ship enhancement do for you? What addition research do one need for ship enhancement. Does it lessen the cost for vessel, allow more room for weapons/engine, improve ship hull for increase in speed?
Also at what percentages does the different type of armor stop hits. Is it 1 in 4 or 100%. What does structive armor do for you. Increase the number of hit location ?
What really would help is a addition description to each research or armor item.

Looking forward to the day when I can play B5mod on PBW. May it so sooner than later.

______________________________________________
Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

PDF:
No worries, I do understand being preoccupied http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Lighthorse:
Man, you don't miss anything!

Ship Enhancements will do a variety of things, including: increasing the ships maneuverabilty (harder to hit), a speed bonus, improved power transfer (less supplies), and a few other ideas. Right now I am trying to balance them out and make it work. Also working on special crew enhancements for the ships. Right now this tech doesn't do anything - but it will http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The armor effect is very fuzzy. The larger the armor's hp, the more likely it is to absorb hits. However, the larger armors are also slightly weaker in terms of hp/kt.

Send one ship with heavy armor against another ship with light armor (otherwise identical designs, same space devoted to armor).
What will happen is that the light armor ship will have 50% more hitpoints, but will lose most of the time.
If you look carefully, you see that the light armor ship suffers from damage skipping the armor, and loses guns, eventually turning into an inert, burning wreck, which has a few 1000 hitpoints left. The winning ship keeps firing, and eventually vaporizes the wreck.
If the light armor ship gets lucky, and dosen't lose its weapons early on, the extra hitpoints will enable it to outLast the heavy ship. When the heavy armor fails, the light would still have 40% left, and the light armor ship wins.

The structural supports form the skeleton of the ship, and can take a severe beating. Unforunately, they also tend to be the Last things hit. Think of it as light armor, taken to the extreme.
What they will do is allow your ships to hold together after being nearly destroyed, possibly drawing fire away from more important ships (ie: those with guns still operational).
They also provide a great amount of power when you are ramming someone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ July 07, 2002, 19:23: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I recommend a new approach to 'internal armor' once the new patch comes out. Use a special mount to create large blocks of armor suitable to the ship size and the mounts it can use. Since the components' 'damage' size seems to determine how likely they are to be hit, if you make a mount to enlarge armor to be about the same size/damage as the weapons that class if ship is capabale of using you will create a truly effective damage 'decoy'.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hitpoints on weapons are scaled to represent how vulnerable they are to fire.
The mounts should cause only a small increase in the hitpoints of the weapons, representing their larger surface area.

The main problem with having larger armor mounts is that they would then become extremely effective for protecting everything else. You would need to force the player to use a large mount bridge & etc. The hitpoints balance for unmounted components, and should only be altered slightly by mounts.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Well, that's true that re-working the mounts could also reduce their vulnerability. I haven't looked at the B5 mod in any detail. have the mounts been changed much from the default game?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hello Again Val,

I got another suggestion for you. For ground forces, a player gets to chooses either to have a low grade or elite grade troops, (a real no brainer here, we always pick the elite troops) so why not instead start both infantry and ground vehicle at the lowest level and cost, and advance the technology and troops grade together.
Plus you can used all those other troop grades. Neat idea would be allowing only a very few races to have elite grade troops and double the effect/fighting value of elites. I think Nomads should be elite, increase they chance in capturing other races planets. Or make elite troops a ruins technolgy, or the be used by AI empires only. But main idea is to limited elite grade to only one or two races would increase the interest in ground forces and the B5mod in general.
As for my other past questions, you need to plan on having a "read me" file attached to B5mod on all your changes and new ideas for this great mod. Thus this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif will help new and current players and increase the value of all your hard work. I suggestion that you start now in listing any change/new idea to a read me file so it would be completed when B5mod is completed.

Please remember I'm trying to assist you, not to be to pushie.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Playing as EA in current game(no rce....)

really starting to make the Narn mad (Partnership atm).... diplomatically stabbing them in back by allying with their enemies....slow game until EA got Ice colonies.....now it's starting to heat up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey Val,

My latest B5mod game as the Shag"trog locked up, turn 153 with error message "Access violation at address 005B179F in Module "se4.exe." read of address 0000001c. Tried restarting the game as Narn and correcting all they ship design problems, but the game stilled locked up on turn 153.

Lighthorse

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Suggestion:

See the 'Cowabunga!' thread for info on the convertability of events and intel projects. Intel and events use the SAME powers! You could use some of the event powers to make special intel projects for certain races.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Jeeezzzz......
EA trying to take over a Grome tiny planet. Grome have 4 troops (infantry), the EA started with 50 medium infantry rated vetern and 10 armor/troops. So far after 6 turns...Grome lost 2, EA 5 of their infantry. Them Grome is tough!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Have those Grome been building reinforcements by any chance?

In one (P&N) game I was playing, the planet I was attacking kept building more troops to fight off my invaders. Each turn, I killed all the troops and did only minor damage to the militia. Only once the planet started to riot was I able to win.
Took me two years.

I know I didn't mod that AI, aside from adding engines to ship designs, so either that was a coincidence, or the AIs are programmed to build troops on the planet being invaded.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

hey guys happy 1000

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ: guess I'll have to check and see by switching to them. All I know at the moment, that &^%$# rock/moon is sucking 2-3 infantry a turn...Guess my plan to simply invade and take over is out the window....

Update: SJ: Naw, they aren't building anything. The Grome have 2 infantry left and those &^%$#@ are slowly eating up "vetern" medium infantry...only 32 left of 50 now...

[ July 19, 2002, 20:26: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

ok, where can I download the full Version of this mod for gold?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Dunno ZeroAdunn: Seems the B5 MOD site is down http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Any update on this mod?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

atomannj: none lately. Val has been on assigment away from home for Last several weeks. IIRC, he'll be back next week. The MOD is shaping up pretty good by the Last update I got a couple of weeks ago.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hey All!!!

I have some good news, I just sent Rambie the newest Mod files and all of the 'unfinished races' I have, and he is going to set them up on his site, so hopefully we will have a decent home for the mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I'm also close to completing the Technomages and Vree shipsets along with AI for the Lorkans (and other Nomadic races). Facility build times have been reduced by a third to make the game a little quicker. I'm working on terraformers and the race specific facilities - trying to balance them. The Abbai have a speech file now and will be joining the Neutrals, maybe with a few of the other unfinished races as a temporary home. Looks like the Grome are doing ok http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

There is a lot of other stuff that I am working on (now that I have time again) and I would like to get an idea of how many people are interested in starting up either a PBW or PBEM test run of the latest Version, to really work out some of the balance issues. So far a group of 4 of us have been doing a small scale test that has helped to point out some issues.

Speaking of issues - I would like to collect a 'definitive list' of know issues and things people want to see or see changed. Anyone who is interested, please post with any/all issues you have had and the Version you are using, also post any suggestions for what you would like to see added/reworked.

Finally, if your name appears in the credits (or if it should and doesn't yet - even if you're a tester and not a writer) please send an e*mail to b5mod@yahoo.com with a mailing address, I have a gift for y'all as a thank you for the work you've done - I've already sent 4 out - including one to the UK - and I'd like to get the rest out ASAP.

Later!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I'd join a PBW test game. Can I be the Vorlons?