Anyone interested in a playable B5 mod, read here - Page 2

Ragnarok-X · #11 December 23rd, 2004, 04:03 PM

Good one about the militas..

About the Maintaince thingy: Quite interesting, i thought the racial modifer is substracted as well ! Quite good to know that its a total modifer.

Timstone · #12 December 23rd, 2004, 05:00 PM

Population mass and bonusses:
Wow! Now that's is the part I have the least knowledge of. All that talk about populationbonusses aren't my cup of tea. Luckily Val, Pathfinder, Nomor and Grumbler did all that stuff. I didn't want to fight with those values.
The most important stuff I touched were the components, the weapons, the tech tree and the facilities.

Ship maintenance:
Okay, ship maintenance is high. So change it into the values stock SE IV uses. If those values don't cut it, we'll start changing them.

Militia:
Great idea. I never saw those vaules because of the huge chunk of other things to do.

Propulsion:
Ships too fast? Hmm... I beg to differ. I think the ships run at just the right speed. In early game the ships run a bit slow, but later on the ships run like steamtrains. I like that. But if you do want to change them. Beware of the many, many error the eniges gave. Ask Pathfinder and Grumbler for advise on this, they have A LOT experience with them.

Armor:
I didn't liked the armor too. It's far too complicated.The person who invented this system (sorry, I always forget who that was) explained it to me once, but still I think a major overhaul to make it simpler would be in place.

Facilities:
One of the shortcommings of SE IV is the planetbound building of ships. I created a few facilties for a mod I intended to produce (due to timelimitations and the limitations of SE IV I never finished it, but I got close thought. About 50% of the textfiles is done and about 90% of the grafics are done). I created them to get a spacebased construction scheme. It worked, but not without flaws. The rate of construction in the beginnig is very slow. You really have to chose the costs of the starting buildings very carefully. This makes this system only suitable for low tech and high tech beginnings.
As for the constructioncosts. This makes or breaks the speed of the game. So I say we lower those by about 50%. That way we gain a huge amount of speed. If this is too much or too little, then we can adjust this again.

I really like the construction of this mod and I really hope this mod will see the light of day some day.
I want to help where and when I can, but do bear in mind I'm busy graduating and that is at the moment my number one priority.
I'm terribly sorry that your e-mails didn't end up in my mailbox. I'll post my e-mail adres again:
kaptein-aso@planet.nl
I hope this helps. Oh yeah, do give your e-mails recognisable names, I get A LOT of spam. That way I notice them faster.

Also try to mod bitesize chunks of data. If you look at the whole beast at once you get the same feeling of helplessness as Grumbler and I got. Take stock SE as the basis and add stuff to that. I tried it that way too and I discovered that there weren't as many errors present in my Version as in the earlier Versions.

Embrace the KISS principle!!
(Keep It Simple Stupid)

Suicide Junkie · #13 December 23rd, 2004, 05:43 PM

That was me with the armor.

Light armor: Best Hp/KT. Worst % absorption.
Heavy armor: not bad Hp/KT. Best % absorption.

---

Heavy armor keeps your ship operational longer, since the internals take damage Last. Easiest to repair as well.

Light armor means your ship gets crippled faster, but remains intact and salvagable longer. Hardest to repair.

-----

The advanced armors include Emissive/crystalline damage reducing bonuses.
Level 1 lets you install only one component.
Level 2 lets you install up to two components.
Level 3 lets you install as many as you like.

The armors are all gridded, so there are multiple tech areas that will provide improved Versions (cheaper/stronger/more ability points)

Timstone · #14 December 24th, 2004, 05:35 AM

Sorry SJ for forgetting the great maker of all the armor stuff.
As good as the armor is, it's not very userfriendly. Maybe you could device another Version, one that is just as ingenius, but far more userfriendly? Would you like to do that please?
I hope you have the motivation and the time for it.

Fyron · #15 December 24th, 2004, 05:56 AM

I don't see what is wrong with the armor? Seems simple enough... Maybe drop the structural supports though...

Timstone · #16 December 24th, 2004, 06:10 AM

If you are playing the mod (which has been quite some time ago for me, so I could be wrong), you are presented with no less than three armor types and a few other classes (reactive, absorbing and some others), it's just too much. I embrace the KISS philosophy wholeheartedly.
Suggestions as to reduce the amount we have now?

RagsX:
My attempt at the next incarnation of this mod, was based on modularity. I wanted to make the whole mod modular. First Grumbler and I would make the part every race could get, then bit by bit we would add the moduls for the different races. Will that be a good idea now too?

Fyron · #17 December 24th, 2004, 02:16 PM

I still don't see what is wrong with choice... The more advanced armors replace each other in terms of abilities and effectiveness. It is just the initial armors where you have some options, and only 3 at that. They provide greater strategic diversity to the mod, which is most certainly a good thing. Should the weapons set be reduced to one weapon per race as well?

Ragnarok-X · #18 December 24th, 2004, 02:47 PM

Well the armor is just too difficult to understand. Maybe you should play a game of the mod, you will see there is no just no point in having several tech areas for armor components, of which all are called with phrases like 1a 3b or 4c. Its gets way to difficult to understand. I would prefer a system like your adamant uses. 1k and 10k components, simple as it is. Since both Timstone and i agree on the fact that the armor system needs reworking, it will be done

Timstone: Good idea. Maybe we could met sometime in ICQ or something, to work out what needs to be done, and who will do it. Im willing to spent alot of time, but i need a plan on what to do and i need input/suggestions. ^^

Fyron · #19 December 24th, 2004, 02:52 PM

I have played the mod... It was easy enough to understand. It just needs better documentation, such as an included Help file on the armor... Different techs improve different aspects of the armor. It is a tech grid. There most certainly is a purpose to having several tech areas for the armor components.

Both of you are wrong, the armor doesn't need reworking.

Timstone · #20 December 24th, 2004, 03:04 PM

Fyron, I can understand you're proud of the armor. And you have right to be so. All in all it's an impressive piece of work with a high degree of reality. I certainly can appreciate that, but in terms of the mod it's too difficult. Because we have so many races (I planned 42 in total), we have lots and lots of choice in our components. And adding a stream of armor doesn't really improved the handling of the mod. Even a wreckless redneck should be able to jump right in and play a game, a manual for the mod isn't a surplus luxury, but should be compulsory.

I tell you what. If the mod is done (oh my, where have heard that before...) and the testers are in agreement that the old armorsystem should be put in, we'll do that and apologize to you for ever removing it. Okay?

Edit:
RagsX:
I don't have ICQ anymore. I used it in the past, but when it cost me a year of study, I quit with the program. You can mail me, or isn't that fast enough? I'm sorry for not having such a program. If e-mailing doesn't cut it, I could always install ICQ again. Let me know via mail.