Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Only own atmosphere does make little sense. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Ya know what the biggest problem with this MOD is?

After playing/testing it, all others kinda pale.
I fired up TDM after installing the patch and the TDM that goes with it....just kinda "vanilla" IMHO. There is just so much variety and the gameplay is so much different....(has parts of proportions, TDM and neo/devnull in it, plus all the various techs, especially the racial techs)

Yes, me be spoiled. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ August 15, 2002, 00:10: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Where could I get to download the b5 mod? Seems like a stupid question but the galileo.spaceports.com/~b5mod page gives me a 404 and a 403 sometimes? I also found another site to download this mod from somebody's signature but I think the files were old and I couldn't d/l all of them... TIA

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

go to Space Empires IV Play by Web (seiv.pbw.cc) and register. Then go to downloads, you'll need to find 4 files named B5ModCore30.zip, B5ModCoreS30.zip, B5ModData30.zip and B5ModShipsets30.zip.

But there are several sections of the download area, and this is what messed me up. The first three files are found in the "mods" section, but the shipset file is in the "ships" section.

Now, until Last night I'd just sort of scanned the component file, etc. to get a feel for the mod. But Last night I finally found that Last file, and unzipped it yadda yadda... and Holy Crap !!! it's like a totally different game! "Good work" does not do the Mod justice. Unbelievable!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

jimbob: you looked at the techarea.txt file in the data folder yet? combine that with the components.txt.... each race can develope 2-3 weapon techs (including the common matter weapons) plus some unique racial ones....research.txt then becomes a real challenge to make...

hehe.....

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Yeah, there is a whole swack of technology requirements and the like, but no real road map on how to get from A to B (without reading the tech file). But really my only problems right now are:
i) there are so many tech areas to research/figure out
ii) I have a job
iii) I have a wife
iv) My body needs some minimum amount of sleep.

Otherwise things is great!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Tell me about it jimbob! I only figured out 3 1/2 tech trees (EA, Narn, Minbari and the Shadows)...but only the weapons and a few other components. I been testing since April sometime...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

*rubs eyes, blearily stares at monitor screen*

just finished draft Brakiri and ShagToth AI. Still haven't figgered out the armor tech trees, but got at least a basic research and designcreation done for both.

*passes out* *snort* *wheeez* ZZZZZzzzzzzz.....

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What's the ETA on a finalized (ish) Babylon 5 mod?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Believe I read on the thread, "....it's like a whole new game!". Understatement of the month!

I d/led the (what I thought was) the latest Version, but there are many missing files and misspellings in the component descriptions. Is there a later Version I've missed? B5ModGold.zip is the one.

If there is not a later Version and I have found mistakes, should I edit and post them?, or just list here what I've found?

Will only be Online here for a couple more days before we set off globe trotting, so it might be a while before re-establishing communications after Mon. Not to say I can't work on some fixes in the meantime to upload later. Tell me what you think.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

OH mah achin' hed...

been trying to figger out the "flow" of jumpgate/jump engine tech....

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Is there some reason there is a priority on Standard SEIV over Gold?

I imagine it's because the developers haven't yet upgraded to gold or for some reason consider it inferior??

What's the story there?

Thanks,

Ken

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

your playing Gold Version of the mod. The mod is mainly designed for normal se4 not gold, although a gold Version has been made. The latest non-gold Version is .30 where the latest gold Version i could find was .29 which is one update behind the non-gold Version which sorted out a few but not all of the bugs.

The non-gold Version can be foundm on the PBW website as said below. the only gold Version i have found is in the general mods forum in the se4 thred on mods etc. ( i gave better directions to it a few pages back in this thred. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Thanks Jamorobo. It was probably your post whence I saw where to find it. (Ignore Shakespeare rolling over noises!) Took forever to d/l and incomplete at that!

Guess I'll have to break down and buy a copy of SEIV non-Gold http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif I wonder at the decision to go with non-Gold...... I'm sure I'll still want things in SEIV Gold after SEV is released though, so I'm not complaining. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Yeah, the latest Gold Version of the B5 MOD is a bit behind. It was done by PDF back in late May, early June and is a bit behind in bug fixes.

Up to you if you want to fix yourself or simply post the rrors here. I been messing with Gold a bit myself, mainly getting both the "Standard" and the "Gold" AI drafted for the race-specific and fleshing out the neat stuff like jump engine research.

An easy way to covert the main error of "Standard" AI to "Gold" are in settings and fleet files. I know the file part are the 4-5 lines about drones and the setting, IIRC, are statements on defense . You could just rework those files to make a Gold Version from Standard but I am not sure of other subtle-type differences.

Javaslinger: Only Val knows for sure. I think once the PBW game is done and any bugs squashed any final tweaking shouldn't take TOO long. ConVersion to Gold isn't to hard, IMHO anyways, so maybe a month after the Standard is finished Gold should be done. I know this isn't the definitive answer but I am not sure any facility-type race-specific goodies that need to be done. Most weapon stuff is done except for a few pics.

Biggest job to be done is the AI files for the race specific stuff and to add the rest of the general facilties and components (research & designcreation files mostly).

[ August 17, 2002, 13:14: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

No. It is developed under 1.49 so that all those who haven't or won't but Gold can play it. It is a simple matter to update mods and AIs to be Gold compatible. It is a lot more work going the other way.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Found out one thing: BLasted Shadows WILL invade, Brakiri (testing their AI) just lost an optimum/oxygen/rock huge planet to those sleeze balls...

Shadows did it again. Soooooo, it seems that at least in SOME games they will get planets the hard way...by invasion. Good thing since they can't colonize the "normal" way.

Javaslinger: What Imperator F said. Only takes a few relatively minor tweaks to go to Gold from Standard SEIV. So once standard is done, it should be too long before Gold will be out.

[ August 18, 2002, 14:04: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Question: Which races had jump gate and/or jump engines in B5? I believe the Minbari did, who else?

That tech is a can of worms (3 other techs are required to develope jump capability), so me trying to reduce the headache of making the research file(s).

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

yes minbari do have jump drive/ gate tech, their jump drive genarator is also smaller than earth and centuri jumpdrives as they have them in white star, ships which are small compared to the earth/centuri ships that can carry a jump drive. Earth gets their jump gate tech off the centuri who i think get it off the minbari, narn also get theirs off the centuri and they steal most of the tech they have from them.

Shadows and vorlons definatly have it.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Thanks Jamorobo! Updated the Shadows to 2 of the 5 levels of jump engine tech. Now to (oh my achin' hed!) for the armor....

BTW any ideas on what armor prefferred by the races? So far no organic tech available (Whitestar had some kinda metallo-organic IIRC) but other than that what?

Here are the choices:

Inert Armor
Scattering Armor
Refractive Armor
Channeling Armor
Conductive Armor
Emissive Armor

What race used what? Especially the 5 "main" ones (EA, Minabari, Vorlons, Centauri, Shadows)

[ August 18, 2002, 14:50: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Any one know the name and title of the Brakiri leader?

[ August 18, 2002, 17:01: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I believe it should be something like:
EA: Low-end inert.
Centauri/Narn: Middle to high-end inert.
Minbari: Minimum scattering armor
Vorlons & Shadows: All armor in your list, plus racial tech armor.

This would have to be set up in a scenario, of course.

As for a low-tech start, everybody should pretty much walk up the tree.
Get some basic inert armor, and research upgrades to it until that particular race feels it should do more basic research.
At that point jump up into the passive armor techs. Start researching scattering in order to get a return on your investment, and then skip over some of the intermediate armor types on your way to Emissive armor.
How many intermediate steps the race decides to skip will depend on how aggressive they are. Skipping steps is somewhat risky, because you will be stuck using inferior armor until you stop skipping and do some applied armor research.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ: Yeah, I'm trying to set-up low tech start AI_research. How do you designate in designcreation what armors are to be used? or can that be done?

Checked other AI_designcreation files and nothing see for armor. So how does one tell the AI to put armor in a ship or base or whatever?

[ August 18, 2002, 17:34: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I am quite sure that a few of the useless abilities will have to be used to specify which armors to use.
You can call for "armor" and that will get you the heaviest inert armor available.

Someone will have to look through the components.txt, and make a list of all the unused useless abilities.

The armor will need to use three to five of those abilities so you can specify how much inert and passive armors of each type you want to use on a ship.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val, anyone: No electromagnetic weapons (poor Vorlons!). Or have I missed a Version of the MOD?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Did you get the latest Version from PBW?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I just d/l it. Me gonna go look http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Nope, no components for electromagnetic weapons.

Sooooo, them ol' Vorlons is poop outta luck atm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ August 18, 2002, 21:59: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Didn't val say Last week that he was working on the vorlon weapons and race-specific non-weapon components eg, types of sensors only the shadows can get etc. ( this is not what he said but u get the picture )

These were going to be added in the next and Last patch before the start of the PBW game.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Jam: Yeah, hope so, otherwise it won't be much fun for Imperator to be those souless Vorlons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

*grumble*

darn Narn and EA have too many weapon choices....beatch figgerin' out the design creation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What main weapons do you choose as Earth alliance. I mainly use Heavy and medium Lasers, they are definatly worth having to research physics 2. they seem to be the best weapons EA can get even though the heavy laser has a reload rate of 4! they are better than the Laser/pulse array you get for EA once you have advanced laser weapons as you can fit two HL's in the space of one Heavy L/P array, this sort of cancels out the L/p having a reload rate of 3 compared to the HL's 4. I think The L/pP array needs to be improved, maby more range or take less space, it seems to have a big penelty allready with the high maintanance cost. Is isn't really woth researching laser and pulse weapons and then advanced laser weapons when u get to level 7 in lasers.

About Val's point on fighters having too good a weapons, this is definatly shown when researching partical weapons as EA as at level 1 PW's at the start of the game all the Particle weapons you can get one go 1 space, except for one weapon.... The uni-pulse cannon which can go 2 spaces, and guess what! This is a fighter weapon !!!!! The first partical weapons you can get allow fighters to shoot further than ships !!!!!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif No Vorlon weapons? Hope they get added soon! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Jam: I haven't chosen yet for the EA. What ones did they use in the show? I personally like the missiles, especially the rapid-fire (RF) Versions. Hehe, RF long Range...hehe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

and take a look at the Shadows fighter weapons... they have one that starts at range 4 IIRC and keeps growing. I had 10 of them slaughter a fleet of 50+ Minbari ships way back when (no Minbari race-specific weapons tho').

bTW me got a "ghost" system in current test game. No system name. planets have numbers, but no name for the system....?????

[ August 19, 2002, 02:26: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Brakiri ambassador Kullenbrak from DAY OF THE DEAD
Episode 5.8? Title could be Guild Leader/Master? Guessing at that.

"Kullenbrak: --and everything is ok? We can purchase Babylon 5 for the Brakiri? It must be ours by sunset.
Lochley: Well, it's certainly an unusual request. We can normally only rent space around here."

Brakiri ambassador Yabc Ftoba or
Lethke Zum Bartrado from Cards

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Re: Ghost system.

Either the systemnames list is too short, or there is an extra blank line somewhere in the file (likely at the beginning or end)

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Thanks Nomo & SJ!

Looks like the systemname file is a bit short, didn't see any gaps...

[ August 19, 2002, 11:33: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

For balance, probably.

I also doubt that one of those ships could fire all of its guns in one combat turn (never mind firing all at one target). Having so many guns would be useful for coverage in RL, but SE4 dosen't model firing arcs.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I introduced some new images to Minbari shipset. I especially like race_portrait picture http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1029788766.zip

[ August 19, 2002, 21:52: Message edited by: oleg ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The Minbari thank you Oleg

Edit: A friend of mine would like to play in the B5 PBW test game as well. Any races still open?

[ August 19, 2002, 21:47: Message edited by: jimbob ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I just noticed that I included AI_general.txt file for standard SeIV. Be carefull if you unzip into Babylon5 mod folder then.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

JimBob, these are the ones taken, maybe one of the neutrals?:

Pathfinder - SoulHunters
Imperator Fyron - Vorlons
Lighthorse - Narns
Milton - Centauri
Rambie (?) - EA
Gandalf - Undecided
Simon (?) - EA / BA / Raiders
Dead Meat - Shadows
Tesco Samoa - EA?
Zero Adunnn - Minbari
Jimbob - Hyach

Brakiri seem to be available unles Gandalf is gonna play them..

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What about the carrion eaters? (can't remember their name, but he said jokingly that he'd even be willing to play them).

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I've had a look on b5 tech site and this is what i've found....

Omega class Destroyer ( Battle cruser in se4 )

Unfortunatly you can't have all these weapons on a BC in se4 as is comes to 1558kt with the weapons alone ( non are large mounts ) !!!!

6 Heavy Particle/Lasers
6 Heavy Pulse Cannons
12 Particle/Lasers
12 Pulse Cannons
Fusion missiles [2 launchers]

NOVA CLASS DREADNOUGHT ( Destroyer picture in se4 )

I guess is was called a dreadnought as it was the largest ship they had at the time of the EA/Minbari war.
This ship is what the omega class is based on.

22 Twin Plasma Cannons !!!!!
6 Particle Beam Guns
Fusion missiles [2 launchers]

HYPERION HEAVY CRUISER ( Light cruser picture in se4 )

2 Particle/Lasers
1 Heavy Plasma Cannon
8 Medium Pulse Cannons
Fusion missiles [2 launchers]

I guess this shows that EA starts off using plasma cannons and then moves on to pulse cannons and laser/pulse cannons, they don't really use normal laser cannons at all http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

What i want to know is why pulse cannons take up so much room in the game, about 100kt compared to other weapons????

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

JimBob: The Gaim are one of the "neutral" AI's but their shipset (what there is of it) is available. Their specialty is biochemical weapons (planet-killer type ones that is), they do have some special racial weapons off of the ballistic and particle beam techs.

Oleg: I like that race picture of the Minabari!

Hehe, this MOD gonna be different. Even the "neutrals" will have their own racial tech/research/designcreation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ August 20, 2002, 01:19: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

BTW folks, not that what I do is "official", but I have gotten together AI research and designcreation for the Narn, Minbari and Brakiri. Working on the EA. Did this 'cause I got kinda tired of the same old same old in the AI designs, etc.

I don't understand the other files so I haven't messed with them.

Any interest in them?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Anyone know what the psych tech is that the EA develope to counter the Shadow living cpu?

Never mind: combat telepaths http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Darn EA have a convoluted, twisted tech tree http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Whee...my Version of the EA research and designcreation are done.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

[ August 21, 2002, 01:27: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Arrrgghh......
in the parlance of FPS gamers...me (EA) just got "owned" by the Narn in Trembas system....

Seems the *&^%$ research and designcreation files are working http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Slowly but surely me getting the upper hand...er claw...er tentacle.....

Bleah...me spoke too soon....Those Ion Torpedo cannon as nasty! I have a bad feeling....Narn are on the verge of kicking me out of the Trembas system and the Minbari are getting angry...they were partners, now nothing...

[ August 20, 2002, 23:58: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val: In Centauri tech--Ion bolt is listed as 1: requiring Centauri advanced ion & centauri tiny; 2: ionic 9 & centauri light

me be confused.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Val et al. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Would it be possible to give Asteroid Belts a ship cloaking ability. If a ship enters an Asteroid Belt it in effect disappears and can only be detected by say a Ship/Sat/Recon fighter with scanning equipment.

Make it so that the Ship/Sat/Rec.Ftr has to be within one sector of Asteroid to detect anything hiding there.
Also; ships in orbit half the effective range of scanners from other players due to atmospheric/magnetic field interference.

Also can we not have Listening Post's with a range factor e.g.

LPost #1 : Allows scanning of targets 10 sectors away

LPost #2 : Allows scanning of targets 12 sectors away etc

This would force ships to take evasive routes if they did not wish to reveal the contents of their vessels. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

PS. How do you make Fighters Jump Gate/Worm Hole capable? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Would it be possible to give Asteroid Belts a ship cloaking ability. If a ship enters an Asteroid Belt it in effect disappears and can only be detected by say a Ship/Sat/Recon fighter with scanning equipment.

Yes, it is possible. However, real asteroid belts have vast stretches of empty space between asteroids. So, you wouldn't really be able to hide well in them.

Make it so that the Ship/Sat/Rec.Ftr has to be within one sector of Asteroid to detect anything hiding there.

That is not possible. Tachyon-type scanners are always system-wide.

Also; ships in orbit half the effective range of scanners from other players due to atmospheric/magnetic field interference.

Not possible.

Also can we not have Listening Post's with a range factor e.g.

The scanning ability on facilities is Long Range Scanner - System. It always has unlimited range within a system.

I do not know if the Long Range Scanner ability used on components works on facilities. It probably does. If so, then it would work. However, range 10 covers the entire system unless the planet is on the border of the system. Then, it would miss the opposite border.

PS. How do you make Fighters Jump Gate/Worm Hole capable?

The only way to do that would be to make them Ships. But then, they wouldn't be able to be carried anymore.