[Drake113]

Originally posted by Gruffel:
I did play the Battlestar Galactica mod for some time and pretty much enjoyed it, especially the nice Battlestar model and the cool music and landscapes.

Thanks!! Whoo hoo!! Great to have positive feedback!!!


...Oh, wait, it seems like there's more here...


Drat...

Alas...I played it on the hardest setting.
And its just really impossible.
The fighters don't do crap when you are up against a Basestar and 2 Attackstar supports with their fighter wings, the point defence systems are constantly distracted by idiotic exploding fighters snd the so called Battlestar does not even have the firepower on its own to scratch the armour of the Basestar, the shields just regenerate too fast.

Sorry... I never playtested it on the hardest level. Heck, I never even thought about playing it at the hardest level. If anything, I was concerned that it was too easy on the regular level. However, if you do watch the actual series, the Basestar is generally considered to outmatch a Battlestar in a one-to-one fight. In Living Legend, for example, it's impossible for the crew of the Galactica to believe that the Pegasus survived fighting 2 of them, and in the final episode, the Galactica has to send Apollo and Starbuck to sabotage the one Basestar that stands in their way so they can get by it without getting totally clobbered. Yes, I did the research, and yes, I *am* that pathetic. Hey, but I do it for you guys.

1) Maybe it gets better when they fix the point defence - fighter problem with the next fix.

Undoubtedly. The one thing I learned while making the mod was that fighters really, really suck, and you, as a captain, really need to keep on top of what they're doing and how they're doing it if they are going to survive.

2) Does a Battlestar really have only so few weapon pods?

Yes, they do, according to the fanboy lit I was able to scrape up. Mind you, when I started the mod, I hadn't even seen a Battlestar Galactica episode in over a decade (originally, I wanted to do an Andromeda mod, but the only model I was able to find was too darn complex), but since then (because I'm fanatical in my efforts to make a good mod for you fine folks) I picked up the boxed set DVD collection, which, I'm very happy to say, holds up a lot better than I thought it would, and the PS2 game, which is actually pretty dang nice, albeit insanely hard.
Anyway, the Battlestars were pretty limited on weaponry-- their primary weapon was the Vipers. They had heavy laser cannons in the front (seen rarely) and some missiles (seen only once, and those were launched by the Pegasus) and a bunch of laser turrets that pretty much acted only in point defense mode (hence the 4 PD Cannons on the ship) but nothing else. Think of a modern aircraft carrier- it has a bunch of Phalanx CIWS systems to fight off missiles, but no actual direct fire weapons-- its survival depends on being able to stop a threat before it becomes a threat. By itself, though, the carrier is not so great against, say, shelling a coastal town or performing anti-submarine work. That usually falls to other, more speciallized ships, and the fact that the BSG is the *one* millitary ship escorting 220+ civillian ships to safety makes the odds of their succeeding just that much more hopeless.
However,If you're really interested on how stuff works in BSG, I'd recommend checking out this place: http://www.tecr.com/galactica/, where I did a lot of my research.

3) Why did you add shield regeneration abilities to the shield generators themselves? That kills the purpose of the shield ability and the shield regenerators, furthermore it makes the shield of a BaseStar invulnerable.

I totally blame that on taking the advice of that nogoodnik and all around trouble-maker, Suicide Junkie. Please feel free to pelt him with rocks and garbage. Personally, I happen to really like that modification-- regenerating shields are a staple of SciFi, but I can see where playing it on the hardest mode might screw you big time.

4) If nothing helps I'll have to play it on an easier setting I guess...*sigh*

Hey, if you do, make sure you check the news. I put a lot of good stuff in there that probably will go unnoticed by most folks... and it sets the stage for future stuff. Plus, ther's Athena in a flight suit.
Mmm.... Athena in a flight suit....

All in all I learned to hate fighters in this game. They are crap! This is not specific for the Galactica mod but for the whole game!
They fly crappy maneuvers, always ram each other or ram your OWN ship (if they at least rammed an enemy ship, that would be ok), do too little damage and ALWAYS distract your own damn point defence systems.
While fighters in the GEIV Gold were by far too powerfull, they just swarmed everything, in Starfury Fighters are just, well, crap.

Yeah, I kinda figured that out too. Nature of the beast. I'm pretty confident that Aaron will fix this eventually, though. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to make fighters incorporal/invulnerable to non-weapon objects in order to reflect their ability to dodge stuff at close proximity.

Hrm, enough complaining for now

Is there an update for the Galactica mod planned?

cu Gruffel

Yes, there is one planned. The one I have on my hard drive now uses actual sound clips from the show-- primitive, but way better for establishing the atmosphere than the stock SF sounds. Eventually, I'll get around to sampling sounds from the DVD and all will be good. I would *love* to flesh out the space around the colonies more-- I wrote a lot of it going on what info I could glean from the net and remember from my childhood, but it would be nice to put in some of the other places they eventually visit in the series. I want to make a lost planet of Kobol ( a starless system should be pretty easy to make- just some black skyboxes... hmm... I wonder if I can make a totally black nebula that covers an entire system?), a lost colony of Earth (unfindable unless you have a couple of things aboard), and a bunch of other stuff in between. There's a lot of other stuff-- For example, I'd love to put a Cylon Minefield between you and Carillon (as per the original series) but I don't think SF will let me place mines by hand. I had planned a second part of the series to be a "behind enemy lines" kinda thing, where your battlestar is forced to work with some very, very old BSG allies and strike at key Cylon operations.
The third part, well, the third part would totally rock. I've got some very cool ideas which I'm very exicted to get to, but I've got to get through the second part, and frankly, well, I work for a living. Also, more importantly, my muse has wondered off to look at other shiny objects.


On the bright side, though, one of those shiny objects happens to be a Star Trek mod for SF, so I guess it's all good in the end, right?