Babylon 5 Mod

[Suicide Junkie]

The passive armors should have phased shield ability.

Weapons that skip armor, or ship shields will negate the bonus effects of the passive armor, and are NOT generally reccommended!

Do you really want a weapon that will turn the shadow's armor into cheap inert junk?

You can use the Quad-to-shields damage type (and its variants) to tweak the penetration ability of your weapon much more effectively.

Quarter damage = 80% absorbed (max 4x crystalline ability)
Half damage = 66% absorbed (max 2x crystal ability)
normal = 50% absorbed (max 1x crystal ability)
Double = 33% absorbed (max 1/2 crystal ability)
Quad = 20% absorbed (max 1/4 crystal ability)

[pathfinder]

SJ: all the abilities list is Shield generation/regeneration for the various passive armors.

All: Why would the AI not "turn on" for the neutrals? In other words what did I do to "kill" the neutrals? Only thing that shows up in design menu is weapon platforms...They do not have any facilities on the HW..??!!!

[ January 27, 2003, 04:28: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, I suppose it really dosen't matter, since there aren't any true shields anyways, and the phased + non-phased = non phased thing is a non-issue.

If you want to make a weapon that negates the bonus protection of some low level armors, but not the top armors, you could add "phased" to them...
Not sure how that would make sense, but it is possible.

[Fyron]

Regarding the PBW game...

Ok... Val is MIA. Are the Technomages in a playable state in 1.49.33? If so, we need a replacement. If not, I will finish the empire slot off.

The Canuck has posted in Shrapnel that he has no time to play this game. Since I entered a password for that empire file, I know what it is, and so a replacement can take over with no trouble.

Zero Adunn seems to be having a few problems getting the mod to work, but I think he will get that fixed soon.

Comments? Suggestions? Complaints?

[jimbob]

Fyron: I'd be happy to take either slot, seeing as the nomads/Lorkan need a bit of work still (few facilities available, no research facilities, etc.).

I'd need passwords however...

-jimbob

[grumbler]

PF: what you describe happens when the AI race doesn't get the "B5 standard race" trait. It then has no facilities, ships, etc.

[Timstone]

Hi gang! I'm back again from work. Sigh, what a day, what a day, what a day...
It's good to see that many people care about our great mod. Grumbler there gave some nice idea's. But the turnside of it is the lack in originality. No more many diverse weapons. A much better way to standardise things is to implement a maximum amount of damage a younger race can do with it's weapons. The medium old races get a higher maximum amount of damage and the ancient races get the highest maximum amount of damage. That way you can still fill in the range and the damage continuation (how much the damage degrades or increases acording to the range).
I tell you guys what. This week is a reasonably quiet week for me, if I find the time for it I'll write down the weapons that every race should get (the standard weapons). With that done, we can assign every other weapons to a specific race. In other words. We're going to split up the mess we've created so far into smaller block/modules. If you want another race implemented, you can fall back on the standard tech tree and give the new weapons a requirement in the standard tech tree and a requirement in a new family. (Grumbler's idea)
The step beyond that is to kick out every race and evaluate every race. See if it can be standardized 9before that we've got to come up with a standard amount of weapons (which can be upgraded in later Versions)).
Example of standard amount of wepaons (basicly the example I gave earlier):
Tiny (Fighter/Troop), Light (PDF), Light (Ship), Medium (Seeking-weapon, Ship), Heavy (mainstay Ship), Mega (Rare Ship), Ultra (One Per Vehicle, Ship)
Something like this?

[AGoetz]

Well, if we are going to be looking at the weapons system, here is what the Gaim currently have :

Tiny
-Light Particle Beam
-Light Particle Gun
Light
-PDF Scattergun
Medium
-Scattergun
Heavy
-Packet Torpedo (Seeker)
-Particle Concentrator
Mega
-None
Ultra
-None
Special
-Life Support (1/2 size, also 1/2 structure)
-Crew Quarters (1/2 size)
-Fighter Cockpit (combination cockpit/life support)
-Bulkhead (First hit armor, size 5 structure 10 so inefficent compared to the leaky armors)
-Breaching Pods (higher number of marines than a normal boarding component)

[ January 27, 2003, 23:15: Message edited by: AGoetz ]

[pathfinder]

Grumler, et al: Looks like the ORDER that they are listed is important here. "B5 Standard Race" has to be listed 1st in the AI_general.txt file as an advanced trait in order for the neutral to be loaded properly.

Guess I'll d/l the new patch and se what kind of headache I get with the MOD

On weapons: SOMETHING has to be, just not sure what. 2 things (may be incompatible ??)...Ancient weapons SHOULD be suprior to the mid and younger races; HOWEVER, there should be counters available to the mid and younger races....also the diversity is what makes the MOD interesting (IMHO) for humans to play; HOWEVER, that is what is giving all of us a headache to program the AI to use. One of the componentenhancement mods (mounts) had a neat concept that worked very well. one set of mounts that gave a slight advantage to the AI but limited them to that small decision set while allowing the human a great number of options. Anyway for the races to keep maybe 1 to 2 weapons/mounts so it easier for them to pick. I think, if there is a concensus, that I can do some limits via the AI_designcreation files but the damage/range/rate of fire issues need fixing to some degree.

One personal Comment: Except for the Fuser plasma weapon the Pakmara get, most plasma weapons stink. They have less range than any other weapon and should but even the heavy plasma weapons only have a range of 1-2....bleah no opton IMHO...while their range maybe less the range is too limited IMHO (and they have inaccuracy built in too, IIRC). and they are slow...why not up the range with maybe a faster rate of fall off in damage and keep them relatively inaccurate? just some food for thought...

[ January 28, 2003, 00:28: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Timstone]

Maybe thursday or fryday I can take a look at the core of our mod and write down every weapon we wish to keep. Then I'll just isolate those weapons and put them in a new family tree (the rest of the stuff I'll leave untouched). That way I can make a schedule which weapon has which number (more easy for me to make adjustments).

Now for the standard weapons. We really have to decide how many of which type we consider normal. The rest of the weapons (if a race has more than the standard amount) is optional. We'll put them in later on.

You'll hear from me when I've got the core ready. Then we'll begin the process of rebuilding each race.

Now, please post a thought for the standard amount of weapons. That way each race starts out equally strong.