Babylon 5 Mod

[Val]

The standard particle beam might be good then. It is the most common weapon on ships in the series. It isn't very strong, isn't too weak. Has the standard reload rate (1 turn) for most weapons. Range isn't too far, but more than most PDF weapons. It will also be one of the first weapons developed in research after the basics are covered.

[Fyron]

Val:

For the damage/rate/kiloton formula, here's my plan:

Pick values that you want the damage ratios to be for every weapon type at tech level 1. For weapons with variable damage, use the average damage for determining the ratio. Make the small weak guns have a ratio of 0.8, the medium/average guns have a ratio of 1.0, and the big, slow guns a ratio of 1.2. If you want a particular weapon to be more powerful, then increase it's ratio by a few tenths. For weapons with special damage types and to-hit bonuses, decrease the ratio by a reasonable amount. Then, do this:

Damage / Ratio / Rate = Kilotons

for each weapon to get the size you want. Make each tech level for that weapon be the same size.

And, voila! Weapons are nearly balanced from the start. Then, just do a bit of play-testing and tweaking to get the final values. Of course, my ratio values are hypothetical, and could be bad or unbalancing. The ratios I proposed are up for debate. What do all of you think?

SJ:

Yeah, I know the APB's are deadly. I just used it as an example cause its what most AI's use.

[ 26 January 2002: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Suicide Junkie]

NP. Just making sure you don't take the ABP as the average weapon, and then sit there wondering why everything dies so fast .

RE: Damage on artillery/maingun/close defense
IMO, you've got that backwards.

Big, slow guns should NOT have a higher rating than the small guns.
- the big gun does all its damage on the first turn, 1200, say.
- the little gun ship only does 800 damage by the time the big gun reloads.
- the big gun gets to fire first, at long range, so it may get to fire two or three times before the small guns close into range.
Not good.

The Massive guns should do pitiful damage (0.5), since they get to dish it all out on turn #1, possibly crippling the opponent and thus eliminating the threat. In any case, by the time the opponent closes to medium gun range, the big guns will be almost reloaded, and you may even get a second free punch.
The tiny guns need to do lots of damage (2.0). By the time you get close enough to use them, you are way behind in dealing damage, and need to catch up.

PS: you may notice in SE4 Classic, the Ripper beams do 2.0 ADU/KT/Turn, while WMGs do 0.67 ADU/KT/Turn.
Its all about making lots of different strategies viable.

[tesco samoa]

APB should be weaker...

DUC looks like it was designed for BAB5 right from the get go.

[Fyron]

So I mixed the ratios up. Big deal. I haven't played SEIV for a few weeks, so I just forgot. Big ratios for small weapons sounds more correct than what I said.

So is a range for the ratios from 2.0 for small guns to 0.5 for huge guns good with everyone?

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

---

So I mixed the ratios up. Big deal. I haven't played SEIV for a few weeks, so I just forgot. Big ratios for small weapons sounds more correct than what I said.

---

Hey, no problem. Just wanted to be sure.

[Val]

IF:

Thanks for the ratios (and subsequent correction)!

So what are we going with?
0.5 = Massive Gun
0.8 = Large Gun
1.0 = Medium Gun
1.4 = Small Gun
2.0 = Tiny Gun


I made a few more component pics over the weekend (ballistic, laser, particle & plasma weapons - and a few extras - mass driver, plasma battery, grapling hook). Now that I have the formula I'll plug that in and we should be that much closer to a Version of the modd with weapons, armor and engines unique to our Mod!!!

ComponentSample.zip

Opinion Time! -

What does everyone think so far?

What direction should we head?

Most important/least important to accomplish?

Hope y'all had a good weekend!!

[ 28 January 2002: Message edited by: Val ]

[Fyron]

Val, are you going to submit these components to the Image Collection Mod?

We have the weapons almost done, so now we should work on making defenses to counter-act them. Since there aren't any shields in B5, we could use the "shields" as an extra layer of armor. Make somwe high-powered weapons "phased" so that they can be partially armor piercing. Then, give the ancient races (Vorlons, Shadows, and maybe Minbari) phased shields for their armor. Or maybe make reinforced armor for all the races that has less physical hp, equal shield hps, and "phased shields".

Also, races will have to rely heavily on ECM for their defenses.

We should use the various cloaks and sensor types for different stealth/cloaking modes. There should be a lot of levels in cloaking technology, maybe 10. Give ECM components levels in Active EM Scanning cloaking. Give Combat Sensors levels in Active EM Scanning. This could simulate various levels of scanner jamming, which only has one level in SEIV. Make stealth devices available to everybody, which have Passive EM Scanning cloak. Give the Minbari +2 levels in this cloak at each tech level because they are masters at stealth technology. Allow "stealth scanners" to be researched. Give the Shadows level 8 Temporal Cloaking at the start. Allow them to research lvl 9 and 10, but make them very expensive. This would simulate their cloaking device, which can't be detected in B5. However, this could be really unbalancing in SEIV, so allow maybe the advanced races to research Temporal Scanners (very expensive) to combat this. Make a couple of Unique Ruins Techs that allow for level 8, 9 and 10 temporal scanners, so that it is possible to find First Ones tech that is capable of detecting Shadows. Are there other races with stealth/cloaking technology? If not, we can use Gravitic and Psychic cloaks and scanners as Unique Ruins Techs.

We could have a race of "First Ones" which would operate similar to the monsters being discussed and modded in the http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...&f=23&t=003164 thread.

Make Vorlon and Shadow troop weapons and armor uber-powerful. They are energy-based, and it took about 20 people armed with PPG's to kill one Soldier of Darkness.

[Val]

I figured since SJ is coordinating the efforts for the compilation, I'd just pass them on to him here. I have quite a few more to do, so I will use the blank space wayyyyyy at the end I'm also working on Facilities (Looking for suggestions for B5 facilities). I already gave him the beams and torps. I don't have any planets, but I would like to get the homeworlds (especially Zha'ha'dum) in the planet list.

Armor is being worked on by SJ, go back a few (5/6) pages to read about it (or ask him to reexplain).

The idea of setting up the other first ones as "Space Monsters" had been mentioned before (I think by Atomannj) and I think it's a good idea!

[Val]

Quick question, anyone know (off the top of their head) what the max number of systems in a game is? I'm thinking about restarting the B5 map and generating the universe according to B5 specs and then repositioning everything to match the map. This will save me the hassle of creating all the systems, I'll just have to recreate the jump points.