Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Tim, no problem. Im busy these times as well. Spending a lot of time on reading and pickings stocks, of course selling them, too. Nothing is on hold though.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

RagsX:
Okay, that's good to hear. Thanks!

AT:
Maybe you could make the glowing thingy purple instead of yellow/orange? All the molecular slicers have a purple colour in the serie.
And I really vote for the second texture because in the serie the texture of the Shadow vessels have a network of reflective "strings" seperating the non-reflective "cells". This is best done with the second texture. Go for the second. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Nice.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Just to give you guys a heads-up about my own Babylon 5 mod that's still in development, hopefully it will be different enough from this one to make it still worth playing.

Primarily, it's supposed to be a Roleplay mod, with a heavy emphasis on race distinction. Hopefully, each race is going to be very different to play, with unique tech overload and different starting positions on the more "standard" technology trees. Colonisation is still a fairly slow process (so far I have it zeroed in at around 6-10 turns to build the ship, and 3-4 turns to build an income-generating facility).

Having said that, the game isn't really about colonisation, either, good planets will be scarce, with moons playing a major role. Bases will be equally as important as colonies, generating their own revenues. Balance will no doubt be an issue that might push some players away (after all, who wants to be the Drazi when you can be the Minbari and have all the awesome perks of being the oldest of the younger races?) but the whole point of the mod is roleplay, which hopefully appeals to at least some of you guys.

Each race is going to be added as it's completed. Right now, we're beta-testing the Earth Alliance, and are close to making sure that every EA weapon has an advantage that makes it worth taking (which was a major issue with me in the original mod), as well as fine-tuning game mechanics and flow. We're keeping it as canon as possible, while trying to keep the game fun.

The only worry I have is, aside from the credits file, do I need anything else from the art contributors for the mod, or is it all pretty much classed as being there for the taking?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Do NOT include the imagemod as part of your download; simply state that your mod requires version X of Pack Y.
The credits are included with the imagemod downloads.

Unless of course, you mean title screens and/or interface images.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Well, it was primarily the shipsets, since the AI files are going to be very specific.

Although, what I was planning on doing was cutting out all the pictures (for components and planets, mostly) that aren't being used, while keeping others, to save on space. Does the stuff in imagemod need to be kept together, or can elements of it be taken, so long as credit is given?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Most people play multiple mods, so you want to keep everything together and just let people download the image mods in toto. This makes updating easier, too, since you can get your new images included in an imagemod update for the asking, and everyone can concentrate on just keeping their imagemods up to date rather than each individual game mod.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

That would actually cost more space.
The way it works is that people install just one single copy of the imagemod. It is completely backwards compatible, so they can overwrite the stock files without any probelms.

Then you as a modder don't include any graphics files with your download.
Just include a note that they require image pack X.

Most people will already have it, and those that do not can download it from the many imagemod mirrors. Once downloaded and installed, it is available to EVERY mod with just one copy on the harddrive.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The stuff in the Image Mod should be left in the Image Mod, not cut apart...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Could someone post a shadow ship so we can see the texture on it? Thanks.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I hope this site have some info about races. At least their ships.
http://www.b5tech.com

http://www.b5tech.com/shadows/shadow...adowships.html

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What you had there is probably close, but the texture needs to be scaled up.

You know the wavy light patterns you see at the bottom of a pool? Just like that, except black, and large enough to see from the camera's POV.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

http://www.b5tech.com/shadows/shadowships/batlcrab.jpg

http://www.b5tech.com/shadows/shadowships/batlcrab.jpg



I wasnt able to find shots with a more "close-up" view, sorry.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

But as SJ mentioned, the texture is good, just make it more "dense".

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Dense is a problem. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif The denser I make it, the darker it becomes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Dark looking ships are some of the hardest to make look good.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Try these on for size and let me know which one you like best.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5136-test1.PNGhttp://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5137-test2.PNGhttp://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5138-Test3.PNG
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5140-Test4.PNGhttp://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5141-Test5.PNGhttp://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5142-Test6.PNG

1 2 3
4 5 6

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The pattern is too regular on most of those.

patterns the size of #4 look good, but they need to be randomized as in #1, rather than arranged in rows like animal scales.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

6 and 1 are the best in my opinion in that order.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I like 1 and 3 (top left, top right)

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Although a mid-level grey, the texture on 6 is closest to the actual shadow ship texture and would benefit in-game visibility. 1 is good, but may be too dark.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I like 1.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

#4 has the best color combination, but as SJ pointed out, needs to look maore "random" (given that the patterns moved across the surface of the craft in a random-appearing pattern).

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

If any one can provide a cool looking texture I would be happy to use it and post the results. I have the set nearly done, its the texture that I am worried about. I want the set to look good and be accepted well by all. So getting the texture down is very important.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Try rendering what you used on ship #1, but scale the texture up by 5x or 10x...
#1's texture looks like it might be right, but the scale is so small that it looks mostly like static.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I have started to play the mod again, and as a result have been playing with the weapons components again. After struggling to make them coherent, a though struck me: what the mod would look like if I just abandoned the whole concept of following the B5wars books and followed the TV series when it comes to weapons. I think, if I want to ever have a playable mod of the game, this is the approach I need to take.

What I wanted to do was simplify the decision-making for the players and AI, while enhancing the flavor of the game by making races more specialized. This means re-writing all the weapons based on a complete conceptual framework, and making each race's weapons choices unique.

The first thing I did was conclude that the Shadows and Vorlons are as advanced at the start as they will ever get. That makes their components very simple, as there only needs to be a single one of each type, and their design files are also easy, as they build only one ship design of each type. To add some flavor, I created some Shadow and Vorlon neutral races, so they there will be some kickass neutral races in a few systems, but all they will do is keep the Younger races out of those "outpost" systems until the Younger races muster sufficient numbers or technology to take them out.

I decided to give each race a weapons technology in which it was highly adept, another in which it was adept, a third in which it was capable, and four of which it was concious.

Races have advanced, improved, and standard research lines in weapons technologies for which they are highly adept.

Races have improved and standard research lines in weapons technologies for which they are adept.

Races have a complete standard research lines in weapons technologies for which they are capable, and a truncated one (max tech level = 7) for those of which it is concious. Races are unable to research anything in techs of which they are not concious.

For example, the Minbari are highly adept at Molecular Weapons. They have Minbari Molecular Weapons, Minbari Improved Molecular weapons, and Minbari Advanced Molecular weapons, giving them weapons like the Fusion Cannon, Improved Fusion Cannon, and Advanced Fusion Cannon, plus PD versions of all three. They are adept in Lasers, so have the Neutron Laser and Improved Neutron Laser, but no Advanced Neutron Laser. They are capable in Gravimetric Weapons but have no Advanced or Improved Gravimetric Weapons. They are concious of Antimatter Weapons, Electromagnetic Weapons, Particle Weapons, and Matter Weapons, and can build up to tech level 7 in those. They are not concious of Ballistic, Ionic, or Plasma weapons and can build none of them.

Races get damage bonuses for weapons in which they are highly adept, adept, or capable (better bonuses for being more adept).

This gets rid completely of the "General" weapons category. While some races will in effect have the same weapons (for instance, the Yolu are also highly adept at Molecular Weapons and have the exact same weapons and values for them as the Minbari) I have tried to make this as rare as possible, and the Yolu do not share the Minbari laser weapons.

It also gets rid of the "Earth Alliance is the master of all weapons technologies" syndrome. The Ea will be just another race, with three types of weapons it cannot build, and another four it cannot build very well.

The idea is that the Advanced Weapons of each race will be First-Ones-like, but will take a long time to research. In the meantime, races can get quickly to some decent matter weapons (everybody but the Shadows and Vorlons can build matter weapons, but only the Hurr can build highly advanced ones), and more slowly to decent weapons in which they are adept to some degree, but no one can build everything. Players will not even see technologies that don't yield them anything.

Another advantage of this system is that the AI_research files are pretty easy to create if there is a systematic research path to follow. I only have to create a master with "[Highly adept technology] Level 1" "[Capable technology] Level 1" and so forth, and then do a global replace for each race using the appropriate racial tech. There will be a few outliers like the Minbari scanner/jammer that will have to be manually placed, but this is much less onerous than trying to track each weapons tech for each race.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone want to grind through the process needed to punch out an entire race's worth of weapons? I have finished the Minbari as a test case, and am taking it for a spin right now. However, it takes time to generate the weapons and if people are interested in seeing a playable mod before summer, they might want to chip in.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

If the weapons are going to essentially be the same for each race (Hurr and Minbari Molecular Weapons are identical), all you need to do is create one set of weapons and copy/paste them for each race. Create the basic, improved and advanced weapons of all 7 types, then splice them together as appropriate for each race. Simple find/replace of the tech area names will get the tech reqs set in a hearbeat. I think this would be the easiest, and therefore best, solution. You could even use SJ's tech gridder program (on http://imagemodserver.mine.nu under tools somewhere) to make all of the weapons from 21 base templates (basic, improved and advanced of each category). It can make single area component lines quite well.

I'll post a little tutorial on the tech gridder for you if you want it.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Outstanding concept Grumbler. The KISS theory is usually the best.
This design system will greatly increase the canon feel of the mod.
You should be supported and encouraged with the plans you have so far. I hope you consider implementing these ideas with other unnecessarily complicated techs to further increase the canon feel of the game.
Great idea.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

What else is unnecessarily complicated? The armor system is just right. The facilities are not too complex, just way too expensive to build...

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

If nothing else was unnecessarily complicated no-one would have felt the need to redo it. The armour system is unnecessarily complicated and that has already been covered in previous posts here.
A simple but elegant, race based system would make it easier for the AI to build something accurate and effective. It would also help those who just want to play an accurate B5 representation without having to guess how much of what armour/structure etc to put on their battleship.
I agree with Grumbler that a little more watching B5 and using that as a source of inspiration and a little less rule-book reading will give us something more playable and fun.
I'm not trying to upset anyone, just telling it how I see it.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

The same way you have to "guess" how many shields to put on your ships in stock? The same way you have to "guess" which mix of short-range, long-range and special damage type weapons to use? Oy.

Don't treat the armor like stock. A couple components thrown in to fill space at the end of your design will be useless.
Try out ships with 10%, 20%, 30% armor and see which wins. NOT just 2 or 3 armor components.
You'll quickly get an idea of what works if you just use the simulator. That's what it is there for!

---

I'll see about making you a super-simplified version sometime this week.

Some questions:
1) Tech grid (Y/N)?
Allows customized research into lowering costs vs increasing hitpoints, etc. Upgrade decisions remain trivial (push the upgrade button and you're done).
2) Multiple thickness (Y/N)?
Allows tradeoffs between sheer hitpoints and absorption %
Gives you some actual choices rather than just "how much".
3) Allow mounts to simplify component set (Y/N)?
A couple mounts makes for fewer component families.
4) Superstrong ancient techs (Y/N)?
Semi-balanced against economic & misc. disadvantages, or will roleplaying / AI control be used to hold them back?
5) Insert suggestion here: _______

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I am all for keeping things simple and easy. Balance is an issue so just make one set of weapons then rename them for each race, adjusting some of the finer aspects of them for each, then your off to a good start.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

And those posters were misinformed. Other than possibly the tech gridded nature, it is not unnecessarily complicated at all. As SJ said, it just requires a different way of looking at it. This is a mod, not the stock game, so players _should_ be expecting it to be different...

The AI can build just as accurate and effective designs as a human player can through the use of AI tags. Simplifying the system by removing many types of armor would not benefit the AI any.

SJ:
Don't make it too simplified... There at least needs to be light and heavy armor, otherwise the game becomes very boring. Structural supports and medium armor can probably go. Medium armor is emulatable by just mixing light and heavy armor. Structural supports are either fairly useless or really gamey if someone wants to add 10000 of them to a ship. Not the most effective use of their time, but still unnecessary...

However, the advanced crystalline/emissive armors need to remain in some form, as they are very integral to the Babylon 5 universe. I personally don't see much wrong with the current system, other than possibly the tech grid. Nothing else in the mod is gridded, so having just the armor gridded seems out of place.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Could someone please post the address for the latest version available then because what I have got is nowhere near able to do what youre claiming here.
Fyron. You say,
And then a little later you say,
I have just played a 260 round game aginst 5 AI's with all research done, on hard. The AI has absolutly no idea how to build a competetive design. It built nothing over 300kt, almost always had an illegal number of primary armour components, had no 'stock' armour at all and there wasnt a structural support to be seen anywhere.
The AI isnt using the armour you have now anyway. Simplify it and make it race based and the AI will be more competetive and interesting. I'm not totally sure on this but arent there a limited number of AI tags. Gonna use them up pretty quick this way when they could be saved for other things.
Were they misinformed or did they have a different opinion...
Never really played the stock game so I dont know how that works. I bought SEIV to play the B5 and Star Trek mods. The Star Trek mod by Atrocities (and others) is outstanding. The races are distinct enough to make the game interesting and the tech tree is not over engineered. The Federation cant use Borg armour and the Cardassian's cant use Klingon cloaking devices etc. Simple and playable enough to make you want to keep going.
The B5 mod I have is unplayable. If there is a newer or better version available already then I will play it and maybe some of my points have already been taken care of.
To those who are undertaking to make the mod better, I applaude you and eagerly await your work.

I have read my 'ranting' here and I wish to add something.
I'm not trying to be overly critical of peoples work. I accept that alot of hard work has gone into this and appologise if I have offended anyone. I just think its a shame that so much effort has gone into this and it still doesnt work as well as I'm sure everyone would like.
Thanks for yor time. Steve (Onyx).

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

In the version I am playing right now the AI uses armor just fine (though it lload heavy armor until there is less than 7 left, then light until there is less than 3 tons left, and then loads light, because that is what I told it to do). The AI cannot use structural suports because they have no weight and you have to give the AI design parameters by weight (or tell it to use just one, which would be silly).

The current armor system is not complicated at all, for the player. He knows that research invested in armor will yield incrementally better armor. There is always a new version of armor awaiting amy given investment.

My only issue with the armor system (besides the structural supports, which I think was a neat idea but will not use because the AI cannot use it and it is unclear how the player should use it) is that it is unclear to the new user that you need to research chunks of armor advances at once, or else not at all. Otherwise, all you are doing is creating a huge chunk of components that will be replaced on your ships, but from which you gain little benefit (and battleships with 20% armor have a LOT of armor components).

One way around this is to size armor for the hulls, making each armor worth, say, 5% of the hull size, and scaling using mounts (as is already done for engines). Another way is to create some larger armor components. However, I don't now how either solution would affect the "leakiness" of the existing armor, so I am leaving those considerations for the end of my analysis and hope someone else solves them in the meantime! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

IF - thanks for the tip on the tech gridder. It will help a lot.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Grumbler (or anyone else). Could you post a link to where you downloaded the version of the mod you are using please.
If the AI can at least use armour then that is a good start.
I actually hope I'm wrong on a few things beacause that would mean the mod is in much better shape!

Edit - I found it. Much better but the AI is still producing illegal designs - Multiple Primary Armour. Much better thou. It is even using stuctural supports!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SJ, 1, 2 and 4 Y, 3 N. No suggestions.

And no, I'm not just trying to pad my post count!

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

This is what happens when you don't finish a post up right away. Just reread that as "the armor system is mostly right" and it all fits together. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

There are plenty of AI tags to go around. Any ability that does not work serves as one. The "AI Tag" abilities are a rather recent (1.91) feature.

They did not understand how the armor system works. They were misinformed. I don't blame them; it isn't documented very well in the current version of the mod.

You really should play at least one game of unmodified SE4 to put it all in perspective...

Not quite true. The parameters in the design file have no relation to the size of the components. Tell the AI to add 1 Structural Support per kT of ship hull and it will definitely do so. You might need to add this requirement near the beginning, as I am not sure when exactly the AI stops reading the misc ability list.

They could have dire affects. Armor would behave quite differently on different sized hulls. In my assessment, each leaky component (of the same class) should have the same size and hit points. Another option would be to remove the tech grid aspect. This would enable each level of armor techs researched to have a significant gain, rather than a very minor, very costly (in terms of retrofit cots) gain. Tech grids are nice, but bewildering, and out of place when there is only one thing in the entire mod that has a tech grid, in my opinion.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

D'oh! I was thinking of using them as armor, when of course they could be miscellaneous abilities. Still, I think maybe the structural supports might be overkill - I never use 'em myself since they delay the ship's completion, and all they really do is provide a hulk to draw the AI's fire.

I was afraid the effects were built into the size of the armor. Well, this is not a crucial point right now, and we have some time to think of a workable scheme to keep the armor system as much as it is as possible. As you note, maybe the grid effect is not necessary.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Spaceempires.net appears to be down. That is where I got used to tracking where the mod (including my contributions) was. Anyone know where the latest version is hung, for Onyx to download?

If that becomes too hard, I will hang it here, because it isn't really all that long. All images and whatnot are the products of others and available though the image mods. I only have data and AI file changes.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

SpaceEmpires.net is currently being reconfigured. I will post a link to the file when it is available, which should hopefully be in less than an hour...

None of the leaky armors can be used as the "armor" category. All of them are misc ability useable. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

They are built into the hit points of the armor. The size is used as a balancing device. Light armor has more hit points per kiloton than heavy, but due to being so small (each piece has a far smaller amount of hit points), it ends up offering more easily penetrated defense than heavy armor does. Really big armor would have the same affect that heavy does to light (and medium).

If you use scale mounted armor components (each hull has the armor take up 5% of the space or whatever), it would make large ships have vastly superior armor capabilities compared to small ships. Not only could they potentially have more hit points, but their single armor component would have far more hit points per component than a smaller ship's would. This would make the armor act more and more as stock armor the larger the ship hull is (due to having more hit points per component as compared to "internals"), which in my estimation is contrary to the whole purpose of leaky armor.

Remember, the more hit points a component has, the more likely it is to be the one selected for being damaged. The more hit points a component has, the more biased these algorithms are towards selecting it. This is the cornerstone of the leaky armor paradigm. Also, it is what really allows heavy leaky armor to be stronger than light leaky armor in the B5 Mod.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I actually agree that the structural supports seemed like a good idea at the time, but in practice were useless.

The basic armors will have to have two dimensions at least though... the light->heavy->(advanced armor tech area) and the beefing up of armor components in each class.
Though I suppose the light->heavy won't look much like a dimension of a tech grid after the operation.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Very helpful information. Thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Now that SpaceEmpires.net is partially back online (this does not include the Nuke portal as of yet), you might want to read the section on Leaky Armor of SEIV Modding 101 for more information on the concept.

Edit:
Also, I have uploaded the latest version of the B5 Mod that Grumbler sent to me here:

babylon 5 v2.zip

This should be applied as a patch to an install of the full B5 Mod for SE4 Gold, as it is primarily the data and AI files.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Hi all,

To start. It hink it's great to see such newly gained momentum of the famous B5 Mod. Absolutely fabulous! Thumbs up for ya all!

As you all know I'm in the process of graduating, this sucks up time like a black hole and doesn't leave me with a lot of free time.
I and RagsX have started a version of The Mod too, but due to time restrictions I haven't done anything of late. My primary role in that version of The Mod, I handle the weapons. I design them and make them. To do that I've made a small Excel-sheet. It's not very sophisticated, but it works and helps everyone to make weapons according the same guidelines. Within a week I can finish this sheet and make it a bit more accessable for everyone after that I could send it to IF and he can make it available for everyone. That is if anyone is interested of course.
How about it?

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

No takers? Oh well, I've at least showed I want to help. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif
If you people do want to take a look at my sheet, post it here.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Tim, I have an older version (like spring 2004 at best) version of the spreadsheet, and would love to see the latest version. I think you have my email, if not PM me.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I'd be interested in seeing what you have done so far.
Just spent the last few months 'disecting' the Star Trek mod to understand this stuff.
I dont know how much help I'll be (my wife is pregnant http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif) but I definately want to see this thing develop. Thanks for continuing the work.
Onyx99au@yahoo.com.au

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

I have been playing around with a version that eliminates the "Armor manufacture" dimension, and it does seem to work a lot better. The AI does not stop and refit ships to gain the advantages of Heavy Armor Class 6C versus 6B, which is good. The steps from class 5 to class 6 are far enough apart that ships can conduct missions before being recalled for refits.

I have finished the basic armaments that everyone has, and tried a game using just them (no specialization). The AI was building much better ships. I then added a few advanced weapons for the Minbari, Narn, EA, and Centauri, and that game is in progress.

I also completely abandoned the (at least) four-times- modified AI_Construction_Vehicle file, and inserted the original one from SE4 1.91, and lo and behold, the AI is kicking *** again. In my current game, I have managed to get back to 11th place after 100 turns (after starting in 4th and slipping as low as 17th out of 20). This is with medium AI player difficulty and medium AI advantage - I don't think you can make the game competitive at less, and want to reserve the higher settings for players wanting more challenge.

Some of the things I have done, and am still testing, are:

1. I have generally decreased RoF and increased range. Missiles, for instance, now generally have a reload time of 3 turns, dropping to 2 turns with advanced technologies (vice 2 turns dropping to 1), but have ranges of 10 with light missiles, 14 with medium missiles, and 18 with heavy missiles. This should get rid of some of the real jumps that the EA, for instance, used to get with advanced ballistic weapons technology. It alos eliminates tradeoffs between payload and range. The tradeoff is now between hill space and range. Lasers are now longer-ranged but less potent.

2. I have toyed with the whole concept of what it means to get more advanced versions of the same weapon, and decided that the tonnage cost and structure benefit will remain constant over the life cycle of the weapon (vice decreasing cost and increasing structure as in the Val version). The assumption here is that the basic components remain the same, but power systems become more efficient, maybe ammo improves, and that further experience with the weapons allow them to be used more efficiently. This will have a beneficial impact on the total hull/component change that occurs with a new version of an existing weapon (as you will not add more armor to compensate for the reduced tonnage of more advanced weapons). If you want to see hull space saved, you will need to get an improved or advanced version of the same weapon type.

3. I have inserted "improved" as a new weapons type intermediate between the basic weapon and the advanced version of the weapon. Sometimes "improved" means a higher ROF, sometimes it means a more powerful volley with an existing ROF, but it almost always means a better range and less loss over range.

I also made a change in the gain per level for weapons. I was using the Timstone method of maybe a year ago, which was that the damage at range 1 for each successive mod was equal to the damage at range 1 for the level 1 weapon, multiplied by 1 1 /x, where X was 11-level (so that at level 2, for instance, range 1 damage was 1 1 /9 of the damage at range 1 for the level 1 weapon). The problem with this approach was that the level 9 weapons was 50% (1 11/9= 1.5)better than the level 1 weapon, but the level 10 weapon was 100% (1 (11-10)=2.0) better. Half of the change between level 1 and level 10 occurred between levels 9 and 10!

Now, the increases in levels should not be arithmetic (i.e. constant change per level) because the cost is not constant. I ended up splitting the difference, and using the average between the Timstone method (which is kida cool, actually) and the constant change method (which is easy to calculate, and so appealed to me! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) I like the product, but wanted the purists to be warned that change was a'coming. It isn't possible to scale the increased damage to the research cost, because the research cost delta is changeable in game setup.

The real "character change' that the mod still needs is making the facilities race-specific. I have done nothing whatever in this regard - every facility is still generic. Generic facilities work, and some generic-ness is necessary to keep the AI able to compete, but I am looking for ideas in two main areas:

1. Differences between homeworld hubs that don't duplicate racial differences; and

2. System modification facilities that we can both use as human players and get the AI to use (or else facilities that it does not hurt the AI if it does not use them).

Any thoughts on this are welcome. I hope to start putting the various data files here in the next couple of weeks, with explanations of each, so we can discuss them separately and you can offer suggestions on each.

A big thanks to Timstone for his work on the weapons (and a prayer that he will send an unlocked version of his weapons spreadsheet soon), to pathfinder for creating a version of the mod that worked (and for helping me understand the AI files), to IF and SJ for the whole armor/sensor/ECM concept that adds so much flavor to the game (I am not sure anymore who originally proposed what), and, of course, Val for getting this started. If I left anyone's contribution out, feel free to say so.

Faith manages.

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

That was all SJ. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Babylon 5 Mod
 

Grumbler:
Woohoo! My spreadsheet is wanted! Oh yeah!
Thanks for mentioning my name! Much appreciated.
I tell you what I'm going to do. First I'm going to take care of my concept version of my report (won't take that much time I guess) and when I get home I'll start immediately adjusting my spreadsheet to the latest version. I have some changes in it. I completely thrown out the First ones section and upgraded (made more conveniently) the Young/Nomad section. Expect it late this week. It's the best I can do.
If it should be neccesary I'm willing (and more importantly I have the time for that) to make a short list of weapons for the races. I've already sorted out quite a few races, I just need to order the data. With this data and my spreadsheet everyone can make weapons for The B5 Mod.

Thanks guys for your appreciation! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif